February elements

It’s the first Friday of the month so it must be an elemental challenge over at Daring Cardmakers - my turn to host and I’ve taken inspiration from the month to put together our inspiration photo.  Violet and amethyst are February’s flower and gemstone, it’s usually cold and wet so curling up with a book is a good option but thoughts are starting to turn to gardening or beach walks if you’re lucky enough to live close to one. 

As usual, choose at least three elements from the picture to kick start your project. I chose a shell, book text, amethyst colour gems and a “hello” sentiment. 

I stamped the shell on the book page (taken from a book that was too shabby to give to a charity shop when we did a cull recently), painted over with gesso then stamped again once dry and shaded with Copic markers. I did try a version without the gesso but the detail of the stamp didn’t work well with the text showing through. 

Stamps:
Coquillage #2 (Carabelle Studio)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board
Old book page

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Wilted Violet)

Other:
Copic markers
Gesso
Cressida stencil
Nail art gems

Here's the inspiration photo for February:

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are keepign safe and well.

Link in the chain - December!

The Card Chain Challenge didn’t take its usual December break - 2020 was such a strange year that Gail and Jo decided to do a special challenge for December. The traditional format did get a break though and we got a tic-tac-toe board to play with. My card has gone to Mia in Greece this time.

Since it’s an extra challenge I thought I’d go the extra mile and play for a full house, although I confess it was partly that I was having trouble deciding which line to go for!

I thought a vintage photo might be a good way to incorporate black and white so decided to go down the collage route. This group having fun paddling in the river seemed like they’d hit the friendship theme too. I’m imagining they’ve just finished a lovely picnic on the sunny riverbank and they’re cooling off. There’s some watery ink dribbled on the card base as background colour and then some stencilling, some stamping, torn washi tape (I tore one piece in half to get two skinny pieces in case just tearing the ends seemed like too much cheating for the torn edges element!) and a bit of embossed trim and I think I managed to hit all the grid squares.

Stamps:
Bird Notes and Queen Bee (both Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)
Sentiment and bubbles/dots from Layering Octopus (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board
Premium weight copy paper (to print the photo)

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed) and Oxide (Blueprint Sketch)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Vintage photo downloaded from The Graphics Fairy
Washi tape
Star Trim Embosslit and Mixed Media 1 dies (Sizzix)
Copic markers
White paint pen by Posca
Clear Wink of Stella pen

Happy New Year to all - here’s hoping that 2021 will be kinder than 2020.

Take a break

We have a challenge from Enfys over at Daring Cardmakers today - she'd like to see something you associate with a morning break. Coffee, tea, biscuits, cakes - what do you have mid morning?

I'm likely as not to choose a cup of tea if I'm at home. If I'm out and about I might go for a cafe latte but even then it might well be tea, usually Earl Grey and no milk!

This set is perhaps more of an afternoon tea image but they're pretty stamps and I'd be happy to see a tea pot like this one at a morning break - it's usually a much more prosaic mug around here!

The tea pot is stamped on the die cut and the rest of the images are stamped and cut out with the coordinating dies then popped up at various levels with some gel glue. The spoon has some Wink of Stella on there for a bit of metallic sheen.

Stamps:
Tea Time (stamp and die set by Graphic 45/Hampton Arts)

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Hioltz Distress ink by Ranger (Bundled Sage)

Other:
Lables 20 Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Copic markers
Charcoal pencil
Pinflair glue gel
Piercing tool
Wink of Stella clear pen
Jamara embossing folder by Cuttlebug

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn birthday

My (big) brother's birthday was earlier this week - I get to claim he's four years older than me for the next couple of months!

I went sort of vintage collage for this, having sat down with very little idea of what to do! Men are never that easy to make cards for, are they? Men with little by way of "theme" hobbies are particularly difficult! I probably should have used some woodgrain somewhere now I think of it (he's always been good with wood and even has a lathe for turning although he's not used it for ages).

