Altered Alice Stripy card

My entry for this months challenge at The Altered Alice for which the theme was stripes. All the stamps used are from Indigo Blu (Alice I and Alice II sets). I kept it monochrome with a touch of light blue as an accent colour. I cut a rectangular hole in a piece of card to the same width as my stripes and then stamped through this with various images. I chose the hare as the feature image because he is wearing stripy trousers. Loved this challenge - can't wait to see what the next theme is!

A challenge with embossing and masks

This week I thought I would challenge myself to enter the Studio L3 'Grungy Monday' challenge - episode 33. On this fab blog they challenge you to use a different Tim Holtz technique every week. What could be better than that?

This week its a cool technique using alcohol inks, fragments / memory glass or facets and archival ink. Check out Tim's instructions.

This is the card I made for my entry

Here is how I made it...this is a long post sorry - please stick with it if you can until you get to the mask technique, it will be worth it I promise...

Following Tim's instructions I applied alcohol ink to my fragments. The colours I used were cranberry and lettuce. I then selected my stamps which were the Small Sprig from Clarity stamps and the butterfly from the Nature 1 plate by Indigo Blu. I inked up the stamps with archival ink, pressed the fragments, alcohol ink side down, on to the stamps, removed and gently rubbed away the archival ink. This also removes the alcohol ink from the same areas so the stamped design is visible. Cool huh!

I then added a slight twist to my fragments by adding a layer of embossing powder on to the fragments. I took the fragment with the butterfly and used an embossing pen to go over the antenna and body and then applied WOW Silver super fine embossing powder. When I tapped the fragment it mainly stuck to the butterfly and I was able to remove the excess from the other areas using the edge of a tissue. This might have been pure fluke because when I did the same with the sprig fragment the powder stuck over the whole surface.

I was really happy with the results of both fragments once I had melted the embossing powder. The silver shines through and also gives a nice textured finish.

I did back my fragments with card by applying glossy accents which doesn't matter because they got stuck to the card anyway. I'll be trying this again though with just the embossing powder on the back, it gave a lovely finish and would be great if you were making these for jewellery.

Background design using a mask with embossing powder

Next I made the background to mount the fragments on. For this I used a butterfly mask (from The Crafters Workshop).

There are 2 ways you could use masks like this with embossing - you could lay the mask onto your card and apply embossing ink over the top - with the mask here the butterflies would not be embossed but the background would.

Or - you could do what I did and apply embossing ink to the mask itself.

I then carefully positioned it onto the card. To apply pressure over the top to transfer the embossing ink onto the card I used a brayer. After experimenting I found the best way to do this was to lay a sheet of paper over the top of the mask and brayer over the paper, holding the mask in place. This way no excess embossing powder can transfer to the brayer and ink up areas which you don't want embossed. Brayer gently in one direction not backwards and forwards so you don't move the mask.

 Remove the paper and mask, apply embossing powder (I used WOW Sherbert embossing powder), tap off the excess and return to the jar. Then gently heat your powder until it melts.

Ooh, the possibilities are endless! Check out my post on the WOW blog on the 29th where I will share some more examples using this cool technique as well as my 'manly' Valentines card. 

To finish the card I had to use a couple of bits of idealogy from my stash...

Here's some close ups of the finished card...

Hope you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment, your feedback is appreciated.

P.S. Thanks to my patient assistant for taking photos - did you spot both my hands in a couple of the pictures? 

WOW! January challenge

In the WOW design team we have all been working hard creating samples with a Valentines theme which you can view on the WOW blog. There are also some fab storage ideas and tutorials. Keep checking back there will be plenty more to come!

This is what I created for the first brief from WOW of creating valentines themed projects using WOW stamps. There are some really nice sets of stamps available but at present I don't have any of the sets that actually have hearts on. I hope these samples show that you can use lots of different types of stamps to create a theme even if they don't obviously fit.

This slide mailer was just a bit of fun - a different way of sending a valentines message...



The hearts on the cover are made by cutting 2 petals from the spotty flower on the 'Happy Birthday flower' stamp set and the background script, phone and text are from the ''Call Me' stamp set.

WOW powders used: black glint regular ('call me' wording), primary ebony superfine (telephone), gold rich superfine (text background), gold rich regular (edges), ebony regular (hearts).

 Butterfly Hearts card

using WOW stamps 'Build a Butterfly', 'With Love' and 'Swirls and Flourishes 2'.

WOW Powders used: blue pearl regular (butterflies), silver regular (flourishes and edging), metallic silver ultra high (triple embossed heart)

Join in the challenge.....

Join us by making your own valentine inspired creation using WOW products and enter the January challenge on the WOW blog to be in with a chance of winning 6 WOW! embossing powders of your choice and a handy carry case! The colours are just a guide. Have fun!

Indigo Blu Flitter Glu samples and Create and Craft show

Was anyone lucky enough to catch the Indigo Blu show at 11 this morning on Create and Craft? There were a range of different Indigo Blu stamps as well as the Flitter Glu and Mega Flake for sale. Kay did a fab job demoing and I'm proud to say my samples were on tv!  Here they are.

'Aloysius' and Crackleglaze background stamps:

Remember I showed you a picture of the amazing effect you get with the crackleglaze stamp, Flitter Glu and flake? Now you can see I was making a frame.

To use the Flitter Glu take a bit of cut n dry foam and get a little glue into the lid of the pot. Wipe off the excess from the foam against the side of the pot so its not too saturated and lightly pat it on to the stamp, (you don't want too much glue or to press too hard or you will lose the detail). Once you have stamped your image immediately wash your stamp - don't worry about the glue, it will remain tacky for hours! Apply flake and burnish the excess off using a scoochie sponge. Easy!

I love the 'Aloysius' bear stamp. One of Kay's friends is the talented illustrator who created him. I have stamped him on watercolour paper in Stazon and then coloured him with distress inks including vintage photo, barn door, spiced marmalade and mustard seed. The metal heart charm is also from Indigo Blu. The frame is mounted on sticky pads to give dimension. 

Anemone Corner and Script background stamps:

'Ella Bella' and Harlequin background stamps:

I found it relatively easy to line up the harlequin stamp so that I could go all around the edge of this card. I stamped with Flitter Glu and applied flake before cutting the aperture. Doesn't Ella Bella look amazing in flake against the blue background. The metal key charm is available from Indigo Blu.

Indigo Blu will be on Create and Craft again on Sunday the 29th. I'll be busy making more samples....



Design team samples

Just a quick post to say I am really excited to have sent off pictures of my first samples for the WOW design team. I can post pictures once they have been on their blog. I had to finish them sunday evening after spending most of the weekend in bed with a cold! Fingers crossed I'm feeling quite a lot better now. I then spent yesterday working on some samples for Indigo Blu. I'm officially on their design team too. How exciting.

I spent the day covered in gilding flake. The brief was to make samples using specific (gorgeous) Indigo Blu stamps and their amazing Flitter Glu. This stuff is the most amazing glue to use on your stamps with gilding flake. You have to try it!

This was done using the Indigo Blu 'Crackleglaze background' stamp with Flitter Glu and gilding flake. The samples are for Sundays create and craft show featuring Indigo Blu. Once they have been on tv (yes I am a teensy bit excited) I can post pictures. Love this technique.