Card Factory 2015–Small Zentangle Cards

Here is a collection of six small Zentangle cards that I assembled today.

These Zentangle designs are some of my early ones, when I first started tangling. I scanned them so I could print them out and use them when I wanted. Some time ago, matted them onto black card in readiness to make into cards, and then never got round to it.

I decided to add stamped sentiments to each of these cards, and used a selection from the Stamin’ Up sets that I have.

Here they are individually.

All the cards have the identical sentiment stamped inside, apart from the “Thank you for caring” one which has a simple “Thank You” inside. Each one has the Zentangle explanation stuck to the back as well.

Most of these will probably go to the chemo unit for sale.

This was a relatively quick project to make, because the designs were already matted, and all I had to do was cut and score the card bases and stick the designs down, and do the stamping. They are all A6 size, when folded.

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As usual, I am between projects so nothing in progress on my desk, except for a card with some glue drying, and some of my purple papers and some other bits and pieces.

Starting on the left, the pile of white card pieces are some bits that I cut to make more 5 1/2 in square cards like the two on my desk. I’ve cut the matt layers ready too. My stash of made cards is empty and I need to get the Card Factory going again! I shall make some more triple-embossed cards with these.

Towards the back of the desk beyond these cut pieces is the purple get-well card I made for our neighbour, and on the right of the desk you can see the little box, and some soap and bath melts with matching tags, ready to go. To the right of these is the purple paper. I have yet to make a basket to contain all the purple goodies and will probably use some of this purple paper for that.

In the centre of the desk is the card I made for my aunt’s birthday at the end of the month. Scroll down to the previous post for details of this.

Beyond that, at centre back, are my new Brusho paints. My friend Lucy brought up the Brushos she bought recently, and I decanted half into the little clear pots that I’d got on Ebay in preparation. All labelled now and looking nice and colourful, and a lot prettier than the original packaging!

I’ve got a lot on at the moment and only a few days to complete it before my next chemo treatment on Friday. This will be the penultimate one, with the eighth and final one being on 16th October. Not looking forward to either of them but on the other hand, can’t wait till it’s all over now. Then it will be more scans and blood tests to make sure they’ve got rid of all the cancer and hopefully a cancer-free start to the rest of my life!! It’s a bit frustrating having only one week in three when I can get anything done.

Watch this space for further purple goodies and some cards made with the new Brushos!

Happy WOYWW, everyone, and a good productive and creative week ahead for you all.

Dylusions Mixed Media Get Well Card

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 9.

This is the final thing that I made for Shaz before she went into hospital – until I had heard from her hubby that she had received it, it had to remain under wraps! I now know that I can share it with you.

I made her a get well card using a combination of Dylusions sprays and my new Dylusions paints. The colours of the two types of media match beautifully.

I began with a scrap piece of card which I had used for mopping up Peacock Feathers distress ink and Vibrant Turquoise Dylusions spray. It ended up pretty crinkled and distorted but I thought it would flatten out OK.

This is my honeycomb stencil laid over the top of the background piece.

Stencilling with Polyfilla One Fill (what our US cousins call joint compound) – a lot cheaper than artists’ moulding paste! I spread a little in random patches, using a palette knife, and scraped off any bits that looked messy, and then dried it with my heat gun.

The piece with the stencilled Polyfilla.

Lemon Zest Dylusions spray. A couple of quick bursts at the top, then spritzed with water and held up so it dripped down through the stencilling. Love the lime green it produces with the turquoise.

Repeating the process with Crushed Grape Dylusions spray. In each case I spritzed it with water to help it blend.

Coarse sea salt added, and re-spritzed with water. I left this for a few minutes to react, and then dried it with my heat gun.

The piece with the salt crystals removed. It creates gorgeous swirls and spots as the salt draws the wet ink towards itself.

The piece along with a couple of other pieces used to mop up inks from my craft mat. Fabulous backgrounds!

The addition of Treasure Gold gilding wax to the raised stencilled areas. I put on the barest minimum so that the colours would still show through.

Working on the base card, I began by coating it with a thin layer of gesso, using a foam brush, and then dried with my heat gun. The surface of the card is fairly absorbent, and the gesso prevents the paints sinking in, and helps them blend better.

The Dylusions paints, in Lemon Zest, Vibrant Turquoise and Crushed Grape. I used the Ranger mini-blending tools to apply them and blend them together, and after the first coat was dry, I applied another, and after each one, blended the colours using a baby wipe.

The finished base card. The colours do blend well together, creating new colours.

The stencilled piece stuck down onto the base card.

I found this amusing quote online and printed it out on the computer, cut out the pieces and coloured them with Antique Linen distress stain because the white card I printed them on looked a bit stark. I stuck them down with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive and outlined each one with rough lines with a gold gel pen. (After I had stuck them down I realised I should have used gel medium… dratted chemo brain!)

The inside of the card was inked with a selection of distress inks, using Inkylicious Ink Dusters, to echo the colours on the front of the card. Starting at the top left corner and working around clockwise, Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint and Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and Aged Mahogany. The centre of the card still looked rather white and stark, so I added some Antique Linen distress ink to tone it down.

I unscrewed the lid of my water spritzing bottle and flicked the tube over the surface of the card to spatter it with water droplets. I left it to soak in for a few minutes and then blotted it off with kitchen paper to leave the white spots, to create a bit of texture.

The final step was to add the sentiment, which was printed from the computer, coloured with Antique Linen distress stain, stuck down and outlined as before.

The backs of my cards usually seem to get a bit messy (I’m sure other people manage to keep the backs of theirs nice and pristine and clean, but I’ve never worked out how to do this!) and we are told that if you make a mistake, make a feature of it, so I did!

I inked the envelope to echo the colours of the card and its inside, and added the water spattering for a bit of texture.

I hope this card cheers her up in hospital, and at least raises a smile, if not a laugh! She loves very loud heavy rock music and I was delighted when I found that quote on Pinterest, and knew I had to use it for this card!!

Many of us on WOYWW have been following Shaz’s amazing progress in hospital as her hubby writes a daily diary on his blog. We continue to wish her well, and so look forward to the time when she is well enough to join us again. Meantime, take care, Shaz, and get well soon! We miss you.

Triple-Embossed Get Well Card

The second of two posts for today.

Feeling much better today, I was able to spend some time in the studio (two sessions!) and I made a get well card for our neighbour who had a serious accident some weeks ago.

I am making up a little basket of goodies for her, to cheer her up as she goes through a long recovery period. So far I have completed the little purple box which will contain a lavender sachet.

I had several sheets of boring printed paper in my stash which I gave the Dylusions spray ink treatment and I am using these for this project.

I have recently been re-exploring die cutting, something I have done very little of since I first started, and decided to make a double-embossed card front, using an embossing folder and an oval scalloped die to make a plain panel on which I could stamp the sentiment. This is a very effective technique and fun to do.

You begin by cutting two sheets of chipboard (I like using those card envelopes you get sent by Amazon) – it mustn’t be corrugated – to the size of the card you are going to emboss. You use a die to cut a window in them – if you run both pieces through, the die will cut the top one and leave an impression on the bottom one, which is the guide for placing the die to cut it. The window on each piece is then exactly lined up, and you can stick the two layers together. Hang onto the “positive” pieces because they are used later to help with the embossing. I used a Spellbinders Nestabilities scalloped oval die.

You then put your card in the embossing folder, and put the chipboard with the window in it on top, and run it through your die cutting machine (with the appropriate plates). The chipboard piece acts as a sort of mask – it presses down on the embossing folder and the card comes out embossed, except where the window was.

You can leave it like that if you want, but it looks much better with a bit more definition, so you run it through again, this time without the embossing folder, with the die with the cutting side away from the card, and using the tan embossing mat, and with the “positive” shape lined up on top to help give a good embossed impression.

There are lots of Youtube videos and tutorials giving details for individual machines so you can find out the sandwich you need for your own particular machine. I used my Cuttlebug.

That’s the “double embossing” bit completed. I then did the “triple embossing” – the third embossing is heat embossing. I rubbed my Versamark pad over the raised embossed surface of the card and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder to give a shiny, more defined surface, and also to act as a resist for further inking.

