New Toy - Alcohol Ink Box

Oooh I've been waiting for this to come so I can start to sort out my huge ink collection once and for all ...

This is the Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink storage case.



















And just to show how good I've been today I've part sorted out my ink storage cabinet, grabbed all the alcohol inks that were hidden in the drawers and then finally got around to making the inked coloured tabs and sticking them on to the bottle tops so I can see which colour they are ! Thank you for the great tip there Mr Holtz !


















Next on my list is his huge Ink Pad case so I can keep all the Adirondack ink pads together !

Harlequin Rose Part II ( Deux)

Well I finished the Card from one of the stamps from the Harlequin Rose Themeplate ( got more on the way ! ).

Ok so here's where we left off .... The card was at this stage - Tag stamped & coloured, background made.

Now at this point I needed some more colour and opted to go with a Lime green as a contrast to help bring out the foliage. I also needed an embellishment !

Below: Anyone ever make Paper roses when they were little ? Me too .... So with some more tissue paper and the Glimmer Mists from the vintage Lace collection off I went spritzing again with the tissue wet I scrunched it up in to a ball.

Below: Once opened and dried ( takes seconds to dry ) I stamped a few flowers from the Big Flowers themeplate and quickly cut them out. No need to be too precise as they are going to get scrunched up again.

Below: The finished rose ... just a few spots of glue around the flowers, some green papered wire and then just scrunched together.

Below: This was the card at the next stage with some Lime ribbons added but it still needed some more contrast.

Below: Back to the background and some more glimmer misted tissue this time using the Honey Dew mist. I like the tissue as it still allows some of the background to show through. The Love was from the Words of Love themeplate and stamped with Versamark and embossed in the Stamp n Stuff Rose Quartz.

Below: Still not happy with it .......

Below: Tag now offset .......

Round Robin Challenge

Annette Lee from the Elusive Images team came up with a round Robin Challenge.

To be honest I haven't taken any pictures of the other parts I've done but this one made me laugh so I had to photograph it.

My husband after looking at some of my stamps saw the tiny sledge on the Seasons Greetings themeplate and asked if I'd ever used it - No was my reply - so this card part of the Round Robin Challenge ( the third to date ) was based around this teenie weenie sledge !

Apologies about the picture , as it's 10pm at night, I'm still in the office and I have no natural daylight. I'll take some proper ones tomorrow.

Delicious Autumn

Delicious Autumn.

Well here's another set of Stamps from the Graphicus open day that are just so me !

"Fall Season" by Inkadinkadoo

Below:

Card stock was firstly inked up with the Tim Holtz Adirondack Colourwash inks in Butterscotch, Lettuce and a touch of Red Pepper . The main leaf stamp randomly stamped using various tones of browns, reds and greens.

Below:

Next came over stamping with the Delicious Autumn stamp: I really enjoy making back-grounds - just a pity that we often cover most of it up with our next layers :-(

Below:

The main topper was one piece - again inked up with Tim Holtz Adirondack Colourwash inks in Butterscotch, Cranberry, Red Pepper and Lettuce.

The large scroll leaf stamp was used down the edges and the tree in the centre. Over the Tree I embossed in a mix of Detail Gold and Pewter. The smaller leaf scroll was used at each side, embossed in the Detail gold. Next the whole thing was sliced in 3.

Below:

The three sections matted up on to green then gold, then on to the background, which was then mounted on to gold and finally on to a burgundy A5 card.

Below:

Card tilted to the light to show the embossing.

I'd also like to say a big Thank You to Lynn who has inspired me to get out all my Adirondack inks again and have an almighty play about with them again - I'd fogotten just how much fun they are !

Lynns' blog can be found on http://inkyartitude.blogspot.com/ so please go pay a visit x

Harlequin Rose Themeplate

Apologies to all as I haven't blogged much lately ... I'm in the process of moving house and with Christmas coming I'm all in a dizz.

I managed to squeeze in a day trip up to Graphicus for their open day on the 5th and lots of goodies were subsequently purchased. Why is it though when you get home you then wish you had got the other things you'd been umming and arghing over ?

One of my first purchased was the New Harlequin Rose Themeplate which is due for release in January and they are absolutely scrumptious.

Here's a quick peep at what I started making when I returned home :

Below:

Main image stamped in Versafine Sepia , the new tags from Graphicus are a semi-gloss and as I have found out they absorb inks differently dependant on which ink type you are using. The Versafine took a little while longer than other inks to thoroughly dry so I had to make sure I didn't smudge it.

