Spicy Little Man !

This is my postcard for the UKStampers forum swap for November.  I started with some red card cut to 6 x 4 inches and stamped with a Lawn Fawn script stamp the words 'Merry Christmas' in Versamark ink.  I then used detail white embossing powder and heat set with a heat gun.

The gingerbread man was then diecut out of Kraft card with a Sizzix die through the BigShot.  I embellished his arms and legs with white card trimmed into strips with a pair of pinking shears and backed his eyes and mouth with a bit of scrap black card.

I used black and white Posca pens to decorate his eyes and add buttons and cut out a dickie bow in green patterned paper and adhered as shown.

I then edged the card with gold Krylon Pen and sprayed the completed card with matt acrylic lacquer to protect it through the post.

Hope the recipient likes him !

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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Home Sweet Home

I made this solitary ATC with collaged freeby digi images from Chocolate Baroque.  There is a little stamping (7Gypsies - bird) with the borders and the bird and a little embellishing with the green gems.  Love the colours in this one.

This one also fits the bill for the Simon Says Stamp & Show Challenge theme which this week is 'House'.

Sid xx

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Genius Of Life

Here is a little piece to bring a bit of the light of Summer back into your life !!  I have used Hero Arts polymer stamps and PaperArtsy rubber stamps in this one.

I started with a piece of pale green textured card and trimmed to size.  I then coloured this with broken china and pine needles Distress inks applied with cut'n'dry foam.  I then took a piece of sequin waste and applied more of the Distress inks through the waste along with some Brilliance moonlight white ink. A border stamp from Hero Arts was then inked with broken china ink and stamped top and left side.

I then took some of the Hero Arts stamps applied layers of flowers in Brilliance sunflower yellow, rocket red, pearlescent lavender and pearlescent sky blue.  Some of the flowers were overstamped with Versafine onyx black ink too.  Some were also stamped with Memento bamboo leaves and cottage ivy.  A single humming bird was stamped in Versafine vintage sepia.  I then used a fine DecoColor gold pen to the centres of the flowers.

More of the inch square stamps from the Hero Arts set were then stamped in black Stazon onto inchie sized pieces of Stampbord.  Once dry these were coloured with Marvey le Plume II pens as shown and again some highlights were added in the gold pen.

The tiles were stuck in place with Glossy Accents and some hand drawn lines added with a brown fineliner as shown.

The words (PaperArtsy), were stamped separately on a piece of white card in Versafine onyx black, cut out and coloured with more Distress Ink and applied on foam pads.

The design was edged with dark green chalk ink and then matted onto pale green textured card and again edged with the chalk ink to finish.

Sid xx

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Pretty in Pink

I made some paper flowers with the TH Sizzix tattered florals alterations die a short while back and here I have used one on a little gift box I crafted.  The box started life as a box of  Whittard coffee beans and I first prepared it by painting with a couple of coats of french mauve Decoart acrylic paint.  Once dry I used the smallest flower  negative from the diecuts as a mask and applied Adirondack Dimensional Pearls through the stencil with a dry coarse natural sponge in a randon fashion.  I allowed this to dry before adding white centres to the stencilled flowers with a white pigment pen.

I dug out some polymer stamps from Anna Griffin of an oval frame and the words 'Sending You Inspiration' and stamped the frame with Versafine onyx black.  This was coloured with Marvey Le Plume II pens and trimmed out.  I then backed the frame with the same spotty pink printed paper I had used in the flower and again trimmed out.  This was then stamped with the words.

The edges of the box were touched with chestnut brown chalk ink as was the edge of the frame and the printed paper was distressed a little with the ink.

The box was then decorated with the frame being stuck into place, the flower and pink ribbon bow applied with glue dots to finish.  I love the matt finish to the box and it has a sort of 'material' feel to it.

Sid xx

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Square in Square

This is my entry for this weeks Wednesday Stamper blog challenge whose subject is 'It's Hip to be Square'.  I used a couple of polymer stamps from Inkadinkado kindly given to me by Godelieve as part of a fab prize of goodies when she celebrated her 1,000,000th hit on her blog..........now that's some going !

I started with a 2in square of Stampbord and stamped this in Versafine onyx black ink with the stamp.  I then used barn door & rusty hinge Distress inks to colour the edges and centre of the tile with cut'n'dry foam and a waterbrush.  Some parts of the image were coloured with Inktense pencils and a waterbrush.  I used a scratch tool to etch into the stampbord clay surface on the images and around the edge.  I then used some more barn door Distress ink around the edge and heat embossed this with detail clear embossing powder. I edged with dark brown chalk ink.

The background mat was made using Sticky fingers Summer spray inks onto white card and when dry followed by various colours of chalk inks applied through a bit of sequin waste. This was cut and matted onto a piece of maroon card.  Both mats were edged again with dark brown chalk ink.

The Stampbord tile was then applied centrally with glossy accents and the word Serenity stamped top right in Versafine onyx black ink to finish.

Sid xx

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Ma Cherie !

I have been watching the RSS (Ready Steady Stamp) challenge website for a while and have never taken part.  I decided to join in this time and this is my entry.

This entry had to have at least three of the following ingredients:

*   The letter M

*   Purple, pink, green & black

*   Stamped flowers

*   Gesso on background

*   Rubber

I managed to use all five of the ingredients.  I first made the background out of a piece of brown backing card and cut it to a 4 x 4 inch square.  I then applied Gesso roughly and stamped into this with a Klimt swirl stamp  (?).  Once dry I coloured the background with brushes and Adirondack dye ink in lettuce and eggplant.  I used Memento angel pink dye ink for the pink in the background.  Once happy with the overall effect I selected a flower stamp from Tuscan Rose and inked this with lettuce Adirondack ink and stamped on two corners of the background, providing a subtle image over the background.

For the embellishment I again stamped the floral image onto white card but this time in Versafine onyz black and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder before cutting out.  I hand coloured the daisies with Marvey Le Plume II pens in appropriate colours as shown.  This was later adhered on foam pads to raise the image a bit. I then mounted the background plate on two card mats, one in lavender and one in french pink.

The black vine embellishment was made out of die-cut bike tyre rubber by a crafting friend of mine Lorraine and was given to me as a RAK some while ago.  I knew I would get the opportunity to use it sometime and this was just that opportunity !  It was adhered carefully as shown with Glossy Accents.  The beauty of using rubber in this way is that it's flexible and can be easily curved as desired.

The 'ma cherie' was stamped directly using more Versafine ink and a polymer stamp from Sizzix.

Finishing touches were added by punching 2 holes at the bottom and knotting through two pieces of thin lilac grosgrain ribbon.

Sid xx

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'Rolling Recipe' Tag 1

It is nearly the end of January and this is my first crafty post of the year so far ! Just finally got my finger out and took part in Gails Rolling Recipe tag challenge being run over on UK Stampers Forum.

This weeks challenge was to use these three ingredients:

1. A Stamped image
2. Lace
3. Glitter

I used a white card base tag and coloured this with Distress inks in faded jeans, dusty concord & broken china applied with cut'n'dry foam as shown. The background was then completed with stamping large distress spots applied with a foam stamp and the same Distress inks. The background words and French postmark (Sizzix polymer) were stamped with vintage sepia Versafine ink as was the square stamp (foam).

The 'lace' at the bottom of the tag is actually paper lace coloured with the same Distress inks and applied in layers first on a piece of blue card which was trimmed and stuck to the base of the tag.

The Eiffel Tower stamp was from the same set of polymer stamps and was stamped with onyz black versafine, coloured with mustard seed Distress ink and cut out before applying with Glossy Accents as shown.

The 'Ohh la la' embellishment was made by applying rub-on letters (Making Memories) on a purple card base and trimming to size. This was applied on foam pads to raise it a little.

Finishing touches, and the last ingredient, were added with gold and diamond Stickles glitter glue on the Ohh la la and Eiffel Tower before an eyelet and some silk sari ribbon were added with the crop-a-dile.

Sid xx

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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

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Asian Summer ATC

I seem to be doing a load of ATC's lately. This one uses an Asian collage wood mounted rubber stamp from Inkadinkado (93073 . N). On the main panel I used this very stamp and Versafine onyx black ink on plain white card. The colours were added using Lyra Aquacolour water soluble crayons in green, pink and orange. These were added direct to the card in the areas requiring colour and worked and blended in using a waterbrush. When dry Glossy Accents was added to the central motive and allowed to dry overnight. The back of the panel was painted with two coats of Jacquard Lumiere metallic green acrylic paint and this was then allowed to dry. Then the edges of the panel were finished with wisteria Colobox chalk ink. The bottom left corner of the panel was folded over to reveal the metallic green and this was stuck down with glossy accents. I then added an oriental style bead again stuck down with Glossy Accents as shown.

A 2.5 x 3.5 inch ATC was cut from hammer finish lilac card on the rotary trimmer and this was stamped with a Lavinia leaf trail polymer stamp in olympic green Versafine. The panel was adhered at an angle, with double sided adhesive, to the textured side of the ATC which was finished again with wisteria Colorbox chalk ink.

This ATC was so easy to make..........I often think simple is most effective. Hope you like it :)

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Wish for Love

This card was inspired by the cover stamp from the October edition of 'Craft Stamper' magazine. The polymer stamp is of a cherry blossom (sakura) and lends itself nicely to an oriental style card.

I first stamped the blossom onto a post-it note and cut this out as a mask. I then stamped three more times with Versafine onyz black on white card, using the mask to layer the three blossoms. I then hand painted with a fine brush and water with Cosmic Shimmer iridescent mica pigments in pink ultra and rose hew and shimmer pigment in iced blush. I outlined the edges and stamens with fine permanent black marker to emphasize them. The painted blossoms were cut out carefully and the centres highlighted with diamond Stickles glitter glue.

I then cut a 1.5 inch strip of fine printed mulberry paper in complementary colours for the right hand side of the card. I then stamped the pink textured basecard with stems and leaves with a polymer leaf trail stamp from Lavinia stamps in olympic green Versafine ink down the left hand half of the card. I applied the mulberry paper with sticky dots before using the Crop-o-dile to punch 4 holes (two top and two bottom) and applying and crimping pink floral shiny eyelets with the Crop-o-dile. Through these holes I threaded a piece of pink metallic woven cord, crossing over in the centre and tying & trimming at the back. An appropriate verse on pink vellum was trimmed and applied again with a few sticky dots to the lower left of the front allowing the leaves to show through and the blossoms were positioned and attached as shown on 2mm foam pads for dimensional effect.

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