Easter Cards

A couple of simple Easter Cards, using Card-io stamps and masks.    The cross mask was brushed with a couple of different yellows from the Artistry Ink pads.    The bullrushes, grasses flowers and dragonflies were inked with the Artistry inks, and finally the greeting was hand-written and foiled using the Kaleido machine.

Floral card

Today's card is a stamped one using this month's stamp from the Clarity Club.   The background was created with Artistry inks through a Sweet Poppy metal stencil, and then the image stamped in the "circle" with Versafine Clair, and then water coloured with Artistry inks.  The Sentiment was a Julie Hickey stamp.

I always do inserts for my card, and for once I am sharing an example.   This is the one for this card - it was mainly produced in Craft Artist.   I always doe a border and then trim this with a wavy edged trimmer.   I normally put an image from Craft Artist on the left-hand side, but on this occasion I stamped an image using Card-io stamps, as they complimented the front of the card,

 

DIY Card

I was at a loss for ideas of what to do as a design for my brother-in-laws card.   I don't have a lot of "Men's" stamps.  I also couldn't come up with an idea in Craft Artist.  Eventually I decided to use my Card-io tool stamps and create his name with them.   He is currently in the middle of a lot of decorating; so hopefully it will amuse him.

Christmas Cards - Part 4

Baubles and Bells.   More of Card-io stamps.  Simple stamping with some glossy accents added.

and one card that didn't fall into another category - a bit of gelli plate printing and Card-io stamps.

Christmas Cards - Part 3

The theme for today's selection is "circles".   Once again using Card-io stamps.  Basically techniques as before.

Christmas Cards - Part 2

Today's cards are a selection of snow scenes made using Card-Io stamps.  I love these little stamps.  The sentiments are from various stamps in my stash.

Basically the background is done with some masking and some colour on a dry wet wipe, to "set the scene"  Then the stamps added.  I love the technique of stamping on acetate for the reflections, and then pressing this onto the card,   

Finally a bit of Nuvo glue and some glitter.

Dare to Dream

I do love the dreamcatcher die and stamp, so I used it for this November birthday card.  The dreamcatcher and trees were die cut from copy paper and stamped.   I then coloured them with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens as an experiment.

The trees were coloured with black and green sparkle pens and cut up, and layered to fit the card.

I used one of my Clarity masks and created the setting sun and sky behind the masks (using Distress Oxides applied with a dry wet wipe and my finger).   I also used the skein of geese stamp from Card-io.  That sun seemed to be crying out for birds to be flying across it.

The sentiment was stamped using the Tim Holtz Stamp Platform (love the platform - makes it so easy to position and stamp) and finally added some glitter, and a quick outline along two sides of the card.

Hybrid Card for a Gardener

This was a bit of an experiment.   I wanted to use my Card-io stamps, but I wanted to create more of a background, so I created the background above in CAP2.

I then got my stamps out and added them to the image.   This was the result:

]

After stamping I applied some Cosmic Shimmer Frosty Sparkle Kiss all over the image, as I had seen this done on tv.   It gives a lovely sparkle to the finish.  As you can see the camera has picked up quite a bit of the sparkle, so the image appears a bit blurred in the photo, but it isn't.

The image was then mounted on white card edged with green, and mounted onto cream pearlescent card.

Baubles

Another play with my Card-Io stamps.  I am loving these little stamps.   I decided to go with a little colour on this one, using my Artistry Ink pads.    (I did experiment with a few other designs - but they ended up in the bin!)  

I am also a bit miffed as I seem to have mislaid one of the little deer stamps.  I am pretty religious about putting them back on their acetate as I use them, but this one must have got caught up on something else, and I am blowed if I can find it!    Looks like I will have to purchase that set again, as I love that little tiny deer, and it is only tiny - less than a centimetre in size!  hey ho!

Starting on the Christmas Cards

I know, I know it is only July, but you have to start somewhere.  Have been awol from the blog for a week it seems - mainly due to a very dodgy arm, that has prevented me from doing much!  In fact I have done nothing most of the week - no crafting .... and definitely none of that dreadful thing called housework!

I confess I sat and watched a lot of crafting shows - I do love all the tips, techniques and ideas you pick up from them.  One of the shows was a Card-Io show, and I just fell in love with the ideas for Christmas.  My granddaughters will love this new addition to my little stamps, which are just right size for them.  OK so I have rambled on enough, no doubt you would like to see what I got up to yesterday.

First attempt - blue wreath

second attempt - black wreath, but got a bit heavy handed with the blue shading

at least the glitter on the lake shows up in this photo

The first two were my first attempt using the stamps.   I wasn't quite happy with the wreath.  I watched the demos again and realised where I was going wrong with the second generation stamping - I wasn't turning the stamp around completely !     I used the smaller stamp and got it right!

Wreath using smaller stamp and black ink again

I then decided to add the scene to the wreath above - definitely an improvement - thinking I am getting the hang of it now and quite like this one.   I love that little cable car!   I also took on board Wendy's trick for creating a shadow - love it!

Looks like another quiet day today - so I think I shall try some more variations, perhaps with a different stamp again for the wreath - perhaps in green.   Hopefully, I will create a few more toppers for Christmas cards.

Birthday Card

Made this for my brother in law, having been inspired by the Card-io demos on Hochanda earlier in the week, and thankful that my order arrived pdq, and was able to put in to practice what I had seen.

I know these stamps are going to be really useful for men's cards.  I shall get a bit more adventurous with them the more I play and do more "double" colouring of the stamps.   (In fact I did a bit with the grandchildren today, as they love these little stamps.  I have them on Tuesday so the plan is to make some Father's Day cards with them.)

We also played with some of the other stamps in the sets that I bought - a bbq, a chiminea, a washing line, which they loved particularly the little pegs! and I taught them how to make the washing look wet with the use of glossy accents, and to make rain drops.  (They had great fun showing their Dad how they did that - just glossy accents dropped onto card and a pin dragged through it - see the end of the hose pipe on the card and the paint dripping from the paint brushes).

I will add here that we had a great party last night for the two family birthdays - so nice to get both sides of the family together for a celebration rather than a funeral.  They couldn't get the hall originally wanted, and in hindsight we were so pleased, as the venue chosen was just perfect for a family gathering, with even room for a bit of disco dancing.  Perfick!      We even got to go outside and watch the ISS pass over - many of the family hadn't seen it before.   Last night was a beautiful long 20 minute pass, and as we were on the edge of a field in the middle of the village with no street lights, it really was a great sight!  In fact my daughter who is a keen follower of the space station, said she must make a note of such a good place to watch it in future - lol!

Black and White

Granddaughter No 2 is 11 today, and her favourite colours at the moment are black and white,.

The card we made using my new clarity flower stamps and leaves, with a Card-io butterfly and some infil leaf stamps.  The flower stamps are lovely as they come with masks, so was able to use these and my new Tim Holtz stamping platform for the background.   (Love my stamping platform and love the masks, although I could possible do with another set; as if you want to stamp the same size flower you have to fiddle with the other size masks)

All the stamping was done with black Stazon and then the background layer was painted using a grey memento ink, and the centres had white puffy paint added.

I then stamped and cut out some more flowers, this time keeping them white with black puff paint for the centres.   All the petals and leaves, both on the background and the cut out ones, had transparen paper effects applied to them.

Finally I stamped her name with the Clarity Alphabet, and mounted the card on black card, and then onto the white card blank.

I didn't both with writing Happy Birthday or her age on the front of the card, as I thought if she wanted she could put it in a frame for a piece of wall art for her bedroom.

Oopa!

Yes it was an oops moment - I forgot a pal's birthday !    So it was out with some stamps to make something pdq.

I used my Card-io stamps and my Clarity Fairy stamps.as well as my Clarity Alphabet.   The table, umbrella, balloon ad grass were Cardio, and the flowers, fairies and toadstools were Clarity.

I masked off the bottom of the card and added some green and some blue memento inks to create he background first, using a dry wet wipe.

When I had finished the stamping I ran a blue memento pad around he edge of the card.

Granddaughter's "Thank you cards"

I introduced my youngest granddaughters to the art of gelli plate printing the other day,

The first three were done by the 8 year old

printing through lace

stamping again with residue on gelli-plate

stamping on to gelli-plae to remove colour

 The next three were made by the 5 year old

stamping through a leaf template

stamping using the residue on the gelli plate

stamping into the gelli plate (she did have a little problem with the edging, but then I taught
her how to turn the card round to do it!

The last few were made by the 10 year old - just playing - as she didn't have any thank you cards to make!

 and finally .... the one I did initially to show them how to do it!

Easter Card

I had fun creating this with my new Card-io stamps.

I masked off the cross, and then applied a little yellow/green background to start with, and then out came the stamps!  I love the effect when you peel off the tape.  I stamped and cut out one of the little butterflies from the set, and added a peel off.  I trimmed the card to side, edged it with a promarker pen and mounted it on to a green card.