Home is Where The Heart is

Hi Everyone, I'm making up for lost time ---- 2 blogs in a week ! 

Todays card is my entry for The Sunday Stampers Challenge titled ' Anyone Who Had a Heart', if you would like to see Hels Sheridans blog and the other entries click on the link. http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/sunday-stamper-week-296-anyone-who-had.html

ITEMS USED

Gelli-plate

Acrylic Paints in Hansa Yellow, Birch, Viridian, and Deep Madder.

White card 15cm square

Core'dinations card in deep red and dark teal

Claudine Hellmuth stencil Summer Garden

Corrigated Kraft card 

2 brads

scraps of card for 2 hearts in co-ordinating colours

Grunge paste

Words cut from an old book or printed onto card from the computer

Memory box Die foliage/vine

Heartfelt Creations stamp set Sun Kissed Fleur

Stickles

Treasure Gold in Olive Bronze

Decoart Metallic Lustre in Black shimmer

Distress inks in Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint, Aged Mahogany, Pumice Stone and Stormy Sky

Archival ink pad in black

Clear embossing Powder

Pro-markers in pink shades

To start with I made the background of the picture from a ghost print taken from the Gelli-plate. This was inked up 4 separate times with the acrylic paints listed. The first print taken of each colour  ended up too dark for this project, but the second pulling, being the ghost print I felt was perfect.

I then cut the houses from the various card listed and the hearts were cut from the patterned card.

 The Core'dinations card was sanded quite hard to give the old, worn look and the roofs were rubbed with the treasured gold and then buffed with a soft cloth. The houses were then assembled and the brads attached as door handles. The printed background was then trimmed to size and a little stormy sky ink was applied to the top with a blending tool and a little bundled sage and peeled paint to the bottom before sticking the houses  on. I then repositioned the stencil over the fence at the bottom of the picture and spread some grunge paste that had been coloured with the hanse yellow acrylic paint,  with a palette knife. Once this was dry I rubbed on some metallic lustre over the grunge paste and this too was buffed when dry.

The stencil was repositioned again this time over the centre of the large flower on the lefthand side and a little aged mahogany was applied with a make-up sponge just to hi- light the centre.

The flowers were stamped in black archival ink and then embossed with the clear embossing powder. These were then coloured with pro-markers and cut out. The centres were hi-lighted using the stickles in burgundy. A few stems of vine were cut using the Memory Box die and then the flowers and trailing vine leaves were stuck in place.

A little pumice stone ink was applied from the chimneys to give the impression of smoke. The words Home is Where The Heart is were then trimmed to size and stuck in place. The completed picture was then mounted onto some red Core'dinations card before being attached to the blank greeting card.

This is a card that was made for a close friend that is moving house today, it's a real 'touchy, feely ' card as the acrylic paint gives a grainy texture, the grunge paste fence is raised and a little on the rugged side and then all the elements are made from different textured paper stock. I hope you can get a true impression of this from the photos. Well I must fly as I hadn't realised how long I'd been tapping away at the computer. Hope you all have a good week and hopefully see you back here soon for some more crafty antics. Thanks as always for stopping by and reading this blog, I hope its been of interest to you, have fun crafting Jane x

PS Do leave any comments at the bottom of the page or any questions if you have any.

"Blue or Lilac or Both!"

Hi everyone, todays blog is my entry for Lavinia Stamps Challenge "Blue or Lilac or Both!" to view Lavinia Stamps wonderful range and the other entrants click on the link  http://laviniastamps.com 

Items used

White card measuring 15cm square

Lavinia Stamps Spiral of spells, Secret garden, Poppy pods, Mia fairy, small slender mushrooms and small stars.

Heart from Tando Creative Grab bag of hearts

Distress inks in Shaded lilac, Stormy sky and Tumbled glass

Adirondack in Eggplant and Denim

Versa-mark ink pad

White Seafoam and Black embossing powder

Moon Mask

Brilliance ink pads in Starlight Black and Twilight

Cosmic Shimmers mica powders in Antique Blue and Perfect Pearl

Decoart Metallic Lustre in Black Shimmer

1 Lilac Dragonfly Brad

small amount of ribbon

To start with apply the 3 colours of Distress Inks to the white card, this can be done with a brush or a blending tool.

Once the ink is completely dry stamp the Spiral of Spells in versa-mark ink and emboss with the sea foam embossing powder.

Then place the moon mask in the top right-hand corner and with a make-up sponge apply shaded lilac and stormy sky ink to the surrounding area so as to darken that part of the sky and blend as you go. Remove the moon mask and then apply the negative part of the mask so that the moon is revealed and the surrounding sky is covered by the mask. Dab a tiny amount of versa-mark ink to the moon and then brush on the perfect pearl mica powder. Remove the mask and brush away any excess powder and buff up. 

Next the edges were stamped using the eggplant ink pad,  just the very edges of the secret garden stamp were used.

I only inked the parts I knew I was going to use. The stars were randomly stamped around the top of the sky using the Starlight Black ink pad.

The Poppy pods were then stamped in the Denim ink and the slender mushrooms stamped in the lilac end of the Twilight ink pad. The antique blue mica powder was brushed onto the mushrooms to give a slight shimmer.

Now onto the heart, this was coloured with the shaded lilac using a blending tool. Then the fairy was stamped in versa-mark ink and embossed with black embossing powder. A couple of stars were also stamped onto the background.

The metallic lustre was applied to the edges of the heart and once dry buffed up with a soft cloth.

A small piece of ribbon was then attached to the back of the heart. The dragonfly brad was placed on the picture near the moon. The heart was stuck to the card with glue.

I mounted the whole piece of work onto a painted piece of packaging card which had been painted in white acrylic paint and the edges were defined with black acrylic paint that was applied with a small piece of cut and dry foam sponge. A length of tasselled thread was attached to the bottom of the card before to was mounted onto the painted cardboard.

So there is how this entry was made. I hope there is an idea that you can take from this and use on a card or whatever it is you are creating. If you like fairies and mystical themed stamps do have a look at the wonderful range over on Lavinia's site. 

I hope you all have a good week, enjoy your creative time and see you again soon. Thanks as always for stopping by, take care Jane x