Use your stash idea

Happy Sunday crafters! 

I have a weakness for beautiful papers and often grab a pad or a rice paper just because I like the look of it, not knowing how I will use it. Then it lays undisturbed in my stash because I cannot bear to cut into that beautiful paper! Sounds familiar?

The A4 Stamperia rice paper below (Blue Dream from the Colorful Life collection DFSA4746) is one of these that I didn't know what to do with, until I had the idea of using it on a mouse mat. 

My old mouse mat was deteriorating and the top layer was lifting up at the corners. 

I realised that if the top layer was plasticised, underneath was a white paper layer that could accept glue. And the size was a little shorter than A4 but I could still fit sky and sea from the rice paper!

To provide the necessary glide for the mouse and protect the top layer, the rice paper had to be treated in some way. Instead of gel medium, varnish or similar, I thought laminating would be the best idea. Of course since I needed to glue the image to the paper layer of the mat I couldn't laminate as normal, that is to say both sides. So I sandwiched my rice paper between one layer of laminating and a page of copy paper both slightly bigger than my rice paper.

Then it's a matter of cutting out the margins to take out the copy paper and applying a good amount of glue or gel medium to the mat and smoothing the laminated rice paper on top. For this project I used matt laminating pouches rather than glossy.

And here's the result:

I have been using my mat for a while now and enjoy looking at that view everyday as well as having something that is unique and made by my fair hands. Really pleased with the result so much so  I upgraded another mat in the same way!!!

Thanks for coming by,
 Craftyfield   

Winter coasters

Hello crafters, 
This fortnight, the Allsorts challenge optional theme, chosen by Helen is "Lets get sentimental". As usual, you can also enter with an "anything goes" theme.

Strictly speaking only one of my make has a focal sentiment, but, as I decided to make coasters and I always make these in pairs...

Both stamps are from Let's Make Cards issue 89, designed by Rare Earth.

I prepared the coasters with white gesso, then painted them with several layers of Paper Artsy Fresco in  Butter as I prefer a matt surface when I need to stamp on top. I added some dark brown paint around the edges.
For the cup I used Versafine Clair ink (Pinecone) but I switched to Archival for the other coaster as it did not dry quickly enough.

Both will need a few coat of varnish before using with hot drinks!

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Hop over to the Allsorts challenge blog to see all the DT inspiration and upload your projects. There is a prize pictured below from Sweet Poppy, an A5 stamp set and a sentiment stencil (plus an extra prize).

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield     I am entering the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, 

                                                          Stamping Sensations, We Love Stamping and Polkadoodles

                                                          challenges

Pink Christmas

Hello crafters, 

This fortnight, I am hosting the Allsorts challenge and chose the optional theme as "Christmas". As usual, you can also enter with an "anything goes" theme.

Pink is unusual for Christmas cards, but, I was inspired by our Allsorts leader Brenda's gorgeous card and had to try it for myself!

The focal image is from a freebie set included in Simply Craft and Papercraft Issue 237 (Winter Woodland). I simply inked it with different shades of pink and left it at that for a CAS look.

But I did have to mat the image with several layers of die-cuts to fill some of the A6 card size (14.8cm x 10.5): the white and the blue shapes are from now defunct 🥹My Favorite Thing, Blueprints 13, the postal shape is from the AALL & Create  #87 Quirky Post die set.

Finally I stamped the sentiment with a very old magazine freebie set.

And voila... a vision of Christmas in pink! It will not be my go-to colour for the holidays but I think it will feature occasionally!

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And...I have a bonus make for you as I finally got around to make a Christmas décor piece!

I made this on the reverse of my Autumnal panel and you can read the details for the wooden base here.

  

The paper is a freebie from magazine, die-cut with AALL & Create #39 - Infinarty die set. The sentiment is from Tonic Studio and, as it happens, one of the prizes on offer at Allsorts this fortnight! 

The berries, acorn and leaves are made with the Stamperia Woodland Mushrooms mould and I added some pine die-cuts from a number of dies.

I gave all my embellishments some "snow" with white paint, flock and some sparkles (Stamperia).

A closer look :

I am entering this make (with Tasty Berries...)  in the Outlawz Saturday challenge

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Hop over to the Allsorts challenge blog to see all the DT inspiration and upload your projects. There are two prizes of stamps, stencils and dies pictured below for lucky winners, all Christmas themed!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the pink card in the  Lost Coast Designs, Outlawz,

                                                         We Love Stamping, Outlawz Challenges Friday and

                                                          Addicted to Stamps & More challenges