Dancing Hummingbird

Good Afternoon Crafters !

I realized that I'm obsessed with stamping & inking while participating in Zumba recently.  Zumba is a fun areobic class with a variety of Latin dance steps.  While concentrating on following the fancy footwork, I suddenly noticed the tattoo of beautiful flowers on the shoulder of the lady in front of me and my mind left Zumba and went to thoughts of what a nice stamp they would make !   Of coarse I lost my step !

I received more beautiful stamps from Ryn of  Designs by Ryn to create more card designs for her and amongst them was another of her beautiful Hummingbirds.   This one is especially beautiful, he looks like he is dancing....... maybe not Latin Dancing but he looks very graceful !

Stamps used for this card:   Designs by Ryn CM-B9 Flying Hummingbird 2 and CM-F3 Black Eyed Susan.

The background was created by starting with white card stock (I use a smooth sheet that is meant for Copic Markers, it gives a nice base to work on).   I used the following Color Box Fluid Chalk Inks -  Yellow Citrus, Lime Pastel & Ice Jade and 'stamp smooshed'  the flower using the inks one at a time.   The final image is Color Box Boysenberry Pigment Ink which was stamped without too much 'smooshing'.    Stamp Smoosh is simply stamp and then give it a little 'twist'.. more dancing :)

I mistakenly mounted this background upside down, the flower looks better turned the other way, I will make sure to get it right on my next card using this stamp.   

I stamped the Hummingbird on water colour paper, embossed with black & coloured with Tom Bow markers & water.   He turned out to be a colourful bird.  It's fun to imagine what Hummingbirds in the tropics look like and maybe they are dancing there !    Here they like to hover over flowers which is amazing to watch.      

The Happy Mother's Day sentiment is from a nice little set from Kaisercraft - CS916 Occasions. 

Thanks for stopping by & have a great day !

Shirley  

A Tropical New Year

Happy New Year everyone !     We had a wonderful time celebrating last night with good friends until the wee hours of the morning.   I can never sleep in, so here I am enjoying the morning in my craft room with a cup of tea.

I have a good view of the snow & trees in our backyard from my craft room.   It's very pretty but I'm dreaming about tropical places & flowers !

I created this card using the Cathie Allan "Stamp Smoosh" technique, which is easy.   I enjoyed taking a class with Cathie at the Scrapfest show last Fall.    This stamp is a Poinsettia but I used tropical colours which is a vibrant change from all the Christmas cards and snow themes etc.

This stamp, F5434 Poinsettia Bloom by Hero Art, is a solid image which works well with the 'stamp smoosh' technique.  (start with your lightest colour, stamp down hard and give your wrist a little twist to 'smoosh' the ink)    Fluid Chalk Inks work well as they dry quickly to allow you to 'lay down' your next colour.  I used  heavy white card stock and ColourBox Fluid Chalk Ink set Ocean Breeze - starting with Lime Pastel, then Ice Jade and finally Aquamarine.     I stamped the flower out again with ColourBox Pigment Harbour, in a 'normal' manner.  I embossed these with clear powder.   I stamped out one extra flower to cut and pop up on the card.   I have a hard time making a card without some kind of dimension added.   

Because the background has a lot going on, I really didn't want to cover it up with much else.   I added some ribbon, a charm and a few lime green stickles on the darkest flowers and matted onto co-ordinating card stock.  I used a nestability label - S4347 with a sentiment from Inkadinkado (96614 set) which was also stamped with Colourbox Harbour Pigment Ink, embossed with clear and then inked with Peeled Paint Distress Ink using the die for a mask. 

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you all the best for a Happy, Healthy & Creative 2012 !
Cheers
Shirley

Flowers & Lace

Good morning !     I worked on some cards for Designs by Ryn this week and thought I would post one today that is a diversion from Christmas cards !    This card was created using an inking technique (smooshing) that I learned in a Cathie Allen class last month.   

The stamp I used is Flower Lace which is beautiful with the delicate lace around the flower.   This stamp is great for backgrounds, but I also used it for the main image.

I used a heavy white card stock and stamped out the flower (by smooshing) with first ice blue, then wisteria and finally blue iris chalk inks.   The final images were stamped using Midnight Blue pigment ink and then embossed with clear.  I stamped an extra flower with the midnight blue ink, embossed with clear,  cut it out and popped it up.    I added a few rhinestones, pearl spray and the Best Wishes sentiment (I used distress ink to colour) for the final touches !

Colourbox Inks:  Petal Point chalk set - Blossom Pastels and Midnight Blue Pigment.
Distress Ink:  Milled Lavender 
Spellbinder Nestabilities : Labels Twenty-Three S4-348
Stamp:  Flower Lace 2 CM-T5 by Designs by Ryn

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by !
Shirley