Review: Neenah vs Craft Perfect Colouring Comparison

In my Halloween Coffin Cards post the other day, I mentioned that I was going to share some tips based on what I discovered whilst colouring the images for my latest batch of Halloween cards, it boils down to another of those I'm so totally rubbish at this, lets give up moments.

Perseverance and a new tack meant that I discovered that it wasn't me being rubbish at the colouring, but it was the cardstock I was using for the job!

I started off using Neenah Classic Crest Solar White card stock that I got from Crafters Companion and My Favorite Things Hybrid Ink pad 'Black Licorice' which works for both water based markers and alcohol based markers.

When I started to colour I was getting frustrated when within minutes the markers were bleeding outside of the image and at that point I wasn't really laying down lots of colour. I tried again this time with Hero Arts 'Intense Black' ink that is specifically alcohol marker friendly and once again the markers bled out of the image and once I'd laid down a darker colour to add depth to the image and I went to blend in, it was dry and wouldn't budge. At this point I was about to chuck in the towel and have a sulk, instead I channeled by Grandad and went and had a cup of tea and thought about the problem.

As I sat sipping my brew I mulled over what I'd done, on the product description for Crafters Companion Neenah it says "This high quality Neenah Classic Crest card is ideal for use with all alcohol based colouring mediums. " Having read that, again I figured it had to be me at fault, I tried again and pressed on and as you can see from this photo CC Neenah card stock is not an ideal card stock to use with Tonic Nuvo alcohol markers!

I decided to have one last go, but this time I opted to change the cardstock to Tonic Craft Perfect Ultra Smooth cardstock, and the difference was incredible! I did the same darker grey line for shading on the Craft Perfect that I did on the Neenah, but on the craft perfect it blended out like a dream, the colours didn't bleed outside the image (see the grey on the Neenah witch's hat) or merge in to each other. Working on the cardstock was different as well, the markers glided across the card and it was easy to control laying down of the colour.

Lesson learned, it wasn't me fluffing up, it was the cardstock that wasn't suited to the markers I was using! If I get time over the next few day I'll try using Promarkers and Spectrum Noir Markers on both lots of cardstock and compare the results. That said, in future when I'm colouring with Nuvo Markers I'll only be using Craft Perfect card stock.

Again I'm thrilled with how the final card came out, my colouring and fussy cutting are getting better and I used up bits from the Maybe Someday box to make the card. A while ago I die cut one of my Tim Holtz dies 'Birch Trees' and I used some black Starlights paint to colour it, when I'd finished and it had dried I decided it was too dark for the project I was working on, so I didn't use it. The panel at the back was another panel I made when I was experimenting with Distress Stains a couple of weeks ago. When the panel was dry I embossed it my Tim Holtz 3D embossing folder 'Lumber', when I accidentally put both pieces together they looked perfect and screamed turn me in to a Halloween card lol! So I did, I have pumpkins on the brain lol!

Card Makers Block

Last night I sat with a desk full of "parts" that I'd made over the past few weeks, and after 2 hours in the craft room, all I managed to do was die cut some leaves for yet another idea I've had and shuffle this bit with that bit and decided that actually it didn't look like I wanted it to anyway.

I posted a photo on Facebook last night (see below) because I felt a little overwhelmed, I see people creating several projects a day, working on massive design team deadlines and crafting while they are really under the weather, I chastised myself because I couldn't make just one card and boy did I ever be a Debbie Downer on myself.

I logged on this morning to discover that a fair few of my crafty friends suffer from low mojo, even those on design teams, over my morning coffee I read what they had posted and replied and came away feeling a lot better, thank you to everyone that responded 😘

This photo shows some of the potential projects I was struggling with last night, I like the individual components, but can I get them to meld together in to a completed card, can I heck! I just couldn't move forward with anything, so I left my desk, moaned on facebook and then went to bed lol!

And low, I got up this morning, and after sipping my morning coffee whilst browsing Facebook I went back to my desk and an idea of how to complete one of the projects hit me and I have now finally finished the 'Wicked Ancestor' card above! It had me stumped for a while, you can see parts of it in the photo. I made the embossed background after playing with a couple of shades of distress stain and my new media mat, I added some shimmer and stopped.  Whilst I was playing with the stains I dyed the seam binding with some Carved Pumpkin Distress Stain, I was so chuffed with result, even though I've seen Tim and several others do the exact same thing on YouTube, its always magic to me to try something that I've seen a 'professional' do and get as good as them results even if its something simple like dyeing a piece of ribbon lol!

