Fearless and powerful

I’d been meaning to play along with the current challenge at Lost Coast Designs which is asking us to feature a human face. A couple of projects got started but ended up in the circular file. Then Gail, who facilitated me getting him as part of my recent prize when my name came out of the hat on a Lost Coast challenge, suggested using Frankie. It was an idea I’d already considered but got no further with, but something about her suggestion made this idea emerge and refuse to go away. 

I guess some might argue that Frankenstein’s monster is not human (I’m sure Mary Shelley would approve of the philosophical debate arising from that) but I think it’s easily countered in this case by arguing that it’s Boris Karloff playing Frankenstein’s monster in any case. Of course the English Literature graduate in me balks slightly at the fact the stamp is called “Frankenstein” but others might use the word “pedant”!

Let’s Squash It is currently asking us to emboss something other than paper or card and I decided to combine challenges by putting Frankie on a backdrop made from a thick aluminium tray (the sort you might get to serve food at a big party - remember those? Your local pound shop probably has the trays if you’re in the UK). I dabbed a thin coat of black acrylic paint on there and wiped back over the high spots to bring out the design. As the novel has unease at industrialisation as an underlying theme, I thought this folder would be appropriate. 

The quote is actually from the novel, done with a Dymo label maker. 

ETA - I've corrected an earlier "oops"  where I stuck the words down in the wrong order, changing the meaning entirely. Why don't you see these things until you're looking at a photo of the finished project?! Apologies to Shelley and to the monster (and to you if you saw an image with an incorrect quote!). I'm afraid that means there's now sun glare off one corner but I'm happier to live with that!

Stamps:
Frankenstein (Carmen’s Veranda)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko  (Graphite Black)

Other:
Aluminium tray
Uber embossing folder (Couture Creations)
Black acrylic paint
Copic markers
White paint pen by Posca
Pinflair glue gel
Dymo label maker

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Forever Young

I very nearly forgot the Craft Barn song title challenge this month but remembered just in time to sneak in before the deadline. This month's song is Forever Young.

Sticking with my format of making postcards for this challenge, I took inspiration from the lyric

May your heart always be joyful

May your song always be sung

May you stay forever young

I know Bob Dylan wrote it but for me, the only voice I hear in my head for this song is Joan Baez so I hand wrote her name inside the balloon and used Dymo tape to add the song title.

Nothing complicated here - just a hand cut heart mask, stamping, sponging, smudged charcoal pencil and a few doodled lines.

Stamps:
Joy by Carabelle Studio
Musical Backgrounds by Waltzingmouse stamps (no longer with us)

Paper: smooth white

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Pool)

Other:
Zig Clean Colour marker (pink)
Dymo labeller
Fine line marker

Thanks for stopping by!

Make an impression!

Carol and I decided to dry emboss our Tando chipboard for our technique pieces this week. Do pop over to the Tando blog to see what Carol has made too!

I have two projects to share with you, a little jewellery piece one at one end of the size spectrum and a notebook at the other!

The domino pieces are a nice scale for jewellery, being 1" x 2". I put this one in the Cuttlebug Jamara folder, lining it up against the bit of the design I wanted before I closed the folder and ran it through the Big Shot. I ran it through a couple of times for good measure but you don't need to do anything special to get a good embossed impression.

I coated the piece with Rub n Buff and then with acrylic paint to accentuate the design. I wiped most of the paint off and then dabbed a little more RnB over the high spots.

The bail to thread the chain through is, believe it or not, a piece from a video cassette! I dismantled an old one a while ago to see if there were any "useful" bits and pieces in there. A little Krylon pen to key the surface and then a little RnB to match the pendant et voila! If you wanted it silver it would be good to go with no effort at all.

Materials:
Domino chipboard by Tando Creative
Jamara embossing folder
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Gold Leaf)
Acrylic paint (Raw Umber)
Divided tube from an old video cassette
Krylon pen (Pale Gold)

At 7" x 5" the notebook is less detailed but lots of fun to work with! As it's bigger than the embossing folder I turned the folder sideways to emboss the top part then turned the whole lot around and embossed the bottom part. Adding a band across the design hides the "join" in the embossed areas.

I then used a technique I saw a while ago on somebody's blog but I'm afraid I can't remember whose - let me know if it was you and I can pop a link in!

Wax pastels are soft enough that they lay colour down really easily on the raised part of the embossing. I used several shades of blue and green for this. You then add gesso over the whole surface and leave it to dry thoroughly. Gently sanding back the gesso exposes the colour and gives a shabby, weathered effect. I sprayed mine with some matt sealant to make sure the colour wouldn't rub off and the notebook would stand up to being handled.

I covered a piece of cardstock and a Dymo strip with aluminium tape, "tarnished" it with some black acrylic paint and stamped a fountain pen before adding a couple of screw head brads that have been in my stash forever!

I don't have anything like a Bind it All or Cinch, for the few projects I do that would need it it's not worth either the expense or the storage space. For something like this, I just punch holes with a Crop a Dile and use a coil from an old notebook (use the covers of the old book to line up where to punch holes in your new cover).

Materials:
Chipboard sheet from Tando Creative
Tim Holtz Texture Fade (Retro Circles)
Wax pastels
Gesso
Dymo
Aluminium tape
Black acrylic paint
Pen from On the Desk stamp set (CHF, retired)
Stazon by Tsukineko (Jet Black)
Screw head brads
Krylon Matt spray sealant

Thanks for stopping by!

Birds of a feather

Carol and I had fun last year doing a series of technique pieces with Tando chipboard. We thought we'd have another play for 2011 so over the next few weeks we'll be revisiting some of the 2010 products and techniques and throwing in some new ones, too!

We decided to start simply with some colouring on the white lined board. I've used an inchie, a twinchie and two dominos to make this little wall hanging.

The surface of the board is smooth enough that it takes a detailed image easily, even stamping with a dye-based ink and not resorting to Versafine! Sponging ink around the edges of the piece is also easy as the ink goes on smoothly for a nice graduated effect.

Perhaps most importantly for many people, Copics work well directly on the board - yay! I blended three shades of brown on the bird's breast and belly as well as on the single feather image. The eggs have a slightly deeper blue shaded in at the base, too.

Being nice and sturdy, the board is also easy to handle for fiddly jobs - I added Dymo label words to a domino shape, covered with aluminium tape and burnished over to get the raised lettering to show through. A little acrylic paint and a light sanding and you're done.

I punched holes in all the pieces with a Crop a Dile and wired it all togther with some twigs in between. Spring may not have sprung with full convinciton yet but maybe this little hanging will encourage it along the way!

Stamps: Bird Notes (bird and feather), Farm Chicks (egg) - Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets

Paper: Inchie, twinchie and domino shapes by Tando Creative (Tando stockists list can be found here)

Ink:
Adriondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Copic markers
Dymo label maker
Aluminium tape
Acrylic paint (raw umber)
Crop a Dile
Twigs
Florist's wire

Thanks for stopping by!

Monster birthday

A quick birthday card for a six year old boy!

I used a handy trick to get the whole of my 5" square card front embossed. It does need a folder that you can use sideways on (so wording ones are no good to you, for example, unless you want your wording to run vertically on the card, of course). Put your cardstock into the folder and run it through your die cutter - you'll have a strip hanging out of the folder that doesn't get embossed. Now put that plain bit into the folder and run it through the die cutter again - this time it will be the bit you embossed in the first step that's haning out of the folder. I tend to reverse the rollers once I've embossed the bit I need to rather than running right through. For a design like this where you stick a strip of something over the top, any "join" in the embossing is hidden.

Stamps:
Little Guy (Kim Hughes Collection from Cornish Heritage Farms)
Alpha stamps (unknown maker)

Paper:
Textured green and orange, both Papermill
Smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Small circle punch
Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Circle cutter by Fiskars
Copic markers
Dymo label maker and tape
Copic multiliner
Corner Chomper
Cuttlebug embossing folder (Traffic Jam)

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Owl!

This is the card I made for my nephew's birthday - Happy Birthday Josh! For some reason, I just find kid's cards so difficult - in fact DH even suggested I could *gasp* pop down the shop and buy a card. Outrageous!

I used Laura's Sketch 36 from the 2 Sketches 4 You blog to give me a kick start. I cut a hole for the circle and then raised the entire card front up on foam pads before sticking the owl over the aperture.

