On the Case

On the Case

Hallo Everyone!

Hope your week has started off

well and will continue on the up

We have a great week planned

and here is Louise Thomson to

start us off.....

"When my hubby and I got married, 

a friend of ours gave us a 'treasure box' to

 keep all the little bits and pieces you

 gather over the years from dates and 

holidays and such like. 

I loved it so much that I've made one for

 pretty much everyone I know who's got 

married since! 

This one is destined for a friend who is

 getting married shortly and is having

 a literary themed wedding. 

It started out life as very ordinary

 office storage.

I gave the whole box a couple of coats of 

gesso primer.

While the gesso dried, I stamped this incredible 

impression obsession book stamp in archival 

cobalt blue ink.

I kept going until the whole piece of

 tissue paper was coated!

Then mixed some pva and water and 

used it to cover the top of the box.

The base of the box also got a coating in gesso,

 followed by a coating of starlight paint in turquoise.

With the starlight paint dry, I softened 

the look using fresco paint in chalk, which I

 then sanded back. 

I also added in some scraps of paper, 

stencilling, and a few paint splatters for 

good measure!

I made a background card using 

distress oxide inks. I smooshed them on 

to my non stick mat, spritzed with water 

and picked up the colour on the card. 

I repeated this several times, 

drying between each layer.

Next I added some stencilling.

This was followed by some script stamping 

and some die cut birds and lettering.

To the top of the box I added more stencilling, 

this time using grunge paste.

 I repeated this stencil several times to 

build up the background.

 I also added some more of the floral stencil.

Once the grunge paste had dried, I replaced the

 floral stencil and added colour using

 cracked pistachio and worn lipstick distress oxides.

Using some leftover background card I cut

 out some little birds using an impression obsession

 die set.

I fiddled about with the layout for a long time

 adding some gorgeous graphic 45 papers

 and a few little extra details such as the

 stitching in this picture.

A feather quill from a Bo Bunny stamp set.

More inking and stamping

This picture shows up the earlier stencilling better, 

and a little bird die. 

I 'hid' birds perched all around the book shelves

 just for fun.

I looked up some quotes online and found 

this rather romantic one which comes from 

one of my friends favourite books. 

The background here is made by spritzing card

 with color bloom.

Finally the finished layout!"

Materials list;

Office filing box

White Gesso

Impression Obsession Cover a Card stamp - Books

White Tissue paper

Archival ink mini set one

Starlights paint - turquoise

Fresco paints - Chalk

Paper scraps from stash

Tim holtz layering stencil - floral

Distress oxides

Non-stick craft mat

Heat gun

Blending tool

Kaisercraft 12x12 mini mix stencil

Grunge paste

Impression Obsession small bird set die

Sizzix thinlits die delicate lower case

Bo bunny - Birds of a feather

Color bloom spray – Sorbet

Micron fineliner

Thank you Louise.  Your friend

is going to be so pleased with

her box after all the thought 

you have put into it.  

Such a lovely idea for a wedding

gift.  There are so many bits and pieces that

we collect on our journey through life

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Fond Farewell

Fond Farewell

Hi There!

It's the end of the week already!

For any of you as time

 challenged as me I would advise 

a more realistic expectation 

of what we can achieve in a

 week is called for........

Louise Thomson is with us

today to share a leaving card

"I started this project by applying strips

 of random Washi tape on to a piece of 

white card.

I gave it a coating in Nougat

 fresco paint, followed by 

some jade paint.

 I added water and wiped back some 

of the jade fresco paint to keep it

 light and textured.

Using more fresco paints as an ink, 

I stamped the IO clouds stamp.

 The archival ink used here is permanent

 and perfect for stamping over shinier

 surfaces like that of the Washi tape.

 I ended up using three of the four 

colours in the new archival mini set one.

 I wanted a bit more texture so I 

used a set of nesting circle dies 

to create rings

Then on a spare piece of paper I

 stamped the air balloon again,

 cut it out and mounted it using

 lots of 3d foam pads.

Next I used dies to cut out the 

lettering I wanted...

and spritzed with colour bloom

 for a shimmery, textured finish 

 I added the lettering and highlighted it 

using fineliner, then popped a border 

around the edge to finish."

Materials;

Washi tape

White card

Fresco paints (Nougat and jade)

Impression obsession cover a card, clouds

Bo bunny stamp set; Dreamer

Mini archival ink set one

Nesting circle dies

Sizzix alphabet dies

Colour bloom fir needles

Kaisercraft paper

Sakura pens

A lovely card Louise,

many thanks

Entirely appropriate for

us too as we go on to

a new week.....

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Fond Farewell

Fond Farewell

Hallo Everyone,

Our subject today is the

final farewell and probably

the hardest one to say

Craftyfield is here with

a beautifully simple card

"Bereavement is one of these difficult 

card occasions and it is best 

to be prepared with a ready made card. 

Failing that, this quick and easy CAS 

card should come in handy if you 

need a Sympathy card at short notice.

For subject matters, I err on the side 

of caution and only use flowers, 

these are not times to try out

 the weird, funny or grungy...

I selected this beautiful flower, using

 only the one stem because a single

bloom has a poignancy that a 

(cheerful) bouquet doesn't.

This design will work with pretty much

 any flowers, including all the lovely 

Honeydoo flower stamps.

For a quick card and a CAS design 

dot the cardstock with paints 

and run a palette knife or gift card 

(used up of course!) to spread the paint.

 No need to fuss but I tried to keep 

the surface smooth since I intended

 to stamp on top.

The Fresco paints I used dry quickly and

 do not buckle the card if applied

 sparingly as I did.

 I inked the flower in pink first and 

added some violet towards the 

bottom of the flower. 

With the smaller pads this mixing colours

 on the stamp is a lot easier than with the 

regular Archival pads!

Because the Fresco paints are matt 

there's no need to heat set the inks, 

but to make sure everything is dry 

before handling a quick blast with the 

heat gun is a good idea.

Before sticking to my base card I 

die-cut the cardstock with a simple

 rectangular shape.

As I finished the card, I got commissioned 

to make a tag to for a remembrance,

 which needed to be water resistant, 

since it would be outside (on a flower pot).

 I used the same Archival inks and against 

the white you get a better idea of how 

deep and vibrant the colours are. 

After stamping, I applied gel medium on 

both sides and now my tag will be waterproof.

Supplies:

Fresco paints
Honeydoo flower
Archival mini inkpads
Archival black inkpad

Sentiment from my own collection."

Thank you Craftyfield

for a beautiful project

and a very handy tip

for waterproofing a

tag

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx