Silence & Dazzle quote

As I wanted some shimmer, I looked for a suitable dazzle quote for the Craft Barn challenge but to no avail... So I chose silence, still doesn't stop me using shimmer!

I painted the background with Inktense blocks, then stamped my Wrought Iron border with Versamark and, as I don't have any metallic Pan Pastels, I applied an old Platinum powder from my stash (it's actually for water colouring).

Love the shine...

I am also entering the Pan Pastels UK challenge.

Thanks for coming by,

Chinese New Year

Artful Times celebrates the Chinese New Year - year of the Horse - for their latest challenge. As stamps go I came unstuck, none in sight! I do, however, have a number of Chinese inspired papers and stamps so I made this card.

The Chinese seals are embossed in gold and the tree image in black, they are stamps from an old set by Artemio. The kimono is a piece of vellum dry embossed with gold ink detailing.

Hope you will like,

Inspired by Ellen & vintage cloth

Ellen is on the Paper Artsy blog this week inspiring us with colourful pieces. I loved her tag, tutorial here, and I set out to create my own.

One of my dishcloths gave up the ghost recently and I couldn't bear to throw it away. It's made of linen and I would guess it's at least 70 years old and it seems sad to waste something my grand mother has carefully embroidered with her initials for her trousseau.
So I made a tag with it, backed with cardboard. I left the stripe and decided to integrate it in the design as my "bit of red".
The Artful Blooms stamp is from the ELB03 set.

Of course I still have acres of that linen cloth remaining so you might see it again soon...

I am also entering the Pan Pastel UK challenge.

Thanks for coming by,

Smile and shimmer

The Craft Barn challenge this year is about quotes and for the first challenge we are asked to find quotes for either Smile or Up. I selected Smile and googled....

I had already chosen a technique on metal and, digging in my scrap mountain, I retrieved a piece already die-cut (Spellbinders), which effectively decided the design. The Cuttlebug folder I used seems perfect for inserting a quote and I am considering if I should carry the folder all the way through (that is, if I manage to keep up with the challenges).

The technique:
After embossing I Versamarked the whole piece and applied a deep blue embossing powder.
Then using Versarmark again I rubbed the metal trying to catch the peaks only.
Now for the fun bit! I pulled 5 pots of mica powder in pink, blue and purple hues (Imagination Crafts Earth set) and applied them in a random fashion with a soft brush.
To "fix" a simple reheating from underneath will re-melt the embossing and capture the micas.

The shimmer is gorgeous in real life!

I am also entering the Imagination Crafts challenge.

Thanks for coming by,

Inspired by Elaine

Elaine is guesting on the Paper Artsy blog and my curiosity was piqued when she used Limelight Fresco paint (a very vivid yellow) on kraft coloured cardstock.
You can find her step by step here.

I followed her method, colour scheme and even motifs (hexagons) where I could but added some background stamping using the stamps from ESN07 (before painting with Limelight) and switched her Squigly stamps to one from Hot Pick 1207. The stamping of the main image is blurry due in part to the cardstock texture and also to me huffing too much on the stamp!
I also replaced the text on cardstock by Dymo tape words.

Quite like the effect of the translucent paint on the kraft and, although texture paste is much easier to handle than paint with a stencil, paint has the advantage of being completely flat, which is good for storage.

Whilst I wasn't looking, I have acquired new subscribers so I wanted to take this opportunity to give them a warm welcome. I am unreliably told by Blogger that I have now 17 or 19 followers and I wish I knew more about how these things work but since Google Reader going off line last year I have given up!

I am also entering the Pan Pastel UK challenge.

Hung out to dry

I have a huge backlog of photos to scrap and it was high time I started to tackle it ! As usual this didn't turn out at all as expected but I am quite pleased with the feeling of fun that exudes from the layout.

I chose some Core'dination (Chocolate box) and just HAD to do some dry embossing, and since it is quite a dark colour I sprayed a mix of gesso and water through a stencil (Crafter's Workshop - Garden Gate) to tone it down in parts.
I created 3 letters with dies to complement the chipboard letters (My Mind's eye - Bloom & Grow) I already had, and used the remaining papers underneath the photos.
Washi tape, twine and tag stamp are from Docrafts, flowers and leaves stamps dies from Papertrey Ink.

I am entering the layout in the Lisa.B. Designs challenge and the Pan Pastels UK challenge. And yes,  there isn't a frosty finish in sight, but I did that for the previous challenge and didn't want to repeat myself!

Note: 

No scraps were created during the production of this layout!

Let me know what you think,

Inspired By Clare LLoyd

This week I made my (crafty) life easy and when emulating Clare's project I started with a blue colour and kept on going... one sure way of making an harmonious colour scheme!

Also, as I didn't have the stamps Clare used, I pulled out one of my Hot Picks (1204) and only used stamps from that sheet.

I followed Clare's step by step quite faithfully apart from the a half hearted attempt at ombré on my textured hexagons and I used inks rather than paint for my stamping - told you I was making my life easy!-

I am also entering the piece in the following challenges: SSS Monday Challenge (Blues), Artful Times (Shades of Blue) and Country View Craft's (Monochromatic).

Thanks for coming by,

Pocket Valentine

I don't make many Valentine cards (precisely one a year!) so I can take my time with it. I started with the idea of using fabric and let the craft muse (or chance) to lead me to the next idea.
This is the finished card, although I am still debating if I should stamp "Happy Valentine" in black ink at the bottom right. It would provide contrast but would it be too much?

Sorry for the quality of the photo but the winter light is just not enough!

 

To start the fabric idea I have used a Canvas Texture stamp in the background, but, instead of stamping direct to the card I kissed it with the Harlequin stamp from The Artistic Stamper. I chose it because it is solid so I can modify it with all sorts of techniques to give it a different look.
Also it is A6 in size, a major bonus for crafters on this side of the pond, because it can cover a standard card and also look good (ratio wise) on a 5x7 card.

Then I went to my scraps mountain box and pulled out the last piece of prepared fabric I had... yes it is a piece of shirt - you can tell I can't throw anything away!-, and when I saw the pocket I just had to use it!
I stamped the pocket with a heart stamp using fabric ink, it would work better on cotton but I am happy to go with the slightly blurry look the cotton mix gave.

I used the same stamp to create my embellishment with melted embossing powder. My first version was supposed to be red but turned out pink and, although quite nice, just clashed with the rest of the card. The stamp was versamarked before I poured the melted powder so that I could pick out the highlights with yellow/gold mica powder (Imagination Crafts - Natural set).

Of course, now I had a pocket, I needed to use it.... I created a tag and indulged myself playing with stamps.

For the left, I placed on my acrylic bloc several stamps from an old Docraft set and stamped in pink ink, over-stamping with a freebie stamp from Craft Stamper.

On the right, I used my latest Craft Stamper freebie and the Sending Happy thoughts row of hearts. This way I have managed to ink up 2 unused stamps! 

Finally I pulled a rather small scrap of red card to create a die-cut border.

I am entering the following challenges: Pan Pastels UK; The Artistic Stamper; My Mum's Craft shop; WOW Embossing Powders; Snazzy Design Team   

Thanks for coming by,

Playing with Texture

Leandra from Paper Artsy has been demonstrating on video 2 techniques with Grunge Paste. It looked so interesting I had to have a go. Well I thought I would get lots of crafting time over the holidays but guess what... time goes faster and I haven't touched anything so I am playing a little...

The first project, see the video in this post, is on canvas, don't look too closely at the colours used I just grabbed what I had! The stamp has been chosen last, based on the space to fill, and is from Hot pick 1205.

In the second project (see the video here), I used packaging material for texture, as well as stamps. You might pick the owl from ID02 and the newspaper from Hot Pick 1207. The most difficult part of this technique is to judge when the paste is ready for the impression, this varying with the thickness applied , the wetness of your brush and for a given area of paste, the centre dries slower than the sides.
I went for a white wash to highlight the texture, and stamped the taxi from Hot Pick 1208.

Happy New Year to my followers and all blogging crafters!