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.

guild swap 2

This is a photo of the gorgeous card I received from Chris as part of the Graphicus Guild Christmas card swap - sorry Chris, it is the best I can do after several tries.

Chris used EI Christmas stamps, with papers from the Seasons Greetings Artylicious cd, mini shrink plastic snowflakes and clear jewels. Warning - the mini snowflakes are great, and an idea I intend copying next year! Check out Chris blog - chriscraftroom.blogspot.com - she may have a better pic on there by now.

guild swap 1

This is the card I made as part of the Graphicus Guild Christmas card swap, usibng the EI madonna stamp. It was stamped twice on white card with black versafine, then again with versamark and gold EP onto 2 different red cards, one of which was embossed with a faint paisley design. All the images were cut out - the white base had the haloes coloured with watercolour pencils and sakure stardust pen, with gold glitter round the edges. Hair was brown pencil using 2 shades and blending with water. I repeated the hair on the second white image, cut just this out and layered over the base. The whole dress from the plain red card was another second layer onto the white base card, then the third layer was the sleeve and the panel of the dress. Image was then matted onto a sheet of cuttlebugged paisley style paper - I think this started out as a red, but wasn't the right red, so it got several layers of glimmer mists in reds and golds until it was a better match! This was then matted onto gold mirri card, then a red shiny card, then onto a card cut from gold card embossed with a greeting.

My gorgeous return card from Chris will be photoed tonight, and hopefully added tomorrow

Christmas round robin challenge 1

Four people took up Annette's round robin challenge on the Artylicious blog, and this is my page to add to Phree's-http://inkstainsurvivor.blogspot.com -- I forgot to scan the one I started and sent on to Deby, so will add that afterwards!
I tried to match the background paper from Glenda's Seasons greetings cd - I couldn't match the colour, it was really surprising how different the paper looked on another printer: it was either far too purply or bluey. I also had problems finding a stamp to fit the page, and in the end settled for part of an old Anita's stamp to continue the buildings theme. It was stamped with inks from the encore twilight pad- fortunately the bluey purple and the green were at opposite ends of the pad- then matted onto blue card. A snowflake was sprayed onto the backing paper with silver glimmer mist, then a diecut snowflake - also glimmered with violet and silver- was added. I wasn't really very happy with the result, the colours of the stamp were stronger than I would have liked, but time was limited and I didn't feel that I could realistically fiddle around for any longer.
Hopefully inspiration will return for the next instalment!

Christmas cards

These are two tag cards, both with Artylicious Seasons Greetings backing papers, and both tags coloured with green, blue and silver glimmer mists. The one on the left was stamped in black versafine with the tree from the Christmas fusion EI plate, and clear embossed - the branches were painted in H2o's and the snow added with a souffle pen before mounting on silver card. Peel-off greeting added on a piece of tag mounted on silver.

The one on the right is stamped with the EI holly script stamp in black versafine and embossed again with clear ep. The image is painted with h2o's again, mounted on a gold embossed card. I did try just stamping with versafine and painting the image, but it looked rather lost in the background to really be usable

get well

This is a card I made for an elderly partially-sighted friend, which explains why it has ribbon, fibres and flowers on. I think I am notorious for refusing to put ribbon on a card normally, so thought I had better prove that not only can I force myself to do it but I even have the ribbon! The background is a bit of cuttlebugged card which has been glimmer misted in moonlight, lilac and violet - flower is a mixture of making memories (originally white but glimmer misted) and flora doodles with a clear jewel brad holding it together. The tag was glimmered (what else) in blues and green, with papermania rubon letters - all my alphabet stamps were too big so I couldn't emboss the words, which was the original plan.
I am hoping that Cynthia will accept this for her latest challenge,
http://rainbowladyschallengeblog.blogspot.com

bandana challenge

This is my first attempt at both the bandana technique and entering a challenge, on http://rainbowladyschallengeblog.blogspot.com/. I think I may have stretched the rules a little by adding some green colouring over the white, and around the base of the image, hope it is ok! The stamp is from a Serendipity plate from Joanna Sheen, embossed in black onto bronze card, then white souffle pen with a green marker pen over the base of the sundial. Not sure if I have done the links right, but will find out.

There is blog candy up for grabs on Edna's blog -http://www.ednasplace.blogspot.com - have a look! She's just got the Artylicious Seasons greetings cd...............