CAS(E) This Sketch #170

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been around much over the last week or so, but something hasn't agreed with my system - I won't go into detail, but I have spent far more time in the bathroom than my craft room - I think it is due to my new, 'healthy' diet, not agreeing with me!

Anywho, between times, I managed to make this card for the CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge which is a knockout sketch by the talented Hannelie Bester, this is the sketch.

This is my interpretation.

I took a watercolour panel that I had in my drawer - I keep a drawer full of panels that I have made during 'technique try-out' sessions.  This piece is what I refer to as a 'mop up piece', you know, you have some left over ink on your craft mat from a 'technique try-out' and you can't bear to just mop it up and throw it away, so you mop up with another card-stock panel instead.  It has a more subtle effect than the original piece, but is perfect for CAS designs - it's hard to show the subtle shimmer and soft colours in the photographs, but is really pretty IRL.

I drew some lines on it, following the sketch, then I cut along the lines and divided the panel up.  Next, I took a 'stitched edge' die and ran it along the edges of the design, but left the margin edges plain.  Then I took a piece of coordinating card-stock and mounted the pieces on to it leaving gaps between the pieces.  I mounted the focal panel on to a white card base.

I finished it off with a die cut 'thanks' and a heat embossed 'you' on a snippet of black card-stock and added three glitter card 'punchies' in a coordinating colour too.

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know!

Hybrid Sunday

Hello everyone!  I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday! 

As I decided last week that I would make Sunday's my 'play-day', today I decided to design a hybrid card for something a little different to my 'norm'.  I have done it many many times before, but not for a very long time, but as I had purchased those fabulous flower graphics from the 'Creative Market' and adored working with them (they are so stunning) on my header and signature, I decided that they would be fabulous used on a card.

I designed the card front, sentiment and the patterned paper by sampling one of the colours from the graphic, printed it out on to smooth white card-stock - the one I always use to make my cards - and took it to my craft room.

I adhered the patterned panel to a white card base - the same as I used to print the card front and patterned card - and fussy cut the corner around the graphics.  Then, I adhered the card front, that I had cut a bit smaller to allow the patterned piece to show, using craft foam.

I finished off with some of my home made dew drops. 

It takes me as long, if not longer, to design and make a hybrid card than a 'usual'.  Here is the card.

I hope you all had some fun too!

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know!

The Minute You Have All Been Waiting For!

Hi, my lovelies!  I hinted in my last post that something exciting was happening and you said you couldn't wait to know what it was!  Well, as you will have already seen, when you came in, its my . . .  new look blog!

My dear, sweet, friend Loll Thompson (of course you will all know Loll)  generously offered to help me give my blog a whole new fresh look!  Of course, I jumped at the chance!  I love creating things, but I am no good at the 'nuts and bolts' of it all.  All  my input here was the choices of colours, fonts, etc., and I did the header and signature, but Loll, bless her heart did everything else for me, including my nice new watermark!  To say I'm over the moon is an understatement!  So I made this card with Loll in mind ready for the launch!

As it has stencilling and stamping, plus a die-cut, it was only fitting that I also enter it into Loll & Bonnie's CAS Mix Up Challenge which calls for those things.

So, without further ado, here is the card . . . this one is for you Loll . . . thank you so very much!!

I sponged Encore Silver Ink through a stencil in two corners, splattered it with some silver paint, wound some silver thread around and adhered it with the die-cut.  Then I stamped the rest of the sentiment in silver ink and added two strips of card-stock on the left hand margin to tie everything in.

So, what do you think . . . I LOVE it!!


Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know!

More Bits & Bobs

As the blog title states, today's card is another made up from bits and bobs that were lying around.  The card base was one that I had stencilled pearlised paste on to the sides.  The watercolour piece was a piece of Concord & 9th card.  The die cut 'thanks' has been floating about, since I don't know when and the other black strips of card, patterned paper and vellum strip were all pulled out from my snippets box, and of course, you all will recognise the dew drops by now!  That's it, a short post, as there is something exciting going on - which you all will see soon - so, without further ado, here are the rest of the pictures.

