Review: Simon Hurley Dye Inks

Photo used with the kind permission of Simon Hurley

Remember that band New Kids on the Block? My friend Nicola was a huge fan, I wasn't, never really got boy bands once I grew up, in my day it was The Osmond's and then The Bay City Rollers (showing my age now lol!) So what has that opening sentence got to do with crafting? Well as far as I'm concerned there is a new kid on the crafting block and he released the first wave of his own brand of brilliant crafting goodness last year and more is still to come in 2020.

I'm referring of course to Simon Hurley, I say he's a new crafter on the block but this young dude has been crafting since the tender age of 10 when he first starting playing with alcohol and distress inks, he's now 16 coming on 17, has graduated college and is making a career out of inspiring crafters like me all over the world, with his own special brand of crafting enthusiasm and now inks, stamps, stencils and more. I've been watching this talented young man on YouTube since 2015, but he's been uploading videos there since 2014. I discovered him whilst watching Jennifer McGuire, another of my favourite American crafters, over on YouTube.

The video I was watching of Jennifer's finished playing and one of Simon's early videos Cardmaking Life Hacks You NEED to know! began autoplaying, initially my instant reaction as this young peppy voice burst out of my PC screen was "Who the freckle is this boy, and what the heck can he teach me about crafting or bring to my crafting experience?" that's the polite version 😉 But the young dude hooked me just 0.06 seconds in to his video with his "Wittle bit easier" line and I've been a fan ever since. By the end of watching that video Simon had infected me with his enthusiasm, but more importantly he'd taught this old crafter that crafting isn't something that is just for the older generation of the female persuasion, crafting is for any age and sex, and the younger generation can inspire and enthuse others just as well as the older generation.

I could wax lyrical about Simon's style and what he brings to the crafting table, but his creative genius and skill, coupled with the way he's taking the American crafting world by storm speaks for itself. I'm hoping that he takes the UK crafting world by storm as well because it would be lovely to attend a workshop here in the UK.

Simon's aim is to redress the balance in the industry from focusing on feminine crafting supplies to add products with a more masculine feel, to appeal to male crafters and potential male crafters and to give us female crafters more tools to make the dreaded male cards (I'm paraphrasing here), his stamps and style aren't just aimed at female crafters they appeal to all.

Lets skip forward to January 2019 and Simon launched his first batch of stamps, stencils and inks. The ink queen that I am knew after seeing his first demo that I had to have ALL the inks, and recognised that there is something fun and fresh about the stamps and stencils coupled with an element of humour that takes me back to a time when life was less stressful. They are perfect for creating cards for the men folk in my life as well and they are fun to use.

I started out with just Simon's first batch of inks, I bought 3 and tried them out and I had a major 'WOW!' moment. I have been a big fan of Tim's Distress Inks since I discovered them back in 2014 and I didn't think that they would ever be toppled off their crafty throne, but they have been, sorry Tim!

Now don't get me wrong, I still use my distress inks and always will, but Simon's dye inks are a DREAM to use, they blend wonderfully, work with water based techniques and unlike distress inks they stamp lovely and crisp, the ink formula also means you can stamp with the inks and then use alcohol markers like Copic's to colour the stamped images and the ink doesn't bleed! So they are a perfect all round ink and the colours are fabulous.

I printed off the Colour Swatch Chart from the Ranger Ink website and bought the inks a few at a time until I had the full set, the chart has to be expanded now so I can add the next 6 colours to it which I now own, and there are more to come in the not to distant future (I'm holding out hopes for a darker blue and brown and a black pretty please and maybe a lovely Pumpkin orange colour 😉), there has also been anew ink added to the line called 'Prom Queen' an absolutely gorgeous shade of bright fuchsia pink added recently, but so far I haven't been able to get hold of it here in the UK or the re-inkers for the 6 new colours 😭

Back in November I purchased one of his stamp sets called 'Caroling Squad' and made a batch of fun cards to send to friends and family. From there I progressed to buying some of Simon's background stamps and stencils, and in January I picked up 4 stamp sets, all 12 re-inkers and another background stamp in the Buddly Crafts January sale.

Only it turned out that they were clearing out Simon's range 😪, probably because not enough people in the UK have heard about his inks and stamps. That made me very sad because there are only a couple of stores in the UK that I know of that stock Simon's range, and buying the stuff from the States works out too expensive when you have to pay shipping for me sadly, it can sometimes triple the cost if you place a large order.

I'm hoping that Buddly will rethink stocking Simon's products, or some other UK store will stock them like Art from the Heart who already stock products for all the designers that work with Ranger except Simon! His line would be a perfect addition so let Ben at AFTA know you'd like to buy Simon Hurley products from them! The only other stockist I know of in the UK is Craft Stash but they tend to go out of stock rather quickly.

Last year I contacted Simon via Facebook to let him know about a typo on the Ranger Colour Chart for the swatch for 'Triple Berry', it reads Tripple Berry (I can't help it, its my inner proof reader) and as of the second download for the next batch of colours it still hasn't been corrected lol!

He replied and was really nice so I threw caution to the wind and sent him a Facebook friend request, which he graciously accepted and has since commented on a couple of my posts and did me the honour of sharing one as well, which was pretty damn awesome.

Simon Hurley inks tick all the boxes for me, and if your new to inks and have a limited budget so need a set of inks that have everything (well almost everything - we need a black ink Simon!!!) then I encourage you to give these inks a try because they are useful for so many techniques.

My favourite way to use them is straight forward blending, I use blending brushes and it is so easy to lay down the colour and blend them together, the colours are so vibrant, as I said before I love my distress inks but the way the colour lay down with Simon's inks is like they switch a light on, they are so vivid and alive, distress inks although colourful often have the 'light off' feel to them and aren't as vibrant.

In my wish upon a star card above I combined 'Triple Berry' with 'Clear Skies' and got a gorgeous looking night sky from just two colours! Those two colours melded so well together creating a new darker colour whilst still keeping some of their own colour identity by blending lightly, a light spray of water and lift with a paper towel after 30 seconds lifts away some colour and adds texture and dimension just like distress inks do, The grass was done with 'Later Gator' and 'Overzealous' which alongside 'Clear Skies' and 'Crown Me' are my favourite colours so far, but who am I kidding I love them all lol!

Another technique that the inks lend themselves to is bleaching, on this floral card I layered 'Clear Skies', 'Triple Berry', 'Rosie Cheeks' and 'Bee Sting' in rows over a white heat embossed image. I then used household bleach and a water brush on the details of the flower and you can see that the colours changed slightly either becoming lighter or they turned a different hue.

