This weekend our wonderful local arts and craft shop, Berkhamsted Arts and Crafts, celebrates its 40th birthday!
They asked for birthday cards to share, so I couldn't not make one, could I?!?
It also gave me a chance to play with a birthday present. I got some powertex, and related mixed media goodies following a workshop in June with Angela Simpson and Leonie Pujol. We had such fun playing there, so I wanted another go.
(That's my journal middle right - it's really not that dark!)
Angela on the far left, and Leonie next to me in the front. And the other lovely ladies!
I started my card by collecting all kinds of bits and bobs to go onto it.
I added grunge paste to the card base for texture, as well as to the wooden letters and numbers, and some stars I die cut from an old tissue box.
These also came from the tissue box - the plaque has three layers, glued together for depth.
I also had papyrus (which stretches out wonderfully with the powertex), cheese cloth, lace, string, wooden embellishments and some clay balls to play with.
I added them all to the base with the powertex. (It's a fabric hardener, so gives the gorgeous texture to the cloth, but also works as a glue.) I had the transparent one, I decided it was the most versatile, as you can use it with patterned cloth etc and retain the pattern.
This was the result! It looks a bit of a mess - it is! This is not tidy crafting. Powertex sticks to fingers best of all, I was covered by the end, but peeling it off is hugely satisfying!
Once this had dried (keeping the lovely folds and dimension in the fabric), the next step was to paint it all with black gesso.
This took a while to get into all the nooks and crannies! Despite examining it from all angles, I missed loads the first time, so had to go back in for a second pass (and there were still some tiny gaps!). This is where spray gesso would come into its own!
Once dry, time to add the colour and highlights!
I dry brushed with acrylic paints - metallic blue, purple, which I mixed with a pearlescent medium, and gold. I then added metallic wax in gold, with a bit of blue, purple and silver, to highlight areas. Finally, I watered down the paint left over from dry brushing, and splattered on a layer of each colour. I wiped it off some of the words I wanted to highlight.
The final step was to mount onto an 8x8 card blank (using super sticky tape as it wasn't very flat so needed to be held firm!). I added a squiggle round the edge with a black drawing pen, as the plain white didn't look right when the main piece is so full on!
It's maybe a bit over the top for a card, but I had so much fun playing with this! I have plenty of journals and things I can do something similar with. It's really very forgiving too, it's not hard to create something that looks great (in my humble opinion!).
Maybe next time I'll go for something not quite so dark!
Oh dear, I'm late again with my 52 Christmas Card Throwdown card.
Andreja has chosen "Wood Background" as the stash challenge for June, so our design team have come up with some really lovely, natural looking, cards for inspiration.
Here's my contribution.
For my wood background, I used kraft card and the wood design embossing folder from Sheena Douglas' textures collection.
I tried two approaches. I painted one sheet of kraft with white gesso first, the other I left plain. I added distress ink to the folder before embossing - brushed corduroy and crushed olive on the gessoed card, then the darker walnut stain on the plain kraft.
Love this! I've used the plain card this time, but I love the white washed look too, this would go well with dark red toppers.
For these cards I use iced spruce - I love this colour, a neutral that isn't a neutral, so pretty and versatile.
I firstly stamped this great scene from Hobby Art, using distress ink. I then used a water brush to add shade, picking up the same ink from my craft mat.
For my other cards, I used the distress oxide in iced spruce to stamp. I cut each image out with a die.
I didn't use all of these today, but the spares have gone in the stash for another time.
For each card, I cut the wood background to size, then mounted onto white card, with an iced spruce edge. I wrapped lace and string round, then added the toppers using foam tape to lift above the string. I then added the lot to square card blanks - 7x7 for the two Christmas cards, and 8x8 for the birthday card, which is for my husband's aunt.
Simple and clean, showcasing the wood background and the gorgeous image.
A mixture of images here. I added a bit of foliage to the dragonfly (a Sheena stamp), masking the outside to give a straight edge, to add interest to that square. The sentiment is die cut from a spare scrap of the wood background.
