Get it in Gear - Steampunk!

Fiddling about with stamps, distress inks and embossing powder one day, I made a sheet of background paper like a "blueprint" using the resist technique. When I saw this top hat man from the Graphics Fairy, I thought it would go perfectly.

"Get it in Gear"

"Hello people in that strange contraption!"........ "Helloooooooo back to yoooooouuu..."

The stamps are from various sets including Tim Holtz, Technique Tuesday and Creative Expressions.

"Diecuts"

The fence is a Marianne Creatable. The sentiment has the corners bitten out with Spellbinders Sprightly Sprockets.

"Images"

Both images are from the Graphics Fairy, printed and fussy cut with scissors & craft knife. The main struts below the balloon were cut with a craft knife, but the tiny ones were just coloured to match the background. The boat, balloon and top-hat man are shaped and fixed in place with Pinflair dimensional glue.

"Side view"

This view shows the dimension in the fence.

Entered for the following challenges:
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Make it a Guy Thing
Stampavie and More - Blue and White
The House that Stamps Built - heat embossing
Divas by Design - Anything Goes
Diecutting Divas - Anything Goes
Truly Madly Crafty - Anything Goes

Love is in the Air

I typed that title, and the song started playing in my head. Guess I'll be stuck with it for hours now :-) "Love is in the air, Every time I look around, Love is in the Air,...". It's the first of February today, so it's time for a Valentine's card:

"Love is in the air"

If you're wondering why there are two hearts, Tom doesn't like the one with the sword in, hence I've made it removable so I can still give him the card! The background is all done with distress inks, Tim Holtz stamps, gold perfect pearls and then overstamped with black archival ink. The tag is from Tim Holtz' Seasonal paper stash, with the "love" stamp heat embossed in cosmic shimmer gold, and the tag matted onto some gold card before fixing to the background.

"angled view"

The diecuts are Spellbinders "Fallen Angel". The hearts are cut from gold card and patterned papers. The sword & wings from gold card only.

P.S. If you're wondering how little chicky is getting on, he's four days old now and getting chirpier by the day. Tom has added some more photos to his blog.

Entered for the following challenges:
Joanna Sheen - Love is in the air (how spooky is that - same title!)
Divas by Design - Anything Goes
The House that Stamps Built - heat embossing
Pennys Paper-Crafty Challenge - Love is in the air
Truly Scrumptious Challenge - Love and Hearts
Anything Goes Challenge - To the One I Love
Craft Room Challenge - Valentines

Birthday Screen

This card is for a neighbour in her eighties.

"Box"

When you see a box on this blog, you know the card is going to be a bit different.

"Front"

When you open the box, all you can see at first sight is the front of the card.

"Standing in a square"

You need to open it right out for the full effect.

"Side 1 flat"

Each panel is cut with an ornamental die, and the bottom cut flat to allow the card to stand up properly.

"Side 1 standing"

I know that my neighbour likes to set her cards in the window with the good side looking out at the passers by.

"Side 2"

I thought it would be good to make her a card with two pretty sides, so she would still have something to look at on the inside. The blank panel is to write on.

Recipe:
Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz "Ornamental"
Tim Holtz Sizzix M&S die "Mini Ornamental"
Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels dies
Distress Inks "Milled Lavendar", "Dusty Concord", "Stormy Sky"
Card white & dark brown
Perfect Pearls "blue patina"
Sizzix / Hero Arts stamp & die set
Book Rings
lace & ribbon, various
verse from freebie website
sentiment stamp from set that came free with a magazine
butterfly embellishments from "The Works"

Entered for the following challenges:
Make my Monday - Nature - Butterflies and Dragonflies
Truly Madly Crafty - anything goes
Creative Craft Challenge - bingo (flowers, lace, blue)
Gingersnap Creations - Spicy Supply Challenge - Ribbon

Up, Up and Away - a tribute to the Graphics Fairy

Karen, the Graphics Fairy, posted a wonderful hot air balloon last week. I printed off a copy straight away and set to it with my scissors and craft knife.

"Up, Up and Away"

The background is made up with distress inks. Bits of cut n dry foam are used to apply the ink, not too even, so that it gives the appearance of clouds. Splodges are good! The sentiment and other balloons are  from Kaisercraft's "Up, Up & Away" stamp set. The sentiment was stamped in black archival ink and heat embossed with clear powder. I still couldn't resist a little Perfect Pearls on the larger of the two stamped balloons!

"Karen's Balloon"

The main difficulty was in cutting all the balloon's struts, but it is really worth the effort for the extra sense of depth when you can see the background through the gaps. After cutting, the balloon was shaped by turning over onto my mouse pad and running the blunt end of a pen over the inside. The basket, people and flags were also shaped. Finally, the balloon is fixed to the background with pinflair glue to keep the dimension.

If you've never visited the Graphics Fairy blog, you must go and have a look. It's full of fabulous vintage pictures free of copyright and just begging to be used! Thanks Karen, I love the image and hope the card did it justice!