 
As always, thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment. You are all appreciated more than you know!  Have a lovely day!

A Card For Stash

Today's card is just one that I made from bits and bobs lying around my craft space, so I just put it together and it will go in my card stash, to either use myself or give away to family, friends or charities.

The panel, was a watercolour piece (I have loads of these) that I had made whilst 'playing' one day.  I always put such pieces in a dedicated drawer to pull out when needed.

The flowers were from a test stamping of a Hero Arts 'Color Layering For You Flower' stamp set, and I must just say that out of all the layering stamp sets I own, this was by far the easiest set I have ever used to layer up!  Then I fussy cut them out and put them in a box that I have for 'test' stamps and die cuts.

The sentiment was made from a set of word stamps from WOW (the company that make the Melt It powder and fabulous embossing powders), you just make up your own sentiments with the individual words . . . so versatile!

I finished it off with some of those dew drops I made over the weekend (the ones made with Bermuda Bay re-inker) . . . they still weren't dry and you can see some little smudges, but I don't think that the recipient will notice . . . well, I hope not anyway!

Here is the finished card.

 
I want to thank you all for visiting today, have a really lovely one! Until next time. xx

Playday!

Play-day?  What's all that about, I hear you say - well, in my head anyway!  I'll tell you sweet friends!  First, I want to say, I hope you are all having a lovely Sunday!  I have decided that Sunday's are going to be my 'play-day' from now on, I have had such a ball today *warning, this post will be long and picture laden!

First up, I want to share the experiments I have been doing with the 'Melt It' powder.  Those of you who follow my blog will already know that I have been making my own 'dew drops' and tried to colour them using Brusho powder.  Now, I had a modicum of success, but, it took so long to mix with the 'Melt It', that I tried some other methods of colouring it.

First up, I thought that mixing the Brusho powder in with the 'Melt It' powder dry would be better than sprinkling into the melted 'Melt It' like I did before . . . I was wrong, it didn't mix very well at all.  This is what I ended up with.

As you can see, the powder mostly stayed as powder, you can see the specks.

Next up, I thought I'd try 'Tinsel Gold' embossing powder, which is a glittery gold EP.  This too was a fail, the gold EP just burned.  This is what that looks like.

Bit of a mess, but never mind, I'll save them for a shabby chic or grunge project.  

Next up, was Bermuda Bay re-inker, which I dripped into the melted 'Melt It' . . . well, what a mess!!  Don't try this at home, when they were set, I picked them up and I ended up with a beautiful shade of blue . . . . HANDS!!  This is the results.

The final experiment with the dew drops (by now I was fed up with it) I mixed in some, lilac opaque EP that I have had forever, I don't usually use coloured EP now, preferring instead to ink my stamp with Versamark, then ink it in the colour of my choice and then stamp (the Versamark helps to keep the ink sticky) then emboss with clear EP.  This experiment was a little more successful, but I do not intend going out and buying a load of coloured EP's just for dew drops.  I intend to just make clear ones from now and, as they will lend themselves to any colour anyway!  Here are those.

As you can see, they turned out OK.  I also have the 'dripping speed' down pat now and get nearly, all perfectly round ones!  The trick is to just keep moving your hand as you drip, I had hardly any misshapen ones, to re-melt!

The next thing I 'toyed' with was my 'Hand Lettering' and another card made with the small stamps (not such good stamping this time, but hey ho) .  This is that card.

The final thing that I made was this card, that I had hand lettered, 'hello friend' on, and made the card up around it.  I need so much more practice!  My problem is, I doodle words on scraps of trash paper, and like the look of it, try to replicate it on a card, and make a hash of it . . . being too careful, I think, makes for a shaky look!  Anywho, here is that card!

