Sunday 19 January 2014

Crafty Madness: All Ballooned Out!

Crafty Madness: All Ballooned Out!: After one of my samples was shown on Barbara Gray's TV show on Create & Craft the other week, I have had some requests on how I mad...

Saturday 18 January 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARDS


HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HUSBAND & DAD
CARDS


 These cards were ordered by a friend and neighbour, who incidentally is my best client, always gets me to make cards she needs and is always over the moon with what I produce. I have on this occasion stuck to stamping...no computer or pre-printed stock.






I began by stamping the large butterfly (wood mounted rubber stamp from stash) on to 200gsm Stamp & Colour by Stamps Away http://www.clevercut.co.uk/ with Momento Black Ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder (Stamps Away). I used Promarkers: Metallic blue, green, violet and silver to colour the image. I then secondary stamped to a piece of copier paper and cut out the image to create a a mask.
Using 'That Special Touch Mica Mask- Leafy    http://www.clevercut.co.uk I sponged Joycrafts warm winter colours - green through the mask. From the same ink collection I blended blue around the edges towards the centre.


Using the 'Distressed Alphabet' Stamps Away I stamped 'HUSBAND' onto Stamp & Colour card and embossed with clear powder. just above this I stamped 'Happy Birthday' using a wood mounted red rubber stamp from my stash and again clear embossed it. I then cut his out freehand. I distressed the piece with the blue used earlier from edges to centre.

Using an EK Success border punch I punched two smaller butterflies and cut from the card.

I glued with Pinflair the sentiment and the butterflies to the card. Them edged with black Promarker. Finally I spritzed with both pearl and copper mica sprays (Stamps Away). I mounted the piece onto scored and folded 300gsm Centura Pearl with a hint of silver.
Inside I compiled a sentiment from clear word stamps reading 'Love Beyond Words' 'Happy Birthday' and stamped this in Momento - Black. 



HAPPY BIRTHDAY - DAD

This card used similar items to the previous one:

Base Card:                   Centura Pearl Hint of Silver - scored and folded A5
Mat Layer:                   Black Pearl Card
Top Layer:                   Stamp & Colour 200gsm

Inks:                            Joycrafts - Warm Winter Colours Collection - Green, Blue & Yellow
                                   Momento - Black

Stencils:                       Patchwork Templates Collection - Stamps Away
                                   Aperture Collection Stamps Away

Stamps:                       Elegance Alphabet Stamps Away
                                   Wooden Mounted Red Rubber 'Happy Birthday'
                                   Wooden Mounted Red Rubber 'Golfer'

Pens:                           Promarkers -Summer sun (LE), Silver Metallic, Almond, China Blue, Green Shoot                                        and Cinnamon
                                   Micron 0.5 Black

Embossing:                 Clear Powder Stamps Away


I sponged through the patchwork template Stencil, dried with heat tool, edged with Micron pen, stamped 'DAD' with Momento and dried this. I stamped the Golfer with Momento embossed with clear powder and coloured with Promarkers.

I stamped the sentiment with Momento, embossed and distressed from edge to centre. Once dry I used the apeture stencils to draw round and then cut out the sentiment. I mounted this with foam tape. The edges were distressed with blue and then mounted to the mat layer. All was then mounted to the base card.

Thanks for popping in today. Hope you have enjoyed your read.

Happy Crafting....

Bye for now.

Krafti Karen x




Friday 17 January 2014

ON THE WINGS OF LOVE

SWEET LILAC CHALLENGE
'BUTTONS and/or LACE'
also

Sunday Stamper - Week 290 - On The Wings of Love
CHALLENGE



Hello Everyone, Thank you for popping in to have a look at my latest project and how I achieved the final result pictured above.
In my last blog I joked about my memory '(Oh! Memory is failing me a little...guess I am gonna need to start keeping notes lol!)' ...well, you guessed, I have my note book right here this time lol.

This project was completed in various stages

Firstly, I gently sanded and cleaned an MDF 7"X7 Plaque and based coated it with white matt emulsion. I took a stencil from my stash and layered Cosmic Shimmer 'Gold Pearl' Texture Paste through it. Once dry I gently buffed it. I took a selection of Distress Inks and blended them over the stenciled image into the background and again gently buffed the image.

