Monday 27 February 2012

Controlled Mayhem

Controlled mayhem. The phrase comes from one of the stamps in Graphic 45's Le Cirque range and it's a really good description of a circus! Today I'm sharing a card with matching gift tag. Just to prove I do actually use my promarkers, the coloured images on the card are stamped and hand-coloured :-)

"Controlled Mayhem card and gift tag"

It's hard work cutting out all those wheel spokes!

"Controlled Mayhem Card"

The background is inked with distress inks. The trapeze artist, ringmaster and audience are stamped with distress ink and brushed over with perfect pearls for plenty of shimmer. Other characters are stamped on card using memento ink, coloured with promarkers, cut out, shaped and finally mounted in place with pinflair. The sentiment is stamped straight onto the card using archival ink.

"Controlled Mayhem Card"

The angle on the above picture makes it easier to see the stamping without all the glimmer. I love the movement of the trapeze artist from the repeated stamping. She is swinging across the card.

"Circus Mayhem Tag"

I wanted to get a real sense of circus mayhem on the gift tag without using the sentiment. To achieve this, lots of layers of stamped images are used. The lion, lion tamer and audience are stamped in distress inks, then heat- embossed in clear. The background is decorated with the same colours as the card (the clear embossing resists the inks), then the trapeze artist and clown are stamped and covered in perfect pearls. The ringmaster is stamped in black archival to bring him forward, and finally a few characters & words have are cut from scraps of Le Cirque papers and added with dimensional glue. Some water is added to "faux bleach" the audience faces.

"Circus Mayhem Tag"

This second view avoids the glimmer of the Perfect Pearls. I like the ambiguity of the lion tamer - is he taming the lion or the trapeze artist? 

Ingredients:
Graphic 45 Le Cirque 8" x 8" paper pad
Graphic 45 cling stamp set: Le Cirque 1
Graphic 45 cling stamp set: Le Cirque 3
Distress Inks: Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo
Memento ink: Rich Cocoa
Archival Ink: Black
Perfect Pearls: Gold
Promarkers
Adhesives: PVA, Pinflair dimensional glue
Cardstock: white 300gsm (tag), white 160gsm (background), black 300gsm (card blank)

Entered for the following challenges:
That Craft Place - Anything Goes
Just inspirational - Anything Goes
Willow Sketchie - Anything Goes
Do You Stack Up - Distress
Truly Scrumptious - All Creatures Great and Small
Pollycraft - Teenage Dream (running away with the circus!!)
Bunny Zoes Crafts - Celebrations

Sunday 26 February 2012

OTT on the luuurrrve theme :-)

It's been a funny day. I wanted to make a Mother's Day card (it's creeping up on us here in the UK -Sunday 18th March!). I went searching for inspiration and ended up coming across my Tim Holtz seasonal paper pad, finding some unused valentine's papers, and made a valentine's card instead. I tried to kid myself it would do for our wedding anniversary, but now it's finished it says "valentine" all over the place and I'll have to just keep it for next year :-) Anyway, I'm pleased how it turned out and I hope you like it!

"Front cover"

This is an "accordion" card. The covers are thick card (scavenged from the cover of an old calendar) covered in patterned paper. The inner accordion part is 300gsm white card, 11" wide, folded at 2 3/4 " intervals (making 3 folds and 4 panels), then die-cut whilst folded so the sides remain intact for the joins, but the top and bottom has pretty edges to match the covers. The first and last panels are glued to the insides of the covers together with a length of lace to act as a closure.

"Inside accordion folds between the covers"

The panels are decorated with distress inks, stamped with script and covered in gold perfect pearls, then stamped again with a butterfly stamp. Images and lace are glued in place. All the lace started out as white and was inked with distress inks to match the project.

"Closeup of first panel showing detail"

The edges of all the images and letters are inked with distress inks to match. The frame effect on the individual panels is achieved by masking with a panel cut from a smaller die.

"Other side"

The panels on the other side are decorated in a similar way.

"Alternative display"

The bottom points are cut from all the panels to help the card stand straight. The panels can be arranged in different ways to display different aspects.

