Smooch Inks

I am participating in a HIT swap where we use Smooch inks on the card that we create.

I started by doing a technique called stamp smoosh using Clearsnap Fluid Chalk inks, which I learned from Cathie Allan who is a wonderful teacher. This was the background for the card.

I then stamped the Hearts in Touch stamp with Olive Fluid chalks then cut it to size. I stamped and embossed the HIT floral stamp twice on the card background piece then on a separate piece. I coloured them with Smooch ink Pool and Azure, using Pumpkin for the centre. The leaves were coloured with Smooch Green Apple. I then cut out the flowers and the little bee I left separate. The body of the bee was coloured with Gold Lame` and  Sugarberry and the wings with Moonlight.

I attached the stamped image of the woman to the card then added the bees and the extra flower with double-sided foam tape. I attached the whole piece to a coordinating colour of cardstock.

Mini Memory for Rhonda

Rhonda is the Mini Memory recipient for the month of March in my DCI group. Her choice was Children/childhood and her colour choice was cream/gold/white.

I started with a coaster from Outback Restuarant and covered it with gesso. I then added some Golden Gold Mica Flake, then when it dried painted over it with cream coloured acrylic paint.

I printed off the image of the little girl from Elizabeth's blog and cut around it. I placed this on top of some scrapbook paper. I took a frame that I bought at the dollar store and coloured it with a gold Krylon leafing pen, added a piece of acetate and placed it over the picture.

I spelled out Dream with some scrapbook letters, added some brads, german scraps and for the final touch glued on an old brooch  from which I removed the back.

B is for.......

We are continuing on with the Alphabet swap on CCSwaps so this month we make something starting with the letter B, for theme, technique or medium.

I came across a blog with some beautiful exploding boxes on it (http://magic-boxes.blogspot.com/) and the lady was kind enough to provide a tutorial on how to make them. I thought I would give it a try and use butterflies as my theme.

The only problem is that the measurements are in millimeters and I am still not too great at the conversion from metric to inches!! I did fine with making the box but wasted quite a few pieces of cardstock getting the lid to the right size. My boxes certainly need more practice but I am happy with my first attempts. The first one I tried was my "protoype" for the technique. I used light weight blue card stock for the box and the lid and 130Lb for the inserts. I got a bit heavy handed when scoring and ripped a bit on one of the sides but left it as I knew I would be keeping it.

I stamped a leaf stamp (Magenta) and added some little die-cut flowers. The butterflies (Stampendous)  were stamped in black pigment ink and embossing powder and coloured yellow and green then added some glitter.

The next box: I stamped the butterflies on both sides using  Christmas Night glitter embossing powder and coloured them with markers and glittered the top with some Stickles. I stamped a leafy scroll on the side and bottom pieces after doing direct-to-paper with pigment inks and added some "jewels". I then cut slits in the bottom insert and attached the butteflies with pieces of acetate, and glued a butterfly to the lid.

The picture of the lid is fine (oops! I think the edge piece was a bit loose-will fix that!)  but the others are not the clearest as of course I had to take pictures of them with my camera and I am not that familiar with our camera since I don't take a lot of pictures. The colours are more intense in real life.

I have a brayer

I joined a swap in CCSwaps called "I have a brayer and I know how to use it!"  For this swap we were to  make a card for our partner, but I missed that part and started off by making a large tag. I realized I had goofed later on so back to the drawing board.

 I brayered yellow Vivid ink (Clearsnap) on glossy card a bit more than halfway. I punched out a circle and laid it on the cardstock. I brayered on butterscotch Vivid over the yellow, but lightly over the circle area. I then brayered raisin Adirondack (Ranger)over the top portion.

I tore a piece of paper and laid it on the bottom portion of the cardstock and brayered with aqua Vivid then removed the paper and brayered Big and Juicy Hydrangea (Ranger) over the very bottom.

I stamped the trees (Stampin' Up) and the geese (Stampscapes) with Ancient Page Coal Black (Clearsnap). I added some red Marvy Matchable ink over the top portion with a sponge, for more depth. I outlined the edges with a dual marker.

I brayered another piece of scrap cardstock with the yellow and butterscotch Vivid and stamped and embossed the saying (Stamp Oasis) with Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko) and black embossing powder), outlined the edges and attached it with double-sided foam tape.

I had some brayered and stamped pieces left from another project that I did not like so I cut them up and added them to the inside of the card. I stamped another saying(Wordsworth) on yellow cardstock and attached it beside the scrap pieces.

     

Dream Vacation

One of the current swaps on CCSwaps is Dream Vacation, where we make an item based on a country chosen by the swap hostess; this month it is France.

I had an extra address book so thought I would alter it for this swap.

I started by covering the book with some scrapbook paper,  then stamped some text (Tim Holtz) postage franques (Hero Arts). I stamped on a piece of cream cardstock using an Inkadinkadoo stamp by Jill Meyer and lightly covered it with distress inks. I added a tag that I bought at my local scrapbook store. I stamped the Eiffel Tower stamp (Inkadinkadoo) twice and embossed the second one, cut them out and layered them. I then applied distress ink over the top and coloured the Paris part with twinkling H2O's.

