Mama Elephant, Up and Away in watercolour...

Hi there,

Today I'm posting a card I have made wih the awesome Mama Elephhant stamps, for their amazing blog challenge, which this month is 'Watercolouring and birthdays', and all the details can be found here...


Mama Elephant August blog challenge

So, it's fair to say, "My name is Jill and I am a watercolour addict", LOL!  Serious though, I often worry, is it time I 'walk away from the watercolour'?, ...but I just can't break up with this technique.  I love it more all the time, it looks awesome, is soooo versatile, and the results you get in next to no time...well, need I go on?  So yes, I am out and proud and going nowhere!!!

And here is my card...

I made this card for my friend who lives over the other side of the world in Austrailia! 

I started by die-cutting my cloud shapes from Mama Elephant's 'Landscape Trio's Creative Cuts', for the background, and watercolour washing them using Distress Inks (Tumbled Glass and Broken China).  Although it doesn't show up too great on the pictures, I added interest, and a more 'dreamy' feel, by adding Pearl White mica powder to my Ink.  I then stamped out this incredibly cute little monkey image, and the balloons, from the 'Up and Away' set, and coloured them using my distress inks and a water brush;  again, adding interest by mixing mica powders with my colours.  I then stamped out my sentiments from the same Mama Elephant set, and also an old Hero Arts sentiment to make sure it was obvious it was for a birthday (coz the ballons weren't enough of a give-away, right?), onto vellum, and cut them into thes little cute banners.  I knew I wwanted my card to be really dimensional, so decided to cut a front layer with an aperture, using Lawn Fawn's 'journal card' die, to really give it depth.  I tucked my little banners in the side to keep everything neat and sweet and added my little fella and his balloons to the very front.  I stamped the balloon string onto acetate and cut them out to make it look like he really is just floating along with his balloons, (nothing weird about a monkey floating through the sky on a bunch of balloons surely?), and there you have it.  I have added a few 'progress pics', to give a better idea of my process.

I love Mama Elephant, and I love watercolour, so really enjoyed playing along with this challenge and really like how my card turned out.

As always, I would love to read your comments.

Thanks so much for popping by.

Jillxxx

Tag you're it...

Hi everyone,

I'm back with a piece I made for a brand spanking new challenge.  It's called tag you're it, and I read about it on the delightful Jennifer Mcguire's blog.  The clue's in the title really, it's based around tags, although other projects are accepted.  The idea is to take inspiration from the guest designer's project/tag, and use that inspiration to design your own. This is only the 2nd ever challenge and you can find all the details here...

Tag you're it challenge #2

The guest designer for this challenge is the absolutely, ridiculously, awesome Laura Bassen, and here's Laura's tag...

And here's what I came up with...

I took my inspiration from the graphic background and the delicious juicy colours used on it (although mine didn't come out quite as vibrant).

I started by stencilling embossing paste, in various colours, onto my manilla tag, using the Ranger 'Dina Wakley Plastic Canvas' stencil.  I coloured my white embossing paste using Distress Inks in Mustard seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn door, and Picked Raspberry.

I then used the same Distress Inks to create a watercolour palette, and pulled a piece of card through it to give me a perfectly matched coloured card to stamp on,  and did the same with a couple of different greens (Evergreen Brough and Pine needles) for my foliage.  I then used the awesome 'bloomsies' set from Mama Elephant, (which I LOVE and know I am going to use sooooo much), and stamped, and cut out, my sentiment and a selection of flowers and foliage.

I also die-cut Spellinders 'Medallion seven' out of vellum as another refernece to Laura's tag, and also , I thought it would look pretty cool as an anchor point for my background.  I then constructed my pieces around it, aiming for a kind of 'posie' look.  I finished off with a few clear gems, a tie of twine, and a little strip of ribbon. 

And there you have it.

I really hope you like it, wish me luck.

Jillxxx

Simon Says - Let's be clear! ...

Hi everyone,

Just want to share another card I made for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which this week is 'Lets be Clear'.

I decided I wanted to have a good play with my embossing pastes, and see what effects I could achieve when using them on acetate ( please see previous post for more samples).

And here's my entry...

I started with a top folding tent card, made from acetate, masked off and taped to my craft sheet.  I then used this gorgeous Memory Box 'Star' background stencil, and used a palette knife to cover in Dreamweaver white embossing paste, which is just the most amazing embossing paste, it's soft, creamy and a brilliant white, a pleasure to work with!

I cut the Lawn Fawn 'Speach bubble border die' from vellum and white heat embossed this gorgeous Mama Elephant sentiment from their awesome 'splendid' set.

I finished the card with a strip of striped silver glitter card from the DCWV glitter stack, and a few gorgeous sequins from doodlebug.  And there you have it....

Again, I was too wrapped up in creating to think about a space for a message, but when I send this out, I will add white card, die cut the same size as the speech bubble, and adhere this behind.

And here's another example of the same technique I thought I would share....

Such a fun technique with endless possibilities!

I really hope you like it.

Thanks for looking.

Jillxxx

Embossing paste on acetate...

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well.  I am enjoying a well deserved and over-due day off so thought I would share a few cards I made for the Simon Say Stamp Wednesday challenge which this week is 'Let's be clear'.

Now I'm pretty sure I am not alone in being slightly obsessed with embossing paste at the moment, so thought I would have a play around and see what the effects are like when using on acetate.

And here's my result...

I started by creating my card blank from acetate and scored to create a top folding card.  I then taped my front to my craft mat and covered small polka dot mask in Cosmic Shimmer silver glitter embossing paste.  I LOVE this stuff, it comes in some incredible colours and is so easy to work with.  I then die cut a circle from vellum, (well, why not go the whole hog and go clear all the way), and heat embossed this gorgeous sentiment from Mama Elephant's 'Splendid' set - one of my all time favourite sets!  I then used my EK success circle scissor to create this thin silver circle frame to bring it all together and adhered to the card using small amounts of clear glue gel behind the frame.

I didn't have time, but when I send this card out, I will die cut a circle the same size as the vellum to pop on the back of the card for my message to go on.

I was really happy with the effect and instantly had to try the same thing with some of my other favourite masks (see other posts).  So another reason to love embossing paste!  These fellas just keep giving ey?

Well, I hope you like it, as always, I would love to read your comments.

See you next time.

Jillxxx

More Mama Elephant love...

So, I just wanted to share another card I have made for the Mama Elephant blog challenge.  I admit it - my "name is Jill Neary and I am a cute stamp addict", and they don't come much cuter or sweeter than Mama Elephant stamps.  

The challenge this month is a 'picture inspiration challenge', so first of all here's the picture...

...and here's what I came up with...

I took inspiration from the clean, calmness of the picture and decided to use acetate as my card base to mirror the texture of the bottles.

Using the Mama Elephant 'love quotes' set, I stamped my sentiment in clear embossing powder and 'washed' over using tumbled glass, broken china, and salty ocean distress inks as watercolours.  Once this was completely dry, I ironed the embossing powder off (my current favourite technique - I just love how it leaves you with with beautiful, clean, sleek, one dimensional layer).  I then created my card base using acetate and attached my 'inner card' using clear tape at the back so it would not be visible.  I then embellished with a few sequins and clear dew drops, and that was it.

I wanted to keep this card as clean and crisp as possible to represent my take on the picture challenge.

I hope you like it, I would love to read your comments xxx

the beautiful mama elephant...

Hi everyone,

A quick post to share a card I made today to enter in the April Mama Elephant blog challenge.

I love mama elephant stamps, they are just sooooo cute.  I simply can't resist them and now have quite a collection!  Each set I see swiftly becomes a 'need not want' kind of situation :)

The 'challenge' this month is a 'photo inspiration challenge' and the prize is.....wait for it....."a spot on the ME Challenge Team for a 6 month term"!!! Aaaaargh!!!  Can you imagine???!!!!  Now that is what I call a prize!

So here's the inspiration photo...

My instant reaction was 'clean', 'serene' and 'calm', and here's where it took me...

I apologise for the not so great photography on this post, the face of the card is acetate and my oh my...what a nigthmare that is to photograph well!  Nevermind, gotta try eh?  

The stamps are from the 'love quotes' set which are made up of the sweetest sentiments ever!!!  They are all so lovely it took me almost as long to choose which one to use as it did to make the card!

So, I stamped the speach bubble and the sentiment on acetate in stazon ink, then painted from behind using creative expressions chalk paints (a new obsession - they are amazing!), to really make the words 'pop'.  I wanted to keep it clean and simple so simply mounted this panel into an aperture I made in some patterned cardstock and embellished with a few enamel and glitter dots, and a small tag of american crafts ribbon.  I also mounted a small amount of the same patterned paper on the inside of the card just to help the painted sentiment stand out even more.

I really like the end result.  It really fits the look I was aiming for.

I hope you like it, wish me luck (eeeek).  I would love to read your thoughts so please leave a comment xxx