Words don't come easy .......

Ok here is the first of my focus on a product entry...and I am choosing our lovely greeting stamps. I love stamping, and we have some stunning art work on our stamps, but recently we have been adding some beautiful greeting stamps to the range, from everything to large verses, to simple word greetings that say it all. What I love about them is that fact on some cards they are all you need, especially if you have had a whale of a time creating backgrounds that are just too pretty to cover up! So I could fill pages with photos that show off the greeting stamps but I thought for all your sanity I would share one of my favourite projects with the stamps....Orizomegami!! The Japanese art of paper folding and dying...messy but soo much fun. You create stunning bright papers that just look fantastic with the simple bold greeting...simple as that! 

So how do you create these papers, all you need is some ink (I used distress re-inkers), watered down a little, and some kitchen towel! Pop a couple of different colours of ink in little pots, a cake baking tin is a great pallete, then take a sheet of kitchen towel and fold it up into a small wodge. Then begin the fun bit of dipping the folded kitchen towel in the inks, corner dipping creates star bursts, dipping the edges in creates stripes. After dipping gently unfold and hang up to dry. Here are the results of a workshop dipping session!

Don't they look amazing?? So simply let them dry and then either tear or die cut the paper, stamp your choice of greeting with archival ink and you have a bright and stunning card!!

Have fun, happy crafting

Ali xx

Let's try this again!!

Ok I know I am quite possibly the worst blogger in the world but I get distracted by paint and ink and all things crafty!! But I vow to try and do 2 posts a week, a try it Tuesday where I share a technique so you can give it a go and a something for the weekend where I show off a product, some old some brand new and a few ideas to use it! Sound like a plan?

Ok it is Tuesday so a technique, we will start with something fairly simple to ease me back into this blogging game!! Not sure what I should call it, but I call it back stamping!!

It only works with stamps that have some kind of symmetry, round and square are the best!!

So before you pop your stamp on to your acrylic block, ink up the back if the stamp (where it normal would stick to the block) you can mix colours you can add patterns. Really experiment! Now pop the inky side down on your paper, and place your acrylic block on the top so you can apply pressure. Lift up the stamp to reveal a lovely panel of colour. Now simply clean the stamp, pop on to your block normal. Ink up on a bold colour, black is very effective, and over stamp your panel of colour!! See simple but effective, on my card I did 3 panels of back stamping and one normal.

Enjoy!!

Happy crafting

Ali

Let me correct you!!

Well at least let me show you a fun way to use the trusty correction fluid! Now recently I bought a pack of correction pens etc from a bargain shop, you got 2 correction pens (great for white highlighting) and a traditional pot of the correction fluid for the princely sum of 99p! Now it was the pens I really wanted but I stashed the fluid in my "might come in handy" pile. And you guessed it.... It did!!

So in this digital and predictive text age where would you use such a product? In your stamping of course!!

The pigment in correction fluid is really strong so I thought it would be ideal for highlighting a subject, so I stamped a fun image, our aptly named Man Flu stamp on to some patterned paper in black archival ink. Then using the brush applicator painted a border of the white fluid all around the edge of the image, being careful but not worrying too much if I caught the image (as you can draw in the missing bits with a black fine liner).

And low and behold the image pops out of the page. Simple and quick. Also looks amazing in altered book pages etc, best patterned papers for it are not to busy and simply tonal colour schemes.

Have fun and happy crafting

Ali xx

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