I did add his age since it's a "round number" birthday but tried not to make it too much of a dominant feature.

I sponged various orange/red/rust/yellow shades of ink onto some mixed media paper to die cut the leaves - the thickness and texture of the paper means that it shows the embossed veining nicely.

Stamps:
19th Century French Script, Past Times, Essential Messages (all Hero Arts)
A&P Numbers (Ma Vinci's Reliquary, retired)

Paper:
Hanemuhl Bamboo Mixed Media paper
White and bitter chocolate card

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Barn Door, Rusty Hinge, Fired Brick, Mustard Seed)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Leaves dies by Impression Obsession
Film Strip ribbon (Tim Holtz)
Industrious Stickers - Borders (Tim Holtz)
Copic marker

Thanks for stopping by!

Play until the sun goes down

I've been so busy with work just lately I've had very little time for crafting or blogging. I was feeling a little stir-crazy though so I made time for a bit of inkiness on Friday!

The current challenge in the Crafty Secrets member forum over at Splitcoast Stampers is being hosted by Cyntia and she's asked us to use orange on our projects.

I've made a sunset by sponging inks through a hole cut with a Nestie for these delightful silhouetted children to play in - even the dog is joining in and having fun before somebody shouts "Time for bed!"

The figures in this set are separate so you can change up the look of the group by putting them in a different order, repeating some or missing some out. I think it's a really sweet little set.

I added sparkle to the sunburst above their heads with a Spica pen.

Stamps:
Vintage Silhouettes (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Smooth white
Black

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Spice Marmalade, Fired Brick, Antique Linen)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Spica glitter pen (red)
Nestabilities by Spellbinder Large Circles
Silk ribbon
Stick pin
Tracing wheel
Score- It
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas ornament

I'm hosting this week's challenge in the Crafty Secrets member forum at Splitcoast Stampers and I'm asking people to use squares in their projects.

I've opted to use the square as my card base and added another to my stash of Christmas cards.

This is one of those projects that looks better in real life than you can manage to capture with a photo! The ornament is coated in glitter above and below the banner area and the little gems to represent lights on the tree really do glow if you catch the sun right! Those are things that tend to show with movement I guess and a still photo leaves it to your imagination to fill in!

I like to do "all one stamp set" projects sometimes rather than pulling in stuff from several sets and/or makers - it makes you focus on how versatile the elements of a set can be! I used four of the stamps in the set here - the elegant ornament, the separate sentiment banner that fits on to it, the snowflake for subtle background pattern and the fir sprig to build up the overhanging branch at the top.

Stamps:
Christmas Joy (Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Dark red
Gold

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko
Versafine by Tsukineko (Olympia Green)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Detail gold embossing powder
Glamour Dust glitter (Crystal)
Gems
Memento marker (Cottage Ivy)
Wire
Foam dots
Gold gel pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Enjoy the journey

Embracing wrinkles is not something that comes naturally to many a 40-something but it's exactly what Marcy asked us to do for a recent challenge in the Crafty Secrets member forum at Splitcoast Stampers.

I had fun scrunching, twisting and generally abusing a piece of kraft cardstock to get it really good and wrinkled. I then brayered Latte ink over it to produce a nice leathery-looking piece to use as my background for a little collage.

I think this little boy grew up with an interest in natural history - he has a leaf skeleton, a fossilised seahorse and a star in his collection of treasures. The seahorse has been in my collection of random embellishments for an age - I made it from paper mache in a mould.

Stamps:
Journey and Artsy Banners (both Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Kraft and Cryogen white

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukinkeo (Vintage Sepia, Onyx Black)
Adirondack by Ranger (Latte)

Other:
Vintage photo (unknown maker - still using up stuff from my 2009 Secret Santa parcel from Caroline!)
Paper mache seahorse
Skeleton leaf
Star nailhead
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

Advice to the Young

There's a competition over on UK Stampers at the moment with a lovely stampy prize - why not take a look and see if you fancy joining in? You can find all the details here.

