Grungy Flower cards

 The other day I saw a lovely video from Natasha Foote - using a solid stamps and making a mixed media background.  Natasha used soft colours on her background and it was her inspiration that got me started.  My first background turned out a bit grungy and darker as I used paints for my base layer.  

I started by using Distress paints  and added to my card base.  Then lots of layers...Background Builders.  There are three wooden stamps each about 1.5" wide by 6" long.  I used various Distress inks to added them.  Also used some bubble wrap to add some texture.  Splatted some white ink spray.  Once everything was dry I stamped a Darkroom Door stamp in black ink and clear embossed.   Finished with a pre-printed sentiment from Creative Expressions Wordies.  

I decided to try and make a lighter background, albeit still a bit grungy. 

For this one I used Distress inks - Old Paper, Worn Lipstick Broken China and Victorian Velvet to smoosh onto my media mat and did the background.  Again used the bubble wrap. And some Gathered Twigs DI through a couple of stencils from Stampgiraffe.com.  One is dots and the other splatters.    Used the Stampin' Up stamps as well.  This time another of the Darkroom Door stamps, this time inked with Altenew Mahogany Bark ink.    The sentiment is part of another of the stamps in the set.  Added some hessian thread to finish.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Frame it at Southern Girls.

There's a new challenge at Southern Girls Challenge Blog today. It's not my team's turn to share this week but I'm guesting for Team Lou this week.  Our sponsors this time round are Dark Room Door and Altenew...  Two fabulous companies.

My card today is using a cool sentiment from Darkroom Door - called "Playing"

I've paired it with a cool stamp from Art Impressions called "Got Style"  I've frame the card by layering it onto gray card, white card and then onto a brown base card.    Isn't that sentiment just a perfect compliment to the stamped image.

And as the team is a bit short this week, I also did a card using a Watercolour Frame from Altenew.

I also used a freebie Altenew rose stamp and die set. 


Do come and join us at Southern Girls Challenge

A very Sad Day.....

I am very sad today... My darling Mum passed this morning.....  Lots of tears and sadness.  And not being in the same country to support my Dad is making it even worse.   I am so glad I was able to visit last month.  It really hasn't  hit me yet.   Until we know more details, we can't make plans for our flight over to Australia.   RIP Mum.  LOVE YOU


To take my mind of things, I made card this afternoon for StampNation's WCMD challenge #1 - Make a scene. 

I used a Dark Room Door scene stamp - used some Altenew inks to stamp and sponge onto the scene.  The sentiment is from a Catherine Pooler stamp set.  This is for my hubby's birthday on the 16th. 

My posts might be a bit spasmodic for the next little while. 

One stamp.... Two cards

Last Friday I did a card class at the SENZ Expo.  One stamp~ two cards plus instructions for two more!.  The stamp that came with the class was this one from Darkroom Door

 

Here is the first card we made

The background was made by smooching distress inks onto a craft sheet and spritzing with perfect pearls mist and dipping the card into it.  Once dried, the collage stamp was inked and stamped with green Stazon.  Then we took a piece of cold laminate and stamped just the butterfly part of the stamp with the Stazon.  Removing the backing, Perfect Pearls were dusted over the back and then cut out and added with some dimensional tape.  The leaves were coloured with the distress inks as well. 

And the second card.

For this one, the background was again stamped with green Stazon.  The butterflies and the fern were coloured with markers and then some glitter was added around the edge.  Then I tore some strips of vellum and folded over the card and wound the gold thread around the card.  

I haven't made up the other two cards as I lost the instruction sheet somewhere on Friday.  I have all the bits for one of them so will just have to put it together... fairly simple and I know the other one had the butterflies cut around and popped up.... but there are just so many ways to use this stamp..... perfect for me to try out some the techniques I've learnt in Stretch Your Stamps classes.

Hope the week is going well for you.... I've been staying late at work this week as I've been on assisting at our customer counter.... quite a challenge for me....  

Dawn

Play Date Cafe Challenge #25

Today I visited Nancy's blog and saw she had entered the Play Date Cafe challenge #25. 

 This weeks challenge is to use Black and White and a splash of Orange.  I was inspired by Nancy's card and also the lovely Suzz - who is host designer for the week.  I thought about what I could do and straight away I thought of my darkroom door stamps and one in particular - so here's what I came up with

I stamped the Daisies ( darkroom door - Viva La Flora Vol 2) onto the white card in Versafine Black and then water coloured the petals with Orange aqua crayons. I doodled round the edge of the image and then put it onto the black card matted onto the white base. Added the sentiment ( Inkadinkadoo) embossed in detail white EP.  I added the tiniest bit of grey on the steams of the flowers to tone down the stark whiteness. I am quite pleased how this turned out.  It was a super quick card - 20 mins from the time I thought of what to do till I was outside photographing it.  The longest bit was waiting for the water colouring to dry so I could mat it!!!!

Hope the weekend is great for you all.  Thanks for stopping by.