School Days .......

Over on UK Stampers Forum we have a monthly postcard swap, the September theme is 'School Days'.

I cut a piece of scrap white card into a 6 x 4 inch postcard blank and then used a number of 12 inch papers cut down to embellish the base.  I edged the components with barn door Distress Ink on cut'n'dry foam.

The boys image was stamped on more scrap card, coloured with alcohol ink markers and trimmed out.  I used a glue stick to adhere all of these.  I used a few stamps and black Memento ink to stamp the words (Papertrey Ink) and the border along with a bit of Micron pen doodling.

Finally I gave the whole thing a quick spray with matt acrylic sealer to protect it through the post naked !

Why don't you visit the Forum, become a member and join in?  It costs nothing and you will receive a stamped handcrafted postcard in return for your efforts !

Sid xx

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Rolling Recipe Tag 13

This weeks challenge was to make a tag with the following elements:

1. A Face
2. Leaves
3. Gems

I decided to go a bit funky and use leaves but with not a tinge of green in them at all (no green ink was used but some green was made accidentally by overlaying different colours). This turned out to be a very bright little number indeed !

The base tag was cut from white card and the stamp of a ladies face (Cherry Pie) was stamped first with onyx black Versafine ink. I love this stamp ! The image was coloured lightly with Marvey Le Plume II pens.

A mask was made by stamping again on a post-it note and placed over the original image whilst lavender Impress dye ink was applied with cut'n'dry foam for the background. A leaf stamp (Crafty Individuals) was then inked with the same ink and stamped randomly over the image to decorate as shown.

The same stamp was then stamped repeatedly in lemon yellow, ultramarine, peony purple and lavender Impress ink to form the leafy layer and this was trimmed out.

The bottom half of the tag was then sponged with more Peony purple ink and a border stamp (Green Pepper Press) stamped in the same colour. The leafy section was then stuck into place with glue stick.

Next I cut out some flowers with a Martha Stewart punch out of an old M&S cake box and coloured this with more peony purple Impress before embellishing with purple self adhesive gems and sticking in place with glue dots. Another gem was applied in the ladies hair.

The word stamp (Cherry Pie) was stamped as shown with onyz black Versafine ink and an eyelet with some pink silk added with the crop-a-dile to finish.

Must say that I love the vibrancy of the Impress inks in this. Hope you like it.

Sid xx

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Rolling Recipe Tag 12

Trying to play catch up with these tags, I left off at Tag 6 and so have another 5 to do to complete the set. This is Tag 12.

This weeks challenge was to make a tag with the following:

1. Gems
2. A stamped image of a face
3. Eggs

I cut the basic tag from white cardstock and adhered a torn page from an old book at the bottom. I then applied pumice stone Distress Ink to the top of the tag and around the lower edges with cut'n'dry foam. I then stamped onto the background with a music stamp (?) in crushed olive Distress Ink.

I then used a leaf stamp from Paper Artsy and stamped this repeatedly in pumice stone & crushed olive Distress ink as shown. The main image of a face is also from Paper Artsy and this was stamped on white card in Versamark and heat embossed with detail black embossing powder before colouring in with distress inks and a waterbrush. This was trimmed out and applied with glue stick.

The eggs (Paper Artsy) were stamped on white card in onyx black Versafine and coloured in similar colours of distress ink as before. These were trimmed out and applied on a single large glue dot.

The scalloped edge was made using a Martha Stewart punch, white card and more crushed olive Distress Ink and was applied with glue stick at the bottom of the tag. I adhered 3 peridot flat backed gems to this strip. The word stamp (Paper Artsy) was stamped directly in onyx black Versafine as shown.

Finally a cream eyelet was applied with the crop-a-dile and some fibres tied through the hole. Now to start to catch up on the rest.

Love those new colours of Distress Inks by Tim Holtz & Ranger!

Sid xx

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'Vintage' Inchies

Here are a set of 'Vintage' inchies I have made for a UK Stampers swap I am hosting.

I used:

• Mountboard
• Printed Papers (K & Co)
• Gelly Roll Souffle pens (assorted colours)
• Gold Artists Ink
• Stamps (SeeD's Vintage set)
• Versamark Inkpad (Onyx black)
• Punch (1 inch square, Woodware)
• Whispers Dye Inkpad (Dark Brown)

I punched out some suitable K & Co printed papers into nine 1 inch squares. These were then stamped with the stamps and Onyx Black Versafine. Dried with a heatgun and decorated with the Souffle Pens and allowed to airdry (about 5 mins). The gold ink was applied by fine brush selectively and allowed to dry.

The mountboard was cut on the rotary cutter into nine squares and the decorated squares adhered with glue stick. After a little trimming all edges were inked with the dark brown dye ink direct from the pad.

That's it. Hope you like them :-)

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Green Paper Beads

I am doing a paper bead swap over on UK Stampers Forum. Each swapper has to produce 20 hand made paper beads in a colour theme. I chose green, although the paper I have used does have some blue & purple in it.


Easy to make, I used:

• Printed paper (cut into long thin triangles approx 3/4 in x 10 in)
• Wooden Cocktail Sticks
• Glue Stick
• Versamark Inkpad
• Clear UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel)

First coat the end of the cocktail stick with Versamark (as a release agent so the bead doesn't stick). Coat the unprinted side of the paper with glue using a glue stick and carefullt roll the paper around the stick, wide end first. Roll the paper centrally around the stick ensuring the thin end is well stuck down. Allow to dry.

Roll the bead into the Versamark pad to coat and dip the bead into the UTEE. This will pick up some UTEE powder. Heat the bead with the heat gun until the UTEE melts and quickly dip the stick with the bead into the UTEE to pick up more powder and reheat. Do this once more keeping the stick rotating until the molten UTEE sets. I push the sticks into a piece of polystyrene foam until they are cool.

Carefully pull off the beads from the sticks and trim ends if necessary with a sharp craft knife to finish. If the beads don't want to come off the sticks, carefully reheat and push from the bead base upto the end of the stick to release. Take care the UTEE is very hot and can burn you easily. Allow to cool before removing the now loosened bead.

Alternatively you can use the Melt Pot to melt the UTEE and then dip each bead on its stick until coted with UTEE. This is ok if you are doing a lot or using UTEE for other projects, but for a few its probably easier to dip into the powder.

Hope you like them :-)

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'Let's Celebrate' Inchies

Here are my latest set of 9 Inchies for the January monthly challenge over on UK Stampers Forum whose theme was 'Let's Celebrate' . The theme for March is 'Oriental'.

For these inchies I used:

• Cardstock (Dark Blue & speckled Grey)
• Primary Elements (Rich Cobalt)
• Simple Solution No 2
• Rubber Stamp (PaperArtsy Text Mini MN 11)
• Versamark Inkpad
• Detail Embossing Powder (Silver)
• Inkjet printed words
• Small White Flower Brads
• Colorbox Chalk Inkpad (Pale Blue)

A piece of dark blue cardstock was brush coated with a wash of the Rich Cobalt primary elements mixed 1 part to 2 with the simple solution No 2. This was allowed to dry thoroughly.

The stamp was then inked with Versamark and stamped onto the painted card which was then heat embossed with the detail silver embossing powder using a heat gun. The embossed card was cut into slightly less than 1 inch squares. The white flower brads were added, one per square and these squares mounted onto the speckled grey card with glue stick and trimmed to leave a very small 1mm border of the grey card as a contrast.

Finally the words were printed onto copy paper with an inkjet printer, swiped over with the chalk inkpad and trimmed with scissors. The words were stuck onto the Inchies with glue stick to finish.

Hope you like them :-)

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Postcard from Australia !

Here is my entry for this weeks Sunday Challenge over on the UK Stampers forum. This weeks theme was 'Australia'

For the postcard I used:

• Ink-jet image of Australia
• Cheap hairspray
• Moonglow Glitz Spritz (Shimmering Silver)
• White card
• Adirondack Dye Ink pad (Eggplant)
• Brayer
• Stazon Ink Pad (Royal Purple)
• Rubber Stamps (Foliage Cube Fern, Invoke Arts Alphas, See D's Alphas)
• Versamark Ink Pad
• Embossing powder (Peach, White)
• Skeleton leaves
• Satin ribbon (Maroon)
• Glossy Accents
• Micro Glue Dots
• Glue Stick

I must say I didn't have one directly related stamp so I used an ink jet printed image of Australia which I cut out and set with cheap hairspray then sprayed with the Glitz Spritz.

The card was cut to 15 x 10 cm and brayered with Adirondack eggplant then overstamped with the royal purple Stazon and the foliage cube stamp.

The Invoke words were stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed with white EP. The word OZ was stamped similarly with the See D's Alphas and heat embossed with peach EP.

The ribbon was applied with glue dots as shown and three skeleton leaves tucked under the ribbon and stuck with small amounts of glossy accents as shown. Finally the map of Australia was applied with a glue stick.

Hope you like it :-)

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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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