Entries have to include at least two items from a list of six ingredients (ribbon, lace, fabric, pins, glitter, vintage photo) and be in a vintage style.

I sat down with no idea at all what I was going to make except that I knew I fancied making a ribbon rose. I started by colouring a length of white silk ribbon with a Copic marker to make my flower. I then faffed and fiddled without much joy until I started looking around the craft room in search of new playthings and spotted a little frame that has probably been in my box of bits for a decade or so! I suspect it was in an IKEA multipack but I wouldn't swear to it.

I dyed the frame with my Espresso ink pad and then applied some gold Rub n Buff with a stiff bristled brush to give a shabby, hit and miss kind of finish before gluing a length of lace along the bottom.

I stamped clock faces and text onto a piece of card and popped that into the frame, leaving the glass out. The little girl is from a printed sheet that Caroline gave me in my "secret Santa" advent package back in 2009! The ribbon flower and a couple of pins finish the embellishment cluster. The sentiment is stamped onto a strip of cardstock and then curved.

It took a while to come together since I was working with no clear idea of what I wanted to achieve but I'm quite pleased with it!

Stamps:
Time to Stamp (CHF, retired)
Artsy Banners (Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Cryogen white

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Natural wooden frame
Silk ribbon
Lace
Pins
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Gold Leaf)
Vintage photo (unknown maker - thanks to Caroline though!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday poppies

I'm sharing the birthday card I made for my mum today - happy birthday Mum!

I'm also hosting the challenge at the Crafty Secrets member forum over at Splitcoast stampers and I'm asking players to use something pearly on their projects. I've used a pearlescent cardstock and lots of little pearls along the top of the lace trim.

This is a slightly larger size than I usually do at 7" x 5" but the poppy stamp is substantial enough to carry it. I coloured and cut out the third poppy head so that I could make it overlap the tip of the sentiment panel.

Stamps:
Poppy plus sentiment from Sweet Kids set (both Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Dark red

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Vintage Photo)

Other:
Copic markers
Vintage lace
Pearls
Nestabilities Labels four
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

Little reader

I'm combining challenges again today - Effie is providing a fortnightly sketch over on UKStampers (this is number 6) and in the Crafty Secrets member forum at Splitocoast Stampers, Marcy has challenged us to layer up our images this week.

Here I've layered the hands onto the book, the book onto the little reader and the little reader onto the stack of books (so four images all together). I used scraps of card between each layer so there's a little dimension but not too much. Perhaps it's because I have always been an avid reader myself that this is one one of my favourite stamps ever!

There's a lady in my area who runs a little enterprise called "What Katy did next". She sells lots of recyled stuff aimed at the crafter - one of the things she does is rescue pages from books that are not fit for resale through charity shops etc and puts them together into packs of 50 assorted pages. You could get anything from Beano album pages through sheet music and atlas pages! My pack had quite a few children's story book pages and I've used one of them here. I rubbed gesso onto the page with my finger (using a Nestie as a stencil) and doodled a border round it to create a little "story world" for him.

Mats and decorative strips are all coloured with Copics to match the colours I used on the image.

Stamps:
Story of Me (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Old book page
Smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Copic Markers
Tim Holtz Alterations die by Sizzix (Brackets)
Vintage buttons
Gesso
Nestability by Spellbinder (used as stencil)
Zig drawing pen
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

Perfect Together

Paper Crafts magazines produces several special issues each year. Currently available is Stamp It! Techniques. Designers were asked to submit projects featuring one of several popular stamping techniques (paper piecing, heat embossing etc). This card was accepted for the masking section and features on p.56 of the magazine.

Masking was probably the first technique I encountered that made me squeal with excitement. I still get a childish thrill every time I peel away the mask and see the way objects are built up into little scenes! So here, I have a single shaker pot stamp - it was stamped first on the right, masked and stamped again on the left. Once the mask is peeled away, the object you stamped second appears to be behind the first one. The S and P are separate stamps so you can do those as finishing touches.

