Christmas Playtime

I can't believe that the holidays are almost over, Si goes back to work on Wednesday, the time has sure flown by, we've been generally chilling out, eaten lots of chocolate, watched a lot of telly and done some gaming, between that and visiting family its been relaxing and fun.

I got lots of lovely crafting goodies as gifts this year, stamps, ink pads, dies, a 5" x 7" Gelli Plate, lots of Tim Holtz goodies including a second tin for my Alcohol Inks, a cover for my Stamping Platform, a Sidekick Machine and some Side Orders to go with it.

My niece and nephews got me some stamps that I can use with the wreath maker templates and fabulous set of fir trees from Inkylicious. Simon bought my a superb light that not only gives me additional light when I'm working, it also has a magnifier on it, making it easier to see what I'm working in if it involves fine details. It can be fixed to the desk with a clip or be stood on a stand like a standard lamp and there is a battery pack that can be attached for use whilst travelling if you don't have access to mains electricity. Given that I now have better light I've re-organised the craft desk to make more space, I've added a set of 4 drawers that now house my Embossing Powders, Altenew Ink Cubes, Mixed Media Paints and a few other things, much easier to gain access to them this way and I've put things I don't use as often in the places the ink cubes etc were.

There is still some clutter and things need to be organised a little better but I'm getting there, I still need to label my Oxide inks and thin out some of the other stuff, some of it will be going to my niece Zoe, for Xmas I got her a small die cutting machine and some basic kit (cardstock, scissors, glue, foam pads etc) and I gave her a lot of stuff I didn't use any more like some Docrafts dies that cut circles and scalloped squares, I have larger sets that include all the same sizes so I don't need them.

I also gave her a lot of inkpads that I didn't use, some I'd bought and NEVER used. She has taken to card making like a duck to water, I got a message from her today saying she'd just finished making a birthday card for her Dad, his birthday is on the 2nd January. As Zoe has embraced card making I'll be giving her more of the stash I no longer use, the kind of things I bought when I was just starting out, the basic training wheel stuff, not that I think I'm a professional now, but I use techniques and products that when I first started card making I didn't think I'd ever be using.

After I'd finished sorting my craft space, I decided to have a little play and dug out some of the stamps and dies that I got from the NEC back in November and made a couple of cards. Both of them have the Inkylicious Splatter background stamp on them, I used Distress inks in various shades of blue and a couple of shades of the new Versa Clair inks I got for Xmas.

I have to say that the Versa Clair 'Nocturne' (black) ink is my new go to black ink, it stamps so crisp and clean, picked up details just like Versafine it is smudge proof after about 50 seconds but you can still emboss it for up to 5 minutes after stamping!

The ink dries very quickly and once dry, stamped images are waterproof and will not smear, the images are light fast and fade resistant and once dry you can use water colour pens without any smearing. I'm getting the rest of the colours for my birthday so when I have all 24 I'll do a post on them by way of a review.  If the inks could be use for alcohol inks as well it would be perfect, I will be using these inks a lot more from now on. Look at how crisp and dark the Nocturne ink has stamped on both these cards.

I have a lot of black ink pads and I've always used Versafine 'Onyx Black' for stamping sentiments, but I think Versa Clair 'Nocturne' will be replacing the Versafine. Both cards I made today are part of my efforts to make some flatter cards that cut down on postage costs and also to challenge myself to try and create a cards with layers of ink rather than layers of paper. That's all from me for now, wishing you all the best for the New Year, I'll be back soon with more wreath template posts and a lot of ink ideas to share with new goodies I want to master, HAPPY NEW YEAR from all of us at Warts n All Towers xxx

Aerial Fairy Bookmark

Hello to you out there in blog land, its been a couple of weeks since my last blog post, I've had my 14 year old niece Zoe staying with me for a week and I introduced her to the art of card making and Distress Inks, she took to them really well and went away armed with some distress inks, a heat gun, embossing powders and ink and lots more besides and I look forward to seeing what she creates in the future.

The week went by so quickly and I didn't get to show her everything I wanted to, there were trips to some National trust places, Sherwood Forest and we went to see Mamma Mia 2, which we all really enjoyed, it was all I could do to stop myself from singing out loud everytime the cast did the musical bits lol! Now Zoe has gone back home it seems so much quieter here, not that she was noisy, but having an extra person in the house changes the dynamic and when they aren't there you notice it.

One thing that was odd was the inability to be able to wander into my craft room late at night when I couldn't sleep and play with ink and paper, now that I have my craft space back I've started creating again. Yesterday we went to a local craft centre and I picked up a lovely stamp from Lavinia Stamps called Aerial. It occured to me that despite having about 20 Lavinia Stamps stamps I very rarely, if ever use them. More of the Tim Holtz fear I think, I see people create stunning projects and feel I can't do the stamps justice, so I put the stamps in a box and look at them every once in a while. It's actually been over 2 years now since I did anything with the stamps and because of how pretty the stamps are its a crying shame.

