Harpies Crafty Corner

Feeling a little Distressed?

2009-11-16T00:01:00.000Z

No I'm not but these three are!

Here are three ATC's done as a swap on the theme of distress. Various techniques have been used and a range of inks, sprays, embossing and crackle paint used to create them. A stamped fabric flower, brad, metal corner and button are the embellishments used.

Sid xx

12 Days of............Day 4

2009-11-15T10:25:00.006Z

Here is the next entry in the 12 Days of series. This one is Day 4 and represents 'Four Calling Birds'.

I couldn't resist doing this take on the theme and took an image of a girl on the telephone and cloned it several times and printed out on gloss photo paper to passport size, colouring in her blouse with coloured Sharpie markers. The images were cut out and stuck in place on the background.

The background was a 4 x 4 inch plain white card stamped numerous times with a number plate from PaperArtsy with Versamagic inks in oasis green, aegean blue & spring pansy. The plate was then embossed with a block embossing plate through the Sizzix Big Shot and the embossing picked out by rubbing over with the spring pansy pad again to highlight the texture.

One of the stamped number 4's was edged in black Sharpie and white dots added with a white pigment Signo pen. All the pics were edged in the same ink. The letters are self adhesive and some were coloured with a blue sharpie.

The plate was finished with edging using the purple hydrangea Versamagic pad.

Hoping it pleases you.

Sid xx

12 Days of............Day 3

2009-11-08T09:15:00.004Z

Well this is the third 4 x 4 inch plate done on the theme of 12 Days of Christmas. Day three represents '3 French Hens'. Will a parrot do? At least the words are French on the background.

I have used printed background paper and only one stamp on this piece.

The french script background paper was adhered to the base card and the left hand side was swiped with Impress peony purple inkpad. I then punched out two circles in another printed paper and two stars in the same french script paper. The circles were swiped with the Impress inkpad and edged in iris Colorbox chalk ink. The stars were edged with the same chalk ink. These were applied with glue stick as shown overlapping the edges of the card and trimmed to fit.

I then stamped a PaperArtsy stamp in black Stazon onto the patterned paper and cut this out and applied the image as shown.

The letters and number 3 are stickers picked out with a pink Sharpie pen and applied as shown and the whole plate edged in the iris chalk ink to finish.

That's about it and hope you like it !

Sid xx

Spooky !

2009-10-31T23:45:00.001Z

Just before the witching hour, here is a little innocent house in the country - looks very spooky to me, wonder what's going on inside !!

I used Distress inks again on the background, dusty concord & black soot for the sky and shabby shutters for the bushes which were masked off with some little swirly vinyl stickers before applying the ink with cut'n'dry foam. The masks were removed before applying the ink. The lot was sprayed with a fine spritz of water and dried quickly with the heat gun.

The house was stamped with black pigment ink and heat embossed with detail black embossing powder. The windows and door were outlined with purple Sharpie pen. The word 'spooky' and the moon were stamped with starlight silver Brilliance ink and this was also used direct to paper at the top of the card.

Sid xx

Happy Halloween Card

2009-10-31T09:30:00.002Z

Here is a Halloween card featuring a cuttlebug embossing folder spiders web.

The card started off as a piece of light blue whitecore card which was folded and passed through the embossing folder to emboss. the raised embossing was sanded back to white with some fine sandpaper and a block. The web was rubbed over with a yellow Whispers dye ink pad to colour the revealed white then the front of the card was sprayed lightly with purple mica powder spray and dried with the heat gun.

The base of the card was stamped a number of times with a circular swirl stamp from PaperArtsy inked with pale blue Versamagic ink.

Next the pumpkin was diecut using a sizzix die and purple paper, and the crow diecut similarly with black card. The pumpkin was overstamped down one side with the same swirl stamp and chalk ink, backed with yellow mulberry paper and the eyes, nose and mouth glittered with Stickles glitter glue. The crow was stamped similarly and the eye highlighted in Signo white pigment ink pen.

