Angel Fish

Another entry for the Designs by Ryn Customer challenge. This is a page in my little chipboard book that is for trying out new techniques. I used stamps from two of Ryn's unmounted stamp sets. Spirals and Leaves, and Sea Creatures 2.
I used text paper in the background and Gel Medium with a stamp to make a lot of texture. I stamped the spiral stamps on tissue paper and used Gel Medium to add them, as the surface was too textured to stamp on directly. The coral is stamped and embossed with Utee and white EP. This was a lot of fun to do and I used a lot of fun products and techniques. I used Sakura pens to colour in the leaves. I love Ryn's unmounted stamp sets, you get such an amazing variety to play with!

Dahlias

Here's my entry for the Designs by Ryn December challenge.
It's on chipboard that I covered with Gesso and then added watercolours and stamped with the Spiral Branch set. I made a stencil with an old Lifestyle crafts die to do the large flowers. The big leaves are another Designs by Ryn stamp set called Ornate Leaf set. I used Liquid Platinum embossing powder and colored in all the leaves with Ink Joy pens. The flower centres have micro beads.
This is a page in my little art play book.

Hibiscus Thanks

This card is part of the larger sheet I made for the last card. I added another Designs by Ryn stamp to this piece with the Spiral stamp set and embossing powder. The "thanks" is stamped and heat embossed on vellum. I'm adding this card to the Designs by Ryn Customer Challenge

Hibiscus & Dragonfly

I did another couple of cards using my Designs by Ryn Hibiscus stencil. I started with a watercoloured background which I stamped with a couple of Ryn stamps, Sea Bubbles and Spiral Branch. I used the stencil with white pigment ink to add the Hibiscus. I then coloured the Hibiscus with coloured pencils, and coloured some of the spiral branch leaves with faber Castell metallic pens.
I covered the Hibiscus with a clear paint, and added sequins and a die cut dragonfly.

I'm adding this (at the last minute) to the Designs by Ryn customer challenge.

Sparkly Hibiscus II

Two things I love, molding paste and watercolour, so I couldn't resist making more sparkly Hibiscus with my Designs by Ryn Hibiscus stencil, and the red glitter embossing paste. I was really excited by Ryn's Hummingbird stamps also. They are just perfect for using Twinkling H2O's on. I have lots of Twinks and I don't use them enough even though they make me happy. But now I have a Hummingbird stamp, and I think I'll be stamping and painting it on everything! I wish I could have gotten a better photo that showed the gorgeous twinkling blues and greens better. But today was just not a good photo day for me. I don't have the old Picasa 3 on the new laptop and I miss it a lot!!

The card looks a bit wonky because i had a bit of an accident with it. I think I can fix it though by putting something heavy on it.
The leaf stamps are by Ryn and I used Perfect Pearls and VersaMark ink to make those. The sentiment is from a die set by IO.
This is for the Design's By Ryn October Customer Challenge.

Simple Hibiscus

I have two postings today because I have two entries for Designs By Ryn's Customer Challenge. I was very excited to get my package from Ryn. It took me a quite a while to decide what I wanted her to send me, as I love EVERYTHING. I have three sheets of her stamps, and a couple more singles already, so I had my eye on her stencils. I decided on the Hibiscus and WOW!! It is lovely.

For this card I just used one of the beautiful Hibiscus images, and put Molding Paste thru it. I have a big jar of Judykins red glitter embossing powder that I've never used, and decided this was the time!
I started by sprinkling gold EP on the flower's stamen, and then tapping off the excess away from the rest of the flower. Then I added the red sparkle EP,and finally a light metallic green. I waited a while and then set it with the heat gun. I love the simplicity of this card with just that sparkly flower.

Blue Jays and Birches

Just another super quick card for the Impression Obsession Fall Birthdays Challenge. Two in one day! Puppy is having a very long nap, so I had a bit of time.

I had been out with the Blue Jays. This time of the year they follow me around the yard for peanuts, and they knock on the patio door for me to go out and feed them. So they became the inspiration for this very simple card which used up the last of the metallic paper I made. I used some chalk to dirty up the Birches so they look more like mine. I wanted to use a "Happy Birthday" stamp, but it must be buried on my desk, and I'm still avoiding that !! So I used an IO clear stamp, one I use A LOT. Just love that sentiment. I don't think I've used any other stamps from that set, but that one makes it worthwhile. I'd love to be able to play with paint and more stamps, stencils, mediums etc., but until the puppy is older, simple is about all I can manage!

IO stamp set CL227
IO dies DIE022-U
IO dies DIE079-U

Mixed Metallic Powders

This is a very simple card I made using Impression Obsession Sentiment dies (DIE174-W), and small leaf dies (DIE095-D). I started by drawing a couple of curvy lines on my front panel with pencil, and then cut the leaves out, staying within the shape I wanted. I then took a piece of card stock and covered it with Versamark ink. I sprinkled a bunch of metallic embossing powders on the the cardstock, one at a time until it was covered, and then heated it. I love mixing embossing powders, it's been a favorite technique since I started papercrafting. I cut two strips of the mixed metallic paper for the top and bottom of my card, and cut out all the leaves I'd need to fill in all the ones I had cut out, and also the sentiment. I put tape on the back of the card front to hold all the inlaid pieces, glued the sentiment on , and attached the front to the card base. Super easy, super simple, but those leaves are gorgeous in person. one of the embossing powders I used was a gold glitter, and it adds just that right amount of subtle sparkle, allowing this card to be suitable for either gender.