Ingredients:
Sizzix Bigz Movers & Shakers Ornamental die
Sizzix Movers & shakers Mini Ornamental die
Distress inks: Tattered Rose, Aged Mahogany
Perfect Pearls: gold
Tim Holtz paper pads: Seasonal, Lost and Found
Tim Holtz Salvage Stickers: Seasonal
Cardstock: thick scrap & white 300gsm
Lace: various
Adhesives: PVA, Glossy Accents

Entered for the following challenge:
Joanna Sheen - Love is in the Air
Charisma Cardz - Love is in the Air
Sarah Hurley - die cuts
Simon Says Stamp - use three different papers

Saturday 25 February 2012

London, Paris, New York

This week Simon Says Stamp and Show... London, Paris, New York, take your pick. Well I was a Londoner for 13 years and have no desire to go back LOL, so I have a project for Paris and a quick tag for New York.

Paris

"Paris on canvas"

There are a couple of new techniques for me involved in creating this piece and it was great fun. Firstly, working on canvas. The canvas is prepared with gesso and given a coat of white acrylic paint then set aside overnight to dry. Secondly, the wax paper transfer method. The Graphics Fairy offers links to 12 Easy Transfer Techniques, so when I noticed this one and knowing that Lee (aka Craftyloops) had just given me some wax paper (thank you Lee!), I gave it a go.

The wax paper transfer technique is used to transfer a fabulous Graphics Fairy image of the Eiffel Tower onto the prepared canvas. The eiffel tower image is left to dry, then masked with post-it notes, and distress inks applied to create the French flag. I used a dabbing method so as not to disturb the image too much, which is printed in water-based ink. The colours for the flag are carried over onto the sides of the canvas.

I raided my stamp collection for the stamps in the top right corner, which were applied with matte multi medium (I love this stuff!). The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz stamp which was part-inked with black archival and applied by hand (the canvas surface isn't flat enough for an acrylic block - just hold the stamp in your fingers to position, then gently apply pressure all over the back of the stamp taking care not to move it around or the image will smudge).

Ingredients:
Tim Holtz clear stamp set: French Market
Canvas
Gesso
Acrylic paint, white
Inkjet image freshly printed on wax paper
Credit card (great for smoothing the back of the paper when transferring the image)
Distress inks: faded jeans, barn door
Archival ink: black
Ephemera: French stamps

New York

Did you know that New York was considered the Jazz capital of the world in the 1920s? Neither did I until I googled it after wondering why my Jazz stamp set had a New York postmark included!

"New York, the Jazz Capital of the World!"

This tag uses one of my favourite techniques - the resist method. The butterfly stamp is inked up with distress inks, then stamped and heat-embossed in clear. The tag is coloured with distress inks and overstamped in black archival. I just love that jazz band! It's the same stamp set I used on my candles for the Graphic 45 audition, so will make a great gift tag to go with them.

Ingredients:
Graphic 45 cling stamp set: Curtain Call 3
Distress inks: Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Fired Brick, Chipped Sapphire, Pine Needles
Perfect Pearls: blue patina
Archival ink: Black
Embossing powder: clear
Tag: cut from 300gsm white card (thanks again Lee)
ribbon: black organza

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show take your pick ... London, Paris, or New York!

Friday 24 February 2012

An Altered Alice Clock

The theme at Altered Alice this month is hearts. It's a bit late for Valentines, so here's an altered clock for your delectation :-)

"it's heart o'clock"

The original clock is one of those £1.99 jobbies from a famous Swedish furniture store. After taking apart and removing the paper clock face, the shell was decorated with Adirondack alcohol ink and gold mixative. To get into all those nooks and crannies, I stuck my hand in a plastic bag to stop it getting stained with ink and used it to dab an inked felt pad all over the plastic.

"The clock"

Some hammered gold card is decorated with the same ink colour combination and die cut into various gears which are fixed in place at different levels inside the clock using glossy accents and pinflair glue. A weathered clock chapter ring is also cut from the same card, and lots of small hearts punched from the waste. The hearts can be seen decorating the clock hands and any remaining are glued in with the gears.

