Vintage Christmas

Good morning on a another very cold and frosty morning.

This card is an entry for the CES Challenge - Vintage Christmas.

A dark green, A5 size card base is the starting point for for this one. The background is white card which has been distressed around the edges with various colours of Distress ink, using a blending tool. All around the edges has been stamped a lovely Holly branch stamp from Creative Expressions These were then coloured in with ink from distress ink pads. Using a rule and a Versamark Pen, a gold embossing powder border was added all the way around the edge.

The main images (also Creative Expressions stamps by Sam Poole - Christmas Post and Christmas Sleigh Ride) consists of the bird on the branch, Post Card Label and the flourish for the border. These were stamped on white card, coloured with Distress inks and when dry, the edges of the card aged with more Distress ink.

The holly leaf spray is a Sizzix die cut.

To assemble, the main image was matted onto gold mirror card which was then trimmed to size. Green organza ribbon was wrapped around the mirror card and held in place with tape on the back. A bow was manufactured using my Ultimate Pro and bonded in place with Pinflair glue.This was layered onto the background sheet, which, in turn was assembled onto the base card.

The holly spray was added above the bow and the holes cut by the Sizzix die for the berries were filled using a red pearl pen which dries leaving a raised surface.

Challenge Link: http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-14-vintage-christmas.html

Untraditional Christmas Card - for 5 Challenges

I am having a crafty type of morning to make up for the lack of crafting over the last few days! Besides which, it is too cold and snowy to go outside.

This card started off from the Totally Papercraft Untraditional Christmas Challenge where no Red or Green was to be featured. Therefore I have gone for golds, oranges and a touch of yellow. There are then 4 other challenges so I will enter those too: Sketch and Stash Challenge #49 gave me the design for the card, Crafty Creations # 95 - Christmas is coming and CraftyCatz - Christmas, Cards for Men challenge #24

The base card is A5 in size and is extravagantly made from a sheet of gold mirror card.

The yellow, orange and white flourish background was made from white card, a Tattered Angels mask and yellow and orange Glimmer mist.

The next layer was white card. A non-stick mat was splodged with distress ink which was sprayed with water and the card dipped in, swirled around and dried. This was repeated until the card was covered satisfactorily. Versamark was dabbed, straight from the ink pad, in random fashion, and the gold embossing powder applied and heated to give highlights on the sheets.

The main image was made by the crystal technique (I believe it is called). The delightful Stag stamp from Elusive Images was added to the front of a sheet of acetate using Stazon ink and allowed to dry. This was then turned over and some clear, runny floor polish was added over the surface, some glitter and alcohol ink added for colour and sparkle and then a piece of white, scrunched up tissue paper was applied which soaked up the polish. This was all moved around until a suitable covering had been obtained and the whole thing was allowed to dry for over 24 hours. Once dry it was trimmed to the required size and the layers applied to the base card with Pinflair glue.

The 3 tabs were cut from and off-cut of the yellow, orange and white layer, trimmed on the diagonal and added to the card.

The three small stars and the snowflake were cut using a snowflake Shapeability (the stars are the centre of three of the snowflakes, waste not, want not, you understand! These were added as the final embellishments.

This card has been entered into the following challenges:

http://sketchandstashchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/11/sketch-n-stash-challenge-49.html

http://cardsformen.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-no-24-christmas-cards.html

http://craftycreationschallenges.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-95-christmas-is-coming.html

http://totallypapercrafts.blogspot.com/2010/11/totally-papercrafts-untraditional.html

Fancy Box

Good morning. My 2nd post of the day to catch up with Challenges from this week. This is for Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight on Containers and Fancy Envelopes.

This box started out as two pieces of flat white card. These were coloured using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists and masks and then left to dry thoroughly.

Th top and the bottom of the box were made by trimming the card to give two squares, one slightly smaller than the other and they were then folded up. Amazingly, these keep their shape without the need to use glue, although I do line the lid, with a square of card, to neaten it up.

The 4 hearts were cut using Nestabilities - a wonderful invention - where would we be without them. The largest one was left in the die and coloured with Fired Brick Distress Ink leaving a white border once the die was removed. The three smaller hearts were coloured with the same ink and them over stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder.

These layers were decoupaged with foam pads to give depth and then mounted onto the box with double sided tape. A heart shaped crystal was positioned on the smallest heart for a bit of bling.

I think the end result will be great for next Valentine's Day for a small momento of the occasion. The finished box is about 3" square.

Challenge Link: http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.com/2010/11/spotlight-on-containers-fancy-envelopes.html

Secrets and Dreams Picture

Good morning one and all.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week but I have been in Slovakia for work. I don't know, how dare work get in the way of crafting! Consequently I have a few Challenges to catch up with.

This project is for Die Cut Dreams Challenge #75 - Anything but a card. So here is one of my canvas board pictures. It is A6 in size.

The white board was painted with acrylic paints in yellows and browns, lightened in places with a bit of white.

For the background, I took a piece of calico fabric, coloured it with patches of Stazon ink, just by pressing the ink pad to the fabric to give random rectangles of colour. This was then stamped with some texture stamps from Elusive images in pumpkin, mustard and brown, layering them up but stamping one image over another. The final layer was made by stamping the key hole and sentiments onto tissue paper in brown. When dry, these were applied over the top using watered down PVA glue. The slight wrinkles giving texture and character. When dry a coat of the PVA was applied over the whole sheet and allowed to dry. This gave a fairly stiff piece of fabric. Note: Stazon ink had to be used for all of this work or else the PVA glue would have made Distress or other dye based inks smudge and run.

For the embellishment, I took another piece of fabric, coloured it with Adirondack ink and stamped the keyhole (again from EI) in a dark brown. No liquid was going near this piece so it did not matter that dye based ink was used. This was cut from the fabric sheet and edged with blanket stitch, in a rusty coloured cotton, to stop it fraying.

