Customised Ink Pads

Hi to one and all and phew, what a hottie--- all very well if you are on the beach but I don't recommend working in greenhouses for a living in this weather! As much as I love the plants I think I need watering more than they do.

Todays tag was made from the spare card left from my last blog ( details of paints and stencils can be found in the previous entry titled "Life is too short to be anything but Happy") which I trimmed to size, punched a hole and added a ring made of kraft card to reinforce the hole ready for the ribbon.

The dots were already on the card and I randomly stamped the wire in Pumice Stone ink. The letters at the top left were added using grunge paste through a Memory box stencil called Alpha Worn Out. Once dry I inked all the edges and the grunge paste with Bundled Sage ink before replacing the clean  stencil and lightly touching the letters with Treasure Gold wax in Olive Bronze.

 Then using PaperArtsy stamp set Jofy 12, I stamped the stems in Peeled Paint ink without inking the leaves as these were not required. Next I brushed Peeled Paint ink through a honeycomb stencil to add a little more interest and depth.

Now onto the making of the ink pad.

I cut a piece of Cut n Dry Stamp Felt from Ranger and to this I added drops of Ranger Distress Re-inkers in Peeled Paint, Broken China and Festive Berries. This was left for 25-30 mins for the inks to soak in and blend into each other. 

Then I used it as normal for inking up the stamps, using the Jofy set again but this time the leaf and the oval flower head were stamped onto white card. These were then embossed with clear embossing powder whilst still wet .

Next I cut the leaves and the flowers out, coloured the very centre of the flowers with a pencil and then coated the centres in Glossy Accents. The leaves were inked lightly with peeled paint.

The fuchsia pink felt flowers were cut using 2 Sizzix Movers and Shapers Dies and were then attached to the top of the stems with Pinflair glue. Once the glossy accents was dry the stamped flower heads were then stuck onto the felt, and the leaves were curled before attaching to the stems.

The decorative edge on the bottom of the tag was cut using Tim Holtz on the edge Ornate Die.

The sentiment was a stamp from Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 Flower Art set and was stamped in Versa-mark and white embossing powder onto kraft card that had been cut using a Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Die. I went around the edges of the kraft card with a black pen to help draw the eye in. This was glued in place and finally I attached the metal leaf from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Foliage pack.

The home made ink pad will keep moist for a couple of months or more if kept in a sealed cellophane bag.

I would like to enter this tag for Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers Challenge titled "Green".

I hope there has been something of interest in todays entry to you and thank you for stopping by. Please leave any comments or queries at the bottom of the page, it's great to hear your thoughts.

Take care and have a good week, bye for now Jane x

"Life is too Short to be Anything but Happy"

Hi everyone and I hope you are all well and are  cheering our team on this evening!!! Todays creation I would like to enter for the Tando Creative Challenge titled " Life is too Short to be Anything but Happy" and if you would like to see the DT examples and the other entries click on the link  http://tando-creative-challenges.blogspot.co.uk

For this card I have used;

Smooth white card

 PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Paint in Mermaid, Guacamole, Blush, Nougat, Snowflake, Toad Hall, Zesty Zing and French Roast

Tando Creative Stencils; Sequine waste, Bird and Branch and Tornado

Archival ink in Watering Can

Distress Inks in Walnut Stain, Spiced Marmalade and Bundled Sage

PaperArtsy Grunge Paste

Items from Tando Creatives Mini balloons and Mini Houses and Fencing

Treasure Gold in Olive Bronze

Versa-mark ink pad

Yellow Embossing Powder

Orange card for mounting

Clarity stamps Tree and Children dancing

Black Pearl Mica powder

To begin with I coloured the smooth card with the paints using a brayer, then using a stencil brush and the sequins waste stencil added dots to the bottom and then stamped with watering can the wire mesh areas and the script. The sun area was added with the Zesty Zing paint, tornado stencil and a piece of cut and dry.

Once dry I re-laid the tornado stencil at a slightly different angle and with the spiced marmalade ink and a sponge lightly inked through the stencil.

The balloon was coloured using 3 coats of embossing powder and the fencing was painted in the snow flake chalk paint.

Next using the bird and branch stencil I masked off the areas I didn't want to use with some post-it notes, coloured some grunge paste with the toad hall paint and then scrapped the paste through the stencil with a palette knife.

Once dry I added a little bundled sage ink to enhance the colour and then rubbed over with the treasure gold.

The children dancing and the tree were then stamped in the watering can ink and whilst still damp the tree was brushed with the black pearl mica powder.

The words were printed on the computer and then mounted onto orange card.

The balloon then had some thread tied around the end, the length of cotton was then threaded through a needle and passed through the hand of the middle girl and out again close by to give the impression of the string being held.

The picture was then trimmed to size the edges coloured with a black pen and then the whole piece mounted on the orange card.

The edges of the mount and all the edges of the words were then coloured with a black pen.

The fence and the balloon were then secured in place with pva glue.

Well thats it for me tonight, the score at the moment with the footie is 1 all so lets have a big shout for the England team!

Hope you all have a good evening and hopefully see you back here soon for some more creative  ideas. take care and as always thanks for stopping by, until next time bye for now Jane x

Opps England are now trailing 2-1

Beaded Fairy Dust

Hi everyone and what an amazing day we've had here in Kent, so hot! Tried doing some housework but it was too warm, ( well that's my excuse) so decided to do some playing with a piece of calico. It's hard to capture the texture of the paints and the stamping on camera but I think with the different stages you will get the general feel of how it turned out.

ITEMS USED

Piece of natural coloured calico about 13cm square with some iron-on interfacing on the back

Lavinia Stamps

PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics in Blush, Nougat, Snowflake, Pansy and  Spanish Mulberry 

Distress inks in walnut Stain and Victorian Velvet

Angelina Fibres

Archival in Jet Black and Watering Can

Mica Powders in Perfect Pearls and Black Pearl

Brilliance Ink in Pearlescent Olive and Crimson and Starlight Black

Few small beads and 1 pearl bead

Invisible Thread

To begin with I brayered the acrylic paints onto the material in no particular pattern until I had the background I was happy with.

I then stamped the path in Spanish Mulberry paint and then over stamped in walnut stain ink. The fairy was stamped in Watering Can but I did not ink all of the wings of the stamp as I didn't want them to show on the calico once I had fixed the fibre wings in place.

The toad stalls were stamped in the olive and crimson pearlescent ink and then brushed with perfect pearls mica.

The small mushrooms were stamped in starlight black and then brushed in the black pearl mica.

The fairy dust was stamped in the snowflake paint.

Next I ironed some Angelina Fibres between 2 pieces of baking parchment and then stamped the wings in Jet black ink twice to form the 2 pairs.

This was a mixture of pink and blue fibres and were then cut out with scissors.

The calico was then cut to size and the edges frayed.

The beads were then sewn on with the invisible thread along with the wings and the pearl bead.

The edges of the card were lightly brushed with victorian velvet ink and then the ivy stamped in the 2 corners in pearlescent olive. These were then brushed with the perfect pearls mica and a pearl gem stuck where the stems cross over.

The sentiment was then stamped onto white card in the pearlescent crimson and cut out with a die.

The material was then stuck in the centre of the card using pin flair glue and the sentiment stuck in the top lefthand corner and a mauve gem  placed on top.

I would like to enter this card for the Lavinia Stamp Challenge titled " Add some beads or gems"

I hope you all have great weekend and please pop back here soon for some more crafty ideas. Thank-you for stopping today and I hope you have found a tiny piece that has interested you, please leave any comments or queries at the bottom of the page as I do love to hear your views.

Until next time, take care and enjoy your crafting time  Jane x.

Altered Frame

Today I am sharing the different stages of altering an old veneered frame that has had a small cross stitch sampler in it for about 25yrs. The frame was looking very tatty and the embroidery was in need of a wash so it seemed the perfect time to get to work on it.

I was inspired to alter this frame having read Sue Carrington's altered box on the Paperartsy Blog, to view this blog click on the link http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/2014/06/altered-box-with-lynne-perrella-stamps.html

This is how the frame looked before I set to work on it, I stripped off the veneer and sanded the wood to remove any residue of glue. I then gave it a coat of French Roast, then a coat of Toad Hall followed by some small random areas of French Roast.

I then brushed some areas with Americana Weathered wood where I wanted a cracked effect and once this was dry added a coat of Mermaid all over. A light sanding was given to a couple of patches to reveal a little more of the under colours.

I then applied Grunge Paste through the Bird and Branch Stencil by Tando Creative to the bottom righthand corner. Next I spread a little Grunge Paste through some netting with my finger on 3 random spots.

Once this was dry I made a light wash with bundled sage Distress Stain and water to add a slight colour to the leaves and stems of the flowers. The flowers were coloured in the same way using seedless preserves Distress Stain. 

I applied some walnut stain Distress Ink to the edges of the frame and then randomly stamped the diamonds in Archival Watering Can, the trellis in walnut stain and the ' don't eat the daisies' in black soot Distress Ink.

I also did some stamping on the edges so as to tie it all together.

To finish the whole frame off I applied areas of Treasure Gold Wax in Olive Bronze and Sapphire and then buffed up with a soft cloth.

Now all that's left to do is press the cross stitch, place it back in the frame and hang it on the spare bedroom wall.

I would like to enter this for the PaperArtsy Weekly Challenge.

