Mystic Moon(light)

  Here is the second of my DT pieces for Craft a Scene’s March challenge, Moonlight.
It uses a couple of Stampscapes stamps, and a couple from Non Sequiteur.
The background is also a little different this time, created using oil pastels. If you go to this page, you will find instructions on how I did this. Its a really simple technique, but can produce some interesting results. The important thing is that you will have to stamp in Staz-on, or it will wipe off, Versafine will work, but you need to spray with a sealant to make it permanent, I use cheap hairspray.
I created the background on white pearl card, an A5 piece,leaving a white area where I was going to place the moon. The oil pastels I used were a mix of blues with a little black for the night sky, browns in the centre for the mountains, another layer of blue where the lake would be, then greens for the foreground.
     Another bonus with the oil pastels is that when you have your images stamped, if areas are too dark, or just to make  areas of light & shade, you can remove some colour using tissue/kitchen paper/cotton buds.I did this in the water area to simulate the reflected moon.
The first image I stamped was the mountains, Rocky Peaks,188F, roughly in the middle of the background. Next I added the Cloud with Crescent Moon Lge, 202G, placing the moon in the white area. A Stamp Positioner helps here.

72C, Mystic Dreams

At the base of the Rocky Peaks I stamped Lakeside Cove Lge, 049G. To finish the scene, I used a stamp of Standing Stones, from Non Sequiteur plate 72C, Mystic Dreams. These stamps are now available from De Stempelwinkel. You can see the full range of images here, at Non Sequiteur,. They have some fabulous stamps, images you won’t find anywhere else, all u/m.
 Finally, some white gel pen was added to give highlighted areas. I trimmed the image down, then matted onto black, then silver card. Before mounting onto the front of a Black base card, I stamped the words MYSTIC MOON, also from the Mystic Dreams plate, in Silver Encore pigment ink, added Silver Detail embossing powder, and Heat embossed. Then I mounted the image above it.
 So, to recap what you will need:

Stampscapes stamps

 188F, Rocky Peaks
202G Cloud with Crescent  Moon
049G Lakeside Cove

Non Sequiteur stamps
72C Mystic Dreams

Oil Pastels
White pearl card
Black card
Silver card
Black Staz-on
White gel pen
Silver pigment inkpad
Silver Detail embossing powder
Heat gun

Moonlight…..

Wow, into March already. Time is flying past, it seems.
We had some fabulous entries in last months Craft A Scene challenge, which was ‘A Winter Scene’, and I believe the winning entries will be posted up this weekend.
So now onto this months Challenge, which is ‘Moonlight’.
For the first of my two pieces this month, I have used images from Lavinia Stamps, Stampscapes, and Inkylicious.

 The Lavinia Stamps are:
Moon Fairy
Bamboo( Bottom Left)
Fairy House

The Inkylicious are:
Grasses
Willow (Bottom Right)

The Stampscapes are:
Oak Branch, 203G and
Spooky Branch 273G.

This piece sort of grew of its own accord as I worked on it, and  I wasn’t entirely sure what I would do with this when it was done, but when I got to the end, I realised I had made our Granddaughters Birthday present!
  She loves fairies, and this will go in a frame for her bedroom.
The piece of card is A5 in size, 5 3/4 x 8 1/4. I brayered the background firstly with Adirondack dye inks, starting with Cool Peri. I followed this with Shell Pink,Stonewashed,Purple Twilight and Eggplant. The ‘tunnel’ effect was achieved by keep turning the card so that I brayered all four sides, and tried to come in a little further at the corners by brayering across the corner. All the images were stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, starting with the Moon Fairy. Next came the Fairy House, then I added the grasses along the bottom edge, Willow in the right corner and Bamboo in the left. The 2 oak branches and the Spooky Branches were all positioned using the Stamp Positioner, so that I could get the orientation right.

The moon was given a little colour with Antique White Flexmarker, and I used Promarkers in browns, reds and greens to colour the Fairy House. I added a little colour to her wings with a Glitter Sakura Gelly Roll pen, and also the dots around the moon. I dotted a glue pen between the Moon Fairy & the Fairy House, then sprinkled some crystal glitter over it. That doesn’t show up too well, to be honest, and I shall add some more dots of Stickles over the top, before I frame it. Then I just trimmed the edges to neaten it, and matted it onto some black cardstock.
You can probably see that I tend to work on top of an A3 pad, the sort you can buy for children as a sketch pad. It makes it easy to take the ink off your brayer, test stamp images, stamp off onto, and sometimes you end up with a really interesting masterboard style piece, quite by accident!
   So thats my first this month, pop over to Craft A Scene tomorrow and you will see all the DT first pieces, as well as the winners from last month.

