Inspired by Ellen & vintage cloth

Ellen is on the Paper Artsy blog this week inspiring us with colourful pieces. I loved her tag, tutorial here, and I set out to create my own.

One of my dishcloths gave up the ghost recently and I couldn't bear to throw it away. It's made of linen and I would guess it's at least 70 years old and it seems sad to waste something my grand mother has carefully embroidered with her initials for her trousseau.
So I made a tag with it, backed with cardboard. I left the stripe and decided to integrate it in the design as my "bit of red".
The Artful Blooms stamp is from the ELB03 set.

Of course I still have acres of that linen cloth remaining so you might see it again soon...

I am also entering the Pan Pastel UK challenge.

Thanks for coming by,

Smile and shimmer

The Craft Barn challenge this year is about quotes and for the first challenge we are asked to find quotes for either Smile or Up. I selected Smile and googled....

I had already chosen a technique on metal and, digging in my scrap mountain, I retrieved a piece already die-cut (Spellbinders), which effectively decided the design. The Cuttlebug folder I used seems perfect for inserting a quote and I am considering if I should carry the folder all the way through (that is, if I manage to keep up with the challenges).

The technique:
After embossing I Versamarked the whole piece and applied a deep blue embossing powder.
Then using Versarmark again I rubbed the metal trying to catch the peaks only.
Now for the fun bit! I pulled 5 pots of mica powder in pink, blue and purple hues (Imagination Crafts Earth set) and applied them in a random fashion with a soft brush.
To "fix" a simple reheating from underneath will re-melt the embossing and capture the micas.

The shimmer is gorgeous in real life!

I am also entering the Imagination Crafts challenge.

Thanks for coming by,

Inspired by Elaine

Elaine is guesting on the Paper Artsy blog and my curiosity was piqued when she used Limelight Fresco paint (a very vivid yellow) on kraft coloured cardstock.
You can find her step by step here.

I followed her method, colour scheme and even motifs (hexagons) where I could but added some background stamping using the stamps from ESN07 (before painting with Limelight) and switched her Squigly stamps to one from Hot Pick 1207. The stamping of the main image is blurry due in part to the cardstock texture and also to me huffing too much on the stamp!
I also replaced the text on cardstock by Dymo tape words.

Quite like the effect of the translucent paint on the kraft and, although texture paste is much easier to handle than paint with a stencil, paint has the advantage of being completely flat, which is good for storage.

Whilst I wasn't looking, I have acquired new subscribers so I wanted to take this opportunity to give them a warm welcome. I am unreliably told by Blogger that I have now 17 or 19 followers and I wish I knew more about how these things work but since Google Reader going off line last year I have given up!

I am also entering the Pan Pastel UK challenge.

Hung out to dry

I have a huge backlog of photos to scrap and it was high time I started to tackle it ! As usual this didn't turn out at all as expected but I am quite pleased with the feeling of fun that exudes from the layout.

I chose some Core'dination (Chocolate box) and just HAD to do some dry embossing, and since it is quite a dark colour I sprayed a mix of gesso and water through a stencil (Crafter's Workshop - Garden Gate) to tone it down in parts.
I created 3 letters with dies to complement the chipboard letters (My Mind's eye - Bloom & Grow) I already had, and used the remaining papers underneath the photos.
Washi tape, twine and tag stamp are from Docrafts, flowers and leaves stamps dies from Papertrey Ink.

I am entering the layout in the Lisa.B. Designs challenge and the Pan Pastels UK challenge. And yes,  there isn't a frosty finish in sight, but I did that for the previous challenge and didn't want to repeat myself!

Note: 

No scraps were created during the production of this layout!

Let me know what you think,

Inspired By Clare LLoyd

This week I made my (crafty) life easy and when emulating Clare's project I started with a blue colour and kept on going... one sure way of making an harmonious colour scheme!

Also, as I didn't have the stamps Clare used, I pulled out one of my Hot Picks (1204) and only used stamps from that sheet.

I followed Clare's step by step quite faithfully apart from the a half hearted attempt at ombré on my textured hexagons and I used inks rather than paint for my stamping - told you I was making my life easy!-

I am also entering the piece in the following challenges: SSS Monday Challenge (Blues), Artful Times (Shades of Blue) and Country View Craft's (Monochromatic).

