Mum's Birthday Card

When I started to make this, I told Vicky that I wouldn't blog it as I wasn't too happy with how it was going. Actually, I felt in the end that it came together pretty well, so here it is!

Colour: Dee Greunig Blending boxes, Sharpies, Iridescent Medium, Versafine
Stamps: Magenta, Elusive Images, Field of Sky, Hero Arts
Other: Bazzil Bling card, brayer

Latest CJ Entry

Here we are again, with this month's CJ entry for my UK Stampers 'just one stamp' project. We are so close to finishing now, only two journals to go, then our own finally come home! It's very inspiring to see each journal as it arrives, especially now they are so full of gorgeous artwork. There are some very talented stampers involved with this, and I feel lucky to be involved.

Anyway all waffle aside, this is my take on the little flourish stamp which arrived with this journal. I was inspired with the idea of recreating this piece of art "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa" by 18th Century Japanese artist Hokusai, although I will 'fess up now and say that a previous entry to mine also was inspired by waves. The two pieces are totally different, though, so I hope the journal's owner doesn't mind.

I started off with an origami paper design which I printed onto some Japanese paper. ( The site I got it from has got some amazing free papers and projects to download). The waves were stamped and embossed onto the same Japanese paper, sponged with ink, then ironed to remove the embossing. Interestingly, the paper became transparent when embossed, and now looks like vellum. The background was embossed with the dots and sponged with Distress Inks. Mount Fuji was taken from the original print. Everything was cut and assembled (there was a lot of cutting!) then I added a copy of the original to piece of Stampbord.

Stamps: Flourish (unknown) Field of Sky (A Stamp in the Hand)
Colour: Distress Inks
Other: Japanese paper (Hobbycraft), white and clear embossing powder, Stampbord, Cut'n'dry foam

Just one stamp CJ- Love.

Well, I've finally done it and changed my editing software, and I'm so glad I did. I was using Paint Shop Pro 8, which I've had for a while, and loved to use as it was really instinctive for me. Sadly, when I switched to Windows Vista, PSP8 suddenly didn't want to play, and became a torment to use instead of a pleasure. So I looked up loads of reviews, and decided to give Photoshop a try. Adobe offer a free 30 day trial, so I downloaded it. A few days of figuring it all out, and here we are! Now I've had a play, and figured out how to do all of the things I could do before, and I love it! My next thing is to try some digital scrapbooking, but don't expect to see the results any time soon, as I am really busy as always, and don't have time to play.
Anyway, here is another CJ entry for the UK Stampers journal I'm in. I really enjoyed this one, as I got all inspired by one of my favourite movies! This is Pat's journal, and her theme is 'love'. Her stamp is the heart stamp (from Clever cuts), and in the introductory page she wrote that she liked interactive elements, and wanted the colours to be red and pink. I was hit by the quote from 'Moulin Rouge', which you can see in the third photo, and thought immediately of the beginning of the movie, where the red curtain opens to reveal the Paris landscape.
The curtain was a free download from a website about toy theatres, stamped with Paperartsy and Zettiology stamps to create the gold braid effect. The wrought iron and Tour Eiffel stamps are Paperartsy, the stars are Field of Sky (again!) and the moon is an image from the 1902 movie 'Le Voyage Dans la Lune'. The heart stamp was stamped and embossed twice on acetate, then glittered on the reverse, and the words printed on the computer. The curtain has a card track to make it pull up and down fairly straight. I hope Pat likes it! Thanks for the inspiration.

PS The glue on the red heart isn't dry in the photos, but it was dry when I sent it, honest!

Petra's CJ.

