Infusions Mini-Album–Additional Pages

Sorting through my Infusions samples and trying to arrange the pages into a satisfactory order, I realised that I probably needed to add a few. I had decided that I had far too many to make a single book, and divided them into three separate books which will all be bound in the same larger cover, but it was really hard to get them all more or less the same thickness. Some of the pages are simply glued back-to-back, and others are glued either side of a flattened toilet roll centre – these will have a tag inserted, which in turn will make the pages thicker. The middle book is quite a bit thinner than the other two, so I thought the simplest solution would be to add a few more pages, especially if I could add elements to thicken them up a bit!

Also, I needed one or two extra pages to make the pairings work properly, especially as I have to incorporate pages with the title of the next section.

The first additional page was made by dabbing Versamark embossing ink onto the page through a stencil – in this case, I used a piece I’d cut with Sheba, my Cougar electronic cutting machine, ages ago, to file away with my sample pieces with the machine settings I’d need to use for that particular medium. This worked pretty well as a stencil, but I had to be careful with the centres of the spirals which tended to lift a bit. I think I may use this file to cut a stencil from some other material as it’s quite nice, and with care, works well.

After applying the Versamark, I sprinkled some Sunset Beach Infusions from set 1, quite liberally, over the stencil. I spritzed this very lightly, with a fine mist from some distance above, so that it wouldn’t get too wet and flow under the thin sections of the stencil. I held it down as much as possible with my fingers, in addition to taping both the page and the stencil to my craft sheet with masking tape. After spritzing, I left it for several minutes to activate.

Here is the piece immediately after I carefully lifted the stencil away. You can see that the edges are sharply defined, and that it worked well.

After this I dried it with my heat gun, and brushed away any stray crystals that hadn’t activated.

The white background looked a bit stark, so I added some Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade and Abandoned Coral, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster, and then some Vintage Photo to distress the edges of the sample, using a home-made ink blending pad. I used this particular colour scheme to pair it with another page.

Here is the completed piece.

To bulk up Book Two a bit, I did another page with some gesso, this time stamping into wet gesso. For this, I used some of the stamps from the Stampin’ Up “Mosaic Madness” set, sticking them all onto an acrylic block and stamping them all at once into the wet gesso. I was careful to clean them off immediately after doing this, because gesso dries very quickly and I didn’t want to ruin my stamps.

I dried the sample with my heat gun and once I was satisfied it was dry enough, I sprinkled on some Violetta Infusions from set 2. I spritzed it until it was very wet, and almost immediately blotted it off with kitchen paper to create a pale background, with darker areas where the stamping was.

I spritzed it again, and tilted the card to move the Infusions around, making sure they pooled in the stamped areas, and then I added a very small amount of Infusions, and left this to stand, in order to activate them.

I realised that I hadn’t included my “mask and spray” technique, which I’d be sad to omit, since I think I invented this! I did it first with Dylusions spray inks, but thought it would also work with Infusions, which it did. I made two 12 x 12 sheets and I used nearly all of these when I bound my Mamhead mini-album at the beginning of this year, but I still had a few offcuts left, together with some flowers and leaves that had been used in the masking process, so I decided to use these in the Infusions mini-album.

This is a mock-up I’ve done to show some of the cut leaves and flowers laid onto a page made from the remaining leaf mask and spray offcuts.

Here are the four additional pages together.

All the pages I’ve completed have been flattened under heavy books, and stacked together with elastic bands into their respective three volumes. I need to make a few more pages for Book Two, and then the next step will be to make the title pages for each section, and then start on the tags. Once this is done, and the tags are all inserted into the right pages, I will be able to make the binding, as I will know how thick each page will be. When the three small books are bound, I can begin on the large outer binding. Still a lot to do, but now that the page organisation is pretty much sorted, the end is in sight!

Infusions Mini-Album–Finishing Recent Samples, and More Stamping

After the last session there were a couple of samples that needed further work. I had left the samples under heavy books overnight and for most of today and they are more or less flat now, although the one with the gesso texture still has a tendency to curl.

Looking at the weathered woodgrain sample with the crackle paste on it, I was delighted to find that where the paste was thicker, cracks had indeed appeared against my expectations. As it says on the crackle paste pot, this finish is fairly fragile so I handled it carefully. I applied the same infusions onto the sample again – Sunset Beach, Golden Sands and Black Knight – as before, creating a puddle on my non-stick craft sheet and using a fan brush to create horizontal brush-strokes, going over the top of the crackle paste. The Infusions settled into the cracks, showing them up nicely.

