Masking and Memories

Evening,

Just finished packing away after todays Crafty get together. We were playing with the Retiform technique, which is a rather more complicated form of masking. It is really much easier than it actually looks, but takes rather a long time to complete one panel. It is also a very good way of using up several stamps on the one card.

This is a card that I blogged a couple of years ago, as I have plenty of panels but no finished cards from todays session.

As Retiform is a form of Masking, here is a far more simple masked card using one of Jane Gill's fabulous floral stamp sets.

I stamped the flowers and leaves using fussy cut images on pieces of masking sheet as the images are all separate on the stamp set.

I then created a frame out of the masking sheet

and lay it over the stamped images before adding dye based ink to the card.

When the mask is removed it leaves a white frame around a coloured square to which I added some faux stitching. I added the panel onto a base card with the same colours of ink around the edges, along with more faux stitching.

It is lovely getting together with all the Girls to craft.......and natter......and drink tea and coffee.

I took my folders with me so that we could work on a list of classes for this year, which of course led on to how long we had known one another. I have a notebook here which details things like that, so I was able to text back and tell Davina that I had first met her at a Woodware Retailers Day in June 2002!!!! 

Where on earth did that 20 years go to? I have promised to send her a picture of the first class that I taught for her as I am that very sad person that has photocopies of all the classes that I have ever taught, and magazine articles that I have done. Perhaps I really ought to get a life, although to be fair it is a great reference tool when my mojo deserts me. It is also quite fun to look back at how my style has changed over the years.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

Happy Birthday Davina

Evening Everyone,
I have had another fabulous day of play here at SirStampalot.
I'm sure that the ladies that come to classes here are on a mission to fatten us all up cause they all seem to bring in wonderful homemade cakes and fancies. I'm sure that I will go home about a stone heavier.
I have been trying to be a good girl and walk the last couple of miles in to the unit. I also make sure that I run up and down the stairs with the tea for everyone, but I do spend the rest of the time sitting down so it is definitely back to the gym when I get home.

I didn't exactly start off the week calorie free either as Sylvie and I headed over to Davina's last Friday with a nice big chocolate cake to help her celebrate her birthday.

I took this card for her. The central panel was created  using a die which actually hadn't cut out properly.
I didn't want to waste it so I just sponged the panel with colour and highlighted it with gilding wax.

The flowers were from my stash.
Better get this posted as I can hear Janice and Andy getting ready to go home.
More play time tomorrow and a class in the evening.
Hugs Kimx

Embossing Folders are fab

Oh Dear, more dreadful weather. If I didn't know any better I might think I was to blame. It always seems to rain whenever it is my day to visit my Mum lol.
I would say that it's good crafting weather but as I won't get much chance to play today I will share a couple of the samples that I have prepared for my Embossing Folders class on Saturday at Davina's in Purley.

 I love Embossing Folders, they are such a great way to create a background, or embellish a card.

 These samples were all made using embossing folders

 inks, and embossing powder.

Even just spritzing with inks can give an amazing look,

And the panels don't necessarily need anything more than a sentiment to embellish them.

 These last two cards which I have shared with you already, are made using the same ingredients.

They were inspired by something that I saw on Pinterest, my go to place for crafty help and inspiration.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs Kimx

We like to start them young

Evening Everyone,
Have you had a good weekend? I have.
We had a rather special visitor to class at Davina's on Saturday.
My daughter Becki and youngest granddaughter Emma arrived for an unexpected visit.

It was so lovely to see Littlie who enjoyed a bit of kick about on her mat.

She was also passed around the table so that everyone got to have a cuddle, so I hope that she picked up some crafty pointers.
Start them while they are young I say, although this might be a little excessive lol.
I think the Girls managed to get some crafting done, although they seemed to enjoy the distraction.
They always say that they lived through the pregnancy with me, so it was nice for them to see the end result in the flesh.
Emma certainly seemed to enjoy the attention.
Hugs Kimx

Christmas trees

Evening All,
Another really late post I'm afraid, but I have a very good excuse, I've been doing my homework lol.
We had another fabulous class at Davina's playing with just a few of the new Christmas stamps from Woodwsre.
I always try to come home and finish off the bits and pieces that result from showing the girls a particular idea or technique in class.

So here is my finished card after today's lesson. I stamped and embossed the trees onto a piece of watercolour card and coloured them using dye based inks.

I coloured the baubles with red and white Wink of Stella pens.

The greeting belongs to the same stamp set, and then the panel has been layered over a piece of red card that has been pressure embossed using a Doobadoo brick wall stencil. I have added some highlight to the bricks using gold gilding wax.
I still have a couple of other bits to finish off, but at least I have made a start.
Better get some sleep now if I am going to get anything else finished.
Hugs Kimx

Wax Paper Resist and Embossing Folders

Hi All
Well I've made it through my eight straight days at work, and here I am facing the start of another week. Where on earth did those 2 days off go. (In fact I have just finished a day of work since once again this post got side lined !!!!)
Sorry I have been absent for a while, this post has been started about 5 times, and then much like any cardmaking  last week, a 'granny nap' took over.
Not that I don't have plenty of things that I can share with you, given how quiet I have been in Blogland just lately, in fact I could really do with blogging twice a day in a bid to catch up with things.
We had another fabulous class at Davina's on Saturday, and this time I didn't break the iron so no thinking  on my feet, we were able to play with Waxed Paper and Embossing folders.
Once again I got a little bit carried away with the samples so I think that I will split them up into a couple of posts or this will end up like War and Peace.

