Steam Punk Card Bonanza

Steam Punk!

Well, I think it speaks for itself. 

 Normally I stay away from pre-printed images but as you can see once other elements are added they actually look OK.

A few die cut cogs, a touch of twine, embossing here and there,

a stamped verse/sentiment, a bit of distress ink and a touch of treasure gold waxes in several colours complete the cards.

 

 

As you can see just a quick entry today as the girls are off school this week, again!

 

Hope you like them.

 

Sue X



Happy Day Journal Page

FRIDAY

I dedicated today as a crafting day, although in reality my crafting started about 11.30am.

Boooo!

I decided to do a journal page. It was a dry, warmish day and I was happy perfect title for someone of few words, "happy day".

I began the page by first roughly drawing  three hearts.

 

  
Papers cut into squares of various sizes were used to fill in the heart shapes then glued into position with soft mat medium, torn book text was also added then the page was coated all over to seal the papers.

 

Plasterers mesh tape was also added to the page and white gesso was  applied over the page to prep it for inks for colour to be added, some areas were knocked back to reveal the papers underneath with a baby wipe.

Texture was added through a mask to add detail.

I used a variety of ink/mica sprays to add a touch of colour (Lindy's Spray Gang/Prima Colour Bloom and Dylusions).



The heart shapes were draw over the top with and archival pen and Random stamping was added around the hearts.

 

Silks paints were used to outline the hearts.

 

Using gel medium I applied micro beads around the heart shapes, followed by a touch of inking to the edges of the page with distress ink. A bar code was stamped onto card and words were added  then sprayed in matching colours. This was mounted onto orange basil card and the edges were distressed and inked. 

 

A touch of off white fabric/threads were added, all was layered up and stuck down.

 

"Happy Day"

 

 
Here is a close up.

Hope you like it.

Sue x

Mini Album

Today my task was to make something from an A3 Crafters Companion Opulent card pack and set of Phil Martin Dragonfly/Butterfly stamps for my Sunday Workshops.

Ummmmmmm!!!!!!!

Ummmmmmm!!!!!!!

My first reaction was OMG what an earth can I do with that, followed by OK I can do this.

Sometimes it's good to be out of your comfort zone. I decided on a mini album as the card is lovely and thick, it also has a coating on it which if you are stamping in embossing ink the stamp slides over the card (I tried it). When scoring you really need to do it gently and flip it to score both sides to stretch the fibres on both sides or you may risk breaking the fold line.

To start,  the A3 card was cut in half lengthwise, this was then scored every 2.5cm then folded back and forth. As an after thought I inked the edges in a matching colour as the core of the card is very white.

 

A5 pages were made from other card in the pack so that the pages would co-ordinate, the edges were inked as before. These pages were then scored once 3cm from the edge on one side to make the pages easier to turn.

A piece of ribbon was attached to the inside of the back cover with double sided tape it was centred to be able to reach around to the front of the album.

 

The pages were arranged and then using tape and glue for extra strength were stuck into the album starting from the back working forward.

 

 

Before sticking in the front page it was time to stamp and embellish as once stuck down it wouldn't lie flat and that would make life difficult. This was done using StazOn ink (no sliding) using the Poppy stamp from the previous weeks project to add layers to front page.
 

Next the poppy stamp and dragonflies were stamped onto plain blue card with embossing ink, then adding sticky embossing powder. This was heated to release the stickiness and flakes were added.

The stamped images were fussy cut out and adhered to the front page.

At this point the whole project looked boring and needed a little something.

Using a die, a tag border was created for each page then mixed and matched to create interest edges were inked again. Lace was added along each of the sides. The page was stuck into position and the ribbon bought to the front and tied in a knot.
 

 

Tah Dah!

Project complete.

 Hope you like it.

Sue X

Times Three

The other day as I was walking through the Range I came across some rather nice sized box canvas's 6"x12"so I bought 3.

Bearing that in mind I had an idea to create a row of canvas's with a topic or piece of art to stretch across all three.

Low and behold a few days later one of the blogs I follow released a blog post of a workshop they had done using the very same 3 canvas's base.  

Have a little look at what they made  http://tworzysko.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/sharing-teaching-oversizing-and-collage Mixed-media  by Anna Dabrowska also known as Finnabair. One very talented Mixed Media artist.
Meant to be I told myself, here is my version.