Today I went to the Craft Barn at Nutfield where they were hosting their yearly Extravaganza and Leandra Franich from PaperArtsy was demonstrating some wonderful background papers using the Fresco Chalk Acrylics, learnt some great techniques and if anyone is thinking of going along tomorrow I highly recommend it.

Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave any questions or comments at the bottom of the page. Hope you all have a great weekend, take care and hopefully see you back here soon Jane x

Vintage Seaside Tag

Hello, and a very happy thursday to you all. Well where has May gone? I can't believe it's the 29th already. Todays blog is just a quickie as I wanted to enter this tag into Frilly and Funkies fortnightly challenge and time is running out!

To view all the DT's beautiful pieces click on the link ;  http://frillyandfunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/vintage-seaside-challenge.html

To begin with I printed part of a seaside photo that was taken at Rock in Cornwall several years ago looking across to Padstow. This was printed onto 250gsm card and then cut into a tag using the Tim Holtz die. I then extended the sand area by painting on some watered down Distress stain in Gathered Twigs. The sky and clouds were created with a cloud stencil and using Distress Ink in Antique Linen and Adirondack in Juniper.

The top was stamped with "Postcard" using the hole of the tag as the o and then a row of beach huts were stamped so that the tops were in the sky line. This were all stamped in Sepia Archival and then coated in clear embossing powder and heated.

The flags on the top of the huts were coloured in using pro-markers.

I then stamped a matching row of beach huts onto white card and coloured these in again using pro marker pens. I stamped 2 larger beach huts also in sepia, coloured them in and cut them out. I discarded the flags on the top of the larger huts and cut these out of material to give some added texture. The bunting was cut from white card using a Memory Box die and these were coloured using the same colours as the small huts.

I then stamped Memories from a 7 Gypsies set of stamps on to a card ticket that had been painted with PaperArtsy acrylic paint in nougat, then given a coat of Americana Weathered Wood and then once dry a coat of white acrylic paint. Once dry and crackled I inked the edges and slightly smudged the word memories with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I then rubbed in a little Treasure Gold wax in Renaissance to hi-light the cracking. 

The tag, bunting and all the cut out huts were aged at the edges using Pumice Stone Distress Ink. The sand area was lightly rubbed with some Distress Stickles in Vintage Photo.

The names of various shell fish were added to the sea area using letter rub-ons and the flying birds were stamped in the sky using Watering can Archival ink.

I frayed a small piece of burlap/hessian and stuck this onto the tag using Glossy Accents. The huts were all stuck in place with glossy accents and the ticket and bunting were attached with foam pads for extra depth.

Finally the fishing net was attached to the bottom corner, this was a piece of netting saved from a bundle of satsumers---- I had a feeling it might have a use one day!

A length of natural rope/ thick string was added to the top of the tag.

I would like to enter this tag for The Frilly and Funkie Vintage Seaside Challenge.

Thanks as always for stopping by and reading todays entry, hopefully you'll pop back again soon. I always love to read your comments and messages so please feel free to leave them at the bottom of the page and if you have any questions on todays tag post them at the bottom and I will answer them asap. Until next time, take care and enjoy your crafting time whatever it is you do. Jane x

Playing With Inkabilities

Well having had a few wonderful days in Ireland with our daughter and family it's now back to the normal routine of working, chores and crafty-playtime! After a quick tidy up of the craft room I felt a reward was needed so I reached for some old favourites--- Inkabilities by Ranger, sadly I think these are no longer produced so if you can track some down they are well worth investing in.

The centre picture had the background made with the Inkabilities and the card was coloured with Distress Inks.

Items Used

Clarity A6 Double sided coated card

Black card for mounting

Stencil and Stamps by Clarity

Stampbord

Inkabilities in Citrus, Beach Ball Yellow, Sailboat Blue and Awning Green

Black Archival Ink

Distress Inks in Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Tumbled Glass, Crushed Olive, Faded Jeans

Versa-Magic Chalk Inks in Sea Breeze, Sage and Mango Madness

PaperArtsy Metallic Glaze

Cosmic Shimmers Antique Black Mica Powder

Pilot Pigment ink Pen

4 Corners cut using Tim Holtz Die ATC and corners

To begin with I coloured the coated card stock by placing drops of the ink onto a sheet of cellophane, then spritz with water and swipe the card through the ink several times till you are happy with the coverage.

I decided to go with the top left hand one for this project. Then using the centre part of the stencil I inked in the tree and branches using tea dye, vintage photo and walnut stain. I then stamped the children and the tree in black archival. Whilst the black ink was still damp I brushed it with the mica powder to give a slight sheen.

I then mounted the art work onto some black card and secured the pre-cut corners with some pva glue.

