Paris Romance/Hot Pot Technique

Today's card was made based on page I submitted for Hayley's Paris Romance chunky book. It is such a gorgeous little book.

I have used the Hot Pot technique here today as well. Hayley was the one that encouraged me to buy the hot pot several years ago at stamp camp and I am so glad I did - it has many uses - one of which is to make charms/embellishments.

Several people have asked about the metal word charms I use. I found a place that makes them which lucky for me is situated right behind my office. They will make up charms for me based on my own words of choice provided I order 200 at a time - thus I had these Paris Romance words made up. I like the fact that the word charms add some dimension to the cards. Having your own words made up is also great as that way you don't have to use the standard Happy Birthday type words - of course I had to have lots of really girly words made up ie Handbags and Shoes, Shop till u drop, Passion for fashion, Born to shop, The Perfect dress, Floral Fantasy, Butterfly Kisses, Dragonfly Dreams, Eastern Promise, Harrods Creations etc.

Materials: Cream cardstock, Pink Bazzil cardstock, Paris Paper from Stampington magazine insert, Copper UTEE, Flex UTEE, Hot Pot, Flowers, Rhinestone, Eiffel Tower image from Crafty Individuals book, Brown ink pad, Swirl stamps Inkadinkadoo, Paris Romance word charm, Caramel color box ink pad, Glimmer mist gold spray.

Method for card: Fold cream cardstock in half to create base 15 x 15 square card. Go around edges of Paris paper with color box ink pad and attach to cardfront. Cut out Crafty Indivuals Eiffel tower image from sheet and go around edges with caramel ink pad and then attach to pink cardstock and again go around edges with caramel ink pad. Using brown brilliance ink pad, stamp swirls onto cardfront as shown and then attach Eiffel tower image at an angle as shown and attach word charm and flowers with rhinestone.

Charm Hot Pot Technique: Pour Copper UTEE into hot pot and melt it and then add in some flex UTEE. I find it important to add the flex when making charms as it makes your charm a bit flexible so that it won't crack into two. I then used a Eiffel tower mould and when the UTEE was melted, I just poured it into the mould and then waited few minutes for it to set and then popped it out of the mould and it was ready to stick onto my card. I use the Krafty Lady art moulds, they are an Australian company and offer a huge range of moulds - see www.kraftylady.com.au . The moulds are very easy to use for clay or UTEE as you don't need to prep the moulds at all - you just pour in the UTEE or press in the clay and pop it out again. No fuss method and quick. The other good thing about making charms from UTEE is that they are very light and so good for cards and they don't weigh down your card the same way a metal charm would. The charms also make great jewellery - just attach a pin at the back and viola you have a new brooch.

Woman of Substance

A black and white card today - thats me in my dream sports car with all my shopping bags of course.

Materials: White cardstock, Black and white textured dots paper, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Black magic tape, Silver pen, Black cardstock, clippola, white organza ribbon, Black brilliance ink pad, Girl image by Rubber Romance, Words by Great Impressions RSA

Method: Use white cardstock for the base card. Run front of card through the Big Shot using Cuttlebug embossing folder, I then cut off a narrow strip from the front of the card and added black magic tape to the card back. Stamp images using black brilliance ink pad onto white cardstock. Trim to size and go around edges with silver pen and mount onto black cardstock. Attach strip of black and white dot paper to cardfront as shown and then add stamped mounted images. Attach clippola and ribbon to girl image and you are done.

Stamping Bella Fairy

Todays card uses a favourite image from Stamping Bella. She is just so cute. I love their range of stamps which all come UM which is great for storage purposes.

Materials: Cream cardstock, Patterned scrapbook paper, White scroll Penny Black vellum, Prima flowers, Rhinestones, Turquoise color box ink pad, black brilliance ink pad, tombow pens, Stickles glitter glue, Image by Stamping Bella

Method: Fold cream cardstock in half to create 15 x 15 square card. Cut scrapbook paper to 14 x 14 and go around edges with turquoise color box ink pad. Tear strip of Penny black vellum and attach it around the scrapbook paper as shown and attach all to cardfront. Stamp image onto cream cardstock and trim to size and go around edges with turquoise color box ink pad and color in using Tombow pens and Stickles glitter glue and attach to cardfront as shown. Attach flowers and rhinestones to finish off.

I hope that everyone has a fabulous week. Saturday is World Card Making day so I hope you celebrate it by making lots of cards. I am attending Debbie's WCMD affair which promises to be great.

Sailing

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I had these little boats in my stash that I bought awhile back and I needed to make a card for a man's birthday who is into yachting so this is what I came up with.

Materials: White cardstock, Patterned blue and white scrapbook paper, Acetate, Blue Staz on ink pad, alcohol inks, brads, yacht, Starfish stamp by Stampington and royal blue color box ink pad, White glossy paper

Method: Fold white cardstock in half to create 14 x 14 base square card. Go around edges of scrapbook paper with blue color box ink pad and attach to cardfront. Attacht yacht. Using your blue Staz on ink pad, stamp Starfish design onto acetate and let it dry thoroughly (I left it overnight). Take glossy white cardstock and smear alcohol inks over it and then when dry (takes a few minutes only) attach it to the glossy cardstock using a small brad in each corner. You can then attach it to the cardfront and you are done. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone.

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.

Time for a Cuppa

Coffee - a much loved drink of mine. I think I am addicted to the Nescafe Cappachino.

Materials: Brown cardstock, Pink cardstock, real coffee beans, flower, rhinestones, cream wool, cream cardstock, Stamps by Hanna stamps, Brown Brilliance ink pad, Caramel color box ink pad, Swiss dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, versamark ink pad, Tombow pens

Method: Fold brown cardstock in half to create card base. I took Versamark ink and stamped coffee words all over the front of the brown cardstock to leave just a kind of watermark impression. Next I ran strips of pink cardstock through the Big Shot using the Cuttlebug Swissdots embossing folder and went around the edges with caramel color box ink pad and attached both strips to cardfront as shown. Next I stamped the image of the girl and the words onto cream cardstock using brown brilliance ink pad and then trimmed to size and went around the edges with caramel ink pad. I then attached both to brown cardstock and then mounted the words onto the cardfront. I coloured the girl using tombow pens and then attached it to pink cardstock and then wrapped fibers around the bottom as shown and attached it to the cardfront. I attached flower with rhinestone centre and some real coffee beans to finish the card off.

Happy Heritage Day

Well as you can see having fun with frames on my picture today courtesy of my PSP course. So many frames too choose from on the program and one can make one's own as well. Sorry the photo ain't brighter but this is Cape Town and despite the rest of the country experiencing Spring, we arn't there yet - we still have winter days and WET weather.

Materials: Girl with bunny image by American art stamps, White cardstock, Pink Bazzil cardstock, Floral scrapbook paper, Pink flower, Pink princess word charm, Pink color box ink pad, Black Brilliance ink pad, Copic markers and tombow pens, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Big Shot

Method: Used white cardstock for the base and then went around the edges of scrapbook paper and pink bazzil cardstock with pink color box ink pad and attached to cardfront. Embossed strip of pink cardstock using cuttlebug embossing folder and attached that. I stamped the image onto white cardstock using black brilliance ink pad and trimmed to size and then went around the edges with the color box ink pad and coloured in the image using copic markers and tombow pens and attached it to the cardfront. I then attached flower and princess word charm.

Enjoy the rest of Heritage day and bonus tomorrow is Friday and then its the weekend again.