Chocolate Orange

If you caught my post yesterday, you will know that I am currently experimenting with my distress inks.  I've been eyeing up a few demos on timholtz.com to get some new ideas and I am starting to get a bit braver with trying things out.

Starting with a sheet of white paper I dabbed on Spiced marmalade and sprayed with water, did the same again with Tea dye and then finished off with Vintage photo.  I stamped the floral flourishes in Vintage photo and then embossed with some gold embossing power.  Now I don't have any distress embossing powder (definitely on my wish list) but I have attempted to get the same effect  by brushing some of the embossing power off before heating.

I loved the shimmer effect I got yesterday using the iridescent embossing powder, so I have done the same again (lightly sprinkle over some dabbed on distress ink and then heat).  It gives the paper a slightly rough feel and you can only see the glimmer when the card is facing a certain way, but I think it is worth it..

The colour scheme for this card came from the photo inspiration challenge at Paperplay challenges.  I don't know why, but chocolate and orange were the first things I thought of, so I ran with it.  That fit in very nicely with the chocolate challenge at Moving along with the times and the design came from the sketch at Everybody art.

If anyone has any comments tips or ideas for how I can improve my technique with distress ink, they are most welcome.  I love learning new things and blogging is a great way to do this xx

Evolution

I've called this one Evolution, because I started off with a piece of white card and four distress ink pads and waited to see what evolved :o)

I started by covering my white card in Mustard Seed distress ink and then went over that, in parts, with Dried Marigold.  I then finished off with a lot of Spiced Marmalade and a little Fired Brick around the edges.  The Dots and Best wishes were stamped using Fired brick and then I dusted the whole thing with iridescent embossing powder.  Now I never got the hang of embossing and this is the first time I have tried using the powder like this (the pots have been in the drawer for years), but I love the shiny effect it has given.

 The die cut was coloured using Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and a little Fired Brick.  I then stamped with fired brick and played with the embossing powder again.  I have seen fake stitching on other peoples card and love the way that it looks so I have used my pokey tool (I don't know the real name for it)  to make  the holes.

I loved making this butterfly.  It was a white die cut to begin with, so I started with Dried marigold dabbed on to both sides, which I sprayed with a little water and dried using my heat gun.  I use make up sponges with my distress inks as I don't have the proper tool yet.  I did the same with a layer of Fired brick and finished with a little Mustard seed.  I have again stamped with Fired brick.  I did the same with my flower too.

I'm not entirely sure why I did what I did with the ribbon, but it seemed right at the time :O).  I love 3D elements on a card and get them in when ever I can.  I couldn't resist adding the buttons.

I will be entering this card for the challenges at My Time To Craft - On the spot and Papertake Weekly - Truely dimentional

Posh Pens

There is a lady at work called Aneta. She helps every one with their jobs and usually has a smile for you even when she is snowed under. I wanted to make her a little thank you prezzie. The girls at work have been dropping hints about the things they would like made to go on their desks and the pen pots are quite popular at the moment.

This pen pot is for Aneta. I think that she is one of the few that hasn't hinted, but she always likes the stuff I take into work. Hope she likes this one.

Dotties World asked us to use a hand made flower. Mine is made from grunge paper which I have coloured using Spiced Marmalade distress ink. I stamped the dots on after I had cut out the stamped flowers and the whole thing is held together with a brad.

The colour scheme was inspired by the fruit colours that One Stop Craft Challenge asked us to use. I have gone for lemon and lime. The colours and flowered paper makes me think of spring, so I will also be entering the pen pot for the spring theme challenge over at The Corrosive.

Spring time citrus

I love learning new techniques. I'm trying to learn something new every month so I am always on the look out for something a bit out of the ordinary.

This week at JUGs they gave us the instructions on how to make a Flap card and challenged us to make one. It didn't take me long to realise that this is a variation on card that I already make, but it did teach me some new ideas on how to use it.

I like using vibrant colours on cards so I didn't need much prodding to get me to use the citrus colours for this weeks challenge at CRAFT. I have used orange, lemon and lime. I also tried some pink grapefruit, but it didn't quite fit so I left it out.

