Hello friend

To wind up the Stretch Your Stamps class, we had a play day. I however, have been working too hard to play until tonight. I bought some beautiful new shiny threads which I was dying to use, and I got a chance to combine them with the Technique Tuesday 'Hello Friend' stamp and a a wood grain background from Eclectic Images. Here's the result, photographed quickly in a room that's probably a bit too dark, but you can get the general sense. I hope everybody else enjoyed the class as much as I did.

DIY floral builder stamps

I don't own the lovely W+9 floral builder stamps, but I do own a couple of floral stamps, namely paper smooches botanicals 2and simon says stamp favourite flowers.so I grabbed a couple of stamps and stamped like crazy onto scrap paper, and practiced my 'scribbling'. I also don't own the special stamping paper that was used in the online card classes, so my stamps are not smudged, 

BUT, I was able to get almost the same effect all the same.

This really is a lot of fun!

Ladybird card

I've been getting creative with Avery Elle's rounded diamonds. I was making a border with orange inks, when it reminded me of ladybirds. So I thought I'd give it a red hot go, and this is the result. The eyes and legs are hand drawn, and the spots were stamped with the eraser from the end of a pencil.

Hope you like it!

Graphic stamps

Cards for boys! That's what I see when I look at this stamp. Having said that, two of the cards I made today are definitely quite girly.

Firstly, here's  a card I made before classes started. It took me ages to decide which way up this print should go. If you look at it up side down, you get a completely different view. Try it!

I made two cards using Laura Bassen's idea. On the first one, I used the rough side of a linen paper to give me the broken lines. I pressed lightly, and left the stamp on for a few seconds for the ink to soak in. I  would have liked the blue on the right to be more even, but I'm too chicken to go back over it, in case I muck it up!

For the next card, I ran a double line of coordinating washi tape along the top and bottom of the card. This one was stamped onto art spectrum watercolour paper.

Finally, a rather crowded version of Debby Hughes' card. The sentiment is a little Heidi swap one that I picked up cheaply, and then, for the cards above and below, bent almost beyond its ability to cling to the stamp block!

Today's cards were all very quick to make, which was perfect, as I've been wrangling 14 year olds all day, and don't have a lot of my zing left. So after a good sleep, and some more inspiring ideas, who knows what I'll be able to do tomorrow?

Outline stamps

Just one card today, made with clearly besotted's fresh flowers. I inked the stamp with distress markers, and stamped before painting over it with water to spread the ink. Again, this was a technique from online card classes' stretch your stamps class.
To construct the card, I made a watercolour swatch in matching colours, and stamped a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's handwritten borders. I love these soft colours, and I love how quickly and easily this card came together.

Colour me stamps

I absolutely love this stamp from Clearly Besotted, and to tell you the truth I love all flower stamps. All of my cards would have flowers on them if it weren't for having so many men in my life (wow, that sounds bad; I meant husband, sons, father etc....).

So I really am enjoying colouring them these past few days.

Here's one that I attempted to do without edges, only to decide that I really like the edges and fill them I again later! I coloured this with distress inks as paints.

I also had a go at the reverse painting technique where I painted out the inside of the flower to lighten it. I did this on a piece of watercolour stained paper that I had waiting for a card, and Altenew's Magnolias for her stamp.

The online cardmaking classes certainly are getting me going with ideas. I can't wait to branch out with my own ideas that this is giving me, but I want to keep up with the class ideas first. There will be time for my own cards later.

Letter and sentiment stamps

The last two lessons of stretch your stamps have been exploring different ways to use alphabets and sentiment stamps. Hurdle number one was to get brave and use scissors on stamps, and cut them into pieces. Very scary indeed, but it did make them a lot easier to use.

I've enjoyed playing, and have come up with the following cards. 

For my family, I made a full set of these to hide under pillows tonight. After stamping the letters in Simon says Stamp inks in Dark Chocolate and Soft Navy, I blended the soft Navy ink in from the sides, leaving the message white.

Lacking pretty much everything to make one of the cards, I came up with this alternative, by cutting out my own stencils. I'm pleased with this one. The stamp is My Favourite Things 'pretty poppies', chopped into pieces.

Finally, a card that I'm glad I ran past my children for comment. I chose letters for the tree the I thought looked a bit branchy and leafy, and they were Y, R, O and S. When the kids looked at the card, they wanted to know why the tree said   'Sorry'. So I hastily added some 8 and P stamps, and now the card isn't quite so apologetic! The grass is made from T, I and 1 stamps as well as !.

The trunk is hand painted with watercolour paints.

Background stamps

I'm still loving the online card class that I've been taking. 

I've done a couple more backgrounds and made them into cards. I feel like a bit of an imposter putting up cards that I've pretty much copied from the instructions, but I like them anyway, and it's good to share with others in the class, so here goes!

I LOVE this first card, courtesy of Laura Sterckx. I will definitely be playing with this idea some more.

This next card takes me back to the types of cards that I used to make years ago when I first started. I love cutting tiles and replacing them, but I haven't done one for ages. I love it!

I had a play with the black paper card too. I just scaped into the supply requirements, owning exactly two colours of perfect pearls. I'm not so sure about this one. My personal style is a bit brighter, I think, but it was a great learning experience, and it's something I could see myself using as part of a card later on, but not as a full card.

Finally I had a little play myself with another background stamp that I own ( the count is up to four now!)

First I used perfect pearls on white card stock, then embossed in clear, with a touch of sparkle. Lastly, I added mustard seed distress ink with a blending tool, to brighten the whole card.

Stretching my stamps,

Stretch your stamps class has finally begun. I made myself wash the floor and clean the kitchen before I even looked at a video. And now I've started,  with the watercolour resist background stamp. I don't have exactly the same stamp as they used in class, but I'm happy with how mine turned out, using impression obsession's 'circle fusion'. 

I painted the background first, the painted over the centres of every second row. (Thought about every row, but even I have my limits!) 

I then cut it up and made a couple of cards. Once again, I didn't have the required dies and stamps, but substitution is my middle name, and so I was able to make some very usable cards. The small hearts are from a little technique Tuesday stamp that will appear later in the class.

The second cards is for some dear friends of mine, who were in a crazy freak accident, and have both got broken legs as a result. The three children are OK at least. The sentiment seems a little trite, given the enormity of the challenges they'll be facing, but I hope that coupled with practical help, the card will let them know how much they mean to us, and give them some small encouragement.

Watercolour cards

I've recently done a watercolour card making class. I signed up thanks to a random comment by a friend about the class, and I'm so happy to have rediscovered my love of making cards. I've rediscovered it to such an extent that friends may get cards for as little as sneezing, such is my stash.
I've loved playing with watercolour paints, and especially the distress inks and markers. Here are some of the cards I've been making.