Favourites of 2014

Just browsing, as you do, and I saw a post from last year with favourite projects of the year, so as I've been very lacking on the crafting front lately, I thought I'd have a look back at my crafting year again this year. I've not just concentrated on finished cards this year, but also on some techniques I've really enjoyed trying out. Possibly a good call, as I seem to have so many UFO's about, its ridiculous!
 First card I picked this year,was one I did for a guest DT spot on Chocolate Baroque.

Put myself on the spot by colouring with Promarkers, and I'd just started playing with gilding flakes, so added them in too.I made both backgrounds by sponging on Distress Inks, then second generation stamping images. Something again I hadn't done before, though admired it greatly wherever I'd seen it.

Second card used sponging again, this time with another technique I'd finally got around to trying out this year- Resist Stamping. It only uses two stamps- both from Visible Image, Love with your Heart phrase and Grunge Flourish. The flourish was randomly stamped around the edges of the large square in white, and heat embossed in white powder. DI in Salty Ocean and Dusty Concord sponged over the top. On the small square the phrase was treated the same way, then I overstamped the flourish in Adirondack Denim. The flowers are called Delicate Asters, a Spellbinders/Heartfelt creations die, that looks gorgeous, but requires a ridiculous amount of patience to get good cuts!

The Resist Embossing technique is one I played with quite a lot over the year,  you can get some beautiful effects just by changing the sponging colours, and its so simple. What's not to like? I did the panels on a separate sheet of card, so the base card didn't buckle when I heated it, and just trimmed down to the height of my card base. Still pretty CAS, almost one layer cards though.

I stamped the ladybirds in black this time, and did mask them off for the sponging, and the overstamping with the fabulous Water Droplets stamp from Ryn, which incidentally can now be bought as part of an unmounted sheet available from Oyster Stamps. The cards made doing this technique, also led me to another card making discovery, for using up the offcuts, and the stuff that didn't come out too well.

Punch/cut down into small squares and mount in a grid system! The colours and stamps pull the whole thing together, and you get a bunch of cards in a few minutes.

It was definitely all about playing with the techniques this year, and one I found on Pinterest really grabbed me, called 'Northern Lights'. Just so simple, sponging on streaks of colour, letting them overlap and blend together, then finally bringing in a darker tone over them. Add your images, maybe a little colour to areas of the image, and you're done.









This was the start, with the basic sponged colours, and the overstamped images.

Same piece after the brightness has been toned down the addition of extra blue. All it needs now is some greys/browns adding into the rocks to tone that down, and its good to go.

Final one, just to show you don't have to get fancy to get awesome! Stamped in black on white, then matted onto black card leaving a really thin edge. To get the embossed oblong, I lay the stamped piece on the inside of the card front, and just lightly drew around each corner with a pencil. Then I marked about 1/2" away from those lines, and lightly pencilled in the oblong. Scored the lines on a scoreboard, then rubbed out the pencil marks.

So thats what I've enjoyed doing in 2014- heres to another year, and hopefully a lot more creativity on my part next year!

Building a whole scene using the Northern Lights technique.

As the previous project came out so well, I was intrigued to see if I could build up a whole scene with a group of stamps and still using the Northern Lights technique for the sky. I figured if I used some masking, it should work ok. I have to admit, I'm loving this method- even I think this sky is stunning!

The stamp positioner came out for this- I have a phobia about not matching the stamps up quite right. I used Versafine on the positioner plate, but Staz-on for the actual stamping. I used to stamp onto the plate with Staz-on, then discovered it was that that turned my plate all cloudy.  Having stamped the mountains in place, I placed Lakeside Cove below them then masked the mountains to stamp Star Birth over the top.This was the completed scene, before any sponging.







I put the mask back in place to begin the sponging- I wanted the colour to reflect in the water, but not be visible through the  mountains.



I started with Mustard Seed again, but this time I was a little more free-form in how I added it, not just in straight lines.

  I sponged the sky, then added some streaks to the water area, with a few dabs onto the rocks.









After the Mustard Seed came Adirondack Citrus, followed by Sailboat Blue.




Finally some Dusty Concord, then the mask was removed from the mountains.


Now I began adding Blues to the water area, Sailboat Blue and Denim Adirondacks.





Latte and Slate were added to the rocks.

To colour the mountains, I dabbed in some Citrus and Mustard Seed lightly, then added Slate over the top, with finally a bit of Latte. A few stars were highlighted with a white gel pen.

I trimmed the edges of the image down, to remove the excess card, matted it onto black, then dark blue card.
I'm also entering this into the Craft a Scene Challenge for April, which is a Mountains and Hills theme.

