Metallic Monochrome

When I saw this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge I had a couple of ideas in mind but as usually what I had in mind doesn't always translate well in practice!

I had a play with some washi tape and some paper strips but just couldn't seem to get past the planning stage with them.  Then yesterday I saw something on a Facebook group I belong to and thought I would give it a try - elastic band stamping.  Just take an acrylic block, wrap some elastic bands around it, add some ink (or in this case I used a watermark pad) and use it to stamp your design.  I used a copper coloured embossing powder and was quite pleased with the result it gave.

I have only a few sheets left of matt metallic cardstock copper and not been able to find it again but decided to use it for this - I took a rectangular layering die to the inside of it to make the most of what I had left for the embellishments.

I have been making cards to give to my friend who is housebound so that she has some to hand when she needs them.  I am trying to cover all occasions so this will be one for adding to the pack I am putting togethr for her.

Be You!

Nice to see the days getting longer & soon the clocks will be springing forward but today it is a bit on the chilly side.  It has been trying to snow and apparently it is going to be rather a cold week, it looks as though my heated throw will be staying out storage for a bit longer!

I was having a look for something among my crafty bits and bobs during the week and came across a sheet of Bird Crazy stamps I had coloured in a long while ago.  A couple of days later one of hubby's nephews had posted this Gif on his Facebook page

 so I just had to do something with the stamps which may be appropriate

I hadn't used these stamps for ages and when I saw the latest Freshly Made Sketches Challenge sketch

I originally thought that I would use one of the other stamps I had found as there were some ready coloured and cut out.  I came up with this in combination with a Tim Holt's Mixed Media #3 die but wasn't very happy with it so it was back to the drawing board (or rather the craft stash).

After a lot of staring at things I decided I hadn't really done many male oriented cards lately so set myself the goal at finding something to fit.  I had a checkered plate embossing plate (Crafters Companion "Gun Metal") and used that as my starting point and then the industrial theme began to take shape so the Tim Holtz "Gearhead" cog wheel dies came out. 

Originally it was just going to be an arrangement of the cog wheels but when it came to looking out a sentiment for it I found the Dyan Reavely "Be you, the world will adjust" stamp and remembered I also had a Tim Holtz world globe die.  My thinking behind this card was to set the globe slightly at an angle to the cogs as if it was part of a mechanism.  Oh well, it was just a thought, but this is what the reality of that looks like:

Friends

I do wish that the weather would make up it's mind what it wants to be! Just when you start to dream that a sunny summer could be just around the corner, a few days of heavy rain bring you back to reality!

I've been telling hubby for a while now not to put bread on the patio for the birds as it's not the best thing for them to eat. Finally I found an article on the subject and that, plus the heavy rain causing the bread to make a soggy mess on the patio which I made him clear up, he decided to stop it.  In return I bought some special wild bird food balls that he could put out for them. Neither of us could believe how hungry our fine feathered friends are, they may be wee but they've gone through one ball every other day & I'm now down to the last one - something else for the weekly shopping list!

I thought I had my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge sorted out - oh how wrong could I be when I realised, after I'd made it, that I had used the exact same stamps I'd used a few weeks ago! Ah well, it was back to the drawing board to come up with a new card to fit in with this week's sketch:

The original card I came up with used stamps from the Penny Black "You're Retro" set. I used some Spray Distress Inks to create the multi-coloured back layer:

I Used

Cardstock

White 300gsm - Fabiano

Blue - Crelando

Stamps

You're Retro Stamp set - Penny Black

Inks
Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Promarkers - Letraset / Winsor & Newton

Once I'd realised what I'd done I started looking through my crafty stash to see what I had and found a Darice embossing folder "Feathers on Side" and decided to try something with that.

I thought instead of using different layers I would try using different colours on the same piece of card and used a highlighted part of the design to form the area where the dark strip is in the sketch. Once the Distress Inks (Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers & Seedless Preserves) were on I used some Starlight Gelly Roll pen over metallic Promarker to create the highlighted area. The sentiment was stamped using clear Versamark and set using silver embossing powder.

I had problems trying to get photos which showed the embossed stamp in the correct colour- some made them look black instead of silver, whilst not the best, these hopefully these show the detail.

I Used

Cardstock

White 300gsm - Fabiano

Stamps

True Friendship Stamp set - Kaisercraft

Inks
Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Promarkers - Letraset/Winsor & Newton

Gelly Roll - Sakura