Chintz 'n crepe!

A few weeks ago, Effie posted a link to a tutorial for some lovely crepe paper flowers {here}. I finally got round to getting some crepe paper to give this a go. I got white so it would be as versatile as possible since I can ink it or spritz it. Mind you, watching it expand with the moisture of the water and acrylic paint mix I used here was a bit alarming! It did dry with plenty of "stretch" left in it though and that's what you need for these flowers.

I've used this week's Inchie Inklings sketch - I hope Mona will forgive me for covering up a whole inchie and most of a second one!

I had a bunch of inchies stamped from a project that didn't work out. I needed to cover up that original stamping so I painted over with pearlescent acrylic paint (the same one as I watered down to colour the crepe paper). Once they were dry, I used Stazon to stamp the chintz pattern on there. A white embossed sentiment and a bit of machine stitching finished it off. The pearlesence made it a bit of a nightmare to photograph, the colour is probably truer in the detail shot below and since it's the same paint the flower and the inchies obviously match in real life!

I didn't glitter the edges of the petals on this flower (I have one set aside for another project where I did, though) and having assembled it I decided they would benefit from a bit more definition so I dry brushed more of the acrylic paint along the edge and just onto the surface of the petals. The centre of the flower is one of those glass pebbles you put in vases - I painted the back with with Precious Metal paint. The leaves are just hand cut (as were the smaller circles as I didn't have an appropriate punch).

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Vintage Chintz backgrounder
Cursive Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
White
Simply Linen Black
Heavyweight crepe paper
Chipboard inchies

Ink:
Stazon by Tsukineko (Jet Black)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Pearlescent pink acrylic paint
Sewing machine and thread
Glass pebble
Precious Metal pint by Viva Decor (Mother of Pearl)
1" circle punch

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a lovely weekend!

Dragonfly dreams

I'm sharing a piece made with Tando Creative chipboard today. I love dragonflies and thought the new large dragonfly shape would make a lovely brooch.

To mimic a little bit of the iridescence of dragonfly wings, I melted three coats of clear UTEE onto the wings and when almost cool, I rubbed several different Perfect Pearls colours on there. I remelted and added more Perfect Pearls to build up the colour depth and finally remelted and pressed a stamp into the molten UTEE. Finally, I picked up a tiny bit of pearlescent acrylic paint on that most sophisticated of crafter's tools (my index finger) and swiped over the high spots of the textured wings. You can click through for a better view of the pic if you'd like it.

The body was coloured with a black marker and then I added Glossy Accents and a row of Dew Drops to finish it off before gluing on a brooch back.

Supplies:
Dragonfly by Tando Creative (you can check out Tando stockists here)
Cheesecloth backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms - now available in the UK from Bubbly Funk {here})
Clear UTEE by Ranger
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Turquoise, Berry Twist, Forever Violet, Forever Green, Forever Blue)
Pearlescent turquoise acrylic paint
Dew Drops by Robin's Egg
Glossy Accents by Ranger
Brooch back
E600 adhesive

Thanks for stopping by!

One stamp - different looks!

I'm not sure who stole last week - sorry not to have been around! I thought I would share two very different projects made with the same stamp today.

One of the reasons I love my backgrounders is that they are very versatile. My first project today is a straight paper craft project - a wedding card. I'm blaming forum buddy Janice for this one! Not only was her son getting married last week but while refusing to reveal her outfit in advance, she showed us a pic of Audrey Hepburn in the race scene in the movie My Fair Lady as a tease for what her hat was like! I still had the image of those gorgeous black and white costumes in my head when I sat down with this new Fuchsia Tiles background stamp.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Fuchsia Tiles Backgrounder (releasing Tuesday May 18th)
Wedding Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Smooth white
Simply Linen Black

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Velvet ribbon
Rose from Wild Orchid Crafts
Stick pin
Brackets die (Tim Holtz Alterations line by Sizzix)

My second project is a bit different! I revisited the mica shift technique I used to make this polymer clay pendant a few weeks back. I used gold clay this time and made a large pendant piece by cutting a square that takes in nine of the little tiles from the backgrounder. I baked it over a sphere (the top of a tin that had chocolate orange and lemon slices in it - never throw out an interesting container!) to give the piece an overall curve and then added a little loop on the back to thread a necklace cord through.

