Hero Arts + Sizzix Collage background Distress Inks card

Hi blogging friends

I have been very busy these past few weeks with 2 weeks of school holidays and then my DD was off school sick = almost no crafting or blogging time.  

I also celebrated my mother's birthday, my birthday  and watched the Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar race (I love car racing!), visited the cinema and Melbourne Aquarium among other things.  Any wonder, I only managed to make 2 cards!  I must admit I been a feeling a little "dry" cardmaking-wise, however, I went to a Craft Show last weekend which is the first one I have been to for a few years and it was AWESOME!  Came away with loads of ideas (and loads of really cool stuff thanks to my birthday money) so I shall be diving headlong into my Christmas cardmaking.  Yep, Christmas displays are already in KMart and mince pies are in Woolworths.....{sigh} seems to get earlier and earlier every year.....anyway, I am waffling as usual.......

Whilst I was at the show, I did a fantastic free make-and-take workshop and made a vintagey tag using several different coloured Tim Holtz Distress Inks and was really happy with what I made.  So I pulled out a recent purchase of a Hero Arts Background Collage stamp/Sizzix embossing folder combination set and thought I would give it a whirl.  It took me a few try-outs to figure out what cardstock worked the best for me and what colour choices worked well together - so here is the final result:  

Now I have to say that this sort of cardmaking is totally out of my comfort zone and I am not about to throw my coloured pencils away, but it was really nice to try something different especially as I have been feeling so stale.

To get the background effect, I used 3 Distress ink colours and smooshed them across a non-stick craft sheet keeping the colours all separate, spritzed them with a bit of water using a Ranger Mini Mister till I saw little droplets, then wiped my cardstock through it and moved it around a little to mix the colours but not too much or you will get a browny-kind-of-mess.  I used 140 lb watercolour paper as my ordinary white cardstock couldn't handle the amount of water.  I used 3 different Distress ink pads:  Spun Sugar (pink), Bundled Sage (green) and Tumbled Glass (blue) .  I dried off the watercolour paper using my heat-gun.  I actually did 2 sheets of watercolour paper so I could stamp the butterfly again* (see below) and cut it out.

Using a Ranger Inkssentials foam tool and pad, I went around the edges with Antique Linen Distress ink, then did the same using the Spun Sugar Distress ink.   I inked up my stamp with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and stamped it over the top.  Next I ran the watercolour paper through my Big Shot using the Sizzix Textured Impressions embossing folder that came with the stamp. The embossing doesn't show up super-well in the photo and looks heaps better in real life.   You can see it a bit of embossing around the sentiment and butterfly but that's about all.  The large flowers around the edges are also embossed but you can't tell from my photo.  I then sprayed the watercolour paper with Pearl Glimmer Mist to give it a bit of sparkle which again isn't visible from my photo but looks very yummy in real life.

I then inked up just the butterfly* and stamped it onto the 2nd sheet of watercolour paper and cut it out, inked around the edge with Antique Linen Distress ink then smothered it in Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue and popped the butterfly centre up on dimensionals and bent the wings up a little.

Using some Kraft cardstock, I rounded 2 of the corners and went around the edges with Spun Sugar + Antique Linen Distress ink.  I pulled out some pink seam binding which I dyed myself a while ago using Jo Sonja acrylic paint mixed with Jo Sonja Textile Medium and attached this to the watercolour paper in 2 separate elements (the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy), then layered the panel onto the Kraft cardstock.

I decided to add some Hero Arts heart pearls to the sentiment to make it stand out a little more.

Now it all sounds like a lot of steps and fiddling but now that I know how to actually do this type of card, ie: what colours look nice together, what cardstock works etc. etc., to make another card the same would probably take 1/10th of the time it took to make this one!  And I do love how it turned out and it was sooooo much fun to make a mess (which I am really good at doing!!) and make something totally different.  I am not sure where you would call this card Distressed, Shabby Chic or Vintage (or something from my compost bin??) - I am a bit clueless so I'll pop this card into all 3 categories on my blog sidebar. 

I found a video made by The Master himself (Tim Holtz) which shows how to do the inked background.  The type of background I did starts at 1 minute 56 seconds into the video.  Enjoy!

Challenges:

I am entering my card into the following challenge -

Splitcoaststampers - Free for all Friday F4A85 Make your own background

Thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of the world!  

