Less is More: Week 205 Colour Challenge- I love you 24-7

The challenge for today by Less is More is a colour challenge, with the card needing to have black, metallic and another colour of my choice but it has to be mainly white space. I decided to make a love themed card as I'm getting into the Valentine's Day spirit with it being less that five weeks away! I am often scared to use an all white background as I feel the card isn't finished, usually opting for a piece of patterned paper to act as a backdrop instead, but I realised that I needed to trust the use of open space to really focus on what the card was saying. I also decided to banish the multitude of critters I had been using on many of the cards I made last year to really challenge myself (if you aren't going to challenge yourself in the first week of a new year when are you going to!).

My first choices when I sat down to make the card was what other colour to use on the card, I opted for a water coloured piece of paper from my scraps draw (my scraps draw is going to be getting a lot of love this year) that had been made with Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers and lots and lots and lots of water so its a really muted colour on the card to harmonise with the white of the card base. After much consideration I decided to stamp out the sentiment from the Unity Stamp set You and Me in Versafine Onyx Black ink and die cut it (although I had to trace the heart shape as it was too large and fussy cut) out using a stackable heart die from My Favourite Things. I then used Liquid Pearls in Rouge to the heart on the sentiment and it turned into a horrible mess because the heart was an awkward shape (yes I admit I made a mistake)! I had to redo the sentiment and heart cut out and then got one of my teeny heart dies (I can't remember where its from) and cut a white heart out of some scrap white cardstock. The teeny heart didn't quite cover the original heart I was replacing it with so I cheated and coloured over the black with a Uni-ball Signo in Angelic. I then put a small foam square on the teeny heart and carefully positioned it over the original heart, I then covered the teeny heart in the Liquid Pearls in Rouge which gave it a lovely red metallic 3D coating.

When I was about to stick down the sentiment heart using foam squares for more dimension I realised that I couldn't leave the background totally white as the 5x5 inch card as to me the card didn't look finished! I decided that because you can't do tone on tone stamping using white I needed to use some Dreamweavers Crackle Embossing Paste and used the Mini HalftoneCircles stencil from The Crafters Workshop for a little bit of interest. I chose the crackle paste over the regular because it adds more interest to the background. I left everything to properly dry and then added the heart sentiment to the lower right section of the card to emphasise the white space.

I hope you feel inspired by this card and if you wish to play along yourself click here to do so. 

Make The Day Special January Challenge: Recycle

This months challenge at Make The Day Special is all about recycling or using a household item for crafting. I am currently trying to expand my crafting skills beyond card making as part of my 2015 New Years Resolution so I decided to use the mason jars I had received as a Christmas present containing the dry ingredients for cakes and cookies (they were very delicious) to create a Happy Memories Jar for 2015. Apart from my NYR mentioned above I decided that I was going to make a Happy Memories Jar, due to last years failed attempts at NYRs being abandoned by March and all the resulting failure feeling of not achieving simple goals! I had seen the idea on Pinterest for such a jar about 18 months ago but forgot about it for 2014 so I was especially keen to make one for 2015.

There are two methods of filling the jar, the first being putting in small bits of memorabilia into the jar as a sort of scrap book alternative which is a pretty easy option and shows the highlights of the year. The second way of using the jar (and what I'm doing) is to write on small pieces of paper something good that happened on every day of 2015, of course there will be some easy days but others will be more challenging. The more challenging days are the key to the success of the jar as it makes you look for something good in a day, so even if you're having the most dreadful day/week/month you have the enjoyment of putting something in a jar that wasn't bad. When it comes to 31st December 2015 (probably after 11pm or before you go out to a party) you open the jar properly (no peeking inside before then aloud other than to add things to the jar) and read through all the good things that happened in 2015, so you can realise that 2015 was actually a year full of good things.