Once it was dry, I painted on a thin coating of soft matte gel medium to stabilise and strengthen the surface. Golden recommends that some sort of top coat is applied to protect it.

Looking at the gesso texture sample, I was pleased with how it had turned out, but decided it needed something extra, so I applied a very light touch of gold gilding wax over the raised parts. This is a lot more shiny and gold than shows in this photo.

Here’s a detail shot which shows the gold a bit better.

These are the recent samples I made, now all completed.

A while ago I noted down a couple of techniques I’d seen online, and decided to try them. The first was to stamp with Versamark or other embossing ink, and then to apply Infusions, stippling them on with a dry brush, and tapping off the excess. After this, the sample was lightly misted with water, taking care not to saturate the sample.

I used Olive Tree from set 2, and the stamp was from StampAttack’s “Real Leaves” set.

I was quite pleased with this result.

I did another one, using a ginkgo leaf stamp from the same set, and Emerald Isle Infusions from set 2, but the result was very unsatisfactory because the colour was too light. This technique obviously works best with the darker coloured Infusions – you can see from the above sample how subtle the result is. Also, I think stamps without too much detail work best. I am not sure this is a technique I shall use very often.

The other technique I found was to apply Versamark with a piece of Cut-n-Dry foam through a stencil, but I didn’t have any success with this so abandoned the attempt.

I think I’ve more or less explored all the different ways of using Infusions, apart from mixing them with paint/gesso/gel mediums – I’ll have a play with these and see what happens!

Purple Basket

Yesterday I made a little basket to put all the purple goodies in to give to our neighbour. I found the instructions for making this basket via Pinterest, which directed me to this blog. I decided to alter it somewhat – making it twice as large (a 12 x 12 in sheet rather than 6 x 6 in, and even so, it comes out quite small) and also to make a single handle rather than the two in this design. I am grateful to Rachel Ricks for her template.

Here is my piece of purple 12 x 12 card, scored and cut as per the instructions.

I cut several strips and panels to embellish the outside of the box. I made a bit of a booboo over this (more later) because I didn’t fully visualise how it was going to work!

I began by embossing these panels, using one of Tim Holtz’s embossing folders, “Damask,” and my Cuttlebug.

After this, I inked the raised embossing with Seedless Preserves distress ink, using my brayer.

I wasn’t happy with the result as the background was too pale, so I inked it with Dusty Concord distress ink, which looked a lot better. I did most of the inking on this project using Inkylicious Ink Dusters.

Turning to what would be the inside of the box, I thought the plain purple card was far too boring, so I smooshed a background using Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves distress inks, rubbing the ink pads on my craft sheet and spritzing it with water.

I felt it needed something extra so I decided to put my new Brushos to use, and sprinkled on some purple, and spritzed it with water. I am not sure whether this was a component part of the purple or whether the crystals had got contaminated with another colour, but some little gold flecks appeared which I really liked! Unfortunately the photo doesn’t do this justice – it looks really rich in real life.

This is a set of butterfly stamps I got a few months ago.

I heat-embossed these on the inside of the basket, using gold embossing powder.

Returning to the panels for the outside, I heat-embossed the raised embossed surface of the panels, applying Versamark with my brayer and embossing with clear embossing powder.

After this I added more Seedless Preserves distress ink to darken the background still further.

The final touch was to add some Treasure Gold gilding wax very sparingly over the embossed surface. Just the effect I was after!

It was at this point that I realised that I had not made any panels for the ends of the basket. I tried to remember what I had done, and they didn’t look the same at all! What I should have done was to look at the photos I’d already taken but I didn’t think of that… chemo brain… Anyway, I quite liked the result even if the panels did come out lighter than the rest – let’s call it “contrast” lol!!

I also realised that I should have cut the strips into short lengths to cover only the cut strips of the template, and not to have a piece going across what turned out to be the ends of the basket, so I cut off the embossed parts and disposed of the middle part. I stuck them down with my ATG glue gun. I had cut them 1/8 in smaller all round (apart from where they joined the fold) to give a matted appearance. The pale square in the centre is the bottom of the outside of the basket.

The next step was to assemble the box. If you look at Rachel Ricks’ blog you can see how it all comes together.

I glued the strips to each other in turn, and to the triangular flap underneath, trimming off the excess to give a nice neat edge.

Here is the basket being assembled. I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive which is a good strong wet glue. When I make this project in the future, I shall use this to attach the panels too, because as I flexed the strips to assemble the box, some of them started to come away at the edges and I had to squirt some of the adhesive between the layers to secure them.

