Good Luck

This very windy Sunday I am relaxing after doing the usual household chores and I made this card.  I started with a 4.5 x 4.5 inch white card blank.

I then stamped the bird (pinkpaisley) in Memento tuxedo black ink on a plain white card plate and coloured with alcohol ink pens.  This was matted on black card and the whole plate heat embossed with Versamark ink and detail clear embossing powder to give a glossy finish.

I then adhered a piece of stripey self adhesive fabric strip as shown across the card and mounted the birdy plate over this on sticky dots.

The words were stamped on more white card in Memento ink and trimmed out.  This was mounted as shown on foam pads.

The pic above shows the clear glossy finish achieved with the embossing powder.  This fits the bill for this weeks Less Is More challenge blog for week 185 whose theme is 'Animal'.

Have a great Sunday everyone and thanks to all who take the time to comment and follow my blog ...... it is really appreciated !

Sid xx

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Upcycling ...........

This simple card is made using a 4.5 x 4.5 inch white card blank adorned with a upcycled bookpage flower made using the TH tattered flowers die.  The petals have been coloured with Dylusions sprays in lime and yellow and overstamped with red Memento ink and a TH stamp.

I have added a star brad which started life pink but was recoloured with a red copic marker, to hold the petal layers together and the flower is held down with sticky dots.

The red strip is Washi tape and the sentiment (inked with black Archival Ink) is another TH stamp.

Think this fits the bill for the 'Less Is More' Challenge blog week 178 where we are to use something recycled.

Sid xx

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Four Square Inchies

This box started its life as a Selfridges gift card presentation box, covered in shiny black paper.  I have decorated the top of the box with a set of digi inchies from ArtChix studio which I have trimmed and adhered with Glossy Accents to the top and sides.  I had to halve the inchies on the sides.

I then infilled between the inchies with red Stickles glitter glue and allowed to dry.

Finally the lid was embellished with three flowers made out of die cut book pages made with a Bigz Sizzix die.  I have edged the flowers with red alcohol ink and stuck them together and to the lid with sticky dots.

Very simple indeed with no stamping at all.  Love the vibrancy of the colours of the inchies set off by the book page flowers.

Sid xx

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Laughing with Mort Tag

I still had the ring pull top off the Sardine tin I used for my altered sardine tin in the last post so I thought I would put it to good use as a tag. After all it was tag-shaped to start with.  I folded back the ring pull and used a pair of pliers to flatten the folded over portion. Suprisingly the edges are not sharp at all either but I thought they might be !

I then applied a piece of printed paper in a diamond pattern with multi media and once dry trimmed around the tin lid.

Next I stamped a distressed polka dot pattern in archival black ink over the paper and allowed to dry. Then I used a Versamark pen and selectively inked some of the diamonds which I then heat embossed with glossy claret embossing powder. Didn't want this embossing to be perfect looking in line with the distressed effect.  I then went around the edge of the tag with black soot Distress ink and a cut'n'dry foam applicator.

I found a piece of pink and white check paper in my bit box which I then stamped with 'Mort had a Pin Curl' from Stampotique and more archival black ink before colouring in with Copic markers.  The image of Mort was then trimmed out leaving a narrow border which again was inked with black soot Distress ink.

I then took a crown bottle cap and after lining with a circle of purple paper I put in a label in silver with the word 'Laugh'. I tipped in clear UTEE crystals and heated until molten and bubble free with the heat gun allowing this to cool completely. 

A fabric flower was coloured with matching Copic marker and distressed with more black soot Distress ink.  This was stuck to the back of the bottle top .

The tag was then embellished by sticking Mort in place as shown and applying the bottle top flower with a large sticky dot.  Some silver metallic marker was applied on some of the background dots and a length of coloured yarn tied through the ring pull to finish.

Sid xx

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Timmy's Tag Day 7

Next one in the series of Tim Holtz Tags............this one is Day 7 and I am determined to finish the series before Christmas Day.  The background tag was made from white card first coloured with wild honey Distress Ink and a blending tool.  I didn't have the woodgrain embossing folder so I used a cuttlebug folder that  I did have and coloured the folder with walnut stain DI before embossing.  The tag was then edged with vintage photo DI after roughing up with course sandpaper.

