Black Magic Snowflakes!!

This technique is so dramatic that I thought I would try it with snowflakes!! There is a tutorial on Splitcoast you can check out!
 I stamped three different snowflakes on a quarter sheet of black cardstock using white pigment and the greeting on a black scrap using the same ink.  Once dry, I coloured all the white using blue, lilac, mauve and silver pencil crayons.  For the final touch, I added dots using a white gel pen - just makes everything pop!!  I trimmed the quarter sheet to leave a small border all the way round on an A2 card and then cut out a rectangle from the middle using a rectangle Nestibilities.  I cut the greeting close and layered both using white cardstock.  The elements were assembled onto a white card.  One little white punched snowflake (MS) attached with a black mini brad was the final touch!!
I am really happy with the way this one turned out!!  Makes a great card for a winter celebration!!

Therese

Monochromatic Blue!

Lots of blue!!  Created this one for a Monochromatic Blue swap!! I am really happy with how the blues in this card work with each other.  There was a fair amount of swapping until I was happy with all the layers!  The image is from my image stash - clear embossed on white and colour washed with watercolour.  I keep printed, stamped, coloured, cut out images - actually all images that don't work out for the project I am working on.  As in this case, this image was the focal point of the card and I built all the blue layers and embellishments around it!!  Perfect!!  I used some very cool velvet ribbon on this card - it is such a nice baby blue and has lots of texture - would have been too thick to knot so for this application - backed with double sided tape - it worked out just right.  Added blue rhinestones to each scallop on the border (SU border punch) as well.  The greeting was stamped in blue.  After a bit of experimenting I ended up stamping off once before stamping on my layer to reduce the intensity of the ink.  I like how it turned out!!
It has been fun to play and make cards one at a time!!  I am using the supplies that I really like and have only in limited supply!!  One more swap - finished!!

Therese

Valentine card

Back to creating!!  I have combined a swap with a challenge and created this Valentine's card!!  The swap is for a Valentine's card and the challenge is a Valentine's card using red, pink, white and teal.  I started with the bird cage graphic which I download from Graphics Fairy.  Lots of great images there for free!!
I opened the bird cage jpeg in my graphics program (Photo Elements) and removed the numbers and the top perch to allow enough room for my birds.  I had fully intended on stamping the birds but getting them just where they needed to be became problematic so I decided to draw a couple instead.  They are simple line drawings but I am happy with the way they turned out.  I combined them in my layout program (Cored Draw) and sized them for my card before laser printing them.  I dug through my paper scraps and found this red and pink paper which I combined with the teal trimmings created when I layered my watercoloured image.   I punched a hole at the top of the cage and tied in some vintage pink seam binding to finish off my card!!
So I will be submitting this card to the Valentine card challenge at Class Acts and sending along the actual card to my swap partner!!
I have several other projects on the go and will be uploading them as they are completed!!

Happy creating!!

Therese

Happy New Year!!

The gift of a new year!!
As you can see from the photo, we are welcoming this year with mild weather and today has brought the first "snow day" with lots of ice and very little snow!!  With no snow before it started and the prediction of above freezing temperatures for the next few days I expect there will be none to speak of again!
We had a wonderful Christmas with lots of family in many different places so we are happy to be back home and getting back into a routine.  Though, with saying that, our routine will be a different one as my DH retired and we will be learning to live with each other.  We are up to the task, looking forward to having more time with each other and fully aware that there will be bumps in the road before we are full speed ahead with the rest of our lives!!  We are grateful that we have all we need and have been blessed with more!!

Therese