More Daring L.O.V.E.

As customers were late sending me work, I got a bit of unscheduled play time to have another go with this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge to use the word "love" to make a project by incorporating at least one item that begins with each letter.

I went girly this time with pink and orange and a more floral image. I thought this would be a good card to have on hand to send to anybody who needs a bit of a lift.

One of the things I loved about (the original) CHF was the scrapblocks - 6" square stamps that offered the chance to cover the whole of a cardfront in one go (US card sizes mean that the typical background stamp is slightly short for us Europeans using a standard A6 card and a 6" stamp gets round that issue). Other companies make them now but I think CHF was the first. I pulled out an old one called "love" to use for the "L" on this project and tried to position it so that the word HUGS would be left exposed and other stuff would be guessable if you wanted to go that way!

L - Love Scrapblock stamp
O - Oval and Orange
V - Vases stamp
E - Enamel Accents

The oval was originally just placed on the card but I felt it needed a bit of accentuation so I used a charcoal pencil and smudged around it. The colouring on the vases is a mix of watercolouring with Distress inks and Copics.

Stamps:
Love Scrapblock by CHF (retired)
Vases by Serendipity Stamps

Ink: 
Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukineko
Distress Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade

Other:
Oval Framelits Dies by Sizzix
Copic markers
Enamel Accents by Ranger
Charcoal pencil
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Half time oranges...

Actually, they're more like end of game oranges since this is my last chellenge as Guest Designer with Something Completely Different. Thanks for asking me girls - it's been a fun month! This is the last week of making tags and our challenge today is a colour one: orange, blue and brown.

This is one of the very first stamps I bought - it came in a mixed lot of used stamps on eBay. It has a checkerboard border round it but I just trimmed out the central portion with the picture as it was then the perfect width for my tag.

The houndstooth pattern is stamped with a light coloured pigment ink onto a tag which was cut from chocolate coloured cardstock - I like the soft effect this gives. I added some Sakura Glaze pen on the cut piece of orange to give the segments a wet sheen and other than that I think it's self-explanatory!

Stamps:
Oranges by Hampson Arts
Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock (Cornish Heritage Farms if you're in the UK, Bubbly funk has this in stock {here})

Paper:
Simply heavy chocolate
Smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Versacraft by Tsukineko (Sand)

Other:
Copic markers
Sakura glaze pen (orange)
Sewing machine and thread
Extra large eyelet by We R Memory Keepers (antique copper)
Jute twine

Thanks for stopping by!

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!

A hopeful start!

Starting the week with a hopeful outlook is always a good thing, I reckon! There are a couple of new sets in the Sara England line of "emerging" images coming out tomorrow and I thought I'd share a card made with one of them.

I took a fairly clean and simple approach here. Many of these little sets have an image that's sized for an inchie - I've used that starfish image here and teamed it up with one of the sentiments from the set to make a card based on the first Inchie Inkling sketch from a couple of weeks back. A strong horizon line seemed appropriate for the wording so I've stitched on a chocolate brown strip and given it a sense of movement by slanting the end and letting it run off the side of the card.

I added interest to the lower part of the design both by sanding the Coredinations cardstock at the edges and stamping the Life Scrapblock text in an ink colour just a shade darker than the card.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Emerging Turtle set (Sara England line - releasing Tuesday 27 April)
Life Scrapblock

Paper:
Smooth white
Simply heavy chocolate (CHF)
Coredinations
White chipboard inchie

Ink:
Colorbox fluid chalk ink by Clearsnap (Bisque)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread
Sandpaper

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have plenty of reasons to be hopeful this week!

Inchie baby

Inchie Inklings is a blog that's been around for a while but has been sleeping for quite some time as its owner, Ellen Hutson, has been busy with other stuff. 'Mona' Lisa Strahl has just taken on the role of waking it up with regular updates including a weekly sketch challenge. I worked with Mona when she was Art Director at CHF and it's fun to see her indulging her passion for teeny weeny artwork!

