Christmas Swirl

Hi,

Last week I was lucky enough to win the draw on Sue Wilson's blog. I hardly ever win anything so image how I felt when I was at Ally Pally on Sunday and Sue asked me why I hadn't been in touch to claim my prize! It was great -I got to choose 2 stamp sets from the Particraft Stand. I chose the stamp sets below. The first one is called Falling Leaves and the second is Christmas Swirl.

I just love the trees on both of these sets. If you pop over to the Particraft blog you will find a stunning card that Sue has made with the Falling Leaves stamp set.

I've only had time for a little play this week and would like to share this card with you that I made from the Christmas Swirl stamp set.

For this card I used a really cool technique which the lovely Karen Lines showed me on Sunday. This technique was used to make the diagonal stripe background. I ran a Perfect Medium Ink pad over the raised areas of one side of the Cuttlebug Candy Cane embossing folder. I then placed a piece of white card in the folder and ran it through the Cuttlebug. I added metallic silver embossing powder to the side of the card which had been on the side that received the ink - the debossed lines held the powder. I then heat set the powder and covered the whole area with Faded Jeans Distress ink using cut & dry foam. I then added Cosmic Shimmer Aurora Crystal embossing powder which stuck to the distress ink. I then heat set it. BEWARE - the glitter from the embossing powder flies everywhere! Anyway, what you're left with is a textured glitter card. Really cool, eh? Give it a go. Some embossing folders work better than others. It's fun trying them all out (you'll be covered in glitter by the end of it!).

Here's a bit more of a close-up.

The background for the fancy tree was made using Eco Green acrylic paints. Many of you may have see Julia Andrus on Create & Craft last year demonstrating the range of Eco Green Crafts but here's a re-cap of this technique.

I used a piece of packing material board 3" x 4". I painted a based layer with the Blueberry paint. When dry (it dries really quickly), I covered the area with a slightly watered down layer of Eco Green Glue. I left this for a few minutes to dry a little but remain tacky and then I painted over it with a layer of Eco Green white paint. I then dried it with a heat gun and it crackled! Be careful not to be too close or for too long or the paint may bubble (this is a different effect which you may not want on this piece). I then buffed the area up with a piece of kitchen roll. I added some Chipped Sapphire distress ink using cut & dry foam to tone down the white.

I made sure the Distress Ink was dry and then I wiped the surface with an anti-static pad. I stamped the tree from the Christmas Swirl stamp set using Perfect Medium, added Cosmic Shimmer Black Sparkle embossing powder and heat set. To do the edges, I swiped each edge along the Perfect Medium Ink Pad and added Metallic Silver embossing powder and heat set. It's a good idea to do one side at a time.

The greeting is from the Christmas Swirl stamp set and is on the second size up of Spellbinders Labels 20. I made a faux nestie by drawing around the outside of the same die and cutting out.

I layered all the pieces up, added ribbon and 3 blue Eco-Green glass glintz (yeh, I know they look black in the photo but they are blue in the flesh!).

Hope you've enjoyed reading - do have a play with the techniques.
Julia

Vintage Inventor Christmas

Hi.

Have I mentioned that my favourite stamp set at the moment is the Vintage Inventor Stamp set deisigned by Sam Poole?

Well, if you didn't know that, have a look at the past few posts and you will see 3 other posts using this set.

I set myself a challenge to use the set for a Christmas card. And here it is :

The background has been made using the lemon juice technique (seee earlier post) and crushed olive, forest moss and barn door distress ink pads. The foliage stamp is from the Creative Expressions Christmas Designs 3 stamp set but I think there is also a similar stamp on the Christmas Post stamp set.

The Vintage Inventor was stamped onto some card which was coloured with the forest moss distress ink and then cut out.

The sentiment has been stamped onto a piece of American Seam Binding which was inked with forest moss.

I'm not sure where the holly stamp is from but they're fairly easy to find especially at this time of year. The holly has been stamped with black archival and then quickly embossed with clear powder. It was then coloured in with Evergreen, Scarlet Blush and Rich Gold Cosmic Shimmer drawing inks.

A bit of paper piercing round the edges of a piece of maroon card and then mounted onto green and the card is finished.

What do you think? I think it works, don't you? What about adding a poinsettia bloom to his hat instead or replacing the whole hat with a santa hat, party hat or a crown? Great fun!

Julia

Tissues

Hi,

I spotted a technique in the August edition of Craft Stamper Magazine which involved stamping onto a tissue. Thought I'd give it a go and this is what I came up with :

It doesn't matter if you use 2 ply or 3 ply tissues as you only use the top layer on your card. I stamped some images from the Creative Expressions stamp set Wine Label onto my tissue using a Black Archival ink pad. I tore around each image and then removed the extra layers - just keeping the stamped layer. I painted some Eco-Green paint in Lake, Lilac and Periwinkle onto a square piece of white card.

Once the pain was dry I covered the surface with some watered down school PVA. I then placed the tissue images where I wanted them. I covered these with another layer of watered down PVA and put aside to dry.

I stamped the script text from the stamp set all over the two blue pieces of card I was using as a matt and cut 4 purple borders using the Spellbinders Parisian Accents die set.

Once dry, I trimmed off any overhanging pieces of tissue from my topper and highlighted the creases with some silver metallic rub on. I edged the whole thing with Black Soot Distress Ink.

The layers were then assembled onto a Craftwork Cards 8 x 8 card blank and some Creative Expressions Screw brads added to each corner.

It's a fun technique - why not give it a try?

Thanks for stopping by.
Julia

Lemon Juice

Hiya,

Sorry I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks - I've been bogged down with accounts (hate them!) and I've been on a couple of University visits with my daughter (great fun).

Today I want to share another card made with Sam Poole's fab Vintage Inventor stamp set. Here it is :

I found a technique in a recent issue of Craft Stamper that used lemon juice and I used it on this card.

The base card was coloured with Weathered Wood and Stormy Sky Distress Ink. As you can see, one of the sides is torn and highlighted with the ink. Some water was used to make some splatters. I put some lemon juice in a mini mister and randomly misted. I took the end off the mister to splatter some bigger drops. I then dried it with a heat gun. It takes a while to dry. At first it doesn't look like it's done anything - be patient, the longer you heat it the darker the lemon juice becomes. Oh, and be warned - it's a bit smelly!

I also used lemon juice on the red and blue card layers to grunge them up a bit.

I stamped some images directly onto the background using Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky and Barn Door. The light bulb is stamped on to red card. I coloured some scrap card with Stormy Sky and stamped the Inventor chappy and the sentiment and then cut them out. I split the sentiment up into 4 separate lines. I think it looks good like that.

Hope you've enjoyed your visit.

That's all for now.
Julia

Black & White

Hi,

When one of the ladies who attends my monthly class suggested we start an ATC swap my heart sank. I am not a lover of ATCs and the idea of making 8 every month did not enthrall me. Our first theme was black and white.

I decided that I would approach them as ideas for bigger cards. I'm ok with that. So, here's my swap for this month. I've made all 8 the same so there's no arguments when they're given out!

I used the Vintage Inventor and the Plaid stamp sets from Creative Expressions. I stamped the man on to white shrink plastic. I love the detail on this image. I used Black Soot distress Ink to add shading and stamped the ribbon and the cogs with Jet Black Archival.

As I said, I wanted the ATC to be the idea for a bigger card. So, I expanded the design on to an A5 card.

For the card I stamped the man image on to white card and added the light bulb image which I stamped on to white shrink plastic. The 'flower' on the top left was made from the smaller tickets on the Creative Expressions Tickets stamp set. I used 10 tickets and one of their new screw brads in the centre.

The larger background is made by scrunching up a piece of white card, open it out and then brush a Black Soot distress ink pad over the peaks. Spritz with water. Wait a couple of minutes then press with an encaustic iron. Simple but really effective. Finally, I stamped the 'Inventor' sentiment, cut at an angle and attached with staples.

Hope you like the result.

Thanks for stopping by.

Julia

Vintage Inventor

Hi,

I've finally had my first play with the Vintage Inventor stamp set designed by Sam Poole. I must say that I love this stamp set. Here's the result of my first play -

I finally found some self-adhesive plumbers tape from a proper heating and plumbing shop and I was able to re-create a background like the one I've seen Sam do. Basically, take a piece of card and glue some die-cuts to it. Cover the whole lot with pieces of the plumbers tape - stagger them a bit. Use alcohol inks to colour the tape (I used Latte, Caramel, Oregano and Butterscotch). I also added some blending solution to make the result look a bit more interesting. Using a biro, I added some faux stitches where the tape pieces met. Finally, I stamped some cogs from the stamp sheet using Jet Black Archival.

The inventor was stamped onto Grungepaper using Jet Black Archival and is actually coloured with Antique Linen Distress Ink but this doesn't show up very well in the photo. The light bulb is stamped onto white shrink plastic using Stazon ink and then shrunk down using a heat gun.

The background is made using Antique Linen Distress ink and then a couple of small stamps from the sheet are stamped using the the Antique Linen and also Scattered Straw Distress Inks. I roughed the edges up a little with scissors and inked just the edges again with Scattered Straw.

The sentiment was stamped onto a small piece of card which was inked with Antique Linen and again roughed up with scissors and edged with Scattered Straw.

Hope you like the card.

Thanks for stopping by.

Julia.

Road Trip

Hi.

Just had to share this card with you. I just love this stamp set by Tim Holtz.

I finally tracked down some Tim Holtz Grid-Blocks. This is a set of 9 thin acrylic blocks of various sizes with an grid etched into them. Now, why would anyone need more acrylic blocks? Lets face it - I do have a drawer full. But these are really worth trying - you won't go back to the thicker blocks once you've tried them. They're much easier to stamp with and because of the grid, it's easier to line your stamp up straight.

