Tuesday 25 February 2014

Papertrey Ink February Blog Hop Challenge

This month's blog hop theme over at Papertrey Ink is Sweet Spring, here is the inspiration photo.

Cardstock - Hero Arts. Watercolour paper - Cotman. Stamps and
dies - Papertrey Ink. Ink - Ranger, Memento, PTI.

I used distress stain on the background and then spritzed it with water and sewed it to card base. I die cut Birds and Blooms and stamped them with the companion stamps, I cut the legs off of one of the birds and added an extra wing on foam pads so the bird would look like it was flying. I die cut the clouds from vellum and embossed the sentiment in gold and added a small heart. I think it's so cute and I can't wait to send it to a couple who will be new parents soon.

Thanks for stopping by,
Ang.

Sunday 23 February 2014

1 card, 2 challenges.

Today I am entering my card into the WPlus9 Birthday Celebrations Trend Watch challenge and 52 Cards challenge 2014 - Week 8. I am using the sketch from 52 cards and have taken water colouring and enamel dots from the trend watch challenge to make my card.
Stamps - Wplus9 and PTI. Ink - Memento/PTI. Enamel Dots - MME

I decided to finish this card at about 3am which is why the stitching is a tad wonky and needed to be covered with an enamel dot ;) 

Happy Sunday,
Ang.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Hero Arts Birthday Challenge

Over on the Hero Arts blog they have a challenge all about birthdays, and there are five category options to choose from. I decided to go with - 

Metallic birthday cards or party decor - In celebration of the Winter Olympic Games, add a touch of gold, silver, or bronze to your cards/projects.

and here is my take..

Unfortunately the daylight was fading when I took the picture. I made an A2 acrylic card base and stamped Hero Arts S5362 Dogwood stamp onto the lower two-thirds using StazOn metallic ink in gold, I also stamped a piece of patterned paper from the Crate Paper Little Bo Peep 6x6 pad with the same stamp and ink and adhered this inside the card. I inked a Pink Paislee Artisan Elements label with spun sugar distress ink and stamped Happy Birthday from Hero Arts CL181 Sparkle Clear Messages with gold ink.

It looks so delicate and really shines when it catches the light in the sun, I already have an idea who this card is going to go to!

I really love stamping on acetate and so far the card below that I made last year remains one of the most popular in my flickr photo stream and on pinterest. For more details you can visit the original post here.

Thanks for looking,
Ang.

Sunday 16 February 2014

Ways with Watercolours - Techniques

I have been exploring some more with watercolours since my previous posts and thought it would be a nice idea to share the techniques with you that I have learned over the past week. This is a super long post from me!

First, here is the card that I am most pleased with. I completely cased the card and technique from the wonderful Betsy Veldman as seen here. I stamped and embossed my image using white embossing powder onto watercolour paper, I then generously applied distress inks in 5 different colours over the image, deliberately going over the lines. Once you have completed this, spray the whole piece with a mini mister to make the inks bleed prettily like watercolours and leave to dry. So easy, right?

There are many ways that you can achieve watercolour effects, even if you don’t own any! Let’s run through a few;

 Ink Pads. You can turn any dye ink pad into a watercolour medium. Stamp your ink pad on to a craft sheet/acrylic block/glass tile and pick the colour up with a wet paintbrush. I like this method if I want to watercolour a small element quickly. Distress Inks are made for this, however I use all of my dye ink pads for this method and re-inkers are fantastic.
·         Brush Pens. Brush the colour onto the stamp with your pen, spritz the stamp with water and stamp or stamp and spritz the paper with water or use the ink pad method. This is how I first learnt to watercolour stamp when I started crafting a number of years ago. My Marvy le Plume pens are still going strong!
·         Watercolour Pencils. Well, obviously these are great for this, however I also like to use the shavings when I sharpen the pencil to create paint for a ‘wash’ when I am in a pinch and can’t find a specific colour.
·         Chalks. I have quite a few palettes of chalk cubes which I rarely use. For best results, spritz the chalks a few minutes prior to use and then use a wet paintbrush to thoroughly wet the cube then paint. Leave the chalks to dry and they can be used again for their original purpose.
·         Gelatos. These can be used directly on paper and then you would go over it with a wet paintbrush. I like to slice some of the gelato off the stick on to a Pringles lid, add a little water and ‘smush’ the water into the paint to create a thick paste, this can then be watered down. I’ve had great success adding mica powders to these, and the other great thing? Leave it in the lid to dry and simply wet to reuse, you can make your own custom colour palettes by mixing the gelato colours!
·         Spray Inks. Spray on your sheet and use the ink as is or add a little water.
·         Alcohol Inks. Drop some ink on a non stick craft sheet and go in with a wet paintbrush. This is good for very pale washes.
·         Eyeshadow. I like to use old eye shadows by scraping off some of the powder on to a craft sheet and adding water. I have found that most shadows contain mica so they will add a shimmer to your finish. I picked up some vibrant matte purple and green shadows cheaply that create a really bright effect when used in this way.
·         Food Colouring. Obviously this is an old school staple, I loved mixing my own colours to use when I was a kid, although I find that when you do mix them they tend to turn a sludgy colour. Gel food colouring is even better, especially if you want bold colour.

