Card Patterns #156: Nature Inspired

This week it is stash week at Card Patterns and I wanted to do a scenic stamping card.

Here’s the great sketch by Michelle:

And here’s my card:

The scene is done on glossy cardstock and coloured with dye inks using a Colorbox Stylus Tool. All the stamping is done with Archival Jet Black ink, except for the water pattern. The Sedge Bank was stamped first and I made it a little big bigger with the Tall Grass stamp. The maple trees were stamped second, wiping off some of the ink at the base of the trunks to make the blend into the grass easier. I wanted to grass to be vibrantly green and billowing and used several shades of green inks, starting with the lighter colour and gradually building up darker layers. Grass often look better if you add a little bit of brown too and I like to use Adirondack Pesto for the darker parts, which is a greenish brown (or perhaps rather a brownish green). The water and the sky were coloured with blue, pink and a bit of purple inks. Highlights and flowers were added with gel pens and finally white pigment ink was sponged on the scene for a bit of mist.

The base cardstock was stamped with a script stamp using Chewing Gum ink, wiping some of the ink off before stamping for a distressed look. The circles were cut from Core’dinations cardstock, the green one was sanded and the pink was embossed, sanded and cut into two pieces.
Thank you for visiting! Check out the Card Patterns blog for the work of the rest of the DT. I hope you can play along with us!

Supplies: Stampscapes: Cattail Lg. 017D, Ducks in Formation 027A, Oack Branch 203G, Water Pattern 231C, Sedge Bank Right 233F, Maple Pair 239D, Maple Trio 240B, Tall Grass Sm. 254B, Loon With Reflection 262A, sentiment; Hero Arts Old Letter Writing; Tim Holtz Sizzix Dot Matric embossing folder; Core’dinations Spun Sugar and Peeled Paint cardstock, twine; Kromekote glossy cardstock.

CSI Case File 10: My Heart

It is already time for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration Case File 10. I hope you can play along with us this week, Debbi has chosen a very dramatic colour combo and inspiration photo, here it is:

I just loved the dramatic photo of the dark green clouds with the opening in the clouds where the sun shines through and I wanted to do something different with this layout. From the evidence items I used: clouds, create shadow and light and contrasting textures. And I was inspired by the motherhood theme of the story items. This layout doesn’t have a lot of journaling, but sometimes, a few words can say a lot and I have wanted to do a layout using this great quote by Elizabeth Stone. I thought the quote worked well in combination with the inspiration photo, which has a sense of both dark and light, worry and happiness.

I decided to do a watercolour painting for the background, using the three shades of green in the colour combo. All of them were mixed using only two colours (Yellow Ochre and French Ultramarine). I hope I got it right, watercolours dry lighter so it was a bit tricky getting the right shades. The painting was very inspired by the inspiration photo, but I also added a tree, symbolizing growth and strength. Here’s the finished painting (8.5 times 11 inches):

When it was finished, I didn’t want to cover it up, so I made a second one to use as a background to the layout. Here's the second one:

And here it is turned into a layout:

Manila cardstock was inked in red and pink (using Spun Sugar and Fired Brick), the hearts were die cut from the inked pieces and then stamped with a scrip stamp using a slightly darker shade of ink (Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany). They were stitched to the page and then folded up a bit to add dimension. I used of photo from when my son was just a few weeks old. I also added some stamping and white embossed some grass and birds. The edges of the layout were distressed.

Two close-ups:

Thank you so much for looking at this long post!

Supplies: Stampscapes: Duck Trio in Flight 023A, Flock Lg. 113B; Hero Arts Earth Flowers CL428, Old Letter Writing S4878, alphabet stamps; EK Success alphabet stamps; Daler & Rowney watercolours, Versafine Onyx Black ink; Distress Ink: Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany; Ranger Seafoam White embossing powder; vellum; Tim Holtz Sizzix Tiny Tabs & Tags die, Mini Hearts; twine; chipboard butterfly; glossy accents; watercolour paper; Ranger manila cardstock.

