30th Skull card

Hello there my crafting friends, good to have you with me today. May I wish you all a Very Happy Easter, sorry no Easter card but as I mentioned the other day I had made a card for a friends 30th Birthday who likes skulls so I thought I would show you this one today. My apologies for those of you who do not like these kind of cards, especially Ang lol! I shall post something different soon. It will soon be safe Ang, not a lot but soon...!!!

To begin with I wanted a colourful background but not too bright it would take the focus away from the skull so I chose three colours from the Aquatints Bright & Beautiful set and put to one side.

I cut a piece of Sheena's White Stamping card to size then using my Paisley Blockwallah  stamp block with my Versamark Ink pad I randomly stamped over the card then heat embossed with Creative Expressions White Embossing Powder.

Now with my three Aquatints, I chose the Green, Blue & Purple, using a natural sponge I sponged each colour over the card a little at a time going over each colour with a different one until I was happy with the result, now less is more is the way with this as you cannot take it off once it has been put on.

Once it was dry I wiped over with a dry piece of kitchen towel to take any excess ink from the White embossed pattern. I then wrapped a piece of Green Craft ribbon around the middle of the card, matted it onto some Sheena Black card then attached it to my base card.

Out of White card I die cut and stamped Sheena's day of the Dead Sugar Skull, with the added extra stamps that comes with the set. I stamped the flowers and leaves round the skull, then the circles round the eyes and finally the heart above the eyes. I coloured these in with Aqua Markers Floral & Nature.

I cut a piece of Black card to size so it fitted on the back of the skull giving a base to the eye sockets, using one of the smaller stamps in Sheena's Day of the Dead Floral Fantasy Stamps and Pebeo Iridescent Paint Red Blue I stamped the small flower in each of the eye sockets.

In the center of each painted eye I placed a little Red gem, this showed the eyes up more. I attached this on the ribbon in the center of the card.

I made some larger flowers by die cutting out of copier paper using Sheena's Day of the Dead Floral Fantasy and colouring them with Aquatints Bright & Beautiful, I die cut and stamped the DOTD Dancing Skeleton twice and cut of the heads and placed them in the center of the flowers and placed these in the bottom left corner. I then die cut the top hat from the DOTD Union of Souls set and coloured it Red with Aqua Marker Begonia then went over with a Clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen. I attached this to the head of the skull as seen.

To finish the card I die cut the guitar from DOTD Dance Macabre set out of some oriental Brown paper and placed this in the bottom right corner. There you have the finished card.

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Spook-tacular Birthday!

Hello my crafting friends, good to have you come an visit me today, I hope this finds you all safe and well?

As most of you know I am a member of Sheena's Design Team and we all really loved her Day of the Dead designs, now we know these are not to everyone's taste but they were great fun to work with and make excellent Male cards. They are not to be taken seriously and I do apologize to anyone who may find them morbid. Skulls have been around for ages in several designs, possibly mainly with Rock Music fans or Bikers so I am sure these would suit those perfectly. I have a friend who recently turned 30 and she loves skulls and the like so I will post the card I made for her soon.

Now when I started this one I wanted the ghostly look in the arched church background but was not quite sure what to make the card for, I eventually decided on a Birthday card! Though looking at it if you knew a  couple who were getting married who loved skulls and skeletons you only had to add a skeleton Bride on the other side and it would make an original Wedding card lol! Or, of course, an Halloween card.

To start with I cut a piece of Sheena's Black Card to size then with Sheena's Day of the Dead Dancing Skeleton I stamped just the head three times randomly toward the top of the card using Tim Holtz Distress Ink Antique Linen, now this did not show up on the Black card but it did leave an outline for me to colour in. Putting some Antique Linen ink on my Glass mat I mixed it with a tiny bit of White Gesso and painted in the skulls, this made them look a bit chalky but not white! 

I placed this into Sheena's Embossing Folder Ancient Arches and ran it through my embossing machine, I then rubbed Gold Gilding Wax over the embossed areas to show up the arches. I found this made the skulls disappear in the background slightly giving the ghostly effect I wanted. I matted this onto some Gold Textured Miri card and then cut to size a bigger piece of Black card. 

I die cut and stamped the skeleton, coloured in his boot with Brown Aqua Markers then placed him behind the card as seen but on top of the larger Black card, this was then attached to my base card.

I made a sentiment by stamping onto Black card with Versamark Ink, this came from Sheena's Little Bit Magical Phanthom Ship, then heat embossed with Papermania Gold Embossing powder. using a Gold Ink Pen I wrote 'Birthday' underneath then matted it onto some more Gold Miri card. This was placed at the bottom of the card.

At the top of the Larger Black card I wrote 'Have a...' with the Gold Ink Pen. There you have the finished card which I am quite pleased with, quite a quirky card but different.

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Three for ya!

Hello my crafting friends, hope this finds you all safe and well. Did you enjoy the marvelous shows Sheena did? Fabulous demos and fabulous cards made by the team.

I thought I would show you some more that I made for the shows.

This one was painted using Aquatints for the background then salt sprinkled over the top and left overnight to dry before rubbing all the excess salt away, this gives an amazing background. I just stamped on the shed and wheelbarrow and painted them in with Aqua markers. I stamped & coloured the pots & watering can with Aqua markers then cut them out and positioned them on the card as seen.

Background was painted with Aquatints and left to dry. Then using the Topiary Stencil I stenciled on the two topiary on the right and coloured them in with Aquatints, the bird topiary I spread modelling paste through the stencil and roughed it up a bit to add texture then painted this with Aquatints. The hanging branch was also painted by dabbing on the Aquatints with a sponge, mixing the colours to make the leaves look Autumn like.

For this one I started by stamping and painting the brick wall for the background, I then cut a door & frame out of White hammered card, cutting the door twice so I had two layers. I then stenciled the topiary onto some card, painted them in and cut out to stick either side of the door. Adding some finishing touches like the gold letterbox, door knob & letter.

I believe Sheena may have some more shows coming up next month showing these stamps again, dates are yet to be confirmed.

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Seed Gift Folder Card

Hello my crafting friends, a bit late today but better late than never lol! There are some fabulous shows coming up on create and craft with out lovely Sheena Douglass showcasing her wonderful new stamps and stencils, if you love pets or gardening then these are a must for you. The shows will be on SUNDAY 18TH AT 4PM & 7PM then MONDAY 7AM & 11AM, try not to miss out on all the fabulous demos Sheena will be doing.

I did this card/gift with the Garden/Hare stamps & stencils.

 

I started by going and buying some packets of seeds first to make sure I had the correct size pockets, then I embossed two sheets of A4 Kraft card. 

I measured the seeds up against some Kraft card, cutting the strip of card a bit wider than the packet but long enough to accommodate two packets, if my memory serves me right then this was almost the whole length of the A4 card. The top card of the pockets was a little wider still so that you could fold over the edges and glue them down forming the pockets. I scored these lines before folding. 

I then cut out a half circle at top of each pocket, I did this by hand as I did not have a circle punch. I repeated this process four times but for two of them make the heights of the pockets (or length of card) about half an inch shorter, this is so they sit on top of the larger ones but once the card is closed the meet up at the top. Once the pockets were finished I rubbed some gilding wax over the embossed areas, folded them in half in the middle, so there was a pocket either side and glued one smaller pocket on top of the larger pocket just in the center so that the rest of the pocket was open for access. I hope all this makes sense? I then put these to one side.

For the cover I got 1 sheet of A4 Black card and scored two lines either side of the center forming a spine of about 1- 1 1/2  inches , I found this was large enough for the pockets to sit inside. I then decorated both the inside and outside of the cover. For the inside I used 1 sheet of A4 White card and did the shaving foam technique with Aquatints, (If you do not know the shaving foam technique you can find this on You Tube using any inks) I cut the card in half to fit and stenciled the wild flowers stencil along the bottom, I matted this onto some card I had edged with Gilding flakes then placed this on the inside of the front and back of the card.

For the outside of the card I edged some card with gilding flakes to match the inside. Using another sheet of A4 White card I brushed over with Aquatints pastels blending the colours together then laying some cling film on top and left to dry for about 2 hours. On removing the cling film it leaves some lovely line detail which is usually shiny but with the pastel colour it was quite faded, it shows up more with the Bright & Beautiful Aquatints. Once again I cut this to size to fit the front and back.

I stamped the front using the shed, hanging flowers and Pots stamps and coloured these in with Aqua Markers. I stenciled round the bottom and up one side with the Sack Cloth stencil using Forest Moss Distress Ink. I stamped my sentiment then attached this to the front of my card. I stamped the back with the wheelbarrow and tree stamp and once again coloured with Aqua markers, like the front I stenciled round the bottom and one side with the Sackcloth stencil and attached this to the back.  To finish the card off I added some ribbon round the center of the inside round to the front then added a bow on the outside of the spine. 

The one thing I should have done but forgot until it was too late was before you attach the front and back covers add a strip of ribbon horizontally round the card so it can tie at the front keeping the card closed, the covers would then hide this ribbon apart from the bit you tie up. Or if you have a rivet punch you could use this to put holes in and tie with ribbon.

This would make a lovely gift for a gardener or you can adapt it to fit anything in the pockets, specialty tea bags, book tokens, vouchers whatever you like. I do hope you have understood the instructions but if anyone doesn't or if you have any questions then please do e-mail me. 

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx