Steampunk Silhouette Fairy

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! Uh oh it's Friday the 13th today so I'll be touching wood and encouraging my fur baby Jinx to run in front of me (but not trip me up like he usually does!) as he's a black cat and considered lucky in the UK. With a bit of luck and avoidance of going ANYWHERE I should be ok lol. In all honesty I'm not that superstitious and the only reason I'll be staying indoors is because we're expecting a parcel today. I've had a sleepless night - it was just one of those times when my brain wouldn't switch off long enough for me to fall asleep - so I pulled an all nighter and did a bit of crafting. I coloured in a Kaisercraft stamped image from the "Suga Pop" range which features a couple of cutesy owls (I love owls) but I haven't bothered to take a photo as it was just ProMarker practice. However I have taken a few pics of a steampunk fairy picture I've made for my sister. 

Steampunk silhouette fairy with metal/card gears and butterfly

 Regular readers of this blog will notice that this is an old favourite of mine in fact I made my sister a card using this image for her birthday last December and she liked it so much that when I offered to make her one in the colours of her choice, she jumped at it. Teresa asked me to make her a picture (for framing) using lilacs and purples so I hope she likes what I've made for her. I started off with a 5.5" square piece of cream card (I used cream because I have loads but prefer to use white card stock for toppers and card bases and for this project the original colour is covered with distress inks) and I covered it with Seedless Preserve Distress ink using a blending tool then I went round the edges towards the centre but leaving a space with Dusty Concorde. I blended both inks together until I got a smooth finish as desired. I stamped the fairy image using Memento Tuxedo Black ink but carefully wiped away the central parts (the veins) of the wings so that I could stamp them with cogs and gears. I also stamped the star dust and mushrooms at this point. My Wink of Stella brush pen is nearly out of ink so after swiping it over the steampunked wings I got a new WOS pen out and prepped it, unfortunately I squeezed a little too vigorously and too much ink came out. Although it's called clear the fluid which the shimmer is suspended in actually has a silver tint to it and as too much liquid came out of the brush tip, my wings ended up silvery instead of it having a bleaching effect on the Distress inks as it usually does. I don't mind too much though because although it almost obscures the cogs and gears etc that I stamped if you move the panel to a different angle you can see them through the shimmer which gives them an ethereal appearance - I imagine a steampunk fairy's wings to be half clockwork and half magic. The solid fairy image didn't stamp as dark as I would have liked so I went over it with a black WOS brush marker. I covered the mushroom caps with a layer of clear WOS and added splodges of it to the star dust sprinkles. I added some silhouetted flowers and leaves from a Lindsay Mason stamp set as shown. Once I was happy with this image I layered it onto black card stock then onto purple/lilac holographic card. I cut a sheet of lilac shimmer card that came from Crafter's Companion (I won it a few years ago in a card making competition with some stamps, rock-a-blocks and spray and stick) to 7 1/4" square and layered this underneath the holographic card. Finally I cut a sheet of dark purple ribbed card to 8" square and added the fairy layered topper to the centre. 

Close up of "Steampunked" wings

Slightly different angle showing steampunk fairy

The pictures above show the ethereal cogs and gears in the fairy's wings. To highlight the steampunk elements of the fairy I decided to add some metal embellishments to the finished piece. I usually add a butterfly rub-on to this image but instead added a metal butterfly using a Dovecrafts 'Metallics' mini brad (I punched a small hole through all the layers first using a WRMK crop-a-dile hole punch) I bent the wings up slightly to add interest to the butterfly. I got a cogs and gears die set from ECAP a while back and used them to cut out card shapes which I either painted with copper Cosmic Shimmer paints (absolutely love these paints!) or I covered them with Versamark ink and double embossed them using silver and copper embossing powders. I'm really pleased with how my homemade cogs and gears turned out because the embossed ones are on par with the metal bought ones. I got a selection of made and bought cogs and gears and added them to the bottom right of the panel using different sized brads - I've even found some Woodware screw top brads which look very steampunky! With the exception of the second from the top cog, the gears and cogs can be moved but unfortunately they don't really move each other - I'm going to frame this eventually so having moving parts isn't exactly a priority.

Guess which gears and cogs are the metal ones?

The clue is the screw brads *grin*

Another angle - the wings are now silver!

I hope you've enjoyed this project, I shall be on the look out for a suitable frame (a box frame would be good) and once it's framed I'll add a finished project photo to this post. I really hope my sister likes it too. As always if you have any questions or comments please leave them in the box below and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxxx

Note Holder Box Entry for Card Designer of The Year 2014

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty nook! It's not that long since I entered the Papercrafter of the Year competition and the deadline for the next big comp the Card Designer of the Year 2014 is rapidly approaching - it's non-stop at the moment! As usual just as I need it my card mojo has vanished and I'm struggling to find something new to make without resorting to buying more stuff. As I usually do when inspiration is thin on the ground I visited YouTube and checked out some of the subscriptions I'm signed up for and although most of the videos are for Christmas/holiday cards and projects I did find a rather nifty project on Splitcoaststampers, a "fold over box" by Liz Walker. Liz's box was Christmassy (not surprising at this time of year) but I decided to make mine into a holder for memo papers to keep next to the telephone. As I want it to be on display all year round I made a non Christmas themed box.

Top of Note Holder Box

I used a sheet of My Mind's Eye double sided cardstock from a range called "Just Dreamy", I've had it for YEARS so I don't imagine you'll be able to get hold of it still but any double sided card will do. In the end I used a second sheet for the mats and flowers but you only need one sheet to make the basic design. For a really good tutorial pop over to YouTube and look up Splitcoaststampers and fold over box, but if you want to stick with me then here goes. I cut my card to 9"x6" and scored it long side at 3" and repeated with more card so I ended up with two 6"x6" panels with a 3"x6" hinge. I attached the two hinges together using a strong glue so I ended up with a something that looks like a binder. To make the box to go inside the binder, cut some cardstock to 10"x10" and score each side at 3". Cut to inner score line and trim off part of each tab then stick to the inside of the flaps to create the box shape - use a really strong wet glue and either keep a hold of it until it sets or use paperclips to anchor the two pieces together until it dries. Decorate the outside and inside panels of this box.

Inside Box (with note paper)

I found the lid a bit flimsy once I put it all together so I added a panel of black card to the inside of the lid, then I centred the box and stuck it down using more strong wet glue. I cut two strips of ribbon and added them to the centre of the lid and the base of the Note Holder using Anita's Tacky Glue. I matted more of the double sided card onto black cardstock and added these to the lid and the base covering up the glued part of the ribbon, using more strong glue.

I cut some flowers using Lil' inker designs flowers die in the patterned and black card, then diecut two swirls out of more black card using a Craft-Too "Swirly" Die Cutting & Embossing Stencil. I layered different sized flowers together to make the flowers (see photo) and added Sparklet Stickers from The Works to the centres. I added these flowers to the top left corner of the front using strong wet glue and slid the swirls under two of the flowers as shown adding a few drops of glue where needed. I embellished this front with a few black gems and some Craftwork Cards Black card candi. For a bit of shimmer I highlighted the black areas with either clear Wink of Stella or black Wink of Stella. Finally I cut sheets of paper to size and tied them together with waxed cord along with a pen. The finishing touch was to tie the ribbon in a bow.

Side view of Fold Over Box

Here are a few more images of the finished project - many thanks to Liz Walker of Splitcoaststampers for the original idea and tutorial - please check her out on YouTube, it's worth a visit.

I hope you've enjoyed my version of Liz Walker's Fold Over Box and I'd love to see what you come up with. As always if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them in the section below and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah xxx

"Adrift" Birthday card

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all looking forward to the weekend. We're picking the girls up from school tomorrow afternoon then having them over night which we're really looking forward to.

I've only made one card since my last post - a sweet sixteen birthday card for my lovely niece Charlie who's celebrating her sixteenth birthday next month, using Santoro's "Adrift" stamp set and the Clearly Besotted "Mini Banners" stamp and die sets.

I stamped the main image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on white cardstock and coloured it in using Pro Markers then fussy cut the image out. I added glittery highlights using a clear Wink of Stella brush marker. I took a sheet of 6" by 6" coordinating  cardstock from a Santoro card stack and trimmed the edges slightly as the card blank I had was slightly smaller than 6" by 6" and curled all four corners using a thin paint brush handle then stuck it down onto the kraft card blank using red liner tape. I stamped the star and moon detail at the top of the card and also the boat image, then coloured the star and moon using Pro Markers in yellow tones. I then stuck down the coloured in "Adrift" image and coloured in the flowers which I found too fussy to cut round. I stamped the Happy Birthday in pink ink using the Clearly Besotted mini banners stamp set and cut it out using the coordinating mini banners die. I stuck it over the moon detail using sticky pads, and carefully wrote "Sweet Sixteen" on the boat like a boat name. Finally I stamped out a verse sentiment inside.

close up of sentiment

Card for Charlie

  

 I'm really happy with how the card turned out and I hope Charlie likes it too.

I shall write another post once I've made some more cards, until then - keep crafting!


Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah xxxx

Seriously Impressed...

Hello crafty peeps, welcome to my crafty nook.  Well I've got to say I'm seriously impressed with Clearly Besotted Stamps, I placed an order with them at about 1am and I've already had an email from them saying it's been dispatched! If the stamps and dies are as good as the dispatching then I can see myself becoming "Clearly Besotted" with this company! Lol I'll have to get my hubby to give me more housekeeping at this rate as I'll still want to shop at my top two websites www.everycraftsapound.co.uk and www.inspirecreationz.com. I've been trying a few new online shops but these two remain my favourites.

I've also had an email confirmation from Amazon saying my order of two black Wink of Stella pens have been dispatched by Monochrome Solutions, again very impressive as I ordered that in the early hours of today too! I also ordered two clear Wink of Stella pens from a different supplier (not sure who at this point) at the same time but they haven't been sent yet. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to try Amazon for Wink of Stella pens before now, I suppose I wanted to stay loyal to my original supplier (not yet mentioned on this blog) but I emailed the company nearly 6 weeks ago asking them to let me know when the clear Wink of Stella became available again and although I got an initial email saying that they'd inform me when they next came in I've not heard anything since. As a result I've been hoarding the one pen I have got and my cards and projects have been a lot less sparkly then I'd like. Dare I say that the suppliers I chose on Amazon are quite a bit cheaper too! The black pens only cost £2.96 with £2.65 P&P and the clear pens were £3.79 each with free p&p. My first Wink of Stella pen cost £4.99 plus £1.75 p&p which I thought very reasonable at the time.

Crafting goodies aside, the next crafting project I need to start is an Anniversary card for my lovely hubby and as usual I have a complete craft block! What is it about men's cards that makes them so hard to do? I suppose things are not helped by the fact that most of the craft stuff I buy is cute or girly - or worse glittery! Thank goodness for baker's twine and buttons, otherwise I wouldn't have any embellishments for men's cards. As the third Anniversary is leather I may try the Sheena Douglass 'faux leather' technique using kraft card and glycerin. I've done it before and it turned out ok but a word of warning to anyone who tries this technique themselves (check You Tube for tutorials) when you've finished with the glycerin/water mixture don't leave it in the bottle for weeks like I did because it gets black balls of mold floating about after a few weeks. I ended up throwing the spray bottle away! When I've done the card I shall put up a couple of pics on this blog. If you click on my profile I've uploaded a couple of photos of cards I've made which I hope you'll enjoy. If you want any details on the techniques or supplies used please comment either below or on the relevant photo.

