Give Thanks

Here is my card for this weeks Ways To Use It challenge #245 over on Splitcoast Stampers.

We simply had to make a card or gift showing Thanks. This special card was made for the nurses who looked after me during my stay in hospital.

I chose the daffodil from Flourishes it is one of my favorite stamps. The thank you stamp caomes from a mix n match set from See D's (I think)

The background on the base card and the white layered panel. was stamped with the swirl from the Siberian Iris set and the yellow ink I used is a colorbox Vivid inkpad

Until Next Time

Inking of you All

Michelle

Flourishes Sweet Peas

It's been a while since I've participated in the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge.
This week I have been playing a lot with this Sweet Pea set and thought "why not do it". I've coloured it with pencils, watercolour crayons and this card which is done with Twinkling H2Os. I incorparated this weeks theme which is adding a border to your card.
First I stamped  the flowers on white cardstock with Black Brilliance and embossed with clear powder.
I coloured in with several different shades of Twinkling H2Os to get more dimension in my flowers. I cut out my image using the nestabilities Labels #8.
The green cardstock has sweet pea stamped over the top half of the card with versamark ink.  I also stamped Sweet Pea in black on a scrap of white cardstock and cut out using the petite ovals.
The amethyst panel was cuttlebugged with swiss dots and then the border was punched.
The card was embellished with matching green grosgrain ribbon and mauve rhinestones.

Would you like a refresh of my Twinkling H2Os Tips and Techniques? Click Here
Were these tips helpful? I would like to know what you think.

Until next time
Inking of you All
Michelle

Pretty Peacock

Another week another challenge, This card is for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #32. This week was a sketch challenge designed by Cindy.
Here is the sketch, you might like to give it a go yourself.For my card I used the Flourishes Peacock, stamped in Black Brilliance. I then coloured the bird using my Prismacolor Pencils and blended with Odourless mineral spirits. The card stock is all Bazzill. A very easy card to make.
Don't forget to all my Australian readers you can buy Flourishes stamps from Heavenscent Crafts in Melbourne. Also especially for those of you who live in or near Canberra, Debbie is coming to visit. She has a large range of stamps that are not available anywhere else in Australia. Her stamps will be available for purchase on

When: Sunday 25th October

12 Noon til 4pm

Where: Senior Citizens Centre

10 Watson Street, Turner

Everybody is welcome.

Until Next Time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Perfect Peony

Flourishes is releasing the next lot of stamps in only a few days time and are having a sketch challenge. I thought I would give it a go. You never know I might actually win a prize. ROFL (roll on floor laughing). That would be nice. I've never actually won any thing before. I am hoping persistence pays off. Here is the sketch.

I just love Flourishes stamps as most of you know. They are such a joy for me to colour. I can't wait to see what comes next. I hope there is more flowers. I love their floral images.
My card was made using the main image from the Peony set. At first I wasn't sure what I thought of this particular flower but it surprised me and has coloured up nicely. It works perfectly with the sketch.

Here is what I did.

First I stamped using Brilliance Black Ink and allowed it to dry. It had to dry fully as a lot of the colouring was directly on the stamped areas. I have coloured with my Prismacolor pencils but have not done a lot blending due to a lot of shading already on the image.

The designer papers I chose are from Scenic Route Paper Co.

Until Next Time

Inking of you All

Michelle

Timeless Tuesday Challenge #30

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge has hit week 30, wow that is just amazing. I guess I would of participated in about 20 of these challenges. I just love Flourishes stamps the Floral sets are just beautiful.
For FTTC30 our challenge was to use pearls on our cards. For me this was so easy as I have pearls by the hundreds. I just love them and the range of colours that are now available is just astounding.
I chose to use the Sweet Violets set, this one has only been out a couple of months. It is just so gorgeous.
I stamped the violets using Brilliance Graphite Black ink and coloured in with my favourite Prismacolor Pencils and blended with Odourless mineral spirits My shapes were all cut out using nestabilities classic oval and petite oval sets. The designer paper was from Kaisercraft as were the pearls.
I was so pleased with how this card came out. Lets see if it's enough to win the challenge.
Don't forget blog candy will be drawn in just a few days

Until Next Time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Scor it

This card was made for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge FTTC28, I have used the rose from the I love Roses set (many thanks to Carol for sending me stamped copies of this image). The challenge was 'to score somewhere on our card' I chose to score the mustard background layer.

My images were coloured with my favourite Prismacolor Pencils blended with odourless mineral spirits. Normally I would colour the roses red or pink but this time I stepped outside the box and went with mustard yellow and orange. I am pleased how it came up. This card was very easy to make, probably one of the most basic ones I have done for a while. Sometimes we get a little carried away and it's nice to go back to basics once in a while.

Until Next Time

Inking of you all

Michelle

Chat Challenge Card

Here is one of my favourite Flourishes Stamps, this one is called Siberian Iris. I have made this card for the Rubber Stamp Chat Challenge

I have stamped it onto Cream coloured cardstock using Smoky Grey Versafine Inkpad. The The coral, pink and green colours I have chosen to use come from the Designer paper by Stampin Up.

I always choose my DP before colouring in, that way I get a perfect match every time. However the perfect match doesn't always show up in the photos. Looks better in real life

Until Next Time

Inking of you All

Michelle

Twinkling H20s

Today I am going to talk a little about Twinkling H2Os. This is one of my favourite colouring mediums, in fact I have lots but I really like the H2Os because they are just so vibrant.

Twinkling H2Os are little solid cakes of watercolour paint in small pots. They are very shimmery, lightfast and acid free. They presently come in 168 colours. H2Os can be used on paper incl watercolour paper, cardstock, wood, plaster and glass.

General Instructions

Select your colours place a few drops of water into the pot to form a puddle, an eyedropper is perfect or you can spritz the water with a small spray bottle. Let sit for a good 10 minutes. By wetting the pots first this will allow the paint to soften and the colours become more vibrant. If you only want a very soft wash of colour there is no need to wet the cake first.

Next

Stamp your image. I prefer to stamp and emboss my image, the embossing helps keep the image sharp and clear. You can use a waterproof ink if you don't want to emboss, however, I find your stamped outline becomes less defined and a little 'murky'.

Now using a paintbrush or a waterbrush simply paint in your colour. As long as the paint remains wet your colours will blend nicely. The more colour you add the more shimmer you will get.

You can also use your Twinkling H2Os on dark coloured cardstock with excellent results, but for even better results on dark card I suggest using the iridescent range of colours.

You can also use the iridescent paints over top of watercolour pencils for a little extra shimmer. for example Green iridescent over any shade of green pencil.

As you can see in the photos I store my H2Os upside down. I have painted the colour on the bottom of each pot for easy reference. The colour you see in the pot is not necessarily how the colour will actually come out on card.

Direct to stamp

You can also paint the H2Os directly onto your stamp. Fter painting your stamp gently mist the stamp with a spray water bottle and stamp direct to your cardstock. Watercolour paper will also give you a fabulous result. NOTE: The H2Os will stain acrylic or clear stamps

the finished cards

Unfortunately the shimmer is not all that visible. They do look better in real life. However you can see the vibrancy that these paints are also known for.

This is a stamp from My Favorite Things

And this gorgeous image is from High Hopes Rubber Stamps

This last image is from Flourishes Stamps this is the direct to stamp method

Until Next Time

Inking of you All

Michelle

I Love Roses, thanks Carol

'I Love Roses' is at the moment my new favourite stamp set from Flourishes. The Timeless Tuesday challenge over on the Flourishes Blog, is to use your favourite set. Let me tell you picking my favourite set was EXTREMELY difficult. I love all their sets.

At the moment I have not yet purchased this set but I would like to say a very big thank you to Carol Southern for sending me some pre stamped images.

Carol and I are both addicted to the Flourishes range and we have just done a swap amongst our selves. I hope Carol likes what I have sent her.

The Rose is stamped in Black ink and then I coloured this rose using Prismacolor pencils and have blended the colors together using odourless mineral spirits. I have used 3 different shades of red for the flower.

Here is a close up

I finished the card off by using Bazzill cardstock and Designer Paper by Kaiser Craft. (from their Christmas range).

I have embellished the card using a buckle cut from the spellbinders range and threaded it with 2 sizes of organza ribbon.

In Australia Flourishes stamps are available from Heavenscent Crafts

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter

Until Next time

Inking of you all

Michelle

I love this Daffodil

I know I only featured this daffodil image 2 posts ago, but look how different it looks this time. This is fast becoming a favourite stamp because it is so versatile.
Twinkling H2O's is what colouring medium I chose this time, It is so bright and cheery. It is a shame the shimmer doesn't show on this photo as it really is quite spectacular. This card was created for this weeks Timeless Tuesday Challenge over on the Flourishes Blog. This week it was a sketch challenge. (mine is turned sideways).
Flourishes is releasing this month's new stamps in less than 24 hours and I can't wait to see what's in store. I just love the images created by Marcella Hawley, she truly is a gifted artist her flower designs are truly spectacular.
I just wish I had a never ending supply of cash to buy them all.
Don't forget there is just one store in Australia stocking Flourishes stamps
Heavenscent Crafts, Just tell Deb that Michelle sent you.

Until Next time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Delightful Daffodil

My new Flourishes 'Signs of Spring' set just arrived in the mail and I couldn't wait to try it out. I decided to use my new daffodil stamp for this weeks Timeless Tuesday Challenge over on their Blog. The challenge... use vellum on your card. I have gone with the 'Fake Parchment' look. I have stamped the image using white colorbox ink and embossed with white powder directly onto a piece of vellum. I have coloured the daffodil with Tombow markers and blended with the tombow blender pen. (If you use this method at home make sure you do NOT blend with water as it buckles your vellum.)
I then assembled the card, the yellow strip of cardstock down the left side of the card hides where the vellum is attached to the card. I finished the card off with a piece of paper lace.

Until next time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Timeless Tuesday Challenge

Flourishes has just had their new release party and I'm all inspired. Although this is not one of their new sets, it is truly one of my faves. This set is Poppies and is a mix and match set of stamps. I have just created this card for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #3. This week we simply had to use flowers. This card has been created using Coral cardstock and designer paper by Adornit. The image has been stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured using Lyra watercolour crayons. The ovals were cut from Nestabilities petite ovals.

Just to whet your appetite a little further here is another card I have made with this set. (See what I mean about mix and match.) This time the poppies are gold embossed and coloured with Twinkling H2Os

Until Next Time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Sunset Iris

Happy New Year Everyone. I hope this post finds you all well. It has been such a hectic time of year and now things are starting to slow down a little, this is good because it gives me time to stamp and create, it also gives me time to blog and catch up with friends all over the world. I am back on the forums and have decided to kick the year off with a very bright and cheery card. I was lacking a little bit of design inspiration so I went back through the cards sketch challenges and came up with this beauty.
This card was made for the Flourishes Tuesday Chat Challenge over on SCS. The challenge was to make a square card with a flower on it. Yes pretty simple but exactly what I needed to get back into the swing of things.
First I embossed the Flourishes Siberian Iris in Silver metallic EP on watercolour paper.
I then watercoloured the Iris using my brand NEW Lyra watercolour Crayons (my Christmas gift to myself). They are fabulous, stunning, gorgeous and easy to use.
In this close up you can see how easily the colours have blended together.
I matched the watercolours to the designer paper I had chosen. (DP is by Cosmo Cricket, cardstock is Core-dinations). I then cut everything to size, cut circles with the classic nestabilities and layered it all together.

Whilst I was on holidays over Christmas I spent the day stamping with Deb at Heavenscent Crafts, She showed me these wonderful Lyra Crayons and as they say the rest is history.
Heavenscent Crafts sell these wonderful Lyra Crayons. The shop is also the Australian distributor for Flourishes stamps. For more information contact Debbie on the link above. Tell her Michelle sent you.

Wishing you all a safe and happy 2009
Inking of you all
Until Next Time
Michelle

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Here is my first Christmas card. I made it for the Flourishes Tuesday Chat Challenge on SCS forum. The challenge was to create a Red, Green, Brown and White Christmas card.
Since I didn't have any Flourishes Chrissy stamps I quickly ordered this one. I can't tell you how happy I am to now get them in Australia. In 2 days no less.
I stamped this image in Black Brilliance and coloured with my Prismacolor Pencils. Then blended with Odourless Mineral Spirits.
I cut all the ovals out using my nestabilities classic ovals, I roughed the edges and then inked around the edge in brown.I added a couple of embellishments, The rhinestone for the nose and the bow around his neck. I layered it altogether with the Christmas papers from K & Company. All in all a very easy card to put together.

Flourishes stamps are some of my favourite stamps to use. In America they are available from Flourishes .Org and in Australia at Heavenscent Crafts

Until Next Time
Inking of you All
Michelle

Lots of Exciting News

HELLO everyone, where do I start?

Anyone who knows me knows just how much I LOVE the stamps from Flourishes and My Favorite Things.

Well guess what?? They are now available in Australia. In less than 24 hours (1st November 9am) the site will be launched. It is called Heavenscent Crafts. Now Debbie who owns the store is such a doll, she is also stocking lots of other unique stamps not found anywhere else in Australia, companies like High Hopes Stamps, Magnolia Stamps, Stampavie just to name a few.

The other great news is that Debbie has asked me to join her new design team. So you will see my cards on the website plus on the display boards at craft shows and in her Melbourne store.

Here are a couple of my cards that you will see in the gallery.

*The Siberian Iris card is from Flourishes, Designer Paper in this card is from KaiserCraft

**The Bath card is from My Favorite Things (MFT) Designer paper is Basic Grey "Euphoria"

***The Get well card is also MFT. Designer paper is CollagePress Doubletakes.

All images are stamped on to whisper white from SU, All plain cardstock is Bazzill.

All images are coloured using Prismacolor Pencils.

Michelle's Hint #2

Re-Ink your inkpads regularly, Most of my cards are stamped with Black Brilliance. I will re ink my pad approx every 2 weeks to keep the colour topped up and 'lush'. If I am making lots of cards sometimes I do it each week. There is nothing worse than an image that is 'wishy washy'. It really lowers the quality of your card.

