Friday, January 29, 2021

With All Your Heart

Some new goodies had mysteriously found their way to my craft desk ... 😉 ... so naturally I had to play with them, right? You understand the 'rules', plus it's a wet and gloomy day, so ...

Anyway, what I ended up with was this... 


All of the pieces for the flowers and leaves were cut from watercolour card and coloured with oxide inks. And isn't that plaid die just so sweet? You all know how much I love me some plaid - and as luck would have it, the TGIF challenge for this week is Mad for Plaid so ... serendipity, right?

Materials used:
  • stamps - Tiny Text (Tim Holtz)
  • card - very vanilla, watercolour
  • distress oxide inks - abandoned coral, worn lipstick, spun sugar, scattered straw, rustic wilderness, speckled egg, evergreen bough, vintage photo, ground espresso
  • other - plaid slimline die (Pink and Main), Big Shot, Bloom Colorize die (TH), blending brushes, sponge dauber, Dimensionals, craft foam

Love, love, love all the dimension from layering dies! 

Thanks for dropping in. Hope it's wet and gloomy at your place too - better excuse to sit and craft!

Cheers
Kez

Friday, January 22, 2021

Unsupervised - CAS on Friday Challenge #197


Hi all and welcome to another CAS on Friday challenge. This is challenge #197 and our theme is ANIMALS.

Our family have always been cat people and as any other cat people will know, those playful felines just love cardboard boxes - hence my very tongue-in-cheek card. We've certainly spent many enjoyable hours watching our cats play in, around and on top of boxes!




ROFLOL.

Materials used:
  • stamps - Crazy Cats, Snarky Cats  (Tim Holtz)
  • card - crumb cake, soft sea foam, watercolour
  • other - box die, Big Shot, aqua painter, sponge dauber, Dimensionals, craft foam, Sahara sand marker, stitched rectangle die, Glossy Accents

This was so fun to make - and you can have fun too, taking part in our challenge. Head on over to the CASOF blog to see what my fellow DT members have created and to enter your own animal-themed card.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Let's See How Long I Can Keep This Resolution...

I'm not usually one for making new year resolutions but this year I'm giving it a whirl. It's a crafting resolution, so I figure it should be easier than the regular kind, lol! Due to shipping delays etc etc (*eye roll*), many Xmas goodies I ordered didn't make it in time - arriving either far too close to Dec 25th to be used, or not arriving until well after the Big Day. Sooooo, rather than having them gathering dust, I resolved to make at least one Christmas card per month.

My January card is done and we're not even halfway through the month, so I'm doing well so far. Let's see if I can keep it up - maybe you can remind me if it's getting close to the end of the month and you haven't seen a Chrissie card up here!

For this one I've used a number of Tim Holtz products (no surprise there, methinks). The first time I tried this die I was 'not happy Jan' but I stumbled across an excellent YouTube video which made it much easier to piece together and my second go was a snap. There's still a few small errors, but hey - live and learn, right? I was making it late at night so I've given myself a pass on those.




I'm very pleased with my night sky - it came out even better than I was hoping, to be honest. First time using the splatter brush (for the stars) and boy! you get so many splatters from just one go! Pretty sure I'm hooked on that thing now. 

Materials used:

  • distress oxide inks - chipped sapphire, blueprint sketch, black soot
  • card - whisper white, soft suede, cinnamon cider, crushed curry, garden green, white glitter, gold foil
  • other - Holiday Village die (Tim Holtz), blue alcohol marker, coloured rhinestones, picket fence distress paint, splatter brush, Big Shot, double-sided adhesive sheets, blender brush, heat tool, water spritzer

Now, as luck would have it, the theme for the newest challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments is winter, so I'm entering my card there. 


Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

PS If you're interested in the YouTube tutorial I used, click HERE.



Friday, January 8, 2021

Poor Ted - CAS on Friday Challenge #196


Welcome to the very first CAS on Friday challenge for 2021! I hope you all have a wealth of wonderful crafting goodness ahead of you in this new year.

To start us off our theme for Challenge #196 is FEEL BETTER

Two old favourites were used on my card: this adorable stamp from Lili of the Valley and one of my all-time fav techniques, watercolouring. I got out some long-retired ink colours from SU and spent a very pleasant few minutes giving life to the image.




Materials used:
  • stamps - Itty Bitty Greetings (SU), Get Well Soon (LOTV)
  • card - pistachio pudding, watercolour
  • ink colours - strawberry slush, baked brown sugar, Baja breeze, pistachio pudding, petal pink, so saffron, smoky slate
  • other - aquapainter, craft foam, Dimensionals, pennant punch, stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, pool party and Sahara sand markers

Poor Ted!