I've personalised the design with some Dymo wording which also balances it out in terms of visual weight, I think. Sorry about the slight glare from the tape though - too much sunshine in Northumberland!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Owen the Owl (Kim Hughes Collection)
Polka Dot backgrounder

Paper:
DCWV (blue and green)
Mocha Chica Paper pack (Kim Hughes collection - behind the aperture)
Simply Smooth

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukinkeo (Graphite Black)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Dymo label maker
Cuttlebug Birthday embossing folder
Threading Water/Scalloped Lace border punch by Fiskars
White embossing powder
Classic Circles Nestabilities by Spellbinders
Foam padsSandpaper

I'm sure my nephew won't be too critical (he's not even at school yet ;o) - just hope his mum and dad like it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Some cards I've made this week!

I thought I'd blog a few things I've made this week and shown only of the forum they fit into a challenge on!



I found out that one of my customers is moving on to a new job and thought it would be nice to send her a little card to congratulate her. Adding spotty ribbon meant that it fit in with the Get Spotted challenge on Carolyn's, too.

NEW JOB is stamped with the See-D Typewriter alphabet set in Whispers Sugarloaf Green on green cardstock. I've rounded off one corner and inked the edges, too. The little flower is made with the QK football die for the centre and punched hearts for petals. The good luck stamp is from a HOTP set and I used Tangerine Cat's Eye chalk ink.

One of DH's colleagues had his 60th birthday this week. At short notice, I was asked to make a card with beer, whisky and hill walking as themes! This is a bit out of my normal range but I had fun with it.





It's a trifold and each panel has a pocket and tag with something appropriate to the question for that panel. The boots are cut on the CraftRobo and I plaited embroidery thread for laces and used mini brads as 'anchor points'. I snuck the whisky reference onto the beer tag (it says A fair few (and maybe the odd wee dram to follow)). I tried to make the tag here look like the clips you get on beer pump handles and T.A. are the recipient's initials. The answer to the candle question is obviously 60!

I showed a card on Just Bex that was made for the decorative edge scissors challenge. The shell on it came about as a result of a forum conversation with Kathy about paperclay. I decided to have a go at making my own push moulds and this is the first experiment! I used a cockle shell and moulded Fimo around it and baked. Then pushed paper mache into the mould (still waiting for my paperclay to arrive!) and rubbed chalks in various shades of brown/grey white over the resulting paper shape. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Roses and royalty

The Just Bex forum launched about a gazillion challenges on Friday so I've had a little play with a couple of them this morning despite the fact I should have been doing other things.


This card is for the Paper Roses challenge -- make a card with paper rosebuds, not blooms or Primas.

I had to hunt a bit but I finally found the last two paper roses in my stash, these little peachy pink tea roses. I made a 'chipboard' plaque from thick packaging card covered with a bit of linen textured paper and inked with Rouge chalk ink with a Chestnut Whispers pad swiped round the edges for a bit of aging. I used the Cuttlebug D'vine swirls folder to emboss some pale pink vellum, added some grosgrain and a spiral clip and finished off with a few lines of machine stitching.




This one's for the Something to Wear challenge. It might be a bit cheeky but I reckon you wear crowns so it counts!

This has a circle of silver card embossed with one of the small Cuttlebug folders from the birthday set. I grunged it up by dabbing black dye-based ink on, leaving it to dry and then polishing it with tissue paper to take the ink off the high spots and make them shinier. I did the same with the Happy Birthday strip which was done with the Dymo and then added a silver star eyelet and mounted the whole lot on rib textured navy blue card.

With wings on

By 'eck, where does the time go? I'm sooo behind with blogs and challenges and stuff - I promise I'll try to get around some of them later. Here's my very last minute DCM challenge card for Jane's dare. Jane wanted to see wings so here are mine...

Most of my friends would probably think of me as a words person rather than a visual one so I decided to play with the idea of uplifting words/ideas as feathers for my wings.

I've dabbed Chestnut Brown Whispers ink onto DCWV textured card stock and then fed it through my Dymo and sanded the surface. Dark background square is from a pack of handmade papers bought ages ago in The Works. The swirls were a bit 'bright white' for what I wanted so I've used a bit of blue and grey chalk to tone them down. Swirls on the card itself are freestyled with chalks and a pompom applicator.

I've just realised I haven't blogged my dad's birthday card and notebook. He's seen them now so I'll try to do that tomorrow.