All Creatures Great and Small

That's the title of the Sir Stampalot February'11 Challenge. Of course, for me that had to mean butterflies. I have very few other animal stamps. Here I've used the huge Elusive Images butterfly, on an 8" x 8" card. The background is sprayed with Glimmer Mists (after masking a circle for the sun) and then stamped with Hero Arts grasses and some tiny butterflies from Crafty Individuals. The text stamp is by Katzelcraft.

To colour the big butterfly, I laid the uninked, unmounted stamp on the paper and drew a faint pencil line around its outline, and filled it in by sponging with various pigment inks. Then I stamped the butterfly on top with Versafine Onyx Black ink. Had I stamped first and then coloured, the black would have been subdued. I could have stamped first and embossed with clear powder to protect the black before colouring, but I think it would have been more difficult then to get a smooth blending of colours. I was pleased with the result, anyway. Hope you like it too!

Another fab Blog Girl Day!

Today saw our second "Blog Girl Day" at Sir Stampalot. We had a great time, great company , had a good natter, a yummy lunch, and even made some cards! Just wanted to say a huge thank you to Brenda and Chris for organising the day and designing some gorgeous projects for us to make. Also to Janice and Andy for hosting us, and keeping the shop open for the necessary retail therapy afterwards!

Here's what we made (my versions of Brenda's and Chris's designs). The first two cards were designed by Chris. I admired her pink and bling bauble card when I first saw it on her blog, so I was delighted that she showed us how to make it today. And I love the little step card with the tipsy Christmas trees!

Brenda's creations were equally gorgeous, and both shiny, so unfortunately they haven't photographed very well. The first one uses layers of stamping over a Distress Ink and Glimmer Mist background. The second was made on acetate, with leaves stamped on top using black Staz-on ink, and the reverse coloured with alcohol inks. It was then backed with text torn from a book and crumpled tin foil. The effect of the foil is amazing, and the photo really does not do it justice.

The book chosen for the text caused some hilarity, being a rather seedy crime novel! We had to be very selective about which pages we used! But the end result was very effective. I was proud of the fact that I managed to complete all four cards, unlike the previous time when I didn't actually get any finished on the day.

Anyway, thanks again, everyone, for a really lovely day. Looking forward to the next one!