Sew Special

I have been a very naughty blogger lately neglecting my followers. If I could be allowed to offer an excuse my dear sweet 90 year old mother fell down twice and between that and some of my own health issues I didn't have a creative idea in my head. I got up this morning and just felt like making a card. this is for Splitcoaststampers monthly tickle and the theme is sewing or baking. Perfect...I've been wanting to do a card using these Crafty Secrets stamps ever since I got them.

I started with a black base card. The cream background is a large background stamp of pattern pieces, the edge is punched with a Martha Stewart punch and then just inside from the edge is a line of stamped black stitches. I then used distress inks to age the paper. Next thing glued down was the twill tape measure ribbon and the roses. Everything was coloured with copics and distress inks. I printed off an array of sewing items and just played with them until I was happy with the placement. I don't do enough of these type of cards to be confident with a preplanned sketch.

Here is a list of the Crafty Secrets products I used:

button card - "Button Up" digital stamp set

thread card - "Bobbin Cards"

mannequin - "Sew Fashionista" digital stamp set

sentiment - "Sewing Basket" digital stamp set

thread label - "Sewing images and ephemera" 

To finish it off I added a couple of charms, buttons, a string of pearls, and a tiny silk rose.

Thanks so much for visiting me.

Cheers,

Elizabeth

Kiss Me

While scanning through my Crafty Secret images this week I discovered a couple of cute frogs in our "Kewpies" digital stamp set. It started out as a kids BDay card but as it went along I had a thought for a different sentiment and it ended up as a new home congratulations card.

I used blue cardstock for the background and added the white glittery clouds. The first layer of reeds are stamped on and then I fussy cut the second layer. I hand drew the bullrushes and covered them with brown flocking. The frogs were coloured with copics and fussy cut. The sentiment is just something I thought up and the rose is prima. Lastly the overhead branches are a memory box die.

Thanks so much for dropping by,

Cheers, 

Elizabeth

You Had Me at Merlot

Here we are at Crafty Secrets August Linky Party and I have a wine folder hostess gift to share with you today, followed by a tutorial on using a stylus to give dimension.

Our theme this month is autumn/back to school. Very easy decision for me as both our kids graduated some years ago and we haven't got any grandchildren around us, excited about school. For those of you who live near vineyards, like me, the autumn means wine tours and special dinners offered at vineyards. Grape leaves turn the most amazing copper and gold shades during this season and the vineyard restaurant offerings usually feature the local produce paired with their vintage wines.

I have a friend who often hosts wine and cheese get togethers so I made this as a hostess gift to be given when we go for dinner in a couple of weeks (as well as a bottle of course!!!) It is not a standard size (a bit larger than 5x6.5) but this doesn't matter as it will be hand delivered. It wouldn't mail very well anyway as the two pockets are 1/4" each, equally a 1/2' depth.

Front Cover

This is front cover. Everything you see here is from Crafty Secrets "Wine Lovers". The only change I made to the scene is I painted the clouds with acrylic white paint instead of using the clouds as they were originally drawn. The slab of cheese has the cutest little mouse peering out of a cheese hole bottom centre but he didn't work with my theme so I covered him up with the grape cluster. I just know he's under there thinking "the indignity of it all" or maybe he's appreciating his privacy so he can carry on eating the rest of the cheese! Everything in this project is coloured with copics except the forementioned acrylic clouds.

Inside Pockets

 

This is the inside of the folder. Each pocket is 1/4" deep,  the left pocket holds the wine glass ID tags and the right pocket holds the invitations. Again everything you see here is part of the "Wine Lovers"

stamp set. The wine bottle on the front cover is the same one used for the bottle border, just sized down. 

Hooray for digital!

Tutorial

A few people have asked me what exactly I mean when I say "flip it over and take a stylus to the back"

There are no secrets here my friends, that is literally what I do but the difference comes by what stylus you use and the glue you use to adhere your 3D item to your project. I use Sizzix "Susan Tierney's" tools created for flower molding. You can see from this picture the stylus has a very large ball. Why this 

is necessary is that you can work the back to the point where you can take a flat circle and create a bowl without leaving any scratch lines like you would with a smaller stylus. With the bottle I wanted a

horizontal curve only so I only used the stylus in the middle going up and down. The wine glasses I wanted more of a bowl shape so I did the same as the bottle but in the bowl part I worked in circles until it took on the shape of a glass. Here is an attempt to show you how much curvature I put on the bottle and glasses.

When you use copics it's easy to use a stylus on the back.  The reason parts of an object are light is that they project into the light further and parts are darker because they recess. Because copics bleed through the paper you can see where the light shades are and take a stylus to them. For example the grapes, when you turn the coloured grapes over you can see a bunch of dark circle so you press in on the centres. If you don't use copics you can indent on the right side and then turn it over and push out the indentation the other way.

The next challenge (if you are mailing) is to make sure all this dimension you've just created doesn't flatten. There is only one glue I have ever been happy with. "YES" is a paste glue that keeps its shape with no shrinkage when it dries. It is also a very strong adhesive.

You are looking at the back side of the wine bottle with enough glue so it will hold it's shape. For this project I used this technique on the bottle and glasses on the front cover, the slab of cheese has indents, and the three large clusters of grapes. 

“Now it’s your turn!  Visit each of the design team blogs listed below.  Then create a NEW project of your choice featuring Crafty Secrets product and link it up to the blog (http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com/) no later than 11:59PT, Sunday, August 17^th. You do not need to follow this month’s theme to play along.  If you do not have any Crafty Secrets goodies, check the FREE DOWNLOADS located in the sidebar of the Crafty Secrets blog.  Be sure to link to the Crafty Secrets Blog in your post, and let us know what Crafty Secrets product you are using in your project. One lucky player will be randomly selected to win a $50 shopping spree in our online store.  Each player who participates will receive a $6 credit to the online store.  We’ll be popping by to leave you some lovely comments on your blog post, too. Thanks for playing along, and good luck!”

Crafty Secrets Design Team

Kathy Clement, DT Leader  http://www.kathybydesign.com

Darlene Pavlick, Dar’s Crafty Creations    http://darscraftycreations.blogspot.com/

Diane Hover, Nellie’s Nest   http://www.nelliesnest.blogspot.com

Elizabeth Lincoln, Paper Passtimes   http://paperpasstimes.blogspot.com/

Gloria Stengel, Scraps of Life   http://gloriascraps.blogspot.com/

Melody Clement, Paper Melody’s   http://papermelodys.wordpress.com/

Michele Kovack, Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker   http://chelemom.blogspot.com/

Shantaie Fowler, Inking Pink  http://www.inkingpink.com/

Sheila Rumney, Sheila Rumney Design and Photography,   http://www.sheilarumney.com/

Thanks so much for visiting me at Paper Pass Times

Cheers,

Elizabeth

Sunny Sunflower

It's been killer hot in Vancouver this past couple of weeks and whenever it's hot like this I think of sunflowers. This card was made for a Splitcoaststampers challenge this month at Dirty Dozen. The card that inspired me was a huge sun that was so big that it had to be cropped on two sides. I immediately thought how great Crafty Secrets "Sunflower" would look done like this. I enlarged it so that it needed cropping on 2 sides like my card inspiration.

I hauled out some of my mixed media products for this. The sunflower was printed off twice The main image was coloured with copics and the second copy was used as a mask. I used a damask background stamp to create the turquoise background. The edges were distressed. The copper layer was created by using a eb folder on a piece of plain white cardstock. Next I painted it copper. When that was dry I painted it with turquoise acrylic paint wiping off the top surface. When that was dry I daubed the surface with a darker copper paint. Lastly I added the little copper heart, leaf ribbon trim, and the other little decorations you see here.

Thanks so much for dropping by,

Cheers, 

Elizabeth 

Just Wing It

I thought I'd try a new challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. This week I made time to participate in the Technique Lovers Challenge. All my life I have been guilty of not reading instructions through to the end and this one was no exception. What we were supposed to do is stamp a scene, then die cut parts of the scene, and finally put them on the card in the same placement they would have had. I read the stamp and die cut part but left out the separate and place part!!!! Anyway I ended up with a card I really like.

 First I stamped the cupcake wrapper from Crafty Secrets "Cupcake Party" in silver and then embossed in silver. Next I used an Impression Obsession butterfly die to cut the butterflies from the embossed panels. I watercolured them with turquoise H2O's. The white lacy background is a Spellbinders die mounted on silver cardstock. The banner and all the sentiments are from Crafty Secrets "Born to Fly" again stamped and embossed in silver. I used a discontinued stamp set but the same set is now available in digital form. To finish it off I added some tiny silk bows dyed with the same pink H2O's as I used on the banner, and finally some rhinestones.

Thanks so much for dropping by,

Cheers,

Elizabeth

Poppies

My brain took an unwanted creative holiday this week. I don't know if it was the heat  but I just couldn't think past the mundane. I knew exactly what to do with the main image. It was all coloured and the cut out images lined up on dimensionals but then the big, now what do I do with it. I played with background papers, ribbon placement, and embellishments for a couple of days then decided the card would be a big larger than normal and suddenly everything fell together.

I printed 5 copies of Crafty Secrets digital "Poppies" and cut the images with a Spellbinders die set in decreasing sizes. To line the poppies up perfectly I placed the images on a light box 2 at a time and lightly taped the die to the top image. It's coloured with copics and the aqua background is H2O's. The rust coloured bg paper is also cut with a Spellbinders die. All papers are Graphics 45.

