Gingersnaps Supply Challenge – WAX

When I saw wax as the theme for this I went into serious panic mode.  Anyone who knows me, knows I HATE wax collage – I’ve tried it, am BAD at it and just hated working with it, although I love other people’s creations.  So I had to approach this from a different angle and here’s what I ended up with.

I’ve had this candle stamp for years – bought it from someone who, as far as I know, is no longer in business, but I love it. I stamped it on glossy card, using Stazon ink and then coloured the candles with a small, sharpened candle, to create a wax resist effect. I then overstamped with Versamark before sponging various Adirondack green inks over, creating a second resist effect. Once I’d wiped off the wax, I added some shading with Tombow felt tips. The music and candle card is one of my oldest (and favourite) stamps from Embossing Arts and after shading with Tombows I used Sepia accents to age it a bit more.  The Kraft card (Woodware) is stamped with Versamark ink, to give a bit of depth under the layers. All layers (including card) are edged with gold Krylon pen.
The gift card is a Scrapling, one of my favourite things to make and perfect for gift tags. Whenever you make a card which isn’t quite A5/A6, you’ll have a strip of folded card left (if you fold first, as I do) and that ‘scrap’ is perfect for a little accompanying card.

 

The candle was white.  I stamped the angels (Beeswax stamps, he, he) on tissue paper, coloured them with Prismacolor pencils, adding some colour for the background, then stippling a bit of ink to add more colour before stamping the text. The silver stars are stamped in Silver Stazon ink.

   

There’s an odd wrinkle in the tissue paper because it wasn’t perfectly folded, but I like crinkles 🙂

It’s wrapped with hemp and the candle itself has been finished with a special candle painting medium to make it anti flammable, although I would still recommend burning only a couple of inches, then placing a tea light inside the shell to preserve the decoration.

I enjoyed this so much, I made another matching set …

 

… then one using flowers. I’ll probably end up making more of these now that I’ve ‘got my feet wet’ so to speak.

 

You can see the fab design team’s inspirational works of art over at Gingersnaps.

Gingersnaps, December theme

I was thrilled to be invited to be ‘Visiting Artist’ over at Gingersnaps for December – a great honour – thank you for asking me.
December isn’t my most creative month, I have to admit – I tend to concentrate on simple Christmas cards, with the odd gift thrown in for good measure, but I tried to fit this in with this month’s challenges.
For the month of December, the theme is Holiday lights and the first ‘theme’ challenge is ‘Starry Nights’.  I love starry skies and so decided to make a calendar for this one.

The ‘mountboard’ was made by stamping silver stars on a mid blue tissue paper, using acrylic silver paint and an old freeby foam stamp I had knocking around, then crinkling when dry, to create a bit of texture.  Using gel medium, I attached this to a larger piece of very heavy, slightly corrugated mid blue card, edging with more roughly applied silver acrylic paint and finishing with a glitter glaze, which gives a bit of a sparkle but not too much. It’s hard to photograph glitter and especially when the weather’s grey.

The image (Bella Rosa) was stamped on glossy card, using Stazon Azure ink. I cut around the image, then punched the odd star out of the sky and attached to a slightly larger piece of silver mirror card, tying a piece of sliver ribbon around one edge, threading through a silver diamante star button.

This was attached to a glossy resist background, which was first stamped with Versamark ink, using various star images, then sponged with a few different shades of blue dye ink.  I overstamped a few more stars in Silver Stazon ink, before attaching to more mirror card and then to the mount. The words were computer generated, cut out and attached to mirror card, then randomly placed on the background.

I edged another piece of heavy blue card with acrylic paint, attaching a calendar then put two star eyelets in the top, matching up to another two at the base of the mount.   This is attached with narrow silver ribbon.

To finish off, I attached a few punched stars, randomly around the edge of the board, then attached a hanger.

 

I enjoyed making this!

GINGERSNAP: SHARED MOMENTS, COLOUR CHALLENGE AND KCUK SWAP…

I’m just sneaking in by the skin of my teeth for the Gingersnap Random Redhead challenge, which is ‘Shared Moments’ but I didn’t realise when making it that this would also fit the Colour Challenge, which is Blue, Turquoise and Purple, so I’m entering it for both challenges.

This is also my Stampbord swap for KCUK and yes, it’s late – as usual (hangs head in shame).  In my defence, I’ve had a few really busy weeks with work and other stuff but that doesn’t really excuse me.  Fortunately, the recipient of my swap doesn’t blog, so won’t see this and I can upload it.

