Serendipity Resist Technique

My friend Chris has created some beautiful cards using this technique - you can see them as well as all her other gorgeous creations on her blog at http://rubbaluvva.blogspot.com/ Anyway, she inspired me to have a go and this is the result. I stamped and clear embossed the flourish stamp and then sponged over distress inks (victorian velvet, pumice stone and crushed olive), finally stamping with the same inks.

Backgrounds, backgrounds...

Here are a couple of cards I made over the weekend as a result of trying out background techniques. The first one uses a clingfilm background - I used the craft mat technique on the card using barn door, chipped sapphire and dusty concord distress inks, and then while it was still very wet I pressed crumpled up clingfilm over the surface and left it in place until it was dry. For the card I stamped the flourish (by PaperArtsy) in black around the edges. The Mona Lisa stamp is by Tim Holtz.

The new edition of Craft Stamper arrived on Friday and this latest edition contains some fabulous techniques! One I particularly liked was called 'Blended Paper' - you stick strips of torn printed or stamped papers onto a piece of card, then paint a thin layer of gesso over. Here I have used mainly stamped paper plus a bit of an old book page. I sponged vintage photo ink over the background when it was dry. The article also demonstrated how to create a shadow behind images and I have had a go at this as well, although I think my shadow is bit too dark... more practice needed! The stamp of the two women is by Rivercity Rubberworks.

Stampotique Designers Challenge 23

Here is my entry for the current Stampotique challenge in which we have to use only Stampotique stamps and to use orange and turquoise.

New stash... new cards!

I went to the Sincerely Yours Papercraft Fair at Hinckley a week or so ago with some of my cardmaking friends. Although it was a fairly small show, I was impressed with what they had and I spent quite a lot of money!! I could have spent loads more than I did on one stall alone - it had all my favourite things by Tim Holtz and PaperArtsy to name but two. Anyway, I bought some nesties, several of the new Distress Inks which I still hadn't got, and some stamps of course. I've been busy trying out these new goodies and here are some cards I've made.

On the first two cards I have used the PaperArtsy Hot Picks HP1005 stamps that I could just not resist buying! I've used 2 of my new Distress Inks, Stormy sky and Wild Honey, to create the background (using the craft mat technique). On the second one, the backgound paper is part of Papermania's Bird Song collection. I made the flower using a brown paper bag!

The third one is using my new set of nesties, and as I was using the music stamps by Darkroom Door (to make one of the bookmarks below), I decided to carry on and make a card for a friend's birthday. She loves music and sings in a choir, so the theme is very appropriate for her! I have also used a Martha Stewart border punch that I bought at the show.

Upcycled bookmarks

'Upcycling' seems to be the buzz word at the moment! My local library has a group that meets regularly for a coffee morning and an activity of some sort and I have done craft projects with them several times. They have asked me to come back to do something in a few weeks' time so I have decided to do making bookmarks using recycled materials. I have been making a few examples to take along and here are three that I've made using stamping. I've used old greetings cards for the base card on two of them and some corrugated card from an old box for the third. On two of them I've used paint swatches to stamp onto.