Upcycling

Hello again. It's been a while but I've been a little busy what with one thing or another.

At work this Christmas we had a themed dress code on the last week of term.  Each day we had to dress in specified colour, but I struggled with the last day when we had to wear a Christmas jumper. I couldn't find one I liked in the shops and because I left it very late I just thought they were all really horrible colours or very tacky. It was too late to get one mail order....so what to do?
I have 4 Beth Terrell chenille jumpers (that I absolutely love), three of which had gone bald on the front left side. Two of those I had patched making them look reasonably designer ish, but the black one was worse than the others.
Eventually an idea formed. I went to a large craft chain and bought 2 squares of white glitter felt. I got out my Anna Griffin snowflake dies and cut the shapes out. Having done that I sprayed the back of them with adhesive and stuck them over the bald area. It does not totally cover the patches but it does divert the attention. I'm quite pleased with the result and I don't have to throw my beloved snuggly jumpers away. What do you think?

 

 

Yve

Live Life

What you need

Stacy Stamps – Baby Bear 2106JJ

Stacy Stamps – Moon/Sun 1073CC

Kaisercraft – Live life CS930 sentiment Stamp

Die'sire Embossalicious A4 Embossing Folder - Tumbling Leaves : EF4-TMBL

Martha Stewart deep edge border punch (Floral Vine Eyelet)

OR Spellbinders  Scalloped Borders two –S5-202

1 x A5 sheet white Vellum

1 xA5 sheet bright green card

2 x A4 sheets white card

Black die based ink pad (Memento or Versafine recommended)

White Distress marker OR White Sakura Souffle Pen

Stencil brush

Twine

Post-it-notes

 

Distress Inks used                              Promarkers               

Squeezed lemon                                  Warm Grey 2       Pastel Pink                                                   

Peeled Paint                                        Umber                  Sandstone

Tumbled Glass                                    Pine                      Caramel

Adirondak – Bottle                             Carmine                Cocoa              Walnut

                                                            

HOW TO:

1. Take the A5 sheet of green card and cut down slightly to approx. 14cm x 20cm.

2. Emboss using Die'sire Tumbling leaves embossing folder then distress the edges using the   Adirondack Bottle ink.

3. Take the sheet of A5 vellum and cut down to approx. 12.5cm x 18.5cm.

4. In portrait aspect punch or die cut the left hand edge.

5. Stamp the bear using a black dye based ink in one bottom corner of an A4 sheet white card. Trim the sides to match the edges of the stamp.

6. Stamp onto a post-it-note with the bear, stones and the butterfly and cut out to create a mask and place it over the main images.

7. Using a piece of copy paper randomly tear in a wave across the paper. Place horizontally across the image you are working on around the bears neck area. This is where your first hill is going to be.

8. Using the peeled Paint distress ink and the stencil brush, stipple to create the grass. If you want to add some definition to the hill at this stage use a very light stippling of Adirondack Bottle across the edge of the paper mask line.

9. Move your hill mask up to just above the bears ears and repeat the last step. do not add as much ink, you want to create the idea of distance.

10. Move the mask up slightly again and repeat this last time.

11. Trim the image to about 15cm in height and then stamp the sun in the top right hand corner.

12. Using the tumbled glass and the squeezed lemon distress the sky and the sun.

13. Colour the bears snout in Sandstone and around the eyes in Caramel Promarkers. The main body of the bear is coloured using Cocoa and lowlighted (shadowed areas) with the Walnut.

14. The stones are coloured with Warm grey 2 and Umber. The grass fronds with Pine.

15. The butterfly uses Pastel pink and Carmine.

16. Finish the image by using the white distress marker on the cotton tips of the grass which may have been stained green by the stippling.

17. cut two matts one 2mm bigger all round than the coloured bear image and one 4mm bigger.

18. With the chisel end of the cocoa Promarker edge around the smaller matt.

19. Stick the bear image centrally to the brown edged card and then stick that centrally to the remaining white matt.

20. Stick the bear matts to the upper right hand side of the vellum leaving a border.

21. turn to the reverse of the vellum and where the bear matts have been glued, apply another layer of glue and stick to the embossed green card. Be careful not to extend the glue beyond the edge of the main image otherwise it will show through the vellum and give an untidy appearance.

22. Tie the twine around the green embossed card and main image before securing to the white base card. 

                                                           

                                        

 

This card is a little simpler. The colouring is mainly done using blending chalks however if you don't have these use Pan Pastels. Only the grass and stones have been coloured using Promarkers. I have embossed a piece of white vellum for the background and used floral Spellbinders D-lites dies to embellish.

 

Sorry ladies I forgot to photograph the 'Duck Dreams' samples before leaving the shop yesterday so please bear (excuse the pun) with me for those and I will try to get round to putting them on in the future.

 

Once again I would appreciate your support by purchasing your supplies from Samuel Taylor Crafts, Brighouse. If you mention that you are purchasing as a result of my online tutorial or the in store class/demonstration I can't promise discounts but it may ensure the continuance of these projects/classes.

 

Happy crafting.

 

Yve

Extra samples from class 26/10/13

 

 

This card uses the same technique that was used in the main resist class only using the trees instead of the leaves. Start with the bigger trees to the front and smaller trees towards the top to create the impression of distance. The distress ink layers are, antique linen, mustard seed, peeled paint and Adirondak bottle to finish but try your own colours. Again this is using the Southfield glossy card, so if you are using clarity card you can skip the antique linen. I don't know why there is a difference, but there is. The first layer of resist on Clarity card will be white however this doesn't happen on the Southfield card and the nearest result I could get was using the antique linen for the first application of ink.

 

 



 



 

 

This is the same card as the post in 'Resist Stamping' earlier in the blog except using the Creative Expression Stamps (instead of the Justrite stamps. 

 

 

 

If you are a Barbara Gray fan (Clarity Stamps) these cards won't need any explanation, however for others who don't follow her here is a simple guide.

 

1. Create a border around an A6 piece of glossy card using low tack masking tape and secure to a piece ordinary copy paper.

 

2. Using another sheet of copy paper carefully tear across the middle to create a hills and valleys effect.

 

3. Approximately one eighth up place the copy paper over the top part of the gloss paper. (where the sky will eventually be).

 

4. Ink up your brayer with any green distress ink (I used peeled paint). Now.....if you have a splodge mat or the cheaper version blending mat (recommended) roll the ink onto that in a long streak. If not roll your brayer onto some spare copy to take away some of the ink (the Barbara mantra "you can always add it, but you can't take it away!").

 

5, In long sweeps roll the brayer over the area left exposed until it's nearly as dark as you require. Optional step : - Before moving to step 6 using a finger dabber and a darker toning green just highlight the very edge of the hill.

 

6. Reposition the copy paper higher up moving to one side or another to give a different aspect. Then repeat step 5. Do this once more for the horizon. Each layer should be lighter to give the impression of distance.

 

7. Punch a circle for the sun from a post-it note (making sure you have some sticky edge to it) and place it where you want the sun to appear.

 

8. Ink the brayer as above and from the corner roll the brayer gradually down towards the hills going over your sun mask. You don't need to go all the way down.

 

9. Remove the sun mask then using the negative part of the punch cover the sky. Using a piece of cut and dry blend yellow ink into the sun till your happy with the colour.

 

10. Ink up the large silver birch stamp (or other) and stamp in the foreground.

 

11. Ink up the smaller bare tree in brown and masking off the second hill stamp where you want it to appear.

 

12. Using the side of the tree ink in green and use it for long grass/bushes masking where necessary. Optional.

 

13. Stamp a sentiment and using a fine liner add birds (optional) and after removing the low tack tape make a wiggly border around the edge.

 

In the green card I ended up with a white blob for some reason, so putting on my thinking hat I came up with the idea of disguising it as a bunny tail. This was freehand drawn so sadly I can't recommend a stamp.

 

Then all you have to do is mat it up, distress the edge of the base card and "jobs a good 'un" unless....as in the autumn coloured card you want to add corner detail. All you do here is stamp the central leaf, mask it off, stamp 2 more to either side and colour using promarkers or as I did with distress inks. "Simples!"

 

 

With the exception of the Clarity card all items used can be obtained from Samuel Taylors(http://www.samueltaylors.co.uk/) subject to them being in stock. If you would like to join any of my future classes please enquire for dates, cost and availability at the Brighouse branch. Tel : (01484) 401419.



Happy crafting. My next class is the end of November ish and I will give details about the project when I have them.



Autumn Leaves class 26/10/13

 

 



To make these cards you need

Creative Expressions -Fancy foliage Leaves, trees and flowers

                            Or Justrite CR-03870 shabby chic autumn leaves.

1 x A5 Southfield glossy white card /Clarity double sided gloss card (BEWARE not all gloss card is suitable especially photo card)

Versamark watermark stamp pad

Heat Gun

Brayer

 

Distress Inks used                             

Antique Linen (not if using Clarity card)

Mustard Seed/ Squeezed lemon

Spiced Marmalade

Fired Brick

Walnut or Adirondack Espresso 

 

NOTE When we did this in class I tried (as an experiment ) to do this whole section with Adirondack inks. The result wasn't very good so I recommend sticking to the Distress inks and they work better if they are juicy (new) or spritzed with water to revive them.. In a later experiment I used squeezed lemon and dried Marigold (Orange).  But then made it too bright by using barn door (red). So play around. If you are not happy with the results use them as the backing for the embossed leaves in card 2.

1. Using the A5 Southfield card, randomly stamp one of the leaves over the card with Versamark and heat set it with the heat gun.
2. If you are using Clarity card go straight to number 3.  Coat the brayer in Antique Linen distress ink and roll the ink all over the card. Clean your brayer using water and kitchen towel. DON’T PANIC AT THIS STAGE IF YOU DON’T SEE THE PATTERN EMERGE. IT DOESN’T REALLY SHOW TILL THE SPICED MARMALADE HAS BEEN APPLIED.
3. Repeat step 1 with a different leaf. Repeat step 2 using the mustard seed distress ink. Take a clean piece of kitchen towel, place over inking and roll off any excess.
4. Repeat step 1 with a different leaf. Repeat step 2 using the Spiced marmalade distress ink. Take a clean piece of kitchen towel, place over inking and roll off any excess.
5. Repeat step 1 with a different leaf. Repeat step 2 using the Fired Brick distress ink. Take a clean piece of kitchen towel, place over inking and roll off any excess.
6. At this stage it really depends on how dark, light or warm you want the final piece to look. If you want a dark brown use a dark blue ink. If you want it lighter use green or for a warmer tone go for a dark brown.  This technique depends on colour blending so you need to know which colours blend to make a different colour i.e. Red and green make brown or blue and red make purple. Half the fun in this technique is experimenting and even though you may do exactly the same as last time the results may vary considerably. It works well with snowflakes and butterflies in pastels.

Now you’ve done the background we need to make the cards.

CARD 1
What you need

Justrite CL 03810 Thank You labels twenty 

1 x A5 Gold mirri

2 x A4 sheets black card

Versamark watermark stamp pad

Gold embossing powder

1. First fold an A4 sheet of black card in half so that you have an A5 sized card. Then crop it to 14.5cm to make a square card.
2. Cut a gold mirri mat 14 x 14cm an affix centrally to the black base card.
3. Next cut a black mat 13.5 x 13.5cm and glue centrally to the gold mirri above.
4. Now cut a 12 x 12cm piece from your inked glossy card and then cut into halves so that you have 4 x 6cm squares and arrange them on the card as shown.
5. With Versamark, stamp three times with the large frame onto the remaining black card and emboss using gold detail embossing powder. It is advisable to use an antistatic bag to prevent speckling of the embossing powder.
6. Hand cut or use the spellbinders dies/machine to cut the bottom layer of decoupage. Use the outer edge of the inner parallel lines for the middle layer of decoupage and the inner label for the top layer.
7. Layer up using foam pads and glue to middle of card.

