Flower Tiles

Started out at a bit of a loss for what to do with these tiles I had on my desk from the WOYWW 99 post- I have done so many square cards this week, and of course, that was the first thing to mind, looking at the image. So instead I went with a vertical strip, matted first onto black. Decided I didn't like that, so un-matted them, and went with dark green instead. Then I had trouble finding the right backing paper- everything seemed too busy for these images. Finally came across a pad of papers, Laura Ashley Traditional,and the very pale green with the white flower seemed to work, and also made me think of lace- so went digging in my box of lace pieces, and added a strip of this to the front.
I've enlarged & cropped the picture here, the lace is a little difficult to make out against the pale background. I used spray glue to attach the lace. I lay anything I need to spray in my bin, on top of a scrap piece of paper, then spray it. No mess anywhere else,lol.
While digging around for the lace (which prompted me to find it a box of its own), I spotted a roll of pearl string, which I bought from a discount warehouse in Birmingham, from their florists dept.
     By the way, thats a good place to visit if you have one of these places near you- you'd be amazed at what you can find, especially the floristry part- lots of Bridal stuff, which is what this pearl string was for, masses of paper flowers, petals, ribbons, all a lot cheaper than you will get  anywhere else.
Anyway, back to the card! I wrapped the pearl string round a couple of times and knotted it towards the top.

Now the top right looked empty!
This card was really starting to feel like a battle of wills- I was determined to finish it, and it was fighting me every step of the way- normally I would put a project to one side when it feels like this, but I really think that if I had, I would keep putting off going back to it- besides, I refuse to be beaten by a piece of paper, (I was in a stubborn mood). I probably needed coffee, lol.
Off on an embellishment hunt then. Didn't want too big, or too fussy, and finally I came across these little pearl hearts. I bought these a few years ago, at one of the Hobbycrafts shows at the NEC, thinking ' ideal for Wedding cards' , and I think I have only ever used a couple. So, I attached these with a little silicone glue. I also used silicone glue to attach the stamped panel to the front, because of the lace.
Final bit was a sentiment, and I used a Whispers Words stamp, by Docrafts, 49701 Birthday Wishes. The Ink I chose was a ColorBox Catseye Pigment Pad, in Verdigris and stamped this along the front edge of the card.
At Last! Finished. Yay!!!

WOYWW #99

This is my desk this week,starting with the completed card I was working on.I'm back with my favourite colour theme- Black, lol.

The base card is white pearl cut to 15cm square, scored & folded then sprayed with black webbing.I wanted to do a monochrome piece, and went for the trickier option of white stamping on black!

I tried a few images using different inks & embossing powders, and these are the results.
The greyish looking face section in the top left is White Staz-on & White pearl embossing powder. The music score, script and the tickets are all White Staz-on, no embossing, apart from the bottom left one which has a little embossing powder on it. The other three face sections are Moonlight White Brilliance ink, and White Detail embossing powder, which was much more successful.






However, the combo I finally went with was good old
Versamark and White Detail powder.
 I got a much more solid white print with this. These are leftover pieces from the various images I stamped, and as you can see from these and the card,  I cut them a bit randomly to give some movement to the compilation.

These are some of the stamps I used for
the images.I can see some Paper Artsy,
and some from Stamp Francisco.
I punched out some images,and cut out others to the width of one of my Clear rulers (which happens to be 3 1/2 cm, or 1 3/8in. ),which is the same as one of my Woodware punches, so it was easier to vary the orientation.You can see the punch in the bottom left of this picture.

I chose 9 of the images which seemed to work well together, and matted them onto white card with a gap between them then matted this onto black card, both trimmed to leave the same border. I gave the base a couple of blasts with black webbing, then tied back and white organza ribbon in a knot around the left side when it was dry.
The rest of my desk looks like this:


                             



There are some black on white images cut to the same size, so I can do an opposite version, and the flower panel is a stamp called Mixed 3 Square, F1276, from Impression Obsession.

 I came across these while looking for stamped images I could cut down. I stamped them ages ago, and never got round to using them.

So out came the Promarkers, and this is the result for one square. I have separated them into individual tiles and also covered them with Anitas  3D Clear Gloss Finish, which is the same as Glossy Accents, as when I had finished the colouring, I was reminded of Victorian tiles. Thats my desk for this week, so off to the Lady Julias domain to view this weeks offerings, and a Happy WOYWW to everyone.

WOYWW #93

Happy WOYWW, pop over to Julia's blog at The Stamping Ground to join in,if you are new to this. So here is my desk for today.
The stamps I have used are four Botanical plates, unmounted, and I have had them for a few years, and long since forgot where I got them from, sorry. A few months ago I made up some crackled background paper to use  with stamping, and I thought the botanicals would work well. I used watercolour paper, I bought an A3 pad from The Works (Yes, I know I shop there a lot!). The first coat of acrylic was a pale yellow/ brown, which I got by mixing white and Wheat. This was coated with a layer of crackle medium, then an off-white top coat. I stamped in a mix of inks, Versafine Sepia & Olympia Green, Adirondack Espresso, and Memento Tuxedo Black.Just staring the painting process now, using H2O's, will be trying Promarkers, and maybe watercolours on some of them.
As I haven't got any finished projects, and haven't been shopping anywhere to find any bargains, I thought I would share one of my absolute favourite craft books with you this week.I'm sure I'm not the only one who has occasionally ordered a book, only to get it & open it and think, hmmm is that it? Wish I hadn't bothered.
Well this book definitely does NOT fall into that category.

The title is  Paper Transformed, A Handbook of Surface Design, Recipes & Creative Paper Projects, By Julia Andrus. The link will take you to it on Amazon.It contains an amazing number of techniques for ways to transform paper with paint, ink, pearls, glosses, glazes- you name it, its here.

All the finishes and effects are displayed as tags, this one shows 'cosmos paper'-simply put, a tag is inked, covered in Perfect Medium (or Versamark works the same) , and coated with UTEE 3 times. Then coat once more with medium/versamark, lightly brush on Perfect Pearls/ Mica Powders. Then sprinkle with UTEE again, and start heating from a distance, so it doesn't blow away. As it melts, bring the gun closer.The micas begin to sink into the UTEE. I have done the three first layers, then coated again with Versamark, flicked on some mica powders, sprinkled with UTEE and heated. This worked the same, and I didn't have to worry about the UTEE blowing away.

A page on overstamping, gilding and crackle effect.

There are pages on ageing, distressing and creating fake metal looks and effects, like rust/verdigris etc.

Batik effect

The last half of the book has projects using the effects & techniques shown in the first half of the book..

The book is 174 pages long, and every page is a delight.

There is something for everyone, and all the techniques are explained clearly in at most half a dozen steps, so they are not difficult, but they ARE all stunning. Even the cover is full of scrumptious looking projects, and unlike some, they are not just showing the best from the book on the cover!

This is one book that comes off the shelf regularly, and I guarantee it is an investment you will not regret.( You could always put it on your Birthday wish list, lol.)It costs just under a tenner on Amazon,which seems the average price. By the way, Julia Andrus has her own website,which I found earlier, and it looks stuffed to the gills with wonderful ideas.