Peaceful Greens challenge

This is my 'Peaceful Greens' challenge entry for Aldridge Crafts. OK so there's a little tiny bit of orange hidden in there.

This was made using the usual Distress Inks, I know I use them a lot but they are so very versatile and this was with only two different greens.

The stamps are from a set I was given sometime ago called 'Wild Meadow' and the butterfly is from U-Mount set 'Botanical'.

To create some depth to the picture I have stamped some foliage in the paler green ink 'Bundled Sage' and the rest in 'Forest Moss'. Using a water brush or small paintbrush and a little water I painted over the stems and flowers of the large stamp which gave me a filled in look.

The butterfly is stamped in Forest Moss and coloured in with Sakura gell pens to give him a little sparkle, which unfortunately doesn't show on the picture.

I wonder what the challenge will be next week?

Creative Expressions Calling Card Challenge

Having done a little research into Edwardian calling cards I chose to put a little twist on my idea for this challenge. Calling cards were used to announce your arrival at the home of the person you wished to visit, they usually had your name on them alongside a small decoration. This little ATC is housed on a free standing pop up tag.

To make this card you will need to cut three pieces of white card as follows.
One piece measuring 4 1/4 x 11 inches, another 2 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches and another 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

Take the largest piece and score lines for folding at 1 inch, 2 3/4 inches, 3 3/4 inches, 5 1/2 inches, 7 1/4 inches, 8 1/4 inches and 10 inches. At the 5 1/2 inch score line measure 5/8 inch inward from each side and mark, cut a slit between these marks for the tag to slide up and down. If your ATC has dimension the slit can be cut a little wider.


Decorate both the large piece that will form the box and the middle size piece that will be the tag. Using Perfect Medium and a stamp from the U-Mount Mini Swirls set stamp and clear emboss at random. Next use a piece of Cut and Dry Foam and Distress Ink Old Paper to colour your card, then use the Old Paper with the stamp to add more swirls. Finish off with a spritz of Cosmic Shimmer Enchanted Gold. Set aside to dry while decorating your ATC.

My calligraphy skills are not too good so I used my computer to print the name. It was printed on a larger piece of paper and cut to ATC size at an angle so the writing has a slant. Once cut to size it was decorated with Distress Inks Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge, then spritzed with water to get the speckles. Once dry the corner stamp was done with another Distress Ink Aged Mahogany.

Die cut two butterflies in gold satin card and attach them, one on each side, to the top of the tag. This could be done with ribbon if you prefer. Once the butterflies are on the ATC is then stuck to the tag, make sure it is a little closer to the top as the bottom inch of the tag will be inside the box when it stands up.

Pass the tag through the slit and attach it to the last inch fold at the end of the card, make sure it is centered. Attach the tag to the other end of the card to form the box from which the tag will stand.

The box is finished with a paper rose made from die cut flowers using a technique found on Creative Expressions website, see link below. Colour the rose before assembly with Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge, once assembled spritz with Enchanted Gold.
http://www.expressrubberstamps.co.uk/images/uploadpics/SueWilsonsPaperRoseHowTo.pdf


The card will fold flat and pop up when the butterfly is pulled. Calling cards were hand delivered so the rose would not have been squashed. If you wish to post this type of card you could either use a box-a-lope or a flower with less dimension for the decoration.

I do hope you try this card it's something a little different.

For all the ladies I met last weekend please follow the link above to Sue's paper rose technique, this is how I learnt to make all those flowers.

Happy Crafting.

Time at Craftmania

Many thanks to Craftmania in Lowestoft and their eager customers for a very busy day last saturday. Viv and I spent the day demonstrating to a constant crowd of fellow crafters.
This was one of the samples on show which raised some interest. It was made with the Creative Expressions embossing folder Time using white card. Once embossed I inked the card with Distress ink Old Paper all over, then Brushed Corduroy around the edges and over the raised features. The clock face was a piece of satin gold card also put through the embossing folder, as are the hands. I used an Archival Ink black to rub over the clock face to pick out the numbers, it wasn't a perfect job so to cover my little smudge I stamped the face with Archival Sepia and a crackle background stamp. The hands are also coloured with the black ink pad and fastened to the face with a brad, then the clock face was mounted on the card. This would also look good using Walnut Hollow Creative Metal.
The sentiment is a stamp from the U-Mount stamp set Time, stamped in Archival ink Coffee and clear embossed. The little cog is from a broken clock I got from a local jewellers ( got some funny looks when I asked for a broken clock! ) It is then matted on chocolate brown card and mounted on foam pads. The whole card was matted on chocolate card, then cream, then chocolate again.

Truly Cosmic

As soon as I saw this canvas I knew what I wanted to do with it. I have to confess I am a bit of a Treki and this just had to be done, for my son of course!!

How to 'Make it so'. One round canvas from Wilkinsons painted with Eco-green acrylic black. Then comes the fun part, spritzed with Cosmic Shimmer sprays in various colours. I've always wanted to do this type of thing with the sprays since I first got my hands on them and what better way than to 'Boldly spritz where no crafter has spritzed before'.

