Pears

I made a quick card this morning because I really wanted to play along in a few of the current challenges - especially those involving fruit!  I have a decent collection of wood-mounted stamps featuring fruit from when I first started collecting and it was time to dust those off and make a card.

So this card was made for City Crafter Challenge and The Male Room, who are both asking for fruit and because my stamps are so old, I'm joining in at Retro Rubber's Anything Goes challenge.  I'm also linking this to CASology with a cue word of "write" and Less is More who want to see green and gold.  I'm a bit iffy about linking to these last two challenges because while my card is CAS in my eyes, there's not a lot of "white" space going on.

Anyway, I white embossed the beautiful calligraphy image onto black cardstock and adhered it with foam tape to the card base with a little sliver of gold at the bottom to add interest.  The pear was stamped onto X-Press It cardstock and loosely colored with Copics before being fussy cut.  It is also popped up on foam tape.  And that's it!

Thanks for visiting.

Products used:

Stamps:  N1768 (pear text) A Stamp in the Hand, pear stamp by Collections

Ink:  Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black

Cardstock:  White, black, gold foil

Accessories:  White EP, Copics

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at City Crafter Challenge.

Gold Leaf Time

I've had some fun the last couple of days sorting through my old, old stamping stuff.  This stuff goes back to the early 2000's and has been in storage under our stairs for the last several years.

I've pulled it all out and gone through it, either donating or dumping heaps of it.  What I did find though was all sorts of specialty papers, like Cold Laminate, Gold Leaf, Copper Shim etc.  I also had heaps and heaps of magazines, so I went through them all, ripping out the pages I wanted to keep and recycling the rest.  It's interesting that in the days before die-cutting and embossing and patterned paper, it was all about the techniques.  There are some cool techniques out there and I've used one of them today - gold leaf on cold laminate.

I'm using the inspiration photo at Just Us Girls and the sketch at Mojo Monday (flipped).

I stamped the image from Collections (an Australian company that make (made?) the most artistic collage-y type stamps) onto Cold Laminate using Black Stazon.  Once that was dry, I peeled off the backing then rubbed gold leaf flakes onto the back using a stiff paintbrush.  I mounted that piece onto Basic Black, then Brushed Copper cardstock.

The card base was clear-embossed on one side using an old HeroArts Manuscript Background stamp.  To finish the card, I wrapped some Linen Thread around the main image and topped that off with a silk vanilla rosette.  In the bottom right corner is a brass charm that I've also had forever, which came from a company called Fancifuls Inc.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Stamps:  Collections; Hero Arts Manuscript Background
Ink:  Black Stazon, Versamark
Cardstock:  Basic Black, Brushed Copper, Cold Laminate
Accessories:  Gold Leaf Flakes, Clear EP, Brass Charm (Fancifuls Inc), Linen Thread, Vanilla Rosette (SU)

Edited to Add:  This card was Chic of the Week at Just Us Girls!

Cheers
Karren