English Tea Party

Quintessentially English is the theme at The Craft Barn this week and I had plenty of choice!

I decided on my subject after going through my stamps and seeing a set (magazine freebie) that I had never used before. At last, its 15mns of fame are up...

I stamped the images using masks to create my afternoon spread and used watercolour pencils and a wet brush for the colouring.
As it is such a delicate and feminine image, I decided to use this soft palette proposed by Tando Creative.

I teamed the stamped image with Core'dination Whitewash, which I embossed and sanded, including a faux line of stitching around my base panel (X-Cut die).
And finally I broke in my canvas pack and cut a piece to stamp my British flag (I know the colours aren't proper...). At least, now I have a sheet that has already been cut into, I will be less scared to use it!

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Inkychicks challenge.

Miniature Box

Arty Inklings wanted to see miniatures for their challenge and advised to look around the house for bits that could be used. I do have lots of bits but most of the stuff waiting for a makeover is big, well bigger than 3x4 anyway.
Then I thought about flip top boxes and the idea was born...


 






















I have problems cutting straight, my rotary cutter doesn't help by sagging in the middle, but even with a craft knife I always find at the end that I'm off. Hence my investment in a die-cutter. So, you see, making boxes is a big no-no for me. I have tried previously, and always find that the sides don't quite meet where they should.

What if, rather than construct the box, if I just cover the box... I had a piece of masterboard prepared with paints and stencil, plus stamping so I used that to cover my box, cutting the shape by running my craft knife along the edge (well it got more involved than that but I will spare you the details).

I used a butterfly die-cut from an old scrap of stamped cardstock and a left over bird "stamp" to embellish the box.

Still a bit of time to enter your miniatures if you hurry up!

 

New Home hanging

Not one of my best pieces ... but a good lesson in what NOT to do!

I wanted to use corrugated cardboard as a base for my hanging and Gelatos for the background colours. As Gelatos move a lot better on Gessoed surfaces, I painted a few thin coats before applying the Gelatos, smudging and spraying water.

So far so good... Then I stamped my house. It did not stamp very well at all, not the first time, not the second time! I had to go over all the lines with a pen to make it acceptable. Should have used Stazon or Archival...

I had planned to take off the colour from the house with a brush and water but noooo!! I was taking out the pen lines and not the Gelatos. In the end I left the colour where I could and used my craft knife to take the colour off where it looked the oddest. On the upside this created a sort of grass border at the bottom of the house. Next time I will stamp first and apply the colour after!

I added the bushes and a bench as well as the handwritten sentiment.
As I said, not one of my best pieces, still, I have completed my Craft Barn mission!
Thanks for coming by,

 

Enjoy The Journey

UPDATE: Several of you have had trouble with my explanation with the glass stamping. A video is much better to explain so here's Jennifer McGuire own explanation in images!

Today I am showing a tag that combines several ideas I wanted to play with.
Better warn you this is technique rich but design poor as I kept changing things as and when problems arose!

The Katzelkraft challenge wants us to use stencils so I started with an hexagonal stencil. I hesitated between white acrylic paint which would have given me a resist or white pigment ink and plumped for the latter. This is what gives a faded look to any subsequent layers of Distress (Chipped Sapphire and Forest Moss) as they all get absorbed!

I stamped the car from the Katzelkraft Transportation plate in black and masked the image before over stamping with a variety of images. In white the brick walls from the same set and a wall texture (Prima). With Walnut Distress 1st and 2nd generation of sections of COM004 Time, and the tiny wording from one of the image from The Journey CMS021 set (both Stampers Anonymous).

Finally I tried this technique where a stamp inked with Archival ink is applied to glass which has been alcohol inked. A soft cloth is supposed to remove  all the inks from the glass leaving a transparent impression. This probably works better for organic, bold shapes... I had 2 goes and this is far from perfect but you get the idea...
By the way, I used a piece of mirror as you can see from the left hand photo.
A dash of chicken wire stencilling in black, a bit of inking around the edges, some pencil highlights on the car and a piece of twine finish the tag.


Aujourdh'ui je vous montre un tag qui est le résultat d'une fusion d'idées. Autant vous avertir... il y a beaucoup de techniques mais la composition laisse à désirer à cause de mes changements de cap à chaque problème rencontré!

Le challenge Katzelkraft souhaite que nous utilisions des pochoirs et j'ai commencé avec un pochoir hexagonal. J'ai hesité entre une acrylique blanche, qui aurait donné une technique de resist et une encre pigment, j'ai finalement choisi cette dernière. C'est cette encre qui donne un ton delavé aux couches successives de Distress (Chipped Sapphire et Forest Moss), car elles sont absorbées! L'automobile de la planche Transportation (Katzelkraft) a été tamponnée en noir et masquée avant de tamponner d'autres images. En blanc le mur en briques, de la même planche,  et une texture "mur" (Prima). Avec de la Distress Walnut les 1eres et 2emes générations de petites sections du tampon Time, et la phrase minuscule d'un des tampons de la planche The Journey (les deux COM004 et CMS021 par Stampers Anonymous).
 
