Distress Stains and Sticky Back Canvas

I just signed up for May Flaums new class, "the Curios Scrapbookers Field Guide", over at BPC. Just two days in I´m already loving it :-) It is still not to late to sign up, so come join me for 12 weeks of brilliant fun!

 We were talikng about Distress Stains over at the class forum and I wrote about my Distress Stains and Sticky Back Canvas backgrounds, and promised to post some photos on my blog, so here they come!

This is the first one I made, and I´ve posted a really bad photo of it before. I was inspired by a YouTube video that I can´t find.

I started out stamping with the Distress Stains using Tim Holtz Bitty Grunge stamp set, Music Background from Hero Arts and Old French Writing from Hero Arts. I then stamped using Matt Multimedium (Claudine Hellmuth) on a Donna Downey foam stamp (Prima).

When all this was dry I used a variety of red and pink Distress Stains to color all of the canvas, spraying with water to make the colors blend better.

This is my second background. I actually won a contest with it! I used golden Shimmer Spritz on this one, so it has a lovely sheen to it.

I also used my Old French Writing stamp on the wood "paper" from Creative Imaginations and cut out letters using the Chip Block die from Tim Holtz and Sizzix.

This is my latest creation. I´ve developed it a tiny bit more, and stamped on top of the "finished" background using StazOn in black and Opaque White

The border surrounding the background is stamped using black StazOn and a border from the Romantique Stamp set from Prima.

The faint circles you can see in this photo is stamped using the Opaque White StazOn. I love how it came out!

Category Story January promt

This is my take on the january promt "_____ freaks me out" from Category Stories.


I´ve called mine "so many things freak me out", and writing all kinds of stuff using my Indian Ink and a pen nib. It is not really meant to be read, I just wanted to get it out on paper so to speak.

I used the De vines felt stems from Prima as masks, and misted the LO using one of my Shimmerz Vibez. I then drew around the edges using my pen with nib and Indian Ink.

Materials used:

• PP: Cosmo Cricket (from Togetherness)
• Embelishments: Grunge board letters, Maya Road ribbons, Karen Foster scrap sticks, MLS mini alphabet stickers in Celery
• Inks: Adirondack Cranberry pigment ink pad
• Other: Stamps from Unity and Hero arts

Skissedilla #95

I´ve finally done a challenge! It´s been a long time, and it was so much fun! I used a one of the papers from Graphic 45 steampunk debutante collection. It had a flying man on it, and he didn´t really do that much for my LO, so I went crazy with my Shimmerz and Vibez :-) It was very difficult to get a good photo because of all the shimmer and glitter. You know how paper bend when you load it up with too much mist without letting it dry!

Materials used:

• PP:Graphic 45: Steampunk Debutante, Modern Marvels
• Embelishments: May Arts pleated ribbon, ribbon with pearls from stash, Elle´s Studio 2009 Calendar Tags, October Afternoon Cherry Hill cardstock stickers
• Other: Shimmerz Vibez Vertigo and Sea Monkey, Shimmerz Spritz Rock-a-fella Blue, Martha Stewart hematite glitter (glue: Scotch Quick-dry Adhesive)

Crazy busy....

February has just been the craziest month in a long time... I finally got an offer on my gorgeous flat in Drammen. It was bought by a 70 years old man, and it feels realy strange knowing that an old man is living in "my" home. I only lived in there for about 2 weeks before I got ill, it was brand new and beautiful and warm and all mine...

The last weeks have been hard. I did not like taking the keys out of my handbag, sending them away, and knowing that I´m never going to be there again. I feel like I never got to close that chapter because of my depression...  Anyways... Selling that flat means I have to get a new place to live, after all I can not live with my parents the rest of my life!! I´m still not always trusting my self to choose between apples and oranges, so my Dad and I have been going on viewings in Ålesund. I have quite strange requirements, like a big scraproom and space for a sink to give my dog baths... And preferably a balcony of some sort so that Rolf can sit outside.

Last week we went on a viewing. The flat was soooo ugly... and dirty... and I know someone has died in there, and there was still breadcrumbs on the kitchen counter (the flat was so bad that the relatives of the dead person did not bother to do any cleaning before selling it I guess...) BUT, it has two bedrooms, one "small" one, and one huge! Of course the huge one automaticly became the scraproom, I mean, who needs a great big bedroom? Not me!! And it gets even better. The "scraproom" has a balcony, with views over the mountains and fjord. And there is a fireplace. So, who cares about dead people and seventees  wall-to-wall carpets that never has been cleaned? (theres nice wood floors underneath) NOT ME. After all, it has a GREAT BIG SCRAPROOM! (No space to clean Rolf though... but I do have a degree in Interior Architecture, so I´ll figure something out right??) As I´m leaving for Oslo early Monday morning, my parents are meeting the agent and a plumber tomorrow afternoon to get a quote on the costs for fixing the bathroom and the kitchen. And maybe I´ll be the owner of a "new" place next week?

On top of all this, I´m taking a pen tablet class with Jessica Sprauge, I´ve been working on a DT application, I´ve given Rolf a much needed bath (it took 7 hours...), I´ve had realy bad nightmares the last weeks, and I´ve been wakeing (is that even a word?) up at strange hours. And I´ve rearanged my scraproom and done a "deep clean" in there...

I still have a great big list of things to do before Monday, so, to make things less stressfull tomorrow, I started organizing 5000 photos on my Mac... Way to go Siri!!!

I have actually been able to do some crafty stuff as well... I´ve been doing a lot in Photoshop (because of the pen class), I´ve actually done a digi LO as well! Crazy, I know...

 

This LO is my take on the second February challenge over at the Studio. As always when I just need to do something, but don´t know what, I scrap Rolf. This photo was taken on the 17th of May, the Norwegian National Holiday. As you can see he is all dressed up, with a ribbon in the colors of the flag. Later that day he chewed it to pieces, and now its doing its job as an embelishment on my LO.

The journaling:

" I love my dog. I love celebrating the 17th of May, and eating as much ice cream as I want. I love scrapbooking..."

I just realised that the LO should not have any red or pink on it, so I failed miserably... Well, that fits perfectly with my last week :-) At least I did some crafty stuff!!

Materials used:

• PP: Senic Route
• Cardstock:Scraps of Bazzill
• Embelishments:Ribbon from Rolfs mouth, some metal embelishmets from my stash
• Other: Shimmerz Vibez in Blue Jeans and Red-y Or Not, Dymo, Thickers

I´ve also made a card. I got a big pack of cardstock and chipboard from Couture Cardstock yesterday, and I must say, it is the most fantastic stuff!! You know how cardstock warps when heat embossing? (I know it is not supposed to if you do it right... but I always end up getting that...) The point is that when I embossed this paper, nothing happened! It stayed perfectly flat!! And I cut the bird and the frame out using my craft knife. It cut like butter I tell you, and I even had an oldish blade on it! I can not wait to try cutting it with my Cougar...

Materials used:

• Cardstock: From Couture Cardstocks Red Carpet Collection
• Inks:Versamark 
• Stamps: I don´t know the name, but its from Unity Stamps
• Other:Embossing pen from Tsukineko (for the doodled frame)

The next thing on my list is to pack some scrapbook stuff to take with me to Oslo, draw a winner for my Blogcandy, pack clothes, walk Rolf, make some burgers and watch the Olympics.... Ready, Set, GOOOOOOOO!!

Tomorrow there will be a great big reveal over at the Shimmerz blog! I can hardly wait :-)

A kind of Christmas Card

I was tudying up my crafty space yesterday, and found a smallish piece of BG scrap paper that I decided to use instead of forget. Just when I started out card making almost a year ago I bought some Melissa Frances glitter hearts that I never used. After all, I was not that into glitter!





Strangly this has changed... And now I found the hearts to be just perfect for my need. I covered it with Rock Candy distress Crackle paint to keep the glitter from going everywhere first.

I then painted a naked chipboard snowflake from Bazzill with Blingz in Pixie Dust. After the Blingz was dry I painted over it using Distress Crackle Paint In Picket Fence. I love the effect of the Blingz just shining through the crackles! I then covered the hole snowflake with Glossy Accents so that the Crackle paint would not fall of. I finished of the layered embelishment with a vintage tin button with a snowflake on it.

I hope you like it!!

I see green elephants!!

I finally broke out my Best of Friends stamp from Ladybug and Friends. I love elephants so this is a big favorite!!

I stamped the image using StazOn on Letraset Heavyweight Cartridge paper. I used my Tria markes to color it in and making shades and stuff. After that I painted over the different parts of the stamp using Shimmerz and Blingz in matching colors. When the paint dried I covered the two best frinds with a thick layer of Glossy Accents and let it dry over night.

It was very difficult getting a good image of the BG patterned paper, so you just have to pretend that you are looking at it without glasses....

 This is a closeup of the stamped image. I LOVE the effect of using Glossy Accents on top of my Shimmerz paints, it gives the image an extra dimension I think!!

Materials used:

• BG: June Bug 6x6 paper pad
• Ladybug and Friends: Best of friends stamp
• Letraset: Tria markers and Hevyweight paper
• Shimmerz and Blingz paints
• Glossy Accents
• American Craft ribbon
• My brand new ATG 714
• Dimensional gluedots