You're an angel

Today's card uses my absolute favourite image - Mischief angel from Stampers Anonymous. One of my first stamps and still a firm favourite. The word stamp is by PSX.

Swing card

Another different shape card today - a swing card using mainly Stampers Anonymous and Hero arts stamps and done with lots of sponging.

Hope you all had a great day off yesterday

Sitting on a pile of books

I hope that everyone got thoroughly spoilt yesterday on Valentine's day.

Today's card features Tilda sitting on a pile of books. I used a gate fold card for a change.

Materials: Black cardstock, flowers, rhinestone, Tilda and books stamp by Magnolia, Words stamp by Stampers Anonymous, copic markers, Turquoise color box ink pad, black brilliance ink pad, Pink petticoat turquoise paper from CD.

Method: Make a gate fold card using black cardstock and then cut turquoise paper to fit the two front panels and go around edges with turquoise color box ink pad and attach to cardfront. Use Black Brilliance ink pad to stamp books and Tilda onto white cardstock and color in using copic markers. Cut out images and attach to cardfront as shown. Stamp words as shown and then add flower and rhinestone.

Have a great week everyone.

Angel in frame

Today's card uses two of my favourite stamps - Imagine and Mischief angel by Stampers Anonymous. I have also used frame stamp by Stampers Anonymous.

Materials required: Black cardstock, silver cardstock, white cardstock, black brilliance ink pad, stamps by Stampers anonymous, rhinestones. foam tape.

Method: Stamp frame, angel and words onto white cardstock using black brilliance ink pad, Cut out square on inside of frame large enough to fit angel image. Take words and mount onto black and then silver cardstock and then add to cardfront as shown. Take silver and black cardstock and attach to cardfront. Measure where angel will fit into frame and then attach angel image to cardfront. Finally attach frame using thin foam tape so that it looks like there is some depth to the frame. Add rhinestones and you are done.

Spotlight technique

Wow where has January gone. It seems to be flying by and I just havn't got into my blogging this year yet.

Thought I would start off the year with a technique card. This card shows the Spotlight Technique.

Simply put you choose a large stamp/often a collage style stamp and pick out just one part of the stamp ie the butterfly and colour that in or I stamped image twice and cut out just the butterfly part of the second image and coloured it in and then attached it with pop up foam dots over the original plain stamped image. So that is the spotlight technique in a nutshell. Easy start to the year I thought.

Materials required: Orange cardstock, corrugated cardstock, white cardstock, butterfly charms, Butterfly collage stamp by PSX, Image word stamp by Stampers Anonymous, wire, beads, tombow pens, glitter, foam dots, ds tape, black brilliance ink pad

Method: Using black ink pad, stamp Collage image twice onto white cardstock . Cut out just the butterfly portion of the second image and color in using tombow or copic pens and I used some glitter as well. Take orange cardstock and fold to create 15 x 15 cm square card. Take your first butterfly collage stamped image and mount it onto orange and then corrugated paper and then to cardfront. Take the second butterfly only coloured image and wrap wire around and thread beads onto the wire. Then attach over 1st image using foam dots. Stamp word imagine onto white cardstock using black ink pad and then mount onto orange and then corrugated paper and then to cardfront. Add butterfly charms and you are done.

Angel on Domino/Stamping on Domino's technique

Today's card uses an image stamped onto a domino. Stamping on domino's is great fun and really easy - it just takes a minute or two extra patience. You can make up fabulous jewellery using the stamped domino images ie image instead of putting this on a card, you could put a pin on the back and use as a brooch - I have one and lots of people comment on it. Another great idea is to get someone with a drill to drill holes in the sides of the dominos and then stamp up several and thread threw jewellery elastic and make up a braclet - it is very striking and unique and bound to draw lots of comments.

Another idea is to use domino on a chain around your neck. So really you can make unique gifts from domino's which cost very little from the Crazy store.

Materials: Black cardstock, copper cardstock, cream cardstock, vellum, domino, gold angel wings. joy word stamp by Hero arts, eyelets, domino, lumiere or dala metallic paints, black brilliance or staz on ink pad, copper beads and wire.

