Mixed Media cards- Part 2

Ok, following on from yesterdays post are a few more die cuts made up into cards.
This die cut is from the Mixed Media set #2, and it does need glue on the back of the design, as it won't lay flat otherwise.

 The card base is an A4 sheet of Pearl white card, folded, and with embossed scoring either side of the panel.










 The paper it's backed with is a shimmery one bought a few years ago, and I have it in a few colourways. rarely used it, but it was perfect for this.

I used a Crealies die to cut the sentiment, once from the shimmer paper, and twice more from white card so I could stack them up for a dimensional look.




 A few small flowers were punched from the same paper, and doubled up, then some Stickles in dark blue added to the centres.

 A similar design for this one, but it's backed with an alcohol inked sheet.
 The sentiment is another Phill Martin one, from Mini Baroque Occasions.
 Two small butterflies punched from some shimmer paper, and very tiny acrylic gems added to the bodies.

A different die for this one, from Mixed Media set #3, and cut from an ivory base.The backing sheet is an alcohol ink one, in blues with Gold Mixative.
 It was matted onto dull gold card, then onto a 6" square card base.
 The sentiment is again from Mini Baroque Occasions, and was stamped in Archival Cobalt.  A couple of dark blue half pearls added as well.

A 7" square base for this card, and the die is from Mixed Media set # 1. It was cut from a linen cardstock, and then trimmed with a deckle edged blade.
 The backing is an oil pastel sheet, and I found some pale purpley-grey cardstock to matt it on to.
 Heartfelt Creations Spellbinders die called Delicate Aster was used for the flower, and the centre is filled with Glossy Accents and seed beads.
 The sentiment is from Chic Floral Occasions Borders, Phill Martin. I matted the sentiment strip onto an offcut of the backing card before sticking it down.

 This one is 5"x7", the die from Mixed Media #3. The backing is a rainbow piece made with oil pastels, and the sentiment is from Mini Baroque Occasions. I repeated what I did previously, and stamped and heat embossed onto an offcut, which I then die cut with a Spellbinders Labels 8 die and mounted with foam tabs. I also added a couple of acrylic gems again.











Another 7" square card, this time the Mixed Media die was cut from black cardstock. It's backed with a different colour of the shimmer paper, and  at first glance it almost looks like glitter embossing onto the card.
I backed it again with a dull gold matt.
 The sentiment is stamped onto a black heart, and then matted onto a gold heart. Die set is by Nellie Snellen. The sentiment is from Butterfly Elegance Sentiments by Phill Martin, heat embossed in gold.
 Some small flowers in black and gold completed the front.


And that's the end of the second batch. More to follow later in the week, I've still got a few to put together.

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.

Making some new ear rings!

Okay, so something a little different to my usual posts today. This all came about after the post came off an ear ring Doug bought me the last time we were on holiday, which I wanted to fix. I had also noticed though that after a few days, my ears started to get irritated when I wore these, leading me to think the metal posts were not nickel free.

 So after a bit of Googling, I ordered some new ear ring posts, and backs. Both Surgical Steel, the backs silver plated as well.

Both packs came in 100 count, so that meant I was going to have 48 pairs left after fixing mine.

Which left only one option- a bit of Internet shopping for some suitable cabochon stones to make myself some new ear rings with.😀
   





I went looking for semi precious stone cabochons, and found quite a few in suitable sizes. I did discover that the backs that had been on my original ear rings were slightly smaller than the new ones, and as some stones I ordered were intended to fit the old size, I've had to Google again and find some smaller ones, lol. Good old Amazon to the rescue.
 Anyway, I found 8mm round was ideal for the new posts, so set to adding the stones to the posts.
 Roughed up both the back of the stones and the posts, then used superglue- as thats what most jewellery sites were selling for the purpose- to add the stones.  I have to say, it's possible I didn't add enough glue in some cases, as a few came apart, so next I tried some Epoxy resin glue,but next day I still had a couple of pairs come apart.
 I cleaned them off, and tried the superglue again, this time adding it to both faces, and this seems to have done the trick.

