Playing with Punches

As I have been having fun with the Tim dies for the Tattered Florals, it reminded me that I used to use my punches to do similar things.




 As you can see, I punched loads of different flower shapes out of various papers, even mulberry paper.

  This works best if you 'sandwich' the mulberry paper between ordinary copier paper, the mulberry is too flimsy on its own and just tears rather than punches.

I'm using a large ball embossing tool and an old mouse mat to give the flowers a little shape.

 
 


 Then its just a matter of layering them up together
 in various combinations. I use a little Glossy
 Accents, or silicone glue for this bit.






 Final touch is the centres, I use either Glitter Glue, Stickles or Glossy Accents with either seed beads or loose glitter.



Last but not least are the leaves- again these are mainly punched from mulberry and handmade paper for effect. This fern leaf punch is by Woodware.

 Here's a card I used a small selection on- a better size for this project than the Tattered Florals.

Pink Birthday

Made for our niece, who is very into pink! Its also a version of the monochrome card further down. All the stamp credits are the same, with the exception of the Happy Birthday, which is from Butterfly Kisses,Art Collage clear 2 you sheet. Stamped it twice, on one I just coloured in the letter with an embossing pen, added embossing powder & heated, then coloured the surround in pink marvy marker, went over it with the embossing pen then with pink embossing powder.The embossing folder is Cuttlebug Birds & Swirls, and this I put through the Cuttlebug upside down, so the image is debossed, rather than embossed. This is a useful way to get some variety from your embossing folders, and works with anything that does not contain words.
The tartan panel was stamped with Distress ink, Worn Lipstick.

Mulan

This was named after the film that gave me the inspiration. Its an Asian cinema film, and if you don't like subtitled films, it's not for you.It seems that the modern dog-tags worn by soldiers are predated by the chinese army by a couple of thousand years- I assume they were made of bamboo, but carried the name of the soldier, so he could be identified. In a scene in the film, Mulan is washing these tags taken from dead soldiers, to remove the blood, before they are returned to their families. The main tag was made by painting dark brown acrylic paint & crackle glaze onto card, then a lighter brown for the top layer. The Asian lettering is from a Great Impressions stamp(#K50), and the warrior from Non Sequiteur plate 67C.Both were stamped in Staz-on Black. I dabbed some red ink onto the stamped tag.The medium tag was made by triple embossing a tag dabbed with black ink, then stamping in Kanji characters in gold Encore. The red tag had oriental letters stamped in black on a red background, triple embossed then a different Kanji stamped into it. I chose the Kanji's for Strength, Honor and Courage, as these seemed most appropriate.Kanji stamps by Stamp & Go (SIEWKFS01B.). The base paper is a torn piece of snakeskin effect paper, which reminded me of the texture of the armour.A small coin, a couple of bits of cocktail stick and two pieces of raffia combined for the final embellishment. Oh, I threaded some thick cord through the tags, and made a small bead out of Black Fimo to thread on to it. The base card was stamped with a Bamboo motif, in Versamark. I have entered this in the 'Cards for Men' challenge at The Stamp Man Blog.

Describe Her

A sheet of A4 white pearlescent was creased & folded and used in landscape format. A piece of black pearl paper was embossed with the Swiss Dots folder & Cuttlebug, trimmed to 6x10cm and the corners rounded. A piece of black embroidered paper was cut to the same size and rounded. Butterfly Kisses Stamp 'Tartan Background'(BK1006F) was stamped in Black Versafine onto white cardstock, trimmed and rounded. These three panels were mounted onto silver grey card leaving an equal gap between them, then the grey card cut to just fit the card front and corners rounded.

A length of black organza ribbon was wrapped around the panel and tied in a bow before being stuck down with DST across the centre of the card.  Artifacts stamp 'Describe Her' was stamped in Black onto white pearl card twice, then cut and rounded. A piece of silver vellum was cut about a centimetre larger than the words panel, corners rounded then embossed with the D'vine swirls folder. The word panel was matted onto this, then mounted across the three panels on the front of the card. 

The lady is from a set by The Glitter Girls, and is stamped in Staz-on onto acetate which has been given the 'Caught in Crystal' treatment. She was then mounted to the left side with silicone glue. The sentiment was stamped in black, and comes from an Elusive Images themeplate.