When I was a child my mum had a linctus for coughs that had to be diluted in warm water and it was horrible! Very hard to keep down, lol. My younger daughter couldn't physically keep liquid medicines down - and of course most children's medicines come in liquid form. Doctors always gave us the side eye when we asked for it in tablets. Happy days.

I do hope you'll join our challenge and make your own Feel Better card - perfect to have on hand for those summer colds and winter ills alike. And don't forget to pop over to the CASOF blog to see what lovely creations my fellow DT members have come up with for your inspiration - and comment love is always welcome and appreciated!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Thursday, January 7, 2021

The Professor is in the House

Today I had the pleasure of a few hours playing with distress oxide inks, trying to create a rusty, grunged look. I experimented with a few colour combinations then picked one for the background of my card. Here tis:

Pretty much all Tim Holtz products here, but SU officiandos may spy the brass 'Hodgepodge Hardware' piece from quite a few years ago. 

Materials used:
  • stamps - The Professor (TH)
  • card - early espresso, very vanilla, watercolour
  • oxide inks - vintage photo, walnut stain, spiced marmalade, cracked pistachio, antique linen
  • other - Gearhead dies (TH), Big Shot, Mechanics 3D embossing folder (TH), tag die, Mini Stencil Set 1 (TH), blending brush, distress micro glaze, vintage photo archival ink, Hodgepodge Hardware, Dimensionals, Stamparatus, Delicata celestial copper ink

Love the texture these deep embossing folders give, they make you just want to reach out and touch, lol. I couldn't decide on a sentiment (maybe 'Gearing up for another birthday?') so went without for now.

Here's how I went about making it (instructions by request! lol)

Background:
Used heavy watercolour cardstock and oxide inks, water spritzer, heat tool
Smooshed walnut stain and vintage photo oxide inks on craft mat, spritzed to get droplets, gave card a light spritz also then laid onto inks and gave a twist to get both colours covering most of the card
Dried
Applied again to any leftover ink
Dried
Smooshed spiced marmalade ink on craft mat, spritzed to get droplets, ran fingers through to break up then dipped card in various spots to distribute colour
Dried
Did same with cracked pistachio oxide ink (the green gives a patina look)
Dried
Applied a light mist of water to allow inks to blend and to encourage oxidisation
Dried
Once happy with the effect, I applied a light coat of distress micro glaze over the whole piece, wiping any excess off with a tissue. This not only seals the inks but also enhances the colours.
Dried
Spritzed it on the back with water and placed it in the Mechanics 3D Texture Fades embossing folder and ran it through my Big Shot three times
Ran very lightly over the raised portions with Delicata Celestial Copper ink pad, also adding some ink using my finger (this doesn’t really show in the photo, but catches the light beautifully)
Inked around outside edges with vintage photo archival ink
Mounted on to a piece of vanilla cardstock, lightly inked around the edges with antique linen oxide (as the original vanilla was a bit stark/bright)
Mounted both on to espresso card base

Tag:
Background of tag:
  • o Cut a piece of heavy watercolour cardstock using tag die
  • o Ran vintage photo oxide ink pad dry across tag surface; spritzed with water to move ink around
  • o Dried
  • o Decided it was too dark so did same with antique linen oxide ink; dried
  • o Spritzed with water and applied kitchen towel to absorb moisture, thus also lightening the colour; continued this until happy with amount of colour; dried
  • o Stencilled vintage photo oxide ink through Industrial mini stencil over whole tag
  • o Inked edges with vintage photo archival ink
Cogs:
  • o You could use metallic embellishments, but I made my own
  • o I covered a piece of heavy watercolour cardstock with Delicata Celestial Copper ink then cut a number of cogs of various sizes using Gearhead dies
  • o Each cog then had black soot and vintage photo archival inks applied in a random manner, as well as cracked pistachio distress paint applied in smudges using my finger
Professor:
  • o Stamped onto watercolour cardstock using ground espresso archival ink
  • o Fussy cut by hand
  • o Decided it was a bit stark (bright contrast to my background) so used waterbrush to lightly colour with antique linen oxide ink (except his goggles)
  • o Adhered him to base of tag, cutting off excess, applying adhesive only down the centre of the image so I could lift the edges to adhere some cogs underneath
Glued the cogs on using distress collage medium
Punched a hole at top of tag using Crop-o-dile and attached brass embellishment
Attached the tag using dimensional squares


Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers
Kerry