Very simple, using a square stamp as it comes (I don't know the make). I think this one would look good in dark red on the white washed wood background.
To join in with this challenge head over to the 52CCT blog. As there are 5 Saturdays in June, you have two weeks, it closes on Friday 6th July. Enjoy playing and experimenting, I'd love to see what you come up with.
Today I'm sharing a card I made for my best friend.
This was a mess, painty project, and so much fun!
I started with my pieces of card - one piece for the background and one for the butterflies.
I pulled out a variety of acrylic paint colours I wanted to use - teal, magenta, purple, yellow, lime green. I brushed them over the card with a wide brush.
I dried in between layers, so the colours didn't go muddy.
This was the background piece:
and here's the piece for the butterflies.
I kept the colours more separate with the latter, so the butterflies had some contrast. I also dry brushed some gold over the top for shimmer.
I overstamped the background with a variety of texture stamps, using the same paint colours. There were some Indigoblu stamps in the mix, plus a lot more!
I then stamped my three butterflies onto the other card. One is a Clarity stamp, the others I think came with magazines.
The middle one went a bit blotchy - I pressed a bit hard, which is fine for the Clarity stamp, but not for the cheaper, squidgier stamps! So I painted another piece of card and restamped. I fussy cut the butterflies out, then mounted onto black card and cut round, leaving a narrow border.
I also added white pen round the border, to lighten it.
To help the butterflies stand out on the background, I overstamped the middle section with white gesso, using a checked pattern texture stamp.
I also scribbled round the edge with a black and a white drawing pen.
To tie the butterflies in better, I stamped with the swirl stamp using the gold paint, just at the edges.
I mounted onto black card, then onto an 8x8 card blank.
Finally, I added the butterflies, using tiny foam pads down the centre.
It looks flatter in the photo than in real life, you don't see all the layers. Maybe if doing it again (and if I'd had more time, this was made to a deadline!) I'd add texture paste, or use an embossing folder to add more dimension.
Nonetheless, I really like this! I hope my friend did too.
This horse stencil was one of the club member's stencils from Clarity. I don't think it's one I'll get much use from (which is rare!) but our family in Somerset are horse mad, so it was perfect for my husband's aunt's birthday.
I started with stencil card, and blended a pale layer of green and blue distress ink over the whole thing.
I then placed the stencil over and pressed versamark through the aperture. I added clear embossing powder and heated to melt.
My versamark was a bit stained with blue, so the colour changed a little. I now have one I keep clean and just use for clear embossing - I do try to learn lessons!
I stamped a script stamp, also in versamark, and clear embossed this too.
I then added more ink, with the embossing acting as a resist. I darkened the green and blue, and added some of the script in blue as well.
With hindsight, I think I'd add more detail to the background before heat embossing, so the horse has more interest.
I watered down some silver paint and splattered it over the card. I also used it to tone down the bottom right corner, which I wasn't happy with.
I coloured a scrap of card with blue, and die cut the sentiment.
I attached it to that problematic bottom right corner!
I edged in the green, then cut a mount and lightly coloured that with the blue to give a narrow frame, before adding to a 5x7 card blank.
I love the whimsical effect the blended colours and silver sparkles create, it has a lovely ethereal feel.
Today I wanted to share a card I made for a little girl who turns two this week, Lily.
However, I then realised I'd never shared her first birthday card!
This was quite a simple card, using an inky mop up background from the blending mat.
I added interest with these frame stamps from Stamps Away. I used dusty concord distress ink, to tie in with the background. I've never used these stamps as frames, but they make great abstract patterns.
To finish, I added the words in black archival, with the word chain "Happy Birthday" and the word chain alphabet stamps for the name. I edged with a purple sharpie.
This year's card is a little more involved.
I wanted to use the framework circles stencil from Clarity, I love this and the square one. They're so simple - nine apertures evenly spaced in a square - but so many things to do with them! For a 5x7 card, I only used 6 circles, masking the others.
(I took photos of the process, but they were completely blurred until the final steps! I guess the glossy stencil is hard for the camera to focus on.)
I used my oval petite gel plate to add ink to each aperture - a plain layer then a pattern with a stencil. For the green circles I used old paper and mowed lawn distress ink, with tattered rose and worn lipstick for the pink. The colours were Bethany's choice!
The stencils were the petite dotty wave, petite leafy swirl, petite script and zig zag, all from Clarity. I used a sponge to clean the ink off the stencil into the apertures, which gave a crisper edge to my inked circles.
I then added some stamping, using the small leafy swirl stamp from Clarity, and old paper, mowed lawn and worn lipstick inks. I used the circle stencils that come with the framework, the "waste", to ensure I didn't go into the adjacent apertures.
Having cleaned the stencil, I then added the words, using memento black ink.
I used the word chains as above. However, I decided to swap out the "B" in Birthday, for something a little prettier. I masked the B on the stamp when I inked up.
I was then able to add in the "B" from the alphabet stamps. You can see the difference by comparing to last year's card. which used the same stamps but unaltered.
I definitely had to mask the adjacent apertures when adding the words here!
The final stage was to cut down the card to the appropriate size, then edge. I struggled to find a colour to match, in the end I used the worn lipstick distress marker.
While I was making this, I got out the spine tag from an A5 folder I keep a lot of my A5 Clarity stamp sets in. It's printed on one side, but I turned it over, and added my waste ink, second generation stamping etc as I was going along. I edged with mowed lawn. I used the word chain alphabet stamps, and just had to dig out a "5" from another set.
So now I have a pretty label on my folder as well!
I though I'd share a couple of cards I made a few months ago, playing with the distress oxides.
These were both for children, a friend's son and a friend of my daughter's.
I used a set of wooden block mounted dinosaur stamps. We found these in a charity shop and got them for my daughter to use, but Mummy borrowed them on this occasion. I see it as pre-emptive - I'm sure my stash will be borrowed more than once over the years to come!
I covered stencil card with the stamps in a variety of bright oxide colours. Ravi's was reds, oranges and yellows, Caitlyn's more of a mix, with blue, pink, red green and yellow.
I forgot to take photos of the "before", but got this one of the "during", once I'd spritzed with water.
Once dry, this was what they looked like:
Still recognisably dinosaurs for the most part, but with a bit of a mix up! Using different colours together like this, you really see the difference in how they react - some move much more than others. I did Ravi's first, and held back with the water a bit more on Caitlyn's - the colour moves more than I anticipated after you finish spritzing, whilst drying.
To make up, I simply stamped Happy Birthday and the appropriate name in black archival ink, edged in a black sharpie, and mounted on a card blank.
I think these are a lot of fun - bright and cheerful, and, well, dinosaurs!!
One of my daughter's friends turns three this month, we have his party tomorrow. So I made this little card for him.
It ties in with the Berkhamsted Creative Challenge for the month as well, which is "All about the boys".
The background is something I'd wanted to try for a while. I used the harlequin stencil from Clarity, and brushed through with distress ink, offsetting the colours. I used brushed corduroy, weathered wood and antique linen. Where they overlapped, they gave a beautiful green.
I also really like the waste - I'd taped the stencil to copy paper and then moved the card under it, giving different ares of colour, then I wiped the ink off the stencil with a make up sponge in the centre.
I didn't manage a focussed photo though!
The letters are an alphabet die set from The Range. I cut them in a double layer of copy paper, just to try them out, then liked it enough to use them. I stuck them on with a glue pen. Most stuck together naturally from being pressed in the die then glued, a few came apart into layers so I glued them together.
After edging with the brushed corduroy, I mounted onto an A6 card base.
Simple but quite stylish. Possibly a bit "old" for a three year old, but I reckon at this age the cards are more for the parents than the kids anyway.
