Grunge Paste and Dreamweaver

Another batch of pasted cards a bit different from the previous posts.  I always end up using virtually all my stencils when doing pasting as it's so messy and takes over my space so I may as well do as many as possible.

The first one is  done using Paper Artsy Grunge Paste using 4 different colours of Fresco Finish to colour the paste.  I put blobs of the paste onto a large tile and added specks of paint and mixed it up (keeping the blobs separate).  The stencil is a Crafters Workshop plastic mask. The grunge paste gives a nice texture and the paint gives it a chalky finish.  This piece is mounted onto a soft gold metallic card and then onto the white card base.  The pale gold ribbon matches the gold embossed sentiment (although it looks a bit yellow in this photo).  The sentiment is by Kaisercraft.

The background (Imagination Crafts) and birdcage (Dreamweaver)  are both done in glossy white embossing paste coloured with  fresco finish paint.  The bird is an Inkadinkado stamp done in cosmic shimmer ep and the sentiment is Hero Arts done banner style.  The border is a Martha Stewart punch and although you can't see it here, I have edged the card underneath with Tumbled Glass Distress ink which looks pretty when the card is closed.

This is the same Dreamweaver stencil I previously did in Crackle on an earlier post, this time done in white matt embossing paste.  I have then stencilled it with Brilliance inks when dry.  It is really quite matt even with the Brilliance.  It is mounted onto a piece of purple pearlescent card which has gone through the Garden Lattice embossing folder (I love these big folders).  The middle layer is a piece of 12 x 12 paper cut down to size.   The sentiment is one I have used extensively and is by Art Stamps.  The Spellbinders Stately Circles die is one of my favourites too. Unfortunately I have lost the packaging for the middle die so can't tell you what it is, except that it is part of a set of circular nesting dies in black metal.

I hope you are not fed up with all these embossing paste cards, as I still have a few more to blog!  I always make a load at once and never just make one!

Anyway, thanks so much for coming by and any comments very appreciated.

Anne :)

Micro glitter cards

I did a workshop at The Craft Barn with Carole Cockburn ages ago and she shared the micro glitter technique with us. The first card is one I made on the workshop.  You basically stamp onto card, edge with distress ink, cut out both the card and a piece of double sided ultra sticky using a die; apply the sticky shape to your stamped piece, remove the carrier sheet and apply transparent micro glitter to the whole thing.  Then use this to make your card.  This one has an embossed piece behind the matt and a stamped and ink blended background bottom piece.  I always treat cards I make on workshops as prototypes or a basis for my own interpretation - or playing! as I prefer to call it :)

This is one of mine with Spellbinders die matts.  I promised myself this year I would use stuff from my stash more and I have had these papers for ages, so went ahead and used them on most of these cards.

Another one. Same techniques.

This one has upcycled ribbon from a gift. Like all crafters I save everything;  I really am trying to use my stash!

This one has an embossed background, not sure if you can see it on here. This one only has distress ink on the glittered piece and the rest is clean and simple.

This one has gems on top of the glitter, I wasn't sure if they would stick but they do.  This one uses on of my favourite Cheery Lynn dies and I have used distress ink to colour the card to match the piece.

Can't decide if I like this one so much.  Here it is anyway.  Martha Stewart punch on the edges.  Same techniques as before.

More upcycled ribbon with same techniques.  This one has no distress ink apart from the glittered piece.  Because the papers are matching they blend together.

Last one for now, same techniques as before and with distress ink - even with a small amount it does make a different look.

Congratulations if you are still here!  I always tend to make cards in batches playing with a technique so prefer to blog them together.  It takes me almost as long to make one card to make 6 as I agonise over every small detail with one card lol! Somehow making several cards at once frees me to try different things.

When I did the stamping for these, I stamped out a load more and used micro beads, and more using resist stamping which I will post when they are done.  I tend to do a ton of stamping one day, then another time take some of those and play with a technique or papers or backgrounds etc.  

When I am asked to make a particular card for someone often I am overwhelmed by choices!  Then I will usually make 2 or 3 different ones to choose from.  I much prefer to have a large stash of cards I have already made using different techniques or colour themes etc that I can select one from and add a sentiment if necessary.  How about you?

Thanks for coming by and any comments always very appreciated :)

Tonal Swan

The colour in the photo makes it look blue but in real life it's shades of green, with a bit of blue on the swan's body and the ribbon is sort of dark turquoise.  Anyway this has hammered card as the base with cuttlebugged background papers.  One is a pearlescent paper and the other is coloured with kaleidacolour fresh greens ink pad.  The pearlescent strip is a Martha Stewart border punch.  The scalloped circles are nesties, a dark aqua and a green glitter card.  The swan is an Inkadinkadoo set I think (I must stop throwing away packaging!).  It is coloured using pencils and sansodor and has tiny sparkly flat back gems  on the wing.

I did some stitching in a multi coloured thread to attach the papers to a white card matt and added the dark turquoise ribbon threaded through the sentiment stamped in silver on an off cut of white card which I trimmed down and rounded the corners.

The colouring was done before I bought my copics, but I still often use coloured pencils blending with sansodor.  It's so relaxing.

I might try to take another photo to get a more realistic shot - but considering that I use my phone camera (!) that may not be possible.  I should invest in a decent camera really, perhaps then the cards would look  better on here.  The trouble is I am too impatient and just want to put them on the blog even if they could look better (promises, promises!).

Hope you like it and thanks for taking the time to look.

Thank You cards

My mum needed a load of Thank You cards after her 90th Birthday party.  I needed to do them real quick so I used my Craftwork Cards papers and cards.  They are all different, some more than others, but basically made from the same materials.  I used 2 Martha Stewart punches for the butterflies and 2 for the lacy edges, I love these as unlike a lot of other punches they will go through pretty thick card stock.  I used some Tim Holtz tissue tape on a few of them and a thank you stamp from PSX and one from All Night Media.

blue birthday

This was a birthday card for my daughter.  I melted some UTEE on a piece of non stick craft sheet in the meltpot and stamped into that with dark blue ink on my Crafty Individuals stamp.  The flowers are inked to match  with blue buttons threaded through.  I have used my Martha Stewart lacy punch on the edges of the folded A4 blue card.  The front piece was trimmed and punched and another piece of punched card mounted on that with a slither of silver card to cover the join.  The corners are the waste from a fleur de lys corner punch.  Thanks for looking :)