I used Dusty Concord distress ink with an Inkylicious Ink Duster, all over the embossed surface. I held the “positive” shape cut from the chipboard over the plain window to stop any ink getting there. Once this was done, I went around the edge with Chipped Sapphire distress ink, using a home-made blending pad.

Then it was time to stamp the sentiment. I chose “Get Well” from the “Perfectly Penned” stamp set by Stampin’ Up, using my stamp guiding tool to place it exactly in the centre of the plain, unembossed oval. I used Chipped Sapphire distress ink to do this.

Next came the matting and layering. The purple shiny paper is something I’ve had in my stash for ages, and it was a bit dog-eared – I think it may have come from a box of chocolates or something – it’s not great quality but a nice shiny metallic purple which I chose to go with this project. I matted and layered the card front using this, and some gold mirror card, each with a 1/16 in overlap.

I inked the card base with a combination of Seedless Preserves and Picked Raspberry distress inks, using the Inkylicious Ink Duster, and finished it off with a narrow inking with Dusty Concord distress ink, using the home-made blending tool for a bit more definition, before sticking the card front down onto it..

Now for the embellishments. I punched out a butterfly using part of the paper-glued-to-card that I’d used for the box, and some of the shiny purple paper – I put these two together and punched, because the paper would have been too thin to punch properly. I chose my Stampin’ Up butterfly punch for this.

I stuck the shiny purple butterfly down onto the card and then took the other butterfly, and inked the back with Chipped Sapphire distress ink using the ink blender, and then wrapped some gold coloured wire around the centre, twisting the ends together to anchor them, and cutting them to the correct length for the antennae, and then bending the ends into small circles with my round nosed pliers. I used the stamp from the Tim Holtz “Bitty Grunge” background stamp set that I used for the box, to heat emboss some texture in gold. I bent up the wings, and attached the butterfly over the shiny purple one, using hot glue. Once the card was finished, a put a little Pinflair gel glue under the wings to stop them getting flattened.

I chose two small hibiscus flowers from my stash that I’d made ages ago, and attached them to the card, on the opposite side of the oval from the butterfly, again using hot glue.

Here is the completed card.

Here is a detail shot of the embellishments.

On the inside of the card I inked the edges with Seedless Preserves distress ink and an Inkylicious Ink Duster, stamped the sentiment again, this time with Seedless Preserves distress ink, and added a bit of extra text with a dark blue Marvy le Plume marker pen.

I cut an envelope to fit this 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in square card, using my Envelope Punch Board. I used a piece of 80 gsm A3 printer paper which is unfortunately not very good quality. I inked the corner which would become the envelope flap, using a mixture of Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire distress inks, and then used two butterfly stamps from the Stampin’ Up set “Butterfly Potpourri” which I stamped with Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire distress inks.

Here is the envelope assembled, showing the lining with the stamped butterflies.

I then turned it over and realised my mistake in using such grotty paper! The stamping had come through to the other side! It didn’t actually look too bad and I thought I’d just leave it. Here’s the flap closed. I inked it with Seedless Preserves and Dusty Concord distress inks as before.

The stamping showed through on the front as well, but I thought it looked quite cool, so I continued with the inking, and added some Chipped Sapphire distress ink with the ink blender to finish off the edges.

Next time I shall remember I need to make a separate lining for the envelope if this isn’t going to happen again! I have to use this paper for envelopes because it’s the only paper I’ve got that’s big enough, unless I raid my 12 x 12 in stash, and this paper is rather thick.

Watch this space for more purple goodies to cheer up our poor neighbour! Here’s what I’ve done so far.

Packing Up the Goodies

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 10.