I've been trying to complete this project for 2 weeks now, but nothing would work, looking at some of the other projects this morning I think I've figured out why I'm having a problem with Tim Holtz and some other American dies and stamps! Their designs are based on American card sizes mostly A2 (4.25" x 5.5"), I like to work with mostly 6" x 6" and UK A6 (4-1/8" x 5-7/8") card bases and the embossing panels don't look right on either of those sizes, unless you put them to one side and then you have a void that has to be filled somehow, or in the case of the A6 chop the card down to make it smaller. So despite trying, I can't get it right unless I make my own card blank USA A2 size.

This morning it occured to me that I could make my design into an easel card and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. For the ancestor image (it isn't one of mine, oh how I wish it was lol!) I found the image on the internet, printed it out in black and white and then added a wash of Carved Pumpkin distress stain over the top, I made a frame using dies from the Sizzix Tim Holtz Baroque die set and glued the image to the back of the frame.

I used a sheet of paper from the 8" x 8" Halloween Kraft Paper Pad by Tim Holtz as a background for the panel and the raised piece and sentiment section. I scored a piece of black card to make an easel card and I had previously embossed the distress stain coloured panel with the Sizzix 3D Botanical embossing folder.

The little pumpkin charm was an ebay purchase, I've bought some cat charms, snowflakes and other pumpkins. I gave the pumpkin charm a couple of dabs of Valencia Alcohol Ink to change the colour from silver to this orangey copper colour which I think goes well with the coppery orange metallic cardstock that I cut the Wicked sentiment from the TH Sizzix 'Vintage Spirits' die set. I'm really pleased how well this card came together, despite my inability to make any progress recently on lots of the projects I started. I'm hoping that this will be the start of my getting a little bit more productive and that my xmas and halloween cards will materialise very soon, I'm so grateful for my friends and the support they gave, you know who you are xxx

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 Rosie Thank You

Further to my previous post "Tim Holtz for the Terrified" I've been working with my TH stamps and dies and creating some projects. This card was so quick and easy to do and I plan on replicating it in various colourways.

I cut a piece of white card smaller than the pink card base I wanted to use, and die cut one of the dies from Tim's Mixed Media #5 set on the panel at either end. Then I just glued a piece of vellum to the back of the die cut panel, and used an assortment of Tonic Alcohol Markers to colour the vellum.

I was thrilled to discover that I can colour on vellum with Distress Markers as well, and the effect is a lot smoother than alcohol inks, a point to note for next time!

I used the 'thanks' dies from the Shadow Script #2 set, cutting the larger die from the same vellum I used for backing the vellum and some Distress Collection Victorian Velvet Core'dinations ColorCore Cardstock. A few 3D foam pads and the card was finished, I love the bold colour and how easy it was to achieve, okay its not a dark gothic mixed media masterpiece, but it is me using my Tom Holtz stash and creating something.

Fellow Tim Holtz Addicts - and there are many of us, I recently joined a group on Facebook with over 20,000 members and counting! - will know that Wednesday 11th July was the release day for the 4th batch of Distress Oxide inks, and I along with lots of people from the group and some of my crafting friends watched Tim reveal the new colours via a Facebook Live video.

I left a comment in the group after Tim's FB live and I was absolutely delighted to get a comment from the man himself. If you'd been a fly on the wall in our house you would have heard a high pitched shriek followed by a crazy 54 year old woman yelling "OMG Tim has commented on my post!". It was just a short sentence but it meant the world to me and really made my day, I wasn't expecting it, and I appreciated the time he took when he could have been relaxing after talking for so long.

During the live reveal I was sad to learn that we won't be getting a Picket Fence Distress Oxide due to the ink formulation needed to produce white, but Tim did say that the Picket Fence Distress Ink could be used on dark cardstock, so at least that's something. He also mentioned that there were some new Distress Oxide things coming soon, my money is on Oxide Markers or Paints, but it could be something brand new and equally wonderful!

As we're not far off the Halloween and Christmas 2018 releases of Tim's new stuff from Sizzix, Ranger and Stampers Anonymous et al I need to get saving, I'm pretty darn sure that there will be new delights I want to acquire and the final 12 oxides get released in October which means we'll get them in the UK sometime between November and December. Suffice to say  I've pre-ordered the next batch of 12 which should arrive sometime in August, I also got the Alcohol Lift Ink and Re-Inker and a couple more Distress Markers for my collection, so all in all its been a very good day and I've completed two other TH projects as well, whoot, whoot, more on them soon, but for now I'm off to get inky and made some more backgrounds.

