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.