Mainly Monochrome

Stampsmiths Ophelia was stamped in Black Versafine onto an alcohol ink background, created using Stream, Denim and a tiny spot of Cranberry, with plenty of blending solution. She was cut out using a Nestabilities Petite scalloped ovals large and the black matt cut out with the next size up.Using the card that was left from cutting out the image (the negative shape) I marked the position the image would occupy on the front of the card with a light pencil. Two flourish stamps were then stamped in Black Versafine so they would extend out from under the image, sprinkled with sparkly black embossing powder and heat embossed.The Versafine is quite a ‘wet’ ink, and on pearlescent card stays wet long enough to take embossing powder. A third flourish was stamped in the top right corner and also heat embossed.The Ophelia image was stuck to the black matt with DST, then the whole thing stuck to the card front, also with DST.Four flowers, 2 black, 2 white, were stamped with ‘Describe Her’ text in the opposing colour, joined in pairs with a black or white brad and added to the card with silicone glue. Black eyelash wool was used to wrap around the card spine, and as I hadn’t got a stamp small enough to blend in with the card, I used a small peel off in black for the Birthday sentiment.

Describe Her

A sheet of A4 white pearlescent was creased & folded and used in landscape format. A piece of black pearl paper was embossed with the Swiss Dots folder & Cuttlebug, trimmed to 6x10cm and the corners rounded. A piece of black embroidered paper was cut to the same size and rounded. Butterfly Kisses Stamp ‘Tartan Background'(BK1006F) was stamped in Black Versafine onto white cardstock, trimmed and rounded. these three panels were mounted onto silver grey card leaving an equal gap between them, then the grey card  cut to just fit the card front and corners rounded.A length of black organza ribbon was wrapped around the panel and tied in a bow before being stuck down with DST across the centre of the card.  Artifacts stamp ‘Describe Her’ was stamped in Black onto white pearl card twice, then cut and rounded. A piece of silver vellum was cut about a centimetre larger than the words panel, corners rounded then embossed with the D’vine swirls folder. The word panel was matted onto this , then mounted across the three panels on the front of the card. The lady is from a set by The Glitter Girls, and is stamped in Staz-on onto acetate which has been given the ‘Caught in Crystal’ treatment. She was then mounted to the left side with silicone glue. The sentiment was stamped in black, and comes from an Elusive Images themeplate.
 Caught in Crystal:  This is messy, so cover your workspace with newspaper first! And wear gloves too! Take a sheet of acetate ( I use OHP transparencies, from Staples) and pour a couple of tablespoons of Johnsons KLEAR floor polish onto it. Add a few drops of re-inker colours, or alcohol inks and spread with your fingers or a spatula across the acetate.Don’t mix too much or you will muddy the colours.If you wish you can sprinkle in some glitter, gold leaf, even seed beads, but remember the lumpier you make it, the harder it will be to get a good stamped image.You can of course stamp your images first, then flip it over and do the floor polish stuff, however this makes it harder to determine where your images colours will be.When you are happy, take a sheet of tissue paper( the sort used for gifts, not the paper hanky type) and either scrumple it up, open out and pat down onto your ink/floor polish mix, or just lay it on flat and pat down. I use any pale colour of tissue, it doesn’t have to be white.Just pat down with your fingers- don’t press or you will push the colours around. Now put aside to dry- this may take a day or so, depending on temperature.If you do find it difficult to get a good stamped image, you can clean Staz-on off acetate with Staz-on cleaner & try again, and you may find it helps to put a stamping mat, or mouse-pad, underneath.

Memories

I cut & folded a white card blank to 14 and a half cm square then covered the front with a sheet from Crafty Individuals Book 4 Trees background paper pad. Next I brayered a piece of white cardstock with Encore Enchanted Evening Inkpad, which is  a purple, pink,blue and green metallic rainbow pad.I overstamped this sheet with parts of a tree and the phrase Whispers in the wind (CI 209), and postage marks (CI 124) and others from Stamp Francisco. A separate piece of cardstock was patted with a Versamark pad then  dusted with mica powders.Onto this I stamped the 4 Birds stamp from Crafty Individuals (CI 184) in Black Versafine. I cut the birds out, layered onto the rainbow sheet and cut into tags. A hole was punched in each tag and an eyelet added, along with some fancy wool fibre. I mounted two of the tags with DST and two with foam pads. The phrase ‘Memories’ was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black along the front edge.

Its nearly THAT time again!

So, its heading towards December, and yet again I am saying I shall not be making last minute cards in the week before Christmas. Hmmm, we shall see. These are the cards I made last year for friends, colleagues et al. This uses a brass stencil of baubles (Ling Studios BS162) with Gold or Silver embossing paste. I then sprinkled a little glitter over the wet paste and put aside to dry. The base card was covered with Christmas vellum, and the red panel is stamped using Inca stamp 1023-K Merry Christmas background.The Merry Christmas is from a Hero Arts set called Holiday Messages, which I think is discontinued, as I couldn’t find them to link to. The message was cut out using a Nestabilities die and gold or silver ink run around the edges then matted onto more red card and fixed in place with a glue dot. The bauble image was trimmed and matted onto gold or black card and attached with foam pads. By the way, the stencil is actually longer than this, it has 10 baubles on it, but this would have been too long for my card base, so I masked off the bottom two with low-tack tape before stencilling.
 A tip for using stencil paste with brass stencils: It is very easy to bend brass stencils while cleaning them, so try to work with your stencil flat on your work space to clean them, rather than dropping into a bowl to scrub. Have some baby wipes flat on your work surface, and each time you use the stencil, lay it on the baby wipe and fold the wipe over it. This stops the paste drying. Then use another wipe to rub over your stencil ( both sides) to remove any paste before stencilling again. This stencil has some very fine lines so you may want to have a toothbrush handy to make sure there is no paste left in them. Then lay on a towel and again rub over it flat on your table to dry.

Fast Christmas cards.

Two versions of a Christmas Card. The stamps are by Butterfly Kisses– there are quite a few designs of these trees, available as wood-mounted or unmounted. They all also have a matching background, in this case I used the background to the swirl tree to stamp long lines of the swirl, embossed with sparkly  or holographic embossing powder. These were trimmed and then stuck with DST and the edges covered with peeloff lines. With the holographic powder I found that heat applied for different lengths of time produced varying shades- an unexpected surprise, and looks good for the trees.I added a few self adhesive jewels to the trees, then matted onto opposing colour, then attached to the card front with foam tape. A peel off greeting finished them off. I need to make around 150 Christmas cards each year for friends, workmates, mine & Hubbys friends on forums etc, before I get to the special ones for family, so apart from starting early ( anyone who knows me knows this will never happen) I go for something that can be quickly put together but still look good, so I am not averse to using peeloffs for sentiments or edging.

Christening

This is an Elusive Images stamp onto an Alcohol Ink background, then mounted onto gold, pink then gold again card. I used a white leather effect A4  piece of card folded, vellum with a Christening theme and peeloffs. Some pink eyelash wool and narrow pink ribbon wrapped around the spine, and a small cross charm added.

I’ve cropped the image to try & show the stamp better.

Backgrounds

Four different backgrounds for the same stamp, 4 Birds, ( Crafty Individuals).
Top (L to R) Brayered dye ink on glossy photopaper, Oil pastels on matt paper.
Bottom(L to R) Mica powders on matt paper treated with Versamark, Alcohol Inks on glossy card.

Waste Nothing,or Serendipity in action!

Just to prove that there really is no such thing as scrap to a crafter. All of these images were stamped onto ‘waste’ paper that I was rolling off excess ink from my brayer onto.The purple one was a sheet I had started to make a background on, then didn’t like, hence the pale ‘moon’ , so I had put it in my scrap paper pile. When I bought this owl stamp (Crafty Individuals) ,and the treeline stamp, (Crafty Individuals) they seemed like the perfect partners to these.I probably couldn’t have made more perfect backgrounds for these stamps if I had been trying.Needless to say, I now look at my sheet I’m rolling off onto as a potential new background and change to a new one before I turn it muddy!

Here be Dragons….

Black base card cut & folded to 15cm square. The ancient script is by Elusive Images from Graphicus.( Scripts & timepieces u/m themeplate) stamped with Gold Encore pigment ink and embossed with gold detail powder, onto a slightly textured paper. I lined up a strip of gold paper with the edge of the stamped paper and tore off the edge, then moved the gold paper out a little and stuck both down with DST. The ‘E’ at the start was then coloured with H2O’s, as in Illuminated manuscripts.The dragon stamp is by Inkadinkado, 4223P, stamped onto black card with clear embossing ink, then dusted with mica powders. Corners are punched with a southwest punch and mounted onto gold paper cut with a deckle edge blade. Mount the image to the lower left, then add an insert and a thin cord and tassel.

Wolf Birthday

Black base card with gold flecks, card from PDA Card & paper.Piece of blue card stamped with the Judikins Harlequin stamp and clear embossing ink. Sprinkled with a variety of metallic embossing powders then heated. Trimmed to size and matted onto gold card, attached to left hand side of card in topfold format. The wolf image is by Coranado Island Stamps, bought from Aries crafts. Stamped in Stone Grey Ancient Page ink onto blue marble effect card. Placed the image where the blue marble would look like sky & cloud. Matted onto gold card and blue card, added pewter square brads and mounted across the Harlequin panel.