Tim Holtz For The Terrified

In my craft room I have a lot of Tim Holtz products, distress inks and oxides, distress markers, stamps, dies, stencils, embossing folders an a large array of tools including the Stamping Platform, scissors, and so much more.

Imagine my surprise when doing some blog maintenance I discovered the jaw dropping lack of projects added to my blog that are made with Holtz products, despite owning so many! So much so I found myself asking myself some questions, the first was "What the Flock?" or something like it!

I've been a huge fan of Tim, his style and products since I first came across his distress inks not long after I started crafting in 2014. Pretty much not long after I saw that first You Tube video of Tim using Distress Inks, Tim has been one of my crafting constants ever since, I make use of my distress inks and oxides so much as can be seen in the projects I add to my blog, but there is a distinct lack of projects featuring none distress products by Tim like dies, stamps and embossing folders.

Whilst searching my card photo archives I couldn't understand why despite having created cards with some of my TH products I haven't added that many to my blog, and further to that I haven't used even 1/6th of my Holtz Stash! When I asked myself why, I was startled and I guess a little ashamed at my answer. The reason I haven't used the products I buy or added cards I've made to my blog seems silly when I think about it. When I look at projects that amazing people like Paula Cheney, Zoe Hillman and Richele Christensen create and so many of the other extremely talented Tim Holtz Addicts out there, I find myself wanting. I am way too critical of what I make and convince myself that others will feel that way as well, or I tell myself that no matter what I do, I just can't create something as wonderful as the people I admire creatively.

I'm not brilliant, but I am improving all the time, and the last thing I want to be is a "collector" of all things Tim buying his stuff just for the sake of it but never use it. Talking to my husband who popped into Narnia (the name for my craft space) just now, he made the comment that I'm too hard on myself, and that the more I use and play, the better I will become. He's right of course (but don't tell him I said so lol) its the practice that helps us develop as crafters and NOT letting stuff sit on shelves and never using it for fear of messing it up!

If you mess it up, then find another way to use it or bin it! I'm looking as I type at a big stack of Holtz fueled creations that I've made that date back to 2015 and I've still not used them, they sit in my 'Maybe Someday box' and their some day has still not arrived! The odd thing is I was really pleased with most of them when I created them, but I just couldn't seem to get the final flash of inspiration that turned them into cards.

I made xmas cards with Tim's dies last year (see above) and I was really pleased with the way they turned out, but did I share them on the blog? Did I heck, not until today, above is an example of one of them. The rest went in the post without my even taking photos! In the above example I used one of the deers from the 'Reindeer Flight' Bigz die, the holly die from the 'Holiday Greens' thinlits set and the Noel word from the 'Vintage Tidings' thinlits set and an assortment of distress inks to colour the deer, holly and background. It isn't brilliant but it didn't turn out half bad.

Back in September and October of 2017 I acquired almost all the Autumn release of Tim's Halloween Sizzix dies release, some of the Stampers Anonymous stamps and an assortment of other TH goodies. Yet aside from the Vintage Spirits words, NONE of the dies and embossing folders in this photo have been used, and I bought others from that release after this batch arrived?! The same has happened with the Christmas release and other releases. Absolutely bonkers!


I really do need to get over this fear of my creations not being as good as someone elses, because at the end of the day it should only matter what I think, right? Yet something in me keeps telling me I'm not good enough, I'm going to have to smoother that naughty little inner demon and cover it with distress ink and spritz it until it gives up. I think there is another part of me that until recently hadn't really found her crafting 'niche', I asked myself what I most like to do and its get inky and messy, I'm happiest when I'm making inky things with distress inks and I love the themes and ideas that Tim Holtz creates.

I've been collecting so many products from different companies with different styles and outcomes that I realised that I've not found my own style, in the meantime my little room is becoming cramped and I have a lot of stuff that I've bought but it isn't really me. I'm botanical, dark and geeky. I love classic halloween colours (purple, orange, black and green), my favourite season is autumn. I have a passion for herbs and 19th century pharmacy styles, love watching shows like American Gothic, Vampire Diaries and Midnight Texas. I adore Cats especially my two furbabies and I like cute stamps which Tim doesn't do, things like unicorns and cutesy animals. As most of what I like I can find in the realms of Mr Holtz I really need to experiment more and keep trying, that's the way I will learn to be better and improve my techniques.

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?

Entering A World of Mixed Emotion Media

Hey lovely blog people :) today I'm posting something a little different, I dabbled with mixed media in a way a couple of years ago when I attempted to start an art journal. I bought a lot of supplies, had a go, but despite getting enthusiastic it went nowhere.

I tried to do two more journal pages after the one in the article linked above and they were unsuccessful, so the supplies gathered dust. In a way it was like when I first tried card making all those years ago, I tried, it didn't work, so I gave up!

Then recently the lovely Jennifer Kray showed me a couple of her mixed media projects and I was in awe. Jen took a cardboard Bisto pot and turned it in to a stunning floral work of art.

We had a conversation, it went something like Me: your project is stunning, but I can't do that because I'm not good with mixed media. Jen: I disagree, just go for it! She encouraged me to have a go, pointing out in a nutshell that everything is art and it doesn't matter what others think, its the fun you get out of it whilst you create, okay I'm paraphrasing but that's what it boils down to. So I found a tin and a pot of gesso and then I chickened out again and the tin loitered in my room glareing at me every now and again daring me to touch it.

Earlier this week Jen posted another mixed media project, this time a card that she'd created for the launch of the new Nuvo Diamond ink cubes and it took me back to France 2 years ago.  I was right back in the Musée des Impressionnismes at Giverny, and fondly remembering standing in Monet's studio and weeping like a baby with joy, yes one creation triggered all those memories and feelings!

Jen's work was stunning but I was still convinced that I couldn't do mixed media. Jen explained what she did to create the card and it seemed so easy, not much different to creating some of the backgrounds I create for cards. Yeah those things that I'm getting rather good at now, because I found my papercrafting feet and kept practicing how to walk! I wound up, with Jen's encouragement thinking that maybe I could do mixed media, so I dug out the tin and the gesso and I started playing.

I painted the tin with gesso, then covered it with angel hair paper before painting it with gold starlight paint. At that point the ideas flew out the window, I couldn't and still can't decide on whether I want a steampunk, bee or botanical theme for my up-cycled tin, so that project is on pause. It would have been easy to pack it all away and forget about it, but I decided to check one of the boxes under the bed to see what paints and things I had. In that box I found a little decopatch cat I'd bought to decorate and a pack of six 5" x 7" canvas boards I'd bought from The Works for about £2 when I was going to have a go at mixed media a while back.

So instead of giving up and whilst I wait for the muse to hit me for the tin, I decided to give the cat and one of the canvas boards a coat of gesso. More on the cat in the future, but for now, I'll concentrate on the board, because I now have a finished project under my belt, okay it isn't as grand as some of the creations that you can marvel at on Youtube and on an array of mixed media blogs out there, but it is created by me and I finished it whooo hooo!

I must admit that where the project went is not where I expected it to go and there has been a lot of covering up mistakes throughout the process. Step one, I added gesso, all good, then I added some paper strips and put mod podge over the top, again all good. I added some aqua flow pens and the lovely olde world lavender bottle image completely disappeared! So I painted over the papers with pearlised acrylic paint and added patches of metallic gelatos in pinks and purples, I then randomly stamped a Stampendous script stamp over the paint in Jet Black Archival Ink, although on the finished project its barely noticable, you can see it more on the photo below.

I wanted to give the canvas some texture but the only texture paste I had in was Ranger Transparent Texture Paste which dries clear, I added the texture paste you can see it in the picture above, it goes on white but dries clear. Once it was all dry I used my finger to add some Pebeo Gilding Wax in 'Empire Gold' and added some more gelato in darker purple on the edges of the canvas.

I checked my bits box and realised that I'm not really that well kitted out for mixed media, I haven't got lots of cogs, wheels, bits of jewellery or any of the other things in the stunning designs I've seen created. So I took a step back and BAM my Sizzix Tim Holtz Bigz dies hit my eye and I decided that the wish sentiment would be perfect. So I found some scrap packaging card I'd saved and die cut the sentiment out 3 times, glued the layers on top of each other and painted the whole thing with Black Sparkle Pen, then added a thicker coat of the gilding wax on top. The flowers are also Tim Holtz Bigz dies, but I made these almost 2 years ago and they'd been sat in a box with some others waiting for the right project to come along.

The leaves were made around the same time as the tattered flowers and sat in the same box, so when I opened it up I guess I did find some treasure, but the paper kind. The butterfly I got from The Range a while back in an assorted pack and it felt right for this project, so it got glued on along with the flowers and leaves.  After seeing so many stunning mixed media creations posted by highly talented and brilliant people like Jennifer I feel pretty nervous putting this project out there, but its my first and I actually rather like it!

It looks NOTHING at all like it did in my head when I began the project, but I do like the colours and the textures. The most important thing is I did it, I started a project and finished it, and I learnt things about myself. I also learnt that mixed media is VERY forgiving, and I discovered that I have lots of paints and other items in my stash already and the projects I've done over the past few days have encouraged me to use those items and other stamps and dies for the first time.

Now if I can just discover the difference between modelling paste and texture paste and figure out if I need soft gel medium and which glue is best for mixed media projects I think I can learn to embrace this new creative venture. So if any of you have tips on books or sites to find out more please leave me a comment. I've acquired some larger canvases that Si got to explore oil painting but never did so he's given them to me to give me more chances to create a masterpiece lol! More from me soon, I'm off out to enjoy a rare day of sunshine now, take care and thanks for stopping by :)

Making Tattered Flowers

I love flowers and anything botanical, I think that's because of the herbaholic in me, recently I've found myself being drawn to creating paper flowers of my own, I've seen projects by some very talented ladies on the Docrafts forum over the past 12 months that have paper and vellum flowers as part of the designs, and they look stunning.

After playing with the Starlights paint to make flowers for some cards I made recently to send to friends, I realised that I wanted to create something a little more florally dimensional. I wasn't sure how to do it, and started to look on the internet and discovered some pretty stamp and die sets that can be transformed into 3D flowers, but it required me to spend around another £40 to get what I want and as I'm saving up for my holiday in July and then the November Hobbycrafts show, that's not something I want to do at this time.

Then I remembered that I had the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Bigz die by Sizzix on the shelf and I hadn't got round to using it yet, I think I was scared that I'd mess it up. But a very wise lady over the on the DC forum said we learn from our mistakes, and that we expect to get professional results straight away and get put off when we don't achieve them. She was talking about stamping and colouring, but I think that I hit that hurdle every time I feel like having a go at something new. We only get better if we practice and what's the worse that can happen, you lose some time and effort and it goes in the bin! I keep having a go at colouring and I get better each time and the more I do it, the better I'll get.

So I took the die off the shelf and cut 3 large flowers, 2 medium and 1 small out of pale pink paper, I lightly inked the edges with a finger sponge using 'Spun Sugar' Distress Ink. Then used a balling tool I picked up cheaply at the NEC in March, I shaped and moulded the paper in to more life like petals on the back of my 'Stampers Secret Weapon' board.

I did hit a snag in that the paper creased as I applied the pressure and at that point I almost gave up, but I decided to press on - pun intended - and used the balling tool on all the paper pieces. I glued them together and added an adhesive gem to the centre, and used a clear Spectrum Sparkle pen on the edges of the petals to give it a little shine, the finished flower wasn't perfect but for a first attempt I was pleased, thank you Emma :)

I showed the first paper flower to Simon and pointed out the problems and he said it didn't look that bad, and reminded me that nature isn't perfect. So I decided to have another go, Si offered the suggestion that maybe a thicker paper would help prevent creasing? So I painted some A4 sheets of white card with Starlights paint in 3 different shades: - Dried Rose, Dark Orchid and Cyclamen and waited for them to dry.

Once dry I cut out all the pieces I needed to make each set of flowers, From one A4 sheet of paper/card you can make 3 flowers. A 2 layer daisy, a large 5 layer rose and a small 3 layer rose. On the three cyclamen coloured large rose pieces I decided to stamp them with some Hero Arts 'Intense Black' permanent ink using the WOW De-Vine stamp I've used on a few projects recently, once layered the rose has the look of a baroque paper, and I kind of like it.

By the time I'd finished I had 3 sets of flowers and my initial tattered rose. I love the effect that the Starlights paint has given to the card making the flowers look almost metallic. I'm going to make more in different colours, but I think I may give the centres of the flowers different colours, I chose centres that matched the petal colours and in hindsight a contrast would have been better.

I'd like to use some of those fancy decorative brads, but I don't have any on my stash yet. I did find that using the balling tool got to be a little hard on my fingers after a while, so had to take a break, so heads up in you have problems with finger joints for any reason.

For the future, I think I'll measure the shapes and cut squares of paper/card to go over the area corresponding to the shape I want to die cut. Placing the card over the die meant I ended up with a few incomplete flowers that weren't needed. However if that paper/card hadn't been wasted it could have been used for other projects somewhere down the line. The downside to these kind of paper flowers is the dimension, to attach to a card and post the card would need a box of some description and I'm not currently tooled up to make boxes yet.

I think I may also try inking the edges of the petals to make them a little more defined.  All in all though, not a bad exercise and I can see a lot more paper flowers on my crafting horizon, I have more dies to cut foliage and greenery as well! That just gave me an idea... I could make lots of the flowers in matching colours and make my self a rosy floral wreath and if I create some pockets for dried rose petals in the back I could make them scented!

Life is Not About Waiting For The Storm...

WOW! It's been over 2 months since I last blogged, life got in the way of blogging sadly, although I did do some card making, albeit not as much as I would have liked and I never made my christmas card target, I just about managed to make enough cards to send to friends and family, next year I'll do better, this I know because I've already made a start on cards for 2016 lol!

I was very lucky and very spoiled this year, for Xmas I was given lots of crafting goodies including sets of Presscut square and round nesting die sets, an inkylicious ink dusting kit, a set of 12 Brusho Crystal Inks, a set of 12 gelatos, various Tim Holtz dies, stamps and carry case and lots more besides, I did very well and was absolutely blown away at the bounty.

So for the past few days I've been playing with my new goodies and over the next week I'll share what I've been making, the photos in this post are my first efforts at playing with my Brusho Crystals, the "Wishes are the magic..." panel in the photo above was my very first play with brusho's, hard to believe that a little water and a sprinkle of the crystals could create such a colourful effect. I embossed the sentiment first using white detail embossing powder from the Cosmic Shimmer range, then applied the crystals in Purple, Emerald Green and Turquoise and spritzed with water. I trimmed and edged the panel with double sided tape to which I applied some Lilac Nuvo Pure Sheen Glitter, the panel was stuck to a 5" x 7" card base that I embossed with a TOGA embossing folder I picked up in France in the Summer,  I used Peacock Feathers Distress Ink to colour the card before spritzing with my homemade silver shimmer mist.

My second panel was created with Scarlet, Orange and Yellow Brusho Crystal powders, again I resist embossed using a Tim Holtz stamp from the Good Thoughts set, the edge of the panel was highlighted with the new Distress Ink for December 2015 Candied Apple, my new favourite shade of red. I picked out the heart using Red Berry Sparkle Pen. I used the same glitter edge technique as I did on the card above this time I used Ruby Red Nuvo Pure Sheen Glitter and stuck the panel on at an angle, more to try to correct the fact that I'd stamped the sentiment wonky! The black heart adhesive strip feels like velvet as was a gift from my nephews and niece for Xmas, they gave me a few other crafting bits items including the dancing fairies in the card in the main image.

The main image cards were my second attempt at using the Brusho Crystals, the sentiment is from the same Tim Holtz Good Thoughts stamp set, the blue design used Leaf Green, Emerald Green, Lemon, Turquoise and Ultramarine crystals. I embossed he sentiment with Black Detail Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder, the panel was then trimmed and matted with a sapphire blue glitter paper and the mdf fairy  was glued in place and the wings were coloured using an Aquamarine Sparkle Pen.

The orange and purple card was made using Orange, Scarlet, Purple and Lemon Brusho Crystals, the sentiment was added again with Black Detail embossing powder and matted on to a piece of Purple Centura Pearl card, once the fairy was attached I coloured the wings with a Silver Wink of Stella brush pen. I'm loving the vibrant colours that the Brusho Crystals create, next I want to try stamping images and using the crystals to colour the stamped images. I also want to experiment with embossing pastes and wax to create resist and relief designs. I think 2016 is going to be the year I begin to experiment more with mixed media projects. Big, bold and beautiful colour combinations are on the horizon :) 

New Tim Holtz Stash

 

Back in a post in mid September I mentioned that I was trying to find a stamp set by Stampers Anonymous called 'The Chemist'. I searched everywhere and could only find it for silly prices around £24.99 or more in the UK. Then on Tuesday the lovely people at Craft Stash sent me an email saying they were having a one day only flash sale of Stampers Anonymous Stamps. This sale included 170 Tim Holtz designs! So obviously I went off to have a look, and you could have knocked me down with a feather when I saw they had "The Chemist" stamp set for £13.99 with another 30% off the price due to the sale making the set just £9.75! Whoooo hoooooo!

