4 Birds Birthday Wishes

This stamped image I've had knocking around for ages. Its stamped in Versafine Onyx Black, and the background was created on photopaper using Alcohol Inks. They were streaked on, using a blending tool, rather than the normal 'tapping' or 'pouncing' method.
 I cut the image down, just leaving a narrow border, and then it has sat in a drawer since, as I couldn't decide how to use it.
 Recently I bought a cardstock pad, Black Magic, which has a Black coating over different colours of cardstock. This pad comes in a few different sizes, 6x6,12x12, and the one I have, 4.25x5.5.
 Now I have to say, I have never really been a fan of sanded dry embossing- it just doesn't do it for me, and that of course is the idea behind the coated cardstock. So not really sure what possessed me to buy it- probably the fact that it was Black :).










 
Anyway, I thought I would use the Birds & Swirls Cuttlebug folder on a sheet, to tie in with the birds in the image.





  So I ran it through the folder, and when it came out, in places the coating had split, revealing the green beneath, which didn't actually look too bad.I found the little bit of sandpaper that comes with it to remove the surface, and gave it a bit of a wipe over, and rather liked the detail it revealed.

The image was mounted on top with DST, a Birthday sentiment stamped in Black & heat embossed onto a scrap added below it.



I trimmed it down to the edges of the embossed panel, and matted it onto a piece of coloured Kraft cardstock, as they had the same sort of surface finish. This is a 4.25x5.5 pad too.

I matted the image onto a green sheet of this, then onto a black base card.

A few flowers made from punches finished it off.







Supplies:
4 Little Songbirds Stamp, Crafty Individuals CI-184
Core'dinations Black Magic Pad
Kraft Core Pad
Cuttlebug Birds & Swirls Folder
Onyx Black Versafine
Assorted Flower punches.

WOYWW #204

Time is really rushing by this year, isn't it? May is here, which means I need to get started on my WOYWW 4 ATC! Not long till the crop,either. So, once again under the watchful eye of our Leader, freshly rested from her hols, Julia at The Stamping Ground, we embark on this weeks shameless display of crafting mayhem.
So here it is, in all its untidy glory, my desk this week. I sort of convinced myself that when I had a bigger desk, I'd have more room to move. Doesn't work like that though, does it? No matter how big the table, we still end up working in a space the approximate size of the project.

I've been making a batch of cards using the glittered panels, all in the previous posts, and am now trying to use up other images I've had stamped up & unused since who knows when.
 The 12x12 sheep of paper is from the Chronology Papermania pack, all steampunkey. There are a few Crafty Individuals images there, along with assorted odds & ends.So a very short & sweet post this week, and I'll be visiting this morning before work, then back at it tomorrow! Have a great week everyone, catch you later.

Happy Birthday Marg

This card couldn't be posted until today, as it was for my co- Mother-in-Laws birthday, known to all of you as Silvercrafter.  The Crafty Individuals 4 Birds stamp was stamped onto an alcohol inked background, made using Lettuce,Meadow & Espresso ink. The larger panel was sponged with a variety of inks, then overstamped with a selection of grasses stamps. Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug in the Birds & Swirls folder. Both pieces were matted onto dark Burgundy card. The backing paper is a Kay & co one I have had for a long time, a 12x12 piece which features the meaning of flowers.The base was covered with a word printed vellum, and a label cut from Nesties has a stamped sentiment. I added three flowers, together with a couple of skeleton leaves.

4 Birds

This one is really quick & simple. I made 4 squares of embossed card, Cuttlebug Script and  Quickutz diamonds and attached these opposite each other onto light blue card. This was matted onto mid blue then dark blue card. I attached this panel to the front of a square cream card. The 4 Birds, Crafty Individuals CI 184, were stamped in Black Staz-on onto an oil pastel background, made in blues. I mounted this on top of the matted card, then tied a dark blue ribbon around the spine.

