Emergency Crafters DT card - Saturday 2nd March

Good Morning Friends!

Yesterday was a write off as far as much more prepping for the workshops and craft fair is  concerned, but it was a really enjoyable day!

 I walked over to Chipping Sodbury to meet two dear friends for lunch in a wonderful deli we have there. I left early so that I could call in my friend Amy's shop..she had just had a delivery from Crafty Individuals, one of my favourite stamp Companies, so it I had a rummage..I love them all, it would have been rude not to buy one wouldn't it? :) I also got one of their masks and some inks, plus a birthday present for my dear friend Paola in Italy...even though her birthday isn't for a few months!

Then I met Grace and Genevieve...we all used to work together at the charity I still work for...Grace went on to work for a Carers Centre for a while and after finishing her Phd, Gen became a lecturer at Bristol Uni. Grace and I see each other fairly regularly, but we hadn't seen Gen for 5 years..anyway, it was just like we were all together just last week - it was lovely!

Now to today's card, which is my Design Team card for the new Emergency Crafter's Challenge..it has a wonderland theme, but if you want to enter a card or project featuring rabbits, that's fine too!

When I had my Dreamweaver stencils out earlier in the week, I made two backgrounds with the clock and cogs..this time I used bronze paste and a mixture of micas again and heat embossed until it bubbled, but used a bronze matt metallic card. I matted and layered this on a bright blue card and a base layer of the bronze.

The White Rabbit is  from Indigo Blu's Alice in Wonderland Stamp set 2. He is stamped with black archival and then heat embossed with clear powder to give him some shine. I wanted him  to compliment the blue layer and also to jump out from the background, so I coloured him in blue, yellow and red promarkers. I adhered him to the front of the card with a long armed brad and he does actually turn around like a  clock hand. 

The quote is from a Polkadoodles Wonderland stamp set, I heat embossed with clear powder after stamping on cream card and colouring with Vintage Photo. Then I scrunched it up a bit to give it a worn look. I used to 'screw' brads to fix it to the card..just a bit of fun...

Thanks for stopping by, you can find details of the challenge over at Emergency Crafters

Have a great weekend,

Carole  X

Sunday Stampers week 232 - Tuesday 20th November

Good Morning Blog Friends!

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments about my Dreamweaver Tutorial, I'm really pleased you liked it and found it easy to follow, I hope some of you will have a go, it really is a fab technique. Welcome also to my new follower and thank you so much for joining me on my crafty journey!

I've been missing a few days, because I simply ran out of 'made' projects, or at least ones I had photographed. I simply can't make enough cards or projects for a daily post, certainly not at the moment...tis the season for catching up with friends and relatives outside work, so less time in the craft room! I've also been busy with Design Team makes - I am really excited about my next Fantastic Ribbons one, it took ages but I really like it -and that's all I'm saying for now!

I did however make my Sunday Stampers project for this week, actually on Sunday! This week, after working with Tim Holz's new stamps (Did you hear his phone call when Hels was on C&C last week? Wow!!), one set featuring the most amazing face, Hels set us the task of creating a project with a face.

This led to a frantic search through my stamps and I found three....an Inventor from a Steampunk set that I've used a lot, a 'Venetian' lady that I only recently bought, haven't used and am not 'sure' about and this one that I finally decided to use: 'rocket scientist' from Paper Artsy. I have had this very small stamp for years and never used it...so this had to be the time!

So, I've made a grungy steampunky tag...to begin with I smeared Antique Bronze Distress Stain over the tag, followed by  a  mix of Vintage Photo, Tea Dye and Wild Honey  distress inks. I then went all around the edge with the distress stain.

Next I stamped randomly across the tag using the Thomas Edison quote from Sam Poole's Vintage Inventor stamp set by Creative Expressions (at this point I was still poised to use the face of the inventor from that set). For those of you not familiar with the set and are interested, the quote actually reads:

"I have not failed 10,000 times, I have found 10,000 ways that do not work". 

I wanted it to be quite faded so I stamped a few times on scrap paper before inking the tag.

