Garden Spells at Make My Monday

    This card was inspired by the book cover shown over on Make My Monday. The book is called Garden Spells and features flowers and butterflies on a black cover so I chose mica powders for my creation.
    Mica powders have what is called an 'interference' colour in them most of the time, so what you see in the little pot is what you get on white card but on black card the interference colour will shine through. I have taken two photos of the card at different angles to try and show this, the flower on the left is blue in the big picture but mauve in the small one. These powders are something I love to work with, especially for nature and Christmas.
    All the stamps used are from Chocolate Baroque, the wording is from Artistic Affirmations and the flowers are from Wild Meadow. I have used Perfect Medium to stamp with but if you have Versamark it will do the same job. I stamped each flower separately and powdered them so that I didn't cross over with my colours. I have used Cosmic Shimmer Mica Garden Flora and Shimmer Lux sets.

    Once all the mica was done I brushed off any excess and gave it a light spray with hairspray to fix it. The card is then mounted on pearl gold card and then onto a 7x5 card card blank that used to be white. I used Distress Ink Black Soot to colour my card edge and then stamped with Black Soot using one of the Wild Meadow stamps to decorate it a little.
    Once in a while you know what you want to make as soon as you see the challenge example and this was one of those times for me. The book cover just yelled mica to me and I listened. I think black is a such an amazing 'colour' to use and should never be thought of as dull or boring, it really has potential.

Ribbons, bows and baubles

    This weeks Christmas card is inspired by ribbons, bows, baubles and the number three.  52 Christmas Card Throwdown are looking for ribbons and bows while CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge are asking for three of something.
    I began by die cutting a circle out of my large DL card with a Spellbinder die. I then started to weave red and green ribbon to decorate my bauble. Have you ever started something and then wished you hadn't?! I did get in a bit of a tiz but I wasn't about to give up and I'm glad I didn't because the finished weave looks OK.
It wasn't helped by having a split thumb, which nearly gave the card more red than it needed!! At different angles the ribbon shines either colour, maybe because it's satin.
   Once my weaving was done I die cut a bauble cap from gold satin card and stuck it to the top of the circle. Then I added a chain peel off for the bauble to hang by.
It looked a little lonely so I added two small peel off baubles backed with glitter and hung on chains to keep it company.

   I recently got a bow maker free on a magazine so I though this was the time to use it. I used the same ribbon as the weave to make three bows, one for each of the baubles.
   It may seem a bit of a cheat to use peel offs rather than stamping but after all that weaving I really didn't want to risk a mistake on my card. The inside is decorated, I used the insert to cover up the back of the weave so nothing can be seen inside. The envelope is also decorated with a small bauble.

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

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Ribbons and bows

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge - three of something

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything goes

Inkspired monochrome

    This weeks challenge at Inkspirational is a CASE.  The design team have come up with some great ideas but I was struck by the crisp monochrome effect.
    I chose to use a stamp by Creative Expressions called Steampunk Dreams. I have stamped the dummy and embossed with black, it's an old powder that's been in my stash for ages in a little pot my Mum gave me so I don't know who's it is but it has melted a little on the grungy side rather than a smooth finish. That may be due to age or it was meant to be like that but either way the effect with steampunk is rather good, luckily!
    I stamped the wings separately again so I could cut them out and mount them at an angle to give dimension. They have also been coloured with a clear Sakura Stardust pen to give them a little sparkle.
   I cut out the image and mounted it on white card that has been embossed using a patchwork type folder I borrowed from a friend, I think it's a Universal folder.

   The patterned cardstock is mounted on black and then on to plain white before being stuck on to a white card that has had it's edge coloured black with Distress Ink Black Soot.
   The sentiment is also from the same stamp sheet and has been embossed with the same grungy powder. I have added a tiny red gem to the middle of the cog on the dummy's chest just to have a small hint of colour.
   It's not come out quite how it was in my head but I'm happy with it non the less. There is no greeting inside yet, I thought I would leave that until I need to use it.

Heat embossing at Taverham

    Next months workshop at Sew Simple in Taverham, Norfolk will be 'Heat Embossing Techniques'. This workshop has been requested by some of the crafters at Sew Simple and we are always happy to oblige if we can. It will be on wednesday 24th April.
   
    This tag has a mixture of resist embossing, ultra thick and image embossing. There are several more techniques that we will try on the day as well as some different powders to use that will give very different effects. If you would like to join us then please give Sew Simple a call or follow this link here to see the details.
 