So onto me making the jar! Firstly I washed it out really well as I didn't fancy the cake mixture going mouldy and ruining my jar. While it was drying I took the disc part of the lid and worked out which one of my circle dies was the right fit to cut out some watercolour paper to put in the ring part of the lid. I then stamped out "Happy Memories Jar 2015" using Lawn Fawn's Jessie's ABC Set in Versafine Black Onyx Ink, I sprinkled over some Hero Arts clear embossing powder to give it more of a professional feel and heat set it. At this point the jar was dry and I could add the first coat of "frosting" to the jar so it was obscure enough to stop writing on the papers to be legible through the glass but not too much that the content of the jar was hidden. I made the frosting by squirting about 1cm of PVA glue (I used wood PVA as there was some in the garage because I have no regular PVA!) into a disposable cup and adding three heaped ends of a large paint brush of mica powder (you can use more or less depending on how obscure you want the jar). I mixed the glue and the mica powder together and used a foam brush to add a thin coat of glue to the jar, it goes on very pale and the red jar I made even looked pink (to my horror) when I applied it! I left it to dry in a warm place(wood PVA dries very quickly so I only had to leave it for a couple of hours but I would imagine ordinary PVA would take much longer).

While the jar was drying I returned to the watercolour circles to add a coordinating colour to the jar. My jar was green so I went for Distress Ink in Evergreen Bough, the blue jar used Salty Ocean, the purple was Seedless Preserves, the red was Festive Berries and the silver was Pumice Stone. I applied a generous amount of colour to the circles and then added droplets of water to the circle to make the colour move, unfortunately for my own circle I couldn't add the water as I had a long phone call and the piece was too dry when I had finished so I left it how it was. I set them aside to dry naturally and returned to add another coat to the jars as they had dried by that point.

The longest bit I had to wait for was attaching the watercolour circle to the jar ring to dry, I squeezed Rangers Glossy Accents into the ring and then pushed the watercolour circle in, as the paper had warped from the water I used several acrylic blocks and a heavy card game I had to hand to ensure the adhesive held firm. I left it overnight as I wanted it to stick for 12 months! As I was giving out four of the jars as presents I typed up the instructions to put inside the jar. I would guess that if the only jar you could find didn't have a two part lid you could use a tag to stamp the "Happy Memories Jar 2015" on and write the instructions on the back and tie it with ribbon or twine to the jar for a slightly different look. I gave the jars out as late New Year gifts to spread the positivity, although if they don't use the jars in the way I am they can always use it for a pen holder, small flower vase or any other jar use they want!

I hope this has inspired you to make your own Happy Memories Jar for 2015 or to enter the Challenge yourself by clicking here. 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Happy Birthday

Last weeks Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge was Happy Birthday, I was unable to craft last week so am doing a cheeky last minute submission to the challenge. I was in need of a masculine birthday card which I always find difficult but in the spirit of a challenge I gave it a go! I decided that my Die-namics Hexagon Stax needed using so I created a football card as I know the person likes football. This is a picture of the card:

To begin with I cut out six white hexagons and four black hexagons using the third smallest Die-namics Hexagon Stax die. I cut three of the black hexagons in half along a straight edge to fill in the edges of the "ball". I then inked the edges of the white hexagons with Pumice Stone Distress Ink, to give both a defined edge between the hexagons and dimension. Next I adhered all of the hexagon pieces into the traditional football pattern and using the largest die from the Die-namics Circle Stax 2 I cut the hexagons into a circle. I reapplied the Pumice Stone Distress Ink to the white edges of the ball to give shadow. I next stamped the sentiment from the Paper Smooches Party Posse set in Versafine Onyx Black, cut it into a banner and inked around the edges to match the ball. I then cut a 12 x 4.5 inch strip of Bazzill Basics Paper Premium Cardstock from the assorted 100 sheets pack in the grass green colour. I scored the piece into a side folding landscape card and adhered the football and sentiment on foam squares to add dimension to the right of the card base. I had to add a white piece of paper to the inside of the card so the message could be written on the inside.

Thanks for looking, I hope you feel inspired to use your dies in a fun way. If you are interested in taking part in the challenge too, the link is http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-happy-birthday/, you have until tomorrow (Thursday)

to enter.

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday: Spring

This months Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday is to make a project that makes you think of spring, my garden is beginning to look quite spring like with daffodils flowering but there is a distinct lack of blossom and spring leaves, although there was a hail storm around lunch time which definitely made me feel like spring has got lost! For me the main thing I think of when I hear the word spring is flowers and as there was a Mother's Day card that I needed to make for a friend which needed flowers on it, I thought that would be the ideal card to showcase spring. This is the card I made:

I started the card by die cutting and stamping the WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals and More Fresh Cuts in Hero Arts Cube inks in Pool, Green Hills, Field Green, Passion Flower, Grape Juice, Wet Cement, Lemon Yellow, Butter Bar, Cornflower, Pale Tomato, Orange Soda, Soft Granite and Charcoal. I usually keep a supply of them ready but I didn't have enough for the project and its easy to make lots, I ran through each of the die sets three times so I have lots of spare flowers for future projects. I had initially wanted to have the flowers coming out of a vase but I do not own one in my whole stamps and dies sets. I cut out the circles using the Die-namics circle stax 1 from white cardstock and Alla-Prima Collection 6x6 paper stack (it didn't have a name). I adhered the chosen flowers with Claudine Hellmuth Studio multi-medium in matte in a nice arrangement and set it aside to dry. I cut out the cover for the cardbase from the First Edition Paper Bird Song 6x6 Designer Paper Pad as the polka dots have a texture that is similar to heat embossing so it gave a bit of texture and shine to the card without being overpowering. I adhered the circles together and attached them to the card front with dimensional adhesive. I then cut out the banner using the Simon Says Stamp Folded Banner Craft die and stamped the sentiment using the Lawn Fawn Happy Everything stamp set in Versafine Onyx Black. I used dimensional adhesive on the strip part of the banner and tape runner to the flag ends to create some fun dimension. The card is fairly simple to make so it could be easily reproduced using different sentiments.

There is the chance to add up to three cards to the Work It Wednesday Spring Challenge so keep an eye out for more similar projects during April, when hopefully spring will have actually arrived!

Thanks for looking, I hope you feel inspired to make a project that makes you think of spring. If you are interested in taking part in the challenge too, the link is http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/blog/work-it-wednesday-march-2014/, you have until the end of April to enter.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes With Buttons

This weeks Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is to make a project that includes buttons. I did start planning my project using real buttons, including making a score of music with the buttons as the notes, but I just wasn't feeling like anything was really speaking to me. I also seem to be incapable of using buttons as a just because item on a card, mainly because I always feel the card looks better without them on so they end up being pushed aside for another time that never happens! I fully abandoned the idea of using real buttons when I noticed the Paper Smooches stamp set Needle Little Love has a lovely button stamp in it and some lovely sewing icons and sentiments. I have only used a couple of stamps out of the set and haven't used it as a stand alone stamp set on a project so I thought the theme was fitting for the challenge. This is the card I made:

I started out by stamping the buttons across the top and bottom in Versafine Satin Red, Deep Lagoon and Imperial Purple to add a border to the card (the picture below shows a closer image of the buttons). Once they were dry I added the little sewing detail in using the ink from the button to the left to add a bit of variation. I then lined up the sentiment and icons on my Fiskars Stamping Press and inked them up with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I then proceeded to colour in the images using Letraset Promarkers in shades of blue, pink and purple to match the buttons. The colours I used were True Blue, Aubergine and Red for the thread parts, and Red also for the heart. I used Antique Pink, Dusky Rose and Cocktail Pink for the pink aspects of the card and Lavender and Orchid for the lilac colours. I added Gold to the pin heads and instead of using a grey for the shadow I pulled more blue into the card by using Powder Blue. I used a simple blending technique throughout to create the impression of light and shadow.

Thanks for looking, I hope you feel inspired to use seldom used stamp sets in your stash and buttons in a creative way. If you are interested in taking part in the challenge too, the link is http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-anything-goes-with-buttons/, you have until Wednesday to enter.