The crafty countdown now stands at 34 days remaining

Good afternoon crafters.  Owww it's cold.  This house has old rubbish windows, and the wind is cutting today isn't it.  Who has snow?  There's not a spec in the sky yet here.

Well, today I seemed to drift away from masculine cards again - it was the colour of the inks I was drawn to (yes, I'm blaming an ink pad!).  I started with a nice big stamp, which is another one from Wendi Vecchi, and embossed with clear embossing powder

I then used two cats eye ink pads, one is a brilliance, and one is a versamagic.  I used the direct to paper technique - literally wiping the ink pad onto my card stock.  The embossing powder acts as a resist, so you can still see the colour of the card stock under the stamped image

Next I stamped a solid border at the top and bottom of the card, and embossed it using white embossing powder.  I liked the way the image I had already embossed reacted - it seemed to emphasis it

I then picked a flower stamp, which is again a solid rubber image (as opposed to an outline image).  This allowed me to build the colour of the ink on the stamp.  So I stamped with the teal first on the stalk.  I then inked the flower head in pink, and added a tiny bit of yellow on the top.  I used the teal to just edge the petals - and then stamped onto plain white card

I cut out the flower, attempting to leave a tiny white border. I just popped it on the background to see how it looks

I cut the card down, and then added a little white and yellow ink just under where the flower is going to sit.  This just allows me to knock the colour back a little.  As I now seem to be into tissue tape, I added a little bit under the flower, and inked it with white brilliance 

I found a piece of embossed card, and added it to the left of my panel, and then glued the panel in place

To finish my card, I glued the flower in place using Pinflair glue.  I added ribbon at the top and bottom of the card, and then the stamped sentiment.  I also used my cosmic shimmer PVA to add little dots, where there are circles on the stamped image

When I finished the card, I randomly spritzed it with MoonGlows Scintillating Silver - just to see what it did.  It just gave it a nice subtle sparkle

The Crafty Countdown continues - 64 days to go

Evening readers.  So, to prove I don't plan (sometimes very annoyingly!!), this little placque morphed as I played and changed my mind.  Trust me, I do get really fed up with myself when I go off something!  It makes a quick project a thing of dreams.

Anyway, the inspiration this time was another MDF placque, and some little hearts.  I thought about what I wanted to do whilst I was trotting round the field with the dogs, and then set to work:

I decided to use a combination of paints, a lovely Lime green, lavender and haystack.  I applied them with a sponge, overlapping the colours slightly.  I then overstamped using a large line stamp, and black ink:

I also used a stamp to create a scalloped border at the top and bottom of the placque:

I then completely fell out with it, as I thought it looked to dark.  So, I added a layer of gesso, and then repainted the MDF.  I then stamped using a blue Distress Ink Paint:

Still wasn't happy!  Honestly, the paint layers.  So now I applied the blue paint from the left, and then dragged white paint in streaks across from the left, and then the right: 

That's better. Phew.  I painted my hearts with white paint, the lovely lime, and the same blue acrylic paint.  I used a swirl stamp "falling off" the placque:

Quite liked this, so decided to pop one on the other side, and then arranged the hearts to see what it looked like;

Still happy!  I looked at the blue heart, and realised the stamped image would look good continued onto the heart, so removed the other embellishments, and stamped onto the heart whilst it was in the finishing position, so I could get the stamp in the perfect position:

I edged my white and lime heart with the blue paint, and the blue heart with white paint.  Happy with my positioning I decided it was time to add a sentiment.  I stamped on white card, and then used the ink pad, which I had used for the scalloped borders, to create a piece of background card with perfect matching colours.

Matt and layer these together, and shape so you have movement in the flag.  Now I decide I want to add more lime green to my placque, for this I used a lid from my water brush. I dried it off a little with a heat gun, and then dragged the paint slightly.  I also painted the top and the edges of the placque with the lime green:

Next I added my ribbon at the top of the MDF placque, and tied two knots on the top of the placque:

Almost there!!  I added the borders, the hearts and the sentiment - but then I decided to add a little detail.  I used my drawing pen to add faux stitching to the borders; swirls to the heart:

And then, to emphasis holes in the border, I used a pipe cleaner.  This is perfect, as the size is right, but also the tiny little hair give it a bit of texture.  I got carried away, and then added lime green circles to the heart with the pipe cleaner!  Blob the paint on and twist the stick!  It looks great:

Finished.....apart from glossy accents on the Vision and the word Heart (this will still be wet in the photo's, but will dry completely clear.  I hope you like it.  I'm chuft with this one....finally :)

The Crafty Countdown - 68 days to go. Time to get inky

This evening I was inspired to do something because of a scrap of card sitting on my desk...this scrap in fact:

It might not seem particularly inspiring, this piece of white card with glittery dots, however I thought "will those glittery dots resist ink"

With that, I picked up my Cosmic Shimmer Colour Cloud Blending Ink, and my new favourite, my ink smoothie.  Love these little ink sponges, very cool!  I blended 4 different colours over the card, and look how those glittery dots pop:

I the took an old, but favourite, stamp.  It's a Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz design, and very beautiful, for an ATC it's a big stamp, however, so I needed to cut it down and use it in a different way to make it work:

I decided to do two cards, slightly different.  You can see the stamp, above, and the way I've used it to get a different effect.  

On one card I've over stamped the image using the blue Colour Blend Ink, on the second card I've used the lovely glittery pens from Spectrum Noir, and blended some rich sparkle into my stamped image:

I then stamped my sentiment stamp, one onto white, and then one onto a scrap of my inked card.  I mat and layered the sentiments, and then added them to my card:

68 days to go.  Do you know, doing this really does bring it home just how fast time flies!!  Gulp :)