Bah! Humbug! Challenge #11

Gold....Silver....Copper....sounds like the Olympic medals gone wrong! But this week's Challenge theme of metallics certainly has plenty of scope, and if you think of those car colours available as an optional extra in metallic finish (at vast extra expense, of course) you can see we're not restricted to the precious metals. On the highest step of my rostrum is this Christmas star stitched in gold metallic thread, edged with a thin gold border and mounted on dark blue velvet paper. Stitching pattern from Form-A-Lines, the sentiment is by JustRite Stampers cut with Nestability dies and has a scalloped border of the same gold.


Silver and white says snowflakes to me (yes, I have very selective hearing...). The big one is a stamp by Personal Impressions embossed with silver EP and mounted on matt silver. Two embossed panels have snowflakes by Crafts Too and Papermania, and the card is 6 inches square.


The partridge in a pear tree is made with a Dreamweaver stencil and matt black paste on copper coloured card, then mounted on green velvet paper. I even had a sheet of copper coloured greetings to embellish it!


The three kings stamp by Hobby Art is embossed in gold and painted with Twinkling H2Os - those non-precious car colours - which have a pearlescent finish rather than 'twinkling' in the way that Glimmer Mists or Cosmic Shimmers do. I cut the shape with Nesties Label #8, framed it with a patterned gold card and mounted it on green mirri card.

I didn't even use the buttons, charms, wire, eyelets and brads all with metallic finish that I'd unearthed before I started!

Bah! Humbug! Challenge #9

Embossing: a technique to make a design stand out from the surface

I'm very excited to be making my Challenge cards this week as a member of the Design Team (thank you, Ann and Max). I tried to think of something a bit different without being too way out and hope that, if necessary, you will find my work gives you ideas for your own cards.

Having been a stamper for about 20 years my first thought when I read 'Embossing' involved powders and a heat gun! I made two complimentary panels using a very old, traditional wood mounted stamp by PSX, and a fairly new, clear unmounted one by Dimension Fourth, each stamped with Versamark and embossed with silver EP. They were too big for my original card idea so I made a Z fold card which embraces both and an insert, yet still fits into a standard C6 envelope. The sentiment is by Funstamps and was stamped in Brilliance ink; snowflake border punch by Fiskars.

Next is a 'crossover technique' card (aka, what do you mean by embossing?); the ornament is another PSX stamp embossed with Red Razzle Dazzle EP, cut out and mounted on a panel made with a Cuttlebug embossing folder from the 'Holiday' set.

Third card design goes way, way back. I once bought some ready made blanks printed with a grid of different size boxes into which you could stamp various images: very useful for incorporating those little stamps which often seem too small to have any use. I used to copy the idea and painstakingly draw out my own grids with ruler, pen and a few curses, but now the job is made so much easier with a score board! It's best to choose the images and plan your grid to fit them on paper first. Oh, and I had to cheat: thin embossed lines do not show up when scanned, so for illustration purposes only I went over them with ruler and pencil!

The red and gold card looks impressive (I hope) but was the quickest of the four to make, using a Dreamweaver stencil and gold embossing paste. It really couldn't be easier: tape stencil over card, apply paste, remove stencil and leave card to dry! For the background I used self adhesive red velvet paper on top of thin card, and stuck the finished panel to an A6 card - I did try layering it onto a 7" x 5" but decided the simple approach was the best. If you would like to try this technique I can recommend a DVD by Carol Cockbain of The Craft Barn, or watch a demonstration by (another) Carol from The Craft Station if you catch her at a show (please note, I have no affiliation with either shop).

Now, what am I going to do for next week's Challenge???

More Stencil Paste

Here are the two other panels I made on Sunday. The ginger jar was made exactly like the wisteria vase; I was a bit dismayed when I saw how bright the blue ink was when sponged round the edges, but then I found the exact same shade in my stash of card stock and it made a very nice easel card! I found a blue chalk which toned in well to fill the gaps on the porcelain: it didn't look anything like the colour while in the box, but they merge well.The birthday greeting I had used for the wisteria was stamped in the same ink and the panel raised on the bottom inside edge to provide the support, then a single sheet with a punched edge added above it for the message. I haven't bothered to photograph it (as opposed to scanning) because A. it would be a week before I found the photo on the computer again (see my previous post on 8 June) and B. you can see my earlier easel cards at the post on 25 April.


The new home card didn't set out to be one, but having decided that I needed to mount the gold tree on something and then remembered that I need a new home card sooner rather than later - my friend moves 200 miles away next Monday - I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. It's perhaps 'unusual' for the topic, but the kanji translate as Blessing, Prosperity and Happiness and I think that's a very fitting sentiment for a single lady moving away from family and friends to a place that has been her dream for several years. L has had a very difficult time recently, with divorce and cancer and the death of both parents, and I wish her every happiness in her new life.

Stories and Stencil Paste

It's been two weeks since my previous post: no cardmaking in that time, but a little creativity in other areas. Last weekend we attended another dance festival, this time in the city of Lichfield which has one of my favourite cathedrals. We had a most enjoyable time and I was so fired up that I wrote a dance the day after we returned - searching for a title I realised that it was the Longest Day, so no prizes for guessing what I named my dance! Unfortunately I also returned with a bout of bronchitis which I'd been incubating the week before, but a dose of antibiotics has finally done the trick and I'm feeling much better. That's also due to having an unbroken sleep last night for the first time in at least ten days because of the cough.

My other creative effort recently has been to write a story for a WI competition. Generally speaking I don't write, although I'm interested in telling stories as a folk art and took a course at the WI college some 18 months ago which was truly inspirational. It also revealed a hidden talent for sounding utterly convincing when telling stories in the first person - both such tales that I told were assumed to be factual even by the tutor although there wasn't a word of truth in either! Thinking about it, that could be bit worrying: I've always reckoned myself to be so bad at telling porkies (pork pies = lies in rhyming slang for those who don't understand English ;) ) that I gave it up at a very young age!

This afternoon I have been amusing myself with some cardmaking. We have 3 family birthdays in July plus several friends' both that month and in August so I need to get on with them. I don't think any of the family are regular readers of my blog so I'm happy to show off the results, but won't specify who they are for... however, I can say that this first one is for a crafting friend.


It's a new (for me) technique using Dreamweaver stencils and embossing paste. I've done the basics for several years but recently saw a demo using two stencils on the same design, dry embossing the outline first then adding an overlay, applying the paste and colouring it when dry. I edged the vase with sage Distress Ink, coloured the wisteria with chalks (I thnk I was a bit heavy handed for this first attempt) then coloured the gaps on the vase with more sage applied very lighly using a cotton bud. It's just enough to make it stand out from the glossy white background and makes it look rather like white marble. I was going to turn it into an easel card but after trying various colour combinations and layouts I decided simple was best. And I have to confess that I'm rather pleased with the result!

I did a couple more stencil paste pieces at the same time (if I'm playing messy I like to make a thorough job of it :)) so when I've turned them into cards I'll show them off here.