Thanks for coming by,

Pocket Valentine

I don't make many Valentine cards (precisely one a year!) so I can take my time with it. I started with the idea of using fabric and let the craft muse (or chance) to lead me to the next idea.
This is the finished card, although I am still debating if I should stamp "Happy Valentine" in black ink at the bottom right. It would provide contrast but would it be too much?

Sorry for the quality of the photo but the winter light is just not enough!

 

To start the fabric idea I have used a Canvas Texture stamp in the background, but, instead of stamping direct to the card I kissed it with the Harlequin stamp from The Artistic Stamper. I chose it because it is solid so I can modify it with all sorts of techniques to give it a different look.
Also it is A6 in size, a major bonus for crafters on this side of the pond, because it can cover a standard card and also look good (ratio wise) on a 5x7 card.

Then I went to my scraps mountain box and pulled out the last piece of prepared fabric I had... yes it is a piece of shirt - you can tell I can't throw anything away!-, and when I saw the pocket I just had to use it!
I stamped the pocket with a heart stamp using fabric ink, it would work better on cotton but I am happy to go with the slightly blurry look the cotton mix gave.

I used the same stamp to create my embellishment with melted embossing powder. My first version was supposed to be red but turned out pink and, although quite nice, just clashed with the rest of the card. The stamp was versamarked before I poured the melted powder so that I could pick out the highlights with yellow/gold mica powder (Imagination Crafts - Natural set).

Of course, now I had a pocket, I needed to use it.... I created a tag and indulged myself playing with stamps.

For the left, I placed on my acrylic bloc several stamps from an old Docraft set and stamped in pink ink, over-stamping with a freebie stamp from Craft Stamper.

On the right, I used my latest Craft Stamper freebie and the Sending Happy thoughts row of hearts. This way I have managed to ink up 2 unused stamps! 

Finally I pulled a rather small scrap of red card to create a die-cut border.

I am entering the following challenges: Pan Pastels UK; The Artistic Stamper; My Mum's Craft shop; WOW Embossing Powders; Snazzy Design Team   

Thanks for coming by,

Playing with Texture

Leandra from Paper Artsy has been demonstrating on video 2 techniques with Grunge Paste. It looked so interesting I had to have a go. Well I thought I would get lots of crafting time over the holidays but guess what... time goes faster and I haven't touched anything so I am playing a little...

The first project, see the video in this post, is on canvas, don't look too closely at the colours used I just grabbed what I had! The stamp has been chosen last, based on the space to fill, and is from Hot pick 1205.

In the second project (see the video here), I used packaging material for texture, as well as stamps. You might pick the owl from ID02 and the newspaper from Hot Pick 1207. The most difficult part of this technique is to judge when the paste is ready for the impression, this varying with the thickness applied , the wetness of your brush and for a given area of paste, the centre dries slower than the sides.
I went for a white wash to highlight the texture, and stamped the taxi from Hot Pick 1208.

Happy New Year to my followers and all blogging crafters!

Dictionary Letter X

Considering the paucity of X words in my dictionary, I didn't hesitate long and resigned myself to selecting the obvious for the last letter of the Craft Barn dictionary challenge! I expect many of us will do the same, after all tis the season....

The story behind the page: Twas the night before Christmas... Well it's nearly midnight and father Christmas is out an about on his deliveries. It's started snowing again and fresh snow clings onto last week's snow drifts.

Father Christmas (a Christmas set from Katzelkraft) is stamped in black over a brayered background. I added snow with a stamp from the same set, with water for the "background", then with white pigment ink for the foreground.

The snow drifts are made of sand medium and I sprinkled some glitter over the top (said glitter sadly invisible). Later I added some white paint as my snow wasn't "snowy" enough.

On the right I added some texture paste with an hexagon stencil and stamped on top, leaving some hexagons to be filled in with Sparkle medium in Jade (Imagination Crafts). No rhyme or reason for this, I just fancied doing that!
The clock, a die-cut stamped and embossed with a sentiment (Craft stamper freebie) and an embossed snowflake finish the page.

There you have it, Christmas is here!

I am also entering the Imagination Crafts, the Pan Pastel Uk and Lexi's creations challenges.

