Techniques galore

Today I am showing this card on the Craft Barn blog with a photo rich step by step.

If you like techniques, you are in for a treat!

And a closer look at the resist technique:



Hop on to the Craft Barn blog to see how I made this.

Thanks for coming by,

Melancholy

Only one more sleep to go (to Christmas) and one more dictionary challenge at the Craft Barn! So today a quick page for the letter M before returning to the festive preparations...

Initially I was going to illustrate the word Music, but, since many people had already chosen that word, I decided to use that lovely Crafty Individual little girl. She has an air of melancholy about her, and that fits in very well with my mood, as the end of year approaches and I reflect on the events, good and bad, of 2016. Fair to say this Christmas will be a very bittersweet occasion.

But I digress... on to the crafty stuff, here's my page:

I simply stamped the CI-101 ticket image with Versafine black, masked it and overstamped with a partial impression of a stamp from the Rubber Dance Nostalgic couple.
I added a bit of colour to the girl and the violet with Gelatos and created a shadow with a Distress Crayon in Vintage photo.

And as usual, dictionary definition and letter round off the page.

Have yourselves a fabulous Christmas!
I am entering the That's Crafty challenge.

Golden envie

Another postal make for the Paper Artsy challenge! This time I CASEd one of Butterfly's golden envelopes. I could have used the same stamp but decided to give some love to that Amsterdam row of houses from the Hot Pick 1601.

I also used some patterned papers (from a magazine freebie). I added a white panel  for the addressee to make it easy for the postman to read.

I stamped the houses with Flitter Glue and applied the gilding flakes. Love the shine but this is very difficult to photograph, especially as I used my phone and artificial lighting....

This might give a better idea:

Hope you like my envelope!
Onwards and upwards, more Christmas projects on the list...

Thanks for coming by,

Envelopes

Paper Artsy went postal and I was inspired to decorate envelopes for Christmas cards.

First, a subtle envelope for an adult card:

I masked the address area before stencilling the snowflakes with several shades of blue Distress inks (window stencil acquired in the pound shop!!!).
I stamped the script and another motif from the ESN10 set by Paper Artsy.

Second, an envelope I made from freebie papers and decorated with a bit of stencilling (Scribble by DecoArt) and stamping (the deer is from another magazine freebie but so old I can't remember which!):

I'll be back tomorrow for an additional envelope,
See you soon,
Also linking to the SSS Monday challenge, Stamplorations Stencil linky party and Mixed Media challenge.

The X-mas factor

Glad to see you back here for my second Country View Christmas challenge inspiration project. Today I have a card with special features!

I used Crafters Companion Die'sire Create a Card Square Accordion die to create something that, hopefully, will look different on the mantelpiece and attract attention, something with the X-mas factor!!! =))

These dies have been around for a while (they exist in square, rectangle, circle and oval versions) and I did notice they had some Christmas specific overlay dies that allow the frame to be decorated with a themed die-cut, such as Candy Cane, Christmas Carol for extra Wow factor.

Here's the die-cut card, 2 panels only but with the Accordion dies you can cut and join as many panels as you want.

I stamped the fir cones from the Winter's Blossoms (Penny black stamp) using green ink for the pine needles and a water based pen for the actual pine cones.

I added a sentiment from the Pointsettia set (Inspired By Stamping) in black ink.

For the inside of the card  I have stamped the Pointsettia from the Penny Black set, using a "no line" technique . With this technique, it is usual to use a very pale colour for the stamping (for instance Vintage Linen Distress ink) but I added green and red ink where I could on top on my yellow base so I could see the impression more clearly.

I then coloured the image with coloured pencils.

The far right panel is 2 patterned papers (magazine freebies) die-cut with 2 of the frames from the Accordion die set. I stamped the Holly leaves and berries in coloured ink and the sentiment in black, all from the Inspired By Stamping set.

The next step is to cut the tab on the last panel, as it is not going to be used to link with another panel.

I left the card for a few days trying to decide if I should add something more, in particular on the frames. Nothing came to mind but serendipity came to the rescue! I received my prize package from Nefertiti for winning her first challenge on the theme of Halloween. And there was a small box of Christmas wooden charms!!!

So I chose 3 trees of different shapes, painted them dark green and added a bit of gold by dabbing DecoArt Metallic Lustre with a cloth. I threaded them on a piece of baker's twine and attached to the inside of the card as an additional surprise.



To show you the card as it will look when finished I have used Tim Holtz tissue tape to attach temporarily the decorated panels together.







I didn't glue the tab that links the 2 cards yet, because experience has taught me it isn't easy to write the message when the card is fully constructed... been there done that!


I hope you are getting on with your Christmas makes, and if you haven't entered our challenge yet it's time to think about it before the Christmas festivities take over our schedules!

Thanks for coming by,
I'm entering the Stamping Sensations and That's Crafty challenges.

The letter Y

Running late this fortnight with my Craft Barn Dictionary page for the letter Y.

Initially I was stumped, the only word I could think of was "year" and I wasn't excited by that!

A quick delve into a dictionary and I came up with lots of alternatives, settling on "yore". Excellent excuse to pull out some of my vintage image stamps...

The focal image is from the Paper Artsy Hot Pick 1207 and the Vintage ads background is from Crafty Individuals CI-461. The base is watercolour paper, Bockingford 300gsm/140lb.

As to the colouring I was inspired by the Paper Artsy Bleach theme, particularly Alison's project, and used Infusions in Violet Storms and Are you Cerise before bleaching the focal image.
I will take this opportunity to share what I learned in the making of this page.


I stamped the girls image with Versafine black as I thought it would give me the most detailed stamping. But actually it looked a bit blurry... I put it down to stamper's shake syndrome.
Only later, when I applied the water across the page, did I realise it was the ink that had a strange effect on the watercolour paper. I don't know what chemicals are involved in that reaction but the Versafine made the paper extremely porous (did it neutralise the size in the paper?) as well as feathering into the paper. I photographed the back of the paper and you can see clearly where the image is that the water (and some of the dyes) have gone through.

Lesson learned... next time I'll try with Archival or keep to trusty Memento (this is what I used for the Vintage Ads background stamp)!!!

My idea of a ribbon of Infusions colours across the page didn't quite translate during the execution, execution being the operative word, as I may well have killed off a perfectly good piece of stamping!
I mean does it look like I spilled my cup of coffee?

Well, anyway I don't have time to have another go, today is the Craft Barn sale day and I wouldn't miss it for the world as a) I love a bargain and b) I miss my regular visits to the shop so much!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Fashionable Stamping challenge.

Under the feather

I am quite excited to find out what you think of this card. I made it for my guest appearance on the Rubber Dance blog and it's one of my rare attempts at humoristic cards.

So don't hold back, tell me what you think and hop over to the Rubber Dance blog to see how I made it.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Fashionable Stamping challenge.

Collages

Do you like the look of collaged papers but are short on time? Or not keen on the sticky stuff and the drying time etc... I have a solution for you, a quick and foolproof way to get a collage look without the sweat and tears.

Of course, you know me I'm using stamps... easy isn't it? Well the designers have done all the work so we can PLAY, why not use the technology...

So there you are, here's my finished project, but do come by the Craft Barn to see HOW I did it.

I hope you are getting on with your Christmas makes, I have yet to complete LOTS,
Also entering the Stamplorations Theme& Sketch challenge.

Triple Time stamping

Today I am showing this opulent red and gold creation over at the Craft Barn blog.

I only used one stamp for this card, a Cover A Card from Impression Obsession. Come by the Craft Barn blog to see how I made it...

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Wednesday and The Artistic Stamper challenges.

Christmas Town

I can't believe we are in December, Christmas is looming and another year has passed!

Yes, it's the 1st of the month, time for a new challenge at Country View Crafts and I made this Christmas card to kick off our theme hosted by Debs.

My inspiration was slow to come and it's only when I found a very old piece of cardstock that I finally had a brainwave. Any of you have ever encountered Stardream?

I checked and it still exist. This card is smooth, very thick and has a plastic feel to it. I thought that maybe it would work just like a gessoed surface... and it did work with my chosen medium the way I wanted so now I know how to use up my stock! The colour I have is Sapphire a deep blue that reminded me of a night sky.

I first applied some Gelatos and using my fingers spread it around the bottom of the card where I next stamped the Textured Houses (Rubber Dance) in Archival ink.


For the sky I used JOFY Mini 06 (Paper Artsy) and also the small star flurry motif form the Textured Feathers (also Rubber Dance) stamped and embossed in white.
I stamped the sentiment (Katzelkraft) in the same way.






To give the idea of the Milky way I added Distress crayon in white around the embossed stars, spreading the colour with my fingers. 
Finally, I matted my image on a contrasting colour of cardstock.

I have great difficulties in getting decent photos at this time of the year, especially with my Daylight lamp on the blink so I am including this picture taken with sunlight catching it.

So hop over to the Country View Craft challenge blog, admire what my teamies did and get a full tank of inspiration for your Christmas cards.  Just make sure you come back to link to our challenge and show us your beauties, you could win a £20 voucher!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Wednesday, The Artistic Stamper and Inkychicks challenges.

Dictionary Challenge Letter I

Welcome to my latest entry to the Craft Barn Dictionary challenge!

The letter is I and there are no twists. Plenty of choice... and that was the problem! I was mulling over and the only thing that came to mind was "indecision"...  but I couldn't decide!

Finally, in a reverse illustration process, I selected the stamp I have been wanting to show you for a long time, and picked a word that I could use with it.

Don't you think that cottage is lovely? Apart from all the logical reasons why a thatched cottage isn't entirely practical to live in, it would be my dream home.... one can dream!

This is one of the Art Stamps by Imagination Crafts, and I inked it with markers. This is the most difficult part of this project, since when inking you are looking at the mirror image of the actual stamp. Thankfully, being transparent, if you turn over the acrylic block you can check what you've done.
I did lose a bit of the definition, and it's my fault for using different types of markers with a different drying rate. Obviously you won't do that mistake!
My favourite markers for inking rubber stamps are the Zig Art&Graphic because of their soft and flexible tip, which doesn't get damaged like standard fibre tip pens do. I can't recommend them enough.

And, as usual, the definition and the letter, stamped on the Cottage's door, complete the page.

Doing this just reminded me how much I love these photo realistic stamps and want them all!
Thanks for coming by,

Bibi's Birthday

Today I am guesting on the Rubber Dance blog after winning the October challenge with this make:

I'm showing my virtual Birthday card for Bibi, which is following this month's challenge theme and colours.




Come and see how I did it on the Rubber Dance blog,  I give you my watercolour tips!

I hope I will inspire you to enter the challenge with a stamped creation. The theme is optional and there are 2 chances to win this month so don't delay!!

Thanks for coming by,
Also linking to the SSS Monday challenge (3 sentiments).