I am sure that there are many more, these are just the ones that I have acquainted myself with.

This one is easy peasy and super quick. White embossed sentiment washed over with different watercolour paints.

I hope this post inspires you to give watercolours a try, you'll be so glad you did!

Thanks for stopping by,
Ang.


Thursday 13 February 2014

52 Cards Challenge 2014 - Week 7

Just popping in to share my card for this week's 52 Cards Challenge.

Card - Bazzill. Watercolour Paper - Winsor and Newton. Stamps - PTI.
Embossing Powder - Stewart Superior. Ink - Ranger, PTI, Memento.

This is my take on one of my favorite techniques by Betsy Veldman. Very soft and really relaxing to create too, I just love the Larkspur stamp set.

Thanks for looking,
Ang.

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Step it Up!

The birthday celebrations continue over at WPlus9 and the challenge is to Step It Up by adding dimension to your project. I am a big fan of foam pads and don't seem to be able to make a card without them, I have yet to delve into the world of embossing pastes as another way to add texture but I hope to rectify that over the weekend.
Card - Bazzill, Bo Bunny. Flower stamps and banner, Fresh Cut Florals and
Written on Ribbon by WPlus9. Doily Die - Cheery Lynn.

I used two of my favourite stamp sets and also stayed in my comfort zone as per the challenge I missed last week. I popped up the flowers and banner using foam dots to add dimension and used my favourite blue ink combination that I always seem to go back to.


I couldn't bear to throw away the spare pieces so used them up on this clean and simple card.

Thanks for stopping by,
Ang.

Papertrey Ink 7th Anniversary Celebration - Part 2

As you may have read I am taking part in Papertrey Ink's 7th anniversary celebrations, read more about it here. This challenge is to create a project that incorporates stripes in some way.
Cardstock - Bazzill. Glitter Tape - American Crafts. Stamps and Dies - PTI.

I used some super sparkly American Crafts glitter tape in stripes and finished it off at the bottom with tiny tags 2 that also features stripes in coordinating colours.

I have a couple more posts planned for this week, including one that covers my new found love of watercolours!

Thanks for stopping by,
Ang.

Sunday 9 February 2014

Working with Watercolours

As you may have seen from my previous post, I have just discovered the fun of using watercolours with my stamping and WPlus9 has a great step-by-step guide on one of the ways to do this, playing along, I decided to use the lovely Merry and Bright stamp set and dies.

Card - Bazzill. Watercolour Paper - Winsor and Newton. Ink - Memento.

Simply stamp your stamp on to your ink pad, you can then either take a mini mister or a wet paintbrush and spray/brush across the surface then stamp! Easy! I need to work some more on this card to balance it out a little better. It's a fun technique and so easy to do, so much so that I have decided to experiment some more. I have a couple more cards that are currently drying that I will post later!

Ang

Saturday 8 February 2014

Papertrey Ink 7th Anniversary Celebration - Part 2

As you may have read I am taking part in Papertrey Ink's 7th anniversary celebrations, read more about it here. This challenge is to create a 3x4 Monthly Moments trading card and here is my attempt.
Card - American Crafts. Watercolour Paper - Winsor and Newton.
Umbrella and Sentiment - Papertrey ink. Twine - American Crafts.

This has been my first experiment with watercolours, it was so much fun but I have so much to learn, I have seen some great tutorials on Pinterest that look helpful that I must look into!

Thanks for stopping by,
Ang.

Friday 7 February 2014

Papertrey Ink 7th Anniversary Celebration - Part 1

Papertrey Ink are currently celebrating their 7th anniversary with a number of contests where you can win gift cards to spend in store or even a year of free stamps! Today I am entering in the recipe card challenge and here is the first combination.

Card - Bazzill. Stamps, Dies and Ink - Papertrey Ink. Twine and Glitter
Paper- American Crafts.

*sigh* in my head it seemed like a good idea, on reflection it is poorly balanced with too much white space, I decided to try again with a different combination.


