Quick cards for the boys

I had to rustle up birthday cards for 2 11 years old boys and quickly! Not my favourite thing...

During my web travels I came across the concept of "Craft Dash" and decided it would be a good opportunity to try making a card under 10mns. After all, as my OH always says, there is no sense in spending a lot of time on kids's cards as they will spend even less time looking at it.

Not as easy as I thought... my first try was a complete failure as I took over 13mns to finish the card. 3mns doesn't sound much but it is already 30% more than the allotted time! Back to the drawing board then.
From the original idea I had to abandon the embossing, the die-cut for the star as it took me ages to align the stamp and die, what with being stressed by the ticking clock. Also I had to switch colours around as I had used the last blue card blank in an old pack (yeah!! using up old stash) and I abandoned the tag stamp too.

Setting up again :

I started with die-cutting the ticket, then stamped it and the sentiment in blue ink (roughly 3mns). Then stamped the star 3 times (only one inking and 2mns) and effectively the rest of the time was swallowed by the embellishment. 2mns to punch the holes out (wishing for one of these screw punches) and trim the top and bottom to fit my stamp. Putting the foam pads on the ticket,  threading the twine and sticking to the card took another 2 1/2 mns.

And the twine is crooked...  Total time 9mns 47.

What I learned from the exercise:

- planning the card in advance and preparing all the supplies in one go before starting cuts down the realisation time. OK obvious...
- but to do that, and to iron out any unexpected issue, I had to walk through all the steps, for instance I had to try which inkpad was going to work (turned out I had to use a dye ink and a crafter's ink on top).

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
- Lisa.B.Designs challenge - Blue, Red and White
- Pretty Pink Posh Craft Dash #21 - Stars

Thanks for coming by,

Summer Sizzler

My followers will know that I am Guest Designing for the Country View Crafts blog this month, and I have beavered away on my project for several days.

Hot summers, for me, must involve the beach, so that was my starting point in designing the card. Then, I pulled from my stash a stamp that would fit in with a beach scene.

The background was brayered with inks, for the sun I used several sizes of masks to produce a light halo effect and for the sand I textured the brayered layer of ink with an inked piece of pliable soft plastic (from packaging) and also with sprayed water. For good measure I added Copic At You Spica glitter pen in clear to add a subtle glint, just like sand in the sun, unfortunately the photo doesn't show this.
For waves I used a white gel pen.

The hammock was inked with a combination of inkpad and markers, then masked before brayering the background.

I then die-cut the scene with 2 sizes of dies and a pink mat with an intermediate size and layered them together to create a frame, sticking the whole thing on an A5 card blank.

Finally, lest the hammock looked like it was floating in the air, I added posts made out of toothpicks. I sanded flat one side of the toothpicks so they would be easier to stick down.

Do you feel the heat ? Hope you like this mini scene... let me know in your comments below !

Inspired by Sue Carrington (3)

I saw this project by Sue and I just had to try it. I think my canvas is smaller than Sue and I ran out of space around my image to fit in all the stencilled areas.

The main image is from Hot Pick 1208.
In the bottom left corner I have used my latest "found" stencil - from an ad in a mail shot - with texture paste and drew some of the windows in yellow gel pen.
For the 3 stamped mats, I used a specialty paper with inclusion that has been lurking for years in my stash... and I just didn't know how good it actually was: it stamped very well, it's sturdy enough to be used with waterbased mediums, so glad I re-discovered it !

I added a strip of washi at the top and bottom as I had nowhere else to fit it in.

You can join this week's Paper Artsy challenge here.

Thanks for coming by,

Inspired By Darcy Wilkinson

This week, on the Paper Artsy blog, Darcy has blown me away with her creations from bits of paper, cardboard and material. Love to upcycle myself but the skills are lacking... I wasn't going to magic an apron out fabric or make furniture out of cardboard, either of those would end up seriously wonky under my fingers!
But, I was inspired to make something for my washi tapes.
From the "might come in handy" stash of packaging I picked out a tube just large enough for the rolls of tape and long enough to contain twice my current collection.

I stamped the motifs from the PA Eclectica plate no 3 by Lin Brown on tissue paper with Archival Ink.

I applied several coats of gesso on the back to opacify the tissue to prevent the original design of the packaging showing through.

I stuck it on my tube and, since this was for washi tape, I added a strip of TH tissue tape, sealing with acrylic medium.

For colours I used 2 Fresco paints trying to get a dripping effect (very "in" at the moment), maybe I should have prepared the Fresco in a spray bottle, because the paint does dry quicker than I could grab my water bottle!