I am entering this in the IO Challenge : Fall Birthdays
http://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/2016/10/new-impression-obsession-challenge-fall-birthdays.html

Beautiful Moth - Tsuki

No I haven't fallen off the edge of the Earth, I'm still here although I rarely craft anymore. I have a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest is that I'm overwhelmed by my stuff. Yep, I'm scared of my craft supplies. I have been avoiding my desk and everything associated with paper crafting. It scares me that I have so much stuff that I'll never use. Much of it was acquired with a purpose in mind, but never happened, and now I don't remember why I have it, or even how to use some of it. I am making a promise to myself to find a way to deal with the stuff so that I just have out the things that make me happy now, and everything else with be put away so I'm not so distracted by it. Too many ideas mean I accomplish nothing.

One of the things that will be staying out is my box of Design by Ryn stamps. They are wonderful rubber stamps that I have spent very little time playing with. The first Designs by Ryn stamp I ever got was this amazing Moth -Tsuki. I've had it for quite a long time and this is the first time I inked it up. I am greatly inspired by Shirley ( Paper Creations by Shirley). She makes beautiful backgrounds with rich colours and lots of depth. They are so beautiful, and really draw me in, so I got out Dylusions sprays, and Twinkling H20's, Prisma pencils and Distress inks, more Designs by Ryn stamps and had some fun. I didn't think about it too much, other than I wanted a lighter area to stamp the moth.
I am so thrilled with the way the moth turned out. I heat embossed the image, then painted it using a mix of H2O's and let them blend together. I wanted to make it stand out more by making it shiny with Diamond glaze, but I was afraid the paint would reactivate and run, so I used Distress MicroGlaze on it first. It worked perfectly! I just used Strathmore Smooth Bristol for the background rather than watercolour paper and it was very nice to use,
This card is for my cousin in Alberta who did so much to help get my handsome tri-coloured Brittany puppy from BC to me here on the other side of the country. I hope he likes it!

I am entering this in the Designs by Ryn September customer challenge found here:
http://designsbyryn.blogspot.ca/2016/09/september-customer-creation-challenge.html

Forever Friends

Just popping in to post a card for the Impression Obsession challenge, "Forever Friends". I used one of the sweetest dies I have ever seen. It's called Girl with Easter Basket (DIE260-I ), and it is fun to paper-piece. Instead of the Easter eggs that come with the die, I used IO's Tulip Set (DIE147-A), and Tiny Flowers (DIE140-D) to make a flower bouquet. I used the "hello" die from IO's Greetings set (DIE174-W) for the sentiment.

Thanks for looking!

Watercolour Sunflower

I've been taking another Online Card Class. I find these classes really help when I am uninspired by crafting. This class is Watercolor For Cardmakers - Intermediate Techniques. I have really enjoyed this class, but I still have the same problems*sigh*. I keep accidentally getting stray drops of water falling on my paintings and messing them up. I don't think clumsy can be fixed with a class.
I love paint and I absolutely am not deterred that most of my paintings are a total flop. Onward and upward!!
Most of the paintings that I did for this class were on premade thank-you cards I bought at Michaels. They are not made with watercolour paper, but the paper works really well ( I have no idea why).
This Sunflower is the only one that I liked that I did on watercolour paper.

This is done on Arches cold-pressed 140lb paper. I used a combination of Color Bursts (used as paint), and W&N Cotman water color from tubes. The sentiment stamp is by MFT. I heat embossed the sentiment with purple to go with the purple I used in the sunflower, although it's hard to tell in the photo. I die cut the paper with a die from SSS that does a stitched edge.
Here is a photo of some of the Thanks cards I did.

Getting Inky

I have seen such pretty cards made with silhouette stamps, so I got one from Impression Obsession (D5553) to try out that style myself. I have been making fewer cards lately, but I can certainly see myself making more of these. So easy!

The top and bottom of the card were masked off, and I used clear embossing powder to do some of the images, before adding Distress inks in two blues. I used Broken China Distress ink to do a soft inking and then a dark blue Versafine ink. The sentiment is from the lovely IO sympathy set ( CL114).
I was inspired by a card somewhat similar to this on Pinterest, but I can't find the original, only the person who pinned it from somewhere else, This is an old style though, around since before I started card making. I like the simplicity of it for sympathy cards.
This card is for the IO Challenge Flower Power.

Mirror Mirror !

I haven't been doing anything crafty for ages. I am much more into dog training now that I found some sports that my very shy dog can do with confidence. I want to get her far along in her Scent Detection training before the new puppy arrives.
I was trying (not very successfully ) to clean off my desk, and I found my new Impression Obsession Floral Frame stamp again. Rather than put it away, I added to the mess and dug out more stuff to make this card.
I am absolutely thrilled with how the wood grain piece turned out. Even my DH says it looks like a piece of wood veneer!

This photo is rather deceptive. It looks like either the floral frame is stamped right on the background, or that I was skilled (and crazy) enough to fussy cut the whole thing. I have to admit that I got the effect I wanted!
The background was stamped using Impression Obsessions Woodgrain Cover-a-card (CC034) on Bristol with a combo of Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain and then painted over with a wash of Gathered Twigs re-inker. The floral frame was heated imbossed in white, painted with Twinks and that background was painted to match the woodgrain. Only the outer edge was fussy cut. The black frame was covered in Glossy Accents and the centre was cut out so I could put a piece of silver paper in to look like a mirror. Some of the flowers I restamped and raised up.
The sentiment is also from IO. It's called "Always Believe" ( C17024).

I'm entering this in the IO Spring Colours Challenge.