Opulent inchies

It's my mum's birthday today - Happy Birthday Mum! I really struggled with a card for her this year for some reason, three attempts went into the circular file before I decided I'd use this week's sketch from Inchie INKlings and finally made something I felt I could put in an envelope and send!

I was trying for a rich and opulent look here - mums deserve a little luxury every now and again, don't you think? I used gold acrylic paint on the inchies and dry brushed a tiny bit of black on there to give a sort of aged, speckled appearance to the background. The poppies are coloured with Copics - it's a single stamp that was masked and repeated to give me two blooms on the design. I picked up a tiny bit of gold paint on my fingertip and rubbed over the Cuttlebug embossing as well. The base layer has a couple of the stamps from the set stamped in black on the chocolate brown for some subtle pattern.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Botanical Bliss (All Things Considered line)
Cursive Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Simply Heavy Chocolate (CHF)
Simply Linen Natural (CHF)
White chipboard inchies

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Gold acrylic paint
Copic markers
Embossing folder by Cuttlebug (Textile Texture)
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

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)

Way cool!

Masculine cards seem to pose a challenge for most people. I'd probably include myself in that except that in certain moods I'm drawn to clean graphic lines and minimal fuss - qualities that lend themselves well to more masculine projects.

This one throws in a little whimsy as well. I dithered over whether or not to get the "Cool Dudes I" set and in the end I just couldn't resist it for this little tortoise in his shades! All the characters in this set are playing the cool role to the hilt with their sunnies at the fore! Really fast and fun to colour so you can have a card done in no time, too - love that!

I used Coredinations cardstock and did some scoring and sanding for textural interest that kept to the masculine "plainness" of the design.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Cool Dudes I (Tom Fun Collection - releasing Tuesday 6th April)

Paper:
Coredinations
Simply Smooth Vanilla

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Scor-It
Sewing machine and thread
Corner Chomper
Sandpaper

Hope your week is cool! Thanks for stopping by.

Catchin' a wave

If you're a visitor to the Tando Creative blog then you may already know this but if not then I have news to share! Carol and I have been test driving Di's new white-coated board shapes for the last few weeks and as we neared the end of our experiments, Di invited us both to join the very talented ladies on the Design Team! As most of you know, I love to stamp so I'm very excited to be taking up this new role as the board has been lovely to combine with my stamping habit!

To celebrate, I had another play with the wavy inchie shape over the weekend and did a bit of CD "upcycling" to make this little brooch.

Your Tonic Studio scissors are handy for this kind of project as they cut through a CD with no problem! I cut a little strip and stuck it to an inchie that was first slathered in Ferro. I pressed a moistened stamp into the top part for some pattern and textural interest and then sponged over with some Precious Metal paints once dry.

ETA - Janice asked about the "tooth marks" on the CD strip. They're just the micro serrations of the Tonic blades. I thought it looked attractive so didn't try doing anything to smooth them out.

The whole lot was stuck to another piece of CD, using the edge of the circle to make a gentle curve at the base of the brooch. I coloured the resulting spaces with some more Precious Metal. A couple of flat back gems (courtesy of my Secret Santa - thanks Caroline!) and some tiny nail art gems finish it off.

Stamps:
Beautiful (The Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Wavy Inchie (Tando Creative - find Tando stockists by looking here)

Other:
Ferro by Viva Decor (Graphite)
Precious Metal paint by Viva Decor (Blue Azure, Lilac, Mother of Pearl)
Freebie CD
Flat back gems
Nail art gems
E6000 adhesive
Brooch pin

You can visit Tando Creative and the other girls on the Design Team through the links in the blog roll over on the right if you'd like to.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mixing it!

Today is the final project from me and Carol on the Tando white board. We thought it would be fun to have a free for all day and just go with wherever the flow took us! I decided to mix some of the products and techniques from the projects we've been showing over the last few weeks and made this little piece of shelf art (it has a stand at the back so you can just plonk it down on a flat surface and it's quite stable).

I took advantage of the white surface and inked my chippie with Adirondack dye inks and then added Tera over part of it, bubbled it with a heat gun and accentuated the texture with some acrylic paint. Sentiment and dragonfly stamped with the darker of the blue inks and then I added some teeny glass bubbles, some florist wire and a twig from the garden.

The floating dragonfly is made from Cosmic Shimmer fusible film (about the only time you see me with an iron in my hand is if it's being used for crafting - hee hee!). I painted the back of the body with acrylic paint so it still has the iridescent sheen from the film but it's more opaque than the wings. I gave him some wire antennae and the wire extends down behind the body to give it some support.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Emerging Dragonfly - Dream (Sara England line)

Paper:
Scalloped circle (Tando Creative - you can find Tando stockists by looking here - I know Bubbly Funk already has this shape in stock, not sure about other places)

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Stonewashed and Denim)

Other:
Tera paint by Viva decor (Greek)
Florist wire
Cosmic Shimmer fusible film (Blue Lake)
2mm and 3mm AB finish "beads" (no hole)
Acrylic paint
Twig

Hop on over to the Tando Creative blog to see what Carol's been up to as well. Thanks for stopping by!

Measure of time

I managed to make time to play along with Ready Steady Stamp's current challenge. Here are the required five ingredients. I was struggling a bit with the numbers and then remembered I had some printed ruler twill that's been in my stash forever! The rest came from there and as I did it I realised that it fits this week's Sunday Stamper as well. I guess Roman Numerals should count for numbers too so my clocks are doubling my number quota!

The base for my project is an empty chocolate box. One advantage of hubby travelling is that he often buys me nice choccies at the airport. The added bonus of that is that the boxes are usually really sturdy which makes them perfect for decorating later! A quick covering with a couple of coats of gesso and you're ready to roll. I stamped the sides of the lid by putting my inked stamp face up on the desk and pressing the lid down onto it - you can get your fingers inside and make sure you get good contact that way.

I watched a video tutorial a few days ago for making faux suede carnations. They remind me of an extreme version of the "sloppy poppies" that Kathy and others have been doing for a while and I thought it would be fun to have a go as the 3D element required for RSS. A good excuse to abuse a piece of card stock and get a pretty result at the end!

Here's a close-up of how mine turned out. The video is here if you'd like it - leave Mary a note if you liked it, she's just getting going with the video tutorials and likes to know how she's doing!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Time to Stamp (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth Vanilla
Baby pink (Prism Papers)
Empty chocolate box
Corrugated packaging card

Ink:
Stazon by Tsukineko (Timber Brown)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder (I used the second size up in the Classic Circles Large set)
Labels Nine Nestabilities by Spellbinder (trimmed so just the deep bracket was left)
Printed twill
Brad
Gesso
Copic markers (to colour the leaves and tint the edges if the carnation)

Thanks for stopping by!

Colour crazed

Carol and I have nearly reached the end of our white board line with Tando - just one more project to share after this. We decided to find ways to add colour direct to the board today, just to take full advantage of the fact that it's white so there's no priming or covering required.

I tried out my Copics and a detailed stamp - the board took the stamped impression nicely and the Copic ink blended fine and didn't bleed out of the stamped lines.

I know the arch is really supposed to have the point at the top but looking at it upside down reminded me of a tulip so I made a little hanging thing-a-ma-jig to say hello to spring (we finally have frog spawn here so maybe spring really has sprung). I pushed the ends of the wire into little metal beads so there was a big enough surface area just to glue them to the top of the piece.

Here's a detail shot of her face and hair so you can see how the Copics blended on the board.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Tulip Girl (Saturday Evening Post line)
Sentiment from Silhouette Blooms I (Kim Hughes Collection)

Paper:
Wavy Gothic Arch (Tando Creative - you can find Tando stockists by looking here - I know Bubbly Funk already has this shape in stock, not sure about other places)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers and airbrush system
Florists wire
Beads
Silk ribbon
Silver acrylic paint

Carol's project is up on the Tando blog as well if you fancy seeing her colour crazed chippie too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Framed in Ferro

Carol and I have subjected the Tando white board to more gunkiness today - Ferro paint by Viva Decor this time.

I used four of the wavy domino pieces arranged to make this little frame - each one coated in Ferro, stamped for a bit of texture and lightly sponged with a couple of Precious Metal Paints. I did them individually so that I got clear joins between the pieces on the final frame. I think my stamps were just a bit small to get a clear impression in the thick Ferro but I like the effect I got!

I stuck an acrylic fragment over the picture hole and dry brushed a little of the copper paint around the edge. A glass pebble over a stamped clock face, a few tiny glass bubbles (aren't those fabulous - 2mm and 3mm glass spheres with an AB finish) and a coil of copper wire finish it off.

You could easily use a small photo instead of a stamped image if you wanted to personalise this idea and maybe use it as a gift.

I did find my dominoes curved just very slightly with the moisture of the Ferro (maybe a just shy of a millimetre lift at each end) but nothing that didn't flatten back out easily for sticking to a base.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Inchie Style (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Chipboard wavy dominoes (Tando Creative - you can find Tando stockists by looking here - I know Bubbly Funk already has this shape in stock, not sure about other places)
Simply Smooth

Ink: Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Ferro Paint by Viva Decor (Graphite)
Precious Metal Paint by Viva Decor (Blue Azure and Copper)
Fragment by Tim Holtz/Ideaology
Glass pebble (the sort you put in vases)
2mm and 3mm glass AB "beads" (no hole)
Copper wire

Thanks for stopping by! This and Carol's Ferro project are on the Tando Creative blog along with lots of other chippie projects for inspiration if you're in the mood for a little blog hopping!

Spritz blitz

Another couple of pieces on the Tando blog from me and Carol today. We've been busy spritzing stuff onto the white board pieces. The white surface means you get great colour without having to do any kind of preparation before you get started - hooray!

I've gone for a slightly more masculine piece today - I think it might end up being an alternative anniversary card for my hubby!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
On the Desk (Rummage Bin line)
Script Essential Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Wavy chipboard tag (Tando Creative)
Scraps of white

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Stonewashed olus reinkers in Juniper and Stonewashed)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Perfect Pearls by Ranger
Glossy Accents by Ranger
Copic markers
Acrylic nail art gem

Thanks for stopping by!