Inky Technique

Despite having  a large number of TV channels available nowadays there are often evenings when I can find nothing which I'd like to watch so I often resort to the laptop and either Pinterest or YouTube.  This card is more or less CASE'd from a YouTube video in which a square acrylic block was used to produce an inky background - these backgrounds are quite unpredictable and certainly cannot be replicated exactly another time but great fun nonetheless!  As I don't have a square block I die cut a mask from paper and printed through the 'hole'.  First of all a couple of colours of ink pad are selected and applied to the block as you think best, spritz lightly with water and then print onto your chosen piece of white card.  My piece of card was slightly smaller than a 6" card blank but with hindsight could have been a bit smaller so that I could have added a toning coloured layer behind.  Once this ink was dry I used the Misti to stamp a sentiment, the tree and a flight of birds before using a square die slightly smaller than the inked square to cut out the centre.  The white layer was adhered direct to the base card and the cut out square inserted into the square 'hole' using foam pads to raise it up.  The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted the small area behind the birds where some of the ink leaked outside the makeshift paper stencil but I decided that just added to the interest and unpredictability of this great technique (that's my story anyway!!).  I can think of quite a few stamps which would work well using this technique.

Stamp - Sheltering Tree from Stampin' Up
Sentiment - from the same stamp set
Birds - from High Tide stamp set Stampin' Up

Workshop

On Saturday I attended a great Stampin' Up workshop organised by the lovely Jill.   We received a stamp set with four small ink pads and a very comprehensive set of instructions for no less than eleven projects ranging from small boxes to cards, all using the same stamp set.  This is a good way of getting to know various ways in which stamps can be used to good effect and I came away with lots of ideas.  I managed to get most of the projects done on the day but this is one of them which I decided to finish at home having thought I'd like to emboss the top layer of white.  There are two layers of white card and a 'gap' is cut into one of the layers and the flowers are stamped onto the bottom layer filling the 'gap'.  Another flower and some leaves were stamped and fussy cut to add once the card was assembled.  Sentiment was stamped before embossing the top layer.  I expect you will be seeing some of the other projects at some point so watch this space!

The original idea for this 'split' card apparently came from Old Stables Crafts where I imagine you can find how it was made.  I'm certainly aiming to check out this link when I have some time to spare.

Stamps -  Painted Harvest Stampin' Up
Colours - Daffodill, Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake and two greens for leaves

Pixie Snippets challenge #325

It is time to visit the Playground again for the fortnightly challenge and this time I'm taking along a card made to fill a gap in the Anniversary section of my box.  I've used a set of dies which also has a matching embossing folder and some stamps and apart from the base card and a piece of patterned paper everything else uses snippets of card in toning colours.  The embossed panel was cut from some card which has a 'whitewash' effect on one side and a darker plain colour on the reverse and once embossed it was sanded lightly to emphasise the design.  Some snippets of cream pearl card also came into use for some of the hearts and the banner. One of the stamps was used on the centre heart and three of the tiniest hearts were scattered onto the background.  Die cut words onto a cream banner and that's it, a simple anniversary card.

 As always there is a great prize on offer this fortnight and Di has made a card to showcase this and again there are the usual helpful hints on how it could be used - well worth popping along to take a look and maybe making something using up some of your own snippets. 

Dies and Embossing Folder - Tonic

Banner - Sue Wilson Die

Wording - Crafter's Companion dies

New Home

No, I'm not moving - reckon I have far too much 'stuff' for that to be straightforward!!  I was sorting out my box of cards and realised there were a few gaps which needed filling so for now I'm concentrating on those categories rather than making loads of birthday cards.  This new Home card gave me an opportunity to make use of a die and stamp set which came free with a recent magazine.  Since we lost the bus service which  I used regularly I don't get to the larger newsagent so often which means I miss out on the temptation to pick up magazines with freebies but I'm pleased I didn't miss this one.  The house was cut using the die supplied and then I drew lightly in pencil through the windows onto a scrap of cream card so that I could then use some of the stamps to add curtains and blinds to make the house appear lived in.  The railings behind the house, the little cat sitting on the grass and of course the sentiment were all included, along with others, in the stamp set.  The tree was cut using another die which I've had for a while and wasn't part of the set although there is a tree stamp which could be used another time.

Circle - Sizzix die
Tree - Sizzix die
House and stamped details - using free set of die and stamps from magazine
Sentiment - using punch from Stampin' Up

Another Break in Transmission!!

I'm afraid the blog is still taking rather a back seat at present as is my card making, mainly because I've been doing quite a lot of sewing and there just don't seem to be enough hours in the days to cover both activities.  (Sewing of course leaves me with loads of fabric snippets!!).  However I do have a card made which I can take along to Pixie Snippets Playground for challenge # 324.  Apart from the base card everything else comes from my snippets boxes.  The base layer was a piece of brown card which I embossed with some text and the stitched frame was left over from another project.  The words were die cut from a scrap of gold pearl card and the flowers and tiny circles die cut from scraps of cream, gold and brown.  The smallest flowers were punched from really tiny scraps.

Do pop along to take a look at the lovely stamped card made by Di this time using some of her larger snippets of card and paper.

Sentiment Die - rafter's Companion
Swirly Flower - Sizzix die
Frame - Sue Wilson die set
Embossing Folder - Creative Expressions
Tiny Flowers - Punch from Stampin' Up.

Just For You

My second card in a week - progress on the blog front eh???  I saw a demonstration recently on one of the craft channels; tried to keep some of the ideas in my head and I've enjoyed putting this card together.  The stamps are from a Hobby Art set called Floral Patchwork.  I started by stamping the buttons around the edges of a piece of kraft card, followed by the rest of the stamping onto watercolour paper.  This was coloured using water-based brush pens with some sponging around the edges and a pen drawn partial border on two corners.  These images are great fun to colour and I'm sure there are lots of ways of combining them into cards for all occasions.

Stamps - from Floral Patchwork set Hobby Art

Pixie Crafty Playground Challenge #323

I think I'm probably due for the naughty step because I managed to completely miss making anything for the previous Playground Challenge but I'm fairly on time with a card for the current one.  It is well worth a trip over there to see the so cute card which Di has made for our inspiration and of course the items used will be winging their way to a lucky winner in the usual draw at the end of the two weeks.  The only thing I didn't have for this card was any suitable background paper so I started by trawling through some of my very many craft CDs looking for something which would be good for baby cards and eventually I managed to find something in blue and also another pattern in pink so these were printed off.  Of course I now have some pink and blue snippets for another time!!  Everything else on the card is from the snippets boxes - watercolour paper to stamp the image; scraps of card for the banner, border and layering; gingham ribbon oddment; more small scraps to die cut the words.  The stamp used was from a set which came free with a magazine quite a long time ago and I must own up to the fact that I don't think the packet had ever been opened until I made this card - image coloured with water based brush pens.

Yet again I have to apologise for being a bad blogger of late but I will try to get back into the swing shortly - have to really because I can't keep on apologising can I??

Stamp - magazine freebie from way back, coloured using water based pens
Die - a Spellbinder one which I've had for years
Words - Crafter's Companion dies
Banner - Sue Wilson dies
Papers - printed from craft CDs