Birthday Lilies

 A lot of birthdays are coming up in May and June, and Mother's Day of course, well, a lovely excuse for someone addicted to stamping .....

This card is for a good friend who is going through a rough time. She loves ships, sea and flowers, so I wanted to combine these things in one card. And what a happy coincidence, I had already more or less figured out what stamps and colours I wanted to use for her birthday card, when I saw the themes of favourite challenges ...... a perfect match!

I stamped the lilies with Brilliance pearlescent Rust on PainOn Lisse paper. This paper is a bit smoother than PaintOn paper which makes it sponging ink easier. I masked the Lilies and put a stencil on the paper. I sponged with Versamagic ink, I used 3 different colours. 

My stencil was too small to cover the entire area, so later on I stamped some dots on the upper part of the paper. I also stamped the sentiment a couple of times (with the stencil still on the paper!). I removed the stencil, and sponged the entire card with Versamagic Aloe Vera.  This softens the edges of the parts I sponged before. 

I stamped the boat with black Versafine and colourized it with pencils. I also extended the lines of the water with a black Faber-Castell Pitt pen. I added the sentiment. Now it was time to colourize the lilies! I used Inktense and a water brush.

The lilies really pop out of the card irl, sorry I wasn't able to catch the wonderful effect of the brilliance ink on my photo.
The inside of the card and the envelope are also decorated with the lilies.

Stamps:
- Lilies: KiCoStamps (plate 5)
- Ship: Katzelkraft KTZ079 - Bateau en Mer
- sentiment and dots: StampinBack sheet 135

Other Materials:
- stencil: unknown (there was no brand name of other info on it)
- pencils: Derwent coloursoft and Inktense

Challenges:
- Beautiful Blossoms Challenge - Anything Goes Flowers/Florals and an optional Mood Board 
- Stamping Sensations - May challenge: mood board or AG

Thank you for watching!

decorating the trees

What would Christmas be without decorated trees? Whether it be coloured lights, baubles or other beautiful ornaments, we have to decorate everything to brighten up the long, dark days. This little penguin decided it was time to decorate this almost leafless tree!

This time, I started with stamping a frame of Christmas baubles. I used 2 very old stamps of Ready2Stamp (SiriusHobby), they were still on loop tape but I had to take it off because the hook tape doesn't stick to the acrylic block anymore. So now the stamps are on EZmount. I stamped them with Brilliance pearlescent Beige. I really love using this colour if I want a golden touch, but nothing to shiny and/or yellowish. 

I putted masks on the Christmas baubles on the lower side of the card and stamped the Penguin (KiCoStamps) with Versafine. I moved the masks to the upper part and stamped the branch (Stampinback), also with black Versafine. 

I colourized the penguin and Christmas baubles with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. I used Derwent Inktense pencils for the background. I added some Inktense around the borders, and started working from the inside to the outside with a water brush. This way it's easy to solve all the pigment and spread it evenly with a bit more pigment around the borders. I think it gives a wonderful accent.

Challenges:

- Christmas Kickstart Challenge - Challenge #82 - The Midas Touch

Thank you for watching!

Reaching for the stars

 This Penny Black stamp has been waiting for me a long, long time. I just wanted to make a beautiful card, nothing over the top.

I used PaintOn paper to make double cards. I stamped the Penny Black ballerina with black Archival ink, and masked her. Used my home made star stencil and sponged versamagic ink (Aloe Vera), and stamped  'Jingle Bells', 'snow' and 'happy' (KicoStamps) with each another colour of Versamagic ink (Aloe Vera, Oasis Green and Turquoise gem). I removed the mask, reattached the stencil and colourized the girl with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. The little stars are colourized with Twinkling H2O's.

Inside the card, I started with stamping a champagne glass (not sure about the brand), and little stars. I masked the glass and tried to mask the stars (this didn't work out very well). This time, I used the part of the clear sheet I had cut out, everything else is the same. I colourized the glass with both Derwent coloursoft and a Derwent metallic pencil. 

I have decided to show only the outside of the card over here. I have been experiencing great issues with entering my cards for challenges and I have no idea what is going wrong! If you'd like to see the inside, please google 'helenstempelt' and 'wordpress'. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Challenge(s):

Christmas Kickstart Challenge

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity - challenge 181 (Linked on my other blog due to the issues mentioned above).