I made a little ATC sized book, using Stampbord ATCs for the covers, with the theme of Friendship.  I have to confess that I cried while making it, but that’s another story and this isn’t the place to share it… lots of memories, some happy. some sad. I used to make a lot of mini books, especially when I was running workshops but it’s been a while and I really enjoyed this for a change.

I used my favourite medium – pigment inks – because they blend so beautifully, even with fingers, and always look really vibrant – added to which, they’re PERMANENT, so won’t fade, unlike ALL water based inks.  The covers are embossed with 3 layers of clear embossing powder, then the corners sprinkled with Suze’s Bedazzles. Looks as if I’ve covered part of the wording on the cover, but it’s still readable in real life.


I’ve noticed that my scanner doesn’t seem to be picking up the nuances in shades, which has really been frustrating me, so I’m going to show you the scans first, followed by a photo, so you can see the difference in them. The real thing is probably a little between the two for the covers, because the sun shone for a few moments (it really did, even in North West England!!) and the light reflected off the glossy finish of the EP.  I used Prisma pencils to colour the images and, unfortunately, semi obliterated the faces of the little girls on the front cover, but the overall effect is OK, so I’m happy with it.

 

 

The cover images and words are from Crafty Individuals.

This is a scan of the outside covers and the back. The colours here will give you more of an idea of the colours and shades of the whole piece, which isn’t quite as dark as it looks, although it is edged and shaded with the deeper (True) blue.

This is the inside – colours washed out because the little girl’s dress (far right) is actually yellow and the man on the right hand side of the first page is wearing a green shirt!  The images are a mixture of Paperartsy, Art Journey and Stampinback.  The words are computer generated, apart from the Hero Arts Friends background and all images are masked, then coloured afterwards, apart from the boy and girl, who come in a frame and I couldn’t face cutting it out today… so I used an image I’d already cut out.

I won’t upload the individual pages cos I’m sure you’ve had enough by now, lol.  If you really want to see them more closely, then (as usual) click on each image to enlarge.

Just noticed I now have 250 followers – wow!  I’m still amazed that anyone at all is interested in what I do but I’m grateful for all of you who come to see my attempts at artwork, lol – thank you VERY much and especially to those of you who leave such encouraging comments!

This calls for a celebration, methinks, so I may have to give away some Blog Candy!!!

BLOG CANDY…

While getting out my Christmas stamps (ooh-er – scary!!!) I noticed that I have a couple of these Simple Expression plates left, so I thought I’d do a seasonal giveaway 🙂

it will include the A5 unmounted Simple Expressions plate below, a fab Bradletz pack in Carnival colours (perfect for Christmas and LOTS of brads) and 12 Colorbox Pigment ink Cat’s eyes in the following colours:- Marigold, Chianti, Burnt Copper, Copper, Cocoa, Frost White, Cream White, Dusty Plum, Roussillon, Chestnut, Violet and Midnight. These are, of course all brand new. If you haven’t used pigment ink much, you really should – it’s such a treat because it blends so easily, you can emboss it easily AND – unlike water based dye inks – it’s permanent! PLUS, you’ll also get another surprise gift… a nice one 🙂

If you’d like the chance to win, just post a comment here on the blog . If you’re a follower, please remind me of it in your comment and you’ll get two entries, instead of one. You can leave comments until the end of November.

IDEA FOR USING ONE OF THE STAMPS

I haven’t had any time to stamp for a while (boohoo!!) so this isn’t a new card but since this image is part of the Blog Candy I thought I’d post instructions for making it. This was pre Cuttlebug folders and I can’t help but imagine how much nicer that plain background would be if it was embossed with the dotty folder….

Card upright

Card flat.

These really and truly ARE the same card – one scanned and one photographed – just goes to show how much difference a bit of light makes – the photo was taken in lots of light!

Before we start, you’ll need two squares (or rectangles) of coloured card to attach the images to, but they must both be exactly the same size. You’ll also need two pieces of card for the image – again, both exactly the same size. If If you’re going to add layers, as I did (it makes the card a little more robust) then you’ll also need two pieces of card which fit inside one side of the card, leaving a border all the way round AND two pieces half their width for behind the image and the inside greeting.

