New leaf?

It's challenge time at Tando Creative and our theme this month is "Green and Yellow".

I've made a simple canvas this month. I used watercolour crayons in shades of green and yellow to scribble directly onto the canvas and blended with gesso.

I sponged ink over the Random Circles mask and then stamped the leaves. I used green and yellow acrylic paint to paint over the stamping and left all but one of them as basic shapes. On the last one, I added some veining with dark brown paint and also scratched through the layers of paint with a pin and finally added a drop shadow with the brown paint.

The chipboard domino is triple embossed with a word stamp pressed in and then picked out with some more acrylic paint.

Stamps:
Falling Leaves (Stampers Anonymous)
Imagine (The Artistic Stamper)

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Lettuce)
Versamark

Other:
Random Circles mask (Tando Creative)
Chipboard domino (Tando Creative)
Canvas
Acrylic paint
Gesso
UTEE
Caran d'Ache watercolour crayons

Thanks for stopping by! If you fancy having a play with this springtime colour combo we'd love to have you join us and if your project is picked in the random draw at the end of the month you can pick out a lovely Tando prize! Challenge details here.

Household flower!

Papercrafts magazine is celebrating its Pratical Solutions for Papercrafters special issue this week with a whole bunch of challenges on Cath Edvalson's Moxie Fab blog.

I thought I'd play along in the "Household Items" challenge and made this card.

I've used two household items - a facial tissue and kitchen foil.

The foil was simply stuck to some cardstock and embossed with a Spellbinder folder. I scribbled over with a pink Copic marker and then sanded to give a sort of brushed metal look with a hint of pink in the low spots.

The sentiment is heat embossed in silver to go with the foil.

I remember making piles of flowers from coloured tissues when I was a kid to decorate a village carnival float. We must have been pretty sure it wasn't going to rain!

This is a smaller version of those flowers - I started by cutting strips about 2" wide from a tissue and then layered, concertina folded and wired in the middle of the strip. I rounded the petal ends, ran a marker around them and then carefully separated the layers to make a fluffy bloom. The centre is Glossy Accents with some nail art microbeads sprinkled on.

Stamps: Say it Loud (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper: White, Bitter chocolate, Facial tissue

Ink: Versamark

Other:
Detail silver embossing powder
Memento marker (Angel Pink)
Nail art microbeads
Kitchen foil
Copic marker (Tender Pink)
Spellbinder M-bossabilities folder (So Trendy)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by - why not check out the Moxie Fab blog for some great pratical challenges?! (Deadline is 9th April and you'll find all the challenges listed on the right hand side of the blog).

Inspired by Klimt

Our challenge for March over on UKStampers is to take inspiration from a modern (fairly abstract) painter and alter something.

I've altered a chipboard domino to make a pendant inspired by Gustav Klimt. I didn't look at a particular work of his, I just worked on my association of him with rich green and gold and fluid curved lines.

I didn't have black UTEE which is the ideal for this "faux cloisonne" technique so I used three coats of clear with black pigment ink and then a coat of black detail embossing powder just to make sure! The final surface is coated with Versamark and dusted with a couple of colours of Perfect Pearls, reheated to melt before pressing the stamp into the soft surface.

Once it was cool, I used a Versamark pen and added a little more Perfect Pearls to a few circles. I gave the whole thing a couple of coats of Klear floor polish to give it some sheen. This is take two - the first one had a coat of Glossy Accents on it which I left to dry overnight. This morning it was cloudy in the middle and had deep splits in three or four places - I guess it didn't like the non-porous surface!

The edges and the back are finished with gold acrylic paint and I rounded the corners with the ⅛th inch Corner Chomper.

Stamps: Bubble Border (Lost Coast Designs)
Paper: Chipboard domino by Tando Creative
Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Other:
Clear UTEE by Ranger
Detail black embossing powder
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Forever Green and Sunflower Sparkle)
Gold acrylic paint
Versamark pen and fine paint brush
Corner Chomper
Klear floor polish
Jewellery findings

Thanks for stopping by!

