Vintage Romance...............

Good morning!

A short mid week post for you this week.  I've made this postcard for Sunday Postcard Arts' "Vintage Romance" theme this week.

I started with my 6 x 4 inch piece of Sheena stamping card and soaked the card stock with water and dropped red drawing ink on to it allowing it to bleed around the card stock.  

I then stamped my vintage couple (now I haven't got a clue of the maker of this stamp, I've had it for years and years and even made some wedding stationary over ten years ago with it!).  I covered the couple with masking fluid and stamped the background stamps (many of which are from the same set as the vintage couple).  

I then lifted some colour out with ordinary household bleach.

Over stamped the roses with gold embossing powder so that it looked romantic and as if the roses were falling down in front of them.

Edged with distress ink.

I was pleased with this one - I particularly like the love letter down at the bottom.

Hope you like it too.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Leanne xx

I'll be sending this in to Sunday Postcard Art - "Vintage Romance" :-

https://sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/vintage-romance/

Fuchsias and Friendship......

Good morning!

Bright and cheerful card for the end of the week!

This card has been created using the Clarity Stamp Fuchsia stamp set.  I took photo's along the way so lets take our usual journey to see how I got there shall we?

The background has been created with one of my favourite techniques and products - Aquatints.

I started on a lovely watercolour block pad, marked the size that I wanted it to be with pencil and then washed the Aquatints across the page.  Then I began to stamp the fuchsias.

Here they come! Stamping and covering with masking fluid as I went.

I decided to fade the fuchsias on the right by using a pale embossing powder and then bring the one on the left completely forward by embossing that one in black embossing powder.  I then dribbled some bleach on there to. I have coloured the flowers in using the same Aquatints and some chalk paint.

I added the sentiment of "Friendship" from Clarity Stamp and some of the fuchsia buds from the same set at the top.

Mat and layered on to some Angelina Fibres in the same colour scheme.

I was pleased with this one. Hope you like it too.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

Follow your heart and believe in your dreams..............

Good morning!

Another of my efforts when just "having a play"! I have taken photo's so let's take our journey to see how I got there.

OK, this card started life as my usual piece of Sheena Stamping card with three different colours of artistry ink dabbed down with a sponge applicator.  Then I used some gesso to dab on some lighter colours giving us that sort of bokeh effect.

I've stamped my images (flowers and sentiment - Leonie Pujol) and the little fairy come sort of bumble bee fairy I have no idea of it's maker! I have taken a photograph for you which I'll pop on here but I've had this set for some time and it doesn't state a maker?

Now, this was more effective that I thought it would be to be perfectly honest! Don't you just love those little happy accidents that come out better than planned!!!!  I decided to used neat household bleach to take out some of the colour to bring those lovely stamped images to the forefront but didn't realise that it would look so nice and effective!

This is the mystery stamp set that I have used!

So I finished off by stamping some of the flowers just with water and lifting off some of the colour and with a few drifts of bleach across the piece and a few dots of gesso using the handle end of my paintbrush I was done.

Mat and layered.

I thought this looked rather care free and happy, suitable for someone perhaps starting a new job, takings exams or even moving home / relocating and flying off to dreams a new.

Hope you like what you've seen and enjoyed the journey today.

I'd like to enter this card in to the Stamping Sensations challenge - Floral Fancies:-

http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/december-floral-fancies.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Beautiful.....

Good morning! Got in a right painty mess with this one!!!!  Inspired by Allsorts Challenge "Fabulous Florals" I set out on a bit of an adventure!!!

I knew the stamp I wanted, I knew the effect I wanted - it was just a matter of how I got there, but get there I did and I'll show you how......

I started with my usual white piece of card and sprayed some yellow and red inks on it.  Then I stamped my rose image in perfect medium and embossed with matt clear embossing powder. I also at this stage added some stencilled leaves and stamped the "beautiful" sentiment in Archival ink.

I had to start to make that rose stand out so I started to darken behind it with some Distress Ink.

It needed to be darker still so I added more......

Then one of my favourite techniques, - bleach!!!!  I needed to remove and lighten between the embossing.

Now comes the magic.  By adding acrylic paints the rose started to come to life!!! I have also added some stencil work at this stage too.

I took this photo for you to see the stamp that I was working with from Imagination Crafts.

I made the very bottom of the stamp very dark to bring the rose out a bit more.....

Happy with that!

I would like to enter this in to the Allsorts Challenge - "Fabulous Florals".

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/week-377-fabulous-florals.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xxx

Exam Success.....Congratulations!

Good morning!! Well, last week (when I made this card) I was a very proud Mum indeed! My daughter Hayley received her A Level results (taken aged 17 - a year early) of A* A* A so hence - this card was produced!!

I've done a step by step so that you can follow how I got there:-

Started with my usual piece of blank white card stock and using a smoothie, sponged over tea dye Distress Ink.

Then I stamped my beautiful owl (Sheena Douglass), his mortarboard hat (Clarity Stamps) and a further branch (Lavinia Stamps) with perfect medium and embossed with matt clear embossing powder.

So, not as shiny as clear embossing powder but enough to give me a resist from further paints.

A better look at the embossing and I've now added some branches (Inkylicious) and leaves (Darkroom Door).

Then, I sprinkled some brushos on to a square acrylic block (orange, dark brown, light brown and sandstone).  Spritzed the block with water and laid my card down on to it to give me a darker background and then of course, the embossing resisted the brusho paints.

I used some of the excess paints on the acrylic block to "paint in" the leaves and some of the lower feathers on my owl. I added some further Distress Inks (aged mahogany, tea dye and rusty hinge) to help balance the colours how I liked them. Then used aged mahogany Distress Ink to sponge through a couple of stencils, embossed his mortarboard hat in black and left the whole thing to dry off.

To finish things off, I used some household bleach to take out some of the colour on my owl (the embossing works a treat to keep the bleach within the image) and got out my Spectrum Noir pencils to finish Mr Owl off so that he looks like he's got feathers!

Added randomly computer generated "Exam Success Congratulations!" sentiment.

Really pleased with that but not as pleased as I was of my daughter Hayley - so proud of her!

I would like to enter this card in to the following -

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - "Resist Technique"
http://www.fashionablestampingchallenges.com/2016/08/18/challenge-114-resist-stamping/

My Time To Craft - "Embossing"

http://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/challenge-327-embossing-heat-or-dry.html

Addicted to Stamps - "Make Your Mark".

Thanks for stopping by,

A very proud Mum, Leanne xxx