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!

Final challenge of the year at Stamping Sensations

We have a nice and easy challenge for you for December at Stamping Sensations! The theme is

* * * * * ANYTHING GOES WITH A STAMP AND RIBBON * * * * *

The subject of your project is entirely up to you, but we need to see a stamp and a ribbon (or ribbons!) somewhere on it. Who doesn't like ribbons?! So useful as pretty embellishments.  And we have a fab ribbon prize this month from our lovely sponsors Crafty Ribbons



And that's not all, as we also have an extra prize of two tickets to the February Hobbycrafts show in Manchester.



Anyway, on to my card, on which I have used stamps by Inkylicious, and ribbons from Crafty Ribbons.

First I cut the bauble with a Spellbinders die, keeping the diecut in the die until I had created the background using Inkylicious ink dusters and mountain and valley stencil. Next I stamped the Winter Cabin. The tiny trees in the background were made using just part of another Inkylicious stamp (from the Winter's Tale set). I inked up only the very top of the tree and stamped it over a torn paper mask. I used a white gel pen to add highlights to the cabin and trees, followed by some Be Creative glitter glue for the star and to define the snow banks.

The bauble was then mounted over some Be Creative DP and Crafty Ribbons grosgrain ribbon, with a bow of narrow satin ribbon to complete it. The deer and tree diecuts are part of a bauble die by Frantic Stamper.

There's plenty of inspiration over on the Stamping Sensations Challenge Blog, and my lovely teamies would really appreciate it if you visited their individual blogs too. We hope you enjoy creating your projects for our December challenge. We can't wait to see them!

Krafty Christmas!

Well, I managed to make a few Christmas cards at last! At Stamp Magic in October, I loved the cards being demonstrated by Deby from Inkylicious, using kraft card and white pigment ink to create a faux parchment effect. Naturally I had to buy the necessary supplies to have a go at making my own!

I won't go into details of how they are done, as Deby has a brilliant tutorial on her blog, which you will find here. These are the cards I've made so far.

1. Stencils and all stamps: Inkylicious. Border punch: Martha Stewart. DP: Be Creative

2. Stencils and Winter Cabin stamp: Inkylicious. Sentiment: Stamps by Chloe. Corner punch: Fiskars

3. Stencils, Trees & deer stamps: Inkylicious. Sentiment: Stamps By Chloe. Corner stamp: Magazine Freeie (Simply Cards & Papercraft). Border punch: X-Cut. DP: Grafix

4, Winter Cabin stamp: Inkylicious. Tiny snowflake (part of larger stamp) & sentiment: Stamps By Chloe. Corner punch: Dovecraft. Mountain & valley stencil: Inkylicious. Oval stencil cut with Spellbinders die.

5. Winter Cabin stamp, branch stamp & mountain & valley stencil: Inkylicious. Sentiment Stamps by Chloe. DP: Grafix. Circle stencil cut with Spellbinders die.

6. Winter Cabin & branch stamps: Inkylicious. Sentiment: Stamps by Chloe. Oval stencil cut with Spellbinders die.

7, Winter Cabin stamp, branch stamp, bauble stencil & mountain & valley stencil: Inkylicious. Sentiment: Stamps by Chloe. Deer & trees diecuts (cut from a larger die): Frantic Stamper. DP: Be Creative.

For all cards I used ColorBox Frost White pigment ink, Memento die ink and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen.

Until I saw Deby's cards, I wasn't really a fan of kraft card, but I really like the effect with this technique. It's also easy to do. I'm definitely a fan of that! Thanks for looking!

How shall I colour thee? Let me count the ways!

Here's a card. And before you scroll down to see how I made it, here's a question. How many different types of colouring media do you think I used on it?

 The answer is just one! I've been having a play with my Be Creative alcohol based markers, and I wanted to see if I could create a card using only those to colour all the various elements. Of course, I had to use a water based ink to stamp the flowers and sentiment otherwise they would have been smudged by the markers, but everything is coloured with the markers.

I stamped the flowers (Honey Doo Crafts) with black Brilliance ink on to heat resistant acetate, embossed them with clear embossing powder and cut them out. I coloured them by attaching a piece of felt to a Be Creative mini ink blending tool, rubbing ink from the markers on to the felt, and then dabbing it on to the flowers.

To make the main background paper, I scribbled some colours on to my glass mat, added a few drops of hand sanitiser and smooshed it around with my finger to swirl the colours together. Then I pressed a piece of shiny card (eg. encaustic art card) over it to transfer the colour. An added bonus, (depending on the brand of sanitiser!) is that your card will smell nice!

The next job was to make the background for the sentiment. Again, I used the glass mat method, but instead of the hand sanitiser I sprayed the colours lightly with isopropyl alcohol to merge them, which gave a smoother result. Alcohol ink blending solution would work well, but I didn't have any, and anyway, isopropyl alcohol is much cheaper. You can buy it from the chemist, but they may have to order it for you, and you may be required to explain to them what you want it for!

SAFETY NOTE! If using either the hand sanitiser or alcohol spray methods, make sure your work area is well ventilated and do not use near naked flames. Also please note I cannot be held responsible for any problem resulting from your use of my methods.

For the outer border and that around the sentiment I simply coloured a piece of ordinary white card with a marker.The ribbon was coloured in the same way using two complimentary colours. Finally I used a marker to colour the self adhesive pearl (Be Creative), stamped the sentiment (Woodware) with Memento ink and diecut it with Spellbinders Label 4 dies.

I hope my experiment shows the versatility of the Be Creative Alcohol Markers, and also that you don't need lots of fancy stash to create something beautiful!

It's getting nearer.....

.... and I have made hardly any Christmas cards yet! Still, at least I have made a start, with a card for our November theme at Stamping Sensations, which is

* * * * * FESTIVE FLOWERS AND FOLIAGE * * * * *

Can't really go wrong with this one - Christmas roses, holly and ivy, poinsettias, mistletoe, winter jasmine, even amaryllis, snowdrops and more! You may use any materials you choose, from any company. All we ask is that you use a stamp as the main focus of your design.

We are sponsored this month by be Creative!, who very kindly have donated a fantastic prize: a great selection (around £60 worth!) of their products, including papers, glitter glues, blending tools and refills, glue wand, tags, loads of embellishments and, to top it all, one of their fabulous totes to keep everything in!

Be Creative! are a new company, in fact so new that their website is not scheduled to go live until December, but you can check them out on their Facebook page. However, if you can't wait that long to get your hands on their stuff, you can buy it now from Once Upon A Stamp. Only some of the products are on their website, but they are all available from their shop, if you're local to them, or by telephoning your order to them on 01623 818910.

I am very impressed by the Be Creative paper pads. The paper is such good quality, and it's also double sided. I used a sheet from the "Winterland" pad for my card.

To echo the printed trees on the paper, I stamped and cut out a tree (from Stampin' Up's "Lovely As A Tree" set) and affixed it to the card with foam pads. I diecut the poinsettias (Marianne Design) from one of the "Winterland" papers and punched out the fern leaves (Leone Em) from metallic green paper (from my stash). I used a Be Creative glue wand to assemble the poinsettias and fasten them and the fern leaves in place. As the glue wand has a fine ball tip, it is very easy to apply the glue to small, delicate or fiddly items. It sticks really well too! I dotted the centres of the flowers and the stamped tree with glitter glue (also from Be Creative) and finished the design with a sentiment from Personal Impressions.

If, like me, you are still needing inspiration for your Christmas makes, you'll find plenty over on the Stamping Sensations Challenge Blog. Please do visit my teamies' individual blogs too, they would really appreciate it. I look forward to seeing all your lovely Festive Floral creations!