Resist if you can

Nat has set the challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers this week and she’d like to see a resist technique on our cards.

I’ve been meaning to have a go at Debossed Die Resist for a while so I pulled out a Hero Arts die I thought might work and got busy with a wax crayon and a couple of Brusho powders. I think it looks kind of like batik fabric.

I did an extra resist as well - after my fern and background were dry, I rubbed some microglaze onto the leaves and then spritzed and splattered Dylusions spray for some extra speckles.

Supplies:
Fancy Palm die (Hero Arts)
Watercolour paper
White crayon
Sentiment from Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Brusho (Leaf Green, Turquoise)
Dylusions spray (Vibrant Turquoise)
Judikins microglaze (now rebranded as Distress microglaze)

Thanks for stopping by!

November Card Chain

It's the last Card Chain Challenge of 2018 and my card this month has gone to Marga in Spain.

From the options for the month I chose the colours and the theme of baubles. Sticking with my strategy of one layer cards for air mailing I did some masking. Since I also chose to heat emboss that was a little bit tedious but I like the effect of the single image being made into a group.

The front ornament has clear Wink of Stella for some sparkle - it just looks a bit odd on the photo!

Stamps:
Holiday Ornaments (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Detail embossing powder (gold)
Memento markers (Lady Bug, Rhubarb)
Gold gel pen
White paint pen by Posca
Wink of Stella pen (clear)
Micro Glaze
Brusho pignment powder (Emerald Green)
Joy Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts)
Corner Chomper

There's a little Christmas break while the Card Chain Challenge folk catch their breath so there's no December challenge but if you fancy making and receving a hand made card each month, why not subscribe to e-mail updates at Card Chain Challenge so you can sign up when January's challenge goes live?

Thanks for stopping by!

Tying the knot

It’s that time of year and Ruth is getting into the wedding mood on Daring Cardmakers this week - our challenge is to make a card with a wedding or anniversary theme.

I needed a card for a friend’s civil partnership - the couple in question has been together over 20 years! At the start of their time together they wouldn’t have been allowed to marry so at least we can say hurray for progress in that department.

With two grooms I didn’t want anything too flowery and since one is Irish and “tying the knot” is something we say to mean getting married I thought maybe a Celtic knot would do the trick. I embossed black cardstock, cut out the central knot from the bigger design and gilded with some silver Rub n Buff wax.

Some Brusho splatters and a simple stamped sentiment are the only other things going on here. I think it’s suitably understated (they were keen to keep the whole thing low key)!

Stamps:
Say It All by Hero Arts

Paper:
Bamboo Mixed Media by Hannemuhl
Smooth black

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Brusho crystals (Turquoise)
M-bossabilities folder by Spellbinder (Celtic Knot)
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Silver Leaf)

Thanks for stopping by!

Gilded die cut resist

It's dare day over at Daring Cardmakers and Kathy has asked us to do something new as we're just into a new year.

I've had this idea I've been meaning to try out for a while so the dare gave me a little prod. Gilding flake acts as a resist for water or dye-based media and I thought that rather than stamping with glue and gilding, it would be fun to try die cutting double sided adhesive and gilding that before using wet media over it.

As well as trying a new technique, I haven't used this die before so that's an extra new element, too! Being tape rather than card stock meant I could curve the die cuts as I stuck them down so the two shapes look a bit different.

The gilding flake I used is gold but as it's extremely reflective the richness of colour changes with the angle and the light.

The Brushos were still out on my desk from last week so I used one of those over my gilded leaves. I sprinkled a second time when it was almost dry to intensify the colour near the edge and a bit along the leaf shapes. I stamped background leaves with Distress ink (which the gilding also resists in the areas there's overlap).

When the piece was dry, I added a couple of gilded spots and some tiny gems along with a sentiment to finish it off.

Supplies:
Back to Nature Thinlits dies by Sizzix
Double sided tape sheet
Mega Flake by Indigo Blu (Chariot of Fire)
Turquoise Brusho
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Salty Ocean)
Brilliance ink by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Doddle Parts clear stamp set by Dylusions
Essential Messages stamp set by Hero Arts
Nail art gems

Thanks for stopping by - hope you get the chance to try out something new, do join us at DCM if you do!

January Elements

Hello, Happy New Year!

Sticking with tradition, the first dare of the month over at Daring Cardmakers is an "elemental" one - choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture to include in your design.

From the picture (it's at the bottom of this post if you haven't already seen it on the DCM blog) I chose the strong green of the foliage, a word spelled out in capitals in a serif font, the tiny heart from the top of the house and the pearlescence of the flowers in the wreath.

The background is a simple water and Brusho splurge. I put a piece of copy paper over while it was still wet and peeled it off which gives those nice marbled lines.

The die cut letters have three shades of Perfect Pearls on there (Perfect Pearl, Gold, Heirloom Gold) but it's subtle enough it was pretty much impossible to capture with a camera!