Method: Fold black cardstock to create base card. Attach copper and then black cardstock. Take square of vellum music paper and attach to cream cardstock using four eyelets in the corners and attach to cardfront. Take paint (I used Copper Lumiere) and paint domino by sponging on the paint and leave to dry. Once paint is dry use black brilliance or black staz on to stamp Mischief angel stamp from Stampers Anonymous onto domino. When stamping on domino, if you have painted the domino first it is not that slippery so its easy to stamp onto. I normally ink up my stamp and then place stamp on my desk with inked side facing up and then I take the domino and place it onto the part of the stamp i want and press down firmly and then lift off. Worst case scenario if you don't like the image then you can use thinners to remove the paint and image and start again. If you havn't painted the domino, you can still stamp directly onto the domino but it will be a little bit more slippery so grip it firmly when pressing it on the stamp and lift off. Again if you don't like the image or its not perfect then just use staz on stamp cleaner to remove image and wash the domino and then stamp again. You can then color the image using dye ink pads or sharpie markers. I often use a gold pen to do the sides of the domino. Ok so on with the card. Wrap copper wire and small beads around the domino and then attach angel wings and secure to front of card. I then added two small round stickers.

I hope this inspires you to give stamping on domino's a go. Its great fun and ideal for making up some last minute unique christmas presents and best of all its really cheap if you get the dominos at the Crazy store.

Dreams photo card

And believe it or not it's Friday again. Where does the time go to. It seems to be flying by.

Today's card is very simple and uses a photo from Joanna Sheen.

Materials: Black cardstock, Joanna Sheen woman and child photo, Dreams word stamp by Stampers Anonymous, Black Brilliance ink pad, Dictionary scrapbook paper, Butterfly charm.

Method: Mount photo onto black cardstock. Attach scrapbook paper to cardfront and use black brilliance ink pad to stamp the word dreams. Mount photo and add butterfly.

Alcohol Inks and Dominos techniques

Thought I would share another two favourite technique today- Alcohol inks and stamping on Dominos.

Alcohol inks

I have used a selection of the Tim Holtz Alcohol inks on this project. For the card all I did was add a couple of colors of the alcohol inks to the Alcohol ink tool and then pounce it over glossy cardstock. Once I was basically happy with the colors, I then added a drop of blending solution and let it do its own thing.

Domino Stamping

Because of there slippery surface I find its best to stamp with Staz on but I have also had success with Brilliance although it takes longer to dry and doesn't work perfectly everytime. I find it is much easier to ink up your stamp, and you don't have to choose small stamp to fit domino, it can be large collage type stamp. Once you have inked up the stamp with Staz on, lie the stamp flat on the table inked side up and then choose which bit of stamp you want on your domino and simply press the domino firmly into the stamp and lift straight up. If you don't like your first image remember you can use Staz on cleaner to remove the image and let it dry and just start again. I would do this several times just to practice if you are new to stamping on dominos. For this domino, all I did was put 3 different colours of the alcohol inks onto the blending tool and then pounced them over the domino and left it to dry. I then stamped the image with Staz on and went around the edges with a Krylon gold pen.

Materials: Black cardstock, glossy cardstock, Gold cardstock, Stampers Anonymous stamp, Staz on Black , Rhinestones, Alcohol inks and blending solution and alcohol ink blending tool, butterflies, gold embossing powder, word stamp, clear embossing ink pad, Letter P sticker, Gold krylon pen, Domino.

Method: Fold black card to create base square card. Prepare domino as described above and also prepare stamped glossy cardstock as described above. Go around edges of glossy stamped image with gold pen and attach to black and then gold cardstock and then to cardfront. Use clear embossing ink pad to stamp words and emboss with gold embossing powder. Attach domino, rhinestones and butterfly and letter P sticker.

I will share with you another way tomorrow to use your alcohol inks. There are some stunning new colors out. What to do if you don't have any of the Tim Holtz alcohol inks - cry - no seriously you can try the technique using Copic refills (they are alcohol ink after all) or try any die reinkers.

Credit card technique

This card makes use of one of my favourite techniques - credit card technique.

Technique Instructions:

I normally use the inner wrapper paper of normal gift wrap - its usually a light grey very thin cardboard. Alternatively any cheap cardstock will work - not too thick as you need to be able to crumple it up. I then scrunch it up in my hands and then flatten it out and spray it with water. I then add a couple of dollops of paint - I use Lumiere paints but Dala our local brand work just as well, the dollops should be about the size of a R5.00 coin. I then use credit card to spread the paint across the paper. Add more paint if required. When you are happy with your paper leave it to dry and then once dry you can stamp on it. Makes for lovely background paper which has a texture in it.