Here's the card -



The stamps are all from the Stampers Anonymous set - Road Trip. I've coloured using Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. The car is stamped onto Grungepaper and coloured with Vintage Photo Distress Stain (Stains work much better on Grunge products than the pads). I've added some Nostalgic Tissue paper to the top left corner which is also coloured with Vintage Photo. I've also added some Idea-ology washers and mini-fasteners to 2 of the corners. This main image has then been mounted onto various layers of card including a layer which I pricked with the Tim Holtz Ruler.

I'm really pleased with the result. Quite a quick card to make and brilliant for guys.

Thanks for dropping by.
Julia

A few Scrapbook pages to share

Hi.

I went to a scrapbooking class on Saturday so I thought I'd share some pages with you. I'm not sure if they're finished as I'm sure I really ought to add a few embellishments to them but I am pretty sure that I won't add to them as they are already in the scrapbook album! The first 2 pages are made from this months Scrapholix kit.

The first is of our daughter taken last year. The nicest school photo of her we've had I think.



The second layout is of some pictures taken years ago at a National Trust property. Can't remember which one - wasn't into scrapbooking then so didn't keep notes. That's Kathryn in the little picture with her brother. Cute, eh? This layout would definately benefit from some flowers.



The final layout I want to share with you today is of our old cat, Buddy. He's a really lazy cat and this photo is just so typical of him. I love this Fancy Pants paper. I think this layout is just right as it is. Never be afraid to leave 'white space' on a layout. Also on this layout and the first one I have cut away the card behind the patterned paper - it's hidden behind the paper so has no use there - use it for mounting and letters instead!



That's all for today.
Leave a comment if you have time.
Thanks for looking.
Julia

Thorpe Park

Hi.

We went to Thorpe Park a couple of weeks ago to celebrate the end of my daughter's AS exams. It rained heavily - twice but we had a great time. Our best photo was from Logger's Leap so I thought I'd scrapbook it.

I used the Spellbinders Die set Foliage and the Creative Expressions stamp set Joyful Flora to make the embellishment on the bottom right.

Some cards to share

Hi.

I have a couple of cards to share with you today.

The first is using a Whimsey stamp that I picked up from Ally Pally. I bought another couple of stamps in the same series. I think they're perfect for teenage cards. The image has been coloured using Promarkers and the background papers have been made using Distress Inks, a cuttlebug embossing folder, Mica Powders and some Card Candi.


The second and third cards have been made using the Creative Expressions stamp sets designed by Sam Poole - Joyful flora and Flutter Floral. I've created the backgrounds by inking through a That Special Touch Mask onto a page from an old book using Distress Inks. The stamped images are also coloured with Distress Inks (just love these inks!). The ribbon is the Vintage Ribbon in Eggshell which as been coloured using (yes you guessed it!) Distress Inks.



Hope you've enjoyed looking at these samples.
Julia

Fairy Flutterfly

Hi.

Sorry, I've been a bad blogger over the last few weeks. I've been struggling to get some decent photos to show you - still not quite there yet but trying hard!

The card below is an easel card based on a card that Paul Church made for me. We did it in a class a couple of weeks ago and it went down very well. I printed some floral vine backing paper from the Wild Rose Studio Spring Papers CD on both sides of a 300gsm white card and then used the WS Designs Octagon Layering template to create the base of the card. I used the layering template again to make the toppers for the front of the card. The stamps are all from the Polka Doodles Fairy Flutterfly Beviboo set and they've been coloured using promarkers. The Daisy Pattern Cuttlebug folder was used to create the backing paper behind Beviboo herself.






I love the simplicity of the next card. Again, I've used the WS Designs Octagon template to create all the layers. The patterned backing paper is another printed from the Wild Rose Studio Spring Papers CD. Once again the Daisy Pattern Cuttlebug folder has been used on the top layer. I have stamped the butterfly from the Beviboo stamp set on to the patterned backing paper and have cut it out and then popped a coloured in Beviboo on top using Pinflair Glue Gel.



Hope you like the cards.
Julia

Rock Hard Fairies - remember them?

I found a stock of Rock Hard Fairies decoupage sheets that I'd forgotten about. I used to love the images on these sheets so decided to get them out again and make some samples to perhaps do in class.

I picked some of the fairies which were easier to cut out (from left to right) - Lexi, Jinx, Diva and Cursilla. I used the WS Designs Screen template to create a shaped card and then used the same template to create the shapes for the backgrounds which were cut from cream card.

I chose a distress ink to tone in with the colours on the fairies clothes and applied it to cream card with Cut & Dry Foam. I used (from left to right) Rusty Hinge, Pine Needles, Dusty Concord and Peeled Paint.

I put each background piece through the Stars Cuttlebug folder, used a sanding block to pop out the pattern and used the template again to help me stick each background in the correct place on the base card.

I shaped each decoupage image using my bone folder and stuck them down with pinflair glue gel to keep the dimension.

Finally, I created a faux stitch effect round each panel using an Inkssentials white pen.

I'm really pleased with the result. Hope you like it too.



Julia