Finishing Off Christmas

Evening,

I did wonder what the weather would get up to this weekend after our amazing assortment on Thursday. It was a very mixed bag........torrential rain, so heavy that it sounded like huge hail stones, brilliant sunshine and then to round off the afternoon hail itself and heavy snow, albeit only for a few minutes.

In view of the snow and the fact that we were finishing off Christmas cards in class on Saturday I have decided to share a Christmas card with you tonight.

I have used a 3D embossing folder and dark green cardstock for the background along with a little gold gilding wax.

The stamped panel was created using an image taken from a piece of Alcohol inked Yupo paper using an Alcohol Lift ink pad. I also used a Tim Holtz stencil in the background along with a stamped and embossed sentiment from Woodware.

I die cut my panel and then left the die in place while I added ink around the edges. This creates a fabulous faux matt and layer.

I managed to finish off envelopes and inserts for quite a few Christmas cards on Saturday. It's amazing what you can get done when you are surrounded by lovely crafty friends.

Hope that you had a great weekend.

Crafty Hugs 

Kimx

Life is Better with Friends

Evening,

Today would definitely have been worthy of sharing a Christmas card. I have been frozen all day.

They are completing some refurbishments at work and we have had to spend much of the morning serving through the night pay hatch. What a day to pick, given the degree of frost this morning, it has been bloody cold all day. There have been barriers everywhere and men in high viz jackets, but still people act like absolute idiots and ask the most stupid and obvious questions.  Oh well rant over, and as you can see I seem to have sorted out my computer issues. Or at least my wonderful friend Joe has.

So instead of Christmas, here are a couple of cards to celebrate good friends, and to say Thank You to Joe.

One of my all time favourite techniques to play with has got to be Alcohol inks and the Alcohol Ink Lift Pad.

These two cards were made using this technique, and another favourite of mine Penny Black Spontaneous Joy.

I love the amazing backgrounds that you can create with a few alcohol inks,

some stamps and an Alcohol Lift Inkpad.

I also added a little foil to the backgrounds. 

Thanks for stopping by. Life is definitely better with friends like you.

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

Oh Christmas Tree

 Evening All,

It's been another cold one today, and I am pleased to see that it is now official that I can take an afternoon nap because it boosts my brain power, according to yet another survey!

It may be a Chinese survey, but I'll take it if I can justify a little bit of shut eye to boost my mental agility lol.

My cards tonight are in keeping with the cold weather. They are Christmas cards made using one of Jane Gill's fabulous Christmas stamps. JGS679 - Leafy Tree.

The bright multicoloured background on to which I have stamped and embossed the tree was created using alcohol inks.

I added the inks to yupo paper and then stamped and embossed the image carefully on to it and then fussy cut it out.

The tree on this card was created in the same manner and this time layered over a stamped and embossed garland.

This final card was made by inking the clean tree stamp with the alcohol lift ink pad and stamping it onto the yupo paper covered with alcohol inks.

The stamp picks up the colour from the yupo paper which is then transfered to a piece of white card stock. I clear embossed this image and sponged it with green ink, but it didn't show up as well as I would have liked so I drew round it with a black micron pen.

Time for bed now. Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx

A Spotlit 'Twofer'

 Evening,

I do love a good spotlight.

It is a great way to cover up a mistake if necessary, 

and it is also a great opportunity for a 'Twofer'.

One of the fabulous new products that I got to play with last year was the Alcohol Lift inkpad. 

I LOVE IT.

We had several classes involving it since it bore repeating. The background to this card was made using alcohol inks, yupo paper and a little foil.

I also used the alcohol lift ink pad to 'lift' the holly and mistletoe image and then re stamp it on to a piece of white cardstock.

I die cut the circles from the panel and layered it on to another stamped image,

hence the 'Twofer'.

I think my friend Gill will appreciate these as this is her Wednesday suggestion over Facebook at Christmas Cards and Papercraft Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Happy VE Day

Evening Everyone,
What a glorious day it has been for all the fabulous socially distanced street parties to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day.
I've been trying to find something suitable to post today, so here is a card that I made a while ago using a lovely poppy image. Lest We Forget.

The background was created during a class on Alcohol inks, Alcohol Lift inkpad and Yupo.

I was showing The Girls how you could reuse the Yupo numerous times to create a background from which to 'lift' an image.

After everyone had used the same piece of yupo and ink colours I was left with a rather dark piece which I had also used to show them how to add foils to.

I decided to cut into the card using a Tim Holtz corner die and then added the stamped, embossed and coloured poppy image. Fortunately it has a co-ordinating die which made cutting it out so much easier.

I also added a die cut sentiment with shadowed background.

I also found another poppy card, this time using a stamp designed by Francoise for Woodware.

I love working with Alcohol inks, but trying to photograph glossy cardstock is a right pain. I have a small light box, but I can never seem to get the angles right so that the strip light in the top of the box doesn't show up.
Enjoy your parties and raised glasses over the garden fence, but please stay safe and follow the rules.
Have a great weekend.
Happy Crafting and Hugs
Kimx

A Highlight from 2019 - Alcohol Ink Blending

Evening Everyone,

One of the things that I have been working on during my enforced sit down, is trying to sort through a mountain of card photos so that I can blog some of them.

A favourite highlight from 2019 was being introduced to the Alcohol Ink Lift pad and Yupo paper which resulted in a wonderful reacquaintance with all things alcohol ink.

Just one of the techniques that I explored was the use of the Alcohol blending pen.

Ink from a prepared piece of alcohol ink background can be lifted from the stamped image, and then another image can be coloured in using this ink.

This is a wonderfully relaxing technique, although one of the things that I did learn about Yupo/Graffixart Craft Plastic is that it is not always the easiest thing to heat emboss.

In my previous post from September a friend asked what I did with the shrivelled plastic. The answer is that I covered it up with another stamped and coloured image and a bit of fussy cutting.
It was just too pretty to throw away.

The beauty of this technique is that you don't need a huge piece of alcohol inked background to colour with. Even a narrow strip trimmed from an image will give you enough usable ink.
Off to bed now, I need to rest my numb bum lol.
Hugs Kimx

Pearls and/or Gems for CCM Challenge 240

Hi All
We have a brand new challenge starting today over at CCM where our lovely host Dr Monika is looking for Pearls and/or Gems on your creations.

Now it was not a problem to find a card for this challenge, my problem was narrowing it down, since adding a couple of bits of bling to a card has become one of my favourite things to do.
This is all courtesy of the wonderful Jennifer McGuire and her influences. She has cost me a fortune in sparkly bits and pieces.

I found this Alcohol Blend colouring technique on her blog which I shared with the Girls a couple of weeks ago.

Basically an image is stamped and embossed onto a piece of alcohol inked background that has been prepared on Yupo paper or in this case Grafixarts Craft Plastic.
Do be careful when heating the embossing powder or your background might shrivel up a bit. Ask me how I know this :O)

Next remove the alcohol ink from this stamped and embossed image with an Alcohol ink Blending tool and use it to paint another image, this time on regular card stock.

 The flowers are from one of my new stamp sets from Alpaca Pals.

I love their cute stamps as well as this fabulous floral design.
I cut my painted panel up to create two finished cards, and as you can see they all have a smattering of tiny gems. Perfect for this challenge.
I hope that you will find the time to join us, and don't for get to pop over and see what the rest of the team have come up with to inspire you.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx