Mothers Day Cards

 

What a busy week I've had all these card and stuff.

 

Obviously I couldn't  post this until the mothers had received their cards so here they are in all there glory.  The same but different.

 

 

 

And this is how they were made!

 

The lattice work was die cut and heat embossed with white sea foam embossing powder then gold emboss power was added in random places to add a touch of bling.

 

 

The box front was made using concertinaed card strips slightly smaller than the card size to create a fame. The edges were secured by interlacing the ridges and gluing into place. This frame was glued to the front of the card. 

 

 Using a square die set, a frame was made to size  from a patterned card then stuck above the  folded frame to make a nice neat top edge, patterned card again was used to line the inside of the card face.

 

 

The lattice work was then glued between the folds to give the impression of being raised.

 

Moss was pushed under the lattice and glued into position. A few leaves were stamped, die cut, shaped and glued into position.

 

Flowers were made and a few other embellishments were added and stuck down.

 

Cards complete!

 

Sue X

 



More Paint Brush Art

Just about feeling better after what seems like an age of coughing, sneezing and blowing my nose. I thought yeah! then night time arrives and it's back with a vengeance.

Anyhow, because I was feeling ok during the day I took a couple of my makes to the local-ish craft shop where they instantly booked in a class to make them.

Now then as you may or may not know when working for a craft shop you really should make the item from craft materials available to buy in the shop. 

So armed with a few new paints and goodies I attempted to recreate my example with what is available to buy in the shop.

To begin, purchase a paintbrush available from any good DIY shop or the range sell a selection at a reasonable price.

Give the paint brush a light coat of gesso to provide a grip for top layers, use the gesso on the paint brush bristles to give the impression that the brush has been used.

A new paint range is available in the shop called Nuvo never used them before so I picked up an olive green and burnt umber(brown), after using gesso the paint appeared translucent which is fortunate as I wanted to see stands of white beneath. 
Next up was to mix clear texture paste with brown paint and flakes to create texture to both the front and back of the project, this was helped along with a heat gun which also made the bristles shrink up and distort a little.

While the texture paste was still wet nuvo glitter in a bronze/brown colour was sprinkled over randomly.
A touch of caramel and white paint was added with finger tips to add dimension to the texture.

A small amount of cheese cloth was teased apart and glued onto the front of the brush followed by a touch of natural fibres. Moss and cones were place in position and stuck down.

 

Flowers were created from the heartfelt poppy die, two of the medium size plus two of the small size were cut and coloured with scattered straw distress ink. These were then spritzed with water and shaped over a paintbrush handle by pinching the petals to form tiny ridges, then left to dry naturally.

 

 

The six smaller flowers were left white  misted with water, using a large ball tool to press into the petal to create a rounded effect with small creases around the edge, two leaves per flower. The centres were made with a glue gun a tad of white glitter followed by a touch of  white glue around the centre and a touch of flower soft. The tiny tiny flowers were made from the same three leaf petal by fussy cutting across each petal, a small ball tool was used to press into the centre creating a small flower. A hole was put in centre with a pointy tool and a stamen thread through and stuck with a touch of glue.

The bits were assembled and glued into position. A touch more white paint was used to highlight raised edges and also a tad more glitter and flakes.

Here is the finished project.

And here are a few more photos.

 

 

Hope you like it.

 

Sue X

 

Busy month for card making!

March is an extremely busy month for card making especially the beginning. Family, friends and mothers day!

 

So here are a few I've been busy making.

 

For these two cards distress ink pads were pressed onto watercolour cardstock and sprayed generously with water to make the colours smooch together. Swirls and dots were added to create a bit of interest and black stamping was added to create a grounding for may images.

 

 

 The little monster was also stamped onto watercolour cardstock and coloured with distress inks.

 

 

 The message was stamped by masking the words needed and using a stamp positioner to place them correctly.

 

 

Next up hubby's birthday card.

 

Distress inks used on a rubber stamps misted with water and stamped onto watercolour card.

TH Crazy Cats again stamped onto watercolour card, coloured with distress inks, cut out and stuck in place. Grounding added with more stamping along with a sentiment.

 

 

Mother's Day cards still to do.

 

Sue X

 

 

 

SDC234 -Time Challenge

Fast cards! 30 minutes or Less!!!!!!!!

Oh dear!

My creations normally take hours, there is thinking time, gathering time, change of mind time and totally different to what I initially thought time, do I need to continue.

