altered Index cards

Hello Crafty Friends!

Happy Monday!

I hope you all are having a wonderful December! 

Here in Ohio we have been blessed with wonderful and unseasonable weather! 

(50's and 60's rather than the usual teens or lower!!)

Today I want to share 2 altered index cards with you.

I seem to be feeling the itch for them again... I love the size and how fun they are to flip through when you have several together.  This time I am not trying to convince myself that I will finish 1 a day (#ICAD). Rather, I am just following whatever my crafty muse tells me to do!

I am also on a kick for faux postage of late, so maybe I will share some of that in a later post.

Anyhow, lets get on with showing you these mini works of art.

Stamps Used: 
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly
Boy in Cape
Grandville Bug
Postcard - ATC

This one was fun to be able to match with my washi tape that had the quote on it!

(Background was created with Distress Oxide ink and a layering stencil)

This one is of course this one is total love for me! 

I had this piece of scrap paper cut to index card size already.  A while back I had used it to test my crackle medium, but never went any farther with it. 

I saw it the other day and I instantly knew what was missing... So along came my Grandville character and the postal marks (along with some ink distressing) and it was instant love!

Have you made any altered index cards or participated in #ICAD ?

Spring is Coming!!!

With Spring come the BUGS!!! 

Here are a couple of buggy cards for you!

Grandville Bug & Bike

With black ink on white card stock stamp VLVS! Grandville Bug cut mask of VLVS! Grandville Bug to cover stamped image then stamp VLVS! Clockface Bike. Heat emboss images with VLVS! Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder. Stamp VLVS! Christmas Trees Large in the background, the more distant trees stamp off some ink before stamping on the card.  Heavily distress bottom edge of card with brown ink, lightly around the sides and top. Adhere to green base with VLVS! Miracle Tape.

If you haven't seen all of the Grandville Stamps you should go check them out in the VLVS! online store.  Search for Grandville and you will be delighted with them!

Supplies for Grandville Bug & Bike:

VLVS! Christmas Trees Large

VLVS! Grandville Bug

VLVS! Clockface Bike

VLVS! Miracle Tape

VLVS! Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder

Ink

Card Stock

Bees on Honeycomb

On yellow card stock stamp VLVS! Chicken Wire with brown ink, using black ink stamp VLVS! Large Bee once and VLVS! Small Bee twice. Heat emboss images with VLVS! Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder. Heavily distress edges of card with brown ink. Adhere to brown base with VLVS! Miracle Tape.

Supplies for Bees on Honeycomb:

VLVS! Small Bee

VLVS! Large Bee

VLVS! Chicken Wire

VLVS! Miracle Tape

VLVS! Ultra High Gloss Embossing Powder

Ink-Black and Brown

Card Stock Yellow and Brown

Spring is just around the corner!

Get your bugs at Viva Las VegaStamps!

Grandville Gathering with Clairefontaine & Viva Las Vegastamps!

Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard aka J. J. Grandville, was a French caricaturist in the 1800s, who drew people with fantastical animal heads.  He was noted for his biting satire.  I love his work.  It has an Alice in Wonderland feel (Carroll also included much political satire in his Alice series, that is largely lost on us these days).

I was delighted when I saw that Viva Las Vegastamps! had included four Grandville images among their latest stamps!  Immediately, I knew I wanted to do a sort of Wind in the Willows picture, with a Gathering of Grandville figures.

Supplies:
Clairefontaine Carnet de Voyage Travel Album

Viva Las Vegastamps! 
Grandville Horseman 4 x 2 1/4-Item 18893 Plate 1432
Grandville Chicken 2 x 3 3/4-Item 18894 Plate 1432
Grandville Hawk 2 1/4 x 3 3/4-Item 18895 Plate 1432
Grandville Bug 1 3/4 x 4 1/2-Item 18896 Plate 1432
Cracked Background 3 3/4 x 4 1/4- Item 16208 Plate 1287
Leaf Background 1 1/2 x 1 1/2-Item 4366 Plate 539
Multi-Leaf Branch 1 x 1 3/4-Item 14088 Plate 916
Leaf Trio 2 3/4 x 2 1/4-Item 287 Plate 376

Lyra Rembrandt Colored Pencils-Pale Geranium Lake, Lemon Cadmium, Apple Green, Light Blue

Tim Holtz Distress Markers-Shabby Shutters, Scattered Straw, Forest Moss, Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood, Wild Honey, Stormy Sky, Milled Lavender, Tumblied Glass, Bundled Sage, Brushed Corduroy, Dried Marigold, Barn Door, Pumice Stone, Black Soot

Stamp Pads: Ranger Archival Black, Versamark Watermark

Embossing Powders: Ranger Snow White, Recollections Gold Tinsel, Stampendous Aged Silver & Aged Copper.

Tools: Scissors, Foam Tape, Exacto Knife, Black Sharpie pen, Reference photos

Process

I tore out a page from the back off my Clairefontaine journal and stamped the Grandville images.  I colored them with the colored pencils, cut them out with the exacto knife and put them in an envelope for later.

I had a pretty specific look in mind, but needed some reference, so I used two photos from my brother's North Carolina farm as a rough guide.

I drew and colored in my picture with the distress markers, using a water brush to lighten the colors toward the back.  I left a white border on both sides and the top, but colored all the way to the edge on the bottom and right-hand corner side, to give the picture more of a 3D feel.

After tapping the Versamark Watermark pad along the right bottom corner, roughly in the shape of the rocks, I sprinkled copper embossing powder and heated it until it was flowing.  I let it cool and repeated using silver embossing powder this time.  I repeated 5 times alternating the colors, and varying the amount of heat, to get bubbles and even slight scorching in some areas.

I repeated the embossing process on the left bottom corner. After the heated powder was dry I used a black Sharpie to add shadows.

Next I tapped the Versamark ink onto my Cracked background stamp and stamped along the edges of the water and up over the embossed rocks.  I sprinkled Snow White Embossing powder, tapped off the excess and heated.  I repeated this with the multi-leaf branch in a couple of spots to get the effect of wider frothing.

Again I used a black Sharpie to add shadows.

For the leaves in the upper corners, I used the Leaf Trio and Leaf Background and the gold embossing powder, adding shadows with the Sharpie.

Then I pulled out my stamped images and stuck foam tape to the back and attached my Grandville characters.  I hope they're hardy fellows because they're awfully close to the water!

You can find Clairefontaine.products at their website.and check up on all things journal related at the Rhodia Drive blog and on their facebook page.

NEW PLATES!!!

Here they are! SIX new plates sent to the engraver today!!

Get them at the discounted pre-order price! 

Plate1428 - A mix of vintage and grungy goodness

 Plate1429 - A Halloween Plate

 Plate1430 - A calendar based plate - use it for December Daily, collages, dates, anything you can think of! Comes with numbers 1-31, a full font and a few collage style stamps (will only be available unmounted as a whole plate)

 Plate1431 - Vintage Christmas

 Plate1432 - Half Grandville, half Mary Vogel Lozinak

Plate1433 - a 2nd Halloween based plate