Fairy Nuff!

I started out with the intention of making a background with the Be Creative alcohol markers and then stencilling over it. However, the project had ideas of its own!

Here's the background. First I coloured the whole of it with one of the markers, using the chisel end of the marker, then dabbed various colours on to felt pads and stippled over it, mainly around the sides.

I left it to dry, and when I came back to it, it made me think of a secret glad in an enchanted forest. The vertical streaks were trees, and the stippled parts vegetation.So I had to turn it into a fairy card instead!

The gorgeous sentiment is by Visible Image, all other stamps by Inkylicious. I sponged around the edges with Memento ink (being water based it won't smudge the alcohol ink), with extra at the bottom to ground the fairy, toadstool and flowers, and added a few blades of grass with a Micron pen. The sentiment seemed to go with it all perfectly. Liberal application of Be Creative glitter glue provided the necessary sparkle!

Now what was it I was supposed to be doing.......?

Another tile

This time I stamped the poppies (Technique Tuesday) on to the tile with Brilliance ink and clear embossed it, stippled the background with Be Creative alcohol ink markers as in my previous post, then coloured the poppies with the markers. I rather like the stained glass effect.

Ceramic tile coaster

Had a few ceramic tiles lying around, so I thought I would try decorating one with the Be Creative alcohol ink marker pens.


I began by dabbing the markers on to a felt pad and stippling the ink on to the background. Then I simply hand drew the flowers and butterfly with the markers directly on to the tile. Easy peasy!

Here's a close up of the detail.

What's interesting is how the alcohol ink spreads on the tile, and how lighter colours will move aside darker ones. I'm not the best at drawing, but I wanted to see if the technique would work on the tile. I think it did. With more practice I would hope to be able to gain more control over how the colours move. On the other hand, I also quite like the random effect.

I'm quite pleased with my first effort at decorating a tile. I think it also shows the versatility of the markers.

Alcoholic jewellery!

Knowing that alcohol ink works well on glass, I decided to see what I could do with the Be Creative alcohol ink markers and some glass domed cabochons, which I then made into pendants. They were very easy to make.

The method was the same for each one. I used the markers directly onto the back (flat surface) of the glass cabochon, dotting the colours around, and they spread quite naturally into each other on the glass. I found that less is more with this technique. If you put too much ink on, it spreads too much, leaving areas uncoloured, though of course that may be a perfectly good technique if you like the end result! I wanted a bit more colour, although not too dark, otherwise the stamping wouldn't show through. When I was happy with the colouring, I made sure it was completely dry before stamping (again on the back) with Brilliance ink, which I heat set. I then added a little extra colour to the butterflies. I found out when making my prototype that even heat set, the Brilliance ink tended to smudge a little if I used the markers over the top of it, so when it came to colouring the butterflies, I was VERY careful to keep inside the lines! I had tried stamping first before any colouring, but when I tried to colour over it, most of the stamping rubbed off.

Here are the individual pendants. The butterflies and cow parsley are by Crafty Individuals, the buzzard by Inkylicious.

I backed the pendants with white card to stop the inks wearing off and help the colours to show through. I adhered the card with Be Creative Wonder Tape. However, for the bails I used  the recommended E6000 glue, as I wasn't sure how well the Wonder Tape would work with metal, although I'd hazard a guess it would be just as effective. I'll maybe try it on another one and see. The final step was to coat the back of the card with Ranger Inkssentials Glue N Seal to protect it.

I probably should make some gift boxes next ......

Post Christmas play!

Now that Christmas is over, I'm being creative again with Be Creative! Been doing some more experimenting with the alcohol markers, and also tried out the Wonder Tape. The alcohol markers are not yet on the website, but in the meantime you can order them by contacting the shop directly.

My first project of 2016 was a card, on which I used the alcohol markers, a tag, background papers and the Wonder Tape.

I had some foil tape in my stash, bought originally from a DIY shop to make my grandson a Roman spear, for which it worked very well! I thought it might also work well as an embellishment for cards, and wondered whether it would take the ink from the alcohol markers, and as you can see, it did!

The foil is very thin and delicate, so the first task was to stick a length of it on to some card. I found the best way to colour it was to scribble directly on the foil with the markers (I used 3 different colours in light, medium and dark shades) and then to blend the colours by dabbing very lightly (so as not to muddy the colours) with the ink blending tool to which I had added a drop of isopropyl alcohol (you can of course use alcohol ink blending solution if you have it, but you only need a very small amount).

Having coloured the foil I then embossed it with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and stuck it with Wonder Tape to another piece of card which I had coloured with the darkest shade I'd used on the foil. I do like how you can use the pens to make everything co-ordinate. I then trimmed it down to leave a narrow border on each side. The butterflies (Cheery Lynn dies) and sentiment panel were coloured with the markers in the same way as the foil. Sentiment is by Hobby Art.

With the exception of the butterflies, which were fixed with a spot of glue from the Be Creative glue wand, everything else was adhered with the Wonder Tape, which, I have to say, is every bit as good as it is claimed to be! Very easy to use, but you need to be accurate with placing it, as once stuck, it certainly isn't going anywhere else!

For my second project of the New Year I have been back in jewellery making mode, but I'll save that for another post!

Happy New Challenge!

Happy New Year everyone! Our first challenge of 2016 at Stamping Sensations is a nice easy one for you!

* * * * * ANYTHING GOES WITH A STAMP AND DIE/S * * * * *

You choose the subject, we just need to see one or more diecuts and as always, as we are a stamping challenge, some stamping on your creations.

I seem to recall that one of my crafty resolutions for last year was to try and use up old stash. As you'll see from my project, I'm still trying!
Whether you're like me and have past purchases that need to be employed, or whether you received some lovely new crafty goodies for Christmas which you can't wait to try out, you could put them all to good use by entering our challenge this month! And just in case you need any further persuasion, we have an amazing prize on offer!

  

Our fab sponsors Tonic Studios have kindly given us the full range of their new colours of NUVO Crystal Drops (which are similar to Liquid Pearls) along with pots of glitters for the very lucky winner! Who wouldn't want to add those to their stash? I could definitely make room for them!

Anyway, on to my card. The weather has been so depressing lately that I decided to make something to remind myself that this dismal season won't last forever!


My stamp is from the "Picture Perfect 2" set, and the sentiment from the "Spring Awakening" set, both by Inkylicious. The main image was framed with Spellbinder dies, the sentiment was hand cut. I coloured the background of the image with Memento inks using Inkylicious Ink Dusters, masking each section of the image in turn.

The tree die (my new favourite die!), which I cut twice, is by Frantic Stamper (available from Once Upon A Stamp). The background is embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

I finished the design with some ribbon and some tiny leaf embellishments which have been in my stash for years!



The DT have some gorgeous inspiration for you over on the Stamping Sensations Challenge Blog, and remember you can enter up to three times with any type of cards/projects. Good luck!