Autumnal trees

It's time for a new challenge at Crafty Individuals and the theme is CAS.
I chose a tree stamp (CI-429)for my cards and my new Kaleidacolour inkpad.

I tried 2 versions using the same stamp: first by inking the stamp with the multi-colour ink on glossy cardstock:

and the second by stamping in black over a brayered background:

The sentiments are from the CI-209 stamp set.

I'm not sure which version I prefer but let me know what your favourite is!
Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday and That's Crafty challenges.

CAS, Pink and Stitched

Unless you've been living in a cave you must be aware that colouring has become a big thing among the adults and lots of colouring books are now available. Stamplorations has produced their own,  Color Blooms, and are having a blog party where you can link your coloured project.

I downloaded the sample and coloured it with alcohol markers, I chose pinks because it's the only colour I have in several tints (light to dark) and therefore can blend easily.

I cut a Stitched Square out of the piece and stuck it on a card blank that I had previously embossed with another Stitched Square, one size up from the coloured piece.
A sentiment stamped with pink ink finishes this CAS card (Docrafts Gorjuss - Dear Alice).

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Stamploration CAS, Stamplorations Theme& Sketch,  Colour Crazy, Penny Black and more and SSS Monday Challenge challenges.

Mini Travel book Part 1

This month the theme at Country View Challenges is Travel, hosted by my teammate Jennie. Too late for the summer holidays... but in time for the next trip,  I have created a mini book with pockets to add ephemera collected on my travels.
All it takes is one 12"x12" piece of paper, a few cuts, scoring and folding to create.
I have decorated each page with stamps - you'll have to come back later in the month to see part 2 - but you could use photos of the actual trip to create a mini scrapbook instead.

You can make this type of book in different sizes, the smaller the pages the more pages in the book.

Starting from a 12x12" sheet and dividing in half horizontally and vertically, the largest page size is 6"square which makes a book with 4 pages.

Dividing the sheet in thirds you get 7 pages each 4" square, which is the size I chose, dividing in fourths you get 16 pages 3" square and in theory you can create mini books with 2" or 1" pages but that is too small for most purposes.

To make the book I used a one sided sheet of patterned paper, since the reverse side will not be on view.
To be sure I didn't cut in the wrong place, I first made up a "model" using copy paper to use as a reference.

First I scored my cardstock every 4" vertically and horizontally. Before cutting I marked the reverse side lightly in pencil with the page numbers, this also helps when coming to fold.

Then I cut the 2 horizontal lines in red on the photo.
Note: It is better to use a paper that has no obvious "direction". For instance if you have text on your paper the text will be upside down for some of the pages.

Then I folded all the blue lines as follows to get this:

Once the book is made, you could flip it upside down and it would still be a book. However, I designed it this way so I had most of the opening at the top, to use them as pockets.


At this point I decorated my pages before sticking down the pockets. Use dry adhesive for this to prevent the paper from puckering.

For covers there are many options:
  - None!
  - Glue the first and last page on a single piece of cardstock (don't forget to include a  spine)
  - or as I did only glue the last page to the cover,
the reason I did it this way is so I didn't have to sacrifice my page 1 to glue onto the cover.
 - ....

My first page has been stamped with an image and part of the sentiment from The Journey set (CMS021) by Stampers Anonymous. I added a label die-cut (Impression Obession) as a way to grab the first page easily.

Come back on the 21st to see how I decorated my mini book and don't forget to enter the Country View Challenge with your travel themed makes... you could win a £20 voucher to spend on crafting goodies!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenge.

Dictionary Challenge H

Time is flying by and it's already a new letter at the Craft Barn Dictionary challenge, H no twist.

I found a word to fit my lovely stamp... I bought it after winning the Craft Barn challenge, it's from the Imagination Crafts Art stamps collection, and it was love at first sight....
If you are a stamper, I urge you to have a look here. Most of them are on my wish list...

As it happens, I also picked up a Kaleidacolor inkpad (Autumn Leaves) and this multi-colour dye inkpad is perfect for these negative images.
Now I have tried them, I want some more... I just love stamping in colours and I don't know why I have resisted so long!

Anyway, I simply inked the image and stamped it, adding the stamped letter H  and the printed dictionary challenge.

That's it... no fuss, no mess...

Thanks for coming by,

Whistle While You Work

First let me welcome my latest subscriber, Sandma's Handmade Cards, who marks my 50th blogger subscription! It feels incredible to see my blog grow, slowly but surely... So I'll take this opportunity to thank ALL my subscribers, Blogger, email, RSS or other ways that I'm not even aware of for taking an interest and the time to visit and leave sweet comments!

Recently, I was lucky to win some Paperbabe Stamps goodies and they needed to be inked up!

The cute animals and funky mushrooms of the Whimsical Woodland set 3 reminded me of the Whistle While You Work song from the Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when rabbits, squirrels, and birds are doing the housework with Snow White. [I would include a link to a YouTube video but for the thorny issue of copyright; still, most of you will know this iconic piece of animation].

Regular readers will know I love creating scenes with my stamps and so the small sets in the Whimsical Woodland collection are well designed for the purpose, with elements that can be inked separately and combined in any way you wish. Paperbabe also makes matching wooden (MDF) shapes for the Whimsical critters and I'm mulling over the possibilities.

I used my new Kaleidocolor stamp pad for all the coloured stamps and black Memento for the sentiment, the rabbit eyes, paws and mouse features.

I die cut my ivory base with a Stitched square die (Crafts Too PCD89), partially cutting to obtain a rectangle instead of a square.

I felt the card needed something in the top corner so I added the Hedgehog.

I seem to be in a non-Vintage crafting period, which is so unlike me... I blame it on the weather!


I am also entering the Casology and Unikostudio challenges.

A summer's Day at the Beach

Today I am showing a second piece of inspiration on the theme Hot summer days, chosen by my teammate Jane for the August Country View challenge.

I had to involve the beach... There is something about the sea, primeval maybe, that attracts and fascinates. The sound of crashing waves, the smell of salty air, the feel of sand under your feet... there's nothing like it!

First I played with acrylic inks on watercolour paper, stamping some images from the Retro Beach set (Rubber Dance) on top.

Choosing a base of Kraft cardstock for my panel, I added some direct stamping in white pigment ink with the fisherman's net and black ink with the "Postcard" stamps from the same set.

I drew a sea and some sand with pastels.


The frame echoes the first stamped image, a square with script details.
I created it with thick cardstock and applied Grunge Paste (Paper Artsy) on top. After 10mns drying time, I then impressed a script stamp texture into it (ESN10 - Paper Artsy). When completely dried,  I painted the frame with black acrylic and used Treasure Gold in Amethyst and White Fire to highlight the texture.

The "Dymo" labels, from the same Rubber Dance set, were stamped on glossy cardstock to give a more realistic effect.

Finally, I placed a piece of muslin, micro beads and air dry clay seashells on the "sand" around the frame.

I hope I have inspired you to enter the Country View Challenges, you could win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts website!


Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Wednesday, Penny Black and more, and Stamping Sensations challenges

Textured Flowers box lid

Today I have a larger than usual project to show and it has the honour of appearing on the Rubber Dance blog.

The inspiration for that piece is Trish's Latimer art. If you aren't familiar with her work and images, take a tour on her blog here. In the August edition of Craft Stamper - warning: shameless plug ahead - in which one of my card feature -  one of her designs was available as a digi stamp. [1]

Also on her blog, you can also find a link to a video showing Trish's background building process, which I followed for this project, making it my own with "my" colours and motifs and the foreground scene!

My substrate is a humble box lid but it is canvas size at 28x32 cms (11"x12"1/2) and will be in constant use during my crafting hours as it will hold some of my stash...

Paints:

• DecoArt: White tinting base, Primary Cyan, Pyrrole Red, Quinacridone Violet
• Paper Artsy: Yellow Submarine and Nougat Frescos

Stencils:

• Sequin waste (small and large),
• Harlequin die-cut -Tim Holtz Mixed Media die set
• Memory Box Piestra tile die cut .

Rubber Stamps: all by Rubber Dance

• Grid texture: Stitch and Frame set
• Diamonds/Harlequin
• Old Book Page 
• Textured Flowers
• Face from the Collage Mix plate

Other: Wow Embossing powder in Grape, various lids and credit cards as mark making tools.

If you want more details on how I made this do hop over to the Rubber Dance blog.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Craft Stamper, We Love To Create, Allsorts, Colour Crazy, WOW Embossing powders and Vintage Journey challenge

[1] Trish now sells her designs as rubber stamps, you can find a link to her Etsy page on her blog.

Tim Holtz tag August 2016

Tim is combining Brayered stains with Frameworks for the August tag and I decided to join in.

If you want to read on the techniques and see the steps by steps, the Master's class is here.

The background is Distress inks in Antique Linen, Walnut, Scattered Straw, Red brick and Tumbled Glass.

The Hexagon framework has been die-cut with a thin die (Papertrey ink) which didn't give quite as good a result as the Steel rule Framework die would have given with Grungepaper. I decided that a bit more of distress, even unintentional, was OK....
I have filled my hexagons with:

• canvas stamped with a music score, both on the primed side and the raw side on the reverse.
• blue, mirror like foil, stuck on cardstock
• cork from a thin sheet.

The die-cut flowers are by Papertrey ink (Larger Than Life die set) and the stamped and embossed mini tags are made with a Crafty Individuals stamp plate (CI-428 Its a Man's World).

I love how the background turned out and this has pushed me into trying something new which I actually enjoyed!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Craft Barn challenge challenge

Zingy

The letter for the Craft Barn Dictionary challenge is Z with a twist of pearl...

I only remembered the pearl when uploading the pics on this here post so I hastily plonked a red Pearl in the middle and took a quick pic with my phone.

I hesitated between several words so I included the sun stencil (for the word Zenith) and lots of zesty and zingy colours. At least they WERE zingy before I stamped them and the violet got a bit muddied.

The wild grasses stamp I used is completely left field but it belongs to a set I had just bought in the sales, an old Gorjuss set by Docrafts .


Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Wednesday and That's Crafty challenges.

Bouquet

Today I am guesting over at Rubber Dance blog, with a challenge inspiration piece.

The colours for the August challenge are Black & White plus your choice of another colour. It's easy to think of the white as the paper, the black as the stamping ink and reserve the colour, well for colouring... which is fine, but you know me I'm a bit of a contrarian... still I'm also a wuss so I didn't pick Black as my paper base, I settled on the 3rd option and chose Kraft as my base cardstock.

Stamps: Textured flowers and Da Vinci from Rubber Dance.
Supplies: White gel pen, black Dye Ink, Versafine Black, white pencil, white Embossing powder

Do come over to the Rubber Dance blog, to see more pics.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the WOW Embossing powders, Stamping Sensations and Inkychicks challenges

Black & White CAS

CAS doesn't need to have a white background... Looking at my previous makes I realised that my CAS were always on a white base so I have decided to push myself into new colours. Today I have gone to the opposite on the spectrum with black, and it shows off my pink flower to best effect.

The flower is  the Dahlia from the Colour me collection by IndigoBlu and the die-cut is from the Thinlits Sentiment words set by Tim Holtz.

I stamped the flower with Versamark and applied chalk pastels in different shades of red and pink over the petals and yellow for the center.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the IndigoBlu, SSS Wednesday, Penny Black and more , Stamping Sensations and Uniko Studio challenges

C is for...

An easy letter for the latest Craft Barn Dictionary challenge, C and no twist either.

As it happens I had this stamp set already out when the challenge was published and it felt like a sign... Chillies it is then!
Looking the word up, I realised the spelling, especially the plural is, let's say... fluid but this is how I and my chosen online dictionary spell it.



































My final image has been inked with watercolour crayons, but the initial plan was to use Brushos, as I did for the W dictionary page. Several of you were curious so I took some pictures of the process. First the materials I used and how they were applied: 

I don't know if it's because of a chemical property or electro static but the powder will quite happily stay on the dry stamp .  However, and this is not visible, lots of minute bits of powder will have landed all over the stamp!

This became apparent when I stamped!

This picture shows the stamp just after spraying and with the naked eye there are no signs of powder or even water on the stamps that I'm not planning to print.

First generation (top) and 2nd generation (after another spray of water)  gave those results and although I couldn't see any water or powder you can see what happened!


So sadly to use the Brusho method I would have had to cut my stamp plate and I wasn't ready to do that.
You can see I'm working on top a newspaper and I can't stress enough that these powders travel far both wet and dry and this is a good way to make sure all powder is contained. I actually spray the page with water to "fix" any powder on the newspaper before disposing of it.

Coming back to the page... After stamping the chillies from the Hot, Hot, Hot stamp set (Rubber Dance), on the right fresh ones and on the left dry ones, I stamped the word "Chillies" from the word Chill and the letters i, e and s I retrieved from "spice girl" in the same stamp plate.

I inked the letter C from yellow, orange and red ink to echo the colours of the chillies and added the printed dictionary definition.

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Casology challenge.