Entered for the following challenge:
Joanna Sheen - celebrations
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - it's a Guy Thing

A birdie birthday.

There are celebrations in the Izzwizz house today - our very first little baby chick has hatched! We have kept hens for ten years, but this year we are breeding our own for the first time and we have little tweeting noises coming from the spare room. My husband, Tom, has just started his very first blog here to write about our hens and will be posting some pictures later on. In the meantime, here's a birdie birthday card to be going on with:

"Happy birthday little chicken"

The stamps are from Crafty Individuals and all the colouring is with three distress inks (Dusty Concorde, Milled Lavendar and Stormy Sky). The background is made much lighter by rubbing all the stamped images with silver Perfect Pearls. This also gives a lovely shimmer effect. The main panel is stamped in black archival ink for contrast.

"Embellishments"

There are lots of embellishments, so the colour scheme has been kept very simple. The row of flowers was sent to me by my very good friend Lee aka CraftyLoops (thanks Lee!). They come as a sheet that you can cut into blocks or strips and she did tell me where to get some more, but I've forgotten (d'oh!). The flowers were originally white, but I coloured them with two colours of distress ink to match the card.

"Bird in branch"

The bird in branch is a Marianne die-cut and has been cut & embossed in silver mirror card. The embossing really gives some texture to the leaves, as well as adding a little eye & wing to the bird. It is fixed on the card with Pinflair glue to raise it up and add a little dimension. The branches at the bottom of the card are also from this die-cut, with the bird removed. The silver butterfly is die-cut from a Marianne butterfly set.

"Sentiment"

The sentiment was stamped in black archival ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The stamp was in a set that came free with one of the cardmaking magazines. The sentiment was diecut from a labels Nestie and coloured with matching distress inks before layering onto a Silver mirror card diecut, embossed and edged with black promarker pen.

Both panels were matted and layered onto silver mirror card and black card before arranging together with some purple and silver lace (the purple lace started out white and was coloured with Dusty Concorde distress ink to match).

So, happy 0th birthday little chickie!

Entered for the following challenges:
The Stamp Man - Embellish It
Joanna Sheen - Celebrations
Mark's Finest Papers - at least 4 layers (there are 8!!)

Botanical

I love those old Victorian botanical drawings, and the stamps on this card are all taken from the 7Gypsies "Conservatory" set.

"Nature"

I recently acquired some really good quality 300gsm cardstock, and it's been fun playing around colouring and stamping straight onto the card. The background here was coloured with distress inks and dried before stamping in Brushed Corduroy and decorating with gold Perfect Pearls (I can't get enough of these at the moment!). The main image was stamped in brushed corduroy. Masking techniques were used to block areas for distress colouring, then the individual stamps were gently coloured using a watercolour brush dipped in water & a little of each distress ink colour. Keeping to a muted & limited colour palette helps tie all the elements together.

"Side view showing dimension"

With so much stamping and colouring going on, the layout has been kept very simple. The main image panel was matted onto a thin frame of hammered gold cardstock (to match in with the perfect pearls), and layered onto the background with a thin strip of gold & deep pink lace. The (Tim Holtz) sentiment is simlarly coloured, matted & layered using the small oval & scalloped oval Nestabilities from Spellbinder. Both panels were adhered to the card using Pinflair to add some dimension.

"Butterfly"

For added interest, one of the butterflies was stamped in black archival ink onto thin acetate, cut out and the wings shaped, then stuck to the main image with glossy accents.

Entered for the following challenges:
Ribbon Carousel - non-traditional colours (botanical drawings should be black and white)
Cheerful Stamp Pad - birds of a feather
Truly Madly Crafty - Anything Goes
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - photo inspiration
Let's Ink it Up - Anything Goes
Fashionable Stamping - butterflies and bugs
Moving Along with the Times - things with wings
Simon Says - anything goes

A Beautiful Moment

The sentiment on this card is one of my favourites from a Tim Holtz stamp set: "live in the moment and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering"

"Live in the moment"

The stamps and diecuts are from a new Sizzix/ Hero Arts set. Sorry about the shine in the photograph which makes it a little difficult to see the stamping - it's dark here again and I had to use the camera flash

"Make it Beautiful"

All the colouring has been done with distress inks and blue & silver Perfect Pearls from the patina collection.

"It will be worth remembering"

Simon Says Stamp and Show... a Song Title this week. Paul Simon's "Kathy's Song" is one of my favourites. Written about an English lover that he left behind when he went back to the USA chasing fame and fortune, it seems to me to be a tale of remembering beautiful moments. You can find the full lyrics here on Paul Simon's website.

Entered for the following challenges:
Sir Stampalot - monochromatic (all blues - even the sentiment!)
Simon Says Stamp and Show... a song title
Samuel Taylors - distress (fab prize of four distress inks!)