Booklet Front Cover and Frames for RL

I have created this piece for a friend, who is about to open a new shop. She will be selling things such as crystals, incense, my cards, postcards and tags!! and providing complementary services such as Reiki and Indian head massage... Her open day is next Saturday, and this piece is for the cover of her booklet. I hope she likes it!!

I want to enter it into Rainbow Lady's challenge, too, which is frames, this week. I discovered the way to make the narrow frames (could be broader if I wanted) on my printer, this evening, that was a great find... I began by stamping the Butterfly Kisses stamp, then adding the cloudy moon image, from A Stamp in the hand. My fav swirl corner from UMount, was next, the butterfly from Elusive Images and then the agapanthus from Stampendous.

Most of the inks were versafine in onyx, smokey grey and vintage sepia, and the black ones were embossed with clear ep. I masked the head image and the moon, swirled distress inks mustard seed, worn lipstick, dried marigold and old paper on my heat mat and spritzed with water. I dibbled the shiny card about to get the colours where I wanted them, just blending a little with my fingers etc. My hands are FILTHY now, but I LOVE the piece. It will be a shame to give it away. Thanks for looking.

TIO Challenge "Time and Tide"

Here is my tag, which I made for the challenge over on my TIO blog. I coloured it with Cosmic shimmer and Glimmer mists in blues and greens. The stamps are UMount, Kodomo and Dimension Fourth. I used clear embossing powder over versafine black and smokey, as well as some distress inks and printworks pads. I just kept adding "stuff" until it had the look I had dreamed!!

I love collage stamps, and find them so useful for this kind of work. This tag is quite large, at 6x3.5 + "wings"... It is shiny and very vibrant, but this does not show well on the screen. Thanks for looking.

Oriental "Thank You" 谢谢 xièxie Cards

This trio was done for a commission. They are "Thank You" cards for 3 young men who do Taiji Quan with me. I enjoyed doing them, using my new stamps from Lavinia, which I bought at the NEC recently. I used Adirondack Earthtones in butterscotch, red pepper and terracotta. The sun is by Hero Arts. I stamped the trees etc with versafine onyx black - a new pad colour to me, which I LOVE at the moment... it is just so juicy and black!! The sky is good old gum drop from Big 'n juicy. I really like the texture which comes from using the brayer, rollered over the torn paper hills. I think they will go down well with the lads!!