STILL DISTRESSED!!!!

It's no good. I've tried, but I just can't put my Distressing Inks down. I am just loving them at the mo. I really like blending the brighter colours, but yesterday and today, I thought I'd let my dark side come to the fore. This first one was inspired by my Graphicus newsletter and it's backed with some paper from them too. The stampbord was inked, stamped and scratched back and then I brushed my Versamark pad along the edges, dipped them in embossing powder and heated. The green back was 'bugged', inked with Peeled Paint and then lightly touched with Versamark and gold embossed. It's not a 'clean' piece as I have some stray embossing powder but I like the effect it gives.


Now this one, I thought would make a great card for a bloke. A little dark, yes, but it's what I wanted. This time I inked my card with 3 colours before 'bugging' it. When it was dry, I lightly rubbed my sanding block over it to bring out some highlights. The beauty of the Distress Inks is that you can layer them, so when you sand back, the underlying colour comes through where you have more than one colour of ink. I can't even remember where I got my watch stamps from, but I love them too.

FAILING MISERABLY...

I really am. I've had my new monogram stamper and alphabets for nearly a week now and I haven't yet been able to get one stamped right. They looked so easy when I saw them being used, so I'm a bit gutted. I get uneven ink impressions and very, very inky fingers, which of course doesn't make sense at all, lol. The ink is practically hidden from the rubber. Added to that, I've already lost a 'Y' from my baby alphabet. Still, I shall plod on and I WILL get one right.

The good news though, is that my article on my Polymer Clay Pendant (a similar one to the pic I posted here on August 24th) is now with the typesetters and should be in the next issue of the Polymer Cafe magazine.

So, what have I managed to get right? Well, I'm still very much into my distressed inks, so I made an ATC using them and some tags for a tag swap.

For the ATC, I used a Graphicus stamp again and in the centre I added Diamond Glaze and some tiny clear holeless beads for texture. The background was stamped with a stamp from Crafty Individuals.

The purple tag I made by using Versamark clear ink and then just dabbed chalks over it. The butterfly was done in the same way, and 3D mounted. The tag on the left was stamped and heat embossed using clear ink and powder and after I'd put my distress inks on, I ironed the tag to melt the embossing powder leaving a smooth, white image. An old trick, but neat, eh? A bit more DG was used on these too. The one on the right was sprayed with Glimmer Mist after inking and the embellie was stamped onto Grungeboard.

BOXES AND BUGS...

I haven't used my Cuttlebug for a while so today I'd thought I'd run up a card with it. The greeting is stamped with a Inkadinkadoo Personal Impressions stamp using an Encore metallic ink pad in Honeydew and then clear embossed. Fiskars border punches were responsible for the edging. The card is actually very smooth, but the scan seems to have picked up the paper weave.


Some time ago, I was into making cards with matching boxes and this is two of my particular favourites. The 'cherish friends' was for my best friend and I also made the pearl bracelet for her. It was one of the rare occasions that I used a kit, but I just loved the papers and the colours.


For the wedding card, my customer wanted something a little different so I came up with this idea. I was very pleased with this. It was made with pearlescent burgundy and cream cards and all the elements were cut on my CraftRobo.

HINGES, STAMPING & STUFF

Oooooeerrrr!!! I've been a bit slack again, haven't I? Still, I have been busy doing lots of crafting.

I finally got my stamped images put onto cards and they've already gone to a new home. I've also been playing with all the yummy Inkadinkadoo stamps that I got from the US. There are so many combinations, no two cards need ever look the same. I've always been a bit dubious about clear/polymer stamps but these really do perform well. They stamp a lovely detailed image. I've done some scrapbooking too, but as I'm not overly pleased with the way the LO's turned out, I'll not show you those.

I won another ebay auction too. This time for 10 sets of MSE alphabet stamps, also from the US, so I'm waiting for those to arrive. Unfortunately, I didn't look at the picture properly and most are of the same set. Doh!!! Still, I'm sure I'll find homes for them.

I started a tag swap on my craft forum, so have made a start on those and I've also completed another month's CJ pages. This month's theme was 'Around the World in 80 Days' and as my passion is India...well, lots of lovely pics of there.

My fave bit of work though, was a Piano Hinge Book. As I made it I took photo's and wrote a tutorial, so if you like it and would like to make one for yourself, you can find the instructions on The Canny Crafters HERE. I did say that I wanted to use my layered stamped image from my gorgeous Graphicus stamps on a book, and so I did.

I've also been playing with my Prisma pencils. I found with these that most cards worked well for the blending with the Sansodor and surprisingly, one of the best was a pearlescent card from Craft Creations. Unfortunately, I found that the card from Graphicus didn't work well and that was surprising too, as it's such a smooth card. It's a little too porous for the Sansodor. Mind you, for stamping, it's superb. It takes an image as sharp as a tack and it's also brilliant for making the cards themselves as it's such good quality. It's also excellent for blending distress inks, as I did with my layered book image. The ink saturates the card without seeping right through and blends really smoothly.

Finally, I have a bit of a penchant for monograms developing, so I've treated myself to a monogram stamper from Justrite Stampers. I'm really looking forward to that arriving. I think monograms look lovely with a scalloped circle behind them, so I looked at the Nestabilities and then I thought that rather than spend more money, I could (and should) use my Craft Robo to cut them, so I will. In between all this, I managed to cook the odd meal too, lol.