My first ATC

It seems I am always late to the party...
Last year I made a tag for the first time and, this year, spurred on by the Vintage Journey challenge, it was time to try ATCs.

Rather obvious, but, I didn't quite grasp, until I had one in front of me, how small ATCs are. Since I started card making, I have been working on increasingly bigger, not smaller, "canvases" and I found the exercise quite difficult.
And some people do Twinchies and Inchies....

My starting inspiration was this stamp by Tim Holtz  (C0M004 - Time) which is ATC size!
I love vellum and thinking about his latest Vellum Paper Stash I wanted to add some to my panels. I substituted TH's by a British sourced version (Papermania - Mme Payraud) - cheapskate that I am... Sadly it doesn't show very well.

I made my background following a TH demo where he overlays several stencils, using Distress Inks.
As TH uses lots of metal embellishments, so I die-cut corners pieces which I embossed (Frantage Aged rose for the left ATC and WOW Pomegranate for the right one).
Small pieces of Tissue tape were added, just 'cause... and an altered paperclip that was lying around.

I am also entering That's Crafty challenge.

I apologise to my loyal followers if I am overwhelming their feeds, I just wanted to squeeze these projects before school starts again!

Je vois la vie en rose... Deja vu!!!

Wow 2 clichés in the same title, both French to boot, I am on a roll...

If you are working backwards in your blog feeds, you won't have seen my first pink creation, feel free to go there first if you like pink! The colour is inspired by the Pan Pastel UK challenge.

Since I bought the Eiffel Tower embossing folder (Sizzix by Tim Holtz) I want to use it on everything, so when the Wedodoobadoo challenge required textures it's the first thing I pulled out.
I mixed some texture paste with pastel and applied it fairly smoothly to my cardstock. When dry, I run it through my die-cutting machine with the folder.
Do wait until the paste is dry, otherwise the paste goes in the folder and the cardstock disintegrate as you try to pull it out. Don't ask how I know...

I then applied different shades of pink as well as a bit of white pastel over the raised areas , picking out the fleur de lys as a good spot to foil in pink and gold foil (it looks dark but that is a reflection).
The texture paste is a lovely ground for pastels by the way, it is smooth but grabs the powder very effectively.

I couldn't bring myself to cover it with anything, so whilst I pondered what to do with it I made my second pink textured creation which I posted previously.
With no further inspiration coming through, I just matted the panel on some pink cardstock and left it at that. Surely it would be futile to try and improve on TH design ?


I am all pinked out now,

Je vois la vie en rose...

If you abhor pink turn away now... but pink is what Pan Pastel UK want to see so I have made an all out pink panel with lots of textures using different media.

I prepared my background with gesso and scribbled some Inktense then sprayed with water.
I used stencils and texture paste that I coloured with pastel and sprinkled various pink mediums: glitter, micro beads, embossing powders. The micro beads were difficult to handle as, in order for the paste to hold them, they have to be squashed somehow but without compromising the stencilled motif underneath. Also, they have to be sprinkled quickly and they get everywhere, jumping and rolling far far away...

Then I created a bouquet with stamps and matching dies (Papertrey ink), wrapped it in a bit of mulberry paper and added a butterfly from my stock of previously made embellishments. (It has a stamped cardstock base and a vellum layer sewed at the butterfly's body).

I am also entering Wedodoobadoo and Lisa.B. Designs challenges.

I should warn you that before I settled on this design, I explored another pink idea which I will show in my next post.
Pink haters look away now...

Thanks for coming by,

Fall Fashion

Crafty Individuals challenged us to create something about Autumn fashion. Rather than "Autumn" I was inspired by the American "Fall", as I was imagining a dress of multi-coloured leaves.

And since there is no fashion without sewing, I created a scene with my many sewing themed dies and stamps.

I did the background with a first layer of white paint and to allow me complete freedom to soften or even remove this layer I used gouache. On top I used Inktense and other watercolour crayons, finishing by a liberal spray of Lime coloured mica mist.

