Guild card

After much mucking about with 'clever' ideas that weren't- and a heap of scrap in the bin - I decided to stay simple for the card to send to a fellow -member of the Graphicus Guild

in what is becoming an annual swop, thanks to Moira's organizing abilities.

Having devotedly followed the 12 tags of Christmas on Tim Holtz' blog, I felt that a tag had less opportunity for being ruined, and the tags featured seemed to have the blessed ability for a rescue job at several stages! So I dug out my last few remaining tags from the stash I bought when Woollies closed last year, my new distress ink pads and the cut'n'dry foam, and proceeded to get inky.

Following Sir Tim's instructions, the tags were first inked with a base of old paper, then with splodges of peeled paint and fired brick inks. It looked a bit messy, but a lot better after overstamping with the pine needles from the retro holidays set by Sir Tim in vintage photo ink - somehow this sort-of merged into the background and muted the colours nicely - I then inked the edges of the tags with black soot ink. Until reading the blog I hadn't realised that the distress inks could be embossed - I did heat dry the first two, but the ink was still wet enough to pick up the embossing powder, although they felt dry. The next two sat on a storage heater for the afternoon, and were much better, although there were still some stray specks of powder that I didn't notice until it was too late!

The tree stamp was a Graphicus Guild one, and embossed with white detail powder, and the sentiment was by Elusive Images. The tags were finished with a scrap of gold ribbon, mounted on a piece of paper printed from the Artylicious Seasons greetings cd (the lovely smudgy holly set) mounted on a gold card - the pattern down the side of the card usd the pine needles stamp again, this time using brilliance black ink.

meningitis campaign

Jak Heath is raising money for the Meningitis Search4avaccine CVampaign, in memory of her greatnephew Layton who died recently from this disease. These digi images have been donated by Mo Manning and Jim Harker - check out Jak's blog for details.


These cards are very simple, as I haven't had much time for crafting lately - both images are coloured with Inktense pencils, and the backing papers are from Artylicious. It may not show on the scan, but there are glitter spots around the snowman, especially in his broom.
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not a card

The bag is for this week's Corrosive challenge - no cards. This was a very hurried entry for a WI competition - the first one ( a patchwork grungepaper one based on a Craft Stamper article) went sadly wrong when I tried to sew it together - having tried to get away with not using the Tim Holtz ruler for lining up the holes, I decided it really would have been an essential! This last-minute one was a small tote shape cut out of brown card, with acetate panels added - the handles have come out rather too large for the size of the bag, but had to be big enough to get a hand in! The acetate was stamped with an old leaf stamp from Rubber Stampede, then coloured with alcohol inks - not sure now whether I used clear glaze as a medium or Klear floor polish - and yellow tissue paper.

halloween

As I don't usually do halloween cards, I was a little stuck on what to do for Rainbow Lady's challenge this week - then I remembered that I had downloaded a sheet of Papermania decoupage featuring Pumpkin and Aubergine, and Glenda kindly put a halloween freebie paper on her Artylicious blog............card sorted! The letters came from a Sizzix die that my friend Barbara got in a show raffle and passed on...........just don't ask which cat is on the broomstick!

poppy challenge

This card is my entry for two challenges - Rainbow Lady's for a poppy, and the sketch from Corrosive Challenge. The main poppy is from the Elusive Images Flora & fauna plate, and is one of my favourites. It was stamped onto white card with black versafine, then coloured with inktense watercolour pencils. The image was then coloured using a versamark pen and clear embossed, then spritzed with glimmer mists in wheatfield, meadow green and english ivy. The mini poppy heads came from a Graphicus Guild stamp set, and were coloured the same way as the main image, then stuck on with pinflair glue gel. The greeting is a peel off.

star card

Cynthia's latest challenge is for a Christmas card with at least one stamp and a star....I wanted to make the lovely star from Elusive Images Christmas fusion plate the main image, then decided it needed something else added................ in the chaos that is my craft room I couldn't find the stamp I wanted to use of the 3 kings (still haven't come across it despite a tidy-up in progress) so tried the village scene and the nativity stamps instead. On the whole, I prefer the village scene, it looks much more atmospheric.
Anyhow, both cards were basically made the same way - star stamped and embossed in white EP, backgrounds coloured with inkpads and cut'n'dry foam. Village card used pale and dark turquoise from a Marvy blending block , then weathered wood and old jeans distress inks, with the village (Personal Impressions) stamped in the old jeans.
Nativity card, the image (Angie Bhatia from Friends Stamps) was stamped in Memories chestnut ink,,clear embossed and coloured with distress inks then clear embossed before the background was inked using blues from a kaleidacolour pad. The star was painted over with mica powder, and I tried to use the powder to suggest rays of light, but not very successfully

substitute melt-pot!