Not using the stamps seems a stupid when I think about it, given how much the stamps cost me initially, the fact that if it goes wrong the bin will accomodate the mishaps and whilst I'm playing I'm learning in the process. So last night I decided to have a play with the new Aerial stamp and my trusty distress inks and make myself a bookmark. 😁

I cut a strip of watercolour card and shaped the top with one of the dies from the Sizzix Tim Holtz Baroque set, then I began to layer the Distress Inks. I used one of my favourite colour combos, Wilted Violet and Picked Raspberry with bits of Milled Lavender, Victorian Velvet and some Black Soot to edge and ground the image.

Before I used the Black Soot I spritzed some water on the cardstock and blotted it after a minute to lift the ink. Pleased with the result I wanted to add a Moon to the image, I do have a couple of Moon stamps, one from Altenew and the other from Just Rite but the first was too big and the second too small. I sat thinking and my eyes hit upon the solution.

On top of my Distress Ink storage units sit a variety of items from Gamsol, glue, erasers and embossing powders. It occured to me that the small sized jars of WOW embossing powder were the right size for the moon I wanted to create. So I spritzed the lid with water, placed the bookmark on top and pressed down firmly making sure the cardstock didn't move around. After a minute I carefully lifted the bookmark off the lid and used a paper towel to blotch away the ink leaving a light moon shaped patch.

I think really I should have left it as is, but I attempted to edge the moon with a gel pen and I didn't get a perfect circle as my hand wasn't steady enough. Something else I need to work on, I decided to add some Pumice Stone Distress marker to the moon and again spritzed with water and lifted off and then gave the moon a lick of Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen. It helped disguise the messed up bit a little but its still not perfect, but does it have to be, its only for keeping my place in a book, and I've used chocolate wrappers, bits of ribbon, and torn pieces of paper before now lol!

I stamped Aerial, the leaf branches and mushrooms with Onyx Black Versafine Ink and added some Wilted Violet and Black Soot Distress Inks to the bottom to 'ground' the fairy. I added some specks of Stickles to Aerial's hair (Black Diamond) and dots to make stars (Crystal) and highlight the end of her wand. The final step was to use a hole punch at the top centre and thread some purple organza ribbon through.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out, imperfections aside, when I started the project, I was going to make a Winter themed card in blue and lilac icy shades with snowflakes/drops in the background, but somehow as I worked it turned in to this. I'm now wondering about making some bookmarks to give as gifts to friends. I actually started making some homemade xmas gifts this week. I made some Peppermint Foot Fizzes, just need to make some little boxes to put them in. I'm going to make some bath bombs as well and some notelet cards, this year I want almost all of what I give to friends and family to be homemade, I may even have a go at soap making, I've been wanting to try for a long time.

Fairy Wishes

I hope your week is shaping up nicely? We have sunshine here for the second day in a row, so I've pegged out the washing, had breakfast and after this post I'm off to sow some seeds, and pot up some scented geraniums in the garden. Yesterday I did some spring cleaning and I finally got round to backing up all my PC files in readiness for upgrading to Windows 10, I've been putting it off but it has to be done.

On to card making... I posted these cards on my DoCrafts Gallery last month and got some lovely comments about them, I made them after I'd been to the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC in March where I acquired these days and lots of other stash that will be appearing on my blog over the next few months. I did come away with lots more stuff than I intended to buy, but there was so much inspiration and I found things that I hadn't been able to find before.

For this card I matted a piece of purple centura pearl on to a white 5" x 7" card, on top of that a smaller piece of black card which I'd embossed with a Toga embossing folder I picked up in France last year the design is called 'Feuillages' or foilage in English.

After embossing I rubbed the raised area with Cosmic Shimmer Vintage Lavender gilding wax. The sentiment was done purple foil using my laminator on to a laser printed sentiment - I recently did a post about hot foiling that you may be interested in reading if you haven't already seen it?

The topper is made using the Star Gazing die from the Celtic Dreams die collection that was a joint project by Lavinia Stamps and Imagination Crafts, I picked up two from the range - wish I'd got more - and they cut like a dream! I cut the die from 260gsm black card, which I then I stippled it with Black Starlight's paint, a new paint I picked up at the NEC, and have since added more colours to my range, they are brilliant, see the photo just below this, the pale dotted areas are actually the sparkle you get from the starlight paint, I was truly amazed at the effect from just one light coat. I've been using these to paints to make flowers for some cards, will post the photos soon, the results are sooooo shiny!

Back to the 'Fairy Wishes' card, when the paint was dry, I stuck vellum pieces behind the wings and used Sparkle Pens (Aquamarine & Cosmos) on them to echo the colours in the background. I then stuck the die cut and painted panel that I found in my 'Maybe Someday' box, I often rifle through the box for inspiration and to see if anything I've played with previously fits a current project I'm working on and was thrilled to find the piece below.



As I recall I just inked up a piece of water colour card with Picked Raspberry, Tumbled Glass & Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks, and added some of my homemade silver shimmer mist. I die cut a circle out of the inked piece and glued down the stargazing panel on to it. I stuck the panel to my card using foam tape to raise the topper and then finished it off with some stickles and glitter for the stars. Sadly I can't seem to capture the shimmer you get in my photos, but the card really does sparkle and shine.

To make the "May Your Day Sparkle" card I followed the same format as the "Fairy Wishes" card using the 'Nurture' die from the Celtic Designs range. The embossing folder used is the Docrafts 'Square Gilt Frame' embossing folder  which I used Cosmic Shimmer 'Golden Light' gilding wax on the embossed area.

The nurture die cut is again painted with black starlights, and the wings are vellum coloured with Sparkle Pens (Pink Champagne & Harvest Moon). The die cut is mounted on to a square of cards that I coloured using my ink dusting tool from Inkylicious, I used Memento inks in shades of Dandelion, Cantaloupe and Tangelo and gave the finished panel a spritz of gold shimmer mist.

My glued on coloured panel stuck out over the edge of the die cut a little so I trimmer it to fit. For the sentiment I used the larger of the mini xcut tag dies and I embossed a sentiment that came free with a magazine last year in Whisper 'Mirror Gold' embossing powder. I finished off the card by adding 4 corner die cut from Dovecraft 'Gold' Mirror Card using one of the dies in the Die'sire Decorative Corner Die Set 1. I'll be making lots of variations on a theme using these dies, including some winter ones using white Starlight paint, they are such beautiful dies, hoping to acquire more of them in the future, especially 'Timeless' the design with the cat on.

Right I'm off out in to the garden to sow tomato and herb seeds and enjoy the sunshine, it brightens my mood, I hope the sun is shining where you are and you have a lovely day, thanks for stopping by!

Gelli Plate & Fairies

For the past 12 months I've been watching YouTube videos and following blogs of people who are creatively using stamps from Lavinia Stamps. Secretly wanting to have a play myself but figuring that I wouldn't be able to do the stamps justice. Some of the creations of some of the talented people out there using them are breath taking.

I watched the lady behind Lavinia Stamps working her magic with inks and various sizes of gelli plates and again wanted to play. So when I went to the NEC and found the Lavinia Stamps stand I went a bit crazy and bought a total of 17 stamps, a gelli plate, brayer and some card and a variety of other items including liquid pearls and glitter. I watched Tracey creating amazing images with the new cat stamps she released at the NEC and I couldn't wait to get home to try out the techniques.

The photo above is my first ever attempt at using the brayer and gelli plate. I know it wasn't quiet right, for one I didn't "ground" the cat, and there is space at the bottom of the image but it wasn't bad for my first attempt. I admit to not liking the distress inks I used, they didn't give the vibrancy of colour that the Adirondack inks that Tracey uses do, and I haven't got the hang of the liquid pearls and glitter application yet as well, but I'll get there!

I tried again the day after, this time to create a card to enter in to a Enchanted/Fantasy challenge on the DoCrafts forum. The lady gave the brief of creating a project with spring colours of green and yellow and the project had to have a fairy and an animal in it. As I love the Tree Goddess 'Luna' stamp so much I used her again for this card.

At the time of creating this card, I didn't have any Adirondack inks, so I used distress inks again. They work, but they are a lot paler and wishy washy than I wanted, I've since acquired some Adirondack ink pads, so I'll be playing again soon.

I used a square of card to colour on the gelli plate and die cut it with a nested circle die, using the next size up to cut a mat in green core-dinations card. The ivy leaves I made ages ago and were in my "Maybe Someday" box, they're done using shades of green distress inks on water colour paper and then die cut with the 'Small Ivy' die from Britannia Dies.

The Fairy was stamped with Black Onyx Versafine ink, flowers and gems from my stash, I used Memento inks to stamp the foliage and I went over the wings with two colours of sparkle pen in Rose Quartz and Clear to give them some shimmer, the final touch was some dots of perfect pearls dusted with iridescent glitter. The circular topper is stuck to a 7" x 7" card and the green wood effect paper is printed off on my computer from my 'Flights of Fantasy' CD Rom from Crafters Companion.

I was rather chuffed today to discover that my card had been picked as the winner of the challenge, now its up to me to host the next Enchanted/Fantasy challenge, I've picked a theme, just need to decide what I want people to do around the theme.