Next the 'Happy Halloween' greeting was stamped using a clear stamp from Sizzix and onyx black Versafine ink onto purple mottled paper and this was matted onto plain purple paper.

All elements were then assembled with liquid glue as shown in the example. HAPPY HALLOWEEN everybody !

Sid xx

Boo !!!

2009-10-30T17:57:00.004Z

Halloween is upon us and I had not made anything to represent it, so I made this little 5 1/2 ins square piece called 'Boo!!!'. I wanted to use a bat so I used bats wings and little legs to make a sort of bat-child who has just landed on the railings. Quirky I know, but it suited me at the time !

I started with a piece of white smooth card cut to size and stamped the fence with a polymer stamp (Sizzix) and Versafine onyx black ink. The rest of the background was coloured with cut'n'dry foam and Distress inks in shabby shutters, pine needles, dusty concord, faded jeans, broken china and black soot. This was then spitzed with water and a spray bottle and dried with a heat gun. I then stamped a field of sky stamp (A Stamp in the Hand) with azure Stazon to give a bit of depth at the top of the piece.

Next I used the face and legs from a plate by Paperbag Studios and the bats wings from Cherry Pie Stamps and stamped these with Versafine onyx black onto white card. They were all cut out and edged in black. The colour was applied using Marvey le Plume II pens and Sharpies. The watercolours being applied with a waterbrush. When happy with these pieces I stuck them together to form my bat-child.

I then used my Sizzix and diecut out the letters to spell Boo ! in brown card. These letters were then stuck into place as shown with a Zig glue pen and then they were edged with opaque white Signo pen. The fence was then edged with the same pen to simulate moonlight.

To finish the bat-child was applied as shown on foam pads and the whole piece matted onto lapis blue card which was embellished around the edge with dots using the white pen. The knobs on the fence were embellished with gunmetal Stickles.

Sid xx

Swirls ATC's

2009-10-28T08:49:00.005Z

Here are three ATC's with the theme 'swirls' All three are made with printed acetate overlays with stamping and embossing on the card beneath.

I used a Graphicus CD to print onto inkjet acetate for the blue and red versions. Glossy accents were used to attach the acetate whilst brads were used to attach the yellow version.

Sid xx

12 Days of........... Day 2

2009-10-26T00:01:00.001Z

Here is my Day 2 plate for the UK Stampers Challenge. This weeks song words are 'Two Turtle Doves'. So here is my interpretation of it.

I started by sticking a piece of old torn bookpaper over the left hand side of the plate. Then using Distress Inks and cut'n'dry foam to apply spiced marmalade and mustard seed for the background. I then used a leafy branch stamp (Crafty Individuals) inked with onyx black Versafine to stamp several times down the right hand side and bottom of the plate as shown.

Next another bird stamp (Crafty Individuals) was stamped three times in vintage sepia Versafine on moss green card. The base was the whole plate trimmed out, the next layer (applied on foam pads) was just the bird. The third again was the bird on its own. I highlighted the pattern with a grey souffle pen and edged with Versamagic Ink in pumpkin spice and night sky.

The number 2 (?) was inked in Versamark and heat embossed with tequila sunrise sparkle & sprinkle EP. The components were assembled as shown and stuck in place with glue stick. Finally three copper flower brads were added with the crop-a-dile and the whole plate was edged with more night sky Versamagic.

Hope you like it.

Sid xx

12 Days of ........... Day 1

2009-10-24T17:05:00.006+01:00

We are doing a weekly challenge over on UK Stampers Forum. Gail (Efemera) came up with the idea of doing a plate a week for 12 weeks representing the 12 days of.............. !

By this I mean it's not necessarily Christmas but roughly follows your interpretation of the famous Xmas song. So day 1 was 'On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me - a partridge in a pear tree'. The plates are eventually to be ribbonned together to form an accordian book of 10 x 10 cm square.

I first cut the plate out of fairly heavy cardstock and covered this with a piece of decorative paper (Basic Grey). I then stamped directly onto this at the bottom with a punchcard dot stamp (?) using Memento ink in cottage ivy. Next I used a pear stamp from ISC and inked this with spiced marmalade Distress Ink onto another piece of blue/grey printed paper (Basic Grey). I then trimmed this out and edged with malted mauve Versamagic chalk ink before sticking down with glue stick as shown.

Next a piece of torn spotty mulberry paper was stuck in place on the right and I used a crow stamp (Time to Stamp) and inked this with black Stazon and stamped at the top as shown. The stencil alphas (?) spelling No 1 were inked with vintage sepia Versafine and stamped as shown. Once dry these were edged with souffle pen in peppermint green to give them more definition.

The whole card was edged fairly heavily in more of the mulled mauve Vesamagic chalk ink to finish.

Sid xx

Grungepaper Flower

2009-10-18T09:00:00.001+01:00

This is a Grungepaper flower made for a swap on UK Stampers Forum. I decided to do a fantasy flower made up of three layers. I inked a flower stamp from Studio g for the centre with black Stazon ink onto the Grungepaper and trimmed around it making some slits for the petals. This was then sprayed with a purple ink with mica powder added allowed to dry and some dusty concord Distress ink was applied with cut'n'dry foam.

The second layer was stamped in black stazon using a Funstamps gerbera stamp. Again this was trimmed out and coloured with Distress ink in spiced marmalade.

The third layer was made up from a hat stamp from Lost Coast Designs, which was stamped 8 times in a sort of circular format in black Stazon and cut out. This was then inked with cut'n'dry foam and Distress ink in faded jeans, tattered rose and dusty concord.

All the grungepaper was heated and shaped to form the petal shapes before holding the layers together with a square gem brad. Some dots of Stickles glitter glue were added to the outer spikes. I thought it slightly resembled a snowflake so I added a bit of thin velvet ribbon in purple applied to the back with glossy accents to act as a hanger.

Sid xx

'L' is for Love Tag

2009-10-14T00:01:00.000+01:00

Here is my entry for the UK Stampers Challenge. This one is a bit late but I am catching up on the ones I have missed as we went through the alphabet.

I used dark pink card as the base for this tag. The base tag was stamped multiple times with a flourish stamp from Crafty Individuals in dark brown Whispers dye ink to create the background.

The hearts were all stamped with Versafine using a range of stamps from a plate from Elusive Images. Each was heat embossed with a range of embossing powders from Moonglow (Stardust candy rose, Holly berry red gold, Cosmic pink blue, Razzleberry plum) and a glitter EP called Golden Ruby Sparkle. Each was cut out and mounted as shown on foam pads, overlapping each in a cascade from top to bottom.

The chipboard letter L was inked with dark brown dye ink and distressed around the edges slightly. The letters were a clear sticker which had had the L removed before highlighting with dark brown Sharpie pen. The sticker was stuck in place and burnished and the L applied with glossy accents.

The edges of the tag were inked with dark brown chalk ink.

A hole and dark red eyelet were applied with a crop-a-dile and some red silk fibres added to finish.

Hope you like it.

Sid xx

'X' Marks the spot Tag

2009-10-13T00:01:00.000+01:00

Yet another tag for the Sunday Challenge over on UK Stampers Forum. This week was the letter 'X' - marks the spot (rather than Xmas or Xylophone).

The base tag is plain black card cut to the tag shape. This was then stamped with a grid stamp from Tuscan Rose inked with Versamark ink and heat embossed with Seafoam White embossing powder.

Then a moth stamp from PaperArtsy was inked with Versamark and heat embossed with Chinese Red EP on the same black card before cutting out the moth. The letter X was a chipboard letter which was inked with Versamark and double heat embossed with Red Sparkle EP.

The leaves (PaperArtsy) were inked with Versamagic Chalk Inks in three shades of green (Sage, Aloe Vera & Tea Leaves) in the bottom left of the tag. The top of the card was stamped with a cloud of sky stamp inked with two shades of blue (Aegean Blue & Sea Breeze) Versamagic Chalk Ink.