Until Next time

Inking of you all

Michelle

Flourishes Featured Stamper #22

I was fortunate enough to be named Flourishes Stamper of the week last week. I shared the honour with a wonderful lady called Lois (aka Clownmom on SCS) for more information and to see Lois's card checkout Flourishes Newsletter.

My card was the one I featured on my 18th October post called 'All in the details'. Here is another photo just to refresh your memory

The stamps on my card are from the Flourishes set called "Summer on the Patio". This is such a great set, so versatile.I just love it. Keep reading down the page for the Original post.

Until Next Time
Inking of you All
Michelle

It's all in the details

Summer Fruits. This is the card I made for this weeks Flourishes Tuesday Chat Challenge on the Splitcoast forum. The Challenge this week was to make a card with a non- traditional fold. I still had the traditional fold in there but I added an an extra fold on the card front.
The fold is not so obvious front on so here is another angle for you to see it a little better.
The stamps are all from Flourishes
I have stamped the image (using the basic masking technique on the fruit and table see below) on whisper white cardstock and coloured with Prismacolor Pencils , I have blended the pencils using odourless mineral spirits.
The purple and green cardstock are all Bazzill and the designer papers are from the new Basic Grey pad "Eva".

In this 3rd photo you can see how I have mounted the sentiment in 3 layers. I have used the Nestabilities Petite Ovals. Top layer is the sentiment in contrasting green. The 2nd layer has a very small scalloped border. I have kept it the same colour as the 3rd layer, just to provide the card with a bit of detail without standing out to much.
The last of the small details is the dimensional magic on the fruit. This photo shows the masking at it's best. I stamped the bowl of fruit first, then the table. Without the use of masking the bowl of fruit would have the line of the table through it. You can also see the pencil shading I have used to give a flat stamped image more of a 3D appearance.

Until Next Time

Inking of you all

Michelle

World Card Making Day/ Weekend

Saturday 4th October was world card making day. myself and some wonderful friends had a great weekend with 4days/ nights of making cards, calendars. etc. Lots and lots of stamping and colouring was going on. I was very proud of my effort I completed 20 cards and did the makings for another 5.
Here are some of my cards for you to see. All are coloured with Prismacolor Pencils.

This 1st one is made using the Siberian Iris from Flourishes. The Layout was designed by Faith Hofrichter for the Flourishes Tuesday Chat Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers. Such a simple layout, but looks terrific .

Next is these gorgeous Penguins. These are 2 separate stamps but I just love to use them together. The matching Designer paper was a gift from a wonderful friend for my birthday.
Last card for today is another Flourishes stamp from their Coffee with Friends set. The designer paper is from Flair and co ordinated with Choc Chip from SU.
I will feature more cards over the next few days.
Until next time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Chalkboard Technique

Who hasn't used their solid flower images in a while???? If this is you go pull out one right now and try this technique. It is so EASY. I love it. This is my first attempt and it's called Chalkboard. There are 2 ways to do this technique . (I did technique 1)
Technique 1:
First you need dark cardstock, I used black. A solid image like a flower (this is one of my new images from Flourishes). A white inkpad. A good set of artist's pencils, I used Prismacolor and last but not least Odourless mineral spirits (OMS) or gamsol.
Simply stamp your image on to the black cardstock. DIP your pencil into the OMS and color over top of the stamped image. How easy is that!!!!. You do not need to seal it when finished.

Technique 2:
Basically this is the same as chalk popping. Stamp your image with the white ink on to black card. Instead of using pencils grab out your chalks, stampin pastels, etc. Sponge (finger) daubers are also useful. Using your dauber, pick up the chalk colour
and apply to white stamped image. I wipe the card over with a cottonball when I'm finished. then I spray sealer on it so the chalk doesn't wipe off.
Splitcoast has a tutorial showing technique 2

Until Next time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Twinkling H2Os & My New Stamps

My stamps from Flourishes have arrived and I have been a very busy girl. I just love this one called Siberian Iris. It is a lot of fun to work with.
I have decided to use the Iris with this weeks card sketch challenge over on SCS. This was another easy sketch and the possibilities are endless. It truly is a great sketch for a quick card.
First I stamped the orange background piece with one of the swirls from the set using Versamark. then popped it aside to dry.
Next I stamped the image ( on Watercolour paper) with Gold Pigment Ink and embossed with a sparkly powder called Egyptian Gold. It really is very pretty. I chose to colour this image with twinkling H2Os. (I can't wait to have a go with my Prismas , it will look so different but that's a whole other day)

Here is a close up of just how good the twinkling H2Os look. The shimmer you can see is natural (not caused by camera flash), This is just how they look, marvellous aren't they. Once it was dry I just layered all the pieces together using the sketch as a guide. Although it looks like it took ages to paint, in reality it probably took 30-40 minutes to put the whole card together, including drying time.

Until next time

Inking of you all

Michelle