    Workshops at Taverham are light hearted and chatty mornings where we learn new techniques, brush up on old ones and generally swap ideas and share inspiration so please come along and join us if you can.
   

Blue for Sue

   This card is for my friend Sue, it's her birthday next week. Her partner calls her Sue Bear and she likes blue so I think she'll be happy with this.
   I would also like to enter it in a challenge over at Make My Monday, the theme this week is monochrome.
   To begin with I put a mask over a white card and used Distress Inks Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans and Stormy Sky to make the background. Then I brushed silver mica powder over the ink before it dried to get that shine (just like the Mother's Day cards).

    I have stamped the little Penny Black bears using Faded Jeans and water brushed them as well as blending the edges while the die (Spellbinders - Wonky Squares) was still in place. Each bear is mounted on foam pads.
   The letters were silver, they have been coloured with a blue permanent marker.  There are various sized clear gems on some of the flowers to add a bit of sparkle.
 

Little Brown Deer

    Here is this weeks Christmas card. 52 Christmas Card Throwdown are looking for Christmas animals, Jingle Belles would like your card to be in neutral shades, Sparkles Christmas Challenge would like you to use 3 flowers, 2 gems and 1 image and last but by no means least CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra are happy with anything Christmassy.
   I began by stamping the image in Archival Ink Coffee on cream pearl card and then clear embossed it, it's a Penny Black stamp called 'Wish for peace'. The cream is matted on to satin gold then pearl chocolate card. The next layer is Kraft card put through a snowfall embossing folder, matted on another piece of chocolate pearl and finally on a cream 7x5 card.
   The flowers are punched from mat gold, patterned cream and plain cream card stock with foliage die cut with a Spellbinder Foliage die. Two of the flowers have gems but the top one does not, I did think about a butterfly but you don't see those in a snowy forest so I left it bare.

  The inside of the card is stamped with an All Night Media Anna Griffin stamp but has no name that I can find. I have used Archival Coffee again, I like this colour as it's strong but not as harsh as black and looks great on cream. I've added a little holly sprig to the envelope too.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Christmas animal

Jingle Belles - Neutral Noel

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - 3 flowers, 2 gems, 1 image

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything goes

All Steamed Up

   Good morning and welcome to my 100th post.

   This is my entry for SanDee & amelie's Steampunk Challenge 3D section. This month it's a steampunk cuckoo clock and I've had a lot of fun with this. A few month's ago I would never have thought of trying something like this, it has no function, no purpose but it was fun to make and I love it. Thank you to the ladies at the challenge for stretching my imagination, it's like being a child again....anything's possible.
   I began with a birdhouse pattern downloaded for free from one of the crafting magazines. I cut the roof from silver mirri card and embossed it with a checker plate mask, masks give a softer impression than folders which can be just as effective. The silver was a bit bright so I toned it down with a Ranger Acrylic Dauber Espresso brown, dab it on and wipe some of it off.
   The bottom and sides are cut from gold satin card and then run through a cogs embossing folder. They have been given the paint treatment too. I chose to cut little doors in the front instead of the hole on the pattern.

    There are two holes cut in the bottom to let the chains and weights hang down, this is from an old necklace I found in a charity shop.  I have cut various cogs from dark brown pearl card and attached them with brass look paper fasteners.
   The winged clock is from Inkadinkado stamped and embossed in copper, the wings are layered but that doesn't show too well in the pictures.  The cuckoo is a Marianne die and he hangs from jump rings through an eyelet just above the doors.
   Once all outside decoration was done I stuck it all together and added foil tape to the side joints with dots of Cosmic Shimmer PVA in copper to look like rivets.

 The chimney should really be a cylinder but that was very tricky to get just right so I opted for a square one. It's cut from the same brown card as the cogs and attached inside the roof. The 'steam' is a cotton wool ball opened out and fluffed up.
   The ribbon that it hangs by is through a hole in the roof, inside the roof the ribbon goes through a button so that it won't pull through.
   
There is a new challenge blog over at Country View Crafts which this month is Pick and Mix so anything goes and they accept altered art too. There aren't many rules and if you need anything to complete your creation they sell lots of lovely things on their website.

   There is another challenge that accepts altered art as well as papercrafts called Crafty-emblies. They also have a shop with lots of lovely things just crying out to be altered. It's so good to find challenges that stretch your crafting that little bit further.

  Happy crafting.