A Hare Amongst the Grasses!

Good morning all! Martina here with my final post for Lisa this month showcasing the Hobby Art March Hares Stamp Set.

For this card I wanted to make my friend 'Hercules' the hare (that is not his 'official' name!) the main image, but with little hints of texture and layers in the background. I chose gentle colours for the background to make him really pop!

Using Watercolour Card I stamped and coloured Hercules. I stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and coloured with Distress Inks. Once I was happy, I made a mask and covered him up!

Using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, I  made a very pale sky with a blending tool. I then used various shades of green Distress Ink to stamp the grasses which are also included in the Hobby Art March Hares Set. These are really useful little stamps and I can see them coming out all the time! I used Dusty Concord to stamp the flower sprigs, (also included) until I was happy with my composition. It is very hard to see from the photo, but I also started to add some texture here, using some of the stamps from the Hobby Art Decorative Backgrounds Set. I started using Tumbled Glass Ink with the swirly stamp, but this was very pale...

To build up the layers and intensity, I used all the ink colours I had used so far within my topper and stamped using the various other stamps within the set. I also coloured in the flower heads and added some green shading to the grass area at the base. Final touch: a sentiment from my stash!

Having just looked back at those pictures I can see how the colour changes at night (only the last one was taken in the daytime!) I wasn't up past bedtime - honest!

    

***On the website, some Hobby Art stamp sets have been reduced in price by 25% - 40%.***

**Lisa is doing a PaperArtsy workshop on  May 27. For more information click HERE.**

See you again soon!

Love.

Martina

xxx

A Peek Through the Trees with Hobby Art

Hello crafty folks! Martina here and guess what? The SUN, yes, THE SUN, has actually made an appearance!!Beautiful flowers are popping up to say hello and smile as you walk past, the cats are out sunbathing and the garden duties are calling (loudly in my case)!

A Spring themed card for you today, with a look through the trees into a beautiful scene. I had great fun making this one and even a debate with my hubby...read on to find out who won!

The first step was to take the bare trees from the Hobby Art Nature Trail Set and stamp onto some craft card with a dark brown ink (I had already cut the craft card to fit the card blank and allow for matting and layering). Ignore the bits where the branches are randomly cut-off, I sorted that later with a fineliner pen!

Choosing a die from my stash, (not a detailed one, or the main focus of the card would be lost) I planned where to place it.

Obviously I could not just die-cut the shape as it is above, or I would have lost some major tree branches! I drew (with a pencil) around the die shape and then looked at where I needed to make some incisions. I needed to allow the die to sit behind the branches that were within its middle: hard to explain, so see if the photo below explains it better...

Once the die was run through the machine I was left with this...

My next step was to watercolour the trees and add some shading. I also added a sentiment from the Hobby Art Birthday Collection.

Now to colour the scene to go behind the trees. I stamped the entire hare scene from the Hobby Art March Hares Set onto Watercolour Card, adding a little fineliner to extend where I needed to (to fill the die space). I coloured the scene with Watercolour Pencils (47% off on the website!)

To make the trees stand proud from the background, I mounted them using thick foam pads. Some matting and layering and here was my card...or was it? My husband liked it just like that, but I was not happy. The card sat on the shelf for two days and then I just had to add some more to it!

I took some ivy dies and used co-ordinations card to cut them, sanding some leaves to get some variation and some green pen to define the veins. I also found some grasses dies and used some of the new Craft Emotions Edge Mushrooms! These are soooo cute! I chopped the row of mushrooms up, chose a few that I wanted and coloured with the same pencils as before. Much better methinks!

I won in the end! I think my husband liked it in then end when I had finished tinkering...

Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing you next week!

Love

Martina

xxx

A Birthday Hare in a Field of Lavender

Good morning ladies and gents, Martina here with the first of my Hobby Art 'March Hares' posts for this month!