I have to confess to going through four coloured versions of the rabbit before finally settling on this one! This original John Tenniel illustration  is printed on white card before colouring with distress inks and decorating with Perfect Pearls for plenty of shimmer to match the rest of the clock. He wears the chapter ring like a garland, and has a hole punched in the middle to hold the clock spindle and all the hands.

"Alice"

Images from Indigo Blu's "Alice I" set are stamped around the outside of the clock in black archival ink.

"Rabbit"

Stamping with an acrylic block doesn't really work on curves, so I just hold the inked stamps in my fingers and bend them onto the surface.

"Pendulum"

This heart is cast from UTEE melted in a melt pot and poured into a heart-shaped cookie cutter. A length of thin chain is wrapped around the heart and a layer of gold UTEE added to embed the chain into the heart, leaving one end of the chain at the top. A sentiment is stamped onto the heart with archival ink. A jump ring is added to the free end and used to join a length of thicker chain, which is attached to the back of the clock. A few charms hanging from the chain complete the decoration.

Ingredients:
IndigoBlu unmounted stamp set "Alice I"
Adirondack alcohol ink: watermelon
Adirondack alcohol ink mixative: gold
Ranger archival ink: black
Cardstock: gold, hammered for diecuts & white, stamping for rabbit print
Distress inks: Barn Door, Antique Linen, Scattered Straw
Perfect Pearls: Gold
Adhesives: glossy accents, pinflair dimensional glue
UTEE: clear, gold 
thin chain, thick chain, jump rings, beads

I nearly forgot, here's a pair of earrings to match :-)


"Alice Earrings"

Entered for the following challenge:
Altered Alice - hearts

Monday 20 February 2012

Graphic 45 Design Team 2012 Audition

I've been working on six brand new projects and together they make up my audition for the Graphic 45 Design Team. There are some tutorials included and lots of pretty pictures, so this is quite a long post. Please feel free to go and grab a drink and wait for all the pictures to load, then sit back and enjoy the ride:-)

Project One "The Circus"

When I was a little girl, we didn't have a lot of money and didn't go out that often, but when we did go, my Dad liked to do it in style. Once, he took us to the circus, and bought front row seats. My younger sister was terrified of the clowns and we ended up having to move back a few rows. I was mesmerised by the colours, the smells, the noise and just the sheer fantasy of it all, and this Graphic45 collection brought it all back to me.

"Plain front with porthole"

This old advertising print makes a great, plain front with a hint of what's to come from the porthole set into the front. This was made like a frame card, where an aperture is cut into the patterned paper then covered from behind with acetate. A picture is glued onto the card front behind the acetate, and the acetate frame lifted from the picture with foam tape. The picture has been cut from a sheet of tags and the tag had a lovely curvature which really lent itself to the porthole idea.

"The circus - a dimensional scene"

The inside of this card reveals a riot of colour and images cut from the Le Cirque papers. The dimensional construction looks spectacular, but is fairly easy to achieve.

"Card with apertures"

Take 1 x A5 and 3 x A6 pieces of red card, and cut concentric apertures into each as shown, with the largest aperture on the right hand side of the A5 piece. Fold the A5 piece in half to make the card front.
[NB: for US readers, A4 is 11.7" x 8.3", A5 is 8.3" x 5.8", A6 is 5.8" x 4.1"]

"Folds"

Take an A4 piece of red card and cut lengthwise to make a piece of card 11.7" x 5.8" (that is, the length of an A4 sheet and the height of an A6 sheet). You want a flat area in the middle that is the same width as the A6 cards (4.1"), with folds at 1/2" intervals on either side. To achieve this, score the first fold at 0.3" from an edge, then make 6 more creases each 1/2" apart and do the same from the other side.

"Concertina folds"

After scoring all the creases, fold each side in concertina fashion.

"Concertina folds top view before gluing"

Next comes lots of gluing. I like to use glossy accents for dimensional gluing because it bonds really quickly.

"First panel glued in place "

The card with the smallest aperture is glued in place on top of the first folds.

"Cut patterned paper to A6"

For this design and to save paper, I cut a plain oval from patterned paper slightly larger than the smallest scalloped oval aperture.

"First patterned papers glued in place"

The oval is glued onto the back panel beneath the aperture. The other part of the paper is glued on top of the first card with aperture. I just use PVA for gluing papers - it's cheap and sticks well.


"All panels with apertures & patterned papers in place"

Continue gluing pieces of card with apertures of increasing size, adding patterned papers as you go, until the card front is glued on the top.

"Top view showing construction"

At each layer, just glue to the right and left hand folded edges as shown above. In this way, the card will actually fold flat if required, but will also spring up to make a tunnel.

"Blank slate"

This is the construction part finished, all ready to add the detail.

"Clown"

I just love this clown striding out from behind the curtain. Like most of the other characters, he was cut from Le Cirque paper, shaped by hand, and glued with Pinflair dimensional glue.

"Circus characters"

The rim of each aperture is covered in circus characters, each one protruding out into the tunnel. The smallest are at the bottom and the largest near the top, adding to the illusion of depth.

"More characters"

Each of the characters is stuck with dimensional glue. I find this glue very forgiving. It has some flexibility once set, so that images do not become unstuck when the card flexes.

"The audience"

I really like the audience characters, peering out from the final tier at the bottom of the card, in awe or petrified! The lion is fighting someone off the edge of the page - you can just see the lion tamer's chair poking in from the side.


"Plain Box"

The box for this card is very plain, just like the outside of a circus tent. I want the recipient to have a great surprise when entering! The box is made from the same red cardstock used to make the card and wrapped with a large red bow of satin ribbon.

Ingredients:
Graphic45 Le Cirque 8" x 8" paper pad
Graphic45 Le Cirque 12" x 12" tags
Spellbinders Nestabilities: Ovals, Scalloped Ovals
Sizzix Framelits: Circles
Cardstock: red, 300gsm, A4 x 5 sheets
Adhesives: Pinflair dimensional glue, Glossy Accents, PVA craft glue, foam tape
Distress ink: Barn Door
Acetate
Ribbon: deep red, satin

Project Two "Birdhouses"

The new Graphic45 Tropical Travelogue collection is just perfect to make these little birdhouses.


"Birdhouses"

The basic construction method is the same as in my tutorial from last September here.

"Card used for body of birdhouse"

The card for the body of each birdhouse is decorated using Graphic45's Tropical Travelogue stamps with a clear embossing and distress ink resist technique, then splatterd with water droplets before cutting. The lace is decorated with distress inks to match the card. A few birds and animals are cut from Tropical Travelogue papers to decorate the outside of the birdhouses.

"Birdhouses hanging from a light fitting"

I like to hang my finished birdhouses in the bedrooms. Graphic 45's double-sided papers are ideal for constructing the rooves, the edges of which can be seen from underneath when the birdhouses are hung.

Ingredients:
Graphic 45 Tropical Travelogue 8" x 8" paper pad
Graphic 45 clear stamps: Tropical Travelogue cling 3
Versamark clear ink, clear embossing powder and heat tool
Birdhouse plan
Cardstock: white, 160gsm
Distress Inks: Tumbled Glass, Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy
Lace, coloured with distress inks above
Glossy Accents
Pinflair dimensional glue

Project Three - "The Fish Tank"

Regular readers of my blog will know that I love making dimensional cards. This is another type of tunnel card that I call the "acetate tunnel card".

"The Fish Tank - an acetate tunnel card"

I love the depth this type of construction can give to a project, and the acetate tunnel card is great for shadows too (can you see the shadows of the fish against the back panel?).

Cut a plain piece of card to 7" x 5". Score folds 1" in from each of the shorter edges. Cut a piece of patterned paper 5" x 5" and stick to the centre using PVA.

Cut a piece of Graphic45 patterned paper 7" x 5". Score folds 1" in from each of the shorter edges. Cut a large aperture in the centre 5" x 5" area, as large as you can without cutting into the sides.

Take a piece of fairly thick acetate, cut to 6" x 5" and score folds 1/2" in from each of the shorter edges.

"The 3 pieces required for the acetate tunnel card shown after cutting"

This is the best time to decorate the back panel, before it is covered by the acetate. For this card, the fish paper was covered with a layer of distress stickles, just using a finger to spread it out before leaving to dry (you can use a heat tool to dry distress stickles, but take care not to warp the paper). "Fronds" were punched from the Rainforest Tropical Travelogue paper. Some were stuck to the background panel using PVA, and others were adhered using Pinflair to raise them from the background and create a little depth.

"Top view of the 3 pieces"

The folds on each of the three pieces are bent as shown.

"Gluing"

The edges of the acetate piece are glued inside the back panel as shown above. Finally, the edges of the front panel are glued outside the edges of the back panel, and the card is ready for decorating. I use glossy accents to glue the edges for a strong, quick bond.

You can make this card in any size, just adjust the dimensions making the acetate panel 1" narrower than the other two pieces to allow for the smaller outside edges.

"Fish swimming amongst the fronds"

More fronds were cut and adhered to the acetate to give even more depth to the scene. Fish and other images were cut from the Tropical Travelogue papers and adhered as shown. Some of the fish were interweaved with the fronds, and others are free-floating on the acetate.

"Mermaid's fringed hair"

A couple of borders were cut and added to the top and bottom of the tank. The mermaid's hair was fringed by close-cutting into the image with a large pair of scissors, making parallel cuts and bending into shape with fingers.

"Charms and beads"

Charms and beads were added to a length of chain to simulate boat fenders, flotsam and jetsam that you often see hanging from the fences around boatyards.

"The sign"

I love the way the fish seem to be following the sign and heading for the beach, or this could be a sign for the recipient of the card saying "Hey, this way for the beach dude!" The palm fronds are tattered at the edges and shaped to look as if they are swaying in the breeze.


"Box"

A box was made from plain blue card, sized to house the fish tank card, allowing a little extra room at the sides for the charms. The box was decorated with papers, distress ink and plenty of lace.

Ingredients:
Graphic 45 Tropical Travelogue 8" x 8" Paper Pad
Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One
Martha Stewart Deep Edger Punch, Leaves and Branch
Distress Stickles: Rock Candy
Cardstock: blue, 300gsm
Acetate, thick
Adhesives: Glossy Accents, PVA, Pinflair dimensional glue
Charms, Beads, Head Pins, Jump Rings, Chain
Distress Ink: Walnut Stain
Lace


Project Four - Curtain Call Candles

Decorated candles make great presents and they are much easier to achieve than you'd think. You don't need any expensive equipment except a heat tool, which many crafters will already have. You can use cheap candles, and any tissue paper (I am currently using a supply that came as wrapping on bookshelves). You can either print onto tissue paper using a computer image, or decorate the paper yourself with, for example, stamps and ink. As soon as I saw this Graphic45 stamp set, I thought it would be great for candles.

"Curtain Call Candles"

The circumference and height of a candle is measured, and used to cut tissue paper to size. The tissue paper needs to be just slightly smaller than the circumference so that it doesn't overlap when wrapped around the candle.

"Plain candle and tissue paper"

Most tissue paper has a shiny side and a matt side. Place the tissue shiny side down and stamp on the matt surface. I stamped the Curtain Call stamps using black archival ink. This jazz band was perfect for the candle I used, it was stamped twice and a neat cut made around one of the characters so there would be no obvious join when wrapped around the candle.


"Tissue paper wrapped around candle"

The decorated tissue is wrapped around the candle, leaving no air pockets or creases.

"Greaseproof paper"

Next, a layer of greaseproof paper is wrapped tightly around the candle and held in place with sticky tape. The top and bottom are scrunched (like the ends of a cracker) to keep the paper tight on the candle. You don't want any are bubbles or creases. You can sticky tape the bottom of the greaseproof to keep it from moving.

Heat the heat gun before you start heating the candle, then holding the paper at the top of the candle in your left hand and starting at the tissue paper join, carefully waft the heat gun up and down, from top to bottom, and move the candle round slowly as you work. The wax starts to melt, and the image becomes darker as you go. As soon as you see the image darken, move on. You don't want to hold the heat gun too long in any one place or you will get dimples in the wax. I find that it helps to rest the bottom edge of the candle on a heatproof mat and roll slightly as you work, but try not to rest any melted areas or you can get ridges.


"Appearance immediately after heating"

Once all the image has been heated, stand the candle upright for a couple of minutes to solidify the wax, then carefully remove all the packaging.

"Appearance after buffing"

Use a soft cloth to rub all the loose bits of wax from the top and bottom edges of the candle, and buff the image gently until it becomes shiny. 

For the ultimate professional look, place in a cello bag and tie the top with some satin ribbon to match the image.

"Candles and a matching box"

The other stamps in the set were used to decorate a second candle, and a 12x12" sheet of Curtain Call paper used to cover a gift box. A large sheet of tissue paper was decorated with the same stamps. What a great present for a blues fan!

Ingredients:
Candle, plain, white
Tissue paper, plain, light-coloured
Greaseproof paper
Graphic45 cling stamp set: Curtain Call 3
Ranger Archival ink: black
Distress ink: Antique Linen
Graphic45 12x12" paper: All That Jazz

Project Five - Altered Dressing Table Set

I made a few of these as Christmas presents this year and they all went down well. The alarm clocks are fun to alter and make unusual novelties for the younger generation, who are so used to their digital readouts!

"Altered dressing table set"

I've nearly finished my favourite "Steampunk Debutante" paper pad, and altered these items using just a couple of sheets and some images cut from leftovers.

"Altered picture frame"

A plain wooden picture frame was sanded and the edges coloured with distress ink. The frame was covered with panels cut from the Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante paper pad, the edges sanded and distressed with more ink.  Individual images were cut, shaped with an embossing tool and adhered to the panels with Pinflair glue. A couple of butterflies were added; their wings shaped up and just the centres of their bodies glued.

"Decoupage"

The image on the centre panel was decoupaged for extra depth (that is, parts of a second copy of the same image were cut out, shaped and layered on top of the first image using Pinflair glue).

"Clock"

Most alarm clocks these days are made from plastic, which can't be coloured with distress inks. Instead, alcohol-based inks are ideal for the job. Before starting, any screws are removed and the clock taken apart, removing the clear front panel to keep it clean. The edges are dabbed with alcohol ink, then glossy accents used to adhere paper to the front of the clock, using a craft knife to carefully cut the excess from around the outside and the central aperture. More paper is adhered around the edge of the clock, matching up the design as carefully as possible at the edges. Edges are coloured with a little distress ink to match the papers and colour any white bits.

"Clock face"

Once the clock is taken apart, the hands of most clocks can be removed simply by carefully pulling straight off the spindle. Lay them to one side, remembering in which order they came off! To decorate the clock face, a flower is cut from the patterned paper, a hole is made in the centre of the flower, and the flower is fixed over the spindle. Next, each hand is fixed back in place, gluing a little butterfly so that it travels in the same direction as the hands of the clock. I love the way the butterflies fly around the flower as the clock hands travel around the face.

Finally, the clock is put back together, the screws replaced, and images used to decorate the outside, matching the picture frame.

Ingredients:
Plain, wooden picture frame
Small, plastic alarm clock
Graphic45 "Steampunk Debutante" 8" x 8" paper pad
Distress Ink: Pine Needles
Adirondack Alcohol Ink: Stream
Adhesives: Glossy Accents, Pinflair Glue

Project Six - Tropical Travelogue Screen Card

"Screen Card and Box"

I came up with this idea for a card when designing something double-sided for an elderly neighbour who likes to display her cards in the window. Having the card as four decorated panels, both sides can be decorated, and the card looks pretty from any angle. An added bonus is the variety of ways it can be displayed, but more of that later. 

"Four panels"

The basic design is fairly straightforward. Four panels of stiff card are die-cut using the Ornamental die, and four matching frames cut using the same card and the Ornamental die with the mini-Ornamental M&S die nestled inside. The panels are decorated, holes made in the sides, and joined together with book rings. The bottom tip of each panel is removed to help the card stand upright.