Against the tide

I'm just sneaking under the wire with a postcard for this month's swap on UKStampers. Our theme this month is "windows".

I went for a specialist window - a porthole. It must be on a submarine since there's a fish just outside! The fish is stamped on acetate and painted with Precious Metal paint and then flipped so you can see the detail of the stamping. The base is metallic silver which made it hard to photograph since I either got glare off the acetate or the silver bleached out to white!

I've layered up the piece painted with silver acrylic with a die cut hole, the stamped acetate and a piece painted with various turquoise acrylic paints for the background. A ring cut with Nesties makes the porthole frame and I made dots with glue for rivets and let them dry hard before painting. I used some pewter Perfect Pearls to add streaks to age things a bit.

The wording is done by printing onto the shiny side of a transparency sheet with an inkjet printer, laying it onto the painted surface and then burnishing with a wooden stick. You need to remember to print wording in mirror image if you do this but it works well, particularly for a slightly grungy look where you don't need a super crisp result!

A quick spray with Krylon Matt sealant to give it a bit of protection and it's done.

Stamps:
Under the Sea (Darkroom Door)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Paper:
Smooth white
Acetate sheet

Other:
Class ic Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Acrylic paints (silver and various turquoise blues)
Precious Metal paint by Viva Decor (Pearl and Azure)Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Pewter)

Thanks for stopping by - hope your weekend is a good one!

Paris Birthday

Waltzingmouse Stamps recently released a whole bunch of new sets and I may have been tempted into buying one or two!

My first project with them was this birthday card for somebody who spent time in Paris as a nanny in an earlier phase of her life! The graphic style of this Eiffel Tower stamp is great and there are so many elements in the set to mix and match. I used the Art Nouveau border stamp to create a little strip of patterned paper and trimmed round the bottom to shape it round the pattern.

I hand cut the label shape and its mat too - I don't own Spellbinder Labels 25 which is what it's designed to coordinate with but it's a pretty easy shape to hand cut.

Stamps:
Paris Nouveau and sentiment from Say it Loud (both Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper:
White and black

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Pool and Stream)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers

Thanks for stopping by!

Floral gift tag

Here's another guest project for the Chocolate Baroque Design Team blog.

While I had the Copic and Prismacolor pencils out to color the image on the seed packet I shared last week {here if you didn't see it and would like to}, I also coloured the floral spray from the Fragrant Honeysuckle set and turned it into a pretty tag. I think this would be a lovely addition to a gift of a bunch of flowers - perhaps for Mothers Day?

I stamped and cut out with a Beaded Oval Nestability die and then carefully cut the beads off, cutting round the flower head and leaves that extended beyond the basic oval shape. I coloured the image with Copics and Prismacolor pencils and then sponged ink round the edge. I stuck the coloured piece onto a second beaded oval die cut and finished with a simple ribbon at the top.

I used a Copic marker to colour white silk ribbon on this and the seed packet project - it's a great way to get a match for the colours in your image.

Stamps:
Fragrant Honeysuckle (Chocolate Baroque)

Paper:
Cryogen White

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Jenni Bowlin ink by Ranger (Soap Powder)

Other:
Copic markers
Prismacolor pencils
Beaded Ovals Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Silk ribbon

Thanks for stopping by today!

Spring flowers

It's time for my contribution to Tando's March challenge where the theme this month is SPRING! We'd like to see an actual spring or two in your work.

I immediately thought of spring flowers (I'm always one for a pun if there's one to be had!). My flowers are mounted on springs from a big selection box I keep with my crafty supplies on the basis they might come in useful. I then added extra springiness by coiling green craft wire to make some foliage for my arrangement.

The "vase" for my flowers is actually one of the shapes from the hot air balloon set. I added a small cog (this really is just one cog, I split the thickness in two as I didn't need it to be as substantial as Tando chippie always is) and painted with silver acrylic paint. Before the paint was fully dry, I pressed scrunched up kitchen foil over it to texture it. A bit of watered down black acrylic paint gave it the final touch.

