Thursday 14 April 2011

And now getting right up to date.....almost!

January and February was a bit of a crafting wilderness for me but I've got back into the swing of things now.
So, to bring this right up to date, here are the things I've been making that have stopped me having time to update my blog....LOL!

Some birthday cards for crafting friends......


This was to try out the 'Alcohol Ink Capture' technique shown in the March issue of Craft Stamper by Anneliese Bates. It worked really well with this great little stamp by Penny Black, called 'Clique'. Gosh, I use this stamp SO much!












It's worth showing you a close-up of the glass panel because the effect is so fabulous. Only thing was, I wished I hadn't had to stick the glass to the white panel with Diamond Glaze as this lost the gorgeously glossy effect of the clear embossing powder on the alcohol ink. If I could have found a way of suspending it above the card, I would have done that.












I haven't used Photo Real stamps much lately so decided to get this brilliant Marilyn Monroe image out for this next birthday card, also using some starry handmade paper,  a pretty little frame stamp by....oh God, I can't remember...and a fab big crystal brad
from a set by Papermania.









Now this one was something rather out of my comfort zone. I found these great 50's retro stamps by Artemio and the same day saw some crockery in a furnishing store with a design on it taken from a Sanderson 1950s design called 'Dandelion Flower'.
So, here I have tried to recreate this using masking.

I wanted a suitably 1950s sentiment so nabbed me a great font online - free download too! - and computer-generated it.






Full credit goes to Joanne Wardle for this next one....this is a direct copy of her idea. Only the stamps differ!
I love the clean simplicity of this idea and the colouring in with coloured pencils is very therapeutic. I only had a cheap set of kiddies pencils at the time so used those.
I added some Enamel Accents for a bit of dimension and because I had just bought them and wanted to try them out.
Stamps: Flowers by Penny Black
             Sentiment by Hero Arts



Now, since then I have been and gone and bought two sets of rather nice coloured pencils - I'm going through a phase!
Both by Derwent and they seem like they are going to be rather good to use.
I have the 24 pencil sets of both Inktense and Coloursoft.
I've so far only used the Inktense and not played much but here are a couple of close-ups of what you can do with them when water is added to make them like watercolour. The colours suddenly pop when you add the water and become really vivid.....it's like magic!!!
Well, I haven't quite caught up yet but I need to get up and move about a bit now. I'll get right up to date tomorrow if I can. Thanks for popping by and looking! XXX

1 comment:

themessycraftroom said...

Hi Netti, Love all your cards you have been making. I haven't got a favourite because they are all gorgeous. Hugs x ChrisB