It's A Man's World

So true... Well, very much ahead of time I have made a Father's Day card for the Impression Obession Challenge. I had already used the same stamp for this year and as soon as I finished it I had a better idea and this is it.

The main image is a Gary Roberston's design stamp, Potting Shed ( H1802), which I colored with Pencils. This is such a detailed image that, as I was coloring, I was discovering bits that I hadn't spotted before. The coloring is a a bit too pale but I left it as is, since the idea was to show a "sun bleached" shed. To display this image to its best advantage I then made a stepper card and decorated it with die-cut pieces and small punched butterflies.

Thanks for coming by,

Winter scene, embossing and die-cuts

After a week of mouth watering projects from the design team at the Craft Barn I was chomping at the bit to get embossing.
I didn't use Fran-tage powders as I just couldn't decide which to buy... Aged rose or Shabby pink ? Or Aged aqua for a vert de gris effect ? I am still pondering. Meanwhile I created this Christmas card as one can't start too early on Christmas cards! Plus I just had to use this lovely Gary Robertson stamp...

I applied versamark on the Noel and dipped first in white embossing powder and then clear before melting to produce a snow cap effect.
I colored the Impression Obsession Winter Scene (H1284) with pencils, added some Copic At You Spica clear glitter pen to the snow in places and embossed the whole piece with clear embossing powder.
I die-cut the window with some Spellbinders dies and a corner with a Memory box die.

Warning ! As some of the grains of white embossing fell when I tapped the pieces over my clear embossing container I have managed to contaminate my clear powder. On this occasion it isn't to bad as the main image has a few, unintended but appropriate, snowflakes but this might be a problem for another project.

I am entering this in the Craft Barn Embossing and mica challenge and the Impression Obsession Die challenge

Thanks for coming by,

Red white and blue challenge

This week the Impression Obsession challenge is Red White and Blue, just in time for 4th of July projects. But I am thinking back to winter as I am entering (belatedly because I thought only cards could be entered - Duh!) this scrapbook page inspired by the colors in the photo. I love making my own backgrounds with stamps and masks and the Cover A Card stamps are ideal because of their size.

I used a Flourish mask by Tim Holtz in a 2 step process : first I used the Impression Obsession CAC Newspaper ( CC068) and embossed in clear powder, secondly I applied Distress inks over the embossing and mask.

The blue paper is vellum embossed with a 5x7 Cuttlebug folder, the handmade red paper has been cut with a Spellbinder die. A bit of hand stitching, a tag and a brad to finish a simple layout.

I have been using this stamp quite a lot in my vintage scrapbook layouts but once embossed in white it doesn't say "vintage" anymore and works well here, I think.

Don't hesitate to tell me what you think !



Using masks challenge

Rather than use patterned papers for my scrapbook layouts I like to create my own backgrounds with stamps and masks. So the latest CraftBarn challenge is right up my alley...

I have used a Crafter's Workshop template with a reddish mist, both in positive and negative shapes,  with Distress ink and cut & dry foam, and with versamark and mica powders on top. The stamps are from Katzelkraft and Impression Obsession. I am not concerned about the empty spaces, since if I don't need them, I can always fill them with photos or embellishments when creating the layout.

I might let you see the finished piece in a future post...

By the Sea

Time  for another challenge at Impression Obsession following their latest rubber stamps release with lots of "sea" inspired images from  Gary Robertson (one of my faves!) and first time stamp designer Dina Kowal. Naturally the theme is By the Sea...

I used the Beach Chair (F2337) for the main image and tried something different to my usual techniques for variety !

I have used patterned papers for the chair and towel, and colored pencils to shade. The towel is
mounted with foam tape to give a bit of depth, but that isn't very obvious in the picture.
I colored the rest of the image with markers and used transparent glitter on the sand.  Finally, I used glossy accents to make the glass look like glass (completely invisible on the photo).

Hope you will like it,

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,