Here's my take on the second Inchie Inklings sketch - a vintage baby card. Steering away from blue or pink means you can have some cards on hand for those babies whose gender is unknown before they're born (I think it's much more common in the US for you to know in advance - UK mums seem to opt for a surprise much more often!).

I softened the look of the the chocolate card base by stamping the Fine Houndstooth in sand pigment ink. A really quick and simple card since there's minimal colouring to do and splitting the image over two inchies adds just that little bit extra interest. Thanks for the sketch, Mona!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Baby Dear (Rummage Bin line)
Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock

Paper:
Simply Heavy Chocolate (CHF)
Simply smooth Vanilla (CHF)
Chipboard inchies

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Versacraft by Tsukineko (Sand)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Copic markers
Threading water/Scalloped lace edge punch by Fiskars
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

Bleached out

I've been feeling a bit bleached out this past week - I managed to pick up an awful cough and cold from somewhere so haven't felt much like blogging. It's getting better now though so I thought I'd share a bleached out project with you!

I do like these typographical Scrapblocks - you can use them as a feature in themselves or you can pick and choose elements and use them as individual sentiments just by doing a bit of selective inking. I went for a grungy look here though by doing a bit of bleach stamping with the whole stamp.

You never know quite what you're going to get with this technique as different cardstocks behave differently but this chocolate brown card gave me some interesting, warm and earthy colours. As well as using the bleach as "ink" on the stamp, I swiped some over an extra piece of card using a babywipe to make the panel for the sentiment.

The textural element was a fun little experiment. I have some plastic canvas shapes that I usually use as piercing templates. I used a circle here and spread Ferro into the holes. Once it was dry, I added a little Rub n Buff to the high spots. I think it's made a fun mosaic look! Just remember to wash your plastic canvas promptly to get rid of the Ferro and it will serve you many times over.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Life Scrapblock (releasing Friday 16th April)
Sentiment from Sweet Bee (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Simply Heavy Chocolate (CHF)
Scrap of vanilla

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Bleach
Sewing machine and thread
Ferro paint by Viva Decor (Gold Iron)
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Gold Leaf)
Plastic canvas circle (used as template)

Never a cross word

A pun, just for Kathy! I love all kinds of word games and can remember spending hours playing Scrabble as a child.

When I shared a house with other students while at University, we often had a newspaper crossword on the go, leaving the paper on the kitchen table for everyone to have a go at when they felt like it. Some of those crosswords were on the go for months simply because while we could all do straightforward ones, the cryptic clues were a killer! I've heard that you can train yourself to "think cryptic" and solve even the most fiendish ones though so when I got my hands on the Crossword Scrapblock I thought I'd team it up with this great Edison quote about how hard work rather than inspiration gets you there in the end!

The lovely printed tag came in my Bubbly Funk Forum Secret Santa parcel so thank you to my Santa - Caroline! I trimmed it down a bit to fit my card size (5" x 5") better and to make the butterfly hang over the edge.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Crossword Scrapblock
Motivational Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth Vanilla (CHF)
Tag (unknown - may be K&Co?)

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukinkeo (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Border punch by Fiskars (Threading Water)
Sewing machine and thread
Sprial clip (Creative Impressions)

Thanks for stopping by, hope your day has only crosswords and no cross words!

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!).

Tea for Two?

Tea bag holders make cute little gifts when you want something to give just as a "token". I used these instructions for my holder but turned it so that the ribbon is at the top. The kind of tea bags that come in their own sachets are best for this and they're bulky and light enough that the belly band holds it all together tightly enough that they won't slip out, even though they're pointing downwards.

You can substitute anything you can think of for tea bags in these - how about a couple of After Eight mints or those little squares of Green and Blacks chocolate that often appear in the shops round about Christmas time? You can also make a small square message card and pop that into one of the pockets if you prefer not to write on the insert itself. If you go for heavier contents like chocolate, it's probably best to keep the "book spine" orientation though to make sure nothing falls out!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Domestic Love (All Things Considered line - releasing Tuesday 3 November)
Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock

Paper:
Teal medium, Razzleberry medium (Prism Papers)
Cryogen white
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Pool)

Other:
Copic markers
Copic Multiliner
Fiskars edge punch (Threading Water/Scalloped Lace)
Labels Four Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Gingham ribbon

Thanks for stopping by!