Next I coloured the card for which the picture would form the centre piece. I decided where the picture would sit and then matched the stencil so as to aline the art work. The tree frame was coloured with the same distress inks as before but kept much lighter. The bluey, greeny background was created using Distress inks in tumbled glass, faded jeans and crushed olive. The base was coloured with walnut stain and vintage photo. 

I then used 2nd generation black archival to stamp the tree and the children dancing with the animals so as to continue the design. 

The main picture was then secured in place with double sided tape.

Then it was just the stampbord with the word "Dream" left to do, I decided where I wanted this to sit and then proceeded to colour the stampbord in similar shades. This was achieved with the chalk ink pads and some cut and dry foam. Once I was happy with the colours I then stamped the word dream from the word chain no 5 set in black archival ink. Leave this to dry thoroughly and then hi-light the edges with the black pen.

This was then given a coat of metallic glaze.

Although its hard to pick this up in a photo the glaze really does give a subtle glimmer and an added texture to the whole piece.

This was then secured in place with some pva glue.

I would like to enter this card for the Claritystamp Challenge titled "It's all in the Words".

I hope if you are lucky enough to own some Inkabilities that this might give you a nudge to get them out and have a play and if you don't already have some if you spot some for sale you might give them a try.

Wishing you all a wonderfully relaxing Bank holiday weekend if you are here in the UK, and if  you are somewhere else and reading this I hope you have a lovely weekend whatever you may be doing. Thanks as always for stopping by, please leave any comments at the bottom of the page and if you have any questions I shall endeavour to answer them asap. 

Until next time take care and enjoy your crafting time, Jane x

Fun With The Gelli Plate

Hi Everyone, had some fun with the gelli plate yesterday experimenting with PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics---- and I really love the way the paint drys. Its hard to describe so here is a close up of an area.

Ok, here's what I did. Firstly I put 3 colours of the chalk acrylic on the gelli plate, mermaid at the top, blush in the middle and guacamole at the bottom. I left this to completely dry and it took about 4 mins. Small areas where the paint was thinner seemed to form a slight resist which gives a different dimension and texture. Then I applied a coat of Liquitex acrylic in parchment and working swiftly dabbed the bottom part with some hessian and the top area with some bubble wrap, then pulled the print.

Then using the summer garden stencil by Claudine Hellmuth I applied a coat of PaperArtsy Grunge Paste through one of the flowers. This was then left to dry for about 30mins.

Next I stamped the fairy wings twice from Lavinia Stamps Mia fairy onto acetate using jet black Archival ink. Once this was dry ( takes a little longer to dry on the acetate ) I coloured the wings with cranberry Alcohol Ink on the underside. Then using a Quickie Glue Pen applied some glue to the wings and then some rose coloured glitter. Once dry I cut these out with some scissors.

The grunge paste flower was then coloured with Distress Ink in Victorian Velvet, Adirondack in Aubergine and Versa-Magic chalk ink in Pink Petunia. Whilst the ink was still damp I brushed the petals with Cosmic Shimmers Mica Powder in Antique Red.

The stem was coloured with Distress ink in Iced Spruce and the leaf in Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint.

The fairy was stamped onto the card in Brilliance Starlight black. The poppy seed heads from Lavinia were stamped in 2nd generation Versa-magic Chalk ink in sage and then brushed with Perfect Pearls mica powder.

The small toad stalls also from Lavinia were stamped in 2nd generation Distress ink in Walnut Stain and these were brushed with Cosmic Shimmers Mica in Antique Gold.

The Happy Birthday sentiment was embossed with a Sizzix folder on some Tim Holtz Kraft-Core, cut out using a woodward punch and then rubbed with some Treasured Gold Wax in Ruby.

The bow was cut using the Tim Holtz Bow Tied Die and the 4 corners were cut from the Spellbinders Lattice collection. The corners were lightly rubbed with Treasured Gold in Pewter to hi-light the raised areas.

Now for the final steps, the edges of the print were inked in Iced Spruce before mounting onto some card the same as was used for the 4 corners. 

I inked 2 of the stars on the Lavinia small stars stamp in Brilliance Moonlight White and randomly stamped these in the sky area 5 times. These were then brushed with perfect pearls mica powder.

Using the quickie glue pen dots of glue were added around the fairy's hands and then sprinkled with white glitter to resemble fairy dust. The 4 corners were then stuck in place and the bow and sentiment were stuck using pin flair glue. Finally the pair of wings were stuck using glossy accents.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges;

Lavinia Stamps Challenge titled "Birthday Girl"

and

Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers titled "Pink"

Thank you as always for stopping by and I hope you have enjoyed todays crafting session. If you have any comments or questions about this make please feel free to leave them at the bottom of the page as I do love to hear what you think as thats how we all learn, and the crafting community is always generous with its help and knowledge.

Hope you all manage to grab a few minutes creative time over the next few days and hopefully I'll see you back here soon. Take Care, Jane x