Random Birthday Card

These days, I hardly ever make cards, there's always other things to do.  However, when it is a special birthday, for a special person, I do want to make the effort.  A certain someone is 60 this week - which just feels wrong on so many levels - I am clearly closing in on the same age too (a few years to go, but even so...).




I knew it couldn't be uber-blingy, and I knew it had to go through the post.  I wanted to make reference to the passing of the years...and all this led to a Kraft base card, with a little dry embossing and some mega flake.









I am a great believer that the birthday starts with the envelope, so that has a little stamping too, on the back, an aide memoire for how to open an envelope, and on the front, just a little advertisement that there's a birthday coming up.

Hope you like!  (Actually, hope he likes too!)


Resources

Substrate
American Crafts Kraft Card

Paint and ink
Distress Ink: Stormy sky, Tumbled glass, Walnut stain, Tea dye
Archival Ink: Potting soil, Manganese blue

Stamps
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection: Mini Blueprints CMS 154
IndigoBlu: Wild Meadow WM1, Happy Birthday HB
VildaStamps: Time Flies V474

Bling and other stuff
Mega flake: Gin and Tonic
Flitter Glue
Triboss embossing folder: watches
Sakura Gelly roll pen: clear star

Squeeze - Q&L Challenge

The Craft Barn's challenge this year is around Quotes and Lyrics, and the first one is 'Smile' and/or 'Up'. 

One of my favourite bands is Squeeze - Difford and Tilbrook write the most amazing lyrics, and Up the Junction is brilliant, for so many reasons.  It's all in the present tense, but tells a story over several years.  And it is really poignant.  I used to live around the corner from Clapham, and I used to catch one of the old routemasters (the ones you could hop on the back of, you didn't have to wait for the doors to open).  I put all of this together, and came up with:

I found a fantastic artist's sketchbook, A3 size, so this is really going to give me space to play!  I watered the page, and smooshed on quite well watered brusho pigments.  They are still quite vibrant colours!

Then I did some stamping, using archival inks, and a little bit of stencilling - musical notes!


 
 






I stamped the words and the bus in Archival.  I added a little more watered down brusho to the bus, and then some white enamel accents - the old no 11 was this cream and red livery, back in the day.

I doodled around the edge of the words (this is the last line of the song), added a little shading underneath and, hey presto!

It is amazing how much difference that little bit of shadow makes - this is the page BEFORE shading.



On the facing page, when it has dried a little, I am going to write out the full lyric.  But it is still a little damp at the moment!!

Hope you like!

Resources

Paint and ink
Brusho pigments: Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue, Black, Sea Green, Leaf Green
Archival Ink: Jet Black, Watering Can, Red Geranium, Sap Green, Fern Green, Manganese Blue
PaperArtsy: Nougat
Stampin' Up: Whisper White Pigment ink
Aquash watercolour crayons: Black

Stamps and Stencils
IndigoBlu: Square Peg Round Hole, Harlelquin
PaperArtsy: London Plate HP1208EZ
Artemio: capital letters
Hero Arts: Printers type lower case
Tando Creative: Music Mask

Bling and other stuff
Micron Fineliners
Sakura Gelly roll stardust pens
Enamel Accents: White

Twilight Framed!

Following on from my post last week, I have now joined the two parts together, canvas and frame.  I am really pleased with this.

 Standard wooden box frame from The Range, just what I needed!  Removed the glass, and painted - with just a little bling, and it's perfect!

I mixed up black acrylic with my favourite glittery paint, Galactica, and smoothed it on, with a piece of cut & dry. I like this method of application for three reasons - 1) I am really not very good with a brush, 2) it's nice and even, 3) no brush marks, and 4) I am way too impatient.  OK, that's 4 reasons!! Then I stamped dandelion clocks lightly around the edge in black, silver and gold.

Having painted up the frame, I saw that the mdf pieces needed a similar treatment.

While I had some paint left over, I also dabbed it on my fantastic gold leaf braid I had bought.  As gold I knew it was the right shape (it matched the stamping and stencilling on the canvas) but it was just too bright.  Taken down a bit with black paint, it was so much better!

Then, it was just a case of adding the canvas to the frame, and adding the leaves.  Another creation that needs to be in light to get the full effect of the shimmer, but it does look really good!


Hope you like!

Resources
Substrate: Box Frame
Paint and Ink
Liquitex Basics: Mars Black
Stewart Gill Galactica: Rainbow
Brilliance: Starlight Black, Starlight Silver, Galaxy Gold

Stamps
IndigoBlu: Wild Meadow WM1

Bling and other stuff
Gold leaf braid
Silicon Glue

In the garden - Tando Creative

Hi all.  This week's challenge is 'In the garden'.  In my head, I saw my Mum out in the garden cutting dahlias for the chapel flowers, with an old fashioned, and indeed OLD trug.  So I started off with the 3d basket, and set to, to make it look old!

I ran all the pieces through the big shot with the Harlequin mask.  Several layers of paint later, I used the harlequin mask again and some distress ink, to really knock it back.  I forgot to take a final photo of the replacing of the mask, and the reinking - but you will see it at the end.

Then I die cut a few flowers.  More than a few actually!  I layered them up and created stems out of florist's wire, and glued some card candy over the middle, to hide where the wire went in.








All the flowers were planted into oasis, which I covered with tissue paper sprayed green. Doesn't oasis feel odd? Not sure I like it...  I had also Crop-o-dile'd a few holes through the side walls, and pressed some prima flowers through.

I stamped and embossed in gold a massive butterfly, and then painted it in Twinkling H2Os on the front.  On the back, it got a coating of Alchemy paint, to give that shimmer you see when a butterfly closes its wings.  The finishing touch was a small piece of board painted up, and then stencilled with the leaf mask, and then stamped with 'Time to Garden'.  I had two spare clock hands from somewhere, painted up in the same sort of colours as the trug and the plaque.

And now I have a reminder of my Mum's green fingers!  Wish I had inherited them!!

 








Now you can see the reinking, where I replaced the mask.  This shot is from the side...

...and here's the butterfly in all his glory, from above.









I've really enjoyed my month as Guest Designer for Tando.  Such a great variety of blanks, and they take paint so well.  Hope you've liked what I have done with their stuff!

Resources

Substrate: Tando Creative 3D Basket (3DBASKHAND)

Dies and Stamps
Sizzix Big Shot Pro
Sizzix: Flower, Build a flower#3 655969
Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations:  Tattered Florals 656640, Mini Tattered Florals (Movers and Shapers) 657488, Base Tray 657007
Artemio Alpha stamps ARTA61
Stampin' Up!: Swallowtail

Paint and Ink
PaperArtsy: Nougat (my absolute favourite colour!)
IndigoBlu: Hot Cocoa, Peppermint Tea
Stewart Gill Alchemy: White Hot
Dylusions: Fresh Lime, Black Marble
Distress Ink: Evergreen Bough, Walnut Stain
Distress Stain: Evergreen Bough, Black soot
Archival Ink: Watering Can

Bling and other stuff
Twinkling H2Os: Plum Crazy, Red Pearl, Poppy Red, Persimmon
Stampendous Embossing Powder: Detail gold
Card Candy
Tando Creative Masks: Leaves set of 2 (MSKLEAVES2), Harlequin (MSKHRLQUIN)
Prima flowers, eyelets, brads, beads, oasis, florists wires, all from stash

Larger Than Life - Tando Creative

The only guidance for this week's challenge for the Tando Creative blog was bigger pieces rather than minis.  Well, this take on a dream catcher measures 30" from top to bottom!  Biggest thing I have ever done!

I started with 3 sheets of 12x12 Tando chipboard, and two metal rings, 12" and 7" diameter.  I used a couple of different star dies to cut the stars out of the card, and then painted them up to give them a good base coat.

Then I blinged them up, with mica (what else?!) and when that was dry, I used a star mask, with translucent embossing paste.  When that dries, it is amazing the effect it has on the paint and mica below.  It pulls the mica up into itself, and holds it in suspension, almost.

(the difference between the embossing paste when it's wet (white in the picture above) and dry - clear in the picture on the left is amazing!)

I had this silver furry ribbon in my stash, along with the beaded wire.  I glued the stars together, trapping the silver 'fur' in between the two layers, and then wound the excess round the rings.











I then wound the beaded wire over the top of the fur, which will hold the tinsel in place, and also used it to create a hanging loop at the top.

The smaller stars hanging from the bottom had the same treatment, but with slightly different colours.  When dry, they were glued together, trapping the end of the tinsel in between.

One (large) post-modern dream catcher!  (or a Christmas decoration, perhaps)

Hope you like!











Resources

Substrate
Tando Creative chipboard sheets
Metal rings

Dies
Sizzix Originals: Stars#2 654995
Sizzix Alterations Bigz: Star Bright 3D 658265
Sizzix Big Shot Pro

Paint and ink
IndigoBlu English Cottage Acrylic paint: Grandma's Teacup, Park Lane
Adirondack Paint Dabber: Silver

Bling and Other Stuff
Crafters Workshop Mask: 12x12 Punchinella
Dreamweavers embossing paste: Translucent
Luminarte Primary Elements: Majestic, Wisteria
Cosmic Shimmers Mica pigments: Silver
Perfect Pearls Mist: Interference Red

Let's Leaf it - Tando Creative

This month's challenge from Tando is Let's Leaf It.  So many things went through my mind, and I think most of them went on this project!

Hmm, Leaf, Leaves - leaves of a book?  Aha!  Printers' tray, then, the kind with the cover (another leaf).  I painted the cover in green and, once I had glued the 3 layers of the top part, that got painted in brown.










I covered the base with pages from several books, and stamped and embossed some more leaves, to keep with the theme.  I smeared Inka gold over the frame, as you can never have enough bling, and I thought the plain brown just a bit too dense.











I had some hessian type material, which I frayed.  I smeared the centre of the panel with the same green paint, and set aside to dry.  Then I stamped one of the same leaves in a brown, and adhered it to the outer front cover.










I have had skeleton leaves in the drawer FOREVER - from before I even knew what card making was.  Here was a chance to use them!  I covered two of them in Perfect Medium, and then heat embossed both.  And they were glued to the inside cover.  The photo doesn't do their blingy-ness justice!

I had three matching vials of different sizes.  So I mixed up some sequins and beads, for the big one, just beads for the little one, and dripped alcohol ink into the medium one.


Back to the tray.  I found some trinkets that seemed to fit.  Acorns, apples and dragonflies.  The acorns and the dragon flies got 'touched' with the inka gold, along with the blossom bucket leaf.
Then it was just a case of sticking it together.  Hey presto!

Hope you like!


Resources

Substrate: Tando Creative Mini Printer Tray with cover (MPT152x152CV)

Paint and Ink
Paper Artsy: Hey Pesto
IndigoBlu: Hot Cocoa
Distress Ink: Fired Brisk, Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive, Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo
Adirondack Alcohol Ink: Willow, Meadow, Gold
Inka Gold: Lava Grun, Stahl Blau
Perfect Medium

Stamps
Stampin' Up: 3 leaves and acorns (sorry, don't have the number - the first set of Stampin' Up I bought!)

Bling and other stuff
Leaves, trinkets, beads, from stash
Stewart Gill Embossing powder: Patina Bronze, Interference Silver
Stampendous Embossing Powder: Detail Clear
Studio 490 (Blossom Bucket) Leaf
Glass bottles
Maya Road Leaf headed pins

Build me up Buttercup - Hels Sunday Stamper

Hi all!  This week, Hels' Challenge was Build Me Up Buttercup - all about layers.  I did the layers, but stuck with the buttercup idea as well.