After seeing Glenda Waterworth's recent posting of a Rudolph card made using a meltpot, we decided we would try to do something similar at craft club - no one had a meltpot, but Moira came up with the idea of using a heatgun and a foil container to melt the EP - it did work, but you need the vital accessory of a wooden clothespeg to hold the foil (or asbestos fingers). This is the card I made, using the new Elusive Images Christmas tree stamps - one deep embossed, and the filigree one to make the background. The EP was a homemade colour using clear UTE with odds and ends of ordinary coloured EP - it was coloured with a mix of perfect pearls and pearl-ex powders after stamping.

The owl card was made at home using the same technique(?) - stamp again Elusive Images. DP from a download from Lesley Wharton , flower stamps also Elusive Images. This fits 2 challenges this week - Rainbow Lady's is for an owl, and Corrosive challenges provided the sketch.

bookmark

This is for Rainbow Lady's latest challenge, to use acetate on a card, and it also fits with this month's challenge of the Joanna Sheen forum, which was to use something old - the Clarity stamp (Irish prayer?) was one of the first Clarity stamps I bought, and is so old it is a delicate shade of yellow now - it has been hidden in a drawer for ages. The asymmetrical gatefold card has been stamped with Elusive Images wild meadow stamps, which have also been used for the acetate which forms the pocket for the book mark and a strip along the other flap. The tag was first brayered with I think waterfall ink pad, then stamped with the wild meadow stamp usinga green ink, then over stamped in black with the prayer.

inky at graphicus

Have just got back from a workshop with Lesley at Graphicus, finding out how to use a brayer properly, and getting extremely inky in the process! We mostly used the big'n'juicy and kaleidocolour ink pads, and loads of glossy card and even more copy paper! There were 7 of us, though we were so quiet they kept checking to see if we were still there - just shows how much concentration was needed - think it took about an hour (and a lot of coffee) before anyone managed to get a decent-looking background, then we moved on to the textures in the first set of scans. Textures were a lot more forgiving, and we were all pleased with the results using wallpaper samples - especially as we found out that adding the texture on top of a previously rubbish background did an awful lot to improve it!

After a pause for lunch - mine came from Mr Buns, the mobile sandwich van that arrives each morning on the industrial site, and I can thoroughly recommend the tuna salad - Lesley let us loose to create a reflection using Clarity stamps. This was slower going, but we all managed to get a decent reflected image using the brayer to transfer the image, then adding water via cling film,the moon and finally foliage round the edges. It was surprising how different they all looked, even between the two of us who used the same waterfall ink pad - several had almost surreal and alien effects, but they all looked great! I only had a very basic camera with me, and the photos I took were rubbish, which was a shame.

Next, Lesley showed us how she created a landscape using rubber bands round the brayer - after a morning remembering not to put pressure on the brayer, we all found it awkward to press hard enough to get a decent image this time, so we got through quite a bit more card before we all had something we were ok with. After a lot of work with sponges and Elusive Images tree stamps, we ended with a sort-of park scene. It was surprising how many effects you can get out of one inkpad, even if it was a five colour one to begin with. As a finale, we all created a stampbord pendant, using UTE , metallic ink pads and a fairly large Clarity stamp. Mine used a bronze UTE, sprinkled with silver and red dragon powder on the final layer, before stamping with gold metallic encore ink.
Those who used black UTE as a base ended up with very dramatic results
When Glenda and Lynn came to see the results, they couldn't believe how inky I got - I couldn't either, especially when I realised just how far up my arm the ink went! I did eventually work how how I had done that, though I still can't quite believe how inky my hands got - and yes, it did all come off eventually!

All in all, I had a lovely time at Graphicus - even if I did have a slight shock when my bill was added up after a browse round the shop, and I didn't even make a dent in the wish list! Most of it was essentials, like the brayer, ink pads, glossy postcards but I did treat myself to the Christmas tree stamps after ruthlessly ignoring the lovely Christmas bears.
(ignore the date stamp on the horror photo - I dropped the camera and it chose its own date)

dragon cards

Rainbow Lady's challenge this week is for something with a dragon on - so here is a dragon card faturing one of the dragons from the Elusive Images set.
This actually was the second card, the first attempts drove me mad, so I opted for the easy way! The dragon was inked with black brilliance ink and stamped into a piece of triple embossed card - well, more like 5 layers actually! The card was stamped with an Encore metallic inkpad called enchanted evening, then clear embossed 3 times; a layer of chunky embossing crystals in verdigris from Once Upon a Stamp was next, then a final layer of clear before the stamp was used. I used the sketch from this week's Corrosive Challenge blog for inspiration - the backing paper came from my Graphicus Guild pack (I really must start printing some out, rather than being lazy).

Having bought some Viva pearl pens on sale at Jarrolds a couple of months ago, I decided to live dangerously and try a tip from Glenda Waterworth on one of her recent shows on Create & Craft - basically covering a stamp with the pearl, leaving it to dry, then you get a triple-embossed effect. The first several goes resulted in bits of dragons - none big enough to be useable - then I discovered that you need to put the paint on thickly, and really leave it to dry, preferably at least overnight, then peel the stamp off very carefully. This time I got a useable dragon - admittedly minus the last bit of his tail! - so did another card, using the same sketch, before he got damaged any further, because I really liked the effect. Backing paper is again from the Guild pack Nett result is 2 empty tubes of pearl (copper and bronze), one heap of dragon bits, and 2 rather battered stamps - somehow the pearl got under the stamps in places, so now I need to remove the Klingon backing and remount them - grrr.

latest challenge (and Cuthbert)

This is my card for the latest challenge from movingalongwiththetimes - I've changed the sketch a fair bit though! The bear comes from the Bubble & Squeak set of stamps - i'm never sure which is which with these, but it is a cute bear all the same. It was coloured with pencils again, then cut out and mounted on a diamond of paper from my Graphicus Guild pack, then matted onto gold mirri card. The flowers were punched from scraps of the same paper, and the vellum strips were from a agazine freebie.

Having done ths one, I decided to see if the same layout would work with the Cuthbert bear stamp from Elusive Images. I stamped the bear, and coloured him with pencils, then cut him out minus the flag he holds in the original. The balloon came from the Bubble & Squeak plate, cut out and slipped into Cuthbert's hand. The backgroiund stamp is also from Cuthbert, again coloured with watercolour pencils and matted onto some blue paper - the flowers were punched from the same paper. this time I put the bear at the bottom left, and he was stuck on with glue gel to give him some dimension

wedding/anniversary cards

I had to make an anniversary card, and a wedding card recently - as I did not know either of the recipients, I made some fairly multi-purpose cards and these were the left-overs! They have made it onto the blog as that just happens to be the challenge this week on the Corrosive Challenge blog. They both use stamps from the Elusive Images Harlequin Rose plate, and didn't have a sentiment added so that could be personalised later.

The silver one used the big rose stamp, stamped in versamark onto a dark silver/grey card and embossed with a clear holographic powder. The diamonds, rose and swirl were brushed with bleach, which came out rather beige-y - fortunately, when I added more bleach to the swirl and the rose the colour became a lot lighter, and the rose eventually became white. H2O paints were used on the leaves and on the script background, before matting onto several layers of white and silver card.

The second card used the leafy heart stamp- stamped onto two different colours of gold card, embossed with gold powder. the images were cut out then twined together and mounted on gold mirri card. This was matted onto a sheet of paper from the Graphicus Guild, then onto more gold before going onto a cream card

having a change

I find 'man' cards quite difficult , so decided to have a go when I found this challenge site - movingalongwiththetimes (which used to be Daisy and Dandelion apparently, and has now spread its wings a bit) which had a sketch for inspiration. I started to tidy up the craft space so that my daughter will be able to reach the bed to sleep at the weekend, and found some Elusive Images stamps that I had forgotten I had, and somehow this card resulted - and no, the tidying hasn't got any further!

The background was a Tim Holtz stamp from the urban tapestry set stamped in DI old paper and then over stamped in weathered wood, but a bit off. The fish was stamped in blue jeans, and gone over slightly with a waterbrush - the circle is cut from paper printed from an Artylicious cd - I think it was the seasons' greetings one, but not sure now, as it was also something I found.

