Blue Elf....

 

If you follow my Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/mandastamps?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

you will have seen the preview of this guy that I posted a couple of weeks ago. 

 

Well I finally got a chance to assemble the card......here it is in all its simplicity.

 

Stamps: Christmas Cuties, Petite Pairs

Colours: Pool Party, Real Red, Night of Navy, So Saffron, Blush Blossom (retired) for the skin.

Other: Softly Falling embossing folder.

 

Happy Stamping....Manda xx

Acrylic Block Spritz.....

 

That's the way I've made the background for these cards......I used my stamp pad to add colour to my acrylic block and then I spritzed with water before stamping onto Whisper White.....Don't you love the way the colours blend together?

 

Here are the full cards again....

 

 

I'm entering these cards into the Can You Case It Challenge #92.... a sketch challenge.

 

Colours: Pool Party, Wild Wasabi, Cucumber Crush, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Whisper White, Memento Black Tuxedo.

Stamps: Crazy About You

Other: Various retired and non- SU things from my stash..... Opps....

 

Happy Stamping.....Manda xx

Cotton Paper Flowers.....

How cool is this flower???  And so simple to make.  We learnt how at technique class on Sunday.  Drop me an email at jatla@bigpond.com if you would like to join us at the next class.

 

 

Here's the full card.....simple so as not to take away from the stunning-ness (is that a word) of the flower.

 

Look at how high it sits......isn't it great?

 

Stamps: Tin of Cards

Colours: Cucumber Crush, Crushed Curry, Watermelon Wonder, Whisper White

Other: Cotton Paper, Flower punch, Rhinestones, Chevron Embossing Folder.

 

Happy Stamping....Manda xxx

Time for a technique.....

 

I'm sharing a card today that I taught at my technique class this afternoon....the technique is called Reverse Masking. 

 

Normal Masking is where you stamp your focal image and then cover it over with scrap paper or a sticky note and then stamp behind it, with some of the image 'hiding' behind the focal image...sorry if that doesn't make sense.....I'll have to do a tutorial on it for you.... stay tuned.

 

Reverse masking is where you mask off an area of the card and then cover the unmasked area with ink.  Today we shared how to use a circle punch to create a focal point on a CAS card with colour and image.

 

Stamps: Tin of Cards, World of Dreams, Papillion Potpourri

Colours: Whisper White, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Memento Black

Other: Bermuda Bay sequins and thick bakers twine.

 

Happy Stamping....Manda xx

Pink Petite Petals......

 

I've whipped this one up tonight to enter into the Colour Q #313 challenge.

 

I have used a technique called reverse masking, which I'm going to feature at my technique class on Sunday....Mind you, the technique will be used in a very different way!!

 

Here's my card for the challenge entry.....there are lots of little Pink Pirouette flowers in the background.....it's a little tricky to see them in this photo, but they are a little clearer in the first photo.

 

Stamps: Tin of Cards, Petite Petals

Colours: Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Smokey Slate, Whisper White

Other: Stamp'n'Write Marker, Rhinestones

 

Happy Stamping......Manda xx

The 'other' man.....

Well.....that got your attention, didn't it :-)

 

Usually I'm a die hard SU! girl.....it's very rarely that I waiver from the quality of rubber and on trend images that SU! provide. 

 

But at the recent craft show here in Brisbane, I saw this stamp, and just had to grab it. His name is Billy....

 

 

 

I decided to colour him using the colour pallet over at Can You Case It? this week.

 

Here's my card.....

 

Stamps: Gorgeous Grunge, Teeny Tiny Sentiments,Billy

Colours: Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, and just a little bit of So Saffron to colour the hair and Blush Blossom (retired) for the skin.

Other: Dimensionals, Watercolour Paper. 

 

Happy Stamping....Manda xx

 

 

Jingle x 9 ....

 

Unfortunately, just a super quick one tonight....I've been unwell with a virus that was very generously shared with me from one of the little treasures in my class.  Well they do say that sharing is caring ..... 

 

I've not been particularly creative with this one, but when inspiration is lacking, I find that putting ink to rubber is the best way to get your mojo back, even when you are not particularly impressed with the outcome. 

 

This one is taken from the sketch over at Case This Sketch

 

Stamps: Jingle All the Way

Colours: Read Red, Cucumber Crush, Whisper White

Other: Dazzling Details

Happy Stamping......Manda xx

Half a Wonderous Wreath......

 

What????  Yes literally, half of the wonderous wreath.....or is it more two thirds???  Three quarters???  LOL

 

I'm really liking the idea of CAS cards at the moment....and this is super CAS....one layer, which isn't like me at all.

 

Stamps: Wonderous Wreath

Colours: Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Real Red, Whisper White

Other: Stamp'n'Write marker, Dazzling Details

 

Happy Stamping....Manda xx

Looking outside of the box......

 

I needed some more male birthday cards, and was looking for some DSP to make up some quick and simple cards, using the same sketch as in the last post.    Sometimes you find inspiration, or just the perfect thing, in the oddest of places.  This DSP pattern came from a retired Christmas paper stack, Festival of Prints.

 

Stamps: Happy Birthday, Everyone

Colours: Island Indigo, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla

Other: Festival of Prints DSP stack (retired).

