November 20, 2017

Tropical Art Journal Spread

Yeah, I know it’s winter. But I have some projects left to show you from my time on the Dirty Dozen design team for SplitCoastStampers. And you know, I hate winter and all that!

SCS 01 vacation pages wm

The theme for the month was Guilty Pleasures. If I could pick something to really enjoy it would be a vacation somewhere warm and sunny! So I made a page to show a beach I’d like to visit. The base is an island map I printed off the internet. I covered it in matte medium to keep the ink from running when I added layers of acrylic paint. The tree trunk was hand drawn then cut from cork and coloured with Big Brush pens by Faber Castellar. The leaves were also hand drawn but on cardstock then coloured the same way. If you try this, be sure to seal your surface with more matte medium or the Brush pens won’t shade and blend.

Creating the island in the background was a bit hard. I wanted to make it look like the Hawaiian islands covered in lush green foliage but I also didn’t want it to become a flat green blob. I intended to make more trees but the ones I did took so long I gave up eventually! oh well, for me my art journal pages are for learning and exploration so I didn’t care too much. The map under the paint didn’t show up as much as I had hoped so to add more texture I stamped some tone-on-tone stamping. I used lots of postal cancellation marks and botanical illustration text. Last but not least I added some journaling, the crab and sand dollar and lettering.

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 17, 2017

Autumn Greetings Shaker Card

Well, it’s pretty cold here so I have to admit that it’s fall. Summer is my favourite season so I hold on to it as long as I can. I don’t like fall even though it’s pretty because it means cold, cold and more cold. Ugh! And I’m not a huge fan of fall colours either but sometimes everything just falls into place and I make a fun fall-themed and -coloured card.

c4c fall leaf shaker

I started this card by using the sketch this week for Crazy 4 Challenges. I do hope you will pop on over and check it out. Instead of adding a layer for the three dots on the focal panel, I turned two into cut outs and placed my sentiment in the third spot. The background paper is dark chocolate cardstock by Simon which I embossed with a texture plate by PTI. I love the subtle and woodsy texture I get from this plate. I filled the shaker with a mixture of sequins by Lucy’s Cards, Studio Katia and micro beads by Martha Stewart.

The cutouts were made with dies by Spellbinders and I used some of the tiny ones to create a little border on the left side. The orange panel was wider but after applying the leaves, it looked lopsided. So I trimmed off a bit with an x-acto knife. Sadly when I removed the foam adhesive, it slightly tore the dark chocolate cardstock. So lace to the rescue AKA an embellishment opportunity! Now it looks balanced AND the lace adds some rustic charm to the card.

I hope to see you over at the C4C blog!

Enjoy, Rebecca

November 11, 2017

Poppies Card with Embossed Die Cuts

Today is Remembrance Day in many countries so our hostess asked us to use poppies or make a card of gratitude or respect. I chose to make a generic card with poppies on it.

c4c poppies

Sorry the photo isn’t too great; I had to use my phone. But in a way it allowed the lighting, not in my light box which overexposes clean whites, to show the detail.

I tried a couple of new embossing techniques on this card. The background was spritzed with water before pouring the rose gold powder over it. This gave me splatters of rose gold like you would get from a mist or paint. Next I die cut the flower and removed the die cut to give me just the negative space. I saved this die cut and cut two more. For the blue peeking through the negative space, I used some Navy Steel powder by Simon which I poured on a scrap of cardstock inked with Versamark. Then repeat 3 times until I got smooth even coverage. Then I adhered it to the back of the negative space.

The last technique is to cover a die cut in rose gold powder. It’s the same basic technique as covering the scrap with Navy powder but it’s trickier because it’s small and delicate plus you don’t want any naked spots! There are several methods you can use. Some people use temporary adhesive to attach the die cut to a tab of paper so they can hold it while inking and heating it. I prefer to use tweezers on all but the last layer and I move it to a different spot each time. For the last layer, I place my die cut on a heat proof surface and use the tweezers to hold them, not by clamping them on my paper but by placing them in the space between the stems so they can’t blow away. If the die cut had been sturdier, I would have used the tab method.

In case you are wondering, yes, I could have embossed a large scrap then die cut it. But then the edges aren’t smooth and sometimes the powder can chip especially when you use so many layers.

Enjoy! Rebecca

November 04, 2017

Lovely Layers Cake Card

Do you prefer lots of layers or Clean and Simple cards? Perhaps somewhere in between? I’ve been making more CAS cards lately but my true love is shabby and layered. I’m guessing that even if you don’t like to make that type of card, you must enjoy seeing them or you wouldn’t be here! So I was in love with the challenge this week at Crazy 4 Challenges.

c4c shabby cake layers

Sometimes I start with a stamp, other times a paper or embellishment. With this card, I started with the image as I had already coloured it, with Copics, but decided not to use it that day. Next I wanted something pretty behind my image so I looked through my ornate dies, most by Spellbinders but a few by other companies. I basically audition the dies by placing them behind the image. I wanted some of it to show but not so much that it overwhelmed the image or required a larger than standard card but not so small it wasn’t worth having it there.

After choosing the die, I decided on my papers. The background is a kraft woodgrain paper from a Simon kit. I tried a couple of options for the gold paper; the gold I recently bought from PTI is very yellow and therefore too bright for this card. But my mirrored cardstock, which is my go-to gold paper, was perfect! The only white flowers I have right now have mustardy-yellow centers. So being someone who always tried to make it work, I covered the stamens with a Kirarina Wink marker. It covered so well I was pretty amazed! After the ink dried, I airbrushed some blush Copic marker in the center.

Also in the theme of making it work, I wanted to use a couple of corsage pins but the ‘white’ of the pearl looked more very grey next to the warm tones of my card. And the pin was silver while all the metal on my card was gold. So I airbrushed the pearl with the same Copic as the flowers and coated the pin with gold Sharpie.

Enjoy, Rebecca