The instructions printed in the magazine are not quite what I wrote with my submission since they say to "mask with cardstock". Cardstock is not the best choice of material if you're making a mask - you want something thin (Post It notes are ideal) so that your stamp makes proper contact at the edge of the mask and you don't end up with a halo of white space around the image you stamped first. Of course there might be occasions where you want that slight blank space but if you want the effect shown here, choose something thin to make your mask.

I also stamped the lace edging directly onto the card base and just coloured underneath with a black marker - saves the fiddly cutting out!

Stamps:
Kitchen Classics (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Cryogen White
Radiant paper pad (Heartwarming Vintage by Crafty Secrets)

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Time Holtz Distress Ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Memento markers by Tsukineko
Labels Eight Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Scor It!
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a heart

The challenge this week in the Crafty Secrets member forum over at Splitcoaststampers is to "have a heart". I started off with the little heart from the French Mail set stamped in to the banner triangles and built from there. The heart frame was a last minute addition after the card was "finished" but not looking quite complete somehow!

The wording is pulled from the same stamp I used to stamp the base card, I just snipped out the individual words, with"childhood" in red and the rest in Espresso.

A change of pace from the clean and simple projects I seem to have been doing of late!

Stamps:
Artsy Banners and French Mail (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Cryogen White
Deark red
Homemade Image and Journal booklet (Crafty Secrets)

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Satin Red)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread
Chipboard heart frame (Crafty Secrets)
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Gold Leaf)
Copic marker (to dull down the part of the picture outside the frame)

Thanks for stopping by!

Vintage riches

I'm trying to get back in to a bit of crafting and blogging but being hampered by damaged fingers - ouch! This card took ages and to top it all it's one of those projects that looks so much better in real life and just refuses to photograph well! Never mind, I decided to share anyway so that I could wish you all a Happy New Year!

This week's challenge in the Crafty Secrets member forum at Splitcoaststampers is to use up some leftovers. If you're a regular visitor you may have realised I don't use patterened paper very often so most of the leftovers on this project are things other than paper!

I did sacrifice a 3.5" square of my favourite ever Crafty Secrets paper that I've been carefully hoarding, having tucked it back into the stack after being trimmed off an earlier project. I then restricted myself to things that were lying around on my desk, some made as experiments or intended for other projects and then not used in the end, others just offcuts of trimmings etc (and yes, my desk is very messy - lots to choose from!). Even the dark red cardstock has some trial stamping and embossing on the back of it! I stamped on the biggest flower with the same script stamp as the little plaque to tie it together and used Copic markers to alter the colour of flowers and brads etc where necessary!

Stamps:
Artsy Banners (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Dark red (Paper Mill)
Radiant paper pad (Crafty Secrets)
Scrap mountboard (cut with a Cutlebug square tag die)

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

Other:
Sewing machine and thread
Crystal chain from broken necklace
Paper flowers (including one coloured with Glimmer Mist)
Cog die cut
Snowflake punchie
Brads
Brass star charm
Silk ribbon

Thanks for stopping by - I hope 2011 brings you big highs, small lows and boundless creativity!

Heart's Treasures

One of the stamp sets Sandy was sweet enough to send me from Crafty Secrets recently was "Artsy Banners". This is a great selection of mix 'n match stamps but of course me being me I started by reading the text that makes up the border stamps! I can't manage to read the script one (used as a background here by repeat stamping it) but the typewriter style one is made up of some lovely quotes. I decided to pull one out and use it as a feature of the design by snipping out the individual words and sticking them down.

The vintage photo of the child is one that came in my secret Santa package from Caroline last year so I'm not sure of the source - I think it was probably part of a Bubbly Funk kit.

Stamps:
Artsy Banners (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Smooth white
Kraft
Black

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo, Victorian Velvet)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Vintage photo print
Pin
Pink grosgrain ribbon

Thanks for stopping by!

