TH March tag

Before showing you today's project I need to tell you that I have changed my blog title. When I chose it all those years ago I didn't really know what the title would be used for and now I think it is way too long and better as a description than a title.
Crafty Endeavours is what I have settled on, at least for now...

I'm not sure it will make a difference to you dear readers, although RSS subscribers might want to rename their links.
Do let me know if this is causing problems.

    On to the crafty stuff...

In March Tim Holtz is revisiting a Textured surfaces technique and mixing it with the Dimensional dies technique, taking the opportunity to try his Distressed Crayons.

In the cold light of day, well light full stop, the colours of my background do not quite gel with my top layer. Never mind this isn't going to anyone, let's call it a practice piece!

If you want to know about the techniques on this tag I'll refer you to the master here but here are some of the supplies I used:

- corrugated cardboard (from my recycling bin)
- Sizzix/Tim Holtz Mixed media Thinlits (last year's collection)
- Spellbinders labels dies 7
- Gelatos (no Distressed Crayons in my stash yet but it's under consideration)

As a finishing embellishment I used some twine with a key cut from black shrink plastic (Sizzix Hardware findings) and embossed with Vert-de-gris powder.

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the SSS Monday Challenge challenge.

Lots of layers

Update as of 13/03

Apologies to all fans of our Vintage Stamping Challenges, we seem to have technical difficulties in bringing you the latest challenge. Be sure we are working to resolve the issue and hope to resume normal service ASAP. Please bear with us!

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When  my teammate at Vintage Stamping Challenges chose Lots of Layers as the March theme I thought yeah... stash busting ! Of course I could have layered stencils and stamps but using up some of my excess paper make me feel virtuous. I chose a freebie pack that came with a magazine. The colours were a bit too pastel for my liking but associated with the kraft cardstock they immediately looked more "adult".

My focal image is the Dancing Girl by Flonzcraft, fun and chic at the same time. (You can also get her as part of this full sheet). She is simply stamped with black dye ink on one of the paper from the pack.
Once stamped, I die-cut the notebook edge (MFT) for optimum placement.

If you look closely at the photos you'll see the papers are only stuck by the middle and that leaves me free to distress or curl the edges, which I decided not to do in the end but if I change my mind...
The technique is very simple and the card is quick to assemble, all the papers are cut as rectangles of decreasing sizes and stuck together. But I did spend an awful long time pushing paper to decide in which order they should be layered!

A few die-cuts for embellishments from Core'dination White wash (I'm using off cuts only, stash busting...)
There you have it LOL!
I hope you are inspired by what the Design Team made and join us over at Vintage Stamping Challenge, you could win a $20 voucher to spend at Flonzcraft, our lovely sponsor. Your make doesn't need to be Vintage but will need to showcase some stamping (rubber, clear, foam etc...) but NO digis.
Thanks for coming by,

CAS Hibiscus

Craft Barn want to see CAS with a flower and a sentiment. I don't want to bore you with the same image but I couldn't help exploring the possibilities of my Hibiscus stamp (Rubber Dance) further...
Last time I had wanted to show how crisp I could get the flower whilst keeping it in colour.
This time I wanted to try what I thought would be the technique most suited to this design, namely a watercolour effect.

For my base I used some new "glossy" cardstock as I wanted to test it with more watery medium.
I inked the stamp with dye ink pads in violet, yellow and blue and spritzed lightly before stamping.

The paper looks glossy but not as glossy as the Ranger stuff, but it took the spritzed ink no problem so I was relieved. Still a more absorbent paper with more water would give a more realistic watercolour effect.

I mounted the image on a violet card blank, perfect for a CAS look, plus it allowed me to use up some of these shapes which I don't use much anymore (6x6 seems to be my go to card shape nowadays).


Thanks for coming by,






Also entering the Stamploration CAS card challenges.

Dictionary #4 Landscape

For the Craft Barn Dictionary Challenge our new letter is L and this time I contrived my choice of word so that I could use my Stampscapes stamps and build a scene, which led me to the word Landscape.

The clouds are stamped with a Katzelkraft stamp from the Fruitful plate and all others are by Stampscapes.
I added some colour with a Cut & dry piece  and Distress Inks.

I stamped my letter top left and added my dictionary definition bottom right and stopped before I messed it up!
Hope you like my scene!

