I've Got My Eye On You

       Just before Christmas a crafting friend showed me how to make some amazing backgrounds with a 'Splatter' stamp, I loved it so much I had to get the same stamp, now I've gone splatter crazy!

      This stamp, from Inkylicious, has the ability to hold colour without beading, allowing all manner of colourful backgrounds. For this one I used Distress Oxide inks with a touch of Brilliance Lightning Black on the outside edges, a spritz of water and a bit of a tilt round to mix it up before stamping on white card. This was stamped using a stamp platform, I also found that sometimes it's better to close the bottom onto the lid so the colourful inky background stays put.
      Once dry it went back on the stamp platform so I could add Simmi, the gorgeous eye stamp from Lavinia. A platform is a must for silhouette type stamps as well as anything large, if you miss a bit you can re-ink and stamp again. This was embossed in black gloss to help keep the pen colour used on the eye within the lines.   
     The Iris was coloured with watercolour pencils and the white of the eye was done with a white Sharpie. Small gems have been stuck along the eyebrow pattern to add a little sparkle.
     I used a large square die to cut the image panel, then I rounded the corners before going around the whole panel with a little Broken China Distress Ink. A simple black mat layer framed the image before going on to a wider blue layer on a white 7x7 card blank.
     This splatter measures about 5.5 inches, so it would have gone on a smaller card if I hadn't added a couple of layers, but as it just about goes as standard post then I'm happy with it. There will be lots more of these backgrounds, it's so much fun playing around with colour combinations and no two are ever the same.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Watercolour Wednesday - Anything Feminine Goes
International Art & Soul - Make Your Own Background

Let Sleeping Mice Lie

      My first time making a 3D needle felted project and I only stabbed myself twice! Altered Eclectics challenge blog is somewhere you can showcase your projects as long as it's not a card or an ATC, so if you've tried anything new lately please pop over and show us.

     We started making our basic shape with what they call 'core wool', it's not quite as refined as the top coat but very necessary when making a 3D object.
     The lovely Sarah was very patient and guided half a dozen of us through the process. If you have ever thought about trying this craft I would have to say try it.

 

     This is my mouse with his top coat on, then curled up in a sleeping ball of grey fuzziness. A tiny pink nose added, a not so tiny pink ear ready to be attached and a little black closed eye.
     Working on a small felty can be a bit of a challenge, mixed with a sharp needle and cold hands makes for an interesting morning of deep concentration.

   
     Everything on this little mouse is attached using the needle, glue is nowhere to be seen, it's really satisfying when you attach something, stab it into place, pick it up and it doesn't fall off!
     A chubby little tail was added before attaching Mr Mouse to his snugly curly green bed.
     I have used a 2p coin to show his size, it was touch and go whether he would fit in the glass bauble but in the end it was just right. This was the only time any glue was used and that was to fix the bed to the glass.
 

     Having tried this I am in awe of some of the items I have seen, I now understand why the prices for felted animals is so high, they take ages to make and a lot of skill to get right.
     Please pop over to Altered Eclectics and have a look at the array of DT projects, we love altered items and mixed media, but also welcome other hand crafted projects.

I would like to enter Mr.Mouse in the following challenges:

Crafting By Design - Animals
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations - #383 Anything Goes 

I See You

      This was made for my niece who has the most gorgeous hazel eyes, I thought of her when I first saw this stamp.

      The card started with a square of white card on which I stamped and embossed Simmi by Lavinia Stamps. I then stamped on some Stix2 masking sheet, cut it out and covered the eye to keep it white.
      Using Distress Oxide Ink I coloured it a very pale pink, covered it with a stencil and coloured again with the same ink but a little more of it.
      After removing the mask from the eye I coloured the iris with watercolour pencil and a touch of brown mica paint, it's not easy trying to match someones eye colour, especially when you have to do it in secret.
      The eyebrow pattern is coloured with a darker Distress Ink painted on with a water brush, then tiny gems were stuck on to give it a little sparkle. The edges of the image panel didn't look quite right so I edged it with the same pale pink ink as the overall pattern.
      It really needed some black to make the image pop so a couple of mat layers split up by a bright pink pearl card did the trick and by mounting it on a white card blank it brought out the white of the eye too.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Gals Corner - Make It Sparkle

The Sisterhood Of Crafters - Make It Sparkle

Crafty Creations - Anything Goes

Seize The Birthday - Stamping Only  

Let It Snow

      After watching Tim Holtz Holiday Hacks I rummaged through my Sizzix Bigz stash and found a snowman and this is what I came up with.

