' ' ' 'Crafty Endeavours: April 2013

Saturday 27 April 2013

Inspired By Suzanne Czosek (2)


This week's inspiration is provided by Suzanne Czosek at the Paper Artsy blog. I followed quite closely her process for my project - see her post here .

And Suzz is completely right, the embossing powder (holographic) gives an incredible shine !!!


Of course I substituted a few things to products I atually own, so I used a dress form die-cut instead of a butterfly and adapted my frame to fit the shape (no longer square).
Instead of Chocolate Pudding I used Claret Fresco paint as this is one of my latest colour (thanks to my win last week!!!) and I just had to try it. It didn't disappoint, I love the translucency of it.
I used a silver organza ribbon coloured with Fresco South Pacific in place of tulle.
I used Aged Aqua (Frantage) embossing powder on my background - sadly forgetting to use the Limelight Fresco instead of Versamark. On my textured canvas, I think the Fresco would have grabbed more powder for a better effect.

I have enjoyed both the process and the result, the colours and shine are just gorgeous, plus I love working with metal and metal card.

Thanks for coming by,

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Spring in Fashion

This is the theme of the Crafty Individuals challenge. My initial idea - shabby chic, lots of layers, lace etc... got lost in the process, as it usually does, since although it is a style I love, I seem incapable of seeing it through and get an overriding feeling of  "Stop you're going to spoil it !"

Instead, I imagined the lady (a snippet from CI 285) window shopping and looking at the new fashion in a boutique. I set about recreating the scene and this is the result.


I didn't put a background behind the lady because I wasn't sure I could make the perspective work. I inked the stamp with water based markers and colored the face, hands and feet with Promarkers.
For my "shop" panel I stamped repeatedly a border stamp (My Mind's Eye) as this was the only motif small enough to say "wallpaper". I used the ruler and spool stamps (CI 328) and several die-cuts (X-Cut). The dress is cut out from the CI Seaside paper book.

On the dyed lace, threaded with thin ribbon I added a button stamped with the leaf motif from CI 342.

I would love to hear what you think !


Saturday 20 April 2013

Vintage scrapbook page, texture and bright colours - facing page

Here is the facing page of the layout previously published here.
It's an opportunity to have another stab at the texture paste technique which I am loving at the moment.


As before, I applied the paste around the patterned paper and printed various stamps into it - tip : let the paste dry a bit, otherwise when the stamp is lifted, so is the paste - Then I coloured it with mists.

I used the chipboards and die-cuts that came with the kit, including the tag that contains the journalling. This is why the tag is tucked behind the armchair, since it isn't actually stuck, so that it can be removed to be read ! Once in the page protector, it shouldn't move.

I feel the left handside is a bit bare but I didn't like to cover the texture and didn't know how to fill it in without making it too busy.

I am entering the layout in the Artistic Stamper challenge.

Thanks for coming by,

Friday 19 April 2013

Inspired By Linda Caine (3)

Linda is returning to the Paper Arsty blog this week, and I have been inpired by her colourful tag. Never made one before...
Along the way I encountered some difficulties, some caused by the lack of crafting items (you wouldn't know by looking at my stash !) and some err... self inflicted !


I didn't have an appropriate stamp for impressing in the texture paste so I used an embossing folder instead. It was too soon... I decided to use the small "4" stamp from Hot Picks 1206 on the left of the tag. That was too late ! The impression is so faint it is hardly visible.
For my pediments, I used a Spellbinder Nestie and cut into it with the tip of a flourish die (twice). I tried Linda's technique and stamped into the paint but... maybe I didn't have enough paint on, or the card was too absorbent, but the stamp didn't lift the colour. I tried again without success, so went on to the next step and stamped some lettering in black ink.

For my "plaquette" I used a small nestie, rub ons and glossy accents.

As per Linda's project, I stamped the main image in Archival and embossed. Maybe I wasn't quick enough or the powder I used (Antiquities Crystal) works differently than usual powders but the embossing is really patchy. Still the powder is my latest purchase and I wanted to try it ! I coloured the image with distress inks using Cut & Dry (no suitable markers).

This was a very good exercise and I learnt plenty, so better results next time !

Have you successfully embossed with Archival Inks ? If so any tips ?

Monday 15 April 2013

Vintage Scrapbook page, texture and bright colours

So far in my vintage album, I have used subdued colours using an old patterned paper pack that cries "vintage". This time I wanted to use a paper from a card kit I got last year as a gift. With the paper also came a number of chipboard pieces, which is not something I use very often so I thought I would try to use as many as possible.
First I had to address the problem of fitting an A4 paper on a 12x12 layout...
To create a seamless page I applied texture paste around the glued patterned paper and stamped into it with various stamps. I then sprayed the paste with colours to match.