The inks are fab to use for water colouring images as well, when Simon demonstrates he smooshes the ink pads on his laminate surface, but I have added drops of his re-inkers to a Ranger Distress Ink Palette and pull out a little ink on to the white area of my Media Mat, make my blends on the glass and then paint my images that way.

The re-inkers are also fabulous for adding to shaving foam to create colourful and unique backgrounds and I've added them to texture paste to colour it before adding to a project with excellent results. I really can't wait for more colours to be added to the line, the more colours we have, the more wonderfully colourful projects we can create with them.

I predict as more colours are released I will be using some of the other brands of ink I own like Hero Arts and Lawn Fawn a lot less, price wise Simon's inks are better value as well. I'll be posting some more projects soon using Simon's stamps and stencils so watch this space, in the meantime go check out his website, watch his videos for some inspiration and tips for using these inks, the dude is full of ideas and is a marvellous and inspirational teacher 😍

A Box of Delights from Ranger Ink

Back in January I was watching a Facebook Live from Ranger Ink showcasing the new products they would be launching this month (Feb 2020) after showing them at Creativation 2020, when Ranger Ink's social media lady Kelly Kronowski made an announcement. If viewers shared the video and left a comment they would be entered into a draw, and 5 people would be picked to win a selection of the new goodies.

This was on the 6th January the day before my birthday, I shared and commented like many others and carried on enjoying the live and getting excited about the new products being added to all the lines that Ranger stocks. To my surprise 3 days later I was tagged in a post by Ranger to say I'd won! YAY! I gave Kelly my details and started to wait for my goodies to arrive.

This morning I had a delivery from UPS and I almost ripped the package out of the UPS delivery dudes hands as I yelped "YAY it's my prize", which made him laugh a little lol! I skipped into the house yelling to the cats its my prize, bounded up the stairs and opened my box of delights. I was blown away to find way more goodies than I thought I was going to receive, I thought we'd get an ink pad and maybe a stencil or something, but nope! My prize box contained one of the new Silicone Mat's, a pack of Grey Embossing Pens, 2 of the new Archival Ink Pads (Coastal Coral & Seafarer), a jar of Stickles Glitter Gel (Asteroid), 2 of the new Perfect Pearls colours (Poppy & Iris), the Hello Sunshine Stamp Set and a Treading Hearts Stencil 😁

As soon as I opened the package I started to play, and so far I've created 3 cards with my goodies. They are pretty basic because I wanted to focus on using just the items I got in my prize package, I almost did it, but I had to use a couple of other Ranger products on two of the cards.

The first card I created I blended both the Coastal Coral and Seafarer Archival Inks through the Treading Hearts stencil, where the inks met in the middle they created a purple grape kind of colour, which surprised me. Before today I'd only used my Archival inks for stamping, I'd never blended with them!

I stamped the 'Hello Sunshine' sentiment a few times in the centre of the card using the Seafarer ink and then stamped over the top with some Ranger Perfect Medium and brushed over some Iris Perfect Pearls to give the card a little shine. I've had Perfect Pearls for a while, I have about 12 colours in my collection but until recently when I saw Simon Hurley use them they had been sat in a drawer forgotten about. To be honest I'd forgotten all about them, but they are back on the play list now.

For my second card I decided I wanted to use the 'Sending Smiles' stamp, I was so happy when I opened my box because I really liked the Hello Sunshine stamp set and it was high on my wish list, I can't do calligraphy, but love the effect, so having stamps that can help me achieve the look is brilliant.

The card is a lovely CAS card I used a few of the stamps from the set, and turned the gorgeous 'Iris' colour Perfect Pearls in to a paint, to fill in the open areas of the sending smiles stamp. I used Jet Black Archival Ink from my stash and some Ranger Super Fine Detail Clear Embossing Powder over the archival ink and I added some 'Sunflower Sparkle' Perfect Pearls to colour in the sun.

For my third and final card, for today at least 😆 I made good use of the Coastal Coral Archival Ink, first I stencil it on to white card stock using the Treading Hearts stencil, then I added some of the super sparkly Stickles Glitter Gel over the top, boy is it ever super sparkly.

Whilst I left the panel to dry I die cut a heart and used my blending tool to colour it with the Coastal Coral ink, I used it to colour the edge of a white card base. I decided to do some tone on tone stamping with the ink using another stamp from the set. In hindsight I should have heat embossed the ink to make it stand out more, but as I said above I was trying to use just the supplies I received.

I'm a fan of Ranger products and have been since I first started crafting when I discovered the wonderful world of Distress Inks and then Oxides and now the new Simon Hurley ink line! I think we focus on the brands that we forget who is behind them, I have NEVER been disappointed with any products I've bought from Ranger, they are always of the highest quality and last for ages. I hadn't used any of the Letter It line before, my head filed them into craft supplies for Calligraphy people, but they are not, the line is perfect for people like me and has so many uses. I'll be adding more of the Letter It range to my stash over the next few months. I have also got a lot of the new Simon Hurley range on my wish list as well.

Receiving this package has made me look at the Ranger Products I have in a different light, its opened them up and made me realise that I can blend with archival inks and use Perfect Pearls to make gloriously shiny paint. THANK YOU so much Ranger Ink for your generosity and for sending some lovely, crafty sunshine and smiles across the pond. I can't believe that I got the chance to play with some of the new products before they hit the stores in the UK, I am truly blessed 💖💋

Distress Bleaching Technique

Hey crafty friends, how's your week shaping up? We're all tickety boo here and I've been playing with some new stash, I was lucky enough to get the A4 Craftwork Cards Ultimate Florals with Sentiments stamp set in a recent Craft Stash sale for £4.38 instead of the usual £17.50 😁 They did a flash sale last week with up to 70% off most of the Craftwork Cards range, I picked up over £47 worth of Craftwork cards dies, stamps and an embossing folder for just £18, I love a crafty bargain. I couldn't believe my luck getting that huge stamp set with the flowers so cheaply, the stamps lend themselves to lots of techniques and I'll be playing with them a lot over the next few weeks.

As soon as I saw the stamps I knew I wanted to revisit some old techniques, I saw Jennifer McGuire do the bleaching technique with Distress Inks back in 2015 and I tried it at the time and was impressed, but I didn't do anything with the backgrounds I created. Now I know some of you will be concerned at the use of bleach, but the smell doesn't linger and you only use a small amount, I filled a water brush pen full and its still almost full after bleach painting 7 card fronts. You can use water, but the effect won't be the same, water will just lighten and whiten the area, there is some chemistry that happens when you add bleach to distress ink that alters their colours.

Before Bleaching

I've done a similar technique last year using Oxide Inks and water, the water lightens the image and then you can add another colour on top. I used distress inks on top of the oxide inks rather successfully. I did try bleach on oxide inks and the result wasn't brilliant, on oxide the bleach acted just like water does, not dramatic or even subtle changes of colour, just a white out, which is fine, but you may as well just use water on oxides right?

If you watch Jennifer's video on the technique linked to above you can see that she inks first, then stamps and embosses, but I wanted white images. First I cut my panels using some of my favourite wonky stitches dies and then I stamped the flowers from the set with Tonic Clear Hybrid Ink and added Clear WOW! Embossing Powder before heat setting the images. Once that was done I used a selection of Distress Inks to create some bright bands of colour, wiping off the ink that beaded up on the embossing with a microfibre cloth.

Now I've mentioned it, its a good time to say that I'm ditching baby wipes in favour of plain water and micro fibre cloths (or hand sanitiser for archival inks) and a Lawn Fawn Stamp Shammy, they do the same job, but instead of throwing the clothes away like I do with baby wipes, I can pop them in the wash and use them again. I do have a few packs of baby wipes left, but once they've gone I won't be buying any more.

After Bleaching

After I'd coloured all my images I went in with the bleach to lighten the inside of the petals and leaves and a few other details to lighten the change the colour on the images.

You can see here what the panels looked like before the bleach was added and afterwards. It really does make a difference, its subtle and not in your face which I like. 

When I'd finished with the images I put them aside whilst I worked on the card bases, I use the leafy vine stamp from another Craftwork Cards stamp set I got in the sale called 'Hedgerow'. I stamped using several different colour combinations of Hero Arts Ombre Inks, I love these inks because you can utilise them to make some pretty interesting backgrounds and images.

I went around the edge of the card blank wusing the stamp and my choice of ombre pad, leaving the centre blank, there was no point covering the whole area as the Stamped panel was going to get added over the top making work and using ink in areas that wouldn't be seen.

I knew I wanted to stamp the sentiment on vellum, I trued white initially, but it wasn't very distinct against the panels due to the white stems, so I switched to black embossing ink and used some of the sentiments from the Ultimate Floral's set.  Once all the backgrounds were completed it was time to assemble the cards, I didn't notice until after I'd put them together than the ink I'd used for the backgrounds had bled through to the inside of the card, I used some old Papermania Anita's A6 cards that are supposed to be 240gsm, the card is a little flimsy and rather porous, you pays your money and you takes your choice I guess. Once they are used up I won't be buying any more of them though as they really aren't that brilliant.

Once I'd attached the vellum and panels and "finished" the cards they bugged me, something was not right, I channelled my Grandad and went away and had a cup of tea (he taught me to do that when I had a problem and couldn't see the answer in life, and as crafting is an extension of my life, a cuppa was required!) When I came back I had the solution, I needed to pick up the black from the sentiment and echo it somehow! So I added some gloss black Nuvo Drops to the centres of the rectangle panels and some Peacock Feather Jewels from Lucy's Cards to the oval panel. Once the gems and drops were in place I was happy, although I went in with a Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen to add a little subtle sparkle.

If you don't already have Distress Ink pads getting a good selection of colours can be a costly endeavour, Aladine's iZink Dye Based ink pads are a good low cost alternative, currently on Craft Stash they are £1.50 each compared to the price of distress inks at £4 - £6 depending where you buy them its a pretty big saving. Granted there are only 20 colours to chose from, but they work pretty well for the price. If you haven't encountered this brand of inks before, you may find this video useful.

And that's it really, a quick and simple way of creating a batch of colourful cards, I have some for anniversaries now and birthdays for my box and I'll be creating some more for get well cards and some thank you cards. I also want to stamp and heat emboss in gold on dark cardstock and use metallic paints/inks to create dark versions. I've been collecting lots of craft items over the past few years to try a large variety of techniques, and I reckon I've tried about a 10th of the projects I've bought stuff for!

So I'm going to dig out the supplies and try my hand at all of them and revisit some old techniques like foiling, acrylic backgrounds with the gelli-plate, masking fluid backgrounds and so much more. I realised this week that I have to stop telling myself I can't do it, or it won't look as good as people like Jennifer McGuire. Of course my cards won't look that good, I'm not a professional crafter! I have to stop 'saving' things I've bought to do things because I may mess up and waste the supplies! It's a waste to my purse to buy them and not use them lol! So I'm going to try more and do more and if it works that's great, if it doesn't then the trials can be deposited in the bin or recycled somehow 😉

Using Our Wreath Builder Templates With STENCILS!!!

Hi Everyone, I'm really excited to share with you another fabulous use for our Wreath Builder Templates and to use them in this way you DO NOT need a stamping platform!!! I know, it sounds too good to be true doesn't it? I can't take the credit for the idea because I saw the lovely Jennifer McGuire do this over on her blog earlier this month and I wondered if I could achieve the same with our templates.

I didn't want to rush to say to you "Oooo look what you can do with our stencils!" Only to discover that you can't use them in the same way. Instead I thought that I'd test the idea and create a couple of projects to make sure that our templates could definitely be used in the same way before I said they could be, so I did and they can! ::Tigger like bounces::.

All you have to do is tape the template to a flat surface, I used my Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat which has the added bonus of helping the inks to blend more smoothly. I've recently switched to using blending brushes for using with distress inks (more on them soon) and you end up with some brilliant results. I've so far tried the using the 6" and new 7" templates (more on that soon!) and both work, but I won't lie you have to keep a firm grip on the stencil if you do it the way I did, next time I'll tack down exactly like Jennifer did, but the results are amazing!

What I should have done is use low tack tape and mask off the areas I didn't want to use, instead I held it down with my hand and used a piece of A4 paper to 'mask', Jennifer explains how to do it in her video that I've linked to below.

I was a little excited to try it as I had some free time so I skipped steps, but it still worked! I used painters tape to stick the template to the media mat, don't worry about getting distress ink on your template, if you do it will wipe away with a damp cloth or a baby wipe.

For the green card I used the 'Line Em Up' stencil from Time For Tea Designs and two shades of distress ink in Salty Ocean and Twisted Citron and they blended together beautifully. The image was in my Maybe Someday box, I'd coloured it a few years ago when I got the Neat & Tangled 'Purrfect' stamp and die set, so my colouring isn't as good as it is these days, but its not too shabby!

I haven't made a card with the panel generated by the 7" template yet, I'll finish it and add it to my post to introduce the new 7" and 2" templates later this week. I have so many templates that I can use in this way to make some fabulous backgrounds, I think its a huge added bonus for the templates and its brilliant that it means that people without a stamping tool can also use the templates as well.

I'm off to play some more, my head is now full of stars, snowflakes, hearts and more that I can use to create card backgrounds with my templates. If you already have a set of templates and your try out using your templates with stencils, please share your cards over on our Facebook Page, I love to see what you all create 😀

Creative Stamping Freebie - Vintage Collage

Greetings from Warts an' All towers, I'm not sure what happened to January but it sure flew by, I didn't get to do much crafting for a variety of reasons. Having our 18 month old Granddaughter to stay for the weekend was high on the list, followed by slipping down the stairs, misjudging the bannister and consequently causing my umbilical hernia to flare up making bending, sitting and just about any movement painful.

Plus dealing with a new freak menopause symptom that causes the skin on my thumbs (and only my thumbs) to split open as if its been cut. No sooner does one heal, another happens, rendering me unable to do so many tasks, until recently I really didn't realise just how many tasks you need you thumbs for! I've been liberally applying hand cream and just discovered that I can seal the cuts with a product called Germolene New Skin, this product alone has been the reason I've been able to craft again, the past few months I've ruined so many projects because my thumbs split and blood oozed out all over my projects ruining many of them.

This card is made with stamps from Issue 67 of Creative Stamping there are some fabulous stamps included in the set including 3 by Crafty Individuals, a relatively new company to me that make some fabulous stamps. I used a combination of Versafine Clair inks to do all the stamping and several Distress Ink Markers to colour the flowers and dragonfly. I know I promised a review of the VF Clair inks and as soon as I have all 24 ink pads I will, I'm 2 colours short of a full set so that I can make some swatches and test all the colours.

I started off with a 5" x 5" panel and used the script stamp from the set and 'Morning Mist' VF Clair ink to stamp the background. I couldn't resist distressing the edges a little so I used a little 'Vintage Photo' Distress Ink to take down the harshness of the white card I stamped on. Next I stamped the flowers and dragonfly from the set on to watercolour card using VF Clair 'Nocturne' and covered the stamped images in WOW clear embossing powder and then coloured the images with Distress Markers.

The two large purple flowers were coloured with Wilted Violet and Ripe Persimmon markers, the small photos were coloured with Picked Raspberry and Ripe Persimmon and the dragonfly was coloured with Peacock Feathers and Twisted Citron. I simply scribbled the markers towards the edges of the images and used a water brush to spread the colour all over the areas I wanted to colour.

I added the brown 'dots and squares' texture stamp from the set with VF Clair 'Acorn' ink and used 'Nocturne' again to add the ink blot and ink ring stamps. I used the shaping tool that came with free with issue 61 of Creative Stamping to give the flowers and the dragonfly a little extra dimension then I adhered the flowers to the card base. I added some small 3D foam squares to the dragonfly to raise him above the flowers and glued the finished panel to a homemade card base made from Kraft cardstock.

I added the sentiment 'Just a Note' which is also from the Vintage Collage set, stamping it on a scarp of white cardstock with 'Nocturne' ink before finally adding some shimmer to the centre of the flowers and the dragonflies wings with a Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle pen which sadly doesn't show up very well on the photos, but it adds a lovely shimmery effect in real life.

This set has so much potential and I'll be making lots more cards with it for my stash, the images can be used to make male and female cards and are brilliant for using on mixed media projects. You can see from my close up image just how well the VF Clair inks stamp and the detail they give, they are my new go to ink for this reason alone. I love how this project turned out, and it was rather quick to put together, the bright colours gave some sunshine to my soul on this cold winters day.

I've just got the new Tim Holtz Sizzix Wildflower Stems #1 & #2 sets and plan on using them to make some spring floral cards and some cards for Easter using those and the Cotton Tail die and I think that bright sunshine colours will be called for 😍 This week if my thumbs behave I'll also be stamping some spring cards with my wreath templates using some new stamps I got for my birthday last month. I've set myself the task this month to make a batch of 'Thank You', 'Just to Say' and some 'Sympathy' cards for my box. The plan is to also make 4-6 Christmas cards every month and set them aside for when I'll need them in December.

Coupled with the motivation board I'm making ready for the Live Well programme I start this week, and the cards to make for friends and family birthdays, there will be lots happening in the craft room, I have an MDF storage rack to make and decorate for my Stampin' Up ink pads and I still have to label all my oxide inks and sort out more stuff to give to my niece who is turning in to a fine papercrafter 😍Here's hoping my thumbs let me get on with the things I want to do! Stay safe and warm everyone and keep on crafting!

Flurries of Warm Wishes

It's been a busy week and I've just realised that I forgot to share a couple of cards that I made with one of my NEC purchases that I got almost 2 weeks ago now! When I came back from the NEC I had a head swimming with ideas of ways to use the goodies I bought but I've just not had time to turn the ideas into projects.

My idea isn't an original one, I must give credit where its due to the lovely and talented Kristina Werner, I've CAS'ed a card made by her as part of her 2018 Holiday Card Series and it uses a lovely Pink & Main stamp set called Flurries. Like Kristina I made a circle card but I used dark card stock and a scalloped edge die and I different colour combination of Distress Oxides.

In the first example I used Picked Raspberry DO, Wilted Violet and Faded Jeans, I prefer to use Chipped Sapphire when working with this colour combo, but the Chipped Sapphire DO hasn't arrived yet. I'm still waiting for my order from Craft Stash, hopefully it will arrive soon and I will have the last batch of 12 Distress Oxides.  I've also noticed when I made these cards that my Wilted Violet DO pad was starting to not have as much ink in it. Its not a fault of the ink pad, it just shows that its one of my most used inks, so this week I purchased a re-inker for it and a few for my standard distress inks as well.

For the second card example I used Spun Sugar, Shaded Lilac and Wilted Violet DO's blending them into each other as best I could. I realised just after I started blending the inks on to the card stock that I'd picked up the wrong type of card stock to use so blending the inks was a bit of a struggle, but I got there in the end!

I used Ocean Blue and Purple 300gsm card stock to make the card blanks, I got both of them at the NEC from Limetree Crafts. The colours are gorgeous and they cut really well.  I made the card blanks in the same way I did from the Festive Circle Wreath cards, you can see how I did it in the video on that post.

I allowed the inked panels to completely dry out and then I arranged my stamps and sentiment on the circle and inked up with Versamark, having first used my anti-static powder tool on the coloured panel, I transferred the stamped image to the card panel and then covered it with WOW Opaque Bright White Super Fine embossing powder and heat set it. I had to repeat some of the snowflakes, so after stamping and embossing both panels I rearranged some of the snowflakes and repeated the procedure.

Once both of the panels had been embossed I adhered the panels to the card based and then placed a gem from Lucy's cards in the centre of each one and finally added some iridescent sequins that I picked up last year from The Range. The cards fir inside a 6" x 6" envelope and are relatively flat for posting. I have some more ideas for using these stamps and will hopefully get to share those ideas soon. At least this is another couple of cards ready to send, I've got a little behind with my xmas makes, I need to get a wiggle on and soon because there's just over 5 weeks now until the last post for Christmas eek!

Retro Gaming Wreath Template Cards 🕹️

As today is my favourite day of the year, can I start this post by wishing those that share my love of it a Happy Halloween' 🎃and for those who don't celebrate then I wish you happy last day of October 😁 I know that the cards I'm sharing today aren't what I'd be expected to share on today of all days, but if you read on you'll discover that there is a halloween connection, honest!

Si and I went to see Bohemian Rhapsody last night, I really liked it, it transported me back in time and my brain was awash with memories, from the first time I bought the double A side single Bohemian Rhapsody and Killer Queen and played in constantly when I was just 11 years old, in front of the bedroom mirror with a hairbrush microphone and dreams of becoming a famous singer lol! Incidentally Bohemian Rhapsody was released today (31st October 1975, see I wasn't fibbing lol!) and 43 years later that song still gives me chills and sets my blood pumping.

My memory banks cycled around a series of events including me chilling as a teenager listening to 'The Game' whilst doing my homework and getting told off by my Dad for playing 'Another One Bites The Dust' too loudly, everytime I hear that song I hear my Dad shouting "Turn it down NOW!" lol! Then there was dancing to 'I Want to Break Free' at my first wedding, talk about an omen, I should have run away as soon as the song finished. The memories kept flowing and when the film showed the live aid segment, my brain brought back my memories of watching Freddie's performance on Live Aid. I still recall how the hairs on my arms stood up listening and how electric it felt to be a part of something so unique. It hadn't occured to me just how much Queen and Freddie had been a part of my life, and yes all that flowed through my head because of the film.

The memories of being a teen and a young 20 something led to my recalling playing my first video games like Pacman and Space Invaders on a Spectrum 48K computer, I remember a time when you had to code a game before you could play it WOW I'm old lol! I've been a gamer almost as long as I've been a Queen fan, although I'm not sure playing Pong via a TV plug in counts as a gamer, but it was my Grandad that started me playing that and it all went down hill to Skyrim after that lol!

Before I knew it I was in the craft room making some retro gaming cards, partly for a Challenge, partly because I need to make more cards for giving to the men and boys in my life and partly because of the nostalgia. I got a couple of stamp sets recently that were perfect for what I wanted to do and one of them had a sentiment in that said "You're so old, you're retro!" and that tickled my inner gaming geek, its true but I don't feel as old as I am.

I used the 6" template for this card and the stamps on the Retro Gaming cards are from two sets, one by Hunkydory called 'Alien Invasion' (space invaders and old style joy stick) and a set by Pretty Cute Stamps called 'Game On' (sentiments and stars). I'm on the lookout for a now discountinued set by My Favorite Things called 'Level Up' and the matching console die, so far no luck but I'll keep searching.

I stamped the white version using Ranger Dye Ink Pads in the following colours: - Grape Soda, Wild Orchid, Blue Yonder, Classic Cherry and Electric Lime, these inks are fabulous and even if they go on blotchy they smooth out nice and even as they absorb into the card stock. The only thing I don't like about them is the limited range of colours.

I used my new favourite technique of embossing over the wreath stamped this time with an old Crafters Companion Embossalicious folder called 'Happy Birthday', I love the texture doing this gives to a card, it transforms it somehow without distracting from the stamped images. I coloured the joystick with a couple of Nuvo alcohol markers, very simple colouring and stamped the sentiment on a die cut panel used my trusty 'Wonky Stitches' circle dies. I use them a lot because I think the edge it gives looks better than a plain circle. The card was made in now time, the longest part was the stamping and that went by very quickly.

The old gamer in me was a tad niggled by the bright colours on white background, sure the pixelated images that we destroyed were nice bright colours, but back then the backgrounds to games were black.

As you will know stamping bright coloured dye inks on to dark card stock is generally a non starter, so I reached for the Distress Oxides for the darker retro look. I did manage to fluff up and smudge 2 of the aliens though when the oxide ink was still wet, but it doesn't look too bad lol!

Not all Distress Oxides look good on black, I wanted to use Wilted Violet on this card but it didn't pop, so I used the following colours: - Candied Apple, Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry, Cracked Pistatio and Squeezed Lemonade. As the sentiment I wanted to use was small I used a smaller die cut circle which meant that more of the green aliens were visable.

For the sentiment on this card I hear embossed it with WOW Opaque White embossing powder. The aliens are from the Hunkydory set and the sentiment, stars and joystick are from the Pretty Cute Stamps set. I will of course be making some more of these cards were the aliens are in neat little rows like in the old days, but I think the stamps leant themselves to wreath stamping very well. That's all for me for today, I have a few projects to get finished and I'm experimenting with different ways of using the stamped panels, more on that soon. Until next time, have a lovely day and happy crafting :)

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.

First Impressions - Alcohol Lift Ink

After seeing Tim's demo of Rangers new Alcohol Lift Ink back in late June (see the video below), I knew it was something that I wanted to add to my distress collection. I had to wait for a couple of weeks for my ink to arrive and it did this morning WHOOO HOOO! After I'd got over my excitement I set to having a go and this is what I discovered...

In my Maybe Someday box I had some alcohol ink projects that I'd done a while ago, probably 3 years ago. I'd used shades of red, green and some gold mixative on glossy coated paper. I followed what Tim said in his video and the tips that Paula Cheney gave in her blog on Alcohol Lift Ink and I had mixed feelings. Transfering the ink to another piece of paper was a resounding success - I used some Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock. But despite dabbing and buffing like a boss, the 'ghost' image on my original alcohol piece was not as vibrant as I thought it would be.