The words were stamped with a set of alphas in blazing Red Stazon on a strip of pale green card.

The tag was assembled with the moth on foam pads on the leaves, the X with and the word strip with Glossy Accents. A hole was cut and a blue eyelet applied with the crop-a-dile and some woven silk fibres tied through. The path of the moth to the leaves from the X was hand drawn in dotted line with a white Sakura souffle pen. The tag was edged with Versamagic perfect plumeria chalk ink.

Crafty Class - 'Ohh Little Bird ! '

2009-10-11T12:00:00.007+01:00

My friend and great source of inspiration Gail Milburn (Gails Blog) has, out of the goodness of her heart been very kind to me !

I was taken by a fabric bird that she did in the style of Jenni Horne in an article in the Summer 2009 edition of Sew Somerset inspired by an original by Betz White.

It's a long time since I did any hand sewing even though I only used blanket stitch on this one, but Gail sent me a piece of driftwood that she had collected from the beach (to use as a perch for my birdy), the patterns for the body pieces, the florists wire, the fabric (calico in this case) and the polyester fibre filling ! In fact everything I needed to make one. I had no choice really, did I?

So I set about making my little bird. I have set out my instructions in a class and the steps clearly show how you too could easily make one and call it your own by personalising it in your own unique style.

Class Instructions

You will need the following Materials:

Bird Pattern (Click to request copy via email)
Florists Wire
Polyester Wadding
Plain Calico
Driftwood or Wood Dowel
White Gesso
Stazon Inkpad (Jet Black)
Rubber Stamps
Fabric Paints (Stewart Gill)
Thread (Metallic Gutermann)
Sewing Needle
Decorative Brads
Sequins (Gutermann)
Stickles Glitter Glue
Any Other Decorative Elements
you want to use

Step 1

First take the template (Request by email) , which has all the parts to make your birdy
which consists of 2 body sides, one throat piece & 2 wings. Cut out the pieces on the template (they are actual size) and pin them to a piece of plain calico. Use a sharp pair of scissors to carefully cut out the pieces then remove the pins and save the pattern pieces for further use. If the cut calico frays a little, don't worry ........ once painted this will stop any further fraying and you can then trim them along the edges to make them as neat as possible.

The cut out calico pieces

The calico pieces then need a liberal coat of white gesso applied with a brush. The wings need it
on both sides. This primes the calico ready to take the stamping and paint and
also resists excessive fraying of the calico.

Step 2

When the gesso is dry take your selected stamps and using the Stazon jet black inkpad stamp the calico as desired. I used a selection of stamps from the ones shown. The finished stamped calico pieces are then shown.

The stamps I used.

The stamped pieces.

Next paint the stamped calico in any colours of fabric paint that take your fancy. I used a selection of Stewart Gill paint, both metallic and transparent to colour my calico. I used Pearlise and Metallica colours to do my thing ! Most fabric paints can be heat set, but I didn't do this (only necessary if you are going to be washing)

The painted pieces

Step 3

Next step is to attach the wings. I used two red metallic swirly brads through the wings and the body pieces bending over the legs of the brad on the inside to secure. I also added the teardrop crystal brads for the little fellas eyes at this stage. Once done, I then took some purple sequins and sewed these in place over some of the stamped circles on the breast body piece.

The pic shows one completed body piece and the breast body piece complete with
sewn on sequins.

Step 4

Next we need to sew all of the body pieces together leaving a small gap through which we will stuff the birdie with the polyester wadding. I sewed the back first using two strands with blanket stitch and the turquoise metallic thread.

My sewing is not perfect but with the metallic thread I don't
think it needs to be perfect

Here's another closer shot of the sewing.

Then I sewed in the breast piece taking care to position the throat correctly so the bird was not unbalanced.

This pic shows the back and breast piece sewn in.

This shows detail of the sewing of the breast piece.