The piece has a little stand at the base that's made with epoxy repair putty - super-useful stuff! You can usually find it in the pound shop too so it won't break the bank. I used it to attach the springs to the piece as well as it's strong and easy to press objects into when they're a tricky shape and/or potentially have a small contact area if you're trying to glue them down.

Supplies:
Hot Air Balloon grab bag and Cogs grab bag (Tando Creative)
Paper flowers
Springs
Green craft wire
Silver and black acrylic paints
Screw head brads
Spellbinder snowflake dies
Epoxy repair putty

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget there's a fab prize up for grabs in a random draw at the end of the month if you fancy putting a spring in your step and joining the challenge - details here.

Seeds of Friendship

I've been playing with some delightful Chocolate Baroque florals - you can see my guest post on the CB Design Team blog here.

I used a computer generated seed packet "framework" along with the stamp. Glenda has made a pdf of the packet available to download, you'll find the link in the blog post if you'd like a quick starting point to make something similar - it's free and includes some instructions for putting the project together.

Here's the inside of the project, an insert with a fold at the bottom that slips into the stamped sleeve. You can stamp a sentiment or handwrite a message to the recipient (or both!) on this. The ribbon through the top keeps it closed as well as looking pretty.

Mine has an actual packet of flower seeds inside as a little gift but you could use it for any small, flat gift item (jewellery, for example, or it would make a good way to dress up a garden centre gift voucher).

Stamps: The Rose Tree (Chocolate Baroque)

Paper: Smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Jenni Bowlin by Ranger (Soap Powder)

Other:
Copic markers
Prismacolor pencils
Computer and printer
Silk ribbon
Circle punch

Thanks for stopping by - do take a look at the Chocolate Baroque Design Team Blog if you get chance, there's lots of inspiration there!

Weathered copper poppies!

I spotted the latest Gingersnap Creations challenge - use a faux technique - through Jean's blog and it gave me the kick I needed to do something a bit special for a background on a birthday card. I actually used the same faux technique as Jean had chosen for her card - faux verdigris copper - as textural stuff always looks good and in this case the colour contrast was perfect with the bright poppies. I didn't have any copper paint in my stash but I did have a copper Krylon leafing pen so I used that to colour my embossed cardstock before giving it the treatment with acrylic paint (I used little tubes, not dabbers and used two greens plus a blue) and gesso. A tiny bit of metallic rub-on wax on the high spots brought out the pattern a bit more. I coloured my poppies with Copics and trimmed for an "out of the box" panel and to keep with the background I used copper embossing powder to add the sentiment on top of the image. I used a bit of wide cotton crochet lace and some simple matting with dark chocolate cardstock to finish. This is for a neighbour/friend's 70th birthday - I just handed it over and she was very pleased with it. Always nice to see a reaction to your cards and it doesn't happen very often since most are posted! Stamps:
Poppies (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)
Say it Loud (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper: Smooth white and bitter chocolate

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso) Tim Holz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Detail embossing powder (copper)
Couture Creations embossing folder (Tied Together)
Cotton lace
Acrylic paints
Gesso
Metallic rub-ons
Krylon Leafing Pen (copper) Thanks for stopping by!

Warm stripes!

It's been ages since I played at Less is More so I decided to put that right today. This week's theme is "stripes" on a one layer card.

I chose a striped animal as the focus of my card - I love these beautiful zebras! I wanted to make something to send to a friend who slipped on the ice last Thursday, broke his elbow and subsequently had to have surgery on it. Warm colours and African animals was about as far away from ice as I could get!

I stamped the zebras, cut a mask for them from ordinary copy paper with a little Zig two-way adhesive on the back and then used plain paper to mask the strip and sponged with ink.

Just a tiny touch of shading on the zebras with grey Copic, a stamped sentiment and I called it done.

Stamps:
Zebra Pair and sentiment from Common Cold (both CHF, retired)

Paper: Smooth White

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick)

Other: Copic markers (C1 and C3)

Thanks for stopping by!