Leaf printing

Finally a minute to enter the latest Paper Artsy challenge, Autumn Leaves. Rather than stamping my leaves, today I stamped WITH them!

I decided to use old hand made papers and painted my leaf with a brush, applying several colours of watercolour paint (I used paint in tubes). The same leaf can be used over and over and one can quickly build up a stash of printed papers!
I added some leaf brads and, for no other reason than I had it close by at the time, this piece of ball chain, a broken remnant of something or other!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Wednesday challenge.

X rated Dictionary page

And there it is... the letter I dreaded... for the Craft Barn Dictionary challenge!

There aren't many common words starting with X, but, as luck would have it, I found this little gem which allowed me to be seasonal AND fulfil my Dictionary mission all at the same time. I give you xanthophyll:

I must be on a Clean & Simple kick at the moment because although I considered adding some stencilling, I left the stamps do the talking again. With the help of my hero inkpad, the Kaleidacolour - Autumn Leaves, discovered recently and so appropriate for my chosen word!

I used 2 sizes of leaves from the Twiggy Leaves set (Rubber Dance) to create a frame for my definition, which unusually take centre stage.

I hope you'll like my page, however simple it is!
Also entering the Casology, Paper Artsy, Uniko and Rubber Dance challenges.

Patina and alcohol resist techniques

In September Tim Holtz is revisiting Paint Patina and alcohol ink resist techniques. I love the look of patina but never tried Tim's technique so this was the time to experiment!

As usual I won't describe the step by step as Tim has done it better than I ever could HERE.

My  resist isn't as defined as I would have wanted it (did I leave it to dry too much?) but up close you can recognise the stamp, Family values from The Artistic Stamper.

I had to replace the alpha part by a die-cut, I used one of Sizzix/Tim Holtz Thinlits (Sentiments words) and decided to add a die-cut corner, also a Sizzix/TH thinlits (Mixed Media) on the upper left.
A hinge die-cut from black shrink plastic (Hardware findings Bigz - Sizzix) and a Tando arrow chipboard have been given the patina treatment to tie in.

For stencils I used Tim Holtz Layering stencil set 10 and TCW Mini Ledger.

As techniques goes, I really enjoyed the patina and love the effect, especially on the arrow:

but I'm less enamoured of the resist as it is more difficult to control!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Stamps & Stencils, We Love To Create and Sandy & Amelie Steampunk  challenges.

Travel Mini book part 2

Glad to see you back here for Part 2 of my Travel Mini book!

Part 1 was all about the construction and part 2 is all about the fun things... such as stamping my pages. However, as I tried to write this post, I wasn't sure how easy to understand my project was, so I had a shot at making a video to show the completed project in action. Do forgive the lack of skills and equipment, although the quality of the picture from my phone camera is pretty good considering it's not top of the range.

Let's take a closer look at the pages and the details, starting with the cover:









I have embossed the cover with the Sizzix/Tim Holtz folder Eiffel Tower and rubbed some Treasure Gold in Onyxite, Amethyst and White fire to highlight some of the texture.






I showed the first page at the beginning of the month here.

The 2nd page uses stamps from the Paper Artsy set HP1208.

I stamped the 3rd page with a map, in black, and the Travel word embossed in WOW Vanilla embossing powder both from the Travel plate by Rubber Dance . I also overstamped and embossed 2 motifs from the Docrafts set All Aboard - Air Mail (Vanilla and Pomegranate Wow EPs).

 

On page 4 and 5 I have teamed up images from the Travel plate by Rubber Dance (stamped in black) with labels from the Carnaval Venise plate (Katzelkraft- KT55), which I have embossed in Vanilla EP. The tucked in "Polaroid photo " seen in the video is a stamp from the same Venise plate.

 

The stamps on my last 2 pages are all Katzelkraft from the Paris Monuments plate (KTZ-50).

 

The tags which I have tucked in the pockets are some of my pre-prepared "embellishments", and are standing in for ephemera.

You might have noticed that I have punched out semi circles where I have pockets so I can pull out the tickets stubs easily. I did this after the stamping so I would not end up trying to stamp over  a hole!

I hope you find this project inspiring and fun to make and will join us at Country View Challenges to share your Travel makes.

Thanks for coming by,


Also entering the WOW Embossing powders challenges.

Christmas in September

I have often seen challenges having a Christmas in July/summer theme and, with half of the world in winter in July, it does make some kind of sense... That's Crafty  are having a Christmas in September theme and this is a new one for me, so, as usual, I am being very literal and adding Autumn colours to a Christmas make!

In any case, I am so bored with red & green, why not these gorgeous shades of oranges?
Plus it happens to be one of the colour schemes for the Rubber Dance challenge (October 2015), who are celebrating their 2 years anniversary. I couldn't let that pass without entering, as I have entered that very first challenge and even made DT pick of the month ( if you missed it it's here).

To make this scene, I first stamped my snowman and masked him before overstamping with a medium sized leaf cluster and adding the sentiment. All stamps are from (Rubber Dance) and for inks I used a Kaleidacolour inkpad in Autumn Leaves.

I created a sun impression with a stencil made with the Twirly Circle die from Memory Box die and added a bit of texture stencilling through a Piestra tile die-cut (also Memory Box). A little bit of Distress Ink grounds my snowman on a small hill.