So, what have you all been up to today?  I really enjoyed myself, and now I have a load of catching up to do on my commenting run!!  I hope your week is wonderful! xx

Small Stamps & More Experimentation

Hi my friends.  I hope everyone is fine and well.  Hands up, how many of you remember peg stamps when they first came out?  I have a couple of sets, which were pushed aside and forgotten.  However, there are some 'new kids on the block' called, Majestix, and they are clear stamps and the pegs are acrylic (you buy these separately, just like ordinary clear stamps and blocks (the old ones were red rubber on wooden dowels.

What I loved/love about these tiny stamps is the sheer amount of different 'arrangements' you can get from just one tiny set of images and they are made to go together easily.  Some of the sets only have four images and others, up to eight, depending on what set you get.  Another plus, is that as they are so very small, you don't have to be too fussy about your stamping - that's not to say that you can be sloppy - but if you make some errors, half-stamped images, little smudges here or there . . . it just isn't that noticeable!  You can see my mistakes in the detail shots below, but in real life, they are really only noticeable to us crafters!

For my card here, I used the 'Sakura Blooms' set of images and a tiny butterfly from the 'Anemone Garden',  and a sweet little bird from the 'Bullfinches and Blooms' set and went around him with a fine liner, as he was a little 'lost' amongst all that foliage!

Next, I stamped my sentiment and heat embossed in clear embossing powder a piece of grey card-stock that I had stamped the My Favorite Things, 'Lace' background stamp on, for a little texture.  The grey looks really dark in the pictures, but in fact it is more of a mid grey!  I adhered that down to a white card base, leaving a small strip of white to the left.  Then, I fussy cut the corner and mounted the stamped panel up on foam tape for a little dimension.  I finished the whole look with some more of my home made dew drops (more on that after the rest of the pictures, so those of you in a hurry are able to get off).  Here is the card!

Right, for those of you still with me . . . WOW, you are tenacious, thank you!  The dew drops.  I wanted to experiment with getting different colours of dew drops, so these were 'tinted' with some Brusho powder in Rose Red.

When I melted the WOW 'Melt It' powder, I sprinkled some Brusho into the melted powder.  However, it took an awful lot of time before it mixed in, so, the next time I'm going to try mixing some Brusho powder in with the 'Melt It' powder whilst it is dry (I think I should have done that this time, but hindsight is always 20/20).

Well my friends, that's it from me today, I'm off now to catch up on the  blog visits and commenting that I have neglected whilst experimenting today!  Have a lovely day. xx 

** Addendum **
  
So many of you have been asking about my dew drops, so here, for those who would like  to know is how I made them!

• Get a foil container (WOW sells them along with the Melt It powder, but a small, tart foil container from the supermarket will suffice)
• Put a peg/clothes pin on the rim to hold the container - it will get very hot - or you can do what I did and just use your reverse tweezers, and pinch the opposite side of the rim to make a little pouring spout.
• Pour in some of the Melt It powder (it doesn't matter how much, because it depends on how many dew drops you want)
• Get your heat gun and heat the Melt It powder from the bottom (or, if you like the dusting you see on cakes, from the top, like I tried once - I'm still dusting off all surfaces), it melts quite quickly, depending on how much you use of course.
• Then, when it's all turned to liquid  start dripping it out on to a craft mat/cooking sheet (I found that the quicker you drip the more chance of getting perfectly round ones).  Don't worry about the misshapen ones, because  they set very quickly, so you just pick up the misshapes and put them back into the container and remelt, and pour again, and you keep doing that until it's all used up and you have a load of beautiful dew drops.

Try experimenting with different colouring mediums, here I have tried some Brusho powder mixed in with the melted powder, but it took ages to mix, so next time I'm going to try mixing in some Brusho in to the powder before melting it and see how that goes.  I have also tried mixing in some embossing glitter from WOW and that worked well too!

Let me know if you have had a go and how you got on, I'd love to hear about your experiments and results!

Have a wonderful weekend of new discoveries my friends!