Sunday 24 October 2010

Linda Ravenscroft faery cards

I have always loved fairies (or fae), ever since I was a little girl, and just as much now I'm an adult. There are some amazing faery artists out there: Brian FroudAmy Brown, Jessica Galbreth and Linda Ravenscroft being amongst my favourites. Last week on Create and Craft TV they launched a new CD ROM of Linda Ravenscroft's art full of printable designs for card making, so of course I had to buy it!
Linda has a very distinct style of faery art and you can tell she is very influenced by the Art Nouveau movement (my most favourite style of art).
'Guelder Rose' decoupage card
I was delighted with the print quality of the images from this CD, previous discs I've had haven't delivered the sort of clarity of image I would expect. As soon as it arrived yesterday I got started and have made two cards...it takes a long time to hand cut all the detailed images out!
All the work in this card is in the cutting, other than that I have added some peel off border stickers, a touch of Glossy Accents to her eyes and lips and Stickles glitter glue on her wings and dress to finish it.
Sagittarius Zodiac Faery
It's my Mom's birthday next month and when I saw the lovely Zodiac designs on the CD ROM I couldn't resist making her a card with her birth sign on. This is one of the 3D (decoupage) toppers, smaller than the topper on the first card I made it leaves you more scope to decorate the background of the card.
The background paper is colour co-ordinated with the design and is part of a selection of items that you can print out that match each design. I matted and layered the hexagonal design on to gold mirri card, added some peel off borders and gems to embellish. 

I am smitten with this disc and will no doubt be posting more completed cards from it soon.
Sarah x


Saturday 16 October 2010

A set of note cards

An on-line friend of mine was looking at some photos of my cards recently and asked if I would create her a set of note cards using the Art Nouveau ladies stamps from Creative Expressions. She especially like the 'Dream' card I made a few weeks ago:
So with this in mind I used four different stamps from the two plates and made a total of eight note cards, two of each design.
I decided to make them A6 in size, as most note cards usually are and also to keep the costs down for shipment to the USA. 
The main images were stamped using Stazon ink in 'Stone Grey' onto watercolour paper, which has a slightly textured surface. 
I water coloured them using Distress inks and then accented them here and there with Perfect Pearls in Interference colours. A few jewels and a touch of Glossy Accents were also used on some of them. 
All the images were matted and layered onto purple holographic card and mounted onto purple base cards with embellishments of ribbons, flowers, jewels and sequins. 
I've sent my customer an email to show her the finished cards, hopefully she'll like them, if not then I could be selling them on Dream Aid or Esty ;-)
Sarah x


Friday 15 October 2010

Spooktacular!

So this past couple of weeks I have been obsessed with the two new Halloween themed stamp plates from Elusive Images:
After gaining much inspiration from the Elusive Images Design Team blog and the free ideas sheet you get when you purchase the stamp plates I have made several different Halloween cards for some of my more spooky friends :-)
A trio of feline familiars
A close up of the cat & pumpkins panel.
 
A close up of the spooky house panel 
All the main images were stamped onto white card with black Archival ink and coloured with Distress inks in a watercolour style, accented here and there with Perfect Pearls and Stickles glitter. Most of the brightly coloured card is stamped with Versamark and highlighted with Interference Perfect Pearls in a toning shade.

I had so much fun making these and can't wait to send them out. Autumn is my favourite time of year and Halloween is a fun holiday, I just wished we made as much of it in the UK and they do across the pond in the USA.
Sarah x