The colours also fit in nicely with the challenge over at Penny Black, who asked us to use spring colours. I don't seem to be able to make a card these days without some distress ink on it. This card has spiced marmalade and dried marigold. I got stuck for what to do with the middle, so I have gone with a less is more approach :0)

Shabby Vintage

I'm going to be honest. I have never made a vintage card before. This is for two reasons 1. I don't fully get what vintage is other than old looking and 2. I'm scared of it..... mainly all of the patterns I have seen used. Every time I buy a paper pack I get at least one page that I never use because it looks vintage. Well I think I have finally gotten to grips with my phobia and this is what happened.

Simon Says challenged us to make something vintage and to add flowers. At first I wasn't going to try, but I thought, "If you don't try you can't learn". I bought a papermania paper pack a while ago as part of a goody bag. I have to say that I don't know what to do with half of the papers, but they have inspired a lot of the orange cards that I have done lately. The paper I used on this card was one of the scarier ones in the pack. I edged the pieces I was using with fire brick and then I got a little too happy with the candle. I learned that adding distress ink and then setting light to the paper just makes it burn for longer (wont be doing that again).

Dotties world asked us to do some distressing which is where I got the idea for the pyromania.

I die cut some card and embossed it using a Fiskars texture plate. I coloured it with Aged mahogany and Fired Brick then sanded it in places until the white core showed through.

The flowers all started off cream. I have coloured them with three different distress inks and added gems to the centers. I have added a heart charm on chain to the main part of the card along with some ribbon and gems to the base for a bit of sparkle, which brings me on to the challenge at CRAFT challenge who wanted us to use ribbon and sparkle.

If anyone can give me some tips on vintage card making, I would be most grateful. Please feel free to tell me what I could have done better with this card as I learn from your comments.

Distressed Flame

Yes I know...... another orange one. I couldn't help it..... the colours were crying out to me.
On Tuesday A Spoonful of Sugar challenged us to use distress ink (did a little dance), pearls and glitter. So I pulled on a pair of latex gloves (having learned from blue dyed fingers last week) and started playing.

I wanted warm colours so I started with a sheet of orange and yellow paisley paper and the rest grew from there. I made an easel card using two yellow card blanks. I did this by cutting one of them in half to make the "front" of the card and folded the front of the second card blank in half. The left over half of the card blank was used to make the yellow strip across the middle and the two die cuts which I coloured with distress inks.

Enough techy stuff. I have used Spiced marmalade, Fired brick, Aged mahogany and Antique linen distress inks. The stamp is by Penny black and I have edged the image with clear glitter for some sparkle.


My eldest son said that it made him think of fire.... hence the name. The design is from the sketchat Papertake weekly, Everybody Art asked for an easel card and Kaboodles asked for fancy folds so I will be entering this card for those challenges too.

Bearly Orange

I seem to have gotten stuck in an orange groove thanks to yesterdays shopping trip.

I had to try out my new border punch so that was the basis of this card. JUGs has a great sketch for this weeks challenge, so I used that and a lot of orange to make this card. I dyed some white crispy ribbon with Spiced Marmalade distress ink and then stamped the bear using aged mahogany distress ink and coloured it with my whispers brush pens. I coloured some white card with spiced marmalade and fired brick distress inks and embossed it. The flowers and button came from my new capsule stash and I added peel offs for the wording.

This card is for:

JUGs Sketch

CRAFT challenge Love

Papertake weekly Love

Stamp Something Love

Charisma Cards Love

Just Cute Bears Hearts

Spicey one

You might want to get your sunglasses before you look at this make.



Inspired by the colours in this weeks JUGs and the calendar required for SCSC challenge this week. I came up with this.






The funny thing is, I had just made a card last night using the same set of distress inks that I used today. (I do have more, promise.) The colours that JUGs asked us to use were so similar, I just had to use them again. I have used several layers of ink on this one to make the colours more rich and intense. I wasn't sure about the orange textured card that I backed it onto to start off with, but the more I looked at it, the more it seemed to fit.

The flower is made from Tim Holtz Grunge paper and was coloured with Fired brick distress ink and then stamped with a dotty stamp that I bought a while ago. Again I have used fired brick, spiced marmalade and broken china on white card which I have embossed using Cuttlebug folders.

I actually made the flower several weeks ago when I was experimenting with grunge paper, but could never figure out what to put it on. It has held it's shape really well.