 

Venice Transfer

The latest theme at Paper Artsy blog is Transfer, by any means, and there are MANY! I used the Gel Medium method with a magazine image. I used as a base some gessoed cotton, which I had glued to a piece of cardboard to keep it taut and flat. This is what it looked like after rubbing off the first layer:

This was way too white so I had to rub some more... and then some! Unfortunately if there are any patches not stuck 100% to your base this is when it will lift off/tear mess up. I had such a large piece (the entire photo is A4, 29.7x21cms) it was inevitable, so when I got near enough I stopped to prevent any more mishaps. However I tried to eliminate the white "fuzz" by applying a layer of Fresco paint, in Yellow submarine, Blueberry and matt glaze.

Now for the stamping... This is where I was jumping into the unknown and it really didn't come easy to me, which  is evident by how much of the image I left untouched! But Simon Says Stamp challenged us so I had to attempt it at least.

I used stamps from the Paper Artsy sets: ESN07, ESN10 and HP1008 all stamped with black dye ink.

And finally the finished product

I added a piece of a Sizzix/Tim Holtz Mixed Media die-cut, stained with alcohol ink, thinking I could be seeing the scene form a window with wrought iron guard. I don't think this is entirely successful as is, would have loved to make it longer but I couldn't work out how to cut an extended piece with this die.

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the We Love To Create challenge.

February tag

In February Tim Holtz is revisiting Stencil monoprinting and embossed paste.

I followed his step by step but I had to be creative with the embellishments.

For the monoprint I used a linen texture stencil with Antique Linen, Scattered Straw and Walnut DIs and instead of Tim Hearts stencil I used a Circle stencil with Tumbled Glass DI.

I applied paste with a chicken wire stencil (Crafters' Workshop) and embossed in Wow gold EP.

The photo on the tag is a fake... I used glossy photo paper but I actually stamped the image (Nostalgic Couples by Rubber Dance ). I coloured it with DI as per Tim's step by step though...
The tag is from a set by Crafty Individuals (CI-428), embossed, coloured and cut out.

I created the arrow from 2 cardboard die-cut arrows (Sizzix Love Struck die) and foil tape. The pendant is polymer clay painted silver and I have stamped and die-cut a small ticket (both stamp and die from Docrafts).

Another pic to show the tag in sunlight:

I am also entering the That's Crafty Circle it challenge.

Thanks for coming by,

Waxing lyrical

Paper Artsy is running a Wax theme and I was inspired by Darcy's use of supplies (see her post here). I don't have wax pellets, or a melting pot, or even Portfolio pastels, so I loved her approach of taking the kids' crayons and cheese left overs!

Here's what I used for wax:

I didn't even use a brush on account that I forgot to buy a cheap one at the weekend, so the application of the wax relied on my heat gun and moving the wax by tipping the cardboard base this way and that.

I used 2 pieces of foiled cardstock, a heart and an hexagon that were lying around and added stamped tissue paper (Paper Artsy Hot Pick 1008).







Since the lighting isn't great I took these snippets in the sun  for a truer colour rendition.

The highlight of this project is my experiment with mica powders as after brushing it over wax it turned beautifully liquid with the melted wax without sinking.









Not a great result but it had to be tried!
Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the We Love to Create and Tando Creative challenges

He-Art

Another make with hearts but this time NOT a Valentine. Phew!

Craft Stamper want to see script in the background for the February challenge so that was my starting point. I decided to combine an embossed script stamp (Calligraphic Mat 13 The Artistic Stamper) with a piece of recycled kraft cardstock (thank you Amazon!) and apply gelatos colours on top.

I stamped the brushes stamp (Rubber Dance) with black dye ink and drew the heart with Fresco paint. The "Altered Art" splat (Messy Art set - Artistic Stamper) has been stamped over the paint with a pigment ink which hasn't stamped as smoothly as it should have.
I used another stamp from the same set bottom left and in the heart with black dye ink and you can see the difference in colour as the fresco paint has absorbed the dye to leave a dark grey impression rather than black. With hindsight, I should have masked the splat or at least avoided it when stamping the script...

I used a stencil to add a bit of dimension, a linen stencil by Dutch Doobadoo in 2 corners.

