Sunday Stamper - Green Onions

Why green onions?  Well I'm not sure but this is the title of the Sunday Stamper challenge from Hels who is asking for something GREEN to include stamping of course.  I had another gelli plate background which I made yesterday so have used this along with an image from Crafty Individuals I'd stamped on acetate ages ago and which came to the surface during my recent desk tidying efforts.  The reverse of this has been coloured using alcohol inks, then it was adhered to some white card before layering onto black.  Again I didn't want to cover up too much of the background so simply added a punched border and a die cut greeting so quite a simple card but it is GREEN.   (no onions!!)

Edit -

I've just remembered now that Hels usually gives a song title as her theme each week so guess that's where the onions come in - don't know that one I must say.

Forgotten Friday

Well another week seems to have disappeared while my back was turned but I have managed to come up with a card for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge using a butterfly stamp from Crafty Individuals which I came across while looking for something else and realised it was a 'must have' when I bought it although I can't remember when it was last inked.  This was another case where I was trying to use up more of my scraps and everything on this card is just that.  Backing paper was an odd piece which seemed to go along with the text theme of the butterfly stamp which was stamped onto a page from an an old book which had fallen to pieces (couldn't throw away the loose pages could I??). A scrap of card coloured with alcohol inks was embossed with a Cuttlebug text embossing folder and I dyed some cream ribbon with the same colours.  Stamped sentiment on a die cut  ticket.  I'm busy at the moment playing around with a few jewellery ideas for a show demonstration but hopefully will manage a bit of inky stuff in between times and I will try to post on the blog more than I have managed this week.

Make My Monday week 50

The FLORAL challenge theme this week on Make My Monday is wild flowers and/or grasses - my thoughts turned immediately to alcohol ... INKS that is and I took my box of inks and some glossy card out of hibernation and set to work creating a suitable background.  This was then overstamped with archival ink using various stamps from Chocolate Baroque, the large white flower head was inked with Adirondack snowcap and embossed with white detail powder. Matching backing paper (what you can see of it) was printed from CB Essence of Nature CD.  I think I will leave the front of this card without a message.

Another Tag

This is the other tag and this was made using the reflection technique from Tim Holtz.  A tag was cut out in acetate and coloured using alcohol inks, I then used stamps from Chocolate Baroque Christmas reflections on the inked side using black archival ink which was then removed leaving a clear impression in the colour - clever or what??  The acetate tag was then adhered to another one cut in white card. I added an embossed border together with a pine branch (Marianne die) textured with a Sizzix embossing folder - the bird was one which I'd stamped and gold embossed a while ago and not used so I simply turned him into a robin with a little bit of red Copic pen.  I have enjoyed following the progress of his 12 tags which he has done for several years now but I think this is the first time I've ever had a go.

Make My Monday week 28

I can now show you another of my tags which I made for a Guest Designer spot which I was kindly offered from the team at Make My Monday - thanks for the opportunity folks.  The theme is still seasonal and this week it was 'anything goes' with the added touch of some red ribbon.  I decided to make a tag based on  Tim Holtz resist techniques so the tree from Chocolate Baroque Steampunk Christmas set was stamped using Versamark and clear embossed before inking the tag with fired brick Distress ink, spattered with water drops and then some overstamping using the same colour. The panel at the bottom was embossed using a Cuttlebug gears folder onto adhesive foil tape from the DIY shop, coloured using alcohol ink.  The poinsettia flower is also from the same stamp set as the tree and the swirl is grunge board coloured and brushed with Distress stickles.  Finally the required red ribbon (and some green) were coloured using the same Distress inks to match the colours used on the background and flower.
Do go and take a look at their blog to see some more great red ribbon inspiration from the regular design team members.

Forgotten Friday 33

When I saw the Midweek Motivation post on the MMM challenge I remembered that several years ago I'd bought a reel of this DIY aluminium tape and that it was somewhere in my craft stash (certainly not purchased for DIY). Believe it or not I actually knew where it was so I dug it out to use for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge this week - it certainly qualifies because it hasn't seen the light of day for many years. I stuck a piece of it onto some card and then cut out a small birdcage using a Tim Holtz Sizzix die - this was coloured using alcohol inks.  The robin was cut out with a Stampin Up two step bird punch - another item which probably hasn't been used for a couple of months - I cut an extra wing in red to turn it into a robin.
Background is a piece of Kraft card stamped using a lovely brocade stamp from Chocolate Baroque - again a neglected item.  The clock die cut was sent to me by a very kind friend and I sponged it with Distress ink and then rubbed some Treasure gold on to show up the pattern on the centre which I'd put through a Cuttlebug embossing folder. A ticket style Christmas Greeting from Cuddly Buddly and there it is a sort of vintage meets steampunk Christmas card.

Forgotten Friday 12

My card for Judith's Forgotten Friday Challenge this week is a twisted easel using several 'forgotten' elements.  I was looking for something amongst my stash last week when I came across a large pack of twelve by twelve papers which I bought as a special offer at least two years ago, put them away tidily at the time and would you believe the pack hadn't even been opened!!  Another thing I've been using again recently is my alcohol inks which had been sitting on the shelf unused for ages.  So - background paper from my stash; a tag cut out in mirri card embossed with a text embossing folder and then dabbed with alcohol inks. Onto this I've popped a paper rose which I made for a demonstration this time last year and has been sitting in my 'flower' box since then; a strip of card stamped using a text stamp by Hero Arts (again unused for a while) and finally some eyelash yarn left over from a scarf I knitted a couple of years ago - I knew I would find a use for the oddment some time. All these forgotten elements have been put together to make this twisted easel card, adding a swirl and sentiment.  Thanks Judith for encouraging the use of these neglected items and I know I have many more buried away in my craft room.

Forgotten Friday 11

A couple of years ago I bought quite a number of canvasses, only decorated a couple and the remainder have lain on the shelf ever since until this week when I cut out this butterfly using a Tim Holtz die.  I'd not really realised quite how large this butterfly is and as I wanted to combine it with some other die cut and embossed elements I decided using a canvas was the way to go.  I'm doing a couple of days demonstrating with the Big Shot and thought this could be one of my samples as well as qualifying for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge this week so two birds with one stone as they say. The layers of the butterfly are glossy card with alcohol ink with a top layer of Core-dinations card which has been sanded to show the core. Background was coloured with Distress inks and stamped with various grasses etc from Elusive Images (now known as Chocolate Baroque).  The larger flower was cut from card using Tim Holtz tattered flowers die, then embossed and sponged with ink; the other flower is a crumpled one made from brown parcel paper spritzed with Glimmer Mist.

Bah Humbug Challenge 11

The challenge this week on Bah Humbug is 'metallic' so all sorts of scope here.  I settled on colouring some glossy card with alcohol inks, stamping using Elusive Images Klimt Baubles and embossing with gold powder. The background paper is from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD and I printed it on some beautiful metallic gold paper which I've just discovered is no longer available - sad or what.  Fortrunately I still have a small amount left so will reserve it for 'special' printing like today when I felt it went along with the  theme. The sentiment is also from the same set of Elusive Images stamps and I even went to my sadly neglected stash of peel-offs for something to 'hang' the baubles.

By the way - while I had my alcohol inks out I noticed that the mixatives (the metallic ones) had well and truly settled at the bottom of the bottles and it took me ages to get them mixed again.  I tried shaking vigorously to no effect and  resorted to tapping the bottles smartly on the table several times which eventually loosened the little ball from the sludge at the bottom and now they are well mixed again.  I must remember to give them a shake every now and then even if I'm not actually planning on using them at the time.

A Friend is...

I realised that I'd not used alcohol inks for absolutely ages so decided to try them on acetate. I used the heat embossable type so that I could stamp and gold emboss a motif . stamps used are by Elusive Images and the acetate was mounted onto gold mirri card. The sentiment was stamped and cut out with Nestabilities dies. Unfortunately there are some marks showing on the bottom corner which are not actually on the card but always occur when I scan anything reflective - I've worked out that they are a reflection of the 'innards' of my scanner but haven't managed to work out a way of avoiding this happening which is a shame.

The card in reality is actually lighter than it looks here - again I guess it is do with the reflective nature of the acetate and gold card.

Acetate Trees

I thought I would try to make a card with a curved acetate panel using one of the Elusive Images tall trees stamps. I've not seen any tutorials so just did what I thought.

The panel doesn't show up too well on the scan and I found it difficult to photograph - also on the close up I see the static in the acetate has picked up specks of dust so all in all not a total success. Background is glossy card coloured with alcohol inks, the tree on acetate was stamped with Stazon and the others with Versafine. There is a 'spring' in the acetate which has a tendency to pull the panel away from the DST holding it to the background and of course a box would be needed to put this card in the post .

I do like to try lots of ideas and techniques but maybe I will give this one a miss in future unless I can perfect the technique.

Magnolia Monochrome

I spotted a new challenge recently on http://jennifer-phoenixcrafts.blogspot.com/ to use Magnolia stamps and create a card following a sketch. I’ve created a monochrome card using stamps, Glimmer Mists, alcohol inks and Cuttlebug embossing. I thought most people would go for the Tilda images so I thought I’d use this cute sheep and a couple of toadstools to be different!!

Challenge

My card for the Tanda Teaser challenge this week is a 'here's one I did earlier' job which happened to fit the All Creatures Great and Small theme so that was handy. I do try to make a new card for each challenge but this week seems to be particularly busy so...

The cat is an Anita stamp, saying is computer generated and the little mouse is a button with the back cut off - I also had a play with some alchohol inks which I love using.

Blue Rose

I've returned to my Harlequin Rose stamps again for this card; stamped and embossed onto an alcohol inked background using Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder. The flower embellishment didn't quite look right in its original state so I added some blue chalk ink to make it tone with the rest of the card.