Love Ya!

Hello there!

I'm back with another cute cactus card. I had a lovely time looking through the Silhouette store and came across some images of adorable cacti. I picked some that had lovely bold outlines, perfect for painting in. Rather than cut the outline from black card, I cut it from black vinyl and attached it to a piece of mixed media card. I used Catherine Pooler dye inks to paint the design.

What you need...

Digital image: 

Cactus with Hearts by Angele Kamp (#270153) - Silhouette

Font:

Funtasia by RVST (#313670)

Card stock:

Mixed Media Pad (A4) - Faber-Castell

White

Ink pads:

Aquatini - Catherine Pooler

Lime Rickey

Party Dress

Vinyl:

Midnight - Cricut

Patterned paper:

Sn@p Teal Chevron/Mini Dot - Simple Stories

Extras:

Adhesives

Tools:

Silhouette Cameo

What you do...

1 Load the image onto the Design Studio and re-size to approximately 2⅛"x 4" (6.5cm x 10cm).

2 Type out the wording, change the font to Funtasia and re-size to 66.42pt. 

3 Place the vinyl onto the cutting mat, send the image to the Silhouette, set the material to Vinyl,Matte and adjust the blade if necessary and cut.

4 Remove the image and stick onto a piece of multi media card and fussy cut out. Smoosh some inks onto a multi media mat and with a wet brush paint the cactus, hearts and pot. Allow to dry.

5 Create a mini slimline blank 3⅛"x 6¼" (8cm x 15.5cm). Mat a 1⅝" (4cm) deep piece of chevron paper across the bottom and add a narrow strip of vinyl along the top edge. 

6 Stick the lettering to the chevron paper and the cactus above.

These inks were a joy to paint with. I was debating whether to do the cactus in watercolours, but I thought I would try inks for a change. I'm glad I did play around with the inks.

There are a few cacti in this set and they are all adorable, so I think I will have to make a few more cards like this and play with some more inks/mediums.

I love the crisp, clean look that vinyl gives to images and as it is plastic it's great for painting within the lines. Wording also works well with vinyl, again for the crisp lines and you don't have to worry about applying glue and making a mess. I would think that you can cut vinyl with a manual die cutting machine, I might have to experiment.

Well, I am going to sign off now. I do have another couple of cactus themed cards to share,so I'll be back soon. Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Inktober 2018 - 22nd-28th October (inc)

Hello blog friends!

Before I get into the post, just a quick hello to my new followers!

I've been a bit busy with magazine work lately so I've just got around to doing this next installment of Inktober. Again, these sketches are a mix of simple line work down to more detailed work. I did cheat with the dragon's eye and use Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils, because I wanted to get the detail of the iris.

So here we go with the next batch...

22nd October - Cute & Spooky 2

Derwent Precision 0.5mm, Sakura Pigma Micron 005 

23rd October - Dragon's Eye

Derwent Precision 0.5mm, Sakura Pigma Micron 005 & 001, Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils, Posca White 0.7mm

24th October - Potions

Derwent Precision 0.5mm, Sakura Pigma Micron 005 & 01, Pilot Choose White Gel Pen

25th October - Fearsome Fruit & Vile Veg 2

Derwent Precision 0.5mm, Sakura Pigma Micron 005 & 01

26th October - Haunted House

Derwent Precision 0.5mm, Sakura Pigma Micron 005 & 01, Pilot Choose White Gel Pen

27th October - Sad Ghost

Derwent Precision 0.5mm, Sakura Pigma Micron 005

28th October - Zombie Shroom & Grumpy Shroom

I've been happy with all my sketches during this challenge, I think my ultimate favourite is the Dragon's Eye (even though I cheated slightly). The haunted house took me forever to add the detail. I love the look of stippling, but it takes soooo long to do.

I will be back soon with the last three sketches, then I have some more simple cards to share with you.

Thank you for stopping by! TTFN x

Funniest Bird

Good afternoon!

I'm back with a funny card I made for my wonderful and gorgeous friend Chris. I purchased a cling mounted rubber stamp set from IndigiBlu called Funny Bird. It was because of this particular stamp that I had (yes had) to buy it, you know me and my chickens.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photo - the lighting wasn't brilliant and I'm no photographer ;o)

What you need...

Stamps: Funny Bird (IND0156PC) - IndigoBlu

White card - digital smooth

Coloured pencils: Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Olive Green Yellowish, Burnt Carmine, Indian Red, Sanguine, Light Yellow Ochre, Brown Ochre, Pale Geranium Lake, Scarlet Red - Faber-Castell Polychromos

Ink pad: Onyx Black - Versafine

Garden twine - brown

Button - brown

Adhesives

What you do...

1 Stamp the image onto white card, when dry colour in the chicken using the colours to blend and highlight.

2 Trim the image to 10.5cm x 14.5cm making sure the image is near the top.

3 Mat onto a 10.5cm x 14.5cm blank.

4 Separate the twine, wrap around the blank, tie in a bow and add the button.

I coloured this image to look like one of my Rhode Island Reds - Babs. She is the most beautiful deep red brown. It's a shame that the photo doesn't really do the colouring and shading justice, as the finished card looked exactly like her.

This stamp set is great value for money as it is quite a large set - you get a cling mounted A5 sheet that you cut out the individual stamps. Make sure you use some non-cling scissors, this will make life much easier.

Visit IndigoBlu to see their wide range of products. You can find the Funny Bird stamp set here. Prices start from £17.99 for the uncut stamp set.

I am pleased that Chris loved the card, the sentiment suits her to the ground and she knows Babs quite well. 

Thank you so much for dropping by. See you soon!

Snow Happy!

Hello there peeps!

As you may know, I'm trying to make a stock of Christmas cards throughout the year, as I always run out of time when it gets nearer to Christmas.

There is a cute little stamp that I've had for a couple of years and have never got round to using it (I can't be the only one who buys stamps when they see them in case they run out of stock/get discontinued).

What you need...

Stamps: Frostier (KS207) - Stamping Bella; Believe in the Magic (CD001) - Your Next Stamp

Patterned Paper: Sugar Plum 6x6 Paper Pad - My Mind's Eye

Ink pad: Tuxedo Black - Memento

Alcohol markers: Copics

Coloured Pencils: Polychromos - Faber-Castell

Ribbon

I coloured the base colour on the image with Copics and then added the shading and highlights with pencils and blended. I tried to match the colours of the image with the beautiful colours of the paper.

I hope you like this cute little card, I  thought the snow was apt after the weather we've had lately!

Thank you for stopping by, see you soon! x