Christmas inspired by Stress Free Cardmaking Summit

 It's been a busy weekend.  Had a lovely lunch with my friend, Yvonne, and all her family to celebrate her 70th on Saturday.  Got home around 4pm and hit the computer to watch some of the presentations from the Stress Free Cardmaking Summit.   OMG - what amazing presenters and their projects.... Quick, easy and stress free!  I started with Ardyth Percy-Robb and her stenciling ideas.   

This one was inspired by Ardyth's idea of masking off part of a stencil to use it differently.   I took a Tim Holtz stencil (Festive) and masked off one of the Holly Leaves.  I used Distress Oxide inks to add the colour and added some red Nuvo Drops.  To keep it CAS I just added a sentiment.  It's a Woodblock stamp from Paper Inspirations (circa 2005) called Favorite Things Calligraphy - stamped in Altenew Charcoal Suit grey ink.  To give the look of matting, I did a faux matting by masking off the edges and using a Copic marker. 

My next card utilised the ink left on the stencil - I sprayed with water and used it to "print" a panel.  I then took inspiration from Julia - used an embossing folder. 

Once I dried the background (you can just make out the stenciled pattern) I ran it through my machine with a Couture Creations folder (Joyful Wishes).   It's only a 2D folder so rather than inking up the folder, I swiped some Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide across it.  Was really happy with the results.  To finish I took a Couture Creations Ringing Bells stamp that I had cut with my Scan'n'Cut.  I used some Tri-blends to colour with a touch of silver pen.  I also added some Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen to it as well.   Mounted on a silver glitter circle. 

And my final card was inspired by Joy's alcohol ink backgrounds.   Must say I can't even remember when I last used my alcohol inks!  I used the matt side of some photo paper like Joy used, and used a half a large sheet to get two backgrounds.  

When with the green theme again... used three different green inks, lots of blending solution and added some gold foil. I trimmed it and added to a card base.  I used a Concord & 9th sentiment from Big on Christmas stamp and die set.   Black stamping and clear embossing on vellum before doing the die cut.  The snowflakes are from a magazine freebie set cut with white paper and added some Nuvo iridescent flat sequins. 

And I still have a panel of green ink to use 

Big thanks if you made it this far.  I appreciate your visit.   

 

WWW 226 Dawn's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

Yes, it is my turn to host the Watercooler Wednesday this week.  Our challenge this week is Masculine "Anything Goes" challenge. 

My card today started with a panel that I made with Alcohol inks with some foil added.  The black die cut is an unnamed one I got a number of years ago.  I added it to the right hand side of the panel which I cut to the size of the die.  The sentiment is a Britannia Die cut. 

Come join in the fun.  Check out the projects that the artists at Watercooler Wednesday Challenges have created then take the challenge and link your creation to the challenge post. We’d love to have you join us.  You have until Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (Tuesdays at midday NZ time) to link up your project

Happy Easter... every day is a gift

It's Good Friday today and I got a bit of time to play in my craft room.  A couple of cards done... am now well ahead with my DT samples.  This afternoon I pulled out an alcohol background I had done on some photo paper.  It was a bit more vibrant than usual so decided to trim it down a bit for just a smaller focal panel.

I layered the panel onto a maroon card and then onto a cream base.  I die cut the Memory Box Bella Bouquet from the cream card and added to the card.  I used Altenew Rose Gold embossing powder to add the sentiment.   Like how the maroon card really showed off the panel.

Today was a really nice day, the sun was shining and it was warm.  Hubby went over to our son's place to help him remove some trees and plant some new fruit trees... 4 Feijoas.  I made some veggie soup and took it around for lunch.  Erin is only 10 days away from due date... so I thought I'd take this around so she didn't have to prepare lunch for the boys.  

Happy Easter to you all. 

Febraury CCC reveal

I missed a few months of taking part in the CCC swaps.. but joined in for February.  And got to send a card to my good friend Arlene. 

I chose to use the sketch

 

Here is my card

I started with a background piece that was in my "stuff" box.  I had made it by dropping alcohol inks onto a water bath and dunking my card.  It dried very soft and pretty. For my stripes and dots I used a Winnie and Walter Scenery Stripes stamped with Catherine Pooler's Juniper Mist ink.  I had some of the Altenew Hennah Element flowers stamped out and just had to do a few more.  I used a mixture of Altenew Markers and Copic Markers to colour the flowers and leaves.  The sentiment is from Altenew's Engraved Flowers set.

Thanks for checking in today. 

WWC 204 - Gail's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Gail is our hostess this week with an anything goes masculine challenge.

I'm on a roll with my Alcohol backgrounds.  This one is greens and browns  with touches of gold foil.

I used the Alcohol lift ink to stamp this motor bike.  The stamp comes from a set called "For the Boys" that was a freebie with Cardmaking in Easy Steps magazine.  The set is full of great masculine stamps.    I embossed the sentiment from the set in Liquid Platinum powder on a really dark green cardstock.  

Come join in the fun and make a masculine themed project.  Check out the projects that the artists at Watercooler Wednesday Challenges have created then take the challenge and link your creation to the challenge post. We’d love to have you join us.  You have until Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (Tuesdays at 1pm NZ time) to link up your project.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
 

WWC 203 - Karen's "All about Occasions"

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Karen is our hostess this week with "All about Occasions" challenge.

My card today is to celebrate Valentine's Day

I've been playing lately with Alcohol Inks and recently got some Tim Holtz Alcohol Lift Ink. My background was made with Red Pepper and Watermelon inks and some Isopropyl alcohol on Yupo paper.   I took  Simon Says Stamp "Floral Bliss" stamp set and using the Lift Ink stamped one of the bouquets in the set.  Love the very subtle look you get.  I originally went to embossed the sentiment (from Clearly Besotted "All Occasion Sentiments") directly onto the Yupo paper  --- but look what happened. 

Note to self: DO NOT EMBOSS on Yupo.  So slight change of plans.. to the size of my card and how to add the sentiment.  Trimmed off the ruined piece and added the embossed sentiment onto vellum and adhered onto the panel by wrapping it around it.  Then onto a red panel and then onto the card base.  

Come join in the fun and make any type of occasion card. Check out the projects that the artists at Watercooler Wednesday Challenges have created then take the challenge and link your creation to the challenge post. We’d love to have you join us.   You have until Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (Tuesdays at 1pm NZ time) to link up your project.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Alcoholic Gnomes....

I bet that got your attention....  No my cards done have drunken Gnomes... but Gnomes with a background of Alcohol inks....

This is one of my alcohol ink backgrounds from last weekend.  I trimmed it up into different sizes and added a little Gnome on each one.  Two of the sentiments came with the Gnomes stamp set and the last one from a Kaisercraft set.

I'm entering the challenge at Watercooler Wednesday - it's Heidi's Anything Goes "All about the Holidays"  with these... or at least one of them will go into the challenge....

I still got a pile of backgrounds to use so more of these Gnomes in different colours might just be on
the way to building up my Christmas cards supply.    Plus I got two new 6x6 paper packs today... so some serious Christmas card making in the next little while.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Alcohol ink blending...inspired by Jennifer

I really enjoy watching Jennifer McGuire's videos and techniques as she always has something fun to try.  Her Alcohol blending technique is no exception.  It involves using a special alcohol pen to "lift" the alcohol ink from your background.   I have had two of these pens - had them for years but haven't used them much so this afternoon I got to try out the technique.  I had made some backgrounds last weekend and a few more this afternoon.  I took one of my pinky red backgrounds and a Hero Arts stamp.

I stamped the background piece first with Versamark and white embossed it.  Then used Rose Gold powder to emboss the same image onto some white card.  Unfortunately I took my stamp off my MISTI before remembering that I wanted to white emboss again once I had lifted the ink.   And as it was a red rubber stamp, it was too difficult to re-align.   I also added a bit too much of the Alcohol blending solution to my pen and it splattered a few times...   I added the "lifted" ink to the white card.  I also coloured up the Dovecraft diecut with some ink from the rest of the background I had created.   I used a stacked diecut (cut 3 times) on my coloured background.  And added some gold Wink of Stella on top for a bit of sparkle.

I'm entering the first one into the Monochromatic Challenge at A Blog Named Hero and the second one in to the CAS challenge at A2Z Scrapbooking and Use punches or dies over at the Sweet Stampin' Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you get to have some fun crafting this weekend.

Playing with Alcohol.....

Inks that is!  When I was meeting with my friends to stamp I took along my Alcohol inks and made a few backgrounds.  Some purples and greens.   On one of them I stamped an Peony from Altenew.  I die cut it with the matching die

I also stamped and die cut the leaves with some green Alcohol inks and made them up into a card

I used some of the pink woodgrain paper layered onto some purple card and then onto the white card base.  I used a sentiment from Kaisercraft (which I picked up on sale for $1.80) and stamped with Hero Arts Metallic Ombre ink. It is very intense in real life.

I thought I'd share a quick pic of little Archer.  He's 4 months old now.  And in 12 days I will get to give him big hugs.  I can hardly wait!

He's such a happy smiley baby (or at least in all the photos I get!)

Thanks for visiting today.  Please leave me a comment, I would appreciate it.

Playing with Alcohol......

Inks that it is!   Sunday I was surfing the net and came across Ranger Industries website and on their project page I found this project using Alcohol inks.  It made me want to try it... so I dragged out the inks and had a play.

I started by putting some colours and bronze mixative onto my craft mat and laid and twisted the card.  As it didn't have quite the look I wanted, so I pounced some more inks onto the piece.  Much happier with it then.  I cut out the floral oval from Spellbinders and trimmed around the dots to make the centre panel.  I cut another oval out of white glossy card and layered the two together.  The sentiment is from Penny Black.   The base background was made by adding Pearl, Copper and Silver Mixatives onto one felt pad and pouncing onto the glossy card.  Love the beautiful shiny look it made.  Added all the layers to a blue base.  I punched out some butterflies from a slightly lighter part. 

And now I'll share a cute card I made for a commission.... the request was something Kiwiana...

I found a pile of images from the internet and put them together on  a card.  Added the sentiment.  The person who ordered it was thrilled with it...It was for her sister in Singapore...

Off to ice the cupcakes I made for my team's planning day tomorrow.  We are having an all day meeting and going out for lunch at an Indian restaurant near our office.

Dawn

Alcohol Thinking Inking

I have been following Jennifer McGuire's Holiday Thinking Inking over at twopeas.  One of her techniques this week involving Alcohol ink was to use it on Watercolour paper.  Now as most of you will know, Alcohol inks are usually used with Glossy paper... but the delicate look on watercolour paper is amazing.

Here's what I came up with.

I stamped the large snow flake from a Papermania Duo set onto the watercolour paper and embossed it with white EP.  I then used Stream, Aqua and Cool Peri inks with silver mixative.  I was really pleased with the results.  I added some Enamel Accents in white to the centre of the flowers  ( this stuff is amazing- just arrived in my Simon Says Stamp parcel this week)  As I didn't want to cover any of the wonderful colour or snowflakes with a sentiment, I stamped it with Stazon onto a sheer ribbon and added a double bow. 

I have been making the most of being home recuperating... have made a few cards, tried some other resist techniques, did my tutorial yesterday (here) and generally had fun in my craft room... today have to do the housework :-(  - but if I hurry I can get back to crafting later in the afternoon.  I've got new stamps and really really want to play!!!!

Hope your weekend is great - we have SUN!!!!! 

May's card chain challenge,

As many of you know, I have taken part in Deborah's Card Chain challenge from the beginning.  This month her challenge was to use these colours

or this sketch  or the theme of Friendship, Mothers Day or Memorial Day.

My recipient was Deborah March who lives in Nova Scotia.  Now I had to look up the map to see where that was!!!!!  Deborah has a great blog here.  She is one extremely talented card maker who has been recognised all over the place.  She has the most amazing tutorial on her blog for making flowers.  Go see this.

Anyway I sent off a card based on the sketch and another card with a book mark as part of it.

I had made some purple alcohol ink background and I cut a circle in half for the pieces.  The quote is from a set of by Inkadinkado kids quotes. 

For the book-mark card, I started by adding a strip of silver duct tape on the white card and embossing it with a CB border.  I added some colour to the buds with Copic pens. I then cut it to fit onto the side of a card.  I used a perforating cutter to mark down where it is torn off.  The rest of the card was decorated with a panel - made by stamping the HA cling Flourish in silver ink onto a black card wrapping some silver thread around it and mounting on silver card stock then onto the purple. The birds were made by stamping twice onto the purple card and then when I cut them out, turned one over. 

As usual I had fun making these cards and love sending them off.  I can't wait to see what I get in the post... hopefully not too long away.

Thanks for looking today, wishing you all a great day.

Inky fingers and more book-marks

This week the weather has been so nice I had to take my crafting outside..... with my parents here I didn't want to shut myself away in the craft room....so the mountain came to Mohammed....I picked up my inks, scissors, papers and stamps and headed out into the sunshine.... what a fun afternoon.  I showed my parents how I make background cardstock - used alcohol inks, Kaliedacolor inks, distress inks.... and then turned some of them into book-marks for Mum to take back for my SIL and nieces.  Still a whole pile of backgrounds to use up!!!

I also printed out some images I purchased from Heather Ellis  (Thanks to the inspiring Donna who showed them on her blog).  I did some really tiny ones - like on the book-mark and some bigger ones.  This one is for my Mum's birthday on Monday 4th ( don't look Mum!!!)  As Donna says - fun to resize the images with digi stamps.

I used one of the alcohol ink backgrounds I made and one of the Pure Innocence images I coloured in.  Just wish I had used white Stazon to stamp the sentiment or some EP in white to make it stand out a bit...

It was just wonderful sitting outside colouring in.  Managed to make the card when Mum went for a snooze in the afternoon. 

Well I'm off for a few days to Papamoa - where hubby's sister lives.  We'll spend New Years Eve there and maybe the next day.  Just playing things by ear.... so Happy New Year to all.

Unto us a child is born.....

I got a new set of Christmas stamp from Inkadinkadoo this week.
O Holy Night.  For this card, I stamped the sentiment onto white card stock and cut it out with my Labels 1 nestibilites. While it was still in the nestie, I sponged the edge with Faded Jeans distress ink. I coloured the star with yellow pencil and used the aqua pen to spread the colour outwards. I then stamped the Mary and Jesus image onto card stock and coloured it in with blues and a touch of yellow. I cut it out and pop dotted it onto the corner of the label. I added some ribbon and used my Fiskers Threading water punch to edge the blue layer. I entered this into the CAARDvarks Color it Challenge. 

I also managed another quick card this week.  I had got a new set of Tim Holtz Alcohol inks... Salmon, Aqua and Sandal.  I used them to make the background for this card.  The sentiment  stamp is by Stamp It was stamped with Archival Ink in Sepia on white card. This was then overlaid with embossed vellum - with holly leaves on it.  I then finished with three bronze gems. 

Today I spend the morning in surgery.  I have been having a few issues with "woman's stuff" as my DH would say and had to have a D&C( Dilations and Curettage) and a hysteroscopy to see if there is anything wrong.  Initial results are all fine...Hopefully the D&C will fix the issues I'm having.  I am feeling a bit dopey still from the anaesthetic  and bit uncomfortable feeling so it's off to bed for an early night.  I've taken tomorrow off so if I feel better - will do a bit more crafting.

Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate all the wonderful comments people leave.
Take care  ( one month till Christmas - 4 weeks till my Mum and Dad arrive to spend Christmas with us!!!!)

Saturday stamping group 10.10.09

First pic today is the bookmark I made earlier in the week.  See my Flickr photostream for details.

Yesterday was my monthly Stamp Group at Stamp'n'create.   I had a few projects to do - some more cards for my hubby's birthday - for the kids to give him.  I didn't have that great a day... nothing seemed to be going right.  Messed up a couple of cards.... try to make a male-ish background and it turned out too girly ( did make a nice card for a female  friend turning 50 soon) - but a fun day none the less.

So here's what I ended up with:  - this first one is a card I saw on Jenn B's photostream - here.  I have copied this - using the Hero Arts Digikit - Vintage Travel.  I used word to resize and cut out the car and used aqua crayons to colour.  The map background I printed out onto white card and used Old Paper distress ink to colour and edge.  Added the twine and then made a button/tag from Hero Arts Travel Journal set.  I used the HA Petite Messages for the sentiment.  Thanks for the idea Jenn.

Next one is also another one I copied the idea for.... ( lack of inspiration yesterday) so thanks this time to Vanessa who's card here was my inspiration.  I used my CB to make the background and used Walnut stain distress ink to colour.  The light blue card was stamped with HA Old French writing and distressed with Blue Jeans distress ink.  The darker blue was stamped with a Penny Black sentiment. 

 

This is the one that started as an attempt to make a "male" background.  I used two blues and a red alcohol inks to make the background.  I then stamped the Grid pattern stamp in Stazon - It seemed a bit plain so added the flowers - definitely more girly...( since I took the photo have added a Happy Birthday in black and it will do for a birthday card for a female friend turning 50 on the 25th)

and finally;

Make and Take this week was a card using Flower Soft.  Judi gave us a demo on using it and then off we all went and made our card.  Great stuff for dimension.  Earlier in the day, Judi had also done a demo on using Pearl Ex in different ways.  I bought two new stamps that I am going to try some of the techniques with.

Well it's been a long post so thanks for visiting - wishing you all a great week 

More ATC's

First off tonight a couple of pics of the backgrounds I made the other night.  The single sheet is my distressed one.  I used Spiced Marmalade, Shabby Shutters and Walnut stain and then spritzed it with water to cause the dots on it.  The others are the Alcohol ink backgrounds.  I used a mixture of colours on each one.  Purples and blues together, greens and blues together and one with butterscotch, red and green together.  These are to send to a lady I meet in Cairns who is also a card maker.

Now for the ATC's I did last night. This first one is a hybrid card.  The butterfly is a digi one from Hero Arts Flutterby Digikit available at 2peasinabucket. I used Lucy's instructions to resize the stamp in Word, printed it out and used my aqua crayons to colour it in.  I then put a few dots of Liquid pearls on the edges.  The background was some alcohol inks that I blended onto cardstock ( not glossy) with Purple Twilight and Wild Plum with silver fixative. Quite a different look than putting it on glossy card.  I then overstamped with Antique Brocade stamp in Pansy Impress Ink.  Distressed the edge of the sentiment in the Pansy as well.

Next ATC also used the Flutterby Digikit. This time I used a brush in Photoshop ( still learning how to do this!!!)  I created a background paper with the butterfly.  I cut it to size, added the ribbons, sentiment from Hero Arts and a large silver heart gem ( unknown type)  A very easy and simple ATC

Third and last ATC for the night used one of my favourite stamps - HA Three Ferns.  This is some of the distress paper I made the other night.  I stamped the ferns in Old Mahogany Distress ink.  The word "HOPE" was a rub-on that didn't..... not sure why but it wouldn't go on, so ended up having to use a marker pen to go over the letters.  Finished with a button and all done.

I am hoping that I will be able to enter the Hero Arts ATC swap, but as it opens at 4.00am NZ time, I might not be in time.  Visit the blog to see the ATC's that  Sharri has been doing and then visit the Flickr group for the wonderful creations that have been made so far.

Thanks for stopping by.

Three Ferns

Three Ferns
Originally uploaded by turleyfamily(Dawn)

I got some time this afternoon to make a card using one of the shrinky plastic embellishments I made using alcohol ink on Friday. I made a red and yellow with pearl fixative background and used it to stamp the fern on. I wasn't fast enough to get the ink off before it dried, so left it as the brown ink on the background. I layer both the stamped piece and the tagged piece onto kraft and then onto the pink card stock. I used a gold calligraphy ink pen to edge all the pieces. The tag was popped to give some dimension to the card. I liked the way the tag is a more intensive colour than the background.

This afternoon Emma and Brad called round. I hadn't seen them for a couple of weeks so it was great to catch up. They both have been busy at work and continuing to work on their house. Emma came to "borrow" again from my stash. She was making a guest book for the wedding. She had covered an A4 sized note book cover in white and silver patterned paper and wanted something more for the front. I found a lovely black rub-on that said "Forever and Ever" - it was perfect. She had also been to Spotlight and got the bits to make Wine Glass Tags. She is going to put the guest names onto pale shell squares with a little metal oval embellishment engraved with Love, some white and black beads and use them as place settings for the tables.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week

More alcohol inks and a trip to SENZ

Last night I thought I'd try using alcohol inks on Shrink plastic to see what would happen. I wanted to try the techniques that Jennifer McGuire did on glass and acetate and see if they would work on the plastic. Well they did and How!! The background colours were intensified by the shrinking process. I made a tag onto which I used the fern stamp in Archival ink and wiped off to get a resist look. In the middle scallop I did the same with the butterfly stamp. In this one the copper fixative really came through. The smaller circle colours look quite "old". I was very pleased with the results of this experiment.
Today I went out to Manukau City ( about 35kms from my place) to go the the SENZ papercraft expo. I hadn't booked for any of the classes (with all the uncertainty of health of SIL didn't want to commit) so just went out for the shopping....

Lots of the stalls had Make'n'takes going on or demos of different products. First demo's I watched were at the SANZI imports stall. They import Cuttlebugs, Circuts, Spellbinders and other such stuff. I watched examples of using Perfect Pearls then some alcohol ink and later in the day came back for a demo on using Adirondack Inks and double embossing with the Cuttlebug. Over at Rubbadubbadoo's stall they were doing this card. A simple and quick card that took about 5 mins to make. The butterflies were stamped in Stazon onto acetate and then coloured with permanent pens on the reverse. The centre of the card was masked and then the stamping done both top and bottom with some stippling of the ink to get the line. The sentiment was then stamped in the masked area and the butterflies added. Hey presto -all done.
I did a bit of shopping - I had a $25 voucher for Hastings Rubber stamps so used that to get the Grid Patterns stamp - only cost $5.90 with the discount. Also saw the teddy stamp there so got that. I got some blender pads as well as the inks from Crafty Tart's stall. Think I'll be visiting that site again. Good prices.
Caan't wait to play with the goodies.... but will have to be tomorrow as the rugby is about to start. All Blacks verus Australia.... first Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations game. GO THE ALL BLACKS!!!
Thanks for stopping by.

I LOVE alcohol.....

Butterfly in green
Originally uploaded by turleyfamily(Dawn)

Inks that is..... A big thank-you to Jennifer McGuire and 2peasinabucket for doing the "Thinking Inking" classes. I have started to use my distress inks more and now have purchased a few alcohol inks and I LOVE them.

This card uses a couple of the techniques from Jennifer McGuire's classes. The background scallop is from this weeks Part 1 - using alcohol inks and the embossing of the Silhouette Corner stamp is from an earlier week. I used a mixture of blues and green with some pearl fixative to make this one.
I used my new Buff Pearl Green embossing powder on a dark brown circle. The butterfly is from Spellbinders and is also alcohol inked. I used the blending solution to make the background a tad lighter. The card is cut just a little smaller than a normal sized card - not quite square but near enough.
I've also got 3 other backgrounds done - red and butterscotch with a touch of copper, blue's with a touch of green and green and butterscotch with lots of pearl fixative making it really shiny. Just need to get them made up into a card.
Thanks for looking. I'm off to try inking up shrinky dink to make some embellishments. If they turn out I'll post ....