Tag Archives: card making

A crafty Easter

Most weekends I spend time doing some art and craft. This weekend is no different; except of course it is. Easter is lockdown is a whole different animal – no going away for the weekend, no church gatherings (not that I would anyway), no dinner with friends. I was so tired by the end of the week I was hanging on by a thread, so four days away from my dining-room-table-home-office is a very good thing.

What have I done so far? Made cards. Made more cards. Coloured in stamped images. Worked in my art journals. What else will I do? paper, scissors, glue…

Gerbera cards

These card fronts were made with the Simon Says Stamp (SSS) gerbera daisy background and the SSS daisy bouquet. I used white, copper and black embossing powder and a combination of Zig Clean markers, Ecoline pens and Distress Oxides with an aquawash brush. I’ll mount them onto cards and add embossed greetings. Card making is one of my relaxations, which I have needed this week.

 

Abandoning my art room

Dad had a caravan shed attached to the garage and, years ago, we converted it to an office for the paper and my art room. It was freezing cold in winter and boiling hot in summer. Hopeless! I’ve never used it as much as I should and much of my craft stuff had moved to my inside office, but not my art supplies. I am almost ready to start to painting again so, last week, Tony and I moved everything inside. I’ve also given unused supplies away to someone semi-local who does great stuff.

Already I feel more inspired, and have started a page in an old ledger book that I haven’t touched for a year or two. It feels so good to have everything in one place and know that I only have the supplies I love. Here’s to a creative 2018!

And, yes, I did some more cardmaking – I had to make some for a friend and I needed some more cards for me.

card acard b

More card making

I’m still not painting, but I am crafting more, so the signs are good… Today I have made four more cards using my new Dyan Reaveley stamps, Copics, Glossy Accents, patterned papers from the latest Simon Says Stamp card kit, some older Bazzill cardstock and the Simon Says Stamp Uplifting Thoughts stamp set.

New Dylusions stamps

I recently received the latest Simon Says Stamp card making kit, a couple of dies, and some cute Dylusions stamps by Dyan Reaveley for Ranger (it’s the Puppy Dog Tales set). These are smaller than  her previous dog and cat stamps, so great for card making. I haven’t stamped sentiments on them, I’ll do that once I know what I want to use them for.

I made the backgrounds with Tim Holtz Distress Oxides, using the greens and blues such as Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers, then spritzing with water. The stamps are stamped with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink and coloured with Copic markers, then the noses and eyes highlighted with Glossy Accents.

It’s looking a lot like…

Christmas? Yes, I’m making Christmas cards in July. Why? Because I can. Also,  I don’t have the energy for mass crafting yet so but doing a card or two at a time is manageable.

I bought three new rubber stamps recently, designed by Jo Firth-Young. These are only ATC size so the cards will need more than just this image (I think…) I love their hand drawn quality. I tried a couple using Copics but prefer colouring them with pencils.

I’m thinking of torn embossed borders, layers of patterned paper, ribbon, or mounted on plain kraft cardstock maybe? Who knows how these will turn out…

I actually paper crafted!

I have been doing a weekly art journal page, and some knitting, since my last hospital trip but haven’t really had the energy for paper crafts. I miss it and know doing art is good for me – but the thought of packing and unpacking and just *doing* has been too much. Until today…

I only managed three cards, but that feels like quite an achievement. I used my Stampotique stamps on Stampin’ Up cardstock, and for one I used a Distress Oxide background. The hare was originally on a plain background but I stuck some text on, didn’t like it, removed the text and tore the card base. I was going to throw it out, then thought better of it and just kept going – I think it turned out ok. Are they fairly basic? Yes, but a good feeling all the same.

Practising with my Copics

I’ve got enough Copics now that I can start to blend the colours more. It looks so easy when you watch experts like Kelly Latevola on YouTube; then you try it yourself and realise just how much practise they’ve had! Still, all good fun and the cards won’t go astray.

The backgrounds are all blended Distress Ink with water drips, and I masked some of the stamping using Post-It notes so a couple of images sit in behind.