Moonlight Walk

I am sorry that the blog was a bit quiet this week, it’s been a pretty hectic week. Today I have a piece of scenic stamping to share that I made for this month’s challenge at Craft A Scene. I was very happy to see that my Lamppost in Narnia scene was picked as one of the February Top Three at Craft A Scene.

The challenge topic for March is 'moonlight'. Here’s a walk in the moonlight:

I wanted to use an oversized moon, so I used this great Cloud With Rising Moon stamp. All the stamping was done with Ranger Archival Black Jet ink, on glossy cardstock. The scene was coloured with dye inks using a Colorbox Stylus Tool. First the path was stamped, then the trees (wiping off a bit of the ink at the stems to make them blend in nicer). Next the moon was stamped and the area in between the moon and the path was filled with clouds.

A big moon can give quite a lot of pretty white light and I coloured the grass and the trees in shades of green that you might see on such a night. The clouds were coloured with grey and black ink and I used the same grey on the path and to tone down the greens a bit. Lots of highlights were added with a white gel pen and then some areas of the scene were dry brushed with white pigment ink. After spraying the scene with a fixative, I added highlight dots with a glitter pen. The scene had to be sprayed first, because that pen otherwise makes the ink bleed. The glitter doesn't show well on the scan, it looks better in real life.

Thank you for looking and have a great weekend!!

Supplies: Stampscapes: Cloud Cumulus 018E, Reeds 967B, Reeds Lg. 068D, Flock 112A, Crooked Path 146F, Cloud With Rising Moon 198G, Dog Walk 227A, Maple Pair 239D, Jenni Bowlin ink: Weather Wane; Adirondack ink: Willow, Pesto, Meadow, Slate, Pitch Black; Distress Ink: Bundled Sage, Evergreeen Bough; Memento: Cottage Ivy; Ranger Archival Jet Black; Colorbox Frost White; white gel pen; glitter gel pen; Kromekote glossy cardstock.

CSI:Color, Stories, Inspiration DT call

Hi everyone! CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration is having a Design Team call. I thought I would post the announcement here too, if anyone is interested. It is a great team to be on and I love the challenges.

Here's the announcement:

Have a fabulous day!

 

Anna-Karin

CSI Case File #9: Universeum

My layout for this week’s CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration challenge is a bit late, because I was a bit sick last week and didn’t have enough energy to finish it. I love the colours of this week’s case file and it has some of my favourite elements – birds, text paper, dictionary page, definition stickers, and the fun hot-air balloon. Here’s the case file:

Here’s my layout:

From the evidence I used: two different dictionary pages (one in English, one in Swedish), text pattern, definition stickers, mesh, birds and watercolour paint which is translucent. From the testimony: I documented a journey both in the form of an excursion and in the form of a journey of exploration within the wonders of this awesome museum, as well as using the inspiration word ‘wing’ (stamps saying ‘spread your wings’, ‘fly’ etc.).

The layout is about a day at a natural science museum and all the fun things we did, I wrote long journaling as usual, printed it out on an A4 page, added some leftover photos and tucked it behind the layout. The day left such an impression on my son that he talks about it almost daily still and it formed the basis of his very first longer ‘discussion’, about dropping a cookie that the monkey’s might have found. I wanted to use a lot of photos, so I did a double page layout.
Everything on this page has a meaning. The hot-air balloons and the birds were stamped on dictionary paper, with the words ‘fish’, ‘explore’ and ‘monkey’. They were painted with watercolours. I also used a section about sharks from a dictionary, and definitions of ‘experience’ and ‘discover’. The big birds were die cut from canvas and painted with a mixture of pool and pearl, and Stream Dimensional Pearls, to try to achieve the almost glowing light bright blue in the combo. They were stamped with text stamps.

The background was stamped in a darker blue using stamps relevant to the story (gears, balloon, birds, pointing hand, definition of ‘curiosity’, ‘the journey awakens the soul’, explore, dream, discover, etc.). I also misted it with Turquoise Perfect Pearls.

