Mask & Stamp sets: Friend Card

Hello!!

Unusual for me to post on a Tuesday but as it is a special week I thought I would do an extra couple of posts to show in closer detail the samples that were made for Leonie's mask and stamp set launch.

I made a variety of types of projects, so today thought I would post about one of the cards I made...

The 'Friend' card was made by placing one of the friend masks onto card using repositionable spray glue.  Purple distress ink was added by brushing over the area with a blending brush and then flower stamps from the sets were used with a selection of different shades of purple (versa colour inkpads) whilst the mask was still in place.  I stamped each impression more than once to add different levels of colour.  Some flourishes were added at the end to add some contrast in green. 

Once I was happy I carefully removed the mask (any residue from the glue I removed with an adhesive rubber) and then to highlight the word more used a fine purple marker to add dots around the letters.

After finding the right sized circle die I cut the focal image out and also a purple mat to place under it.

The same process of stamping and blending was used on 2 corners of square card and I added some white ribbon before this was then matted onto the same colour purple card.  I always use matting and layering as I think it frames the final piece and makes the card look finished.

Glue gel was used to mount the main piece onto the background and finally a bow and some pearls added as a finishing touch.

I do like purple so this was one of my favourite projects to make.

Tomorrow I will be posting one of the home décor projects that I made and it was one of the couple that I remembered to take extra photos for!

Take care and don't forget that Leonie is on HOCHANDA today at 9am, 12pm, 4pm and 7pm with the mask and stamp sets,

Jane x

Exciting News & Handbag Gift Bags!!

Hello again and welcome to a new crafty week!

Today I have very exciting news that I can now announce!

This evening at 8pm (BST) on the craft channel HOCHANDA, Leonie Pujol (TV crafter and presenter) is launching her new range of craft products, and I am so excited to tell you that I am one of her design team, yay!!

I am alongside some other lovely and fantastic crafters whose blogs I will share with you...

* Nick: http://nickinbarnsley.blogspot.co.uk/
* Katrina: http://cornishkat.blogspot.co.uk/
* Elaine: http://cakecoffeefcraft.blogspot.co.uk/

And of course...

* Leonie: http://leoniepujol.blogspot.co.uk/

I will be posting pictures of a couple of my projects that I made for this TV launch on Wednesday and Friday in more detail (plus some photos tomorrow) and if you are able to please do tune in tonight to see the lovely products:

Sky - Channel 663
Freesat - Channel 817 
Online - https://www.hochanda.com/

But back to today and I have other pressing crafting matters as tomorrow is my nieces birthday!

As she is now a teenager she prefers money rather than a present but I wanted to make something a bit special to give it in rather than just put it in a card.  Then I remembered a beautiful gift bag that I had seen on Pinterest and so I searched it out and found that there was a tutorial for it.
It was made by Verity Cards (click on the name to go straight to the tutorial) and she used some of my favourite papers by Heartfelt Creations!

I went with the same collection... 'Delicate Asters' and because there is already a tutorial I didn't do step by step photos.  Here is the finished gift bag...

I am not usually a paper 'engineer', so this took all my powers of concentration!!  But at least that means if I can do it anyone can.  I was going to stamp and cut some of the flowers from the matching sets but in the end decided to use elements from the papers to add the extra dimension.  The sentiment stamp and punch were from Stampin'Up! and the name was stamped onto a banner punch also by Stampin'Up!  Crystal stickles were added for an extra touch of bling...

With matching papers I also made a little 3" x 3" card to put the money in inside the bag, but I sealed it up before remembering to take a photo!

I enjoyed making this so much that I then decided to make some more using other Heartfelt sets, ready to be used in the future...

Maybe now I will try more paper folding techniques!

We will be connecting the laptop up to the TV tonight for the crafting TV debut!!!

See you on tomorrow,

Jane x 





Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: Monster Door Hanger

Hello all!

A special post for me today.

As I was lucky enough to be given the title 'Queen of Snark' in the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, L is for Legend challenge, I now have the opportunity to post a project for the new challenge 'E is for embossing'...

I wanted to create something a bit different to my usual style using both types of embossing.  This was an ideal technique for me as I love adding texture to my projects and heat embossing was one of the first things that got me into a love of stamping. 

I decided to use a monster set and sentiment from Dylusions, so started by stamping the parts I wanted using versamark ink and then heat embossing with black powder...

 They were then coloured using alcohol markers...

