Yellow, Green & Brown ATC's

These series of three ATC's were done as a swap to go abroad. I suggested a colour theme of Yellow, Green and Brown across the three with the use of any other embellishments or decoration.

I cut the card bases from plain white card and then selected a variety of papers along with some brown angelhair, acetates, ribbon and square brads. I also used three rubber stamps - A man stamp from PaperArtsy (MN08) - Antique Key from Rubber Stampede 3588C) - Swirl Stamp (Anon).

All papers, ribbon, punched fleur de lys and angelhair were adhered with glue stick and the brads used to secure the printed acetates (Making Memories). I used pearlescent Ivy and pearlescent olive Versafine inks for the stamping and edging was with Colorbox dark brown chalk ink.

Do hope you like them and that she does too ! :)

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Sunday Challenge No 3

Here are my 9 'inchies' done for the UK Stampers Sunday Challenge No 3. The challenge was based on the Olympics, sports & medals.

I found this one difficult really because I don't have a lot of sporty type stamps. I decided to use watercolour board as a base and then thought about the colours of the Olympic rings as a starter.

I first coloured the backgrounds with Whispers dye ink in Turquoise, Red & Green direct to paper. Then stamped in onyx black Versafine a selection of stamps from a 'boys toys' See D's set.

I first edged each of the inchies with Versamark and dipped them in Tequila Sunrise EP from Joanna Sheen, heating to melt with a heat gun. Then I stamped stars with Versamark and EP's in Copper, Silver & Gold to represent the Olympic medals.

So I did try to capture the colours of the Olympic Rings - Cyan, Green, Red, Yellow & Black plus the metallics of the medals.

Hope you like them ! :)

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The Lost Little Box

Some while ago in another of my blog posts, I mentioned that I had been part of a swap called 'Little Boxes on the Hillside'. One of the ladies who participated had the great misfortune to lose her 21 Little Boxes in the post whilst on their way to the host for the swap.

She was so determined that she re-crafted all her Boxes again and this is her spooky submission to turn the 19 I received into the final 20 !

Love the house and thanks to Ali for her contribution.

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Imagination ATC

This is a rather 'long in the making' ATC which was started some months ago but that I have only finished today.

I took some canvas effect white cardstock and cut to size. I then applied various Jacquard paints with a brush and water to colour the background.

I used Sherrils Sorbet mint along with some lime and white acrylic paints which I allowed to dry. I then drybrushed some Lumiere pearl turquoise and super copper until happy with the result. I tried to keep the copper towards the edges of the ATC. I then inked up a crackle stamp (Crafty Individuals) with emerald green Colorbox chalk ink and stamped across the ATC.

The imagination plate was made from some of the same background cut to size with a copper sentiment applied. This plate was then triple heat embossed with clear UTEE before edging with super copper and mounting on foam pads to the ATC. Final touches were added with two antique copper brads of a butterfly and a dragonfly.

Hope you like it :)

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Oriental ATC

Here is a quick ATC I put together for another swap. I brayered the background with green, blue and mustard Whispers dye inks in stripes, slightly overlapping and set with the heat gun. I then applied a trimmed piece of Japanese Washi paper to the bottom left. I stamped an image of a Japanese lady, a stylised chrysanth and three oriental characters in onyx black Versafine ink. I applied a strip of self adhesive gold foil down the left half of the card before applying a small polymer clay plate that I had made previously by stamping into some soft worked clay. I also applied some Pearlex metallic mica pigments to the clay before baking to give it a metallic sheen. I then edged with gold Krylon pen.

Hope you like it :)

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Sunday Challenge No 2

Here are my two offerings for the UK Stampers Sunday Challenge No 2

The challenge was to make two tags one in colour and one in black & White using the same stamp/s.

