Birds and Pearls

Brrr it's so cold isn't it and we've had no daylight here today, it's been dark, damp and foggy all day so apologies for the photos tonight, I've scanned one and photoed the other with flash to get the best results but nothing like taking them in daylight.

Before I get going with this post I must just say a huge thank you for your support, I was feeling really bad over that cake but I know I did the right thing. Family time is so precious at anytime but more so at Christmas.

Following my last post, I have been asked whether the clear embossing powder sticks to the mica powdered card from the original inking. I made the card such a long time ago I couldn't honestly answer 100% so I had another go last night and found out two things, yes the clear EP sticks but to get the best results with the mica powder you need to use watercolour paper. Not sure why this is but ordinary card just doesn't work. So here are step by step instructions.

1) Cut a piece of watercolour paper the required design size you want.

2) Liberally ink with versamark or similar.

3) Apply mica powders with a large brush until they cover the paper really well.

4) Ink a stamp with the versamark and stamp into the powder. This will remove it to show the stamped design (If you are really organised and have a piece of triple embossing to hand stamp the mica powdered stamp into this so as not to waste it). Otherwise clean the stamp each time before reinking & restamping into the powder

5) Sprinkle clear EP over the whole area and heat emboss from underneath to get a glossy finish.

Hope this helps.

Here is the piece I did last night and a piece of triple embossed chipboard I made after stamping the dragonfly card in the last post.


The Tag It On challenge theme this week is birds and this is what I came up with.


The tag was glimmer misted with various shades of pink. The Crafty Individuals stamp was inked in Brilliance pearlescent Ivy and Crimson and clear embossed. The little hearts were then decoupaged.

I realised after I'd finished it that the stamp is very swirly so I've added some pearls and am also entering it into the Allsorts challenge. Their theme is swirls and pearls this week. You have to be a speedy crafter at this time of year when time is so precious so hope this is ok.

Thank you as always for stopping by and I hope you are all wrapping up well and keeping warm.

Christmas Is Coming.......

I hope you've all had a great weekend and your Christmas preparations are well under way.

We've spent the weekend putting up our Christmas Tree, No, it hasn't taken the whole weekend, we did go shopping and other things as well, and it's looking beautiful. I always think the house looks so cheerful with all the twinkly lights during these dark December days.

I've also managed to get some stuffing made and other bits and pieces in the freezer so I think we're getting there.

Only Christmas cards to write, pressies to wrap, crafty presents to finish, cakes to decorate........ ahhhhhh!!!!! It'll all get done, I'm sure.

I was feeling ok until a lady phoned tonight to ask me to make and decorate a three tiered Wedding cake for the 27th December, yes two weeks today!!!!! I never usually turn down requests but I had to for this one, I don't think it would be physically possible, but that doesn't make me feel any better. If she'd only asked a month ago it would have been no problem. I feel awful now!!

I've managed to get a bit of crafting done, finishing special Christmas cards based on the moon tag I did last week. Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments, I felt slightly overwhelmed! Anyway, I will show you them once they've been delivered so in the meantime I thought I'd share a non Christmassy card with you I did a few weeks ago.


This idea was demoed by someone on a Create and Craft show I saw but it was so long ago I can't remember who it was, so apologies for that.

The background was done with moonglow mica powder applied after the card was given a coating of veramark and then a swirl stamp was inked with versamark and pressed into the powder all round the edge removing it to show the stamp. Clear EP was heated all over to seal it and give it a glossy finish.


The dragonfly and flowers were Inkadinkadoo Mindscapes and were stamped in versamark on acetate and white embossed and then cut out.

Liquid Pearls were added as a finishing touch.

I enjoyed playing with this technique and shall definitely try it again with different colours.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you all have a great week. Don't work too hard!!

Experimenting

We've had a lovely sunny couple of days here, after a wet wet Saturday so it's been nice to get back in the garden although I have a real slug problem this year. All my seed grown Cosmos and Dahlias have been eaten to stalks so the colour that should be in the border now is sadly lacking. I will have to have a rethink for next year, but that is gardening for you, nothing stands still and there is always something to do.

We are on countdown for our Holidays now. I am not a clever blogger and don't yet know how to schedule posts to appear when I am not here, note to self to learn this for next time, so when my blog goes quiet, you will know what has happened.


I thought I would should you a card I made last week experimenting with moonglow mica powder. I saw Dawn Bibby do this technique on QVC recently and wanted to give it a go.

Versmark was applied to the whole piece of dark card and the powder randomly applied and then my stamp, Autumn Leaves Fine and Dandy again, was inked with versamark and stamped onto the powder removing it to create a negative.

The background card was stamped with the same image and pigment powder was applied to cuttlebugged embossed card and I used this for the strip at each side. The words were from Elusive Images.

Thank you for visiting.

Allsorts Challenge

The challenge on Allsorts this week is "Wings" which was too tempting not to have a go at.

This is what I came up with. I wanted to use my favourite Butterfly Beauties stamps again so decided to combine them with that Crafters Workshop stencil I used in the last scrapbook layout.

This time I used the stencil as a template on folded cardstock to make a shaped card. I drew round the design on the stencil and coloured it with felt pens, then spritzed it with pink bubblegum, cherry and key lime glimmer mists and went over the original design lines again just to make them stand out.

As usual I stamped the butterflies on scrap card and applied some Blimey Limey Green (what a great name) moonglow mica powder just to give them a shimmer. They were cut out and stuck on randomly with an Artylicious word of inspiration, although I did shorten it slightly.

I tried to do something a little bit different than just a standard card, the trouble was with this theme I was a bit spoilt for choice and I'm still not sure what I think about what I've done. Still I suppose that is the whole point of a challenge.

Tempted Again

Like so many crafters I love buying new stash and just looking at it planning what I will do with it when I've finished all the other things I want to do and slowly running out of room to put it all. I only have a corner of the living room for crafting and I seem to spend more time reorganising to fit it all in than actually being creative with it.

So this year I decided to try and not buy more but use what I already have. Up to now I've really enjoyed looking through stuff to find what I want or trying to be creative to come up with the things I want to use and have found lots of things I'd forgotten about.


Unfortunately, though, there is an awful lot of temptation out there and I have succumbed a few times, especially with new stamps, but then Jill at The Stampman started showing techniques with moonglow mica powder and offered it at half price. Now that is TOO much temptation. I've been dying to try this for ages and this seemed too good to miss out on so off went the order and the lovely powders duly arrived and I have not been disappointed, they are really lovely to work with. It is like magic watching your stamped design appear when you apply the powder. My sort of crafting.

This is my first attempt. I decided to start small and used a set of free Papermania stamps that came with a magazine. This was then mounted on pearl paper. I edged the dark paper with the powder and then did the vellum the same. The whole was then put on a plain white card. I don't like things to be too dark and thought this just showed the shine off a bit better. The vellum was attached with a couple of brads.


I shall definitely be having another go, it is quite addictive and is another way of using all those stamps I bought!!!!

Thank you for looking and I hope you stay dry whatever you do today. It is absolutely pouring down here again this morning!!!!