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.

More Faux Leathers

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 8.

This is the second of two posts today.

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 shall be uploading a couple of posts each day over the next few days until all is revealed. Please scroll down for earlier posts.

More Faux Leathers

I have made three more sheets of faux leather, this time A4 size, as mini-masterboards, and decided to try doing some different colours. One was the classic brown that I’ve done before, but this time I didn’t use the yellow ochre, and the other two were green and red respectively.

Here are the materials for the green one.

I chose Hooker’s green for the main colour, as it is a nice rich dark green, and sap green for the dry brushing.

For the red one, I didn’t really have the colour I wanted, so I got out the various shades of red that I do have, and also some black in case it needed darkening.

Here are the sheets after their first coat, drying, each with their respective paints.

As before, the brown one’s main colour is burnt umber. For the green one: Hooker’s green. For the red one, I used the whole small tube of crimson red from a very cheap and nasty little set of acrylic paints that I started off with – I’ve had them for ages and can’t remember where they came from – when I squeezed it out onto the palette it was like water, and then at last some more solid paint came out! I mixed it all up well and it took the whole tube to cover the sheet. The colour is more or less OK, though, and it will all get covered with subsequent layers. This red one was more experimental than the others because of not having the exact colours I wanted.

Here are the faux leathers with their respective paints, after all the painting was complete. With the brown one, I decided to leave it plain after the dry brushing with the burnt sienna, and not add the yellow ochre which gives it a slight tan tinge, and I did not add any gilding wax.

The green one looked very rich with a light touch of Treasure Gold gilding wax in the raised creases. As someone said, to get the right effect, you need to touch the surface as if it’s red hot when applying the gilding wax, and this is good advice because that way it prevents you from being too heavy-handed and getting the gold anywhere but on the raised surface.

As predicted, the red one proved more difficult to get right. I added a dry-brushed layer of alizarin crimson, and then cadmium red, but the whole thing still didn’t look quite right, so I made a dark wash with black and alizarin crimson, which I brushed liberally over the surface and let it run into the creases. I repeated this with more black in the mix until I got the right look. I was concerned that all that water would make the card disintegrate so I was careful not to handle it until I’d dried it with my heat gun. The result was pretty fair at the end! It had a lot of layers of paint, dry brushing and washes before I was satisfied, and again it was given a lovely rich look by the application of some Treasure Gold gilding wax. The red one also proved the most difficult to photograph to get the colour accurate – in this photo it looks a bit brown.

Once all the leathers were painted, gilded and fully dry, I was able to apply the acrylic wax. After much experimentation, this is my preferred finish for faux leather. It gives a gorgeous rich, shiny, polished surface once it is dry and buffed with a soft cloth, like the patina of old leather. It goes on quite milky, but dries clear and shiny. Fabulous stuff! I have seen it applied to stitched teabags and they look like old leather!

Here are the finished leathers with their application of buffed acrylic wax.

Unfortunately in these photos, the gilding no longer shows up! It is still there, though, and they look sumptuous and rich. You can see a little of it in this detailed shot of the three leathers.

This is such a fun technique to do! I recommend it to everyone. You can use it for the backgrounds for cards (it is especially useful for those perpetually tricky male cards we are all called upon to make from time to time!); book covers, to cover boxes, for scrap book pages, etc. etc. You are only limited by your imagination.

Suggestions on a postcard, please, on how to make this stuff actually smell like leather!!

Perfect Pearls Butterflies Background

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 6.

This is the second of two posts today.

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 shall be uploading a couple of posts each day over the next few days until all is revealed. Please scroll down for earlier posts.

Perfect Pearls Butterflies Background

This another background or small masterboard that I made to go in the parcel I have sent her to cheer her up at this difficult time in her life.

I used several butterflies from my Chocolate Baroque set “Just Butterflies,” and also my swirl stamp by The Stamp Barn, CFLR 021 I.

I used an A4 sheet of white card which I had painted all over with black gesso (you could use black cardstock), and stamped the swirl and butterflies with Versamark. Using a soft brush, I picked up various colours of Perfect Pearls and applied this mica powder to the areas made sticky by the Versamark. Once they were all done, I spritzed it lightly and from a distance with water, to set the Perfect Pearls but not to make the card too wet. Some of the butterflies are unfortunately not as distinct as they might be, but I think the overall result is pleasing – against the black background the Perfect Pearls shimmer beautifully and the colours are rich and intense.

This small masterboard can be cut up and used in project such as card making or scrapbooking.

Background with Gesso and Dylusions

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 5.

This is the first of two posts today.

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 shall be uploading a couple of posts each day over the next few days until all is revealed. Please scroll down for earlier posts.

Background with Gesso and Dylusions

One of a series of backgrounds or small masterboards (A4 in size) which I have made to cheer up Shaz, who is going through the mill at the moment.

I saw a couple of videos on Youtube recently giving details of this mixed media technique which I thought I would adapt to my own use.

These are the materials I used to create this background.

You could use any black cardstock (glossy is best) but I painted a sheet of plain white card with black gesso.

To add anything with a sponge, it really helps if you hold the sponge like this, as it avoids any obvious lines being formed.

I added white gesso through a piece of punchinella (sequin waste), moving it around randomly and not covering the whole surface, leaving some of the black gesso exposed.

I sprayed a little of each of the four colours I eventually chose from the Dylusions spray inks collection – Bubblegum Pink, Postbox Red, Squeezed Orange and Pure Sunshine– onto my non-stick craft sheet.

I picked up these colours on my brayer. I would have done better to spray two at a time, and closer together, because the strip was wider than my brayer, and the colours ended up getting more mixed than I’d hoped. This is the first time I’ve tried this, so one lives and learns!

I applied the colours to the background sheet with the brayer, reloading it when necessary.

The finished background.

There was quite a bit of ink left on my craft sheet after this, so I spritzed it well with water, and took another sheet of white cardstock and smooshed it in the ink to pick it up. I ran the brayer over it a few times to distribute the ink, spritzing it well with more water.

I sprinkled the whole surface with coarse sea salt and spritzed it again, and left it for a while.

When it was getting dry, I dried it further with my heat gun and removed the salt.

It was rather buckled with all the water so I left it overnight with heavy books on top of it to flatten it out a bit.

The completed background.

I love the effect of the sea salt. It’s very organic, and quite unpredictable so no two pieces are ever the same. I think this one looks a bit like octopus skin!

Birthday Card Using Gold Seahorses Masterboard and Acetate

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 2.

This is the second of two posts today.

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 shall be uploading a couple of posts each day over the next few days until all is revealed. Please scroll down for earlier posts.

Birthday Card Using Gold Seahorses Masterboard and Acetate

My gold seahorses masterboard is diminishing in size rapidly! I don’t mind, because this is what I created it for. I have made a birthday card for Shaz, using this masterboard, this time cutting three strips of masterboard of varying lengths, and arranging them vertically on the card.

This card is quite three-dimensional and has plenty of varied texture.

The pieces of masterboard laid onto the base card to show the positioning.

I matted and layered the masterboard strips with some slightly textured gold card. I did not want this layer to be too dominant but I needed it to be visibly gold, so I chose a card which was not highly reflective.

On the middle one, you can see I made a boo-boo when trimming the gold card, but this will be covered up later so it didn’t matter.

I rummaged in my stash and found some scraps of acetate which would suit my purpose.

Using my alcohol ink blending tool, I applied three shades of alcohol inks to the acetate pieces (Adirondac Stream and Clover, and Piñata Sapphire Blue) and dropped a few drops of alcohol blending solution to create the lighter patches, with the size of the patches diminishing with each layer.

On the third one, I added the alcohol blending solution onto the applicator instead, which produced the smaller circles.

Here is a mock-up showing the layers of acetate in place. At this stage only the upper edge of each strip has been cut in undulating curves to represent the waves of the sea.

I then cut the bottom edge of each strip into curves like the upper edges, as these would show through the layers above.

I toyed with the idea of adding some of the narrow offcuts of acetate to the top of the card, because the top is rather devoid of interest and I do not want to create an unbalanced card, but I soon abandoned this idea and put these pieces in my stash to be used on something else.

Beginning to ink the background of the card base. The other night I watched a brilliant video on how to create a random-looking mixed colour background, using the corner-corner-side method. I had never heard of this before, but basically you take your first colour and blend it into two corners on one side of the card, and in the middle of the opposite side. I began this with Broken China distress ink.

I then chose Evergreen Bough distress ink and proceeded to blend this into the opposite corners and side of the card, more or less filling the gaps.

The final step was to blend in some Peacock Feathers distress ink to fill any gaps, and a light brushing over the whole surface to integrate the background. I am thrilled to have discovered this technique as it gives very good results.

Unfortunately the photos don’t really show up the subtleties of the colours or of the blending.

Here is a mock-up of the card, duly inked, with the three strips of masterboard and the three pieces of inked acetate. Being transparent, you can see the wavy outline of the bottom of each piece through the layers on top.

I stuck down the masterboard strips with double sided tape, and then the top layer of acetate using a little tacky glue at the sides.

Laying down the second layer, I wanted there to be a gap between the layers, so I used Pinflair gel glue to lift the piece proud of the background. You can see the glue very clearly in the photos, but in reality it is not so obvious.

Here is a detail, you can see the blobs of gel glue on the right.

Most people use their Pinflair glue in a syringe. However, I no longer do this, because I can go several weeks or months without using Pinflair glue and if you don’t use up the contents of the syringe pretty quickly, it sets in the syringe. I find one has a lot more control if one squeezes a little glue out of the tube and catches it with a cocktail stick, which is a useful implement for applying the glue and for getting the blob the right thickness. This glue takes a long time to dry, but when it is dry, it remains crystal clear and has a rubbery texture, so it is very useful for dimensional pieces and I usually use it instead of self-adhesive foam squares. I also use it to prop up flower petals and the wings of butterflies to prevent them from getting flattened, especially on cards that have to survive the ravages of the post; being transparent, it really doesn’t show.

Here are all three pieces of acetate, stuck down with Pinflair. Both edges of the second layer are supported by a blob of Pinflair on the bottom layer in the middle, and the top layer is supported on the middle layer, at the one-third and two-thirds mark, to allow the tag to go between them and sit in the centre of the card.

I added some stickles (glitter glue) in three colours: turquoise, green, and star dust, following the curves of the waves and adding some spirals in the turquoise and green. I used the star dust to go along the edges of the waves. I placed the spirals over the blobs of pinflair glue and they disguise them very well. As usual, the camera has failed to pick up the blinginess of this!

That was the front of the card pretty well finished. I now moved on to work on the tag, and found this happy birthday sentiment in my box of small things cut using Sheba, my Cougar cutting machine. I have not had this up and running for a long time, and am glad that I still have some pieces in reserve.

I heat embossed the background pieces with gold.

I inked the sentiment words with Peackcock Feathers distress ink.

I glued them onto their backing pieces using Crafter’s Companion Stick & Stay spray adhesive which allows a bit of repositioning before setting in place. You can see my home-made spray booth in this picture!

The completed sentiment pieces.

The tag was inked in the same manner as the card base, using Broken China, Evergreen Bough and Peacock Feathers distress inks, as before.

Here is the back of the tag, inked as the front, with some water droplets having been spattered onto it.

The finished tag, showing the different yarns and ribbons that I used to complete the top. I wanted to capture the essence of seaweed and I think the selection works well. I stuck the sentiment down onto the tag using tacky glue, paying particular attention to where the word “Birthday” has to dip down and make contact with the surface of the tag between the two vertical strips. I added a few spots of Stickles to the sentiment, and a small charm to the top.

The completed back of the tag with its water spatters. I love how one spatter has run down and made a trail across the tag.

I also made an ATC to celebrate the 6th anniversary of WOYWW which happened this year – our weekly blog hop when we visit each other’s work desks. I did not take part in the ATC swap but thought I’d add one to this card.

I wrote the text with my embossing pen and heat-embossed it in gold to match the seahorse, and rubbed my Versamark pad around the edge of the ATC and heat-embossed that in the same way, resulting in a nice distressed-looking border. This ATC was made from a fragment of the seahorses masterboard which I’d cut off when doing another project, and it was fractionally too small, so I mounted it with double sided tape onto one of my ATC backing pieces with the details on it – before sticking the two pieces together I inked the edge of the backing piece with Milled Lavender distress ink which echoes the colour of the water droplets on the background. The face of the backing piece was inked with Peacock Feathers distress ink to match the front.

This is the completed card front without the tag. Originally I was going to put the sentiment at the top right of the card but then remembered it was going on the tag, and there was rather a blank patch in that area, and all the interest at the bottom made the card look a little unbalanced, so with a dark blue marker pen I drew some flying birds.

Here is the finished card with the tag, and the ATC tucked in behind.

I spritzed inside the card with water and sprayed some Dylusions spray ink along the top in three patches: London Blue, Fresh Lime and Vivid Turquoise. I spritzed it again with water and held the card up to let the ink run down, and then I blotted it with kitchen paper.

I was rather proud of myself that I didn’t get this ink all over the front of the card!! I am such a messy worker that I knew I was taking a huge risk by spraying all this liquid on the inside!

The sentiment was from my stash. It was cut with my Cougar cutting machine ages ago from American Crafts cardstock and I stuck down with Crafter’s Companion Stick & Stay spray adhesive. I wrote the message inside with a green marker pen.

I repeated the spray inking on the front of the envelope.

Happy birthday my dear friend! – and to your lovely hubby too.