WOYWW #219- The Birthday Edition

Happy Wednesday everyone! An especially Happy Wednesday for me & Beloved Hubby- todays our Birthday! Yes, we have the same birthday. How cool is that?
 Actually, a lot of birthdays this month-we have a whole Pride of Leos in our family. I counted them up while I was making cards- 11 close family, and no less than 7 friends!You couldn't fit that much ego in one room, lol. Some special ones this year too- Beloved Hubby is 40, a niece is 21, grandson Mortimer is 13 and a friend is 50.
Which is why my desk contains these:

The  Leo Hall of Fame is: Me & Beloved Hubby,my Eldest son, Ant, his son Mort, My middle sons wife and my Daughter. One of Beloved Hubbys Brothers, and one Sister. His niece, my nephew and my other nephews wife. Dread to think how many more I'd find if I widened the net. I'll blog Beloved Hubbys card tomorrow, and the others over the next week, as they've been handed out. So we will have been to work, and doing the card & pressie swap when we get home, before bed.We're going out for a Birthday meal on Friday night, and the guy who's 50 is having a party on Saturday night, as not only is he 50 this week, his two sons are 18 & 21! So thats my Show & Tell for our Delightful Headmistress Julia, over at The Stamping Ground- come and join the fun of a world wide snoop at the coolest, most inspiring craft desks you will ever find, not to mention the best group of blogging pals anyone could wish to be part of.

Pinterest CASEing

Having spent a goodly number of hours browsing Pinterest, and compiling boards of Inspiration, I thought it was about time I made use of them. So I perused my Stamping Inspiration Board, and spotted this card: I managed to find the original creator, and have linked the image to her Pinterest page. She created it with an Indigo Blu stamp, called Summer Lovin'.


                                                                                   
 I don't have that one, but I have something very similar.Mine is by Stampendous, called Sketched Blossoms. It was wood mounted, and I suspect its discontinued, as I couldn't find it on sale anywhere.

 As always, I was instantly taken with the Black & White theme, so I went with that, and also tried another in a second colour, using a Memento pad, called Sweet Plum.


The card is by Clarity Stamps, called Theuva Card, and its a lovely smooth,bright white.


So I stamped the single image first onto an A5 sheet, so I got them on side by side.

Using another sheet, I cut it in half lengthways, and used the stamp again to stamp it multiple times along the whole length.

 Next they were both matted up onto matching cardstock- by some amazing fluke I had some purple card that comes very close to the Memento pad.

Both panels attached to white pearl card blanks.

Now the awkward bit- I don't have any fancy corners, but what I do have is a drawer full of  medallion style punches, that never see the light of day. Something else that seemed like a good idea at the time.
 Anyway, I punched out a medallion from each colour, trimmed down around them to leave a narrow border, then cut each one in half. I also trimmed off a little bit of the pattern, as you can see in the one on the left.

Stuck them down with some glue stick.









 Now some sentiments- I backed these onto matching card and trimmed them down.

Also added some matching acrylic gemstones as a finishing touch.














Supplies:
 White Theuva card, Clarity Stamps
A collage type stamp
Memento inkpad, Sweet Plum
Versafine, Onyx Black
Photo corners, or punch
Acrylic gems
 Black & Purple cardstock

Mulberry Paper & Dragonflies

 A card using up some of my mountain of Mulberry Paper, and an image I'd got already stamped up. A lesson in not overbuying, just because something is the new must-have. I think I cornered the world market in Mulberry Paper. It does produce a nice effect though,when torn to leave soft, fuzzy edges. The trick to that is to drag a wet paintbrush, or a waterbrush along the edge of a ruler, then tease the damp fibres apart.













As my stamped piece was on a blue/pink/purple oil pastel background, I used blue & purple mulberry paper for the background mat.












 I tore two squares of each colour, and used a scrap of card to stick them to, using DST. The scrap won't show beneath the stamped piece.
That bit done, I mounted the image with DST onto the squares, then onto a square white card blank. Next, a Dragonfly made from Angelina fibres was added over the one in the image with some silicone glue.
 The row of flowers along the bottom is one of the ones I received from Deeyl, Queen Lightwell, in the ATC swap!
   Onto a scrap of the same oil pastel card I stamped the saying in Black Versafine, and trimmed it to a tag shape. Added an eyelet & some fibres and mounted it with silicone glue again.


Supplies:
 Dragonfly Post stamp, Crafty Individuals 001
Mulberry paper
Oil pastels & white card for the background
Sentiment stamp, mine came from Life Sentiments, Kaiserkraft
Embellishments
 Black Versafine

WOYWW #218

So how is everyone this lovely Wednesday? I'm guessing here that its a nice day- I'm writing this on Tuesday afternoon, lol. Stroll over to the Lovely Julia's, at The Stamping Ground, and join in this delightful cruise around the crafting desks of the world, messy or tidy, ( the messier the better, tidy makes some of us feel guilty!), we love to see what everyone is up to.
 Two things I spotted over the last couple of days, wandering the net, as you do. Two of our friends on here had great weeks- Maisie Moonshines name was on the list of winners for the Tim Holtz Tags of 2013, August, this week, and Chris at Pearshapedcrafting won the Artistic Stampers July challenge!We all know how fabulous our friends are, lovely to see their creativity being rewarded.
 So, my desk then.