I'm not sure if it was down to the mixative, the fact that the piece I used had been inked years ago, or the fact that it was photo glossy paper that made it not work. I'll try again on the same paper but I won't add mixative and see what happens. I'll also try double stamping to see if it lightens things more. I was a little crest fallen, but I'd seen fab results on Yupo and luckily I have some in, not the Ranger kind, so again my results may differ, FYI the brand I used was 'Legion Yupo Medium'.

I used 4 colours of alcohol ink for the Yupo panel: - Valencia, Sunset Orange, Sunshine Yellow & Pitch Black. I allowed the inked yupo to dry, then set about stamping my image with the lift ink. I transferred the image and WOW, again I stamped on to Neenah, I then set about dabbing with a paper towel, the 'dab' technique I used is a firm press, move to another area and dab press, don't slide though or you'll smudge. Once you've dabbed all the lift ink, lift your project and check that there is no wet ink left on it. If there isn't, buff with a cloth, I used an old soft t-shirt, well it is old now 😂😂😂

If you look closely at the image by clicking on it to expand, you can see the difference, myself I suspect that the formula for the lift ink resonates more with Yupo paper more than glossy paper, but I still have to practice. I did notice that the stamped image is sharper than the ghost image, again that could be down to my technique, but its a cool effect nontheless! I still have to play with stencils and the refill and a combo of the two, but I wanted to share my first impressions, mainly because I think some people are going to try the lift ink, not use Yupo and be disappointed. More soon, time to play some more 😍😍😍

Distress Rainbows and Wildflowers

My second Tim Holtz inspired creation in as many days and I'm really happy with the way it turned out, even more happy when I think that the back distress inked rainbow effect panel has been in my 'Maybe Someday' box for a while now, in fact its been there for almost 3 years, ever since I got the Botanical Sketch stamp set in fact! FYI I still have used "The Chemist" set, something I need to rectify real soon!

I used my powder tool on the panel and then inked the stamp with versamark and sprinkled Cosmic Shimmer Black Detail embossing powder on the stamped image. Once I'd allowed the embossing to cool I used a blending tool and Wilted Violet, Chipped Sapphire, Mermaid Lagoon, Twisted Citron, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and Festive Berries Distress Inks to create the rainbow effect.

If you look at the photo of a smilar card in the link above you can see that I'd originally stamped the "Thank You" words from the set, but it didn't look right on this card, instead I decided to use one of the dies from the Stacked Baroque set to make a new sentiment instead. I chose one from my Life Quotes CMS277 stamp set and embossed it in WOW! Opaque Bright White embossing powder.

The flowers are from the Sizzix Wildflowers #2 set and  were cut with black card stock then coloured with Distress Oxides in Bundled Sage, Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade, Cracked Pistachio and Lucky Clover. I added some touches of distress marker in the same shades on the flowers and some shimmer pen to give the flowers some sparkle.

I made the card blank myself using the Tonic Studios 'Bowscale' die set, I cut a third panel to make a frame around the rainbow panel and used the long edge of the centre discard to make a piece for the bottom that I trimmed off to glue the wildflowers to so that I could attach the flowers to the bottom of the card with 3D foam pads to create some dimension.

Another project completed with my Tim Holtz stash, I'm on a roll this week, so much so that I've even had some time to play with a couple of other dies and stamps, I bought a set off Ebay a while back called 'Bird Talk' which contains 3 small versions of the larger Crazy Birds stamps, matching dies, stamps and an embossing folder. I'm playing with an idea in my head that requires me to cut the Tree Rings die cuts in half. This is the first time I've played with both dies and I had lots of fun, coloured with distress inks and markers. My colouring isn't brilliant but I'm pleased with the results.

A Coffee Break Full of Beans

I hope you're all well? I've been absent from the blogosphere for a couple of weeks because I developed an inner ear infection, no idea why or how it occured, I've never had one in my life before and hope to never get one again. It was nasty, messed with my balance, made me feel dizzy and nauseous, for the first 3 days I stayed in bed because moving around made me feel horrendous. I couldn't craft, I did try once but the dizziness got the better of me so I gave up.

Being poorly means that I haven't been able to get around to making all the projects I wanted to make. So I'm only just getting round to playing with some items I've recently bought and freebies from card mags. I'll catch up but I'll still be a bit behind crafting because I've started decorating now I'm feeling better :) We've finally got all the money together and the supplies to decorate the bathroom 😵

So I'm busily stripping off the old paper and working on getting everything ready for hubby to give me a hand with the papering and some of the painting (my arms aren't long enough to reach the ceiling over the bath lol!) I can't wait for it to be finished, new carpet tiles and I'm going to have a go at dyeing our existing towels from pink to purple and maybe decorate them with some ribbon or something?!

The two cards I'm sharing today were made using the "Coffee Break" freebies that came with Issue 177 of Simply Cards & Papercraft. The set included a stencil, stamps and dies to cut the lid for the coffee cup, a tag, small heart and some steam curls that I haven't got round to using yet.

I used the little coffee bean stamp with 3 different colours of Altenew inks from aptly their 'Coffee Break' ink cube set and stamped them in my stamping platform using the 6" template. I then made a circular mask and used some Scattered Straw Distress Ink to make the background for the cups, giving the inked circle a spritz of water and blotting it off after 30 seconds to lift some of the ink.

The coffee cups I stamped and fussy cut as close to the edge as I could get and if I do say so myself my fussy cutting is getting better 😊 Once cut out I used a blending tool and some Tea Dye Distress Ink to colour the cups and edged around the cup with a black Promarker to finish the edge off. The piece that looks like a corrugated card cup holder is another of the stamps in the set which I cut out after stamping. This time I used versmark ink and some gold embossing powder to stamp the image and when I'd worked the magic with the embossing gun, I coloured between the embossed lines with a Distress Marker in Gathered Twigs, then buffed the embossed area to remove any ink.

I cut some tags and cup lids from scraps of white card using the free dies and a couple of hearts from some scraps of red card. I made a circular card from 2 pieces of brown card and folded one in half to be the base and glue my coffee bean panel to the other then glued that to the base piece. Before I attached the coffee cups to the panel I tied some brown embroidery thread to the tags and used a pokey tool to pierce the top of the cup underneath where the lid would be and pushed the other end of the thread through and used some washing tape to hold it in place on the back of the card.

Next I layered the two finished cups on top of each other on the panel using 3D foam pads, I popped a few small 3D pads under the tags to hold them away from the card and give them some dimension. The final touch for the circular card was to add the red hearts and I gave the a coat of Tonic Crystal Glaze to make them shine.

I was so pleased with the way the first card turned out that I did the same thing for this card, this is just a 4" x 4" texture card blank, I used the leafy stencil that came with the set with some Pine Needles Distress Ink. Again I fussy cut the coffee cup out but this time I didn't use the die cut lid instead I used some Distress Markers to colour the lid.

I colour the cup with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink after masking off the lid with a little washy tape, I did a water spritz again because I love the effect it gives. I used some Memento 'Cottage Ivy' Ink to stamp the leafy folder and added some clear embossing to it to make it shine.

You can see more clearly on this card how I pierced the cup to pop the thread through for the tag. I decided this card was lacking something as it neared completion so I cut a few strips of green glitter card and added them above and below the stencilled area. I see this one more as a Green Tea or Green Smoothie kind of card so I'm going to make some in different colours pinks for a Strawberry Milk Shake, a Blueberry Smoothie and find some fruity sentiments to go with them.  There is most certainly lots of scope for these freebies and they can be used to make cards for the men folk as well! More from me soon I now have a date with my bed, its taken 2 days to write this post, guess my head is still a little fuzzy. Enjoy the weekend, I hope it send you sunshine and crafting time 😀

A Wreath of Paws

I made this card recently to send to a lady who is also a little bit of a crazy cat lady as part of a Happy Post mail swap that is run on the Creative Minds - Kind Hearts group and I'm thrilled to say she loved it. The wreath was stamped using the 5" Wreath Builder Template that Si made for me, if you are interested in owning a set of your own then you can find more details on my Facebook page 😁

I used Ranger Dye Ink Pads in Raspberry Sorbet, Grape Soda and Lavender Field colours to stamp the paws using stamps from Hobbycraft and My Favorite Things. The template makes it so easy to stamp any stamp you wish and quickly build it in to a wreath shape which can then form a background or be an actual focal point.

The image was stamped and die cut using the My Favorite Things 'Best Friends' set, I love the set more cards to come using the set very soon. The sentiment also comes from the set and uts very true 😻 I coloured the image using Prismacolor Pencils and blended them with gamsol, my shading is still a work in progress but I can see the improvement everytime I colour, lots more practice needed but I'll get there 😊

I used dies from the Wonky Stitches range available from Craft Stash to edge the paw panel and cut the sentiment panel, the only other addition was a few Clear Iridescent Jewels from Lucy's Cards to add a bit of interest. I'd seen a few of the American crafters use this gems like Jennifer McGuire, so I was thrilled to discover that the company is in the UK and postage is only £1! Lucy does lots of sequins, glitter, confetti, pearls and more in some gorgeous colours.

I added some shimmer with a Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle pen to the large paws and the little girls dress. To finish I mounted the white panel on to a piece of purple metallic card and then attached that to a homemade card blank I'd created using a piece of Lavender Centura Pearl cardstock, really pleased with the way this one turned out and tonight I'm off to my local cats protection to show the ladies at their Craft and ChAT group how to stamp and colour images like these 😺😻🙀

Bird Silhouette Tag

This mixed media lark can certainly become a bit addictive, I've been playing with lots of ideas since I last blogged, but they've not been going to plan, this weekend I found out why, I was using the wrong mediums for the job.

I've also discovered that the gesso from The Works is not the best medium for the job and if you want to use distress inks, neither is Modge Podge, because it acts like a resist and won't take water based inks! You can still use archival inks, but I don't have as many colours of archival as I do distress. Another downside of Modge Podge is it leaves your project feeling 'sticky' and as if it isn't dry and yes this time Jennifer I waited, a whole 24 hours!!! lol! 

So I invested in some Pebeo mediums thanks to Jen's input, she's becoming my mixed media guru if I'm stuck she offers advice and gives me her invaluable insight and product recommendations and ones to avoid. So based on what Jen recommended I picked up some Pebeo clear, white and black gesso and some gel medium. I still want to get a few other mediums, like Phosphorescent Gel, DYNA Bindex and Crackle Paste/Glaze but that will come with time as I learn more about playing with the mediums.

What mixed media is doing is encouraging me to use more of my Tim Holtz stuff of which I have an awful lot of but I don't often use because the style isn't suitable for sending cards to people I know which sucks! But mixed media gives me the chance to make home decor, journals, tags and so much more using my precious Tim Holtz stuff that its making me giddy!

This tag project didn't turn out exactly as I planned as you can see from this photo, I originally coloured the bird with Peacock Feathers and a touch of Fossilised Amber but on the parts that had been treated with Modge Podge the ink wouldn't stay put.

I decided that the bird didn't pop (I originally typed poop lol) enough because it was coloured too much like the background. So I added black sparkle pen over the distress ink and used some 'Buttercup' Archival Ink to colour the tail edge, under belly and the face and throat. I think it worked out a lot better although I think it may have been better in hindsight to use brown rather than black. Another change was the decoration at the base, originally I was going to attempt to create a nest with hessian strands and place some polystyrene egg shapes I picked up cheaply at Hobbycraft but I couldn't get the next effect right. I decided instead to use flowers made using my Tim Holtz Small Tattered Florals die set and coulour them with Mustard Seed distress ink to tie in with the yellow parts on the bird.

I added copper embossing powder to the feet, beak and tail tip using a Quickie Glue pen and some 'Copper' Darice Whisper Embossing Powder and then used an Indigoblu flourish scroll that came free in a set with a magazine to add some detail. The backing papers came from a 'Classic Elegance' pad by Melissa Frances that I won along with some pearls when I had a letter printed in one of the card making magazines a few years ago but I hadn't got round to using. I looked over to the side of my desk and I saw a feather I'd cut using the feather die from the Tim Holtz 'Feathers & Ravens' die set and it just cried out to become a wing on the bird, I tried it and it worked perfectly, so I gave it a bit of sparkle and a gold spine and added it to the bird.

I wanted some sparkle so I decided to use some Tonic Studios Nuvo Glimmer Paste in 'Peridot Green' through a Bo Bunny stencil, it did the trick, adding sparkly translucent texture to the tag. Once the flowers were attached I added some Nuvo Glitter Drops in 'Honey Gold' which finished them off nicely. The sentiment comes from one of my Tim Holtz sets "Life Quotes CMS227", which I have only used one of the stamps on one previous occasion. I seem to collect Tim's dies and stamps and then don't use them, because taking them out of their packets and using them somehow sullies them, OMG I'm turning in to my brother with his Star Wars collection lol! 😂😂😂

In an seemingly unrelated, but related occurence, Simon had a long weekend off work which gave us a rare chance to get out on a weekday to visit our local National trust place 'Calke Abbey' and whilst there I noticed something I must have seen many times before but hadn't really registered, an example of 19th century mixed media!

When I got back I did some research and discovered that the Three-leaf Draught Screen at Calke has a wooden frame which had been covered in canvas. On top of the canvas a vast assortment of images have been stuck down including cuttings from books and magazines, coloured prints and caricatures from publications of the 19th century. The screen is double sided, both sides can been seen in better detail on this National Trust Draught Screen page. On one side there is a large print of a little girl in the centre, each panel showing a different image and above the images of the girls a romantic country scene, other smaller prints arranged around them included Father Christmas, Kittens and a lot of flowers and butterflies.

One side includes a print of Sir John Everett Millais painting "Bubbles" originally known as "A Child’s World" which featured the painters Grandson William and was painted in 1885. Millais sold the painting and copyright in 1886 to Sir William Ingram, the owner of the London Illustrated News, he reproduced it as a colour plate and included it in the Christmas issue of the weekly magazine. The then managing director of Pears, Thomas J. Barrett, who by all accounts was a pioneer of modern advertising methods in the 19th century, saw the colour plate and realised the potential of the picture to his company. He contacted Ingram and purchased the original painting and exclusive copyright for the princely sum of £2,200, he then contacted Millais who at first was reluctant but eventually gave his permission to add a bar of Pears soap to the painting so that Pears could use it for advertising purposes.

The collage technique used on things like the Draught Screen was and is known as decoupage, a crafty pursuit that survives to this day, and whilst this version at Calke Abbey isn't the best example, it does make me wonder about the girl or woman that created it, where she got her images and why she chose those ones in particular? Apparently the art of découpage dates back to the 12th century when Chinese people first started to use paper cut outs to decorate windows. Although it didn't get the name we know it as today until the 20th century the word is derived from the French word découpeur which means to cut out.

According to this History of Découpage page, Victorian Nannies taught the girls in their charge the art of découpage, and some of the old examples of the technique used 30-40 layers of varnish built up over the collaged images, each coat sanded down to a beautiful smooth sheen to protect the images. Some even had gold gilding added and images were sometimes hand coloured by the découpage creator. Who knew that seeing an old screen would lead to discovering so much, not only does it have links to crafting, it also links my love of Pre-Raphaelite art and botany, I'll have to be a lot more observant in the future, who knows what else I'll discover?

Distress Oxide Water Painting

Hi there, I hope that your week is going smoothly andlife is treating you well? All is good here at Warts n All towers, its been a busy few days, our Young Roboteers course finished last saturday, our YR's gather one last time at Robot Day to race their robots and we're off being STEM ambassadors this week at a Home Education Science Fair as part of British Science Week and we'll also be taking K9 along to robot day.

As well as that I've been prepping for our first "Meet & Make" session that we're giving for a group of young adults later this month. The idea is they get to meet us and K9, see him in action and then they make an assortment of robot themed cards, I'm loving that my hobby and Simon's are starting to cross over.

I'm now on day 14 of Miserly March, boy is it ever flying by! At the start of the challenge I seriously doubted whether I'd be able to do it, but I haven't spent a penny on crafting since the 26th Feb, so a total of 16 days! I'm almost halfway through the month of March and thanks to my supportive friends and Simon I'm now confident that I can make it.

I've still be looking at craft supplies, some of my favourite companies have been launching some fabulous things, and I've still got my nose in pinterest, youtube and my favourite papercrafters blogs, but when I see an idea that catches my eye, instead of running off to buy the exact same products to make the project that takes my fancy, I'm looking in my supplies at what I have that can create the effect without spending money.

Last week I watched Jennifer McGuire create some gorgeous cards using a very simple but very effective technique involving Distress Oxide inks and water, a match made in heaven. I knew instantly that I wanted to recreate the effect myself but with the prep, birthday card making and all the robot stuff going on, I didn't have time, so it went in to my future ideas pile in my head.

Then this weeks Wednesday Challenge over on Victoria's Crafty Friends asked us to create either a 4" x 4" card or an ATC, my head saw the Lil'Inker 'Wreath of Roses' stamp and I knew from using it in the past that it was smaller than 4" x 4", and using it would mean I could play with the Distress Oxide technique that Jennifer had shown on her blog. Everything I used to create these cards came from my stash, and yes I know there are some mistakes, like failing to remove all the embossing powder residue for one. That said I'm happy with the final results the cards are bold, bright and beautiful.

I won't go in to huge detail about how to do the technique, I'll post the video of Jennifer's below so you can see her in action. I decided when I'd finished applying the water inside the flowers and blotting the access away to leave the paler background, that I wanted to add some secondary colour.

So I used some distress inks (Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed and Salty Ocean) on an acrylic block mixed with water to create a paint and I dropped that in to the areas I wanted to colour. Once that was dry I gave the flowers and leaves a coat of clear Spectrum Noir Shimmer Pen before finally adding my sentiment and some 'Morning Dew' Tonic Nuvo Crystal Drops.

I'd pre made my drops, I add them to the backing left over from 3D foam pads and make a variety of sizes and colours, that way they are ready to add to a project and I don't have to wait for the drops to dry. It also helps prevent the drops soaking up the colour from the Distress Oxides which happens if you apply wet drops to the design, something Jennifer covers in her video. I used gold and silver vellum for the backs of the sentiments that I picked up on sale from Hunkydory in February, I bought it exactly for the purpose of being sentiment shadows, it has a lovely shimmer, but sadly the photo doesn't do it justice.

As part of my experiments I tried using bleach on the Distress Oxides and they just don't react to bleach in the way that the original Distress Inks do, all that bleach does is lift the colour in exactly the same way that water does, whereas bleach on Distress Inks sees colour changes and differences. If you fancy giving this a go for yourself, then watch the video below. The technique is certainly something I'll be making lots of use of in the future, I've already had a rummage in my stamps and found some designs that will be perfect, I'l also going to try using the Altenew outline images from my sets, watch this space 😁