just playing

 I started to do some long-awaited clearing up after the family had all gone, and of course found lots of interesting bits - end of clearing up!
I found a heap of brusho backgrounds that had been partly used, and couldn't bear to junk them. So I tried out the bokeh technique I saw on Rae Dalal's blog  on a couple of pieces, using  white pigment ink from Stampin Up - the ink didn't stay as white as I would have liked, but did give an interesting effect, probably helped by the brusho coming off on the foam pad I was using!








The stamp is from Hobby Art, bought before Christmas and not used until now, stamped onto more bits of brushoed card - I did colour the leaves and stems in with promarker, left the flowers as they were. Cut out with Sizzix dies from Stampin Up , then just matted and layered onto 6x6 white card blanks.

Very similar card here, no matts this time, image cut out using a Spellbinder die, edged using tarnished brass distress stain as my ancient krylon pen had dried up.
I did add some more colour to the flower using a marker pen and a clear Wink of Stella pen, and coloured the leaves and stem the same way.

These actually fit some challenges this week, so am linking them to
Pixie snippets
make my Monday - bright & cheerful
Hobby art - bright & happy

pot pourri

 This is my entry for challenge 7 at Chocolate Baroque - I just never got around to the last few, so one of my resolutions was to try harder to keep up with the challenge blogs.............it did help that this time included my favourite colour scheme!
It also helped that the colour scheme for the pot pourri challenge on the Chocolate Baroque ning site was caramel, which I interpreted rather liberally, and this card began life as a possible for that challenge.
I used russet card as a base, and stamped the text and foliage stamps in the background using a colorbox amber clay inkpad that I found lurking in a drawer.The main image was overstamped in impress autumn leaf ink, and the edges of the card sponged with impress chocolate ink (more refugees from the drawer).
The image was coloured  with a waterbrush to draw the ink in from the image, then used watercolour pencil on the stems and leaves.  I stamped the poppy heads a second time, used the waterbrush again, then added derwent watercolour pencils to give them more definition - this was cut out and glued over the original image. I stamped the butterfly on white card and painted the wings with H2Os before cutting them out and glueing on.
Matts are dark brown, gold and green, and the base card was stamped with the text stamp in amber clay and sponged with chocolate.










The other images are are of  the postcards that actually went for the pot pourri challenge, and I just barely scraped in at the last minute.  I don't know what it is about January, but it always seems to go by in a flash almost as soon as I realise it has arrived - must be an age thing!
The first one used the window stamp from gothic fragments as the background, and stamped and decoupaged poppy heads - the bottom two poppies actually overhang the card, but don't seem to have come out on the scan.
The second one uses the same stamps and technique as the card apart from the fact that the poppies are stamped directly onto the card over the text stamp. the butterfly was just watercoloured with distress ink in broken china after stamping onto white card.

catching up

This is a catch-up post, as  I have been very much AWOL during the last month.
 OH was rushed into hospital at the beginning of December and has been in and out ever since - he's currently out, awaiting call for an op sometime in the immediate future. Practically anything technological that could go wrong did at the same time, including the phone line and broadband - all hopefully now fixed, together with a new mobile to replace the one that leapt out of my pocket...........
The first scan is of the covers for the
 Chocolate Baroque technique tags book. I have to admit that I didn't do new tags for this, just resurrected earlier tags that I didn't use at the time they were made - the top will be the cover, and  the words from artistic affirmations were resist stamped using versamark and white embossing powder before inking the sky and stamping the foliage.
The back cover used a Tim Holtz embossing folder, tag background sponged with distress inks before inking the embossed image with versamark and gold embossing powder once the background was completely dry - the result if it isn't dry can be  quite interesting, but is usually just a mess!
 The cards were made yesterday at a workshop in Gissing with Moira, the first time I had picked up an inkpad with crafty intentions for weeks - it was a lovely day, and a really nice change.
The stamps used are all by Hobby Art, most of them Moira's - if she hasn't got the complete set, I shall be very surprised!- and the cards are all cream and 14.5cm square.
 The butterflies were stamped on acetate with stazon, which was then coloured with alcohol inks on the reverse side and left to dry before cutting out. I used the solid flowers set to stamp the background,using victorian velvet and milled lavender distress inks , then stamped the butterflies fairly randomly across the card. The acetate butterflies were cut out and glued over the stamped images. Matts are matt gold and the nearest pink I could find to match the stamping.

The background for the last card used repeat stamping of a script stamp and a sort-of sacking effect stamp using old paper and antique linen distress inks. The words were stamped in black memento ink, then the small spray from falling leaves stamped round four times to make a wreath using bundled sage. I regretted using this stamp as I then had to colour in the leaves with promarker as they didn't stand out enough from the background.
The maple leaves were stamped with memento london fog - guess who picked up the wrong dewdrop pad without looking first - coloured with promarkers using big slashes of colour with the broad tip and then some blending pen before  cutting out and mounting with foam pads. The matts are dull gold and an orange that matched the promarker colour.