Spooky !

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

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 !!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ! '

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.