I think I'm officially fascinated by mica shift now - there's something almost hypnotic about the textural look of the pattern coupled with a surface that's completely smooth to the touch!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Fuchsia Tiles Backgrounder (releasing Tuesday May 18th)

Other:
Sculpey Premo polymer clay (gold and black)
Clay tools (pasta machine, clay blade, acrylic roller)
Klear floor polish (sold as Future floor polish in North America)

Thanks for stopping by today!

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!

My first scrapling!

I've never got round to making a "scrapling" so I thought it was about time I had a go. A what, some of you may be asking. A scrapling is just a little card made from the bit left over when you trim a standard sheet of cardstock to make a square card.

A very quick and simple one layer design - no colouring in! I used three inks sponged through a hole cut with a Nestie in a piece of scrap paper to get the "glow", stamped the hibiscus with the mask still in place and then removed the mask to stamp the dragonfly.
Two scored lines and a crystal brad add a touch of texture to finish off.

I love the bold, graphic look of this hibiscus - this set is actually made up of the same two images as the "Emerging Dragonfly" set but the sizes are reversed so the flower is the large stamp in this set where it's inchie-sized in the earlier one.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Emerging Hibiscus (Sara England line)

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Classic Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Crystal brad by Making Memories
Scor-It

Thanks for stopping by!

Ready, steady.... stamp!

It's challenge number 19 already over on Ready Steady Stamp. Nefertiti has set some tough ingredients for this one! If you fancy playing along, remember that the rules now make only three items mandatory if you really get stuck with all five. There's an extra incentive to try hard with this one though - there's the chance of a prize on offer if you manage all of them!

Those who know me will probably not be surprised to hear that I struggled more with the inclusion of pink than the rubber - I managed to sneak it in with the stitching! I decided "M" should be for mother and chose a sentiment that puts the emphasis on the word through the typography. I dry brushed gesso onto watercolour paper and spritzed with a home made glimmer mist for the background. Gesso acts as a resist so you get some subtle but interesting patterns from this technique. The rubber is a short offcut of rubber cord that forms a dimensional border between the green and black panels - I found gel Superglue stuck it down well and I didn't have to hold it in place for too long waiting for it to set. The card base is light purple Bazzill and the stitching is deep pink. I couldn't find a pearl or brad in the right kind of colour so I painted a Dew Drop with some Lilac Precious Metal paint which was a good match for the base colour.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Freesia flower
Mother's Day Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Bazzill
Simply Linen black (CHF)
Textured watercolour

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Juniper reinker)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Patina Green)
Dew Drop by Robin's egg
Rubber cord
Precious Metal Paint by Viva Decor (Lilac)
Sewing machine and thread
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Je sais qu'il ya beaucoup de participantes françaises pour les challenge RSS - si vous voulez me laisser un commentaire, mais vous n'aimez pas le faire en Anglais, s'il vous plaît n'hésitez pas à le dire en Français! Je ne le parle pas bien, mais c'est OK pour la compréhension de commentaires court. Merci de votre visite!

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!

Can you hear the wheels turning?

I've been playing with some new chippie shapes from Tando Creative - cogs in two different styles and sizes.

I managed a bonus project from these! I'm loving all the embossed metal that's around at the moment but I've been trying not to add another dimension to my papercrafting addiction by buying the moulds etc! I did have some sheet aluminium in my stash though and I own paper stumps for colouring so with the application of a little imagination, my chipboard cogs enabled me to make this ATC! I just laid my metal over the shapes (I did one at a time), rubbed over with the paper stump to get the basic shape to show through and then embossed fully with the tip of the stump. Easy peasy and you get to use the shape itself for something else :o)

Supplies:
Chipboard Cogs by Tando Creative
Aluminium sheet by AMACO
Train timetable stamp set (Cornish Heritage Farms)Ferro paint by Viva Decor (Graphite)
Chipboard ATC
Silver embossing powder
Black acrylic paint
Spring from inside a video cassette
And the something else I made in this case was this wall clock...

I bought a cheapo clock (£3.99 in Poundstretcher) a while ago with the idea of tarting it up for my craft room. The cogs seemed perfect for the project! This is a 30cm clock so you can see that the cogs are a decent size.

I dismantled the clock and pulled off the bright white plastic face. I used that as a template to cut a circle of watercolour paper which has a nice texture to it. I stamped some sheet music and some crackle and then used a Tim Holtz mask to sponge over for the clock face on the right.

