Tuesday 31 May 2016

string ornament rebellion

My Poppystamps String Ornament die is having an identity crisis.
Today it has turned upside down to make fun birthday balloons.

This card is 6"x6" and has lots of layers.
I love the cheery pattern of this paper from the Kaisercraft Fiesta 6.5" paper pad.
When I made the balloon panel it looked a bit stark all alone, so I started layering other colours to match the pattern of the paper.  There is a narrow 1mm border on each layer.


Here is a close up to show the dimension.  I have used two different thickenesses of foam dots, I layered one balloon with the thinnest, the next balloon with the thickest, the third balloon has them layered together, so they all sit at different heights.

What's that?
You're wondering how the "strings" can be so long?

Well I have to confess that the tallest balloon has had surgery.  I placed the orange balloon to be the highest but the string didn't reach the bottom of the panel, so I adhered it down, trimmed the end off another "string" and adhered it in line with it.  I placed the light pink balloon so that the string covered the join, so nobody will ever know ... except you and me.

My card design is based on a very old Becky Fleck CardMaps sketch from 2012.

Ingredients:
Paper Smooches - Birthday Words Dies
Kaisercraft - Fiesta paper pad
Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive (to adhere matted layers)
Tombow Mono Multi Glue (to adhere sentiment & balloon strings)
Foam dots, different thicknesses (to adhere balloons)

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I am going to enter my card in the following challenges
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Poppystamps Challenge
0516 copy   

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Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog
Simon Says: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog  Simon Says Stamp

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Crafty Gals Corner
Challenge #73 - Anything Goes
Grab Our Badge!

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Sunday 29 May 2016

MORE red, white and blue . . .

MORE red, white and blue


This "Aboriginal Art" design from the Bella Australiana Paper Pad is fabulous.

It seemed a shame to cover this paper, so I decided on an ultra CAS design.

The "happy" is three layers of the Winnie & Walter In A Word Happy Cutaway, two white over a dark red.
The layered banner strip is from the Kaisercraft Rectangles die set, the dark red one peeking out is the same size as the white one, I cut it in half and offset at the ends.
The Australia Day sentiment are Fundamentals Petites.

I matted the layers of this 5"x7" card using my Perfect Layers Rulers.

Ingredients:
Bella - Australiana Mat Stack paper pad
(sorry, no links, this is a really old favourite,
I have several of these pads that I've been hoarding in the 4.5"x6.5" to 8"x8" and 12"x12" sizes)
Fundamentals Petites - 1404 alphabet stickers
I can't find a current link, here is a link to the current varieties available
Winnie & Walter - In A Word: Happy Cutaway
Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive (to adhere matted layers)
Tombow Mono Multi Glue (to adhere speech bubble & "happy")

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I am going to enter my card in the following challenges
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Our Blog Badge

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Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog   Simon Says Stamp

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Hiding In My Craft Room
my holiday is Australia Day
hidinginmycraftroom.com

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red, white and blue . . . Aussie style

Yes, we love our red, white and blue Down Under too!!!


How fun is this patterned paper?

I wanted to have the sentiment POP but I didn't want to have a big, solid sentiment panel covering the patterned paper, so I combined a CAS design with this vellum-filled speech bubble.  The die cuts out the speech bubble "frame", so I traced the speech bubble on to vellum then fussy cut it out, adhered the blue frame on top then put a fine line of Tombow Mono Multi glue along the edge of the vellum to adhere the sentiment speech bubble securely in place on the card.

The "happy" is two offset layers of the Winnie & Walter In A Word Happy Cutaway.
The sparkling Australia Day are glitter alpha stickers.


I matted the layers of this 5"x7" card using my Perfect Layers Rulers.

Ingredients:
Bella - Australiana paper pad
(sorry, no links, this is a really old favourite, I confess that I have several of these pads that I've been hoarding in the 4.5"x6.5" to 8"x8" and 12"x12" sizes)
Kaisercraft - Navy Weave Cardstock
Kaisercraft - Scarlet Weave Cardstock
Simon Says Stamp - Life Bubble Vertical 2 craft die
(speech bubble) ... tried to link but can only find the horizontal one in stock at SSS
Winnie & Walter - In A Word: Happy Cutaway
Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive (to adhere matted layers)
Tombow Mono Multi Glue (to adhere speech bubble & "happy")

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I am going to enter my card in the following challenges
~~~*~~~*~~~
Our Blog Badge

~~~*~~~*~~~
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog   Simon Says Stamp

~~~*~~~*~~~
Hiding In My Craft Room
my holiday is Australia Day
hidinginmycraftroom.com

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Crafty Gals Corner
Grab Our Badge!

~~~*~~~*~~~
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog
Challenge: Make a Wish
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog  Simon Says Stamp
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Friday 27 May 2016

. . . hop on over to the Paper Smooches Blog

It's Pep Rally Week on the Paper Smooches Blog.
Kim and the DT are sharing fun and fabulous projects using the
one new stamp set and five new dies from the June 2016 release,
 
CREATIVE INSPIRATION

CRAFTY TEMPTATION

AND the chance to WIN
one of FOUR $25 Paper Smooches gift certificates too!!!
AWESOME!!!

Head on over to the
Paper Smooches Blog
and get hopping now,
GOOD LUCK :)

Here are some links to their store if you want to check out all the crafty delights they have to tempt and inspire:
    

Monday 23 May 2016

felt is FUN

I was a little bit slow to try this trend
... now I can say

FELT
is
FUN


I thought that I would combine the texture of felt with chalkboard and Christmas.

I die cut two panels of DCWV All Chalked Up cardstock using the largest Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 39 die.  I also cut Winnie &Walter "merry" and Paper Smooches "christmas" from it.  Then I took a sponge dauber and inked them as randomly as I could using Brilliance Moonlight White Ink.
I scored the "back" layer of the card 1/2" from the top and adhered it the top layer using Helmar 450 Quick Dry to make it into a fancy shaped top folding card.

Next came the FUN with FELT.  I cut two sets of poinsettia flowers and leaves using the Paper Smooches Poinsettia dies.  I adhered the flowers using Helmar 450 Quick Dry and added some orange bling to the top layer of petals (I put a tiny dollop of Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue underneath them to give them some extra "sticky" to make sure they were secure).

I adhered the poinsettia in place then positioned the sentiment to fit.



Here is a close-up to show the layers and textures of the felt poinsettia.
Pretty cool, right?


~~~*~~~*~~~ Ingredients ~~~*~~~*~~~
Die Cuts With A View - DCWV All Chalked Up cardstock stack
Spellbinders - Nestabilities Labels 39 
Winnie & Walter - In A Word: Merry Cutaway
Paper Smooches - Christmas Words 2 Dies
Tsukineko Archival Brilliance - Moonlight White Pigment Ink
Tsukineko - Sponge Daubers
Felt sheets
Paper Smooches - Poinsettia Dies
Tombow Mono Multi Glue
Martha Steward Scoreboard

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I am going to enter my card in the following challenges:
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Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog
Simon Monday Challenge Blog  Simon Says Stamp

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Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog
Simon Says: Fun with Felt
Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog  Simon Says Stamp

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Crafty Gals Corner
Challenge #72 - May Flowers
Poinsettias are not really May flowers
but they're flowers and I made them in May :)
Grab Our Badge!

~~~*~~~*~~~

Sunday 22 May 2016

. . . distressed love

No, my love is not distressed!

My inky "love" card is though ... Distress Ink Lifting style.


 I don't think I will ever grow weary of this technique and confess they my eyes are peeled for stamps that would work well using it.  If you're interested in seeing some of my earlier projects using this technique, I have linked them at the end of this post.  I have also shared my "trials and tribulations" along the way, so I won't repeat all the detail of it again today, just summarise to say that I:
  • stamped the Large Peony 1 flower (from the The Ton) using Versamark Ink on smooth cardstock, heat embossed with clear glitter embossing powder, masked then stamped & heat embossed leaves. 
  • super saturated the panel of smooth cardstock with Faded Jeans Distress Ink
  • immediately "bleached" the petals & leaves with water using a waterbrush
  • immediately added Distess Inks into the individual petals and leaves, using Worn Lipstick for the petals, Bundled Sage & Peeled Paint for the leaves.  The ink was allowed to bleed and blend within each heat embossed "well"
  • applied Clear Wink Of Stella to the petals and leaves, it blended the colours a little more and added some extra sparkly pop
I trimmed the panel down and made a card base to allow for a 1/8" border (card 6 1/4" tall, 5" wide).  I adhered the panel to the card base using Helmar 450 Quick Dry.  It's a liquid adhesive that allows a little wriggle room and time to align everything perfectly, it dries clear and secures everything firmly, which is exactly what was needed with this panel.  All the inking, water and futher inking caused the panel to warp a bit but it sits perfectly flat with this adhesive.

