A New Home

No, I'm not moving house, but I am changing blogs. Recently I have been painting rather than cardmaking and I wanted to let you know where to find me...

www.izzwizz.co.uk

The swallows are back!

We've had some lovely April weather here in Northern Ireland, and today I have just seen the first swallows to arrive back for the Summer. I thought you might like to see an acrylic painting on canvas...

"swallows"

Summer will arrive soon 😀

Anything Goes at Stamping Sensations in February

This month at Stamping Sensations we are making it really easy for you to enter with "Anything Goes". That's right, you can enter anything you like as long as it has some stamping on it, and for an added incentive the winner will receive a fabulous £35 gift voucher from Little Clare Designs!

I have a really special card to share with you today that was commissioned for a very special lady who was awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List.

Don't forget to enter the challenge to have a chance to win this fabulous prize...

Pax

This picture is inspired by nature. It started life as a plain A4 picture frame from that large Swedish store.

 

"Pax"

There are layers of lace, texture paste, paperclay embellishments and white diecut card stuck down to make a scene with lots of texture before the whole thing is coated with a few coats of white gesso and left to dry.

 

"Background texture comes from lace, paste & diecuts"

I used cheap gesso which needed quite a few coats, but I won't make that mistake again and have bought myself some better quality stuff for future projects!

 

"Flowers are a mixture of paper and paperclay"

Some pearls are added to some of the flowers.

 

"Bird and nest"

Some straw with a few flat-backed pearls makes a pretty nest for this little wooden bird.

 

The last step is to spray the picture with inks of different colours to highlight areas and add some interest.

Entered for the following challenges:

Walking in a Winter Wonderland...

My goodness, time flies at this time of year. There is so much to do before Christmas, but there's still time to make a few cards and this month we are making it easy for you at Stamping Sensations. Share one of your handmade Christmas cards with the theme of "Winter Wonderland"and you could win a fabulous prize from Stamps by Chloe. Before you head on over to our challenge blog to see my teamies' wonderful creations, here's a little inspiration from yours truly...

 

The background uses the new distress spray stains. Texture paste is added through a stencil to make the trees, and the deer in the background stamped. The foreground deer is diecut from adhesive cork which gives a fabulous texture, and to finish it off I added one of my decorated wooden snowflakes. Have fun making your cards and we can't wait to see what you create.

Tuesday Technique - Decorating Wooden Shapes with Distress Spray Stains

 

Have you ever wondered what to do with those wooden embellishments that you bought (it seemed like a good idea at the time m'lud!). The new distress stains are great for this. They make it so easy to decorate a load of shapes at the same time as making some cool backgrounds for your cards.

 

 

1. Place a sheet of smooth white card on your non-stick crafting sheet and arrange the wooden shapes over the top.

2. Spray splodges of different coloured distress stains. I used Picket Fence first, then added Tattered Rose, Broken China and Faded Jeans.

3. Remove the shapes to a clean sheet of paper and sprinkle heat-emboss in clear. I used a clear holographic powder on these snowflakes for added sparkle. The great thing about distress stains is they stay wet for a while, so it's a perfect ink for embossing.

4. Here's the free background you created once the shapes are removed, and below are some more closeups of the snowflakes...

 

If you like, you can turn the shapes over and repeat the process, then add some jump rings and use them in your cards or in jewellery or ornaments, etc. I'll be sharing a card next week that features one of these snowflakes.

 

This is why you need a big non-stick mat (some people use a box to spray in, but I'm not that organised)! Don't worry though, it cleans off with a wipe. Oh, and don't waste all that lovely ink on the mat. Spritz with a little water and drag some card through to create another background :-)

Christmas is coming..

...it's only November, but Christmas is just around the corner and this month at Stamping Sensations we have a nice and easy Christmas theme for you, so get started on those Christmas cards!

The background of my card is made using Tim Holtz' snowflake stamps with an embossing resist technique and Peacock Feathers distress ink. The sentiment is cut from a scrap of the decorated card, and the card itself is finished with a few gems, some ribbon and a couple of handmade stickpins.

As always, we have a fantastic prize for the winning entry on our challenge blog, which is a £35 store voucher for Little Clare designs.