Pen and Paperie: February 2016

Wednesday, 24 February 2016

Admittedly a few birds did act strange…

I’ve gone Bird Crazy again for a male birthday card, love these little birds from Tim Holtz.

The recipient is old-fashioned and still writes everything with pen and paper so I’ve teamed the bird with the pencil (no pen) from the Crazy Things set. My colour scheme comes from the current challenge at Cupcake Inspirations of grass, white and sky. I’ve used several shades of Distress Ink blues and greens in my card and lots of white.

To make up my card I’ve followed the current sketch at Sunday Stamps. I just thought I’d challenge myself to make this a one layer card in keeping with the theme over at CAS on Sunday so a fair bit of masking happening. I went a bit off on the placement of the pencil though so had to add in some extra black lines to the wing. My sentiment is handwritten (in keeping with the pencil and recipient) and finishes off the oval shape around the bird. The two banner elements were made using the same stencil (going for a chicken wire type effect), one using regular stencilling the other colour using Tim’s monoprint technique.

Ingredients:

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Spellbinders Nestabilities ~ S4-110 Classic Ovals Large

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Layering Stencil ~ THS005 Honeycomb

Inks & Paints etc

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Mermaid Lagoon & Mowed Lawn

Tim Holtz Distress Markers ~ Carved Pumpkin, Hickory Smoke, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass & Twisted Citron

Papers

Ranger ~ Speciality Stamping Paper

Stamps

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz ~ CMS212 Bird Crazy & CMS237 Crazy Things

Challenges

CAS on Sunday #77 ~ One Layer Wonder

Cupcake Inspirations #348 ~ Grass, White & Sky

Sunday Stamps #120 ~ It’s a Sketch!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, 21 February 2016

Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright

I’m sharing a card I have made for a friend’s birthday featuring the beautiful Lilli from Simply B Stamps.

My card follows the current sketch at Sketch Saturday. Rather than use designer papers for my elements I’ve gone with a mixed media approach because Edna told me to! Or rather, the current theme over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is mixed media. This isn’t a snarky project at all, really couldn’t be snarky when starting with such a pretty image.

I’ve used Tim Holtz’s embossed texture paste technique to create a sort of lacy element and then added some trim, pearls and a metal embellie (the recipient’s name starts with B) to form the wide and thin rectangular elements. I used the same stencil to give a background to the image, using the masking technique as well as adding rub-ons and using gelatos to add interest to the background.

Over at Southern Girls they are looking for sparkle on your project. I’ve added mine subtly with Perfect Pearls Mists and a stencil, which just shows up in the photo, as well as with a Spica pen on my sentiment (harder to see in the photo).

Despite the lack of designer paper, I think my card has turned out very prettily, which will suit the recipient just perfectly.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E00, E11, E21 (E02 cheeks)

Eyes B0000, B00, B02, B06

Lips R24, R46, R59

Hair E21, E23, E25, E27, E29

Outfit C0, C2, C4

Lilies - G20, G24, G28, RV11, RV13, RV17, RV19, YG13

Chalks & Powders etc

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder ~ Milled Lavender

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Layering Stencil ~ THS034 Lace

Embellishments

BoBunny Brad ~ Primrose

Kaisercraft Pearl Strip ~ Pink Champagne

Prima Say It in Crystals ~ Reflection

Prima Metal Trinkets & Alphas ~ Timeless Memories

SandyLion Rub-ons ~ Rouge de Garance Inspiration

Inks & Paints etc

Faber-Castell Gelatos ~ Butterscotch & Peach

Ranger Perfect Pearls Mists ~ Perfect Pearl

Spica ~ Lavender & Silver

Teresa Collins Basically Essential ~ Modeling Paste

Papers

Bazzill Fourz Cardstock ~ Mauve Ice

Stamps

Faber-Castel ~ Neutral Mix & Match Gelato Clear Stamp

Simply B Stamps ~ Lilli

Challenges

Sketch Saturday ~ Sketch #400

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #53 ~ M is for Mixed Media

Southern Girls ~ Add A Little Sparkle To Your Life

Thanks for stopping by!

Zoek een woord puzzel

I have a simple card to share today, made to say thanks to a friend’s father.

The recipient is a find a word puzzle fan as well as being Dutch so I’ve made a find a word puzzle using the word ‘thank you’ in 96 languages. I highlighted the Dutch one in bold and also highlighted the English version with a few others highlighted just for fun. If the recipient is so minded he can actually use the card as a puzzle as I’ve included all the words on the inside of the card.

To make up my card I’ve followed the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, which was a lovely simple one that worked well with my puzzle grid. I added a crayon brad for some interest; I had to go with green as that was the only colour highlighter I could find.

At Sparkles Monthly they are looking for male projects, my unfussy card is perfectly suited for typical male tastes and hopefully for the particular tastes of the Dutch male it is going to. CAS and no fuss is the current theme at Crafty Catz, there is very no fuss or frippery in my card, no designer paper or frills so I am entering my card in their challenge.

Ingredients:

Embellishments

Eyelet Outlet ~ Crayon Brad

Papers

Bazzill Criss Cross Cardstock ~ Butterfly

Bazzill Monochromatic Cardstock ~ White

Challenges

Crafty Catz #312 ~ CAS...no DP...no fuss

Freshly Made Sketches ~ Sketch #224

Sparkles Monthly #77 ~ Something for the Males

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, 13 February 2016

The dim purpureal tresses gloomed athwart…

Today’s card is winging its way across the globe to a crafty friend for her birthday and features the beautiful Mixed Media PinUp from Little Blue Button Stamps.

So I thought I’d try colouring with Distress Reinkers but couldn’t go easy on myself for my first attempt as I decided I wanted to colour on vellum. I am pretty happy with the result, happy enough to want to try this again. My vellum is my “V” element for the challenge at Just Add Ink. It’s a bit hard to see the vellum in the photo, which I matted on white cardstock, but boy do you see all my smudges, so hard to keep a white card white!

My colour scheme is courtesy of Fussy and Fancy and their current recipe challenge which features the colours black, white and red. The flower ingredient comes from the flower on my image and I’ve added lots of hearts with a Tim Holtz Layering Stencil.

To make up my card I’ve followed the very first sketch over at Paper Play Sketches. I’m going CAS this year so instead of layers of paper for the elements I used stencilling and then added a quote stamp on an angle. The stamp is embossed, it is a bit grungy as the cardstock is textured but I think that adds to the interest. I’ve used one of Tim’s sentiment stamps for it, a fitting one for my friend who has gone through some really big challenges in the last couple of years.

Looking at it now I think I should have turned the horizontal hearts to be the right way up but all in all I am happy with the card. It’s good to be exploring different ways to add interest to a card rather than just layering up on designer papers as I would ordinarily have done.

Ingredients:

Chalks & Powders etc

Lindy’s Stamp Gang Embossing Powder ~ Candy Cane Red Gold

PanPastel ~ Permanent Red

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies ~ S4-116 Standard Circles Small & S4-114 Standard Circles Large

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil ~ THS017 Hearts

Inks & Paints etc

Inkssentials Emboss It! ~ Clear

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Reinkers ~ Aged Mahogany, Barn Door, Black Soot, Candied Apple, Hickory Smoke, Tattered Rose, Vintage Photo & Wilted Violet

Papers

Bazzill Classics Cardstock ~ Licorice