Blog Re-design

You may have noticed a different colour scheme etc. on my blog. It is going through a metamorphosis at present, so bear with me until I am happy with it.

Mini Altered Book

Altered books are a lovely thing to create. This one is part of a swap run by Dansmum (Hazel) on the UK Stampers Forum. She sent each of the swappers two pieces of clear polypropylene to use as covers. They were approx 5 x 3 inches in size.

Materials:

• Jacquard Lumiere acrylic paint (pearl blue)
• Stazon (imperial purple)
• Gold metallic spray (Sticky Fingers)
• Decorative self adhesive ribbon
• Satin Ribbon
• White rub-ons
• Blue mulberry paper
  

I painted the covers on both sides with two coats of Jacquard Lumiere paint in pearl blue, allowing the paint to dry between coats. I then used a starburst stamp and stamped randomly with Stazon in imperial purple on both the front and the back covers. I used the Sticky Fingers gold metallic spray to then spray over the covers lightly and allowed this to dry. I applied the self adhesive ribbon top and bottom of the front cover and finished with a flourish rub-on and the word 'Art' on the front.

The handmade paper was cut to size and two holes were punched with the Cropadile. The book was held together with two pieces of light purple satin ribbon, tied into bows.

Hope you like it:-)

'Angel'

Here is my (very late !) entry for last weeks UK Stampers Challenge. The topic was Angels, so I did a card using two stamps. One from Graphicus (the angel) and one from Paper Artsy (the script). I stamped the angel twice on mauve cardstock with Versafine onyx black and cut one out as a mask. I then masked the angel and overstamped with the script stamp. I then used Distress inks and blended the colours using cut'n'dry foam. Colours used were, spiced marmalade and mustard seed for the top and weathered wood, faded jeans and broken china for the base. I used gold artists ink applied by brush to highlight areas of the wings, sword, halo and crown of the angel image.

I then double matted the card leaving the last mat oversize at the left and right edges. I applied glossy accents in two stripes and stuck on Stewart Gill amber byzantia bijou blend glass chips. This was then mounted onto white cardstock.

Hope you like it :-)

Red Hot ATC

Here is an ATC I made for this weeks TMTA (Think Monday Think ATC) Challenge whose theme was red. The background is made by sticking random pieces of printed paper onto the cards surface and adhering with matt paper Mod Podge. When dry I have used a corner flourish stamp and versamark and heat embossed with marquesite EP. The lips were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with claret EP. The words were stamped with studio G letter stamps and black Stazon. The whole ATC was edged with red chalk ink.

Hope you like it :-)

Edited to say I got my card in the TMTA Sampler........what a nice suprise !!

Another Christmas Decoration

I have wings, again !! and without Red Bull !!

This is another Christmas decoration I made from a template cut out of patterned cardstock, scored, folded and then treated in the following manner: I stamped the unformed cutout randomly with a small rheindeer stamp with Versamark and heat embossed these with clear embossing powder. With this acting as a resist, I used shabby shutters distress ink laid down from the pad onto a non-stick craft sheet. This was first spritzed with water from a mister and the card laid down a couple of times randomly onto the spritzed ink and dried with a heat gun between coats.

The coloured card was then folded and a hole cut in the top flaps to accommodate 4 pieces of ribbon 2 each in red and gold, knotted at one end and threaded through the end flaps. The tabs of the card were adhered with extra strong double sided adhesive.

Next, two wings were stamped onto heat resistant acetate and heat embossed with silver embossing powder before cutting out carefully and adhering with mini glue-dots to the back of the ornament as shown. I then selected an epoxy sticker and applied centrally. The words were cut from printed paper and adhered with glossy accents. The front and back of the ornament were finished with dots of red stickles glitter glue.

I am in the process of making a batch of different decorations which I hope will go onto decorate a large gilded twig as my substitute Christmas tree.

Hope you like it :-)

Xmas Inchies

These Xmas Inchies were done as part of the UK Stampers 3 x 3 Inchie swap. I have used black mountboard as the base. Small studio G Xmas stamps were stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder. I then dabbed on Starburst stains in red, green and gold. The EP acts as a resist and allows the black background to show through. They were each edged with Krylon gold pen.

They are dark, I admit....but have a subtle shimmer with the mica in the starburst stains!

Hope you like them:-)

Xmas tree decoration with wings

This is my entry for the UK Stampers Sunday Challenge No 18. We were asked to produce a festive tree decoration with wings. I used stamps from Tanda for the tree and the star. I do not know who made the wings stamp.

I used polyester acetate which would resist the heat from heat embossing and stamped the swirly tree with Versamark, heat embossing with Stampendous twilight embossing powder. I stamped the star on acetate and embossed with gold EP. These were cut out carefully and the tree adhered to some mauve and green paper with glossy accents. The star was attached at the back and a piece of green grossgrain ribbon attached behind. The tree was embellished with green stickles. The wings were stamped onto acetate with Versamark and heat embossed with gold EP, cut out and adhered.

Hope you like it :-)

'Who Said Red?' CJ

I have done a couple of earlier CJ's and all my work has become lost somewhere so have never actually received my CJ's back................very disappointing indeed !

I was a bit reluctant to have another go, but was tempted to do another on UK Stampers Forum hosted by Gail Milburn (Efemera). The theme was lightly based on the book 'True Colours' from Stampington which showcased a collaborative effort of art journals on a colour theme. This book has always inspired me anyway. Each participant was to choose a colour and an unmounted stamp and produce their CJ in this theme. My colour was RED because I sort of mopped up when the other participants had chosen their colours.

I had very little time to complete my CJ but here it is in all its glory anyway. This first pic is of the front. I covered some board with red textured cardstock. I then selected another shade of red and tore this into two leaving a space before adhering to the base card. This was given a couple of coats of matt paper Mod-Podge. I edged both raw edges with red metallic deco-balls. A red suede frame was backed with velvetised paper and adhered as shown. The heart was a clear acrylic embellishment backed with alcohol ink and held in place with a plate stamped with 'Who Said'. The RED was UTEE covered die-cuts and a stamped question mark.

I had just bought a Bind-it-All so intended binding my CJ with this. The inside left and right pages are shown here before binding.

Inside left page

Inside right page

The left page shows an image of the stamp and a wallet containing the stamp which I cannot trace to a maker! The right has the introductory dialogue printed onto inkjet transparency and overlayed on silver stamped hearts. The following image shows the pages together as they are in the CJ.

Next comes my double page entry:

My entry left

My entry right

The left page contains an image of the stamp coloured with dye inks with the mirror silvered and matted onto a transparency with swirls. This mat was adhered to a background made of gold on red paper which had the word 'Imagine' stamped twice. The background was pre-prepared with gold ink dabbed on through sequin waste. The right page had a similar background except a sentiment on vellum was edged top and bottom with velvet ribbon and was matted onto the same printed transparency before adhering to the page. A corner swirl stamp was used with white ink to finish. This is how the pages look together:

My last left and right sign in pages are here:

Last left

Last sign-in

These two pages use red striped backing paper, stamped with swirls and knibs with die-cut letters and tags made with the cricut and finished with red velvet ribbon. Embossed lips are used as an embellishment. Some suggested ideas are used on the left page. Here's what they look like together.

Here is the final CJ, all assembled and decorated with a variety of red themed ribbons.

That's it. Do hope you like it and that my friends and fellow contributors enjoy contributing to its contents over the months. Can't wait to see what the final work of art will look like.