Adding Black Marks

I'm over on the STAMPlorations blog with these two cards showing how black marks can give you some really cool modern cards.

Create your own vase beneath a floral cluster.

Or add a funky modern background.  Details on the STAMPlorations blog.

Seize The Birthday - Sentiment As Focal Image

Hello!  We've got a new challenge at Seize The Birthday and the theme is Sentiment as a Focal Image.  (Or you can just play along with any birthday-themed creation.)

This is all one stamp called Birthday Splodges by Woodware.  It was just a case of spodging some colour around the letters, and it was done!

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and from our surprise party guest Joyce, and join in with us.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #256

Hello!  It's Inspiration Tuesday at STAMPlorations, and today I've gone a bit grungy.  I stamped the bouquet from Sweetly onto white card, then covered it with Newsprint Background Bits #1 stickers and fussy cut the image.

The background stamping on the kraft card is with Mixed Media Grunge and Art Marks 2.  The letters are from Uppercase Alphabet die leftovers.  I only had one 'I' so I cut the foot off an 'L'.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a $10 gift certificate.  While you're shopping, don't forget to use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY for 20% off.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #255

Hello, it's Inspiration Tuesday at STAMPlorations, and today I'm using one of the new stamp sets, Sweetly, by Shery.

I stamped the butterfly, watercoloured it with Distress Inks and fussy cut it.  I had a negative sentiment diecut from an earlier session, which I'd backed with black glossy card, so I adhered that across the lower portion of the card then added the butterfly.  I just glued down the body and tilted the wings up, but it will lie flat for posting.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a gift certificate for $10.  And while you're shopping, use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY for 20% off.

STAMPlorations Stencil Sunday

Hello, I'm on the STAMPlorations blog today with my stencil project.  So I decided to use one stencil, Peeking Dahlias, to produce four different cards using different techniques.

For this first card I added Distress Oxides using blending brushes.  I only wanted to use one flower so I masked off the other.

I added some Tumbled Glass shading around the edges, and was going to just add a sentiment, but because my other cards below are quite CAS, I wanted one of them to have a bit more going on.

So I watercoloured a bright background.  At this point I thought I'd spoiled it, so I added some splatters and stamped marks from Art Marks 2 in Distress Oxides.

Then I added the HB2U that I found in my stash and stamped zigzags from Art Marks 2.

And added some turquoise Stickles in the centre of the flower.  And then I liked it :)

For my second card I painted watercolour brush colours through the stencil, then painted the background, blotting it with kitchen roll to add texture.

The colours were used undiluted.

I added a butterfly and Skinny Sentiment from my stash.  Tip: when you're die cutting a skinny sentiment, cut and make up an extra set while you're at it, then you've got one in your stash ready for an 'emergency' card.

For my next card, I sponged Distress Inks through the stencil,

then I removed the stencil and added light doodles.  The sentiment is from Everyday Sentiments.

My last card uses Distress Oxides on a dark background with another sentiment from Everyday Sentiments.

They glide on so smoothly, and stand out well on darker card.  I added some white crayon marks, but the crayon wasn't happy about being on Distress Oxide.  I could have used white pen, but that would have given me a more pronounced mark and I only wanted a hint of white.

I hope I've inspired you to try different techniques with your stencils.  Leave me a comment here and over on the STAMPlorations blog for your chance to win a $15 gift code.  And don't forget to use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY for 20% off whenever you're shopping in the store.

STAMPlorations Release Day 5

It's the last day of the new release on the STAMPlorations blog, and I've got another card for you using my set, Layered Vase.

I've used Distress Inks to ink up the outline image and for the solid images.  The 'birthday' is part of the Skinny Sentiments dies, and 'wishes' is from Big Monsters.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created, and don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs for your chance to win: there are two prizes on offer - a $20 gift code for one winner and the stamp set of their choice for another winner.  The stamps are 10% off until 19 February, and if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get an extra 20% off.

Seize The Birthday - White Space

Hello, we've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday - we want to see 'white' space on your card ('white' being open unadorned space on your card that allows the focal point of your card to shine).

This is version 2 of my card - you can see version 1 below.

My original intention was to use the diecut flowers as a mask while I coloured the background.  You could argue that this works on two levels: the white space is actually the focal point, and the coloured background becomes the 'white space'.  But I thought that might be pushing the definition a bit far, so I went with the conventional white space, but I couldn't resist some black splattering.  Well, it didn't look finished...

The flowers were already coloured from the masking process, so I just added a bit of detail with coloured pencils.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog to see some more fabulous creations from the team, and play along with us.