WOYWW 65

I missed WOYWW last week, had a rather shocking visit to the optician for an eye test - geeze the price of varifocals!!! Who ever said old age does not come on it's own must have been thinking about the massive bills for things like that that come with it!  Anyhow after some help from other crafters online I found a better deal on new glasses, which I sorely need, at Tesco..... just a case of getting them made up now.

First pic up today is for Julia - the evil genius behind this regular Wednesday madness and if you want to know how to join in the fun, well all you have to do is visit Julia's Blog.  Thank you Julia for my lovely WOYWW easel that arrived safely last week.  The card was made using a stamp I have been playing with for a forum swap where the theme was "Old Freinds or Latest Purchase"  The "Floral Spray" was one of my first ever Elusive Images stamps and is indeed an old and trusted freind - a lovely image for so many occasions.  While I was making my swap card another idea for using the stamp was kinda bubbling away underneath and this is what happened.... seemed that turning it into a "thank you" card was the right thing to do.  I matted it onto some orange card and thought I would then stamp sort of background on a card blank, but when I went digging in my stash I found that silvery green card that I had forgotten I had, and it just seemed to colour match so well with the leaves in the main image that I decided that leaving it plain was best.

And here's my workspace as I left it at bedtime - sorry the bit of white card on my cutting mat is something I cannot show as it's a Design Team project so I turned it over - but I spend last night colouring the stamped image on the other side with Derwent Inktense Pencils.... mmmm I lurve those pencils. The bottles in the plastic bag are Tinkabella Inks from Graphicus, got an idea for that red colour that's lying on it's side. Behind that some attempts at a brayerd card with a halloween theme... not happy with any of them so not sure that idea will mature into anything worthwhile, but they are there cuz I will probably have another crack at it some time this week.

This is the space to the left of my work area - see I am still being good - no return of the huge piles of stash - I can even have my box of pencils open with both trays available for me to pick colours from! The box of stamps contains the stamps the sets of stamps that I am currently working with, there is more in there than just those house stamps.

Two Tags and an Alcohol Ink Background

Recently I have been playing with some stamps I bought last year from Graphicus, they all have a nautical/sea theme. I have a card idea in my head for the image of the sailing ship, but it's not quite there yet. I thought I would stamp out the images last night and see where they took me. While I was playing I thought I would try out a background technique I have been wanting to have a go at since I bought some Isopropyl Alcohol a month or so ago - a much cheaper alternative to Alcohol Ink Blending Solution and it's pretty good for cleaning up that tacky gunk that cutting sticky things leaves on our scissors too! You can get it through any Pharmacy tho you may have to ask for a special customer order.

Anyhow on to my tags. First step was to chop open on 3 sides one of those tough cello bags that I get every time I buy unmounted stamps from Graphicus so as it could be opened up like opening the pages of a book. Next I dripped Alcohol Inks (the colours are Denim, Stream, Stonewashed and Lettuce and a tiny splodge of Silver Metallic Mixative) inside my "cello book" and spritzed this with some of the Isopropyl Alcohol which I had decanted into a Tim Holtz Mini Mister. Closed the cello pages and sorta smeared things around with my fingers, then opening the pages back up, I took 2 semi gloss tags I bought in Grapicus some time ago, laid them back to back and placed them between the pages of cello and once again kinda smeared things around with my fingers - I really liked the end result, the colours are lovely and soft and best of all permanent so they won't bleed when you do other stuff with them.

The stamping itself was simple enough, stamps from the Elusive Images "Undewater", "Seashore Scenes" and "Seashell Collage" themeplates stamped in Midnight Blue Stazon. The gulls in the tag with the sailing ship are from a stamp by Clarity Stamp.

On the tag with the seahorse I tried adding a little colour with Twinkling H2O paints to the shells and sea bottom to get a more sandy look - it think it looks OK even tho the paints are transparent so some of the blue/green tones of the background show through. On the tag with the sailing ship I used a white gel pen to add some foam to the waves under the ship.

With hindsight the silver mixative may have been a mistake as Stazon does not work so well with the metallic mixatives - the silver floats up to the surface of the stamping - must try this next time with Archival ink and see what happens.

Nautical Card

A few months back it was Fab's birthday and I made this card for him. The stamps are by Elusive Images and come from the Seashore Scenes and Underwater themeplates. The full range of these stamps can be seen on the Graphicus web site.