I made an extra scrap of Brusho background and die cut the tiny hearts from it. I gave them a coat of Wink of Stella which, again, is hard to capture but might be more obvious on the detail shot.

Supplies:
Brusho (Emerald Green and Leaf Green)
Bristol board
Perfect Pearls (Perfect Pearl, Gold, Heirloom Gold)
Font One dies (uppercase) by Spellbinder
Confetti die by Mama Elephant
Wink of Stella pen (clear)
Corner Chomper

Here's the inspiration photo (my green is closer to this sort of green in real life but it didn't want to photograph that way!):

It would be lovely if you joined us for a dare or too this year!


Thanks for stopping by - I wish you all a peaceful 2017.

Figure it out

My dad celebrated a "round number" birthday recently but didn't want to make a big thing of it. So I decided to use number punches rather than featuring BIG numbers on the card!

I started with a loose explosion of turquoise courtesy of some Brusho and stenciled brickwork over the top with white pigment ink. The script is stamped with Distress (which kind of disappears over the pigment ink - nice effect if unexpected!).

The big cog is a couple of die cuts stuck together for a bit of body (I didn't have a chipboard shape of the right size and I don't have a suitable steel rule die to cut my own - if you own the die that cut this cog, you'd be OK to cut your own from something like mountboard).

I used metal stamps and a hammer to emboss dates around the edge of the cog, added a little sand texture paste in some areas and dots between the dates with glue. Once those hardened, I painted the whole thing black and then dry brushed acrylics over that base layer (metallic Espresso and then Bronze) to bring out the textures. The texture paste gives a corroded or rusty texture under the paint which you might be able to see better on the close-up view.

I brushed out excess paint on a bit of scrap card before dry-brushing the cog and that got used to make the matching dots - I just punched/die cut circles and domed them out with a stylus tool. A few tiny turquoise nail art gems, a stamped sentiment and wonky stitching finish it off.
 
I thought this would still fit the current That's Crafty challenge which is to use numbers/figures on your project, even though the numbers are fairly subtle rather than in your face. Lots of the supplies I used are available from That's Crafty, too!

Stamps:
19th Century French Script and Essential Messages by Hero Arts

Paper: Bristol Board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Blueprint Sketch)
Adirondack pigment ink by Ranger (Snowcap)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Tuxedo Black)

Other:
Brusho (Turquoise)
Dutch Dubadoo stencil (Bricks)
Cog die cuts
Metal punches
Decoart acrylic paints (Black,  Metallic Espresso, Bronze)
Decoart Texturizing paste (the sand ones in the current Media range would be perfect)
Nail art gems
Sewing machine and thread 

Thanks for stopping by!

More Brushos!

I needed a card for a friend with a Christmas birthday - her favourite flowers are poppies so this still looks a bit Christmassy because of the red/green combo and it would be easy to substitute a poinsettia if you were that way inclined.

I played with Brusho again to make the background, stenciling over the top after it was dry for a bit of subtle "texture" and to tie it together a bit. The poppy is coloured with Copics with layers cut out and stacked for a bit of dimension.

Stamps:
Poppycock by Indigo Blu
Sentiment from Say It All by Hero Arts

Paper: Bristol Board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Graphite Black
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger - Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint

Other:
Copic markers
Brusho - Leaf Green
Pinflair gel glue
Cressida stencil by Memory Box

Thanks for stopping by!

40th Fly-by

A friend asked me to make a card for her son's 40th birthday recently. They got him a flying lesson in a Cessna for a gift so she wanted a plane on there if possible.

The plane turned out to be an accent rather than a feature but I find you can't try to dictate too much of what happens at the craft table and this is what happened!

I'm late to the Brusho party but my parents bought me some for my birthday (thanks Mum and Dad!) and this is my first little play with them - just a simple sprinkled background with two colours (Ultra Marine and Turquoise).

I heat embossed the 40 so it would resist the Brusho colour. I also masked the tickets - I obviously didn't do a brilliant job of that in terms of resisting the colour but I decided I quite liked the arty look that accidentally emerged and ran with it rather than trying again! I used a very light Copic marker to tie them together a bit.

I added some "depth" to elements with a fineliner pen and some smudged charcoal pencil and the wee stamped plane is cut out and raised on a bit of dimensional glue.  I stamped it directly onto the card first so that the squiggly "trail" lines would be there, too.

My friend seemed extremely pleased with it which is the main thing - I hope her son liked it too!

Stamps:
Plane and ticket from Explore by Craft Secrets (retired)
A&P Numbers by Ma Vinvi's Reliquary (retired)
Essential Messages by Hero Arts

Paper:
Hot press watercolour
Black
Laid textured white

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko Graphite Black 

Other:
Brusho - Ultra Marine and Turquoise
Bright White embossing powder by Wow
Copic marker
Fineline marker
Charcoal pencil
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!