The stamps are from CI set 238, the dies Joy Craft (Leaves) and X-Cut (Sewing). I also used an embossing punch by X-Cut (Oak leaf).

All the leaves were coated with Versamark before I applied mica powders (Imagination Crafts).

I am also entering the Imagination Crafts (Create a scene) and Artful Times (sewing) challenges.

I stand by my dress concept (although come the winter it might prove inadequate) but I am not sure about the background or the design. Don't hesitate to tell me if you see something that doesn't work!

Humoristic

A very quick post with a fairly quick card for Fashionable Stamping who wants us us to make them laugh. Hmm... don't know about laughing but this stamp certainly raises a smile every time I see it.

The stamp is by Impression Obsession (Pig Bros. Birdhouse) and I stamped it using pens to ink it up.

Hope you'll like it,

The thing is...

Thing is my word choice for the Craft Barn quote challenge, and I kept it simple with a quote from Bonaparte.

For the background I wanted to play with alcohol inks and play I did, with 3 bright colours (Lettuce, Cranberry and Stream from Ranger). I wanted to evoke the colours of summer and yes it was bright but... it looked awful. I decided to proceed with my next step before throwing it in the bin and stencilled (Prima Doily) with Sparkle Medium in Jade (Imagination Crafts). Still awful... I tried toning it down with white paint and it's better, not great, and as a consequence the Sparkle is not so sparkly! You'll also notice that the white paint is pinkish, yes the Cranberry managed to seep into the paint when the other 2 colours stayed put. Go figure...

My next problem was the ink I used to pen the quote, it's supposed to be dark red and now it's more light red. Something to do with the bottle sitting unattended for yonks?

Anyway....

I am also entering the Pan Pastel UK and Bunny Zoe Crafts challenges.

Thanks for coming by,

Double scoop of embossing

As I am translating this post, I will be brief. Don't hesitate to ask if you want details...

Ce post est plus succinct que d'habitude, du à la traduction. N'hésitez pas à demander si vous voulez des détails.
Katzelkraft nous challenge à utiliser une méthode de gaufrage. J'aime les deux méthodes alors j'ai mis le paquet et je les ai employées toutes les deux sur cette création!

Katzelkraft challenges us to use embossing so I decided to throw both dry and wet embossing at my make, as I love them both equally!

Stamp/Tampon: from KTZ86 a set of lovely vintage vehicles
Folder/Dossier: Tim Holtz Alterations Texture Fades - Bricked
EP/Poudre a embosser: Ranger Antiquities - Frosted Crystal
Stencil/Pochoir: The Crafters Workshop - Gears
Inks/Encres: Versafine, Distress Inks

Other challenges/Autres challenges:
WOW Embossing powder; That's Crafty

Merci de votre visite / thanks for coming by,

Journal Page with metal

I enjoyed the experience so much last month that I am attempting Darcy's Journal Page challenge again.

To read about the process visit Darcy's post, I will describe here where I diverged.

I am not great on words and quotes so I replaced the words by DIY washi tape.

I didn't seem to have as much space on my pages so I haven't managed to fit in all the circles but used some of the leftovers to cover 2 corners that failed to mitre correctly!

For the background I used a text stamp from my own collection, a texture stamp from Kaisercraft and one from EEV06 instead of the new stamps that Darcy teased us with but didn't reveal...
With no appropriate size text stamp for the circles, I used a canvas texture stamp instead (Impression Obsession).

For space reason I didn't add the sunburst motif and added a small heart die-cut instead of the big heart duo image Darcy used.

On the right hand page I used stamps from HP1206 and chose my aperture shapes accordingly.

I particularly enjoyed the metal work, as it's so easy with folders to obtain a lovely texture. The butterfly was a bit more difficult to handle what with working from the back but still OK.

Phew! a lot of work involved but I am so glad I made it and learned a few things a long the way.

