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Monday 22 October 2012

Anniversary Card - Distress Inks

Hello!  I am sorry to say that the Distress Inks that I own have hitherto sat in the ink drawer, sadly underutilised.  When it came time to make a card for our recent 9th anniversary, I was rifling through my drawers of stash.  I came across some raw stamped images which I thought would be useful. 

Paul loves nature and outdoor pursuits.  I found these collage botanical and cow parsley images and decided to use them. 

 
I very simply coloured the cow parsley with Promarkers in quite a crude style.  I coloured the nature collage image by masking off each rectangle and then inking with various colours of Distress Inks - Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive and Vintage Photo. 
 
I cut the ticket using the Sizzlets Framelits Tickets set and then also coloured with Distress Inks.  I used the Melissa Francis Sentiments set of stamps, stamped with Crushed Olive and then outlined with Promarker to soften the effect, which I like and think was very effective. 
 
I adhered the cow parsley image onto the card with silicone glue to add some dimension.  I was a bit pressed for time, and could have gone on to add something with even more dimension, but the card decided it was finished as it is! 
 
Really time to get cracking with Christmas cards, I suppose! 
 
 


Tuesday 16 October 2012

Scrapology October Card Challenge

This month our sponsor is the lovely Shabana from Mei Flowers, please see here for her website which is chock full of delights.

 

 
The challenge is to create a card using the grid below, any 3 items in a line either across, down or diagonally. Of course you can add other elements too.
 
 
Thanks to Chrissy at Merly Impressions for the use of the bingo grid.  Here is my card:- I used layers, buttons and stitching on a male card. 
 
 
 
The rub-on is a really old one from Rhonna Farrer which I rescued, as otherwise I would have had to throw it away - which is just not me!  I will do all I can to use something wherever possible, and just disguise or live with any imperfections that may occur.  Part of the transfer had stuck to the glossy card, so I just rubbed the rest onto this surface, and then I coloured the background with Scattered Straw distress ink to blend better with the other colours in my card. 
 
I then just used various leaves - either diecut, or from patterned paper - to decorate the card.  Quite straight forward, really.  I hope you will join in with our challenge! 

Monday 1 October 2012

October Scrapology Challenge - R is for Rainbow

Our Scraplift challenge this month at Scrapology was by Steph Devlin, with this really beautiful layout below:


 
 
I really scratched my head for the longest time, but it does feel good to push through the obstacles and finally get something finished that was a pretty big struggle. 

I started a layout having chosen a photo and some patterned paper and it really didn't work.  So back to the drawing board! 

The theme for this month is "R for Rainbow" so whilst I usually scraplift the layout and design, this month I used the theme instead of the layout and this is what I finally produced.



The title may be a bit weird, but that is the point - that love is the colour of the rainbow, ie all colours.  I used lots of scraps but also got out my heart stamps and punches - in fact, anything heart related! I glittered the hearts in the title and then glossy accented them so that the glitter would stay contained and neat and not shed over the layout or stick to the page protector. 

The photo was by the Bounty photographer and was taken of my boys at 3 days old.  We were given a page of passport sized photos and I used them to create birth announcements and thank you cards to send to people who sent gifts when they were born. 

Supplies:
Lots of scraps of patterned paper
"Love" Grosgrain ribbon (Courtesy of my friend Janet)
Tim Holtz "Typeset" Sizzix decorative strips alphabet
Stamps: "Fresh Mod" Fancy Pants, I Heart You Banana Frog, and various others

I also used lots of dimensional aspects like two heart brads, an orange button and the lovely folksie ribbon.  Some of the stamping details have been raised using Pinflair dimensional glue and the photos were raised onto foam pads.  This layout is quite weighty and does weigh considerably, despite its fairly flat appearance. 

I hope you have a go with the challenge - it is so interesting to see how everyone interprets the theme!  Once again, Jill from Cardinal Colours has been very generous, and awarded a rainbow coloured prize - you have to be in it to win it!