I punched two pairs of circles to cover the join where the strips all came together, and also to cover the backs of the brads to attach the handle.

The larger circles were cut with a 2 1/2 in scalloped circle punch and the smaller ones with a plain 2 in circle punch. I embossed and inked these as before.

I folded each circle in half before sticking them together, and then stuck half the circle to the outside of the basket on each side.

To make the handle, because my Cuttlebug embossing folders are not long enough, I placed the narrower (1 in wide, 11 3/4 in long) strip onto the opened embossing folder and hand embossed it with a ball embossing tool. I could probably have folded it in half and embossed it in the normal way because the fold wouldn’t have shown once it was stuck down to to the other piece, or embossed each end in turn, but it looks OK. This narrower strip was cut from the same pale mauve cardstock that I used for the panels.

The wider piece was 1 1/4 in wide and 12 in long, cut from the same purple cardstock as the basket. I rounded all the corners with a corner rounder punch and stuck the two layers together with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, curving the handle as I went, so that the two layers would stick together in the correct curve without any separation or buckling. I chose two decorative brads to attach the handle to the basket.

I made a hole on each side through the half circle and all the layers, and discovered that it was much too thick for the brad to go through and its ends be spread apart to attach it. I therefore got my craft knife and carefully trimmed away some of the layers until I was satisfied that the brad could be attached securely.

Once this was done, I threaded the brads through the ends of the handle and attached the handle to the basket. The final step was to fold down the other half circles and glue them in place, hiding the trimmed away layers and the brad backs.

This finished the basket apart from a few little embellishments to go on the handle.

I punched three butterflies with my Stampin’ Up butterfly punch from some of the altered purple paper stuck to a layer of card, and chose the Tim Holtz Bitty Grunge set of background stamps to heat emboss them in gold.

Here are the completed butterflies. I had inked them on the backs with Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves distress inks, rubbing the butterflies directly across the ink pads.

I made a bow from purple ribbon, using my bow maker, and stuck this to a cream and gold bow I already had in my stash. The final touch was to add a little “made with love” heart charm in gold. All the embellishments were attached to the handle of the basket with Pinflair gel glue and left to dry overnight.

Here is a detail of the embellishments.

The completed basket with the gifts inside.

Today I made the lavender bag to go in the little box, and picked some lavender from the garden to make a nice little spray to go in the basket. I was hoping to make a small notebook with some of the purple paper I have left, but unfortunately there was no time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This afternoon we went across to see our neighbour and she absolutely loved her little basket full of goodies – she said her favourite colour was purple and she loves butterflies – both of which I knew! So nice to hit the spot and shed a little happiness – she’s had some hard knocks recently.

I am delighted that this little basket is just large enough to take the square card I made, and the other bits and pieces too. It makes a nice presentation of a collection of small gifts, and it’s definitely a project I shall be doing again. Thank you again, Rachel, for your lovely design. I hope you approve of what I have done with it!

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.

Boxes for Calico Lavender Bags Part 2 Butterflies and Bees

The second of two posts for today, continuing on the subject of the boxes I made for the calico lavender bags.

Butterflies Box

I began by heat embossing the inside with two different butterfly stamps, using gold embossing powder.

On the outside, I stamped using my archival inks, using small butterfly stamps, exactly as I did on the lavender sachet, and distressed the edges lightly with Vintage Photo distress ink, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster.

I repeated the distressing with Vintage Photo on the inside, this time making it a bit bolder.

The completed box.

 

Blue Butterfly Box

I really like this box – the simplicity of the design and the colour scheme.  The shape of the box lends itself quite well to single motif stamping, set off by the line around the shape of the box piece.

I began by stamping two larger, and two smaller, butterflies where they would show on the outside when the box was assembled, and went around the edge with a blue marker pen. I lightly distressed the edges with Broken China distress ink.

On the inside, I stamped with blue archival ink using my favourite swirl stamp, and repeated the outlining and distressing as for the outside.

The completed box.

 

Bee Boxes

I made three of these, and began embossing with gold embossing powder on the inside, using all the bees from Stampotique Originals.

I used the small bee to stamp repeatedly all over the outside of the boxes, using sepia archival ink, and outlined the pieces with my Faber Castell Pitt artist pen (medium thickness).

The completed boxes. I added a little doodle to the top of each box.

These were all the boxes I completed yesterday. Here is a group photo. Smile, please!