Origami Butterflies

It has been a little bit since my last post but it was because I was in Florida for work since last Sunday. I was quite a shock coming home last night to -25 C!!! That was quite literally a 50 C drop from the temperatures I had been enjoying all week. I do love winter but I think that I am ready for Spring to show up - maybe that's why I have been making so many cards with butterflies lately :)

Today's card was inspired by the challenge over at Inkspirational:


And here's my card:

I was most inspired by the trees in the background but I didn't have any tree stencils that worked with what I had in mind so I pulled out my new Memory Box Scraped Paint stencil. On a piece of SSS Fog cardstock I masked a strip for the sentiment, and then I sponged some SSS Cobblestone ink through it. I then pulled up the stencil, shifted it over slightly and taped it down again. This time I applied some Ranger Texture Paste that I had coloured with SSS Fog ink. I was hoping to create a shadow effect - but I think it came out more as a blurred lines effect... Here is a close up of that effect:

I also liked the Japanese feel of the inspiration photo so I immediately thought of origami... and the tranquil feel of the photo - butterflies - so origami butterflies is where I went. For the butterflies, I stamped the Altenew Ori Kami butterflies on several pieces of patterned paper and then fussy cut, and paper pieced them. I coated them in Wink of Stella and added some gems to finish them off. The sentiment is also from the Ori Kami set.

I will link this card to the following challenges:

• Inspirational (squeaking in at the last minute!)
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes this week

Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

Jill

Butterfly Thanks

I definitely had a love-hate relationship with this card as it finally came together after no less than three attempts. On the first one, the watercolour leaked outside the lines, and then on the second one, I smudged the black ink dots all over. Even this one has a smudge on it but I think that I'll let it go...

The giant butterfly is from Tattered Angels - I have had it around for a long time but this is the first time it has seen any action. I stamped it in black Versamark, and then watercoloured it using Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon Distress re-inkers. I did use some masking fluid around the butterfly before colouring (key learning card#1), and once it was dry, I covered it (generously!) with some Wink of Stella. I used some Black Soot ink to create the splatters with a small brush. The Hero Arts greeting was stamped on vellum and stitched onto the card using some gold embroidery thread.

Here is a view of the back of the card:

I will link this card up to a few places:

• AAA Challenge where this week's theme is Orange U Glad UR CAS

• Less is More where the theme is "Wings"
• CAS-Ology where the cue card is Monochrome

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

Birthdays

So I did get some creative time in yesterday - partly for fun but also partly out of necessity too as there are a few birthdays coming up.

The first card that I made was a shaker card. This is the first one that I've made outside of a class and I was surprised at how easy it was. I have to admit that this card was heavily inspired (i.e. CASEd)  by one that I saw here on Jennifer McGuire's blog a while back - I loved the white-on-white number background that she did. Here is the card:

The card is for one of my new co-workers who turns 40 this week, and I wanted to make a card that was both fun and classy (just like her) so I went with a white, pink and gold colour scheme. I won't go into a lot of detail on how I made the shaker but I will say that I used white fun foam which made the whole process super easy (I think that this may be my new favourite craft supply. The pink card base was stamped using the HA Bursts in SS Doll Pink ink, and the numbers were die cut using Lawn Fawn dies. I struggled a lot with the greeting - I knew that I wanted to use the Kelly Purkey "never looked better" but I had originally planned to stamp it on a banner - I just could not find a colour combination that I liked. I finally ended up gold heat embossing it on vellum that I wrapped around the panel along with some gold thread.

I will link this card back to Virginia's View which inspired me to make a shaker card (thank you!).

The second card that I made is for my sister-in-law - her birthday is coming up at the end of the month. She is an amazing fun person who shares my love of shoes and margaritas - so I decided to make a margarita themed card.

I was really inspired by the current challenge at TIME OUT that is a CASE of Kylie's beautiful card:



And here is my margarita card:

My interpretation is fairly loose - instead of dry embossing the card panel, I used some embossing paste through the SS tiny dots stencil and covered it with Rock Candy Distress Glitter (it's supposed to represent the "salt"). I added the stamped and die cut limes directly to the card panel and didn't use a tag. In place of the bow, I tied a piece of Hemptique twine around the top of the panel. I mounted the whole panel on fun foam before adhering it to the card base so that it will keep it's shape as it travels all the way to Denmark (told you I loved fun foam!).

All the stamps and dies are from Reverse Confetti - I bought this really fun set in the fall and it has been sitting in my "IN BOX" for a while now. So happy that I finally broke it out..

I will link this card to the current TIME OUT Challenge.
I will also link this to Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is Anything Goes.


Thanks for stopping by!
Jill 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I think that today's card is very V-Day appropriate!

This card features a technique/design that I have wanted to try for a while using watercolours and die cuts - with the die cut "floating" over the watercolours. Here it is:

I started out by die cutting the Memory Box hearts from a piece of scrap paper to use as a guide for the watercolouring. I started with a piece of Tim Holtz watercolour paper (smooth side) and laid the guide over it. I took some clean water and roughly painted the area inside and around the big heart. After waiting a few minutes, I took my brush and dipped it lightly into some Picked Raspberry re-inker ink and I dabbed it around the water painted heart. Because I wanted the colours not to blend too much, I waited for the pink heart to dry completely before repeating the process with the purple (Seedless Preserves) and blue (Salty Ocean) heart.

I die cut the hearts three times from white cardstock and adhered them together. I did this because I wanted the die cut to "float" so it needed so stiffness. When the panel was dry, I used some clear foam tape to adhere the die cut to the panel, and I stamped a Penny Black greeting. I adhered the panel to a black card. I absolutely love the way the card came out and cant wait to do this technique again! Here is a photo from the side where I tried to capture the "floating":

I will link this card to a few challenges:

The AAA challenge - this is really where I got the inspiration for the design.

CAS-Ology where the cue card is LOVE

House of Cards where the theme this month is LOVE

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

Finally Some Time To Craft!

It has been almost two weeks since my last post – I can’t believe how incredibly busy these last few weeks have been!

My favourite types of challenges are those that have inspiration photos – I’m not sure why but I seem to get more ideas from pictures than words. When I saw the photo at the AAA Challenge Blog this week, I was immediately insipid by the colours flowing around the heart – it made me think of watercolours.

 Here is what I came up with:

I started out with a stencil (the same Crafter’s Workshop stencil as I used in my last post) and a black Copic multiliner. I traced some of the stencil hearts onto the rough side of some watercolour paper, and then I applied some masking fluid to the inside of the hearts. I then coated the paper in water and let it sit for a few minutes before dabbing the wet paper with a brush that had been lightly dipped in some Distress re-inkers (Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Salty Ocean – I love this combination!). I got a little bit more crazy with the colour on the first card, and kept the second card a little bit more subdued. The hardest part of the whole process was waiting for the ink to dry so that I could remove the masking fluid!

I wanted to finish the cards very simply so I die cut the “Thanks” twice – once from white and once from black. I painted the black one with some Wink of Stella and then layered the two on the card front. I added a small strip of black cardstock with “with heartfelt” white heat embossed (Clearly Besotted stamp).

I will link this card to the current AAA Challenge and I will also throw my name in the hat for a spot on their design team.

I will also link to Addicted to CAS where the code word is "Mask" since I used masking fluid.

So I set aside some time this weekend to spend in my craft room so I suspect that the posts will be coming fast and furious!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill