Monthly Archives: January 2011

Steampunk card

card, steampunk, steampunk card
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I love the Steampunk style that can be seen in a few stamp designs now and it really lends itself to cards for men. Now I am not saying Steampunk is not for women – far from it – just that it is great for male cards which can sometimes be more difficult. I remember a few conversations about Steampunk with Donald (whose birthday it is very soon) so this card is for him.
The corner elements are made by sticking thermawrap tape onto paper lace border and using an embossing tool or paper stump carefully emboss the lace pattern.  Then paint over with black acrylic paint and wipe off most of it before it dries just leaving some in the de-bossed areas.

Inks:  Memento Tuxedo black, Distress inks Barn door, Aged mahogany and Peeled paint, versamark with silver embossing powder
Card:  white, black, silver miri card
Stamps:  Oxford Impressions Steampunk
Other:  watch parts, diamond glaze, paper lace covered in thermawrap tape, copper pen

Vintage shabby card

card, craft stamper magazine, shabby, vintage
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This card was inspired by an article by Rachel Jackson in Craft Stamper mag. June 2010.  I have kept to the same colours and roughly to the same design but used different stamps  and embellishments.  I don’t have re-inkers to colour the tissue paper background so I just wiped the ink pads onto my craft sheet and spritzed it with water.  I crumpled up the tissue paper and spread it out on the craft sheet and gently pushed it around until it took up the colour.  If I do this one again I might use vintage lace instead of the ribbon and add some distress stickles to the crown.

Inks:  Distress inks Tattered rose, Antique linen and Brushed corduroy, versamark with white embossing powder
Card:  white card, ivory card, white tissue paper
Stamps:  Anna Griffin border, Vennaisance feathers, greeting (unknown)
Other:  ribbon, pearls

Art journal week 3 Schooldays

art journal, school days, week3
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This was such a fun page to do but I could probably do a whole art journal about school days never mind just one page.
The prompt this week over at ukstampers is (if you haven’t guessed already) School days.
The page has to include:

  • jot down 10 random things about your school days
  • use lined paper
  • add ink blots and doodles in the margin

Just in case you can’t read my random thoughts they are:

  • pink custard
  • belted for ripping a book (those were the days when the teacher would ask you to hold out your hands, cross them over and the teacher would belt them with a leather strap – ouch!
  • navy gym pants – horrid!
  • climbing ropes – in the gym hall there was a massive climbing frame that could be pulled out from the wall and it had ropes on it
  • Janet and John books (TOGS will know about these) – oops I actually put this in as Jack and Jill but they were in fact Janet and John reading books.
  • walked to school
  • my best chum was Catherine
  • ‘has a tendency to daydream’ was a comment on one of my report cards
  • under 15 junior athletic champion
  • prefect then deputy head girl

I used graph paper as my background paper which I roughly painted white edges on.  I drew on a graph and added doodles.  I used to like colouring in squares and making patterns.  I wrote out the ten facts on lined paper which I then scanned, added ink blots and the ‘remember’ at the bottom.  This was printed onto acetate and I added white paint behind the pale blue ‘remember’ to make it show up a bit more.  Staples and a paper clip hold the two pieces together as they also remind me of school days.  The acetate reminds me of the overhead projectors that took ages to get just right.

Inks:  Black document ink, Distress ink Frayed burlap and Antique Linen
Stamps:  The Artistic stamper Ephemera 1 048A5
Paper:  graph and lined paper from a jotter, acetate
Other:  staples, paper clip, red pen

Art journal week 2 Gifts

art journal, ukstampers weekly challenge No. 2
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This weeks page is about gifts: we had to include our best and worst gift and also a piece of packaging or card or label etc.
For my best gift I chose cuttings and plants for pals and family to start our own garden off.  When I go around the garden now I am always reminded of each person, so much so that the plant’s name has changed to the friend’s name ie Cathy’s plant instead of saxifraga trifurcata.  For my worst gift I chose a sack of tulip bulbs that a friend gave us,which I have to say was extremely good of them, but we had spent ages digging the same ones out of our garden.  Not really a bad gift but the timing was just bad.  The following year my husband gave me terracotta tub full of exactly the same tulip bulbs too!!  The dragonfly is my piece cut from a recycled card – I think it had been a gift token card but I can’t remember now as I had only saved the picture side of the card.
I am not very happy with this page as it didn’t quite come out as I wanted.  The white pen soaked up the red ink and turned pink even though I had dried the ink first.

Inks/paint:  Stampin up Soft suede and Ruby red ink pads, Ballet pin, Spa blue and white acrylic paint, Distress crackle paint Frayed burlap
Card:  patterned paper from Anna Griffin, Grunge board letters,
Stamps:  Hero arts Single brush stroke, Studio G Alphabet, Dovecraft Fantasy Emblems
Other:  white gel pen, Distress stickles, cut out foiled dragonfly (added pink tinge to wings with a copic pen), brown glitter pen

Art journal week 1 Goals

art journal, goals, week 1
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To herald in the new year I have given my blog a lovely new background and to start my new craft projects what better way than to try something a bit different.  ukstampers challenge this year is to make an art journal doing a page per week.  Each page should measure 15 x 10cm (mine is slightly wider as I am leaving a 2cm edge for whatever binding I choose) and each week we will be given a prompt and a list of things to include.

Week 1 The prompt is Goals and has to include:

  • handmade background paper
  • 3 things you want to achieve this year
  • a photograph

My background paper is hand made cotton rag paper (from eden project) painted with a mixture of acrylic paint and emulsion then stamped.  The photograph is actually of the journal page itself but reduced in size (and also a tiny  tucked into it).

Inks:  Stampin up Soft suede, Memento Tuxedo black, Stazon black
Card:  hand made cotton rag paper, acetate, photo paper, gold vellum
Stamps:  Stampin up Sense of time, Elusive images Diamond art, Technique Tuesday Bijou borders, Oxford Impressions Steampunk, Invoke Art tickets,
Other:  glossy accents, brad and washer, gold pen, sepia pen, watercolour pencils (to colour the tickets), acrylic paint Prussian blue, white and mauve, emulsion Almost sage