Stamps Ahead

I am participating in a swap of Artist Trading Cards (ATC) over at Soul Scrappers  themed Summer Fun.  There are 10 participants. ATC's are little just 2.5" x 3.5".  They are a great way to practice new techniques. Here are the cards I created: Summer to me includes ice-cream and gelato - love the colours. As an aside - who remembers Gelato knitting yarns - same colours and I made many a top with them in the day. Now, how did I create these?  I have had Ranger Oxide Distress Inks (only 6 of first issue colours) for sometime now, and like many I have watched Utube, read blogs, scoured Pinterest but never really put 'ink to paper'.  The time is right.  I have used the inks 4 ways: First I 'smooched' the first ink colour onto my craft sheet, sprayed and then lay 12' square of cardstock on top, then proceeded to do the same with 3 other colours, drying as needed between applications. This is closer to the colours rather than the photos abov...

Today, I lead several children aged 6 - 12 in making cards for a local church fete later in the year.  As I prepared for today I wanted cards that were easy enough for the kids to make, held their interest, and allowed them some scope with creativity and their own ideas.   I must say the cards they created were fantastic. They created over 20 cards and also a small notepad (no photo unfortunately - to busy helping them!!) Here is photo of some of the finished cards with the designs I prepared for them. The monster card (already packaged up ready for the fete) is one that I love - great for working with kids.   The Crazy Birds Stamps and Die (Tim Holtz) card uses washi tape and the participants had the choice of using coloured pencils or markers to colour their bird of choice. 

Yesterday, I participated in a cardmaking fundraiser for Kisii, a school in Kenya.  Here is the card I created for the ladies to make. It uses Tim Holtz Crazy Bird stamp and die, the background is Gorgeous Grunge from Stampin' Up! (SU) and the greeting also is SU.  I pre-stamped and cut the die before including in the bundle of goodies to make the card.  The bird has been watercoloured using SU markers. I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest - however despite searching for over an hour I was unable to find the original creator of card that inspired me - it had been copied and saved to many boards. So if you are out there and happen to read my blog, thank you. I love the Gorgeous Grunge stamps as you do not have to be precise in the placing of stamps, excellent for beginners and experienced cardmakers alike. Close up of that Crazy Bird.  Thank you for looking, Margaret :)