Love Bugs

With January almost over, evenings getting lighter it is that time of year when those in love have a spring in there step and celebrate Palestine the patrent saint of love ♥ This is being submitted for the I♥promarker challenge (http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/challenge153-love-is-all-around.html)

With this in mind I decided to go for traditional colours for this card.  Using a 5x5 black card I stamped onto sticky back red foam using archival jet black ink and Judikins Ornate Floral background.



The next matt was a plain piece of card stamped in versamark ink with Stamp Addicts text stamp and highlighted using cosmic shimmer mica powders in copper and russet to make it pop.



Finally the image of the Love Bugs (from Stamp Addicts) was stamped in black memento and coloured using promarkers, the background was coloured using glacier blue flex marker for the outline of the image and worn lipstick distress ink blended around the edges.



Finally crystal stickles were applied to the wings for some sparkle ♥



Hope you like it x
Em

Geisha GirlCard

OK so after a busy few days at work what better way to relax than with some craft. 
This card was created based on the Mojo Monday blog  sketch.

 
As you can see from the sketch I first cut down my panels to matt and layer.
The base matt was coloured using copper metallic promarker placed on an A6 pastel pink card.

The next Matt was coloured with a carmine promarker to match the image.

For the left hand square I stamped the smiling geisha girl in memento from the Stamp It Oriental Delights (available from www.crafterscompanion.co.uk ), and put a copper border around her (dress colored in dusky pink, magenta and carmine, flowers in red metallic promarker).

The right hand panel had this great sentiment from a new range of fiskar clear stamps (Laugh with me quotes).  Beneath that I applied a small charming coloured panel with a copper border and three red floral craft candies.  To complete the layout I used a red flower from my stash and another candy to complete the card.
Please leave me a comment I would love to know what you think.

Em xx

Lightning Canvas (Part I)

Hello again, so I am on to my next art canvas which is specifically being created for my father using an image of an RAF Lightening as he used to work on these as an Engineer in the RAF before I was born, which brought his military career to an end as he wanted to be closer to home for me and my mum.

Initially I intended to use the image of the plane itself using Matt Medium to create and Image Transfer, unfortunately this process did not seem to work very well on a painted canvas so you will notice from the picture below that I have subsequently added a further image over the unsuccessful one.

I am determined to master this technique so watch this space and I hope to bring this to you shortly.

Back to the canvas at hand, I used an 8x8 pre-gesso'd canvas and painted the background using a mixture of Daler Rowney's Cryla Titanium Buff, and Liquidex Basic Acrylics in Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue and Dioxazine Purple.

     
As you can see we have a way to go but I actually like the basic background and the new replacement image fits quite well within the remnants of the Image Transfer attempt which I am sure I will be able to incorporate into the final design.

Please note this is the canvas at its very basest form and I will continue to post progress updates and the final completed canvas in due course.

I look forward to hearing your comments or any tips you may have on image transfers.

See you soon

Emx   

Ballroom beauty

So this is the other card I created this weekend to make the three adorable images from Saturated Canary's Little Darling Stamps range.  This stunning lady is called Isabelle.  

For this card I wanted to use some of my crafty stash of 12x12 paper scraps that I had available to me.  On first stamping the image I felt that Isabelle's stunning dress leant itself to being completed using paper piecing.

As you can see it turned out extremely well.

Her skintone was done again using those old faithful promarkers in Blush, Putty and Dusky Pink to give her some warmth to the skin.  

For the dress I used some vintage coloured papers in neutral and red printed shades.

The Roses were coloured using Lush Green and Leaf Green for the foliage and Blossom, Dusky Rose and Magenta for the buds.

Isabelle is pictured with black hair on the example image however, I thought she leant herself to being a brunette so practicing my hair colouring in skills and Raw Sienna, Cocoa and Umber I finished the image.

To again set the image off I used Pink Pearl Flex marker to surround the image and blended in around the edges using Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick and Fired Brick to draw your eye to the image.

 

To complete the card I used a plain white A5 card blank and matt and layered using further paper scraps.

The base layer is red with black dots which seem to be in vogue again at the moment.  The next layer was a faux journal page scrap which I layered and stamped the sentiment to the bottom right of this layer with Fired Brick Distress Ink.

Before using a smaller matt of floral red paper I cut in half a cream doily with a subtle rose print and adhered that to the right hand side of the matt overlapping onto the red/black dotty matt.

I then used the next size down doily which was in a pale rose pink and glued this over the previous one rotating it slightly so that you can see the larger one beneath then used a small matt of the remaining journal paper.

For the next layer I used the smallest size cream and rose doily and placed this rotated over the previous two before adding the pearlescent navy blue matt to the card.

I then adhered the image using dimension Pin Flair Glue Gel.  To colour tone the rose to match the colourway of the card, I used a Koyt & Gordt flower (available from Joanna Sheen) and sprayed it with water before colour tinting it using Candy Apple Red Tattered Angel spray (which has a slight gold shimmer to it) and the Dylusions Chocolate Spray.

Three great cards to add to my pile I intend to create and sell for charity later in the year.

I hope you like the details of this card, please do leave a comment.

Back soon

Emx   

Trust your crazy ideas

OK so the snow finally arrived so what better way to enjoy the weekend but cooking up a storm and working on some creative projects.

Before you ask the food cooked and thoroughly enjoyed by my husband and myself were Saturday lunch french sticks with crispy bacon, black pudding and ketchup.  Dinner was a gorgeous roasted butternut squash risotto with Sage and pan fried chicken.

But the best of the best was saved for today Nan Frys curry yummy.

So now with full stomach and a contented heart I can post the first of three posts for this week (was hoping to do more but apologies time just flew).

This card uses Circus Trixie from the Saturated Canary stamp range from Little Darlings, this image was truly amazing and I have plans to use many more techniques with her.

But for the time being this is the background I created myself for her today:-

   
This was created using an idea seen on the wonderful world wide web.  This involved using something I had purchased but not really had time to play with so I thought what better time than for creating a background for this image.

The background used the flesh, pink and violet portfolio oil pastels scribbled on to the card in a square pattern to create a blended but vibrant background.  Once I was happy with the blending done with my fingers and I had cleaned myself up I then felt what better idea than to go with the circus theme than to use the ticket background stamp from Tim Holtz Admit One Stamps (CS003).  I stamped this using Jet Black archival ink and I think you will agree works great.  The sentiment came from the same stamp set however this time I stamped over some pale pink gingham washi tape (free with a cardmaking magazine) onto some white card using archival ink and cut to fit the panel, before adhering it to the card matt.

This is the stunning Circus Trixie image which I thoroughly enjoyed completing using my Promarkers (and at  times the fine knib top).

Her skin tone was created using Blush, Putty, Dusky Pink and a little Sunkissed pink for the right hand cheek.

Her hair (which I believe I have finally got to grips with from a multitonal point of view which makes such a difference), was coloured using Raw Sienna, Cocoa and Burnt Sienna.

The outfit was coloured using Lavendar, Orchid and Amethyst for the purple areas and for the pinker shade I used Cerise, Magenta and Baby Pink to tone it back.

The image was outlined using a Flex Marker in Pink Pearl.

   
And here it is the completed card, I am really pleased with the results of this compilation.  The final topper was mounted on some pearlised navy card and then placed on to a pastel purple cardstock.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog as much as I did making this card.

Emx    

Zumba Chick

This card was created using the new Zumba Chick stamp from Little Darling Saturated Canary stamp from the recent CHA Winter 2013 releases.

The background on a pale pink A6 card was created by using Judith dotty peg stamped around the edges of the card randomly using Distress Ink Dried Manifold, Pickled Raspberry and Memento Rich Cocoa ink and the edge of the card highlighted by blending in Pickled Raspberry from the edge.

The next layer was created using white promarker cardstock and my ruler to create a plaid background in three colours and random dots.  The sentiment was stamped to the lower third of the card and the edge was blended in using Dried Marigold distress ink before mounting this to the card.

 
Lastly I stamped the image in Jet Black Momento and coloured the Chick in using the following promarkers:-

Ivory, Satin, Blush and Pale Pink for the skin.
Mustard, Sandstone, Raw Vienna and Cocoa for her hair.  I used the dotting technique to get the shading.

Pumpkin, Mango  and Salmon Pink were used for her outfit and to build up the shading.
Cool Grey 1,2 and 4 were used for her shoes .
To complete the card I cut her out and shaped her with my bone folder before sticking her to the card with Pinflair Glue Gel.

I hope you like this card as much as I do.  I have entered this in the following challenge:-

 

The Artistic Stamper Favourite Stamp Challenge 

I would love to hear your comments.

Em x

Grrrrreat Birthday

This card is another male card based on the fun and humorous images from Stamp Addicts.

I have been trying to ensure that I create some of my own backgrounds for cards, this was no exception using the retro judikins cube stamped in Stazon Dove Grey and Distress Inks in Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and Spiced Marmelade.  One accent shape and the sentiment in archival black ink.

The lion himself was stamped in Memento Ink Jet Black and coloured in using the following Letraset Promarkers in Oatmeal, Peach , Ginger and Spice.

Love this completed card.

Em

Colours of Nature

 

Many of you may recognise the background above as one similarly used on an art canvas started earlier last week.  It is in fact a further collage of the remaining papers however, they were colourised this time using Dylusion Inks in Yellow's, Orange, Red and Green which has brought out an extremely vibrant and somewhat tropical background not quite established in the paleness of the photograph above.

I was recently looking through the latest 50th Celebratory copy of BBC Wildlife and saw a couple of striking images from nature photographers that  caught my eye and made me realise that the colouring of the background was not only tropical but found in nature, almost autumnal.

Initially I was going to use Image Transfer to add them to the page, but in my eagerness to proceed I ended up gluing them using Mod Podge, you will see that there are in fact several ripples in the images.  Before you ask this is not bad method in the glue application but intentional to add a textural element to these images I added to the page.

The first image above is of an Orangutan, one of the animals I would most like to see in their real habitat of Borneo.  There name translated from Malay means Humans of the Forest.  A grand name for a beautiful creature.  They are also linked to us in the fact that they have opposible thumbs and big toes too.

The expression of the Orangutan is not only gentle but makes me feel extremely serene.

I placed him on the bottom left hand side of this double paged spread.

 

This image is of an amazing bird, with all the plummage both associated with the tropical and natural theme of this journal page.  Unfortunately I cannot recall the name of the bird but I think you will agree it is extremely regal and probably male as to attract females they always seem to have the best plummage.

Birds are such free creatures.  Graceful and elegant, I wonder alot what it would be like to have such grace and the freedom to spread your wings and explore without delay or explanation.

Anyway, more on this page to follow, in the meantime take care and be free.

Em xx