Die’sire

Owl be seeing you

Good morning. A short but sweet posting for today.

This card’s main focus is an owl stamp from Hobby Art ‘Orla Owl’. Yes – another recent purchase from a craft show a few weeks ago, and I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to play with him. I don’t know why it’s a ‘him’, but there we are.

I decided to go with a more masculine feel for the card, and wanted the back layer to be quite dark, like the night sky, but not too plain. I embossed the black card with a Die’sire embossing folder ‘clouds’ from Crafters Companion.

The owl is stamped and embossed with a bronze mica embossing powder. I did think about doing some water colouring, but decided the image was intricate enough to withstand being just plain.

The sentiment is from another stamp set from Woodware – ‘Mosaic Owl’. I also embossed this with the same embossing powder, but this time added to a piece of white card. I rounded the edges of both the base layer and the sentiment.

So – nothing complicated or intricate, though the owl stamp makes it seem so, doesn’t it?

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday – anything goes masculine

CAS Sunday – animals

 

 

Jungle themed

Hi there. It’s been a few days since I last posted, due to several longer days at work, and working later, but I think I’ve made up for it with todays card. It isn’t what you would call ‘clean and simple’. It isn’t a single layered card. It looks as though I’ve chucked everything at it, doesn’t it? Let me explain…………..

I have been trying to get to grips with masculine cards, and saved a challenge theme to try from ‘Cardz 4 Guyz’ as the theme was Jungle Fun. I bought a bunch of metal stencils from Sweet Poppy at the Doncaster Racecourse craft show, which depicted wild animals, and haven’t played with them yet. This is only one of the stencils, and I am currently waiting for texture paste to dry on the others I have made.

This card is, obviously, using the Giraffe stencil. I used a Cosmic Shimmer texture paste – Chic Pumpkin – on top of black card. A base card of 7 inches square, to which I added a greeny/shimmery card slightly smaller which I had embossed with the Die’sire ‘Tumbling Leaves’ embossing folder. Once I added the giraffe, I played with the position thinking about adding more leaves, a sentiment, wondering what I would put where on the card, and decided to put things a little haphazardly on the card, slightly off kilter, giving an impression of wildness – maybe? Kinda? Sorta? That’s my thought process, anyway.

The sentiment is from Tonic, and I shadowed it with white. In hindsight – as there isn’t any other white on the card – maybe this wasn’t the right choice of colour………

The leaves added to the left of the card are from Sue Wilson – Finishing Touches – Mosaic Leaves. I use these a lot to add interest and dimension to a card, and I particularly like them when they aren’t flat. I have only glued the stems down, slightly bending the branches themselves so they don’t stick straight up, but lie along the card.

And again – away from the clean and simple – I added some bling. Who says a masculine card can’t have some bling? I added some goldy/coppery jewels as you can see. You can also see that I not knowing my colours today – goldy/coppery and greeny/shimmery. I think it’s a new trend…….

Here are the challenges I will entering this card into:

Cardz 4 Guyz – Jungle Fun

Always Fun Challenges – dry embossing (background)

Tuesday Throwdown – texture (background and texture paste)

Watercooler Wednesday – masculine/anything goes

Simon Says Stamp – bit of sparkle (gems)

Crafty Catz – more than two layers

 

 

 

 

Starry Sketch

20170410_213834

I seem to be having a purple passion moment or two. Both yesterday and today I have made cards with purple. I think I’ll have to move my purple card stock away from me for a while……….Until then, here is a small little card inspired by Watercooler Wednesday and Time Out Challenges. Both of these challenges I have been thinking about for quite a few days, and finally – as hubby is watching the golf catch-up – I have sat down to create this card.

I started with a light pink card base then matted this with a black layer and purple layer. On the purple layer, I die cut three strips from Crafters Companion Die’sire ‘Simple Stitched Edges’ dies. These strips are actually 12 inches long, and you could cut several make a couple of cards at the same time.

The two circles are cut from my ever favourite, and so aptly named MFT – ‘Zigzag stitched circle’ dies. I stamped and embossed the large star from MFT ‘Stars Above’ die set, using my sparkly Wow powder ‘Grape Crush’, then die cut the star with the matching die.

The sentiment is from that same stamp set, stamped with Versafine black onyx, another of my favourites.

I added a black layer as I wanted the sentiment to be in black, and thought a black layer under the purple would bring it together, and also make the stitched and crossed stripes stand out a little more.

The addition of the sequins added an extra something, and for once – they weren’t added because I smudged! I just wanted them there! Talk about pressure for stamping again and not smudging. I think I’ll have a little bet with myself how many I can stamp in a row without smudging…….