Oriental Poppy in Red & Blue

 Another Oriental Poppy card using the Hampton Arts stamp, this time on a background brayered in  Adirondack reds, Watermelon, Red Pepper & Cranberry. Again the post it note Sun mask was added after the first colour was brayered. This one is also heat embossed, and matted onto black cardstock. I used a blue & gold washi paper for the card base here, as all the red papers are very heavily patterned, and the result was just too busy. I also stamped  a kanji  letter, onto a piece of card coloured with red ink, then triple embossed and the letter stamped in Black into the last layer.  A coin and a piece of knotted blue ribbon finish it off.

WOYWW #114

First on my desk this week is another map card.The maps are from a set available from Stamp & Go.com, SIFS65,which features 6 maps, some waves, a couple of ships, and a ship in a bottle. It was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black onto an alcohol ink background then cut into a mosaic and matted onto black card. The two tags use a stamp from Artifacts, The Stamp Bugs own stamps, Spirit of Adventure Collage. Just went to their site to get the link, and their u.m stamps are on sale at the moment, with 25% off! The Time & Tide stamp is by Paper Artsy, Clocks plate 3, which also features some of the stamps in the third picture I have posted. I sponged old Paper, Antique Linen & Walnut stain Distress inks onto some script background paper and both tags.

  The second card is again using alcohol ink backgrounds, and the Crafty Individuals stamp from a couple of posts ago. The square card base was covered in paper from Dovecrafts Aquamarine Floral Prints paper pack.

Here are some of the clock images from the Paper Artsy plate, stamped onto Distress inked card, cut out then the ‘glass’ created with Glossy Accents. The card was coloured by swiping Distress inks onto a craft mat (mine came from Poundland, a baking sheet) spritzing with water then wiping the card/tag across the ink. Here is a link to Tim Holtz showing how he does it. The clock hands have been cut out using the Silhouette, using a ‘dingbat’ font that features clocks & timepieces.Have a great Wednesday, and if you are new to this idea, visit the Amazing Julia Dunnits Stamping Ground and join the fun.

4 Birds

This one is really quick & simple. I made 4 squares of embossed card, Cuttlebug Script and  Quickutz diamonds and attached these opposite each other onto light blue card. This was matted onto mid blue then dark blue card. I attached this panel to the front of a square cream card. The 4 Birds, Crafty Individuals CI 184, were stamped in Black Staz-on onto an oil pastel background, made in blues. I mounted this on top of the matted card, then tied a dark blue ribbon around the spine.

Crafty Individuals Butterfly Square

This card features all Crafty Individuals stamps and paper. The background sheet comes from one of their pads of 6×6 background papers, Book 4, Trees. This was overstamped, using Adirondack Denim ink, with CI 021, which is a mixed words stamp. I can’t find this exact stamp on their site now, so possibly it is retired, although there is a very similar one, CI 012. The base card is dark blue, scored & folded, then cut down to 15cm square.
 I cut down the sheet to fit the front of the card, and matted it onto black card. A length of Navy Blue ribbon was wrapped around this panel, then knotted , placing the knot towards the bottom. I mounted this centrally
 on the card front.
The Butterfly Square, CI 135, was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, then heat embossed. The image was coloured using Promarkers, then cut out & matted onto Dark Brown cardstock.I mounted this at an angle in the lower right of the panel.
 A Blue butterfly was made from the same stamp using fusible fibres, and I attached this with silicone glue, which also secures the wire anthers.
He is actually a little difficult to see in the main picture, he looks like a patch of blue background colour!, so here he is on his own,lol. Oddly, the butterfly looks bluer in this picture than it does on the card- I was not exactly pleased with how it came out. I have 3 or 4 shades of blue fusible fibres, but they all seem to develop a green tinge when the fibres are heated.

WOYWW #94

 Blimey, Wednesday already!! Where do these weeks go? Happy WOYWW to everyone,heres my offereing for this week. Get yourself off to our Glorious Leaders site,Julia Dunnits  The Stamping Ground, if you don’t know what this is all about and come & join the fun- legal stalking & snooping, lol.

   
On my desk this week, is a lot of untidiness!For putting this card together, I have a ball of Eyelash wool, a couple of square punches, my Tim Holtz ruler, and another clear gridded ruler,scalpel, Titanium non-stick scissors, dst, Memento Tuxedo Black inkpad,and Provocraft Silent Setter.

           The main image
(Illuminata, Inkadinkado) was stamped in Black Stazon on an alcohol ink background, using Blues & Purples, with Copper Mixative. I also stamped it onto an oil pastel background, also in blues & purples.