The poinsettia came next and I did use the two Sizzix dies to produce the petals and leaves but this time I used linen cardstock instead of grungepaper, once coloured and cut out I assembled all of the petals on 3 large sticky dots finishing off with a large pale green plastic gem.

The letters were actually white flock self adhesive ones that I first coloured with fired brick DI and heat dried before sticking onto the tag.  The flourish was cut from Grungeboard and coloured with white brilliant white emulsion paint before colouring the edges with vintage photo DI.  This was cut in two and applied with Glossy Accents as shown.

Finishing touches were to apply a gold eyelet with the crop-a-dile and add a short length of silk ribbon, threaded through and tied around with some green wire.  I cut the 25 from some of Tims printed paper, coloured the edge stuck in place and added a half pearl .  That's it !!

Sid xx

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Upcycled Packaging - Cottonwool Bud Container !!

Everyday we dispose of endless amounts of waste packaging. Everything from food cans, cereal boxes, plastic meat containers to clothing tags. Why not just look in the bin for inspiration. I challenged members of UK Stampers forum to alter a piece /or pieces of packaging of any type and turn it/them into a piece of art.

I chose a Johnson & Johnson cottonwool bud container which had a cardboard base and a polythene lid as my piece of art, and here it is.



The body of the container was first gessoed (I applied a couple of coats), and allowed to dry. I used Whispers dye inks in orange and red applied with cut'n'dry foam to the bottom half of the container. I masked this with a Tim Holtz mask of a fence and applied more red ink over this until it looked ok. I used green dye ink to colour the top half of the container by the same method. When happy I sprayed the base with cheap hair laquer to seal the dye inks onto the gesso.

A striped self adhesive ribbon (DCWV) was applied to cover the join between the two colourways. Next a very small dragonfly stamp was inked in black Stazon and stamped along the sides above and below the ribbon in a random fashion. When the ink was dry some pink Stickles glitter glue was applied over each dragonfly image and allowed to dry.

Next I made the flower embellishments. I used die-cut flowers from mulberry paper in green, blue, ecru & pink. I laid these down on a non-stick craft mat and sprayed liberally with mica spray with silver mica. Once dry the flowers were stamped with vintage sepia Versafine ink using a small flourish stamp from Elusive Images (Graphicus). Each flower was then assembled with a pastel brad and shiny sequin, the legs of the brad folded back to hold the flower together. The flowers were then adhered to the box as shown in groups of three with sticky dots to secure.

Finally I had the lid to decorate. I took various alcohol inks and dropped them onto the lid top and sides, quickly blowing the ink around with a drinking straw ( the ink can fly, so if you do this protect yourself and the area around you). Once happy with the effect the whole lid was coated on the outside with matt acrylic varnish and allowed to dry. The inside of the lid was given two coats of cream acrylic paint acting as a backdrop to the colours and allowing some of the uninked areas to be highlighted. I think the lid reminds me of Moocroft pottery actually !

Finally the lid lacked something, I thought of adding a metal knob of some type but ended up making another flower (as described before but with more layers) this time with some sequin leaves and a pastel flower brad.

The last pic shows a top down view of the embellishment on the lid. Very interesting to alter something that would have definately been binned.

Why not try it?

Hope the one receiving it is pleased !

Sid xxx

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Butterfly Box for Mum

Well it's Mothers Day tomorrow so I decided to make a little box for my Mum. Its base is actually one of those travel sweets tins. I have simply covered the side and lid of the tin with K&Co printed papers and used a piece of sticky ribbon to decorate the edge of the lid. The papers were tinted with various pink and blue Whispers dye inks and a blending tool to mute the colours.

The top is decorated with a paper flower I made by stamping randomly onto plain copier paper a butterfly stamp from Elusive Images with vintage sepia Versafine ink. The flower was made by cutting out 3 large and 3 small flower shaped pieces of the stamped paper colouring with the same colour dye inks and curling with a pair of scissors before assembling with mini sticky dots and adding a pearl to the centre.

A little plate and sprig of violet flower buds was also added. The inside is coated with black velvet making it a good little box for keeping jewellery in !

Hope she will like it :-)

The inspiration for this came from one of the UK Stampers forum members, Angelnorth.

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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 :-)

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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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