These two cards use digital images from Mo's digital pencil,

with illustrations by Mo Manning , a site I found when bloghopping - I couldn't resist this gorgeous kitten Sinatra, the more so as he was a freebie! Looking through the site I also found this cheeky monkey, which was also a freebie - I had great fun colouring them both in with watercolour pencils while waiting for cakes to finish baking. Many thanks to Judith for providing the link to this lovely blog - it is the first time I have tried digital images, and somehow I don't think it will be the last.

curly birds

I think I may be getting the hang of these challenges - the more you can do with one card the better! So this is my card for the next level and corrosive challenge blogs, which both asked for folded cards this week. I did an accordion fold, changing the measurements a bit from those on the next level tutorial. After cutting out my new curly bird stamps from Elusive Images i just had to play with them, and this is the result.

Base card by papermania, stamped randomly with the bird tails in old paper distress ink. All the images were stamped onto the same base card and silver embossed then fairly randomly painted with H2Os in a mix of blues, greens and lilac. The word plate was mounted onto a thin strip of silver holo, then onto a piece of paper from the Graphicus Guild, then onto more of the blue base card and stuck at the bottom of the last fold. the birds were cut out and glued onto the first 2 folds.

Sorry it is only a scan, don't have a working camera at the moment!

another challenge card

this is a very last-minute entry for the corrosive challenge blog - again there was a sketch to follow. Sorry for the rather dark scan - the chalky background doesn't show up well behind the butterfly image. The image is gold-embossed after stamping over a chalked background, then the butterfly and poppy heads were painted with H2Os. I used stamps from the Elusive Images butterfly poppy plate for the main image and to make the flower. Flowers were stamped onto a scrap of paper left over from the last challenge card with faded jeans distress ink, which was also used to colour the edges of the white base card, as I didn't have any matching blue card to use.

the next level 3

This is my entry for the latest challenge on 'the next level', where we had a sketch to work from, and a template for the arch shape - it had to include a tag as well. The base is pearlescent blue card, with the pocket printed from the Artylicious 'seasons greetings' cd. Image is a Graphicus Guild stamp stamped in distress faded denim inks, and coloured with a waterbrush and faded denim, also a few dots of ink from a marvy blending pad. Matting onto a glimmer-misted bit of cuttlebugged card - done so long ago that I have no idea what colours of gm's were used. The flowers from the Elusive Images poppy butterfly plate were stamped using the same paper and ink; the distress ink was used to colour the tag - both the tag and the flowers were then painted with a pale blue mica powder to give a bit of sparkle . Ribbon was originally white, treated with the same distress ink.

blog candy alert

there is some gorgeous stuff up for grabs on the Elusive Images blog - check it out quickly! Bit different system this time, so good luck - just remember that I NEED the trees!!

the next level 2

This weeks challenge on 'the next level' is to use a ribbon border to frame the image - this is my effort. I had to use a knife to cut the ribbon corner slots, which accounts for the quirky effect - would love to say this was deliberate, but it wasn't!

The stamp is from the Elusive Images flora and fauna plate, stamped with black versafine and clear embossed, then coloured with inktense watercolour pencils. After adding the ribbon, it was matted onto paper from the Artylicious peacock summer party cd, then on red mirri board and green base card.

the next level

There is a new challenge blog called http://thenextlevelchallenge.blogspot.com- it is a completely different format, more like an online magazine than your usual blog, with some interesting tips. the first challenge was to do a card with an aperture and lollipop flowers (tutorial included). The flowers are fiddly, and take some time to make, but could easily become addictive!

This is my attempt, using Tim Holtz and Elusive Images stamps and lots of glimmer mists.

The card was sprayed lightly with blue and green glimmers, then the foliage from the Elusive Images wild meadow and hedgerow plates was stamped in a mix of distress weathered wood and blue jeans inks, marvy blending ink in reds and finally versafine black for the big spray - the mini flowers were dotted with inksessentials white pen. The bird from the Tim Holtz urban tapestry set was stamped with versafine black and clear embossed on the inside of the card. the white patches on the bird were masked out before Glimmer mists were sprayed through a circular mask in gold, starfish and midnight to try to give the effect of sunrise.