When I mentioned the challenge this week to hubby his reaction was, "You're in trouble".

Stampotique's hostess this week is Sue Davies and this is her challenge, this is what she said.

"We can sometimes get caught up in making big production pieces. My challenge to you this week is to make something in 30 minutes or less (not including time taken to gather your supplies) I look forward to seeing what you create".

I had a vision and well, this is how it turned out. No time for tweaking so here goes.

30 minutes max on the cooker timer.

Using a huge A4 stamp I bought on impulse I applied Gelatoes directly onto it, misted it with water to activate the colour and blend the colours together.  Watercolour card stock was then placed onto the stamp, pressure was placed onto the paper/card stock to transfer part of the image.

The card was trimmed to fit a 15cm x15cm square card, Black soot distress ink was used to distress the edges and it was mounted onto another piece of black card stock.

Another stamp was used to create a grounding in black to position my image on.

My little man was stamped and then coloured with watercolour pencils and cut out.

The sentiment was stamped and distressed around the edges then mounted onto black card.

everything was stuck into position.

Mission complete with seconds left before the timer went off, pretty chuffed I managed that challenge.

Please no more timed challenges.
 

For more inspiration hop on over to the Stampotique blog here.

Sue X

SDC233 - Use Squares

 

 

This weeks Challenge at Stampotique is to use squares, Corrie is our hostess and this is what she said, "I am very fond of circles in my work, so I want to get outside my comfort zone and use squares for a change and I would like you to join me. Have Fun!!"

This is my version, I haven't been well for the past few weeks so this one is a simple one, hope you like it.

 

 

The background was really easy but very effective, I began by simply using a few mini distress inks and stamping the ink pad directly onto watercolour card.

This was then lightly misted with water to make them run and blend but retain the square image in parts.

A square stamp was randomly stamped over the square distress ink colours.

Black soot was used around the edges to take off the whiteness of the card.

The little moustache monsters were stamped and coloured with watercolour pencils.

Washi tape created the grounding and good old Dymo provided the title.

Everything was mounted onto a card base and Tah Dah, one square card finished.

 

To see more inspiration pop on over to the Stampotique blog here.

 

Sue X 



Blog Candy Giveaway!

If you would like a chance to win a couple of Magnolia foliage dies visit Debbie Dolphins blog and leave a comment.

Good Luck!

Sue X

Paint Brush Art

Here goes.
 

  I've often thought I'll go get a paint brush out of the garage and have a go at that, then I've thought actually that was an expensive brush do I really want to alter it.

Anyhow, as many of you know "The Range", has an array of reasonable priced items screaming alter me  and whilst on a quick visit (just to get out of the house) I came across this 4" wall brush for £2 bargin.

The brush is a great size perfect for the job at hand, let the mess commence.

Firstly the brush was given a coat of gesso to act as a primer for the base,  a little of the paint was pulled down over the brush tufts.  Clear Crackle paste was added randomly over the brush and bristles and left to dry.
 

 

This produced the most wonderful texture.  Paint was added all over and rubbed into the texture with my finger, a baby wipe was then used to remove excess paint and make the cracks visible. Soft mat gel was added and rusting powder sprinkled on top, this was then spritzed with water to activate it (water and white vinegar normally work a lot better but I didn't have any at hand).
 

 

 

At this point I had to wait for it to activate, then I got bored and wanted to get on with it so I dried it off with a heat tool and got out a few rusty paint colours. I love the effect of an old paint brush under layers of old paint and mess.

 

This was the front.

 

 

This was the back, I didn't want to leave it plain and as it wouldn't be seen I just added a touch of texture and colour.

 

Now then as usual the moment over took me and the photos stopped, sorry!

 

However this is how it came together, cheese cloth was pulled apart and layered onto the brush along with white dried natural fibres. A combination of shop bought and handmade flowers were arranged along with a few dried cones and beaded berries. Dried tiny flowers were used as fillers and also fake green moss (as used on model railways), be aware though as the green colour does come off.

Micro beads were added in copper to add to the rustic look.

 

 

Here are a few more close ups.

 

 

 

If you like what you see and would like to see more I found a little bit of inspiration for you with a video here, 

Hope you like it.

 

Sue X

SDC231 - Love Is In The Air

I'm a little late posting this one.

 

The reason being I wanted to use it as a valentines card for my hubby and I needed to keep it under wraps as recently he has taken an interest in reading my blog.  

This weeks theme "Love is in the air" was chosen by Coby VanWilligenburg,  this is what what she said about the challenge.

"Love is so sweet and so tender...love is more than a boy and a girl...love is my children, my grandchildren and animals...show in your creation this week, Love".

Sooooo with that brief in mind I began my card.

I had an initial idea about "clouds" and the "Love is" and this is what I came up with.

Many, many years ago during my early days at high school I vaguely remembered ATC sized "Love is...." cards. These cards were made up of two characters a boy and a girl normally naked with a leaf strategically placed to cover body parts, I googled the cards and they didn't appear how I remembered them, never mind I have my title.

Cloud 9 came up because I thought  of air, clouds and I remembered something else about being on cloud nine and happiness. Back to google to confirm the meaning of the phrase as, "in a state of blissful happiness".

This is how I made the card, sorry no I between pictures as I was in the zone and got lost in the flow of the card. 

A 14cm x14cm square of smooth water colour card was cut out along with couple of die cut clouds, one of which was used as a mask with distress ink in 8 random places creation a cloud base.

The colour had been applied rather heavily and so to lift it a little water was lightly misted over the top and removed with kitchen roll, my favourite "Love" stamp was used with the same colour distress ink to create the Love in the air, literally.

 

Love  was a die cut which was coloured with black sook distress ink and again overstamped with the "Love"text stamp and glued into position. A die cut heart was also coloured lightly with black soot and placed in position.

 

The Stampotique birds were stamped with black archival again on smooth water colour card and coloured with distress inks used as a watercolours. I know I've used these birds quite often in the past couple of weeks, I thought logically about it and cats or dogs wouldn't be seen dead on a cloud however birds were a possibility.

 

Old faithful Dymo created the rest of my words, everything was arranged and stuck into position then mounted onto black card to create a border.

 

 

 

 

That's it for today, pop on over to The Stampotique Challenge blog here to see more fabulous ideas and inspiration. 

Sue X

SDC230 - Mardi Gras

SDC this weeks title is Mardi Gras which this year is on February 9th, I read the prompt and instantly knew I wanted bold intense colours and as I am writing this I can hear mardi gras music, whistles, drums etc. Sooooo cool! in my head that is (I have a good imagination).
The Challenge host this week is Kathi, this is what she said.

"The colours of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold... use them or the symbols of Mardi Gras  Fluer-de-lys, masks, costumes or music!! Let the good times roll."

So my take on this, if you have young children or grandchildren you may have seen the film Rio.
Yes, it's animated but it's fun colourful and includes a touch of a Mardi Gras parade. The film is about a rare blue bird, taken as baby and shipped away from his home in Rio to America.
Cutting a long story short a young girl finds him in a box in the snow which has fallen off a Lorry.
She cares for him and they spend many happy years together until a stranger from Rio spots him through a window and asks if the owner could take him to Rio to breed with his female Blue bird.
All goes well until he is kidnapped again, the Mardi Gras parade was a clip of his journey and how he  found. The owner dresses as a Blue bird and that was my inspiration.

Blimey that said here goes with a journal page.
The first layer was ink sprays, second layer was texture paste through a couple of masks using three colours of mica powders mixed into the paste, gold, purple and green.

Next layer stamping with archival ink, French text, Mardi Gras and Party.

The images were stamped with embossing ink and embossed with gold glitter to make them more carnival like. The images were coloured with distress ink and added to the page.

A layer of more stamping created the grounding for the Carnival Princess to stand on.

Finally the beads were added paint mixed with mica powder, this didn't have the desired effect and so I knew somewhere I had gold perfect pearls and glossy accents. These were added over the top of the paint to add a more pearl like appearance.

That's it for today, hope you like it for more inspiration go to the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog here.

Sue X

Boats

Tuesday bought a play day with Nola (sister-in-law).
Nola's is on the left mine on the right.

The project was inspired by a Finnabair post, check out the project and video here

 My brother loves boats so it's a very apt theme and hopefully Nola will be able to display her make in full view for everyone to see.
I found a thick grey board, cut it to size approximately 8"x8" coated it a few times in white gesso to prepare it.
Texture paste was added to create a sand effect, once dry it was randomly sprayed with Lindy's ink sprays.

 

Bits of fabric were layered on and ink splatters added.

The photo was attached and shells. Die cuts, tiny beads and glass crystals were added to create interest.

 

Hope you like it.


Sue X