 Caught in Crystal:  This is messy, so cover your workspace with newspaper first! And wear gloves too! Take a sheet of acetate (I use OHP transparencies, from Staples) and pour a couple of tablespoons of Johnsons KLEAR floor polish onto it. Add a few drops of re-inker colours, or alcohol inks, and spread with your fingers or a spatula across the acetate.

Don't mix too much, or you will muddy the colours. If you wish you can sprinkle in some glitter, gold leaf, even seed beads, but remember the lumpier you make it, the harder it will be to get a good stamped image. You can of course stamp your images first, then flip it over and do the floor polish stuff, however this makes it harder to determine where your images colours will be. When you are happy, take a sheet of tissue paper (the sort used for gifts, not the paper hanky type) and either scrumple it up, open out and pat down onto your ink/floor polish mix, or just lay it on flat and pat down. I use any pale colour of tissue, it doesn't have to be white. Just pat down with your fingers- don't press, or you will push the colours around. Now put aside to dry- this may take a day or so, depending on temperature. If you do find it difficult to get a good stamped image, you can clean Staz-on off acetate with Staz-on cleaner & try again, and you may find it helps to put a stamping mat, or mouse-pad, underneath.

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.

Rose Panel Birthday

The image is from Elusive Images, Rose Stem Script . 
Coloured with H2O's. For the base I used a copper card, and a bronze piece of cardstock was run through the Cuttlebug with the D'vine swirls folder. I cut this to an oblong, then rounded two opposite corners.The image was stamped on white cardstock with Gold Encore Inkpad then heat embossed with Gold embossing powder.I trimmed this panel down, then cut three similar sized panels from fancy handmade paper. I arranged all four panels in a cascade down the cuttlebug embossed card, held inplace with DST. Gold ribbon was then wrapped around and tied in a bow before the panel was attached to the front of the card with DST.

Sunset Birthday

For this card I covered an A4 folded blank with a sheet of embroidered handmade paper, for texture. I lay the two strips of ribbon across the paper first, and held them down with DST before attaching the paper to the card blank. For the image, I brayed a piece of white cardstock with Adirondack Lemonade, then added a sun mask from a post-it note.Next I brayered Sunshine Yellow then Sunset Orange( Adirondack) then removed the mask. The Seedhead stamp (from Craftfairy .co.uk) was stamped in black three times, not re-inking between impressions and also varying the height of the image.Birds stamp is from Lavinia Stamps and again is stamped in black across the 'sun'.Trimmed down to size, this was matted onto Bronze then Black glitter paper( Hobbycrafts), leaving the Black longer. I stamped the Happy Birthday again in black onto  some of the offcuts from the image, and matted onto more glitter paper.

Ophelia

The image is called Ophelia, by Stampsmith. She is available facing left or right. I bought both versions, from Blue Moon Crafts in Stratford on Avon. She is stamped on an Alcohol ink background, made with Denim & Stream, with Silver Mixative.Stamped in Stazon Black. Trimmed down and mounted onto silver then pale blue card. Base card is an A4 sheet of pearl white card (PDA card & paper) scored and folded in half, then the front scored and folded in half again. One edge is dry embossed with the Emboss to Impress board and blue & clear flatback acrylic gems stuck into the circles with a little silicone glue. The left hand side of the card is covered with blue handmade paper with a glittered surface decoration. Two layers of ribbon are wrapped around the folded back front half of the card and secured in the middle, under where the main image will be placed. The image is then mounted, stuck down only to the folded back portion of the card.

Happy Birthday

3 strips of mulberry paper in brown shades torn to size('draw' the lines with a wet paintbrush & pull the piece apart to give the feathery edge).Stuck to card base with DST. Piece of mesh adhered to this with spray adhesive. I put it on a piece of scrap paper in my waste bin to spray it. The vase shape was cut out of card and embossed with a wavy line from a stencil. Leaves and small flowers are both paper punched. I stuck two flowers together with PVA glue, twisting the top one so it filled the gaps of the lower one.I also put a dab of PVA in the centre of the flower and left it to dry for a couple of minutes before adding Glitter Glue to the centres.I tried putting just Glitter Glue on the paper, but it came off when it dried, but stayed put with the PVA.The wires were coiled around a pencil and stretched out a little for shape. I decided where the vase was going to be then put a large blob of silicone glue down and stuck the ends of the wire into that before putting the vase over the top. I also used blobs of silicone to hold the wires where I was going to put flowers.A small piece of mulberry paper adhered to a piece of handmade paper and the sentiment added.