Thursday, 16 October 2014

You're fabulous!

I had fun playing with the current mixed media challenge at Splitcoast Stampers - a different style and I'm not eniely convinced about the finished product but I enjoyed playing anyway!

Lydia's "Pin up" theme challenged us to find a magazine image, cut it out and coat it in something like Mod Podge to make a mask. Mine came from an advert for a clothing catalogue that was a loose insert in the Radio Times!

I spritzed, stamped and sponged through dry wall tape with the mask in place. Then I added a bit of very pale Pan Pastel to tone down the bright white of the silhouette. I added a charcoal pencil outline and then scribbled right across, one side to the other with a paper stump to give that "whoosh" to the image.
Those stars made this almost impossible to photograph! They're glittery in the middle and coated in Glossy Accents so all the different reflection going on there made it tricky.

I used the bubble border stamp just to get a line to cut along for the wavy edge - I could have done it freehand but I toyed with the idea of having some of the stamped border before deciding I prefered the idea of a dramatic black strip along the edge.

This is a larger format card (5" x 7") - I found it surprisingly difficult to find an image that works as a silhouette at a smaller size!

Stamps:
Numbers border by Kaisercraft
Essential Messages by Hero Arts
Bubble Border by Lost Coast

Paper:
black and white

Ink:
Brilliance Graphite Black
Adirondack Raspberry
Dylusions spray ink Funky Fucsia

Other:
Charcoal pencil
Pan Pastel Magenta Tint
Dry wall tape
Hot pink glitter
Glossy Accents
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, 13 October 2014

Autumn birthday

I should have been tidying my craft table at the weekend but of course I got distracted into playing instead! I've had some gilding flakes in my stash for ages and not really got round to playing with them (I got them from a friend when she de-stashed to move abroad and that's four years ago now!).

I covered a piece of card with double-sided tape sheet and burnished on some of the flakes. They're a nice warm mix of gold and copper tones with just touches of rose gold, silver and the odd blueish-green flake which made me think of autumn leaves so I decided to go that way. I die cut a horse chestnut leaf, accentuated the emossed lines left by the die with a Copic marker and coated it in Triple Thick glaze for an extra glossy finish. The glaze magnifies the sort of "veining" you get from the flakes which seemed perfect for a leaf.

I thought it would be fun to have the very matt finish of Pan Pastels contrasting with  the glossed flake on the leaf and combined them in a clean and simple design. I decided on a whim to introduce a third finish by adding little dots cut from scraps of the gilded cardstock, leaving them with no glaze. I seem to have a bit of a thing for scattered dots as a finishing touch at the moment!

I'm hooking up with the current Pan Pastels challenge which is "autumn" - a lovely theme if you fancy playing along (no requirement to use Pan Pastels or other Premium Craft Brand products, it's just that I often use it as a push to use the Pans I have).

Supplies:
Leaf dies by Impression Obsession
Confetti die by Mama Elephant
Say It All stamp set by Hero Arts
Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate by Tsukineko
Pan Pastels (Burnt Sienna, Burnt Sienna Shade, Burnt Sienna Tint)
Spectrafix Degas  fixative
Easy Metal gilding flakes by Eberhard Faber
Triple Thick Gloss Glaze by Deco Art 
Pinflair Glue Gel
Double sided tape sheet (151 brand, try your local £1 shop!)

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, 10 October 2014

Hello!

Gah, what happened to September?! I had a holiday in August so I can excuse myself for that absence but September is another matter!

I've been doing a bit of crafting but nothing I could share. I've just managed a bit of time at the stamping table for a clean and simple card for the current That's Crafty challenge which is to keep it simple. That's Crafty is one of my regular shopping haunts but I tend to forget they host a challenge, too!

These Doc Martens are fun for masculine cards, maybe even for those pesky teenagers! I masked them so
that I could let them overlap the stencilled strip that's acting as an "anchor". As it's a slightly grungy design, I stamped the numbers border through the stencil, figuring that if it didn't make perfect contact at the edges that would be fine (it's actually pretty good, the stencil is not too thick). I doodled round the chevrons as well to make that border a bit more defined.

I finished it off with a few dots of Enamel Accents (not because I needed to cover up a stray ink smudge; who could think such a thing?).

Stamps:
Doc Marten Boots by Deep Red Stamps
Numbers border by Kaisercraft
Essential Messages by Hero Arts

Ink:
Versafine Onyx Black
Distress Mowed Lawn

Other:
Hearts and Arrows stencil by Crafter's Workshop
Black fineline marker
Enamel Accents

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