Not sure it comes out well on the photo, but there is the main door hanger, which was covered with coated cardstock, and then acetate above that.

So a bit more detail:  I've got back into alcohol inks as a background, so on the glossy cardstock I created a meadow and sky sort of background.  I scraped translucent paste through a flower mask.  As the paste dried it pulled through a little of the ink behind (not much, as in this heat the alcohl ink dries REALLY quickly!!)




I stamped the buttercup twice onto cardstock, and then on to some dried out babywipes!  Someone at work decided to rip into the packet of babywipes, rather than go in through the top, the normal way.  They dried out and were about to be stuck in the bin, but no...  I think I had three stuck togther, and they were a bit like a piece of felt!  Dripped on gold and green alcohol ink and left it to dry.  The cardstock I used detail clear embossing powder over gold ink, then coloured them in with promarkers.

I cut the acetate to size, and dabbed a bit more gold (and pearl) alcohol ink mixative on the back side of it.  I mounted it up on foam squares, which I then had to cover (oh dear, more bling!) with some lovely prima flowers and butterflies.  I had a gilding flakes butterfly left over from the IndigoBlu challenge last week, and if THAT wasn't bling-y enough, a couple of squirts of mica sprays, just to tie it alltogether.  Suspect I may have been a bit heavy handed on that one, but hey, does it shimmer in the sunlight!  And that was the effect I was going for!!

Hope you like!

Resources

Substrate - Stamps Away Door Hanger

Paint and Ink
Adirondack - Alchol inks, various colours
Brilliance ink - Pearlescent Ivy, Galaxy Gold
Promarkers - various

Stamps
PaperArty Hotpicks - HP1009 Happiness
IndigoBlu - Wild Meadow WM1

Bling and other stuff
Dreamweaver Embossing paste - translucent
Prima Sunrise Sunset flower stencil
Prima flowers and butterflies, mainly Engraver range, I think...
Stampendous embossing powder - detal clear
Acetate from stash
IndigoBlu Megaflakes - Lancashire tart
Cosmic Shimmer Shimmer mist - tarnished gold, bronze blush

Summertime Miracles - IndigoBlu Challenge

This month's challenge is extremely aposite!  Summertime?  Oh yes!  Probably way too hot to be stuck in the craftroom, but on the basis that I would be a lobster by now, if I was outside...

Someone made a comment on C&C the other week about landscape DL cards, and I thought "why not?"  So I started with a lilac card and matching envelope.  I cut some Centura pearl to fit, and then started with the stamping!

I wanted to create a feeling of depth in a meadow, so I stamped the first layer half way up the card in a pale colour, 2nd generation. Brought the next layer down a bit, in another colour etc etc.  When I got close to the bottom of the card, I did a 2nd generation in the green, and then a first generation.  On this final layer, I tinted a couple of the flowers in purple.

Over the top I stamped the dandelion heads, doing a 2nd generation off the page on the sentiment piece.

I used Distress Inks for the sky, and also to edge both pieces of card.



Then for the fun!  I stamped the dandelion clocks in FlitterGlu, and the sentiment, and then used the gorgeous Lancashire Rose mega flake.  I also stamped the butterfly on a piece of card, and on the envelope.  I cut out the butterfly on the card, and applied a little colour with distress markers, and moved it about with a water brush.



Hope you like!

Resources

Papermania lilac DL card

Paint and Ink
Adirondack: Purple Twilight, Lettuce, Juniper, Lake Mist, Pink Sherbet
Distress Ink: Shaded Lilac, Tumbled Glass
Distress Ink markers: Milled Lavender, Barn Door, Spun Sugar, Dusty Concord

Stamps
IndigoBlu: Wild Meadow WM1

Bling and Glitz
Mega flake: Lancashire Rose