Something a little different

I've been wanting to try out the watercolour stamps from Art Impressions for some time and I finally got around to it yesterday. I hope you like the result. Incidentally. Sir Stampalot stock them in the UK and offer a remarkable efficient online order service.

I used a watercolour postcard as the base for the picture and I think that I'll try a different watercolour paper next time. Being me, I also have to mess so I've also used some artists' watercolours on the stamps and free hand to try and improve the results, mainly because I find the colours of the Marvy Le Plume a little harsh. Maybe I just need to but a slightly wider selection.

A Fairy Happy Birthday.....

....for someone who loves fairies!

As soon as I saw this image used on Suzanne Dean's blog, I knew exactly who I needed it for. The image is called Danni - she's designed by Elizabeth Bell and it's from SCACD sold in the UK by Quixotic Paperie, who have very efficient service.

I just love these Bloom and Grow papers, it's such a lovely selection so I've used them again. The granddaughter who'll be the happy (I hope!) recipient of this card loves bling and you can just about see in my usual poor picture where I've added some on the sdges of the almond blossom and gypsophilla petals with Crystal Stickles. I also sprayed all the flowers (except the white one's, of course) with Golden Terracotta Glimmer Mist but that's not showing up so well. If you click on the picture to mke it bigger, you can see the clear stardust Gelly Roll that I put over the Danni's wings and the butterfly wings just to give then some shimmer.

The little silver heart says 'made with love' on it - which it was. I hope you like it - if I was making it again, I'd do it differently but that's what the learning process is all about, I think.

Video Girl

February is a real bumper birthday month in our family and this card is for one of my granddaughters, so I hope she likes it - the colours are really appropriate for her.

The image is from Mo's digital pencil and is my first venture into 'digital stamping' but she was great fun to colour with my Copics. The sentiment was computer generated, the leaves were punched with my McGill pine punch and everything else was from my stash - you know, all that stuff you bought because you knew it would come in useful one day!

I've scanned the image using instructions from Susie Jefferson. I don't know why it never occurred to me before that you don't have to squash the card down by closing the lid on the scanner, you can just cover the card with sheets of white paper to block out the light.....duh!!

Hope you like it.

Tilda with Lamb

I made this card for a special person in the family whose birthday is next month so that's really well organised for me!
I thought it would be good to look forward to spring - that's why I chose this particular image. However, the snow's affecting the light so the colours in this image aren't so good. I think that the purchase of a light tent is looming ever closer. This card has travelled to many locations in the apartment today in an effort to get my poor photography skills to make it look halfway decent!
The DPs are from Basic Grey 'Porcelain', MME 'Wild Asparagus' and Papermania 'Exquisite' and I coloured it with my Copics although the shading isn't showing as well as I would have liked. I hope you enjoy it!

Picking apples

One of the advantages of allthis snow is that it creates time for crafting! A couple of days ago I created my first post Christmas card and thought that it would be nice to think of flowers, fruit and warm weather, so here are the results. I don't know how long this 'cute' period will last but, at the moment, I'm still enjoying making these very feminine creations. My daughter gave me some more Magnolia stamps for my combined birthday and Christmas present and, because she didn't know when to stop, I even have a very early Mother's day present! So it seems as though there'll be a few more of this type of card being posted up here.

So that you can all see the card more clearly this time, I've discovered how to turn off the flash on the camera and I've been carrying out other investigations about how to improve the images so things could get better around here. The shading in the colouring (done with Copics, as usual) is not very clear but I hope you like it.

The last one

Well, in typical fashion, I finished the last Christmas card today, wrapped the final presents and now I'm all ready to go! Anyway, I thought I'd share this final masterpiece with you, it's another cutie Christmas card. (Edited 14/03/10) I replaced the first picture I took of this card with one taken by my son, Neil sometime later. He's got the posh camera and a tripod so the picture is of a much highr quality. I think I'll make hime official photographer of my cards in future!

Have a peaceful, joyous Christmas Day everyone!

Well, there's snow outside so it seemed like the right weather for finishing a Christmas card which I expect all those of you out there in blogland are tired of seeing! I've had an image of the finished card in my mind for some time but, even so, it still seems to take me forever to finish one of these cards - I think I just play with all the bits and pieces too much. I've been greatly inspired by Bev Rochester's blog in relation to these Magnolia images so thanks, Bev!

Because my photography is so awful, I ended up scanning this card which is why the roses look squashed. Looks like I need a photgraphy class if I'm going to continue blogging!