Heart Throb turns 18

During the week I was asked if I would be able to make two "eighteenth" birthday cards, both for the one recipient, with a theme of black, white and a splash of green.  Since I (like many others) find male cards hard to make, I had a browse of pinterest for ideas.

So, in the opposite order to how they were made, 

this is the one I came up with using "Heart Throb"

I started with a shimmer black base (which was left over from the first card) and found a pack of white 12" x 12" card with a resist pattern (SU) which I cut to fit on top of the black mat.  I built up colour around the edges using Distress Ink 'peeled paint' which then brings up the resist pattern on the cardstock (which I think looks pretty cool).

Next I stamped Heart Throb in Archival Ink 'jet black', fussy cut him and added green stickles to hightlight the heart on his jacket.

I mixed a drop of 'old olive' reinker (SU) and 'glossy accents' and painted it onto the chipboard numbers before sprinkling them with 'stampin' glitter' (SU) and then put them aside to dry.

I was doing a SU class earlier in the week where the technique was playing with glitter and this was one of the ways which we were shown, except we were using acetate rather than chipboard.  I was quite impressed by how it turned out and so thought I'd play with this technique a bit more.

 I then added a length of washi tape for a bit of ground for Heart Throb to stand on, and once the numbers were dry, glued them into place, and finished by adhering to a white card.

I was rather chuffed with how this turned out and hope the birthday boy enjoyed receiving it.

I'll be back tomorrow to show the other card that was made for the same young man.

Happy Crafting!

 

Star Keeper

I'm quite enjoying creating something for various challenges lately, and this card works for two of them, Stampotique Designers Challenge and Sunday Sketch and Stamp Challenge.

I'm not sure if "Key Keeper" likes his new title or not, but for today's post he will be known as "Star Keeper" as he has a lovely star hanging from the chain around his neck.

The only alteration I have made to this weeks sketch is a row of hanging stars instead of a banner, but the remainder is unchanged.

I started with a 13.5cm x 13.5cm black shimmer card as the base.  A piece of baby blue shimmer paper was cut to size and stamped second generation with a freebie swirly stamp although it's hard to see.  The paper was stuck in place and the row of stars in 'jet black' Archival was stamped across the top.   The stars were a freebie stamp on the front on Craft Stamper magazine from November 2012.  How do I know this?  Well, I've been buying the magazine for some time now, but have not often used the stamp and this one was still attached to the front, hence how I know which issue it came with.

"Key Keeper" was chosen as he was the right size to fit under the stars overhead.  He was stamped on white cardstock in 'jet black' and coloured with watercolour pencils and fussy cut.   I then stamped a large star from the row onto white card and cut it out before glueing it over his 'key' pendant.  A diamond was placed in the centre of the star and three smaller diamonds added to the star border.

"Star Keeper" was then popped onto dimensionals.  The border and the words came from Tim Holtz 'Simple Sayings'.  To finish off I mounted the black base onto 14cm x 14cm white cardstock.

I'm entering this card in : Stampotique Designers Challenge
                                      Sunday Sketch and Stamp Challenge

Happy crafting!

Masculine Cards

At last, the delivery we've been waiting for, finally arrived at Alice in Paperland on Monday.  Lots of goodies were in the boxes, including the new Dylusion Inks, Tim Holtz' Blueprint stamp sets, Graphic 45 Secret Garden and French Country collections, as well as restocking our shelves with other bits and pieces.

I was going to have a play with my new inks yesterday, but housework beckoned and my 'playtime' didn't happen.  However, I did go through some craft drawers and after clearing them out, now have two empty drawers just waiting to be filled (that won't take long, believe me)!

Today I was having a play with a new card design, which seemed to take ages, but with a bit of tweaking, should work reasonably well.  I also needed a card for my BFF whose birthday is tomorrow, and since I'll be seeing her later in the day, I needed a present for her too.  I'll post a photo of her card and present tomorrow, just in case she happens to read today's post.