Materials for card: Black cardstock, copper cardstock, inner cardboard from gift wrap tube, cream cardstock, butterflies, black brilliance ink pad, Stampers Anonymous word stamp, Prima flowers, rhinestone,Paper Artsy woman stamp, Copper pen

Method: Prepare the background as described under technique above. Once dry use black brilliance to repeatedly stamp background words. Take A4 black cardstock and fold in half to create card base. Add layer of copper and then black cardstock and then your credit card technique paper. Use black brilliance ink pad to stamp woman onto cream cardstock and go around edges with copper pen and then attach to black and copper cardstock and then to cardfront as shown. Add flowers with rhinestone and butterflies.

Hope you enjoy this technique.

Direct to Paper Technique

Happy Saturday everyone.

Thought I would share a card I made a while back I think it was for a cuttlebug card challenge and also show you at same time how I often color in collage images using DTP technique. (Direct to paper)

Materials: Black cardstock, green bazzil cardstock, mauve bazzil cardstock, cream cardstock, black brilliance ink pad, selection of color box ink pads, flowers with rhinestone brad, Cuttlebug swirl embossing folder, Big Shot, Rhinestones, Metal word charm, Vogue pattern stamp by Stamepers Anonymous.

Method:Fold black card in half to create card base. Run green cardstock through Big shot using cuttlebug embossing folder and then go around the edges with mauve color box ink pad and attach to cardfront. Run strip of mauve cardstock through Big shot using same cuttlebug embossing folder and attach that to cardfront. Attach flowers with rhinestone brad and rhinestones and word charm. Using black briliance ink pad, stamp vogue pattern image onto cream cardstock and HEAT set. Color image according to technique below and then attach to mauve cardstock and then to cardfront.

Technique: DTP or otherwise known as Direct to Paper technique is a very easy and yet effective technique and is a very easy way of colouring in Collage stamp images. All you do is take selection of color box ink pads( I use the small cats eyes) and one at a time gently rub them over your stamped image. Continue until you are happy with all the colours.

Now I am often asked, doesn't this damage your ink pads or contaminate them - the answer to both questions is yes. However you can color a mountain of images before you have to chuck the ink pad eventually and if you look at the price of the cat's eye's I think you will find its worth it. I use my cats eyes all the time for going around edges of paper and also for this technique and they are one of those must haves for cardmaking in my book. The color box ink pads are pigment ink pads so you could try this with another brand of pigment ink(I have used the Stampin up spots before) but I just find the color box are easy to obtain generally and offer a huge range of colors at a very reasonable price.

To avoid contamination of your ink pad colors, then I would suggest starting with the lightest color first - this certainly helps keep your yellow ink pad looking yellow. If you do get some contamination on your ink pad, you can fairly easily after swiping it over the image to be coloured, just swipe it over some scrap paper to get off any other color contimation. Keep the scrap paper -I often then use that piece of paper to overstamp with another image.

Another thing you will find if you use your color boxes for this technique and for the edging of papers is that often the ink pad just falls off its perch as it were. This isn't a train smash at all - I just take some really strong glue and glue it back on and after waiting for the glue to dry its as good as new.

If you are doing this technique using brand new ink pads, then swipe very gently as a lot of ink will come off onto the paper - this technique is really best with slightly older used ink pads.

Ok so why not give it a go yourself - its fun and you can get some great color combinations and it is really the easiest way I have found to colour in large collage type stamps.

Card of the day - Dragonfly

I thought I would share this card with you today which was inspired by a Chunky book I did last year.

I used Stampers Anonymous Dragonfly stamp.The base card is Tan Confetti cardstock and then I stamped the Dragonfly once on cream cardstock using black brilliance ink pad and then again on gold cardstock. I trimmed the image on cream cardstock and then took Pritt and ran it around the edges of the image quite thickly and then poured on gold embossing powder and heat set. I then cut out just the wings and the circle from the image on gold cardstock and mounted those on top of the cream stamped image. I then mounted the image onto black and gold cardstock. I then repeatedly stamped the image onto the tan card and added the mounted image, a dragonfly charm and used by Dymo to do the word label. I love the rough effect you get when using Pritt to emboss. It really adds texture.