More Crazy birds

I made four more (had to use all six images) bird crazy cards in the same style as those from my previous blog post. 

 

I just love the little "sentiments" that come with the Crazy Talk stamp set. A great font and wonderfully quirky expressions that fit the style of these birds so well.

Again I used Copic markers to colour the birds and left the card front vey simple by only adding an embossed border.

 

For the last card in this set I used one of the larger font sentiments and added the little hearts form the matching Crazy Things set.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Recollections white, 110 lbs
Stamps: Bird Crazy, Crazy Words, Crazy Things - Tim Holtz, Many Happy Returns, Timeless textures - SU
Embossing Folder: Distressed Frame - Tim Holtz
Ink: Tuxedo black - Memento, Pistachio Pudding, Tiptop Taupe, Basic Gray- SU
Alcohol markers: RY10, RY 21, RY 34, V15, V09, YR02, YR24, Y21, Y35, R11, R22, YR04, 0, 100, W1, W2, R17, R29, R89,  BG32, BG34 - Copic

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Crazy for Bird Crazy stamps

After showing my last few Bird Crazy cards to a friend she fell in love with these quirky little characters and asked I make her a few general cards (no specific occasions). This request came several weeks ago and having fallen behind in my schedule I realized I better get to it asap or she might be waiting forever.

Here are the first two cards I made.

I kept them fairly simple, bird + greeting, no layers with a simple embossed border. The ground stamp is one of the distressed images from SU's new set "timeless Textures".
They turned out great!

I opted for my Copic markers for these and not watercolours like my previous cards using these stamps.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Recollections white, 110 lb
Stamps: Bird Crazy, Crazy Talk - Tim Holtz, Timeless Textures - SU
Embossing Folder: Distressed Frame - Tim Holtz
Ink: Tuxedo black - Memento, Pistachio Pudding, Sahara Sand - SU
Alcohol markers: B32, B34,V09, YR02, YR24, Y21, Y35, R11, R22, YR04, 0, W1, W2 - Copic

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Wilderness Birthday

I made this card for my Dad's birthday. He now lives overseas and doesn't get much of a chance to go hunting anymore but he always enjoyed it when he lived here. He never did shoot anything, he left that up to his buddies.
I thought he'd enjoy this scene created with the Wilderness Awaits set and the woodlands embossing folder.

It's funny how I always think I have a sufficient amount of Copic markers for the time being and then proceed to colour something new only to realize I was wrong. This happened again while working on this card. Believe it or not the only actual brown shades I currently own are the skin tone Blendabailities from SU. They are a little on the dark side and did not make the colouring very easy. Nonetheless it turned out ok.

The card was created with the same technique of stamping the inside of the embossing folder, embossing the cardstock and then colouring the images. Instructions can be found here

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill and Recollections
Stamps: The Wilderness Awaits, In the Meadow, Morning Meadow, all SU
Embossing folder: Woodlands - SU
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Early Easpresso - SU, Tuxedo Black - Memento
Markers: Early Espresso, Old Olive - SU
Alcohol markers: C1, C3, W1, E11, 0 - Copic, Skin Tone Blendabilities - SU
Misc.: 3 x 1/8" antique brads, brown butcher's twine
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Woodland view to the Meadow take 2

You may have noticed that I was not completely happy with my card from yesterday's post. I just couldn't get the mountain scape to look correct. So I gave the meadow scene another go, skipping the mountains in the background.

 

This time I chose a few smaller trees to fill in the background. I like this version much better.

I also managed to get the deer heads lined up a little better between the trees.

 

 

For those of you that haven't seen the technique used to have your stamped image only show in between the embossed trees, you can find instructions here.

 

It isn't as hard as it may sound, but does require a little bit of practise and coloring skills.

I started by sponging the dark brown ground at the bottom of my folder, then added the rich green. I then stamped the deer outline stamp followed by the trees. Note I coloured the tree stamp using my SU markers.

