Sunday 30 August 2015

Pandamonium

Today is my husband's birthday and I am sharing the card that I made him here. I used Mama Elephant's cute Pandamonium stamps and co-ordinating dies for the main image and sentiment. The background was done using Core'dinations card in a Cuttlebug bamboo embossing folder and I sanded the bamboo part to reveal a slightly lighter shade of green. This was then layered onto a panel of black card and then onto a white card blank.




Finally I added a length of knotted Japanese Mizuhiki cord and an old Chinese coin. Then I decided to make a second card for my stash, but this time using a portrait layout. This way I had more bamboo showing and I had my little panda sitting high up in it. I chose a different colour of the Mizuhiki cord and a larger Chinese coin for a slightly different look. 




I'm really pleased with how these turned out! The matching dies made it so easy to do and although the design is quite simple, I think it makes an ideal masculine card. I hope that my husband David likes it too! 

Thanks for looking,

Lynn

Friday 28 August 2015

Under The Sea

I recently treated myself to some lovely Clearly Besotted stamps, including the fun "Under The Sea" set, so I went about creating a couple of cards with a real underwater feel to them.




I started with a square of white card which I coloured by smooshing Tumbled Glass, Evergreen Bough and Scattered Straw Distress Inks onto an ink blending mat and spraying with a fine mist of water before dragging the card through the ink. I found that the card I was using tended to buckle when it was really wet with all the ink, so I decided to accentuate this by making several rough creased folds in the blue part of the card to represent waves. I distressed the edges of my panel and I then added some more Blue and Green Ink to my blending mat and dragged the folded parts and distressed edges through again until they were a shade darker. Finally I dried my panel thoroughly using my heat gun, before I stuck it to a 5" square white card blank.

The cute whale and starfish were stamped onto smooth white card using Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink and then coloured with Copic Ciao Markers. I used a Copic blending pen to add some lighter highlights and then fussy cut them and added them to the card with foam pads. A small amount of Glossy Accents was used over the eyes and for the whale's water spout. Both sentiments were stamped directly onto the card.

I wanted to add some beach embellishments to add texture and interest and I knew that I had just the thing! A couple of years ago I discovered a wonderful range of tiny pots of sea themed treasures made by a company called Mudd Puddles. I bought mine online from The Carolina Stamper at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, but I understand that the owner has since retired and closed the shop, so now I need to find another supplier for when I have used up my ten little jars of beacheyness (is that even a word?)! Anyway I added a layer of "Malibu Beach" (actual golden sand suspended in a sticky medium) to the bottom of my card panel with a palette knife. When this was dry I added some "Mini Shells", "Beach Mini Pieces", "Beach Glass" and "Sea Glass" (all miniature sized real beach ephemera suspended in an adhesive medium). I absolutely loved the effect so I'm sure that you'll be seeing me using more in future!




In fact I liked it so much that I made a second card (above) - almost identical, except that the Distress Inked background has slightly more of a sandy pattern to it.

Thanks for looking,

Lynn

Thursday 27 August 2015

You're Sew Special.

Hello again! I'm sorry about the sporadic blogging, but my daughter Jessica is at home for the summer and I have been enjoying some family time before she goes back to University in Kent. 

I have recently made a couple of cards though - this time using the lovely "Sew Special" stamps from Clearly Besotted. 

I started by making a patchwork panel for the background, using several different colours of Core'dinations card stock from the Whitewash collection which I die cut with Papertrey Ink's "Happy Hexagons" coverplate, then embossed with a variety of embossing folders, before sanding. If you're interested you can see how I did this by referring to my earlier post here: http://thehardystamper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/coordinations-hard-core-crop-challenges.html 




The sentiment was stamped onto a Stitched Fishtail Flag (cut with a Die-namics die) using Memento Teal Zeal dye ink. I also used the same ink and card to stamp the dress form and tape measure, which I then fussy cut and added with foam pads. The buttons, needle and cotton reel were cut from scraps of Core'dinations card using Spellbinders dies and a little bakers twine and a charm were all I needed to finish off. 

The photo below is a close - up showing the details and texture. I love that cute little Clearly Besotted tape measure stamp!




My second card was made the same way, but in different colours and with a slightly different sentiment.




Again the close - up below shows much more detail. These are really tactile cards in real life - I wish you could all stroke them!




The first card has already made it's way to it's new home with a friend in Surrey and I think that the second one is still en route to another friend in the USA. Thanks for looking.

Lynn