Triple challenge combo time!

Don't you love it when a challenge on its own has you struggling but then something else comes along and you get an idea that combines them? DCM this week asked us to "tartan it up" and I couldn't think of anything tartan in my supplies. Then Lori set this week's Crafty Secrets challenge on Splitcoast to make fabric yo-yos (or other handmade fabric embellie) and it all fell in to place. I figured I might as well throw in a sketch challenge for good measure - lol! The card is based on Kazan's Sketch 36 over on 2 Sketches 4 You.

Unusually for me, the stamping takes a back seat but it's still there :o) This is one of those 5" square cards where you bless the fact you have a 6" square Scrapblock so you can stamp the whole background without piecing anything!

I made the yo yo by cutting a circle with the largest Nestie from the Large Circles set. A tip if you are making these - use big stitches round the edge if you want your yo yo to pull up tight in the centre, small stitches will give you a more open one.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Vintage Ledger Scrapblock
Vintage Christmas Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Christmas Image and Journal booklet (Heartwarming Vintage)
Suede Brown Medium (Prism Papers)
Cryogen White

Ink: Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia - stamped sentiment)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo - sponged edges)

Other:
Tartan fabric from an old shirt
Vintage buttons
Linen thread
Grungeboard Elements by Ranger
Gold carylic paint
Classic Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Sewing machine and thread
Fiskars edge punch (Threading Water/Scalloped Lace)

If you arrived by way of the WCMD blog tour, please feel free to settle in and browse for a while if you have time - the last 10 days or so have all been holiday projects for the WCMD countdown. The PaperCrafts/CK store link and 25% discount coupon code are over in the side bar on the left if you fancy a spot of discounted shopping.

Don't forget to leave a comment on Tuesday's post before midnight tonight if you'd like your name in the hat to win those Kinkade paper packs.

Thanks for stopping by!

A quick gift (maybe for you, too!)

Gift cards are a popular choice for those "hard to buy for" people we all have in our lives. It's nice to dress it up and make it just a bit more personal though and these "pop up" gift card holders are one of my favourite ways to do it. Using the Thomas Kinkade papers means you get a really dressy result without spending a lot of time on it - perfect for the busy Christmas season!

I first saw this little gift card holder as part of a Splitcoaststampers challenge which pointed to the video instructions on the Hero Arts blog.

I warmed up the base with a fine houndstooth pattern (I find it easier to do this before sticking anything together) and then cut a section of one of the Kinkade quad papers with a Nestie to make a panel for the front. I wanted a narrow mat so I ran a blade around the outside of the same Nestie I used to die cut the image. A gold gel pen adds a little definition between the two and a gold embossed stamped sentiment finishes it off.

I punched a slot with a Making Memories slit punch to thread my ribbon through under the image panel.

Inside the holder, I used one of the background papers from the paper pack to make a nice finish. Just cut strips of 4" x 6" and stick them in place. I stitched a punched strip to one section before sticking it down to make a fancy edging to overlap the gift card. I've left it with no stamping or other images so there's plenty of space to write a personal message.

I didn't have a gift card for the photograph so that's my National Trust membership card posing as a "body double"!

If you watch the Hero Arts video, you might notice that my gift card is portrait orientation and theirs is landscape - either will work just fine as long as you cut the slit to the appropriate size, I just happen to like the proportions this way round.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock
Vintage Christmas Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Winter Wonderland paper pack (Thomas Kinkade line at CHF - see below for a chance to get one for yourself!)
Stormy Light and Medium (Prism Papers)

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Slate)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Detail gold embossing powder
Silk ribbon
Labels One Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Gold gel pen
Slot punch (Making Memories)
Border punch by Fiskars (Threading Water/Scalloped Lace)
Sewing machine and thread

Want the papers?

