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Sunday, April 26, 2015

Hope

Sweet Pea Stamps

Today is my day to showcase and image from Sweet Pea Stamps and I have chosen to work with the beautiful image 'Hope' by Rebecca Sinz which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in both rubber and digi.

I have not made any of my candles recently and now seem to be on a bing with them.  I did one a couple of weeks ago, this one today and another one in the pipeline which I am trying to do a video tutorial on - that is a challenge in itself lol.  Anyway, here is todays candle :)

So many folks ask how I do these candles hence the trying to make the video but in the meantime I will do my best to explain the basics.  I start by using temporary adhesive spray on a piece of paper about 220gms in weight and then lay the tissue paper over the top doing my best to avoid any wrinkles.  Next I trim the excess tissue paper off so it will run through my printer with no issues.  To prepare my wrappers I use a template I made of the candle sizes I use regularly.  I then browse through my photos to find a suitable background.  For this wrapper I used two images, the sky was a photo I took in the Maldives on my 25th Wedding Anniversay - a fabulous second honeymoon lol, and for the foreground I used a beach scene taken while lying on my belly to get the rocky outcrop.  Next, in Photoshop, I imported the two images and removed the sections I did not want, here it was all the see and sky from the beach photo so I was only left with the rocky outcrop which I thought would be perfect to place the digi on.  Next I removed all the background from the digi so I was left with the equivalent of a .png image which I could then hand colour in line with the Terms of Use of most of the image we use these days.

I use crayons to colour my candle wrapper images as I find they work the best, this one was coloured with Faber Castelly Polychromos
And here is the image fully coloured.
Next I tried something new and tried rubber stamping a gold border, sentiment and a floral design to represent stars.  The sentiment worked fine and the flower stars were not to bad but the border was a disaster.
When working with candles it is imperative to think of fire safety, I would so hate to be the cause of a fire in somebody's home from one of my candles, so I have a couple of produces which are totally safe for decorating.  One is a gold dust and the other is a water based varnish.  To cover up the rubbish gold border I used the gold dust and tried to get a a vibrant distressed look.  This was applied with a soft sponge for the top and then I used a wide paintbrush to sweep around the upper section of the wrapper. To balance the gold out I added some more to the rocky outcrop at the bottom of the candle. Finally a quick layer of the candle water based varnish to add a shine and all done :)


Ingredients:-
  • Image - 'Hope' by Rebecca Sinz
  • Colouring Medium - Faber Castelly Polychromos
  • From my Stash - gold dust, candle varnish and the candle.
I am entering into the following challenges:-

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Mermaid 3

Time for another challenge over at

Challenge #36
No Patterned Paper

Welcome back to the IKEsWORLD challenges :)  do pop on over to IKEsWORLD to join in the challenge, we would love to see you.  Why not pop on over to the IKEsART  store too :), Ike produces the most amazing stamps, everything from off the wall to cute and fluffy :) :) :)

Oh I am in my element with this challenge as I find using bought design papers so very hard to work with and often end up not using the packs I have bought and making my own.  Now for this challenge I don'e even have to do that, no stress as to feeling guilty for not using the store bought papers either. Last week I had my first go at mixed media in what I think is the truest sense of the word for me.  I often use different mediums for colouring and then use lace etc on my creations but I don't tend to make textured background in the way I have here, tending to stick to my dies and layering.  Please be gently with me :) :) :) Ike has recently drawn the most awesome mermaid, a mixture of her beautiful female image which I love to bits and some fantasy thrown in there for good measure.  She is called Mermaid 3.

I started off colouring the image with my Faber Castell Polychromos
 Next, for the background I used one of the fish dies from the Joy Crafts Fishing Fun, waves from Lea'bilities Seashell l & Waves and Marianne Design Craftables Lavender.  Each of the die cuts were cut twice and the two pieces glued together for added depth.  I cut up some shell metal braiding I had and had a brain wave for the text :) :) Alphabet Pasta hahahahaha.  A little Flower Soft was also added and then it was time for a well earned coffee (to drink not paint with)!!!
 Out with the white acrylic paint and all the background was covered. I had, right at the start, placed the image on some stiff white card and you can see the white paint has made it lift away a wee bit but I think this will dry flat - fingers crossed.
 I so love using my Promarkers and airburshing and while hunting for my silver to use for a bit of final touch up I changed my mind on using regular Promarkers and opted instead for using three of the metallic ones.  Alas I could not find the silver, I think I must have killed it and thrown it out.  Better put that on my wish list for replacing :)
 Totally chuffed with this and just loving the pearl effect the Metallic Promarkers have given the background.
 Before placing the image on the book I am altering I added some lace to cover the spiral and also some on the right hand side too.
 And there we go - all done.
I did add strings of pearls to the top and bottom of the image and a spray of pearls over the Lavender die to finish off. To protect the image I gave it a couple of overcoats of acrylic spray.



Ingredients:-
  • Image - Mermaid 3 by IKEsART
  • Colouring medium - Faber Castell Polychromos and Metallic Promarkers
  • Dies - Joy Crafs Fishing Fun, waves from Lea'bilities Seashell l & Waves and Marianne Design Craftables Lavender
  • From my stash - lace, pearls, shells and Flower Soft
I am entering this project into the following challenges:-

Monday, April 20, 2015

SPS - Ancient One

Sweet Pea Stamps

Today is my day to showcase and image from Sweet Pea Stamps and I have chosen to work with the beautiful image Ancient One by Joanne Schempp which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in both rubber and digi.
I have not tried mixed media like this before so be gentle with me :) :) I am in awe of some of the mixed media projects I have seen on the web and just could not resist giving it a go.  To begin with I printed my image, well two as I was thinking about having another Joanne Schempp image of the sail ship in the background but had not totally made up my mind.  The idea soon flew out the window and I decided I did not need it.
 Next I raked out a whole load of dies and double cut them using stiff white card.  The dies I used were Tattered Lace Retro Alphabet, Memory Box Splash Border which I cut up into two sections and also used the spiral excess bits of the die and finally Marianne Designs Creatables Anchor.  I also added some Flower Soft and some bead and metal shells.
 I don't have many supplies for this sort of project as not much is available in Saudi Arabia, or a least I have not seen many products around but I do have some white acrylic paint so that is what I used to paint over the background ready for airbrushing with Promarkers later.  Next I coloured the image with just one colour of blue Promarker, trying to build up the colour but using several layers.
 Onto the background, I first masked my coloured image and set to with the airbrushing in two colours of blue, one was Bluebell but I can't remember what the other was lol - afraid I was having to much fun to remember to write down what I had used.
 Next I stippled some PVA glue in areas and then stippled with silver bronzing powder on top. I added lots of Pearl and Silver Liquid Pearls to the digi.
Not quite happy with the digi so using the darker of the two blues I used for the background I added a bit more depth to him.  Finally I added a silver ships wheel charm and three brads. A blast of Crafters Companion Silver Varnish and all done.  This decorated mat was then mounted on a silver mirror card mat, a navy corrugated mat and then a mauve mat. The group was them attached to my navy card blank.
For the inside of the card I used Spellbinders Labels 1 and a Spellbinder embossing folder.  A bit more of the silver bronzing powder and another anchor completed this section.
 And here we have it - a rather funky man card.  For a first attempt I am pretty pleased with myself and most of all I had amazing fun, getting covered in paint and glue I felt like a kid all over again, such a fun day :) :) :)

Ingredients:-
  • Image - Ancient One by Joanne Schempp
  • Colouring Medium - Promarkes, acrylic paint
  • Dies - Tattered Lace Retro Alphabet, Memory Box Splash Border, Marianne Designs Creatables Anchor and Spellbinders Labels 1
  • Embossing Folder - Spellbinders Seashells
  • From my Stash - Silver Bronzing Powder, Liquid Pearls, shells, metal shells, ship wheel charm and brads
I am entering into the following challenges:-


Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Blossom

Hello folks.  We have another challenge at One Stitch At A Time so how about popping over to see all the fabulous creations by the design team.  The prize this month is an awesome digi pack containing several images and a paper pack too - how cool is that.

Challenge #235

Theme 'Anything Goes with DAUGHTERS/GIRLS' 

For my creation this week I am using the gorgeous image Blossom by IKEsART.  To begin with I designed some design paper and added a daughter poem to it.  I did not want the poem to be obvious but act more as a texture to the paper. I also printed the image twice as there is a fair bit of fussy cutting on this card.  Both of the images were coloured with Promarkers.
 Next I covered my card with my design paper and folded the front section over ready for cutting.   Using Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities Labels 1 I completed my card blank.  I have not done this before so am rather pleased with the outcome although the die was not quite deep enough to go through 3 layers of card stock.  It did leave a good enough impression so easy enough to finish off with a pair of scissors.
 Lace was attached to the right hand fold of the card and then it was time to fussy cut.  First I used clear embossing powder on the properly coloured flowers and then I cut them out.  NextI cut the base layer normally and attached the cut out flowers to this.  The sentiment was generated digitally and coloured with a stamp pad of the perfect colour - lucky there :)  To finish off I added some gems flowers and leave and small bow.


Ingredients:-
  • Image - Blossom by IKEsART
  • Colouring medium - Promarkers
  • Dies - Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities Labels 1, Ovals and Scalloped Ovals
  • From my Stash - lace, gems and bow
I am entering this card into the following challenges:-

Thanks for looking and hope you have a happy crafting day:)

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Fairy 6

Sweet Pea Stamps

Today is my day to showcase and image from Sweet Pea Stamps and I have chosen to work with the beautiful image 'Fairy 6' by Amy Brown which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in rubber.

 Bit of an experimentation day.  A while ago I made some of my own texture paste using talcum powder, white acrylic paint and PVA glue.  It worked OK and I seem to have loads of the stuff. It has been sitting in a sealed container for the last few months and today I thought I would used it again and try it with an embossing folder.  Alas it had dried out a bit so I poured some Mod Podge in and mixed it up - yummy, great texture and nice and sticky.  Oh dear - a bit to sticky for the embossing folder so that idea was scrapped, it looked good until you lifted the top off the folder and then all the pattern vanished and I was left with some wonderful spiky textures but that is not what I wanted lol.
 Time to rethink.  I smoothed out the paste again and this time tried with a rubber stamp.
 Much better and I did have lots of fun too.
While this was drying it was onto the digi which was coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos
Now I have my colour scheme onto the DP, this was a freebie from a magazine but I have no idea which one as I kept the papers and threw the magazine away ages ago.  Fancying a bit of sparkle I used the same rubber stamp and some Enchanted Gold embossing powder.
With the texture paste now dry I airbrushed it with my Promarkers to match the colours used in the digi.
I fussy cut the digi and oops - brain not engaged.  Overhanging the frame the ends of the wings are a single line with a wee spiral.  The only way I could think to get around this was to chop the spiral bits off but I felt that was not being true to the digi.  My final solution was to attach gold wire and when dry, recreate the spirals.
 Here you can see the finished result of the wire on the wings.
I cut the shape I wanted of the texture paste section and finished it off with lots of gold trim and gold organza ribbon with  bow.
 Next was the sentiment, nice and simple as there is enough going on with the card as it is.
The inside of the card was covered with the same DP as used for the front but I did not heat emboss this.  For the writing section I used the Spellbinder die A2 fancy weave - 4.
The final decoration on the front of the card was some rather funky green and blue netting I found down in the local market.  This was held in place with pearls.  Something was missing so I opted to add another gold embellishment using the die Marianne Design Craftables Flower Border Oval to which I added some Mirror Gold embossing powder and picked out some of the shapes with my gold pen.  Some Micro glitter was added to the wings of the digi.  Phew, done :) :) :) 


Ingredients:-
  • Image - Amy Brown's Fairy 6
  • Colouring Medium - Faber Castell Polychromos, Promarkers and O2 shimmer paints. 
  • Dies - Spellbinders Cirlcles and A2 fancy weave - 4, Sizzix Scalloped Circles and Marianne Design Craftables Flower Border Oval
  • From my Stash - Texture paste, ribbon, pearls and the fish net stuff :)
I am entering into the following challenges:-
Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Happy Himalayan

Happy Himalayan

Sweet Pea Stamps are sponsoring the As You Like It challenge and on behalf of the Sweet Pea DT I have created this candle :) :) using the fabulous image Happy Himalayan by Concetta Kilmer which is available as a digi.

The theme for the AS YOU LIKE IT CHALLENGE is 
'Use either alcohol markers or DI inks (either markers or painting with reinkers)'

I thought it would be such fun to do this wonderfully cool cat for my sister who is a real pussy cat lover.  I love cats too lol but alas at the moment don't have a furry friend in the house although that will change when hubby and I return to the UK from working overseas - something to look forward to.  Decorating candles is so much fun and I do get carried away with them as I find they make great gift and are a lovely change from making cards with the digis.  With fire safety being an issue I have spent a lot of time hunting out safe items to use to avoid any accidents, would so hate to be the cause of a fire in a house.  The only part of my candle that is unsafe is the bottom where I tend to use lace or ribbon but this is so far away from the naked flame that the candle would be throw out long before it became an issue. I tend to use large candles as I find them so dramatic when finished, this one is about 11 inches high.
 The image has been coloured with Promarkers.  I generally use coloured pencils to colour my candle wrappers as Promarkers are a bit difficult to work with on tissue paper but this challenge requires alcohol marker or DI inks so Promarkes it is, just as we all love a challenge don't we :) :) :)
And here we have the finished candle.  If you are interested in how I do my candles I have a wee video tutorial you can watch, it is easier than me explaining every step each time I publish a candle :) - Candle Wrapper Tutorial

Ingredients:-
  • Image - Happy Himalayan by Concetta Kilmer
  • Colouring Medium - Promarkers
  • From my Stash - IKEA candle, candle varnish, gold wax trim, gold pen and ribbon.
I am entering into the following challenges:-
Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Blow Me A Kiss

Sweet Pea Stamps

Today is my day to showcase and image from Sweet Pea Stamps and I have chosen to work with the beautiful image Blow Me A Kiss  by Lynne Stansbery which is available from the Sweet Pea Store in digi format.

I started by colouring the image with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils.
Next I needed some green card as my card base but did not have the colour I wanted so out with a white sheet of card and airbrush it with my Promarkers.
 Next I cut my card blank with my die cutter and a design I created.
Next I embossed my contrasting mat with an Embossilicious folder.  I then distressed the edges and added some very slinky lace behind.
 Now for some flowers.  I have used flowers I bought but I removed the centres which were an orange/yellow and did not fit in with the colour scheme of the card and replaced each centre with a dark pink pearl surrounded by pale pink pearls.
For the inside of the card I used the Spellbinder Oranate Square die.  The front of the card was finished off with a bit more lace, a Birthday sentiment and a luscious bow, with a few more pink pearls dotted around for good measure.
And here is the front of my Spring themed Birthday Card

Ingredients:-
  • Image - Blow Me A Kiss  by Lynne Stansbery
  • Colouring Medium - Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and Promarkers
  • Dies - Spellbinder Adorning Square, Grand Squares and Label 20, floral card shape by me.
  • From my Stash - pearls, ribbon, lace, sentiment peel off.
I am entering into the following challenges:-
Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a happy crafting time ahead of you :) xx