The rest of the sewing was then completed, leaving a gap at the birds bottom end to allow me to stuff it with the polyester wadding. I did this with a ball tool until the bird was firmly filled and had shape. The final bit of sewing was then done to close the hole through which the stuffing had been done.

This pic shows the wadding ready to be stuffed

This pic shows the stuffed bird which has gained a nice plump shape !

Step 5

At this stage it's best to add any other embellishments that you desire. I just added some dots of Stickles glitter glue to outline the flowers, wings and flower centres. You could add faux gems, metal charms for example.

This pic shows the dots of Stickles I added.

Once these have dried it's time to add his beak and legs.

Step 6

Take a small length of your florists wire and simply bend into a U or V shape with your fingers or craft pliers. Cut off this shape from the wire with wire cutters and simply push into the bird between the stitches in an appropriate spot where the beak would be. The wire will stay in place as it is embedded in the wadding inside.

This pic shows the beak made of bent florists wire ready to be
cut off.

This pic shows the beak pushed into place in the wadding.

The legs are made by taking another suitable length of florists wire and bending it with the pliers into a V at right angles to the legs. This is then simply pushed through the calico of the breast piece, threaded through to the other side and pushed out again through the calico. Take care not to deform the V shape when you do this as the V acts as a stabiliser and stops your birdie flopping backwards or forwards. This is a bit fiddly but experiment until you are happy. The calico is very forgiving if you have to try it a few times before you are happy but only make one pair of holes to avoid damaging your little bird..

This pic shows the V with the legs ready to be threaded through
the breast piece of the bird.

This pic shows the legs threaded through the breast piece of
the bird.

Step 7

Finally we need to make the perch and attach the bird to the perch. Take your piece of driftwood or a piece of dowel cut to approx. 5 inches. Wind the ends of the birds legs around the central area of the wood tightly and cut off any excess wire with wire cutters. Then take another two pieces of florists wire and wind round the very ends of the wood to make the swing for the perch on which your little bird is sitting. This needs a bit of trial and error to get right but you will end up with your little bird firmly attached to a perch on a swing.

Well that completes the class. Remember you need to make it your own by using your own colours and embellishments. As you can see there are endless possibilities and variations that you could achieve, but whatever you do enjoy making one of your own. Hope you have found the
tutorial enjoyable and if you have been inspired I would love to see what you do
make.

'Swirls' Twinchies

2009-09-26T15:00:00.003+01:00

Here are a set of twinchies done for a swap on UK Stampers Forum. The theme this month is swirls.

I used a single swirl stamp from The Artistic Stamper and black card for the base. I inked the stamp with Versamark ink and stamped randomly on a 6 x 4 inch piece of black card. I then first heat embossed with a gold opalescent Pearlustre embossing powder. I then stamped again with the same stamp over the original embossed images and used violet ep this second time and finally did the same again with blue ep. This layered up the ep's over each other and left bits of the black card showing through in places.

I then edged all these spaces with a white opaque pigment pen. The card was trimmed into six 2 inch squares and these were edged with purple chalk ink.

This close up shows a little bit of the detail and I liked the layered look I achieved.

Sid xx

Foliage Inchies

2009-09-15T00:01:00.003+01:00

Here are my inchies for this months swap whose theme is 'Foliage'. I have used part of a fern image from PaperArtsy. I stamped in Versmark and heat embossed with three different shades of green embossing powder.

The background colours are whispers dye inks applied with cut'n'dry foam. I have also infilled with See D's morsels leaf stamps in the same dye inks.

The inchies have been edged with Krylon gold pen.

Sid xx

'S' is for Spooky Tag

2009-09-14T00:01:00.003+01:00

Here is my tag for this weeks challenge over on UK Stampers Forum. This weeks theme was 'S' is for Spooky. Wanted to create a dark and bleak effect on this one.

