En Francais Birthday FMS 131

This morning, when I was tidying up I decided to make a card with some of the background pieces I'd demonstrated at last night's workshop. The girls were making Scalloped Tag Topper cards once they had stamped a background. I'll pop a photo of some samples near the end of this post.

The En Francais stamp makes a lovely background with its flowing script, but it was handy to have Cindy H's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to give me some fresh inspiration on how to use it a different way. The colours here are Pool Party, Coastal Cabana and Bermuda Bay, such an awesome trio~!

I don't usually leave such a wide margin around my layers, so that was a bit of a change for me, as was the strip of patterned paper laid over both. I'd had the Pool Party ruffled ribbon out for the class, as one of the ladies had used this colour scheme too.

I also love the Happy Watercolor stamp set, and have used the longer flower (looks like a native orchid to me) on the panel. I stamped the 'splash of paint' stamp from that stamp set three times without reinking. Using the darkest shade, Bermuda Bay, then huffed* on the rubber, stamped, huffed* again and stamped, to get the faintest image at the top.The dotty image is also from Happy Watercolor, it has been stamped in gold ink. Itty Bitty Banners has been getting a lot of use lately too, the framelits to cut the banners make it so quick and easy.

* huffed - technical term to describe breathing heavily through the mouth!!!

The girls were able to make a variety of cards using background stamps like Hardwood, En Francais and World Map before trying a couple of ways to use the Tag Topper Punches.

I've been busy with my grandchildren today and now they are in bed I am quickly catching up with my blog. We are keeping two of the older ones for a few more days, so it will be busy for a while before we return them to their parents. It isn't really helping that the weather has turned cooler and drizzly for a number of days now. We took them to a concert today and it was just as entertaining watching their reactions, as the performers were!

Thanks for popping by,
Rachel

Hang In There

I have an extra day to my weekend this week - Yay! Although we are officially into Autumn now, it is very hot outside. I gardened yesterday, when it also was rather hot, so today is an inside day.
I have been preparing for my April class, when we will use large background stamps and the Tag Topper Punch, so although this isn't exactly what I will be offering, I like to show different samples to my crew.

What better for these colours than Lovely As A Tree? This stamp set has been around for years, longer than I've been a demo certainly, but it still has something for everyone in it. Just as everlasting as a tree, I guess.

Firstly, I stamped Crumb Cake card with the same colour ink and the large background stamp, Hardwood. Its very authentic looking, available in the new Occasional Catalogue and I love it, especially stamped in out of the ordinary colours like blue. I'm making some of those too! I didn't want to make the usual Tag Topper Punch card this time, so I snipped the side and trimmed it up. I chose the single old oak tree from Lovely As A Tree and inked the greenery with Pear Pizzazz before thumping with different green Stampin' Write Markers. Also used an Early Espresso marker for the trunk and branches. This is a combination of Ink to Rubber technique and the Thumping technique. The variation in greens is perfect!

For the greeting I went to a very neglected stamp set, From My Heart. You'd really have to know the recipient of this card well, to know whether they would appreciate the sentiment. It says, {HANG IN THERE} and on the inside of the card  'They say "this too will pass" they just never say WHEN'. I was able to use an off-cut from the hardwood card front to trim the bottom of the card.

I'm thinking this card will fit the Clean & Layering section of the Card Concept Color Challenge. Check out the gallery there too.

See you again soon?

Thanks for visiting my blog

Rachel

Lovely As A Tree 128655

Sympathetic Birds

I did a lot of chores yesterday, so today I've happily pottered around home. One of the things I had to do today, was replace the ink in my printer and that leads me into my craft space, which in turn leads me to sitting and checking out the challenges! Oh! Is that where the afternoon went?

Sketch #15 at Seize the Sketch seems to follow the lines of the card that everyone is making with the Tag Topper Punches. I thought I could work with it anyway. Then I saw the colours in the challenge at PPA Color Challenge and thought they were perfect for this sympathy card. The birds in a tree are from Serene Silhouettes and 'You're In My Thoughts' is from A Dozen Thoughts.

Inside is a verse from a 2011 stamp set, Thanks For Caring, which sadly, never made it into an annual catalogue. I prefer this verse over all others for a sympathy card. "May you find peace and comfort in this difficult time and know that you are loved."

No doubt you've realised that the colours are Smokey Slate, Night of Navy and Wisteria Wonder. I had Night of Navy card but not ink so I substituted Midnight Muse, and used a piece of the ribbon too. There was a silver foil Starburst circle left over from another card, so I added that too. A tiny Wisteria Wonder Candy Dot is placed on the greeting.

I'm heading out of town tomorrow for my grand daughters first birthday and Monday is a work holiday in my state - Labour Day,  celebrating the 8 hour working day.

Hope you have something nice planned too...
Rachel