 

CARD 2 

What you need
 
Creative Expressions -Fancy foliage Leaves, trees and flowers
                                                Or Justrite CR-03870 shabby chic autumn leaves.
Justrite CL 03810 Thank You labels twenty 
1 xA5 Cream card
Versamark watermark stamp pad
Gold embossing powder
Copper embossing powder
 

CARD 2
1. Cut the A4 brown card in half lengthwise and fold one of the piece in half to make a landscape A6 card.
2. With the left over inked glossy card stamp 5 of the veined leaves with versamark and emboss with copper kettle embossing powder.
3. Cut them out but be careful not to cut too close to the copper embossing (sometimes it chips off). Optional – finish the cut edges using a toning promarker or similar pen.
4. Stamp the smaller frame onto cream card twice using Versamark and emboss with gold embossing powder. It is advisable to use an antistatic bag to prevent speckling of the embossing powder.
5. Hand cut or use the spellbinders dies/machine to cut the bottom layer of decoupage. Use the inner line of the circle for the decoupage.
6. Fix the leaves as shown first and then overlap the frame. Finish with some ribbon/twine bows and three blobs of glossy accents or pearl beads coloured with brown promarker.

 

OK ladies. I'm going to have a break now but I'll post the other card samples as soon as I get chance.

 

TTFN as my Grandma would have said.

 

Yve

 

 

Fancy Cupcakes

 

 

After being inspired by a very talented lady called Sarah that I work with (see Crave for Cakes on Facebook) I ventured into making some of the fancy cupcakes that are now in fashion. The pink ones are vanilla and the others are chocolate orange. When I was growing up I was fortunate enough to have Grandmas who were very skilled in Dressmaking, knitting, tatting, lace making, crocheting, and baking, so although the baking was not a particular challenge, the icing was a little daunting. However, Sarah lent me the large icing nozzle that I needed and it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined. I am quite pleased with the results and they taste as good as they look. OK....I'm biased but my children, best friend, her husband, daughter and grandson are not. I am now going to look at different recipes and try some more. Who knows one day I might even be selling them.

 

Yve

Resist stamping

These 3 cards were supposed to be samples for my upcoming craft class towards the end of October however I am told that these stamps won't arrive in time. Sooo....the class (if enough people book) will be the same technique (resist stamping) but with a different selection of stamps. If you have a brayer please bring this with you although I think some are being ordered in, so don't worry if you haven't got one.
I did want to do masking as well but I think that would probably be too much of a challenge for one morning combined with resist stamping so I'm going to leave that for another time.

Now it's time to go back to my craft desk and design a birthday cards for my beautiful daughter although as a parting shot.........SOOOO disappointed that Anna Griffin did not bring to QVC the holly die cutters I've seen going for an extortionate bid on a well known auction site and since she won't be back till after Christmas it's not looking likely that we will get them here in the UK.  :(  :(  :(

Happy crafting
Yve

Class of 14th September PART 2

Remember ladies - a die is not just for Christmas, it's for life  - oh....sorry that's dogs He He !!!!

 

What I meant to say was..... don't just think of your die as a cutter ! you can use it to make stunning backgrounds. This one was done on white card. I have just embossed the dies through my spellbinder machine (NOT cutting just embossing) moving the dies round in a random pattern. I put it through one final time without dies just to make sure it was all the same depth.

 

This picture is the underneath or the raised side, distressed with Adirondack (cranberry).

 

This is the top side or the debossed side, which has been stamped with the corresponding 'Justrite' stamps and again embossed with the cranberry Adirondack.

 

 

This one is the same principle using the Marianne snowflake stamps we used in class. This is the top side (debossed) using Chipped Sapphire, Tumbled glass and shaded lilac distress inks.......

 

 

and this is the reverse just distressed with the chipped sapphire. (oh ! and my handwritten notes but you get the idea...............don't you?????)

 

 

SO.... next time you get those dies out remember to think outside the box. Use them for creating fancy corners or edges. You don't have to use the whole die.

 

 

:)

 

Yve