I painted an MDF door hanger using silver paint and then sprayed a piece of white card with some inks.  I used Dylusions black and white as well as Lindys stamp gang steel and teal and dried with a heat tool.  This was then put through my Grand Calibur in a pebble embossing folder from the Crafters Companion texture range.  After drawing around the door hanger and cutting out the card into the correct shape I added silver and teal gilding wax to highlight the texture on the card, then stuck it to the door hanger using an acrylic glue...

To add even more texture I swiped my versamark ink pad around the top and bottom of the hanger and heat embossed with some aged silver powder. 

All the pieces were attached to the hanger using glue gel and a piece of silver cord added.  I then decided to add an extra layer to my 'monster' so stamped, cut out and coloured the head part again to add extra dimension...

I thought this would be good for a teenagers door!!

I hope you liked it, please do pop on over to the challenge blog for a look.

I will be back on Monday,

Jane x

Wonderful Wednesday: Under The Sea

Hello once again,

Today I have made something completely different although still with a mixed media feel!

I have done so much with flowers lately that I fancied a total change of style so got out some fun stamps that I bought in a sale a while ago.  They are a sea creature set by Dylusions, I really loved the quirky feel and thought they would make great cards with a bit of a twist from the usual, so that is what I have done.

I started by stamping out a selection of the creatures using versamark and heat embossed them with black powder.  Then I cut them out and coloured using alcohol markers.  I wanted a contrasting background so used brushos to create a watery feel.  Ultramarine, turquoise and leaf green were sprinkled onto white card and then spritzed with gold mica spray to activate them...

Some bubbles were stamped onto the background and embossed in gold and then spearmint sparkle paste added through a stencil to create some foliage at the bottom of the card...

 

The sentiment was stamped onto black card and embossed with gold powder.  These were then put in place along with the sea creatures and attached using glue gel.  Finally the card was mounted onto black and then added to a 7" square card...

I think the creatures are really cute and quirky!! 

I will be back next on Saturday instead of Friday this week as I have got a post to link up with another blog, more quirkiness will be in that one too...

Hopefully see you soon,

Jane x

Mixed Media Monday: Recycled Flower Bottle

 

 

Hello!

 

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend.  Mine has been very busy but great fun!  Saturday morning lots of lovely craftiness at Alexandra Palace then the rest of the weekend at LEGOLAND, Windsor.  We all had a great time, but do need to have a rest today as there was a lot of walking, but can thoroughly recommend the resort, especially for children!!

 

I am back with a mixed media project today and I am entering it into the following challenges...

 

* Mixed Media Mojo - Recycle (option of metal)

 

* Country View Challenge - Spring

* Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes

* Craft Stamper - Spring Flowers

* A Vintage Journey - Spring is in the Air

 

I recently posted some projects using Finnabair's new sculpture medium, so I decided to try out another type of structuriser called Powertex.  This works in much the same way but the fabric did feel quite a lot harder when this had dried.  I used a recycled bottle and some strips of an old white sheet to start my structure.  The fabric is dipped into the product then applied, it is the same sort of consistency as PVA glue.  I did not have a plan of how I wanted to apply the fabric so just went with the flow!  Here is how it looked after being left to dry for a couple of days...

 



When it was thoroughly dry I used lemon meringue cottage paint from IndigoBlu to paint the whole bottle, then spritzed it with some mixed media inks from Imagination, fuschia and yellow.  After drying it off with a heat tool I added gold gilding wax to highlight the texture...

Using the same ink sprays plus some white, I created some sheets of card to match the bottle for making my flowers.  The Arianna Bloom stamp from Heartfelt Creations was stamped using versamark then embossed with twinkling lights embossing powder by Wow!  These were then cut out using the matching die...

The flowers were shaped with an embossing tool and glued together with a gem added to each centre.  I made 4 different sizes and then glued them to the bottle using glue gel.  Metal leaves were added and then a variety of micro beads and other beads for added texture.  I stamped out some butterflies from a Bee Crafty set to match the flowers and added metal wire coils for the antennae.  Here is the finished bottle in full...

Here are some close up pictures to show some more of the details...

I think this would make a nice alternative vase for some spring flowers, so I may try it out!

I will be back with another project on Wednesday,

Jane x

Funtastic Friday: Black and Gold

Hello!

Another week nearly over already, where does the time go?

I am entering today's project into the following challenges...

