Helen | haiku cards

Baby blue and aqua

01 Aug 2017 8 Comments

by Helen in Birthday, Cards, CAS, floral

I liked the challenge of the words at The Challenge this week. I think I managed simple, butterfly, monochromatic and circle. Not so sure about friendship. It’s blue, because blue and aqua have come up a lot in challenges in the past couple of weeks.

aqua birthday

Stamps: L’Aquarelle butterfly and Uniko’s Originally Organic, fast becoming a go-to set for me (Wish I hadn’t missed the matching Happy Succulents!) and Simply Said. Stamped in Distress Ink: peacock feathers and mermaid lagoon. With two different sizes of pearls.

The design is based on Narelle’s sketch from Just Add Ink #370.

And also entering this one into Cards in Envy’s baby blue (or pretty pink) challenge.

Today’s haiku:

Like my moods, shading
Colours gradually change
Neither wrong nor right

Colourful hello

30 Jul 2017 2 Comments

by Helen in Cards, CAS, Friends

This card is inspired by Marcie Sharp’s on the Muse challenge this week. I watercoloured in black. Was interested to see how my watercolours took to a dark background. Inks didn’t work (none of them!) but my Caran d’Ache watercolours did. Plus a L’Aquarelle sentiment and a Stampin Up! sentiment. Looking at it again, I think I’ll add a scatter of black pearls, but am running out of time today.

colourful hello

Here’s Marcie’s card

And today’s haiku:

In the darkest night,
Even, colour can spring out:
turn black into bright!

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Balloon celebration

30 Jul 2017 2 Comments

by Helen in Birthday, Cards, CAS

I wanted to join in CASology’s 5-year anniversary blog hop. I always find a lot of inspiration from both the DT and the competitors, and interesting challenges.

So here’s a balloon card to wish them happy 5th birthday / anniversary.

balloon birthday

Life’s like a balloon
Sometimes: just as you’re soaring
Burst! and down you fall…

Muse Christmas

30 Jul 2017 8 Comments

by Helen in Birthday, Cards, CAS, Christmas, floral

Squeaking in on a challenge with a card I’ve thought about all month!

Muse Christmas

This is for the Muse Christmas Visions Challenge Christmas in July. I’m not sure why the picture is so blurry. The sun’s gone in, maybe it’s that.

The stamps are all Uniko (Wonderful Words and Originally Organic). It would have been better if I could have found my embossing powders (where did they go to hide?). No doubt they will turn up. I’m sure you sympathise. Broke out some new Brilliance Gold ink instead. Really pleased with it. And my beloved watercolour pens, of course!

The inspiration was from Jessica:

Also entering in Happy Little Stampers July Christmas Challenge, as I have cut out flowers on top of the stamping 🙂

And Watercooler Wednesday’s All About Christmas Challenge

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Watercolour but no stamps

24 Jul 2017 2 Comments

by Helen in Cards, CAS, floral

I thought I’d do some experimenting with watercolours on wet paper. I learned a lot but only a small part of the sheet turned out even partially the way I wanted. Watercolour paints and pencils to make a bouquet of flowers. Well, it’s a first attempt. I obviously need a lot more practice!

no stamps, only watercolouring

I don’t have die cuts so a no stamps CAS challenge was always going to be a REAL challenge! It’s either zendoodling or watercolouring so this one is for the Less is More No Stamps challenge.

A haiku for this one:

Nature grows colours
More beautiful than any
artist can dream them.

Butterfly thank you

23 Jul 2017 5 Comments

by Helen in Cards, Ladies, Thank you

Here is a card which is aimed at the Muse challenge.

Here is my card

muse butterflies

which is CASE of this week’s Muse card by Kim Heggins

I used: three butterflies, one outside the shape, green base, fibre, a curved shape, and a central scripty sentiment.

It’s a thank you card for a lovely lady who teaches dance beautifully.

Gliding gracefully.
Yet you say you’re no dancer:
Kindly share and teach.

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Colours that please

09 Jul 2017 13 Comments

by Helen in Birthday, Cards, CAS, floral, Ladies, Thank you

Here are two cards I made this week. First a card which is partly a CASE of one of Susan Raihala’s HERE, though I arranged the feathers myself using two individual L’Aquarelle stamps (love that set) and masking.

happy feathers

The colours are taken from CAS Colours and Sketches this week. Lime and Lemon Twist seems to be popping up in lots of colour challenges and I haven’t the exact ink but I think I’ve now found something very similar in Colorbox Lime. Also used Catherine Pooler Party Dress which is my closest to Berry Burst and Tim Holtz Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink for the Island Indigo. Really liking this combination of colours. The sentiment is from a useful set from Uniko.

And easily feminine enough for the Watercooler Wednesday Feminine challenge

The second card is inspired by CAS(E) this sketch#229, and by Karen’s wonderful backgrounds (see Snippets).

thankyoublocks

This is going to a temporary colleague who’s done wonderful work for us.

My favourite agapanthus again! And the Karen-inspired background was created with Catherine Pooler Party Dress and Tutti Frutti inks and white and black watercolours: then chopped up as per the sketch.

Orange like summer,
Outdoors, bright and enticing:
Pink like sunburned arms

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Happy Birthday & Thanks

02 Jul 2017 Comments Off on Happy Birthday & Thanks

by Helen in Birthday, Cards, CAS

I haven’t posted for quite a while because I was on holiday – chilled out on a yoga retreat in Greece. Now I have had a little time at last to create some cards – hence the postings today!

This one uses the colours at Hand Stamped Sentiments: the word is cut out of watercoloured paper and the sentiment is stamped with my gorgeous new juicy Catherine Pooler ink from Ardyth 🙂 Thanks again Ardyth. I tried to get the colours right with my watercolours, but they’ve all dried rather lighter than they were when I mixed them wet. So they are approximate – the rich razzleberry in particular came out rather pink…

happy birthday

So entered into HSS Color Challenge #267

Also, because it was just before I went away, I haven’t yet had a chance to say how delighted I am that I was an Honourable Mention at CASology on June 6th in their Medicine week. It was this card.

The Power of Words

02 Jul 2017 5 Comments

by Helen in Cards, CAS, Quotations, Zendoodle

This is a real experiment. Rather than having the haiku accompany or be inside of the card, I thought I’d make it the focal point. So this is all doodle script…

live a lively life

I took my challenge from the Words have Power/take Centre Stage at AAA cards (CAS Game #93)

I also realised that as a haiku has three lines, that the sketch #228 at CAS(E) This Sketch would be perfect for this purpose, so I used that 🙂

In case you can’t read the haiku, here it is – aimed at every busy person!

Live a lively life:
Let difficulties pass by.
Go follow your dreams.

I will probably try this again, and hopefully my skill will improve!

Fly the flag

02 Jul 2017 9 Comments

by Helen in Birthday, Cards, CAS

This is an unusual birthday card, for me. Unlike in some countries, we don’t really feature our flag creatively. It’s only since the 2012 Olympics that we’ve seen items decorated with the Union flag or its colours, and since the Rio Olympics that’s died down a lot. I hope this isn’t disrespectful – it is supposed to represent pride in a creative way!

flag birthday

This is all watercolouring and a Uniko sentiment. It doesn’t look as crooked in real life, honestly…

I was inspired by the Fusion inspiration picture which not only has the colours but the actual flag decorating the jars: though I picked my own flag to play with and we don’t celebrate the 4th July. So I’m entering this there.