Less is More + Craft A Scene Challenge + PanPastel Challenge

 Hullo there everyone! Well, today I had to make some cards so decided to hit a few challenges with the cards.

First of it was Less is More that set me off – you see this week was to be a One layer card – with little or no embellishments with white areas is the criteria – and Title for this week - "Birds".

Here I decided to get inky! Out came the brayer, inks,Stampin Up black pen and few other tools. I Cuttlebugged a double mask (so no bleeding with just one layer) in Labels Four.

 I then used Tim Holtz inks (Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint) with the yellow/green end of Kaleidocolor “Calypso” plus Tim's Tattered Sparrow stamp in Archival black.

I did my brayer marbling method I developed and posted last year in full – here you can see it step by step. It looks dreadful to start with but love the effect myself. 

The idea came by looking at the lid of Tim’s inks (namely “Peeled Paint” online as did not have any then) and thought:

“Mm wonder how I could do that?”

I did not have any of his inks then only Stampin Up spots! The desk is shown set up with the mask to show anyone who is not familiar with this method.

 

Now either the very plain white card can be used for the Less is More challenge, or the one with two brads. I was not sure if two brads were ok?

If not then I will enter the totally plain one but I really like the two brads on the second card.

I also made third one with a black frame – just for a difference! I am going to enter this in the PanPastel Challenge – “Anything Goes”!

They are having their very first challenge and you don’t have to use Pan Pastels to enter. But – hey, the prize is some of them so then you could end up with some, couldn’t you?

I love Eileen’s entry, she is on the DT and I have followed her for years. 

She was my very first Wonderful Encourager. Her entry is so clever – deceptively simple and effective!

And lastly but not least, I will also enter this last card also in the Craft a Scene First Ever Challenge for my second entry (first entry here). Here also “Anything goes” as long as it is a scene – this is their very first challenge too so do join them also if you can! At least have a look and be inspired by the brilliant entries so far.
So thanks for popping over everyone for a peek and chat. And may God bless your day wherever you may be,

Shaz in Oz. x
PS a big welcome to my new Wonderful Encouragers too! You and also those long-time ones are appreciated so much! take a peek at these bloggers and new wonderful encouragers -  Anne, Olga, Brenda, and Gay .

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 89 + Our Daily Bread Challenge x 2!

Well folks, here we are again! 
I did my calligraphy post as promised for last Friday you can view it here. : D , and now  I have been busy doing a couple of friends birthday cards (I seem have quite a few of them and there is quite a run of birthdays!!) And you cant see Nesties on this table 'cos they are tidied away.. and thanks to all folks who tipped me off on Nestie storage, I have bought the magnetic tape. A big thanks to Susan  @ Stamp on Me my Nesties are all nestled in their home nice and tight NOW! She told me in her comment of the magnetic tape you can buy from Spotlight so off I went and now they are all fixed up nicely.

 Once I complete two more birthday cards I will have to have break from cards and do some calligraphy and also do a chart for our church group I go to, I do one each year. It takes a few hours work, I have to print the photos off for that as well,.

Now today’s table shows some work being done - in right hand top-corner you can see I was playing with foil and embossing it and trying out method of colouring mostly without much success, the foil was strong sort, from a lid off a yoghurt container. Last week on WOYWW RosaC of Paperchase  told me she used metal wrapper saved from some bubbly bottles and put through the Cuttlebug. Not using wine myself I asked my family to save it for me, but they said no, in Oz we have gone over to screw tops as it seals much better than corks and foil. Mmm! So next best thing I came up with was the yoghurt top! The Perfect Pearls coloured it very well, as pictured in lovely turquoise, and so did the Rub On gold - see small squares on the half completed male card, but rub on gold was very messy to do, (the card is now finished and looks great will post later)...

My purple toned Distressed card ( posted below), is a challenge entry for OurDailyBread ODBDSLC47 "Have a H.E.A.R.T." recipe and also an entry in the Our Daily Bread Designs Stamping In Time: On Assignment Challenge(SNTODBD28). The latter simply required to be distressed in some way and is made for someone who has been through stress. (Tick! times two!)

"Have a H.E.A.R.T." recipe.  You must use three of these ingredients.

H= Hemp

E= Embossing (tick)

A=Any Our Daily Bread Images or Sentiments (tick)

R= Ribbon or lace (tick)

T= Tearing or distressing (tick)

My card was not as distressed as I planned, ‘cos I was so stressed over not cutting mount straight and der! I forgot to stress edges with purple ink on pale bubbly background sheet, rather an irony that! :D

However I did distress the white core dusty mauve paper with the Cuttlebug Daisy pattern on it, so white daisies showed through. I like my new Stampin Up distressing blocks; they work wonderfully well. The card was to be made for someone who has felt the stress of life and my dear Jen really qualifies in this!

In case you can’t guess Jen loves purple, bling, flowers and ribbon (it is purple, but photograph looks pink!) so she had to have all four, of course. And I also used the ODB verse on the marbled brayer piece I did a few weeks back, see here if you want to see the method of marbling with brayer. So guess there is a bit more distressing there!

I used wavy rectangles in my Nesties and figured they were a good distressed shape too! 

 

 My other friend whose birthday card I have posted here as well loves pink and so I have used one of my teabag folding pieces. I love this one, cos it has gumnuts and gumleaves on it (found a sheet of Australian native flowers for teabag folding ). As Steph calls me Gumnut,  I thought it makes it doubly appropriate. The corners are Vintage corners from Cuttlebug, and the outer centre is my Blossom Nestie cut twice in different colours and interlocked and then another scalloped circle on the bottom, The Cuttlebug folder is “Kimmy Luvs".

