Penny Black Tree Stamp.. card for a man

 Just a quick pop in to show you a couple of cards I made with my Penny Black Tree stamp.. the one which was out of stock everywhere for ages (and now I know why, as its such a beautiful design!).

Its hard to make a thank you card for a man without it being 'fussy' so I went for a nature theme..

I used TH distress ink in Corduroy Brown and a distressing tool and a sponge dauber (which gives a slightly different effect), as well as brown Stazon ink to stamp the tree, because the memento wasnt dark enough.

The white blossom (spring = cherry blossom trees?) was polar white flower soft and then I tried a pink one for a more feminine touch. Have to say I love the pink one!

The cutting dies are Spellbinders Fleur de Lys and a bit of card candy added too.

  

am entering the top card into Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Mens Cards

Candy

Click on the balloon to head over to Making it with Meslyn and find out about how to enter and be in with a chance to win our 50 follower blog candy giveaway - this is open for ONE month, and the more followers the bigger the candy.. yum!

There is also a new challenge coming soon at the beginning of March!

Tulips... looking forward to spring

...well I think they are tulips anyway. I made this quick card as I love black, yellow and white as a colour combo and I wanted to do something quick and easy and play with masking again.

 

The stamp set is a Gina K one I have used before and designed by Melanie Muenchinger, called a Year of Flowers available here.

I used one leaf, one stem and one flower bud stamp from the set, which was stamped onto paper or very thin card first and then cut out so I could use these to mask when I stamped multiple images on top of each other.. Stamped the left bud first, then masked and stamped the right one, masked both left and right then stamped the top one and masked the flowers again when stamping the stems and leaves.

If you look carefully you can see the stems are part of the white nestability cut out and I used the 'Image beyond the border technique' which you can find here.

The embossed black card is done with a cuttlebug folder and I added black pearls just to 'balance' everything.

Wee Stamps ..

Just wanted to share some new digi stamps with you which are oh so cute. Hop over to Sylvia Zet's blog and have a peek... they are soo sweet!

Here is Wee Suzi

Happy Valentines Day

Have not been blogging recently cos I have a cold and don't feel very productive and more important things took priority lately. Anyway, just to celebrate Valentine's Day and for someone very special, here is the card I made in between having sniffles!

 

The first pic I took with the camera which isn't behaving, so if you zoom in its a bit blurry, hence the pic below which you can zoom in to see the colouring (just click on the image) .

The stamps are from Penny Black and are the new 2011 Valentines release called Good Catch.

I liked the fact that there were two images with mice so I could use both on one card.

The dew drops are made with a glue gun and coloured with Ranger Alcohol inks in Watermelon shade.

Here is the inside, and you can see the two papers I used from Bearly Mine, found here and are called Love Dreams.. a bit of cuttlebug embossing and a Martha Stewart embossing punch for the zigzags

To make the border around the cream coloured nestabilities heart die cut, I traced around the outside of the die onto red card with a sharp pencil for a thin line, and then cut the red card with scissors - presto another nested shape!

also on the inside is another bit to flip up where he sentiment has been added (the mosaic effect is covering the message as it was a bit of a personal one)... just wanted to show you all the layers!

I am entering this into Bearly Mine Challenges - For Men or Boys, and recommend you pop by every two weeks and check out Donna's lovely papers!

There will be a new Challenge this coming Tuesday

London Fog Memento Ink has been bugging me for a while..

... because stamping in Black and Rich Cocoa is great for use with alcohol markers BUT the London Fog colour is a bit weak for certain stamped images and I cant always resort to Stazon Stone Grey, which shade is just right!

SO don't think I have gone mad, BUT I opened my re inking bottles for Memento inks and dropped some Tuxedo black into the London fog bottle (the top nozzle comes away if you wiggle it carefully (be careful not to pour ink all over the place!), closed the bottle, gave it a good shake and inked the London Fog ink pad VERY well, okay drenched it a bit (don't store upside down for a while!!)

 

The first tissue has an impression of the London Fog pad as bought, and the shade it comes out with (okay for colouring an image with pastels but nothing too heavy in colour).

The second tissue impression is after I topped up the reinker with a bit of tuxedo black, its a shade darker grey - about 4 or 5 drops should do it.

 Hope you find the tip useful and there is a difference between stamping an image in black or dark grey, its just not as harsh and is a little more subtle - I would stamp images in stone grey on things like baby cards, some wedding cards and religious or condolence stamped images look nicer in anything other than black.

Love is all around

So I have three love themed cards to share, and these are made from some of my favourite stamp brands, Penny Black and Lili of the Valley.

the first is an easel card, but not on a square sized format its an A5 which is a new card blank from Craft Creations, new in that the fold is on the top not the left hand side, and this makes a nice portrait layout A5 size to decorate on the front.

I used the following to make the card:

• The stamp is from Lili of the Valley and is called I Do
• the apron lace punch is a fiskars one
• Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing
• Leone Em Maidenhair Fern punch
• Fiskars Border corner Heart punch for the corners
• Twinkling H2O's for colouring
• nestabilities tag die
• Stickles!

a side view to show the layers and easel shape

a closeup of the flowers - I inked the centre of the fern branches with cottage ivy memento ink and a dauber to add some depth

the next one could be for any love themed occasion that's why I chose the sentiment which comes from Lili of the Valley and the image of the bears is a Penny Black stamp called Snuggle Buddy.. for this card I used:

• pokey tool for faux stitching holes
• Martha Stewart Punch for nougths and crosses border
• Cuttlebug embossing folder
• Nestabilities plain hearts / scalloped hearts / circles / scalloped cricles
• Spun Sugar distress ink for the pink stenciling
• promarkers for colouring

the last one to share is an anniversary card without roses (most of them seem to have roses or is that my imagination?!!), and to make this one:

• Lili of the Valley stamp called Bubble Bath
• EK Success Punch called Swiss Cheese or might be the deep edger version of Swiss cheese
• Cuttlebug embossing folder
• twinkling H2O's for colouring
• Nestabilities tag die
• Hero Arts Anniversary sentiment from All Occasion Clear Sentiment stamp set
• Self adhesive pearls

If you look closely on the last one, you can see where I added glossy accents to highlight some stray bubbles and the watery bits.

My Favourite Things DT Entry

Well I cant believe February is here ALREADY! The good news is its another Meslyn Challenge, and this one is titled My Favourite Things, and in my case that has to be Penny Black Stamps and lovely papers.

The Penny Black Stamp is from a clear set called Garden Friends and the papers from Craftwork Cards, which are on sale at Meslyn Crafts, and is called the Confetti Collection - the gold foil designs are soooo luxurious! 

And I used the other two new Leonie Em Punches I invested in (yes they are expensive but beautiful) for the gold and green branches, one is called Ash Branch and the other New Ash Family. Lots of flowers and stickles..

These photos are scanned, so I will add more when I get home in daylight hours to show the front of the card. In the meantime, here is the inside of the card and I used distress inks to add the pink inked bits while the card was still in the nestabilities die

. The punched rose border is a fiskars embossing punch, and old one and I don't use it nearly enough!!
Colouring medium used is twinkling H2O's.

the text is computer generated... now just to make a box for this one...
thanks for looking and hope you like this one!!

please pop over to the Meslyn Challenge blog and take part, link in text at top of this post or on the left hand side column on my blog. See you there, and when Carolyn reaches 50 followers there will be a giveaway of some lovely goodies!