In the meantime, I made these cards a couple of weeks ago as samples for the shop and the 'Alicemobile'.  Last year Alice started a mobile service taking craft goodies and cardstock etc to retirement villages and craft groups that aren't very mobile and can't get to the shop.   Sometimes she takes one of the teachers to demonstrate cards, and takes a number of samples along as well for inspiration.  This mobile service is really starting to take off and is very welcome among the mostly elderly groups she visits.

Masculine cards are sometimes hard to make, but this paper makes it easy.  One side has different sporting images and the other has co-ordinating stripes.  Add a sentiment sticker and it's ready to pop in the mail.  (I've gone blank on the company that makes these papers, so when the brain cells recover, I'll let you know.)

The next couple of days are going to be busy, so I probably won't get too much crafting done :-( , however, I'm hoping to have more time on the weekend.

Happy crafting!

Vintage Masculine cards

Yesterday I once again headed up to the central coast to teach a Vintage Masculine card class.  Leaving myself plenty of time, including stopping for petrol, I left home at 8.40am expecting to arrive around 10am.  Silly me - there was a 4km traffic jam stretching south from Mt White due to an earlier accident, so crawling one car length every few minutes meant that I arrived for my 10.30am class at 11am - grrrrrr!!   Thank goodness for mobile phones.  The ladies were patiently waiting for my arrival and had already cut the card sizes and were enjoying cups of coffee.  AND it was another rather wet day!

We were using Tim Holtz' "Warehouse District" stamps and different colours of Distress Inks.  Once the backgrounds were inked up, a quick spritz with water followed by paper towel mop-up, and the aging process is looking good.  I'm quite intriqued by how Distress Inks react with water, if you haven't tried it out, give it a go and see for yourself.

The 'ticket' was inked, spritzed and scrunched before opening out for a battered look.  The plane is popped up on dimensionals over the top.

The blue strip across the panel is a piece of tissue tape which has been scrunched and pleated and inked up.  The compass has been placed over the top using a brad to secure it in place.  A little bit of tearing on the panel completes the aged look.

In this card, the distressed tag is cut by hand from scrap.  The ribbon tie is another piece of tissue tape, coloured and poked through a punched hole.  I was watching Tim Holtz on youtube a couple of weeks back and he had been using tissue tape like this and I thought "what a great idea".  It's a little bit stiff as it's doubled over, but it looks great, it doesn't fray and it stays in place.  Thanks Tim!

The trip home was uneventful and I got back in just over an hour.  Glad I don't have to do this drive every day.  Many do, including my older brother who quite often shares the driving with others who live nearby.

Happy crafting!
 

50th Birthday Card

This morning I thought I'd show one of the Belated Birthday cards which went in the mail last weekend.  Unfortunately I was in such a hurry to post them, I forgot to take a photo of the second one.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I quite often find masculine cards hard to make, so I decided I would go with a collage style using stamps from Tim Holtz "Warehouse District".  There are 12 stamps in this set which makes co-ordinating easy-peasy!  I used Vintage Photo as the main colour with splashes of Stormy Sky and Peeled Paint, all Distress Inks.   Because I wanted this to be subtle,  I added the "50" to a few little gaps; and then to finish, mounted the quote onto dimensionals.   I love how easy it is to create an aged look just by daubering around the edges of cardstock.

The second card was made using the same techniques but using SU "Clockworks" instead.  Silly me for not taking a photo, oops! 

And now for something completely different .......

I have a begonia which came from my grandmother many years ago, which flourished until my cat knocked it off the window sill and it has struggled ever since, but a few weeks ago it put on a beautiful display so I thought I'd share it .......

I've always felt I have to keep this plant alive and it is a struggle at times, but it reminds me of grandma and her love of flowers.  She always had a vase of flowers in the house cut from the garden. She planted annuals of poppies, pansies and petunias and my favourite, snap dragons.  Always love to play with them and tell them how pretty they are, they have a nice perfume too!  Anyway, enough reminiscing .......

Happy crafting!