     In his video Tim shows how to fold a piece of card with a 'W' shape at the bottom and die cut it to get the shape to stand up all by itself. If you haven't seen the video then I would recommend taking a look at some of the ideas he shows, this one is very simple but very effective.
     Having cut my white card snowman with a 'W' bottom I then cut another shape in white glitter card to go on the front, in this layer I also cut the words 'Let It snow' with some dies from the 'Holiday Words - thin' set. To make the words show up I backed them with a small piece of light blue pearl paper.
     Once the glitter layer was stuck on the card I trimmed the bottom flush with the card and stuck a black top hat on to finish off. There is just enough room on the back of the snowman to stamp a small greeting and to write a message. I think a few more of these will be made for the Christmas card box, so this year I won't be caught out not having enough come December.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Christmas Crafts All Year Round - Let It Snow

Winter Wonderland - It's Snowtime

The 12 Months of Christmas - Anything BUT Rectangular

Dies R Us - Anything using Die Cuts

I-Zink Snowflake

     This card was made using I-Zink droppers on acetate, with a twist. The droppers come in a variety of colours, some are pearlescent too.

     The acetate is coloured when the inks are dropped on one sheet and another sheet is 'squished' on top of that, it's a bit like making ink blots but with acetate instead of paper. Once pulled apart, when still wet, the result is two pieces of unusually patterned acetate.
     The twist for this one was a die cut snowflake made from masking sheet was added to one piece of acetate before using the inks, the fun came when I tried to peel the masking sheet off without messing up the snowflake, but it worked.
     Having masked off part of the acetate I had some clear area showing so my backing card had to be something simple but special, for a snowflake this had to be white and sparkly.
     Sticking acetate down can be tricky, the adhesive has to be strong and invisible. Double sided sticky sheet is perfect for this, nice and strong and with an all over sticky there are no marks showing.
      The white glitter card was cut just a little larger than the acetate so there would be a sparkly mat layer before going on to a purple mat to bring out the odd bits of matching colour in the inky background.
      Using some white texture paste and a stencil I added some randomly placed snowflakes over the card and sprinkled them with iridescent glitter. The greeting was stamped and embossed in silver, then die cut with a hole in the middle and mounted on foam pads to show the tiny snowflake underneath.
     

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

International Art & Soul - Add Some Sparkle

Winter Wonderland - Anything Christmas

Creatalicious - Christmas Snowflakes

More Mistletoe Magic

     Mistletoe has featured quite a lot in my cards this year, all because Lavinia Stamps have a gorgeous stamp that is also available in a stencil and die from Sweet Poppy.

      The stamp is smaller than the stencil and die so makes for some easy batch making of A6 cards. When cards are batch made by hand they will always come out a little different so I don't feel it's cheating atall.
      Using watercolour card I stamped and embossed in white, then spritzed the card with water before lightly sprinkling Brusho over the card. Once dry I felt the edges needed a little definition, so I used Distress ink to add a touch of darker green all the way around.
      For the Brusho panels I used some gold paper and a little dark green card to mat and layer them.

     The panels looked a little odd on a plain white card so i used the stamp and some gold ink to stamp all around the edge before adding the panel.
      To finish off I added some tiny half pearls as berries and a small gold organza bow, after watching some YouTube videos I bought a nice fork in a charity shop that I now use just for tiny bow making.
      For the other two cards I stamped the same image on to white card and embossed with a dark green powder. I used the same card and paper as before but switched it around so the green was first and then the gold.
      Again I used the stamp to decorate the white card blank but this time using a very pale green. They also have tiny pearls and a little bow.
      Both card styles have the same greeting, just embossed with different colours and die cut with a small oval die, then mounted on thin foam pads.
      This is one stamp that won't be put away in the Christmas stash, upside down it looks like seaweed so I can use it all year round. I've really enjoyed making these cards so the Christmas stash will probably stay out for a while longer so I can get a head start on next year!

I would like to enter these cards in the following challenges:

ABC Christmas - Y~ Your Favourite Thing   (a stamp with multiple use)

      Christmas At Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas

The Holly and Ivy - Anything Christmas 

The 12 Months of Christmas - Anything Christmas

Mistletoe Paste

     My apologies for a quiet blog these last few weeks, things here have been very busy, sadly not all of it creative but that's life. Crafting can be the most therapeutic pastime for many of us, so over the next few days I'll share some of my creations and spend some time drifting around blogland catching up with everyone else's festive posts.

     I spent a wonderful day with friends visiting Sweet Poppy Stencils for an open day, which is where I bought this gorgeous stencil...and a few others, well it would have been rude not too, right?!
     This image is silver paste on black card, one thing I learnt on the open day is it is much better to have a magnetic sheet under your card and stencil when spreading the paste.....can't believe I didn't think of that before! The other thing I have discovered is not all stencil/masking tape is the same, Stix2 stencil tape is absolutely brilliant, it holds firm but comes off without a single snag on the card.
     Once the paste was dry I mounted it on a green pearl card, the mirri layer is also a very pale green, it didn't look right flat so I used a snowfall embossing folder to give it some texture.
     The last thing to go on once all the layers where done was a sprinkling of half pearls for the mistletoe berries and a silver bow cut with a Sizzix die. There is no greeting on the outside of this card as I felt it would spoil the image, it will also be hand delivered so it doesn't get squashed.

I would like to add this card to the following challenges:

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Anything Christmas for December

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - 2017 challenge : June Gems/Pearls/Sequins