Card - Recollections, Papertrey Ink. Stamps, Die and Ink - Papertrey Ink.

And again, this is too flat and frankly blah. What can I say? I think my mojo has deserted me! Oh well, here's hoping the card I am working on now turns out better!

Ang.

Wednesday 5 February 2014

52 Cards Challenge 2014 - Week 6

This week for 52 Cards, the challenge is to create a card where the vast majority of items on it are from the same collection, as Nat said, "it shouldn't be too hard, right?" At first i thought this would be a walk in the park, i have a number of collections where i have the coordinating embellishments and thought i would be able to put a card together in 10 minutes flat. Wrong, so very wrong.
Card - Bazzill. Paper and die cuts - The Girls Paperie (discontinued). Twine- 
American Crafts. "on this day, all about you" My Minds Eye. Die - PTI.


I have been hoarding this Girl's Paperie collection for a couple of years or more, I love the whole shabby chicness of it, however this was my second choice of paper. I had originally pulled out the Farmhouse collection by October Afternoon, but try as I might, I was not inspired and after a long evening I ended up shoving all of it in a box and throwing it in a drawer, as much as I love it, I think the 'farm/child' theme was a misguided buy by me :(

Once I moved on to the loveliness that is Paper Girl, this card was a breeze, I do like collage style cards but need to learn when to say enough is enough when it comes to adding embellishments.


It is a friend's birthday this week and I needed to whip up a card and gift wrap idea, fast! I can confidently say that this took less then 10 minutes but looks fab when all put together, bright and cheery.

The paper is from a huge stack of Making Memories paper that I bought on sale, and have barely even touched. I have decided to try and use the paper when making coordinating card/gift tags/gift wrap to use up as much of it as I can. The card was accented with some punched stars, glitter sentiment and glitter dots, I also wrapped the gift in the paper and used a Martha Stewart label for the tag and covered the envelope. Done!

I don't tend to get too personal on my blog, but I have been going through a tough time at the moment and am rarely able to venture outside so this has been a bit of a life line for me to 'talk' to other crafters. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for reading and for all the kind comments, they are very much appreciated.


Ang x


PS - After 45 minutes i gave up trying to get the text to display correctly, sorry!

Tuesday 4 February 2014

CASE Study Challenge #176

I was inspired by both cards created by muse Donna Mikasa for this week's challenge over at CASE Study and followed the colour and design quite closely, hey, if it works, use it!
Card - Bazzill. Doily - Wilton. Wood banner - Studio Calico. Die - PTI.
Stamp - PTI. Washi Tape - Hema. Spray Ink - Dylusions.

I keep looking at it as it sits on my desk, it really conveys a party feeling, it just makes me smile!
Thanks for looking,
Ang

Sunday 2 February 2014

CASology Cue Card Week 80 - Purple

2 posts in one day? I'm on fire ;)

Today I am following along with the cue card over at CASology which is purple. Here is my interpretation.

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps. Embossing Powder - WOW!
Perfect Pearls - Ranger. Gems - Doodlebug. Cardstock - Bazzill.

I love the Waltzingmouse Funky Feathers stamp set, so many different combinations and possibilities. I decided to use the peacock feather today as my main image. I stamped and embossed them in gold, stamped the hearts and dusted with perfect pearls then added the gems and just to break it up a little I raised the panel on foam pads.
Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps. Embossing Powder - WOW!
Perfect Pearls - Ranger. Cardstock - Bazzill.

I also went on to make this 'cleaner' version. Simple stamping with memento ink, I coloured the centres with turquoise promarker and embossed the hearts in gold. I think I can see me replicating this card in lots of different colours.

Thanks for looking,
Ang.

WPlus9 Monday Mood Board #26

I managed to rustle up a card for WPlus9's Monday Mood board,, isn't the inspiration picture so pretty?


Paper-MME. Stamps-WPlus9. Doily dies - MFT and Cheery 
Lynn. Ink - Memento. Lace - Dainty Paperie.

I liked the wooden boards so used some wood print paper and a little white pigment ink to recreate the look from the picture. I finished it off with Fresh Cut Florals and the sentiment on a small MFT doily.

I haven't done much crafty shopping for a while but was happy to find Studio Calico wood veneers at my local Homesense and TKMaxx for £1.99 a pack and cute little American Crafts glitter pegs for the same price.
I have been wanting to experiment with watercolours for a while but haven't found a set at a reasonable price so it wouldn't be too bad if I don't get on with them, however, I did pick up this set today for £4.99. I can't wait to start playing!
Happy Sunday :)
Ang

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