For the coloured tag I have covered a cricut made tag with some Japanese Washi Paper I bought on my visit to Japan recently. I cut the hole through with the Crop-o-dile. I then applied three layered colours of Brilliance ink (pearlescent crimson, pearlescent ivy and rocket red gold) from top to bottom to the oriental stamp (Inkadinkado 93191) and stamped centrally over the Washi paper. I applied a metallic pink eyelet with the crop-o-dile, edging the tag with pink chalk ink. I chose three pastel brads in lemon, mauve and pink and applied through the centres of some of the printed flowers and finished the tag with some 3mm organza and satin ribbon in pink, tied through the hole in the tag.

The black & white tag was made with the cricut and the same Inkadinkado stamp applied centrally after inking with Versafine onyx black ink. I then used a second stamp of Chinese calligraphy (Judikins artifacts cube 67181) to fill in the top and bottom of the tag. I used Brilliance starlite black ink on this. I then stamped another image of the Inkadinkado stamp in black and cut out the chrysanths and the chop image which I decoupaged over the original images with foam pads. I applied a black eyelet to the hole in the tag, edged the tag with black Stazon ink and knotted some plain black and white satin ribbon through the hole.

Hope you like them, and wonder what the next challenge will be?

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Matchbox Shrine Class

I am taking part in a Matchbox Shrine Swap with UK Stampers Forum and thought it might be useful to do a step-by-step class on how I made it. This is just my interpretation but it may give anyone viewing the class some ideas and inspiration.

The idea of Matchbox Shrines is certainly not new and they can symbolise anything at all, some are used as lucky charms and are carried in handbags and purses. Some have religious significance whilst others can simply be decorative objects.

Mine is designed to be hung on a wall and so has a backing to it. The colourway is blue/purple and it represents 'The Door to Heaven'.

So here goes.........ready........steady........craft !!

Materials:

• Standard box of safety matches (emptied of its contents)


• Acrylic Paints (Metallic Sapphire, Blue Mist - Inscribe)


• Puffy Velvet Markers (Blue, Light Blue - Marvy Uchida)


• Glitter Glue (Crystal - Stickles - Ranger))


• Square Metallic Brads (Dovecraft)


• Craft Wire (Metallic Blue - Dovecraft)


• Leaf Beads


• Flat backed gems (Violet - square)


• Micro beads (Purple Metallic)


• Glossy Accents (Ranger)


• Small Metal Key Charm


• Small glass bottle with stopper


• Fine Glitter (violet iridescent - Art Institute)


• Backing paper (text, Light blue pattern - K&Co, Once Upon A Time - DCWV)


• Heavy board (for backing)


• Bookbinding Glue (Sticky fingers)


• Glue dots (Glue-dots)


• Gold Pen (Krylon)


• Chalk Ink (Indigo Blue, Purple - Color Box)


• Embossing Powder (Metallic Purple - Personal Impressions)


• Embossing Ink Pad (Versamark)


• Gold Thread
  
• Seed Beads (Purple iridescent - Guttermann)


• Gold German Scrap Wings


• Ribbon - Purple Organza


• Tyvek piece (see forthcoming class on how to make)

Stamps:

• Small leaf (See D's - Lattice & Vine Collection)


• Foliate (Stampendous Foliate Quad Cube TC51)

Tools:

• Pricking Tool


• Craft Knife


• Scissors


• Tweezers


• Heat Gun


• Paintbrush


• Paper Trimmer


• Crop-o-dile

Instructions:

Preparing the matchbox.



1. Take your matchbox and empty it of its contents, paint the tray portion of the matchbox with 2 coats of blue mist acrylic paint, allowing to dry between coats.



2. Take the matchbox sleeve in portrait orientation and measure half way across the top, putting a pencil line down from top to bottom. Carefully cut the sleeve open along this line. The top will then open to form two little doors on the finished shrine.

3. Paint the cut sleeve with 2 or 3 coats of the metallic sapphire acrylic paint (no need to cover completely as the back surface of the sleeve will eventually be adhered to the base card) and allow to dry between coats.



Decorating the tray .