Now for the fun bit... I scribbled some gelatos in blues, yellows, orange and pink and smudged them with a dry baby wipe.
On a whim I sprayed the corners with a fuchsia Starburst spray (lindy's stamp gang) followed by a fine mist of water to soften the effect.

I felt I needed an embellishments and, since I didn't have a brush, I plumped for the scissors as my most necessary arty item. I put it on a chain as I have seen seamstresses do in order to prevent them from straying...

Thanks for coming by

Also entering the The Artistic Stamper, Stamping sensations, SSS Monday, Stamplorations Mixed Media and the Craft Barn challenges.

Stamping CAS style

New letter, new word for this fortnight at the Craft Barn. This time we must add a heart!

I decide to follow a CAS approach to give my stamped image space to breathe.

I stamped 3 Hibiscus of various sizes (stamp sheet from Rubber Dance) with India ink markers (Faber Castell), although the little one (at the back) had some Spun sugar Distressed ink applied first to get a lighter colour.
It took me a while to find the perfect combination of paper (smooth stamping) and media (Big Brush pen) before achieving the depth of colour and the detailed effect I had in mind.

Since I had to include a heart I decided to use a felt shape as my base for the letter instead of a stamp die-cut as per my previous page. The letter is a die-cut from a very old Sizzix strip (Monde de Blonde) which I don't use very much because I can't get it to cut neatly in my machine. [I had to finish it with the craft knife]

Finally the dictionary definition of the word, very predictably, Flower!

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the SSS Wednesday, Stamploration CAS and Stamploration Theme & Sketch challenges

3 is better than 1

Today I am guesting over at the Rubber Dance blog with a Valentine inspired make.

I can't resist photo realistic stamps so I couldn't wait to ink the Nostalgic Couples set from Rubber Dance. And one image wasn't enough... so how do you fit more than one image on a card?

I found the solution in the form of this Accordion die (Crafters Companion). I chose to have 3 panels but you can add as many as you want!

From left to right the 3 chosen images are organised in a chronological order, young (courting), older and married, older still, but together!

Each of the image has been stamped with Versamark and I applied chalks (pastel) on top in red and black. Once finished I cleaned up some of the stray powder using blue tack..

I added a heart border (Docrafts die) and some white embossed words/motif from the same Nostalgic Couples plate.

Many thanks to Bibi for having me on her blog, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Happy Valentine's!

This Accordion card is entering the  Live and Love crafts, Tando Creative and Penny Black and more challenges.

First Love

Can't avoid it, it's February and card making is all about lurve...

Actually I don't mind, because I have the perfect stamp, one that combines my preference for photo realistic images and a Vintage feel.

First I had fun making a background with a Lindy Stamp gang spray, a Chicken wire stencil and some coloured Grunge paste (Paper Artsy) on a piece of watercolour paper.

I stamped my image and a quote (from a full Rubber Dance stamp sheet) on a separate piece of cardstock with Versafine black ink.

I combined 2 paper ric rac die-cuts with a punched heart border and placed a UTEE heart embellishment, which I have dusted with gold mica powder.

Not sure the male in my life will like it but I hope you will!
Thanks for coming by,

I am entering the Country View Crafts (Make your own background), We love to create, Penny Black & More, That's Crafty and SSS Wednesday challenges

Splatters & Drips background

Despite my paper mountain, I like nothing more than making my own background, which is why I chose Splatters and drips for the latest Vintage Stamping Challenge.

I had  no plan when I started and I have been entirely led by how my drips turned out...  I found them mesmerizing and couldn't bear to touch them:

I used my rock paper (made of rocks but also plastic as I found out) which is completely impervious to water. It has a slight grainy texture and this is what creates the patterns in the colours as the paint settles in the dips of the paper. To make my drips I used acrylic inks (Izinks).


I stamped my Fifties Girl and thought about paper piecing her to make her stand out from the background, but first, I tried painting some white over her dress to see if that would be enough.

Not quite, but I liked the effect of her coming out of that background and this is how my sentiment was born. It's supposed to be humoristic and I really don't know if it is or not!

I hope this inspires you to drip & splatter paint with abandon in the interest of Art and come and show us at Vintage Stamping Challenges . You could win a $20 voucher to spend at Flonzcraft, our lovely sponsor,  and your make doesn't need to be Vintage... it just needs to showcase some stamping (rubber, clear, foam etc...) but NO digis.
Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Country View (Make your own background)challenge