That's all my crafty news for now so until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah x

Birthdays and Blogging for Dummies (that's me btw)

Hello crafty peeps, just a quick post to let you know what I've been up to in my crafty nook. It's my lovely hubby's birthday tomorrow (Thursday 21st) so I've been working on his birthday card. Actually I started it at the beginning of the month but only finished it last night, not because it's a huge project or anything just I've had a bit of a crafty block the last few weeks - men's cards are always a bit of a challenge for me if I'm honest.

The moment I saw the "Long Time Ago" stamp set by Neat & Tangled, I knew it was destined to be used on Chris's card so just after I bought it at the beginning of the month I started to mess around with black card and white watercolour paint until I had a starry spacey style background. If anyone is interested in making a similar background, try typing in starry backgrounds on YouTube, Kristina Werner and Jennifer MacGuire both have at least one background which are to be honest far superior to mine! Back to mine though, I wanted the stars on my background to have depth so I splattered thinned out white paint onto pure black cardstock, allowed it to dry then added some watered down Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle Paint in Angel Red - this paint is actually a very pale pink colour. I allowed that to dry and splattered on some LuminArte  Twinkling H20s Radiant Rain pure colour concentrate in Majestic Blue and Snap Dragon, these paints contain mica so have to be shaken well before use, I didn't add a whole lot of these daubers just enough to add a bit more colour and to add depth to the galaxy. Once these were dry I got my "precious" (otherwise known as a clear Wink of Stella pen, these pens are like gold dust and everywhere I normally order from either don't stock them or are permanently out of stock!) out and carefully stroked the brush nib so some of the clear glitter ink splattered onto the card. It's given the background a subtle shimmery sparkle which I love. Anyway let's fast forward to last night - I've been panicking slightly about how I was going to stamp the words onto the background because I wanted it to look as close as possible to the opening sequence on "Star Wars", the letters on the film are yellow and I don't have either a pale yellow ink or yellow embossing powder, the closest I could come to it was using a dark yellow ink and clear embossing powder. Only problem was that when I tried it, the letters barely showed up on the starry background. I tried white and it too vanished once it was heat set, it was only when I used a really juicy white ink pad and glow in the dark embossing powder that the "A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR, AWAY.... YOU WERE BORN" stamped image appeared! The first part of the sentiment slants away into the distance and is smaller than the second part (which also slants btw) so it looks like it's disappearing into space. It's a really cool stamp and it means I was able to get away with just the sentiment and the starry background as the card's main feature. I stamped HAPPY BIRTHDAY underneath and heat embossed it in hot pink (not usually a men's card colour but somehow it works!)

I've matted the black card onto silver holographic card, then matted it on black card, then a different style holographic card before sticking the whole lot onto a black card base. I buy the card blanks from The Works because it's sturdy cardstock and is white inside so you can write a message without having to add an insert. I've added some strips of starry background card and holographic card to the inside of the card and added a 'Celebrate' sentiment from a Teresa Collins stamp set. I'm really pleased with how it's come out and if I ever work out how to upload the photos from my camera, I'll add a couple of it to this post.

And on that note a bit of news.... In a bid to make myself a better blogger I've just purchased a copy of Blogging for Dummies from Amazon and it should be here next week, so once it's arrived and I get round to reading it, you should see some subtle changes to my blog which will hopefully improve it so I finally get some followers - who knows I may learn how to add email notifications etc. Confusingly according to my stats I have ZERO followers and yet I know I have a follower on Google (waves to Teresa my sister!) because I received a Google notification telling me I had. I'm hoping the book explains what the difference is and how to attract followers without having to pay for ads etc - I'm not so much cheap as poor lol plus I'd much rather use any spare cash I have on buying craft goodies for a subbie related giveaway (watch this space), then pay for people to view my blog via a google ad.

Anyway that more than enough for now, I'll post another entry when I've done a bit more crafting, until then,
Love and crafty hugs,
Sarah x