Thanks so much for visiting me,

Cheers, 

Elizabeth 

By The Sea

The inspiration for my July Linky Party project came from my incredibly talented sisters on Crafty Secrets Design Team. Every month one or two of them create the most amazing altered items and mini albums and every month I make a card. For my one year anniversary on the design team I stepped way out of my comfort zone and made a mini album. The theme this month decided the stamp set I wanted to use, Crafty Secrets "Seaside" has always been one of my favourites. I have a new great niece and I left enough empty places in this little album for my niece to place a few of babies first summer pictures. Another thing that brings me satisfaction is recycling things that would otherwise have gone to the dump! Instead of my usual...present the card and follow with a tutorial, this month I will describe each step I took. One thing I found out with this project was the hours it took to dry between steps.

Front Cover

Materials used

- 4 (or more) pieces of corrugated cardboard cut to the same size

- some kind of book binding strips, I used a roll of 1 1/2" fabric bandaging but gummed strips work

- glue stick (Prang is the best)

- Acrylic paint (I used Martha Stewart white and cloud)

- white tulle with little glitter dots

- Dreamweavers white paste

- Dreamweavers scallop shell stencil

- Memory Box dies, "Big Splash Border" and "Under the Sea Frame"

- glitter

- stylus

- stickles

- "Yes" glue,  a molding glue used for decoupage which holds its shape, doesn't shrink, and dries clear

- rhinestones

- ribbon

- small foam brush

Let's get started

Preparation of pages fig 1,2, &3

fig. 1

fig 2

fig. 3

Fig 1 shows the deconstruction of the cardboard. You can reveal as much of the corrugation as you want. Make sure you leave the paper on where the binding will be so there is more surface to adhere to

Fig 2 shows the "carving of the design". I specified "Memory Box" as these dies are not very deep and so when run through a Big Shot they only cut the top paper not all the way through. I then took a craft knife and lifted the die cut pieces out.

Fig 3 shows two pages with their bandage binding and the third page waiting to be added. The two pages will be folded onto themselves and a third page added the same way. The front cover was out of sight drying somewhere at this point.

Paint and Fabric

Fig 1

 Fig 2

Fig 3

In Fig 1 acrylic paint was applied to the pages and bandage spine combining the white and cloud paints. In Fig 2 after the paint was well dried I covered all the pages with a light coat of glue stick and then placed a piece of tulle over every page. Now let it dry over night  as in Fig 3 

Shell preparation

I knew I would need 2 or 3 shells per page so I printed 6 starfish, 6 scallops, and 6 sand dollars from Crafty Secrets "Seaside"in a medium grey colour. For the starfish I flipped it over and used a large ball stylus on the centre to create a deep indentation and then a light stroke down each arm, for the scallops I flipped it over and rounded it then turned it right side and traced a scallop design on it, for the sand dollars I flipped it over and cupped it the same as the scallop and then turned it right side and took a small stylus to the star like design in it. All shells were coloured with copics and stickled. These were left to dry.

Decorating the pages

First I used Dreamweavers stencil and paste to letter "By the Sea" while the paste was still wet I sprinkled with aqua glitter. (The aqua scallop shell was made the same way) Next I dyed some ribbon with distress ink and attached around the front and back covers. I coloured this sweet image from Crafty Secrets  "Seaside" with copics. The seagulls came from the same stamp set and again they were coloured with copics. Now for some serious glueing! The reason I specified "Yes" glue is that it holds its shape. I take a wad of it and put it under each shell and this prevents it from flattening. To finish it off a couple of rhinestones were added

For this double spread I die cut white paper, lightly glued, and added glitter. the facing page I added a velum envelope to add  extra photos and traced the verse from the same stamp set "Seaside"onto the velum. The frame was die cut from velum and both pages were decorated with the prepared shells. 

Another verse and the lighthouse image from the same set Crafty Secrets "Seaside". This time the die cut wave edge and bubble from were cut from craft paper. Shells for decoration.

Last double page. Yet another verse from this wonderful set, more shells and this time some seagulls from again the same set.

If you read to the end you deserve a medal!

Please come and join our July Linky Party where you can add a sample(s) you've created using any of our products and receive a $6.00 coupon and one random.org winner will get a $50.00 gift card

Make sure you visit the rest of the design team!

This month we are fortunate to have the talented well known Gloria Getgen Stengal as a guest member of our design team.

Kathy Clement Team Leader

Michele Kovack - 300+ Gallery!

Darlene Pavlick

Sheila Rumney

Thanks for dropping by,

Cheers, Elizabeth