Real Pretty Wings

Good morning, Jenny here :)

I just had to ink up the Pretty Wings stamp set by Waffleflower as soon as it arrived. It's one of many fantastic sets in the new release and appeals to me because those butterflies and moths can be made to look quite whimsy or a little more life like as I've shown below...

The layers line up perfectly and are quite easy to stamp with or without a stamp platform ;) My top tip is to stamp the veins/patterns of the creatures first as it's much easier to line the solid images up over the top.

I decided to use pigment ink on soft coloured card and then add details and a faux shadow with Polychrome pencil afterwards. I was aiming for them to look like real specimens on display.

There are two very useful sentiments in the stamp set but I needed something larger for this design so this phrase is from a Hero Arts set. I added a couple of strips of brown card to frame the trio and used the MFT Geometric Grid background on the base card in light grey pigment ink

They really are quite pretty specimens which you can make as colourful or muted as you want depending on the style you're going for ... I need to explore this set more :)

                                 

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

A floral Hooray Array.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I'm playing with some sweet and pretty florals...

...using Mama Elephant & Wplus9 loveliness.

I started by stamping out a bunch of the sweet little leaves, branches and flowers from Wplus9's All Year Cheer using a variety of Hero Arts inks and cut out using the matching dies; it's one of these sets that you can build up so the possibilities of colourways are pretty much endless, which I absolutely love about it.

I then cut Mama Elephant's Hooray Script multiple times from white card and built up to create a nice substantial die-cut sentiment.  I then covered it in Versamark and covered in a coat of clear embossing powder to give it a nice shiny finish.

I embossed My Favourite Thing's Geometric Background onto a piece of card in clear powder, making sure to not ink the entire stamp, and wiping away a lot of the powder before heat setting to give a nice soft edge.  I then, very gently, ink blended over the top to create a delicate background for my Hooray array to go over top. I then added a few flicks and splashes of  gold to add a little flair.

I set my scene and adhered my elements in place onto my background, and finished my sentiment by heat embossing 'For you' onto grey card.  I added a scattering pearls onto my flowers and across my background, and there you have it.

I really like how this card came out and really hope you do too.  As always, everything I used is linked below so be sure to check it out.

See you next week.

Jillx

   

Intense watercolour wash with a silver emboss overlay.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I've got some pretty, strong watercolour for you...

Using my Gansai Tambi paints with a little help from Mama Elephant and My Favourite Things.

I've seen a few of these beautiful but intense blue watercolour backgrounds with a stunning silver embossed overlay floating around blog land, so thought I'd give my own a blast.

I started with a piece of water colour card & my Gansai Tambi paint set (I have the large set which is currently out of stock , but we still have the smaller set and theses paints are so beautiful you could achieve an awesome look easy, using fewer colours).  I wet my card and, instead of washing & swooshing colour across it to create a gentle blend, I kind of 'dabbed' it on randomly around my card, changing colours and doing the same until my piece was covered.  I then went back in with my darkest colour to make sure I had some areas of real intense concentrated colour.  Once dry, I added a splattering of white & gold flicks and splashes and left to dry again.

I then stamped out one of my all time favourite background stamps, the MFT 'Geometric background', onto my card and covered in Silver Sparkle embossing powder.  I then took a dry cloth and 'buffed' away the powder from the edges so it didn't cover my entire background.  I love doing this as I think it makes more of a spotlight of your background, and gives it a more organic feel.

I then heat embossed a piece of card in matching embossing powder and cut Mama Elephant's 'Birthday Script Creative Cut' from it. I wanted something to anchor my die to my card, and also give me space to finish up my sentiment, so cut a circle from vellum.  My sentiment is then made up and completed of words from other stamp sets.  You could pretty much write a book if you look at all the words and phrases in all your other sets, so don't be afraid to mix and match and even (don't hate me), chop stamps up to say what you want to say! 

I adhered everything in place by adding teeny weeny drops of glue behind the chunkiest parts of my sentiment to avoid any adhesive showing up behind the vellum.

I added a scattering of matching sequins, matted my piece onto light grey card, and mounted the whole thing onto a white card blank.

I really hope you like it.  As always, everything I have used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

 

Creating Faux Filters

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I'm creating my own faux photography filters...

Using Mama Elephant's Pix's Favourite's as my main focus.

I used to love creating this kind of sepia effect but hadn't tried it in ages so thought I'd give it another blast.

It's such a simple, yet effective technique.  You simply stamp your design out in a brown ink, and colour your images monochramaticially (is that a word?  You get what I mean...several tones of the same colour).  I used various brown Distress Inks and watercoloured my images, but you could use pens, or pencils, or whatever your favourite colouring medium is, to achieve the same look.  I also introduced an accent colour of pink to add a little warmth and help the heart to stand out.

I used My Favourite Things Geometric Grid to stamp onto my background and white heat embossed. I then brushed more of the same colour inks across it creating a matching wash, and used Lawn Fawn's Say Cheese die to frame to my coloured image.

I enjoyed this technique so much and really loved the result, I felt it looked like I'd put a cool vintage filter over my images, so decided to try out the same thing again but in black and white this time;  and here's where that took me...

I used Mama Elephant's In My Heart and Spring Garden to create my black and white design, and used the exact same technique, just using black and grey inks, again, with a splash of pink.  I've also seen a load of simple blue & white designs, like the look you get on crockery and bone china, and that looks awesome too, so maybe I'll give that a go next.  I was thinking you could try it in any colour and I bet the result would be really interesting...like your own personal Instagram for your cards :)

I really hope you like them, and as always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx

         

A sparkly Hello with a resist watercolour wash.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I'm letting the sun lead the way by taking inspiration from some beautiful bright summer colours...

...ultimately aiming for a kind of sun-bleached, chilled out, laid-back vibe.

I started by stamping out this amazing Geometric grid Background Stamp from My Favourite Things on a piece of watercolour card and heat setting in clear embossing powder to act as a resist.  I love a great background stamp, even more than I love a cute critter stamp, and this is my newest favourite!  I'm really looking forward to doing a nice bright ombre wash across it.  It's one of those background stamps that works perfect with watercolour as it has all the little spaces for the colours to become trapped which makes for the coolest effect.  I used some beautiful bright yellows, greens and blues mixed with plenty of water, and washed them across my embossed background allowing my colurs to blend.

While that was drying, I cut this sweet little Duo Die 1 frame from  Paper Smooches, and white heat embossed the whole piece.  I then cut the 'Hello' form My Favourite Things Hello There Dienamics.  This is another new favourite for me, the font is just perfect, pretty but cool, and you get 'Hi', and 'there' in the set too so really great value for money.  I cut it from a scrap of sparkly silver paper I had in my stash, and a piece of white fun foam, before adhering them together.

I added a twirl of metallic thread and built up my elements on top of my panel, manipulating my 'Hello' die so that it fit nicely across my frame.

I kept things simple by embellishing with a scattering of gems and mounting onto a white card base, then left things there.

I really hope you like it, and as always, everything I used is linked below.

See you all next week.

Jillx