How are you doing? Made any new crafty creations lately? I have been busy in my craft room working with lots of new mediums, dies, stamps and stencils. There are so many lovely things to tempt us all at the moment! In Lisa's class last week we were all playing with bright and zesty colours, making scenes pop with contrasts and being very brave! The classes are perfect for this, you can have a 'try before you buy' as well as taking the opportunity to see what others are doing all around you...

My first card for the month is a really simple one. I love the image of the large hare in the Hobby Art set, so I wanted to make him the focal point.

Using Watercolour Card, I stamped 'Hercules' the hare, (as I call him) with Memento Ink to one side of the topper and one of the Hobby Art Birthday Collection sentiments to the other.

I made a mask for each element, as my original intention was to cover both features when moving onto the next step...

For my first attempt, I masked the sentiment and Hercules and then stamped some foliage in the background using the other elements from the set. I stamped and coloured everything in with Kuretake Clean Colour Brush Markers. 

I didn't like it. To me, the sentiment looked odd just hanging there, and Hercules looked like he had been sunburnt...

That one went in the bin and I changed tack slightly! Deciding to go a little 'softer' in tone, I used lighter browns and picked out the 'lavender' style flower to use behind him.

This time I was happier, but I needed to tie-in the background. There is a little flower stamp in the set, so I stamped this randomly around the topper and coloured with the same tones as before. I then used some Grape Crush Stickles to make them pop and sparkle. I added some white highlights to Hercules.

The background was still a little sparse, so I stamped some of the same flower, but this time did not colour them in. Some complementary layers and all done!

Thank you for reading - next week I will be looking at a scene peaking through a forest...I look forward to seeing you then!

Love

Martina

xxx

 

A March Hare in February!

Hello all and happy Thursday! I have had a madly busy month craft wise (as well as everything else-wise!) and played with so many different mediums, including some sneaky new ones which are about to be released...(don't you just hate it when someone does that?)

Guess what? Wait for it... The card I made for this post is for a birthday which is nearly 2 MONTHS AWAY!! Whoohoo! Not sure the 'organised' trend will continue, but here's hoping..

I realise it is not March yet and I have been crafting with the Hobby Art March Hares Set, but the main stamp has so much character! I have been thinking of a name for him...Harold? Winston? Nope. I've settled on Hercules. He does look like a Hercules to me!

I started with a 14cm square of Watercolour Card and stamped the large hare from the Hobby Art March Hares set with Jet Black Staz-On in the centre. 

Next I used a soft paintbrush to spread water across all the areas I wanted to be blue, leaving a dry area were the hare was. I picked up some Stormy Sky Distress Ink on my brush and starting at the top, bought the colour down the page.

Making sure the blue area was dry, I took one of the grasses and stamped it across the page with Peeled Paint Distress Ink. Wetting my paintbrush once again, I went over each grass blade and pulled some of the colour out. I know it looks messy, but bear with me...

To add some more depth, I stamped over the blurred grasses with more of the same ink.

Remembering to mask of the hare, I repeated the same process with some of the other grasses from the set, blurring some and stamping over others. I also stamped with Forest Moss Distress Ink, to vary the tones. Wanting to add some more colours to my topper, I decided to add some detail with the straw stamp. Originally I stamped  with Scattered Straw Distress Ink, but it quickly became apparent that this pale colour was getting lost. I stamped with it anyway, making it appear that there was some pale straw in the distance, but also stamped with some Wild Honey Distress Ink (although it has a more 'orangy' tone, I quite like it!).

My next step - colour Hercules of course! I used Tea Dye and Walnut Stain Distress Inks, following the shaded areas where they had been drawn. At this point, I confess I was not happy with my picture and I took some inspiration from the Hobby Art team by adding some white line detailing. This added touch really does make all the difference!

The final touch was to use the same blues and greens of ink and add some darkness to the edges of the card.

With the main topper complete, I found a sentiment from my stash and matted and layered my panel.

So, there we have it. A simple card, made for a man with a March birthday!

Hope you like it; thank you for reading!

Love

Martina

xxx

P.S. Class day tomorrow...yippee!