"Monster Mash"

Another beautiful morning in Sydney today, just perfect for my DH's birthday.  Hope tomorrow is just as lovely, as I have given him tickets to a matinet performance of  "The Adams Family" which is currently showing at the Capitol Theatre.   As a family are all going together and it should be a fun afternoon.  Afterwards I thought we could find somewhere for an early dinner as Vivid Sydney is showing Doctor Who lights on Customs House (tomorrow only), and as DH is a big Doctor Who fan, what better way to finish his birthday celebration.

For this tag I was playing with Dylusions inks as well as Heidi Swap's glimmer ink (the gold bits) and was really happy how it turned out.  I then inked around the edges with Distress Ink  "Fired Brick" to give a bit of definition.  

I stamped the caterpillar and winged insects onto ivory cardstock before colouring with Distress Markers and fussy cutting around them.

Next I stamped the glass dome onto a piece of acetate with black Stazon, being careful not to ink up the base that would be behind the caterpillar, it looks a bit silly otherwise, and then cut around it.  The bottom of the dome was inked up again onto ivory, coloured, cut out and adhered over the top of the acetate.

One of the winged insects was trapped under the dome with the caterpillar while the other two were allowed to fly free.  A length of ribbon was added to finish off the tag.

The stamps for this tag are Dylusions "Monster Mash", such a fun selection from which to choose.

I've entered this tag into Stampotique Designers Challenge #102

Happy crafting!

"Chase Me!"

It's a lovely sunny morning in Sydney today, a little bit of early mist but nothing as heavy as the last two days.  Having said that, I do like misty mornings, it makes me feel as though I'm in the mountains and not in suburban Sydney.

I hopped over to CASology to find out what the theme is this week and it's "furry".  Straight away I knew which stamp I'd play with and here 'tis :

These cute little pups are Penny Black "Chase Me!" .  I don't know if it is still around as I've had it for quite a number of years now, but along with "Fetch", they are still favourite stamps to use.

I decided to go with white on white for this card, and although it is hard to see, there is a score line border around the top layer.  The dogs are coloured using Distress Markers and the word "friends" is a rub-on.

Todays challenge is www.casology.blogspot.com.au

Happy crafting!

"Fofe"

It's challenges galore, well a couple anyway, for me this week.  Yesterday was Frog Prince, today is "Fofe", a fascinating character from Stampotique.

The theme for this week is 'text', so with that in mind off I started.  First was colouring the tag with Distress Inks 'Mustard Seed', followed by 'Fired Brick' and just a smidge of 'Stormy Sky'.  I then stamped the music notes from Kaisercraft 'Porcelain Rose' in the top corner using black Archival.

Fofe was stamped in black and coloured using Distress Markers  before being fussy cut leaving a thin border all around.   A piece of tissue tape with script, was put into place for Fofe to stand on, and he in turn was popped onto dimensionals for, er, well, dimension.

The words from Dylusions 'say it how it is' were stamped in black, cut out and coloured with a bit of 'stormy sky' before being glued into place. 

The tag was finished off with another length of tissue tape folded in half, instead of ribbon or yarn.

I've entered this tag in Stampotique Designers Challenge #101

Happy crafting!



 

Frog Prince

I often look at CASology and think "I'll enter that challenge" and then the week has gone past and yes, you've guessed it, the challenge is finished and the next one is announced.  So this week I decided I would get my act together and give it a go.  The theme for this challenge is 'Royal', so here is my entry :

I've put together stamps from the following Dylusion sets: "Mischievous Malcolm", "Pondering Petunia" and "the right words" to come up with my Frog Prince, and he's been coloured using various Dylusion inks.

He was fussy cut, a new head fixed in place and then glued with two way glue to SU 'whisper white' with a mat of  'pear pizzazz' (discontinued), onto 'whisper white' card base.

I'm entering this challenge - www.CASology.blogspot.com.au

Happy crafting!

Feelin' a bit Dylusional today ......

Feelin' a bit dylusional, now that's an under-statement.  I've been wanting to get inky for the last few weeks, since my last play day at Alice's in fact, but life just keeps getting in the way.  But today I checked the calendar and the day was free, all mine, woohoo !!!

I couldn't decide whether to play in my journal or make a tag, so I ended up doing both, starting with the tag.

 
There are a few challenges around that I thought I'd enter including Tim Holtz' "12 Tags  2013" which for  May is using rub-ons with inks etc, so out came some SU rub-ons from a while back.  The pack had two identical designs, one white and the other chocolate, so I thought I'd give them both a whirl to see how they shape up with the dylusion inks.

An interesting thing I noticed was that when the colour went over the 'friends', it was easy to buff off with a tissue, but with the 'sun bursts' the larger of the two kept some of the colour in the centre while the smaller one just wiped off.  A bit odd but that's ok, I was just curious how they would turn out.

After rubbing the rub-ons, I spritzed through a hexagon stencil, did a bit of spattering, before stamping Dylusions 'Mini Couture' dress, painting it with undiluted Dylusion ink.

On to the journal where a bit of experimenting took place - dylusion inks, distress paints, stencils, spritzing, texture paste etc, a bit of everything really.

 I started with the right page first, stencilling with the hexagonal stencil, then moved on to the clocks before adding "Flossy".  Would you believe I managed to stab myself in the finger with the clock stencil?  And yes, it did bleed!   A row of flowers for Flossy to stand in, a hat, and a quick outline to define her curves.

A bit more spatter in different colours, a little bit of 'perfect pearls' on her arms and legs, really NOT sure about that technique, but hey, this was about experimenting after all!

With the left page, I decided to play with Distress Paint, 'barn red' and 'metallic bronze'.  I blobbed on the red down the side of the page, then water spritzed it, holding up the page, hence why it's dribbled sideways before drying with the heat gun.  The bronze was done the same way, I love how the colours have blended without going muddy.  I pushed some texture paste through a word stencil, but although it went on white, as it dried it went opaque and is hard to read, but feels great.

This page is a work in progress as it needs something, but I haven't yet worked out quite what.  Oh well, I'm sure it will be finished eventually with, er, umm, something!

I've entered the tag in the following challenge/s
          Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013

Happy crafting!

Double Fold Card

As I was writing up the instructions for the Interlocking Gatefold Card, I realised that it was not going to take 2 hours to make, so I decided to include a Double Fold Card.  This was also sourced from Cliona's blog a while back, and I thought it fitted in with the gatefold theme perfectly.

The paper used is from Kaisercraft Porcelain Rose collection "Wall Flower" and since I thought it so pretty, I didn't really want to have to cover it up too much, so this card design was perfect.

As the name suggests, there is a double fold which allows the interlocking panels to work together in two layers.  Clear as mud?  Hmmm ....... sometimes things are just a wee bit hard to describe!

To add a little definition, I used Vintage Photo distress ink to edge each of the square panels.  The top and bottom panels are the flip side of the lovely flowers, and compliments the overall look quite nicely.

The ladies who came along to class were all quite happy with the two cards they made, including a 'first-timer' who hadn't visited Alice in Paperland until today.  I'm sure she'll be back for some more classes.

After I returned home from class, my DH and I celebrated our Wedding Anniversary at a favourite cafe,  a bit of a late lunch but very yummy!

Happy crafting!

Interlocking Gatefold Card

This morning having done a few chores, I thought I would like to play in my Dylusions journal with inks and so forth.  Then I thought, I really should prepare for tomorrow's class first.  Just as well as it seems to have taken ages to finish the cards, photograph them and print off instructions.   So my play day will have to happen another time, hopefully over the weekend, although we have a Wedding Anniversary and DS#3 's birthday this weekend so maybe not.

The inspiration for this card came some time ago while I was browsing different blogs and happened to be looking at www.cliona-at-night-owl.blogspot.com.au.  I thought it looked quite interesting so tucked it away in the grey cells for future reference.