Below:

The tag was then Glimmer Misted using the Vintage Lace set which gave a lovely soft rose petal effect, some Adirondack Inks to add some rose highlights to the edges and lower corner. The rose was coloured with the Tinkerbella Inks

Below:

Now deciding on the background ?? I tried as shown in the first picture but wasn't happy with the style so I then took a piece of tissue paper and stamped the background using one from the Butterfly Whimsy Set in a soft chocolate brown from one of the Colorbox sets. Using Glimmer mists from the Vintage Lace set again I spritzed the tissue completely - picking up the tissue ( very carefully as it can tear ) I just scrunched it all up in to a ball in my hand. Unrolling this ball of tissue was a delicate operation as it became so fragile. Held over my little oil radiator it dried in seconds and the final result can be seen in the second picture.

Below:

Close up of the Glimmer misted tissue paper, the effect is a shimmery crackled one.

Below:

The card as it stands at present which should be completed in the next couple of days.

It's official ...

Now when you see pictures like this ....

And this .....

It can mean only one thing ............. I'm off diving again !

(well in 4 weeks time )

This time to Egypt and the Red Sea, so the underwater camera is having it's O-ring overhaul, the diving gear is all coming out of the cupboard, having it's full inspection and testing.

My other half was so overwhelmed with excitment - he went to bed !

Oooh I feel like a kid at Christmas - can't wait !

Chocolate Resist .........

Mmmmmmmmm must have been what I was thinking when I made this .............


Ok lets start ... This is a great and easy way to do a resist stamping technique and really quick for one of those last minute cards. All in this only took about 25 mins to make.

Main card in a mottled natural cream is an A4 scored and folded to make an A5 landscape card. Main matting layer is the tobbaco brown that I seem to use alot of.

The top layer is the mottled natural cream card which has the resist stamping as the main feature with an overhanging tag with a word phrase and some Grossgrain ribbon.


So lets start - everything apart from my basic card stock is yet again from Graphicus.

I used the cow parsley stamp from the "Wild Meadow" themeplate and the Fine detail embossing powder in white as I want this to stand out from the cream and also to soften the shadow effect.
So after embossing all the flowers I used a brown pigment ink pad to stamp the same images over the white embossed images - now you need a pigment ink pad as when it comes to the Glimmer misting you want this ink to slightly run to give a softer shadow. Don't worry if your colour is covering the white as in the next step this will be misted away !
So with the Crème de Cocoa Glimmer Mist just spritz away, any ink that remains over the embossed flowers can be gently rubbed with either a soft paint brush or cloth.
The white cow parsley heads were filled in with an Inkssentials White Pen to highlight them more and the edges were inked with the brown ink pad to give them some more depth.
The brown Grossgrain ribbon was in the sale items at the Graphicus open day - and anyone in the Graphicus Guild - read your monthly newsletter as there are ribbons in there at a knowdown price !

Below: The topper is one of the large Tags - simply folded over and the corners rounded, quick spritz of Glimmer Mists and the edges inked . The quote was a stamp made by myself .

I'm going to try this in a few other colourways as I think it could look fab in greens or russet reds.

Peacocks ....

I often browse through the Galleries at Graphicus, there is some extremely talented people on there. I was taken aback by with a card made by Lesley Wharton - "Lesleys' Card" . Now it was my dear old friends birthday in September and I had began a card based on Lesleys' idea but the present I made was one of those - wow I've got to get one of those moments while at the Graphicus open day. So below is what I did .....

Now this is a big card, I used a lot of my scrap booking card stock for it and I think off-hand it ended up at about 10" square. The idea of the card is that it opens in an alternating fashion, so after opening the initial front covers left then right, the pages inside then open to the left, then to the right until the verse at the end is reached.

So what did I do ... The initial "Peacocks" from the "Peacock Ladies" themeplate were stamped in
"Versafine Lagoon Blue" and embossed in clear. I picked 3 vibrant "Glimmer mists" colours - Fully Purple, Patina and Yellow Daisy and spritzed each colour separately, waiting for them to dry before add another colour - this is because I wanted the brightness of each colour to show - if you spray them over each other whilst each is still wet then you can end up with a murky colour. When everything was dry I touched up the eye of each feather with a gold pen - this took flipping ages ! Behind the outer leaves I used some Patina Glimmer mists on some parchment paper to back them with which gives a lovely effect as the glimmer really shines on this.

Below: So after opening the outer layers this is the next layer. The background card was colour washed with the Glimmer mists, then the Peacock stamped and embossed in Gold detail powder, then
over painted using the Glimmer mists to deepen each ones colour. This section then opens to the left to reveal the next layer.

Below: The backs of any previous upper layers have been Ink dusted over so as not to leave them as plain white card. The Peacock lady from the same themeplate above was stamped in Versafine Onyx black, then using the glimmer mists as paints I just coloured her in, a few touches with the gold pen to add to the effect. This page now opens to the right.

Below: The final page with the greeting . The design is from the "Peacock Summer Party" CD and the verse was created on n overlay for the insert. Again the back of the previous upper card have been Ink dusted.

Now the present ....

At the Graphicus open day they had these brilliant Maya Road chipboard boxes which have a small book inside.

I first gesso'd the whole thing - box and all the pages ( every side ! ) Then glimmer misted the outer box before using various stamps from the "Peacock Ladies" themeplate all in a gold fine detail embossing powder.

Each one was coloured in using various glimmer mists as paints and some added sparkle in the way of gems.

Each of the pages was ink dusted and then on the front side either had a stamped image or sentiment on.

The reverse of each page had photographs on which are very special to Viv, I converted the photos to black and white and added some white edging detailing to them. A small vellum wrap with the date on written with a gold pen.

And I left two blank pages at the back so she can add a couple more in time x

Free To Good Home ........

One dose of flu ! ( or severe cold ) ..... Maturing nicely but would prefer a different host.
I'll even chuck in the aches and pains for nothing !

Time for the beechams Hot lemon x

Duck Egg Blue & Sepia

A few things have been used on this card, so lets start at the beginning with the main coloured card.

The main card was firstly run through my printer so I could print the background text. Over top I used a "Glimmer Screen" and sprayed "Patina and Creme De Cocoa - Glimmer Mists" over the top. The glimmer mist will slightly make the printed text run but this is what adds to the aged effect.

The stamping down the left side is from the "Filigree Fusion" themeplate and stamped in the Versafine sepia. A bit of dusting around the Edges with my Ink dusters. The flourishes on the right are from some Stampin Up stamps I've had for ages.

The tag was first embossed on the left side with a flourish, then using a few odd ink pads Ink dusted in the Sepia and duck egg blue, highlighting some of the embossing. The left hand then stamped using one of my favourite theme plates "Fleurs et Parfum de Paris" . The right hand stamp is again from the "Filigree Fusion" themeplate with some gem stones. A bit of grossgrain ribbon - slightly inked over to finish the tag off.

The flower is one of my bargain flowers - (which I must put a post up about these) - held in place C/o Crocodile large brad. The whole top was then matted on to some Tobacco brown card, then on to some duck egg blue card and finally on to the main card.

If anyone wants the old style Text to print out yourself on to your own card - just give me a shout and I'l email it over x

Inspiration from Nature

A couple of pictures of my favourite trees & plants in my garden at this time of year.

The first is what is called a "Stag's Horn Sumach Tree" , and the colours are absolutely stunning.

During the beginning of the year the tree is totally bare and just resembles stag horns with a velvety texture, during Summer it is a luscious green, but it's true glory emerges during Autumn, as the leaves change to a deep carmine red, then through to a blazing crimson, then the oranges come, persimmon, amber, then finally through to the yellows. The yellows don't last long as that is the final colour change before they fall and then the cycle begins again.

Another of my favourites is this Jasmin, I had it for years and the flowers have the most irresistible scent during Summer.

Isn't nature wonderful x

Summer Evening

This was a square card I did a while ago using the "Wild Owl" themeplate.

The card was done on watercolour paper and I used my Ink dusters with just regular ink pads to create the background scene and a fine line watercolour brush using Versafine smokey grey for the faint line clouds. The shadow tree from the "Orchard" themeplate was lightly stamped in Versafine smokey grey and the foreground grasses are from the "Wild Meadow" themeplate just stamped in various green inks. A torn paper strip, again coloured using my Ink dusters and then a gold embossed phrase from the "Words of Wisdom" themeplate and finally attached with brads.

The swallow was stamped with a Brilliance black ink, and the flourish bird was stamped on to an off cut from the background the cut out and placed on the torn strip to make it seem as though it was perching ( Not sure if that is a real word ! ) . Everything was then mounted onto a gold layer, and then on to a black card.