Supplies:
 Adirondacks, Citrus, Sailboat Blue, Denim, Latte and Slate.
Distress Inks Mustard Seed, Dusty Concord.
 Staz-on Black
Sponges
 White gel pen
 Stampscapes stamps:
 Lakeside Cove, Rocky Peaks and Star Birth.

Mystic Moon(light)

  Here is the second of my DT pieces for Craft a Scene's March challenge, Moonlight.
It uses a couple of Stampscapes stamps, and a couple from Non Sequiteur.
The background is also a little different this time, created using oil pastels. If you go to this page, you will find instructions on how I did this. Its a really simple technique, but can produce some interesting results. The important thing is that you will have to stamp in Staz-on, or it will wipe off, Versafine will work, but you need to spray with a sealant to make it permanent, I use cheap hairspray.
I created the background on white pearl card, an A5 piece,leaving a white area where I was going to place the moon. The oil pastels I used were a mix of blues with a little black for the night sky, browns in the centre for the mountains, another layer of blue where the lake would be, then greens for the foreground.
     Another bonus with the oil pastels is that when you have your images stamped, if areas are too dark, or just to make  areas of light & shade, you can remove some colour using tissue/kitchen paper/cotton buds.I did this in the water area to simulate the reflected moon.
The first image I stamped was the mountains, Rocky Peaks,188F, roughly in the middle of the background. Next I added the Cloud with Crescent Moon Lge, 202G, placing the moon in the white area. A Stamp Positioner helps here.

72C, Mystic Dreams

At the base of the Rocky Peaks I stamped Lakeside Cove Lge, 049G. To finish the scene, I used a stamp of Standing Stones, from Non Sequiteur plate 72C, Mystic Dreams. These stamps are now available from De Stempelwinkel. You can see the full range of images here, at Non Sequiteur,. They have some fabulous stamps, images you won't find anywhere else, all u/m.
 Finally, some white gel pen was added to give highlighted areas. I trimmed the image down, then matted onto black, then silver card. Before mounting onto the front of a Black base card, I stamped the words MYSTIC MOON, also from the Mystic Dreams plate, in Silver Encore pigment ink, added Silver Detail embossing powder, and Heat embossed. Then I mounted the image above it.
 So, to recap what you will need:

Stampscapes stamps

 188F, Rocky Peaks
202G Cloud with Crescent  Moon
049G Lakeside Cove

Non Sequiteur stamps
72C Mystic Dreams

Oil Pastels
White pearl card
Black card
Silver card
Black Staz-on
White gel pen
Silver pigment inkpad
Silver Detail embossing powder
Heat gun

Birthday Wishes

Another card featuring Stampscapes Lakeside Cove. White card brayered with shades of yellow Adirondack dye ink, overstamped in Black Staz-on, then a little brown ink added to the rocks. the sentiment was also stamped in brown, onto a scrap from the main image. The image  and mat were cut out with the two largest dies from Nestabilities Labels 8. The base card was cut to 15 cm square and covered with a sheet from the Papermania  Antique Cream pad then a length of toning ribbon wrapped around, with a folded bow added on top.

Lakeside Cove at Sunset

Smooth white card brayered with Adirondack Sunshine Yellow and Butterscotch. A reverse mask from a post it note added to the top centre, and Distress Ink Wild Honey brayered across for the setting sun. Stampscapes Lakeside Cove, 049G, stamped in black Staz-on and allowed to dry. Reverse mask reapplied over the water, and the reflected sun brayered with Wild Honey again.A little colour sponged onto the rocks with Adirondack Espresso.The image was cut out with the next to largest die from Nestabilities, petite scalloped ovals, and a bronze mat cut with the largest size, this one also embossed. A sheet of distressed brown paper from  the Papermania Simply Elegant paper pack was used to cover a DL card blank.A length of toning ribbon was wrapped around the card front, and stuck down with DST where the image would be placed.The image was mounted with DST also. Three small squares with bits of image on were cut from the remains of the die cut image and matted onto bronze card  and adhered to the lower right corner, and a sentiment label was made using another scrap.

Stampscapes

This card uses two Stampscapes rubber stamps,Star Birth (217G) and Lakeside Cove Lge (049G).The background was made by dragging oil pastels to give a 'Northern Lights' feel vertically over the top two thirds of a piece of white card, and dragging blues horizontally across the bottom third for the water. I then stamped the Star Birth in Black Versafine, then lined up the Lakeside cove below it, also in Versafine black. The image was cropped then matted onto Black then White card. I scored and folded a sheet of dark blue card, then trimmed down to make a square card blank. Crafty Individuals stamp CI 021, which is a words background was stamped in Black Versafine in the top left and bottom right corners of the card front. The matted image was then mounted centrally on the card base.