Resist Stenciling Cards

Despite being gardening crazy at the moment I managed to get some crafty time in and I turned a couple of backgrounds into birthday cards.  It was a continuation of my 'playing' with the Distress Micro Glaze resist technique. I can't seem to resist resist at the moment!

The top card has some gold embossing paste thinly stenciled on top of the resist stenciling so it's slightly translucent.  It's a little easier to see in the close up shot further down the post. 

The one below used just two colours of spray, pink and a honey gold but when sprayed on top of each other they made a very pleasing deeper burgundy.

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Gardening Mini Journal

Over the Easter break I made a little gardening journal in which to keep all the notes about the garden this year -  with my husband's foray into the world of growing vegetables and his constant quest for knowledge about it on the internet I decided that rather than have piles of little notes and scraps of paper lying around I would make him a journal to collate all his valuable information!

I took the idea from a birthday card I made him recently, which can be found here.

I used Eileen Hull's Wrapped Journal die and decorated it with stenciling using Distress Micro glaze as a resist.  I added real seeds and Glossy Accents for 'water drops' to the front cover and little miniature die cut vegetables to the inner cover. For closure the twig (which is actually a shawl pin) is slotted through two loops of leather held in place with brads.  The signatures are loose but held in place with brown elastic thread so that pages can be moved around or replaced.

The inside front cover has a small envelope which closes with natural twine and I made a page marker out of thick linen thread with a bead and a little pea pod on the end - this is simply looped through some of the elastic binding inside the journal.

I so enjoyed making this and I really could have gone to town decorating it but I was pleased that I managed to keep it fairly understated and simple - the hubs definitely wouldn't want dangly decorations and fiddly bits that might fall off or get in the way!

I am sharing this over at Julia's WOYWW and the 
Mini Album Makers Challenge.

 

Spring Inspiration

I have been engrossed in the garden lately, and after making a gardening themed birthday card recently (here) I have been playing about with ideas for my 'Spring Emerging' project.  This is one of my seasonal on-going projects that comes out every year, and I work on it until the next season arrives - that's the plan anyway!

Ideas have been along a theme of planting seeds, rows of seedlings, earth and compost and of course a Ginkgo leaf thrown in for good measure (why on earth - I don't know - but I felt like it!).  Distress Micro Glaze was used as a resist, except for the green circles that were pigment tinted texture paste.  I don't know what I'll do with them yet but I enjoyed the playing!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Gardening Birthday Card and WOYWW

It was the Hub's birthday this week and I made him a gardening themed card as he has decided to throw himself wholeheartedly into growing vegetables this year - life is revolving around seedlings and grow-bags at the moment!

I used real seeds glued in little rows and also a larger seed glued into each texture paste circle, just as if they are in their own little pots.  Glossy Accents was used for the moisture drops on the vellum and also on the circles. 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

  

Little Book of Insects

I decided to have a little play at book-binding this week as I wanted a notebook for sketching and jotting down ideas about moths and other insects.  I was quite pleased with how neat the binding was, as I am usually rather haphazard with where I make my holes, often piercing them too close together despite marking them out.

Whilst decorating the front of the book I forgot I'd used olive green thread for the binding and it doesn't really match the decoration, but I don't think it's too noticeable and perhaps I'm being a bit pernickety!

I am sharing this over at Julia's WOYWW and the 
Mini Album Makers Challenge.


Update: I was so pleased to make the Top 5 this month - thank you to the team from the Mini Album Makers Challenge.

Stamping and Smudging!

I like to have a good stash of cards to hand and so I've just made a batch for the coming months.  I used the same stamps but stamped firstly on one card and then directly on to a second, using Distress Ink but without re-inking the stamp.  I changed it around a bit so they each had some first and some second generation printing on them. I smudged the freshly stamped images with a clean blending tool and added some gold flakes to the edges of the darker one.   

Different stamps but the same technique as above with these next two cards, but I added some pearl drops to highlight some of the foliage. I usually add a sentiment or banner later when I know what I want the card for.

  

I'm linking up with Julia over What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday this week.

Birthday Cards for the Men of the Family

This is a birthday-heavy time of year for my family so here are a couple of cards I had to make recently.  Both needed to incorporate hard cash!

This one was for my nephew who is very keen on fishing - alochol inks were used for the background and I found on YouTube how to fold the money into an origami fish.  I then placed it inside the card with low tack tape so the note wasn't damaged.

 For this next one I had a go at trying to create a rusty finish on a piece of card and then die cut the pocket, tag and stars - money was stuffed into the wallet with the gift tag.  The faux enamel label around it and the little plaque on the tag were both done using a technique by the super-talented Alison Bomber - here's a link to her tutorial on the Paper Artsy blog. 

I'm linking up with Julia this week, over at WOYWW

Fleur de Lys Tag and WOYWW

 I had a lovely, relaxing 'play' session in my studio yesterday and made this rather fussy tag for no reason other than the fun of it.  I flung everything at it - I stamped, crackled and foiled!  I then added some vivid blue glass beads simply because they are my latest passion!   

  

I'm linking up with Julia this week over at Whats On Your Work Desk Wednesday.