Metal & Acetate: jewellery

Hi,
Today Gio had made a gorgeous little set for you which would make a great gift: a little altered box with matching earrings.
Absolutely LOVE this... and can't wait to hear what you think.

Don't forget you can click the little review "boxes" at the bottom if you don't have time to leave a comment. It does help us to see what projects you like to see on this blog.

For the earrings:
I cut out two circles from a Metal sheet - real copper. I embossed them using Craft Concept embossing folder: Sun rays.
Now the magic: I put the metal near a flame, until the metal changes colour. You can get always different effects depending how long you heat it.
I stamped a sheet of acetate with Black Stazon using Katzelkraft rubber stamps - Sandglass. 
I cut out two little clocks from the acetate and I glued them with Glossy accents to the metal circles. I put an eyelet and added the Fish hook Earwire.

For the little box:

I cut out a circle of metal. I distressed the edge with a rolling wheel from Ten Seconds Basic set. 

I cut out the circle in 4 parts and I embossed them separately, using Cuttlebug folders and a Craft Concept embossing folder. 

I added a bit of colour with Viva Pardo Precious Metal paint.

I glued the 4 pieces to the metalllic tin, previously coloured with ranger Alcohol Ink pitch black. 

I added the stamped acetate with Glossy accents.

I even created two little stands for the earrings, using leftovers of acetate

I made a second version cutting out the greatest circles from a stamped acetate using Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz: Flourish ATC stamp, and the smallest ones from metal.

Material used:

acetate 

Metal sheet - real copper

Katzelkraft unmounted rubber stamps - Sandglass

Craft Concept embossing folder: Rays and Retro circles set

Viva Precious Metal paints: lime, lilac, yellow, blackberry

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz: Flourish ATC stamp 

StazOn Jet black

Cuttlebug embossing folder: floral Fantasy

Cuttlebug embossing folder: mesh

Glossy Accents

Ten Seconds Basic set

ranger alcohol ink 

Fish hook Earwire: black 

Split Rings 5mm 

See you tomorrow

Metal & Acetate: a few tips

Hello, 
Hope you had a lovely weekend. 
New week, new theme: Metal and acetate. Lovely combination to make very stylish cards (and other projects) as you will see throughout the week.
Michelle is your host today, giving you a few tips if you have never stamped on acetate (or tried and never succeeded).

Assemble everything you need before you start, be prepared and take a deep breath.........then exhale, repeat three times and you will be 'in the zone'

Seriously it does help to have everything at hand, including some alcohol ink blending solution and a bit of kitchen towel to wipe away mistakes

Make sure that your block is the right size for your stamp. If it's too big you will tend to rock when you put pressure on the stamp and it will blur.

Work with your acetate over a sheet of white paper so you can see what you are doing. 

Tip of the day

Make sure your acetate sheet is flat, if you need to crease it to make a card, do it after your stamp has dried so you are working on a perfectly flat surface.

Ink up your stamp with Stazon Ink. Holding your stamp perfectly level lower it onto your acetate (Press lightly and hold in place for a few seconds then lift gently and vertically up from the acetate holding the acetate as it sometimes sticks to the stamp. If you are using an acrylic or clear stamp try stamping without any pressure for a perfect image as they do tend to spread a little

Don't worry if you make a mistake, just wipe it off with some blending solution and a piece of kitchen towel. Leave to dry well then try again!

If you stamped vertically onto the acetate then lifted the stamp vertically from it you should have a lovely sharp image. Leave it to dry well.

To finish the card I stamped the Cover-a-card cloud stamp onto glossy card using a dye ink. After trimming it to fit my card and laying the acetate image in place to see where to stamp, I stamped the sentiment onto the cloud background.

I trimmed the acetate to fit the front of the card then attached it with a thin length of DS Tape which I then covered with a ribbon. These stamps are so beautiful they need little in the way of embellishment, the simple beauty is so very appealing!

Impression Obsession - Gary Robertson designs: Ocracoke lighthouse

Impression Obsession - Cover-a-card: Clouds

Hobby Art Clear Stamps: By The Sea

Clear Acetate - 10 sheets

StazOn ink pad - jet black

Alcohol Blending Solution

See you tomorrow 

Simply Saturday cover a card

Hi, 
Welcome to our last day of Cover-a-Card week. We hope you enjoyed it. 
Today, Gay is showing you how she made her vibrant papers she used on a card and Art Journal page. 
Let us know what you think ;)

I used watercolour paints and painted and covered a large sheet of 300gsm rough watercolour paper, sprayed with cosmic shimmer mica mists and then stamped with IO cover a card Stamps. By cutting the result into strips it was easy to move them about until I achieved the colour contrasts that I was looking for. I punched a large circle to include one of the coloured areas that I really liked. Playing about with the shapes gave me an idea how they could lay on the card and then I chose the sentiments to compliment the shapes created by the strips.

I made a journal page with one of the strips. 

I used Cover a Card Stamps:

Thin Stripes

Ornate Floral

Vines

Cosmic Shimmer misters

Personal Impressions: Just Because

As for water colouring, you have several options on our site:

Watercolour paper can be found in the Specialty paper here

Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks

Cosmic Shimmer water colouring sets

Zig Art & Graphic pens

See you next week

Have a great weekend

FREE POSTAGE

FREE POSTAGE ON ALL UK ORDERS

from 6pm Friday 27th January until 6pm Thursday 2nd February 

For EU customers free postage applies to orders above £20 and 

for deliveries to the rest of the world to orders above £30.

**********

**FRAIS DE PORT GRATUITS 

POUR TOUTES LES COMMANDES POUR LE UK**

de 6pm vendredi 27 Janvier jusqu'à 6pm jeudi 2 février 

pour l'Europe, les frais de port sont gratuits pour toute commande au-dessus de £20

et pour toute commande au-dessus de £30 pour le reste du monde

Cover a Card: scrapbooking

Hello everyone, 
As Isa'sArt is taking a little break, I will be the one contributing to this week Cover-a-Card with this scrapbook page. 
This is not something which happens very often as I am mainly a digital scrapbooker (because it's quicker and I have tons of pictures and very little time), but I really enjoyed making this page. 
Here's how I made it. 

 1/ Take any plain scrapbook page. I think this one was Basic Grey, but it does not matter. You can even use a plain 12x12 card which you ink up with Distress inks. Using the BG one meant that I did not have to ink it up (told you I was short on time lol). Stamp the background randomly with the Woodgrain Cover-a-Card stamp and Sepia Versafine ink. 

2/ Stamp Cover-a-Card newsprint using Smokey Grey Versafine. 

Tip of the day

Only ink up the centre part of your stamp to avoid the straight edges. You will get a more "natural" look

3/ Spritz your background (lightly) with Cosmic Shimmer Bronze mister

4/ Ink up the edges of the page to match some colours of your pictures (used Versamagic Oasis Green) and stamp Newsprint again in the corners in black this time for a better contrast.

5/ Add your pictures (I used double sided tape for the 1st one, 1mm foam squares for the second and 2 mm for the third picture).

6/ Cut the TH Caged Bird from recycled cardboard (keep those boxes from  the famous online book store starting with A. They are perfect). Ink it up with the Oasis Green Versamagic and stamp it with the Newsprint stamp.

6/ Die-cut branches with TH Festive greenery in colours that match your pictures and add them to your page.

Details:

Self-adhesive pearl added for the eye

Newsprint stamped on the chipboard letters

"A gift from" attached with 3D foam squares

Distress Stickles added to the bird cage

Material used:

Impression Obsession Cover-a-card stamps Woodgrain and Newsprint

Inks: Distress inks, Versafine and Versamagic

Cosmic Shimmer Bronze Blush mister 

Die: TH Caged bird & Festive Greenery

Self-adhesive pearl

foam squares

Distress Stickles

Hope you enjoyed this. 

See you tomorrow

Cover a Card: Wrapping and AJ

Hi,
How about some wrapping and Art Journaling for today with our Italian inspirational  Gio. Lovely idea to make your own wrapping paper. Always better than Thomas the Tank engine when you realise you have run out of wrapping paper for the last minute present... 
Let's see how Gio mastered that one... 

I cut out some simple shapes from a piece of acetate, a circle and a diamond. 
I start to stamp a sheet of newsprint using the stencil and a IO Cover a card -swirls and flourishes, using different mediums.
I even cut out from a sheet of acetate an high heel shoe and I stamped the newsprint with TH Distress ink . I outlined the shoes with the help of the stencil, with a black permanent pen.

This is the template I used:

You can use these newsprint to wrap gifts, make background for scrapbooking pages, cards or AJ.

I used mine to wrap some presents

and to make an AJ page:

I covered the page with Claudine Hellmuth Multi medium Matte , I glued a piece of newsprint paying attention to create some wrinkles, to add texture to the background. 

I even highlighted the wrinkles with TH Distress ink Worn Lipstick.

I cut out a shoe from another piece of stamped newsprint and I traced out the silhouette with Claudine Hellmuth gesso. I glued it to the page.

I stamped and cut out the sentiment with the Crafty Secrets Alphabet stamp and TH Distress Ink. 

Material used:

Impression Obsession Cover a card Swirls , Flourishes

Artcoe Blue bell spiral cartrige book: short edge A5 

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints: Haystack - Guacamole - Orchid 

Archival Ink Coffee, Crimson

Acetate

TH Distress Stains Peeled Paint, Dusty Concord and Wild Honey

TH Distress ink WornLipstick- Broken China - DustyConcord - Aged Mahogany- Mustard Seed

Claudine Hellmuth Multimedium Matte

Claudine Hellmuth gesso

Crafty Secret Alphabet stamp

See you tomorrow

Cover a Card: Cards

Hello, 
Today is Michelle's turn or "how to make 3 beautiful and very different cards with one stamp". 
It's amazing how you can achieve such different looks depending on the technique you use, don't you think?
Here's how Michelle made her cards... 

On the first card I stamped the tree Impression Obsession - Cover-a-card: Branches with Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad - thyme and embossed it with clear embossing powder, then inked the card with TH Distress Ink pads. The card was then mat and layered and embellished with Shapeabilities - Banner basics three.

I then cut a deep yellow insert which I stamped with one of the stamps from Katzelkraft rubber stamps - 

Katzelkraft rubber stamps: Norris and JMC: nature quotes

Cover-a-card: Branches

Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad

Detail embossing powder: clear

Shapeabilities - Banner basics three

****

This card was very simply stamped with TH bundled sage ink. I cut it out then printed the sentiment in place.

Distress Ink pad: Bundled sage

Cover-a-card: Branches

****

To make this card I first stamped the tree image onto white card with Pumice Stone ink.

 Stamped the bird from TH Urban Chic set, then printed the sentiment as before. I had some grungy music card in my stash which was perfect for making a gate fold card on which to mount the image. On the outside I pasted black Dreamweaver paste through Dreamweaver crows stencil onto the same card and cut to fit when dry. The sentiment was just hand written on the front after mounting on sticky pads with the ribbon behind.

Cover-a-card: Branches

Distress Ink pad: Pumice stone

Versafine ink pad - black

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz: Urban chic

Dreamweaver stencil: crows

Dreamweaver embossing paste: matte black

See you tomorrow

Cover a Card: book cover

Hi, 
Back today with a book cover and a very cool technique which Linda chose to show you on her sample today.
I have not tried this myself (well, not with paint), but probably will, love the effect, isn't it gorgeous?
ok, over to you Linda...

Along with the Wallpaper Cover-a-Card stamp I used Lord Tim's Shabby Chic technique to create this simple Scrapbook Cover. I am a Cover-a-Card stamp virgin ... it may be my first time ... but it certainly aint gonna be my last ... No lining up and matching edges ... No hitting and hoping ... Just stamp once and you are good to go ... Perfick!

I painted two pieces of 6" by 6" board squares with Black Acrylic ... waited until it was dry and then stamped the Cover-a-Card plate in Versamark ink and embossed with clear powder. I then painted a layer of Eco Mulch and Pure Gold over the top and waited it for it to almost dry naturally. Next I spritzed with water and wiped with a soft cloth to resist the embossing. Simple!

Products Used
Cover-A-Card Wallpaper stamp
Versamark Ink pad
Clear embossing powder
Heat tool
Idea-Ology Ornate Plate
Grunge paper
White Acrylic paint
Rock Candy Distress Stickles
Eco paint: Black; Pure Gold; Mulch
Bind-it-All
Glossy Accents
Fired Brick Distress Ink
Sizzix Tattered Florals Die
Steampunk Clock face charm


See you tomorrow

Cover a Card: Distress cards

Hi, 
Hope you had a lovely weekend :)


This week we will be talking about backgrounds, or more precisely background stamps with the beautiful Cover-a-Card stamps by Impression Obsession. You will see how our talented DT has been using them. Lots of different ways for lots of different projects.. 
Are you ready? Today we start with Neil and how he used those stamps with Distress inks for a watercolour effect.

To achieve a water colouring look, I lay the stamp onto my work surface, face up and add random colours with distress ink pads to cover the whole stamp. (I don't worry about mixing the colours onto my pads as I've never had any contamination but I do recommend working light to dark just in case!)

When you've covered the stamp with ink then spritz the surface with water and take a sheet of white and and lay it over the stamp and gently rub to ensure the whole surface is covered. Lift off and dry with a heat gun.

You can usually get a second print, lighter than the first without re inking)

To make the second card I created two sheets of this colour and trimmed and matted one onto white card to fit a 15 x15cm grey card blank and the other one I cut using the Alterations tattered floral die and used 3 pieces to create the flower. To finish I added a small gem to the centre of the flower and more gems to the card to finish.

I've left the card front empty of words so that it I need a quick card for a specific occasion I can just add "Thank You; Congratulations" etc.

Card number one uses Wild Honey, Crushed Olive and Stormy Sky distress inks and card number two uses Tumbled Glass and Dusty Concord distress ink

Materials
Cover a card stamp: Geologic

Grey and white A4 card

Distress inks

Small adhesive gems

Sizzix Alterations Tattered floral die

Tip of the day

Neil's technique does not require the 6x6 acrylic block because any "blurriness" you might get is part of the water colouring look. 

But if you want to achieve a crisp and sharp image (which most of the time you do), you will need the 6x6 block. 

The Mega Mount (that's what it's called) is a curved block especially designed for those large stamps. Without this block, the centre part of the image would not stamp properly. I'm sure many of you have experienced this in the past, which is very frustrating. 

It also has a very practical handle which really helps (try holding and stamping comfortably with a very large square block... not great is it?).

So thanks to that curve, each point of your stamp will be pressed down and therefore you will get a perfect image effortlessly.

So here's how it goes... Place your Cover-a-card stamp on the block, ink it up, and then stamp from left to right (or the other way... whatever is more comfortable for you) following the curve of the stamp. There you have your perfectly stamped image.

Of course, you can use your mega block with other stamps... especially those large stamps to avoid that blind spot in the middle. 

See you tomorrow

Andy Skinner Workshop Special offer

Hi, 

Have you seen Andy Skinner’s latest fab on line workshop on his blog?  

Well we have a special offer for you to help you with the cost of products.  

Once you have registered with Andy to take part in the workshop, Andy will send you an invitation to the workshop website where a list of the products you need to complete the project is available.  Email me to let me know you are successfully registered and I will email you back a 10% discount code which is valid on our website for one order only.  Enjoy :o)

Comments and "reactions"

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to let you know of a couple of changes. Those of you who read my blog would have seen this  earlier this week there too.

I have activated the "threaded comments", which means that when you ask a question in a comment, I can now answer direct on that comment and you receive a notification (I think). Others can see the answer too so it's good for everyone.

Next, about the comments... First of all, we have had more comments on our posts lately and I will never thank you enough. It makes a huge difference to the team (who work hard to offer amazing samples and projects on this blog) but also to me, who spend a lot of time on here. I like to know what you think and like as it helps us schedule to following months.
Having said that, I do understand that we all follow tons of blogs and we don't have time to comment on each and everyone of them. Therefore, you have now the option to tick one of the "reaction" boxes below (just above the comments) and let us know what you think. It takes 1/2 a second but still shows your appreciation.

You can choose between: It's ok -- Like it -- Love it -- or -- Oh Wow!

I do hope you will use that easy tool in the future when you come and visit. 

You can also use it on previous posts. 

See you tomorrow for a brand new week and theme, 

take care, 

Izzy 

Simply Saturday mechanics: pop-up card

Hi, 
Welcome to our Simply Saturday's post. Gay has done wonders again with a pop-up bath tub ;)
I like pop-up cards, they are always a nice surprise when someone opens it. (although I must confess, I have never tried making one myself). 
So let's see how Gay made this beautiful stylish card. 

First I stamped and cut out the bath. The photos show how I gauged the size of the bath on the inside fold of the insert card. 

I cut two slits in the insert and scored the top line in both directions to help fold. I find when matching up the two cards it's easier to only uncover a small amount of the tape and this gives you room to move them about and get them in the right position.

Gay used

Kanban clear stamps Mocha Boudoir 

Judikins Diamond Glaze for the bubbles

Copics for colouring

See you next week

Have a great weekend