A little birdie told me...

Today, is day four of my Clarity shares and I really hope you're all enjoying them as much as I enjoy sharing them with you! This card was made using the Snowdrops, Clever Corner and Sentiments stamps. This is such a beautiful stamp set and I love the simplicity of the stamp...and because of that I really just wanted to keep this card as elegant and as simple as possible. And what better way to do that, than to use embossing powders which showcased all the detail and beauty of the image.

 I chose to go with the olive green card for the show but I also made this variation in black and cream, which I absolutely love!!

So, I hope you're all having a fabulous day and I'll be back tomorrow with the final cards that I made for the show. In my opinion, I saved the best for last. Once again, thank you for all your very kind comments and a big hello to all my new followers!

See you tomorrow...

Love Emma

xx

May all your wishes come true...

Fairies and Art Deco ~ two things that I absolutely love. And this card, combines both those, with a dark black, magical silhouette of a stunning fairy image and the muted, elegant colours. It just feels very reminiscent of that magnificent and glorious period in time.

Once again, I used a "fancy fold" to make a normal A5 card into an easel card. I'm loving the look of easel cards and they really do make a card look just that little bit different.

The main image of the card was first handstamped using a Versamark Dew Drop Ink pad in Pearlescent Olive and Anna Griffin's rose background stamp. Then using Stamptivity's beautiful, Silhouette Fairy Stamps, I stamped with an Archival Ink in black and overlaid that image, onto the background. This was  then matted and layered onto a piece of black card, which I cut using fancy edged scissors to give a decorative edge and then matted onto a layer of gold mirri card.

On the background of the card, I used the wonderful backing papers from Dovecraft's Fantasy collection, which I made sure matched up on the top and bottom of the card to give a continued, flowing look to the design. As a final touch, I added a greeting plaque and some adhesive gems for that bit of sparkle that we all love.

On the positive side...

My last post showed a card that I made using the negative image from a sheet of peel offs. So, using the same flower image but this time, the positive image, shows just how versatile these stickers can be.

I think peel offs can make such a stunning looking card and with this card, I really wanted to keep it very simple, elegant and stylish. The image itself is handpainted using Sakura glitter gelly roll pens. Firstly, I apply colour where I want the most dense shade to be and then using a waterbrush, drag out the ink along the petals and this leaves you with a subtle shading in colour. If I want more colour in certain areas then I just apply a little bit more and blend it until I get the correct shades. Once the image is completed and dry, I matted and layered with co-ordinating cardstock and some mirri card. I stamped a swirl using an image from Anna Griffin's acrylic stamp set with a Versamark Dew Drop ink pad in Platinum Planet and finally added a greeting plaque and the finishing touch of some silver gems!

Mirror, Mirror

Any good crafter or scrapbooker, knows that you NEVER throw anything away, even the tiniest pieces of paper all have a purpose at the end of the day. And believe me, 9 times out of 10, they really do come in useful...well, that's if I can remember that, the 1cm strip of pink card that I had left over from a larger sheet which I probably used 1 year ago, is somewhere in one of those many boxes of the many off cuts that I'm keeping.

But this card is proof that, you don't throw anything away...

With the use of some magic tape, the main flower image is made up from the negative, of what is left on a peel off sticker backing sheet. After using the magic tape to lift the image from the backing sheet, I then carefully transposed the elements to a piece of silver mirri card. Once that is done, I matted and layered it onto a black piece of card and using a corner cutter, shaped the edges. I used the Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges of the piece of red spot backing paper and then cut two further strips of paper which I stuck across the card. The main mirror image is stuck using foam pads to give dimension and as the final touch, I used a greeting plaque from Craftwork Cards, which I colour tinted using a Versamark Dew Drop ink pad, and some beautiful metallic studs, which I purchased from Paperchase.

Happy New Year!

I made these menus for a friend's New Year's Eve dinner party that they're having tonight and seeing as it is NYE, I thought it would be appropriate to share them with you. I handpainted these wonderfully, funny little cat images with watercolours and then highlighted some areas with Sakura glitter pens.

For the menu plaque, I wanted to use a specific colour and as always, no matter how much paper or card I have, and believe me, it's a LOT, I can NEVER find the right piece and shade that I need! So, in this instance, I used ink to paper technique and with the help of a Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad in Cosmic Copper, I found the exact colour I wanted.  After stamping the word menu with my alphabet stamps, I added the final touch of little cat paws as these naughty cats scamper across the card, ready to sing their little hearts out and bring in the next decade....

So, as the final hours of 2009 tick down, I just wanted to say...

Wherever you're going and whatever you're doing...

Have fun tonight, be safe

and

 hope you all have a wonderful, happy and peaceful 2010!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!