The card is made from two shimmer cards with the fronts cut down to create the 'gate'.  The square scallop is a set of nesting dies, with the larger being attached to the left front, the middle attached to the right front, and the small square attached to the left front. 

I'm sure the ladies coming to class tomorrow will enjoy making this, and although they don't know it, if we have time we'll also be making a Double Opening card, also found on Cliona's blog, as it is also an interlocking gatefold card, with a difference.

I've just remembered I still have an anniversary card to make, oops....... better do something about that quickly!

Happy crafting!

"I sat next to the Duchess"

The 'play date' was supposed to be a Dylusions class at Alice's, but as there was a bit of a hiccup with the date, there was only two of us, Jenni and myself.  We certainly had a nice morning and hopefully with the dates fixed, next month should see more people coming to play.

We had a lovely morning playing in our journals using pages torn from a book.  Somehow it just seems wrong tearing pages out, but once you start, well I suppose the book isn't a huge amount of use any more and so the more torn pages, the easier it gets!

I already had the background done on these pages and was wondering what to do with them.  Jenni had already started creating her houses from the book pages and so I joined in.

I started by cutting a square followed by a triangle (ie house and roof) and then spritzed with Dylusion inks using blue and turquoise.  I tore pieces for the windows and door and spritzed using Heidi Swap colour shine which has a shimmer through it.  Next a chimney was added and then the various bits were glued in place.

The second house (on the left) was done the same way  but with a bit of extra colour added.  When I was at the Papercraft show recently, one of the stall holders was demo-ing adding a puddle of Dylusion ink to a paper towel and using that to add small bits of colour, so I thought I'd give it a try.  So the pink areas on my house are done using this method.  The ink soaks into the paper towel a bit so the colour is more just to highlight but I was quite happy with how it finished off the house.

The title was a left over piece of print, stencilled in turquoise and white linen.  The bottom was stamped and  painted  using a little brush directly into the ink.

The houses were highlighted using a charcoal pencil, thanks Jenni, and to finish off, a couple of ink spatters to the background.   I think I will continue the house theme on the other page but ran out of time today.

Jenni's double page

Anyhow, must dash as I have a couple of classes to prepare for next week and I've barely started.

Thanks for visiting and always enjoy reading your comments.

Happy crafting!

"Secret Garden" Photo Frame

A few weeks ago while browsing the Graphic 45 blog, I came across a tutorial for a photo frame and thought what a neat way of decorating it.  So of course I had to have a play.

For this frame I used some of Graphic 45 "Secret Garden" collection, along with SU Baja Breeze for the tag (matches perfectly) and Basic Black for the photo slide, with a piece of shimmer paper from my stash for the butterfly and the larger of the petals on the flower.  The 'bones' of the frame is cut from some lightish weight box board before covering with the paper of choice.

I inked around the edges of the tag with Distress Ink "Stormy Sky" and then lightly stamped the background words from SU "French Foliage" with Distress Ink "Vintage Photo".   The flower petals were also inked with Distress Ink "Stormy Sky" and then the petals were curled around a pencil to give them a little dimension. 

The flower centre is a sparkly brad from SU and the ribbon was a leftover piece from my stash which tied in very nicely with the little grouping.

The butterfly is a Memory Box die and the flowers are Tim Holtz "Tattered Florals".

The tutorial even had a pattern for a stand included.  All I need now is a photo to pop in and it will be complete.

I feel as though I'm on holidays having been to Melbourne with my DH, and then last week visiting with my BFF on the Central Coast for 4 days.  While visiting her I worked on the book tutorial I've been following for the last 9 months (almost finished !) and she made me a gorgeous bag.  I already had the pattern and then we went shopping for the fabric - what a clever best friend I have and I absolutely love how the bag turned out.

And just to finish the holiday feeling, I'm off this coming weekend with my Mother's Group girls, so the family are going to have to 'fend for themselves' yet again.

Happy crafting!