The clock surround was really a bit on the nasty side - bright chromed plastic. I gave both it and the cogs the same kind of treatment to give them a pitted and corroded look. I gave them a coat of embossing powder (actually UTEE in the case of the surround) and then slathered black acrylic paint on there, let it dry and then rubbed it off the high spots. If you use a single coat of embossing powder or UTEE over a reasonably large area it tends to give an "orange peel" sort of texture which is perfect for ageing with acrylic paint like this.

Here's a little detail shot for you so you can see more of how that texture works out. I love how the teeth of the smaller cogs fit perfectly together. If you were very clever, I reckon you could use them to make an actual turning mechanism on a card or maybe a page in a mini album.

Supplies:
Chipboard cogs by Tando Creative
Aged Sheet music Scrapblock by Cornish Heritage Farms
Cracked Montana Earth Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms
Watercolour paper
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Black Soot and Weathered Wood)Silver embossing powder and UTEE
Black acrylic paint
Timeworks masks by Tim Holtz/Ideaology
Silver brads
Washers

Thanks for stopping by, happy crafting!

Which finger did he bite?

Yikes, I don't usually post twice in one day -sorry- but I just realised that somebody stole an entire week so today is the last day to play with the current Ready Steady Stamp challenge! Tricky one this although the rules have changed and you can now play with three or more of the ingredients if you don't have the materials (or inspiration!) to manage all five.

It was the oval that nearly did for me and I was about ready to settle for four out of five when I was struck by the idea of doing oval bubbles rather than circular ones!

So here it is, something a bit different for me!

The fish is printed on acetate and painted with Viva paints on the back so he has a nice shimmer but all the detail is retained. The acetate is folded and stuck at the back of the card. I traced the second wavy line onto it and trimmed it so it doesn't go all the way down to the bottom of the card as it seemed to lie better that way.

Numbers and shells are stamped and the lines, wording and bubbles are done freehand. I used Glossy Accents to fill in the two small areas at the base of the card and sprinkled dry builders' sand on there.

I'm hoping the RSS police will look kindly on me - I have printed an image from my computer as well as stamping. I'm hoping that "no digi" means no "digital stamps" and that a vintage text book illustration will sneak in under the wire.

Stamps:
Seaside Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets
A&P Numbers by Ma Vinci's Reliquary

Paper:
Overhead transparency for inkjet printer
White

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

Other:
Fish image from Karen's Whimsy
Copic multiliner
Copic markers
Precious Metal paint by Viva Decor (Mother of Pearl, Blue Azure, Lilac)
Glossy Accents
Sand

Thanks for stopping by!

Je sais qu'il ya beaucoup de participantes françaises pour les challenge RSS - si vous voulez me laisser un commentaire, mais vous n'aimez pas le faire en Anglais, s'il vous plaît n'hésitez pas à le dire en Français! Je ne le parle pas bien, mais c'est OK pour la compréhension de commentaires court. Merci de votre visite!

Mica magic!

I bought Donna Kato's lovely book Polymer Clay: Creative Surface Effects a while back and one of the techniques in there is something called mica shift. I've just had a first play with it to make a pendant.

Some of you have probably heard me say before that one of the things that first drew me to Cornish Heritage Farms was the backgrounder stamps. Woodgrain has long been a particular favourite. You should have heard the squeals of excitement when Liz told the DT what was in store for the All Things Considered line of stamps - scaled down backgrounders! And to make it even better, woodgrain is in the first release, way hay! The smaller scale means they're perfect for things like jewellery projects as well as ATC stamping.

So, back to mica shifting. Metallic or pearl polymer clays contain mica particles. Some bright clayer worked out that if you condition the clay so that all the particles line up and then disturb them by pressing into the clay you can get a pattern that looks 3D even though it's completely smooth to the touch. I thought woodgrain would be the perfect pattern for experimenting with!

After running your clay over and over through a pasta machine (at least twenty times) you press a rubber stamp firmly into the surface. Then use a clay blade to gently slice away the raised portions of the clay. You can then flatten further with a roller but I confess I forgot to do that so I relied on sanding after the piece was baked to get the surface really smooth.

I thought this came out pretty well for a first attempt and I'll certainly be having another go with this technique.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms) :
Country Charm Textures (All Things Considered line)

Other:
Sculpey Premo polymer clay (Copper and black)
Cookie cutter and clay blade
Rubber cord


Thanks for stopping by!