And in truth... I quite like my Christmas make in these colours! t me know what you think!

Also entering the SSS Wednesday, Memory Box, Uniko Studio, and Fashionable Stamping  challenges.

From little acorns...

Difficult to believe this is the 18th letter of the Craft Barn Dictionary challenge, but we are in the last stretch,  the finishing line is in view and I haven't given up!

The letter this fortnight is O, no twist. I decided on an ultra simple design, without any colours. I'm not sure why but I let my mojo or lack off to take the lead!

I stamped this oak image (from an old Plaid set by Anna Griffin "In the Garden") with black dye ink, entwining the letter O with the acorn. This is one of my very first set of stamps (remember when polymer stamps were NEW?), bought at the Craft Barn, which started me on my stamping addiction journey.

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the The Artistic Stamper, Stamplorations Theme& Sketch, Stamplorations CAS and Craft Stamper TIMI challenges.

Gardening

Not long left to enter my card in the Craft Barn challenge, where we had to illustrate "what men like to do on a Bank Holiday".
So I thought about what MY man does on a bank holiday... gardening, going to the garden centre and pottering, at least when the weather's clement.

I have been looking through some of my older stamps, which I have a tendency to neglect, and unearthed this beauty from Impression Obsession.

I used papers from a HOTP paper pad, including the pre-cut flowers and, as a background to the garden shed, I used a piece of card I had created by mopping up left over Brushos from another crafty session.
A piece of Core'dination die-cut with my Stitched Squares set frame this image (a Gary Robertson design).

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Stamping Sensations, SSS Monday Challenge, SSS Wednesday Challenge and Craft Stamper TIMI challenges.

Autumnal trees

It's time for a new challenge at Crafty Individuals and the theme is CAS.
I chose a tree stamp (CI-429)for my cards and my new Kaleidacolour inkpad.

I tried 2 versions using the same stamp: first by inking the stamp with the multi-colour ink on glossy cardstock:

and the second by stamping in black over a brayered background:

The sentiments are from the CI-209 stamp set.

I'm not sure which version I prefer but let me know what your favourite is!
Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday and That's Crafty challenges.

CAS, Pink and Stitched

Unless you've been living in a cave you must be aware that colouring has become a big thing among the adults and lots of colouring books are now available. Stamplorations has produced their own,  Color Blooms, and are having a blog party where you can link your coloured project.

I downloaded the sample and coloured it with alcohol markers, I chose pinks because it's the only colour I have in several tints (light to dark) and therefore can blend easily.

I cut a Stitched Square out of the piece and stuck it on a card blank that I had previously embossed with another Stitched Square, one size up from the coloured piece.
A sentiment stamped with pink ink finishes this CAS card (Docrafts Gorjuss - Dear Alice).

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Stamploration CAS, Stamplorations Theme& Sketch,  Colour Crazy, Penny Black and more and SSS Monday Challenge challenges.

Mini Travel book Part 1

This month the theme at Country View Challenges is Travel, hosted by my teammate Jennie. Too late for the summer holidays... but in time for the next trip,  I have created a mini book with pockets to add ephemera collected on my travels.
All it takes is one 12"x12" piece of paper, a few cuts, scoring and folding to create.
I have decorated each page with stamps - you'll have to come back later in the month to see part 2 - but you could use photos of the actual trip to create a mini scrapbook instead.

You can make this type of book in different sizes, the smaller the pages the more pages in the book.

Starting from a 12x12" sheet and dividing in half horizontally and vertically, the largest page size is 6"square which makes a book with 4 pages.

Dividing the sheet in thirds you get 7 pages each 4" square, which is the size I chose, dividing in fourths you get 16 pages 3" square and in theory you can create mini books with 2" or 1" pages but that is too small for most purposes.

To make the book I used a one sided sheet of patterned paper, since the reverse side will not be on view.
To be sure I didn't cut in the wrong place, I first made up a "model" using copy paper to use as a reference.

First I scored my cardstock every 4" vertically and horizontally. Before cutting I marked the reverse side lightly in pencil with the page numbers, this also helps when coming to fold.

Then I cut the 2 horizontal lines in red on the photo.
Note: It is better to use a paper that has no obvious "direction". For instance if you have text on your paper the text will be upside down for some of the pages.

Then I folded all the blue lines as follows to get this:

Once the book is made, you could flip it upside down and it would still be a book. However, I designed it this way so I had most of the opening at the top, to use them as pockets.


At this point I decorated my pages before sticking down the pockets. Use dry adhesive for this to prevent the paper from puckering.

For covers there are many options:
  - None!
  - Glue the first and last page on a single piece of cardstock (don't forget to include a  spine)
  - or as I did only glue the last page to the cover,
the reason I did it this way is so I didn't have to sacrifice my page 1 to glue onto the cover.
 - ....

My first page has been stamped with an image and part of the sentiment from The Journey set (CMS021) by Stampers Anonymous. I added a label die-cut (Impression Obession) as a way to grab the first page easily.

Come back on the 21st to see how I decorated my mini book and don't forget to enter the Country View Challenge with your travel themed makes... you could win a £20 voucher to spend on crafting goodies!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenge.