Autumn colours

Did you see this card that I made? Well when I was done I couldn't let that little rectangle of white go to waste! So I stamped a vase from PTI's Autumn Abundance on it, colored it with my Copics and stuck it on this PTI Summer Sunrise card base, which was stamped all over with Versamark acorns also from Autumn Abundance.

Given that autumn is in full swing for us here in Australia, this card certainly suited the oak leaves covering my driveway. A simple card suitable for last any occasion. It felt good to use up my scraps as well. I think next time I'd use different copic colours though, a less grey-ish green maybe.

Pink and red birthday

I got myself a wonderful new sewing machine a while ago, a significant upgrade from my poor old practically broken one and it came with a bunch of stitches that I was eager to try out. When I saw this string of hearts stitch I knew it would look great on Cardstock, so I pulled a piece of red I had lying around out and stitched this border.

The poor little piece of card then sat around for almost four months before I finally turned it into this postcard!

I didn't really know what to do with it once it was stitched, until I saw my pink (and only) roll of washi tape and decided to just play around. After sticking a strip of washi, and a scrap of ribbon, and then a little pennant on the card I called it done! Stamped a sentiment from PTI Fillable frames in charcoal VersaColor, then changed my about being done and added the button and tiny bit of ribbon.

Looking at these photos I wish I'd ironed that ribbon scrap! Red Cardstock was real red by SU!, white was PTI and the ribbon was raspberry fizz twill also from PTI. The cute little button is, of course, from PTI as well.

If I'd had a plan from the beginning this would have been a very quick card to make!

Experimenting with spray mists

I had some little empty spray bottles so I thought I'd try misting by making my own spray mists and here's the result!

First I stamped some PTI Year of Flowers Roses with Versamark and embossed using white embossing powder. I then got to spraying. The colours were three retired reinkers from Stampin' Up! (Pomegranate, Guava and Summer Sun), I put a few drops in each of my sprayers with some water and just happily squirted away until I got the look I wanted. I soaked up some of the colour with a paper towel to dry off the card a bit and then just let it dry out for a few hours.

Once it wasn't sopping wet anymore I stamped the sentiment (also from year of flowers) in memento tuxedo black, added a very thin strip of white and three little SU! Pearls.

The messy look of these sprays is about as Farouk of my comfort zone as I'm willing to go. I'm reasonably happy with the result though. What do you think?

Dreaming of a happy happy birthday

While I still had Daydreamer out I continued my spree of using it on every card! This one was inspired by a Nichole Heady card from a countdown post on her blog. I was planning a case basically from memory and thought it was an almost exact copy of the card, funny how my brain turned that circle label to a rectangle! Anyway, here's the card.

If I was making it again, I would change the colours of those flowers, I really just grabbed whatever inks I had out, and they don't go as well together as I would have liked.

The Fillable frames die cut and stamp are in PTI white and stamped with sea glass pigment ink (a very old color box cats eye pad) sentiment is also a Fillable frames stamped in VersaColor charcoal.

I don't even remember the inks used for the flowers, VersaColor raspberry was one of them I think! The daydreamer leaves are in a green pigment from a color box Q.

The background is daydreamed stamped in Versamark on some aqua mist Cardstock by PTI.

All in all I love this layout, but the colours don't do it for me. Any suggestions for what colours I should re-do it in?

Happy happy birthday

This card is by far my favourite one that I've created lately. Daydreamer by PTI is fast becoming a go-to set for me, I love those flowers!

I think the reason I like it so much is because of the colours and the balance with the two strips down the left hand side.

It came together very easily with the flowers from Daydreamer stamped in Stampin' Up! Riding Hood Red, Summer Sun and Old Olive. I inked up the PTI photopolymer with Versamark first, then straight into the Stampin' Up! ink. It doesn't effect the Stampin Up pads at all, but means the ink goes down more smoothly and you get better coverage. I don't remember where I read the suggestion, but this was the first time I tried it out and it worked really well.

I did a similar trick with this card as the other daydreamer ones by colouring in some shading using my Copics. The white panel was then mounted on top of a strip if red and black which all then went on to a white card base.

I stamped the sentiment in Memento Tuxedo Black from a Fillable frames set also by PTI.

Thanks for looking!

 

Thank you morning glories

Another PTI Year of Flowers card today, this one with Morning Glories.

Now, I've never seen a Morning Glory in really life, and I'm far too lazy to google them before I start colouring, so I really have no idea if these are close to accurate... But I think the colours look great so I'll leave it there :)

This card has a few more layers and things than I usually use, but I think it comes out fairly CAS still. my first step was to stamp the morning glory bunch in Memento Tuxedo Black then colored it I with Copics (V06,V09, Y15, Y19, Y38, YG93, YG95, YG97). I then mounted it on a yellow card base (PTI Summer something or other).

For the sentiment panel, I die cut a Fillable frame from PTI white and stamped the bottom half in Background Basics Text with VersaColor Canary. The sentiment was stamped in Memento as well, using partial inks to only stamp the Thank You part from the Year of Flowers stamp.

I then grabbed a strip of black Cardstock I had lying around and cut it to match the shape of the die (by hand) then attached to the card front. Three little pearls from Stampin Up finish off the sentiment panel.

I think the bold colour combination and the layers work well together, ending up with a good looking thank you card, even if it is a little out of my style!

Talk to you all (few, or no one? :D) soon.

Hip hip hooray!

I was playing around with a Letterpress plate from Stampin' Up a while back and just found a pink impressed sheet of water colour paper in my scrap pile so I decided to use it up. I think it was impressed with Stampin' Up craft ink in Rose, but I can't be sure! Either way, I paired it with some dark grey (PTI smokey shadow) for a little square card (measures 4 inches square).

I also cut a PTI Fillable frame die with my bigshot, out of water colour paper as well so the neutrals matched (halfway between white and vanilla) and stamped the sentiment (from a fillable frames set) in Charcoal ink (VersaColor). A PTI button threaded with Raspberry Fizz twill ribbon finishes this one off. I used a piece of vellum inside to write on.

I really liked this layout and these colours together, so I decided to use my scraps up to make a little 'thanks' postcard.

I used the off cut from the die cut, and the rest of the letterpress panel to finish it all off. The back just has a rectangle piece of vellum for writing on, adhered with a piece of pink washi tape. These could make cute invitations for a birthday party, with matching thank you notes for all the guests.

Thank you lilies

I still haven't got over colouring with my Copics, so I have some semi-unconventionally colored Lilies of the Valley to share today.

The flowers from PTI were stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored using YG93, YG95, YG97, B01, B000 and the colorless blender. I also stamped a sentiment from the same set on a scrap piece of card to create the flag and then mounted everything on an Aqua Mist piece of Cardstock (PTI).

Some Aqua Mist buttons (PTI)and ivory pearls (Stampin' Up!) finish it off nicely with just the right touch of bling.

Thanks for taking a look!

Congrats

I was inspired by this beautiful piece of design that I saw on pinterest to create this little card. The photo honestly doesn't do this one justice (I've got to get better at taking photos from my blog).

I used Daydreamer by PTI for the leaves and flowers, stamped in VersaColor Camelia and Canary (leaves in a Colorbox PigmentQ shade of green). I stamped the sentiment from 'Congrats All Ways' and then masked around it with post it notes and then stamed the leaves. I think I didn't quite get the shape right, and if I made this card again I'd put some kind of flower down the bottom as well.

I also went in a little with some Copics to add detail to the flowers and leaves, it adds some depth to the stamping that is really nice in real life.

Because I mounted the white panel on a red card base, I lined the card with some vellum to make writing in the card easier (I still haven't found a white pen that I like!) there's room on the white Cardstock strip up the top to stamp a companion sentiment from the congrats set. I'll do this when I figure out who I am giving this card to and for what event!

Despite the fact that I'd make a few adjustments next time, I'm looking forward to giving this card away.

 

Mini cards

Hello out there, I've got two cute little mini cards for you today. I had a hankering to do some Copic coloring the other day and so made these two littlies. They are half the size of a normal card (made by cutting a sheet of PTI white into four, then scoring down the middle).

The first one is PTI Year of Flowers (YoF) Sweet Peas stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics (B63, B66, B69). The sentiment is from a PTI Fillable Frames and stamped in VersaColor Charcoal. I partially inked the sentiment so that I could stack it instead of stamping it all on one line.

This second one is similar, stamped YoF Roses and colored with Copics RV25, RV29 & R29. Sentiment was similarly partially inked, comes from the YoF sets as well.

I can see making a set of four or five of these as a great gift. I found the colouring very relaxing while I was sitting watching some TV (geeking out with some Stargate!)

Let your dreams take flight

Some more gradient copic background for your Friday! I started this card in landscape orientation for a PTI make it Monday a while back, and it just looked terrible. I'd stamped the swirls in a visually easing way without thinking where the planes would have to be, and it just looked terrible. So, I switched it up, turned the card around to portrait orientation, added the white strip and then everything got better!

The copic gradient background really suits the sky theme of the paper planes ('Happy Trails' from PTI). I used a navy card base to tie the colours together, so I decorated the inside as well.

I usually do this when using a dark card base, makes writing in it a lot easier!

Black ink was Memento TuxedoBlack and Copics were B000, B91, B93, B95, B97.

 

Floating Thanks

Stopping in again this week for another CASE. I knew from the moment I saw this card from Maile Belles I had to try it.

I really like the layout of this one, I'm just not all that happy with my colour choices. I don't think the aqua mist cardstock (PTI) goes with the ink colour I chose (VersaColor Camelia), a cooler blue would have looked better.

I like how this card looked with the dragonfly from PTI 'Happy Trails' on Maile's blog, but I think I like the little bird's beak peeking out even more (also from Happy Trails). Sentiment was from last year's anniversary set, Botanical Blooms or something.

Next time I think I might stamp a pattern on the colored cardstock and do the overlay in vellum.

 

Another CASE

When I saw this beautiful card pop up in my reader I couldn't resist shamelessly CASEing it. This is my result:

I didn't change much at all when making my version, just moved the flag up and the clouds down a bit. I wish had the papers that Debby had, they were stunning. This paper (an old retired Stampin' Up from my stash) were my most cloud appropriate patterns, and I decided to keep the colour scheme in blue tones.

Sentiment stamp was from PTI ('Up, Up and Away') as was the white cardstock and the cloud dies. Ink was sky grey from VersaColor.

 

Grey skies congratulations

I'm going to start this post with a disclaimer- I ended up really not liking this card! My aim was to replicate this card by LateBlossom, which was simply beautiful. My version fell flat though!

I first cut a window in some PTI white (my skills with the craft knife need some help!) and then stamped and copic colored behind the window with a vase from'Autumn Aubundance' also by PTI.

I stamped the sentiment from 'Congrats All Ways' in Going Grey ink by Stampin Up and added some bling from my stash. My intention was to mount it on a white base, popped up but I felt like it needed some more grey to help the balance so I mounted it on some PTI Smokey Shadow instead. I think the main thing that bother me here is that the colours all kind of don't match.

The greys a all different degres of wariness. I might try this again with some different colours, maybe shades of blue, or green?

Copic colours used were: RV25, RV29, R29, Y19, G82, C3, C5.

Quick and Simple

I've made a resolution to blog more often, so I should be sharing more cards than usual in the coming weeks.

To start off my new run of posting, I have a very clean and simple card to share.

Just some florals stamped with a sentiment over in charcoal. The stems are green in real life, but the afternoon light is playing havoc and my limited photography skills aren't up to it!

All the stamps are again from PTI and the inks are VersaColor in Split Pea, Cinnamon and Charcoal. I love the coverage that you get on photopolymer stamps with the versacolor ink. I think I 'need' more colours!

It'd be super fast and easy to produce a bunch of this style for a gift set, and who doesn't always need more birthday cards? If you're reading this, let me know what you think!

More Make it Monday #58

Yep, so I am addicted to Copics so I made another gradient card!

This one is far more sunset and silhouettes. Here it is:

The copics I used on the background were: Y32, Y35, YR04, YR07, RV29, R29.

I then stamped some Botanical Silhouettes (PTI) in Versamark then embossed in some Zing black glitter. The sentiment is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black from Big Birthday Basics (PTI as well). Finished it off with some Copic coloured jewels and voila, done!

Make It Monday #58

On a roll with blog updates, here's something I made when I got home from work for PTI's Make It Monday.

The theme of the challenge this week is gradient backgrounds with either copics or ink refills. I chose copics (I might be an addict) and came up with this.

I wanted a kind of rough rainbow look, but I think what I actually got was a sunsetty look with some blue and green snuck in.  I really like it anyway.  I then heat embossed the sentiment on some vellum and layered it over the copic coloured cardstock. A very simple card but packs a big impact. Also very easy to mail!

And the copics I used are:

Other supplies:
White card stock, vellum, white embossing powder, Versamark and Big Birthday Wishes (PTI)

Finally another card!

This card is a celebration for three reasons, one because I've finally updated my blog again, two because it's a lovely colleague's birthday on the weekend and three because an amazingly generous person (Jen from the PTI forums) sent me a 2010 PTI anniversary set! I am still waiting on mine from PTI so I was very excited to pick this up from the post office today!

Now for the card:

I wanted to create a pannelled look, with some bright colours. I used Stampin' Up! Craft inks in olive, daffodil and melon and Memento Tuxedo Black. Stamps are PTI (Happy Trails and Botanical Silhouettes).  Excuse the iPhone photo, I don't have a better camera at the moment!