Challenged by Liz Borer

This week on the Paper Artsy blog Liz has been working with fabric to create some wonderful projects: frame, doll, chair...

I was inspired to play with fabric but considering my skills level and time I had to aim low... Thankfully part of Liz's project had a panel (see her post) which I thought I could pull off...

I used stamps from Hot Picks 1112, 1201 and 1202 with Archival inks, then painted around the stamped images with Fresco paints (South Pacific, Limelight, Claret). I didn't like the way the white fishes looked, so I gave them some colour too.

I made a frame for my mini painting with the Flourish Embossalicious folder and created some metal corners with Nestabilities labels dies and a Cuttlebug folder.

I rather enjoyed painting on fabric and plan to do it again on a bigger piece of fabric.

Thanks for coming by,

Journal Page Letter G

Not sure what came first the chicken (stamp) or the word... but I definitely wanted to use the Impression Obsession Rooster background stamp so I selected Gallinacean as my word for the Craft Barn Dictionary challenge.

As my last 2 pages were done with wet medium on watercolour paper, this time I chose a smooth paper with dry media for a change.

Coloured pencil is not a fast medium and I only did the rooster (from own photograph) and a few parts of the stamped image, but as I needed more colour all around, I had a brain wave and used that old technique of texture rubbing, using embossing folders (Tim Holtz bark and bricks folders), and home made "plate" (washers stuck to cardboard in this case).

I really enjoyed that bit: it's easy, fast and as a bonus it sharpens the pencils as you whittle down the lead from the side of the pencil.

Finally I used a Chiken wire stencil (at last an appropriate context for this design !) still with pencils and a feather stamp to complete the page.

Hope you will like my page,

Tried and tested

Some months ago I acquired a pack a A6 cardstock following a demo at the Craft Barn Extravaganza. At the time, I was seduced by the fact it could be used with alcohol inks and I was running out of glossy cardstock.

I only opened the pack last week-end to make cards (see the last 2 posts here and here) and was AMAZED at the result! The card looks and feels like any other smooth "stamping" card so I wasn't expecting it to behave any differently...

Maybe I am late to the party... I have heard of silk card before, I know Clarity stamps sell some (not sure if it is the same though) but I had never heard any glowing references.

I am not a paper specialist so I don't know for sure but my guess is that the card is coated with an  ingredient that sucks up the ink off the stamp. I do mean suck because on my very first stamping, I did my usual stamp, press all over, let it sink in for 20 seconds or so.... and then I had to pull the card off the stamp and for a moment I was really worried it wouldn't come off!

Enough talk, side by side my practice stamping on copy paper and the finished article on the silk card :

In this next picture the silk card and the practise stamping on smooth stamping paper :

I haven't tried it with Archival ink or Stazon but dye inks and pigment inks work well, just make sure the ink is wet and lift the stamp off the card as soon as you have stamped.
The pack I have is Cream but they also do a white and you can find it at the Crafty Individuals website here.

I am looking forward to trying it out with photo stamps since the best inking is done with a brayer and it means less ink on the stamp so if the card grabs more ink...

Hope this will be of interest... let me know if you already use a similar product.

Rich reds and gold

I have been meaning to use more foil since I have finally acquired a glue actually designed for the purpose, and I wanted to use my very well liked but not often used Damask Letterpress (Lifestyle Crafts), so I used that as prompts for this card.

For my background, I letter-pressed with embossing ink and applied gold embossing powder.
The image is from a Joanna Sheen stamp and I stamped it with black Brilliance ink.

For embellishments, I die-cut a Memory Box corner and a Cuttlebug corner, applied glue and then foil (this is foil on a plastic sheet not proper foil). At which point I realised how garish the gold of the foil was against the more natural gold of the embossing powder.... I die-cut another corner, coloured it with markers in red so I could create a "shadow" for my first die-cut, isolating it slightly from the background. OK still not very good...