Oh and to the observant among you, you will notice I have acquired a new watermark... thanks to Jocelyn for her wonderful emailed instructions which helped in applying it with Gimp (a free download) and to  Karen Giron a lovely design for very low price. Thanks so much ladies, not being really cluey on these things it is handy to have web friends who help you so wonderfully. God is good.

Oh and to join in the fun of WOYWW, make sure you drop by Julia's Stamping Ground! 

See I am learning lots of things with my weekly visits, and as I was told, warned, etc - it IS addictive! 

Oh and look see! my brand new ATG gun has just arrived, now off to play! yee harrr! 

Big thanks to Susan Maloney and butlersabroad Brenda of  WOYWW fame! 

Brenda told me Susan had one for Christmas sent to her here in Oz.. Susan told me where she had bought hers from a few weeks back.... ah, sooo spoilt! thanks to all, everyone etc, you are so much appreciated!!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 85

WOYWW - here 'tis again!!
The start of another Wednesday, and a topsy-turvy week with computer issues has not been all joy, but hey! I am here and I want to say a really big thank you to everyone who stopped by my place last week for first intro in WOYWW ... what fun it was! have made heaps more friends on blogs and seen (and learnt) so much!!

One new addition in my craft cupboard is a spice rack!


Mm! I know a spice rack, but hey! it was there, all beautifully crafted by my father (originally for his wife in their former residence) and on the scrap heap so to speak (no room in his new abode, nor in any one else's as a spice rack) and there was space in my cupboard saying: "yes, please!" and so here you see it with my embossing powders, glitters, brads and other odds and sods..joy all around! :)


Here also is my table and the fun I have had with my brayer doing some marbled paper for cards (if you want to check these out there is post below on how to do this method), and on this table are:
1. the card I was looking for when I did in my mock marble post on Monday, will show it below in close up.

2. new things for the week -the other Cuttlebug Plus folder (I showed the first one last week) and when I said had two I was asked what the other was? and this is it - the fancy labels and have stamped one of the labels so you can see how it is cut embossed and then I also coloured through the back section. I stamped one of my new Our Daily Bread Stamps on the fancy label -ah!

3. The Brocade Window is also at the back (next to my bug) and it has a small roll of ribbon under the clear acetate film that is on the back of the folder and you lift this film and then use chalk or ink to colour the raised embossed portion. (hope I made this clear? see last weeks post if not sure)

This card is done with the green colours in my post for the marbled background and then stamped with my Lizard stamp (from MY Stamps in Oz in late 1990's) and the Pocket Silhouettes from Stamping up and then mounted rather simply, on a mock lizard paper, black and green card and ribbon.

Oh, and to find out what WOYWW is and to join in the fun, drop by Julia's Stamping Ground!   Happy WOYWW, everyone!

Brayer Fun Part 2 - Mock Marble

Well, this is part two of last weeks set up on Brayer fun and today I will try and show you the method that I was talking about,at the end of the post on Stampscapes.

It is brayering and making marbled effect paper, as in this sample below!

I had the idea from three areas..

1. looking at the top of the Tim Holtz ink pads..

2. Looking at these two videos on You -tube gave me the idea of what to do - it may help you understand the method if you watch these a) erratic brayering see here        

b) a plaid or tartan brayer pattern see here

     Although it is nothing like either of these it is germ of an idea and so we go from there. The method is little like the previous method as I used Stamp Spots from Stampin’ Up when I first devised this method as this was all I had at the time. “Necessity is the mother of invention”, they say. I will put lots of pickies and explain to the best of my ability but please anything I have not made clear, please ask! :)

Chose two colours (I find two is best one dark shade one light but by all means vary if you want.) I chose for first one two Spots from Bold Brights - Pink Passion and Orchid Opulence.

You load up the brayer with the two colours, one at the either end and the other colour in the middle and then you begin your erratic roller coverage of the cardstock (Glossy White also from Stampin Up in my case).

Once you have this to your satisfaction you then take a Stampin Up Texta or dye pen in Basic Black (or any dye ink pen would be okay I imagine) put two lines around it as you go (hold pen in one spot and turn roller is the easiest way).

In this case the colour was still too bright for me so i decided to add a few squirts from Lively Lavender (Stampin Up) ink and then brayer over it that way till I was happy with it again.

Then Stamped with two stamps from Our daily Bread just for fun... may make it up for the Challenge this week, time will tell...I really should have heat dried the brayering before stamping it as it was not as sharp as it should have been as a consequence..

I then thought I would show you some green as this was the one that set me on this quest to get this green I now have some Distress ink so will do this sample with distress inks as have overused the Spots and dried them up!

 

The colours are: Peeled Paint and Mustard Seed as the main colours then right at the end to tone it down I used just a tad of the Pine Needles, as it was a bit too yellow.

So here are the three samples I have done for today.The third not shown before is done with Spots again - Tempting Turquoise and Glorious Green..

NOTE: Colours do fade in intensity as they dry ..

  Then below is a card done with Tim Holtz stamp - part of Tattered Sparrow (horror! I cut the stamp up to make it more versatile) and a Bible Verse stamp I have had for many years, mounted on a Cuttlebug folder, Gracie's frame.

Have done a gorgeous card on lime green marble which may post later.... any queries PLEASE ask me!

..and may God bless you all and keep you safe wherever you may be.