Sail Away - a new lease of life

Masculine Monday is back! Lots of my customers tell me that male cards are the thing they find most difficult so, every Monday, I post a male card for a bit of inspiration. I made today's card for the St Lukes Charity Challenge where this month's theme is to 'give a new lease of life to something old, tired and destined for the bin'. Well I could certainly do with a new lease of life but since that's a bit of a challenge, I had a bit of a rummage round the house for something else! Here's what I made:

The background was a scrap that I'd used to practise brayering on during the holidays. It wasn't very smoothly done so I'd thrown it in the recycle bin but I thought I could rescue it and create a storm for the Sail Away stamp to sail in! Here's a closer view:

I teamed the boat with elements from French Foliage and I think they work really well together. Come to think of it, everything works well with French Foliage! Can you see where I've sponged the uneven brayering with white? After that I crumpled a piece of scrap paper, put it into the Night of Navy ink and dabbed it on. This creates lots of movement gives a wild and windy effect - bit like the weather we had last week! Do you like the sails of the boat? They're coloured with my white watercolour pencil - I love my pencils!

My other piece of recycling was this embellishment. I got a pair of posh secateurs for Christmas which were attached to the packaging with a screw and one of these washers. I found the other washer in the tool box and tied them onto my card with a scrap of linen thread. I always like a nice group of three so I added one of the tiny silver mini brads too.

Supplies needed for these projects:

Stamps: Sail Away, French Foliage

Ink: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Whisper White

Other: Watercolour pencils, silver mini brad, linen thread

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

I've got distracted haven't I? I'm supposed to be showing you all the loveliness in the new mini catalogue! Well I'm at sixes and sevens to be honest having spent the weekend in bed with a temperature! My husband was off on a business trip which left my three children to rise magnificently to the occasion. Headed by my teenaged daughter, they formed a crack team that shopped, cooked, cleared away, mopped my fevered brow and entertained me - in fact, I don't think I've ever enjoyed having a bug so much in my life!

Thank you for joining me today. I hope you'll pop back again this week as I've got loads to show you, starting with something purple tomorrow...!

Hugs,

Clouds with Sail Away and Silhouette Sentiments

Do you remember this card? NOT satisfactory for the LiM challenge! I've not been able to stop thinking about it - aaargh, it's like a sickness! - so today I made a revised version just to prove to Lady and Diva LiM that I am a very dutiful little LiMette! (And a terrible creep!)

But I'm happier now that there's some white space going on and it's also occurred to me that it would make a good entry for this week's One Layer Wednesday - to make a one layer card with clouds!

I mean there's no denying there are clouds! But of course that would be cheating, because it's just a revised version of an earlier card, so naturally I had to make another one for OLW.

It took a while because I dropped my stamp-a-majig in the Early Espresso ink without noticing... but I got there in the end! I started by drawing a frame on my card front with a Crumb Cake marker, then created my cloudy effect with torn scrap paper, some ink and some sponges. The bird is stamped over the top in Early Espresso ink. I wanted it to have a sort of twilight effect, with the bird just settling down to roost.

I sponged the edges to define them but I also added a little shading with a grey watercolour pencil and I think it makes the image really dimensional - as if it was stuck on to the card, but I promise it's not! Just for contrast, here's a picture of the one I ruined by getting ink round the edge:

To rescue it, I DID cut this one out and stuck it onto a card base. And while I was at it, since I'd ruined the one layered-ness of it anyway, I stamped the bird again and popped it up over the first - just for fun! But there's not that much difference is there?

Supplies needed for the bird card:

Stamps: Silhouette Sentiments (hostess set)

Ink: Marina Mist, Perfect Plum, Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso, Melon Mambo

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Crumb Cake marker, grey watercolour pencil

You can buy any of these supplies from me and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

Thank you for looking at my cards today, I really appreciate your visits and comments. Hope you have a great weekend and look forward to seeing you very soon.

Masculine Monday - using Sail Away and Acetate

I always start the week with a masculine card and I'm beginning to realise that each time it is based on the Less is More challenge! I am powerless to resist (like so many of the other LiMettes out there!) as the challenges are always so entertaining. This week Chrissie and Mandi are calling for cards made using acetate. Aaaaagh! I NEVER use acetate for cards! But, of course, that's an excellent reason to start now! Here's the card I made:

I 've been wanting to ink up my Sail Away boat for ages and this was the perfect opportunity! I thought if I sponged a simple sea and sky for a background, I could stamp the sailboat onto acetate and layer it over the top.

This photo shows you the sponging. There isn't anything complicated about it at all - it's essentially three bands of colour. I swished the sponge across the card stock using a side to side sweeping motion. The sharp horizon line was made by holding a piece of paper over the sky area. The sea is highlighted with Whisper White craft ink dabbed on lightly with a piece of rough massage-style sponge.

I knew I was going to fix the acetate to the background layer with brads but I really wanted it to be raised a little. Of course, the thing about acetate is that you have to hide your fixings which meant I couldn't use dimensionals so I came up with this cunning plan...

... Setting eyelets in the background before pushing the brads through both layers! Oh I have a devious mind (or so my husband tells me!)

The card could have ended up looking too symmetrical - and I couldn't have that! - so I made a tab-style sentiment for it.

And the verdict? Using acetate was brilliant fun and I can't understand why I don't use it all the time! Thanks Mandi and Chrissie for pushing me out of my comfort zone again!

Here's how to make this card:
(This card is not a standard size - I made it to fit a 15cm square envelope I had.)

• Cut a 9cm square piece of medium window sheet and stamp the boat image onto it using black Stazon ink. Set aside.
• Cut a 12.5cm square piece of Whisper White card stock and lightly sponge So Saffron ink across the middle of it. Add Marina Mist ink above the So Saffron being careful not to overlap too much as you don't want a green sky! Hold a piece of paper over the sky and sponge Baja Breeze ink over the rest of the card stock. Very gently add a little Tangerine Tango ink in the middle of the sky to give the illusion of sunrise. Add highlights to the sea if you like using a rough sponge and Whisper White craft ink. TIP: When sponging backgrounds I always pay particular attention to the edges of the card stock which gives it more depth.
• Hold the acetate over the background and pierce through both layers where you want the brads to be.
• Set silver eyelets into the background piece with a cropadile and then attach the acetate layer to the background by fixing brads through the eyelets.
• Stamp a sentiment and cut it out to make a tab. TIP: I always use my 1 1/4" square punch to help me with this. Stick the tab under the card with tape.
• Cut a 29cm x 14.5cm piece of Whisper White card stock. Score and fold in half to create a card base and attach the sail boat panel to the card front.

Supplies
Stamps: Sail Away, Vintage Labels (retired Sale-a-bration set)
Ink: Black Stazon, So Saffron, Marina Mist, Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Medium Window Sheet, Silver eyelets and brads

Hope you've all had wonderful weekends. Spring has really taken hold here now and we're breathing the scent of spring flowers and enjoying the broods of ducklings on the river. The garden seems to have been taken over by Triffids and every time the children come in, half the outdoors seems to come in with them! I think it's time I stopped blogging now and removed some of it!

Thank you so much for your comments - I really do appreciate them. I shall be back tomorrow with Easter projects and I'll hope to see you then.