 

PS.... I've made up these from the extra DSP pieces....but I'm not sure what to do with them yet.....Let me know if you have any ideas!! 

 

Happy Stamping....Manda xx

Don't Open Till......

 

This is a quick and simple Christmas card idea, that I featured at a recent Stamp A Stack Class.

 

All you need is some Christmas DSP, a focal image, a couple of punches and a bit of Gold Gimmer Paper and there you have it.

 

Don't know if I can wait till Christmas though.....hehe

 

Stamps: Antique Tags

Colours: Whisper White, Mossy Meadow

Other: Gold Glimmer Paper, Seasons of Cheer DSP

 

Happy Stamping.....Manda xx

Colourful Silhouettes......

 

This final technique from the watercolour class is to watercolour the background.  For this card, I took the colour palette from the  DSP, English Garden.

 

 

And here's a close up of the colouring....

 

Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Sentiments.

Colours:  Rose Red, Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron, Night of Navy, Stazon Black

Other: Triple Flower punch (retired), Rhinestones, Delightful Dijon Ribbon, English Garden DSP.

 

Happy Stamping....Manda xx

Blended Watermelon Bloom......

 

This is what I call true watercolouring....using your aquapainter and ink to colour an image.  While this image focusses on Watermelon Wonder, I still love the variations of tone strength that you can achieve with just one colour.

 

 

And just because I can....here's that gorgeous flower again.

 

Stamps: Blended Bloom

Colours: Stazon Black, Watermelon Wonder, Hello Honey

Other:  Pearls, Bow Builder Punch, Large Polka Dot Embossing Folder

 

Happy Stamping.....Manda xx

You've Got Bliss....

 

Card number 2 from the watercolour class.

 

To create this technique....stamp your image onto watercoloured paper using a dark ink colour, then use your aquapainter to spread the colour into the white space of the image...... a quick and easy way to colour a line art image.

 

 

Stamps: You've Got This

Colours: Cucumber Crush, Blackberry Bliss, Whisper White

Other: Watercolour Paper, Aquapainter.

 

Happy Stamping....Manda xx

 

 

 

Eclectic Leaves....

 

Over at Fusion challenges this week, they have this gorgeous photo and a rather cool sketch.

 

I decided to have a go at another way of using the watercolour crayons that I have to play with. This time I used them to create a background, using a range of colours in the yellows to reds (taken from the leaves in the photo) and then blending them together with my aquapainter.  Once the paper is dry, then you can stamp over it, which I've done using Memento Tuxedo Black.

 

And then here's the card in it's entirety...

 

I'm a little disappointed that the card seems 'darker' than the inspiration photo, but I do love the contrast of the black and silver glimmer paper, which is then picked up with the rhinestones.

 

Stamps: Kinda Eclectic, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Colours: Pool Party, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, red and yellow from the crayons.

Other: Silver Glimmer Paper, Rhinestones

 

Happy Stamping....Manda

Sharing toys....

 

One of my fellow stampers left me with some of her toys to play with... some beautiful Lyra Aquacolour crayons.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed colouring with crayons since Stampin' Up! retired their watercolour wonder crayons.  I find them so easy to get a beautiful contrast of colour with, as the wax keeps moving around with the water until you are happy with the result.

 

Here's a close up of 3 of the vases that I've coloured to show you the variations of colour that you can achieve with crayons....I've only used 1 red crayon to colour the vases.

 

The colour palette I've chosen comes from Colour Q challenge #310

And here's the card that I've made to enter into the challenge.  I didn't have any Kiwi Kiss cardstock as its been retired for a while, so I substituted Pear Pizzazz for the card base. 

 

Colours: Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Real Red (which I know isn't technically the challenge colour, but RR matched the crayon colour better LOL)

Stamps: Vivid Vases, Tin of Cards

Other: Shimmery White Cardstock, Red Glimmer Paper, Lyra Aquacolour crayons.

 

Happy Stamping...Manda xx

Blue Watercolouring....and Whoops!!

I recently ran a technique class all about watercolouring....we made 4 different cards using 4 different watercolouring techniques.....this technique is called Embossed Watercolouring.

I really love the blend of blues in this flower.....Night of Navy, Marina Mist and Pool Party.

The whole card....with Pear Pizzazz Leaves......

 

Now....you might look at this and think

#1.... Those leaves don't look like Pear Pizzazz .....

 

or

 

#2..... That card looks warped.... or have I had too much Champagne???

 

Hehe....

 

Well, we invented a new technique which really fit into the watercolour class well.....it's called spilling your tea onto the card and look what happens!!  Watercoloured leaves.  I actually really like the blend of brown and green

 

And based on this I'd like to enter this card, crunkles and all, into the Can You Case It? challenge for this week.  My inspiration comes from Theresa for the blue palette, and Pam for the wash effect, even if mine wasn't intentional!! 

 

 

Stamps: Work of Art, Remarkable You

Colours: Night of Navy, Marina Mist, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla

Other: Metallic Gold Thread, White Embossing Powder, Watercolour Paper, Aquapainter. Deco Label Framelits

 

Happy Stamping....Manda xx