Christmas Greetings

Well, we are nearly there again. Can't believe that Christmas is upon us once more. Gifts bought, cards made and sent, arrangements finalised, so all that's left now is to celebrate. Eat, drink and be merry are the orders of the day.

I would just like to wish all of my friends, family & fellow crafters a simply superb Christmas filled with joy and love.

Enjoy !!!!!

Victorian Treasure Boxes

Not posted for a while, and am just recovering from a rotten cold so feeling a little more festive now.

I have had a tall Treasure Box stamp (Windsong), for ages now and have never used it to date. Typically me ! This is just one of my stash items that I have accumulated over time but never got round to giving an airing.

I decided to have a go and I did two 4 sided boxes with a different medallion topper on each. Both boxes were heat embossed with gold EP after stamping with Versamark. The pink one was coloured simply with Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pens, whilst the blue one was coloured with fine glitters in green and blue. Ribbons were attached to the medallions to act as a closure for the boxes.

Christmas Inchies

Here is a pic of my offering for a swap I hosted on UK Stampers Forum this month. We had eleven entries, all very different with some stunning colourways and festive themes across the range.

Mine were done on a base of linen effect cream card which I liberally spread with Starburst Stains in Festive reds, greens, yellows and golds. I dried the background with a heat gun and then randomly stamped a holly rubber stamp image with Versamark and heat embossed it with copper EP, I also applied pink stickles to the holly berries. Then I followed this with a star stamp which I heat embossed with silver EP. I used a guillotine to chop the squares down to 1 inch and backed half of the Inchies with red and half with green hand made paper. I printed festive words in red and green using the computer and applied these one to each Inchie. Finally edging the red backed ones with blazing red Stazon and the green backed ones with olive green Stazon.

'Believe In...' Card

Here is a card I made using a lovely embossed oyster pearlescent card base. The two daisies (Judikins Carols Cube) were stamped out using Purple Whispers dye ink pad on white card. They were then coloured with Starburst Stains Cocklebells Coral and dried with a heat gun before cutting out and shaping with a pair of scissors. Stickles Diamond glitter glue was applied to the flower centres and allowed to dry.

The central square frame was stamped from the same Judikins Cube using purple ink on white card and then overstamped with the words and heat embossed with Chinese Lacquer EP from Joanna Sheen. This was coloured with Starburst Stains Glory of the Seas Gold before drying with a heat gun and was cut out and matted onto a piece of dark blue cardstock with a glue stick.

The background is a piece of printed paper cut out and matted onto dark blue with a glue stick. The card was then assembled as shown with the two daisies applied with foam pads for depth.

Tag Canvas

Yet another recently completed 7 inch x 5 inch canvas. This time in very muted and dream like colours. I have used a lot of gesso in making this to ensure all colours were very pastel and not 'in your face'. The decorated tags are done to represent (from left to right), the greens of garden and country, the blues of sea and shore and finally the pinks of romance.

The background has been done to emulate light old marbley stone and the three tags are detailed in each of the following pics:

Garden & Country

Sea & Shore

Romance

Klimt Multi-Media Canvas

This is the second canvas I have completed it's 20cm x 20cm and angled at the sides to provide an area of 15cm x 15cm on the front surface. I have used various media including Lumiere paints & Sherrils Sorbets, micro beads, chenille pipecleaners, seed beads, fabric covered beads, a tassel, jewels and pearls to highlight certain areas. Some hand made polymer clay embellishments with mica powders have also been applied for dimension.

The Main rubber stamp is a Cherry Pie Klimt swirls UM.

Calculating Wisdom Card

This is a card with a 'vintage' feel that I have just completed using two stamps. The main image is by Crafty Individuals CI-072 and the matted image is the 'Stone' finish from the Textures Cube by Judikins. The main image was stamped with onyx black Versafine onto a watercolour paper mat pre-coloured with dye inks in sepia and ochre. Once dry this was then lightly sprayed with Moonglow burnished bronze Glitz Spritz to add shimmer. The mat was edged with dark brown dye ink.

The second mat used the same background but was overstamped with sepia Versafine and the stone texture stamp again edged with dark brown dye ink.

The final mat is a printed paper from Dovecraft. The base card is in cream hammered finish. Before assembling the mats with DS tape two bronze square brads were applied to the top right of the first mat. The card was finished with a foiled embossed plate applied with foam pads with the word 'Wisdom'.

Circle Book

Inspired by Carrie on her Scrapwest Blog (where you can find instructions and a downloadable template). I decided to make one of the books on a more general theme of Frienship and Nature. Used printed papers, embellishments & Stamping to accomplish the piece. The covers are made of mountboard and I have used my beloved Starburst Stains as a base and then overstamped with Chalk Ink and a flourish stamp and finished with fine glitter glue, white gellyroll pen and gold dimensional paint.