I stamped the lighthouse scene image using Broken China Distress ink, used a wet paintbrush to draw a little colour into the image to deepen the shaded areas, and finally blended a little more of the distress ink around the edges. The shell stamp was stamped with Versamark ink onto brown bazzill card and then heat embossed with clear embossing powers. The sentiment comes from the Seaside Scenes plate and was also stamped with Broken China Distress ink. Some brads and ribbon in a shade that complimented the colour of the ink added a finishing touch. Then, just because it was for Fab, and because he not only knows, but actively enables my weakness for sparkle I added the tiniest amount of Broken China Distress Stickles to the roof of the lighthouse. I guess it wasn't really necessary, but it's a sort of signature from me to Fab.

Happy Challenge

The challenge this week on Theme Thursday is to use the word "happy" or "happiness" in a project. For my project I used one of the tags we made at the Graphicus Glimmer Mist Workshop I went to recently and combined it with stamps from Elusive Images. The tag has been spritzed with 2 colours of glimmer mist over a Glimmer Screen, unfortunately the photo is not really showing the shimmer that well. The bird stamp is from the Let Your Heart Sing themeplate and the text is from the Words of Wisdom Themeplate. Both were stamped in black then heat embossed with clear detail EP.

Christmas with Elusive Images

At last I can show you some of what I made when I was away at the Graphicus Workshops. It has taken so long because my craft room could only be described as "the mother of all pigstys". I promised myself that before I touched a single stamp or inkpad I would give it a proper tidy up. Hubby was due back at work before me so we enjoyed the rest of our holiday then this week I have been busy tidying my messy room. I have also stamped most of my stamps and my freind's stamps too in order for us to have a catalogue we can share. We borrow each other's stamps and we both agreed a catalogue would be a great way to keep track of what stamps we do have in our respective collections. Anyhow enough of the drivel and onto the good stuff!

These are 2 of the 3 cards I made with Glenda during the "An Elusive Images Christmas" workshop. The card designs are Glenda's and you may have seen her demo these on Create and Craft. I did not manage to finish all 3 cards at the workshop because we were running out of time, the third card still needs to be completed, but I am not happy with the work I did on acetate at the workshop, but I have an idea for something else to complete the card and may do that.

For the card on the left we first created a backing paper using Glimmer Mists and Glimmer Screens, and a second paper by stamping a text stamp. The crowns were stamped using a resist technique, painted with Ecoline Watercolours, cut out and mounted onto small squares of papers cut from the Artylicious Seasons's Greetings CD. The stamps we used came from the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh themeplate.

To make the card on the right we used candle stamps for the main image from the Hearth and Home themeplate and could choose any stamp we wanted to make our background on the black card. I chose to use a stamp from the Snow is Falling themeplate on the background. The candles were stamped first and then we used Glossy Accents on the Candle itself to create a resist. Once the Glossy Accents were dry we used Tinkabella Inks which dry with a slight sheen to paint the design. The Glossy Accents resist the ink and allow the white of the card stock to show through.

Hopefully over the next few days I can show you the other things I was making, and also make some of the card ideas I have had floating around in my head for the last 2 weeks! I am also hoping Fab will allow me to count these cards for the July Fab's Big Christmas Challenge as the "nutter" challenge this month is to make seven Christmas cards before the 25th of August!

Something Simple

I rarely have time to make cards at the weekends as that is when I work. This weekend I am also handicapped by having lent my favorite guillotine that I use all the time to a freind. She started card making about 9 months ago because she saw how much fun I was having, but has never found a guillotine or paper trimmer she feels happy using. She asked about the one I have as she is thinking of buying one of those. I said "look borrow it for a couple of days over the weekend and have a play with it, that way if you find you don't get on with it you have not wasted a lot of money on yet another choice that is the wrong one for you, and if you do like it you can buy one for yourself with confidence". I do think cutters can be personal - what one person loves and uses all the time another just does not get on well with at all.

Anyhow today my new Artylicious CD arrived, Peacock Summer Party, and oh my word! The designs on it are fabulous, can't wait till my days off so I can have a proper play with it! Mind you I am going to have a huge problem trying to decide which of the designs to use first as there are so many fabulous ones to choose from. One of the lovely things about this CD is that you can do something good by buying it. Glenda Waterworth, the designer of the CD, has a family member who suffers from a rare and little understood condition called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and has arranged that a donation from each CD sold will go towards research into this debilitating and incurable condition. More information on PSP can be found on the PSP Association Web Site.

Now why did I entitle this post "Something Simple" - well I keep photos of a lot of the cards I make and my new Artylicious CD has prompted me to look over some of the work I have made with previous CD's. I thought I would share this card from the Artylicious Fantasy Floral CD. It is a very simple card really. Just some shimmery opalescent card stock in a lovely rich purlple colour, 2 printed oval shapes from one of the CD's floral design sets, a peel off sentiment and finally the finishing touch - a butterfly printed onto vellum which I cut out and embellished with a few light touches of Stickles glitter. The butterfly came from yet another of the Artylicious CD's, aptly named Butterfly Bliss.

One last thought, if you have followed any of my links to those CD's take some time to browse through the Graphicus Gallerys. Why? Well because when my mojo has gone AWOL, the Graphicus Gallery is the place where I most often regain it. There is just so much to inspire on those pages.

Florrie's Weekly ATC Challenge - Week 110

The theme this week is "Anything Blue". I like blues, so it only took me moments to grab a Petal Point Fluid Chalk pad that has shades of blue in it and turn a white ATC blank into a pretty smudegy blue background. I worked the lightest of 3 shades of blue into the center and outwards then nearer the outside edges some of the mid-shade and finally at the very edges the deepest blue.

Once I had made my background I grabbed a new stamp I have been dying to use. It's a "secret stamp" ... well sort of. Last week at the Graphicus Workshop we saw these stamps being made, they are the Limited Edtion stamps which are offered to Graphicus Guild members. There is a different limited edition stamp each month and we saw the designs for the next four months! They are all lovely designs and I wanted them immediately if not sooner, but we were sworn to secrecy by Lynne and Bill - Bill is the gentleman who makes the stamps and had kindly let us interrupt his busy day and had answered our questions about stamp making. Anyhow later when Glenda Waterworth arrived she was told we had had a sneaky preview and when we all said how lovely the stamp were she said if we wanted to, those of us who were guild members could buy them now because we had come to the workshop!

To get back on topic now, the stamp I chose to use today is a lovely floral design with an oriental feel. I inked it up with Adirondack Denim ink and stamped it onto my prepared ATC. After stamping I decided to use a wet paint brush to pull some of the colour in from the outline into the flowers. Now this was interesting, because I got an effect I did not expect! The more I pulled the colour in from the edges towards the centre of each petal, the more a sort of mauve shade started to appear. It's very subtle but I think it can be seen in the picture. I rather like this, but it was a lucky accident and I am not sure why it happened - perhaps it was a reaction between the Adirondack inks and the Chalk inks I had used to to colour the background.

A Graphicus Workshop

Well today was the very best fun! I had signed up to take part in a workshop at Graphicus in Barnard Castle, Co. Durham. The theme was Ten Second Studio which is metal art, something I have never tried before. Our teacher for the day was the very talented Lynne Robinson-Hunter, you can see samples of her work by visiting the Graphicus website and checking out the Meet the Team link. Graphicus have some amazingly talented people working there and their Gallery is a place I often visit when my own inspiration is failing. Lynne is a lovely lady, a good teacher who is very patient and obviously delights in sharing her skill and knowledge with beginners like myself.

We started by just having a little play with some of the basic tools we would be using - ball tools to emboss the metal with, defining tools to define what we had embossed and paper stumps to smooth and perfect the finish. I think I was far too excited and trying too hard, as a result my initial test pieces were not particularly impressive. We then moved on to creating some small metal items that could be used to embellish a project, the 2 flowers you see in the first photo. By now I think I was starting to settle in and relax and things were coming a bit easier. I am really pleased at how these 2 flowers turned out, I especially like the flower on the right which was very easy to do using a huge ball tool and a tiny wheel tool. Next was the larger "Dream" peice and by now I was captivated - finding the defining and smoothing process very relaxing, I really enjoyed making this piece. These items took care of our morning session and we stopped for lunch.

In the afternoon we made the bookcover you can see in the second photo and Lynne helped us bind it into a book with the Bind It All - what a fabulous little toy that is! The cover was made using the embossing plates that are a part of the Ten Second Studio range - fun to use, but some patterns and textures definately seem easier to work with than others. I am really pleased with what I made, as while they are far from perfect, I could see my level of proficiency increasing the more we did.