I love the look even though the process warped my 12x12 base quite a bit !


To finish I created butterflies with a layer of stamped paper and a layer of patterned vellum die-cut with an Impression Obsession die, a scrap of ribbon and a title made of 2 kinds of letter stickers which I coloured to match the page and each other. I also stamped the chandelier that came with the kit using black ink. The kit also contains lace,ribbon and gems but I didn't want to cover anymore of that delicious texture so I let it be.
I am planning to do a matching page with the second paper using the same technique and the journalling will be on that page.

I am entering this layout in the Artistic Stamper challenge which is all about texture and the Country View Crafts' challenge which request butterflies.

Hope you'll enjoy that one as much as I did making it. Stay tuned for page 2...

Saturday 13 April 2013

Blog candy... Infiniment Scrap

Youpi un blog candy ! Lisez ci-dessous ou allez voir ici sur le blog d'Infiniment Scrap leur annoncement pour la nouvelle boutique Infinimentscrap Design.


***********************
Bonjour à toutes et tous,

 l'occasion de l'ouverture de la nouvelle boutique Infinimentscrap Design j'organise un blog candy
Je vous propose 3 prix mais pour être sûr de vous faire plaisir ca sera des codes cadeaux, vous pourrez ainsi choisir ce qui vous plaît surtout que très prochainement il va y avoir les nouveautés que vous attendez impatiemment n'est ce pas ?
bon_50_euros
1 code cadeau de 50 euros à dépenser sur la boutique
bon_30_euros
1 code cadeau de 30 euros à dépenser sur la boutique
bon_15_euros
1 code cadeau de 15 euros à dépenser sur la boutique
Pour participer il vous suffit de :
Recopier ce message en entier de le poster sur votre blog sans oublier d'y mettre LE LIEN vers la NOUVELLE BOUTIQUE Infinimentscrap Design
Vous pouvez aussi bien sûr le poster sur vos compte facebook ou tweeter l'important c'est de passer le message et de mettre le lien direct de la nouvelle boutique.
Laissez ensuite un commentaire à la suite de ce message en mettant bien le lien du post sur votre blog
Délai pour la participation : 30 avril 2013 minuit
Le résultat sera donné ici sur le blog le 2 mai en même temps que les résultats des challenges
A très bientôt
Isabelle
*********************************

N'hesitez pas... tenter votre chance !
 

Friday 12 April 2013

Inspired By Helen Chilton

It is Helen's last week as a guest designer on the Paper Artsy blog and I just had to make an effort and produce something... a) I had a chat with Helen recently on backgrounds and b) I have in my hand an original Helen Chilton's glossy card - Might be worth thousands in a few years, should have had it autographed ! -

Par for the course, as much as I actually tried and overstamped my street names in several colours of ink, it is way "cleaner" than I was aiming for. Still, I have a new admiration for glossy cardstock and I quite like the result.

 
 
I finished with stamping Big Ben in Archival black and applied inks all around the card with Cut & Dry foam.The stamps used are all from the Hotpicks 1208.
 
Thanks for coming by,
 
 



Tuesday 9 April 2013

A scrapbook page for the Spring fun challenge

Mostly it is difficult to enter themed challenges with scrapbook layouts, but I did my best to squeeze this one in ! On the basis that the photos are taken in March and April (I worked that out by the haircut) and it would appear some fun is being had, this will fit my Impression Obsession challenge remit. There is a bonus page too... as I nearly always end up doing double pages when I scrapbook, since for some reason I always have more photos than I can fit in on one page !


The base kraft cardstock being a bit too dark I used the CAC Rose Lace (CC087) with white pigment ink to lighten the overall effect. This took ages to dry and lifted up when I overstamped with the Rose leaf branch (F8199) inked with Distress. This also re-activated the white ink and in desperation I applied mica powder on top to dry it !
A prima flower, a small and a large doily colored with distress inks complete the layout.
I used punches on the patterned paper and to create the photo slots on the green mat. The journalling tabs tucked behind the photos, and as yet not written, have a decorative scissors detail.

Bonus facing page :


I applyed a dry-ish pigment ink direct to paper to knock back the dark kraft then overstamped with Flourish 2 (H5575) also in white. I then impressed different plastic packaging inked with white and orange pigment inks for more interest on the left side of the page. I used the other half of the large doily inked in pink and a small one in green.
With less photos I had space for embellishments : I fussy cut the Rose (E1332) image and the  Rose leaf branch (F8199). On the latter, I used the kissing technique with the Muslin (E4518) stamp.
I also added a prima flower, ribbon and tag and decorated the edges of the patterned paper with punches.

Hope you will like the layouts, but if you think the design is a bit lacklustre, have a look at this page, where I share my experience working with vintage photos.