The background sheet was trimmed to size with a metal edged rule and knife. No fraying here because of the amount of glue used on it! This was then bonded in place with more PVA glue and allowed to dry. The embellishment was mounted on top with double sided tape and the small pearls and crystals added to complete the effect.

A ribbon was adhered to the back to hang the picture and the back was covered with brown card to tidy everything up!

Challenge link: http://diecutdreams.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-75-anything-but-card-no-cards.html

Get Well Soon Card

For my second post of the day I have a Get Well Soon card for the CraftyCatz Challenge #59.

The flowers were cut from red, pink and yellow card with a Cricut having set up the design sheets for the various flower shapes on my Gypsy. They were then stamped randomly with a Judikins pattern stamp with black Stazon. The flowers were then coloured with distress inks and a blending tool to age them a bit. Each flower was then constructed by layering up 3 different layers using Pinflair glue gel.

Although it is difficult to tell from this photo, the flowers are stood in a vase which was made from a rectangle of pink card with some acetate wrapped round it. Ribbons were tied around it to make a bow.

The base card is A5 in size and made from pale pink pearlescent card. Immediately behind the vase of flowers is a woven panel of cream and pink patterned card. Once woven, this was matted onto a darker pink card - the same colour that was used for the vase. This assembly was then bonded to the base card with Pinflair glue. The flower heads were arranged and bonded in place with the same glue.

Another panel of the darker pink card was cut and the Get Well Soon Letters, which were taken from a pre-printed sheet, were added. This was mounted on the base card to complete it.

Challenge page: http://craftycatzweeklychallenge.blogspot.com/2010/11/craftycatz-get-well-soon-challenge.html

Butterflies and Lace

Another challenge card for you this morning. This is for the CES Challenge #13 - Lovely Lace.

The butterflies were stamped on cream card and embossed in silver using stamps of my own design that I had made for me. They were cut out and coloured with Twinkling H2Os.

The delightful light blue lace paper is one of Joanna Sheen's designs. 2 rectangles were cut from this paper - the smaller one was layered onto cream card, then onto the larger lace panel and finally onto a patterned grey card. On the back of the grey card, double sided tape was run all around the edge, the backing pealed off and the lace ruffle was bonded to it. This had an elasticated edge to it which helped it to go around the corners. More double sided tape was run over this and the whole assembly was bonded to a cream pearlescent A5 size base card.

This is a very different card to the type I usually make so I hope you like it.

Challenge page: http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-13-lovely-lace.html

Snowflake Christmas Card.

Good afternoon to you all. Here is my offering for the Totally Papercrafts Challenge #43 - Snow and Snowflakes.

The tree baubles are from the delightful Mouse stamps from Crafters Companions. There were stamped onto white card and coloured in with Twinkling H2Os and over sprayed with Crafters Companion glitter varnish.

A non-stick craft mat was splodged with several different colours of distress ink and water was sprayed on it. The card was applied in a random way and dried and then re-applied and dried until a pleasing effect was obtained. Whilst still damp a small amount of cosmic shimmer mica powder was applied to give a bit of sparkle.

A fir stamp was applied at the top and bottom of the card in green ink and then over stamped with Versamark and gold embossing powder applied and heated.

Two different sizes of snowflake stamp (Judikins) were randomly stamped with Versamark and Sheena's White Wow powder applied and heated to give bright white snowflakes.

To assemble: The card was trimmed to size and layered onto gold shimmer paper. The green ribbons were positioned and bonded into place and then the whole thing bonded onto an A5 dark green base card. The baubles were bonded in place over the ribbons and the matching bows attached.

That's it. The entire story. I hope that you feel that it fits the challenge.

To find the challenge, follow the link: http://totallypapercrafts.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-43-snow-and-snowflakes.html

Matching Card and Present

Good evening.

Here is a card for three challenges plus a matching present for one of them. The challenges are as follows: Crafty Creations #94 - Beautiful Insides, Critter sketch Challenge Blog #40 - Texture and Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #34 - Card and Matching Gift.

The base purple hammered card (for texture) is 5.75 inches square.

The swirly panels started life as 2 A6 white silk cards which were coloured with purple, blue and red ink. They were the run through a Cuttle Bug inside a Swirls embossing folder (to give more texture). Very carefully, by hand, the glitter glue was added to the top of all the embossing for added bling. I had very sore fingers by the time I had done all that!

The tissue paper that is used inside the card as the background (it is also used inside the gift box - scrunched up inside to keep the craft tools in place) was spayed with blue, red and purple Glimmer Mists.

The large and small purple hearts were cut with Nestabilities and the Cuttle Bug from the purple hammered card.

For the front of the card:

A glittered, embossed panel was cut down to a 4 x 4" square which was mounted on a panel of blue card. This had a piece of blue ribbon wrapped round, secured in place with tape on the back. This, in turn, was mounted directly onto the base card. A large purple heart was positioned, with foam pads, slightly overlapping the ribbon. A small bouquet of paper flowers and leaves was made up and this was attached inside the heart, after trimming the stems so that they did not show below the point of the heart.

For the inside of the card:

The back surface was lined with the scrunched up glimmered tissue to give a bit more texture. A small panel of the glitter and embossed card was added, followed by another large heart. One of the pink flowers was broken down, flattened out and a few layers added inside the heart shape.

Once all this was done, more of the blue ribbon was tied around the spine with a bow as a final embellishment.

For the present:

An 8 x 8" square of card was scored on my Ultimate Pro, 2.5 " in from each edge. The corner squares were then scored diagonally so that the corners would fold inwards. The corners were then punched with a Cropadile to give holes for the ribbon to pass through.

The second embossed and glittered panel was cut into four equal pieces, each of which were bonded onto blue panels. These were then bonded into place on the side panels of the gift box. Small purple hearts were added with foam pads and a small paper flower was placed in the centre of each. The end of each flower stem was twisted around a small diameter embossing tool to give a spiral extending below the point of each heart.

Glimmered tissue was scrunched up and place in the centre of the box and ribbon was threaded through the holes and tied in a bow to keep the box in shape. Various crafting tools were added to make the perfect gift for a Crafter!

The links to the challenges are as follows:

http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-34-card-matching-gift.html

http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-40texture.html

http://craftycreationschallenges.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-94-beautiful-insides.html

Look Mum, No Glue!

Good morning. Happy Monday - and it is happy too as I have a day off work!!

Here is a card for the Die Cut Dreams Challenge #74 - Use staples on your work. Well, I have gone to the extent of only using staples to attach items to this card.

The tag - started off as a plain white tag and it was coloured using two different light blue Distress Ink pads. The flourishes are two of Sheena Douglass' new stamps applied using Versamark ink and embossed with clear powder so that you can see the colours beneath. A darker blue ink was applied over the top and wiped off the embossing. The sentiment (also a Sheena stamp) was simply stamped in the same dark blue ink. Pieces of light and dark blue ribbon were knotted through the hole of the tag and three pieces of ribbon were added to the end of the tag using a Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to staple them in place.

The layer under the tag is a piece of pale gold pearlescent paper which has been hot foiled, in silver, by myself. This was torn, aged with blue ink and the edge rubbed across the ink pad to give contrast against the layer below.

The next layer is another piece of the pale gold paper which has been punched at both ends with a punch from Fiskars.

To assemble the card, the tag was attached to the foiled layer. The foiled layer was positioned onto the gold layer which was in turn was positioned onto the base card and all three were attached together with 4 mini staples.

Well, that is it. I hope this fits the bill for this challenge at:

http://diecutdreams.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-74-use-staples-on-your-work.html

Card for Cool Cats

Good morning to you all. Happy Sunday and I hope that you are enjoying your weekend.

Here is a very different card from me as I am not a "pink" girl. This card is for the CES Challenge #12 - Think Pink! Well, this is about as pink as I could get it. Also for the Craftycatz challnge for paper tearing.

The base card is a pink A5 size and this has a wrap of very pale pink pearlescent card which has had the bottom edge embossed on my Crafters Companion UltimatePro and the square edge cut away so that you can see the base card.

The pink floral ribbon was a freebie from a crafting magazine from years ago. I knew it would come in useful one day!

The images are are from a set of stamps that I designed and had made for me. If anyone is interested in these, drop me an e-mail and I will send you the details. The images were stamped onto white card, embossed in silver and coloured in with Twinkling H2Os.

The image was layered onto pink vellum and onto pink card which has been torn and had its edges inked with a dark pink ink. These layers were held together with 4 pink heart shaped eyelets so that adhesive did not show through the vellum. This assembly was attached to white card with torn edges. This did not have an inked edge as I wanted it to show up against the pink ribbon.

A pink bow, made from ribbon with a silver edge was added to complete the card. I hope it is a fitting entry to the challenge.

Challenge address:
CES: http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-12-think-pink.html
Crafty Catz: http://craftycatzweeklychallenge.blogspot.com/2010/11

Christmas Card

Good morning.

Here is my card for today - a Christmas Card with a slightly traditional feel. It is A5 in size with the base card being very dark blue.

The background layer is made from watercolour paper. It was coloured with two colours of blue distress ink and then over sprayed with two colours of Glimmer Mist which was deliberately done to make splatters rather than a fine mist. Once dry, the edges of the panel were stamped with Denim Adirondack ink using one of the new stamps by Sheena Douglass.

The second layer was white glossy card that was stamped using various snowflake stamps using Versamark ink and embossed with white powder. Ink was applied with a blending tool and the ink on the snowflakes rubbed off to leave the flakes white.

Two colours of organza ribbon were wrapped around this layer and tied in a bow at the side.

The image is a stamp from Creative Expressions which was stamped on plain white card with black Stazon Ink and coloured with Twinkling H2Os. It was cut out with a scalloped Nestability and the edges highlighted with Distress ink.

As a final touch the large snowflake was made by using a Shapeability, coloured with Distress ink and over sprayed with silver glitter varnish by Crafters Companion.

To assemble the card, all the layers were attached with double sided tape and the snowflake with foam pads.

Art Nouveauv Lady in Black and Purple.

This is for the Totally Papercrafts Challenge #42 - Black and purple.

The background for the stamped image was created by splodging various colours of Distress ink on a non-stick mat, spraying with water and then dipping the white card into it, drying in, dipping it some more etc until a pleasing effect was obtained.

The stamp - from Art Nouveau Ladies by Creative expressions was stamped with Black Stazon and when dry her hair and the plinth and flowers above her head were painted with Twinkling H2Os.

The purple embossed background - a commercially produced piece - was coloured around the edges with Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress Inks applied with a blending tool. The colours have picked up on the embossing quite nicely.

The base card is a dark purple hammered effect card, A5 in size. Layered onto this is glossy black stripe embossed card, followed by the purple embossed card. The image was layered onto plain black card which was torn at the bottom and a length of purple ribbon added around it. An off-cut of the purple embossed card was added on top. This assembly was added to the card before three black crystals and the purple bow were added to complete the effect.

I do hope that you like this card. Please feel free to leave your comments as I love receiving them.

The card has been entered into the following challenge: http://totallypapercrafts.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-42-black-purple.html

Oriental Button Card

Good evening.

Here is my entry for the Crafty Creations Challenge #93 - a card featuring buttons. I had great messy fun making this one.

The card is based on a very dark green A5 size card. I made the background paper, tag and buttons.

The background paper was really cheap card which did not like water much. I added rough splodges (a technical term) of various colours of Distress ink, then added lots of water and screwed the whole thing up into a ball. Very carefully this was flattened back out, extra ink added where required and then screwed up again. Once roughly flattened out it was left to dry thoroughly. Although not too easily seen in this photo the resulting card has great texture. This was then over stamped in black Stazon with a beautiful stamp from Inkadinkado.