This is my first ever entry in someone else's journal! If you recall, I am in a circle journal with 9 other people from UK Stampers, and the idea is that we send a journal around with an unmounted stamp, and everyone does an entry with that stamp. Well, this is Petra's journal, and she has chosen a journal made of envelopes and tags. Each player decorates an envelope, then uses Petra's stamp on the tag. Petra's stamp is a sort of hippy-chick from Time to Stamp, quite a challenging one really! First of all, it made me think of 'Hair', then I started to think about 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' by the Beatles. Hence the colours etc! (Check out the 3rd photo for the lyrics if you need an explanation).
The envelope is covered in paper made using the usual water/craft mat/Distress Ink technique. The diamond stamps are by Limited Edition, and the swirl stamp is from Paperartsy. The 'tangerine tree' is done using stamps from Aud Design, and the 'cellophane flowers' are also Aud Design. They are yellow and green, coloured with alcohol inks, but didn't photograph well.
The tag inside was inspired by those star charts, which show the night sky as a join-the-dots picture to explain the constellations. After sponging on some distress inks, I used Field of Sky to stamp on my stars in silver, then used Petra's stamp with Versamark and clear holographic embossing powder. As you can see from the photo, when you tilt the tag the image of the woman becomes clear, tilt it back and she's invisible!
I'm up to my eyeballs in birthday cards again, I have three to do this week. Then I have a flurry in January, and that's it for a while! I think that in February I need to sit down and make a few, so I'm not always playing catch-up. But I did take the time to make some arty ATCs for UK Stampers. I got really inky and pricked my fingertips (I used hand-sewing on them!), but afterwards I felt really good. Sometimes you just need to go where your muse takes you, it's really therapeutic. I forgot to take photos, though, sorry!

My first commission!

I realise I have been absent from blog-land all weekend. The weather has been too good to be indoors, although I did get some creative time yesterday evening. This card was made for a busy friend to send to her Mum for her birthday. This friend is very creative too, but her baby sleeps even more badly than Dan, so takes up a lot of evening time. It's no fun trying to be productive if you have had no sleep!
I started by doing the craft mat/water technique using Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters, Antique Linen, and Scattered Straw. Then I sprayed with Perfect Pearls mixed with water, and stamped with A Stamp in the Hand's Field of Sky over the whole thing (it looks like a sprayed finish, without the uncertainty!). I stamped with Hero Arts script, Aud Design's swirl, and a Paperartsy butterfly over the background, then edged with Nick Bantock Dye Ink in Damson Plum. I stamped the main Paperartsy image in Damson Plum, and while it was wet dusted Perfect Pearls over it. The card it is matted onto is also Damson Plum Ink and Perfect Pearls. It looks so shimmery in the light! The main card is stamped with the script stamp in DI Antique Linen, then I stuck it all down with added ribbon and an embellishment from my stash.
I should have taken a photo of the envelope and the insert, as I stamped on those using Ancient Page in Sandalwood, as it is waterproof. Next time I will. I hope there will be a next time, anyone want a card?!

Isa's weekly challenge- 'I'

Isa's challenge this week, as well as the usual alphabet theme, is to use something transparent and to use stitching. This is my entry, which I am quite pleased with, although I don't usually do sparkly. Maybe I should also enter this for UK Stampers' 'Cute v. arty' challenge, as this is a bit outside my usual style. Maybe I'm not quite comfortable with it because I only used three stamps!
The inside of the card is a wash of watercolour paints, some sparkly, over stamped and embossed in white with my well-used Stampendous stamp. The outside of the card was stamped at the top using A Stamp in the Hand's 'Field of Sky', one of those useful stamps, then embossed with holographic sparkle powder and over washed with sparkly watercolours.
It all happens on the acetate wrap on the outside. I stamped and embossed the Anita's dragonfly in white, then cut the same shape out of Art Institute's Fantasy Film in Aurora and glued it behind with Glossy accents. Then I did a separate dragonfly, this time embossing in holographic sparkle then cutting out the glued layers and mounting it over the first dragonfly, again with glossy accents. I pricked then stitched the word 'Iridescent' with sparkly floss and glued on the flower sequins with Sakura quickie glue. To attach the wrap to the card I ran a line of the quickie glue down the spine of the card, then weighted the edge to make sure it dried in position.
I think I need to start using more sketches for my cards, as this one uses the same basic layout as two others I have done this year! Funny how you are always drawn to a layout you are comfortable with! Oh well, off to 2Peas to look at sketches!