It was while browsing the various challenges, that I saw on Clarity Stamps that their challenge this month is Animals. I have two sizes of her Wolf stamp, so decided I'd have a go this month. Only got as far as stamping the image, and I'm not sure yet which one I will use. I used a variety of cardstock to stamp on, but all were stamped in Adirondack Pitch Black, so I could use a waterbrush over them to just pull some colour into the image.I can just about handle that sort of colouring. The three on the lower right are on Clarity card, using the Acrylic plate stamping method from a few posts ago as a background for the image.Its a fairly glossy cardstock, but it worked quite well. The top right one is stamped onto a marbled cardstock, and the left hand one is just on a plain white background. One or two I'm not overly happy with how the colour pulled in, one or two sharp lines- I might try a little more blending.Then again, maybe I'm being overly picky & precious- its only card & ink!
 In my net browsing, I found myself on Pinterest ( how surprising!), and looking at some humorous pins. I saw this one, and instantly thought of all my WOYWW friends! So here, ladies, is the perfect answer for why we have untidy craft rooms-

You see, a perfectly logical & sensible reason for it. Its a self defence thing.
 My Buddleia, commonly known as The Butterfly Bush, has been living up to its name this year, its been covered in Peacock Butterflies. Dozens of them over it, along with a few cabbage whites.

But here's a question for all the Brits on here-
have any of you seen any Ladybirds this year?
I haven't seen a single one anywhere, not even during those really hot summery days.
 Probably could have been briefer, sorry Julia- its a good job I'm writing, not talking, lol.You'd be here for days, rofl! Have a fab Wednesday, catch up with you all later.

Artful card- Artists Pastels, Stamping & a Watercolour background!

I'd been musing about this idea for a while, after seeing so many gorgeous projects using Pan Pastels, but having a mass of Artists Pastels & crafters chalks, absolutely cannot justify buying any! Pastels (& chalks) tend to imply, and give, pale colours, so I wondered how I could use the Artist Pastels sticks in my cards, and get some nice strong colours too.
 I've used chalks over Versamark before now, but one problem I always have is that rubbing on the chalks can smudge the image- best cure is to dab them on, rather than rub them in. Artist pastels are in a stick form, and not so easy to get colour off and onto your applicator. One day, whilst roaming around Tesco, I spotted what I thought might be a solution- A Nutmeg Grater!


 So here is what I started this project with:
 A pack of Artists Pastels,  with the Nutmeg Grater in the top left corner  of the pic.

I took one of the Acrylic plate stamped sheets from an earlier post, Versamark ink and a selection of Tim Holtz stamps.

The heart was stamped first, then had some blue pastel grated over it, and dabbed across the image with a cotton wool ball.

I was actually quite shocked at how well it worked, and gave a nice clean image, without a 'halo' of colour, which chalks sometimes give.














 
Another stamp in the lower right corner, covered this time with purple pastel.Dusted it off again, and out pops the clock image.

Next came a brown pastel, over a filmstrip stamp here at the top, and you can see the grated chalk better. I also stamped the filmstrip onto a post it note, and just rubbed the cotton wool ball over it to make a mask for later on.

 Dusted off with the cotton ball again. I like how its applying colour, but with an almost 'distressed' finish, which works brilliantly with the stamps & background.

 I added some stampings of a floral swag,  in brown at the top right and orange in the lower left.

Next I stamped the Umbrella Man at the bottom, using Sepia Versafine. The post it note filmstrip mask came into play now.







The centres were cut out with a scalpel, and the image covered  with it. I used one of the Three Top Hatted men to stamp in Sepia again, into each of the frames.  To make sure I got them in the right place, out came the  Stamp Positioner- I hate it when I do it by eye, I'm always slightly 'off'.

I added some prints of the numbers and small ticket strip, using the second & third print, with Sepia Versafine again.

The final image was a single pen nib in a couple of places, just inking up one nib on the pen nibs stamp, and using the second impression.









 



     For the backing, a piece of Craft Core card, in a Teal colour embossed with Tims texture Fades 'Gears' folder. After I'd embossed it, I rubbed over the embossing with a Chipped Sapphire Distress Inkpad.

  I wanted to add a Clock die-cut to the card- I don't have this die, but had bought some ready cut from e-bay. This is a great way to get a selection of die cuts, without having to buy all the dies, especially if you are not likely to be constantly using them.
 I added colour with Distress Inkpads Faded Denim, Dusty Concord & Chipped Sapphire. Then added a covering of Versamark and clear embossing powder.




The hands coloured in Black soot, and clear heat embossed too.

Now they were layered up, sandwiching the clock face between the two card layers. The clock hands were held in place with a black brad, and I used copper brads to hold the two sheets of card together.

This is my desk, mid composition, lol. It was marginally worse at one point, here I've moved the stamps and my pad for working on, and put the DI pads away.

The whole thing is mounted onto a dark blue card base using copper brads. I  used two to attach the right hand side of the card, then removed the original two, made corresponding holes in the base card, and reattached them. I also added a Tim Holtz token to the top corner.
 Final addition was a pen nib, added with Pinflair Glue gel, over one of the stamped pen images.








Supplies:
Artist Chalks ( The Works)
Nutmeg Grater
Assorted stamps- mine came from the following Clear stamp sets( all bought from e-bay)
Lifes Possibilities
Lost & Found
City Central
Pen nibs & Top Hatted men from Cling Stamps Curious Possibility
Versafine Sepia
Versamark
Clear Embossing powder
Heat Gun
DI Pads in  Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans & Dusty Concord.
Clock Die Cut (E-Bay)
Texture Fades Embossing folder, Gears. (Comes in a two pack, with Blueprint)
Craft core cardstock
Embellishments & brads