Sympathy/Thanks

Joseph’s Coat is an interesting technique involving the laying down of colour onto glossy card in various layers. If you Google it you’ll find all number of examples (try “Joseph’s Coat craft technique” or you’ll get links to the Technicolour Dreamcoat!).

I started with some pale yellows and oranges on the glossy card with bits of sponge and then stamped the 3 cats – it’s only one cat (which I purchased from Stamp Camp who were at the Happy Stampers Festival again this year) –  using Versamark and embossed with clear powder.

Once that cooled I applied more colours with sponge over the top of it all, allowed it to dry a little and then rubbed off the ink from the embossed cats. The embossing resists the ink yet allows the base colours to show through.

I mounted this onto some red holographic card,  punched the swirl using a Sizzix die and punched a couple of hearts from the same red card I’d used earlier. After they were glued on I outlined with white dots just to make them stand out a little.

I named this card sympathy/thanks which may seem a little strange but I was sending a thank you card to a lovely lady I’ve met through FreeCycle who has just given me a second pile of cat-food trays which can be used for all sorts of crafty things (see the earlier post about the stamp club challenge). When we went to collect them she mentioned that one of her 4 cats was very poorly and didn’t look like she would last much longer and indeed she did pass away the next day. So that’s why the card is both a thanks and a sympathy.

Close up of front

Going Dotty

I’m not very good at this reflection lark but I’m trying and am determined to master it one day. For this card I stamped the bike onto a piece of transparency and then turned it over and rubbed it down onto the slightly glossy card stock. I then inked up the stamp again (black Versafine) and positioned it above the ‘reflected’ image. I did the same with the other stamps using some that I’d just won as a door prize at the Happy Stampers Festival earlier this month. There was a collection of clear stamps in the goody bag called ‘build a scene’ – so I did!

I then tore a doubled piece of scrap paper into some rough mountain shapes and inked them using bits of sponge. I used it double so that I could reverse one piece to give the reflected mountain outlines without having to turn over the piece I used for the top of the card (which risks the ink from the paper transferring to the bottom of the card by accident).

It was looking OK until I tried too hard and decided to add some more trees in the valley! I masked off the hills and stamped the trees but I missed a little bit – they seemed to be floating, not anchored to the ground at all. When I tried to fix this I managed to smudge the ink so I chose to stop there! I punched a circle out of some card and inked a sun and then added a slight blue wash to give the impression (I hope) of some water.

I glued the wire bike in place because…..well, I’d bought some and I had to use at least one! (I bet I’m not the only crafter on the planet who hoards all their ‘stuff’!!)

Front Cover

At our Rubber Stamping Club last year we had a round-robin book exchange. Those taking part were split into groups of 5 or 6 people and we each chose a theme for our own particular book.

We made or bought a book and decorated the covers and the first couple of pages to complement our design – mine was Oriental and I made the cover with some heavy card, ribbon, strips of hand-made paper, leather and bamboo skewers.

It was finished with fibres and hand-made beads, some from shrink plastic (the black ones) and others from duct tape and wire (and UTEE). I didn’t see the book until it came back to me at the end of the project – I am absolutely delighted with the way it turned out and fascinated with the different interpretations of the same theme.

Back Cover

Ribbon

Fibres and beads

Beads

Beads2

Beads3

Inside Covers

Inside the front cover I used some  images which I printed onto glossy photo paper and the inside of the back has more of the same and also the front of a birthday card made for me by my friend, Janet.

Inside Front

Inside Back

Poppy

My Pages

My 2 Pages

This shows the first two pages of my book – the pages were all made from a heavy watercolour paper and I stamped lightly over the plain cream with a green chalk ink in a bamboo design.

The black shrink plastic strips distorted whilst shrinking but I think it gives quite a pleasing effect – nothing ‘hand-made’ should be perfect!

I used my favourite grid technique on the left side with several oriental images (just realised…they’re almost all Non Sequitur – again!) and a shrink plastic embellishment in the middle. The ‘crane’ stamp there was just stamped with black ink.  A few coins and a bit of ribbon on the right-hand page along with the same ‘crane’ stamp but this time I tired the ‘kissing’ technique with a decorative background stamp and some gold embossing powder and then again with clear powder over the green/black version.

Grid

Shrunken Cranes

'Kissing' Cranes

Rachel

Both Pages

Geisha

Mini Book

Gloria

Both Pages

Mizuhiki Knot

Gloria

Sue

Both Pages

flag Pages

Geisha

Jo

Both Pages

Kimono

Close-up

Jan

Both Pages

Caught-in-Crystal

Geishas

Honeycomb Paper

Close-up

Puzzle & Cushions

Mojo Monday 76

This is my first attempt at a Mojo Monday Challenge – until this week I had never tried following a ‘sketch’ and now I’ve done two!  (The other one is called Challenge43 and is a DoCraft Forum one.)

So, I made the basic card out of some heavy blue cardstock, trimmed down a little from A4 and folded with my ScorIt board. I stamped all over with a feather stamp in a dark blue ink – thought that was too intrusive so layered the vellum over the top.

A square of patterned paper is held onto the front with pale blue eyelets and the vertical strip has some lovely wire-edged ribbon wrapped around it which I found at CostCo.

Close-up of "Caught in Crystal"

The main image is a Graphicus design stamped with black StazOn onto a piece of  ‘caught in crystal’ which I made during Playtime using acetate, floor polish, glitter, inks and tissue paper. Very messy but a lot of fun.

Sketch

This was layered onto the same dark blue as the vertical strip and then a small bow attached – got to say though that I really don’t ‘do’ bows and ribbons but I’m trying!

I printed the sentiment on glossy photo paper and lightly coloured the edges in blue and then punched the corners of the main card with a pretty corner flower punch.

Cinderella

The theme for a competition I entered was ‘Cinderella’ – my take on it didn’t win any prizes! I do love the grid technique though. I don’t have any ‘girly’ stamps so didn’t have anything that looked like the cartoon character herself but I thought that the running horse, timepiece, shoe and the girl looking around hurriedly might convey the idea.

This was done using a post-it cut into a triangle instead of the usual straight-cut piece of paper.The cards labelled ‘Thanks’, ‘Honda GoldWing’ and ‘For my old friend’ were all printed on photo card on an inkjet printer, embossed while the ink was still wet and then gridded as normal. The ‘Xmas Star’ and ‘Xmas Baubles’ are raised on 3D foam pads to add dimension.

Thanks

Honda GoldWing

Embossed Castle

For an 'OLD' friend!

One of my favourite stamps

Xmas Star

Xmas Baubles

Spotlight Technique

This is such a lovely idea to use when you’ve got a ‘busy’ stamped image.

This is another Non Sequitur stamp, from one of their oriental plates. The image is stamped twice, here onto glossy card, and embossed with a clear powder. One of the images is then mounted onto the card blank and a portion of the other is coloured using whatever medium you prefer. Then you can either cut out a shape or use a large punch and mount this coloured section directly over the corresponding part of the main image. Usefoam pads to mount it and raise it above the main part and there it is, spotlighted.

Anniversary card using spotlight effect

Zodiac stamp with Pisces spotlit

Non Sequitur Mystic Man

A few years ago Non Sequitur (wonderful stamp manufacturer in the US) had a competition for items using their images. I sent several items to them but they picked my least favourite to give a Highly Commended award to.

I stamped the image of the man onto glossy card with a permanent black ink. I then overlaid it with encaustic waxes, using clear wax to enable the stamping to show through. The dragon on the front is a nod towards my place of residence – North Wales – and was stamped, embossed and cut out before being attached to the front.

I got the great pleasure of being able to chose a plate of unmounted stamps from any of their collections as my prize – what fun! I did try to stay away from any of the usual stamps that appeal to me and go completely different. I’m not sure I succeeded totally but I did chose a lovely Christmas plate with some unusual images on it. They’ll pop up in other posts around the blog, I’m sure.

Flying Wing

Underwater Wing

Non Sequitur Wizard

Faux Layering

This is a technique I taught to my stamping club friends. It involves an aperture cut in acetate, sponges, various inks and outlines to make the flat image look like several layers on top of each other.

A great idea for this strange postal service which charges for the thickness of an envelope now!

Quick instructions (courtesy of Mary Wise):

• Cut an aperture in a piece of acetate so it’s like a frame – I’ve used various sizes, just played around until I found the one which suited the stamp I was using. Keep the acetate intact around the opening and leave a decent amount of border so you’ve room to sponge easily.
• Using the frame as a template lay it over the centre of your white card stock and sponge around the inside edges then move it to other positions of your choice and again sponge around the inside edge of the template. Two moves is probably enough but that’s entirely up to you.
• Mask off the sponged areas with Post It notes trimmed to size or strips of waste paper, I usually cut them about 3″ wide and the width of the A4 sheet I’m cutting-up.
• Sponge colour a little darker around the outside area.
• Leave the masks in place and stamp with a suitable background stamp.
• Remove the masks and stamp whatever you fancy into the centre area.
• Decide which areas can be shadowed and apply a little black ink gently with a brush or with a dark pen to those edges to throw them into relief.

Daisies

Egyptian - not happy with the colours

Nice for a man's card perhaps