Gnomes & stitchy flowers

 A much smaller group than usual joined Moira Walters for the Hobby Art workshop at Costessey on Saturday. The hot weather probably had a lot to do with the low numbers, but we had a lovely day in an air-conditioned hall, we did have to ask for the aircon to be turned down eventually!

We used the gnome and stitchy flowers  ( it's actually called floral patchwork but stitchy flowers is a perfect description!)
sets of stamps designed by Lisa; the first sample is sort of following Moira's sample,with the card split into sections.
I used fewer sections and added shading between sections rather than thin strips of card - life is too short to be cutting thin strips of card! Images were coloured using Koh-i-noor watercolour palette with a water brush.

 My second gnome card was because I couldn't resist playing with masking tissue to create a diffeent new home card. the gnome was stamped first, then the house, then the sign board and finally the sentiment. Coloured with alcohol markers once I got home.

 This one had a distress oxide background before stamping the flower pots and colouring them with watercolour again. Mats of brown and white card and a brown card base.

 For this one one of the flower pots was stamped onto a distress oxide background on a small tag, then again onto patterned paper and paper pieced. A matching tag cut out of patterned paper, both mounted onto slightly larget tags and then onto a base card stmaped with the buttons in a matching colour of distress oxide ink.












 My last two used the corner stamp and the buttons to create a wreath shape - very easy to do with a stamping platform, I could never do them just using a circle guide, and I live very much in awe of those who can!

You need a square of card, position the main stamp in one corner, stamp it, turn the card 90 degrees, stamp again, continue till you have done all four corners. Then all you need to do is fill in the gaps - dead easy!
Two different colourways, both coloured at home with alcohol markers.

desert cacti

 Both my cards today use the captivating cacti individual stamp, which is quite a big stamp.
Sorry if you were hoping for a brusho-less card, but the first one is rather less obviously brusho!
I stamped and embossed the image onto white card before sprinkling red, green and orange brusho lightly over the background. I then painted the cacti with red and leaf green brusho using a wet paintbrush to activate the powders.
I stamped the tall cactus from scrumptious succulents across  the white card blank to give a background before adding a mat of black card

My second card is more obviously 'normal' brusho, with a background square of card coloured with red and yellow brusho. I used the same colours after stamping and embossing the image with white embossing powder, trying to get most of the red on the flowers and the yellow on the cacti.
The mat of black card was stamped using the sempervivium?  image from scrumptious succulents stamped randomly using a white ink pad, which doesn't really show up on the scan. I have a large collection of different makes of white ink pad, and am not really happy with any of them so far!

scrumptious succulent

This time a flowering cactus from the scrumptious succulents plate and a sentiment from blossom and grow, just to swop things around a bit.....
Afraid it's still brusho though - images stamped with versamark and white embossed before sprinkling leaf green brusho over the background and orange over the flowers and sentiment before spritzing with water. It looked a bit washed out when dry, so i sprinkled more brusho over the stems and the flowers and used a wet paintbrush to add more colour - once everything is dry, just tap off any excess powder.
A mat of black card and mounted onto a 7" square white card blank to finish off.

lolly sticks!

Have been meaning to try this technique since I saw Lesley Wharton demonstrate it on Hochanda a while ago, but never found the big lolly sticks - then my friend Moira produced some on Sunday.......
Thought this big cacti stamp from Chocolate Baroque would be ideal, and it just fitted onto 8 lolly sticks.
It is a lot easier if you stick the lolly sticks down onto card first, makes it far easier to stamp afterwards........thanks for the tip, Moira! I stamped using archival ink after colouring the sticks with distress inks, then got out my new dinky Koh-I-Noor watercolour palette (also from Chocolate Baroque) - I was surprised by how vibrant the colours were over the inked background, and they are so easy to use with a waterbrush.
I stamped the sentiment, then stuck it down onto a 7" square white card blank

all things of nature........

The current weather is very appropriate to show  last months featured cacti and succulent stamps, if not for today's show featuring Christmas!
Today I have the first of my samples last month for Chocolate Baroque using this lovely spiky flower, and, of course, my favourite brusho powders!
The spiky flower is from the blossom and grow plate, and the sentiment from scrumptious succulents.
A very quick card if you ignore the drying time - both images were stamped with versamark ink and white embossed. A good sprinkling of black brusho powder and a fairly heavy spritzing with water was all that was needed.
Once it was dry, trimmed to size and a mat of bronze/red  card to pick up the colours in the brusho, them mounted on a 7" square white card blank.
The second card is very similar, except that I ended up with a very watery effect - not really suited to cacti, but I liked it! I plan on trying to get this effect again using the mermaid queen stamp........