As usual we made a technique tag to add to their book, and in fact this time they made two so that they could remember what to do with the left over waxed paper (tag far left)

The background to this card was made using a fab Sheena embossing folder, waxed paper and kaleidacolour inks.

I added some matching punched leaves and some stamped flowers along with a Hobby Art sentiment.

This card was made with another panel of the background,

 punched leaves, stamped flowers and a different Hobby Art sentiment.

I also found a few matching gems.

The beauty of this technique is that if you sandwich your embossed waxed paper between two pieces of card before you iron it you get the positive and negative image transered to the card stock.

I placed a strip of both the positive and negative background onto one of the tags,

and the other tag had a left over piece of the waxed paper coloured with stazon inks after the wax had been removed.

The sentiment has been added by stamping it onto acetate using Stazon ink and then attaching it with a fine line of glitter glue around the edges.
I think I had better press  publish on this before yet another day goes past.
Hugs, and Happy Monday.
Kimx

And now for something completely different

Hi Everyone,
I hope that you have all had a fabulous day. Mine did not go quite according to plan, although it has been good none the less.
I must have known that today's class was not going to be straightforward when I didn't get my tag and instructions done in time. I was pretty sure that the Girls would forgive me, I took biscuits instead, talk about bribery lol.
Anyway as it happens I had to think on my feet and come up with something completely different when Davina's iron when up in smoke, quite literally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We ended up rescheduling the class (Embossing Folders and Waxed Paper) for next month and played with inks and resist stamping instead. So I have a couple more weeks to get my instructions sorted out, and find a new iron.

So instead of a card from today's class here is one that I made for my Granddaughter to take a birthday party this afternoon.

I used an old Lili of the Valley topper and some pink background paper from my stash.
The punched border and heart are DooHickeys and I added a tiny flower and a brad.
I don't think that I will risk trying to iron anything just at the moment, lets hope that I can get away with it with my uniform for Monday lol.
Hugs Kimx

Let them eat cake

Evening All,
What a fabulous weekend it has been.

Fortunately on Saturday it was lovely but a little overcast which meant that the conservatory didn't get too hot during our time at Davina's.

I think that perhaps we should rename card making classes at Davina's and call them 'cake eating classes' instead. This was the fabulous creation that Jenny brought with her since she had not been present on her birthday. There was also ginger cake and biscuits so I think that we all piled on a few pounds lol.

 We had a great time playing with Embossing folders and inks, an idea that I borrowed from one of Sheena's shows on Create and Craft.

 As usual there was a tag, although I stupidly left the instruction sheet on the printer at home!!!

It is a rather picture heavy post I'm afraid as I got a little carried away with the samples.

I used Kaleidacolor Creole Spice ink for the background and then a bamboo embossing folder.
I swiped black distress ink over the embossing to highlight it and then heat embossed it with clear powder.

It makes a fabulous background for a very simple card. This would work well for a man I think.

This background was actually highlighted with Metallic Rub-ons and then a panel of acetate with an image stamped on it was added.

The background to this card was made from a piece of handmade paper from my stash and then the flower was painted with Pearlex to mirror the mica in the paper. I think this is one of my favourite cards from this post.

This piece of paper was sponged, stamped and painted with thin undiluted bleach before being dry embossed and inked. I coated the whole thing with clear embossing powder at the end which has given it that very glossy appearance.

This card was made with a piece of paper that had previously been stamped and embossed in white before the brown and pink ink was sponged over it.

This final card uses a background of Alcohol inks on glossy card stock.
I hope that you haven't had picture overload.
I had better get off to bed now as unfortunately it is back to work tomorrow. Oh well at least I had a productive weekend even if I did maintain my pasty exterior by staying indoors :O)
To be honest I don't do well in the sunshine so I was quite happy to sit and craft,
Hugs Kimx

My kind of Alcohol

Hi All
I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend.
We had a fabulous class yesterday at Davina's playing with Alcohol inks. As a non drinker this is definitely my kind of alcohol, and we had so much fun playing with it. There was also cake and Easter Eggs, what more could a girl ask for!!
Because it has been such a long time since I have played with Alcohol Inks (I used the ones by Dreamweaver available from Woodware) I checked out Pinterest and Youtube for some ideas.

As you can see I ended up with loads of bit (this is just a small selection) which need finishing off.

As usual we made a tag which shows the inks used as a background on glossy card stock.

In fact there were so many techniques to share that we ended up making two. This second one shows inks used on acetate which I found HERE (about 5mins into the clip)
I'm off to do a bit of finishing off so I might try and pop back later with some more finished samples, it just depends on how much fun I'm having and whether I can stop before bed time :O).
Hugs Kimx

Brilliant Brilliance Part 2

Evening Everyone,
Well that's another Monday finished.
We had an unexpected delivery this morning so there were actually things to do which made the time pass much quicker.

 As promised, here are the other cards made during my last class at Davina's.

This time Post-it notes have been used to mask off  areas of my white card stock before Brilliance ink was sponged gently over the top (Make sure that you work away from your masks to avoid the sponged ink seeping underneath them)

I thought that these colours had a distinctly masculine feel to them, so I mounted the card accordingly.

 This is the other card that I made using the same technique.

This time I went for a more feminine colour scheme.

The small central tag has been created using one of Francoise Skinny flower sets.
One of the side effects of no customers to buy the delivery is the vast array of bargains to be had at the end of the day. Our fridge is groaning at the moment, although the bank balance could do with a shot in the arm lol.
Hugs Kimx