Wedded bliss

Card Creations Volume 8 (a special issue of PaperCrafts magazine) is currently on the shelves in the US and I'm delighted to have this card featured in the wedding section.

This is a really fast card to put together as the Scrapblock does most of the work and there's no colouring to do.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Love Scrapblock
Freesia flower
Wedding Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Pool and Espresso)

Other:
Silk ribbon
Pearl by Kaisercraft (tinted with a Copic marker)
Fiskars Edge Punch (Threading Water/Scalloped Lace)

There are loads of lovely projects in this issue if you get chance to check it out - from Father's Day to Christmas and everything in between!

Thanks for stopping by!

Haute Couture

I was determined to play along at least once over at Something Completely Different during their birthday month. The theme this week is Paris and we're revisiting the very first "thing to make" so we're doing twinchies.

When I think of Paris, I think of all sorts of things, one of them being fashion! I pulled out the "Haute Couture" set and went for a sort of vintage, sepia kind of look and a collage stamped approach with some masking and some stamping off to vary the colour intensity.

Caroline over at Bubbly Funk has just started stocking the "All Things Considered" line of stamps that includes this set and lots of others by Cornish Heritage Farms too - I couldn't be more thrilled to see two of my favourite places hooked up! Most of the stock is not available elsewhere in the UK. You can see the range {here} if you're interested.

I quite like things like inchies, twinchies and ATCs to be pretty flat and light so I kept this one to stamps, paper and colouring only. I thought the style of the Paris sentiment made it look a bit like one of the ladies had written on a picture to turn it into a keepsake of where it was taken.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Haute Couture (All Things Considered Line)

Paper:
Smooth white
Simply Heavy Chocolate

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by!

Chintz 'n crepe!

A few weeks ago, Effie posted a link to a tutorial for some lovely crepe paper flowers {here}. I finally got round to getting some crepe paper to give this a go. I got white so it would be as versatile as possible since I can ink it or spritz it. Mind you, watching it expand with the moisture of the water and acrylic paint mix I used here was a bit alarming! It did dry with plenty of "stretch" left in it though and that's what you need for these flowers.

I've used this week's Inchie Inklings sketch - I hope Mona will forgive me for covering up a whole inchie and most of a second one!

I had a bunch of inchies stamped from a project that didn't work out. I needed to cover up that original stamping so I painted over with pearlescent acrylic paint (the same one as I watered down to colour the crepe paper). Once they were dry, I used Stazon to stamp the chintz pattern on there. A white embossed sentiment and a bit of machine stitching finished it off. The pearlesence made it a bit of a nightmare to photograph, the colour is probably truer in the detail shot below and since it's the same paint the flower and the inchies obviously match in real life!

I didn't glitter the edges of the petals on this flower (I have one set aside for another project where I did, though) and having assembled it I decided they would benefit from a bit more definition so I dry brushed more of the acrylic paint along the edge and just onto the surface of the petals. The centre of the flower is one of those glass pebbles you put in vases - I painted the back with with Precious Metal paint. The leaves are just hand cut (as were the smaller circles as I didn't have an appropriate punch).

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Vintage Chintz backgrounder
Cursive Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
White
Simply Linen Black
Heavyweight crepe paper
Chipboard inchies

Ink:
Stazon by Tsukineko (Jet Black)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Pearlescent pink acrylic paint
Sewing machine and thread
Glass pebble
Precious Metal pint by Viva Decor (Mother of Pearl)
1" circle punch

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a lovely weekend!

Dragonfly dreams

I'm sharing a piece made with Tando Creative chipboard today. I love dragonflies and thought the new large dragonfly shape would make a lovely brooch.

To mimic a little bit of the iridescence of dragonfly wings, I melted three coats of clear UTEE onto the wings and when almost cool, I rubbed several different Perfect Pearls colours on there. I remelted and added more Perfect Pearls to build up the colour depth and finally remelted and pressed a stamp into the molten UTEE. Finally, I picked up a tiny bit of pearlescent acrylic paint on that most sophisticated of crafter's tools (my index finger) and swiped over the high spots of the textured wings. You can click through for a better view of the pic if you'd like it.

The body was coloured with a black marker and then I added Glossy Accents and a row of Dew Drops to finish it off before gluing on a brooch back.

Supplies:
Dragonfly by Tando Creative (you can check out Tando stockists here)
Cheesecloth backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms - now available in the UK from Bubbly Funk {here})
Clear UTEE by Ranger
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Turquoise, Berry Twist, Forever Violet, Forever Green, Forever Blue)
Pearlescent turquoise acrylic paint
Dew Drops by Robin's Egg
Glossy Accents by Ranger
Brooch back
E600 adhesive

Thanks for stopping by!

One stamp - different looks!

I'm not sure who stole last week - sorry not to have been around! I thought I would share two very different projects made with the same stamp today.

One of the reasons I love my backgrounders is that they are very versatile. My first project today is a straight paper craft project - a wedding card. I'm blaming forum buddy Janice for this one! Not only was her son getting married last week but while refusing to reveal her outfit in advance, she showed us a pic of Audrey Hepburn in the race scene in the movie My Fair Lady as a tease for what her hat was like! I still had the image of those gorgeous black and white costumes in my head when I sat down with this new Fuchsia Tiles background stamp.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Fuchsia Tiles Backgrounder (releasing Tuesday May 18th)
Wedding Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Smooth white
Simply Linen Black

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Velvet ribbon
Rose from Wild Orchid Crafts
Stick pin
Brackets die (Tim Holtz Alterations line by Sizzix)

My second project is a bit different! I revisited the mica shift technique I used to make this polymer clay pendant a few weeks back. I used gold clay this time and made a large pendant piece by cutting a square that takes in nine of the little tiles from the backgrounder. I baked it over a sphere (the top of a tin that had chocolate orange and lemon slices in it - never throw out an interesting container!) to give the piece an overall curve and then added a little loop on the back to thread a necklace cord through.

I think I'm officially fascinated by mica shift now - there's something almost hypnotic about the textural look of the pattern coupled with a surface that's completely smooth to the touch!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Fuchsia Tiles Backgrounder (releasing Tuesday May 18th)

Other:
Sculpey Premo polymer clay (gold and black)
Clay tools (pasta machine, clay blade, acrylic roller)
Klear floor polish (sold as Future floor polish in North America)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Thinking of you

A friend asked me to make a card for a friend of hers who is very ill - "Get well soon" was not going to be appropriate and something "a bit vintage" were my only guidelines. Bit tricky really but she seemed very pleased with the finished card and exclaimed that the music was perfect for her friend so that was a stroke of luck!

I do love my book of vintage sheet music. It was very tattered around the spine when I rescued it from the charity shop (goodwill store for my North American visitors). It was probably on the verge of being too delicate to be used on a music stand and flipped over while playing so I don't feel too guilty about chopping it up to use on papercrafting. If you're using old papers for projects like this, you do need to check how they take ink. For example, it takes a long time for Versafine to dry on this one so you need to leave well alone for a while after stamping otherwise you end up with a smudgy mess!

Stamps:
Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock (CHF)
Freesia (CHF)
Sentiment from Sweet Kids set (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Simply Smooth Vanilla
Simply Heavy Chocolate
Vintage sheet music

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Versacraft by Tsukineko (Sand)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Memento markers (Lulu Lavender, Perfect Plum, Bamboo Leaves, Pear Tart)
Sewing machine and thread
Edge punch by Fiskars (Threading Water/Scalloped Lace)
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers
Leafing pen by Krylon (Pale Gold)

Thanks for stopping by!