Flower and Butterfly

Hello crafters, today I have a one layer card with the look of a matted one. 

I used my favourite inking technique for this collage stamp by Crafty Individuals (CI-521), applying water-based markers to each element in various colours. I then over stamped (using a stamping platform) with embossing ink and embossed the image with clear EP. 

I added watercolour to the left of the image, added a border with a pink gel pen. 

Finally, I created a border with a thin double-sided tape to which I applied gilding flakes.  

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the SSS Monday and Allsorts, challenges

More coasters

Some organised people have all their Christmas gifts bought and wrapped by now, having used the whole year to scour the shops for that perfect present....  Well, not me and certainly not this year!

However, WHAT do you buy for the person that has everything? How about a crafty gift made by you and and for that special person? Christmas gifting is the theme of our Country View Challenge this month, chosen by Miriam and I hope you will get ideas from our DT. 

 

My first idea is coasters, I have been creating a few, each time in pairs, and this is my latest offering:

My base is recycled coasters but your can find fresh ones with a holder here.I created the background with Cosmic shimmer matt acrylic paints, this took several layers as I changed my mind... including adding some copper paint here and there. 

My choice of image is from 2 Visible Image sets: the spiral clock from Ahead Of Our Time and the shattered clock and matching background from the Somewhere In Time.

Once dry I stamped my motif with Cosmic shimmer Flake and glitter Glue using a piece of Distress foam and applied my flakes. You can find similar colours to the one I used with these mixes: Silver Dream, Warm Sunrise both from Cosmic Shimmer. Now being the control freak that I am I don't just dump the flakes haphazardly on the image... noooo I try and place a gold flake here a copper flake there etc... but you don't have to do that! 

Once all the image is covered I start removing the excess with my fingers , then with a dedicated sponge (it looks a bit like wire wool but made of plastic thread).

For the shattered clock I first stamped the background stamp with black to enhance the contrast with the foil.

I added a bit of darker colour around the coasters with a Pitt brush pen.

Now these will join the other pairs to get their hard core varnish so they can be used for hot or cold drinks.

And of course let's look at the SHINE.... 

Over to you now, have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog and link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop. Just remember that cards do not qualify for this challenge. 

Thanks for coming by,

I am entering the Paperbabe, SSS Wednesday challenges.

Mini scrapbook album

I have a photo heavy post for you today, showing a mini album created with a single 12x12 sheet of designer paper which doubles up as a (special) Birthday card.

The front cover is stamped with an image from the Art Nouveau Silhouettes stamp set from Flonzcraft and I added a title with die-cut letters to which I applied gilding flakes.

On the first page I placed some photos and added stamped motifs (Katzelkraft, Prima and more).

Page 2 feature stamps from the Sew Sweet Stamp Set by Rubber Dance and an embossed corner with some Stampendous Frantage powder (the stamp is a CAC by Impression Obsession)

On page 3 more Rubber Dance stamps from the Retro Beach set, some embossed in Wow Vanilla powder

Page 4 uses stamps from Katzelkraft Paris Monuments and Paris Notre Dame sets.

Finally the back cover is adorned with another silhouette from the Art Nouveau Silhouettes stamp set from Flonzcraft.

Pure stamping pleasure and a lot of ink, although the background is patterned paper. To read up on how to make these types of book , you can look here for a tutorial. This has to be one of the easiest album to make, as it only need a few folds and one cut! Since this paper was single sided I added a cover from another piece of paper and a spine too. The construction allows for pockets if you want and I placed a tag in mine, bearing my birthday message for the recipient.

Thanks for coming by,

I am entering the Mini Album Makers, The Artistic Stamper, SSS Wednesday Challenge and Paperbabe Stamps challenges.

Gilding the Leaf

Today is the first day of a new Theme & Sketch challenge at Stamplorations.

The theme and sketch are:

For my first make, I tackled both theme and sketch keeping things CAS:

I cut a panel of Kraft cardstock, with one of the Stitched Snow Hills die and aligned 2 further pieces of cardstock, one black and one white, die-cut with the same die top and bottom. I then stuck all the pieces on a card base,  avoiding the bulk of overlapping die-cuts.

I stamped my sentiment from the Trendy Leaves and embossed with gold embossing powder.

On brown cardstock I stamped the Leaves with glue and used gold mica powder on 2 leaves and gilding flakes on the third, for even more shine! The photo above is taken in direct sunlight which shows off the shine but obliterates all the details, so below is another pic taken in the shade:

Hop on over to the Stamplorations blog for more inspiration from my teamies and do join us in our Theme & Sketch Challenge.
If you do, you might win a lovely Stamplorations prize...

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Craft Stamper TIMI challenge.



   

Fire and Ice

Paper Artsy is having a Glitter fortnight and I have been inspired by Nikki and the fab technique she used on her project and was running out of time to enter the challenge....

I used a double sided adhesive sheet and placed some die-cuts on one side (Diesire - Delicate Swirls Overlay Die) before applying gilding flakes (IndigoBlu Winter Dawn).

On the other side I placed a pine branch die-cut (Impression Obsession Pine Branch), which I had already embellished with embossing powders (White, Aged Aqua - Stampendous, Wow Seaglass).

Tipped half a bottle of fine glitter over it (Art Institute)... Added a sentiment die-cut from black cardstock - I'd planned to emboss it with gold glitter but I felt I had reached the point of TOO MUCH glitter already!

And unusually for me no stamping...

The shining effect is incredible, although in my case, as the glitter is blue, it does interfere with the lovely warm colours of the gilding flakes. A close up and like Nikki I am attempting video:

I would recommend the technique, despite the glitter mess and bits of flakes flying around, well worth it in the end!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Addicted to stamps challenge.

Foiled Heart

Welcome to my second Heart themed make for the Country View Challenge, hosted by the lovely Hazel.

Still shunning the reds and pinks, I went metallic and enjoyed pulling out the Gilding Flakes.

First I applied double sided adhesive to a 6x6" (15x15cms) piece of light cardstock and die cut a central square. I keep the resulting frame for another project and die-cut the Sending Love heart (Memory Box) from the square.

I then applied the flakes over the sticky die-cut. I use a soft brush to pick up individual flakes if I need a particular colour or want a smooth finish. The sponge rubs away all excess flakes.  

I stuck the foiled heart onto a piece of black Core'dinations and to frame my center piece, I embossed a piece of Gemstones Core'dinations and applied Gold accents with DecoArt Metallic Lustre.

The folder is a freebie from a magazine (old stash...)

And because metallic are so difficult to photograph, first a full frontal pic:


then the shine shot:













And a different angle...

I am so glad I thought about the flakes, I don't think I have used them much, even though they do deliver that wow factor.

Don't lose your heart and enter our challenge, you could win £ 20 to spend on crafting supplies from the Country View Craft web shop!

I'm looking forward to see all your entries....

I am entering the SSS Monday,  SSS Wednesday challenges.

Golden envie

Another postal make for the Paper Artsy challenge! This time I CASEd one of Butterfly's golden envelopes. I could have used the same stamp but decided to give some love to that Amsterdam row of houses from the Hot Pick 1601.

I also used some patterned papers (from a magazine freebie). I added a white panel  for the addressee to make it easy for the postman to read.

I stamped the houses with Flitter Glue and applied the gilding flakes. Love the shine but this is very difficult to photograph, especially as I used my phone and artificial lighting....

This might give a better idea:

Hope you like my envelope!
Onwards and upwards, more Christmas projects on the list...

Thanks for coming by,

Flutterby

It's the IndigoBlu challenge and the theme is Flutterby. Yep tis the season (for butterflies)... and I am obliging by creating another card with butterflies!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the winged things! They go on both men and women's cards and I have plenty of them in stamps, stencils, rub-ons etc... but I am feeling butterfly fatigue...

I applied a stroke of texture paste on my kraft base and stamped "dots" with a piece of packaging (I keep a collection of these).
As you can see from the pic they are hexagons but they come out as circles. Never mind!

I added some washi tapes since I need to use them at some point!

The focal image is the Flutterby Dinkie stamp from IndigoBlu, stamped on a Brusho background and cut out.






To finish off the card I thought a bit of bling was in order and to go with the IndigoBlu stamp what could be better than Winter Dawn gilding flakes....

Quite a simple card, with a more masculine feel and subtler colours than my last few butterfly cards!


Hope you'll like it !







Also entering the We Love 2 Create challenge

IndigoBlu Inspiration

I have been honoured to make the top 3 at the IndigoBlu blog challenge last month, with this card, and I have been offered the chance to join them for this month's theme, Let it Snow, with an inspiration piece.
Not an offer I could refuse...

Now is a good time to bling up our cards and as I normally shy away from loose glitter, I made an effort to use some in a bid to streamline my supplies! But I had also decided to use my favourite shiny supply... gilding flakes, from IndigoBlu of course!

I made a frame with snowflakes die-cuts covered with an adhesive sheet, then glittered and foiled to my heart's content.

