Welcome to my crafty blog and some exciting news! I’ve been invited to join the design team over at Sparkles challenges and this is my first contribution. My team-mate Vickie has chosen ‘things with wings’ as this month’s theme – I went for the biplane from an old Stampin’ Up! set ‘sky is the limit’. I’ve incorporated a couple of other challenges with it – the colours are from The Paper Players together with CASology‘s theme of ‘ride’. I think a trip in a vintage plane would be a real treat.

I started by creating the sky area with ‘pacific point’ ink from a Write marker and a waterbrush (I just scribbled the ink on my craft mat and picked it up with the brush). I added the sentiments in ‘pacific point’, together with a few of the cloud shapes from the set, then attached it to a 5×7 card blank.

I stamped the plane using ‘hickory smoke’ Distress Oxide and heat embossed it with clear powder so it looked as though it was made from metal. I coloured it in with a ‘poppy parade’ Write marker (I don’t have ‘real red’) and watercoloured the blue between the wing struts, then fussy cut it. I like the effect of the embossing & colouring – makes it looks like a very old, slightly battered plane! I wanted it to sit slightly off the card, but my foam pads were too deep so I glued a small scrap of card to the back of the plane and then attached it to the card front. That just lifted it from the card a little.

I finished by adding a couple more of the clouds to the top and bottom, which I felt balanced it out a bit better.

Thanks for dropping in – this card will be winging it’s way to my father-in-law next weekend from his daughter. Do come and join us over at Sparkles – you’ve got until 14th July and we’d love to see your winged creations.