inchies

i recently discovered inchies

i saw jill at the stamp man had made a lovely tag with her inchies stamp set so i had to get my hands on it and give it a try

this is my version of her design.

i also bought some pre cut inchies squares which i stamped on

these 2 cards are very similar in that i used the same techniques on both

i distressed the tags with coffee dilution and overstamped with tims crackle stamp.  i edged them with the lace stamp then used some glue stick all around and sprinkled frantage aged gold powder and heat embossed.  i stamped the inchies with coffee archival and stuck 3 inchies to each tag then spritzed it all with heirloom gold.

i stuck the tags to torn pieces of kraft glassine sprayed with copper perfect pearl

[i found cosmic shimmer glue does the job brilliantly -- so glad the gorgeous hels sheridan introduced me to it!!] and added 2 strips of craft mesh i found here at craft-all-day.  i had swooshed a little alcohol ink on the mesh.

before mounting on a kraft card i used various frantage powders and mica flakes and glitters.  i have discovered that the flakes and glitter work best if glued on with cosmic shimmer or glossy accents

i made 2 of these as i made one last weekend at the open day and it went down very well so i thought i would make them some more!



sussex beacon open day

edit;

just been sent this pic of me in action!!! c,")

today was my appearance debut making my cards *live* at the sussex beacon annual 'garden gadabout' open day

i was a bit bad at taking pics but here are a couple from my phone

i was given a big table to set up my gear and display all the cards i took with me.

they sold in no time at all!!

i had to start making more cards to replace the ones i sold and they went as soon as i made them!

i had hoped that people would like to make a card with me but most were just passing through as there are a lot of gardens to view this weekend!  but even a lovely lady who is an actress in eastenders [apparently lol] and a supporter of the sussex beacon kindly bought 4 from me!!

i am delighted that we made well over £6o today!!

and the other stalls made a significant amount of money too.  well done to them all

there were lovely ladies making and selling jewellery and a very special lady who makes unique baby clothing [link to spookshowangel.com]

the time went very quickly and i met some lovely people.

i came home cardless and my gear is still in bags ... it will have to wait til it gets put away!! lol .... i only took a fraction of my stash but it still weighed a ton!!!

i have been asked to make them a stash more cards as they sell very quickly! so i'm gonna be inky for some time now!!

christmas is my next large scale production!

a huge thank you again to country view crafts and craft obsessions for donating so many goodies.

i also left behind some plain and patterned card from my stash and some double sided tape and embellies so that the patients might enjoy making a card themselves sometime.

cameo

a complete change of direction for me!

i saw this stamp and with some difficulty eventually tracked it down [it has been discontinued it seems]

it is a 2 piece frame and cameo and lends itself well to the frantage technique which i will be trying soon

for now i did a very basic stamp and emboss on speciality stamping paper and added 3 small paper roses which i edged with black ink to keep it monotone.

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please click on the link to read about this sunday garden gadabout where i will be making cards.

wake your dreams / open day on sunday

sorry i havnt blogged much recently

here is a card i was just playing around with

the design is taken from a sizzix idea for the fathers day card

i got hold of the sizzix die for cutting a revolving pop-up for the inside of a card so i made this using tims vintage alarm clock and some new andy skinner stamps



  i sprayed the inside with a little krylon webbing spray [again i saw this used on someones blog but i forget who] and some diluted coffee sprayed .  i am liking the use of coffee to distress with, as in the frantage techniques.

you can see the dimension of the pop-up message.

not my usual thing but its different and fun!

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i want to remind everyone that this sunday the 24th june i will be taking my crafty stash to the sussex beacon garden gadabout where i will be making cards and showing people who are interested how to make their own card for a donation to the sussex beacon.

i want to thank the lovely people at craft obsession, and also country view craft for generously donating stash and lovely goodies for this event.

  i will be leaving a supply of card making materials for the patients to make use of after i have been there for the day.

if you are in brighton at the weekend i would love to see you!!

thanks to everyone who has contributed to supporting this fantasic hospice.  on a personal note i can honestly say i would very likely not be here if it were not for the wonderful work they do at the sussex beacon.

butterfly dream

a wet dreary day in brighton

i had a free afternoon so i wanted to play with my frantage again!

the background was crumpled card sprayed with cosmic shimmers, a little vinatge photo scooched over the raised crumples, then dried and ironed flat

originally i stamped the butterfly postcard on the surface but it didnt show too well so i stamped it again on a piece of card coloured with the new spring colours and a crackle stamp ovear the top.  i embossed the stamp with black powder and added photo corners

i added the word 'dream' coloured with cosmic shimmer embossing powder and a little frantage over the top, melted with my trusty chefs blowtorch!

tip of the day;

i sometimes find that detailed dies will tear thick card [not grungeboard of course] when removing them from the die -- as this word die did to me!!  so i used a piece of cereal box lining paper - the bag that the cereal comes in - between the die and card and it helped in removing the cut out piece.

'call me'

a quick card using the vintage telephone die which i have had a while and not used yet!  i used silicone glue to raise the telephone for dimension. 

the silver and gold card i used is speciality card for distressing/sanding i got from qvc.  it has a great soft black core that sands really nicely.

i havn't used any frantage on this!!! lol!!

postcard butterfly

another frantage card using stampendous 'butterfly post' stamp, some cosmic shimmer sprays, diluted coffee, and a little perfect pearl spray too.

the butterfly has a little gilding flakes on the wings.

i cut the butterfly shape from another piece of card and used it as a mask to spray the butterfly with aqua lagoon cosmic shimmer spray.

time flies when im with you

[happy jubilee ma'am!]

i have been playing with my frantage products again which i got from the stamp man

this time i also used a frantage stamp which says 'time flies when i'm with you'

i cut out the weathered clock and distressed it with ranger verdigris, vintage photo and broken china embossing powders

on the 'centre' piece i stamped my image with black archival after twice embossing the surface with ranger enamelware embossing powder.  when i reheated it the stamped image 'sank' into the embossed surface.

the base card was spritzed with an instant coffee dilution, then i roughly stamped large text in dove grey, and the wings in coffee archival.  the edges were 'frantaged' by using a tombow gluestick on the edges then dipping it into a mixture of powders and mica and fragments, then heated from underneath.

i wanted to give it a real good frantage-ing, so i cut some mini gogs and used different metallic embossing powders [cosmic shimmer, ranger] on each one and a large mdf die cut cog from my ebay stash.  the clock is adhered with doubled sided pads to lift it off the card a little and so i could get the large cog under it.

then i liberally sprinkled lots of frantage mica flakes, fragments and glitter over the cogs.   again i heated from above using my chefs blowtorch!!  im gonna set off the fire alarm one day cos some of the edges do catch!!  but it really works to melt the powders on a deep surface that cannot get the heat through from underneath, and a heat gun would just blow the powders away.

here are some close-ups of the frantage detail

i really love the ultimate grungy look this gives!  it looks like the cogs are melded together.