Faux Finishes Challenge

Yeah!!! The Craft Barn challenges are back, starting with Faux Finishes. I chose Faux Metal, and set out to obtain a rusty copper look on my project.

I embossed my metal with a Crafter's Workshop template, then applied embossing ink and black embossing powder to give an all over black colour. Next I applied embossing ink only on the raised surface and pounced mica powders on top. To fix, I just used the heat gun to re-melt the embossing. I love the finish so much I couldn't bring myself to cover it up with a biggish stamped image, which was the original plan,  so I just added a sentiment, some thin copper wire and a button.

Below another photo, this time photographed in the sunlight, so you get the idea of how much the mica shines.

I like the way the background to the sentiment looks like wood - a complete accident ! I picked up a small offcut of glossy card which turned out to be photo paper, and tried a water-based marker on it. The photo paper sucks the ink so quickly a smooth result is out of the question... so I have just come up with a Faux Finish of my own!!!


Thanks for coming by,

New Baby gift

This is the project that has taken my crafting time and the reason I haven't entered any challenge lately. A crafting girl's got do what a crafting girl's got to do.... I mean isn't producing gifts and cards the justification we give when we buy craft supplies ?
It was a bit of an impulse buy, as I found this "blank" bib at half price and thought it might come in handy, what with  the expected new arrival. But I wasn't sure how I would decorate or which inks would work on the sponge... So here goes, modelled by Teddy (no not mine!)

The stamps I used were from a magazine gifted by my DH which I would not have chosen myself. But as low quality that they are (foam stamps) they turned out pretty useful for this. Given the texture of the material, only bold stamps can be used, plus, they need to retain a lot of ink. I considered using acrylics for the sponge part, wasn't sure, so kept to the Crafter's inks (Versacraft).  Just for fun I added a saying inspired by the car stickers we see in the UK (my other car is a Porsche):

And finally I replaced the cardstock that was part of the packaging and indulged with some more stamping and misting through stencils just because...

Let me know what you think and if you have any tips on stamping on fabric,

New Baby Card

WARNING ! Cute ahead....

I have been preparing for a new arrival and made a card and a gift. I will show my crafted gift in a later post but for now here's the card:

I have used papers from my supplies of  Docrafts "Me to You" collection and teamed it with a stamp from the Forever Friends collection. For the greeting I used my printer and a fun Dafont font. For colouring I started with alcohol markers and finished with coloured pencils. And because the front of the card was starting to get heavy I decided to stick patterned papers and die-cuts on the inside too (since I have happened on this idea I find I use that formula quite a bit !) :

You will note that I have blues and pinks and yellows as a scheme so that the card will fit in with either Boy or Girl !

See you soon for pictures of the gift,

And now for something different

It started with one embossed, painted and distressed square some 2 years ago. I got hooked... so I did another, and another... soon, I had more squares than I could use for cards, and I thought I should keep my creations for future reference of the techniques and designs I could get from my supplies.
The idea was born ! I had an unused board from the back of an old frame that could accomodate 30 squares (9cm each) and every now and then I would add a square to my collection until I got 30. As a whole, it isn't brilliant because apart from laying my "black" squares all on the outside there is a lack of unity in colors but if I need to do something similar next time I will know!

I have used stamps, mainly freebies from Craft Stamper magazine as they are not too detailed, embossing folders, brass stencils, texture plates (Ten Seconds Studio, Fiskars, letterpress), dies and found objects (e.g. paperclip). For black distressing, where starting from uncoloured aluminium, I have used black acrylic paint, black inkpad or black alcohol ink. The colours are either markers or Tim Holtz alcohol inks. And here is a close-up :

I hope you too have go at metal embossing !

Flower Power

This is the theme for this week's Impression Obsession challenge. I have decided to put the power into the flower by choosing  "power" colors for my flower, i.e the metallics. My initial idea was to use metallic flakes but technically it was a no go. Wet glue is incredibly difficult to work with for flakes and I couldn't use a glue pad or stamp & bond embossing powder since I wanted the inside of the flower gilded not the outline. For my plan B I decided to use gel pens, reserving the flakes for the die-cut.

I have used a pale gold pen for the "top" flowers, a deeper gold for the flowers which would be in the shade and silver for the leaves. The photo doesn't show how shiny the silver pen really is, one of the best gel pens I have used (Uniball Signo). The image was stamped on an iridescent pinkish card and I used some gold patterned paper to layer. The die-cut (Die-namics) and some twine finish off the design.

