A mini exploration

The current challenge at PaperArtsy is to do some artwork on a miniature scale.

I decided to go down the jewellery route and use a glass domino but keep it quite simple and graphic. I heat embossed the car with black detail powder directly onto the glass (watch your fingers if you do this, it gets hot!). This does, of course, mean that any writing on your stamp will appear in reverse on your finished project but the word "Chevrolet" is tiny here so that even with detail powder, it's indistinct enough to get away with it! I deliberately left a few little stray speckles of powder rather than wiping it ultra clean before heating it as I thought it added to the slightly aged look of the piece.

I stamped a single word on paper, sponged on a bit of Vintage Photo ink, stuck the domino onto it with a smear of Glossy Accents and trimmed round once dry. I finished the back by adding metal leaf topped with a layer of resin.

Domino pendants are more often portrait orientation so to keep the bail from looking out of proportion on the horizontal format, I added a couple of small springs glued either side of it. I think it kind of echoes the grille or bonnet detail of a vintage car, too.

Stamps:
Mini 81 by PaperArtsy
Everyday Petites by CHF (retired)

Ink:
Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukineko
Versafine Satin Red by Tsukineko
Distress Vintage Photo by Ranger

Other:
Glass domino
Black detail embossing powder
Glossy Accents
Silver coloured bail
Small springs
Two part epoxy glue
Lisa Pavelka Magic Glos resin
Flitter Glue and Sheffield Steel Mega  Flake 

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Birthdays are for the bees!

I'm just managing to squeeze in a card for this week's DCM - Nat has asked us to use yellow as our key colour in her Mellow Yellow challenge. I've used my PanPastels and a stencil so I'm linking up there, too: Stencil It.

I've just bought some Mylar sheets for making stencils - it's sturdier than acetate which is what I've mostly used for quick DIY stencils so far. It cuts easily with wafer thin dies though which is what I've done here, cutting repeatedly with a hexagon die to make a honeycomb design.

I used yellow PanPastel through the stencil, then added a wee bit of Burnt Sienna at the bottom of each cell and a little white at the tops. I highlighted further with a Posca paint pen and doodled sketchy outlines round the bottom of the cells with a brown fineliner.

I added just a hint of yellow to the unstencilled part of the card after stamping and colouring the bees (I used pencils to make sure there was no bleed through and this could be a genuine one layer card and there's a bit of Wink of  Stella shimmer on their wings). I just rubbed the same yellow as the honeycomb over the card and then used a good-quality white eraser to rub it off - it sort of "stains" the card and leaves just a tiny bit of colour.

Stamps:
Queen Bee by Crafty Secrets (retired)
Sentiment from Big Day Today by Waltzingmouse Stamps

Ink: Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate by Tsukineko

Other:
Mylar sheet
Hero Arts die from Geometric Shapes set
PanPastels - Diarylide Yellow, Burnt Sienna, White
Spectrafix Degas spray fixative
Wink of Stella Clear glitter pen
Posca white paint pen
Coloured pencils
Sepia fineliner
Corner Chomper

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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

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Daring L.O.V.E.

Beckie has set this week's challenge at Daring Cardmakers and it's an ingenious twist on the theme of LOVE that's ubiquitous this Valentine's week. Love might be the theme but Beckie's asked us to incorporate it by taking the individual letters of the word and using at least one item beginning with each letter on our makes.

I had lots of ideas for the individual letters but coming up with a coherent group was more of a challenge! I
did, however, want to use this lovely owl stamp as he's a new acquisition and needed inking sooner rather than later. He's not only a handsome chap - he's big to boot! This is a 7" x 5" card.

A faux leather piece seemed like it would be a good "natural material" backdrop for him. It's kraft card sprayed with water and glycerin then scrunched, dried, embossed and inked.

Instructions for faux leather usually seem to tell you to emboss the damp piece of cardstock but I found the leathery creasing disappeared if I did that so I tried embossing once it was dry and was happier with the result. I used Microglaze to give the piece a finish with a slight sheen without being too glossy. It looks more realistic in real life than I could manage to capture with a photo.

Once he was coloured and cut out, I decided the owl was in danger of disappearing a bit on the leathery backdrop so I gave him a gesso "halo" for a bit of pop.

The letter V gave me most trouble for this since my first thoughts didn't work out and I almost gave up. I persevered and finally hit on adding a little touch of variegated leafing (having fiddled with vellum, wondered whether I could find any brown velvet ribbon in stash etc).

After much thought I have several other coherent groups scribbled on the back of an envelope - let's see whether time permits any more L.O.V.E. cards this week!