J'ai enfin essayé cette technique où l'on tamponne à l'Archival sur du verre paint au préalable avec des encres à l'alcool.  Un chiffon doux est supposé enlever toute trace d'encres, laissant une "impression" transparente. Cela marche surement mieux avec des motifs plus larges... C'est mon deuxième essai et loin d'être parfait mais bon, vous voyez la technique... J'ai utilisé un morceau de miroir au liey de verre comme vous pouvez voir sur la photo de gauche.

Un soupçon de grillage au pochoir, un peu d'encre sur les bords, quelques traits de crayon blanc pour mettre la voiture en valeur et un bout de ficelle et voilà!

Merci de votre visite,
Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Vintage Journey, Artful Times and Country View Crafts challenges.

Handmade flowers

Time for a new challenge at Vintage Stamping. The theme this month is Hand made flowers and there are plenty of choices in methods to make your blooms.

I have chosen to use 3 punched flowers, removing 1 petal for the first layer, 2 for the next and 3 for the last layer. The left-over petals make up the centre with layers 4 and 5.

The dancing couple, champagne glasses and champagne bucket all come from the set Woman of Fifties from Flonzcraft.

After stamping the couple in Versafine I coloured their hair using watercolour pencils and the lady's dress with diluted gold acrylic ink over the pencil shading.

Do come and join us in creating hand made flowers, so much cheaper than shop bought! As always, you don't have to create a vintage project, but you DO have to include stamping though - no digis allowed. Our lucky winner will receive a fab prize of a $20 voucher from Flonzcraft so don't miss out on your chance to win!
Go on and hop on over to the Vintage Stamping Challenges blog and see all the DT’s work for more inspiration.

Thanks for coming by,

Texture Paste and silver shine

Paper Artsy want to see Texture paste, preferably used without stencils... Hmmm!

I have used stamps with mine, from the PA ESN10 plate, corrugated cardboard (lower left) and a woodgrain embossing folder (Tim Holtz, lower right). I then painted with Frescos and tried to highlight the texture with silver foil. I found it near to impossible to apply the glue with a sponge without getting the recesses as well so I used my fingers for slightly better control. To get rid of the remaining stickiness I used micas powders for more silver!

I took several pictures at different angles to try and show the shine :

The flower stamp (PA Hot Pick 1203) has been inked with Gelatos and the impression is a bit pale although I added some pencil to darken it a bit. Artful Blooms (PA ELB03) has been inked in an ombre fashion with dye inks.
Hope you have a happy Easter,

Also entering That's Crafty, Pan Pastel UK, Live and Love Crafts and Craft Stamper challenges.

Retiform stamping

The current challenge at the Craft Barn is to create a retiform. If you've never heard of retiform Dawn's tutorial reveals all.
Initially, I was going to use vintage tones for this, just like Dawn, but changed my mind when I saw the Rubber Dance April challenge palette of pink, grey and blue, a more "happy" colour scheme.

Last week I'd been using butterflies from a neglected Docraft set thinking that I just don't find the images in this set very easy to use, yet love the designs... so I thought I should ink them up just coz', and not worry about who I can send the card to!
I also used some background stamps from Rubber Dance, the Diamond and netting.

I really enjoyed my "stamping for fun session" and indulged in multi-inking my stamps, including mixing my dye inks with pigment inks, something I'm sure we are not supposed to do, but (creative) needs must...

 

Hello again!

Apologies for posting so many times this week but I have been slow in finishing the projects I had intended to link!

So before the That's Crafty challenge closes here's my "Things with wings". They are butterflies of course, since they are a favourite of mine, as I find them easy to use on cards. Men, woman and children, everyone loves butterflies!.

I first stamped my butterflies (from an old Docrafts set) with Distress inks sprayed with water and over stamped in black Versafine but slightly offset. The concept was to show an after image of the butterflies as they are flying across my page. The Distress inks I chose were a bit too pale to show well though...

I used watercolour pencils and a brush to colour them and splattered some watercolour as well for a "trail".

Keeping it simple and almost clean I just added a sentiment stamped on a die-cut and framed with 2 pieces of "waste" die-cut.

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Lisa.B.Designs, Uniko Studio challenge where I picked up the sketch for my card, and Bunny Zoe's Crafts challenges.

