Green grunge

Whoops, that G needs a bit of adjustment! An easy fix, fortunately. Lapse of concentration due to a late evening by the desk. Nice mix of grungy and geometrical papers. Quite the contrast to those all white cards I've done recently. :)

Butterfly

 

I like these scrappy, random cards. The ones that just fall together from cut-offs and tags and stuff that flows around on my desk. The ones that, although they aren't exiting and inventive, still hold their ground and find a nice balance almost on their own. The ones that are dark and earthy and yet has that little bit of glitter and spark that lifts my spirit.

Forty

Like the previous card, this one is also clean and simple, but I much prefer this one. It's strange how something looks good and something not, but not being able to fully explain why... Anyway, this layout took a while to balance out, but I think the result is ok.

Shine on!

One of my colleagues has just left for a new job, and this card was made to wish her all the best on her new adventure. While this style is often my choice for men's cards, it also works well for a woman when the highly embellished flowery style seems too cute for her taste. I'd certainly love to receive a card like this, and I hope that goes for others too.

Celebrate

Another card for a man, I've had to do a few of these lately. Always challenging. This guy has more than a couple of cars in his garage, so the vintage car seemed like a nice choice for him. All paper except the kraft base and the green mat is Project Life supplies from various kits

Hooray!

Cards for men are always tricky, and I usually choose kraft for the card base. Then layering bold colours and patterns without too much fuss. Washi tape and a few accents are all that's needed. On my last scrapping fair I picked up a few Project Life supplies and I love using them on my cards!

Play!

I can't for the life of me remember who this was supposed to be for, but I think it was probably a man? Possibly a man. I think. I should probably start writing these things down.
That blotchy red-green tag was made by splashing two colours of Distress Stain on a non-stick baking sheet and patting the white tag into it. Adding some metallic stain, in this case silver, gives you a nice shine. I've made several tags, and it's a fun process. You haven't got much control over the result, so it's a case of getting messy and just experiment away.

Someone turned 40 a while ago, apparently

I've made a couple of cards lately and haven't shared. Too busy looking at other people's work, I suppose? Here's a card I made one late evening, just in time as usual. I can't even remember who the recipient was - someone who turned 40, obviously. I think it was made for a guy? Oh well. Here it is, anyway. I like the rough, grunge-y style lately, but enjoy mixing it up with bold colours. Teal is awesome. :)

The greatest gift

See, didn't I tell you there would be more cards like this? :) I was in need of a baby card and wanted to see if I could translate the idea to something more soft and subtle. The recipe is the same: Base paper whitewashed with Gesso, washi tape strips on the diagonal, semi-random stamping and the oh-so-gorgeous molding paste. Love it! The text is a washi tape saying something like "So small, but the greatest on earth" - but it loses something in translation...

Playing with new materials!

Oh, the joy of brand new materials! That first attempt at a new technique! :) It brings a whole new excitement to the crafting of stuff, of all varieties. :) In this case, I've had a go at using Golden molding paste and a mask, and creating a slightly different style than usual. Fair warning: You're going to see more stuff like this. ;) It took a couple of tries to get it right, but the results, oh the results! Can you tell I'm excited about this one??
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The base of this card is a pattern paper that I whitewashed with Gesso and water to lighten the colour. A few sprays of green GlimmerMist brought it to the right colour. I then went crazy with two kinds of washi tape, tearing strips and layering them roughly along the diagonal. Some stamping here and there adds to the detail. And then I added the molding paste, and the stars aligned. The hardened paste has absorbed some of the colour of whatever medium it rests on, so parts of it are faintly green from the GlimmerMist, and some are tan from the stamping ink. The parts that sits on the washi tape are still crisp white. It all adds to the drama!
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Just look at the pop-up effect of that molding paste! So cool. :)
There are so many layers of mediums on those chipboard numbers that I can't really remember them all... What's visible now is white Crackle Paint that's tainted green and brown by the Distress Ink layer below. Pretty good in the end, but it took a few tries to get the right look.

Finally, some grunge!

Ah, it's been too long. I love grunge, but for some reason don't do it often enough! The 60th birthday of a man is a good reason to grunge it up though. He likes bicycles and I actually managed to find some bicycle related papers! Add some gears, baker's twine, Scrapper's Floss, chipboard numbers and some other leftovers, brighten it with splatters of white Crackle Paint, and you've got a detailed, layered look that works on a man's card. In fact, I wouldn't mind recieving this myself, even though I'm neither 60 years old or a man. ;) But that's me, and I realise I'm surely a minority in the card making community in that respect. There's room for all! :)

Another wedding card

In contrast to my previous wedding card, this one sports rough teared paper edges and a completely different colour scheme. The recipients of this card aren't the pink and frilly type, so it was a good match - but that happened entirely by accident! This was a commissioned card and I had no idea who I was making it for, so I took a chance and was very lucky. :) That cool blue and gold paper is by Panduro, and I swiped some blue StazOn ink over the Prima chipboard letters.

It's the little things that make life big

...like little cards for example. ;) This is the last one for now, but I'm sure there will be more some time soon. Next up is some canvas crafting, and then some knitting. And then more cards. A sudden rise in activity here, I like it! :)

Bloggers Day of Silence, March 18th

Donate - Texture credit 1 - Texture credit 2 - Inspiration credit

Taking flight

I made the lovely Tim Holtz stamp the focal point of this simple card by stamping it on some Stickyback Canvas and matting it with torn, corrugated cardboard. The DP is one of those dark ones that I find tricky to use, but it seemed to work well here. There's no sentiment, so this card can work for any occation!

Carte postale

This card is made from the same sketch as my previous card. Can you see the similarity? I have a tendency to interpret a sketch quite literal the first time, and then making a simpler, much more abstract version... Usually in a completely different style, well demonstrated by these two - one bright and girly, the other rough and raw. The lovely bird is a stamp from Tim Holtz. I've heat embossed it using Distress embossing powder in Walnut Stain, so it has a really rough appearance, almost like sand paper. Very cool. ;)