Wax, Paper & Acetate

Wax, Paper & Acetate

Hi there!

Fancy a little break from the
festivities?  A moment for yourself?

Here's a project from Craftyfield:

Acetate is a sure way of introducing something different

 in your card making and there are plenty of ways to play

 with the transparent aspect of it but 

today I chose to use it as my card base.

 To cut the base card I folded my A4 sheet of acetate 

in 2 and placed the fold within the cutting line of the square die. 

To hold it in place I use Removable tape.

I wanted to emboss the sides of the card and used 

a narrow embossing mat with a wall texture embossing folder 

I cut this one from a large size embossing mat 

and I have found useful to have small mats in 

different shapes to do partial embossing such as this

Another fun technique with embossing folders 

is using them with Wax paper.

 I embossed a wood texture in the wax paper. 

The photo is showing that I am 

wrapping the paper inside a folded A4 sheet of standard paper. 

This is because wax paper is very thin and will tear if embossed on its own. 

If you wish, you can use a single piece of cardstock instead 

and save it for another project

Next I created a sandwich with from bottom up:

The card for the project

The wax paper

A spare piece of cardstock

I wrapped the sandwich in greaseproof paper 

(or baking sheets) to protect my iron. 

Since I only wanted the design on the edges, 

I used a scrap piece of paper as a mask,

 identifiable in the photo by the green blob. 

I then ironed the sandwich using a cotton setting but NO STEAM. 

It only takes 30 seconds for the wax to melt onto the paper

With the mask still in place I applied 

Distress inks over the melted wax design.

I used a piece of plastic packaging as additional 

protection chosen because it is see-through.

With the borders inked, I proceeded to the stamping 

of the Dandelions, not with ink but with Judikins Micro Glaze 

which is a paraffin wax (i.e petroleum jelly). 

This will resist any waterbased mediums applied later.

I used my finger to apply the wax, be sure to go lightly to catch only the top of the stamp for a reasonably defined design

 I sprayed water on my cardstock and started sprinkling 

Brushos in black and blue around the Dandelions heads. 

I kept adding powder and water until I was happy the 

Dandelions were “revealed”

Next I assembled the card. For a perfect finish I needed 

3 additional pieces of cardstock, 

all the same size as the decorated panel. 

This way there is no glue showing and 

of course there is somewhere to write the message!

Clockwise I glued the decorated panel with 

double sided tape to avoid any glue 

spoiling the front of the card.

The second piece is easy to place by gluing it 

on the back of the decorated panel (not shown).

For the third piece (the message panel), I

 used removable tape to temporarily 

adhere on top of my second piece. 

I applied the glue 

(I used liquid just to give myself a bit more working time), 

closed the card on top of the panel. 

When the glue has dried open the card and 

remove the temporary adhesive by 

rubbing with your fingers or an eraser

Finally the fourth and last panel is glued to the back. 

It can be left bare for additional writing space or decorated as well.

A closer look at the Dandelions

Materials:

Acetate

Removable tape

Wax Paper

Walnut Distress inkpad and Antique Linen inkpad

Lavinia Dandelions

Brushos Starter pack 12 set

Double sided tape

Stix2 Tape pen removable adhesive

Tacky glue liquid adhesive

Embossing Folders

Hmmm.......... I had wondered what an iron was for! Haha!

Thank you Craftyfield that is a super card
with just the right amount of crispness for a
cold winter's day

See you all tomorrow folks...

Mickie xx

Collage

Collage

Hallo Everyone

Here we are and it is Friday again!

Woohoo!

Crafty Field is with us today

to share her lovely project

with us, so sit back, relax

and enjoy

 I like Collage, so very arty don't you think? 

But rather than spend lots of time gluing beautiful papers on top of each other, 

I selected one of the many Collage stamps available to do the work for me.

This is a quick and easy way to get the look of collage... 

Of course I couldn't leave it at that 

and introduced one variable that made the process more messy 

but SO rewarding!

I used a stiff brush (hog hair/oil brush) to apply the powder to the stamp. 

Since there is no water or ink to hold the Brushos I press hard with the brush.

Now I spray water on the stamp, the finer the mist the better. 

Also to minimise the powders being blown away I try to let the 
water fall on the stamp and not spray directly on it.

This is the stamp after the first impression.

 It looks like there isn't enough powder doesn't it?

 And yet...

... see how many prints I did!

I first used watercolour paper and the prints in the photo are numbered

 in order of stamping. 

I did add a bit of powder each time 

but only on the areas that were a bit faint.

This is cold press paper and the grain is slightly too pronounced 

to render the beautiful detail of the stamp. 

I had to try with standard cardstock...
I cleaned the stamp completely 

before applying the powders as before.

 Those are the result on the cardstock. 

Note that I have not added any powder at all between impressions, 

just water, and obtained 4 decent prints

 (the central motif on the fifth one below is hardly visible).

I am now considering packaging the prints into a cards & envelope gift. 

Same design and yet each individual!

I finished one card with twine and a simple die cut with a sentiment

also by Crafty Individuals.

 


And it would be a lot more difficult to create the vivid look of the inks with inkpads... Yes, I tried!

I hope you like this project and if so, have a go, it is great fun!

Materials used:

Crafty Individuals Stamps

Watercolour Card

Card stock

Card Blanks 

Brushos

Archival Ink

Thank you Crafty Field

A different take on Collage 
but one that works very well
as a card


Catch you all tomorrow

Mickie xx

Red and Gold

Red and Gold

Hi Everyone

The Countdown begins!

Did you remember to get

the Advent Calendars out?

To start the new month

we have a beautiful card from

Crafty Field and here she is to tell

you about it:

Red and gold is such a classic, 

I love to use it for Christmas cards 

as it gives an opulent and elegant feel.

By using a background stamp with the 

"Triple Time Stamping" technique 

you get a totally different look 

and here I have added a twist by not using 

mats behind my embossed panels but 

changing the colour of the middle panel instead.

This is how I did it:

Using embossing ink, I stamped and embossed in gold

 the Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card Ornate Floral, 

once on white card and once on red Mirri card.

From the mirri card I die-cut a 5 1/2" square 

and a 3" square from the centre.

From the white card I die-cut a 4 1/2" square 

also from the centre, trying to be as accurate

 as possible as the design is symmetric 

and will need to match up when layered.

Here I am trying the layers of embossed card 

and a piece of black ribbon. 

As you can see the stamping isn't perfect on the middle square 

(Mirri card is slippery) and this gave me idea 

to try the ribbon on top rather than under this panel 

before consigning it to the bin.

Thankfully it worked, so I added my sentiment, 

die cut from gold cardstock on top of the ribbon.

At this time of the year it is difficult to catch enough sun 

for a decent photo but I managed to catch enough rays 

to show you the shine in this close-up.

I hope I have inspired you to try this technique, 

or one of the many variations...

Supplies:

Impression Obsession - Ornate Floral 

Versamark Inkpad 

Gold Embossing powder 

Mirri card 

Merry Christmas die 

Card Base 

Ribbon

Great start to the month, thank you

Crafty Field

See you again tomorrow everyone

Mickie xx

Snowflakes

Snowflakes

Hi there!

You need to get comfy and maybe

brew a nice cuppa too

This tutorial from Crafty Field

requires a little concentration - 

not, I hasten to add, because it is

difficult but because it is full

of brilliant ideas

Read on..

Batch making Christmas cards is a good idea 

if you want to make lots of cards in a minimum time.

 It also saves on supplies and I am a thrifty crafter, 

however, I don't like making lots and lots of similar cards, 

I get bored easily... Hence my idea... 

I bought Tando Mini Snowflakes 

thinking how I could use them in different ways. 

First I pushed each Snowflake through and obtained a stencil, 

which is actually the "waste" part. 

Using 2 shades of Color Bloom sprayed

 on a piece of watercolour paper.

 The Color Bloom sprays are very good 

to give a good definition as the spray is very fine 

and so dries quicker instead of spreading, 

especially underneath the stencil. 

However, as this makeshift stencil is a lot thicker 

than the usual plastic ones, I really needed to spray 

from above rather than from the side. 

Still I can live with blurry snowflakes...

 Secondly I did the opposite by spraying the 

Color Blooms over the Snowflake shapes themselves.

 In a twofer (2 for one) I now have a background 

and some coloured snowflakes!

 Once dried this is what they look like

 Next I thought of using my stencil as an embossing plate. 

It is important when doing this to create the appropriate sandwich, 

starting with what your machine recommends for embossing folders.

 From there add shims until you get enough pressure.

For an even more detailed embossing, I placed the Snowflakes 

on top of the holes where they used to be, but over the embossed card. 

[This mimics what an embossing folder does] 

In the photo, the Tan thing with Snowflake outlines is my embossing mat 

which has taken some of the "dust" from the laser cutting off the snowflakes.

 A bit of Treasure Gold to highlight the texture....

Finally as embellishment I tried molding additional snowflakes

 by pushing some paper clay through the stencil. 

This experiment wasn't entirely successful so 

I wouldn't recommend it unless you're as stubborn as I am! 

3 shapes made the cut (just) and I rubbed them with Treasure Gold. 

A sentiment die-cut from gold paper finishes the card.

There you have it Snowflakes 4 ways!

And now I can make a few more cards with the 

results of this experiment AND I still have all of the 

Snowflakes to play with. 

What a bargain was that!

 The finished card

Supplies:

Watercolour paper

Tando Creative minis Snowflakes 

Color Blooms sprays  

Treasure Gold 
Gold card  

Sentiment die  

Air dry clay 

Thank you Crafty Field 

I'm off to make a batch of cards.........

See you all again tomorrow

Mickie xx