Resist Stenciling Cards

Despite being gardening crazy at the moment I managed to get some crafty time in and I turned a couple of backgrounds into birthday cards.  It was a continuation of my 'playing' with the Distress Micro Glaze resist technique. I can't seem to resist resist at the moment!

The top card has some gold embossing paste thinly stenciled on top of the resist stenciling so it's slightly translucent.  It's a little easier to see in the close up shot further down the post. 

The one below used just two colours of spray, pink and a honey gold but when sprayed on top of each other they made a very pleasing deeper burgundy.

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Stamping and Smudging!

I like to have a good stash of cards to hand and so I've just made a batch for the coming months.  I used the same stamps but stamped firstly on one card and then directly on to a second, using Distress Ink but without re-inking the stamp.  I changed it around a bit so they each had some first and some second generation printing on them. I smudged the freshly stamped images with a clean blending tool and added some gold flakes to the edges of the darker one.   

Different stamps but the same technique as above with these next two cards, but I added some pearl drops to highlight some of the foliage. I usually add a sentiment or banner later when I know what I want the card for.

  

I'm linking up with Julia over What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday this week.

Autumn Birthday Cards

We have lots of birthdays in October so the Christmas card making has stopped and here are a couple of Autumn cards I've made.  

This card has an embossed panel on the front that I made using a nestie die with rubber embossing mats to replace one of the clear cutting pads (this will probably only make sense if you use a Bigshot!) - I think it's quite effective although the photo doesn't show it very well.

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday this week

Paper Flower Cards

It's been such a long time since I blogged, and far longer than I originally anticipated, but what with school holidays, child-minding, summer holidays and trips out it's been a quite hectic and I've had no time for arty crafty stuff.  On top of that it's been quite a struggle to get myself back to feeling positive and motivated after a fairly long bout of feeling out of sorts.

Anyway, here are a couple of birthday cards I made - I'm rather keen on the Nuvo Crystal drops I've recently discovered (on the bottom card), they look like raindrops and I am having to stop myself adding them to everything at the moment!
  

And some close-ups...

Over the summer I received this beautiful pendant made for me by my very talented blog friend Terri, over at art-life-rust.  What an amazing artist she is, and how thrilled I was to receive it.  Thank you again, Terri - it's stunning! 

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW, and must just say thank you to all the lovely deskers who sent messages as I was awol for so long - thank you xx

A Ferny Birthday Card

A birthday card for the Hubs was needed this week and I tried to make it spring like and to reflect his love of nature.  I am really enjoying using the fern and  bud dies that came as a set by Marianne - I purchased them a few weeks ago in the belief you really can't have too many foliage dies or stamps!!  They also feature heavily in the Luminary I made in my last post here!

I am linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday this week.

Underwater Birthday Card

I've had a bit of an unplanned blog break but at last I'm getting back into the swing of arty crafty stuff, and to start off I made a birthday card for my brother-in-law.  He used to be a dive instructor, so I wanted something with an underwater theme! 

 The card below is the first attempt but I didn't like the bright blue micro-beads that I had added - they seemed a good idea right up until the moment I threw them on the wet glue!  

I am joining in this week with What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday.

November Birthday Card

Oh goodness, I'm struggling with Christmas - I still haven't come up with any ideas and several attempts are in the bin!

However, I managed to whip together a quick birthday card for my cousin-in-law and I've just gone and splashed out on some new stash in the hope it might inspire me - any excuse huh!

I gave it a more frosty November feel by adding Rock Candy Stickles to the flowers.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

October Birthday Card

I have managed to make a quick birthday card for my sister's October birthday, despite all the mayhem of looking after our sick guinea pig.  He became ill and had to have surgery and for the last week and a half we've been nursing him back to health.  I've been too worried to do much arty crafty stuff and I must say a huge 'SORRY' for not returning quite a few visits - I did my best but as soon as Archie was home from the vet's life became very hectic!

Here's the birthday card...

...and matching tag  - I got carried away stamping and nearly didn't leave any space for writing a message - I remembered just in time!

And here's my boy, taken back in the summer.  He seems well on the road to recovery now.

I'm linking up with Julia over at  What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday.

A Special Birthday Card

It's been such a busy week but I managed to find time to make a card and matching tag for my husband's birthday tomorrow.  I wanted something that wouldn't be too flowery, so I added a rusty washer and some clay pipe stems!

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday to see what other people have been doing this week.

Stocking Up on Birthday Cards

I haven't done much crafty stuff this last couple of weeks, having spent a huge amount of time recovering lost files when the hard drive corrupted - I hadn't backed up since December! Totally my fault which is so much more frustrating!
I also had a lovely time catching up with Julia and Lunch Lady Jan for lunch - lots of laughter, chatter and yummy food - thank you so much ladies!

  I did find time to make a few quick and easy cards for some birthdays coming up in the next few weeks.  I am still using the stamp set and matching die that I have been using in previous posts (see here)!   

I am linking up with Julia over at Stamping Ground