2 pieces of ribbon, one on top the other finish the card. I decided againt adding anything else because, as regular readers will know, I hate covering my backgrounds, never mind that the design would be better for it!

I am entering this card in the WOW! Embossing Powder challenge - Decadence and the Crafts-Too challenge - Texture with twist, since my embossed panel is textured and there is lots of shiny accents all around on this card!

Let me know how I can improve this card as I do know it's not quite right but can't come up with ideas on how to fix it!

Things that fly

The latest Impression Obsession challenge is about Things that fly... First thing I thought about was butterflies, but I did that for the previous challenge and I didn't want to bore my audience!
Bird it is then...

The image is Bird Collage 1 (E13043) which I stamped with wate rbased markers on my new Silk card (more on that in a later post).

Prompted by the Oldie but A goodie challenge I decided to use as many punches and old items as possible on the basis that I haven't used the punches in a long time and I need to use up old stash !

It would be quicker to mention the new items but here's a list of the old stash (older than 6 months):

• MS punches: 3 corner punches (the red embellishment is made with a corner punch) and 2 border punches used on the square mat and the Coredination  under the bird image.
• X-Cut Punch and Emboss Oak leave, Vine Corner slot.
• Core'dination : white wash
• Skeleton leave : I punched 2 leaves out of a gold embossed skeleton leave. I had to back them with another punched leave out of brown cardstock.
• Patterned Papers: from a Making Memories pad, bought in Lakeland when they were selling craft supplies... yes it is that old and what's worse hardly used!
• Anita sticky ribbon (black) 

The large Core'dination mat has been embossed with a fairly recent freebie folder .

This one is quite OTT for me and a big change from the CAS card I made in my last post !

Thanks for coming by,

Definitely challenged...

I was inspired by Joanne Wardle's post who is guesting this week on the Paper Artsy blog and I planned to make a CAS card with a stroke of paint. Should have been real quick and easy... But I decided to use acetate for that transparent quality knowing full well that stamping on it is delicate... obviously not challenged enough then!

I stamped a freebie acrylic stamp (the poppies) and a word stamp from Paper Artsy Eclectica ELB03 onto the transparency, inking with a Big brush pen (Faber Castell). I tried the Big Brush after testing with Archival ink which a) made the stamp slide and b) didn't look like it was going to dry anytime soon.
On the reverse I colored with alcohol markers, then I did my swipe with a mix of Fresco Limelight and South Pacific on the front. I am now thinking it might have been better to do it on the back as the paint wasn't as transparent as I expected (well it is applied more thickly than intended!).

I am also entering this card in the Craft Stamper, Sir Stampalot and SSS monday challenges.

With such a simple design it needed to be perfect and I find it wanting... but I got some experience stamping on acetate so I'm still happy!

Let me know your tricks about stamping on slippery surfaces,

Challenged By ... Alison Bomber

Alison is joining the Paper Artsy blog this semester and has kicked off with projects involving trios. I didn't get that far, and kept it to one piece,  taking my inspiration from this post.

I collaged 3 different pieces of leftover papers, 2 with inclusions and a piece of mulberry to use as "tissue" paper for the central image. The stamps are from Hot Pick 1204 and I tried to emboss with  the green distress ink... but most of the ink got absorbed into the paper, so the embossing is patchy to say the least. On the other hand... I'll call this distressed!!!

The cardboard base has been stamped in different inks and embossed with clear powder with varying degrees of success....

I am entering the Ladybug crafts challenge too.

Let me know what you think!

Second post today... All about the dies

I have made all the cards I need for specific people this year so any card I make now is for the emergency stash. For those, I try to limit the bulk/weight because I don't know if it will be mailed and I don't include a sentiment so the card can be used for multiple occasions.
But I wanted to participate in the Impression Obsession latest challenge which is all about the dies...

Although I could have used a few die-cuts without compromising the bulk constraint, I set about finding ways of using dies without creating extra layers and you will not actually find a die-cut on this card!