Happy holidays bloggers,

Favourite project of 2013

I saw the Craft Room challenge and it tickled me to review this year's projects. But... oh... it is like asking who is your favourite child! Still, I managed to shortlist the following :

 

I





 


















I gave it a lot of thought and chose the tag (see the details here) not because of its technical merits, or work involved, as it was all a fluke, but because of what it evokes for me.

I wonder if you would have chosen the same....

Thank for coming by,

Dictionary Letter I

The Craft Barn Dictionary challenge is approaching the finishing line with the last 2 letters.
Plenty of choice for the letter I (unlike the X letter I still have to do) but I simply followed my crafty heart and chose "ink".

You will think the left and right don't go together and you will be right, visually it doesn't quite gel! I stuck with it because I like the concept of having traditional ink (black) and modern representations on facing pages.

On the left, I started with an attempt at medieval illumination (I used gold ink over a flourish stamp portion) of the letter I.
I then partially inked the Calligraphy Mat 13 (The Artistic Stamper) to represent a manuscript written with a quill...
The chevron stamp (Docrafts) at the bottom of this page fills up an otherwise empty space and, hopefully leads the viewer into the second page.

On the right, I illustrate how I use inks nowadays, dribbling, spraying and of course stamping with inks!

I am also entering the page in the SSS Monday- and the Artistic Stamper  challenges.

Hope you've got Christmas under control....

Challenged By Joanne Wardle (3) Second project

I saw Joanne's triangle box on the Paper Artsy blog and devised a way to create something similar, bypassing, as much as possible, any measurements, since things have a tendency to go wonky and asymmetric under my hands! So my version uses a tetrahedron shape (I had to look this up) but with a rounded aspect.

 

To form the box, glue the long side to form a cylinder, then squash one of the short ends and glue shut. Squash the opposite short side perpendicularly and create the closure. I closed mine by a ribbon threaded through 4 holes (I used a standard office punch and aligned by eye - easy peasy!).

 

I used an A4 piece of patterned paper, it has 2 colours because it is designed to make cards with, but I don't use much paper for my cards and I need to use up my stock somehow !

I stamped the front of my box with the tulip from ELB02 as well as the Merry and Bright from Uniko studio (All Occasion Sentiments #4) and embossed with dark blue powder.

I stamped both adjoining sides with the leafy branch, also from ELB02 and the "Christmas" from Uniko, and embossed with green powder.

On the last side, which I consider the back, I glued a tag (not shown).





I am also entering the Ali Craft challenge - Christmas.

Thanks for coming by,

Gorjuss Gate

The time has come again... yes it's cute time as I had to make a birthday card for a young girl. Still, this is an opportunity to use this stamp, bought on a whim, and pull out my alcohol markers.

Do you remember when the Martha Stewart  PATP  punches were all the rage? Nowadays die-cutting is more likely to feature in projects, but I wanted to get some use out my punches and was looking for something different. I wanted my borders to face inwards rather than outwards and came up with a process to achieve the effect without cutting the borders first and assembling into a square (knowing myself, there is no way I could have mitred the corners perfectly!)

I eliminated the measuring by choosing a 6"x6" square patterned paper, and marked the diagonals in pencil. I placed a square die (the 6th largest in the Spellbinders large square set) so the 4 corners intersected with the diagonals drawn. That way it is perfectly centred.
Once the square is cut out, there is an opening through which the border punch can be inserted.

By eye, using the notches on the punch as guidelines, I centred the punch and punched once. I needed to punch one more motif to the left and to the right of that first punched area, so I did that with the punch upside down. This is repeated for the 3 other sides.

Then I used the corner punch (with the wings folded), upside down again to align with the corner of the square aperture. The highest portion of the punch design is lost, but I didn't mind since it looked different but OK. Finally, I used scissors to snip where border and corner punches have overlapped.

I haven't tested this with another design but looking forward to find out...

To embellish the card, I used a tree die (Memory Box), a label die (Impression Obsession) and flower and leaf dies (Papertrey Ink).

I decided to use the spare 6"x6" piece of paper to stiffen and balance the back :



I have taken inspiration  from these challenges:

Artful Times - Die-cut or punches
Crafts-Too - The Natural World/Add a flower twist. The nature bit is not so much the tree, flower etc.. but the swing, these days youngsters are much more likely to be playing with electric gizmos!
Pan Pastel UK - All about Paper/Card
Stamping Sensations - Free and Easy


Thanks for coming by,