Here it is:

Showing Cover

First Quarter

Second Quarter

Third Quarter

Fourth Quarter

TOP Down View

'Enchanted' Card

Here is a little creation I have called 'enchanted'. The base cardstock is plain navy card edged with a stone texture cube stamp (Judikins) and Versamark watermark ink.

The strip down the centre is a piece of maroon card coated several times with Starburst Stains in Amaryllis Burgundy and Wisteria Purple Blue and dried with a heat gun between coats to build up a good iridescence. This has then been overstamped with the same Judikins stone stamp and Versamark to which I have heat embossed fine detail gold EP.

The next layer is a piece of Tyvek which again has been carefully heated after applying various metallic mica sprays to its surface to produce an almost vellum-like material.

The final layer is a piece of square card which has had various Starburst stains added in yellows and purples then heat embossed with a star stamp, Versamark and Moonglow Midnight Ruby Obsidian EP. The 'enchanted' was stamped on a piece of acetate with Black Stazon and applied onto the mat with 4 copper brads in the corners before mounting with double-sided tape.

Gatefold Card

Here is a gatefold card I made recently. The background card was made from a piece of gold metallic effect card folded into the required format. The decorated panel of mountboard was made using oil pastels which were applied in yellow,orange and light brown using my finger to blend. This was then overstamped with a Celtic Knot Stamp from Tanda Stamps in black Stazon. Gold Lumiere paint was stencilled through sequin waste around the edge of the card in a random fashion and allowed to dry. I then used Versamark ink and a random dot stamp to stamp over the gold painted areas finally applying pearl brown EP and heat embossing with a heat gun. The panel was edged with gold pen . I applied two strips of brown 1/4inch satin ribbon with double sided tape vertically to the centre of each side of the card and and adhered the finished panel to the left front of the gatefold with double sided tape. The card is held closed with gold braided cord tied in a bow.

Multi-media Canvas

I have been experimenting with various multi-media materials over the past few weeks and this is the first of my canvasses. It's only small, 7 inches x 5 inches but contains a number of hand made embellishments. The paints used for the background are all Stewart Gill Colourise in various colours and applied freehand by brush. The beads are all handmade as are the wrapped chenille pipecleaners. Other iridescent and interference paints are used to highlight areas and some stamping has been accomplished with Jacquard Lumiere metallic paints also.

Image Transfer ATC's (2)

Here are another 3 ATC's using packing tape image transfers.

All were transferred onto satin finish ATC base card, and subsequently embellished with Chalk Ink pads (direct to paper), cut out floral flourishes and finally Pearly Doodles. The stamped words were from the Making Memories magnetic Rummage alphas.

Thanks Card

Here is a card I made today to say thanks to one of my friends. The background is done on a 3 inch square of white mountboard and this has been coloured with oil pastels in yellow, light & dark green in a random manner. I have used my finger to blend the pastels to the desired consistency and I like to apply them quite thickly.

I then used some sequin waste base as a mask and applied Lumiere halo blue gold paint with a stippling brush around the outside edge of the board, holding the mask in place with low tack masking tape whilst stippling. Once dry, I have then centrally applied a Crafty Individuals rubber stamp of a thistle from Plate C1-134 using olive green Stazon and scraped through the oil pastels to expose the white mountboard to accent the thistle and border, using a piercing tool. I then used a random dot backgroud stamp and overstamped around the edges with Versamark and applied emerald green pearl embossing powder and heated with a heat tool to emboss.

I then stamped two more images of the thistle in olive green Stazon on clear shrink plastic and punched a hole using my cropadile in each. After shrinking with a heat tool I applied one on each of opposing sides of the the central thistle image with a dark green flower brad. I matted the mountboard on light yellow and sage mats, edging with emerald dye ink and applied this to an A6 card made from dark green laid effect card. I finally stamped the word 'THANKS !' in versmark on the pale yellow card and again heat embossed with emerald green pearl EP. This was matted on the sage card, edged with green dye ink and applied centrally at the bottom of the card with double sided adhesive tape.

Spin 'n' Splash Techniques Class (Part 1)

We all love Spin 'n' Splash backgrounds ! So here is my attempt at a class to help those just starting with the technique.

It is, indeed, nothing new and Spin Art has been around for a very long time. Some of us old enough to remember have practiced our art on machines situated in stores and at fairgrounds where we have dribbled various coloured paints from a plastic squeezy bottle onto a card attached to a revolving turntable and produced one-of-a-kind multi-coloured creations which were then placed in a mask or frame for display.

