The Alphabet Challenge: Snow

Good morning.  It's my turn to pick the challenge this week at The Alphabet Challenge, and I've chosen the theme of snow.  Let's see your snowy creations.

I decided to use triple embossing for the centrepiece of my car, a technique I haven't used for a while.  I used a combination of Wow embossing powder and UTEE.  (My original plan was to use just the Wow embossing powder, but it soon became clear that I wasn't going to be able to stamp into it because of the high glitter content.  If you're not familiar with triple embossing, you layer up at at least 3 layers of embossing powder and then stamp into it.  It's a good idea to use pigment ink or Versamark  or something similar on your stamp so it doesn't stick.  I'm a big fan of Versamark for things like this, and you can also use it to make your embossing powder stick to the card.  (I used two layers of Wow embossing powder and 2 layers of UTEE).I stamped the snowflake stamp into the hot UTEE, left it to cool and then pulled the stamp off.  Once it was cool, I cracked it a bit because I wanted it to look like ice. 

I created the background and layers of my card using an embossing folder, and added some die cut snowflakes and gems to finish off.  My sentiment is embossed using the same Wow embossing powder that I used for the bottom two layers of my triple embossing.

I hope you can join in the fun this week at The Alphabet Challenge.

Sian.  xxx

UTEE, Bleaching and Watercolour Pencils

These are for Cazro's Let's Stamp Swap on the DoCrafts forum.  This month's theme is triple embossing for a glossy finish.

I visited the Lake District a few weeks ago and was lucky enough to call in at the factory shop for Derwent Pencils.  I picked up a HUGE box of watercolour pencils half price, and there were some pastel pencils free with it as well.  As you can imagine, I have been exsperimenting with them ever since.

To do these ATCs, I started off by inking and stamping the backgrounds, stamping the main images and then bleaching out the colour from the main images.  I then coloured them using watercolour pencils and triple embossed them with three layers of UTEE.

Green and Fruity

These are for Cazro's colour swap on the DoCrafts forum.  This month's colour is leaf green.  For the grapes, I've inked and stamped the background, added three layers of UTEE over the top  and stamped the grapes into the UTEE.

For the apple, I've stamped half of the background, used book text for the other half, inked it and then added the stamped apple image over the top.  I've watercoloured the apple using distress inks.  I added some acrylic paint around the edges, edged with black and white pens and added the printed image of a caterpillar and written words.

 For the pear, I inked and stamped the background, stamped the pear over the top, watercoloured the pear with distress inks and added Glossy Accents over the top of the pear.

At Last! Something other than ATCs

This is my (rather late) RR Journal page for Heidi.  Heidi had an open theme for her journal but (I hope) I know what kind of thing she likes.  The page is created from mountboard and I've cut a recess for the figure, backing it with regular card.  I've added freehand embossed aluminium on the left, which I painted with black acrylic and wiped off when almost dry to age it a bit, then added some metallic rub-ons over the top to add a bit of colour.  I painted the page with black acrylic (bronze in the recess), added some book text and painted over the top of that with an acrylic/PVA wash, then added some clear UTEE on the right hand side and stamped into it.  I then went over the top of it with various colours of metallic rub-on and set it.  The head of the figure is moulded and I pressed a metal chain into it for texture.  The body is a poker chip painted black and covered with metallic rub-on.  The wings are Grungeboard painted in silver acrylic, the arms are wire with beads on the end, and the legs are made from wire and sea glass.  (I spent my entire holiday this year picking up bits of glass from the beach - they must launch a lot of boats on their maiden voyages from Brixham!)  The word "fly" is Grungeboard painted with silver acrylic.

To those of you I still owe journal pages to (Cindy, Sherry and Yvonne, I think), I am really sorry for the delay.  They will be done as soon as I can find some inspiration.

UTEE Tiles

These are some ATCs I did for a UTEE demo I did at Cazro's meet. I did ten of them in total, all in bright colours. (I can't seem to get away from the bright colours at the moment).

UTEE, Grungeboard and Friendly Plastic

I recently bought some platinum UTEE, and I have to say I don't know how I lived without it! I LOVE it! (Yep, I know, I need to get out more). These ATCs are the product of my experimentation with the UTEE and a few other bits and pieces.

The top one was done by stamping into the platinum UTEE and then using metallic rub-ons over the top. The letters are Grungeboard which I've covered with copper embossing powder.









The second ATC has a copper acrylic paint background which I've stamped over in black Stazon. The skull and the letters are Grungeboard which I covered with platinum UTEE. I then stamped into the UTEE on the skull and added some Stickles in the swirls.








For the third one I created the background using pearlescent watercolour paints which have a kind of two-tone light reflecting effect (which obviously doesn't show up too well in the photo). I covered with with three layers of clear UTEE and stamped into it with silver ink. I've used a watch face and created wings using Friendly Plastic and added some small gems, and the words are stamped into Friendly Plastic and emphasised with a bit of Stickles.











For the final one, I created the background using distress inks spritzed with water and rubber stamping on one side and acrylic paint which I heated until it bubbled on the other side. I drew the woman using pen and pencil on top of some book text, and the letters are stamped into Friendly Plastic.

Hearts and Flowers

These ATCs are for a hearts and flowers swap I've joined. They're probably not what most people who've joined the swap are expecting to receive, but I hope they'll like them anyway! I did think about doing a more traditional hearts and flowers type thing, but it's just not me, so I decided to go for a grungy look instead.

The backgrounds are inked in various colours, spritzed with water and stamped. I cut the hearts from mountboard, inked them, stamped them, covered them with UTEE and stamped into it.

Number One

This one's for a numbers swap I've joined. I cut the number 1 from mountboard and then covered it with UTEE and various colours of embossing powder and then stamped into it. Then I wrapped wire and beads around it. The background was done using inks and Cosmic Shimmer spray, then rubber stamped, and I added some silver embossing powder around the edges

Tartan!

These are some ATCs I've made for Cazro's monthly colour swap. This month's theme is tartan. I'm not a fan of tartan, but I've joined the swap every month since it started and I'm not about to stop now! I stamped and embossed the backgrounds on these. I cut the hearts from mountboard and covered them with tartan paper, then added three layers of UTEE and stamped the swirls into it. I don't often use printed papers as I prefer to make my own backgrounds, but I thought I might struggle with tartan without!

Next month's theme is hot pink, and I don't DO pink (although if you look back through my blog you might not believe me)!

I'm Back!!!

Well, I just realised I haven't blogged for over three weeks! There are a few reasons for this, but mainly I've been very busy with Christmas and also haven't been feeling too good and have been totally lacking in inspiration.
Anyway, I was lucky enough to receive a melting pot for Christmas (thanks Matt! :) ), and lots of other bits and pieces, so am finally beginning to get some inspiration back (and some spare time too).
The ATC on the left is one of my first experiments with the melting pot. I mixed up some UTEE, silver embossing powder and reinkers, (yes, I know you're not supposed to use reinkers in it, but why would that stop me?). I poured some of the mixture directly onto the ATC and stamped into it. Then when it was almost cool I trimmed the excess off the edges and dumped it back into the melting pot to be used again.I painted the ATC below the UTEE in pewter and then dry brushed over the UTEE with the same colour to pick up the raised bits. I used antique gold metallic rub on over parts of it. Finally, I stamped the words "tick" and "tock" into air dry clay and used the same paint and metallic rub on on those.
It's available to swap if anyone wants it - you can email me from the link in my profile.
I've also done some other bits and pieces with the melting pot, and will put the results on my blog when I've made them into something.

Wednesday Stamper - Snowflakes

This week's theme on Wednesday Stamper is Snowflakes. I've made an ATC for this, which I've called Snowy Days. I've used a printed and cut out vintage Christmas card image of a girl throwing snowballs and mounted it onto a tile which I made firstly by inking with distress inks, then covering with three layers of clear UTEE with some silver embossing powder around the edges, and then stamping into it with a snowflake stamp. (And yes, I forgot to cut out the bit between her feet. I've cut it out now and it looks much better, but it's too dark to take a new photo!) I also used distress inks for the background, stamped snowflakes onto it in white pigment ink and embossed them with holographic powder. Then I added some silver embossing powder aroud the edges. The big snowflake at the bottom is stamped in white ink on navy blue card and embossed with holographic powder. (As you can probably imagine, both the snowflake and the background are a lot more shimmery and sparkly in real life.) Finally I added the gems down the side and the printed words.

Spooky Slide Mailer

This is an altered slide mailer that I've been working on over the last couple of weeks. It was originally going to be my replacement entry for October's UK Art Raffle (link on the right) after Matt nicked the first one, but unfortunately I didn't get it finished in time so couldn't enter.

The front cover is stamped into UTEE over black acrylic paint with metallic rub-ons over the top, with heated and embossed copper layered 0n top which I've painted with black acrylic and sanded, a Grungeboard skull painted with acrylic and covered with metallic rub-on and a plastic lizard painted in acrylic with metallic rub-on.