The tag was made by putting splodges of three colours of Distress Ink - Spiced marmalade, Worn Lipstick and Fired brick on to a clean non-stick mat and spraying them lightly with water. The tag was dabbed onto them and dried off with a heat gun and the process repeated until the tag was fully coloured with a pleasing design. This was dried thoroughly before the wonderful poppy stamped from Sheena Douglass was added using Versamark ink and Wow Gold Sparkle Embossing Powder. After the embossing powder was heated to set it, extra colour was added to the poppies using Red and Orange Aquamarkers with not too much water to blend them as the tags don't like water much either!

The 3 buttons were made from Fimo clay, rolled into balls and flattened into discs and holes punched through with a ball tool. These were coloured with mica powder before being baked to set the clay.

The card was assembled after organza ribbon was added to the tag and the buttons. The hand coloured background was applied to red glossy card which was layered onto the base card. The tag was bonded in place with thick foam tape. The buttons were positioned with Pinflair glue.

I do hope you like the finished result.

The Challenge website is: http://craftycreationschallenges.blogspot.com

Christmas Card for Three Challenges

Good evening.

Here is a card for the following challenges: Cards for Men Challenge #23 - Animals, Sketch and Stash Challenge #48 and Crafty Cardmakers - Spotlight Dry Embossing. See the links at the end of the blog.

For the animals we have penguins, for the dry embossing we have the snow flake background and the card is made to the sketch with the new stash being a Snowflake Impressibility and snow flake Shapeabilities to revitalise plain white card.

This is based on a dark blue A5 size card. Plain white card was embossed using the Impressability and my Cuttlebug. On the debossed side, three colours of blue Distress ink were applied very gently using the blending tool to tint the raised portions. A quickie glue pen was used to highlight the snowflakes with Glamour Dust which is more subtle then glitter. This was then trimmed and attached to a piece of Silver Mirror card. The trimmings were used to make the two arrow shaped pointers which were also matted onto silver mirror card.

The snow flakes were cut out using some Shapeabilites from white card. These were tinged with blue ink and and over sprayed with silver glitter varnish from Crafter's Companion.

For the main image: The penguin stamp from Encaustic Arts International was stamped onto glossy card and thoroughly dried with a heat gun. A moon shape was cut from a Post-It note and some roughly shaped mountains were torn out of paper. The moon and mountains were positioned onto the card and ink was applied with a brayer to give the sky. More mountains were added using the paper and a make-up sponge to dab the ink into place. Snow was added in the form of a snow writer which had Glamour Dust added whilst it was still wet to add just a touch of sparkle.

I hope that you like my challenge entry. Here are the links to the challenge pages:

http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.com

http://sketchandstashchallenge.blogspot.com

http://cardsformen.blogspot.com

Dragon Challenge Card

Here, I hope, is a different card for the Critter Sketch Challenge #39 - Dragons. See below for the web address) This card incorporates several of my favourite crafts - rubber stamping, encaustic art and Friendly Plastic.

For the image, the two dragons (Stamps by Encaustic Art International) were stamped with Stazon ink onto glossy card and allowed to dry. An encaustic art scene was then built up around the images in red, purple, dark blue to give a scene of mountains, plains and an unusual sky.

The card was then mounted into an aperture card which had been inked around the border with Worn Lipstick and Dusty Concord Distress inks. This in turn was mounted onto some purple embossed mirror board and onto a dark purple a5 size base card.

The friendly plastic embellishment was made by lining up some thin stick of plastic, warming them with a heat gun until molten and then dragging a special comb though to give the feathered pattern. This was then cut out with a small cookie cutter and whilst still warm it was domed inwards to give the finished shape. This was bonded in position with several thicknesses of foam pads.

Challenge website: http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-39dragons-winner.html

Autumn Tag Card

This is a card for two challenges - "Forever Autumn" for CES Challenge #11 (http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com) and Totally Papercraft Challenge #41 - Tag It (http://totallypapercrafts.blogspot.com).

This is an A4 size card with a brown base. The next layer is from a photograph that I took this autumn of masses of various wet leaves on a compost heap! It has been dulled down a bit with Forest Green and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks.

The three tags were coloured with Distress Inks. With the 3 tags carefully aligned the stamped images, both by the wonderful Sheena Douglass, were added in Timber Brown Stazon Ink. Water droplets were splashed around the outside edge, which when moped up with tissue gave some lighter patches of colour in the background inks. A Tattered Angels mask of a branch was applied top and bottom of the tags and sponged over with more Distress Inks. Lengths of autumnal coloured ribbon were added to the ends of the tags using a Tim Holtz Tinny Attacher.

The three flowers used at the end of the tags were made by cutting various layers out on a Cricut Create machine. These were then stamped and coloured with inks, shaped and bonded together to give the completed flowers.

The tags and flowers were bonded into place to give the final look.

Flower Corner Card

Clarity stamps come to the fore on this one. This is a nice delicate card with a lovely sentiment. Three stamps have been used - the floral corner, the sentiment and the circular star burst type one (I can't remember what it was called.

I have worked on a base card A5 in size. All 3 decorated layers have been created on glossy card.

The bottom layer was created with various light colours of glimmer mist splattered onto the surface and allowed to dry.

The middle layer was created using a resist technique. The white glossy card was stamped around the edge using the star burst stamp and Versamark ink. Once dry, this was brayered over using a Big'n'Juicy ink pad to create the colour variation.

For the top layers the floral corner stamp was used 4 times to create the floral motif and the sentiment was centralised underneath. The corner flowers were coloured with Promarkers. The centres were glittered in gold

To assemble, the layers were matted onto the base card with double sided tape. Fine line peel-offs were used on the edges of the lower layer and the base card to add some clear edge lines. A bow was made from ribbon that matched the colour of the flowers and bonded in place with Pinflair glue. Finally gold thread was knotted on the spine to a touch of texture and movement and to match the gold glitter on the flowers.