This is the first batch, and from left to right, the stones are:
Flourite, Jasper,Blue Goldstone, Amethyst, Black Onyx and Green Aventurine.
 Although it doesn't show in the pic, the Blue Goldstone has tiny sparkles within the stone.

The remaining stones, L to R again:
The original glass ear rings in Brown & Blue, Tigers Eye, Malachite,Sodalite, Carnelian,Smoky Quartz, Haemetite, Blue Paua Shell and Snowflake Obsidian.


I just have to wait for the smaller posts to arrive, then I can make up some more using the smaller stones. Best part of this is that most of the stones cost between 35p and 80p each, meaning I got new ear rings for less than £2 a pair, which is a great deal, I think you'll agree.


Supplies bought from:
 Kernowcraft
Manchester Minerals
Beads Direct
Beads.co.uk

WOYWW #409

Well, I'm back after a weeks absence. Managed to lose a day last week, and was convinced it was Tuesday. Mainly because Beloved Hubby had to work days last Monday for a course, which meant he stayed up Monday night instead of Sunday, so I thought Tuesday was Monday, and so on. Blame the diminishing working brain cells- they trip me up no end of times.
 So, the desk then, as I'm here to link up with Auntie Julia over at The Stamping Ground, to see what everyones up to.

Working my way through a whole batch of card fronts I've made up, using an assortment of Tim Holtzs Mixed Media dies.

Using them to make all sorts of cards, just changing the paper for the backing depending on what I'm going to turn it in to. There'll be a blog post with the first batch later in the week.

Here are all the die cuts, along with a selection of backing papers I'd sorted out. Another stash buster, using up random backing sheets made in the past- alcohol inks, oil pastels,  and some Brusho ones.

 Some recent E-Bay finds, the TH mini Blueprints,as I can definitely use them for Halloween. A lot of the blueprints don't grab me, understandably they seem very Americanised, but I liked these.
 The headphone die, and the birds on a wire are more cheap China dies, less than a couple of quid each, and as you can see, the headphones are quite a decent size.






Last, but not least, is something I'd have shown last week. Eldest Son, Ant, had taken up a new hobby, needle felting. Said it was something he could do to unwind after work,while watching telly at night, without having to pay too much attention to what he was doing.



 This awesome little penguin was part of my Mothers Day gift! He's only about 2" high, max. Just how sweet is he?


Anyway, thats me done for this week, so Happy Wednesday, and I'll see you later.

Christmas Card Club Challenge #7- Christmas Flowers.

Okay, so as well as losing a day last week, I now seem to have lost a complete week! I've just realised that I should have had this ready for yesterday.This fortnights challenge is set by Carol, who has chosen Christmas Flowers for us. To visit all the other ladies, there is a Christmas Card Club link in my side bar. My goto for Christmas Flowers is usually a Poinsettia die, and as I had a bunch of Tim Holtz MM die cuts on my desk, I've sort of cheated a bit and recreated a card I made for last Christmas.

This one is made on a 6" square card base, and after cutting out the MM die (Mixed Media Dies #1) from another sheet of white card, and trimming to size I backed it with some cream paper with gold marbling on. I bought this years ago at the NEC Hobbycrafts, came in huge A1 sheets, in a variety of colours. You could also just stamp some plain paper and use underneath. One thing I learned doing this - stamp and heat emboss your sentiment first, the heat gun tends to lift the DST on the back!
 The sentiment is by Phill Martin, from a set called Snowflake sentiments,and the Poinsettia is a die by La Crea, and is smaller than the Spellbinders one. It was cut from another past NEC purchase, a deep red leather effect paper, which makes a glorious flower. Centre was filled with Glossy Accents and seed beads. A small flourish added under the flower. The snowflake, added top left, is from a Sue Wilson set, and hides a dent in the cardstock from the MM die, 😀.
 This technique of backing the MM die cuts with patterned paper is being done to death I'm afraid, as I said, I have a whole pile on my desk I'm turning into an assortment of cards. But it lends itself so well to pretty much any reason for a card, you can change the mood/occasion just by the colour/style of paper you back it with. Especially good for those difficult Sympathy/ Condolence cards, as it's simple but elegant.