I stamped the 'Rocket Scientist' using black Archival ink, which I then heat embossed using black embossing powder. It's actually quite a 'grainy' stamp with lots of black areas and it embossed really well. The photo doesn't really show how raised it is in reality and the result very tactile.

The word 'Inventor'  and the light bulb from the Sam Poole set were stamped next. I coloured the bottom part of the bulb with brushed pewter distress stain and then inked the word and the bulb with Vintage Photo - then - although it doesn't really show here, I opened my new pot of Ranger Rock Candy Crackle paint and brushed it quite thickly over both the bulb and the word. Again, pictures don't do it justice, it is really fab stuff, I can't stop running my fingers over the cracks!

The cog is part of a 'Special Touch' mask that I inked with Perfect Medium before running through the Grand Calibur and then heat embossed using  a black sparkly embossing powder. I cut it out and just arranged it at the side. To finish off I added some Ranger pewter brads from my stash box and some ribbon and lace which I grunged up a bit with distress inks.

Phew! That was a lot of description for such a little tag!

Thanks for stopping by,

Carole X

Sunday Stampers week 231 - Birds - Wednesday 14th November

Hello Blog Friends,

First of all welcome to my new follower and thank you for following me! Please leave a comment when you visit, I really do appreciate and read them all.

Today it's Sunday Stampers time again and this week Hels Sheridan has set the theme of Birds, one of my favourite things! I actually had a lot of ideas, the cute stampavie stamp I have used on here sometimes, using a stamped background with my Spellbinders cage dies..but in the end I decided to go all Steampunk again and use the Steampunk Christmas stamp from  Sam Poole (Creative Studios).

My taste in cards, in fact all the craft and paper craft I make, is very eclectic...I'll go from the cuteness of LOTV and House Mouse to the grunge of Steampunk at the twinkle of an eye...well it keeps me on my toes at least!

I actually made this card late last night whilst watching Hels bring us Tim Holz crafts on Ideal World, so that's my excuse for it being a bit 'thrown together' this week..how could I concentrate whilst drooling over all that Tim temptation and Hels' amazing creations and demos?????

Have to say Hels, if you read this (I know you will be even busier than usual with the shows), I had promised myself that I wouldn't buy anything else from anywhere crafty before Christmas, but you do too good a job! The Rock Candy and adhesive frosty film are on their way! I've got to say that there couldn't have been a better person to bring Tim to us last night...well done Hels!

The base card is kraft card and to begin with I used a cogs mask from 'That Special Touch' and inked it with versamark before putting it through the Grand Calibur. Then I heat embossed some transparent holographic powder over it, just to give some sparkle to the background. I stamped the steampunk robin, 25, 'Christmas' and the festive lightbulbs and coloured the robin with metallic silver and grey promarkers before cutting him out. Then I used a versamark pen over the top hat and 25 and heat embossed using tinsel red embossing powder. The lightbulbs were coloured in with glitter gel pens.

Finally, used the Sprightly Sprockets Spellbinders dies with some cardboard from packaging and coloured them with Ranger Brushed Pewter metallic distress stain (yes there is some Tim on this card!) and arranged them on the card with the robin perched on the middle...all a bit of fun!

No much crafting time for me today, I'm actually having the 'day off' to meet a friend for lunch and do some Christmas shopping and then tomorrow it's back to work..catch you all later and thanks for stopping by!

Carole X

Steampunk for the Girls! Friday 30th March

Hello!


Normally I would be saying thank goodness it's Friday, as it's one of my non-work days, but this week Friday signifies that  the end of my week off work is near and I have to go back to the office on Monday! Oh well, it's been a great week of crafting with a little bit of enjoying the sun in between, so I can't complain!


Steampunk - what is it? I think it has slightly different interpretations for all of us crafters. To me, it means something that life would have been like had we not experienced the technological revolution (Sam Poole put it really well on Create and Craft yesterday, but I'm going to have to re-check my recording for the exact words. However I remember thinking that were are on the same wavelength about it!). The Industrial Revolution really set the Victorians imagining the future in weird and wonderful ways and that's what Steampunk is all about..I wonder what the 22nd Century version of Steampunk will be looking back at us? I doubt it will be as interesting, as things progress so quickly now that there is little room for such vibrant imaginings....anyway I digress!