Silent Setter

The background panel is a Magenta stamp, 26019-R, stamped and heat embossed in gold on black paper.This panel was attached with dst to the front of the card base, a square black one.  The Illuminata image on alcohol ink was matted onto black card, then mounted on top of the Ornate panel. Then I cut and punched some random sections of the oil pastel print, coated these in Glossy accents and sprinkled with a few seed beads.These were then stuck over the corresponding parts of the original image, some with glossy accents, so they sit flat on the surface, and some with a little silicone glue to add dimension.

 Some blue eyelash wool was wrapped around the front of the card, and the phrase’ Unique Art’, Paperartsy, was stamped onto some offcuts of the Alcohol inked image.  I stamped the two words separately, by covering one with lowtack tape while I inked the other word, then peeling the tape off before stamping.They were then heat embossed using Black detail powder. This allowed me to cut both words into a tag, which had a copper eyelet added before being threaded onto the eyelash wool & knotted in place.

Next on my desk this week, is another bargain for you. I ordered theses Promarkers on Sunday, from Cowling & Wilcox, and they arrived yesterday.They are a bargain, because at C & W, these 5 packs are only £5.95. The 12 packs are only £11.85. And no, that is not a misprint. They really are that cheap. They do charge p & p, but if you enter this code : PROM211  in the promotional Code box, you will get FREE P&P until April 30th. They have all the packs too, not just a few.

 And thanks to everyone who liked my review of Paper Transformed last week, I am glad it was useful to you. As & when I get time, I will review a few other good craft/stamping books I have for you.
Quick reminder to all here in the UK, the clocks go FORWARD one hour this weekend!!!!

Images of the Orient

This is a really simple card, using 9 squares punched out with a Woodware Lever punch, which punches 1 3/8
squares.They are arranged on black card in a grid with a narrow gap between them.This was then matted onto a medium blue card, then onto a Square Black card base.They were all punched from an assortment of stamped images, keeping to a blue/purple colour range. I felt it needed something to offset the visual weight of the Gold Kanji letter in the bottom right, and fortunately the Oriental coins I have are a pretty good colour match.This had a couple of strands of Mizhuiki cord threaded over a piece of cocktail stick, all held in place with a couple of glue dots.

We do not remember days…

I used the Far East paper stack again on this card, to provide the background panel. Unfortunately I have no idea who makes the Crane image stamp, I bought it off E-bay a while ago as an u/m stamp. If anyone does recognise it, please leave me a comment, and I can update this. The sentiment stamp is by Oyster Stamps, and is all on one stamp. I had to split it into two, as my scrap from the stamped panel wasn’t wide enough for the whole phrase! The image panel was coloured using mainly blues & purples, with a little yellow- dye ink on a craft sheet, misted with water.The image was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, as was the sentiment.The image was then matted onto a medium blue cardstock, and the Far East paper onto black card. The stamped image was added to the panel, then all mounted onto a gunmetal card base. The two halves of the sentiment were also matted onto black, then positioned on the image. I added three different sized oriental coins with silicone glue.

Oriental Butterflies

Two versions of the same stamp,which is available as part of a sheet from a couple of suppliers: Tanda Stamps,Far East set 1,where it is also available as a single stamp,and in both rubber or clear polymer, or from Non Sequiteur, Plate 67, Samurai Plate. Apart from the Butterfly block, both plates have different stamps on them. For both cards, the butterfly block was stamped in black ink, then heat embossed, onto alcohol ink backgrounds. The butterflies, flowers and leaves were all painted with H2O’s.For the black & red card, the design was then cut into 8 tiles then remounted onto black card, trimmed then matted onto a second sheet of inked card. The sentiment was stamped onto a scrap, matted onto black card and fixed with foam pads.The butterfly embellishment was made using fusible fibres over the butterflies on the block, then cut out and mounted with silicone glue. An Oriental coin had a length of black/gold mizhuiki cord threaded through it, and was attached with silicone glue in the opposite corner.
This card is an example of how a card can change as you are constructing it, and of the benefits of putting it aside if you aren’t happy- coming back to it later often helps. This one was originally cut into 4 horizontal panels, then re-matted onto black card. I wasn’t sure about it, so left it and completed the blue one.When I looked at it again, I thought the 8 squares would work better, maybe because it seems to mimic the oriental Shoji panels?
For the blue card, the background is printed from a Joanna Sheen cd,Tales of the Orient.The kanji strip on the left was done in triple embossing, using black ink as the base. The sentiment was stamped onto a scrap of inked card, and small black brads added in the corners.