Flower Decoupage

I love flowers and and the colours and textures of nature. They all add up to make the world a brighter place.

The frame and flowers stamps were designed by myself which makes it all quite exciting. Should anyone be interested in these stamps, please contact me and I will send you details.

A dark green A6 card base was the starting point. A sheet of navy card was sprayed with a silver mica spray and left to dry. A panel was cut out to suit the card size and the bottom edge ripped to give texture. Dark green ribbon was wrapped round the sprayed card and bonded in position before the panel was attached to the card base.

The frame and central bouquet were stamped on a piece of white card and three more bouquets were stamped separately. These were all coloured using Twinkling H2Os to give a subtle sheen. The separate bouquets were cut out to give elements to use for decoupage.

The frame, the base of the decoupage design, was mounted onto another piece of the dark green card, using double sided tape, and this, in turn, was mounted onto the base A6 card with foam pads. The decoupage was then built up onto the frame to give the finished bouquet of flowers.

Christmas Card for 2 Challenges

A lovely, cheerful card for Christmas.

The stamped image of the snowmen - from Creative Expressions - was stamped onto white card and coloured with Twinkling H2Os. When dry it was cut out using a circular scalloped Nestability and this was mounted on another scalloped circle cut from silver mirror card.

The background was made following a session of using Tattered Angels masks and Glimmer Mists. The mask was covered in liquid so rather than just wash it off I turned it upside down onto a clean piece of card and was left with the impression of the mask in amazing colours. This was trimmed down to the required size and the edges coloured with some distress ink to give a slightly aged look.

The background was layered onto some blue card and a ribbon and bow was wrapped around it before it was secured to the A5 white base card. Faux stitching was added around the blue boarder in a Silver Marvy Metallic pen. Finally the the scalloped image was added using foam pads.

This has been entered into 2 challenges: Critter Sketch Challenge Number 38 - Christams at http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com and Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 33 Stitching at http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.com

Hearts

Good morning to you all.

Here is an A6 size card constructed from 3 stamps that I designed and had made for me - the heart, the square and the rectangle stamps.It is actually a very simple card but I love the combination of the gold on the glossy black card.

The heart was stamped with Versamark ink and embossed in gold. The two other decorative panels was stamped with Versamark ink and then Perfect Pearls gold mica powder was stippled onto the design and gently worked into the ink until the whole pattern was visible.

The heart was closely trimmed around the edge as were the two panels. The panels were then matted onto white gloss card to give an extra bit of contrast. The panels were layered onto the glossy black base card before the heart was added, raised on foam pads for dimension.

Multiple strands of gold thread, knotted at the top of the card spine adds the finishing touch to give quite a luxurious looking card.

This card has been entered into the Heart challenge at http://diecutdreams.blogspot.com/

One card for 2 Challenges

Here is a very autumnal card for 2 challenges - see the end of this blog for details

The completed card is A5 in size. The background was created from a piece of wood effect paper which was coloured with Adirondack Inks - Espresso, Rust and Butterscotch.

The main image and the sentiment are from the new stamps from Sheena Douglass. These were both stamped with Espresso ink and water coloured with the same three inks already mentioned. The autumnal leaf images were from some wood mounted stamps that I have had for years but I cannot tell you the manufacturer as they are unmarked. These were also water coloured with the inks and cut out when dry.

The three buttons, I made myself from clay (Fimo). They are imprinted with designs from various rubber stamps and coloured with Perfect Pearls mica powder before baking. Each was threaded with a piece of copper coloured organza ribbon for added texture.

The sentiment was cut out using a Nestabilities Label design as was the bronzy coloured mirror card for the backing.

Everything was assembled using double sided tape or glue with the sentiment being mounted with foam pads for depth.

Challenges: The Critter Sketch Challenge #37 - Sketch and Buttons (http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com) and the Crafty Creations Challenge #91 - Autumn (http://craftycreationschallenges.blogspot.com).

Feather in the Wing of Time - A Man's Card

I know this uses the same stamps as my last post but I wanted to make a card that was suitable for a man. I love the way that this one turned out.

The base card is a in dark brown and is an A4 sheet scored and folded to make an A5 size card. Approximately an inch was cut off the front portion so that the inside back face can be seen.

The coloured backing was a piece of cream card that was painted with walnut stain which contained some mica powder for a bit of shine. While this was still damp quite a bit of another colour was added along the top edge of the card and allowed to run down the paper causing the long run lines. This was then allowed to dry naturally as a heat gun would have blown the liquid colour around.

A panel was cut and attached to the front of the card and another panel attached to the inside back surface of the card. The vertical edges of both panels and the right hand edge of the front of the card were lined with fine gold peeloff strips.

The main panel is actually made of a very thin veneer of pale coloured wood. This was spayed with various tones of glimmer mist to give the same sort of colouring as the background paper and again it gives a bit a a sheen to the surface. This was allowed to dry overnight as heating would have caused the wood to bend.

For the stamping the feather and sentiment were stamped first and then parts of the feather were used to create the border.

This card has been added to the Cards for Men Challenge No. 22 - Anything goes (as long as it's male). http://cardsformen.blogspot.com

A Quick Note

Hi, I just wanted to say that I am away for all of next week on a business trip to Belarus. For those of you who haven't a clue where that is (I had to look it up on a map) it is just the other side of Poland. I don't know what the Internet access will be like so if you do not hear from me for a while you know why! I am taking some images with me so if I do have access I will carry on blogging. See you soon, Shirl xx

Feather. in the Wing of Time.

I love this stamp and sentiment. They are by Clarity stamps.