I took advantage of the sale and also picked up the new Botanical Sketch Stamp Set which I used to make this rainbow thank you card. I used white embossing powder on white card stock and then used a rainbow of distress ink colours Red (Festive Berries), Orange (Spiced Marmalade), Yellow (Squeezed Lemonade), Green (Twisted Citron), Blue (Mermaid Lagoon), Indigo (Chipped Sapphire) and Violet (Wilted Violet). Once I'd added the colour I spritzed with water to blend. The sentiment panel was a die cut circle treated with the orange, yellow and green colours and then I used white embossing powder for the sentiment. The ribbon I got in France and the purple gems were in my stash. The butterfly is from my 'Maybe Someday' and was made a while back when I started experimenting with Perfect Pearl powders.

I also got the 4 stamp "Holiday Collection" set, perfect for toppers and Xmas ATC's, I wanted to get the free p&p you get from Craft Stash if you spend £30, so I also picked up the new Distress Ink colour for September 'Wilted Violet' which I've wanted to add to my ever expanding ink collection since it first came out at the beginning of last month, and I got to use it in the above card.

I loved doing the rainbow effect on the first card so much that I did it again using black embossing powder. I also played with a new stamp I picked up at a local garden centre that has a craft section, its by Creative Expressions and is called 'Herbal Collage' apt for me :) This design I smooshed distress ink on to different sections, spritzed with water and let it dry naturally. I can see this one getting a lot of use, like the botanical sketch stamp.

I also made purchases from Cutting Edge Crafts this month, from them I got a pack of alcohol ink applicator felts, some silver metallic mixative, alcohol blending solution and a bottle of sunshine yellow alcohol ink. The rest of this months craft stash goodies came from my very first order from The Craft Barn, and took the form of two metallic Distress Stains (Brushed Pewter and Tarnished Brass), and the rest of my new alcohol ink colours and the copper coloured mixative.

I did order a stamp from the Craft Barn as well but it was out of stock. I was pleased to note that they sent me an email to say sorry it was out of stock, but they would send it as soon as it came back in stock and in the meantime send the rest of my order, which meant I didn't have to wait for the majority of my crafting goodies to arrive. The invoice had a little handwritten 'happy crafting' note on as well which was a very nice touch. I'll definitely be buying from them again.

I'm not being disloyal shopping around, like many crafters I want to get the most for my money, so I prefer to shop where I can get free p&p or discounts. There's also the fact that so far on my crafting path, I haven't encountered a place where I can get everything I need all in the one place!  Suffice to say with all these new goodies, I'm looking forward to some serious crafting time this weekend, frst I have to decide will I be stamping and colouring with my new set of chemist stamps, or will I be playing with alcohol inks? Bring on the weekend :)

Deathly Delights and Fright Night Cards

I thought I'd post photos of a couple of the cards I made using the panels and toppers that I made last Friday, I'm really pleased with the way these cards have turned out, although I did want to add a couple of poison bottles to the first card but I haven't been able to find that stamp/die set yet! The backing panel on this card was a free download that you can download if you're a member of Club Inspire that Crafters Companion run, its free to join if you're not and you get free downloads and a 5% discount on prices which moves up to greater discounts the more you spend. If you are a member then look for the "June 2014 - Distressed Elegance" download.

I mounted the backing panel I cut on to black card and attached it to a 7" x 7" card blank. The poison label was made using a Tim Holtz Alterations Embossing Folder "Poison", I coloured it with Vintage Photo and Black Soot distress ink. The skull and crossbones are from a Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations set called Skull Blueprint, it comes with the dies and the stamps and a trick or treat sentiment stamp.

The sentiment is from the new Graphic 45 Rare Oddities stamp set (set 2), I saw these a few weeks ago in a craft mag and have fallen in love with them, they appeal to my dark side and the papers as have words on them that say things like 'Herbology', 'Medicinal Herbs' and 'Brews & Potions', perfect for the inner herbaholic :) So far I've acquired the 6" x 6" paper pad and 2 of the 3 stamp sets, hoping to get a couple more bits from this range, but I digress...

The frame around the sentiment is part of the stamp set and I stamped that first in clear embossing ink and used Whispers Metallic Copper embossing powder. I then stamped the Deathly Delights sentiment with clear embossing ink and used Cosmic Shimmer Black Detail embossing powder. I added a dashed line around the edge of the black card with a Metallic Copper Sakura Gelly Roll pen and added 4 black adhesive gems from my stash. I did have a problem with the gelly roll pen, after doing 3 rows of dashes the pen started giving out slightly sparkly clear liquid and not the copper line it started with, no idea why, I ended up keeping going over the lines until they eventually showed up, not impressed when I paid £20 for a set of pens!

The Fright Night card started with a white 7" x 7" card blank, I used a Sheena Douglass tree stamp that came free with Issue 8 of Crafters Inspiration and stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento ink to create the black and white edge. I then took a piece of 6" X 6" paper with a grey and cream pattern and covered it with Spiced Marmalade distress ink to create the orange panel, I'm not sure what paper stack the piece I used came from as it was given to me by Lainie as part of a prize for winning a Docrafts challenge. I mounted it on to black card and attached a piece of black ribbon and a bow I made with my new bow making tool, and a couple of black glitter bats I found in my stash, think I got them from Hobbycraft a few years ago?!

The main panel was embossed using the Tim Holtz Alterations Embossing Folder "Halloween Night", I first coloured the panel with Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon distress ink, which I added some homemade gold shimmer mist to to give it a sparkle. When the ink was dry I embossed the panel, then ran Black Soot distress ink over the raised embossed area. I trimmed it to size and decided to cut around the top of the 'railings' and mount it on a piece of black card that was smaller than the panel so that the spikes of the railings stood out.

Cobwebs, Poisons and Spooky Things

As I'm currently on a 3 day week at work, I have Friday and Monday off, these are becoming my crafting days when I can play with new ideas and techniques, although I lost the past few Fridays preparing for a herb tea workshop I gave in the Cotswolds last weekend. This weekend though I have nothing to do bar  a little cleaning so I figured it was time to play!

When I first started card making last October I bought the Sizzix 'Halloween Night' and 'Poison' embossing folders off the internet, when the folders arrived I embossed the poison label on purple card, decided it didn't work for the card I was making and put the folders in the draw, back then I hadn't discovered distress inks and all the cool things you can do with them!  So as its getting round to Halloween and I have a few friends that have parties and enjoy dressing up I thought it was a good excuse to make some cards and play with some stuff I bought last year and this year that I haven't played with yet.

Back in July someone on one of the Docrafts forums posted that Sixxix were having a sale with some things up to 90% off, couldn't be true I thought, but it was! I picked up the Skull Blueprint die and stamp set for £3 saving around £17, I also got the cobweb, acorn and leaf sets as well, but they were put in my die box until after my holidays. Yesterday I got them out to play and also the water brush pens I'd found in France. The skull above and the cobweb panels in the first photo are the results of my first attempt at colouring with a water brush, I used Antique Linen, Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke inks to colour the skull, it's actually layered in 3 parts but the photo makes it look rather flat. The colouring isn't perfect but then again not bad for a first attempt, I need to get my head around shading a little more, I'll be practicing by making several more skulls and in some lurid shades of orange, purple and lime green for other cards :)

I've been trying to find the Pumpkin blueprint die and stamp set and some of the stamp sets Tim Holtz released in 2013 namely 'The Chemist' and 'Halloween Blueprints 2' but so far I can't find them at a reasonable price in the UK. I confess I'm becoming drawn to a lot of the Tim Holtz Alterations stuff, things like the Bell Jar and Apothecary Bottles appeal to me because they can be given a herbal twist, i also like halloween designs, they bring out the kid in me and I love the colours, its all wrapped up in that Autumn season I adore so much, I'll keep searching for the dies and stamps I want, you never know I may get lucky :)

The above is a close up of what I've done so far with the embossed poison folder, I used a piece of cream card stock which I trimmed to the out border of the folder image and then distressed the edges of the embossed image with my distress tool, then I went over the raised design with Black Soot distress ink before giving it a spritz with my gold metallic misting spray, I inked the distressed edge with black soot and the 'label' was complete. The other label seen in top photo was cut from the same card but the edge left straight and I used Vintage Photo distress ink on the label and the same gold misting spray, both have come out really well, so glad I discovered distress ink :)

I'll add some more photos when I've finished the cards I have in mind using the bits I've made, I'm waiting for some stamps from the Rare Oddities collection to arrive for some other ideas, I love things with poisons and apothecary type things on them, luckily I have friends where these kind of cards can be given all the year round :)