1. Take the painted tray and apply the puffy marker colour in blue to the outside of both long sides of the tray. Heat carefully with the heat gun until the colour puffs up and adds texture. Do the same with the light blue along the two short sides.

2. Apply stickles glitter glue in crystal to the inside sides of the tray and smooth over with a brush, allow to dry.



Decorating the cut sleeve.

1. Take the small leaf stamp and apply to acrylic block and using Versamark stamp images of the leaf on all of the inside painted surfaces of the sleeve (use an antistatic bag first). Take the embossing powder and apply to stamped images, tapping off excess powder before carefully heating the leaves to melt the powder. It is worth holding the sleeve in a pair of tweezers to avoid burning your fingers ! Allow to cool before handling.


2. Turn over the sleeve and using the cube leaf stamp inked with indigo blue chalk ink to stamp all over the painted surfaces. Heat with a heat gun until the chalk ink is dry.

3. Using a piercing tool. make two holes in the front of the sleeve 'doors' and apply the two metallic brads as door handles through the holes.

4. Take a length of gold thread and double it, twist together the strands and tie a knot on one end. Thread 4 of the blue seed beads onto the thread and move to the knotted end, tie another knot to secure the beads at that end. At the other end of the thread tie a knot about 1.5 inches in and again thread another 4 seed beads on. Finish this with a knot to hold on the beads. This will then act as a cord to hold the 'doors' closed when wrapped around the square brads !

5. Edge all the sleeve edges with a fine line of Krylon gold and allow to dry.



Filling the tray.





1. Take a piece of the text printed paper and trim to size to fit inside the top of the inside bottom of the tray and adhere with glossy accents.

2. Apply some fine lines of glossy accents and sprinkle on the metallic purple micro beads, pouring off excess beads into the container.

3. Cut the decorated piece of Tyvek to fit the lower half of the inside bottom of the tray and glue in place with glossy accents.

4. Take the small stoppered bottle and half fill with the purple art glitter, replace stopper, add a strand of gold thread to the top and stick in place with a glue dot.

5. Take a short length of blue metallic craft wire and thread onto this 6 leaf beads in purple and blue bending the wire in a circle to secure the beads. Adhere this with glossy accents to the top edge of the Tyvek piece. Allow this to dry before handling.

6. Take the metal key charm and adhere this to the tyvek with a blob of glossy accents, allowing this to dry before handling.

7. Apply the two square purple flat-backed gems to the text paper, top left with glossy accents.

8. Edge the top surfaces of the tray with Krylon gold pen.





Assembling the matchbox.

1. Take the filled tray and apply glossy accents to its base, position the tray inside the cut sleeve and press firmly to adhere.

Making the base.

1. Take a piece of heavy card and cut to a suitable size on the trimmer. Take once-upon-a-time paper and cover the front of the base board with the paper using bookbinding adhesive and a bone folder. Cut blue K&Co paper to size and cover the back of the board in a similar manner. Allow to dry completely.



Assembling the shrine.

1. Cut the gold wings into two, position and apply to the back of the assembled matchbox to suit.

2. Take the shrine with wings attached and apply glossy accents to the back of the sleeve. Position carefully on the backing board and press down firmly to stick. Allow to dry.

3. Using an indigo blue chalk ink pad edge all round the backing board finishing off with the gold Krylon pen.

4. Measure the top edge of the board and cut two equidistant holes with the crop-o-dile.

5. Take a length of the purple organza ribbon and thread through the holes, finally tying in a bow.

This is just my version of decoration and altering, but I hope that it gives you some ideas and inspirations in coming up with your own little version of a shrine.

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Sunset Beach

This is the piece of artwork that I have done for UK Art Raffle run by Flo (Hazel). This new Raffle is explained on her website, but it is definately not a swap and the monthly winner will receive all the artwork sent in during that month ! The theme is 'SUMMER SUN' for August.