Thanks for coming by,

Kinetic

This is the challenge proposed by Artful Times.... Definitely a challenge for me and my creation gave me serious headaches...

I attempted a pop-up card but I had no template. After several goes, it looked as I wanted it to look but then... when I closed it, my pop-up elements peeked out of the folded card significantly! I just added 2 pieces of cardstock to extend the original card and the finished card is  now roughly 8"x8" instead of A5.

As well as being large, the finished project is quite thick so I created a band to hold the card closed with a piece of ribbon and a slider made out of shrink plastic.

The stamps used are all from Paper Artsy Hot pick 1208, the patterned paper a magazine freebie.

Now for the kinetic part, drum roll...

Tada!
The London landscape has been die-cut out of Core'dination cardstock with X-Cut dies. Each die-cut is stuck on its own step, spaced by 1.5 cm. I stamped on the back page and added a die-cut for the sentiment.
The embellishments are also die-cut with the same X-Cut set.

A closer look:

With hindsight, I should have taken a side view and waited for daylight to give you better pictures!

Thanks for coming by,

Celebrate CAS style

Men.... what theme can you use for them? Running out of ideas I went straight to the point with this card! Well, My Mum's Craft shop wants to see some CAS for their challenge, CAS it is...

I used 2 dies, both from Papertrey Ink, and the inlay method which I have admired and never tried before. The inlaid Happy is die-cut from freebie papers (Home Grown by HOTP from an issue of Simply Cards & Papercraft).
The only difficulty is in sticking back the minute negative pieces (e.g the inside of the b, d etc..) into their proper place otherwise it's an easy technique.

Not particularly exciting but I doubt it will make much difference to the MAN...

I am also entering the We Do Doobadoo challenge.

Thanks for coming by,

Summer Play

Oh no... Fashionable Stamping challenges us with the theme Child's Play...hmm time to look through the freebie stamps from magazines, and lo and behold a never inked Holly Hobbie stamp set surfaces.

These are acrylic stamps (as opposed to polymer) and usually don't take dye ink very well. Since I don't use them often, if at all, I now take my sanding block to them and they work a lot better. Don't rub to hard, if unsure, test and sand again. When I started the practice I used such a superfine grit (800) that it didn't make a difference.

Anyway... since this is not a style I undertake very often I figured I needed to use some patterned paper and cardstock from the least used stash area which goes some way to explain my colour scheme. Sorry if you need shades to have a look!

The image has been stamped with Versafine so I couldn't use the alcohol markers as initially planned (doh!) and coloured with pencils instead. I must be the only stamper without a standard black dye inkpad!
The fence die-cut has been embossed with a wood grain motif (Sizzix by Tim Holtz) and inked with Distress ink.
I am also entering the Pan Pastel UK Summer Fun challenge.

When in Blogger I have a tendency to go straight to the posts so have overlooked that I have 4 additional followers since June. Don't you wish Blogger would send you an alert?

I am humbled that you enjoy my projects and I take your following as sign my craft is improving, which is a great encouragement!

So a warm welcome to my new followers, and many thanks to my existing followers for their loyal support,

Mind and Ignorance

Something to do with the sunny weather I guess, I fancy bright, clean colours at the moment, rather than subtle, vintage or steampunk hues...

I couldn't think of anything relevant to illustrate the word "Ignorance" or the quote I have chosen for the Craft Barn challenge, so I indulged myself by using my favourite colours of Neocolors and my latest embossing folder, as yet unused.

I first scribbled the Neocolors on the card then softened with lightly wet brush.
With the card dry to the touch, but still damp, I embossed it with a TH folder and a Cuttlebug border folder.
When completely dry I rubbed the Neocolors on the raised areas.

The quote is handwritten on a die-cut label (Spellbinders), edged with silver gel pen the only embellishment I allowed in order to show as much of the background as possible.

I am also entering the Country View Crafts - Word play and  Ladybug Crafts - Favourite colours challenges.

Thanks for coming by,