A Rosy Smile

Here is a little rosy creation I made recently.  It's made up from an open-ended box base with an upright plaque trapped between.  Great design to cover with decorative paper, which is what I have done on mine.

The covering paper panels are all trimmed from one 12 x 12 in sheet with a pink textured top and a rose border. I first trimmed off the rosy border and cut out the roses to decorate the base of the plaque.  Two other roses were individually trimmed out to decorate the top of the box base.

All edges were coloured with Memento green dye ink applied with cut'n'dry foam.  The bottom panels were first trimmed out of Kraft card and then matted with the pink paper.and stuck in place as shown.  The main panel on the plaque was put together similarly but before attaching was stamped with a moth stamp (PaperArtsy) in Archival black ink and embellished with a diecut (Nestabilities) tag with pink panel and another 'Smile' stamp (PaperArtsy).  The roses were applied at the base on foam pads. A piece of 3 mm dark green satin ribbon was tied through the hole in the tag and a piece of black numbers Washi tape applied before sticking in place.

The lower panels were decorated with strips of the same Washi tape and the two roses applied on foam pads.

Final touch was to apply red flower buttons with Glossy Accents and a blob of green Stickles in the centre of each button.

This design can be decorated in any style or colourway to suit any occasion.

Sid xx

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Leafy Park LO

I really haven't done many 12 x 12 inch scrapbook pages in my time (although I do own rather a large collection of bare scrapbooks) and this was an opportunity to do one of my first.  I think there is only one other on my blog somewhere !

I was provided with a number of fantastic papers & embellishments by Julie Kirk (a very talented crafter) along with a sketch to follow and, once more, there is no stamping on this at all.

The double sided 12 x 12 papers used are by Pion and are fabulous and available at 3D Jean along with a host of other great stuff.

There are a few layers in the centre of the green graph paper design and I used some yellow bakers twine to decorate another strip of the Pion paper.

A file tab was fashioned from another piece of printed scrap and added as shown.

Three little coloured pom-poms in contrasting colours were added to add depth. Memento ink on cut'n'dry was used to edge some components.

A little journalling (hate my handwriting !).

Finally another tag with a self adhesive embellishment circle was added along with a cork flower, button and card-candi circle.

Now will this spur me on to do some more?  Honestly I am not sure, but it may.

Sid xx

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Face Forwards

Here are a set of Twinchies made for a swap over on UK Stampers Forum.  I have used white card, swiped with various colours of Impress dye inks and overstamped in Archival black ink with an old cover stamp from Craft Stamper Magazine.

I have used bleach in a waterbrush to bleach out the faces to obtain that effect.  Each is finished by edging with contrasting chalk inks and embellishing with dots and circles added with a gold Posca pen.

Nice and bright just as I like it !

Sid xx

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Easter Eggy?

Whilst away recently for a weekend retreat one of our group, Hannah gave me a little gift of some digi images and papers with a challenge to make a card there and then........ so I did, and this is it.

The only stamping on this one is the sentiment !

I started by cutting out the egg and adding some Glossy Accents on the flowers, I put this aside to dry.  I used Nestability dies to cut three mats - one from stripey patterned paper, one from white card and one from kraft card.  These were attached to a blank textured white card with the paper being mounted on 1mm foam pads.  The egg was added last.

A piece of matching ribbon was attached with double sided adhesive and a paper ribbon bow from the gift added at the left.

The Easter sentiment (Papertrey) was stamped in Archival black ink on white card, trimmed out, edged with burnt sienna chalk ink and mounted on foam pads.

Have enough to do a few more in time for Easter too !

Sid xx

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Freedom ATC's

Here are three ATC's I have made for a swap over on UK Stampers Forum.  The theme is 'Freedom' and what is more free than a bee on its travels from flower to flower in its quest for nectar?

I made the backgrounds with spray inks in orange and yellow (Sticky Fingers), applying in layers to obtain a very deep summer sun colour and drying in between each sprayed layer with a heat gun.

I then stamped the flowers (Sizzix polymer) and the bee (Kars) in Archival black ink adding a flower stem by hand with a black Micron pen.  The bees body and petals of the flowers were coloured with yellow Posca pen and some gold Posca added in the centre of them.

A printed twinchie (Crafty Individuals) was added to each and the cards were finished with a Dymo word edged with more gold Posca.  The ATC's were edged with burnt sienna chalk ink.

Sid xx

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Nearly a One Layer Card !

Here is a card I made over the weekend.  I have used Lynne Parrella stamps from PaperArtsy stamped in Archval Black on plain white card.  I have masked the main image and overstamped with the festoon border stamp and then offset stamped this with yellow dye ink (Memento).

All colouring was with Copic markers and the sentiment was again stamped in Archival black ink.

The next bit was to add a strip of printed Japanese Washi Tape which takes it to a 2 layer card really

 ..... hence the title !

The card was edged with Maroon Chalk Ink to finish.

Sid xx

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Wonderfilled Bunting

Here is a simple card I made using some bunting stamps (Papertrey), white card, alcohol ink markers and a kraft card blank.

My wonky sewing is a testament to my machine sewing skills !  I used Archival black ink.

The words are from a set of polymer stamps by Lindsay Mason Designs

Like the simplicity !

Sid xx

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CC Domino Book

I have joined in on making an Altered Domino Book as part of a swap over on UK Stampers.  The swap had an open theme so I chose my theme along the lines of the pottery art of Clarice Cliff.  All stamps used are from a set I have had for ages from Tanda.

The two ivory coloured dominoes I used had metal spinners on the spots side which I first removed with a pair if pliers followed by a stiff sandpapering of the plain back and sides to offer a key for the surface treatments.

I carefully stamped part of a tree design in Archival black ink on both of the donimoes and dried this thoroughly with the heat gun.  I then carefully coloured the design with Alcohol ink markers taking care not to damage the outline.  Once thoroughly dry I quickly applied Versamark ink and then heat embossed with clear UTEE.  As can be seen from the pics this sort of caused a mottled but not unpleasant appearance to the images, in fact I thought it looked like a pottery glaze.

Once cool I applied a metal ribbon loop with Glossy accents to the front domino and allowed to dry. All outside edges of the dominoes were carefully painted with two coats of Viva Decor Metallic emerald paint.

The concertina insides were made from light green card measured and folded as shown.  The decoration was done before sticking to the inside of the two 'domino' covers.

Again I used more stamps from the set which were coloured with more AI brushes, more embellishmnet was added with Pitt gold pen and some self adhesive letters, coloured blue to spell 'Clarice Cliff'.

The opposite side was painted with lichen green Acrylic paint and stamped with a leaf/vine stamp in Archival black ink.

Both dominoes were stuck to the concertina with Glossy Accents and a short piece of chevron grosgrain ribbon in similar colours was threaded through the metal ribbon loop so as not to hide the design.  This was tied in a bow at the side as a closure for the book.

Finally I made a matching tag from two pieces of diecut card with more stamping and colouring.  An eyelet was added with the crop-a-dile and some more of the ribbon attached with gold staples.

Sid xx

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A Window on Italy

Another 6 x 4 inch postcard done as part of a swap over on UK Stampers Forum.  The theme this month is 'Windows' so I have done mine on an Italian theme.  The postcard travels to it's recipient 'naked' so it needs to be able to stand up to the RM treatment !

The background is plain white card and I have used a mask and Distress Ink in crushed olive and wild honey to build up layers to leave no white showing.  This has been dried to set with a heat gun.

An old Italian map has been stamped with an arched window stamp from PaperArtsy twice to form a round window in Archival black ink and trimmed out.

The background was then stamped with a leaning tower of Pisa stamp (PaperArtsy) in grey Memento dye ink as shown to form muted images on the right.  I have then heat embossed two stamped images (chandelier & finial) with Versamark and heat embossed with Ranger turquoise embossing powder after first rubbing over with an antistatic bag.

The bottom border is punched from black card with an EK success border punch.  The card was then assembled and edged with turquoise Versamagic chalk ink.  Final touches were to add the computer word, edged with gold pen, and apply Macarena Beadazzles with Glossy Accents to the top left and right of the card.  The whole card was then sprayed with a thin coat of matt sealer to fix.

Sid xx

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'Flying' Journal Page

Another bit of double spread journaling in my 21 x 13 cm Moleskine journal .  This time entitled 'Flying'.  The background was made using spray inks, acrylic paints with masks over a pre-gessoed page.  The page is pictured at the end of the post prior to having any decoration added.

The flying girls are collaged and are a digital download from the lovely Helga at ARTchix Studio .  These have been trimmed out and stuck in place.  I just love the butterfly winged dress and hat on the girl on the right !

Lots of doodling with Posca pen in red, gold, black and yellow and stamping with Archival black & green inks with a leafy vine stamp helped hold the design together.

Finally the words were printed on paper with a pink background, trimmed out and finished with more Posca pen before sticking in place.

I do find it difficult to know when to stop adding things and am still finding out what I really feel comfortable with as my 'style'.  I am really loving doing these though and have lots of ideas which I still want to try.

Sid xx

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The Fragile Heart

Here is a piece I made for a challenge on The Cupboard Trilogy Blog.  The main stamp used in this piece is a cover stamp from Craft Stamper Magazine designed by the late, great Sarah Lawrence of Crafty Notions who passed away very suddenly in December 2011.

The challenge is to design a piece of craft using the cover stamp. 

I have used a box that originally contained Valentine chocolates and have altered it to contain a flower made from the hearts depicted in the stamp. The box was painted with red satin acrylic paint and stamped on the outside with a swirl stamp inked in Stazon Gold.  The three hearts were coloured in Posca gold pen and edged in Posca black fineliner.

The inside of the box was lined with spotty red paper and decorated with a flower made from the heart stamp which had been stamped a number of times in black Archival ink and coloured with barn door Distress ink.  Glossy accents was used to assemble the heart 'petals' finally adding a red glass cabochon as a centre.

The words were printed on the printer and added over another stamped heart on foam pads. Hope this is a fitting tribute in the memory of a great crafting icon !

Sid xx

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