Snowflakes, Embossing and a Tiny Bit of Bling

"Less is More": Week 91 Sketch 7

The challenge this week is to use a sketch and I particularly like this one as well as all of Chrissie's examples. The example with the dry embossed panels was one I really wanted to try and I am also starting to worry that I've not progressed with my Christmas card making so I decided to make a card with a snowflake theme.





I don't have many embossing folders but I have a border snowflake one which was a freebie with a magazine plus the Cuttlebug polka dots which is one of my favourites. I embossed using coordinations and bazzill cardstock and cut the panels to size, then mounted them on silver. The snowflake "ribbon" was made with a Martha Stewart punch and tiny star shaped gems added to the centres. I finished it off with a die cut sentiment from Craftwork Cards. This was simple and I like the layout.

Here is my entry for the challenge:

Spooky Stuff

Show us your Twinchies Challenge #8 : Spooky Stuff.

Here is my set of three twinchies with the spooky theme. Several attempts hit the bin this time but I have managed to produce three so here they are:

All images are from my IndigoBlu Hocus Pocus set of rubber stamps except the small spiders webs which are from Chocolate Baroque's Witches Brew set. The background for the gothic window twinchie is coloured with Promarker pens and I used the blender pen to remove some colour to make it look like a flame behind the image in the window, I think it works.

The background for the raven sitting on the books was originally cosmic shimmer chalk mist but it looked too pale so I added some Ripe Persimmon distress ink to brighten it up a bit and black soot around the edges.

The spiders web background is purple pan pastel, overstamped with webs in versamark ink and the same purple pan pastel on top. The spider is added in black and for the body I used black diamond stickles.

These were great fun to do, hope you like them. x

Night

I have been off work for a few days with the cold bug that has been going around and haven't felt a lot like doing anything at all. Yesterday afternoon, feeling a bit more perky I had a go at a Christmas card using my new Papermania Michael Powell stamp as a bit of colouring in on a Friday is always good for you. Yes, I'm feeling a lot better.

The cue card for week #15 at CASology is Night so I will enter my card in their challenge. I love the examples from the Design Team this week and the variety of entries from all the other artists, great stuff.

The image is stamped with black archival ink on white cardstock, coloured with Tim Holtz distress markers and mounted on a square Kraft card. I added glitter accents to the edges of the roofs, doesn't show in the photograph which is a bit disappointing, maybe a bit too subtle. I finally added coloured mini pearls (Doodlebug design inc. Christmas Assortment) for the lights. 

I hope you like this one.

Wings

Here is my entry for the "Less is More": Week 89 Challenge where the theme is WINGS and it has to be a one layer card. I kept it very simple and was not tempted to add any sentiment.

The stamp is from Hero Arts, an old one in my collection, stamped directly onto a square white card with black archival ink. The dragonfly and elements are painted with Artquest Pearl Express watercolours. I haven't used these for a while but it was good to get them out again, I love the iridescence of the colours when it dries. This doesn't show up that well in the photo so I have added a close up. It still doesn't show up that well, oh well, never mind.  One small gem added to the card and it is finished.

I hope you like it. x

12 Tags of 2012 : October

Tim's theme for the October tag is Halloween and as usual I have had to improvise as I don't have any of the ingredients for this one. Since the fun of this is trying new techniques anyway, I thought I'd stick with the Halloween theme as it is not something I would usually do.

I don't have tissue wrap so I stuck an old book page on the tag and covered it with plain white tissue, used stormy sky and spiced marmalade distress stains for the background and black soot distress ink with a few swipes of purple. Then spritzed it with sheer shimmer spritz. The result is not as translucent as Tim's example but it works.

I have an IndigoBlu spiders web stamp so used that on the background. I made my own ticket from a bit of manilla card and cut the corners off, drew a black line around the border and stamped Spooky on it. I would like to get hold of that calendar stamp that Tim used though, very useful.

My focal point is an owl from Tando Creative which I covered in black diamond stickles as I have no rock candy. I really like the idea of adding alcohol ink to the rock candy, another item for my wish list. The bat is made from my Tim Holtz mini set of blueprints. I stamped it on white card, coloured it black and added glossy accents to make it shine. Added ribbon and it is done.

Phew ..... I like the background technique but I think if I were doing it again I would probably stamp some script direct onto the tag and then add the tissue paper.

Here is my October tag.

Gilding Flakes

CASology Week #14 : LEAF

The theme for the challenge this week is LEAF so this gave me the opportunity to try out a technique I saw on TV this morning using gilding flakes and double sided adhesive. The leaf is stamped directly onto the sticky adhesive in black archival ink, cover with a piece of acetate, remove the backing of the adhesive and apply the gliding flakes with a pair of tweezers. The trick is to then put it onto another piece of double sided adhesive and cut out the image, peel off the backing paper and it is ready to mount on the card.

I stamped the same leaf image using colorbox fluid chalks directly onto the white card and then added the gilded leaf. The sentiment is a copper peel off sticker and to match the black outline of the leaf I added a thin black line with a black micron pen.

I'm quite pleased with the result, I may try this again.

Ingredients:
White Cardstock
Artcoe Gilding Flake : Copper Thunder
ColorBox Fluid chalk and black archival ink
Small piece of acetate
Double sided adhesive

Happy Saturday X

Star Twinchies

Twinchies are 2" by 2" little works of art, a bit like inchies but bigger. They are a good size for experimenting with those free stamps you get with magazines so I have made a set of three twinchies with a Christmas star theme.
I shall enter them in the "Show us Your Twinchies" Challenge #7 and see what happens.

For the backgrounds I used violet and blue pan pastels. The stamped images are free clear stamps from Craft Stamper magazine and Creativity magazine. The letters for the words are by Craftwork Cards and the O in JOY is a silver Candi, also Craftwork Cards. Tiny blue gems stuck in the centre of the hanging stars.

This is my first attempt at a set of twinchies for this blog challenge, it was fun, I'm not yet decided if I will use them on a Christmas card or just keep them as a set of twinchies.

Hope you like them.

Craft Barn Christmas Minifest

Saturday October 6th.
Up at the crack of dawn on Saturday as I had arranged to meet a friend and go to the Craft Barn for the Christmas Minifest. To clarify, "crack of dawn" for me is anything before 8.30am on a Saturday!
There were 6 demos to see, we spent 5 and a half hours at the place and I have parted with more of my hard earned cash.
The launch of the new PaperArtsy stamps by Jo Firth Young was great, the plates are wonderful. I bought one plate set and one mini, I was tempted to buy more!
Here is a picture of the display board :

and a shot of Jo showing us one of the cards :

I liked the look of the stamped images on Kraft cardstock so when I got back in the evening I tried it out. Easy, quick card to make and quite effective I thought. Here is mine:

The card is cut down to a square from a C6 card. The stamp is PaperArtsy JOFY JM03, stamped with black archival ink and coloured with mustard seed and salty ocean distress inks.

A really great day out, interesting demos, good company and to finish off my report on the day, here is a picture of the new stash that came home with me!