Close-ups:

The 'fish' dictionary balloon.

'The bluebird carries the sky on his back'.

'Explore' dictionary balloon.

Thank you for stopping by! Don't forget to check the CSI site to see the rest of te DT layouts.

Supplies: Tim Holtz Stamper’s Anonymous Mini Ornates, Steampunk, Mini Muse, Curiosities, Ultimate Grunge stamps; Reprint Luftballong; Artistic Outpost Huck Finn; Odd Bird Planet birds; Darkroom Door Essentials 1; Hero Arts Newspaper Background S5601, Watch Gear CG421; Versafine Magistic Blue; Ranger Pearl and Pool paint dabber, Stream Dimensional Pearls; Perfect Pearls mist Turquoise; Daler & Rowney watercolour paint; Sizzix Birds die; sticky back canvas; Collections elements word strips; Cosmo Cricket letter stickers; Making Memories felt letters and definition stickers; American Crafts rub-ons; mesh; gauze; old dictionary pages; pearls.

Card Patterns #155

Saturday and time for another fun Card Patterns sketch. This week we are sponsored by DRS Designs rubber stamps. Remember to check out the Card Patterns blog to see the work of the rest of the DT.

I always enjoy circle elements on a sketch. Here’s the sketch:

Here’s my card:

I started out with the circle, gluing botanical text paper to grungepaper and die cutting a circle. Then several layers of Picket Fence Distress Stain was added to the text paper to tone it down. The Vertical Triple Tree stamp was stamped three times using Archival Olive ink and a stamp positioned for precise placement. The edges were inked a bit. For the border piece one edge of the Fanfare Square frame was white embossed three times on manila cardstock. Then the piece was inked with Bundled Sage and Pine Needles and misted with a bit of water. The great little sentiment was also white embossed on manila cardstock and then inked with Frayed Burlap. I used a lace die to cut strips from green Kraft core paper, sanded a bit and added them to the joint between the two background papers.

Thank you for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies: DRS Designs: Vertical Triple Tree, One Line Happy Thoughts Greeting, Fanfare Square; Distress Ink: Frayed Burlap, Pine Needles, Bundled Sage; Distress Stain: Picket Fence; Archival ink Olive; Tim Holtz patterned paper; Ranger manila cardstock; Spellbinders circle die; Sizzix Tim Holtz Vintage Lace die; buttons; twine.

12 tags of the year – February

This year Tim Holtz is presenting a tag tutorial every month, this is my tag for February. I had finished it yesterday, but didn’t get a chance to post it. Here’s my tag:

I didn’t have the stamp and embossing folder that Tim used for his background, instead I stamped a grid background stamp repeatedly with white paint and then embossed with a grid folder. They don’t line up perfectly, but I liked the textured result. Cupid was white embossed on grungepaper, inked with Barn Door and then smeared with Distress Stickles. I don’t have the honeycomb paper, so I tried something different instead. Two hearts were die cut from grungeboard. Tissue tape was applied around the edge of the lower heart, just as Tim did. For the top heart, I coloured tissue paper with Distress Stain Fired Brick and then crumbled the paper in small pieces and glued to the heart. It was finished off with Rock Candy Stickles.

As teenagers, we often used to doodle hearts with an arrow going through them, so I glued a metallic arrow between the layers. I also thought it fit nicely with the stamped image and added two arrows at the bottom, both pointing toward the love ticket. The love ticket was white embossed on manila cardstock and sponged with Spun Sugar.

Two close-ups:

Thank you for stopping by!

Supplies: Tim Holtz Stamper’s Anonymous Love struck CMS082, Ultimate Grunge CMS075; Sizzix grid texture fade, Vintage lace Alterations die, Mini Hearts; Distress Ink: barn Door, Fired Brick, Festive Berries, Spun Sugar, Frayed Burlap; Distress Stain: Fired Brick; Picket Fence paint dabber; tissue tape; tissue paper; grungeboard and grungepaper; Tim Holtz arrows; lace trim; Ranger manila cardstock; pearls