This picture shows a close-up of the detail on the front. (I love my new camera!)

I covered the inside left with tissue paper and painted with acrylic and added metallic rub-on over the top. The letters are stamped into clay and painted with copper acrylic with a black acrylic/PVA wash, and the skeleton is stamped and cut out. The inside right is painted in black acrylic and heated for texture, again with metallic rub-ons over the top. I painted the slide slots in copper acrylic and added a stamped on slide in the right one and some grungy mesh, micro beads, a plastic spider and a Grungeboard skull in the left one.

The back is a thick later of UTEE over black acrylic, which I've stamped into and covered with metallic rub-ons.

To finish it off I added fibres down the middle with a few beads.

This picture is a close-up of the detail on the back.

Mica Powders

This is my entry for this week's Wednesday Stamper which is an open theme. I thought I'd take the opportunity to experiment, so this is an ATC made using mica powders (I've used a combination of Perfect Pearls and Cosmic Shimmer). I created the background by sprinkling the powders into a thick layer of PVA glue and heat drying to create texture. Then a I took a chipboard flower and coloured it by covering it with Versamark ink and dabbing the mica powders onto it. I set the powders and then covered it with three layers of UTEE and stamped the image into it. I attached it to the background and then added some micro beads in the centre and around it to make it stand out from the background. I hand wrote the word "shine" on gold pearlescent card, layered it onto some sparkly mesh and attached it using brads.

Experiments with Alcohol Inks

I made these ATCs for an alcohol ink themed swap. I wanted to use the inks in an unconventional kind of way (I'm an unconventional kind of person).

The one on the right was done using alcohol inks on a Teflon sheet, swirling the card around on top. I wasn't 100% happy with the result I got so I had a think about how I could change it and sprayed it with the cheap hairspray that I normally use for setting chalks etc. (I would NEVER put it anywhere near my hair!) As you can see, this has given it a nice grungy look, a bit like spraying a distress inked background with water. I coloured the button with Sharpie pens and sprayed that with the hairspray too to blend the colours together. I stamped the background writing with a Memories Electric Rainbow inkpad and then the main image in black Stazon. (Having seen how well the Memories ink stamps on alcohol inks I now need to get a black Memories pad).

The one on the left was done using alcohol inks and silver mixative with a Spin and Splash. I stuck it onto mountboard and then added three layers of UTEE and stamped the image into the UTEE. I added the beads on wire at the bottom to finish it off.

New Stamps!

I spent yesterday at the Happy Stampers North West show at Port Sunlight, where I had a fantastic day, met up with a few people I know from the DoCrafts forum and bought some nice new things.

These ATCs are for this month's swap hosted by Sam on the UK Stampers forum, the theme for which is "newest stamps", and I made them using some of the stamps and other bits and pieces I bought yesterday.

The background on the top one was made using spray inks and then stamped. I added UTEE over the top and stamped the image into the UTEE. (The white bit to the right is just a reflection).
The background of the second one was created using distress inks and Glitz Spritz spray and stamped. The main image was stamped on aluminium (which I'd coloured using alcohol inks) and embossed. I sanded over the top to highlight the image and added touches of colour using a Sharpie pen.
The third one has a stamped and embossed background (black embossing powder on black card, which I would never have thought of doing until I saw it today at the show but love the effect of). The house is stamped and embossed (also black on black) and then painted using interference paints. It has a shiny metallic finish that doesn't show up on the photo. I've cut the house out and stuck it on raised slightly on foam pads. I thought it needed something in the window so I've added a cut out butterfly.

The final one has a background that I created using spray inks and a water spray. I then stamped a background pattern and the borders. The main image is stamped onto a piece of linen which I also coloured using the spray inks. I cut it out and layered it onto the card over a piece of shiny mesh.

A Touch of Magic

Cazro is hosting a swap on the DoCrafts forum on the theme of Witches, Wizards and Ghouls etc, and these are the ATCs I've made. The red wizard is stamped and painted with Perfect Pearls and the background is stamped and embossed with Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder.

The red enchantress has a Radiant Rain spray background and is stamped and embossed in gold glitter embossing powder. I've added metallic rub-on on her cloak and a bit of Stickles on the crystal ball.

The shape shifter one has an inked and stamped background and I've stamped the image into three layers of UTEE, to which I've added some Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder around the edges. (The embossing powder doesn't look at all how I expected it to but I like the effect.




