Hanging Tag Card

Hi, it's been a busy week, but found time to make a tag this morning for Get Creative Challenge No 10.  This is Marie's challenge of  "Embossing".  After my copy of Craft Stamper arrived on Friday, I had to try one of the techniques as I thought their results were stunning, and I have never done this technique before (despite having a large amount of embossing enamel that someone gave me!).  I made a hanging tag card:

I sloshed (and I do mean sloshed - salt & pepper springs to mind, lol) some blending solution on a piece of glossy card, then a couple of alcohol inks and then blended with a little more ink on the tool to cover the white parts. I cut to size, then stamped my images (Crafty Individuals & Andy Skinner) using Stazon Jet Black.  I then covered in Versamark, embossing enamel & heated 3 times.  I then matted & layered, reheated a little bit and stamped Dare to Dream (LOTV), although I did press a bit too hard when I did this.  I attached a piece of black card to the back and scored a little from the top, then added a white mat on which to write your sentiment.  A couple of black gems and a black trim to finish, and some cord to hang (no surprise there!), so it can be used as a decoration as well.  I do like the result of this and will certainly use my embossing enamel again!

As well as Get Creative, I'm going to enter this into the following challenges:-

Dream Valley Challenges - Anything Goes (#19)
Praire Fairy Fridays - Heat/Wet Embossing (#64)
Crafty Sentiments - No Designer Papers

Hope you like it.

Bye for now, Maria x

Veronica Lake

Hello.  A short and sweet post this evening (my posts are getting way too long!) - I thought I would share this very quick, and fairly clean & simple, card I made today, after a day of mounting stamps and sorting out craft stuff (it's getting a bit untidy!):

I bought the stamp from Ebay ages ago, but I think it's a Stampsmith one - I thought maybe it was Lauren Bacall until my other half googled it and found out it's Veronica Lake.  The champage label and sentiment are by Indigo Blu (from Brideshead plate) and have been masked, then over-stamped with the background stamp (Lost Coast Designs).  For the background stamping I used Versafine Smokey Gray and the image is stamped in black Memento.  I coloured just her lips in Fired Brick (I nearly gave her an Elvis lip by mistake, lol).

Lost Coast background stamp & Indigo Blu Brideshead plate are both from Craft-Room, Veronica Lake photostamp could possibly be from the Stampsmith.

I'm entering it into:

The Squirrel and The Fox - One For The Girls
One Stop Craft Challenge - No Designer Paper
Moving Along With The Times - Vintage (#119)
Pollycraft Challenge Blog - Girls, Girls, Girls

Have a great week.

Maria x

Black & White - Craft-Room Challenge DT Project

Hi everyone!  What wonderful Feline projects we had in the last Craft-Room Challenge!  Good luck to everyone who entered.

However, it's time for another challenge, and this time the wonderfully talented Kim has chosen the theme of Black & White.  There's a £10 voucher to spend in Craft-Room up for grabs in the random draw and, as usual, a top 3 will be chosen.  Check out the full rules here.

I love black & white, but when it came to my project, my mojo did a bit of a disappearing act.  My first idea was scrapped (you know how it is!), and then I thought of the new Lost Coast ballerina stamp that I'd not yet used.  I decided to make her a bit festive and gave her some Christmas wings (from the Andy Skinner Simply Angelic set) and thought she would look nice dancing in some snow.  This is how she turned out:

I covered some white card with Black Soot DI, stamped her in Versamark and embossed her in snow white embossing powder - I also used this for the words.  I then masked her and stamped the wings then embossed them in Wow White Sparkle.  I used a versamark pen on the bottom (for the snow) and also embossed in the Wow powder.  The stars are done with a Quickie glue pen and Jones Tones glitter and white sparkle Lustre rub on around the edge to give it a bit of a misty look.  I decided not to make this into a card (surprise surprise!!!) so I used the Black Soot again and covered the edges of Tando 6 x 6 Chipboard, then mounted my project onto it.

Not content with stopping there, I had an old wooden 3d box frame that I no longer use and it just happened to hold 6 x 6, so I gave it 2 coats of white acrylic paint (99p from Wilkinsons!).  Thinking it was a bit too plain, I used another Lustre Rub-on (black - Midnight Sparkle) and went over the frame with it on my finger, lightly at first, dragging the paste/cream from the corners outwards and then all over.

Nearly there ...

Then I added a little of each of the following, here and there:  Ranger Crackle Accents in clear rock candy, Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Metallic Glaze, and clear Distress Stickles, then a little more Midnight Sparkle rub-on - these have given it a nice sheen and a subtle twinkle, but it doesn't really show up in the picture.

Finished!

I'm happy with it now :-)

Ballerina by Lost Coast Designs, Andy Skinner "Simply Angelic" wings, Tando chipboard & Black Soot DI all from Craft Room, Wow embossing powder from Wow website, frame from Asda (many years ago), Jones Tones Glitter from Lavinia Stamps, and lustre rub-ons (kit 4) from Happy Daze.

I can't wait to see all your entries - the possibilities are endless - so check out the rest of the Design Teams projects for inspiration.

I'm also going to enter this project into the following challenges:

The Fashionable Stamping Challenge - Anything But A Card (#6)
Incy Wincy Designs - Recycle (the 3d wooden box frame)
Ooh La La Creations - Let It Snow (#91)
The Corrosive Challenge Blog - Flying Things (#135)
Bling It On - No Patterned Papers
Little Claire's Designs - Christmas (#14)
Saturday Challenge - White Plus One Other Colour - my other colour is black (#156)
Happy Daze - Christmas or Halloween

Maria x

Lost Coast Dancer Silhouette

Hi, this is a very short post (for a change :-)) as it's way past my bedtime!  This is one of the stamps that I bought from Port Sunlight - it's by Lost Coast Designs, and I thought it was beautiful when I saw it (I'm quite pleased actually, as Craft-Room is going to stock a few of the Lost Coast stamps).  As my card stash has gotten quite low, I need to replenish it a bit so thought I'd make a card with this stamp:

The plain background has been covered with Tattered Rose DI, then overstamped with Darkroom Door Damask background stamp in Versafine Smokey Grey.  The background to the dancer is just in Tattered Rose.  I stamped her in Versamark then embossed with Wow embossing glitter in black twinkle, then went around the edges of the image with more Tattered Rose and a little Black Soot.  The "fabulous" sentiment is also embossed in Black Twinkle directly onto the background (can't remember who it's by, but from QVC quite a while ago).  I then mounted both the background and the image onto pearlised grey card, then black.  I cut the black card blank down a little, width ways, so that it was narrower than the image/background - just for something a little different.  I then punched a hole in the top and tied some black ribbon.

I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Papertake Weekly - Get in Shape (use 3 different shapes)
Tuesday Throwdown - Think Pink (#70)
Crafty Cardmakers - Anything Goes (#53)
Creative Inspirations Paint - Embossing
Wags 'n' Whiskers - Handmade (I made my own pink/grey background paper)

I hope you like it.

Maria x

Ella Bella

Hi

What a dully and rainy day it is in Manchester!  Perfect for crafting though :-) so I thought I would share this card with you, which I've made today.  Having received my order from Julia at Craft-Room yesterday, I was itching to try out this new stamp which I've bought, Ella Bella - this was definitely a "have to buy" stamp for me, lol.  I also went to the Happy Stampers Festival at Port Sunlight yesterday and bought far too many goodies, gilding flakes being one of them - which I also had to try out!  Put these two together and this is what I came up with:

Now, I've never, ever used gilding flakes before but having seen the samples at Port Sunlight, I just had to get some - I'm lovin' them already!  I used FlitterGlu to stamp the image onto black card then put the gilding flakes on.  I then went over the image with a scoochy sponge (a very rough sponge) to take the excess flakes off.  The sentiment is a LOTV one stamped directly onto the card blank, which I also used the gilding flakes on.  I mounted the image on to grey pearlised card then put onto a black card blank.  And that was it!  I to kept the card very simple so that the image was the focal point.

I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out, so I hope you like it - I'm going to enter it into the following challenges:-

Secret Crafter- Anything Goes, as long as it twinkles (does this come under "twinkling"?)
Mark's Finest Papers - No Designer Paper (#76)
The Sisterhood of Crafters - Use a Silhouette Stamp
Ladybug Crafts Ink - No Design Papers (#40)

Maria x

Felines - Craft-Room Challenge DT Project

Hello there!  I'm back from my holiday in Crete, and raring to go (well, I'm getting there).  I had a fantastic time, and even made friends with the little lady in my project!  After a fantastic response to our last theme of Anything Christmas, it's now time for a new challenge over at Craft-Room -  for the next fortnight our theme will be Felines, as chosen by our extremely talented DT leader, Zoe. There's a £10 voucher to spend in the Craft-Room Online Shop to be won in the random draw, and we will also pick a top 3.  Full rules are available to view here, and don't forget to check out the the samples made by the rest of the team, as they're fantastic.

This is my project - my first scrapbook page (I'm trying to remember when I last made a card!!!).

I don't generally scrapbook, but decided it would be nice to try it out and do something nice with my holiday photos, and I just couldn't resist starting it off with this beautiful little lady.  She is about 5 months old and lives with her brother (and owner!) in one of the apartments where we stayed - both kittens were born blind but it didn't seem to be a problem whatsoever for them, and they had such beautiful and gentle natures.  It was amazing watching them play together  - you would swear they could see! 

She tried to share my sunbed on a regular basis ...

made herself comfortable ...

very comfortable ...

and then chilled out!  Isn't that what holidays are for?

The papers used are DCWV, the frames are inked up with Fired Brick Distress Ink, and the little captions with Scattered Straw - inks available from Craft-Room.  Sentiments have been done on the PC, apart from the main glittered one which is from a DCWV border.  The starfish are from Crete (yes, I even found a craft shop in Crete, lol)!

I can't wait to see the entries for this challenge, as I absolutely love cats (I have four of my own!), and hope you enjoy making yours as much as I did mine! Good luck!

I'm going to enter this project into the following challenges:

Crafty Boots Challenge - Zoo or Animal
Gingerloft Challenge - Orange
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything Goes (#26)
Cute Card Thursday - Animal Crackers (#184)

Maria x