I really like this image and colour combo and thought that a more subtle sentiment was called for, so I took a scrap that I trimmed from the inked panel and die cut out a little "love".  I layered two together (adhered using Tombow Mono Multi Glue), so that even though it is tone-on-tone, the dimension made it stand out better.

Here are a couple of close-ups to show the inky detail.


~~~*~~~ * ~~~ Ingredients ~~~*~~~*~~~
Clear glitter embossing powder
Distress Ink - Worn Lipstick
Distress Ink - Bundled Sage
Distress Ink - Peeled Paint
Zig Watercolor BrusH2O
Zig Wink Of Stella Clear Glitter Brush
Tombow Mono Multi Glue

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I am going to enter my card in the following challenges:
~~~*~~~*~~~
Hiding In My Craft Room
HIMCR251
hidinginmycraftroom.com

~~~*~~~*~~~
Crafty Gals Corner
Grab Our Badge!

~~~*~~~*~~~
Glitter 'N' Sparkle Challenge Blog
Challenge #189 - Anything Goes
This Weeks Challenge

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Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenge Blog
May 2016 Challenge
The theme is Anything Goes as long as the project contains loose glitter, embossing powder or flocking.  I used Clear Glitter Embossing Powder to heat emboss my images.

To be considered for SNS Featured Artist you must us an SNS image, looking forward to getting mine inky real soon ...

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You can read about my earlier Distress Ink Lifting projects by clicking on the images below.
  
  
  

a rainbow of happy


Sometimes cards end up being HUGE
... this one stands 9 3/4" tall x 6" wide.



My card started out with an idea to use a sheet of patterned paper from the Kaisercraft 6 1/2" Fiesta Paper Pad, the design reminds me of a geometric rainbow.  I've been wanting to try a repeat sentiment too and thought the Paper Smooches Christmas Words 2 Dies "happy" combined with the juicy ColorBox Primary Pastel Petal Point Fluid Chalk Inkpad would make for a very happy rainbow.  Plans soon changed.  If I had just used "happy" five times, they would have been squashed too close together, so I decided to UPSIZE and use the same design in 12x12 sheet size, using the Fiesta Collection, Siesta double-sided paper.

I made this top folding card by scoring the back panel 3/4" from the top and adhering it to the front panel.  I used Helmar Acid Free Professional Glue to adhere the top "fold" of the card.  (This is a strong glue that can be used for bookbinding.)  I matted the back panel to give it some extra strength and, well, because I think it looks nicer too.

Here is a the inkpad in action.  The colour and texture of these fluid chalk inks is amazing, like velvet and I think they match the tone of the patterned paper perfectly.

Ingredients:
Paper Smooches Dies - Christmas Words 2 - "happy"
Kaisercraft Fiesta Collection - Siesta 12x12 paper
Kaisercraft weave cardstock - Navy
Perfect Layers Ruler - 1/16" mat under the patterned paper panel
Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive - adhered paper layers
Helmar Acid Free Professional Glue - adhered the top "fold" of the card
Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue - adhered sentiment

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I am going to enter my card in the following challenges:
~~~*~~~*~~~

Clearsnap MAY 2016 Color Challenge  
The ColorBox Primary Pastel Petal Point Fluid Chalk Inkpad made the perfect inky rainbow to celebrate this festive inspiration image and the geometric rainbow of my patterned paper,

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I have made an inky rainbow using the "happy" from the Christmas Words 2 die set.

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