March

Well hello to all!

Its been a bit quiet on the blog front recently, but we have been busy busy busy 🙂

This is a small selection of our most recently commissioned pieces; if anyone wants to know specific products/techniques etc please ask 🙂

However the majority of the stamps are by Sheena Douglass/Donna Ratcliff with most of the colouring being various items from the Spectrum Noir Range; I have however tagged other products which have also been used.

I hope everyone is having a happy 2018 so far; I plan to spend a couple of happy crafty hours today so will quite possibly post some of the new goodies which have mysteriously arrived at my door….

 

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Yesterday Afternoon

Yesterday afternoon I set myself the challenge of completing x4 A6 cards. I was aiming to be quick but as followers will probably have noticed, I am really not very good at ‘quick’ cards.

I also wanted to do  couple of male cards as the majority of mine tend towards a feminine cast.

Card No 1 was really easy, this is just a backing paper with a tag, some string and some pearl drops. The tag is stamped with a new Docrafts ‘Happy Birthday’ stamp that WC and I found in the Range a couple of days ago; I have then used clear embossing ink (you could also use black on black card) and gone over it with gilding wax. To finish off, I have then put in an eyelet for the string to go through.

The second of the male cards is made using the same Docrafts stamp, but also some Sheena Stamps. Apart from the sentiment, the rest of the stamping is in distress inks. For both the microphone and the guitar I have then used water to pull some of the ink to create some shadow colouring, then to make the guitar pop a little more I have outlined it with a grey pencil, making sure the ‘dark side’ of the guitar has a wider shadow band.

For Embellishments I have used Brads; 1 per corner, 1 to hide a hole I made in error and the lock and key brads

The Guitar and Microphone are also glittered, which you can sort of see on this photo.

Card no 3; This one is also coloured using distress inks. I have used a Heartfelt Creations Hisbiscus stamp; an Inkadinkado humming bird stamp and a Personal Impressions sentiment stamp.

Method

1. Stamp the flower image
2. Stamp the bird image
3. Add your background distress colours and blend together.Here, I have used the flower image to determine where I wanted the pickled raspberry colour and built the rest of the background from that.
4. Smoodge the same distress colours as your background onto a glass mat (or similar)
5. Use either a damp paint brush or a sparkle pen to pick up and apply the distress ink to the bird image

I have also mixed the colours together a little which has given me a second green and the orangey colour. The rest of the card is finished off with pearl drops and punch flowers (edged in the same distress inks). Please bear in mind that if you intend to colour with a waterbased product (i.e. distress inks) you will need to use and alcohol based ink to stmap your image. I have used versfine smokey grey.

For people who can count, you will notice that this is only 3 cards rather than 4, this is because I had two that went badly enough to throw away 😦

Never mind, more fun for next time 😉

Autumn!

With our challenge for this month in mind, I am starting us off with a card created and inspired by (mostly) the Crafters Companion autumnal goodies that came with issue 11 of the Crafters Companion magazine.

Kit:

• Stamps and dies from isue 11
• Copper embossing powder
• Script stamp fom Sarah’s Signature collection
• Mini leaf die (Marianne Design Craftables Cutting Die – Punch Die Autumn Leaves CR1336)
• Kraft Card
• Light Card
• Distress Inks: Peeled Paint; Candied Apple; Barn Door; Vintage Photo and Ground Exresso
• Gilding Wax
• Finished size, 5×7

I used two different ideas from the magazine and put them together together

layering the two sizes of plain white card together I have stamped the script background across both pieces at the same time. I have then done the same with the leaf stamp, however I have then heat-embossed the leaves.

Using the larger leaf die I have cut various leaf apertures into the two levels of card and then used a mixture of distress inks and the renaissance gold gilding wax to add depth and definition. Both pieces of light card are then matted onto kraft card which has also been distress-inked to darken the edges.

I have then created the tag and added it along with the various die-cut leaves. The two leaves in the centre are from the crafters companion set, one of them is cut from kraft card and the other is an aperture (in case this isn’t clear on the photo) which is why the stalks are in opposite directions. If I were to do this one again, I would want to avoid having the two bottom edge cut-outs in-line with each other.

I am also happy to report that I have finally found my anti-static back (lost for several months) which I finally found hiding exactly where it belonged inside a zipped pocket on my tote bag that I had forgotten about…

The Challenge continues…

Even though I have had my copy of the new Crafters Companion magazine, I have still continued to focus my energies on the actual challenge for this month… However I have allowed myself to incorporate the magazine ideas a little bit…

My first was inspired by the gilding wax section in the magazine. I enjoy using gilding wax but tend to use it more at Christmas;

Gilded snowflake

I wonder if this is because everything is gilded at Christmas??

This is a 5×5 black card base, I have then embossed black card using one of Sheena Douglass’ embossing folders from last year. Smeared over the top are all three colours of the Pebeo gilding wax (Empire gold, Renaissance gold and silver) with a gilded die-cut snowflake to finish.

This next one is similarly inspired however I have used die-cut poinsettias and snowflakes corners. This is a break from the norm for me as there is no colouring at all, just dies black card and wax! The background snowflakes on here are not really needed, I kind of did them before I had really decided on what I was doing. If I were to do the same card again I think I would either remove them altogether or do them in a matching colour.

Giled poinsettias

This card is slightly less than A5; with several layers to the poinsettias.

I also experimented with whether or not I could get a raised dome from glitter glue – apparently not – however Weirdchild suggested using pearl drops nd sprinkling them with glitter to acheive the desired result!

And finally, my white sheep amongst the black! Very simply made, this one is a pretty Christmas paper from a paper pad; with a die cut snowflake and a couple of smaller punched snoflakes. A little bit of gilding wax in the middle of the larger snowflake and liquid pearls in the smaller.

Snow-flakes

 

 

Oh yes, I almost forgot, I stamped and embossed a sentiment too!

 

 

Dies List:

• Large Snowflake – Sweet Dixie
• Poinsettias – Sweet Dixie
• Merry Christmas – Creative Expressions
• Snowlfake corners – Creative Expressions
• Snowflake Stamp – Honey-Doo
• Gilding Wax – Pebeo
• Snowflake punch – Xcut
• Silent Night stamp – Indigo Blu
• Liquid Pearls – Ranger

Fun with gilding wax

Leading on from our unscheduled shopping trip the other day, one of the items that fell into my shopping basket was the lovely embossilicious embossing folder which I have used as the basis for this card front. As you may have noticed, I have not actually attached this to a card yet…

I have also (in keeping with our March goals) used a topper which I have had hanging around for a while because having coloured it in I couldn’t think of anything pretty to do with it, so it has been patiently waiting.

The background is black card embossed with the folder and then gilded across all of the raised sections and also around the edges of the card. I have also gilded the edges of both the tickets and the topper.

Hiding near the bottom right hand corner is a small die-cut sentiment; I did have a large ‘Happy Birthday’ on there as well but I took it off because I thought it looked better without 😉

For people who like to know, the digi-stamp is by Crafters Companion and coloured with the Spectrum Noir Wax Pencils.