Cherish the moments

I like to find different ways to use the stamps in my collection and I've been having some fun looking for images that will work on inchies, even though they're not designed with that format in mind.

Lots of the images in the Baby Dear set lend themselves to an inchie treatment and it changes the look of them significantly. This sweet image of a mother enjoying smiles with her little one is actually circular if you just stamp and go. To switch up the look by making it into an inchie try cutting or punching a one inch square in a piece of scrap paper and laying the square hole over your stamped image to select the portion you want.

Some DCWV cardstock in a pretty duck egg shade with a strong contrast (chocolate brown) makes for a quick and easy vintage look, especially if you sand lightly round the edges and finish off with some silk ribbon!

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

Paper:
Simply Heavy Chocolate
Simply Smooth White
DCWV white core

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite black)
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
copic markers
Silk ribbon
Edge punch by Fiskars (Threading Water)

You may have heard already but Liz and Richard, owners of Cornish Heritage Farms, have decided to move on. The business is up for sale and while the hunt for a buyer is on, they'll be running down their levels of stock and offering some discounts as the weeks wear on. You can find full details of what's happening here if you'd like them. I hope you'll join me in wishing Liz and Richard every success in whatever adventure they embark on next and in hoping that there'll be a buyer for CHF who will carry the catalogue forward and bounce to even higher rubber heights!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Keep moving!

Remember learning to ride a bike? How many people had their dad running behind them with a broom handle lashed to the back? And who resisted the temptation to look behind and make sure he was still holding on?!

I wanted to capture that wobble with one of the vintage style bikes in the "Bicycle life" stamp set and pair it up with the great quote from Albert Einstein (also in the set) - Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. I stamped on a copper plant label for an authentic metal look. The wobble comes courtesy of a spring - this is the sort know as an "expansion spring" and it's quite stable until you give it a little push!

I thought it would be a shame not to demonstrate the full daft potential of this (I confess to being easily amused but I could play with this for hours!) so I challenged myself to learn how to use the video function on hubby's phone and here is my very first movie. OK, so I'm not about to win any Oscars for direction or cinematography but I hope it makes you smile!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Bicycle Life (All Things Considered line - releasing Tuesday 15 Feb)
Textured Harlequin backgrounder

Paper:
Simply Kraft and Simply Heavy Black (CHF)

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Stazon by Tsukineko (Jet Black)

Other:
Fiskars circle cutter
Copper plant label
Heavy cardboard tube (mine was the inner from a ball of fancy yarn)
Spring



Thanks for stopping by - hope your day is not too wobbly!

Getting inky!

I've not had much chance to get inky for a while so I thought I'd make up for it and really slosh the stuff around when I did manage to grab a short crafty session a few days ago!

I smooshed three Distress inks onto a non-stick sheet, spritzed with water and dunked a chippie ATC directly on there to soak up the colour. Vintage ledger lines provided some interest and then the rest is just overstamped in black with various images from the same set.

Those gear wheels are done using a technique I saw on Julia Andrus' web site - triple emboss a die cut shape and while the embossing is still warm (but not too hot - watch your fingers!) rub some Perfect Pearls on there. The Pearls will bond to the molten embossing powder and give you a great metallic sheen - I used Heirloom Gold powder over black embossing here.

Dots of Glossy Accents over the letters of TRAIN made them look a bit like buttons on a control panel, I thought.

So while I had the set out, I thought I might as well make full use of it! I made these fridge magnets by die cutting circles from stamped images, sponging with ink and covering with Glossy Accents. When dry, I flexed them a bit for a cracked glass effect and then stuck them to magnets.

Stamps for both projects (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Train Timetable set (Baltimore & Ohio Railroad line - releasing Tuesday 15th December)

ATC additional supplies:
Vintage Ledger Scrapblock
White chipboard ATC
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo)
Versafine by Tsukinkeo (Onyx Black)
Glossy Accents
Perfect Pearls (Heirloom Gold)
Gears #1 die (Thincuts by Accucut)

Magnets additional supplies:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Glossy Accents
Magnets
Classic Circle Nestabilites by Spellbinder

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are finding time to craft too!

