Pretty In Pink Card

Card Positioning Systems is celebrating their 5th Anniversary by releasing a sketch a day for 15 days.

This card is my interpretation of the day eleven sketch.

Finally, a sketch that came together painlessly!  I knew the instant I saw this sketch what elements I was going to use, and the longest part of the whole card was making the skirt.

The background paper is from the Sweet Nothings collection by Kaisercraft.  The dress form is cut using the Sewing Room die by Tim Holtz from a scrap of cream toned paper on chipboard.  The tickets are by Tim Holtz also, and the crochet skirt is by me. 

S N O W Card

Card Positioning Systems is celebrating their 5th Anniversary by releasing a sketch a day for 15 days.

This card is my interpretation of the day nine sketch.

This was one of those sketches I looked and thought "that will be a nice quick one", however it took me all day to finish!  I've used the backsides of two papers for the card, one a Christmas paper by Graphic 45 which I had a fun tearing into strips and the other part of the Prairie Lane collection by Kaisercraft.

The snowman is cut using the Tim Holtz Winter Wonder die, and the fence is a Magnolia Doohickey which I have painted with crackle medium mixed with white paint.  All the edges have been inked with Antique Linen Distress Ink.  A scrap of fluffy wool, a few pearls and some letters from my stash and voila, challenge completed! 

Retro Sewing Card

Card Positioning Systems is celebrating their 5th Anniversary by releasing a sketch a day for 15 days. 

This card is my interpretation of the day six sketch. 

This card was made with a Vintedge kit by Ruby Rock-It, on a Kraft base.  The kit was fantastic value, 6 different paper designs (2 of each for 12 sheets total), plus stickers and die cuts for $10.  I used the Tim Holtz Sewing Room Alterations die to cut two bobbins and wound embroidery floss around the centre and attached them as accents.  There is also a yellow bobbin inside next to the sentiment which reads:  "May your bobbin always be full".

I'm still not sure if I like this card, retro is not something I have played around with much.  I am sure if I pop in a fat quarter of quilting fabric the recipient won't care what the card looked like ;o)

Shabby Snowman

Technique:  Papercraft

Materials:
corrugated card
acrylic paints
blue mica (or perfect pearls)
glitter
music paper
craft snow
snow sprinkles
crackle medium
glossy accents
Distress Ink
* Faded Denim

Tools:
Tim Holtz Alterations
* Winter Wonderland die
* Tags and Bookplates die
Movers and Shapers die
* JOY
Sizzix Big Shot

The challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show this week is to Show a Word. 

The tag is made from corrugated card and the top layer is peeled back to shabby it up and show the corrugations underneath. You will notice from the photo below that I have left the part that sits under the snowman's belly intact, to allow for smooth adhesion of the layers that will be applied there.  It's then painted with white acrylic paint, faded denim distress ink, pthlao blue acrylic paint,and blue mica.

Cut three snowmen from corrugated card, cutting JOY into the belly of one and cutting out an oval in the belly of the other, and reserving the last to cut out a hat, a nose and an arm.  Cut an oval out of music paper and glue that down under where the belly will be, then glue the snowman with the oval in his belly over the top of that.

Dry brush the entire piece with craft snow, piling it up in places where it would build up naturally, such as the top of the hat, and make a nice pile of it inside his belly oval, but not that high that you can't glue the top snowman into place.

Paint the snowman's spare parts and paint the snowman with the joyful belly. Apply a coat of crackle medium to the snowman and let that dry completely, then highlight the cracks with faded denim ink, this gives it an icy look. Glue the joyful snowman and all the pieces into place with glossy accents and brush again with craft snow, piling it up again around the spaces in the word JOY. Add a touch of glitter for some sparkle, I also added some snow 'sprinkles' which is essentially a white, non sparkly glitter that looks like snow.

Try as I might I couldn't get the camera to pick up all the details, the crackle on the snowman glitters like ice, the snow drifts inside his belly sparkle, the blue mica shimmers which is a lovely contrast to the matte snow sprinkles.  The whole tag has such lovely texture, I wish it snowed here in South Australia!

