' ' ' 'Crafty Endeavours: September 2012

Friday 21 September 2012

Natured Inspired


The Impression Obsession Challenge this week is "Nature Inspired". For my entry I have selected  again the Cover a Card  CC031, since this is the most appropriate for the theme. Though this time, I have chosen "natural" colors !

My regular readers will have a sense of déjà vu, as the design is fairly similar to my previous IO challenge entry, but I still could not bring myself to hide the image behind other elements, so I kept those to a minimum: a wooden button and twine, some kraft paper and a sliver of blue card stock.

Initially I was going to use sprays over my stamped image and selected a lightweight watercolor paper able to withstand the moisture. However, after several tries, I wasn't getting the effect I wanted and changed tactic. Using the reverse of the paper (I hate waste), I stamped again using my newest ink, i.e my wettest, Versamagic in Eggplant in order to get the best impression despite the texture of the paper. I then applied distress inks in Tumbled glass, Spun sugar and Forest Moss with Cut N Dry foam. I distressed the edges with scissors and matted on a piece of maroon card stock.

Hope you'll like this card,

Monday 10 September 2012

Art Journal Challenge

Well... not as such as I don't do journals but similar ! I am taking advantage of the Craft Barn latest challenge to beautify an on going project of mine. I am building up pages for a book to contain all my samples, test pieces etc.. Each page has pocket(s) at the back, leaving me free to decorate the front as I wish, although I am careful not to build thick layers.
There wasn't a master plan here but I intended to use some masks and sprays and selected stamps according to how much use I had from them, i.e cracked open those that hadn't been used for a while !


I have used stamps from Crafty Individuals and Katzelkraft, using my darkest ink (Ranger's Archival) for the main image. The border on the left is texture paste through a DIY stencil.
I thoroughly enjoyed the exercise as it didn't matter if the result was awful, since the book is for only for me.
Thanks for coming by,

Sunday 9 September 2012

Favorite Quote

I am joining the Impression  Obsession's challenge, "Favorite Quote/ Saying". Now, I don't tend to use quotes on my cards, but I thought this one would always allow me to use pink inappropriately

The background stamp is CAC Branches (CC031) and the quote is Rose Colored Glasses (D8256)
I have been playing with dye inks and glossy card with the resist technique, and tried several inks (metallic pigment inks work well as a resist). Here I have used versamark.


I think I overinked the brayer here as the colors are... let's say vivid...   but decided to go with it anyway as I still love the image. I have kept layers to a minimum because I didn't want to hide the Branches image and used a Martha Stewart Corner punch on one side and rounded the corners on the other side of a rectangle piece of white card.
One more thing... the "sun" in the image is actually the flash reflecting from the glossy card, and I thought it looked great... wish I could replicate the effect with inks but...

Thanks for coming by,

Last Days of Summer

I have been meaning to make a cover for my new phone, so when the Crafty Individuals challenge came along, I decided to see if I could fit my project with the theme.
And the stamps I chose tell the story of the last days of holidays for young girls (CI-284) about to return to their school with its ancient door (CI-249) !

I only used scraps to make the cover (my attempt at up-cycling), the material on the outside cover started as white and I used silk paint to color it and craft inks to stamps with (Versacraft), in a bid to make it washable. I then backed the stamped material with a scrap of an old ironing board cover, then machine stitched on the reverse. Not being the best at sewing, the stitching is not entirely straight but the cover offers a snug fit to my phone and does a good enough job of protecting it.


I have refrained from sewing on or attaching anything to the cover because I realised that in my handbag these things would just get snagged !

Not all the inks did well on that surface and overall the impression looks a bit faded (I got the best impressions  with the wetter pads).













All stamps, except for the flourish stamped in pink, are Crafty Individuals.

Thanks for coming by,

Blog Candy at Crafty Individuals


 

Pop along to the Crafty Individuals blog to see their new stamps, masks and must have and feast your eyes on this blog candy:

 
 
Good luck !