Opus Gluei Challenge #136. Seasons

This fortnight the lovely Rosemary has set the challenge at Opus Gluei which is to make a seasonal project. 
 I love Rosemary's challenges and this one is particularly flexible as it doesn't matter what season or what art form. 
 So it could be the Christmas cards you've been making throughout the year , Halloween pumpkins, the quilted Thanksgiving table runner, springtime flower displays, summer wreaths, scrapbook layouts, presents for the holidays - whatever you've been busy making.  

I chose to make an Autumn Card that doesn't look traditionally like an Autumn card (which to my mind would be with leaves or trees as the main focus and using reds, browns, yellows and green) but something that still was recognizably Autumy.
I think I managed to do it.
Click on it to make it bigger. 
Sorry it's a bit of a dodgy photo.

The birds are a Crafty Individual stamp set on ivory pearl card layered onto paneled kraft card that was embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder and then I rubbed bronze acrylic paint over the sun's rays with my trusty finger.
The leaves are a Hampton Art stamp set. The die cuts are Spellbinders.


Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #135. Where'd you get your suntan?

This fortnight's challenge is mine and it's to make a project based on anywhere you could get a suntan.
I thought we could think about traditional sun holiday destinations or your back garden/yard, on top of the Eiffel Tower, sitting in a canoe, anything really that you can make a story up to explain how you are getting a suntan so it fits the challenge, you know how I love a tall story.
For example, the mermaid whose dream was to get a suntan and how she managed to fulfill that dream. How did she do that? Was Sponge Bob Square Pants or the police involved? Maybe her fairy Grandmother came to her aid? How did she stop her scales from drying out?

I am over here in very soggy England, we have had rain, rain and more rain for what feels like a very long time but if it would just stop raining for a few days I might be able to get a suntan in my back garden.
If I was to lie on tinfoil out in my garden right now you would here the rain drumming on the tinfoil fortissimo style (the music term for very loud which I looked up on Wikipedia, gotta love that website and all the wonderful people who have contributed to it).

I need a raincoat and some fake tan...

So here is our house in the middle of our street.
 I loved that Madness song from 1982, yes, it really was that long ago!
You can see them in action over here on youtube if you fancy a bit of nostalgia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwIe_sjKeAY
Pssst turn it up very loud ;-)

Click on it to make it bigger.
I used a 5x7" canvas that I painted with acrylics to make the background in nice bright colours. I put a coat of Decoart Ice Crystal glamour dust paint over the top. This gives a wonderful subtle sparkly sheen to it.
I die cut some white clouds on textured white card using Memory Box dies.
I used book pages from the wonderful Author Louise Rennison book "It's OK I'm wearing really big knickers!"
 If you love colloquial English then you will love Louise's writing style plus she is very funny.
I used a retired set of Chocolate Baroque stamps called Retro Florals and the brights range of Ranger Adirondack Dye inks to stamp with.
The birds are Inkylicious.
I used scraps of designer papers for the windows and doors and the die cut fence panels are by Go Create.


Happy creating!
Gini
xx

There She Goes Stamps TSG161 challenge. Winged Things

I have one set of There She Goes stamps and it's called Aim for the clouds, it's the same stamp set as I used in my last post but this card looks quite different.
I made that beginners mistake (WTF?) of die cutting, stamping and colouring without having a plan for the finished card. I was just too excited maybe?
So I ended up wasting a lot of card before I came up with this layout.
But I like this card and the wings are on the little silhouette birds that came with the set making it qualify for the TSG161 Challenge.
There She Goes has some wonderful stamp sets, and they are on my shopping list.

I used my Whispers Brush pens to add the rainbow colours to the balloons which I stamped and masked to create the overlaping balloons.
I used Spellbinders Label's 10 and one of the Spellbinders edgeability dies, I think it's called upper crest or perhaps bracket?
The lovely coloured card is Bo Bunny's Double Dot basics range that comes in some fabulously bright colours.
Happy Creating!
Gini
xx

Sketch Challenge 133. Skipping Stones Design.

I followed the sketch quite literally to make this Hot Air Balloon card.
Unfortunately I don't yet have any Skipping Stone Design stamps but have my eye on a couple of gorgeous designs.
Click on it to make it bigger.

This is the sketch:

These are some of the wonderful stamps sets available.
The first two with just the cutest robin:-


                                                             Heartsong 2

 Heartsong. 

 Beautiful Botanicals.

 

 Dandelion Dreams

Healing Wings.

The sentiments are really good for the ever hard card to make; Sympathy for bereavement cards. The poem "Do not stand at my grave and weep" is wonderful and uplifting and I like to include it in Bereavement cards so I'm pleased to see it as a clear stamp.