1 Take the two equal sized pieces of white card and stamp the snowman (or any image) as centrally as you can on both pieces. Colour with pens or your favourite colouring method. Don’t forget to add a fine line of pale blue/grey all around the inside of the snowman. It’s barely visible, but it really does make the image ‘pop’ and gives the illusion of snow. Attach one of the images to a square of coloured card.

3 Trim closely around the other image, leaving a fine white border all around. Attach this to the other square of coloured card, positioning carefully until it is in exactly the same position as the other image. Find the centre of the coloured card (top and bottom) and mark with a pencil, then cut around the right hand edges of the front image, leaving the left hand side intact and a fine edge of coloured card visible around the image.

4 This one’s only for the snowman, but if you’re using him or one like him, add Stickles to the hat brim and the bobble, then Glossy Accents to the coal nose and button and set aside to dry.

5 If you’re lucky enough to have a Scor-it, the next bit is really easy – just find the centre of the front of the folded card, score and fold back to the front side edge. If you don’t have a Scor-it, it’s still pretty easy 🙂

6 If you’re using them, centre one of the larger squares of white card on the inside of the coloured card and attach a white rectangle to the folded back part of the card which can be seen from the front.

8 When you open the card up, there’s now only half a front on the left hand side; stamp the greeting on another white rectangle and attach to this bit.

9 When dry, attach the first image on green card to the centre of the inside of the card. Folding the card, carefully line up the green card behind the cut out image with the one you just attached to the inside, then attach to the folded back front of the card. The image on the front of the card should cover the one on the inside if you do this right. When the card is open, you can see a bit of both images (see above) but it looks like one of those fab 3D cards.

These instructions make it sound really complicated but it isn’t – it’s easy peasy and one of those design ideas you’ll use over and over again once you’ve tried it because it looks as if you’ve spent ages on it, when you really, really haven’t. If anyone needs card measurements, I’ll be happy to provide them to make that first attempt really easy!

The card above was made by my good friend, Lynne – she stamped the snowmen on white Shrink plastic, coloured and heated to shrink. The central image is actually a ‘pin’ or brooch, so it’s a card AND a small gift!

Another pop up

Cover of a 3” x 3”

Inside, flat

Inside, upright

Pop up Accordion card for Stamp Club

Wow, it’s a long time since I posted. I finally stamped and it’s good to be able to stamp again, but it’s HOT!!! Unfortunately, my stamping room is south facing, as is this computer room, so I’m really struggling at the moment. I’ve done 3 samples for Saturday’s Stamp Club but have already ripped the front off one, so I won’t show you that one, lol.

You can see I’ve made one or two very slight additions here.

This is what they look like from the top, although some are very slightly different – just the positioning of the pop-ins and pop-outs.

These two look so similar because I gave up on the first one (the one above) then decided I could make it work if I changed the way the popouts worked. Duh!

I liked the inside but couldn’t get it to work the way I was originally going to do it. So, I made the other one – the first one. That’s the one I’ve ripped the cover off to redo, so I’ll post the cover later. More to do yet, but not tonight…

Saturday’s Stamp Club projects

My turn this month (Saturday) and this is just a small part of what I’m doing. I’ve been stamping all week and will upload after Stamp Club. More to follow………..

Images from About Art Accents.

Stamp Club project – Do you believe in Faeries?

I’ve had some very sad news today. A really special friend of mine, Ronnie Henthorn, passed away this morning and he’ll really leave a huge hole in a lot of people’s lives. I can’t stop thinking about him and his lovely wife, Sylvia, so I worked on finishing the Stamp Club project we did a couple of weeks ago.

This was a great project devised by Jo Pritchard, a very talented lady. I decided to go with Black and White, since it was a biggish project, thinking I’d have chance to finish it while there. It still needs some tweaking and the photos are dreadful because it was dark and gloomy by the time I’d finished. Just the way I felt, too.

Stamps are mainly from About Art Accents but there are a couple from Stamp Camp, Lavinia Stamps, Artistic Outpost and a few from Crafty Indviduals.

September Workshop

Inspiration from http://www.cardinspired.com/ATCHolder.html – thank you! We did change quite a few things, though.

We used the Jellytots Glimmer Mists to spray the background card, then matched colours with Ranger Adirondack and Distress inks. Stamps are from Simple Expressions and Time to Stamp.

Image transfers were done with Acetate prints (yes, we do sell them) using Golden Fluid Medium (matte). This was a fun project.

Sneak Preview of Saturday’s workshop project….

This is what we’re doing on Saturday – they were SO much fun to make and I love the way the little flaps open out for messages or photos.