As well as this being a quick gift you could make, I have a quick gift for somebody today. I have a pack each of Winter Wonderland and Victorian Christmas papers from the Thomas Kinkade line to give away. Each pack has four different Kinkade pictures on a full size (8" x 8") piece, four quad sheets (parts of the picture scaled down onto quarters of the sheet) and two sheets each of four different coordinating background designs for a total of 16 sheets in each pack.

Just leave me a comment if you would like to go into the virtual hat - I'll close commenting at midnight Wednesday 30th September and pick out a name to receive the two packs. I'm happy to ship anywhere.

Thanks for stopping by on the continuing WCMD blog tour, I appreciate you taking the time!

Bits and pieces...

Paper piecing is not something I do very often but it is a fun technique! It's also the challenge for week two of the CHF Summer Stamping Star contest so I thought I'd show you a recent paper pieced card. Of course, the patterned paper phobia struck again and I basically created my own! In my head paper piecing goes hand in hand with the Clean and Simple look for some reason, so it's a CAS card today... I stamped the tree top twice on green paper from the Scrapblock pack then cut out three of the clusters and pressed them onto the Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock. I left tabs on the base of the two higher pieces when I cut them out and cut corresponding slots in the base tree so the tops of the patterned piece are free of the base for a bit of dimension. The trunk was cut separately from a piece of brown cardstock and stamped with the Wood Grain backgrounder. I used my home made stamp positioner (a handful of Lego bricks made into a right angle and a piece of clear card sheet) to split the sentiment over two lines to suit the shape of the card better. Stamps: Summer Trees (Kim Hughes Collection) Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock Woodgrain backgrounder Friend Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line) Paper: Scrapblock Layers (CHF) Smooth white Scrap of unknown brown Ink: Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso) Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Shabby Shutters and Weathered Wood) Other: Stamp positioner Craft knife Detail scissors If you played along, thanks for joining us in week one of the contest - we've had some wonderful coloured creations! Hope to see you again this week (check out the details by clicking on the Will It Be You logo over on the right if you'd like them). Thanks for dropping by!

When the mists rise...

We've been having a fair amount of misty mornings just recently so this week's Challenge over at CHF seems fitting - Mini Misters! I held out on buying these for ages but bought a pack in a closing down sale a couple of months ago and I love them!

For this card, I made my own 'glimmer mist'. Now don't get me wrong, Glimmer Mists are great but those bottles are quite big really, aren't they? One of the great things about the Ranger Mini Misters is that you can mix up a small quantity of something so you don't get much wastage and you don't have 99.9% of a bottle left at the end of a project that will sit gathering dust until next time.

I added a shot of Spiced Marmalade reinker and a teeny tiny scoop of Gold Perfect Pearls to one mister and topped up with water. I used Fired Brick and Copper Perfect Pearls in the other. I embossed the Fiery Florals with clear embossing powder and then sprayed with the orange mix over most of it then sprayed again with the red to shade deeply down to bottom right. Fun! Of course you can't really see the glimmer here but you can imagine for me, OK? I love the way this kind of embossing resists ink so I added some Spanish Script in Fired Brick for textural interest, too and just wiped over with a facial tissue to take the ink off the embossed areas.

I just love these Scrapblock™ stamps! Where a regular backgrounder means you can do up to 4.5" across, these are 6" square so a 5" x 5" card like this is no problem!

Stamps:
Fiery Floral Scrapblock™
Spanish Script backgrounder
Birthday Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper: smooth white

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Spiced Marmalade pad and reinker, Fired Brick reinker)

Other:
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Gold and Copper)
Clear embossing powder
Flower by Prima
Vintage Lace
Velvet brad by Making Memories

Tools:
Mini Mister by Ranger
Sewing machine and thread

Everyone's busy with festive preparations at the moment but why not stop by and see what Kim and Kristine have created with Mini Misters for today's challenge.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed something that provided a bit of a change of pace from Christmas stuff!