No snowflakes or mittens!

The challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week has been set by Kathy who wants us to pull out a few of our favourite things to make a card! I've avoided the Julie Andrews route though!

So... you may have noticed I like to stamp :) I also love vintage images and my favourite colours are at the blue-green end of the spectrum.

I like lace, especially if it's vintage or "rescued" from clothing etc and I often sew on my cards as I love the textural interest it brings.

Teeny tiny gems intended for acrylic nail art tend to find their way onto my project when I want a bit of bling that's not too in your face.

Add in colouring with Copics and adding subtle pattern to the card base (in this case with Perfect Pearls over a black base, just at the bottom of the card - you'll probably have to click through to the larger view to be able to see it) and I think I'm over Kathy's quota of at least five things.

Just for good measure, I added something I don't often do but is a fave when I see it on other people's work (Kaz was the first person I was conscious of noticing it on) and that's the little tea rose threaded through the Prima.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Leopard and Beauty (Saturday Evening Post line - releasing 27th October)
Ornamental Beauty (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth
Teal Medium (Prism Papers)
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Vintage lace
Prima flower
Tea rose
Perfect Pearls (Blue Patina)
Acrylic nail art gems
Sewing machine and metallic thread

Thanks for visiting, hope I managed to include some of your favourites, too!

I believe in Santa Claus!

Happy World Card Making Day! I decided to go back to vintage for my final offering on the WCMD blog tour. If you're new to my blog, the last 12 days have all been holiday projects for the blog tour so feel free to stick around and browse for a while if you have a little time!

I think this Santa is quite possibly my favourite Christmas stamp ever! He originally appeared on the cover of the Christmas edition of the Saturday Evening Post in 1923 and is the creation of the artist J C Leyendecker. I used a cropped version of the stamp in the card I posted last Friday but I thought I'd go the whole hog and make him the centre of attention here.

I used two stamps from the Primitive Christmas set here too - the sentiment and then the snow dots which I used to make a subtle pattern on the card base by stamping off first and then stamping the fainter impression with Vintage Photo ink.

This is a larger format card (7" x 5") to really show off the image and I used Cryogen White for the subtle shimmer it gives. Copics work nicely on it too.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Santa's Lap (Saturday Evening Post line)
Primitive Christmas (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Cryogen White

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Copic markers
Labels Four Nestabilties by Spellbinder
Gingham ribbon
Sewing machine and thread

Don't forget the coupon code if you're going shopping at the PaperCrafts/CK store - it's valid until October 12th. The link and code are in the side bar on the left if you'd like them.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you get some creative time too!

Postcard to the stars

I'm just squeaking in on this week's Something Completely Different challenge. July's object is the postcard (6" x 4") and Gez has chosen this week's theme of "vintage". This is not at all what I planned to do when I sat down but sometimes things just happen, don't they?

I love this quote from Galileo - "I've loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night" and find it especially poignant as Galileo lost his sight in later life. I am lucky enough to live in an area of the UK with relatively little light pollution so we really do have a great view of the stars, even the Milky Way sometimes and we also love the stars fondly.

I hope the star map and the fantastically complex telescope qualify as vintage! In keeping with the postcard theme (at least my thinking of it) I kept the layers and embellishments to a minimum - there's just the torn scrap of vellum for the sentiment and the cut out star other than the base layer. The Scrapblock was perfect here - being a 6" x 6" stamp meant that I could do the whole width of the postcard and have the map go all the way to the edges :o)

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Reach 4 the Stars (Rummage Bin line)
Astronomy Scrapblock
Postcard and cancellation mark from Journal Box (Rummage Bin line)

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Stazon by Tsukineko (Jet Black)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Vellum

Other:
Lyra Skintone pencils
Stapler
Copic marker (to tone down the staples)

Thanks for stopping by, if you're wishing upon a star, I hope your wish is granted!