Day 1.

I began by layering lace and resist canvas across the 3 canvas's and sticking them down with gel medium. next I raided the buttons stash.

 

Whilst at the range I also bought a packet of chunky fern leaves in different sizes, the pack was only £1 bargain (may have to get more) love how chunky they are.

I started to assemble the metal bits and shop bought paper flowers, fern leave, etc etc.

 

Once satisfied that it looked ok ( after several attempts that is) I glued it all down with 3d gel medium and painted it all white ready to be coloured.

Now then because the metal embellishments were left to dry with wet gesso on, the metal reacted and formed lovely rusty patches, another meant to be moment so I went with the warm rusty orange colour and hoped for the best.

Day 2.

Colouring.
Well hubby not working from home in my craft space AKA the dining room today, girls at school for a good few hours, washing done and drying, sofa plumped hoovering done.
Time to craft.

And so to the fun bit, colouring and embellishment enhancement.
As suggested at the end of day one I really wanted to use rusty colours and then I had to decide what colour to put with it, after a moment or three I made my mind up to use purples.
I have many varieties of spray inks my latest acquisition a couple of  Lindy's Stamp Gang in purple (love them), those combined with a couple of Prima Bloom made up my colours.
These were sprayed and applied with a paint brush in areas to create different coverages and splatters. Micro beads were applied  using gel medium and just to finish off a touch of treasure gold wax to add a tiny touch of bling.

Mission complete!

Here are a few close ups.

 

Sue x

Box Tastic!

Box Tastic as in fantastic, even if I do say so myself.

I started to play around with this idea some time ago while staring at an empty 6"x6" card box,

wondering if I could give it a new lease of life.

This is what I came up with.
 

I began with an A3 size piece of card which I scored at 7",8",15" and 16"( along the long edge), depending on the size of your score board that is, I did mine by measuring 7" and 8" scoring , then bending and using the folded edge as a guide measured and scored at 7" and 8" again the last 1/2" was used as a flap to tuck in at the end of the box. While the box was folded at one of the score lines I trimmed the card on the shorter edge to 7"  making a sort of 7" square box shape when folded.

Sounds complicated but couldn't be easier really.

Next I glued the 6"x6" base box to the centre of the 7"x7" flap closest to the small flap as that creates the base, followed by putting the lid on the box, applying glue and lining up the top.

This is when the fun began, I chose three paints using the same technique as the butterfly canvas last week by scraping the paint across another piece of A3 to create a background.

Script was then stamped randomly with a juicy black onyx versamark ink and heat set.

The card was cut into two 7"x7" squares and two 7"x1" rectangles.

Ribbon  was wrapped and stuck onto the 7"x7" box, with the longer lengths at the opening so that a bow could be tied as a fastener.

Black stitching was added around all of the edges of the painted card stock, the top piece was stamped with a Woodware Poppy stamp to add depth to the project.

The Poppy was stamped several times on printed music paper, cut out and coloured with distress ink.

These where then glued over the stamped poppy images, taking care not to line them up.

The painted panels were attached to the box enclosing the ribbon to keep it snug and in place.

Black sugar dull glitter was stuck to the poppy centres to add a bit of zing.

Using the left over painted card and stamped poppy images,  small note cards were made measuring 5"x5".

Here are a few more pictures.
 

A cool gift  for people who appreciate handcrafted gifts.

Sue x

Furniture Re-vamp

Occasionally I like to undertake a project that requires a little more labour and

 get a lot of satisfaction from re-vamping bits of furniture and giving them a new lease of life.

Hence my next project, this item was made specifically for us by a local carpenter to fit into a gap.
However, with a need for more storage and space to hide stuff it was replaced by a bookcase with doors.
Moving on, I decided to paint the side table type thing with chalk paint by Anne Sloane and distress it to make it appear old and French like.
I treated the knots in the pine and gave it a couple of layers of chalk paint, which dries super fast.

 Next up I sanded back a few of the edges to reveal the wood grain and gave the piece a coating of clear soft wax.

 

This was buffed to a shine around two hours later, now if I was feeling brave I could have applied a tad of dark wax to the edges but I wasn't so I didn't. You can have a little look at loads of on line videos on how to use chalk paint and wax and maybe my next attempt I will be ready to do the dark wax thing too.
A second coat of wax was applied and buffed up as before.
It recommends you wait 72 hours before using it to allow the wax to cure and harden, various videos even suggest for the wax to harden completely it takes up to 3 months.
Watch this space I'll let you know how it goes.

Sue x

JOFŶ Inspired Canvas

Friday 24th April 2015

Today was a play day, my crafting friend Rebecca invited me round for a crafty play and of course I said Yeah! followed by, what we doing, do I need to bring anything.

So armed with a couple of 6"x6" box canvas's and my new JOFY stamps I headed on round to visit her.
 

We began by applying paint directly to the canvas and spreading it around using an old credit card.
 

This was mine.                  This was Rebecca's.

   

As you can see the same paints, the same technique but very different effects.

 Texture crackle paste was added through a stencil and left to react. Although the paste was supposed to be clear  I was a little impatient, so  gave it a blast with the heat gun and it has remained a white opaque colour. This picture was taken before I blasted it as I didn't think the texture would show up afterwards. I was wrong.

 

The honeycomb image was stamped on tissue paper along with the bees and coloured with  paints on the back to preserve the stamped outline, then glued in place on the canvas. (We stamped on tissue paper  as when stamping directly onto the canvas areas of the image may not stamp evenly due to a little bit of movement, also tissue paper blends into the background when glued).

The Bee hive was stamped onto watercolour paper and cut out, the edges were coloured with distress ink then mounted on card with 3d foam to add height to the project.
 

Bee's (stamped on tissue) were cut out then glued into position, the body of the bees (stamped on watercolour card), were cut out, coloured and glued onto the top of the tissued version. The larger bee was also stamped on a rather nice textured bit of mulberry paper to give the impression of fluttery wings, this layer was added between the tissue version and the watercolour card body.

 

Flowers were stamped, cut out, coloured and added to the canvas with 3d foam to lift them off the canvas.
 

 Before we knew it time had flown by and I had to leg it home for the girls to get back from school.
 

This was my finished project.

You may have noticed the textured mulberry paper behind the bee hive, this was left over from the  bee wings and I needed to use it, so I added colour with the a touch of paint and added it to the project.

This was Rebecca's almost finished project, pop on over to her blog and check out the completed version. She was keeping us both topped up with tea and chocolate as well as emptying the washing machine, putting it on the line and keeping an eye on Daisy the dog all at the same time.

Thanks for the play day Rebecca.
 

Sue x

Card Time

 

 Just a quick post.

This is a card made for my niece who celebrated her birthday on April 1st.

 

 

I'd had the stamp for a while and took this opportunity to use it.

The card was stamped, coloured, layered and put in the post with plenty of time to spare.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Sue

Bird Cage Project

I wanted or needed to make a project which included a bird cage,

this is how it turned out.

 

I began by cutting a grey board square to 8"x8", and covered it with a nice, rather plain paper to create a background to work on.

Rectangle shapes in all sizes were inked around the edges then placed down and interlaced in a pleasing manor then stuck into position.

 

A small amount of stamping was added to create depth and interest.
 

White paint was then splattered across the background again to create interest as no two splats are the same. The edges of the base  were inked and distressed with Black Soot distress ink.

 The birdcage was cut from reasonably thick card but I needed it thicker and so glued two together,

this was then part embossed with Gold UTEE and finished off with Black and Silver UTEE

The leaves were coloured and shaped, followed by the flowers and added to the piece.

The project needed a little something so I added a few arty words.
ART With Everything.

Thank you for taking a look at my project.

Sue

Jam Jar Lantern

After the disaster jam jar art previously posted I re-visited the idea.

This is how it turned out.

 

 

 

This technique is so easy, even I can do it.

 

After making sure the jars were clean and free from dust/grease, I blotted on alcohol ink straight from the bottle.  A few different colours were used to create a mottled effect, very effective with a light shining through.

 

A few long lengths of wire were twisted together bent around a pointy tool to create waves and curls, this was then bent and manipulated to create a handle a little decoration around the bottom edge.

 

This is were the red/purple jar had a slight detour,  a mottled stamp was used with flitter glue and   silver/gold flakes to add a worn effect.

 

Shop bought flowers were added to both jars to make them into spring home decorations.

 

Here are just a couple more close ups of the flake effect.

 

Hope you like them.