EQUIPMENT
We will need some supplies and more importantly a machine to enable the spinning to take place. There are both mechanical and electrical variations available and there are even downloadable plans available online to make your own enclosure. But assuming that you are not that adept at woodwork and electricals you will probably want to buy some type of machine to work with. Prices vary enormously so it is quite important to get the whole buying thing into perspective. It really depends on whether you will be using it a lot and I would suggest that most of us will only want to use it occasionally for home use and therefore will not want to invest a lot of money on the machine. This means that price will be our main buying criteria, with functionality coming a close second.

The machines come in either electrical or mechanical varieties. The mechanical type need to be wound by hand and consist of a gearbox and a handle, a turntable and a clamp to mount the machine on a bench but are difficult to both wind and to apply colours at the same time. The electrically operated variety is powered either by batteries or by a mains adapter. Usually running at either 3 or 4.5 Volts DC. Here is a link to one at Toys R Us but you will also find others available on Ebay. I actually bought a machine directly from WH Smith online for around £6.99 when on offer.

This particular one doubles up as a potters wheel and a spin art machine and I run it using a mains adapter which I bought from Maplin. Yours will start off being a bit cleaner than mine - the stains are from colours I have used on my backgrounds. These machines normally have around a 6 inch diameter turntable (limiting your maximum background card size to this). Most of these are really designed as kids toys but do the job very well. There are two speeds for my turntable but I find the slower one too slow to do the job as the colours do not spin off at this slower speed and the slower speed is for the potters wheel activities.

Anyway, assuming that you have your machine you will also need some colouring mediums to work with.

MATERIALS

Here is a list of what I have used to date (links for product information are present on most items):

Ranger Alcohol Inks (including silver, gold, copper and opal mixatives)

Ranger Blending solution or other solvent (isopropanol)

Thinned down acrylic paints (Lumiere etc.)

Dye Inks (re-inkers)

Transparent, Opaque & Pearlescent Acrylic Inks

White and Black Glossy Card, Silver & Gold Mirri Card

This list is not exhaustive and you will not need all of them to get started, of course, and the choice is yours. I am sure that many other colouring materials are available which will give other effects - so experiment. I will try to give you examples of using most of them when the class continues in Part 2.

Les Fleurs ATC Set of 4

On a floral theme here are 4 ATC's I did using Chalk Inks over a clear heat embossed resist background. The stamps were first stamped in Versamark using stamps from Tanda Stamps flourishes plate 1 and these were heat embossed with clear EP. The background was then applied direct-to-paper and the excess ink wiped away from the embossed areas to reveal the base card colour. The colours used were yellows, greens and browns. Extra flowers were stamped on card and cut out to be applied to the ATC's on foam pads after embellishing with brads and these were highlighted in some cases by a white gel pen. One of the ATC's has an acetate cover stamped with black Stazon and applied with four brads in the corners.

Another Spin 'n' Splash Card

Todays offering is yet another card in my Spin 'n' Splash arena. I really do love the varied effects that can be achieved. This one is more on a pastel blue theme. The base card is pastel blue with a slight texture and I have also used some metallic inks (silver & copper) on this one. The rest of the inks used are either Tria Pantone or Ranger Alcohol Inks in predominently blue. This one has a plate attached with the words 'Seeing Is Believing' and I really do think this effect needs to be seen to be believed !

A Taste of India

This ATC was made using a base of dark purple cardstock and a printed vellum oval panel depicting an Indian deity. I adhered the panel and glazed the whole front surface with mat Mod Podge before applying some pink pearly doodles dimensional paint around the oval in small dots. Finally I edged the card with gold Krylon and a painted a design in each of two opposite corners with a gold brush pen.

Spin 'n' Splash Card

Just discovered my little stash of spin 'n' splash backgrounds I did a while ago and thought I would make a quick card.

I used a pale green textured card as the base and matted the predominently green & pink background square on plain green cardstock. This particular background was done with alcohol inks on white glossy cardstock. I then adhered the mat to the card front with double sided tape.

I stamped 'Believe in your dreams...' on the same green cardstock, trimmed to size, then matted this with plain pink cardstock, edging both layers with black Stazon before applying to the card at an angle.

Tranquil Card

This card was done in response to a challenge to 'Use Your Stash' on UK Stampers Forum. I used a piece of base cardstock in plain cream weave finish and folded to make a card base. The stamp, which I bought from Third Coast stamps (Summer from 4 seasons tree set), had never been used and I have only just mounted it today on EZ Mount. I stamped in Versamark watermark ink on plain cream card and coloured with soft pastel (because I wanted the colours to be dreamy and muted). The pastels were applied with a small piece of cut 'n' dry foam in three blended colours. I edged the mat with sienna fluid chalk ink. This was then matted first on wedgwood blue mottled card (again edged with sienna fluid chalk ink) and finally on matching sienna paper, before applying to the front of the card with double sided tape. Simple but effective I thought.