L - leather (faux, no animals were harmed in the making of this card!)
O - owl
V - variegated metal leaf flakes
E - embossing

Stamps:
T'wit T'woo by IndigoBlu
Big Day Today by Waltzingmouse Stamps

Ink: 
Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate (for the stamping)
Distress Tea Dye and Vintage Photo (for the "leather")

Paper: kraft and white

Other:
Cuttlebug Fancy Corners embossing folder
Glycerin/water in spray bottle
Variegated Easy Metal gilding flakes by Eberhard Faber
Copic markers
Gesso 
Judikins Microglaze
Corner Chomper

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Paint time

I decided to play along with the current PaperArtsy challenge, originally as a nudge to use some new stamps although that went out of the window and I ended up reaching for some older ones!

Leandra's starting post for the current theme of "paint" mentioned stencil bumping. I was intrigued and found she has a good video tutorial demonstrating the technique here. I went for a tag as it was nice to experiment on something rather than aiming for a piece to use on a card or other project.

I really liked the effect Leandra got by using the translucent paints over the opaque ones so my colour choices for the base were dictated by what I had in my stash (I've had a transparent blue in my paint collection forever and a day and I had PaperArtsy's Hey Pesto translucent as well as Tinned Peas so blue/green it was!).

I followed Leandra's guide for the base layers and the stencilled circles and then did an extra layer by adding the stars, overlapping the circles in places. My "stencil" was created with a couple of circle punches and a Crop-a-Dile as all my existing stencils are really a bit too fine-patterned (certainly for a learner!).

Using both Mermaid and Snowflake when sponging in the top shapes gives a nice subtle variation of colour, I think and the sanding step really helps with overall coherence.

When I overstamped the painty base, I wanted the word "time" to stand out more so I went over it with a black marker and then clear Wink of Stella. I hadn't planned to stamp on the circles but that swirl was just the perfect size on the larger circle that I couldn't resist the temptation.

There's a second painty thing on the wee hanging tag - the chipboard piece with the year (just metal punches bashed into the chippie with a hammer) was given a base coat of very dark blue and then dry brushed with a couple of lighter paints. I think it gives a nice patina-ish look.

I thought I might use this as a bookmark so steered clear of adding any embellishments on the body of the tag.

Stamps: Clocks Plate 6 by PaperArtsy

Ink:
Brilliance Graphite Black
Hero Arts Charcoal

Other:
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish acrylic paint (Mermaid, Snowflake, Tinned Peas, Hey Pesto)
Midnight Blue and Turquoise acrylic paint by DecoArt
Random transparent blue acrylic paint from stas
Sizzix Thinlits Tag Collection dies
Small tag cut from waste mountboard with Tim Holtz Apothecary Bottles die
Number punches and leather pattern punch
Jump rings
Wink of Stella clear pen
Circle and star punches by Fiskars

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Party on, puffin!

This week's challenge from the Daring Cardmakers is "You can leave your hat on" and they want to see any sort of headgear making an appearance on our cards.

My first plan was elegant water colouring of a vintage image - that one ended up in the circular file! Scouting around my desk for other ideas, I found this party puffin already stamped and cut out so I picked him up and played - colouring with Copics and using a black and white background to make the colours look even more vivid.

I did end up stamping again so I could cut out an extra crown and layer it up on a bit of gel glue so it has some more dimension. The puffin is also raised just a wee bit off the card surface.

Stamps:
Party Puffin by Crafty Individuals
Numbers background by Kaisercraft
19th Century French Script by Hero Arts (the post cancellation mark)
Essential Messages by Hero Arts

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Black Enamel Accents by Ranger
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Pinflair glue gel
Corner Chomper

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DCM Take Three

Like Kathy who has set this week's DCM challenge, I don't really do New Year resolutions but I'm joining her on the "try harder" with a few things and one of them is challenges. I used to play regularly with quite a few but have fallen out of the habit. I enjoyed playing along so this year I'm going to try harder, starting with DCM!

The first challenge each month this year is to take at least three elements from a project chosen by one of the DCM designers and to incorporate those into a project of your own. Here's the current challenge.

I chose the hearts (both primitive and more traditional shapes), the green and red elements of the colour scheme, the little crackle pattern that appears on some areas of the sample and, as a bonus fourth element, the style of the sentiment.

As the sample is quite layered and combines lots of elements and colour, I thought it would be nice to try using a CAS style by way of contrast.

The teeny tiny hearts are die cut from a Coke can and they have a really nice "puffy" quality.

