Fun with alcohol inks!

I didn't manage to post last week or take part in any challenges but that is not to say that I wasn't having a crafty moment or two.  I had great fun last weekend playing with alcohol inks and actually normal inks, I will come to that a little later.  Give me ink, a straw and some card or acetate and I can play for hours :o)  Trying the different colours and ways of blowing and dripping the ink was really fun, as my mother informed me over Skype, I was recapturing my youth! OK as a child I wasn't given inks, but I do remember doing the same thing with paints... in fact I have a piece of art that I made for my grandparents by blowing paints.

So I only have a few alcohol inks at the moment, but I do have quite a few bottles of printer ink and who said you can't play with them both.  The inks react so differently on different papers, it was trial and error and great fun.  Should I mention the mess...wow the ink goes everywhere of course!! I soon created an ink shield to stop it going places that I didn't want, namely everywhere on my desk!  It wasn't until a couple of hours later that I took a look at my hands hahaha what can I say, wow its a good job that I do not work in a client facing role haha.

I really had a great time playing with the inks, they even helped reduce the stress after a couple of really crappy days at work... nothing like blowing ink around a bit of paper as a therapy session.. hey maybe I can market that?!?   Therapy by ink!?!

So what did I create :)   I have only made two cards out of my creations so far the rest will come later on.

This by far is my favourite card, I am calling it Poppy Red.


I am entering this into the LIM week 52 sketch challenge

When blowing the inks on the acetate it started to look like a flower, so that is what I went with.


The second card I have made is 'All about the pink'  I love the brightness of the pink with the black! Ink blowing is so much fun!  Again this was ink on acetate and than placed on white card and then layered on black card to get a very thin border.

I find it totally amazing the great colours and patterns you can get.  The only thing is if you create something that you really like, chances are that you will not be able to recreate it.

Here are the other creations that are waiting to be made into cards or something else.

The other two cards and ideas

Whilst working on the LIM challenge, the Peacock theme really did stay with me!  One of the ideas I was playing with is Peacock feathers, I still haven't dismissed the idea, I might play further with them this week.

Along with the other two cards that I made, are the sketches of the feathers. I really like the using the black card,  I am not sure where the idea will take me, but I am thinking of keeping it very simple.

Here are the two cards and sketches.


Thanks for looking! Emma.

A Blue Peacock

Pufff where has the week gone it is Sunday night again and it feels like I have blinked and missed the weekend :o)  Such a feeling makes it hard to drag myself out of bed for work on the Monday morning hahaha.

I haven't really had too much time to craft as I would like and I saw the challenge over at LIM and wasn't sure if this one was for me.  The theme is Birds and I know that in my small collection of stamps I only have two very small ones that are not that special.  Sure there are some great Digistamps and probably stamps in my local shop that I could purchase, but I have decided that I am going to use what I have, which includes my own imagination and a pen and paper if necessary to create my own images :o)  Two weeks in a row I have managed to draw my own images, OK they are not as good as a stamp or Digistamps, but I have stuck to my promise hahaha.

I have been inspired and made three cards, the one that I will submit to 'Week 50 one layer card, Bird'  challenge is the Blue Peacock, I think if I have time this week I may revisit it as I would like to do more of a cute card.

I have also submitted this card to the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge blog challenge, which is 'Anything goes with blue' and The Craft Garden 'monochrome' challenge.

Hand drawn Peacock in Turquoise ink.  The head and upper body has been coloured in water colour pencils. Simple ink half border with three sparkles added in the top left, and one in the bottom right hand corner.

 Close up of the Peacock.

                                  

The Peacock is such a lovely bird, really beautiful feathers, the strange thing is that one of my Grandmothers used to have Peacock feathers in a vase on a windowsill as you walked up her spiral staircase and as a child they would freak me out a little.  Now I see them for what they are, works of art.  I am always amazed by the beautiful colours, lines and shapes of nature. 

The cards that didn't make it into the LIM challenge.

I have always known card making is addictive, I often set out to make one card but end up making a couple... an extra one is not bad, quite good really.  Last weekend I decided to make a card to enter the LIM challenge and what do you know,  one card turned to two, two cards turned in to three I think you know how the pattern goes... so now I have 6 lovely purple cards!

Three I entered into the challenge and here are the three that didn't make it.  All are variants of circles and the flourish and flower stamp.

Third card for the LIM challenge

The next card is a floral flourish stamp which I have again stamped in violet ink.  I have placed a large circle in the middle and stamped with white ink for a contrast.  To add a little bit of something, I have played with some ribbon.

I just had to!

I simply couldn't resist, I have entered other cards in the Less is More challenge for this week, purely as they are a bit different and I really like the outcome.

The first is a hand sketched large purple flower.  To put a bit of a boarder / detail on the card I used some sparkly purple and silver cotton that I have had for years.

First card challenge entry!

The time has come to enter my first card challenge.. hooray!  Deciding which blog challenge to enter was not difficult for me, the Less is More blog is where I wanted to be.  I have been visiting the Less is More blog for a long time and find my self popping in many times a day to look at all the wonderful entries.  To be honest the ladies weekly challenge is one of the main reasons I have created my blog.

This weeks challenge is 'Predominantly Purple' which is a colour I like, but one that not very often makes it into my cards.

The hard part was deciding which of the cards I have made this weekend to enter! I have decided on the large purple flourish.

 The flourish has been stamped in violet and I have then placed a purple ring in the center, which has been stamped in white ink for contrast. Six little gems have been added for a touch of sparkle.
I really must find a better way to take pictures of the cards, to bring out the colour and detail more!