We are well into January now and crafters I'm sure will be working on their Valentines projects. Have you checked out +papermilldirect's new seasonal landing page 'Valentines'. Don't forget to also check out the 'Special Offers' section too, a brand new offer has just been added, 20 sheets of 250gsm Black Card for just £4-00
So with the Valentines theme in mind I thought it would be nice to combine some stamping and colouring along with my cricut explore this week.
The base card was cut on the Explore using papermilldirect white linen card and Post Box Red card. I love the texture of the linen and along with the red, it's a classic Valentine combo. Using a grey pen I added some faux stitching detail around the edges of the white card front, sort of stitches with dots that I hoped echoed the rivets on the Tin Man. Using the sentiment stamp of 'Love and be Loved' from the set, I stamped with black Memento ink into the heart aperture area of the red card. I then attached the white heart aperture panel to the red card base using 3D foam pads to create depth.
The 'Oz Tin Man' stamp set is really cute and this was my first chance to play with it. (there are other characters in this series by +Visible Image which celebrate 75 years of Oz) Using black Memento ink, I stamped the Tin Man and his little clockwork heart onto smooth white card and coloured with Promarkers. I kept the shades subdued with just a few greys, pale blues and dashes of red shades. (unfortunately it was a dark dull day when i took the pics so I used my daylight lamp and not sure if it washed out the colours a bit but hopefully you can see some colouring :D) I then carefully cut around the Tin Man and Heart and added them to the card front using 3D foam pads.
For the inside of the card I used the white linen heart shape that was
cut from the front panel, it gave a co-ordinated look and was ideal size
for the sentiment. It's nice when you are able to use the shapes that would normally be discarded.
For the finishing touches I added some red faux gems in heart shapes and a little trim of red & white bakers twin tied in a bow.
Materials
Used:
White linen Card, Smooth White Card - Essentials Range - Papermill Direct
Post Box Red Card - Colours Range - Papermill Direct
'Oz Tin Man' stamp set - Visible Image Stamps
Promarkers
Grey Glaze Pen - Sakura
Bakers Twine and faux gems from my craft stash
Adhesives - Double Sided Tape, 3 Foam Pads
Tools - Hougie Board to score and Cricut Explore for base.
Challenges Entered:
I'm going to enter this card in the 'January - Show & Tell' over at Visible Image's facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/visibleimage/photos/
Papermill Design Team:
if you have a moment, please do pop over and check out the other papermill teamies blogs and see what they got up to this week:
Barbara
Lisa
Sylvia
Sandie
Sharon
Yay for Challenges!! Do you enter Challenges?? Why not try a few, there are usually lots to choose from covering all sorts of materials, techniques, products,etc. Challenges are a brilliant way to focus your crafting, there are lots of Challenge Blogs out there and not all require you to have a Blog, some like Visible Image allow you to upload to their facebook group, which is a lovely way to include those stampers that don't blog.
I recently started to enter Challenges again and I was so thrilled to see that my card was picked as a Fav in the March Challenge over at Visible Image http://visibleimage.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/march-challenge-winners-visible-image.html
You may remember this card started out as a bit of a crafty playtime experiment, with no particular method or idea of where I wanted to end up. So it means a lot to me that it was picked as a top 3 by the fab DT at VI.
April's challenge is a 'Tag' theme, and I was hoping to create something for that, but I had a little Operation last Monday which meant I had to rest up for a few days. But I'm back designing and making again and so i think I'll have to wait to see what next months theme is and give it a go.
Over on the Trimcraft website, they have a Forum where they run regular Challenges too, these are a great way for people of all abilities to take part and get some feedback on their designs. I entered my very first one of the Forum Challenges that was a 'Water Theme' with this card, which was chosen as one of the winners. ( I received some lovely craft items as a prize) I love this card too because of all the die cutting I got to play with and also the stamping and colouring, so nice to be able to combine the two in a fun playful card.
Another Challenge for March, was over at the 'Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog' and was a Birdie theme with a cricut cut. http://fantabulouscricut.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/wednesday-winners-203-bye-bye-birdie.html
I entered my little Ducky get well soon card and managed a Top 5 with that one, so I gained a 'blinkie' for my Blog. Sometimes there are prizes to win, and sometimes you are awarded little badges or blinkies to display on your blog or website, but i think most people (myself included) just enter for the fun and satisfaction of 'rising to the Challenge'.
These
challenges are fun and a good way to play to a theme and keep your Mojo
mojo-ing or whatever a mojo does :D So why not try a few Challenges
yourself?
I LOVE stamping!! There I said it out loud, but it's true and needed to be said. I think most crafters that work with paper, card, etc start out stamping and then either lose their way or get so amazed by new products on the market that they meander away from the path of stamping.
I've made a lot of cards lately that could be described as CAS Clean & Simple styling. Something about those crisp white card bases and regimented patterns. But every now and then, I rebel!! I get out the inks and get messy.
One of my favourite Stamp companies is Visible Image. I love their quality and the unique designs and so when i saw the brand new sets from the 'more than words' collection, I knew I had to have 1 or 2 or 3 (I ending up buying 3) I believe I do have another on the way but that's another story :)
I chose the 'Thank You' set to work with, has a lovely verse and is very versatile with the flower head stamp included which is great to make backgrounds as well as focal points.
So I planned to not plan my card!! I just assembled some basics from my craft stash, like distress inks, archival ink, gilding flakes, water spritzer etc and set to work.
First I thought I'd make a sheet of patterned card. I blended dabs of distress inks in 3 colours all over a white piece of card, taking time to blend the colours all over. Used 2 main colours of Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick for larger areas and used the Tea Dye to help blend the two together. Then I thought I'd have more messy fun and filled a spritzer bottle with water and gently sprayed it randomly over my newly coloured card. I left the water droplets for a few seconds before blotting with tissue. You can leave the water longer if you want a more dramatic look of course.
When the card was dry, I stamped the flower head from the set all over it randomly, using the 2 main colours of the distress inks.
A sentiment verse from the set was stamped onto a panel of white card using Black Archival Ink, and finished the panel with a couple of stamped flower heads to match the base.
After trimming my background cards to size to suit my design and the 6x6 card blank, I then dabbed gilding glue around the edges of both sheets and applied the gilding flakes. Love doing this, it's extra messy but worth it, especially when you 'burnish' the flakes to reveal their variegated shades.
I wasn't finished stamping though, I decided to 'stamp' a couple of the flower heads in gilding glue and gild them too, helping to bring the sentiment panel and background card together. I thought the card still needed something extra to balance the black, and so I used the 'Thank You' stamp from the same set and stamped in black at the top right and bottom left of the card.
Then just a little matting and layering with my favourite black cardstock (papermill) and the card was complete.
I really like the look and warm 'feel' of this card, and the 'thank you' repeated twice is like saying 'thank you, thank you' and gives extra meaning to the sentiment, I think?
I need to get my 'Challenege Mojo' back and so I am going to enter this card in Visible Image's March Challenge http://visibleimage.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/use-your-favourite-visible-image-stamps.html
Which this month is all about using your favourite stamps, and this new range of stanmps is currently my Fav!!
Challenges entered:
Visible Image - March Challenge - Use Your Favourite Visible Image Stamps
http://visibleimage.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/use-your-favourite-visible-image-stamps.html
Shame my camera work does not truly reflect the gilding flakes, they catch the light and provide extra interest to the card.
Materials Used:
White stamping card from Oakhouse Studio
Distress Ink pads in 'Spiced Marmalade' and 'Worn Lipstick', also 'Tea Dye' to blend
Black Archival Ink
Black card from Papermill Direct
Gilding glue
Gilding Flakes in 'Brighton Pier'
White 6 x 6 Card Blank from Craftwork Cards
My New Year's Resolution was to restart my Blog, I know, I know it's now February!!
The last Blog was a Typepad one and I sort of got fed up of talking to myself there and besides Blogger seems THE place to be these days for crafty bloggy types :D
So what's been happening in the Pollypurplehorse World? well back in August I made a birthday card for my Daughter and I started to draft a Blog post shortly after that..........and well I forgot to publish it :D So here it is:
"My Daughter turned 16 recently and I needed to make a special
Birthday Card. I knew she had a liking for my brand new 'Molly Rules'
and 'Max Rocks' stamp sets from 'Visible Image' and so decided to use those as the basis for
her card.
I thought a folding kinetic style card would
work well and cut Bazzill cardstock to fit the various sized sections of
the card. for the front panel I used a brick stamp and versamark ink,
to which I then applied a small amount of pan pastel in 'orange' to give
a contrast to the rest of the brick pattern and the barbwire which was
stamped in black ink.
'Molly' was stamped
onto white smooth stamping card from Oakhouse Studio and I coloured 'Molly' using a selection of pro-markers. Pan pastels in bright
turquoise and pink shades were also used on the card base. After colouring 'Molly' was carefully cut
using a 'Go Kreate' die and the card was assembled. I also personalised it for her by stamping letters to spell out her name and added the '16' in black memento ink too.
Anyway, Ellie loved the card and was extra thrilled when she found out it had been picked as a winner over at Visible Image. :)
