Christmas in July - Birthday Celebration Challenge #3

Continuing with the Birthday Celebrations at Flourishes, here is Challenge #3 - make a Christmas creation. I have been having fun lately working with re-inkers and watercolour paper, so that's how I started this challenge off.

 

 

I stamped the largest image from the Poinsettia and Pine stamp set onto three pieces of watercolour paper with Versamark ink. I heat embossed all three with gold embossing powder. 

Next I spritzed one of the images with water and watercoloured the flower petals of the image using a paint brush and three shades of pink/rose re-inker. This is similar to what I did for a previous card, however on this card the placement of re-inker was much more controlled and contained within the embossing. (I think this is similar to what some people call the floating re-inker technique, however that is done with glossy CS and a water brush). I repeated the above with the second embossed image and on the third embossed image I coloured everything but the flower petals (I had to colour the pine boughs using a water based dye marker since the water colour technique would not work on these sections because the spaces between the embossing were too small) - this became my base for layering the flower petals. 

The hardest part about this technique is waiting for the paper to dry. After everything was dry I fussy cut the image from the third piece, this became the base of my flower. I then cut around the Poinsettia only from one of the other two images and from the last piece I cut only a few of the flower petals to add dimension to my flower. Then I layered everything using glue and 3D foam.

I created my own gold pearls by pressing a sheet of little pearls into my versamark pad and embossing them with gold EP. I did some larger pearls as well, but this gets more difficult the larger the pearls. I did the same thing with the edges of my Romantic Rectangles diecut.

Supplies: Standard A2 size
Stamps - Poinsettia & Pine (Flourishes)
Ink - VersaMark, Gold EP, Re-inkers - Garden Green, Topiary, Gypsy, Juniper, Twilight, Blush, Cotton Candy, Tulip; Hollyhock marker, Ponderosa Pine marker (CTMH)

Paper - DP- Christmas Cottage (Teresa Collins), Classic Ivory CS (Flourishes), watercolour paper

Accessories - pearls (CTMH)

Other - Romantic Rectangles Die (Spellbinders), spray bottle, paint brush, 3D foam

10 Minute Birthday Celebration Challenge

I made this card for the second Birthday Celebration Challenge at Flourishes this week. The challenge is to create a card in 10 minutes or less. Now the only way that I could even get close to that time frame was by thinking it through completely before I even started. My new Hexagon coverplate from PTI helped of course and keeping my colouring to a minimum did as well. I find having a sketch helps give me some direction, so I am also playing along with CAS(E) this Sketch #37.

I stamped this great image from 'Picking Wildflowers' by Flourishes on my white card front and stamped it in the same location on a separate 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of white cardstock. I ran this second piece and the hexagon coverplate through my cuttlebug and pulled out the hexagon pieces that I wanted to highlight on my card. Initially I was only going to use five of the hexagons as shown in the sketch, but when I realized that the center hexagon would have no colour on it I added the two partial hexagons that are on the left (this is what slowed me down). I coloured in the spaces around the floral image with my BG10 Copic, ran my Black copic along the edges and popped them up over the base image. A sentiment, a pearl (coloured with BG23), a 1" DP strip with black CS backing across the top, crop the corners and your done.

Supplies: Standard A2 size
Stamps - Picking Wildflowers (Flourishes), Stylish Sentiments: Birthday (PTI)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics - BG10, BG23, Black 100
Paper - DP - Gathering (Authentique),Neena Classic Crest Solar White CS, Black CS
Accessories - pearl (CTMH)
Other - Coverplate: Hexagon Die (PTI), corner rounder, 3D foam

Black & White Congrats

Flourishes is celebrating it's 6th Birthday with two weeks of challenges and prizes. Yesterday's challenge was to create a card using black and white. I had originally wanted to make a birthday card but once all was said and done this card said wedding or anniversary card to me. I stamped my newly won stamp set 'Picking Wildflowers' onto Neena white cardstock colouring in the spaces with my Copic C1 and shading and colouring here and there with C1, C3, C5 and C7. This was a fast and simple card to make and I love the end result.

Supplies - Standard A2 size
Stamps - Picking Wildflowers, Tag Lines (Flourishes)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics - C1, C3, C5, C7
Paper - Neena Classic Crest Solar White CS
Accessories - black ribbon (Offray), Rhinestone brad (CTMH)
Other - Classic Hourglass die (Flourishes), Stripes EF (SU), 3D foam

S'more Fun Birthday

Here is a card I made for Flourishes Sketch challenge for their July release. I decided to rotate the sketch and used the smallest die from Flourishes Classic Hourglass Dies set to create my window(s). I stamped the lantern from the great stamp set that I won last month called S'more Fun after I cut the windows. I stamped the lantern image again, coloured the lantern only with my Copics (I coloured the pearls to match with the same Copics) , cut it out and popped it onto the top of the first stamped image. I like the word windows and think that I will use them again for a couple of other cards that I need.

Supplies: Standard A2 size
Stamps - S'More Fun, Tag Lines, Motherly Love (Flourishes), Card Word Puzzle (CTMH)
Paper - Now & Then DP (Teresa Collins), Sahara Sand CS (SU)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics E08, E18, W00, W3, W5
Accessories - Black & White twine (May Arts), pearls (CTMH), Black button
Other - Classic Hourglass Die (Flourishes), A2 Matting Basics A & B (Spellbinders), 3D foam

On a Clear Day

The Timeless Tuesday Challenge at Flourishes this week is to use Acetate on your card. At first I was going to die cut a piece of acetate and use it as an embellishment but then I came across some clear acetate card bases that I forgot I had and decided to use one of them instead. I needed some more masculine birthday cards so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to use one of the fabulous new stamp sets that I won from Flourishes last month. I stamped the image onto the front of the clear card using Black Staz-On and then simply added the cardstock pieces and embellishments. When using clear card bases remember to use cardstock on the inside and outside of the front and back of the card so that you won't see your adhesive.

Supplies: Standard A2 size
Stamps - In Nature, Tag Lines (Flourishes)
Ink - Staz-On Jet Black, Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Paper - Clear Card Base, Kraft CS (CTMH), DP - Now & Then (Teresa Collins), Classic Ivory CS (Flourishes), Black CS
Accessories - Black Hemp (CTMH), Black button