A Frugal Journey Through January Day 20

Hello again, yesterday I shared my prepping of the altered book which is going to become my art journal, and today I am sharing some cards I made with the pages I tore out of the book as part of my preparation. Waste not, want not and all that!

This card was made by stamping out the images which are by JOFY for PaperArtsy onto the book pages then colouring the individual elements with Distress Inks. Really effective!

I used a Hero Arts stamp here, stamped onto a page from the book with the text on the page at right angles to the text on the stamp, then embossed with black embossing powder. The buildings on the stamp were evenly spaced out but I wanted mine to overlap a bit so I cut them out. I added the little triple layer embossed heart for a pop of colour.

This little birdie is also from Hero Arts I just added some ink around him, splattered with a water and blotted, then layered him on a die cut doily, also from a book page. My little embossed heart makes an appearance here too!

I don't use my dies enough so I thought I'd make a couple of really quick and simple cards with these Spellbinder's die cutting a heart shaped window on the front of the cards to allow a peek through to more hearts inside.

 

More hearts here, again really simple just layered inside each other, I did think afterwards I should have inked them but ho, hum!

To finish today, a more masculine card, when I can't find a 'manly' enough paper and don't have time to create my own, book pages are my go to.

Another day, another blog post! Thank you for joining me, hope to see you again tomorrow when I will be sharing a project that is one layer but appears dimensional, all created with plain paper and ink xx

 

Posted with Blogsy

A Frugal Journey Through January Day 9

Welcome back, thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Today I have a couple of ideas for recycling the stamps on your shelves to give them a fresh, modern look by using the images in parts.

You can simply take an image and cut it into strips, uniform in width or like this card, with graduated widths from the centre out. Be guided by the image, it needs to be cut in a way that still makes perfect sense to your eye. I used a bright coloured cardstock to add a bit of zing with the featured image strips raised on foam pads.

 

With these two cards I went for a softer look and cut the image to draw the eye to the bird, using very small greeting stamps so they didn't detract from the main image. Again the images on white card are slightly raised

 

On this one I simply stamped the greeting onto the main image then die cut it out with a slightly larger rectangle cut surrounding it, allowing the lilac backing paper to show through. It hasn't photographed well but the main image is raised on foam tape to add a bit more depth.

 

Finally, one of my all time favourite stamps. I've used so many different techniques with this one over the years and I will share more of those with you another day. But for now I tried to make the poppies really stand out, not just by colouring them, but by die cutting them out from the background with a very narrow frame of black card to frame them.

So, that's all for today - new ways to use old favourite stamps and a different way to use all those dies that lie pretty much redundant on my shelves. Four striking, clean and simple cards which I hope you like enough to take another look at those older stamps in your own stash and explore the possibilities!

All the stamps used here are from Hero Arts and the basic shape dies are all from Spellbinders.

Hope to see you again tomorrow x

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

So where did the week go?

 

I know, I know but I have no idea where the last week disappeared to! So, to catch up, firstly here's last Tuesday evening's workshop project.

 

 

The triptych is an empress wood blank, painted with Eco Green Crafts Acrylic paint in Orchid and layered with Prima's Fairy Belle papers, distressed around the edges with my trusty Tim Holtz Distressing Tool.

 

 

I stapled some cotton lace to the layers of paper before I stuck them down, ( I borrowed Penny's stapler in the workshop and then forgot to give it back - drop me your address Penny and I will pop it in the post to you!), added a few roses, paper flowers and the frondy bit from TH Alterations Pinecone Die - I've done everything but make a pinecone with it but more of that later! I found an old broken Style Stone frame and some metal bits and bobs then misted the whole piece with Cosmic Shimmer Vintage Mist in Patina. The plan was to mist the finished piece with black ink a la Finnabair, but I lost my nerve. I quite like my subtle take on her work, but next time, courage lol!

 

This week also saw a visit from Nicky Cresswell aka Minxy to teach a couple of workshops for Snazzys. She, unlike yours truly, remembered to take photos during the workshop so here we go! 

 

 

This was her initial project, and here are all the variations

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabulous aren't they?

 

On Sunday Nicky agreed to run a drop in session making roses from both stamped images and dies, and boy did I need her help, I am all fingers and thumbs with anything fiddly. She used the Studio 490 Accents for Art stamps and the TH Alterations Pinecone Die ( yes, to make roses) and some of her own Spellbinders dies. There was much hilarity, but Nicky was very patient, full of really useful tips and tricks, and a good time was had by all. I'm not sure that Wendy will still be planning a heart made with 40 handmade red roses for her parents Ruby Wedding Anniversay tho'!

 

 

So, a huge thank you to Nicky, who I'm hoping to talk into a repeat performance once she has recovered from an excess of Snazzy seniors and juniors, and I'll leave you with a little video tour of the store taken by Nicky before she left.

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping by. 

Back soon xx

 

PS The Christmas Dylusions stamps are up on Snazzys online store now with the stencils/masks on tomorrow and lots more to follow.