I colourwd some Fleur-de-Lis chipboard pieces with ink and Perfect Pearls and attached them to the side. I was worred that the hinge part of the book might start to crack with use, so I inked a piece of self-adhesive hinge tape with distress inks and covered the edge of the book.

Metal ATC's

On DCI  we are doing a swap to exchage ATC's using Metal or Faux Metal.

I choose to use some embossing metal for the base of my ATC's. I cut the metal a bit larger then attached it to some 130LB cardstock cut to ATC size and embossed it with the numbers Cuttlebug embossing folder.

I punched some holes in the corners and added little button brads.

I decided to use some chipboard letters and also embossed them in the cuttlebug then did the Faux Patina technique from Julia Andrus' book Paper Transformed. I then printed off a free image from Elizabeth's blog and attached it to some cardstock to give it more body.

I attached the little girl then added the letters to look like she is holding on to them. For the letters, I chose to individualize them by using the initials of each person who is participating in the swap.

Finally I coloured a piece of cardstock with Mica Magic ink and stamped a saying on it an attached it to the top with double-sided foam tape.

Necklace

I am in a swap where we make necklaces and send to a partner.

Thinking of the postage cost I decided to make the focal point of my necklace from Paperclay. I conditioned and rolled it with a brayer then cut it out with a heart shaped cookie cutter. I then imprinted it with a stamp from Hero Arts. Coloured it with various Perfect Pearls and Pearlex. In the instructions, it says you can bake the Paperclay to dry it (275 degrees for 15 minutes) so I did since I was being impatient to get it finished!

I took a Jewellery charm thingy that I got at the dollar store and added some "gems" to it then glued it to the heart.

I strung some beads in coordinating colours and attached the heart with a little ring.I also attached a clasp although I don't think it was really necessary.

A is for...

On CC Swaps I joined an Alphabet Swap where we use a medium, technique or theme using the alphabet A.

For this swap I used one of the pieces of Acrylic pages done on metallic cardstock. I covered a piece of heavy weight cardboard with it. I then took some embossable window plastic and coloured it with alcohol inks. I attached these to the covered cardboard with eyelets  and some thin strips of double-sided foam tape to form pockets.

I then added some little cooking utensils at the top with a plastic piece (from socks) and attached them to the top. I covered some typewriter keys with page pebbles and added them to the bottom pocket to spell out recipes. ( I got the idea for this from Julia Andrus' book but did not use the same techniques). Finally, I wrote out two of my favourite recipes and put them in the pockets.

Book Study-Pearly Mottled Paper

The latest technique we are playing with is Pearly Mottled Paper from Julia Andrus' book Paper Transformed.

For this technique you need Cardstock, a spray bottle with water that sprays large drops, dye rainbow ink pad, brayer, paper towel and Perfect Pearls. See Carol's blog for step-by-step pictures of the technique.

I tried the first samples using coated paper, and I was not impressed with the effects. It looked a lot like the bleach technique and lot of the white cardstock showed through and did not pick up the perfect pearls.

I experimented again with white 130lb matte cardstock and this seemed to work much better, and look more like Julia's examples in her book.

This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.

Play day

I joined a swap in CCSwaps which is an alphabet swap and we must create something using the letter A as a theme, technique or medium. In order to create something I had a play day with a couple of techniques prior to actually making anything for the swap.

The first one was alcohol inks and I found a marbling techique while browsing the web. You fill a container with approximately 1" of water and drop some of the alcohol inks in an swirl them around, then lay some glossy cardstock on top and then lift it out. Do not submerge the cardstock!

The ones on the left are just AI's. The middle one, I added silver mixatives. Far right is AI's and Pinata` ink.

The Pinata` ink just kind of floated on the surface of the water, but I rather liked the effect. If you like really vibrant colours then you may not like this technique or you may have to add a lot more ink or maybe even use a coloured cardstock.

The second technique was one that a member of another group posted. For step-by-step instructions you can see them on Michi's blog. For this technique you need metallic cardstock, acrylic paints and acrylic glaze medium. Well it has been one of those weeks where Murphy's Law kicked in and nothing goes quite right. I accidently used extender medium instead of glaze. So I went back and used glaze on a few scrap pieces of cardstock to see if it made any difference and I think the glazed ones are a bit glossier.

The first pictures are done on metallic cardstocks and the next set are done on white matte to use up the excess paint the larger one is white glossy CS.

I also did one on a silver/pewter cardstock

Here are the ones I did on silver and gold cardstock using the glaze as in Michi's directions.

Her is one that I was not happy with. I think the key is to make sure that the paint mixture is not too thick and smoosh the cardstock and lift it up quickly to get the nice details. This one I may play with and add something more and then maybe I will like it better.