Late for my train

A quick post to show you this make I am entering in the Katzelkraft and Craft Barn challenges. I nearly didn't make it in the case of Katzelkraft, since the theme of "Surprise us" didn't spark any ideas. Finally, I decided to do something I had been meaning to do for a long time, stamping the very detailed train stamp from the Katzelkraft Transportation set in colours. I do hope it's a surprise as these engraving type stamps are usually seen all in black.

The Craft Barn was all about Brushos this week so I used them on this make but in a more controlled manner and effectively, although I didn't brush the colour in, as watercolours.



Un post en vitesse pour vous montrer cette réa pour participer aux challenges Katzelkraft et Craft Barn. J'ai presque manqué Katzelkraft, car le thème "Surprenez nous" m'a laissé perplexe. En fin de compte, j'ai décidé de faire quelque chose que j'avais envie de faire depuis longtemps: utiliser le tampon train du set Katzelkraft Transportation avec des encres de couleur. J'espère que cela étonnera puisque ces images de gravures anciennes sont habituellement tamponnées tout en noir.

Le Craft Barn se concentrait sur les Brushos cette semaine donc je les aie utilisées à nouveau, mais d'une façon plus retenue et en fait comme de l'aquarelle, même si je ne les ai pas appliquées au  pinceau.

Merci de votre visite,
Thanks for coming by,

Bows and Blossoms

I had the perfect vintage photo of this little girl with an enormous bow and decided shabby chic would be the most sympathetic treatment I could give it. And although I love this style, I find it incredibly difficult so I thought this would be a good time to try and improve!

I framed my image with a Dandelion head (Lavinia stamps set) inked with pens, added some heart gems and fabric flowers and affixed the panel with 3D pads. The clear stamp is easy to mould into a curve on the acrylic block to give it the shape you want.

The papers are designed by Melissa Frances, as is the lace. I added a doily and a ribbon bow, since this photo is all about the bow!

I feel I am several layers short of shabby but I wracked my brain and couldn't come up with anything. It's like working against the grain... for some reason I can't do it.

Try and try again...
Challenges : Lavinia Stamps, Live and Love Crafts
and Penny Black and more

Finnabair inspired tag

Artful Times wants us to create a tag with pocket this fortnight, which I thought was a good idea, and also a good opportunity to play with some Prima/Finnabair supplies...

I had to make a big tag (roughly 25x11cms) as the stamp I'd planned to use is quite big.

I stamped the "Trust the magic" image in Versafine and masked it before stamping the doily circle from the same set and embossing in clear powder. I also applied translucent paste through a stencil (Crafter's Workshop).

I sprayed some blue, lime green and pink micas sprays all around my image. The blue is a Prima Bloom spray in cobalt blue. I wouldn't normally spend as much on a spray but I was curious about the sprayer mechanism itself. I have to admit it's really good, it sprays far and wide (beware) which is great for layouts and one spray will deliver enough colour to cover but not soak the paper, unlike all my other mists.
Needless to say I wish I had some more and the latest colours released are gorgeous! As to refilling the bottle once or twice as per Prima's tips, I am not convinced and will test at some point.



I added some Moss Green Brusho powder around my image to evoke blooming vegetation since this is a spring tag and Finnabair (the one on the stamp, that is) already looks like she is springing out of flowers...

When all this was dry and flat I added a piece of vellum to make my pocket and filled it with small tags.

I made a flower using several layers of stamped tissue paper, die-cut in 3 different sizes with the Peony Nestabilities, sprayed with a pink mica spray and scrunched up around a very small brad.

Hope you like my tag as much as I enjoyed making it!Entering the Wow Embossing powder, Craft Barn,  A Sprinkle of Imagination and Craft Stamper challenges.

A simple pear

Another make on the theme of spring, or rather the colours of spring as my chosen stamp is decidedly unseasonal, at least in the northern hemisphere!

For March the Rubber Dance challenge us to use the following colour scheme:

I stamped the Pear first and masked it before sprinkling Brushos in yellow, orange and moss green. Granted the Moss green is on the brownish side, it dissolves in flashes of green, brown and purple grains as you can see in the lower right corner.
Things went awry when I added water to the card and the background was nearly a write off. The card I used didn't like the water one bit...  my fault really, I should have used watercolour paper. I carried on because I wanted to make sure my design worked but in the end I liked the effect so I went with it.
After drying I stamped the Diamonds background, the leaf, the Art definition inked with pens and the quote inked with Versafine Onyx black.

I coloured the pear with Coloursoft pencils.

I did think of adding twine, buttons etc... but I couldn't bear to hide any of it! Hey ho Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, someone said...


Also entering Craft Stamper and Country View Crafts Anything goes challenges.