 

Next I slipped my precut card front into the embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug. Then I coloured the deer and added a bit of shadow to one side of the embossed trees with Copics. I sponged a little light blue into the sky areas and finished the scene by adding the dark lines on my embossed tree bark using an SU marker.

 

To create the banners I cut my cardstock into strips the same width as the little banner punch and only inserted one end into the punch to create the tail.

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Recollections

Stamps: In the Meadow - SU, Many Happy Returns - SU

Embossing folder: Woodlands - SU

Punch: Little banner - SU

Ink: Early Espresso, Mossy Meadow, Soft Sky - SU, Tuxedo Black - Memento

Markers: Basic Black, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip - SU

Alcohol markers: W1, E11, E13, E31, 0 - Copic

Misc.: sponge dauber, foam mounting tape (sentiment)

 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon. 

Woodland View to the Meadow

I love the Woodland embossing folder. It was one of the first things I had ordered from the Holiday catty. Unfortunately I did not own much of anything when it comes to wild life and nature stamps.
This is something I rectified with my Sale-a-bration order which included "In the Meadow", "The Wilderness Awaits" and "Wetlands; to name a few.

Of course this means that the first thing I had to try was to combine one of these stamps with the folder. Easy task as I also happen to be in need of a few masculine birthday cards for this month.

For my first card I opted to use the sweet mother and fawn stamp. I also used the mountain scape in the background.

 

In hindsight using the mountains may have been a mistake as I have very limited green Copics at the moment. I tried sponging a grassy green for the 'hills" which looks ok but could be better. I had contemplated creating a lake between the plateau the deer are on and the mountains but found it a bit too difficult (am not that experienced with colouring yet). 

 

Overall it turned out ok though. I finished it with a sentiment and banner cut from coordinating cardstock.

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Recollections white, Colours misc. Bazzill

Stamps: In  the Meadow - SU, Because you care - SU

Ink: Early Espresso, Chocolate Chip, Mossy Meadow, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky - all SU, Tuxedo Black - Memento

Markers: Early Espresso - SU (for the tree bark)

Alcohol markers: C1, C3,  YG03, YG25, W1, E11, E13 E 31, 0 - all Copic

Embossing folder; Woodlands - SU

Dies: Circles Framelits - SU

Punches: 1" square (to make banner tail), 2" circle for sentiment

Misc.: sponge dauber,

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon. 

Crochet Adventure

Unfortunately I have not had a chance to get into my craft room in the last few weeks. So much so that I haven't even been able to go through my SU Sale-a-bration order that arrived several weeks ago. I did managed to open the box and inspect the contents but haven't been able to inventory the goodies in my Evernote notebook yet.

It's hard to believe I've had to pass up time with this batch of delightful toys.

I plan to get to this in the next couple of days as I have many ideas for cards using several of these new stamp sets (you can't see it but the balloon stamps and matching punch are hiding near the bottom of the box as well as several more stamp set).

Although I haven't been able to make any cards, I've still been crafty.
My cousin had twin baby girls last month, and I had the brilliant last minute idea to crochet baby blankets for the wonderful new arrivals.

They turned out quite lovely and I'm very happy I managed to finish them within two weeks. You may not believe it but as I haven't crochet in many years I actually developed blisters on my right hand after a few nights. But I persisted and completed them rather quickly.

Now these sweet twins have an older, 2 year old brother. I didn't want the little tyke to feel overlooked so of course I had to make something for him as well. My daughter recently bought a book with baby and toddler hat patterns. So after looking through it I decided on this cute raccoon hat.

After I finished the hat I had quite a bit of yarn left over and proceeded to make a matching scarf.

So these two pieces took another week. I finally decided enough is enough; after all my poor, sore arms needed a rest from the "unusual" activity (it's still rather surprising to me which muscles are sued for crocheting and apparently not all too much in other daily activities).
This past weekend I quickly stamped a few "handmade" tags, packed everything up in a box, threw in a couple of greeting cards and now have finally got my gifts ready to mail.

If all goes well, I shall have plenty of opportunity to play with my new stamps and share some card creations very soon.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon.