ICAD swap

The lovely Astrid has kindly organised an ICAD swap and as I'd not heard of them before I decided to take part - an ICAD is a piece of artwork measuring 5" x 3" and you can read all about them on Astrid's blog if you follow this link.  This is the first one I made and it is heading off into the postal system today for one of my swap partners. Card was coloured using distress inks with the addition of some texture paste applied though a stencil mask.  The image is from Nice Crane Designs who have some wonderful imagery available and I've simply added some scraps of die cut lace, recycled cardboard and a little charm together with a tag quote using a Tim Holtz stamp..  I've always found working on the small ATC size quite restrictive and although these are only slightly larger, somehow I found it a nicer size to work with and I'm looking forward to receiving a couple of swaps in due course.

A Bit of Mixed Media

I've had this box lying around for quite a while with the intentions of decorating it in some way - it started off as a plain kraft coloured box of about 7" square.  My first move was to cover it all with a layer of gesso, followed by Distress paint in Weathered Wood with a final light touch of Rusty Hinge.  There were a few things I wanted to try on this and one of them was the faux aged metal effect which I spotted on Jenny's blog recently where she had used it to good effect on a pocket watch.  As I have this die I thought I'd use it too - the face of the watch was printed from the Wellington CD which I used recently (Docrafts).  The image was resized  to fit the die, sponged with some Distress Ink and then covered with rock candy crackle medium, hands were from a Marianne die which luckily was the right size. I started the background by sponging distress inks and overstamping with various text and images.  The area over the text in the top left has been textured through a diamond mask with glass bead texture medium which dries clear to show what is behind it - unfortunately because it is clear it hasn't shown up well on the photos although I'm pleased with the effect on the actual box.!!  The grungeboard swirl was coloured with rusty hinge and clear embossed.

It so happens that Make My Monday this week are asking for 'anything but a card' so this will be my entry for their challenge and also it fits the metallic theme on Sunday Stamper where hopefully faux metal will be acceptable.

I've managed to get a half decent photo of the glass bead texture medium area - not easy to photograph

Bah Humbug Challenge 10

My pile of Christmas cards is growing steadily thanks to the Bah Humbug challenge and this week they are asking for apertures.  I know I have some ready cut aperture cards lurking somewhere but thought instead of searching for them I would first have a go at cutting an aperture on the front of a card using  a Nestability die and it seems to have worked out OK. I embossed the aperture using an embossing tool - an idea I picked up from Ikki's blog - thanks for that.  I cut a piece of card to fit the inside and then stamped a winter scene to be viewed through the aperture. I used Tim Holtz trees and a Papermania flying reindeer (the TH one was too big for this card); I added a glitter snowflake to the outside (Marianne die) and a stamped word.

Bah Humbug Challenge 4

The challenge this week at Bah Humbug is 'an oldie but a goldie' - to either use a favourite item which you use a lot or something which was perhaps once a favourite but has been neglected so really plenty of scope this week - thanks ladies.  This card is made using a set of Tim Holtz stamps which I bought the year before last because I liked them so much and I really cannot believe that they didn't get used at all for cards this Christmas just gone. I suppose it is yet another sign that I have way too many stamps!!  The reindeer was stamped with black soot distress ink and clear embossed; the snowflakes were stamped with versamark and also clear embossed; trees were stamped using pine needles DI.  I then sponged the card with Adirondack denim ink.  I resisted the urge add a greeting as I think this image really speaks for itself.

One I did earlier

This is a case of one I did earlier - it is a card made for a swap on the Graphicus Guild Yahoo group and now that it has safely reached its destination I can safely post it here. The background is Glimmer Mist with snowflakes over-stamped in Brilliance white. The trees and reindeer are Tim Holtz stamps.

Creativity

A Mona Lisa card - the main image stamp was inked using three colours of Adirondack dye ink then lightly spritzed with water before stamping onto heavy watercolour paper. The torn edges were inked direct from the ink pads and spritzed to make the colour bleed. This is an effect I quite like with certain stamps - results are somewhat unpredictable and often the second impression is better than the first.

Mona Lisa Canvas

I've not posted for a couple of days because I was demonstrating inky, stampy things at a show. This morning I managed to finish off a canvas which was started yesterday as a demo using Adirondack dye inks, stamps by Tim Holtz, Paperartsy and Elusive Images, with some chipboard letters and Tim Holtz grungeboard pieces.

Mona Lisa Canvas

I've spent the morning playing around with inks and so on to make another canvas.In reality the background has a little more green but the scan doesn't show it. My first attempt was a bit of a disaster so I had to rescue it to make it look halfway decent.