 

Darcy inspired me to try making some washi tapes colouring with Fresco paints but, as I had just made some, this will be a future project.

This photo shows how I store my DIY tape.
I kept this non stick backing from a large sticker sheet from my son's stash.

The bright pink piece is a specialty masking tape with very low tack, the top pieces are cloth tape from the pharmacy aisle, the others are also medical type of tape but I have no idea what it is called.

Don't miss Darcy's last post of the week, it's both creatively amazing and hilarious.


Now a little poll... how many rolls of bought washi tape do you own ?


I will start the ball rolling with my 7 tapes...

Of Nature and Alchemy

Following the Nature theme of the latest WOW embossing powder challenge, I have created this card :

I started with kraft cardstock and to lighten the background, I used a canvas texture stamp (Impression Obsession) with white pigment ink.  I stamped another IO stamp -Branches- in brown on white cardstock, applied inks through scalloped stencils created with 3 sizes of Spellbinders dies, then cut out with the same dies. [If it looks familiar, I already used that idea in a previous card]

Then I played... The pieces of the image were embossed with a matt embossing powder but in some areas I have overheated and the embossing has started to shine.
I love mixing my own powder recipe as well as applying several powders on the same piece, makes me feel like an alchemist !
The tree leaves (from punch, and dies) I embossed with a pale green powder - which appears white on the photo- a few grains of WOW Black puff ultra high and the matt powder everywhere else.
I used double sided tape to create a frame and applied my home made mix (a tarnished gold EP, gold glitter and copper powder).
A close-up photo so you can see the difference between the matt look on the tree and the shine on the leaf (overheated).

Of course embossing these small leaves took forever, but as I said I love to play!

Thanks for coming by,

Sea, Sun and B(l)each

After a non existing spring and a seriously lacklustre start of the summer, all I can do is dream of beaches in the sun, so this Crafty Individual challenge is wellcome.
I knew at once the stamp I was going to use and that a paper from the Crafty Individuals background paper book "The seaside" would be involved.

The difficulty I have with designer papers is I loathe covering them, as they are quite beautiful without adding anything, but... it had to be done! I decided to make it my own by adding some stencilling with a spray, distress ink and foil on the upper left corner, as well as stamping in 2 other corners. I like the effect of the Sea shell stamped in Frosted crystal embossing powder peeking out from underneath the printed seashell of the paper on the right hand side.

I stamped the Life's a Beach Girlfriends (CI-284) image on a distress inked background and bleached out the details. The saying is embossed with white powder.
I cut out part of the starfishes and added some gauze to frame the stamped panel.

I quite liked the card at this stage but, was it enough? In the end I enlarged my "canvas" and made it into an 8"x8" card by adding an embossed and sanded sheet of Coredination White wash, which is big for a card, certainly bigger than I have ever done.

Was is it  better as a 6x6 or does the embossed frame enhance the panel ? Please give me your opinion in the comments below.

I am also entering this card in the Ali-Craft blog challenge (open theme).

Colors of summer

This is the theme of the challenge atImpression Obsession. I chose to make a layout with some vintage photos, involving a summer dress that I imagine in bright colors of red, pink, yellow and blue against a fresh white. Not unlike the small strip of floral print material I stuck on the bottom left of the page.

 

I have used some of my newest IO stamps and dies, the Dress Form Trio (F13086), Tag set (3119-SM) and Flags die set (DIE015-F), Rose Print Background (F8867). The stamped images have been chalked so that the colors would actually be visible on the fairly dark blue background.

The base cardstock has a white core and I took advantage by embossing corners and borders. The mat behind the single dress form (fussy cut) is a Scalloped Nestie that I have punched with a long reach butterfly punch.

Thanks for coming by,

Inspired By Carol Quance

This week Carol made a lovely tag book and a canvas for the Paper Artsy blog, I was tempted by the book but I couldn't complete it in the time, so I made an embossed tag (see Carol's here) as I thought the effect was fantastic.

After painting my tag in 3 colours of Fresco paint, the background was very bright and not subtle as per Carol's tag but I decided to leave it as I thought it appealing in an abstract way.

I embossed the tag with a small TH embossing folder and a Cuttlebug folder, then set about highlighting the embossing. In the search for an alternative to Treasure Gold I tried mica powders and then applying gold foil. The background was toned down in the process.


To emboss around the tag I used Frantage Aged Rose, the shine is gorgeous as you can see :

I chose to stamp my image, from Hot Pick 1207, on mulberry paper to use old scraps and because I thought it would be more sturdy than ordinary tissue paper when gluing it down (it was).