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Hero Arts Collage background stamp #657766 (in set with emb.folder)

Ink:  Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Spun Sugar, Bundled Sage, Tumbled Glass, Antique Linen, Versafine Vintage Sepia

Accessories:  Big Shot, Sizzix Collage background Textured Impressions embossing folder #657766, Ranger Inkssentials Blending tool and foam pads, Ranger Mini Mister (filled with water), non-stick craft sheet, 140lb Watercolour paper, hand-dyed seam binding, Bow Easy, Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist, Hero Arts CH173 Heart Accent pearls, Kindygliz Crystalina, dimensionals, heat-gun, cardstock:  American Krafts

Punches:  Stampin' Up corner punch

Stampendous Snuggly Kitties Christmas card and Tag

Hi blogging friends

I have finally finished the matching Christmas card and tag which matches the Snow Globe that I showed you on my last post.  Here is a little pic in case you missed it:

The cute little kitties on the card were coloured using paper stumps with Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils and Odourless Mineral Spirits.  I tried to add little stripes on them so they would look like ginger tabbies.  I added some little dots of white acrylic paint using the head of a pin to the kitties' hats and scarf, then added some Polar White Flowersoft using Aleen's Tacky glue to the hats and the snow.  I lightly chalked around the image with Kaisercolour blue chalk.

I punched some snowflakes out of blue and white cardstock using a Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge punch (they are the leftover punchies after you use the punch) and attached them to the card using dimensionals, then added some light blue rhinestones to the centres.  I added the same blue rhinestones either side of the sentiment.  Note that the sentiment and kitties are all one image, ie: they are both on one stamp.

The snowflake embossing is a folder from the Cuttlebug Winter Borders set and I added a Scor-Pal line both above and below this embossing as well as underneath the ribbon.  When I tied the gingham ribbon on, I threaded through a little piece of blue organza ribbon just to add "something extra" - plus it's a good way of using up little ribbon scraps.

Just as a little tip (and I learned this through experience), I would recommend before you stamp your image, to make the Scor-Pal line at the card bottom first, then butt your embossing folder up against this line so you know it is straight, then add your Scor-Pal line on the other side.  There is nothing more annoying than colouring your image only to do the embossing or Scor-Pal lines all crooked because, trust me, being a clean and simple card, they really stand out like a sore thumb!!

The bottom blue cardstock border was punched with an EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge punch.

Now here is the matching tag.  I need one of those florist's spikey flower holder thingies that lots of cardmakers use to pop their cards/tags on as I had to lean my tag against a card so I could photograph it as it obviously won't stand up by itself!!  If you know what the spikey thing is called, please leave me a comment.  

The tag was diecut using my Cuttlebug and one of the dies from the Spellbinder Shapeabilities tag set.  I actually diecut the white cardstock using the die, then traced around the outside of the die onto blue cardstock and cut that out by hand and punched the 2 bottom corners with a corner punch.  I did this so that I could have a narrow blue border.   I masked the sentiment from the image before I stamped it and coloured it using the same method as for the card.  I added Stampendous Cotton White fun flock mixed with crystal glitter for the white bits on the hat plus the snow. The blue snowflakes were diecut using a Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die and the white snowflakes are from the MS Snow Flurry edge punch.  I added some blue rhinestones to the snowflake centres and I popped the snowflakes up on dimensionals.

I punched a hole at the top with a 1/4" circle punch and threaded the gingham and blue organza ribbon through then tied them together with some silver cord.

Here is the back of the tag:

The sentiments are from a Waltzingmouse clear set called "Sewing Box - Christmas" which you can find at this link here.  The snowflakes were made the same way as for the front of the tag and popped up on dimensionals.

So here are all my 3 projects together which I will have to hide from my DD until Christmas:

Challenges:

I am entering my card and tag into the Truly Scrumptious Challenge #66 of Clean and Simple.

Thanks for stopping by!  

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Stampendous F166 Snuggly Kitties

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Winter Borders embossing folder, Scor-Pal, Kaiser blue rhinestones, blue gingham + blue organza ribbon, Derwent Coloursoft + Prismacolor pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits, paper stumps, white acrylic paint, Polar White Flowersoft, Aleen's tacky glue, Kaisercolour blue chalk, dimensionals, cardstock: KW Doggett "Knight" white, medium blue

Punches:  EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge, Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge

Tag Recipe:

Stamps:  Stampendous F166 Snuggly Kitties, Waltzingmouse Sewing Box - Christmas clear set

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Shapeabilities Tag die, Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die, Kaiser blue rhinestones, Kaisercolour blue chalk, Derwent Coloursoft + Prismacolor pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits, paper stumps, blue gingham + blue organza ribbon, silver cord, dimensionals, white acrylic paint, Stampendous Cotton White fun flock, crystal glitter, cardstock: KW Doggett "Knight" white, medium blue

Punches:  1/4" circle punch, Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge