The other half bought me a small bunch of roses last week (with no prompting or putting them in the trolly myself) I tried drawing them.
I don’t know why roses are so difficult to draw, for some reason I have a huge mental block when I try.
I’ve been staring and squinting at them trying to work out the shadows and going cross-eyed looking at the many petals.
I drew them out with a pencil then coloured in the shadows with watercolour using the colour of the paper as the highlight. The paper is blue but it kind of works.
The purple rose looks quite dreamy on this paper, I like the effect.
It’s probably the best I’m going to do this time as they’re starting to droop.
Blue rose sketch
This is a peregrine falcon, I painted him and placed him on a little card for Fathers day this weekend.
We each made him a card, it’s fun to see the different little artworks on the mantelpiece.
peregrine falcon
Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x
I decided to make a card, with a humming bird and sketched out a couple of ideas in my sketchbook; I liked the little bird on the grass but wanted something more flowery.
Hummingbird on grass
The flowers I’ve painted were based on quince flowers that are just starting to bloom in the garden. I’m not sure a hummingbird has ever seen a quince flower so call it artistic licence if not hehehe
Hummingbird practice sketch
They’re painted loosely and based on a Chinese brush painting style, I like the simplicity and the way they make every brush stroke count. It also stops me from overworking the painting.
2 hummingbird sketches on quince blossom
I painted quite a few sketches, they’re all very similar but I liked the image at the top best for the card, the little bird is a little rotund, obviously lots of nectar to eat around there hehehe.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x
It’s that time of year, you know the time of year when everything you do is geared towards one day. This week I have been shopping (on-line), shopping in actual shops, because that’s still a thing and making Christmas cards/tags.
Looking around on the internet I’ve seen people painting lovely watercolours and making them into cards, I thought what a lovely idea, I should do that! Who am I kidding; I would have to start making my cards in august if I wanted to finish before Christmas.
Introducing all the stuff I have made this week. The star card is made with nesting star dies and has a little floating star in the aperture. It’s a 6”x6” card so the top layer was embossed with an embossing then the folder was moved along to emboss the other side, happily it worked quite well.
In real life the card is very sparkly and has blue glitter borders. It doesn’t show up, we have very poor light this time of year and even at midday in bright-ish sunshine everything looks washed out.
The gold card bases were given to me, they’re an odd size 6”x3”. The second card in the picture was embossed with a die; I like it more as a die-cut. I had some fancy paper which was a cross between tissue paper and mulberry paper; I used it to back the cut-out, it looks really good when light shines through it.
The reindeer card is made entirely with peel-offs. For some unknown reason I seem to have loads of peel-offs, they need using up. It’s just the right size to place a gift voucher into.
Another card made with card bases I seem to have acquired these are 6”x4” cards. An embossed panel and die – cut snowflakes, I also managed to use up more of my peel – offs and a small piece of thin ribbon.
Through out the year, when ever we get something in pretty packaging I die cut some tags and put them in a little box. Then when I need tags for gifts they’re cut and ready to use, just pick something that goes with the wrapping paper.
For the main presents this year I thought it would be nice to have die-cut names on the tags to make them a little bit special. I cut each letter three times and glued them on top of each other to give some dimension, then glued the names onto the tags, it’s a bit fiddly but I like the effect. It also used up lots of tidily bits of card I had hanging around.
I haven’t bought any new dies, stamps, card or anything else really this year. I have far too much stuff and really need to use things I already have so that’s what I’ve been doing. To be honest all this making hasn’t really made a dint but I’ll keep going and eventually I’ll get to the bottom of it all.
So, cards done, tags done, vouchers done. Gifts almost wrapped, shopping done, and we still have a couple of weeks left to go, yes! I’m on it this year hehe.
Thanks for stopping by today. Till next time, have fun x
Today I have a quick and easy birthday card, because sometimes that’s just what you need.
The band of pattern was blended with distress ink. Stamped all over with a small twiggy stamp and left to dry.
Feathers were stamped with embossing ink heat embossed with silver with embossing powder. It was then trimmed down and matted onto silver card.
I usually do the pattern this way because on the occasions I’ve tried to ink straight onto the card and make a one layer card it’s all gone horribly wrong and I had to cut it out anyway.
So that’s it, Clean and simple.
Till next time, have fun.
Hi there.
This is a A6 sized card made out of Centura pearl card. Embossed with a folder in the big shot.
I had been experimenting with embossing folders and powders. The purple band was a spare piece of card embossed with a swirl folder. The hope was that I could just pick up the swirls with VersaMark and heat emboss them with silver powder. It didn’t quite work as it also picked up some of the background. I do like the effect though, what you call a happy accident.
The butterfly was cut twice from different coloured card, stamped with a swirl stamp and also heat embossed with silver powder.
I only had one small piece of card to play with so I was trying to use it as economically as possible. Using a label die cut out shape and made it into a frame. A bit of mat and layering with some plain card and that’s the front.
I got a bit fancy with this one and made an insert. I wanted a small butterfly inside and wanted it to look a bit airy.
Thick paper stamped around the edge with two tones of ink. An aperture cut out of the centre wrapped around a thin layer of acetate, then a die cut butterfly and swirls for decoration
Its a bit more involved than the cards I usually make but sometimes you just want something a little bit special.
Thanks for stopping by.
Inks used:
VersaColor – Violet, Hyacinth
VersaMark – Clear
Stamps used:
Random swirls and flowers, Happy Birthday
Dies used:
Spellbinders Shapeabilities Set, Floral Flourishes
Spellbinders Labels 4
Spellbinders grand butterflies
Really like this one. I stamped one of the birds from Curly Birds out in embossing ink and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder.
I got 16 little pots of embossing powder for £10 and slowly I’m testing them out. This one is nice and shiny. They don’t have names or colours so it’s going to be a nice surprise when I use them.
For the flourishes in the corners I’ve used the tails of both of the birds in the stamp set.
The Dies are Spellbinders circles in white and gold card. Venetian Motifs in gold card. The Venetian Motif shape wasn’t really big enough so i cut it up and spread it out around the circle.
I don’t have any idea when to use it but it’s looking like it could be the first Christmas card of the year (yikes)
This was believe it or not a valentine card for my wonderful other half. It’s not all hearts and flowers or even very pink but to be honest, most guys are more comfortable with something a bit less showy.
The stamp was a present he bought for me at Christmas because he thought it was cute. He’s right of course so I had to use it for him.
The background is done by rubbing distress ink onto an acrylic block, spraying it with water and stamping it onto the card. It gives a kind of water colour effect that I really like.
I stamped the dragon in clear embossing ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. The stamp actually has little puffs of smoke on it in the shape of Z’s. I just didn’t ink that part, drew in my own puffs and because I don’t have a stamp for the sentiment wrote my own (note the scrappy hand writing).
I don’t really have any makes or names for the stuff used on this one except for the Broken China Distress Ink. That’s because it was all stuff bought for me at Christmas and for some reason there were no labels.
Sunnyfae 