"Gold crackle"

For this card, after cutting the panels and frames, the frames were decorated by painting with a thick coat of Viva Croco Crackling Colour and leaving to dry. This gorgeous gold crackle effect is achieved effortlessly! After painting, each card frame has a natural curl, which gives a lovely dimensional feel when adhered to the panel. Stick the outer edges only using glossy accents for a quick bond, and the inner edges peel upwards revealing the pictures.

"Decorating the panels"

Each of the four panels is decorated with a variety of Tropical Travelogue papers. Extra images are cut from the papers, shaped with fingers or an embossing tool, and adhered to the backgrounds using PVA or Pinflair for extra dimension.

"Lady"

This lady is leaning nonchalantly on the bottom of the frame.

"Scroll"

This panel is added to allow a greeting to be handwritten on the card. The edges are distressed with scissors and distress ink and rolled to look like a scroll.

"Lady with flowers in her hair"

Flowers were punched from patterned papers and used to make embellishments for the lady's hair in this panel. There's a 3d paper rose as well as some tiny shaped flowers.


"Jungle Girl"

This is me emerging from the trees after hunting down the local wildlife :-) Punched branches were used to give a jungle-feel and lots of dimension.

"Second chance"

The beauty of this card design is that you get a whole other side to decorate, and while the first side is covered with bright, colourful papers, this side is all done with stamps and distress inks. You can alternate the side you are looking at to suit your mood!

"Decorating the panels - side two"

Four panels are die-cut from white stamping card and coloured with Tumbled Glass distress ink. One of the apertures cut earlier is used as a mask, and the edges inked with Broken China distress ink to simulate frames. The panels are carefully dried before proceeding. Various stamps are used to make a background by stamping with Tumbled Glass. More stamps are used for foreground images, stamping in Broken China and brushing with Perfect Pearls in Blue Patina. Some spare white card is inked with Tumbled Glass and dried before stamping with extra images in Broken China and brushing with Perfect Pearls. These images are cut out leaving a small border before shaping and adhering to the panels with Pinflair. Once finished and dry, the decorated panels are adhered to the main card using PVA.

"Alternative display"

Once all the glue has set, the holes are punched and the panels joined together with book rings. Finally, pieces of lace and ribbon are added to the book rings to decorate. Some of the lace is coloured with distress inks to match the panels. Bits of jewellery are altered and hung from the rings for extra decoration.

"Alternative display"

The panels can be arranged in a number of different ways and the card is always stable.

"Box for screen card"

The box is handmade to a size to fit the screen card, using the same basic cardstock as for the panels. The lid is decorated with Tropical Travelogue papers and the edges inked with Walnut Stain distress ink. Matching lace is glued around the edge using glossy accents, and an eyelet set into the lid. A small length of chain is knotted at one end and fed through the eyelet, then attached to a charm using a jump ring.

"Charm"

This charm was made from a blank cameo. A small circle was cut from Tropical Travelogue papers to fit into the blank, then adhered with glossy accents. Glossy accents were used to fill the recess and the charm put to one side to dry overnight before attaching to the box. The recipient could untie the knot and attach the charm to a necklace or keyring.

Ingredients:
Graphic45 Tropical Travelogue 8" x 8" paper pad
Graphic 45 cling stamps: Tropical Travelogue 2, Tropical Travelogue 3
Sizzix Bigz Movers & Shakers die: Ornamental
Sizzix Movers & Shakers die: Mini Ornamental
Cardstock: blue, 300gsm, white stamping, 160gsm
Distress inks: Tumbled Glass, Blue China, Walnut Stain
Viva Croco Crackling Colour: Gold
Adhesives: Ranger glossy accents, Pinflair dimensional glue, PVA
8 x book rings
lace
broken jewellery, charm, jump rings, chain

Thank you for reading this far. I hope that you can tell from the effort I have put into this audition that I really enjoyed it and would love to have the opportunity to work with Graphic 45 in the future. All that remains is to thank all my friends & family for all your encouragement, and especially Lee (Craftyloops) for all her everyday support and teaching me about jewellery and the importance of friendship, Karen (Redrottie) for the candlemaking tutorial where I originally learnt how to decorate candles, and Tom, my long-suffering husband, who is always so wonderful.