I'm very girly in my card-making, but in the way that I like cute images, ribbons, flowers and muted pinks and purples, browns, greens...I love 'distressed' and shabby chic, not hugely bright colours or lots of glitter. So this is probably why I prefer to embrace  the more feminine side to Steampunk and this is my take on it....

The background is a "That Special Touch of...' Mask (Cogs). I used dark cream card and put the mask through my Grand Calibur. I then shaded the edges and slightly 'into' the card all round with Vintage Photo distress ink. The greeting is from  Sam Poole's 'Inventor' Stamp set, stamped with Vintage Photo on to Kraft Card. The flower was made using the Spellbinders Floral Creations die set (all the flowers layered). I used the old book I got from a charity shop and distressed the edges of some of the layers. It's held together with a metallic brad.


The mannequin is chipboard from Craftwork Cards, bought in a pack at my lovely local craft shop, Out of the Blue (Chipping Sodbury). I covered it with paper from the book and distressed it with Vintage Photo.


I cut the Wings from the Fanciful Flight Spellbinders die set, using brown card which had been stamped with a Script stamp from Lilli of the Valley. The little toppers in the corners are the 'waste' from this die-cut.


To finish off and carry through the Steampunk theme, I added the clock, hanging from a brad which has the effect of a screw - both from Creative Expressions. Just to soften the card a little, I finished off with sheer ribbon.


I still believe (and this is only my opinion) that Steampunk is something that a lot of us crafters really enjoy playing with because there are no rules, no limits to the imagination...but in the end, it's just for us to enjoy...well, there is so much Steampunk craft stuff out there, but has anyone seen a Steampunk style card for sale commercially - even for men? I've never been commissioned to make one either.  I still occasionally look at cards in shops just to see what's about and it's not something I've seen...maybe us crafters are just a few years ahead of everyone else!


Thanks for stopping by!
Carole X

Thingamajig! - 1st March

Good Morning to you...and we are in March already!


As promised, my second foray into the world of Steampunk and this is the real thing. I said that this week's cards are all projects made so that I could use new additions to my craft room and today's is extra special.


Just after Christmas I was lucky enough to be a Card Candi winner on Sue Wilsons blog. As Sue was just about to leave for the US, she asked me to choose a stamp and she would post it on her return. I love Sam Poole's stamps and saw this as a good excuse to try the Vintage Inventor Stamp set, so this was my choice and it arrived a few weeks ago...so here is  my first project using it!

The base layer is cream card which is distressed with Antique Linen distress ink. I stamped the inventor, 'Thingamajig' and the three cogs on to some Kraft card and from the remainder of the cream card I cut two dies from Spellbinders Edgeabilities Classic Postage stamp. These fit together nicely down the spine side and the edger at the top of the card is the 'waste' from the other die-cuts. I distressed all the edgers with Vintage Photo, quite deeply and roughly to emphasise the worn, industrial look.

I had some screw style brads in my box (I think they are Tim Holz) and I added three of these to the bottom of the card and one to the centre of the flowers. The little cogs are from a bag of watch parts I got really cheaply rummaging in a shop somewhere! I made the flowers using pages from my charity shop book and using the flower creations and peony Spellbinders dies, which I distressed slightly with Vintage Photo. The leaf is cut with my Cricut.

Although this is a male card, the flower and ribbon soften it a little. My final touch was adding  Olympic Gold Cosmic Shimmer to the holes created by the die to complete the industrial theme.

Carole X

For this card I used:

8x8 base card, cream card stock and Kraft card

Vintage Inventor stamp - Sam Poole 

Cosmic Shimmer PCA

Screw effect brads

Spellbinders: Edgeabilities Postage Stamp; Peony, Flower Creations

Distress inks" Antique Linen and Vintage Photo

Ribbons and brads from stash