Don't Distress it is only Christmas in July!!

I know it is early to be thinking about Christmas especially in the middle of a glorious heat wave, but that is the way of card making and especially when preparing samples and demos for TV. So Christmas is in full swing!! Ho Ho Ho! But the kinds of techniques I try and share here are generic and can be altered for any occasion, so even if you are not feeling festive give them a go! So distress embossing in another form.

 First I created a background by inking with antique linen, then repeat stamped out music background stamp in frayed burlap. Then let it dry for a bit. Place the mask over the top and ink through with a piece of cut and dry loaded with perfect medium. Remove the mask and apply black embossing powder. Tip off the excess, you will find the odd bit clings to the background but that can be removed with a dry brush or left for a more distressed look. Heat set the powder from the back. Once it is set and cooled, reposition the mask, and with out re-inking your cut and dry, just dab randomly through the mask, not to much. Remove the mask and sprinkle on the gold powder (try different colour combos you will be amazed at the effects you get). Heat set the gold from above, not too much or the black may lose its definition. I love this effect.

Enjoy and Happy Crafting

Ali xx

I'm forever popping bubbles!!

Well who doesn't love popping the bubbles on bubble wrap... There is just something about it, and now I have discovered extreme popping!! I same some cute beads made online from ironed bubble wrap and knew I had to try!! So in the interest of science and craft I grabbed my iron (only time the iron is grabbed in excitement!!) and a selection if bubble wraps. Now you must remember to sandwich your bubble wrap between parchment to protect your iron, and enjoy! It is cool the bubbles pop and sink,   I even tried double layers of bubbles to make thicker pieces. My personal favourite was the larger bubbles, one side would go may and one side stayed shiny, I loved the contrast. When ironed you can then colour with alcohol inks, die cut etc. I grabbed my Tim Holtz tattered dies and fell in love with with the shapes just plain.

So a quick embossed background with my beautiful peacock mask, a simple greeting and beautiful white on white card was born! You have to give this a go!!

Happy Crafting

Ali xx

You are not doing it right it is swish and.....

Stamp! Sorry couldn't help the play on a line from Harry Potter on this one! This will be a mega quick card and blog post but I loved the feel of the card.

Simply take a pale distress ink (I used old paper) and placing the pad face down on your card swish it across in a fairly quick motion, so you get a band of colour. Dry it and then take your silhouette stamp and first stamp it in Black Soot ink and again dry it and then stamp another in a more pale colour such as pumice stone, slightly overlapping the black one, to make it look like it is stood behind. The drying between each stage is important as the damp ink can interfere with your stamping.

Easy and quick but really atmospheric!

Happy Crafting

Ali xx

Sooty and Stamp!

I am having a bit of a revisiting old favourites on the technique front at the moment, as much as I love experimenting and trying new things I also take great pleasure in using old techniques with new stamps. And soot stamping is one of those revisited techniques. With our stunning Deer stamp it was just the perfect technique.

But seriously if you are going to try this at home I strongly recommend you do it on a clear work space with a bowl of water near by, I always do it on the draining board of the kitchen sink!! The reason is you are going to be using a naked flame, so care must be taken. To start you want glossy or coated card stock, white is most effective, then pass the card over the top of the flame, so the smoke deposited the soot on to the card, use only the middle of the card as the card is more likely to catch light if you try to go right to the edge. Once you have an area of soot large enough, blow out the candle and take a perfectly clean stamp and press it into the soot coated area and remove. The stamp picks up the soot leaving a perfect impression. Your stamp will need a good clean as the soot really grabs, but on your card you will need to fix the soot with hairspray or proper charcoal fixer. It is a stunning effect so enjoy but please be careful with naked flames!!

Happy Crafting

Ali xx

Cracking up!!

That sum me up pretty well to be fair, but on this occasion I am referring to crackle effect! This is fun but not for the more impatient crafters, so do as I do, start it just before bed so you leave it over night...that stops you impatiently trying stuff too early! This works on card and wood so give it a go, you need 2 colours of acrylic paint and good old PVA glue! Choose your base colour and paint a coat of this. Let this coat dry completely, then slap on a coat of PVA glue, and straight on top of that paint your second colour of paint. Keep your strokes in one direction.

Leave to dry and crackle!! It is so cool you will be tempted to watch paint dry!! Once dry you can stamp and colour on the top. Simple but soo much fun!!

Happy crafting

Ali xx

I call it "Faux Laser"

Said in my best Dr Evil voice!! I love the effect of this technique, it really creates the sense of dimension and it is easy to do! All you need is a brown ink pad and a good white embossing powder and a nice stamp. So simply stamp your image in the brown ink (I used Frayed Burlap distress ink) then while the ink is still damp give it a little smudge. Make sure the image is dry and then re-stamp the image with an embossing ink, over the top of the smudged image, so the brown shows through. Then add the white embossing powder, heat set from behind and watch the whole design just pop out of the card!!

Simple but very effective!!

Happy Crafting

Ali xx

Wax lyrical!

I love to play and try things out, I know shocking you didn't know that about me did you?? And I will use anything I lay my hands on! So when I wanted to try something different for a background effect on a card my hand fell on an old candle I had lying around. I wanted to use it for a resist technique, which I have done before but I have traditionally done it over a mask like a brass rubbing, but this time I embossed my card with the beautiful Moroccan mask first. I left the mask under the card and the ribbed the candle over the embossing, this way the embossing is not squashed and the wax only catches the edges of the embossing. I them removed the mask and inked like crazy with a couple of distress inks, forest moss and gathered twigs. Then rub off any ink on the wax with a bit of kitchen towel and voila!! A lovely distressed background. Added a faux out of the box die cutting with one of the aperture masks and the card was nearly done! Final touch was to use a 4 ply hemp twine, carefully untwist a 1 inch section until it flips back on itself creating a four petal flower effect, glue it in with a dried rose and it is done!! Simple, honestly it is!!

Happy Crafting

Ali