Dragonfly Destination ATC

Here's another ATC using Sizzix diecuts of dragonflies which have been spray coloured on card with iridescent inks in blue and pink and applied to the background with foam pads. The background is hand-wash coloured with a range of Twinkling H2O's and blue punched out mini fleur-de-lys have been adhered with glossy accents. The word stamp 'DESTINATION' is from Making Memories and was stamped in purple Stazon on gold card.

Acetate ATC

This is another ATC finished off this morning. I have stamped the background with blue Stazon using a harlequin stamp along with a womans face from Time plate by Nonsequitur. I have hand coloured the base with pearlescent watercolours and adhered this to a black piece of card cut to size. I have then stamped a tulip flourish stamp twice onto the reverse of a piece of acetate with purple Stazon and attached this as an overlay with 4 eyelets.

Image Transfer ATC's

I have just completed another 3 ATC's using the packing tape image transfer method. I chose images from glossy magazines and transferred them onto clear adhesive packing tape by burnishing the tape thouroughly over the chosen image. I cut out the taped images and soaked in water for a few minutes then with my fingers 'rubbed' off the softened paper from the adhesive side of the tape until no more remained. I then allowed the images to dry and then adhered them (they were still adhesive) to the ATC card background. You may need to use a clear adhesive such as glossy accents if they don't retain their own adhesive qualities. I have then used various techniques to enhance the images with backing papers, permanent markers, gesso, pearly doodles and chalk inkpads. The words were all stamped with black Stazon.

Entry in Clares CJ

This is a CJ insert I did for a UK Stampers Forum originated by Fairy (Clare). The theme was 'Flights of Fancy' and one stipulation was that each entry should feature Wings of one form or another.

I chose Butterflies and a mauve colourway, accented with glitters, Cricut letters, opalescent paints & embossed stamped images. I used rubber stamps from Tanda, Cherry Pie, Artistic Stamper & SeeD morsels. The letters were cut using the Cricut & Zooballoo cartridge and these were layered and subtly glittered with transparent glitter. The background was prepared with a Stewart Gill Alchemy paint with a gold interference effect (Amethyst) applied with a criss cross pattern by wide brush and the floral swirls were stamped in violet pigment ink and heat embossed with a purple pearl EP. The butterfly and sprite inside are inkjet printed on vellum (from a Joanna Sheen CD ROM) and attached with two pieces of organza and satin ribbon which are embellished with small square violet flat-backed jewels.

The inserts are designed to go into a small but gorgeously decorated metal Lunchpack Tin. The finished CJ looks very impressive and is now on its way back to it's owner.

Girly Pink Jacobs Ladder

Top View

Well here is another one of my Jacobs Ladders inspired by Craft TV Weekly . This time I have used a slightly larger matboard base of 3 1/2 inches square. I have used an assortment of girly papers with a predominantly pink colourway which I cut to 3 1/4 inch squares. I edged half of the matboards in Pine Needles Distress Ink (direct to paper) and the other half were edged with a coat of Lumiere bright gold acrylic paint applied by brush. I decorated the panels before assembling the Ladder which was held together with 1/4 inch Grosgrain ribbon in French Pink.

Decorations were a selection of rubber stamps of bags, shoes, dresses, gloves etc. Stamping was done on cream card with Versamark and black Stazon and the images were heat embossed with various EP's before being cut out and adhered to the panels. Some appropriate quotes and words were also stamped and applied. Some epoxy stickers were also used.

I applied a home made 3D embellishment to the top panel and finally tied the whole thing together with a length of French Pink organza ribbon tied in a bow.

Top View without ribbon

Open Front Panels

Open Back Panels

Stampbord Egyptian Book

This little book was done as a Stambord Challenge with TalkCrafts Forum members. The challenge was to produce something using Stambord. I decided to use two pieces of 2 inch square Stambord as my base and went for an Egyptian theme.

I first coloured the front and back Stampbord pieces with Whispers dye inks applied and blended with a piece of Cut 'n' Dry foam in Sunshine, Barn Brown & Mossy Stone. I set these with a heat gun before applying an Egyptian hieroglyph cube stamp from Judikins (Artifacts Cube), in black Stazon which I set again with a heat gun. I then edged the pieces with gold Krylon pen.

I cut a concertina insert for the book out of cream laid Conqueror paper with four panels. I then stamped a crackle background in Mossy Stone using a Crafty Individuals rubber stamp.

I then stamped out a selection of images on cream & brown card from the Nonsequitur Egyption stamp plate using Versamark and I heat embossed these with a selection of EP's to compliment the colourway of the book. I cut these out and applied to the panels within, also stamping choice words in black Stazon directly on the panel papers.

Once complete I tied the book closed with a piece of gold braid. To finish I made a pouch out of black velour and adhered a cartouche panel onto the front.