A card for a special friend

I recently needed to make a birthday card for my special crafty friend Lesley. You know how it is when you want to make a special card for a talented crafter, the pressure is on and it took me four attempts before I got a design I was really happy with. This was the result.

My card started making a wrinkle free distress background using Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Shaded Lilac and Evergreen Bough inks. When I had made it I wanted more texture in my background so I flicked lots of water over it with a paintbrush which gave me some nice blotches which I felt fitted with my hollyhock design well. My main stamp is a Unity Stamp Hollyhock Design by Donna Downey - this is a whoppa of a stamp at 8 inches high and I had to use my quilters square as a mount. The stamp is quite elusive in the UK and I managed to get hold of it through a special order. I stamped in Blue Violet archival ink.

I knew I wanted to add the sentiment on a torn vellum strip. The sentiment from the Darkroom Door Friendship Flowers set is stamped in Cobalt Blue archival ink. Once the strip was stuck into place, I added Hollyhock die cuts using an Impression Obsession die (which also has a matching stamp which I nearly also used) cut out of a wedgewood blue card highlighting the blooms with blue and purple Pan Pastels, added with a small sponge applicator.

To finish, I die cut small butterflies using the Tim Holtz Butterfly Frenzy strip die, I embossed these, placing them carefully into an embossing folder to pick out the best parts of the pattern which I then highlighted in Lilac Treasure Gold. Small brad like stickers completed the design which was mounted on a black 8 x 8 card.

Thanks to my faffing about, I am embarrassed to say my card was over a week late arriving with Lesley. At least it has now arrived and I have a clearer conscience!

The other news is that Lesley has posted the first project on our relaunched shared Craft Stamping Quartet blog here today. Do pop over and have a look at her brilliant project.

Have a great, sunny and warm weekend.

Elaine x

Making the most of my embossing folders!

Thanks to the wonders of Pinterest  and blogging I found a new use for my rather neglected embossing folders.

I was inspired by this lady Karen and the video she linked to of her friend Audrie demoing the technique.

I don't have any distress paints so I used my inks instead in Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers. After spritzing I used a piece of Fabriano Ecological Drawing paper which is much more economical than watercolour for testing the technique. I still have a lot to learn with this, but I made a start!

I added a new Paper Smooches sentiment die I bought from Make the Day Special.

I leave you with one of the new baby rabbits in the garden enjoying some peelings we put out for them. They are a real delight to watch.

PS Talking of rabbits, do pop over and see the delightful project Paula Whittaker has posted today. Needless to say I love it and coincidentally had tagged this stamp to order this week. My order has been placed today!

Have a good weekend!

Elaine


Elaine

Capture Life's Moments

I have a colleague leaving work soon to spend more time with her family and I wanted to make a quirky card for her.

I stamped the image which is from the Gwendoline set from the Doo Lally Pip range from Lindsay Mason onto watercolour paper. This was one of three bargain sets I bought at Ali Craft at Ally Pally recently. I masked her off and placed her on the wall from the Chocolate Baroque clear landscape edges set. In the stamp she is juggling with birds which I didn't want, so I set about finding something that would act as suitable balls. I am currently index stamping all my stamps and that made it a lot easier to find something suitable. These are actually flower centres from a Technique Tuesday set Loves me, Loves Me Not. The image is coloured with Promarkers. I cut out the image and balls and mounted them onto an inked background that I made using the Memory Box Texture Shine stencil. I stamped some foliage stamps from the Gwendoline set.

I finished off with the sentiment from the Art Sayings Creative Expressions set designed by Sam Poole and some black die cut butterflies using the Tim Holtz Butterfly Frenzy die. I mounted the panel onto a black matt to bring all the elements together.

It's been a nice Easter weekend and I have been sorting out the craft shed for the new season. I have already covered my desk after an afternoon of mixed media playtime yesterday. It was great to sit with the door open and listen to a radio play and the sounds of the birds singing and bees humming. Sadly I am back to work today!

Have a good week!

Elaine

Distress Ink pad rack

This is going to be a long post and I apologise in advance for some rather blurry pics but light conditions were very variable when I was working on the construction and I had to take the pictures of progress as I was working to show how I worked on putting the rack together.

I saw a number of ink pad racks on Pinterest that inspired me to have a go at putting my own together. This is the one that gave me the idea of how to construct mine. I also took the idea to allow a tiny protuberance of each ink pad beyond the shelf edge to allow me to pull it out with my fingernail.The person that made the rack I have linked to managed to get black chipboard which I couldn't source, so I used greyboard as that is all I could get hold of in my local art shop, so I had to paint mine with black acrylic paint as I went along. I used two large sheets of greyboard and 2 pots of acrylic paint in my construction.

I was guided by measurements of other units, but in the end, I made my own up for what I needed. Although I only have 37 DI pads, I decided to make a rack with 48 spaces in case my collection expands in the future.
 

I started by cutting two strips for the sides of each of the four towers (36 cm x 7 cm) and 12 spacers (2.5 cm x just under 7 cm) to be stuck on to each side, I used a piece of scrap greyboard to guide the positioning of each of the spacers and stuck them on using Cosmic Shimmer acrylic glue. After I had stuck the first set of spacers on, I used them to guide the sticking of the spacers on the second side in the hope of lining them up as accurately as possible. I checked the lining up against what would be the front and back sides of the second panel for each of the spacers to try and make sure they were as nearly parallel as possible.  
 

Once I had completed each pair I painted them with Plaid acrylic paint in Liquorice.

I then cut 13 shelves (7 cm x 8 cm) for each tower and painted them before sticking them into place in the slots I had created with the spacers. All this painting was a really messy business. I also have to say cutting the chipboard with a knife was pretty hard work and I had to do it in stages to stop my index finger going numb from the pressure I needed to exert!!!! Plus it was pretty boring too!

 

 

Sticking the shelves in place in each tower was one of the trickiest elements of construction. I ran glue into all of the grooves on each side at once, standing them on their long sides on my glass mat, I slid the top and bottom shelves in place to get the width of the tower established and then worked quickly to slide the other 10 shelves down into place. It is important not to use too much glue as otheriwse this pushes out as the shelves are pushed down into place. I tried to make sure the front side of the shelves, those pushed down against the mat I was working on would be as flat as possible, this was for neatness on the finished shelf unit. Only when the glue for the shelves were dry did I stick the final shelf which formed the top of each tower into place. It was during this process that the speedy bond formed by the Cosmic Shimmer glue really came into it's own.

This is three of the four towers completed.

 
I had planned to make a solid chipboard back for each tower, but thanks to a bit of uneveness due to my hand cutting, this would have been impossible to stick into place, so instead I made a wrap for each tower out of kraft card, painting the back panel which would be visible through the shelves, after scoring the card ready to wrap around three sides of each tower. The wraps were stuck into place with glue on the two sides, pulling them round to fit as tightly and neatly as possible.
 

This was what the wrapped towers looked like and then I was ready to start sticking them together. The plan was to place the towers so that there was one set of shelves and one blank side on each side of the tower.
 

First of all I stuck the towers together in two pairs, using strong elastic bands to make the joins as tight as possible. When these joins were properly dry, I stuck the two sides together  to make the final set of four towers. My meaurement for the side panels of 36 cm allowed for a little gap at the bottom of the mounted shelves which shows quite well in this picture. This proved very useful when mounting the towers the way I did as I enclosed this bit with the beading, without encroaching onto the bottom shelf space.

Once this was all dry, I had a pretty uneven top which I am rather embarassed to share! You can see I used some masking tape on one of my units as I was worried that one wasn't sticking as well as it should have been. As I already wanted to make a small box to top off the unit to accomodate my small collection of Distress Reinkers and Distress Stains, this was a great way to disguise this mess!  

 

As the top was quite uneven, I decided to use some foamboard to help cushion the uneven surface. I reasoned that it would squash a little to make allowances for any of the uneven protuberances!!!!! I backed the chipboard with the layer of the foamboard as you can see here. Some people make whole ink racks with foamboard, but just from trying to get a tidy edge on this piece I am not sure I was fancy doing that!

 

This was the completed box. I glued strips of scored black card to join the chipboard sides and make the corners both inside and outside of the box. I won't give the measurements for the box I used as these need to be customised to fit the handmade tower nice and tightly.

 

This is the finished box on top of the four towers stuck together.

 

The base just showing in the picture is taken from this revolving spice rack I bought in the charity shop.

 

I realised at this point that it was going to be tricky fixing the completed tower to the base and I needed to have a rethink. My OH cut a new piece of wood which was slightly larger that the spice rack base and some beading to complete the project for me. He fitted the new base to the revolving Lazy Susan mechanism from the spice rack. Stupidly I forgot to take pictures of this last stage of construction. I think I was getting overexcited to be nearly finished!

Everything was painted black because I wanted a cohesive look to the whole project. I thought of all sorts of fancy ideas to embellish and decorate the project in a grungey vintage style with lots of TH die cuts accented with Treasure Gold, but in the end, the plain look was what seemed to work best for me.

This picture shows how the pads protrude slightly to allow them to be pulled out with a fingernail.

I originally planned to stick blending sponges adjacent to each slot so I could easily keep each coloured sponge separate and bought two sets of the new round mini distressing tool sponges to  do that. At the moment though, I have used self adhesive velcro strips stuck to the underside of each pad where the hollow bottom accomodates the corresponding sponge. I made up a label template for strips with the names on each side and inked each one so my labels are a true representation of the colours which is important to me. My rack is sorted into four colour families.

Red, oranges and pinks

 

Blues and turquoises

Greens and yellows

 

Neutrals

 

Apologies for the long post, but I hope the explanation of how it was all made is useful.

Have a Happy Easter

Elaine x

Ally Pally

I have just a brilliant time with a weekend away with my special crafty friends Jo, Judith and Lesley at the April Big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show at Alexandra Palace.

This is one of the highlights of my year as a show, the one that offers one of the best selection of products that suit my interests and some very talented demonstrators and the chance to meet crafty friends from around the country. Sometimes I pop up for the day, and from time to time we make a weekend of it, staying in a nice hotel we have found and talking into the night catching up with each other and usually eating lemon drizzle cake!!!.

This was what greeted me as I left home on Saturday morning, a wonderful sunrise. Excuse the blurry pic, it was taken on my phone, but it still gives you the idea of what an amazing sight it was!

I arrived at Alexandra Palace before the show opened and was ready for some serious shopping. Like a lot of the people I know, first stop is always Paper Artsy whose brilliant range of products is a must see, as are their wonderful demos, on Saturday Leandra and the lovely Lin Brown were working their magic.

I also enjoyed watching Barbara Grey with the gelli plate, Debbie at Inkylicious with her incredible skills with ink dusters and had a lovely chat when it was a bit quieter on Sunday with Andy Skinner about some of the new Decoart mediums which had to fall into my basket.Andy explains his techniques so clearly and helpfully. My purchases included some lovely stamps, a couple of dies, several new mediums and quite a few stencils. My bag was quite a lot heavier on the journey home.

Sunday was especially sunny and I took time for a walk around the building which is magnificent in its own right and one of the reasons I enjoy the show so much.

It is always so sad when we come to take leave of each other, as we never really know how long it will be before all four of us manage to be in the same place at the same time again. For now though we treasure those times we do manage, like this weekend. We have also decided to try to resurrect our shared Crafting Stamping Quartet blog soon as we have neglected it for far too long and will be posting in the next week or two.

Today I have had a slow day at home putting my shopping away and I managed to make a very quick card with one of the Clarity stencils I bought yesterday over a Prima script paper. The stamps is one I bought at the show some time ago, but have never used!

It was a wonderful weekend with plenty of happy memories to warm the heart.

Elaine

A colour challenge

It was Chocolate Baroque's third birthday this week and a number of colour challenges were set for those on their Ning community and on Facebook I think (I don't venture into that strange territory!).  This was the first colour combination.

This was my effort.

I used Rusty Hinge, Mustard Seed and Peeled Paint Distress Inks with the acrylic block technique for the background.  I then die cut a circle. The green patch made me think of trees so I overstamped with the CB clear tree set Terrific Treescapes - I use this a lot - it is very versatile. I stamped in Coffee Archival ink and Versafine for the embossed area which I covered with a coppery black EP. I added some shading at the bottom with Memento Potters Clay ink.

I finished off edging my panel with gold EP and that spread a little onto the tree creating an interesting effect. I mounted onto chocolate brown card and added a sentiment from the Macintosh Sentiments that I love so much!

It has been a bit slow on the blog front as I am still working on my ink pad rack. It is really coming together now and I hope to be ready for a ta da moment very soon. It has been a certainly been a crafting marathon, but I am determined it won't be another unfinished project this time.

Things continue to be coming on in the garden. The blossom of the fruit trees is looking very promising this year, here is the pear tree.

Hope everything is blossoming for you too!

Elaine x

Mother's day cards

I have been getting myself organised with Mother's day cards this week and turned to the lovely Graphic 45 Lady's Diary pad for inspiration. These are the two designs I came up with.

This first uses images from the pad, coupled with some blue cotton lace, creamy coloured paper cherry blossom flowers and the sentiment which is from a very useful set of clear stamps recently released by Chocolate Baroque that can be found here. I also used the Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork flourish die.

My second card is deliberately different.

 

I have to say I was inspired by a card I found on Pinterest which used the idea for edging the umberella with lace, so I cannot take the credit for that. I used Lady's Diary papers again, coupled with a ledger paper from Prima to back the lady image. I used the fancy edge strip from the lovely Sue Wilson set I used in my previous post, the same sentiment set and the same die. I added a little black feather to her hat for an extra flourish.

I have also been working on making an ink rack for my Distress Inks this week. I don't have all 48 colours, but decided to make one with 48 slots as no doubt my collection will continue to grow, it is very much a work in progress. I have made three of the four towers so far as you can see here.

 

I have seen a number of these sorts of racks on Pinterest, but I made up my own pattern as I went along. I am using greyboard from the art shop, painting it with black acrylic paint which is a very messy business as you can see from the state of my glass mat in the picture. I decided it wasn't worth cleaning it off until the beastly job was all finished! The idea is that the four towers will be stuck together with one on each side of a rotating unit. I have yet to decide how to decorate the blank edge on each side, but it will all sit on a lazy susan rotating base that I hope to recycle from a charity shop purchase and it will have a little box on the top for holding other Distress products like stains, paints and reinkers as I don't have too many of those. It has been very hard work cutting all the pieces of greyboard, but it is satisfying to see something coming together that in the end will probably cost me only about £7 to make.

It has been lovely to see the sun more in recent weeks. The variety of flowers in the garden is increasing all the time and is enough to bring a smile to the face.

I hope you are enjoying spring wherever you are (assuming you are in the Northern Hemipshere of course!!

Elaine