The background paper and tickets were left over from the MDF Owl Project done previously. I tore a section and cut out a few tickets. I took my EK Sucess punch Pairings Large Punch & Coordinating Stamps Just For You http://www.oysterstamps.co.uk and punched three label squares, distressed them with DI various. I then used Momento black ink and stamped one of the Tim Holtz 'Words for Thought' stamps onto them  https://www.craftobsessions.co.uk and then secondary stamped the background paper with the same stamp. I had previously printed The cherub from images on The Graphics Fairy website http://thegraphicsfairy.com/ and had cut this out.

I assembled all and glued them in place with cosmic shimmer and hot glue. 

Now came the Christening of my Melt Pot.... I emptied a small amount of bees wax into my project pan (and boy was I nervous) turned the guage to Utee, placed the lid on and waited. I had a brush and kebab sick (wooden) at the ready as advised by Hels Sheridan https://www.facebook.com/hels.sheridan Once melted I lightly (or so I thought) coated the whole area with bees wax. It dries quick so I used my heat tool to even out the finish and remove excess bees was back to the pan with my brush. Once dry, again I gently buffed the whole image.

Background complete, I turned to the themes of the challenges....

'On the wings of love' ..at this point, I could't stopped singing the Jefferey Osbourne track...

Using Craft Artist and my Daisy Trail Digikit - Steampunk Curiosities I designed the Butterfly, flower and text layout, grouped them, but proceeded to enlarge the butterfly and print in individual elements. I cut them out and added colour to the butterfly and flower with Promarkers and to the text with distress inks. I also added a touch of glossy accents to the butterfly. All were then attached to the plaque with Pinflair Gel for dimension. 

The small butterflies were punched from vellum using an 'Anna Griffin' punch and were coloured using a Promarker 'winter berry' Limited Edition. They were attached with Pinflair using a cocktail stick.
'Buttons and Lace' - Having chosen my flowers for their vibrancy, I had to find lace... but oh! The piece I wanted to use wasn't the colour I needed...with a search through my Promarkers I found 'Oasis' and what a perfect match...so I coloured the lace..(and my fingers too lol) Then I searched my stashed and found the heart shaped buttons. Time to assemble, the lace was tied into two bows and all were glued in place using hot glue, finally adding a small butterfly to a bow with Pinflair.


To finish off I used a black Promarker to edge the plaque and a length of black organza ribbon the create the hanging cord.

Hope you have enjoyed reading how I created this project and thank you again ..



Happy Crafting ..... Bye for now

Krafti Karen x





Wednesday 15 January 2014




IKEA MIRROR
MIXED MEDIA 
(SWEET LILAC FLOWERS!)



I bought this mirror way back in mid November with good intentions.......eventually a week or so before Santa was due I thought of a Dear Friend who I felt would love it but well it was just a bit too plain and though she dislikes fussy it needed 'jazzed up' a tiny bit, without that printed machine production line look, which I am sure we all hate.

After sanding it lightly along the false grain, I took a stencil from my stash (Oh! Memory is failing me a little...guess I am gonna need to start keeping notes lol!) Strangely though I recall next picking out of my box the lovely flowers from Sweet Lilac http://www.sweetlilac.co.uk which adorn the project  mmmm well they really do add that bit o' class to it.

With Versa-mark I stamped through the stencil and gently dusted mica powder over the area, repeating this a section at a time. I glued the large and small gems in place with hot glue. Then glued silver organza ribbon bows to opposite corners and added the flowers on top.

Finally, I masked the mirror and sprayed a gentle coat of Crafter's Companion Spray and Shine.

I made a shallow tray from hammered 12x12 white card to present it in.

Recently, knowing that before Christmas I had completed this project, I was further inspired when another crafter Karen Clare https://www.facebook.com/KarensLittleGiftsandCards also used the Ikea Mirror for crafting, but alas a bit more professionally than myself. I recommend you pop over to see Karen's work with these and please note that she will be running a workshop on 26th January using these.

I feel another wee trip to Ikea is needed.

Happy crafting folks... and Thanks for popping in.

Bye for now

Krafti Karen x

Thursday 2 January 2014

Sweet Lilac Paper Flowers: ANNOUNCEMENT

Sweet Lilac Paper Flowers: ANNOUNCEMENT:     ANNOUNCEMENT      We have some extremely exciting things happening in the new year and so we have decided to do, what will b...