K&Co more Susan Winget

 I got totally absorbed making this bunch of cards.  I love these papers from K&Co and also used the accessories/die cuts etc to complete the set.

This first one also has a string of pearls and doily coloured with  glimmer mist & cosmic shimmer spray. My favourite grosgrain ribbon, stickles and nesties are in there too.  The glare and the glitter make it hard to see inside the dome.

After watching the videos about using intricate dies on the Cheery Lynn website I finally got the hang of it. I used glimmer mist and cosmic shimmer spray to get the right shade of purple to match the paper.  The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards cut out with a nestie.

 The papers are so pretty just by themselves, of course that doesn't stop me from adding more stuff!

I love the birdies!  The little ones I cut out of the packaging - can't waste them, too cute!  Some card candy, stickles, a nestie and a sentiment stamp finish this one.

I cut out the flower and butterfly from the paper to give more dimension.  The picket fence die is one of my favourites.  Stickles around the edge of the paper a la Julie Hickey.

My first love is stamping but playing with these gorgeous papers is such fun.  Thanks for looking.  I really appreciate any comments :)

Crafty Emblies memo block & giant peg

Hello all, hope you enjoyed the long weekend.  I didn't get any time for crafting unfortunately but these 2 items were made last week for a friend and I thought I would post them.  I used Lumiere gorgeous metallic paint and they have a fabulous sheen which I'm not sure shows here.  A simple strip of Tim Holz tissue tape is on top of that, and also around the pencil.

The gorgeous Craft Emblies cogs and bolts are rubbed with Inca Gold and they really gleam.

The great big peg is painted in the same colour as the block box but looks paler here.  It also has a strip of tissue tape followed by Inca Gold rubbed Crafty Emblies wooden goodies.  I also glued a piece of bling (necklace) for contrast.  That's it for today, thanks for coming by :)

Simple card with daisy trim

This is a very simple little card using the gorgeous paper Meadow Lark collection by Prima.  I love lots of Prima products but they are not widely available in the UK yet.  This is a single sheet from the 6 x 6 pad.  I have simply used white gel pen to highlight various areas (but I must admit I could have done a better job of it - c'est la vie).  The edges were gently tinted using distress ink.  The daisy trim is gorgeous and I bought it recently on ebay.  The words are from a Tim Holtz pad.  That's all there is to it.   Sometimes less is  more so they say.  Thanks for stopping by, I hope you like it.

Paint Job No 2

This is another piece using acrylic paint,  fresco finish by Paper Artsy, which has a lovely chalky effect.  I've been meaning to paint this for about a year and I finally got around to it!  I painted over the previous work as it was easier than cutting a new piece of wood.

I used gesso to begin and then did various fresco finish colours and  their Crackle Glaze, followed by more fresco finish .  The fish are a Katzelkraft stamp which was done in black archival ink onto Paper Artsy crackly tissue paper, then painted on the back using the other colours of the same paint range.  Some of the translucent colours were painted carefully on the front so as not to lose the black details.  When dry white pain was applied to the back to make the colours stand out.  The fish were then applied to the background using their Satin Glaze both under and over the top.

The next step was applying white paint through various stencils/masks before adding black die cuts  (Sizzix and Tim Holtz) with matt medium to finish it off.  I went through so many highs and lows making this both being very disappointed at stages and then slightly pleased (!) but in the end I am happy with it, it's not perfect but neither am I.

Thanks for looking and any comments are always really appreciated.

Anne x

Paint Job No 1

I've not really done any acrylic paint work so this was a big jump in.  I did a workshop with Lina Macdermott at The Craft Barn about a month ago.  She is the most patient tutor and I love her workshops. We actually had to draw the picture and mix the paint from red blue & yellow primary colours, and white of course.

It's a 12" x 12" canvas which we appllied gesso to and then when dry torn pieces of book pages were applied with matt medium.  We mixed our background colours and applied them over the top, wiping some off as you go.  The figure is then sketched and painted using colours we had mixed ourselves.  The clothes are made of card; the skirt part is embossed and sanded before applying matt medium to adhere it to the canvas.

I cant take any credit for dreaming up the composition as we all did the same as Lina's orginal, but now I've taken the plunge into acrylic I will get my mojo working.

So nice to make something that is not a card!

Hope you like it, look out for Lina.

Tarted up handbag holder

I  have wanted one of these for ages and saw a box of these with odd names on today and thought I would have a go and change it.  It took all of 5 minutes!

I used the stamp in the photo above and applied the emboss markers direct to the stamp. stamped onto white card.  Applied a coat of normal clear embossing powder and heat set.  Then covered the whole thing with versamark ink (I happened to pick up the dazzle one but it would work with any clear pad) and a coat of UTEE, heat again and punched it out using a circle punch.  I used Glossy Accents to stick it on.  I must say Glossy Accents is a fabulous quick drying and very strong glue, it dried in seconds.  I did another coat of versamark and UTEE because I wanted a thick glossy surface.  That was all there was to it.  Not bad for a £1.

I should have done a before photo but didn't intend to post it, but am so pleased with it I thought I would.
Here it is in action!

Thanks for looking :)


I am entering this into all my crafts challenge

Bouncy 21st Birthday Card

2 blog posts in one week, lets see if I can keep this up!  Sasha is 21 next week and so I had to think of something different.  This is what I came up with sort of gatefold with dangling numbers.  I used the Rock Star Stack again, it's my favourite for my lads birthdays (but will probably have to change next year lol).

I started out using 2 A5 size cards and stuck them together.  I cut off the parts not needed (where I was putting the acetate) and drew round a plate to get the arch then cut it out.  I cut out 2 pieces of acetate using the card as the template.  I covered all the card parts with the Rock Star paper.  The ones on the front sides are flocky and feel fab,  I decorated the guitar with holographic stickers.  The acetate was stuck on using mini dots.  I used peel off borders to edge everything and to make little hinges to keep it upright (it wanted to flop).  I cut out stars from the same paper stack and stuck them on the acetate using mini dots and put holographic dots in the centres (same on  back).

The 21 I drew freehand and cut out, then matted onto more rock star paper.  I used strips of acetate to make them dangle.  I stamped the letters for the name and punched them out, and matted them onto silver miri  also punched out.  The sentiments were stamped and embossed in black archival and matted onto silver miri also.

This is the the back view.  I have subsequently put a small matt on the plainer pink side with the message on.

You can just see the acetate dangly things!  Well thanks for looking :)