Silver Swirl Carved Ornament

Technique:  Papercrafting

Materials:
600 gsm card stock
background paper
adhesive
Distress Inks
* Faded Denim
* Stormy Sky
Number 10 crochet thread
craft metal sheet
snowflake sequins
Perfect Pearls
silver ink

Tools:
Sizzix Big Shot
Tim Holtz Alterations
* Carved Ornaments
* Mini Flourish
1.5mm crochet hook

The challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show this week is to Show Some Metal.  As expected many of the DT examples and entries have a vintage meets industrial come grungy feel as is true to the Tim Holtz style.  I wanted to do something a little different, and use plenty of Tim Holtz tools and techniques, but come up with something unexpected.

Cover both sides of plain card stock with a background paper, I chose a dictionary paper with Christmas definitions, but I plan to do others with music paper in a red and gold theme, lots of scope for creativity.  When it's properly dry run it through the Sizzix with the carved ornament die.  Ink up the edges with distress inks, I wanted a blue and silver theme so I have used stormy sky and faded denim. 

I have made my own home made version of Perfect Pearls using white pearl cosmetic mica (think mineral make up), added to a mixture of water with just a few drops of gloss medium to act as a fixative.  Once upon a time I taught soap making and I have copious amounts of cosmetic glitter and mica in a vast array of colours sitting on the shelf doing nothing.  I imagine for most its simply easier to use Perfect Pearls or Glimmer Mist or similar product.  The front and back of the ornament are spritz with a white pearl glimmer.  Finally, ink the edges with silver ink, I used Versacolour for the metallic inks, I love their thick, sticky texture.

Adhere a piece of silver craft metal to an offcut of card stock and run it through the Sizzix using the mini flourish die to create the silver flourish.

Make one snowflake following the directions below.  The original pattern can be found here.

Ch 4, sl st into 1st ch OR make magic ring.

Round 1: Ch 5 (counts as 1 dc and ch 2), sc in ring, *ch 2, dc in ring, ch 2, sc in ring; repeat from * 5 times; ch 2, sl st in 3rd ch of starting ch 5 for a total of 6 petals. Do not pull magic circle too tight.

Round 2: In same ch as sl st, work: sc, ch 3, sc in 2nd ch from hook, ch 1, dc, ch 2, sl st in top of dc just worked, ch 3, sc in 2nd ch from hook, ch 1, sc, ch 3, sc in 2nd ch from hook, ch 1; in next dc and in each of next 5 dc around work: *sc, ch 3, sc in 2nd ch from hook, ch 1, dc, ch 2, sl st in top of dc just made, ch 3, sc in 2nd ch from hook, ch 1, sc, ch 3, sc in 2nd ch from hook, ch 1; sl st in starting sc of this row; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finishing is simply a matter of adhering the layers onto the base ornament and adding a bit of bling.

Snowman Shaker Ornament

Technique: Die Cutting/Papercraft

Materials:
600gsm card stock
Tim Holtz Distress Inks:
* Faded Denim
acrylic paints
gel medium or adhesive of choice
old Christmas card
snowy glitter
scrap of acetate
craft snow
spray matte varnish

Tools:
Sizzix Big Shot machine
Tim Holtz Alterations
* Winter Wonderland die
* Base tray or Tags and Bookplates die
Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers
* Joy die
scissors
scalpel
Dremel tool

Run four sheets of card stock through the sizzix to get five snowman die cuts.  Put one through again using a base tray and the movers and shapers mini die to cut out the word JOY.  I don't have a base tray, but the tags and bookplates die has a large enough recess to fit the snowman into without cropping anything off him.

Stack the JOY snowman on top of one of the other snowmen and trace around the inside of the oval.

Draw around the inside oval.

When you take away the JOY snoman you will have a series of dotted lines where you drew around the oval, fill in the blanks and you should have an oval shape like this:

You should have an oval like this.

Use a craft scalpel or knife to carefully cut this oval shape out.  Now use that snowman to draw an oval on a second snowman blank and cut that out.  Confused?  You should now have:

1 x snowman with the word JOY cut into his belly

2 x snowman with ovals cut into his belly

2 x snowman with no alterations, put one of these aside for now, and use one as the base

Use the snowman with an oval belly as a template to cut a scene from the Christmas card.

Making the base: 

Glue the two snowman with ovals to an unaltered snowman base and allow to dry.  Glue the scene from the Christmas card into the recessed oval.

Decorating the top:

Take the JOY snowman and cut away his right arm.  Paint him white and ink the edges with a touch of faded denim distress ink.  Take the spare snowman and cut away his left arm, his hat and his nose.  Paint the hat black, the arm brown and the nose orange.  You can also paint the right arm on the base construction while you have the paints out.  Spray the snowman with a coat of matt varnish (you do this step now so it doesn't blemish the acetate).

Putting it all together:

You should have a base that has an oval recess with an image glued inside.  Cut a piece of acetate about a quarter of an inch larger than the oval recess.  Place a little snowy glitter inside the recess and glue the piece of acetate into place to seal it inside.  Glue the snowman with the JOY belly into place over the top of that and then glue the hat, nose and arm into place.  When dry drill a hole through the hat to hang him by and then add some craft snow.

Winter Bird Cage Ornament

Technique:  Die Cutting/Scrapbooking

Materials:
1.5mm balsa wood
acrylic paints
silk flowers and leaves
pva glue
winter fabric
adhesive crafting metal
snowflake sequins
tissue paper
Versacolour silver ink
seed beads

Tools:
Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine
Tim Holtz Alterations Caged Bird die
Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Floral die

Cut a piece of balsa the length of the die cutting plate and glue the fabric to the front and back using PVA glue.  Allow this to dry overnight, it's quite nasty to run a wet surface through the die cutter, so be patient!  Once cut, ink the raw edges of the die with the silver ink.

The bird was made using the left overs from making this snowflake embossed ornament. 

Run a stack of six sheets of tissue paper through the sizzix with the tattered floral die and ink the edges with the silver ink.  Stack one flower on top of the other, rotating each one slightly and securing with a dot of glue.  Place a bead of glue in the centre and add a few seed beads for the flower centre.  Leave it to dry thoroughly, then 'fluff' up the layers of the flowers to give volume and dimension.

Embellish with snowflake beads, silk leaves, ribbon or anything that you like.

Halloween in Wonderland Tag

Technique:  Papercraft

Materials:
tag
Tim Holtz Distress Inks:
* Aged Mahogany
* Spiced Marmalade
* Vintage Photo
* Walnut Stain
* Sage Green
* Peeled Paint
Wonderland Classifieds paper by Graphic 45
double sided adhesive foam
embellishments
ribbon

Tools:
Sizzix Big Shot
Tim Holtz Texture Fade:
* Halloween Night & Poison
paper distress tool
blending tools
scissors
stapler

This week's challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show is to Show a Tag.  I have been dreaming about my Halloween in Wonderland paper from Graphic 45 all week, so this was the excuse I needed to play.

The base tag was made out of left overs from last week's project, which was 600gsm inked with sage green and peeled paint and then splattered with droplets of water.  After die cutting my tag, I than ran it through the Big Shot using the Halloween Night Texture Fade to emboss.  The raised areas are inked with spiced marmalade, vintage photo and walnut stain.

Alice is cut from the Wonderland Classifieds paper.  I cut away her broomstick because I made a little one to replace it.  I also cut a slit across her arm where the broom handle sits so I could slide in the little wooden one I made.  The image of Alice is already yellow with some red distress so I didn't add anything further to her.

The sentiment is a Tim Holtz stamp, inked with Aged Mahogany and roughed up around the edges.  I think this sentiment is perfect for the Alice theme, as I think both her fears and dreams lay down the rabbit hole.  The poison comes from a piece of grungepaper embossed with the Poison label Texture Fade.  First I inked the texture fade with black and then ran through the grungepaper, then inked it with a little red and green.

Joy Christmas Tag

Technique:  Papercrafting

Materials:
grungepaper ornament base
600gsm card stock
glue
Antique Royal Coat
embellishments
Tim Holtz Distress Inks:
* Vintage Photo

Tools:
Tim Holtz Alterations:
* Tags and Bookplates die
Sizzix Big Shot
scissors
paintbrush

A few days back I showed you how I made the crackled grungepaper ornament.  The post is here in case you missed it.  

Today I am going to use the ornament to create my version of Tim's tag:

First off, here is the link to Tim's ornament, and his step by step instructions.  I haven't really deviated much in the way of technique, the main difference is I have chosen to use a few different materials.

The backing paper I used is a sheet of vintage Christmas decoupage paper which I aged with some antique Royal Coat (same stuff as Modge Podge), and then gave it a light sand and a white wash (literally a wash of watery white paint to lighten it).

I wanted to do something a little different with the cracked ornament also, so I sanded it lightly.  The sanding causes fine white dust, which falls into and fills the cracks, causing the white contrast.  I love this effect, it really brings out the cracks.

Show Your Favourite Stamp

Technique:  Stamping, Papercraft

Materials:
600gsm card stock
Tim Holtz Distress Inks:
* Bundled Sage
* Peeled Paint
* Walnut Stain
* Vintage Photo
* Aged Mahogany
Metallic Gold Ink

Tools:
Tim Holtz Christmas Miracle ATC Stamp
Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplates die
Glitz Distressing Stamp, or other sheet music stamp
paper distressing tool
scissors

This week's challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show was to show your favourite stamp.  Well I certainly didn't have the dilemma that the design team did, as I  have so few stamps to choose from (I could count them on one hand), however the postman  just brought me a package with the following goodies:

Tim Holtz Christmas Miracle ATC Stamp

Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplates die

Glitz Distressing Stamp

So the challenge for me, is not how to choose my favourite stamp, but how to use one of the only stamps I have in my possesion! :0)

The ATC stamps are a perfect size for showcasing on a tag, so I didn't have to think too hard about what to create  I used 600gsm cardstock as I prefer the durability over the manila tags.  The die creates a #8 size tag.

Ink the edges with Bundled Sage, coming well into the centre of the tag, then with Peeled Paint, and lastly  just the edges with Walnut Stain.  Wet your fingers with a mist spray and allow the droplets to fall onto the tag, this creates the lovely water stained effect.  Dry thoroughly.

Using metallic gold ink, stamp the background with the music sheet stamp.  Set aside to dry.

The ATC stamp is my first 'real' rubber stamp, as in red rubber, the few others that I have are the clear cling acrylic.  They do feel different to use.  I know last week I said I didn't like using the distress inks for inking, but I used the Black Soot ink today to put my ATC onto a piece of manilla card, and it worked beautifully.  I guess the different stamp mediums take up ink differently.

Heat set the image then cut out the stamp and distress the edges with the paper tool, and ink with Vintage Photo and Aged Mahogany.  Dog ear the upper right hand corner and ink with gold.

The strip of paper between the tag and the stamp was a free Christmas paper that you can download here.  Tear a strip and ink up the edges with Vintage Photo, and then just a smudge of metallic gold.

On top of that is a strip of music paper printed onto vellum.  I used We Wish You A Merry Christmas, but use whatever you like the most.  I cut a strip just slighly smaller than the strip of printed paper in the previous step, and I didn't ink it at all, just roughed up the edges with the paper tool.

The gold ink on the tag should be dry by now, so go ahead and glue on the torn strip of printed paper, and then the strip of printed vellum, and then the ATC image can be glued down.

If you have Tim Holtz calender stamps you can use one of those, I don't, so I found this fabulous vintage calender at Wyldhare's Hollow and used the December plate printed onto manila card.  Rough it up and ink with some Vintage Photo.  I attached this to the tag with a strip of double sided foam adhesive, to give it a little height.

Before you pack your inks away, use the Aged Mahogany and the Peeled Paint to colour two strips of white ribbon.  Using the Distress Inks to dye your own ribbon means you always have the exact shade you need.

I think one of the parts I enjoy the most is choosing the bling, but it is also one of the hardest aspects for me because I am very much a minimalist and less is always more to the extent that I often worry I am being too barren.  For this tag I used two staples and a paperclip as attachment bling, a few gold jingle bells, and of course the hand dyed ribbon with a few strands of gold crochet thread for sparkle.

I had a lot of fun making this tag, and I am really enjoying the challenges, each one teaches me something new.  Today I learned that:

1)  It's harder to tell when metallic inks are dry because they remain shiny.  I had to hide two little smudges on the tag, but shhh I won't tell if you won't!  

2)  Red rubber stamps feel different to stamp with than the clear acrylic type.  One of the acrylic stamps I have is by Kaisercraft, and it's a little 'squishy', that is if you press hard the detail squishes and you get a blurred image.  The red rubber seems to be able to tolerate a much firmer touch.

3)  There are some items I will try and substitute or find alternatives for, but I will never, ever regret investing in my Distress Inks!

There are lots of things I wanted to do differently, but lacked the tools.  For example, I have no embossing powders, no perfect pearls or stickles, a limited palette of distress inks and four rubber stamps!  But that's part of the challenge for me too, finding a way to work within my limitations.  This also counts as my first ever rubber stamped project, will I look back in a year and cringe? :o)

Thankyou to Simon Says Stamp, and bless the design team for wading through my terribly long posts!

Snowflake Embossed Carved Ornament

Technique:  Die Cutting/Scrapbooking

Materials:
1.5mm balsa wood
adhesive craft metal

Tools
snowflake texture plate or embossing folder
Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutter
Tim Holtz Carved Ornament Die
"JOY" Movers and Shakers Die

What a stunningly simple ornament this turned out to be!

Cover both sides of the balsa wood with the craft metal.  Run it through the die cutter to get the carved ornament shape, then run it through again to emboss with the snowflake pattern.  Punch a hole in the top and hang.  Did I mention I love my Big Shot?

If you have never seen nor used it before, craft metal is very thin metal that has an adhesive backing.  It's around 4 or 5 times thicker than tin foil, but it has a similar appearance.  You could try this using tin foil, in fact I am going to do just that and report my findings, but for this project I used adhesive craft metal.

You can buy embossing folders that are especially designed for use in die cutting machines to emboss a texture into your chosen material.  I am a huge fan of using what you have, or buying products and tools that have multiple applications rather than needing to buy lots of individual items each with their own specific single use.  So, to emboss, I used a Fiskar texture plate that I had purchased years ago for a scrapbooking ornament.

For those who have a Bigshot, the 'sandwich' I used was the adapter plate with no tabs, cutting mat, fiskars texture plate, ornament, then topped off with a cutting pad.

Vintage Bird Cage Ornament

Technique:  Die Cutting/Scrapbooking

Materials:
1.5mm balsa wood
'decor' crackle medium
acrylic paints
antiquing medium
silk flowers and leaves
butterfly embellishment
pva glue
fine grade sandpaper
matte varnish

Tools:
Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine
Tim Holtz Alterations Caged Bird die

Oh I love my die cutter indeed I do! Just for fun I entered this project into the "Anything Goes" Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge.

Cut 2 bird cages from balsa wood and glue together.  You could use just one thickness, or use chipboard/cardstock if you prefer, but I love working with the balsa.

When dry, apply two coats of base colour, front and back.  I used Jo Sonja Antique Green.

There are different types of crackle mediums and paints available, and they can create different types of aging in your work.  For this project I used Jo Sonja Decor Crackle Medium, which is a 'sandwich' crackle.  This means you apply a base coat, then a coat of crackle medium, then a contrasting top coat, and the crackle medium will cause the top coat to crack as it dries, allowing the base coat to show through.  Apply a coat of crackle medium according to the directions on bottle, and then your top coat.  I chose a plain white for my project because I planned to antique it.  Allow to dry overnight.

Using the sandpaper, distress the cage further.  Go a bit heavier in some spots to let more base coat show through, attack the edges, you don't have to be delicate!  When you have the appearance you are happy with, you can age it further by using an antiquing medium.  Again there are lots of ways you can antique a project.  You can mix a little drying retarder with burnt umber acrylic paint and rub that over your project to age and darken it.  You can buy ready made antiquing liquids that are primarily just a mixture of drying retarder and acrylic paint.  For this project I used a Tim Holtz Distress Ink to add a dark tinge to the edges.  It's subtle but it's there, shame on me for not taking before and after photos to show you.

Once the whole lot is dry, give front and back a coat of matte varnish.  When that is dry, use hot glue to attach your embellishments.  Hang and admire!