I chose a glossy board base and cut it to approx. 5ins square and this was first coloured directly with inkpads from the Whispers dye ink range - I used orange, royal blue & sunshine to give the impression of a sunset over the sea. This was dried with a blast from my heatgun.

I then used a sunset beach stamp from Tin Can Mail (Inkadinkado - 91566X) which I inked with Versamark and stamped twice on a piece of light white card. I applied detail black embossing powder to the words top and bottom of one image and heat embossed them. I then applied Moonglow midnight sapphire obsidian embossing powder (gorgeous sapphire blue) to the second Versamarked image and heat embossed this. I then cut out the words and the image.

I then used USArtquest stargazers and jewelz watercolour pallet paints to infill the un-embossed areas of the image with a brush and water and allowed to dry.

I applied the embossed images as seen with glue stick in the middle of the plate and finished with edging the plate with Versamark and gold EP.

I really like the bright and vibrant colours and wished I was somewhere with better weather !!

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Sunday Challenge No 1 entry

Here are my two cards made for the first Sunday Challenge on UK Stampers Forum. The first uses the first stamp I ever bought. It's a small rubber bare tree stamps (no make).

I made a background on light green card using direct to paper technique with fresh green Colorbox pigment ink which I sprinkled with Moonglow orbit olive gold embossing powder and applied heat from a heat gun to melt the powder. I then stamped the tree in eden green Stazon ink. I used the same pigment ink and EP to make the 'inspire' decal using a magnetic Making Memories stamp. I stuck the tree on the background into the aperture and the decal on the front and then cut a small thin strip of the green card and applied this to the bottom of the card, finishing with some mint green Pearlydoodles.

The second uses the last rubber stamp I bought. This one is from Zettiology (11-44-G) and I love Teesha Moore's stamps......even though they ARE very weird. I made a white tall thin card for this on textured card and rubbed a Versamark inkpad on the front of the card randomly before applying a coat of Moonglow aurora embossing powder and heating with a heat gun. The stamp was stamped onto plain white card in onyx black Versafine ink and was then hand coloured with a brush and Inktense water soluble ink pencils to achieve the effect. This was trimmed to fit, edged with purple Colorbox chalk ink and stuck onto the card.

I love the moonglow EP's, which don't show up very well in photos, and adore my latest Zetti addition !!

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'Africa' ATC's

Here are yet another three ATC's done as a swap to go across the pond. The theme is Africa and I have used animal print background papers representing Tiger, Zebra and Leopard as the bases. I used brown glitter glue to spell out the word 'Africa' on the first and applied a stamp several times inked with Versamark and embossed with Adirondak Embossing powder in Eggplant, Espresso and Butterscotch. I then applied a red flocked paper punched star.

The second has a figure of a naked man with a knife stamped in sepia Versafine ink on white card which was cut out and applied with glue stick. Two stripes of the red flock paper were applied diagonally and the word 'Africa' in blue applied from a cut up magazine.

The third has an stamped image of three women with Versamark ink and heat embossed with penny copper (Stampendous) EP. Three punched stars and a stripe of red flock was added and the letters of the word, again cut from a magazine, this time in mustard.

Hope you like them :)

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'Quotes & Name' ATC's

Here are another three ATC's just completed for a swap with a lovely lady in Australia. Her name is Evelyne so we have done a card with our name on and another two in the theme of quotes.

Both of the quotes cards have brayered backgrounds in denim Adirondak ink. One has hand coloured leaves (Derwent Inktense watercolour ink pencils) which are overlaid on the background and a printed quote. The other has a stamp of dancers (Stamp-It, Tiptoe 2847E) in Brilliance rocket red gold and a border stamp top and bottom in Black Stazon and a printed quote applied. Both ATC's are edged in Gold Krylon.

The name ATC has background paper and printed overlaid letters from K & Co to spell out 'Evelyne'. A piece of lime satin ribbon has been applied and a small bow to finish. ATC was edged in black Stazon.

They are now on their way to Australia. Hope you like them :)

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