The purple enchantress was done using distress inks for the background which I spritzed with water and then stamped with cobwebs. I stamped a gothic text and rose stamp over the top in Versamark and covered it with Cosmic Shimmer Powder and then stamped the enchantress in black Stazon over the top of that.

The background for the purple wizard was done in the same way, but I covered it with UTEE and stamped the image into that.

My First Christmas ATC

Well, it's a bit early but I don't want to end up rushing them all in December like I did last year, so I've made my first Christmas ATC of the year. I coloured the background using grey and blue inks and added three layers of UTEE with some white and sparkly embossing powder sprinkled into it and then stamped the trees into the UTEE. It's actually a bit sparkly but I've scanned it so the sparkle doesn't show up. (Yay! We finally got the new wireless printer/scanner/copier so I can leave my scanner set up, and will actually be able to post piccies of my ATCs on work days during winter).

A Bit More Brown

This is my final ATC for Cazro's colour swap this month. I started with a collaged background that I made from book pages and various printed images, coloured it using Distress Inks and then stamped the watches background over the top in brown Stazon. I then added three layers of clear UTEE, sprinkled a bit of copper embossing powder into it around the edges and stamped the main image into the UTEE.

I'm now working on some ATCs for a couple of other swaps which I should hopefully be able to post on here in the next couple of days if it manages to stay light long enough for me to photograph them when I get in from work!

Getting Back on Track

Well, after a two week holiday and a couple of weeks before that when I have no inspiration whatsoever, I'm finally getting back on track and getting back into making things. I've finally done Wendy's journal page and have been catching up with my birthday ATCs (well, I've finished August's anyway).

The ATC on the right is a birthday RAK I made for Dee, which I can now show you as I know it's arrived safely. I started by painting the background black (I never seem to have any black mountboard when I need it!), then I made the Friendly Plastic grid. I covered the background with two layers of UTEE and then dropped some Perfect Pearls into it and added another layer of UTEE over the top. I sprinkled a bit of silver embossing powder into the UTEE and then pressed the Friendly Plastic into it and stamped the word "inspire" into it at the bottom using silver ink. I finally added some Stickles to highlight the word and the star at the top which is Grungeboard coloured with Brilliance Ink.

Alice in Wonderland

These are ATCs I've made for an Alice in Wonderland swap which is being hosted by Kathleen on the Docrafts forum. I've wanted these Alice stamps for ages, so the swap was the perfect excuse.

I started with the Tweedledum and Tweedledee one (yes, I know they're Looking Glass characters but I LOVE them, and anyway Kathleen says it's OK). The background is PVA and tissue paper coloured using Radiant Rain sprays. I stamped the image in black Stazon on a separate piece of card and coloured it using watercolours, cut it out and stuck it on then added some mesh, the word Adventures (stamped) and a shiny star brad.

For the White Rabbit I've again used PVA and tissue for the background and also heated it to give a bubbled texture in the middle. I've coloured it with Twinkling H2Os with metallic rubons over the top. I stamped the White Rabbit on a separate piece of card and coloured him with a Sharpie pen, cut him out and stuck him on then added the printed words and some accent beads at the corners.

For the Queen of hearts I started by stamping the hearts on a white background in red and also inking around the edges in red. I added three layers of clear UTEE and stamped the Queen into it, and finally added the words which I did on a Dymo labelmaker.

I love this bit of advice that the March Hare gave to Alice, so I HAD to use it! I did the background using distress inks and gold Cosmic Shimmer spray, stamped the images on a separate piece of card, coloured them with watercolour pencils and cut them out. I stuck them on and wrote the words straight onto the background. I covered it with three layers of clear UTEE with gold embossing powder around the edges. It doesn't show well on the photo but because I stamped the images onto card rather than paper they are slightly raised from the background and this gives a great effect with the UTEE.

Finally, I had to use the Cheshire Cat because he makes me laugh, and I love this conversation between him and Alice. I wanted to try and recreate a bit of the surreal feeling that the book has (for me at least), so I used a background in dreamy colours with a bit of shimmer which I created a while ago using Twinkling H2Os and clingfilm. I stamped the images and wrote straight onto the background for this one, then added a bit of colour to Alice's dress and around the edges using a Sharpie pen. To finish it off I used some gems for the cat's eyes and added some Stickles glitter glue around the edges to frame it.

I was slow getting started with these as I found myself lacking in inspiration even though I had new stamps (!), but once I got started I could have gone on and on with them. I also originally did a Mad Hatter ATC using lots of bright colours but I didn't like it so it ended up in the bin.