The planet surface doesn't show up too well on this picture but it has a really moon like look to it. It was made by mixing Eco-green acrylic paint with sand. I masked off the canvas with a piece of card cut around a tea plate, this helped keep the edge crisp. It took overnight to dry fully, I was going to cosmic that too but decided it would be too much bling so left it matt.

The planets and alien are all stamped from U-mount plate 'Outer Space'. The planets are stamped onto acetate with Stazon and then glittered, the alien was stamped on white card and coloured in with a green highlight pen, then double embossed with a glow-in-the-dark embossing powder. The Enterprise (starship) was taken from a tatty book found in a charity shop.
I really enjoyed making this picture, I was so pleased I managed to get it just as I'd imagined it. It also shows that Cosmic Shimmer and rubber stamps are not just for card craft.

I have another canvas so I might try and see if 'The force is with me' and adapt the idea slightly, so watch this Space! You don't have to be mad to craft but it helps!!!

Cosmic Shimmer Misters

Shimmer mist is suitable for use on any porous surface such as : Card, Paper, Papier Mache, Canvas, Wood, Fabric - will NOT be washable.



Tips:
* The mica does settle so shake well before use.
* Bottles are best stored on their side, this helps keep the tube to the nozzle clear of mica reducing the risk of clogging. Less shaking needed too.
* If the pump clogs remove it and rinse in warm water, do this before long term storage.
* Use a small shallow box as a spray booth to prevent any stray squirts escaping.
* Use a craft mat under your project so you can mop up any overspray on spare card, it may come in handy for another project, waste nothing.
* Mica's are very effective on dark backgrounds so experiment with coloured bases to your projects.
* Colours co-ordinate with other Cosmic Shimmer products to help you mix and match.
* Wear gloves if scrunching your card, some colours can stain a little.


Ideas:
* Stamp an image using Perfect Medium, then clear emboss before spraying. Lightly dab off excess spray from stamped areas as it will stick to the embossing a little. This will retain the base colour on your card. Alternatively you could stamp and emboss using coloured powders after spraying. These two tags were sprayed with the same colours, one onto white card and the other onto black card.
* Create dramatic backgrounds by using several colours. Seascapes, stormy skies, sunsets, galaxies - on black card, enchanted forests, the list is endless, let your imagination run free.
* Spay thin card, then while still wet scrunch it up and smooth it out again. To get it quite smooth again you can iron it. If you then rub gently over the card with an ink pad only the raised areas will pick up the ink.
* You can spray fabric but it will NOT be washable.
* Use masks to spray over, there are some really gorgeous ones available.

I hope this has given you some idea about Cosmic Shimmer misters. Choose a couple of colours you like together and have a play, if you like what you see, and I'm sure you will, then invest in a few more and have fun. I love all the Shimmer mists but I would have to say the Pearl Mist is my favourite, it has a clear carrier colour so it can be used to add a subtle shimmer to almost anything from wedding cards to christmas decorations.
There is also a range of Chalk Misters available now. These are very similar to use but they have no shimmer, they are a chalk effect that have many uses of their own.

Sew Simple goes Cosmic

I would like to say thankyou to the staff and visitors at Sew Simple on saturday for making it a most enjoyable day.
As promised over the next few weeks I will try to give you a run down on the different Cosmic Shimmer products and their uses.
This card was made using the new Cosmic Chalk Mists, they give a matt chalky finish. They have a fresh spring like look and once you've played for a while you can get some lovely effects. Personally I like to use them as a subtle mist, blending two complimentary colours rather than an all out solid coverage.
This was using green and yellow, well I was demonstrating on the outskirts of Norwich, over the Trellis mask from That Special Touch Of... The stamps are all from U-Mount Botanical using Archival Jet Black and Coffee. Foliage was stamped in Distress Forest Moss and clear embossed. Clear embossing powder over the stamped butterfly and yellow flowers made painting with Cosmic Watercolours nice and easy. The Pinky flowers were stamped on card misted with the chalks in purple and pink, all flowers were cut out and glued onto the background with Cosmic Acrylic glue, as was the butterfly. Matted and layered on green, gold and pearlescent chocolate card seemed to suit it.

Cosmic Butterfly

My photographic skills are not too good, this really looks much better than this, sorry.
This was made on a watercolour board to stand on an easle from Ikea, sprayed black. The board was blended with Distress inks Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw and Aged Mahogany. Behind the butterfly is stamped with a script design in Perfect Medium and then dusted with Cosmic Mica powder Marigold. The grasses are stamped and embossed with Cosmic Lava Black (which matches Aged Mahogany perfectly), the tree was stamped in Aged Mahogany but not embossed. The edges of the board are embossed with Cosmic Bright Gold.
The flowers are made with card coloured using Distress inks so they match the colour scheme of the board. To make these flowers you can find the instructions on the Creative Expressions website along with some other really good projects. Once assembled the flowers were sprayed with Cosmic mist Rich Gold. Leaves were cut from some chocolate card I found in the draw then passed through a ribbler to get the veins.
The butterfly was stamped and embossed in Cosmic Lava Black, the stamp is from Eco-Green Crafts - Butterfly Post. It was then painted using Cosmic watercolours, these really are great. TIP: emboss your image before painting so if you paint over the lines by mistake the embossing will repell the paint leaving you with a perfect image.