Autumn Gold

Good morning folks, it's Monday again and it's chucking down the rain outside yet again so I hope none of you have been flooded out. Not something we get here very often fortunately as the nearest rivers are 5 miles either side of us.
Today sees the last of the Autumn supplies challenges over at Make My Monday and this week the supplies in question are Buttons and Ribbon.
I decided on very warm and glowing colours for my card as I think we all need a bit of cheering up in the wet and dreary weather so I hope this does the trick!

I made the background paper using Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed and Wild Honey Distress inks with my Vintage Inking Technique (you can find the link to this by clicking on my new Tutorial page at the top of my blog). I then added faux stitching using a brown fine pen and the Tim Holtz Idea-ology ruler.
I added the panel to a tent fold card blank I made (necessary as the card is embellishment heavy) and added a central border of scrap decorated paper from my bits box, trimmed with a Martha Stewart punch. I also added a small strip of painted corrugated card and some lovely Autumn coloured ribbon lurking in my ribbon jar.
I then added a further scrap of stamped paper from my bits box to a recycled clothing tag (thick kraft chipboard so I just had to save this!), trimming the paper edges with pinking scissors. I made a rather bold floral embellishment using a piece of velvet ribbon in a gorgeous russet shade, running a line of stitches down one long edge and gathering it up to form a circle. I topped this with a flower from my bits box and and a lovely flower button with the shank chopped off.
I assembled the card with a panel of painted corrugated card, trimmed at the top with the pinking scissors and finished off with a couple of the leaves left over from an earlier project and a die cut sentiment stamped with a Hobby Craft clear stamp on kraft card.

Have a great week.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes
Gingerloft Challenge - Leaves
Stampin' For The Weekend - Use Some Texture

Vintage Style Inking Tutorial

Hello folks, I'm back today with my promised tutorial for the inking technique I used on my easel card for the Make My Monday challenge last week. It gives a really lovely mottled effect with a definite vintage flavour and is really easy and quick to do.
You might want to get a cuppa before you start reading as it's quite photo heavy to show all the different stages and there's a card at the end which I made with the paper.
Here we go!

You'll need some baby wipes and some toning shades of Distress inks - here I've used Wild Honey, Dried Marigold and Crushed Olive. You'll also need some fairly textured card as it works best on rough textures so you could also use cold pressed watercolour paper.

Step 1 - Using a baby wipe, apply a layer of the lightest ink to your piece of card and allow to dry for a couple of minutes.

Step 2 - Shape the baby wipe into a ball and pick up some of the next ink shade and tap this onto the inked card. If your ink pad is very wet, you'll need to tap gently as you're aiming for a "fluffy" look to the applied ink. Repeat until the card is covered as shown.

Step 3 -  Repeat the second step with the first ink shade. You'll see the mottling start to build up now.

Step 4 - Repeat the second step again with the third ink shade until the card is well covered with the mottled effect.

 Step 5 - Your final result should look something like this.

Step 6 - Your decorated paper is now ready to use as it is, or stamped on like mine. I've used the jumbo cling rosehip design by Stampendous with VersaFine Toffee ink.

Here's the card I made with the paper, adding the woman image (Rubber Stampede) a little inking on the roses with Topaz and Paprika VersaColor inks, some computer generated text (I saw this lovely quote in a craft magazine) and some stamped, cut out leaves adding a slightly more textured look to the design.

Hoping you like this as it really is easy and you can achieve loads of different effects depending on the colours and inks you use. You could also try the technique with paint.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Vacances En France

Good morning folks, I've gone all French today as it's the second of my challenge themes over at Make My Monday and this week, the theme is French Vintage. As you see, I've managed to combine 2 of my favourite things this week!
My inspiration for you is a rather different shaped easel card which I made with a Papermania large die set with gorgeous elegant, frilly edges. It also uses a different inking technique which I'll be adding a tutorial for later on this week - it's really easy to do and gives a very effective vintage style grungy look.

I've added 3 photos as it was quite difficult to show it all properly with just one and the other pics show more of the detail.
I first made the card blank up using some cream textured card, quite a thick one as it's more sturdy. I added ink round the edges using my vintage inking technique (tutorial to follow) using Victorian Velvet, Tattered Rose, Crushed Olive and Frayed Burlap Distress inks.
I stamped the Hampton Arts Fusion passport image on cream card with Archival coffee ink and die cut the shape with the next size down in the die set. I coloured the panel with a mix of Promarkers and VersaColor inks in Split Pea, Khaki, Cinnamon and Old Rose. I stamped just the larger butterfly section twice more on cream card, coloured the butterflies with Promarkers and cut them out.
I die cut a panel of cream card for the base with the smaller die and inked this with Sand Beige, Cinnamon, Old Rose and Umber VersaColor inks then stamped on Hero Arts old French writing several times with Dovecraft Natural ink.
I made a floral embellishment with a Magenta flower stamp (I 0354) which I've had for many years but you can still buy it from The Stamp Man. I stamped the flower with yellow, pink and rust inks then embossed with iridescent Blonde Moments embossing powders. I cut them out and layered them up with a dew drop in the centre.
I assembled the card as you see, adding the 2 cut out butterflies with foam tape.

Hoping that you all had a good weekend and better than mine as it ended up being really expensive because my Dyson washing machine decided to give up the ghost on Saturday and was too expensive to repair so we've had to buy a new machine which is arriving tomorrow.

Have a good week.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Crafty Mess Challenge - Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - Easel Card
Totally Papercrafts - Let's See Those Shapes