The main image is from the Retro Christmas plate. I coloured it with alcohol markers, adding white gel pen and white glitter as "frost".
As a backdrop for my image, I used a circle cut out and splattered some blue, green and silver watercolours with a brush.

A peel off sentiment finishes the card (yes I still use them!)

I hope you've enjoyed my card and will join the Let it Snow challenge, you will find plenty of inspiration on the IndigoBlu blog including from my fellow Top 3.




I will leave you with a bonus picture showing the shine from the gilded snowflakes, bear in mind the sun isn't playing ball these days.

Hot & Spicy with a touch of bling

In the sea of Christmas colours, That's Crafty's challenge would like to see hot colours, well that's a relief...

For my hot background I used linen card with pastels ,applied in an ombre fashion.

Before die-cutting my circle, actually a clock face from Papertrey Ink, I applied double sided tape to my cardstock. Then I used gilding flakes over the sticky side for a bit of bling.
I added a touch more bling on a black flag (partial die-cut of an Impression Obsession die) by stamping with glue before gilding.

The central image is by Crafty Individuals and I stamped it with black and silver inks. The silver was applied on the cage part of the image but it wasn't very successful. I later added a bit of silver gel pen .
I coloured flowers and bird with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush.

My flower embellishments are pieces of fabric dyed with Inktense, folded, stuck and twisted with a piece of netting.
I die-cut my bouquet flowers (Papertrey ink) and enhanced them with the matching stamps.

I was going to add more bling in the form of gems but, as per usual, couldn't bring myself to do it!

I am also entering the Pan Pastel and Wedodoobadoo challenges.

Thanks for coming by,

Multicolour Stamping

I love inking my stamps with colours be it inks or other media so the Craft Stamper technique challenge is right up my street!

The Autumnal colours were suggested by the Craft Room, Pan Pastel UK and Stamping Sensations challenges.

I used 3 large background stamps (Impression Obsession - Canvas and Grunge; Hero Arts/Sizzix Flourish) to create my "patterned paper". I combined different inks on the Canvas & Grunge and used watercolour crayons for the Flourishes. To give a seamless effect I use cut & Dry to blend the inks where the tone change is too big (e.g. from Walnut Stain to Antique Linen).
When using the crayons I use as little water as possible (better to get the crayon wet rather than the stamp) to preserve as much of the design as possible. Here is a pic of the stamp with the watercolour crayon so you can see how much there is.

The Crafty Individuals image has been inked with several Faber Castel big brush pens and I used Distress inks and Cut & dry to age the panel.

My finishing touches include gilding flakes on die-cuts and other die-cut pieces.

Love that technique and playing with the crayons is great fun,

Autumnal tree

Yet another Autumnal card, I'm afraid... Still, we will be soon in Christmas mode so we should make the best of the lovely colours this season has to offer! Plus, I had to use that leaf I gilded for another project which got left out and I love tree stamps.

I gessoed my tag and applied Fired Brick, Forest Moss and scattered Straw Distress inks, then sprayed water. When dry I used Walnut stain to darken the sides and stamped stamped also in Distress inks a script stamp (Paper Artsy), then my tree (Crafty Individuals) in Versafine. The inks don't appear as dark as they did at first and I suspect they've been sinking into the Gesso.

Scraps of paper, cord and ribbon complete the tag with my gilded leaf, which looks so much better IRL!
I am entering the Rubber Dance and the Fashionable Stamping challenges.

Thanks for coming by,

Masculine card

A quick post to make the deadline at Fashionable Stamping, where the theme is" Circle the Globe". Excellent excuse to use my world map stamp (Docrafts) and make a masculine card inspired by the Lisa.B Designs fortnight's worth of men cards. Although my map is square I surrounded it with embossed circles...

I don't have a bubble wrap stamp such as the Kaisercraft so I used the real thing... Not as easy to use but it did the trick, in a distressed sort of way, but that's fine, we LOVE "distressed" us crafters!
The designer paper has been embossed with clear powder then highlighted with distress inks. On the right of this panel I embossed the card with a sprinkling of regular gold, filling in with a darker gold.
Finally I embossed some chevrons with Sticky stuff and applied gilding flakes. No need to distress further here,, as the Sticky stuff is very temperamental so the result is always less than perfect.
I layered my stamped map (I used Sepia and black Versafine on the stamp), added a sticker and a stamped tag fastened with a screw brad.

I am also entering the WOW Embossing powders challenge.

Thanks for coming by,