A Blast from the Past

Evening All,

We will be playing with Decorators Chalks on Saturday, so here are a few cards made using them.

I was definitely having an orange phase when I made this, which is not my usual colour at all.

I featured chalks in my stamping book, published in 2006 would you believe!!

I think it was actually the chapter that I was most pleased with, and I persuaded them to feature it on the front cover.

Amazingly I still have most of the cards that I made for the book, so I dug them out as inspiration for Saturdays class.

I don't remember where the colour combo came from, but I love all the samples that I did.

I used a combination of card and vellum for the samples. 

Having sorted through all of my wood mounted stamps recently they are now more easily accessible, so I will be able to take a lot of these ones with me to class.

I do love the solid images that Hero Arts and Penny Black favour. I am always drawn to them in any new release.

Another stupidly early start tomorrow, so I'm off to bed.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Happy Birthday Janice

Evening Everyone,

Let's have some cards today to celebrate the birthday of a good friend.......Janice.

Janice and Andy run Sirstampalot in Peterboro, and under normal circumstances I would be looking forward to spending a week with this lovely couple in March.

I don't do holidays, but a week playing in their craft shop is my idea of heaven, although I'm not sure that my bank balance enjoys it that much lol. Still when you think how much a holiday costs, at least I come home with something to show for my time away other than just a few photos and some lovely memories....... I also come home with toys.

I usually teach a few classes while I am there so I get to meet up with lots of crafty people as well as a few old mates who always come along to say Hi.

One of the classes that I taught last time I was there involved alcohol inks and the amazing Alcohol Lift ink pad.

I love this technique. Quite apart from anything else it gives me an excuse to make backgrounds and it also involves a 'Twofer'. Two cards for the price of one.

You may wonder why I am sharing Christmas cards on Janice's birthday in February? Well it is because that is what we were making last time I was there in November 2019!!!!! How long ago???

As you can see I am rather partial to this fabulous Penny Black Poinsettia stamp which was one of those toys that I brought home.

There is so much detail to the stamp which you only really notice when you stamp it out. Here I have stamped it in black on linen card stock which adds even more detail.

I was actually amazed at just how much detail because when you look at the rubber it looks like it is going to be a rather solid image. I loved the shape and design of the poinsettia, but liked it even more when I used it......if that makes any sense at all.

In order to use the Alcohol Lift ink pad and get your Twofers you need an inky alcohol background on something non porous. Yupo paper works best for this as the colours move better, and best of all you can clean it off with blending solution and start again if you don't like what you have made.

I created my background on yupo and then used this to create several of the stamped pieces which I turned in to the cards above.

Another thing that you can do to the alcohol inky background is add a little foil before the alcohol inks dry completely.

I really liked this panel and didn't want to hide any of it so I tried to stamp and emboss a sentiment in the center of the poinsettia. Spoiler alert..................yupo doesn't take too kindly to heat!!

As you can see it rather shriveled up a little but was still far too nice to throw away, so I added my sentiment on a panel attached using silicon glue. 

I obviously should have done this in the first place, but you don't know what will happen until you try, and at least now I know that I have to be much more cautious if I want to heat Yupo paper. And as my friend Julie Hickey always taught me......It is never a mistake it is always an opportunity.

I hope that Janice has had a wonderful birthday, and that she will forgive all these reminders of Christmas.

Stay safe and have a crafty weekend.

Hugs Kimx

Snow through the Trees

Evening,

Snow is very pretty when you are tucked up warm and snug indoors, but it's not so much fun as you slip and slide your way to work lol.

Of course on the plus side even at 3.45am it was as bright and clear as daylight where normally I have to use a torch to see by.

It's been snowing here fairly consistently for the last couple of days so it is still at the pretty stage, although it had started to turn to grey slush on the roads by the time I was heading home from work.

So lets have a couple of black and white Christmas cards.

These are made using a fabulous old Penny Black stamp, versamark, and decorators chalks applied with a cotton wool ball.

These last two were made with another Penny Black stamp, even older than the first!!

Once again I used decorators chalks, this time in pinks and blues.

I'm afraid that I'm a bit of a killjoy when it comes to the snow cause I rather hope that it is gone by tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe........and warm.

Hugs Kimx

Just for You Michele and all of 'The Crafties'

 Evening Everyone,

As I have said before it is always difficult deciding what card to share with you.

Sometimes I take inspiration from something that I see on Facebook or a challenge blog or tonight from a question that a crafty friend asked me today on Whatsapp.

Michele sent a picture of something that she found in her craft box and asked if anyone remembered how she made it since it was done in a class. I put her out of her misery, it was made using Alcohol inks and the Alcohol Lift ink pad, and she has promised to share what she makes with it when we next get together on Zoom.

Like her's, my image uses this fabulous Penny Black stamp which works so beautifully with the Alcohol Lift Ink Pad. It was very much a favourite stamp, and technique for that matter, from 2019 and got plenty of use HERE and HERE

I am no good with tutorials. I have way too much fun playing and forget to take pictures while I am working so I will direct you to my go to place for all things crafty Jennifer McGuire's Youtube  and BLOG.

The background on this card also uses alcohol inks just using a stencil this time.

'The Crafties' and I have definitely decided that this class will need to be repeated, once we are able to get back to classes. We are all missing them very much since most of the ladies live on their own so a class on a Saturday with plenty of likeminded company, crafty things to play with, coffee......oh and of course cake was possibly the highlight of their week.

My class suggestion list is getting longer by the minute, so let's hope we can get together soon. In the meantime we will just have to put up with show and tell over a zoom session lol.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

All Good Things Must Come to an End

 Evening All,

They say all good things must come to an end, and this week saw the end of the CraftyCardmakers blog that I have been involved in since October 2011. Nine years of creativity and meeting new crafty friends.

I think sometimes that we all need a crafty nudge, and it has definitely been helpful on occasions to have a suggested project to work towards.

With that in mind I thought that I would share a card that I would have used for the challenge that would have gone live this week, 'Add a Critter'

Mine is a rather substantial critter it has to be said, from an old Penny Black calendar that came free with a crafting magazine many years ago...................I told you I never seem able to throw anything away. And why would I with such cute characters as this in it.

I added glossy accents to the cake icing, and the stacked sentiment and then added banners with the recipients names on them, twin boys that I met through working at the garage.

I'm sure that my Teamies and I will continue to meet up in blogland although it will seem strange not to have a deadline once a fortnight.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe and hugs.

Kimx

Christmas Embossing Folder

Evening All,

Boy was it cold this morning when I came home. We had to scrape the ice off the car windows as there was quite a frost. Time to swap out the summer shirts for the winter jumpers me thinks lol.

My good friend Gill Till has posted her Way To Go Wednesday challenge over on Facebook for Christmas Card and Papercraft Challenge.

The challenge is to use your embossing folders.
I made this card lots of years ago for the lovely Janice and Andy at SirStampalot. It uses an old Christmas embossing folder for the background.

I used Versamark ink and embossing powders on black card stock for a Letterpress look.

I also added a cute Penny Black image and some die cut holly branches.

Thanks for stopping by, better get my stuff ready for work tomorrow.

Stay safe 

Hugs Kimx

Just for Moo

Evening Everyone

A really quick post tonight as I have a little helper who won't go to sleep until I close down my 'puter'.

Unfortunately Mummy has had to stay in hospital overnight so we have had rather a few tears and some hastly rearranged sleeping plans.

Emma who at first seemed the most upset went off to sleep straight away. Jack is sitting up with Daddy until he drops off as the boobs are not available for his night time feed!!!

And Chloe who has been my little shadow again today was having a sleepover in my room, but has already climbed in to my bed and is not falling asleep any time soon so I need to close this down as quickly as possible or I can see it being a very long night.

These cards were made rather a long time ago out of left over bits and pieces from a commissioned card for a friend. I do love the old Penny Black images, they are so much fun.

Thanks for stopping by. Better turn this off now before my help mate tells me off any more lol.

Hugs Kimx

A little Something Just for You

Afternoon Everyone,

Wow, two weeks worth of posts, not bad going for me lol.

This card was made with one of the fabulous old Art Impressions stamps that I got to play with at SirStampalot back in November.

It worked well with the 'Bump and Smudge' technique that we played with while I was there.

I also felt that it lent itself to a little added colouring.

One of the benefits of sitting on my butt at the moment is that I am gradually wading my way through a ton of card photos, which means that I have found a couple more using the wonderful Penny Black Brushstroke stamp At Grace.

As I have said before, the Stamping Platform/Misti has made stamping out these larger stamps so much easier. In this case having stamped it out and smudged it in brown it just looked like a mess, so I stamped and embossed over the top using a blue Distress Oxide. I definitely wouldn't have been able to do that before I got my stamping platform.

Thanks for stopping by again.

Have a great evening.

Happy Crafting and hugs

Kimx

Tim Holtz Embossing Folder

Evening Everyone,
Have you had a good day?
It's felt lovely and mild here, perfect for a nice long walk, if my foot would have allowed. Instead I settled for some crafty company, and a change of the four walls that I have been staring at for the last few days.

I always come back from my November 'holiday' at SirStampalot with a suitcase full of new goodies. This time it included a fabulous Tim Holtz 3D embossing folder.

I happened to have caught it being used on the TV before I went which accounted for my purchase, because to be honest the packaging didn't do it justice so it would otherwise probably have remained on the shelf.
I left this sample with Janice and Andy since it also featured another of my purchases, a rather fabulous Brush Stroke stamp from Penny Black.
That's another picture that I can file away as having been blogged, I'm on a roll here lol.
Night, night
Hugs Kimx

Bump and Smudge with Penny Black

Evening Everyone,
I think we all have favourite stamps and stamp companies, ones that we come back to time after time. Or a particular style of stamps that we are instantly drawn too.

For me it is the Brush Stroke style of stamps from Penny Black. Each new release provides a massive dent to my bank balance lol.

They are amazingly detailed when stamped out, even though they sometimes look as if they will just be a huge solid blob. The advent of the Stamping Platform has also made it much easier to do blended multiple layered stamping.

This card was created using the 'Bump and Smudge' technique and both brown and blue Distress Oxide inks.

Sometimes the image blurs rather too much when smudged,

but the beauty of using the platform is that you can just stamp the image again using the same colour, or an alternative to add back the definition.

Slightly less 'smudging' here, very Wedgwood :O)

This card shows just how much detail you can get from these stamps.
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Leafy 'Bump and Smudge'

Hi Again,
One of the newer techniques that I have been playing with recently is 'Bump and Smudge'.
I love the Distress Oxide Inks, and this is the perfect technique to showcase them since it takes advantage of both the dye based and pigment properties of the inkpad, and it is sooooo easy to do.
Basically you 'bump' your stamp against your inkpad to ink it up, and then having stamped it on to plain cardstock you 'smudge' it with a foam tipped blending tool or smoochie.
We had such fun with the technique and have repeated the class several times due to its popularity, so I have several batches of cards that I will share with you over the next few weeks.
This first batch are all very masculine, which is good because I am always short of cards for men.

They all use a fabulous old Penny Black leafy stamp 40-111 Breezy and green/brown Distress Oxides. I created a panel for this card using the leaves and a script background stamp. I finished it off with some twine, tiny black metal dots and a birthday greeting.

The 'Bump and Smudge' technique relies on the dye ink in the oxide to give you the image and the slower drying pigment ink for the smudge, so you need to work on the images one at a time or they will dry out before you can smudge them.
I cut up the panel I created for this card to make two very different cards. Once again I used a favourite Woodware sentiment stamp set and brown Nuvo drops for this square card.

The remaining portion of the panel was used on this card along with a die cut sentiment, some gems and some more stamped leaves.

My final card uses the same leaf stamp and a large text background stamp (I think it is Stampendous) to create my panel. I also splattered this panel with some water to add interest and some lovely oxidised splatters.
This technique would be perfect for a Masterboard (class suggestion Janice :O)?) and I can see me using it a lot more in the future.
Have a great evening.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx