Birthday Butterfly

Hello Everyone, 

how are you doing?

This is the second card I mentioned a while ago.

I wanted to try out a new pad of water colour paper I got at a rather cheap chain store nearby. They sell a lot of craft supplies, among them the flamingo embossing folder. I got the paper pad because it's very bright white, but I didn't expect much of the quality. And a true water colour artist would most probably not use it. But for my needs it did perform okay. 

I wanted to try the butterfly (also from that store) at the same time, and thought I might practise some no line colouring with my ZIG markers. Finding out that my antique linen ink pad was very dry, I stamped the butterfly in yellow ink, since I originally intended to use yellow for my colouring as well. I changed the plan and used blues and a very pale brown. So now there are still very light yellow and greenish veins visible in real life. I chose a dark brown for the body and also added the sentiments in very dark brown ink. In hindsight I would have preferred only one sentiment.

Since there was no black on the card, I didn't want to use a black or grey card base. I fussed about quite a bit, deciding on the card base colour. I didn't have matching card stock and thought about inking direct to paper, but since tumbled glass and antique linen both need to be re-inked I had to abandon that idea (I don't have the re-inkers at home). In the end I picked vintage photo distress ink and very very lightly blended some of it on a white card base, just enough to achieve a lighter version of the colour I used for the butterfly. I like how that turned out very much.

I had to shorten the card base about half a centimetre from the usual standard card size (German size = 10,5 by not quite 15 cm), because the paper pad is almost but not quite A4 format, meaning it's one cm short. But that truly doesn't bother me. 

By now I have used the same paper for 4 cards, and I really like it. It's surely not good for a true painting, but for background techniques that require water or very simple colouring it's just fine.


Lots of love
Ela



Challenges: 
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday
Simon says Stamp: Anything goes

Another gardener's Birthday

Hello Crafters,

today is our grandpa's 78th Birthday and it's a tough one, since it's the first as a widower. So we wanted to do something especially nice for him, and planned a little garden party, with barbecue and all the family. My landlady graciously allowed us to use her lovely garden.I do hope he'll not start weeding or something.

Since he's a gardener, I used the same set with all the planters and tools as for my landlady's card. This time I did some no-line colouring with my ZIGs. I decided on ZIGs again, mostly because they are on my desk in two buckets, whereas my traditional water colours are in a drawer out of sight. Considering how intricate the images are, this was definitely a good decision.

For the backdrop I coloured some embossing paste in a sandstone colour (ZIGs again) and stencilled a wall on a white card base. In hindsight, I think it should be more yellow, less pinkish, but it's good enough. The wall idea is not original, I have seen several similar cards on the Internet, mostly with cacti or succulents. It's just so fitting for these images. 
Also the idea to use the table as a shelf isn't mine either. I've seen Therese use it like this at Lostinpaper.

I rarely get the coordinating dies, since they are quite an investment and not quite as versatile as sentiments or general shapes. But for this set I actually did, so I decided to use them this time. 
When I had arranged my images like I wanted them, I simply couldn't find a Birthday sentiment to go with them. I seriously have a lot of Birthday sentiments, but none was just right. So I just decided to make do without.



He is one of the people who actually appreciate a handmade card and so far he kept several of my cards from previous years, so I think he'll like this one as well. 
 

Lots of Love
Ela 


Challenges:

Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday