March tags

My goodness, this year's flying past. we are almost at the end of March already - a quarter of the way to Christmas!
This month's tag technique was faux leather. The suggested methods were either to use torn up masking tape or to spray with glycerine and crumple. In all honesty, I don't care much for the masking tape idea and I'd never tried glycerine before, so that's the technique I chose.

Firstly, dilute the glycerine to a concentration of 2 parts glycerine to 5 of water in a spray bottle.

Spray both sides of some 300gsm paper, rubbing in well and crumpling the paper  to help the glycerine absorb into the paper.

Leave to dry and repeat until the paper is soft and pliable.
Mine looked and felt like suede.

I then inked an embossing folder, put a piece of paper in and ran through the cuttlebug to emboss and ink at the same time. It still felt like suede but with a lovely retro design.

At this point you can spray with sparkle and shine and buff to resemble polished leather but I chose to leave mine unpolished.

I mounted a large piece on the tag and then made some in other colours, using the other side of the embossing folder to get a smaller motif which I cut out individually.

I pierced and stuck the shapes together with glue and a brad to get the retro flower which I stuck on with glue gel.

I had to submit 2 tags so did two different colour ways - I thin k the blue one is my favourite.

A great technique which I loved and will definitely do again.

Gina 

February Technique Tags - Distressing

I have to say I don't normally 'do' distressing to the extent I did on these tags, but I was pleasantly surprised - even though the PVA technique didn't work brilliantly for me. This first tag was done using vaseline to create a resist, painting over with acrylic, allowing to dry and then removing a layer of paint by rubbing off the paint and vaseline together.

I was trying for an effect of an old metal tray that had been painted over several times and got damaged over time. I gilded part of the tag and then painted a base coat of acrylic over part of the tag. 

When it was dry, I smeared over lip balm - it was the nearest thing I had to vaseline - and painted over with a second colour. 

I let that dry and repeated the process, finishing with an off white top coat.

Next, I overstamped with a morning glory stamp from Flora and Fauna by Chocolate Baroque and coloured in using promarkers.





My next attempt was using the PVA technique. Here you paint on a base coat of acrylic paint and allow it to dry, followed by a layer of diluted PVA. When dry, overpaint with the second colour of acrylic paint, allow to dry for a little while and then heat with a heat gun. The PVA blisters and cracks to look like old paint.

Mine blistered and cracked a little, but I liked the effect so carried on. This time I stamped with the pelargonium stamp from Flora and Fauna, again colouring with promarkers and a gel pan.

 I think it turned out OK. This one looks like old paint is in the process of being scraped of a metal plate.

March's technique is faux leather - another technique I've not tried - think that one's going to get messy.



Gina 

Technique Tags - January

As last year was so busy with the new job, I had little time for crafting - except for invites and so on for my son's wedding - so I've joined the Chocolate Baroque Technique Tag swap. The idea is that every month, we make two tags which employ a different technique, using products from Chocolate Baroque online store, send them off and then receive two done by another crafter in return. I did the alpha tags the year before last and there really is nothing like a deadline to get you crafting.

This month, the technique is to use a resist - either versamark on gloss card or a clear embossed resist. 

 This one uses white supersmooth card and the border is the part that uses the resist technique.

I stamped the border in versamark using Lace Fragments, embossed with clear EP and then coloured the paper with ink from a 'Peacock' distress ink pad. This is a great colour and a real pity that it was one of the seasonal editions because its not so easy to get hold of.

I thought it was fitting to use one of the stamps from Peacock fan stamp sheet. I've got three co-ordinating sets that came as a multibuy. There are new sets available now, but there are other gorgeous stamps I need before I get them.

The stamp is heat embossed in gold and coloured with promarkers in different shades of aqua.


 





 My second tag is the same design, but stamped onto parchment paper for a different effect. This time, I have used Wild Honey for the border and around the edges.










I enjoyed making this and particularly like the colours on the white card, so I've done another one for myself.

February's tag is 'distress' and I've already made them but I'll blog those in February.

Gina 

New Beginnings

I've decided to try to reawaken my craft blogs and where better to start than my first card of 2014.

I'm entering this for challenge 1 at creative challenges 2 where the theme is 'new'.  I cut the rocker card base out on my new silhoutte cameo and it is for my new daughter-in-law's birthday.

This is one of my favourite Tilda images - very sweet, easy to colour and works for lots of occassions.

