Archiving

Archiving

Hallo All!

Is everyone enjoying the Bank Holiday

Weekend?  Don't party too hard,

remember we have another one coming

up in, what is it?.........Three weeks!

(That is of course if you are in England!)

I'm sure one way or another you will all

have something to celebrate ................

 ..................if you want to.....!

Here's Hazel Harler to round off

the week style

"Hi everybody, I have a card to share 

with you today

I used some of the lovely papers from the 

Kaisercraft Wildflowers paper pad

I also used Paperartsy/Lin Brown stamps.

 I started by distressing and inking the edges

 of the paper, I stamped some dots in two of the 

corners using cobalt archival ink, 

the paper was adhered to a card blank

I stamped some leaves on a strip of paper

 and wrapped some thread round it.

 Then I stamped the script with black Archival ink 

and stamped the grass with leaf green 

and olive Archival inks, 

the dots were stamped with the cobalt ink.

I made some flowers using Spellbinders dies,

 the flowers were distressed, layered together 

and fastened with a brad

 I took the butterfly paper and drew round 

three of the butterflies with a black marker 

then I cut them out.

I layered all the prepared pieces onto

 the card blank. 

I shaped the wings of the butterflies and 

used a Wink of Stella pen to give

them some sparkle. 

I stamped the words and cut them out 

lastly I added some dewdrops"

Supplies:

Card blank.
Kaisercraft Wildflower paper pad.
Archival ink - black, cobalt, leaf green and olive.
Paperartsy/Lin Brown stamps.
Green metalic thread.
Spellbinder dies or any other flower dies.
Brads.
Dewdrops.
Wink of Stella pen.
Adhesives.

A beautiful card Hazel

and I love the sentiment too

Thank you very much for sharing this

with us

I have enjoyed this week's topic

haven't you? 

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Archiving

Archiving

Hi There!

How're you doing?  Everything

going according to plan for you

I hope. 

Of course, if the plan isn't working

then just embrace the chaos.........!

Craftyfield here today bringing a

sense of calm and serenity.....

You might want to make a cuppa

before you read on......

 "At long last I sat down to make a layout... 

I don't make them so often nowadays because 

it takes me a lot of time to complete a single page. 

Not because of the size, but the amount of time 

I spend looking (and stroking) papers, 

embellishments and such.

The design is never cast in stone and evolves with 

my mood and what I find in my stash.

Without a detailed plan things can, and do, 

go wrong, so one of the thing I do is use supplies 

that will allow me flexibility. 

For instance, iIf I'm not sure whether I'll be 

using wet media I will use permanent ink and 

strong paper. I don't glue paper all around but 

leave a margin so I can slip items behind or 

glue at the last minute when everything 

else is complete.

I chose a lovely Vintage paper from Kaisercraft,

 double sided (one never knows when

 the reverse will be seen...). 

Their collections usually include a sheet of 

3x4 images and one of mixed sizes and 

sometimes coordinating stamps as well. 

My chosen base paper is from the Mademoiselle 

collection and I started by cutting 1/2" on 2 sides 

before punching and distressing them.

I love using old stash on my layouts, 

do you remember those Martha Stewart punches?

 Well, they're perfect here as the paper

 is too large for my die-cut machine!

This paper has a lot of "white space" 

for customisation and I wanted 

to add stencilling. 

I couldn't resist using the Distress Oxides here

 to see how it would react with wet media later!

For comparison purposes I stamped 

this Kaisercraft image with Distress Oxides 

before switching to Archival in black 

and Potting soil. [by the time you read this 

I will be in possession of a set of 

Archival in bright shades but the minis haven't 

made it to my stash yet].

For more texture I used one of the latest 

Lin Brown sets (Paper Artsy).

Ready for the sprays....

I used several colours of Prima Blooms sprays 

and coloured a piece of paper lace as well. 

The images stamped with Archival didn't budge at all. 

I inked the lace with pink on top to be more

 in keeping with the colours of the page.

Another use of Archival is to stamp on sleek surfaces 

such as glass, metal etc... 

What better way to customise this large brad 

than to stamp it with the same image 

I have used throughout the layout!

I saw this Vintage portrait on a Bo Bunny paper 

and had to have it on this layout. 

Nothing wrong about mixing collections....

I like making my own embellishments 

or at the very least make them my own 

by painting, embossing or distressing them. 

I coated the buttons with gesso, 

then with paints and added gel medium 

and micro beads. 

I "dyed" a scrap of calico to represent a fabric roll.

On a whim I added the word Wish 

stencilled in Starlight paint. 

Now it's time to sew, glue and pull everything together.

I add a bit of Starlight here and there 

on the buttons, butterflies...

Supplies:

Kaisercraft Paper 

Sunburst Stencil 

Inspiration stencil

Kaisercraft stamp 

ELB33 Paper Artsy stamp set 

Distress Oxides inks

Distress inks 

Archival inks

Prima Bloom sprays 

Gesso 

DecoArt paints

Gel medium 

Starlight paints

Butterfly die-cuts

Martha Stewart Punch around the page punches,

 buttons, paper lace, brad from my stash.

 This really is a beautiful page

Craftyfield and for me, the way

you have tackled customising the

embellishments is a masterstroke.

Many, many thanks for sharing

'Till 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