I began with a dark brown card trimmed to size. I first used a stamp of a bare tree (PaperArtsy) and inked the stamp with Versamark ink and heat embossed with detail silver embossing powder. I then used a cloud stamp (A Stamp in the Hand) and inked this with Brilliance moonlight black ink and stamped the cloud background. The moon (A Stamp in the Hand) was stamped in Brilliance moonlight white in a gap in the clouds.

The bird stamp (PaperArtsy) was next inked with black Stazon and stamped onto white shrink plastic 3 times, and trimmed and shrunk with the heat gun. The stamp was then inked with Versafine onyx black and stamped along the bottom of the tag. I used a Stewart Gill Artaglio stamp inked with Brilliance starlight silver to fill in the gap under the words.

The chipboard letter S was coated in Versamark and heat embossed twice with Marcasite embossing powder. The tag was then assembled by sticking the shrunk birds on the tree as shown with Glossy Accents. The chipboard letter S was stuck in place followed by some K&Co black letters (mounted on foam pads) to spell out 'Spooky'. The whole tag was edged with Brilliance graphite black. A black eyelet was applied with the crop'a'dile and 4 short lengths of silver metallic cord were tied through the hole.

Sid xx

Clowns - Love 'em or hate 'em

2009-09-12T15:12:00.005+01:00

Circus Clowns are one of those weird things that you either love or hate. Most of us have childhood memories of the circus and my own memories (being brought up as a kid in Blackpool & The Tower Circus) were that I was petrified of them. They always managed to put the fear of God in me for whatever reason.

With that in mind I recently bought a set of 'build a clown' acrylic stamps (Basic Grey) and as part of my monthly swap with Diane over in the USA we decided to do a Triptych ATC this month, hence the inspiration for this one.

I started off with pale blue base card and cut two ATC sized pieces. I then cut the arch shape freehand across both bases and cut the top ATC in half lengthwise to make the 'doors'. The front panels were made from a background I had made previously with mica sprays. I used a polka dot stamp from Tanda to stamp the dots on the fronts and the insides in vintage sepia Versafine ink. The flowers on the bottom of the fronts was a border stamp (?) inked first with black cherry Stazon ink. The clown stamps were inked with onyx black Versafine and the clown was built. The words were stamped similarly on the inside right 'door'.

I then used Nick Bantock inks in cerulean blue, prussian blue and damson plum applied with cut'n'dry foam to colour the inside of the card. The clown itself was coloured with Copics and a flower stamp was inked with prussian blue and stamped around the clown.

Next the hardware was added. I used two brass hinges and attached the doors with eyelets applied with the crop-a-dile. The door knobs are two brass effect brads.

Final touches were added with Stickles glitter glue in crystal and diamond.

Hope that Diane likes my little Triptych (even though she might hate clowns !).

Sid xx

Upcycled Packaging - Cottonwool Bud Container !!

2009-09-07T07:00:00.006+01:00

Everyday we dispose of endless amounts of waste packaging. Everything from food cans, cereal boxes, plastic meat containers to clothing tags. Why not just look in the bin for inspiration. I challenged members of UK Stampers forum to alter a piece /or pieces of packaging of any type and turn it/them into a piece of art.

I chose a Johnson & Johnson cottonwool bud container which had a cardboard base and a polythene lid as my piece of art, and here it is.

The body of the container was first gessoed (I applied a couple of coats), and allowed to dry. I used Whispers dye inks in orange and red applied with cut'n'dry foam to the bottom half of the container. I masked this with a Tim Holtz mask of a fence and applied more red ink over this until it looked ok. I used green dye ink to colour the top half of the container by the same method. When happy I sprayed the base with cheap hair laquer to seal the dye inks onto the gesso.

A striped self adhesive ribbon (DCWV) was applied to cover the join between the two colourways. Next a very small dragonfly stamp was inked in black Stazon and stamped along the sides above and below the ribbon in a random fashion. When the ink was dry some pink Stickles glitter glue was applied over each dragonfly image and allowed to dry.

Next I made the flower embellishments. I used die-cut flowers from mulberry paper in green, blue, ecru & pink. I laid these down on a non-stick craft mat and sprayed liberally with mica spray with silver mica. Once dry the flowers were stamped with vintage sepia Versafine ink using a small flourish stamp from Elusive Images (Graphicus). Each flower was then assembled with a pastel brad and shiny sequin, the legs of the brad folded back to hold the flower together. The flowers were then adhered to the box as shown in groups of three with sticky dots to secure.

Finally I had the lid to decorate. I took various alcohol inks and dropped them onto the lid top and sides, quickly blowing the ink around with a drinking straw ( the ink can fly, so if you do this protect yourself and the area around you). Once happy with the effect the whole lid was coated on the outside with matt acrylic varnish and allowed to dry. The inside of the lid was given two coats of cream acrylic paint acting as a backdrop to the colours and allowing some of the uninked areas to be highlighted. I think the lid reminds me of Moocroft pottery actually !

Finally the lid lacked something, I thought of adding a metal knob of some type but ended up making another flower (as described before but with more layers) this time with some sequin leaves and a pastel flower brad.

The last pic shows a top down view of the embellishment on the lid. Very interesting to alter something that would have definately been binned.

Why not try it?

Hope the one receiving it is pleased !

Sid xxx

'C' is for Child Tag

2009-09-06T12:00:00.001+01:00

Tag time again !! This is the 'C' for Child Tag I have crafted as a challenge over on UK Stampers Forum. I thought the Klimt image was appropriate and it looks really cool on the metallic card that looks very much like copper !

Pale blue card was used as the base tag. This was then coloured with Distress inks applied with cut'n'dry foam in shabby shutters & vintage photo. This was then stamped with vintage photo and a diamond stamp from PaperArtsy at the top and was heat embossed with clear embossing powder. Two background stamps (dots & sticks ?) were inked in Distress pine needles and vintage photo and stamped as seen. A mask (Heidi Swapp) of a tree branch was applied at the bottom right and more Distress pine needles applied over it. That completes the base tag.

Next a Klimt image of a mother and child(Cherry Pie) was inked in black Stazon and stamped onto a two-tone metallic card. This was trimmed out and applied to the tag with foam pads as shown.

A chipboard 'C' and a star were coloured with Distress vintage photo and applied as shown with Glossy Accents. The pre-printed 'precious' and letters (K&Co) were inked with vintage photo Distress and applied as shown. Finally the whole tag was edged in dark brown chalk ink and an eyelet and satin ribbons threaded through to decorate.

'Pets' Twinchies

2009-09-05T17:18:00.001+01:00

Here are a set of twinchies done in the theme of 'Pets'. I have spray coloured the backgrounds and stamped with some little stamps on the backgrounds in Versafine onyx black and then used Copics to colour in selected bits of the images. The animals were printed on the inkjet printer as sadly I have no real stamps of pets !! These were then trimmed out and applied with glue stick.

Sid xxx

'Ladies' Inchies

2009-09-03T19:00:00.000+01:00

Here are my Inchies for our monthly swap over on UK Stampers Forum. The theme was 'Ladies'. I used a stamp from Tanda and stamped this in onyx black Versafine onto dark peach cardstock and then trimmed this out. The white background was cut out with a punch and coloured with Distress inks in mustard seed, worn lipstick & shabby shutters applied with cut'n'dry foam and was then stamped with a text stamp from PaperArtsy using vintage sepia Versafine. The ladies were then stuck onto the coloured bases and 5 blobs of pink Stickles applied as shown. When dry each inchie was edged with Versamagic perfect plumeria chalk ink.

That's it.

Sid xx

'Y' is for Year Tag

2009-08-30T21:47:00.004+01:00

Sunday again and it's time for a tag. This weeks challenge over on UK Stampers was to make a tag using the letter 'y' and the theme of Year. This is my entry and as you can see I was thinking of the days in a year.