The flowers were made from bits of leftover background papers sprayed with candy apple red in the hope that they would look like poppies - didn't quite work, but not too far off for a first try.

graphicus challenge

The themes for June on the Graphicus challenge are exotic and hot pink and orange. I had just finished clearing up some collapsed stash (courtesy of mountaineering cat!) - among the heap was a pile of alcohol-inked cards, 2 of which just happened to be pink and orange! I had been meaning to play with the flowers on the EI butterfly poppy plate for ages, never got around to it, so made 2 ATC's - I don't normally do these either, but it was a quick way of finding out which way I liked the petals curved. Background also from butterfly poppy plate, stamped in distress concord ink - the flowers are brilliance black

These may not be exotic, but definitely pink and orange!

Apologies for the photos -bottom one is more the true colours.

black & white challenge

Another challenge from Rainbow Lady - this time black & white with a silhouette. I suppose I'm cheating a bit, as this includes quite a bit of grey.....

All the stamps are from the Tim Holtz Urban tapestry set. The big foliage corner was stamped in Versamark on white pearlescent card and clear embossed, then the card was sprayed with black gold glimmer mist - I left it a bit too long before wiping clean, and the image went a delicate shade of grey - so i restamped the same image in opposite corners and embossed in detail white this time. The bird image was embossed with both detail black and detail white. Matting is on glossy black and sparkle white, then on to a very dark grey pearlescent card.

cat and poppy

This was inspired by last weeks Rainbow Lady challenge, eyes.- I never got around to doing it last week! I have been searching through my collection for cat stamps to make cards for my local cat rescue centre at the moment. I coloured the Stampenndous stamp with markers - the backing papers are from the Jayne Netley Mayhew cd from Joanna Sheen. I did make this the 4x4 size requested just to see how it worked - the Venture Farm version will end up bigger .

The second card uses the same technique of colouring the stamp - from the Elusive Images Butterfly Poppy plate - with markers. Stamped onto white card, then the colour was spread over the background wioth a water brush - I did have to add some extra colour in a couple of places, but it was surprising how far the colour will spread. The scrolls stamped onto the corners of the base card are embossed in mint sparkle EP, although they don't show up very well in the scan, and the scroll is from the EI Butterfly daisy plate

new stamps giveaway

check out the Elusive Images website for some fab new bird stamps from Glenda and leave a comment for a chance to win some!

new challenge blog

there is a new challenge blog http://www.corrosivechallengesbyjanet.blogspot.com/ that I heard about from Anne and decided that I needed to do something different! This is the first time I have done a card from a sketch challenge - it came in handy as I needed a birthday card - although I did swear at having to cut out an oval, which as you can see I am not terribly good at. the background is a strip of cuttlebugged green card glimmer misted with forest green and starfish. The main image is from Elusive Images delightful damask plate, coloured with Marvy pens in pinks and greens and matted onto pink card - the small flower is also EI, this time from the butterfly poppy collage plate, also coloured with Marvy pens. the greeting is a peel-off.

February challenge

The February colour challenge on the Graphicus blog is 'brick and teal', and this is what I came up with.

The stamps came from a sale grab bag - I can't identify the roman-looking man now,(although I could find it when I first got the bagful) but he was part of a themeplate . The background was stamped first with the incipit praefatio script stamp in Marvy blending blocks shades of gold - doesn't really show up in the finished card- then overstamped with the architectural plan (from the antiquities themeplate) in Marvy shades of brown - the edges were then rubbed with the shades of brown to create a distressed look. The strip of cuttlebugged card sprayed with glimmer mists was rubbed over with the shades of brown. The roman man was stamped with black versafine onto coredinations card,and clear embossed before tearing round the edges and matting onto a torn blue coredinations card.

scrumptious blog candy alert

If you haven't discovered it already, check out the scrumptious new stamps on the
Elusive Images design team blog- there is a chance to win these gorgeous butterfly collage stamps that will be on C&C on Tuesday at 1pm - definitely one not to miss!

graphicus challenge

There is a double challenge on the Graphicus blog this month - 'celebration' and 'plum and gold'. I did try to combine them both, but the waste bin received those efforts - as time was running out, i decided to do two separate cards instead.
This is for 'celebration' - using the silhouette stamp from the EL birds plates, stamped in versafine and clear emboosed before spraying with glimmer mists to try to give the effect of a dawn sunrise. I think the colours I used eventually were sunflower, starfish. candy apple red and monnlight - there could have been a bit of spring violet as well - did several with slightly different combinations, and they all worked to some extent! The coloured image was trimmed down, matted onto silver mirri, and then onto a sheet printed from the Peacock summer party Artylicious cd, then onto a textured gold card before mounting onto black card - I know this is a strange choice for a new baby card, but I thought it looked better, and in Norfolk we du difrent! The wording is from a creative acrylics set free with a graphicus order, with a red ribbon behind it to make it stand out better.

