Mixed Media Cards- Part 1

Right, this is the post I promised last week, but I got sidetracked by the ear rings in the previous post.
I'd cut a whole pile of cardstock with an assortment of the Tim Holtz Mixed Media dies, with the intention of being able to batch make a load of cards, but still have them all different.

First thing to do was sort out backing sheets for them, and this was also a bit of a stash buster, as I have loads of alcohol ink/oil pastel/blended ink/brusho background sheets- you know how you make up a load at the time while you have everything out? Yeah, that.
 I started off matching each die cut with a background individually as I made the card, but that seemed to take forever, sorting through all the coloured sheets each time, so I swapped method and paired them all up first, then got down to the sticking bit.

One bit of advice to bear in mind before starting, if you want to heat emboss a sentiment onto your die cut pieces, do that before you stick down your backing sheet, as heat & glue do not play nicely together!

There may have been a little mess made during the die cutting, lol.

Another thing to note, is that a couple of the dies do tend to leave slight edge marks in places I found. This may well depend on your machine, of course, some applying more pressure than others. The Lattice die in MM set #1 I found the worst, and no amount of shimming or such made any difference.

First set of backed die cuts.

Second set.

Sets 3...........................

....................and 4.

Fifth batch.

And the last three.
 By using a bunch of different colourways, I can swap out what I make up each card for.



 On to the cards then. the first couple are both using a  5x7 card base, and I turned both into Sympathy cards.

Anyone else remember these paper blox? I have a few, this one has darker shades, and I have one with pastels in, as well as some that were about 9"x2". Bought many years ago at the NEC, I think the packaging says Craftwork Cards. First one I chose is a dark blue with a gold sheen to it.

I trimmed the whole panel down to fit the card base.
 Sentiment next, and this was just stamped in a dye based ink.
These were the three I found that sat best with the cardstock colour- I also found the labels are not a very good representation of the colour.





 I stamped with all three on scrap, and there was really nothing to chose between them, although you'd expect the Paris Dusk to be the darkest.
In the end I went with the Versamagic Night Sky.

Foam tape added to the back so it would have a little dimension.
 I get my foam tape from Poundland- you get one roll- slightly larger than what you can see here- and I think about 10 sheets of foam pads, which have around 25 pads per sheet, in the pack. Bargain. 😀.

Finished card, with a few small white flowers added, along with a couple of punched fern leaves.

Oh, the sentiment stamp is from Inkylicious, by the way.

The second one is similar, but uses a purple sheet of backing paper, has a few more flowers, and a  Sincere Condolences stamp from Phill Martin, a set called Chic Floral Occasions Borders.












Next up I stayed with a 5x7" card base, but this time for a Thank You card. This die cut is from the Mixed Media Halloween set, a nice Brocade pattern. I've backed it with a bright blue pearl paper, and you can see I've used liquid glue in and around the pattern, as this die I found tended to warp the cardstock when it cuts, and the result doesn't lie flat on your backing paper. I used the Tombow Mono Multi glue, as this dispenser has two nozzles, one end has a chisel tip that spreads the glue over a wider area, the other has a fine nib for detail work.

I put it aside under some acrylic blocks so it would dry flat, then used Versafine Deep Lagoon to stamp the sentiment, which I think came from a Penny Black clear stamp set. I added a row of tiny acrylic gemstones under the sentiment, and again added it to the card base with foam tape.

The next one was backed onto an orange/yellow Alcohol Inked background, and I found a similar sheet of orange cardstock for the mat.

The sentiment, a New Home one, comes from another Phill Martin set called Mini Baroque Occasions. I stamped this in Archival Tiger Lily, and added some orange acrylic gems for a spot of bling. The card  base was a 7" square.
 This Flourish die comes from Mixed Media set #2, and is another that needs glue on the back of the design  to hold it flat.









Final card for this batch, and this one was backed with an orange & gold Alcohol inked sheet.The die is from Mixed Media #1, and the sentiment from Phill Martin Mini Baroque Everyday Sentiments.

Made a schoolgirl error here- the cardstock is a pearl white, and I forgot to dust it with an anti static bag first, so had stray flecks of EP inside the design. The only solution was to restamp and heat emboss, then use a layering die to cut it out and add to the card front, with foam pads. The die is from Spellbinders Labels 8.





So, with my error nicely covered up, I matted it on to a dull gold card,added some orange acrylic gems again, and matted it onto a 7"square card base.



As this is so picture heavy, I'll stop there, and do another post tomorrow with a few more.