The tag was cut from pale lemon cardstock and the bottom half stamped with a text stamp (?) in versafine vintage sepia ink. The top half of the tag was stamped with a gorgeous stamp (Tuscan Rose) in pumkin Stazon. The tag was then coloured with cut'n'dry foam and Distress Inks in old paper, tea dye & spiced marmalade. A mini mask of a swirl from Tim Holtz ideology was used on the lower half also. When happy with the results I then prepared the embellishments.

First I stamped the text stamp again in vintage sepia in Versafine on the pale lemon card and then overstamped in black Stazon the three numbers with stencil type stamps (?). These were trimmed out and edged in dark brown chalk ink before applying with foam pads to afford relief. The 'DAYS' and 'in a' words were stamped with Making Memories magnetic alphas and again trimmed out and stuck in place with Glossy Accents.

A chipboard Y was heat embossed with Rust Sparkle embossing powder and the rest of the letters in YEAR stamped directly in black Stazon using alphas from See D's. These have been glazed with Sakura Jelly Roll clear glaze pen.

Final touches were to add an orange eyelet and a piece of orange grosgrain ribbon stapled in place.

Sid xxx

Nature Card

2009-08-28T11:41:00.001+01:00

Here is a rather grungy card I have entitled 'Nature'. I am on a spray background kick at the moment so the base card started off pale green. I then mixed some mica sprays in green, blue and copper using Cosmic Shimmer mica pigments and sprayed until the desired effect was achieved (drying between sprayings). The main stamp is from PaperArtsy and was stamped once as a mask and the second time on the sprayed background in vintage sepia Versafine ink. The mask was positioned over the original image and the foliage stamp (unknown) inked in cosmic copper Brilliance ink and stamped a few times over the mask to afford background around the main image but not into it. The image was hand painted with Adirondack inks in lettuce and cranberry applied with a waterbrush. The text (PaperArtsy) was stamped as shown in onyz black Versafine.

The flower embellishment is a mulberry flower from Hero Arts which I have coloured with dark pink ink and cosmic copper Brilliance. This was stuck in place as shown and a metal flower embellishment from Making Memories was applied in its centre.

The ribbon of plain light green grosgrain has also been stamped with the Brilliance cosmic copper before threading through a buckle from MM and sticking in place.

The whole card is a bit moody, but I wanted it to be that way. Hope you like it.

Sid xxx

'Numbers' ATC

2009-08-27T16:12:00.007+01:00

Here is an ATC I have made using a background of home made mica sprays in blues and greens. I applied multiple layers of spray onto dark green paper and dried between coats. I used a variety of micas from Cosmic Shimmer and added drops of Distress re-inker from Ranger to intensify the depth of colour. Once I was happy with the effect I backed the paper with orange card and trimmed off the excess.

I then took a large chipboard N and sprayed with green and gold mica sprays drying with a heat gun. The edges of the letter were coloured with orange Copic marker before triple heat embossing with clear embossing powder.

The background was overstamped with a number stamp from PaperArtsy in olive green Stazon and an acrylic swirl flourish stamp from Li'l Davis Designs in pearlescent rust Brilliance ink. The strips were stamped in olive green Stazon using another PaperArtsy stamp onto some textured paper which had also been sprayed with orangey mica spray. The strips were applied with gluestick and the chipboard N with Glossy Accents. The other letters were coloured with the orange Copic Marker and applied as shown. Finally the whole ATC was edged with Versamagic pumpkin spice chalk ink.

Hope you like it. Sid :-)

Lizard ATC

2009-08-18T12:25:00.006+01:00

This is an ATC I did for this weeks TMTA challenge. Reptiles was the theme so I made a black Fimo polymer clay lizard using a mould from Krafty Lady and applied mica powders before baking. The base is black card which has been stamped with galaxy gold Brilliance ink using a stone texture stamp from Judikins 'Artifacts' cube and sprayed with Moonglow gold glitz spritz. The letters are pre-printed by K & Co and attached with Glossy Accents. The ATC has been edged with gold Krylon pen.

One problem I found is as usual the shiny finishes on this card are very difficult to photograph so it looks much better in real life.

Sid:-)