Supplies:
Primitive Hearts Bigz die by Sizzix
Confetti die by Mama Elephant
Crackle Glaze background stamp by Indigo Blu
Sentiment from Everyday Essentials stamps by Cornish Heritage Farms (retired)
Fired Brick and Shabby Shutter Distress inks
Brilliance Graphite Black ink
DecoArt Triple Thick gloss glaze
Spellbinder Square die

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Starting a new year

Happy New Year to all - I hope 2015 is kind to you.

The end of 2014 was not kind for my neighbour - her mum died just before Christmas so I broke off the festive creating to whip up a quick sympathy card.

I chose soft colours and a light, airy feel with lots of white space, simple layering and elements that break over the edges so there's a sense of movement. Chocolate brown ink is just that bit softer than black and perfect for the sentiment on this kind of card.

I always find sympathy cards hard and I almost wish I'd left the butterfly off this but it seemed to fit her mum's character somehow so it stayed.

Stamps: 
Simple Sprig and Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps) 

Ink: 
Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate 
Distress Bundled Sage and Spun Sugar

Other: 
Memory Box Cheviot Butterfly die 
Tracing Wheel 

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Inchie birthday

Last Friday was Lydia's turn to set the Mixed Media challenge at Splitcoast Stampers and she asked us to use 1, 2, 3 or 4 inchies on a project. The wheels were obviously turning slowly as although I managed to join in with this one, I didn't manage it in the week of the challenge!

It was a bit of a nightmare to photograph - I'm not sure the texture shows well but it refused to get better than this - I hope you get the idea!

I stamped the wavy border and then cut out three inchies from sections that pleased me on the small scale. I used glue to trace over the lines of the stamped image and let it dry then painted each square with black acrylic paint.

Once the paint was dry I dry brushed with a pearlescent rich blue to catch the raised glue lines.  I used a Versamark pen to fill in some of the open circles, brushed on green Perfect Pearls and finished with Glossy Accents over the top. A tiny gem adds to the glitz on each square.

The card base has a really simple stamped "anchor" for the inchies and a birthday greeting.

Stamps:
Bubble Border by Lost Coast Designs
Brush Strokes by Hero Arts (paint streak)
Big Day Today by Waltzingmouse Stamps (sentiment)

Ink:
Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukineko

Other:
Scotch Quick Dry adhesive
Lamp Black Americana acrylic paint by DecoArt
Pearlescent blue acrylic paint
Sour Apple Perfect Pearls
Glossy Accents
Nail art gems
Pinflair glue gel
Corner Chomper

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Scandi bedtime story!

I'm playing along with the Waltzingmouse Stamps Pajama Party this month and I've even managed more than one challenge!

The first challenge is "Scandi tags" and although mine kind of evolved to be a bit more complex than I originally intended I think it probably still qualifies! I toyed with putting white faux stitching around the edge of the heart but decided that was yet more complexity so I skipped it in the end!

I reckon if you moved the button and snowflake to be central and punched a wee hole at the top of the heart that bit would make pretty Scandinavian-style hanging decorations for the tree, too!

Supplies from Waltzingmouse:
Stitched Tags dies
My Heart dies
Snowflake #2 die
Folk art medallion stamp set (for sentiment)
Offbeat backgrounds stamp set (chequerboard pattern)

Other supplies:
Adirondack Red Pepper ink
Wooden button
White crochet thread

The final challenge of a Pajama Party is always a "bedtime story" sketch and as I've been meaning to play with these big, ornately scripted Christmas sentiments and not getting round to it I leapt on the sketch's large central oval as the perfect kickstart.

Claire has cut files and dies that match the stamps in the Festive Foliage set but I quite like cutting out so I took the good old-fashioned scissor route. The design is flat enough not to need extra postage and dies or cut files would make mass production doable - hand cutting would mean you were a slave to cutting out for many evenings, I would think!

I gave myself a nightmare to photograph but die cutting the snowflakes from double-sided tape sheet and rubbing on Crystal glitter makes a really pretty, festive touch in real life. The dots are done with a regular hole punch with the tape/glitter and the frosty edge of the oval is just PVA glue applied with a paintbrush to hold the glitter.

Supplies from Waltzingmouse:
Tis the Season stamp set
Festive Foliage stamp set
Snowflake #2 die

Other supplies:
Decoart Glamour Dust glitter - Crystal
Detail gold embossing powder
Versamark
Distress ink - Barn Door
Versafine ink - Olympia Green
Double-sided tape sheet
Corner Chomper

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