My card is made using the set "Aim for the clouds" by There She Goes Stamps, another American stamp company that has loads of great stamp sets. The font used on the sentiments is really nice too.
I've paper pieced the stamps with Bo Bunny Double dot papers and the Hot Air Ballon is an Echo Park paper.

Happy Creating!
Gini
xx

1st Birthday Party for The Octopode Factory's Friday Challenge.

I wanted to do something in rainbow colours to celebrate the 1st Birthday Party for The Octopode Factory's Friday Challenge . Happy Birthday to you Lily and the Design Team!

I have also been wanting to make some colourful butterflies cards for a while and mooching about on the internet I found this marvelously happy card by Amy Rysavy from Prairie Paper and Ink blog and her card is based on an amazing Wedding Cake that is covered in colourful butterflies, I hope you click the link so you too can oogle the fantastic cake and her card.
So these two cards are CASed from Amy.
We have got Audrey Hepburn and her beau Charlie Chaplin celebrating in fine Octopode style.
Click on the picture to make it bigger.

I paper pieced Audrey and coloured Charlie in a very scruffy way with my coloursoft Derwent pencils as I wanted him to provide a contrast from the butterflies and look like he does in his films. (Do you notice Sylvia, how I'm on first name terms with them? Ahem)

Do you have any stash that you very nearly didn't buy but that you now use all the time?
I have my Martha Stewart 3 butterflies punch that I use loads, in fact it's my most used punch and the littlest butterflies are brilliant for added a little colour/space filler/added interest in card making.

I brayed my bright Andirondack dye inks; Citrus, Sailboat, Red Pepper, Sunshine Yellow, Pool and Raspberry onto individual white cards and overstamped a polkadot pattern in the same colour, as I didn't have any rainbow coloured plain card to make the butterflies with.
 It took a while to do but I think it works really well and I've plenty of coloured card left over for something else so I'd recommend giving it a try if you feel like it and want some coloured card to match your inks.

The heart in Charlie's hat is a Hero Arts button stamp.

The gorgeous little chicks in their shells are from Catslife Press and are tiny unmounted rubber and I understand that they love a good party (I think most chicks do), so I'm going to try very hard not to lose them on the dance floor.

Happy Creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #133 Get your grill on.

I have realised with this challenge by the lovely Deena over at Opus Gluei that I never ever make food related art, a bit strange seeing as I like food, well don't we all!

 So imagine whilst we're sitting on our tartan blankets sipping our Pimms and lemonade and eating a slice of every cake on the picnic table watching the children play nicely, and listening to the birds twittering in the nearby trees, that our eyes wander up to look at the blue blue sky and see a flock of hot air balloons drifting overhead...

What is a group of Hot Air Balloons called then?
Maybe a punnet of Balloons, mmm strawberries.

This card is made up of Echo Park papers and my trusty old sewing machine.
I used this template; scroll down to the one called Quilted Balloon Card and I printed it out in 3 different sizes for perspective.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

The Octopode Factory Challenge, Girls just wanna have fun. "I love a Smartie Party!"

I initially typed Girls just wanna have fur by mistake, I don't think that's true for many girls do you?
I can't say I have any desire to have fur unless I was really really cold and even then it'd be a toss up between frostbite and fur.
I suppose there might be the odd girl wanting to be a werewolf, I nearly said dog... yikes,   I'll change the subject.

So this picture is called

"I love a Smartie Party!"

This is Audrey Hepburn Octopode style but without the cigarette, sorry the scalpel came out and the cigarette was vamooshed off the rubber.
She loves smarties; particularly the orange ones and it's even more perfect for her, when combined with a party.
She came in her ordinary clothes which is a shame.
I thought she might have dressed up a bit.

This shiny black card is just impossible for me to photograph, yikes.

I've used Hot Tropics Card Candi for the heart frame (which is the third largest Spellbinders nesting heart).
Now I don't know about you but I have quite a lot of card candi that I have struggled to find a use for apart from the ubiquitous 3 in a row.
Does this sound familiar to you?
But I have found I like using it to make frames for things.

I'm also looking forward to trying some of the new mini card candi which sounds great because the current candi is often just too big for the project.
If you buy the white icing card candi you can colour it with any ink to match your project, even dye inks, which surprised me, they just need to be allowed a longer drying time. Hold the card candi with your tweezers and use a bit of sponge to colour them.  You get a nice uniform colour this way.

Now to prevent you from repeating my tantrum, you have to do a trial run and place them around your frame to see if they will fit nicely before you glue them down. I know, who can wait?  but it'll save your stash and card if you do this.
Unless you know you are going to do an overlap with something else, in which case make sure you start gluing from that point, so if they don't fit together when you come to join them up no one will see.

The crown stamp is Artemio from the London set with Tower Bridge on it.
Big Ben is from the Papermania Portobella Road Stamp set.

The Octopode challenge blog is here.

Happy Creating!
Gini
xx