Calendar Challenge The finished product

Now I have all my 12 pages for the calendar, I was ready for the finishing touches! First I have made a cover :

I have been careful to keep the pages as flat as possible so I allowed myself a dimensional flower on the cover. I have cut several layers using Spellbinders dies from dyed material and glued them together giving the flower shape.

My pages hang from a ring binder, and I have stuck them back to back as you can see here :

Finally for reference, a reminder of the 12 pages :

Hope you enjoyed the calendar coming together,

Calendar Challenge Week 12

This week the challenge at the Craft Barn is to use embossing. I love both wet and dry embossing as a way to create texture without bulk, so this is right up my alley...
A Cuttlebug folder provided the dry embossing and I inked up the folder with Versamark first so I could add mica powders on top.

 

The image is from Katzelkraft and I embossed it with 4 different powders, applying the powders separately but melting them all at once. I used distress inks on the image and calendar tab to tone down the contrast with the background card, added some washi tape, a snowflake and some glitter to represent snow at the bottom edge of the calendar.

Thanks for coming by,

Calendar Challenge Week 11

Circles are the order of the day at the Craft Barn for the calendar challenge . The first thing that came to mind was cogs, so I run with it and choose a cogs and gears mask as a starting point.

 



With the mask I first used distress inks, then sprayed some mica mists over the top.
The stamped images  are from Paper Artsy, I wished the bus was darker but my ink is too dry and my paper not smooth enough ! Finally with several sizes of Spellbinders Nestabilities I created my "cogs". I used Versamark and mica powders to give them a bit more dimension and when the light catches they really shine :

I am really looking forward to completing the calendar now !

If you have any favorite black ink or tips about black ink don't hold back... I am all ears !

Celebrating The Holidays

Still time for one more Christmas card ? Definitely ! This one I am entering in the Impression Obsession challenge, with the theme "Celebrating The Holidays".

To frame the Winter Scene (H1284) image, I created a stepper card and glued the stamped panel in the recess with a foiled die-cut.

To further create the impression of depth I added branches and fences die-cut to the closest panels, on top of dry embossing  and embossing powder (Stampendous Aged Aqua). A close-up of the image : 

 

 

And another photo better to show the foiled die-cut :

 

Finally to give more strenght to the back page I added patterned paper and white paper to write the message on.

Hope you will like it,

Calendar Challenge Week 10

I can hardly believe I have done 10 pages already for my calendar ! This week, we must use Trees on our pages for the Craft Barn challenge. I have lots of tree(s) stamps, so the most difficult was to choose ! Based on size, I settled for the Cover-a-card Branches by Impression Obsession. If you are a frequent visitor you will be aware that I love it !

I used pastels to establish a sky and ground backdrop for the Branches. I stamped the image with my wettest ink, Aubergine Versamagic, to best capture the details of that stamp.
I stamped and embossed the "Hug a tree" sentiment (Crafty Individuals) at the top.
The "frame" has been dry embossed with 2 sizes of Spellbinders dies, then wet embossed. The embossing is not perfect but I wanted a rustic look anyway.

Had I not used leaves in my last page, I would have added some... but I didn't want to repeat myself, so I just added a bit of twine on the calendar itself, less is more and all that...

Thanks for coming by,

Calendar Challenge Week 9

This challenge is colour based and the Craft Barn asks us to use the Rust/Teal/White colour scheme.

My submission below has been coloured with distress inks and is my second try :

I have first stamped and embossed the script stamp and the Postmark stamp in clear powder, the main stamp in black embossing powder before applying the distress inks.

 

To finish, as it's a September page I added some leaves. I played alchemist and made up some copper paint and aged it with salt and vinegar as you can (hopefully) see here:

 

 

Now as to my first try.... Since Pan Pastels have burst on the craft scene, I have wanted to test colouring card with traditional pastel sticks, which although less practical and more messy than Pan Pastels, should be the same thing at a fraction of the price.
I have found that :

• it's easier to achieve a smooth application compared to the Distress inks.
• to get dark tones use very dark pastels as card is too smooth to grab lots of pastel, I didn't and the result was too pale (this is why I changed tack).
• over the embossing the pastel behaved quite strangely as you can see in the detailed shot below. Unexpectedly the pastel stuck MORE to the embossing and this can be seen clearly on the area to the left in rust colour. However the pastel can be removed with a clean cloth, a little or a lot. If a little, the embossing looks fuzzy (no it's not the photo), an effect which I liked.

I will definitely try again !

Let me know what you think... of pastels, Pan Pastels and/or my page !

Festive Sparkle

Heart, Cupid and Key hole (shrink plastic) are die-cut with Tim holtz/Sizzix dies

At last I have my entry for the Crafty Individuals challenge on the theme of Festive Sparkle.
For a long time I toyed with bits of paper and couldn't come with anything worthy and almost abandoned. I decided to concentrate on projects I HAD to do (Christmas gifts) instead, and created this handbag charm. And yes ! I managed to fit in a charm made with a CI stamp (part of the CI-342 set) on pearlescent card (Stardream Pearl card) and inset in a bottle cap. Good start !


Then I thought about how to package my homemade gift and decided on a box. Here was my opportunity to use my Christmas star stamp (CI-363). I stamped it in Versamark on a subtly glittered paper (Stardust Glitter Pale Pink) and embossed with silver powder. I stuck this panel on my box, applied glitter glue around it, added ribbon (pleated and stitched with a pink glittery ribbon on top), a flower made with die-cuts, 2 types of glitters and some Flowersoft for the center, and some leaves die-cuts also glittered.

I                                                                                                   I added a homemade "ribbon" to the side of my box lid, and stamped the bottom of my box with an old favourite (CI-001) , just because...

Finally a close up to show the sparkle better :

Enough sparkle for now...thanks for coming by,

 



Calendar Challenge Week 8

Awww!!! The Craft Barn Challenge this week is "Children/cute". Not my favorite look, but as I am rather eclectic in the style of cards I make, I have no snobbish tendancies about cute... Problem is do I have any "cute" stamps ? But wait... I do, in fact I have tons, all obtained "free" from magazines. This challenge gives me an opportunity to try them out ! Sadly most of them are Christmassy and this being my August page... well if you look carefully there is some holly in there but otherwise it'll do !

To colour the image I used coloured pencils, blending with Sansodor only on the hat, and alcohol marker for the shadows at the base of Hollie and presents.
For my background, I took inspiration from Hollie's apron and made a patchwork from patterned papers. Some 120 squares, die-cut 3 at a time, i.e 40 passes in the die-cut machine ! Mad idea but once I started, I wasn't going to give up.
The frame had already been cut for another project and I used alcohol inks to coordinate with my colour scheme. 

And in the end I rather like it, so yes we should have more "cute" projects.

What do YOU think ?

Clean and simple... Fall challenge

The Impression Obsession blog wishes us a "Happy Fall" in their latest challenge.

So, apologies but I had to use my Branches stamp again.... nothing says Fall like trees and leaves, right ?
As I have a thing about covering part of a beautiful stamp, this time I didn't stamp all of it !

I made masks  with scalloped nestabilities and added distressed inks with Cut & Dry foam. I stamped the CAC Branches (CC031) with the mask still in place.
I highlighted with distress inks the punched and die-cut leaves and stamped the letters with the Ornate CAC (CC077)

Thanks for coming by,

Calendar Challenge Week 7

This week's Calendar challenge at the Craft Barn is about Candles. I wanted to play with wax so the idea for this page has been inspired by Gio's project.

Rather than drop melted candle over the panel (too faint hearted), I shaved the wax candle and used my iron to melt it . To add colour I used shavings of wax crayons, as I didn't have coloured candles.

Sadly a lot of the wax got absorbed in the paper but enough stayed that I could imprint my stamp (Paper Artsy) on top of it. The definition is lost but that's the effect I was after.. London in the fog/rain.

I left this for a few days and decided it was missing something, then inspiration struck. I had in my stash the perfect finishing touch, a London postmark stamp from Crafty Individuals. This time I dropped the candle wax onto the panel and stamped. It didn't go well, so, I re-melted the wax, added some more,  re-stamped... and still the "London" part didn't show very well.
I left it at that as re-melting the candle is not very easy to control and I didn't want to make it worse !
I used mica powders over the wax and black in the recesses, so the postmark would show.

Next time I will go for broke and cover the panel in thick wax !
Would love to know your thoughts on this page...

Calendar Challenge Week 6

This week's Challenge at the Craft Barn involves tactile matters...

I chose flock over felt, as I am trying to keep the pages of my calendar fairly flat.

Now, I won't lie to you, this page involved a lot of work... Previous experience of flocking has taught me that if paper and flock are not close in colour the result is poor. In my test, I was flocking a cat stamped in Versamark and embossed with Sticky Stuf with black flock on white card. Result : balding cat... not a good look ! So now I know to pre-print my image in a colour close to my flock or use card in the same colour.

I used a letterpress plate and did 2 passes (top and bottom of page) in the die-cutting machine with black paint, then again 2 passes with embossing ink.
I used Sticky stuff over the embossing ink, heated it until clear and applied the flock over it.
Then it was a matter of tidying the flock that has a tendency to stray everywhere...

The central image was a doddle after that, simply stamped with chalk ink, die-cut with a Nestabilitie and inked with distressed ink (Tattered Rose).

Let me know what you think,

Calendar Challenge: Paper Tape

Already Week 5 of the challenge ! We need to have Paper Tape on our creations... As I never tried this before I decided to use Michelle's method (seen here) and make my own tissue tape.
And as I didn't have brand new tissue I used wrinkled paper ! However, going for a distressed look, it only made it better once I used distress inks over it (Antique Linen & a bit of Walnut). I stamped a few word stamps in black ink (Paper Artsy).

The main image is also by Paper Artsy (I only used a portion of the stamp), and once stamped I watercoloured the sky and the water. Then I used Stampendous Aged Aqua embossing powder to create a fantasy sea.

Since I didn't have a lot of space on my page I kept my tape small... but now I have a ready-to-customise lenght for a future project !

Hope you enjoy this one,

Challenge: A Gift For You

This week the challenge at Impression Obsession is "A gift for you". I have been meaning to make a card with a gift card holder so this is my inspiration for this card.

The background is CAC Rose lace (CC087) stamped in Versamark, then colored with pastels (chalks) using cotton balls. This technique allows complete control over where and which color is applied and I found it great fun.
The top right corner has been cut and glued to the inside of the card and I also cut a smaller portion of the top right corner of the base card, before gluing the background to the base card on the edges only (except the diagonal edge) thereby creating a pocket for my gift card.

The tag has also been stamped with the Rose lace, this time in white pigment ink, I punched some slot corners and added alpha rub-ons to say "For you".

To finish the card, although I didn't want to cover too much of the image,  I added a flower and some leaves.

Thanks for coming by,

Scrapbook page: mixed media

Un peu tardivement j'ai vu le tutorial de Laury pour réaliser une page avec gesso, collage et crayons aquarelles. Cela faisait longtemps que je n’avais pas joué avec mes Neocolors, alors le challenge d’Infinimentscrap est tombé au bon moment !

Apres avoir réalisé le fonds selon le tutorial, je l’ai utilisé pour faire une page de scrapbook.

Les tampons utilisés sont de Paper Artsy, sauf  pour la texture embossée. Pour cette dernière, j’ai utilisé l’envers de la mousse Cut & Dry (Ranger) pour prendre une empreinte de texture (une grille de barbecue). Les coquillages ont été tamponnés en couleur, et coloriés avec des crayons.
Le « filet» est également fait main à partir de fil épais, noués et entrelacés et il est tenu en place par des brads.

