Imagine and dream

My new set of 'Art Nouveau ladies' and 'Beautiful ladies' stamps from Creative Expressions arrived Thursday and couldn't wait to get started with them.  I knew I had a small list of things to create by this Friday so my two days off work were ideal to get started with them.

First project was a 40th birthday card for my friend Pip. I decided to use one of the 'Beautiful ladies' stamps, which I heat embossed using a pearlised powder in an Amethyst colour, I then used a combination of my Big and Juicy ink pad in 'Hydrangea' and Distress inks in 'Antique Linen' and 'Brushed corduroy' to colour in the image, highlighting the flowers with some perfect pearls. This was then layered up with a K&Co paper from the 'Mira' range onto a card base from Inspire me papers. The brad in the centre of the fabric flowers was made using the Papermania brad making kit which I picked up in the sale a Hobby Craft a few weeks back.

 

I took the angled close up to try to show the Amethyst embossing powder and the perfect pearls :-)

My next card was for an ex-colleague of mine who is retiring this month. We stayed in touch over the 4 years since I left were we worked at together and I know she appreciated the more arty farty style of card ;-)

 

This image was from the 'Art Nouveau ladies' set and I created it in the same way as the previous one, only this time after it was done I masked it off and made a background using the Big and Juicy ink pad and some glimmer mist in 'Raisin' on top. I layered it with some pretty star paper I brought a good few years ago (and can no longer remember where it was from) on a purple A5 size card. I made sure there was a nice retirement themed verse inside, to mark the occasion. I really enjoyed using these stamps, they seemed perfectly designed for embossing and colouring. I shall enjoy making many more things with these.

I have been a regular participator in the monthly ATC swap at 'Addicted to ATCs' and this months swap was 'Things with wings'. I have some very nice butterfly stamps and a couple of pretty dragonfly stamps too but I decided to got with some of the Bird stamps from Elusive Images that I have had for a while now and really do love. My set of three were made using the 'Hydrangea' Big and Juicy ink pad, with masking and brayering techniques.

I think I might have an afternoon of sewing for a change today, as cross stitch is also another hobby of mine. I have been sewing a pretty Geisha girl for a few weeks now and it's coming along nicely. I'll be back to the cards in the week as there are more birthdays on the horizon!

Sarah x