Many of my regular visitors have been justifiably very frustrated and impatient with me lately because I’ve been working hard on several secret projects that I wasn’t at liberty to reveal until now. With her permission, I can now reveal that I have been making stuff for Shaz. As many of you will know, she is about to undergo major surgery and has been through so much over the past year. She and her lovely hubby share the same birthday and I have made cards for them both, a get well card for her (still under wraps) and a selection of bits and pieces for her to play with once she feels up to being creative again. She opened the parcel on her birthday (14th Aug.) and now that she has received them I can share the making of them with you. Until now, I didn’t want to spoil her surprise as she visits my blog regularly. Throughout my own cancer journey, this wonderful friend has been such an encouragement and support to me, and this is one way I can thank her, and show my own appreciation and support. I know that she would love a visit from you to wish her well for her surgery on 2nd Sept.

I have been uploading a couple of posts each day over the previous few days until all was revealed. Please scroll down for earlier posts.

The get well card will get its big reveal once I know Shaz’s hubby has given it to her while she’s in hospital.

Having now completed all the cards and bits and pieces to send off, I was ready to pack them all up in a box.  I have received similar parcels in the past and know how exciting and what fun it is, opening them up and sorting through the contents, and feeling so good that someone has thought of me and wanted to brighten my day. This is what I want to do – to share a little joy and happiness during the dark days when problems abound.

Packing Up the Goodies

Here is what went in the parcel, in the order in which I made them.

Steampunk birthday card for her hubby.

Her birthday card.

Some embellishments made recently from the moulds I made, and some from my stash.

After making these, I painted the hearts and wings, and some of these went into the parcel.

I made several backgrounds/small masterboards from A4 card.

The first one was made using my new Dylusions paints, with the addition of some gold embossing.

The next one was one using Dylusions spray inks with a gesso resist, on a background of black gesso.

When I made this one, there was a lot of ink on the craft sheet, so I created another background by smooshing some card in this ink, and adding sea salt for an interesting texture.

The second one on a black gesso background was of butterflies in Perfect Pearls.

I made a series of small shapes from card which had been sprayed with Dylusions spray inks and heat embossed, which acted as a resist to the distress inks which I applied afterwards. I made two A5 sheets in this manner and then cut out various shapes with a knife and with punches. (I kept the very small circles).

I also made some in the same manner, stamping and heat embossing with white embossing powder, using my lace stamps, this time with a pale blue/turquoise background.

I used several of these heat-embossed shapes as labels to go in the small packages in the parcel, and the rest went in with blank backs. They could all be used as small embellishments in a variety of projects.

One of the lace motifs I made into a simple card to go in the parcel in the form of a letter.

Coming back to backgrounds/masterboards, I made three faux leather masterboards in brown, green and red.

Here are some of the small packs of bits and pieces I put in the parcel along with the above projects. Included is a shallow DVD spindle box containing a selection of flowers from my stash, all made by me over a long period, from pieces cut with my Cougar cutting machine. There is also a pack of a few silk flowers, some sentiments also cut with the Cougar; the Friendly Plastic embellishments, some butterflies cut with the Cougar, and a pack of miscellaneous die-cuts, charms, stick-ons and so on, most of which were given to me by other people and which I know I shall never use – if she doesn’t want them, she can pass them on in like manner. Got to keep this stuff moving!!

I also made up a selection of fancy yarns in approximately 3-4 yard lengths, which could be used to embellish tags etc. The colours and textures are vibrant and varied.

I rolled up the masterboards and secured them with a label from the lace shapes collection. Everything was packed into a pizza box which hopefully will preserve it all in the post!

I had in my stash a beautiful piece of tissue which I had sprayed with Dylusions spray inks when I first got them, and which was finished by a spray of Crafter’s Companion Spray and Sparkle – this paper is very richly coloured and blingy with the glitter spray. It’s been in my stash for so long and I still haven’t used it, so I thought it was time it went to a new home and perhaps would get used! I can always make some more. It wasn’t large enough to wrap everything up in, so I laid it on top of the stuff and tucked it in, tying a length of fancy yarn around the whole collection.

I found two strips of smooshed and sprayed backgrounds on watercolour paper, which were just too long to go in the box, except diagonally, so I tucked these under the yarn, together with the lace card I’d made. I think it makes quite a nice presentation when the lid of the box is lifted.

I wish Shaz and her hubby all the very best in the coming weeks and months, and hope this parcel brings her some comfort and cheer, and above all, some fun when she feels up to making things again.