The A5 background was made with a resist technique on white glossy cardstock. The images of the feather were stamped using versamark ink and when it was dry, the colour was brayered on from a Big'n'Juicy ink pad. This was trimmed down to the size I required for adding to an A5 size card. The right hand edge was the trimmed using a Borderability to give a pretty edge.

The Main image was done on A6 glossy card. The white card was masked off to give a panel that was the correct size for the feather stamp. This was then brayered using the same ink pad. When dry the feather was stamped in black Stazon ink and the masking removed. The sentiment was added using Stazon too. Fine peel offs were added to the edge for extra embellishment.

The ribbon was wrapped around the background card and tied with a bow before being layered onto a dark brown card blank. The main image was then added with double sided tape to complete the card which I think would be suitable for a male or female.

1 Card for 3 Challenges

Here is one card for 3 challenges. The first time I have entered more than one challenge in one go. The Challenges are:Critter Challenges - #36 Hip to be Square, Crafty Creations Challenge - #89 Show a Number and Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #32 - Using a freebie. See the end of this entry for the links to the challenges.

The Hip to be square was a sketch challenge so the card follows that idea. To show a number - it is in the sentiment. Use a freebie - this was the central stamp that was free with Craft Stamper magazine a few months ago.

The card is based on a 6 inch square. The dusky pink coloured layering card was hand made by me from a piece of cream card, sprayed with Glimmer Mist and covered with crinkled cling film until it was dry. This concentrates the mica powder to give silvery highlights. Hmmm, maybe not too evident in the picture, but they are there, I can assure you!

Various Shapabilities were used to cut out the background square shapes and also the sentiment which was created in DSA.

The image was stamped on to glossy card with Black Stazon ink.

The card was then assembled having cut a slit in the spine so that the ribbon could be threaded through.

Challenges:
http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com
http://craftycreationschallenges.blogspot.com
http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.com

Bunch of Roses Card

Here we are with another flowery card. Again, I hope it is something a bit different that you will like.

A green A4 sheet was folded in 2 to make an A5 base card. A piece of glossy A5 white card was trimmed back a bit to show the green border of the base card. This was then masked off and green distress ink was added round the border using a piece of Cut'n'Dry foam. When this was dry it was over stamped with a small bunch of roses from U-Mount stamps using black Stazon ink.

The main image, the larger bunch of roses from the same stamp set, was stamped with black Stazon and embossed with clear powder. This was coloured in with Cosmic Shimmer mica powders mixed with water and green ink from a Big'n'Juicy pad. When dry, a frame Shapability was used to cut out the centre section and the frame. Note, some of the image is included on the frame so this was an aid to lining it all back up again later when the card was assembled.

For the centre section, the edges were coloured with two tones of green Distress ink so that there was no white card left showing. The frame was also coloured with the ink so as to achieve a good contrast between the frame and the white of the backing card.

The centre was placed back into the hole in the frame to ensure good positioning on the page. The centre was bonded in place with double sided tape. The frame was then lifted away and mounted onto the card with foam pads to give some depth to the card.

Blue Flowers

Here is another of my digital scrapbook pages which combines my encaustic artwork with digital techniques. The artwork was scanned into the computer to give the digital image along with another piece which was very swirly and abstract.

The abstract was used for the background and this was blended with an image of a piece of creased denim. The Blue flowers artwork was then layered on top and made slightly transparent so that the swirls and the denim can be seen.

The "bling" flourishes and the glass drops were added for embellishment to give the final design.

Oriental Fancy Fold Card

This one took a lot of work. A combination of stamping and oriental papers from a Create and Craft kit of many years ago.

The Poppy image is the front of the card and the second photo shows the two inside surfaces and the back.

For the front the beautiful poppy and script stamp was stamped onto white card and embossed in black. It was then painted using Twinkling H2Os. When dry this was matted and layered onto black and red card before being mounted onto the base card red card which had already had gold and red layers added to it.

The 2 inside surfaces were layered with the oriental design papers and were embellished with tags, a cut down card front and some oriental symbols.

The back was a stamped image, again stamped and embossed in black, painted with H2Os and mounted in the same way as the front.

I do hope you like it. This card has been entered into the Spotlight on Fancy Folds challenge with Crafty Cardmakers.

Dragonflies Over Water.

This is an encaustic technique that I have not featured before (I don't think so anyway. This is called and indirect technique. Instead of applying the wax directly to the base glossy card, it is applied to a piece of tissue (as in the type you blow you nose on).

Three colours are added to the tissue - in this case brown, green and blue. This is then laid onto the card and heat is applied to the tissue with the tip of the iron which transfers a bit of wax to the white card. The design is built up from scratch just by adding little dabs of the different coloured waxes to make the picture. The fence posts and grasses were created by running the edge of the iron along the tissue.

The water line was shown by adding some of the dark blue wax to the bottom of the rock and then rubbing it vigorously with the tip of a finger. This generates enough heat to partially melt the wax again and smudge it around.

The dragonflies were added at the end using a stylus tool which is needed to crate the fine lines.

Oriental Card 3

Sorry, there seems to be a bit of an oriental theme developing here. But this is quite different card.

The base white card was ripped down one edge. Versamark ink was applied down the ripped edge and gold embossing powder applied and heated to give that beautiful edge.

A piece of hand made burgundy coloured paper with gold hand painted swirls (not by me, I hasten to add, was used as a wrap which was bonded in place with double sided tape.

The topper was made from a piece of white glossy card which was brayered with "Big 'n' Juicy" ink. The delightful image was stamped and embossed in gold. Again the edge was ripped and embossed with gold powder. The topper was then mounted on the front of the card with tape.

The embellishment was made from mizuhiki cord (I bet I spelt that wrong)knotted and bonded in place with silicon glue.

Oriental card 2

A simpler oriental card this time. I apologise that it is not a brilliant photo but it was all packed up in cellophane.

The Bamboo (Judikins stamp, I think) was stamped onto the red card, embossed and trimmed with deckle edged scissors. The lady (The Stamp Man, I believe) was also stamped onto red card, embossed and cut out. She was then stuck to white card and trimmed round to leave a small white border. Her kimono was painted with Twinkling H2Os.

The red backing card was adhered to a gold shimmer A6 card and the lady layered onto that. Gold threads were knotted around the spine and three jewels added for a bit of bling.

Train Card

This is the birthday card that I made for my other half this year. He is a steam train lover so I thought this one fitted the bill.
There are loads of elements for this one all stamped from a set of stamps from U mount. The Base A4 size card was white which was layered up with some brown which had been sprayed with copper glimmer mist and a dark green/gold card. An A5 white sheet was stamped with the station clock which was then embossed with clear powder as a resist technique so when the distress inks were applied the white card could still be seen.
The train scene, which was one stamp, was coloured using distress inks applied by paint brush, and then the edges aged with more inks. Two sets of luggage, the station master the clock and the lamp post were coloured in the same way. These were then all cut out to give individual embellishments.
A white oval was cut out with a Nestability die and the edges coloured whilst still in the die so that a white edge was kept. An oval scalloped shape was cut from the brown misted paper and the two were layered together. The lamp post and the station master were added to this.
All the elements were then added to the base card to give the final look. The large clock was added on foam tape to give some depth to the picture.

This csrd has been entered into the CES chsllenge at http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/

Ivor the Engine Card.

A more unusual card from me. No stamping or encaustic art in sight. This decoupage card is not something I usually do but this was a special card for Keith and he loves Ivor the engine!

It is an A4 size gate fold card made in dark brown. The is a mat of copper mirror card on each side. The top layer was a sheet of cream card which was stained with walnut ink containing mica powder. Whilst the ink was wet a piece of clingfilm was applied and drawn up into creases thus concentrating the micra powder up to make fine coppery lines.

The decoupage was cut out and layered up with 2mm foam. The completed decoupage was mounted on brown card before being applied to either side of the gate fold.

Oriental Card

This was a card made for my niece who loves anything oriental. It was also a good excuse to try out my new Hot Foiling Machine.
The 3 pictures were printed from some clip art on a laser printer and then each image was run though the hot foiler using purple foil - Kim's favourite colour. These were then cut to shape using a Nestabilities die cutter on a Cuttle Bug. The edges were then coloured with Milled Lavender and Dusky Concord Distress inks applied with Cut 'n' Dry foam. A larger version of each shape was cut from a piece of card that I had previously coloured with Glimmer mists. These were stuck to the back of the pictures to stiffen them up a bit.
An A4 piece of white card was scored and folded to give a concertina shape. These were faced with strips of the card used to back the pictures which had been mounted on black card to make them stand out. The front strip had a purple foiled border applied in the same way as previously mentioned.
The three pictures were then stuck in position, staggered across the width of the card. A small foiled plaque was created to be stuck on the back for the greeting and signatures.

This has been entered into the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge - Step Away from the Square.

Butterflies

A piece of of work using the resist technique. The background card started off as a piece of A5 white card. The corner stamps (Elusive Images) were stamped using Versamark and embossed with clear powder.

Black ink was then applied all over the card and it does not stick to the embossing so these areas still show up as white. Once the ink was dry, the whole thing was rubbed over with a tissue to take any remaining black off the embossing.

The same technique was applied for the Butterflies again a stamp from EI (this was entered in one of their challenges last year). Once the ink was dry and they had been buffed up, their wings were curled slightly to make the whole thing a bit 3D and then bonded in place with silicon glue. Mats, in white and black, were added to complete the front of the card.

'LOVE' Word Book

This was the card that I made for Keith, my other half, for Valentine's Day this year. It was the first wordbook that I had attempted.

The base cards, with the letters on, were compiled within My Craft Studio software. These were then printed and cut out. I outlined each of the letters with fine border peel-offs to give them more definition. The edges of the papers were inked using distress and Adirondack inks and Cut 'n' Dry foam - a marvellous invention.

Through out the book are embellishments made from cutting various hearts from white card using Nestabilities. These where then stamped using stamps from Elusive Images and inked with distress ink.

The larger embellishment on the front was a Nestabilities scalloped heart with the cut out made using a Nestabilities plain heart. A piece of heat resistant acetate was stamped with some swirls (again from EI), using Versamark, and then embossed in gold. This was trimmed and stuck on the reverse of the heart frame. It was then mounted on foam pads to the front page.

Once all the pages were completed the whole thing was bound together with a Bind-It-All machine.

Friendly Plastic Embellishment

Friendly Plastic lives up to its name. It is a terrific material to work with. One great advantage is that it can be re-used so not a scrap is wasted. This card embellishment was made from scraps that had been cut from other things, They were reheated and dragged through with a comb to give this lovely effect. This is very similar to feathering icing on a cake but I only dragged through in one direction.

Tree Card

What a hectic week it has been. Still, here we are on the 1st of October and autumn is well under way. Therefore I thought I would go for an autumnal coloured design.

I loved making the background paper on this one. It was made by washing a piece of white card with walnut ink with mica powder in it, Whilst it was still wet I sprinkled salt on the page which absorbs the water thus concentrating the mic powder around it. It gives a wonderful effect, When it is dry you just brush the salt off.

The main image is on glossy whits card which has been brayered. The moon was created but using a mask made from a Post It note which was stuck in place before the brayer was applied. When dry, this was then over stamped with a tree on a hill image from Elusive Images.

The smaller sentiment panel was a tree image from EI which was stamped onto glossy card using clear Versamark ink. When this was dry it was brayered over so that the Versamark ink acted as a resist to the bryered ink. This was then over stamped with the sentiment.

The background was ripped to give rough edges and then lots of layers were built up to give the finished A4 size card.

I hope you like it.

Pink and Yellow card

An unusual card for me as it uses very bright colours which I do not often do. This was made for a challenge a few months ago.
The background is made from 3 sheets of paper taken from an Artylicious CD ROM. They were cut into strips and woven together, trimmed to the required size and stuck together to make sure the strips did not move.The front panel was made by stamping a paisley stamp from Elusive Images, using Versamark ink, and the pale orange and lilac embossing powder was applied and heated to set the pattern. A small piece of black card was stamped and heat embossed with the sentiment and layered up with matching card. The ribbons were a freebie from a crafting magazine some years ago which I always knew would come in handy one day.

Flower and Butterfly Card.

Another exercise using Alcohol Inks. Don't you just love them. The top and bottom layers were both done with the inks with the top layer being stamped with the flower and butterfly stamps. The flower stamp is the same one as used on the Glittery Flowers card that I posted a few days ago, with a different butterfly stamp which was also designed by myself. They were coloured in using Promarkers. The top layer was matted onto some gold paper before being layered onto the other inked surface. Gold thread rounds off the look down the spine of the card.

Butterfly Card

This was an exercise in using Alcohol Inks. Three different sheets were made on glossy card using different colours and gold mixative. The stamp that was used is from a collection from "The Stampman". It was stamped directly onto the top layer of the card using black Stazon Ink. An olive green organza bow completes the look.

Heritage Scrapbook Page (Digital)

This is the sort of page that is would be almost impossible to do in traditional scrapbooking. The photo, which dates from around the early 1930s is of my Dad's Mum. There is no way, in the traditional sense, that you could put the faded image of the photo onto the backing paper like that. Well, not without having the negative and putting it onto the paper through photographic processes anyway. I always loved this picture when I was little. The long string of pearls and the dress were fascinating.

Columbine Card

Another example of rubber stamping. The main picture is an Elusive Images stamp applied to white card and coloured with Promarkers. This was cut out and mounted on a bronze coloured mirror card, both having been cut out with Spellbinders Nestabilities.
The background paper is one of my old bits of kitchen roll that was used for mopping up excess glimmer mists. The top layer of the kitchen roll was applied to a piece of spare card and stuck down with Modge Podge (matte). Another coat was applied over the top.
The three embellishments were made from Fimo clay. The pattern was applied with another stamp and before the clay was baked they were given a dusting of Perfect Pearls mica powder.
All the elements were assembled onto an A5 size card, with the embellishments being mounted on a separate strip of the backing paper and a layer of white card for contrast.

Glittery Flowers

The colours are not shown here quite as bright as they actually are but here is a card I made a while back. The images are from rubber stamps that I designed and had made for me. They were stamped with black Stazon onto acetate and once the ink was dry the glitter was applied on the back with "dries clear" glue. The back ground was a piece of white card which was coloured with inks in an oval pattern with the colours getting darker towards the edge. Both layers were attached to the dotty base card with brads so the no adhesive could be seen through the acetate.

Autumn Scrapbook Page (Non-Digital)

The other day I showed you a picture of a digital scrapbook page. This time I thought I would go for a real, made of paper, page. This took a long time to do.

Having chosen several different autumnal coloured papers I proceeded to cut them into strips that were then folded over. It is a bit like Iris Folding but without the pattern to follow. They were stuck down onto backing sheet in a chevron pattern. The ends of the strips, in the middle, were covered with horizontal panels to neaten the whole thing up.

The photograph, of a street where I used to live in France, was matted onto a suitable coloured card and added to the page. The tags are embellished with some snails and leaves cut out on a Sissix die cutter.

I was very pleased with the effect of this. There is a partner page too which I may well put on the blog another day.

Landscape

A simple encaustic landscape to show how by just changing the colours you start with, from the ones you would expect, gives a different outlook on life.

Treble Clef

On a slightly different note (get it...joke...musical notes..!) here is a card made from my encaustic work again.
The blue background was made by putting different colours of blue wax onto the card and then whilst the wax was still liquid, tapping the surface with scruched up paper to give a pattern.
The second layer was done in the same way but with multiple colour bands of wax which when tapped with the scrunched paper gave the pattern but also blended the colours slightly.
The treble clef was added by drawing it with a block of red wax. Once the wax was set (which takes only seconds) the surface was buffed with the soft cloth to give it a shine (just like polishing furniture only I know which one I prefer to do). These layers were mounted onto the base A5 size card and finished off with corner peel-offs.

Cat Napping

I have mentioned in a previous blog that one of my passions at the moment is digital scrap booking. This, I hope, shows the beauty of this craft form.

The picture of the cat was a cross stitch picture that I did some years ago. Before I gave it away, I took a photograph of it. Now to make the most of the picture rather than just have it as a file on my computer or as a photograph in an album, I have incorporated it into a digital scrapbook page.

The photo was blended into the background paper and the embellishments were added including the text which was given a shadow to give an impression of depth.

Swirling Leaves

Where has the time gone. 6 days since I did my last entry.

So here we have a clarity stamp card using 2 different sizes of Swirling leaf stamp.

The back grounds were made by spraying the card with a few different colours of Glimmer Mist. Once dry, this was over stamped with the 2 stamps using Adirondack ink.

For the main element, a piece of white card was coloured with various shades of brown and beige Adirondack ink applied with cut and dry foam.. It was then stamped using both sizes of stamp, first in a dark brown and then in lighter brown , the second colour being offset from the first. The outer edge of the piece was then aged with a dark brown ink. The whole think was the triple embossing with clear powder to give a glossy finish. The edges were then embossed with some copper embossing powder to complete it.

To build up the card I started with a dark brown A4 sheet and folded it in half and trimmed off a piece from the front. The inside of the back cover was lined with the previously manufactured stamped & sprayed sheet. Matting and layering more of this sheet with copper Mirror card gave a good grounding for the centrepiece and finally the centrepiece was added.