It's a Love Thing

Another love-themed card today:

"It's a Love Thing"

The background started out as a blank sheet of white card and was inked all over with distress inks before drying carefully with a heat tool on a low setting. The inked card was overstamped using a script stamp with more distress ink, stamping two or three times between each inking to vary the amount of ink on the card, then brushing with gold Perfect Pearls. Other stamps were then stamped with black archival ink. The decorated card was mounted onto a red card blank.

"Cupid"

The cupid, heart and three arrows were each cut from patterned paper and red cardstock, the edges distressed with ink, and the diecuts layered to create a shadow-effect as shown before adhering to the background with Pinflair to aid dimension. Picket Fence distress stain was brushed around each of the diecuts to give a "mystique" effect, enhancing the diecuts against the background.

The white lace was dyed by placing on a non-stick craft sheet and using a piece of cut n dry foam to apply distress ink before attaching to the card with glossy accents.

"Charm"

The aperture in a heart-shaped cameo charm with wings was filled with Glossy Accents and allowed to dry before adding a drop of alcohol ink to colour the heart. A small jump ring was used to attach the charm to a short length of chain. A heart-shaped eyelet was fixed to the card and the chain passed through the eyelet,
then attached to another charm on the inside of the card (I used a pegasus charm). In this way, the chain can be adjusted to hang the charms wherever you like.

"I Love You stickers"

Letter stickers were added to spell a message along the bottom of the card.

Ingredients:

Tim Holtz "Urban Grunge" clear acrylic stamps

Sizzix Bigz Love Struck die

Letter stickers from Tim Holtz seasonal sticker set

Valentine paper from Tim Holtz Seasonal paper pad

Cardstock: white 160gsm A5,

Cardstock: red 300gsm A4 (folded in half for card blank) + A5 (for diecuts)

Distress Inks: Barn Door, Aged Mahogany

Distress Stain: Picket Fence

Glossy Accents

Pinflair dimensional glue

Adirondack Ink: Watermelon

Archival Ink: black

Lace

Heart charm

Small length of bronze-coloured chain

Eyelet: heart-shaped

Pegasus charm

Entered for the following challenge:

Joanna Sheen - Love is in the air
Charisma Cardz - Things with Wings
DrsDesignsBlog - Make your own Pattern Paper
Hannah & Friends #131 - Be My Valentine
Divas by Design - Love is in the air
Crafting for all seasons - Love is in the air
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge Blog - Love is in the air
Simon Says - Love is in the air
Truly Scrumptious - Love and Hearts

Free bird

Just about everything on this card has Tim Holtz' name on it in one way or another, from the inks, to the stamps, embossing folder, diecuts, and even the distress stickles.

"Free bird"

I love playing with these birdcages (a big thankyou to Lee (Craftyloops) for sending me the birdcage & bird diecuts), but I don't like trapping the bird in the cage, so inevitably end up with the bird peeping in (he's usually looking for his mate, or a bit of food!).  It's a bit of a sad day for us because one of our hens died last night, but I like to think that she's free now. Mind you, our hens have the life of Riley with Tom to look after them! He's still updating his blog with news of our flock and we have some more little ones due to hatch next Monday, but I digress...I've made this quite a detailed account of how to make the card for any beginners who happen to be reading this. If you're an expert, you can just skip the text and look at the pretty pictures :-)

"Distressed & stamped blue background with Perfect Pearls"

There is so much going on with this card it's hard to know where to start, but I'll start at the back and work my way forward. The blank card is decorated with blue distress inks and overstamped with various meadow stamps in brushed corduroy before brushing with Perfect Pearls. It's important to let the background dry completely before using Perfect Pearls on stamping, otherwise it will just adhere to everything.

"Embossed & inked tag with distress stickles"

To colour the tag diecut (another present from Lee - thankyou!), swipe Brushed Corduroy distress inks over the top side of the wood embossing folder before passing through a roller-type machine - this puts plenty of colour neatly into the grooves in the embossing. Next, use foam to work a few other colours into the tag (I used antique linen, crushed olive & walnut stain). Distress the outer edges (I even tore the edges a little), then stain with walnut stain. Finally, the entire tag was covered with a layer of rock candy distrss stickles by wiping it on with a finger.

The birdcage was swiped with clear versamark ink, sprinkled with silver embossing powder, then heat-embossed. This was repeated until a good, even texture was achieved. The birdcage was then shaped out in the middle for some dimension, and fixed to the tag with Pinflair dimensional glue (I find this glue is forgiving and allows some flexibility).

"Hello little birdy!"

The diecut bird was inked with blue, overstamped in brown, dried, then covered in distress stickles. The branch was coloured with brown distress inks. The wing was coloured in the same way and attached to the bird with Pinflair dimensional glue.

"Butterfly"

This little butterfly was stamped with clear versamark ink and heat-embossed in gold, then cut out and coloured with distress ink to match the background. I tend to make a whole sheet of these in one go with a few different stamps, then cut them out in the evening when watching TV. Kept in a little pot on the craft desk, they can then be coloured to match your project.

"Journalling ticket"

If you want your stamping to be neat and clear, then archival or memento inks are brilliant, but you sometimes want a smudgy, grungy stamp, and distress inks are ideal for this. They seem to "splodge" a bit better (and of course, they are ideal for Perfect Pearls powders). When stamping with distress ink, it is important to do any background inking first (you don't want to blend your stamp into the background!).

