Red Goth Tag

Wow did I have fun with this project.  A Spoonfull of Sugar and Ohh La La both asked us to use tags.  First thing that came to mind was my poor neglected distress inks.  Well they are not really neglected, but it has been at least a week since I used them last.

I started off by die cutting the tag and inking it with Fired Brick and Black Soot ink pads.  I had to build up layers of colour to get the depth that I wanted.  Each time I completed a layer of colour, I spritzed it with water and then dried it off using my heat gun.  You get some really nice effects that way.  I have also used a best wishes stamp on my tag, but you need to click on the tag to see the finer details..  Once I was happy with the colour, I covered most of the tag with clear iridescent embossing powder.  I only heat the powder long enough to get some gloss and texture.

I have used a digistamp from Stitchybear stamps.  The wings have been done with Sakura Gellyroll to give them glimmer and I have outlined the whole image in the palest pink copic I have to create a slight halo effect. I love embellishing things so this weeks challenge at Stamp Something was perfect for this project.

This card has a combination of flowers, brads, eyelets, chains, charms,pearls a metal flower, ribbon and lace. Some of those embellishments qualified this card for the challenge over at Paper play Challenges, who asked us to use ribbons lace and buttons.  I have attached the tag to the card with foam tape and I have curled a couple of the edges of the tag up for a more dimensional effect.

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

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

Purple Pen Pot

I finally got my own classroom after fitting my classes where ever there was a gap for the last four months. I started setting things up and then realised that I have no where to put my pens. I have decided to make myself a few pen pots. This is the first.

I have used a hot drink carton, white card, grunge paper, brads, crispy ribbon and charms. The white card has been embossed and coloured with Dusty Concord distress ink, which I have sprayed with water to add to the distressed look. I attached the card using Double sided tape, but decided that I didn't trust it to stay so I added the brads to keep everything together.

The flower was made using grunge paper which I coloured using Fired Brick Distress ink. I then stamped the dots using black ink and added glitter to the dots and attached the whole thing to the carton using another brad.

The hand charm says hand made and I just had to add the bear charm.

The idea to do distressing came from this weeks challenge at Ooh la la creations and I am also entering it for the challenge at A spoonful of Sugar who said "Anything goes"

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.