I created stencils with the Butterflies Die (DIE008-I). I used the large butterfly stencil with distress inks and stamps (Cover-a-Card Canvas - CC073, Cover-a-Card Newsprint - CC068  and Cover-a-Card Branches - CC031) over a designer paper.

With the small butterfly stencil I used Sparkle Gel Medium (Imagination Crafts) in Jade to create an embellishment that is still part of the layer whilst providing a bit of texture. Love using the medium instead of loose glitter because there is no shedding for the recipient and I don't have to deal with glitter for days on end afterwards!

The central butterfly has been partially die-cut with the Butterfly die so that the wings can be lifted. I added 2 gems to hide the holes cut by the die (I have the older style die that comes with placing holes).

I color matched a piece of white ribbon and left a space on the lower left for a sentiment.

I am also entering this card in the Imagination Crafts challenge, which is all about butterflies.

Thanks for coming by,

A second journal page...

Back from the holidays, although I was itching to craft, I was dithering, procrastinating... total creative block.
To snap myself out of it, I decided to join the Craft Barn challenge, and make a page for the letter Z, playing with whatever came to mind. The choice of words was relatively easy as there isn't so much choice... I decided on zig-zag because it's such a trendy graphic.

I took inspiration from the latest product launched by Tim Holtz' layered stencils and used different mediums, layer by layer to build the page.

First I used a resist medium, then sprays, then texture paste.

I added some stamping, the "Z" of course, then some bits of background stamps (Impression Obsession, Basic Grey) and some hand drawn zig-zags.

On top of the texture paste I tried different things to get a gold sheen : foil but the glue was difficult to apply, oil pastel and finally gel pen ! Gilding wax would have been better but in the right light it's not too bad.

I am entering this page in the Countryview Crafts challenge which is all about layers.


Hope you will like!

Paper Artsy #3UP challenge

I have been lucky enough to get selected in this round of #3UP #PAtwits week of show and tell with surprise Paper Artsy products, and this is what I have made :

Background:

 

I used the given substrate as a template to cut 2 additional pennants out of thick chipboard, and painted all 3 using Leandra’s method as showed in her video, including the reverse side.

I overstamped in black using ESN07 and managed to use all the stamps in the process!
Paints used: Gesso, Fresco South Pacific, Chocolate Pudding, and a beige acrylic paint.

Central pennant border:

I die-cut 4 borders out of metal (2 borders for the front and 2 for the back) and painted them with South Pacific, backing them with several layers of cardboard to match the thickness of the substrate.
I used red liner tape to stick the metal to the pennant and tacky glue on the cardboard backs before pressing them together for a more finished look.

Embellishments:

I received the ES03 chipboard set and used both flower shapes, stamping them with the matching flower stamp from ELB02, which was one of the 2 set of stamps in my package. I had also tried stamping the circle shape with the circle stamp from ELB03 but it didn’t make the cut. I added micro beads to the center of the brown flower.
I used a resist technique on the branch with punchinella waste, before applying distress inks and stamping in black with the music stamp from ESN07, the other set of stamps in my #3UP goodie bag.

I also had 2 spools given (from Bag of spools), and used the shorter one, adding a ribbon and letting it hang.
The spool gave me the idea of adding “sewing” related embellishments and I created a skirt from Smoothy cardstock by stamping the small tulip from ELB03, upside down and a coordinated top by stamping the tulip from ELB02 cut and mounted on a dress form die-cut.

I also added a scissors and a sewing machine die-cut, coloured with alcohol inks. The sewing machine is actually stamped and embossed with the Reflection stamp (from set ESN07).

 

 

All I had to do now was threading my pennants onto twine and adding the 4 fabric beads I was given.

 

Phew!!! I hope this banner won't disappoint, I have thoroughly enjoyed making it but only after much panicking...

 

Be sure to let me know what you think in your comments and visit the Paper Artsy blog for more #3UP projects by fellow #PAtwits!