To make this ticket, first cut a rough rectangle of white card and ink it with blue distress inks. Next, stamp the journalling ticket with a brown distress ink. Allow to dry, then cut out. Distress the edges of the ticket, then take a piece of cut n dry foam and use it to work some brushed corduroy distress ink around the edges. If you want your ticket to look even more distressed, add some walnut stain ink. Stamp the sentiment nice and clearly with black archival ink. Finally, add a hole with a punch and tie to the top of the tag with some ribbon, setting the ticket at an angle.

"Organza flower with button centre"

To make an organza flower, diecut organza using the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die. Taking each diecut in turn, hold the flower on a heatproof mat (use a tool with a wooden handle like an embossing tool or similar and NOT your fingers or you will burn them), and gently heat the edges with a heat tool on its lowest setting. If you heat too much, the fabric will just melt. You just want to curl the edges. Once you have a set of diecuts (one of each is sufficient), you can just fix them together with a brad, or sew them together as I have done here, and fix a button to the centre. These were just cheap, black, plastic buttons that I coloured by dabbing with Adirondack alcohol inks in blue and silver.

Goodness, if you read all that I hope you're not cross-eyed!!

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show...Torn Edges, Distress Inks, a Button and some Wings!

Kings and Queens

"Kings and Queens" is the theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show this week. You'd think it would be an easy theme for an Englishwoman, but it's taken me all week to come up with this card and I'm just sneaking it in before the deadline expires!

"England! My country, great and free!

Heart of the world, I leap to thee!"

       Philip James Bailey

This is one of my "frame cards", where the aperture is covered in acetate and filled with objects, then lifted from the background with foam tape. The background for the aperture was created with distress inks and Crafty Individuals stamps, together with some real stamps and charms.

"Crown"

The phrenology head and crown are both images from the Graphics Fairy. The crown is printed in black and white and coloured with red promarkers, gold gel pen, versamark & perfect pearls for more gold, heat embossing with blue glass powder for the blue gems, and finally decorated with liquid pearls "white opal" to make dimensional pearls.

"Charming!"

Lee (aka Craftyloops) got me addicted to charms last year when she sent me some in a parcel (thanks Lee!), and I've been collecting them ever since. I love this little "Alice in Wonderland" rabbit and just had to include him here, together with a crown and teapot (it's true, Englishwomen really are addicted to tea, well I am anyway!).

The stamps? Well, I've been collecting them since I was a little girl. It was a boy's hobby where I grew up and I was the only girl philatelist in the area. Sadly, my eyes are no longer good enough to continue collecting (you really need to be able to see watermarks and tiny differences in the stamps), but I still like to look at them from time to time, and I have found a new use for some of them lately :-)

Entered for the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... King and Queens!

The one with the tickets

I really like Tim Holtz' new Love Struck die, and especially the cupid with the bow and arrow. I've used it to make a few valentines type cards lately, but everytime my mil sees one she says
"it's lovely now, but I prefer the one with the tickets". This is the one with the tickets!

"The one with the tickets"

The background is inked with distress inks and overstamped with a script stamp, then matted & layered onto hammered gold cardstock and a large red card blank.

"Tickets"

The tickets and sentiment are from Hunkydory and are fixed in place with dimensional glue.

"Cupid"

The lace is coloured with distress ink and ruffled along the bottom of the card. I like to think of it as a lacy, flowery meadow for cupid to run about in :-). The cupid, arrow & heart were cut from white and hammered gold cardstocks. The white card was coloured with distress inks (darker ink was used for shadowing), then mounted onto the gold for extra depth.

"Side view showing dimension"

I'll show you a couple of the other cards I've made with this die next week and you can decide for yourself which you prefer.

Entered for the following challenges:
One Stop Craft Challenge - for the one I love
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - the one I love
Joanna Sheen - Love is in the air
Crafty Catz - Pink and white
By the Cute and Girly - Love is in the air

Charming Birds on a Rainy Day

The wonderful birdhouse die used in today's card was a bargain (no, really!) in the Sizzix sale.

"Charming Birds"

The background stamping uses Crafty Individuals and Hero Arts stamps with plenty of distress inks and some Perfect Pearls. After stamping and colouring, it was spattered with droplets of water to give a softer effect. In the background, you'll also see a Tim Holtz tree diecut and coloured with distress inks to match.

"Birdhouse"

The birdhouse was cut from white and dark brown cardstock. The cards were individually coloured then layered. That gold mottled effect on the brown edging is from dabbing with gold adirondack mixative. The pale birdhouse was overstamped and some more Perfect Pearls used to give the effect of shimmery leaves. It was fixed to a dark brown backing with some foam tape to create some depth, especially for the central hole.

"Charming!"

A few holes punched into the bottom of the birdhouse provide anchoring points for some appropriately themed metal charms. These were attached to jump rings and threaded onto short lengths of gold thread.

"Butterfly and bird"

The butterfly and bird (from 7Gypsies "Conservatory" stamp set) were heat-embossed in gold onto white card, coloured with distress ink, and cut out before shaping and fixing in place with Pinflair dimensional glue.

"Sentiment"

The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz stamp set stamped in black archival ink and heat-embossed in clear, before matting and layering onto Spellbinders Labels diecuts (inked to match the rest of the card).

Entered for the following challenge:
Crafty Individuals - Spring
Gingersnap Creations - Glorious Greens
DYSU Challenge - Anything Goes (Wow, I'd LOVE to win those Crafty Individuals stamps!!)
Sparkles Forum - New Crafty Goodies (Birdhouse die)

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