*****

A little late, I read Laury's tutorial for a mixed media page with gesso, collaged papers and watercolour crayons. I hadn’t cracked open my box of Neocolors in such a long time that the Infinimentscrap challenge came along at the right moment !

I used the finished page as background for a scrapbook page.

The stamps used are from Paper Artsy, except for the embossed texture. For this, I used the back of Cut & Dry foam (Ranger) imprinted with a texture (from a barbecue grill). The seashells were stamped in colour and coloured with pencils over the top.
The “net” is also handmade with thick threads knotted and weaved and is fixed with brads.

Merci de votre visite/Thank you for coming by,

Calendar challenge: Doodles

For the 4th page of the Craft Barn Calendar challenge we need to have "doodles". After a week long of Crafty Individuals inspiration, I just thought of this stamp set. To me, it says doodles... but as this might just be me, I added hand drawn doodles as well, however bad they would turn out to be!!!

To complement the doodles I thought I should avoid a clean and simple approach with lots of white,  so I tried a Distressed (inks) background in dark colours.

Hope you will like it,

Calendar Challenge : White/Yellow/Green

This week, the Craft Barn challenge is to use White, Yellow and Green for the 3rd page of our Calendar.

I decided to go all in and use yellow for my rose image for harmony, rather than use a contrasting red or pink colour, adding just a touch of orange with ribbon.


The page has been die-cut with a Grand Spellbinders die, then embossed with the die still in place, adding a second smaller die where my image will sit, over an Impressabilitie.
I used distress inks and Cut & Dry foam to colour the embossing .


The central image is by Impression Obsession and I have used markers in yellow and green to stamp, colouring with pencils over the top.

It's a lot of yellow and green... more than I would use normally, but then it IS a challenge !

Thanks for coming and look !

Calendar Challenge : Bright Colours

For our second calendar page the Craft Barn team is tasking us with using bright colours, for instance the Dylusions inks. I haven't got any of those (yet), but I do have a mixed assortment of sprays :  with and without micas, branded and home made etc...

I immediately knew which stamps I wanted to use and sprayed my page in bands of colours to suit the scene :

I used an Archival black inkpad and some water based markers for the grass and plants, then I removed colour with thin bleach in some areas (I tried lifting the colour with water only but being dyes the colours didn't shift at all).
Still not sure if I should have bleached more areas of the house and/or added colour, for instance made the roof red...

Let me know what you think,

Yellow and Gray

Oops!!! This post has been published on 22/08/2012 but somehow is popping back ! Needless to say the challenge is closed...
The Impression Obsession challenge this week is Yellow and Grey. I don't use grey very often but...
The main image is Rose (E1332) by Gary Robertson, which I colored in pencil on white card. I then cut around the leaves with scissors before die-cutting with a rectangle die.

For the background, I used an old piece of handmade marbled paper, a piece of white card letterpressed in grey ink with a cuttlebug folder, a scalloped die-cut and a yellow circle stamped in grey ink with  Cover a card Rose Lace (CC087).
In the bright light of day, I decided that the yellow card I used was too yellow and knocked it back with a pigment inkpad, including the already stamped circle, which is why the grey is not as dark as I would have wished !

For embellishments I added a die-cut border (Pristine by Memory Box), flower (several layers die-cut with 3 sizes of  Spellinders' Peonies Nestabilitie) and leaves (Memory Box).

Hope you'll like this,

Calendar Challenge: Vellum

It's time for the Calendar challenge at the Craft Barn and, for this first week we have to use vellum.
At this stage I am not sure I will be able to complete the 12 weeks challenge, but I could not pass the opportunity to use vellum, as I have rather a lot languishing in my stash... So here goes :

I have used a Spellbinders Grand Label die for my shape and a Cuttlebug folder (Iron gate) to emboss my image onto a printed vellum. I coloured it from the back with alcohol inks and added some home-made washi tape at the top and bottom to maintain the vellum in place. Fairly simple !

Thanks for coming by,

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,