Light as a feather

I've been meaning to play with the Waltzingmouse Fanatics since they launched but failing to get my act together. I also follow the Daring Cardmakers religiously each week and yet haven't played along in forever. So I'm combining challenges just for fun again today.

The DCM theme this week is feathers and as I've just treated myself to the WMS Fine Feathers set I thought I should take it as hint that those stamps needed to see ink sooner rather than later! The Fanatics asked for some texture on our projects.

I mixed some reinker and Perfect Pearls in a mini mister to make my own shimmer mist and sprayed some cardstock. Once that was dry, I added texture paste through a home made stencil, let that dry and spritzed again with the shimmery stuff.

I added some stamped splats and some actual splats flicked from a paintbrush before adding a strip with the stamped sentiment. The feathers are stamped on vellum and cut out (Claire does have cut files as well as matching dies for these stamps but I went for the old-fashioned scissor approach).

I cut my stencil from a piece of cereal box cardboard - the intricate die does need a couple of passes on this thickness but it went through and all the pieces popped out cleanly. I've given it a coat of Mod Podge each side and hope it will last for a few goes at least. I could have used acetate but I wanted something a bit thicker to use with the paste.

Stamps (all Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Fine Feathers
Splat That
Big Day Today

Paper: 
Laid texture
Vellum

Ink:
Pearlescent Chocolate Brilliance by Tsukineko
Distress Tumbled Glass reinker

Other:
Brown brad 
Spellbinder Fancy Trellis Die
Maimeri Light Modelling Paste
Turquoise Perfect Pearls
Mini misting bottle
Tracing Wheel
Corner Chomper
Snowflake Fresco Finish acrylic paint

Thanks for stopping by!

Playing with words

I decided I needed a little play with no real purpose in mind this morning. I did use a couple of challenges as a direction for play time but this is a project with no occasion or recipient in mind.

This week's Mixability challenge on Splitcoast Stampers is to "take it away" - do something to show what's underneath a top layer. Indigo Blu's Challenge 15 is "words are all you need".

This little scrapling (the piece left over when you trim a sheet of cardstock to make a square card) started off with a piece of old book page which was spritzed with Dylusions. I added a layer of Mod Podge and once that was dry, a layer of Fresco Finish acrylic paint. I laid a stencil over the top of the dry paint and used a combination of rubbing alcohol, baby wipe and elbow grease to remove the paint and let the inky text show through. I found this technique didn't work without a clear layer (the Mod Podge), I just ended up rubbing away the paper if I rubbed hard enough to remove the paint.

I doodled rough circles round the exposed areas then added a single word, part of a definition and random snippets of script writing with Brilliance ink and finished with a double layered punched star for a bit more drama.

I had fun doing something away from my "norm"!

Stamps: Sarah's Choice by Indigo Blu

Paper: old book page

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Dylusions ink spray (Vibrant Turquoise)
Fresco Finish acrylic paint by Paper Arsty (Mermaid)
Mod Podge Matt
Random Circles mask by Tando Creative
Fineliner pen
Fiskars squeeze punches (star medium and large)

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Bright flowers

A friend asked me to make a card for her mum's 80th birthday. Her mum is a "young" 80, still an active member of her local badminton club etc, so I didn't want to do anything that looked too "old"! The only steer was "She likes flowers, especially poppies, and I'd like her age on there".

She also wanted a bigger format card - this is A5 size (for our North American friends, that's basically a whole sheet of cardstock folded in half to make the card base).

I did try something with an actual poppy stamp but I just couldn't make anything look right for some reason. I'd been experimenting with the carved flower stamps for something else so they were out on my desk and I thought if I stamped in red this one would look poppyish!

The vases are done by sponging through apertures cut with the Tim Holtz Apothecary Bottles die (small one done first and masked so it appears to be in front of the big one). As it's Distress ink, I was able to lift a bit of the colour with plain water to make highlights on the bottle shoulders - not sure how well that shows on the photo but it's quite effective IRL.

I kept her age subtle by stamping in Antique Linen and overstamping with the birthday sentiment. The panel is finished by adding a little patterning with a stencil and grounding the bottles with a darker ink before running a tracing wheel round the edge for a quick pierced detail and sticking to the card base with gel glue for a little "lift".

Stamps: 
Carved Flowers by Darkroom Door
A&P Numbers by Ma Vinici's Reliqary
Say It All by Hero Arts

Paper: Laid texture cardstock

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Pearlescent Chocolate (for sentiment)
Distress ink by Ranger (Barn Door, Fired Brick, Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain)

Other:
Cressida stencil by Memory Box
Apothecary Bottles die by Tim Holtz
Tracing Wheel

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday sub

I needed a simple card for a little boy's fifth birthday and thought the Half Pint Heroes set would work perfectly as he's into sea life (through the Octonauts, obviously!) and it makes a nice change from all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stuff currently invading their house!

I stamped, coloured and cut out a  submarine, cutting out the porthole too - a really easy way to do this if you prefer scissors to a craft knife is to use your Crop-a-Dile or other hole punch to "nibble" out a good size chunk so it's easy to get the scissors in there. I stamped the sub again on the base layer, stamped the boy's face on there and used gel glue to raise the cut out sub for some dimension.

The fish have Glossy Accent bubbles which will probably never be noticed but I felt the need to add them anyway!

Stamps:
Half Pint Heroes by Waltzingmouse Stamps

Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance

Paper: smooth white, kraft, DCWV textured blue

Other:
Copic markers
Glossy Accents
Pinflair glue gel
Dry wall tape
Tracing wheel
Corner Chomper
 
Thanks for stopping by!

Fantasy Garden

I'm back from holiday and easing into a bit of crafting! Lydia set the week's Mixability challenge on Splitcoast Stampers and asked us to go "back to kindergarten" and use crayons somewhere on our projects.

I rubbed white crayon over my embossed cardstock (leaving it on the folder makes this easier as you can press quite hard with the crayon without squishing the embossing) and then spritzed with a couple of Dylusions colours.

I put a bit of the fuchsia Dylusions on my cutting mat and used it with a wet brush to colour the flower. The flower center is Copic coloured with Prismacolor pencil highlights. Rubons add a bit of detail at the bottom and a sprinkle of tiny gems adds some sparkle.

I decided to go sentimentless on this one and have a multi-purpose card on hand!

Stamps: Large Striped Flower by Hero Arts 

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black 

Other: 
Tim Holtz embossing folder 
White crayon 
Dylusions sprays (Vibrant Turquoise, Funky Fuchsia) 
Hero Arts Palm die (cut apart) 
Tim Holtz Remnant Rubs - Words 
Copic markers (dark brown and dark bark) 
White Prismacolor pencil 
Acrylic nail art gems 
Fiskars squeeze punch small star 

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