Old as the hills

This is a 50th Birthday card for a male friend, people think that it is hard to do cards for men, but I think this is a nice unisex card applicable for either.

Materials:

Card:

Black Card Stock

Watercolour Paper

Paperado Chocolate Card

Inks:

Spectrum Noir Aquatints: Landscape

Stamps:

Cherry Pie Art Stamps - P430 Two Celtic triple knots

Cherry Pie Art Stamps - R515 MONOLITH (Stonehenge)

Ink:

Distress Aged Mahogany

Memento Bamboo Leaves

Memento Gray Flannel

Versafine Black Onyx

Embellishment:

Rope on a Bobbin (woodware) from Chocolate Baroque

Method:

1) Load up the stonehenge stamp with versafine Black Onyx and stamp onto the watercolour card, allow to dry

2) Take the celtic knot and load the stamp with the aged mahogany - stamp 3 times (you might want to do a few spares)

3) Next matt some balck card onto the white card base covering it, then matt the chocolate coloured card on top of this - I left 5mm either side. 

4) Allowing for a 5mm indent from the mated chocolate card stock, cut a rectangular piece of watercolour card

5) Using the landscape aquatint inks create a back ground. At the bottom I used the dar brown and the honey brown and then overlaid the green on to this.

6) The sky was done using a combination of the two blues and the grey, the clouds use a "faux bleach" technique. Set aside and allow to dry

7) Returning to the stonehenge print, load up a water pen brush with gray flannel and then use this to colour in the henge, set aside and wait for it to dry.

8) Clean the nib of the water pen brush and load it with bamboo shoots (stamp the ink pad onto an acrylic stamp board and pick the ink up from there). Colour in the white parts of the celtic knot with the bamboo laves green.

9) Carefully cut out the henge and the celtic knots.

10) Using PVA glue seal the rope on a bobbin at both ends and apply to the card (mine is roughly 4cm in from the left) and then attach the knots

11) Matt the henge onto the card.

Dancing Dragonflies

This is a submission for the Chocolate Baroque Challenge 11. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it!

Materials:

Card:

White Card Stock

Scrap Paper

Watercolour Paper

Inks:

Spectrum Noir Aquatints: Perfect primary

Stamps:

Chocolate Baroque - May AYOS

Ink:

Versamark
Memento Grape Jelly

Distress Picked Raspberry

Versafine Black Onyx

Pens:

Sakura stardust silver

Quilling Paper:

JJ Quilling Opal Green 3mm

Embossing Powder:

WOW Silver super fine

Method:

1) Load up the stamp with versafine black and stamp onto scrap paper, this is to be used as a template for husking the dragonfly wings.

2) Place pins around the "clear" dragon flies wings and husk using a triple wrap, do each wing individually using the opal green paper. Repeat this until you have done all the wings on all the dragonflies. (husking involves wrapping quilling paper around the pins to create a shape).

3) Once you have constructed all the wings, cut 1 and 3/4 inch strips of the opal green quilling paper and create S scrolls to fill the wings. 

4) Put all the quilled piece in a box, arranging the wings in the order on the stamp (so you don't get confused later)

5) Using versafine black load the AYOS May stamp and print onto white cardstock, once dry cut out the dotted background.

6) Get some watercolour paper and using the two blues from the perfrect primary aquatint range, apaint a background to look like water (I alternated and used water to blend), allow this to dry.

7) Once the watercoloured background is dry matt the cut out stamp on to it, colour in the background of the plain dragonflies using the silver sakura pen and start to mount the quilled dragonfly wings, I did all the wings and then added the scrolls. Make pegs (tight circles) for the bodies using the opal green.

8) Using versamark, load up the stamp and imprint onto the watercolour card and emboss using the silver powder.

9) Using water pens colour the embossed wings using the grape jelly and picked raspberry inks to colour the wings, cut them out.

10) Mount the embossed dragonflies at different heights using the decoupage foam and the quilling to create depth.

11) Use the grape jelly ink to create a border with the water pens.

A Rainbow of Butterflies

This card was made for the WOW Rainbow Challenge.

Materials and Method:

Inks:
Memento Tuxedo Black
Versamark

Embossing Powders:
WOW Bright White ultra fine
WOW Ebony ultra fine

Stamp:
Chocolate Baroque AYOS April
Kaisercraft Script

Pens:
Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers
DR1
OR2
CT4
LG5
BT5
IB3
PL4

Card:
White Card
Plain Vellum

Instructions:

1. Using the memento Tuxedo black ink, ink up the chocolate Baroque AYOS April stamp (large) and print onto white card.

2. Using Spectrum Noir Marker (BT5, IB3, PL4) colour in the blank butterflies on the paper you have just stamped and allow to dry

3. Using the  AYOS April Butterfly stamp (cleaned) load it with versamark ink and stamp onto another sheet of white card. Cover in Wow ebony embossing powder, shake off excess and then heat with a tool to a glossy finish.

4. Reload the AYOS April stamp with versamark ink and stamp onto the vellum, apply the WOW Ebony super fine embossing powder and heat carefully to set. (vellum can burn easily so hold the heating tool further away and move it quickly over the work)

5. Take the first stamped piece of paper with the Blue, Indigo and Violet butterflies, load up the Kaisercraft Script stamp with versamark and stamp over the coloured butterflies (if necessary use pieces of scrap paper as masks). Apply WOW bright white embossing powder, remove excess and apply heat to fix the powder.

6. Take the ebony embossed white card and cut out the spaces of the blank butterflies, this will allow the blue, indigo and violet butterflies to show through on the final card and creates dimension. Use a craft knife to do this.

7. Having cut out the plain butterflies colour in the background using LG5 and the patterened butterflies blending DR1, OR2 and CT4 (spectrum noir alcohol markers)

8. Repeat the blending of DR1, OR2 and CT4 on the WOW ebony embossed vellum and cut the butterflies out using scissors or craft knife.

9. Starting with the Blue indigo and violet butterflies as the lowest layer build the card up, with the vellum butterflies going on last. Bend the wings to create a 3D effect.

Optional:

10. As an option you can use the spectrum noir alcohol markers to custom colour clear rhinestones and add them to the butterfly body, the effect is shown in the photograph above. I used the DR1, OR2 and CT4 pens to colour the rhinestones. I used PVA glue to attach the rhinestones to the card.