And as serendipity would have it, the colours through the stamped image and the strands of the mulberry make me think of  a night sky illuminated by fireworks reflecting in water, and I love it !

The photo doesn't give that impression as much but I had to use the flash due to the very dull weather and the fibers of the paper look paler than in real life as they reflect the flash light.

Let me know what you think,

Inspired By France Papillon (2)

This week I was inspired by France's Art journal page, although not having a journal myself, I made some alterations and produced a page for my samples book (still in progress).

For stencil I used the one I made last week to see how it would perform with a resist technique and for good measure created another one for the butterfly 3D embellishment (also with a die). I had several problems with that, probably because I used standard texture paste instead of Grungepaste and it isn't flexible and prone to breakage, which of course it did ! I also added glitter to the paste and Fresco paint to tint.

The main image is from Paper Artsy Hotpick 1206.
I used Dymo tape for the words (use my stash drive), you can see that it has become recalcitrant and is liable to emboss one letter over the next one. But then it adds to the distressed look, right ?

The mat behind the image is from a "Gelli plate" print I made earlier.- I use a pastry silicone mat in lieu of a Gelli plate -

If you're inspired by France you can still enter at the Paper Artsy blog.

Hope you will like this...

Sew Special

Before I talk about this project, I would like to draw your attention to the right hand side column of my blog. Yesss!!!! I have won the Top 3 Merit award for my May entry in the Country View Craft Challenge. I know this is a small achievement (Tim Holtz needn't be worried), yet I am over the moonand inordinately proud. Plus, I get to make an appearance as Guest Designer next month ! Hope my offering will be up to par...

But enough showing off, June is the month for die-cuts at Country View Crafts so I created a card with plenty of die-cuts from 3 different brands.

I created the background on glossy cardstock using the resist technique with an Impression Obsession stamp.
The "Sew special" letters have been cut with dies (Die-namics) from shrink plastic and lightly colored with alcohol pens (not obvious from the photo). I also punched 2 holes at the top of the letters in order to thread some twine, but after shrinking I realised my holes were a bit small and I used thin wire instead. I used the negative shapes for the I and the L so I could thread them in the same way as the others.
The scissors and thimble have been distressed with black alcohol ink.
The dress is an image transfer from patterned paper on white material, seen from the material side and therefore a lot paler than the original paper.

I am also entering this card in the My Mum's Craft Shop challenge - Dies, Dies, Dies

I used lots of techniques and materials and I quite enjoyed myself making this card !

This one is for the men.....

With Father's day coming up and men always so difficult to craft for, I had to get on and make something without delay. Fortunately, I already had a starting point, in the shape of an embossing folder with a clocks design (ideal for a clock-mad father).

I die-cut a shape out of metal and inked the folder with versamark before running it through the die-cutting machine. The first layer of embossing powder is Frantage Aged Aqua. Then I highlighted some clocks with black embossing powder and some with gold.
Whilst the stamping takes a second place on this card, I used no fewer than 5 stamps for the ticket and tag flag die-cuts : the clock and "time to celebrate" are from the Craft Stamper magazine, the sentiment is one of my own, for texture I used the Grunge stamp and the tag flag die's matching stamp (I used the kissing technique with this one), both from Impression Obsession. A bit of twine, distress inked edges and a black mat finish the card.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Artistic Stamper - Makes for men
Ladybug Crafts - For the men in your life
Lexi's Creations Challenge #92 - Father's Day or Special Male Birthday
Lisa B Designs - Those magnificent men

Thanks for coming by,

Bloom where you are planted

This is the theme for the Impression Obession Challenge this week, and offers me the opportunity to make a card I have had in mind for quite a while... and it's all about using some Flower Soft : I love it, but hardly ever use it. I have 2 crafty resolutions for the year : 1- use old stash, 2- use scraps of paper/cardstock and I have kept those rules in mind when designing this card.

The background is Core'dination (White wash) embossed with a freebie folder from a magazine, that I stamped beforehand with CAC Grunge (CC076).
The main image is Flower Wheelbarrow (D1312) , colored with alcohol markers and jazzed up with the Flower Soft. I created a frame around it with punched shapes, managing to tick both resolutions in one go ! Old tools with scraps... perfect. I must own up that this idea has been ...hmm, "borrowed" from Shona, as I saw it in a previous IO challenge. Hope she won't mind.

Finally I felt there was something missing and pulled out the rhinestones, another tick on my "old stash" resolution !

Thanks for coming by,