WOYWW #89

Two cards on my desk this week, both using Crafty Individuals stamps.The card on the left uses the 4 Birds stamp, CI 184, and Owl Postage, CI 225. Both were stamped onto an oil pastel background made with yellows and browns, using Staz-on black. I cut the four birds into individual images, and trimmed the owl stamp down to the postage stamp edge. I matted this onto gold card, and trimmed down to leave a border, using a stamp edge blade.  I then cut a sheet of gold card to size slightly smaller than the card front, which is an A4 sheet of cream linen card scored & folded, and used landscape format. I cut the gold card into four sections and added some matching paper from the Papermania Earthtones pack. Two panels had very narrow brown ribbon wrapped around, then all the images were put in place, sticky tabs used on the two bird images that overlap the owl. A small greeting was added to the final blank section.
The card on the right  uses CI 001, dragonfly postal stamped onto an oil pastel background made with blues & greens. A sheet from Papermanias ' Antique Cream' paper pack was used to cover the front of the card, then I tore 8 strips from toning mulberry papers, and attached these in a wave across the front of the card. The stamped image was matted onto a scrap of dark blue card, and trimmed down to leave a very narrow border. Two dragonflies were made using Fusible Fibres and the dragonfly on the stamp. These were attached with silicone glue.8 small flowers were punched from pearl paper, in toning colours, and paired up, overlapping the petals, and secured with a yellow brad, again attached with silicone glue.
How to make the oil pastel backgrounds is shown on one of my pages.

I thought this may be of interest to anyone with a Tesco nearby. I went in earlier this week, and in their £1 promotion area, I found this pack of 10 DL size storage wallets, like the sort sold for storing peel-offs. I thought they would be really useful for scraps and offcuts of paper/ spare stamped images/etc, and ten for a quid is a real bargain! So much so, I think I will be getting another couple of packs when I go in again- you can never have too much storage, can you?

And talking of storage, here is how I store my brass stencils- photo albums intended for 7 x5 photos, they cost me around £2.50each, again they came from Tesco, in one of their end of line sales, I think. I have adapted some of the pockets, dividing them down the middle with a row of staples, or in some a row across the centre, then cutting a slot in the side, depending on the size/shape of the stencils.

Triple embossed birds

The 4 Birds stamp from Crafty Individuals stamped onto an oil pastel background then trimmed down. Mounted onto thick card and dabbed with a clear embossing pad then triple embossed. Dark blue card used in landscape format and a strip of dark blue angel hair paper stuck across the middle, with a slightly narrower strip of embroidered handmade paper placed across this. The bird squares are mounted with silicone glue. 3 Square brads added to the top left corner, and sentiment ( Stick & Stamp magnetic stamps, Rubbadubbado) stamped in silver in lower right.
By the way, if you stamp onto an oil pastel background, either use Staz-on ink, or spray with sealer (or hairspray) to prevent the image being smudged.

Memories

I cut & folded a white card blank to 14 and a half cm square then covered the front with a sheet from Crafty Individuals Book 4 Trees background paper pad. Next I brayered a piece of white cardstock with Encore Enchanted Evening Inkpad, which is  a purple, pink,blue and green metallic rainbow pad.I overstamped this sheet with parts of a tree and the phrase Whispers in the wind (CI 209), and postage marks (CI 124) and others from Stamp Francisco. A separate piece of cardstock was patted with a Versamark pad then  dusted with mica powders.Onto this I stamped the 4 Birds stamp from Crafty Individuals (CI 184) in Black Versafine. I cut the birds out, layered onto the rainbow sheet and cut into tags. A hole was punched in each tag and an eyelet added, along with some fancy wool fibre. I mounted two of the tags with DST and two with foam pads. The phrase 'Memories' was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black along the front edge.

Backgrounds

Four different backgrounds for the same stamp, 4 Birds, ( Crafty Individuals).
Top (L to R) Brayered dye ink on glossy photopaper, Oil pastels on matt paper.
Bottom(L to R) Mica powders on matt paper treated with Versamark, Alcohol Inks on glossy card.