Pink Flower Card

Yet again, I hear you cry. Well I like pink so I wanted to make this card. I painted the flower and I will add more of the same image in other colours. I used the trusty Art and Graphic pens from Kuretake and the waterbrush to make the paint flow well. I hope that you like it too.

Big flower card

The trend these days seems to be for big flowers so I though that I'd have a go. I've seen lots of the cards made with flowers that have been cut in half. Considering the price on the silk ones I'm not surprised that the people making the cards cut them in half as you get two for the price of one that way. So following the trend, this is a big flower card even if the flower is cut in half.

I used:

A 14cm x 14cm base card in pink.

1 piece of white card 13cm x 13cm

Kuretake calligraphy pens in Heart.

Art and Graphic pens in light Olive (number 56 ) and pink (number 202 )

Half a white die cut flower.

A strip of olive green paper

Sentiment for the Inspiration plate from I Brake for Stamps

Scraps of pink and white card.

3d foam pads

What I did:

Now before you throw your hands up in horror at what I'm going to tell you it really wasn't hard to do this but I did the background freehand. All you have to do is a few flowers with the calligraphy pens some scrolls with the thin end of the Art and Graphics and join them up. I will put an example on U-Tube soon.

I stuck this to the base card and then cut a strip of green paper and dotted along the edge to give a stitched effect.

I coloured the flower with water and the pink pen and then used the green pen to draw some lines around the petals. I stuck a green circle on the petal and then a small white dot. I aded some pink to the dot. I trimmed it and stuck it to the card.

Then I stamped the sentiment in a sepia brown and trimmed it to size. I backed this with some pink card and stuck it to the base card with foam pads.

New Calligraphy Flower Projects

Recently I managed to buy some beautiful card and heavy paper that has a pearl finished with a sheen of gold so I decided to put it together with the calligraphy pens and this is what I've come up with.

The first little card is using the blue set of pens and a small scrap of card. I did threee different flowers to give the card a bit of an edge.

This second card is made with the pens again but this time I drew lots of different flowers with each of them at different heights.

Next I made a simple tag with the technique that I call 'shaky hand'. This is very quick as it is only one flower and little else.

My final piece is this gift bag which is the one that I made in my workshop.

I hope that you like thm too.

Flower Border Card

I saw a card the other day that inspired me. As usual I forgot about it until today, when I was in need of some inspiration. I worked out a way in which I could interpret it with the things at my disposal. This is the result.

I used my tried and trusted method to draw the flowers, but this time I used a stronger green. Art and Graphic 57 to be exact. I also kept the dark edge to the outside when I drew the flowers to give me a strong flower. I didn't go for deilcacy at all this time. I drew the bar coding edge freehand. Don't bother with a ruler as you will make it look dreadful. Go for the free and easy approach. The Flower border will cover any mistakes.

I drew the flowers one under the other on a strip of white card, edged it in pink and then stuck it to the base card.

I used one of the Small Pink Oval Tags and wrote Happy on it with the thin end of the calligraphy pen. I wrote birthday on the card itself.

I then tied a bow and added it to the tag.

It doesn't look much like the original, which was red and brown and a Valentine card but you get the picture.

Garland of Pink Flowers

This card is another one made with the Pink Calligraphy Pens from Kuretake, that I favour so much. Well, who can blame me as they are so versatile. This time, as you can see, I used them to make a garland. To do this I put dots where I wanted the flowers and I then drew the flowers in using the tried and tested method that I've shown you in earlier posts. I then drew in the stems and leaves with the Art and Graphic pen. I used 505 this time as I wanted a soft green result. The leaves were achieved by a series of touches with the soft end of the pen.

To get the stripe at the top I masked of a piece of card and then drew the lines on free hand with both the wide end and the narrow end of the pen. I wanted it to look like soft bar coding.

I then tied a bow with the bowshaper and left the bow on the ribbon. I stuck it to the card with double sided sticky tape and then trimmed the ribbon to fit the card.

I then stamped on the message. I've used this one a lot lately as it can be used for lots of occasions.

Tiny Stamps to Make Lovely Cards

My latest stamps from I Brake for Stamps have really inspired me and, if time allows, I intend to make lots of cards from them. Here are another two cards from the Cartes Postal sheets. This sheet comes with large and small stamps that can be used together or just by themselves. I’ve made cards with two of the smaller stamps to show you what I mean. They may be tiny but they are so beautifully crafted that they can stand alone. See if you agree.

To make this card you will need:
1 White base card. Mine was an A5 card scored and folded in half.
The small Cartes Postal lilac stamp from the Cartes Postal sheet
A small piece of silver card
A small piece of white card to stamp the image
A small piece of lilac card to mount the stamped image
A sentiment stamp of your choice
Art and graphic pens in lilac, green, and pale brown
A H2O waterbrush
3D foam pads

This is what you do:
Colour the stamp directly with the chosen colours of Art and Graphic pens. I used brown on the edges and lilac and green for the flower and leaves.
I lightly went over the image with the water pen to soften it and give it a more watercoloured effect.
I then mounted it onto lilac card and silver card as shown which I trimmed to size.
I stuck it directly onto the card as shown and stamped the sentiment in place under the image. I rather like this wishing you sentiment as it allows you to put whatever you like inside the card.

Here's the second card that I made. Same principle as the one above but using ribbon to add emphasis.





Here's this fantastic new sheet in all its glory:

Don't you just love it!

The stamp that I used was the small one at the bottom of the sheet. Let you imagination run wild.

Water Colour Effects with the Calligraphy Pens

I know that many of you may think that you can't paint with water colours, but I'd like to show you a way to use the Zig Blendable Calligraphy Pens which achieves the watercolour effect with ease. You will then be able to produce little watercolour effect pictures like the one on the card.




The first thing that you need to do is draw two lines. Not straight, but something like the ones in the picture. Don't get too hung up on this as they are only simple lines. Don't press too hard.




Now choose the colour of blendable pens that you want to have as flowers. I chose Powder Blue and Splash and touch the darker one to the edge of the lighter one. See the earlier blog to see a picture of how to do this.

Use the pen to add petals either side of each stem. Think of the flower as a long triangle. You will need wider petals at the bottom and narrower, tighter and smaller at the top.


Below is another example of a flower that is thinner than the one in the card example and has three stems. You can experiment. Feel free to get going.


Now you can cut out your picture and decorate it as you wish. I edged the piece of card and added a bow.

Customised Flowers and Calligraphy Background.

I had anothe rof my bright ideas last night and I thought of putting the calligraphy petal background to work with the customised flowers and this is what I came up with.



There's no need to tell you what to do as it's explained in the previous posts.

How to customise a die cut flower.

I have random thoughts now and then and I suddenly thought of how to use the die cut flower heads and the brushable pens that I have on the Craft Fairy site to bring a bit of excitement into my cards.

So this is what we do

Take the plain white die cut hibiscus flower heads. See below.




At the moment they are fairly boring but I am going to transform them.

Step one:

Colour the flower with the paler of your chosen brushables.

Step two:
The deeper tone is used to brush out from the centre.

Step three:
The deepest of your chosen colours is used to flick the colour out from the centre and it is kept shorter than the other two colours.

Step four:
Use a silver pen to add strokes to the centre and edges of the flower.

Step five:

Stick the centre to the flower. You can curl the petals if you wish.

One Stamp, Lots of Cards

You will no doubt see from the following cards that I seem to have become obsessed by one stamp. I think that you'll have to agree that this is a lovely stamp and by ringing the changes with the background papers and colours used to ink the stamp, you can end up with some very different cards.








I've used it with the Brushables and the Art and Graphic pens to create the different effects. The papers are from the Take Out the Stash boxes which are lasting me an age. I don't think that I've even used 10% of the papers as yet.


Card 1 is made with the tulip in a pot from the Flower Power set of unmounted stamps from I Brake for Stamps. I inked it in with the pens from the Christmas Colours set and used the H2O pen to make the inks flow. I used the tulip head alone to make the background of tulip heads at the bottom of the page.


I then inked up and stamped the image on to a spare piece of white card and used the H2O brush to spread the colour. I darkened the edge of the card with both the brown and the red pen.


I Tied a bow in the sheer red polka dot ribbon and stuck it to the card about 1/3rd of the way up the card.


I used foam pads to stick the image to the base card as seen. I then stamped the message onto another piece of card and darkened the edges as before. This was also stuck on with foam pads.


I just love the vivid colours of this card as I hope, do you.



Here's number 2

This is another quick and easy card.

It's made by sticking a piece of decorative paper to the bottom third of the base card.
I tied a bow, using the bowshaper, in a piece of toning ribbon, I used the spring green in 9mm width for this card.
The image is coloured with the pens from the Spring Selection of Kuretake Art and Graphic pens and then it is stamped and cut out.
Stick the image to the base card with 3D foam pads and stamp a message of your choice at the side.

This is the next card. I'll write the instructions as soon as I can.