* Mixed Media Monthly - Dimension

* Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes
* Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Goes
* Creative Artiste - Challenge 13: Anything Goes (Option of chipboard, stencils or flowers)

Today I have got a project that is very different from my last one as it is classic black and gold.
I didn't take any step by step photos but have tried to take a range of photos of the finished project so that I can explain each part.

I started with a plain box from IndigoBlu which I painted with black gesso.  Using a stencil and white crackle paste, I put some pattern around the main box and onto the lid to add some texture and dimension.  Once this had dried it was covered once again with black gesso and then gold gilding wax added to highlight the pattern...

To decorate the top I wanted to add some flowers, but not too many as I wanted to keep the box quite classic.  I chose a selection of white paper flowers from my stash and sprayed them with black dylusions ink.  To make sure they dried completely I used my heat tool then added some more gold gilding wax.  After positioning them on the box I added a few gold coloured stamens and found a black and gold bead to put at the top of some strands of gold organza ribbon.  This was all stuck down with glue gel...

Here are a couple of pictures of the entire box to finish...

We are off to Crafting at Ally Pally in London on Saturday then the rest of the weekend at LEGOLAND so we will be pretty busy but should be lots of fun!

I have already got Monday's project in hand so hopefully that will be on the blog!!

Enjoy your weekend whatever you are up to,

Jane x

Wonderful Wednesday: Daisy Delights!

Hello and I hope your week has been wonderful so far!

I have had a lovely start to the week getting nice and painty with some bright spring like colours.

My project today is being entered into the following challenges...

* IndigoBlu Challenge Blog - Pink, Yellow and Green
* Fantasy Stampers - In The Springtime
* Country View Challenge Blog - Spring
* That's Crafty - All Things Bright and Beautiful
* Craft Stamper - Spring Flowers
* More Mixed Media - Yellow

My main inspiration were the colours as I have just got the latest pots of cottage paints from IndigoBlu - Marshmallow, Lime Marmalade and Lemon Meringue, they are so gorgeous I really wanted to use them and they go really well together.  For me the start of spring makes me think of daisies growing in the grass.  I have always thought it was a lovely sight, so decided to use the 'Colour Me Daisy' stamp as my focal image as well as a daisy based sentiment from the 'Enjoy Life' set (both from IndigoBlu). 

I wanted to make a large canvas in a decorated frame to be a colourful statement piece for the wall, so started by putting the 3 colours down onto a 12" x 12" canvas board and then spritzing with water to blend them together...

 

 

Using the Vintage Flourish stamp, flitterglu was stamped onto the canvas and then gold gilding flake added...

 

 

To add some more dimension I used Golden Pink and Spearmint sparkle paste from Imagination Crafts through 2 different IndigoBlu stencils...

 

 

 

I then created a piece of coloured card for the main daisy stamp to go onto by painting a piece of white card in the same way as the canvas then spritzing.  Once it had been thoroughly dried I heat embossed the daisy stamp 3 times with gold powder.  These were cut out with a rounded square die and matted onto some vintage gold card.  The daisy sentiment was heat embossed straight onto the same gold card then all 4 pieces placed onto the canvas using glue gel...

 

 

 

I felt that I wanted some extra elements to add to the canvas so used the same paint again to paint 3 sheets of card and then stamped the vintage flourish using gold ink.  Once this had dried I cut flowers out using a daisy die from Heartfelt Creations as well as some leaves.  I shaped the flowers before sticking them together and adding a gem to the centres.  When I put them against the canvas they seemed too bright and clashed a bit with what was there so I added some gold spray and gilding wax and then splashed on some watered down Goldfinger paint as well.  This helped to tone it all together better. 

When the flowers had been stuck down I looked through my bead stash for yellow, pink and green beads of different tones and sizes.  These were then added in amongst the flowers and finally a splash of green micro beads added...

 

 

 

I also took some close up photos before framing just in case the glass in the frame meant I couldn't take any pictures very well...

 

 

To frame the piece I painted a pine coloured frame using white gesso then dry brushed using Goldfinger paint.  The frame was finished with a bit of gilding wax to age it before adding a few finishing touches.  On another sheet of card with the same 3 paints I stamped the Big Butterfly (IndigoBlu) using versamark and heat embossed with gold powder.  This was then cut out and stuck to a corner of the frame with 3 other flowers.  Here is the final piece...

 













 

This will be hung somewhere in my house, just got to decide where now!!

 

I will be back on Friday with a new project, I think it may have a bit of a black and gold theme.

 

Enjoy the rest of your week,

 

Jane x