Thanks for coming by,

Time for Summer Challenge

Another summer card for another challenge... this time for the Crafty Individuals challenge.
For the main image, I have used CI - 294 with brown ink and applied distress inks on top.

I have machine stitched quite a bit and  managed to keep the stitching almost straight for once ! The pink background layer is a piece of material (used to be white but I painted it pink), overstamped with small stamps or parts of stamps (mainly from CI).
The clock is a replica of a Tim Holtz Ideology clock (home made), I used the flowers' stalks to create a heart and a squiggle.

And then... I realised how heavy the front was going to be and I decided to make this into an easel card, and decorate the inside (die-cuts by Spellbinders and Memory Box) to balance the weight.









Hope you will like,

Summer Fun In The Water and Sun

After Spring... Summer ! I love the season, the water, the sun... So while I am waiting for the sunny days I created this card for the Impression Obsession challenge .

For the main image I stamped IO's Beach Chair (F2337) and colored it with pencils.
Just peeping under the image is a piece of vellum, embossed with a wave design (Fiskars plate), a Button border die-cut (Memory Box). A few punched out butterflies complete the card.

Thanks for coming by,

Spring is in the Air

I played around with my latest Cover a Card purchase this week end and decided to use one of the prints to enter the Impression Obsession Spring is in the air Challenge.

The stamp is CC031 - Branches and has been stamped in sepia ink on top of glossy card colored using a foam technique (drop some re-inker on foamy water and place the cardstock on top),  although it is difficult to see most of the bubbles in the picture.

For the Spring part, I sponged some green acrylic paint in a "spotlight", created by a Memory box die-cut, to represent the first shoots.
Hope you'll like it !

True Blue

Impression Obsession has a "True Blue" Challenge and this is the card I have entered. I love their Cover a Card background stamps and blue is my favorite color...

I have used Cover a card Geologic (CC011) and Hydrangea (L2154) stamps from Impression Obsession, which I colored with pencils.

Thanks for coming by,

Spring Challenge

Just as the snow fell, February Crafty Individuals' challenge takes us to spring !

For this card I have resisted any type of distressing, collaging, grunging (if there is such a word), to let the beauty of the stamp shine. The quality and the detail of this set (CI- 259) is such, that I felt inspired to create a mini painting, one that could not be achieved the traditional way ! It was also a bit of a technical stamping challenge as it involved inking the stamps with 2 inkpads and a marker (for the trunks) and some nifty positioning.

In the foreground I used some stamp & bond with white flock and Flower soft to give texture. For the white flock to appear white (or nearly white) I had to first resist stamp with versamark  before brayering my background and then overstamp with white pigment ink on the flower heads. To finish the card I framed it with some die-cuts and a title.

All the foreground elements are from plate CI- 207 including the small butterfly and dragon fly.

See a close-up of the trees :

I am really pleased I tried these techniques even though this took me forever !

Thanks for coming by,

Mass production

Some of you will look on this with incredulity - is she mad ? Christmas in February ? - and some will be impressed at my organisation... But when the next season comes around I want to get enough time to create a few special cards rather than rushing to produce lots of cards or buy some - perish the thought- like last Christmas.

In all there are 12 cards and envelopes with a design for boys and one for girls.

I have designed the set to minimise effort and cost. I used the "free" papers from magazines to make envelopes using the largest die from the Grand square dies from Spellbinders. I added a small die cut to make a label from white paper for the address. With the smallest die from the same set I cut the card bases using some bristol board.
The design on the card has been stamped with "free" acrylic stamps from another magazine and coloured with Coloursoft pencils and solvent. - I originally wanted to use markers but the colour showed through the bristol board.-

That's it ! No bling, no glitter, no fussing, and a minimum of punching (I rounded the top triangle of the envelope).

Thanks for coming by,

Wedding Card

Happy New Year all ! It will take a bit of time to get back into the swing of things and I haven't had a lot of time to craft. But...here's one I made earlier...this is a wedding card and I had to wait until after the wedding to share it on my blog ! The style is meant to be opulent but clean.

I used a letter press technique to deboss and colour the background in one pass of my die cutting machine. I just love the technique! I stamped and embossed a piece of vellum in gold and placed it over black card edged with a Martha Stewart border punch. On the frame (detail below) I have used gilding flakes in a variegated colour. The sentiment has been printed, as I did not have stamps small enough to fit in the frame, and embossed with clear powder. And yes, it is possible to emboss from your printer ink as long as your paper/card is not too absorbent and it is done quickly. Brads are helping to attach the vellum (I have applied adhesive in areas where it would not show) and a ribbon rounds off the card.







Thanks for coming by,