Thank you teacher #4

Hello! Happy Canada Day!  Here's another thank you card for teachers.  I started with a sheet of paper that some time ago I had spritzed and sprayed with Dylusions ink in shades of pink and red.  Quite often I make extra when I have my spray station in operation.  (My spray station is the top of the deep freeze in the furnace room, so it can't be a permanent fixture.) I also like to mop up the extra colour with scrap paper and keep it on hand for future projects.

Once I had selected my Dylusion-y paper, I chose this wonderful negative image poppy stamp from Hero Arts.  I stamped it in Blackbird fluid chalk ink (Colorbox) because I wanted a very juicy ink, but also the detail of a dye rather than a pigment.  I also didn't want to emboss it in this case.  I trimmed it out, mounted it on some black then spent quite a bit of time auditioning card bases for it.  This is the part I always find trickiest, because some papers wash out the vibrant colours and neutrals can be too stark a contrast.  I often find that Japanese tsumugi paper is the answer, as it seems to be richly coloured enough to balance out the intensity of the Dylusions.  This card base is a lovely warm smoked paprika colour.  (I got mixed packs of notecards at my local art store - Wallacks, but if you can't source it in your local store, check out The Japanese Paper Place - they have links to retail locations and on-line sellers too.)  To finish off the card, I added a few dots of Black Diamond stickles to the poppies with centres showing.

Do you have any plans for Canada Day?  I will be making strawberry jam (how is that patriotic?  it's red and makes use of the wonderful berries that are at their peak locally) and watching World Cup soccer.  And quilting.  Fun day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mother's Day card and Watercolour Class Day 1

Here's the card I made for Mother's Day, using the vibrant backgrounds technique from the on-line class I'm taking (see sidebar).  I used Dylusions for the background in the new colours.  The flower stamp and background are from Penny Black and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up. This was a fun technique - masking with masking fluid and adding colour around the image.  I would like to try more of these with different watercolour media.  The masking fluid makes masking smaller areas much easier than trying to use masking film or paper masks.  Good times!

Thanks for stopping by.

January Challenge #7

Hello!  Here's a card I made yesterday but didn't get a chance to blog about.  We were having too much fun!  First was an outing to Mad About Patchwork to get some Kaffe Fassett shot cottons (yum - and more will be blogged about those on my Daley Quilter blog), then was an outing to the National Arts Centre for the family show, then a nice dinner out with the family courtesy some Christmas gift cards. 

The family show at the NAC was outstanding.  It was a tribute to winter sports, in light of the upcoming winter Olympics.  The orchestra started with the Olympic Fanfare, and then Ken Dryden, hockey legend, came out to be guest host.  Not only is he a hockey legend, but he is an incredible Canadian figure - lawyer, businessman, former Member of Parliament, officer of the Order of Canada, the list goes on.  I'm not the president of the Ken Dryden Appreciation Society, I just want you to picture someone warm and intelligent and synonymous with winter sports (he was a goalie for the Montreal Canadiens and won the Stanley Cup six times in eight years).  Anyway, enough on Ken Dryden - but you can see how he would be a gripping host for the show.  The orchestra played skating music and had winter sport videos and paintings showing in the background.  Then the Propeller Dance company came out and danced for us to the most stirring music. It was so beautifully moving.  The final part of the show was a telling of the iconic Canadian story, The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier.  Basically the story is one of Roch's childhood in the early 1950's in Quebec, where Rocket Richard and his fellow Montreal Canadiens were the heroes of every boy and man and lots of women too no doubt.  The Toronto Maple Leafs were the arch-rivals, as the only other Canadian team in the NHL at that time.  The story tells of hockey sweaters and what happens when a catalogue order goes awry and the wrong jersey is delivered.  And all this was told with the classic illustrations showing in the background and special music composed just to accompany the story.  It was magical! 

Well, before we headed out to enjoy that feast for the senses, I had time to make a quick card.  I had been tidying away a bag of stuff in my stamp room and found a set of Local King stamps and matching dies.  The set is called Chinese Flowers 2.  I stamped the image on a scrap of Dylusions paper (I always mop up the over spray with a scrap of either watercolour or marl or similar and save it for something like this).  I embossed it with some Chameleon embossing powder, which was on sale at Heather's.  It's really cool - a bit multicolour with a lovely sheen.  Hard to describe, but really neat.  Then I trimmed out the image with the die and adhered it to a scrap of black, and then to a scrap of light purple Bazzill.  Under all that is some textured cardstock stamped with a Penny Black background stamp using Pink Pastel fluid chalk ink, and arranged over more scraps in the background.  The card base is a neutral grey, and even though it's an odd size, I can always make an envelope to fit with my envelope punch board - yay!

That brings me to the end of this lengthy post.  Hope you get some stamping time in today. Thanks for stopping by!

October Stamping Challenge #16

Hello!  Here's the card I made yesterday, but didn't get to posting till now.  I had some Dylusion-sprayed paper that was stamped with a Curlicue flower and embossed with a sandy coloured embossing powder that really didn't suit.  Still, I kept the paper around and decided that my October Stamping Challenge was the time to turn it into something.  I used a flower die (Tim Holtz - Sizzix) to cut some flowers out of it and tried various arrangements.  The card base was a reject from another stamping challenge (despite my efforts not to create more scraps than I can use!) and the strip underneath was another scrap from a different Dylusion-sprayed experiment.  The card base is stamped with a script stamp (I think it's one from Cornish Heritage Farms) stamped in some sort of olive ink.  I popped up the flower with foam tape, added Dark Blue stickles on the dots, and added a button and some Avocado liquid pearls.  I fear these additional embellishments are a bit over the top.  This is not my favourite project, but it did use all scrappy stuff that was on my desk, it did take less than fifteen minutes, but did not use a new stamp. 

This has been a fun challenge!  I don't think I can keep up the pace at the moment.  I am gearing up for the church bazaar where I am coordinating the sewing and knitting table.  I have a few projects on my knitting needles and I am taking a quilting class so have a sampler quilt underway.  I am absolutely not complaining, just not very good at juggling and balancing.  Still, this challenge has reminded me that it is always mentally and creative restorative to make time for stamping.  It is also satisfying to use up the scraps and bits and bobs that are cluttering my stamping desk.  I think if I kept this challenge up until the end of December, I would have a clean desk out of it.  December 2018 that is!!! Hahahahaaa!

Hope you get some stamping in this weekend!

October Stamping Challenge #8

Hello!  Here's today's challenge card.  I had a piece of background paper sprayed with Dylusions in shades of green.  I stamped that with the JustRite background stamp (Secret Garden) using Prussian Blue Fluid Chalk Ink.  Then I ran it through the die cut machine using this viny Memory Box die.  Hemmed and hawed a bit over the setting, but settled on this duo - Brilliant Blue and Glorious Green Stampin' Up papers. The card is 4 1/4" square.  I glued down the die cut with Glossy Accents, and added some royal blue liquid pearls to the flower centres and lime green stickles to the leaves.  I felt it needed a little lift so I added some stitching with a white gel pen.  I think it could use a little more lift so I might try adding some more highlights with a white pencil crayon.

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy stamping!

October Stamping Challenge #5

Hello!  Here's today's project.  It was a quicky thanks to a lovely chalk ink panel and a die cut Dylusions butterfly that were on my desk.  This is a little notecard - only 3 1/4" square.  The die cut is from Memory Box and I don't remember what stamp I used on the chalk ink background.  In real life it's a little softer and mistier, but Sauron the Scanner doesn't deal well with soft colours and I don't deal well with my photo editing software.  I stamped (Orchid Pastel Colorbox Fluid Chalk) the butterfly with a pretty Crafty Individuals stamp, all flowers and birds and swirls and things, just to give it some texture.  I flat taped the centre of the butterfly and put a bit of foam tape under the wings so it has real dimension on the card.  The finishing touches were some Worn Lipstick distress stickles and Rouge Liquid Pearls.

Hope you get some inky time today!  Happy stamping!

October Stamping Challenge #2

Hello!  Here's Day 2's stamping challenge card.  This was an easy one because the whole card was ready made, except for the accent strip and Thank You medallion.  I think this was another reject from working up class samples for Heather.  I used the pretty leaf sprig stamp (Memory Box) and Dylusions sprays, then sponged with distress ink.  It's stamped on the hot press watercolour paper and matted on dark brown linen paper, and popped up on a cream linen card base.  The Thank You stamp (Rubber Soul*) is embossed in gold ink on brown linen paper and punched out with a 1 1/4" punch.  This card came together well within the 15 minutes, and make good use of a card that was almost finished and just waiting to come together.  Also, I am pleased because this card used a scrap of gold paper that I found under some things on my desk and I didn't make any new scraps either. 

* I think Rubber Soul has to be the best name for a stamp company.  So clever!

Thanks for stopping by.