Hopefully I'll manage to post more in the coming year now the new job is no longer new and I can manage to find some crafting time at last.

Gina 

Alpha Tag update

I've been a bad blogger. I haven't posted anything for such a long time. I have been particularly uninspired just lately, in fact the only thing I have really made is my alpha tags for the Chocolate Baroque Tag swap. You can tell how long it has been, the last tag I blogged was I is for insect and here we are in October and I've just sent off S and T and there are only 6 tags left to make.
So, to get up to date, here are J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S & T all at once!
    J is for Jute                                   K is for Kite                                      L is for Lace

 Following on with
   M is for Magnetic                        N is for Nature                                  O is for Ornate

                           

 Next up we have

   P is for Peacock                         Q is for Question                         R is for Romance

               

and, last but not least are
                             S is for Sewing                                         T is for Tree

                                         

So, there we are, all up to date now. Just the last 6 letters of the alphabet to do. Its been a long project, but definitely worth it to get such a wide variety of work from so many people.

Gina x

A book card

After thinking about it for an age, I finally got around to making my first book card this week. My friends had made one at a Saturday class that I hadn't been able to go to and I had seen one by Debbie Dolphin in Craft Stamper. Neither seemed the right size for what I had in mind, so I made up my own measurements as I went along and ended up with this...

This is the front view, its about the size of a paperback but a bit deeper.
I went overboard with the spellbinders 'Bitty Blossoms' on the front, but I kind of like the effect.
I stamped the peach pearlescent card first with one of the Big Blossoms stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I have a feeling this one has been discontinued, but the new 'Sunny Sunflowers' would do the same thing. The lines of the petals have put an attractive design onto the petals of the flowers.


The next view is of the inside...

Again, its a bit OTT on the decorative front but who cares! I love the design paper - its by KaiserCraft - I've bought a whole lot of the new designs as they are gorgeous and I'm a paper addict anyway. These flowers were from Wild Orchid Crafts who have a brilliant range of flowers and other embellishments.
On the whole, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out for a first attempt and I liked the size and proportion.
If you want a go, here are the instructions:
The book cover is from a piece of 12 x 12 pearlescent but all measurements are in cm

• cover - 1 of 30.5 x 16
• mats - 4 of 15.4 x 12.9 and 2 x 15.4 x 3
• design paper - 3 of 14.9 x 12.4, 2 of 14.9 x 2.6 and 1 of 12 x 9.5
• pages - 2 of 25.5 x 14.7 and 2 of 25.5 x 12.2

Cut the book cover and score in 13.5cm from each short side.
Attach the mats front, back and on the spine - inside and out
Attach the design papers front, back and on the spine - inside and out. The smaller design paper goes behind where the 'pages' fit.
Make the pages by scoring every half an inch using a Hougie board along the short width of the card. Fold in a concertina, making sure to keep the folds square and properly aligned. Do this to all 4 of the card pieces.
Interlock the 'pages' and glue top and bottom to hold them in place.
Now its matter of choice - I stuck the pages in place and then decorated inside. Some people prefer to do the decoration and then stick the pages on afterwards - its up to you.
Cut some decorative strips with a decorative punch or spellbinder and attach them to the front of the pages as shown.
Die cut some corners or use purchased metal corners for decoration.
Decorate front and insides as you like with a scene or sentiment. These are computer generated and die cut.
I have another one in mind, but it will be next week before I manage to make it. 
Gina x

Keeping Busy

Although its very busy at the moment, I've managed to make time to make a couple of cards. The first is a birthday card for a friend from card club.

Its an easel card made using the Honey Bee themeplate by Chocolate Baroque. 


The images are all coloured using pro markers and the honeycomb on the bottom is gold embossed and then coloured. 


The flowers and bee wings have added glitter - a necessity!!


I've use a little circular sentiment from craft works. I was quite pleased with this one and the stamps are truly gorgeous.

My next card is a real departure from anything I've done before. It is for a colleague's wedding.


Its quite large - 18 x 24cm as it has to be signed by all of the department.


Its worked out quite well - the bow is well over the top - but I kind of like how it looks.


The paper was purchased pre embossed as the size is just too big for my little cuttlebug... Do I really need the grand calibur?


I'm currently working on another card using the bee stamps which has to be finished in the next couple of days, so I'll post that at the weekend.


Gina x