Love birds

Typography is fun, isn't it? I don't know about you but I can spend hours choosing the "perfect" font for a project. I'll find something I like and then something like the shape of the descender on the letter "g" will put me off and I'll go hunting for something else!

This new Scrapblock appealed to my sense of typography as a great design element. I love the mix of fonts and styles (some words are very crisp, others have a weathered or eroded look to them). I teamed it up with the Tree Swallows to make a "love birds" card that could be used for an engagement, anniversary or even a wedding - what do you think?

I thought it would be fun to mix the rustic texture of Distress embossing powder with some dressier elements of lace and pearls. The pearls came in one of my advent packages from my Secret Santa over on the Bubbly Funk Forum - we're having great fun opening a small package each day during advent and we have a slightly larger gift to open on Christmas day. We had a £5 limit on these so the emphasis is on fun rather than big bucks - perfect! So thank you Santa, the pearls were just what I needed for this!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Love Scrapblock (releasing Friday 18th December)
Tree Swallows Silhouette

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder by Ranger (Walnut Stain)
Copic markers (Brick Beige, Chamois)
Sewing machine and thread
Vintage lace
Flat back pearls

Thanks for stopping by, hope your Christmas preparations are under control (or at least you're at the stage you don't care if they're not!).

Getting inky!

I've not had much chance to get inky for a while so I thought I'd make up for it and really slosh the stuff around when I did manage to grab a short crafty session a few days ago!

I smooshed three Distress inks onto a non-stick sheet, spritzed with water and dunked a chippie ATC directly on there to soak up the colour. Vintage ledger lines provided some interest and then the rest is just overstamped in black with various images from the same set.

Those gear wheels are done using a technique I saw on Julia Andrus' web site - triple emboss a die cut shape and while the embossing is still warm (but not too hot - watch your fingers!) rub some Perfect Pearls on there. The Pearls will bond to the molten embossing powder and give you a great metallic sheen - I used Heirloom Gold powder over black embossing here.

Dots of Glossy Accents over the letters of TRAIN made them look a bit like buttons on a control panel, I thought.

So while I had the set out, I thought I might as well make full use of it! I made these fridge magnets by die cutting circles from stamped images, sponging with ink and covering with Glossy Accents. When dry, I flexed them a bit for a cracked glass effect and then stuck them to magnets.

Stamps for both projects (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Train Timetable set (Baltimore & Ohio Railroad line - releasing Tuesday 15th December)

ATC additional supplies:
Vintage Ledger Scrapblock
White chipboard ATC
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo)
Versafine by Tsukinkeo (Onyx Black)
Glossy Accents
Perfect Pearls (Heirloom Gold)
Gears #1 die (Thincuts by Accucut)

Magnets additional supplies:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Glossy Accents
Magnets
Classic Circle Nestabilites by Spellbinder

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are finding time to craft too!