The 'plum and gold' entry is dual purpose - I signed up to Lavendar's challenge on the Joanna Sheen forum to start making Christmas cards before March (thought I ought to after having to buy cards last year!), so this is my first card for next Christmas! I stamped the madonna image from EI in colour box eggplant ink onto pale gold card, then again onto white card with black versafine and onto plum card with versamark and pirate gold EP. The white image was coloured with brush pens and a water brush in varying shades of purples, then cut out and mounted over the image on gold card - the long cloak was cut from the plum card and glued on top. The gold card was matted onto background paper from the peacock summer party cd again, then onto plum card. It needs a greeting yet to finish it off properly, but I haven't got any gold peeloffs, so will have to wait for that.

flapcard

made this at craft club this weekend - Moira made it sound easy, and it really was once you got your head around it! Also helps if you count the number of panels you need properly.......

This is the cover - apart from the large bamboo stamp, which is a Judikins one, all the stamps are from the Elusive Images birds A4 plate (which is a current favourite of mine) or from the wild meadow plate. All the images were stamped with black versafine and clear embossed before colouring the cover and the owl with markers and a waterbrush. Backgrounds were stamped using various green marker pens direct to stamps.

These are a couple of the inner spreads - takes too long to add pix of all the pages! As it was a first effort, it fits nicely with the first challenge of the year on Cynthia's blog http://www.blogger.com/rainbowladyschallengeblog.blogspot.com - decided I really need to try to do more challenges this year, don't know how long this will last......

I really enjoyed doing this, and have a second effort in the pipeline, this time with poppy stamps from the flora and fauna plate

bird cards

This is a sample of the New Year cards I needed in a hurry - that is what happens when you don't make enough Christmas cards and daren't send fellow crafters shop cards!

I had played briefly with the Elusive Images dawn chorus plates when I first got them, and thought this image would make a nice card. The image was stamped in black versafine and clear embossed before the background was glimmer misted with sunflower, starfish, spring violet and moonlight gm's - I was trying to get a rough impression of a winter dawn sky (not that I actually see many!). and was quite happy with the result. The image was matted onto gold and shiny black card, and then on to an ivory dl card as I had plenty of these left over from Christmas. Have to admit the originals went out without a greeting - this one will have a greeting added before it goes out.

The owl and the bird are also from the same set of plates - the bird was made in the same way as the dl card. but was spritzed with water after the glimmer mists had dried, which gave a misty watery effect. have to admit I wasn't too sure about the effect, then decided to leave it. The cuttlebug embossed leafy plate was originally white card, sprayed with meadow green, midnight and gold glimmer mists. Both panels were matted on gold card, then onto a square card cut from Bazzill card.

The owl was stamped first in black versafine and clear embossed. He was then coloured in with sakura pens, covered with versamark ink and clear embossed again. One of the tall trees from the arboretum plate from Elusive Images was stamped over the image to form the twiggy background,and then it was glimmer misted - can't remember the combination, but it did include midnight blue and I think meadow green and gold. The cuttlebug panel was embossed on core'dinations card in an olivey green, which was sprayed with gold then lightly sanded down. Both panels were matted onto silver mirri card, then onto more Bazzill card cut down to make a 6" square card.

winter trees

I have to admit that I didn't make as many cards as I should have, or even get around to posting some of them..... be that as it may, I needed some New Year cards - fast! These trees are the ones I didn't use, which will be turned into cards some day soon. The watercoloured backgrounds are a mix of proper watercolour and brush markers, and were an attempt to capture some of the beautiful sunsets we have had recently - not always very successfully, but ok I think. The trees are from the Elusive Images arboretum plate, and were stamped in either black versafine or weathered wood distress inks over the watercolour background - some of them were coloured on the rougher side of the paper, so the stamps aren't as clear as they could have been. The moon in the last 2 was masked out with masking fluid - haven't used this stuff for years, and have totally lost the knack of applying it - did eventually get it off without ripping the paper too much, it obviously needs to go on in a much thinner layer! it did give the effect I was after though, so will have to have another go with it. I added snow to some of the branches using the Inkssentials white pen, which didn't really show up well on the lighter colours - maybe the texture of the watercolour paper didn't help there.