Where does the time go?

Hibernation.  Or at least that's what this feels like...  emerging from underneath something warm and cosy to find that a lot of time has passed by.  Things got rather busy and before I knew it, a month passed by... then another... and then Christmas..  which was rather frustrating because I ended up so busy I didn't get much time to craft....  and now here we are, nearing the end of August.  This hibernation is pretty cool, though, because if I was going to be a crafting hibernator, I'd rather emerge at the time where Christmas crafts are coming out and autumn has just started!

I've been looking around briefly, dipping my toes into competitions, where time has allowed.  It's been a busy year, and it certainly didn't help having a house move amongst it all - but it did enable me to do one thing that I strangely enjoy.  Craft Room Organizing.  My husband tells me off.  He sends me away to craft (how awesome is that!?) so off I go, being very obedient, of course.  Sometimes the organising starts off because I can't find the table.  Simple as that.  Or the scissors - usually those go wandering.  Or my pencil - I think I've chastised myself several times over the fact that for some reason, my craft room doesn't have a pencil, so I have to embark on a noble quest to find a pencil somewhere in the house.  Sometimes I just want to reorganise the room, and ooo and ahh over things found that were long forgotten.  Which really isn't hard, because since having a child, my brain sieve would allow things the size of beetroot to fall through!  Several hours later, my husband will approach, asking how I've got on, only to find that I've just started, because I've been "rearranging".

I digress.  Back to the competition things...  there's not been many that I've entered, and it's certainly been just as long since I approached a forum on crafting.  I've missed it all, but have found it hard to return as the gap increases since I last visited.  I'm stretching out my craft muscles and preparing myself for a dive back into the crafting community, people who understand what I am talking about, because lets face it, crafting is another language.

I was very excited by the competition I stumbled upon on facebook.  As is it's tendency, it doesn't always notify me when my favourite companies put up a competition, until I stumble on it by chance with days to go on the competition - so I apologise to those who decide to enter also, you haven't got long!
The competition, from Spectrum Noir, is an Anything Goes competition - it's main rule being, simply, that you have to colour in using their products.  They have a lovely variety of products including their alcohol markers, blendable pencils, watercolour pencils, Aquatints and my personal favourite - Aqua markers.

I really enjoy using the aqua markers.  I love how they blend effortlessly with just a bit of water, whether that's directly onto the paper or applying to a blending mat ( or acrylic block) and then lifting off the mat with a paintbrush onto the paper.  I tend to prefer to use the blending mat as I can then test on a scrap card if the colour is what I want, before committing it to the main image.  The use of the blending mat also enables you to mix other colours, too, and a very little goes a long way.

So onto the card!  I will be honest, I'm not brilliant at the layering and getting complex designs with lots of paper or flowers - it's not something I'm over keen on so don't tend to feel inspired by the many flowers etc approach, so my cards tend to have a more simple look to them.

  This stamp - and the backing papers, are from Lili Of the Valley - I do love their stamps and really enjoy colouring them in!  Excuse my dreadful photographing, I'll learn one day!  Unfortunately, you can't see how I have done the fireplace, or just how glittery the fireplace is!  I recently purchased Spectrum Noir sparkle clear overlay pens - lovely to use, and because it's clear, you can add sparkle to anything!  They also double up as a glittery paint brush when working with water based products - which is exactly what I did with the fireplace.  I also applied this to the sentiment - a christmas sentiment from Card-io, to add a little sparkle to that, too.
Now I cant remember which pens I used, exactly, because I used many - but some were :-
Bud Green; Chestnut; Sunset; Yellow; Gold; Crimson; Evergreen; Chocolate; Terracotta; Tan and Slate.  I used the blending mat to help get a wider variety of colours and often went in with a dryer brush for more intensity where needed.

I made another card, too.  I cant see mention that you are limited to one card, only, but I'll only enter the one.  This card, though, was because I wanted to colour in an image and make a card using one colour - in this make, brown.

I stamped the image, another Lili of the Valley, with Stazon ink - always recommended when working with water based markers so that the ink doesn't bleed into your colouring.  I used my blending mat, again, to try and bring a bit more variety to the browns I had available.
Some of the pens I used included -
Chocolate; Jasmine; Desert; Terracotta; Chestnut; Boulder and Topaz.
For the sentiment - from the same Christmas Sentiment range from Card-io - I coloured directly onto the bottom of the card.  Using the Sparkle clear overlay from Spectrum Noir, I then blended upwards to give an omber effect, with sparkle!  The background paper was embossed with a musical design.  For extra shimmer, and to make the embossed design pop out, I rubbed some Pebeo Gilding Wax Renaissance gold all over the paper.  Gilding wax is lovely to use and so creamy, a little goes a long way, and has a lovely smell to it, too!

So there you have it, my crafting muscles are now stretched, it's time to go for a run.  Or more accurately, go and play with my son.  Happy crafting!

Oh, and for those wanting the link to the competition, here you go!

https://www.facebook.com/SpectrumNoir/app/600469859988196?app_data=referer_override%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.facebook.com%252F

Sara

Playing with peel-offs!

Hello and good afternoon!
It's certainly been a while since I've been on here, what with work and time moving at such an inconvenient speed - how dare it!  I've managed to make a little time here and there for crafting, but I must be honest, most of that allocated time has been spend sitting on the sofa looking at technique videos on youtube!
These videos are far too addictive, one I found in particular focused on creating your own stained glass window effect using water based pens...
So, of course, I thought I would have a try.  I decided that, instead of stamping my image, I'd use some stickers that I had in my collection to create my own style of background...

It's a really easy technique to learn.  I coloured in the stickers - the make on the stickers says "Francoise collection" - using permanent markers for peel-offs - great pens as you can use them to change the colours of the stickers, you can also use them on pearl and gem stickers!  

I found that applying the brown and the orange marker to silver peel offs created a lovely autumnal tone, which is what I was looking for, but still had the shimmer you get from silver peel-offs.
I attached these at random places on my card stock and then came the fun bit - the colouring in!
For this, I used Spectrum Aqua pens -I love these, they are so easy to work with!  I like how they feel, too.  Sadly, though, I have yet to drum it into my head which way is which - you can almost guarantee that if you want the paintbrush end, you'll get the fine marker end!
The distinct advantage of using water based pens is that you can wipe it off the peel-off, so you don't have to worry about being painfully neat!
I used the Nature range.  (Mainly because this is the only range that I have!  Time to write Santa a letter...).  This pack has some lovely autumnal colours - can you tell that Autumn is my favourite time of the year yet!!??
So anyway...  using the paintbrush end of the marker, you colour in along one side of each segment, so that that appears much darker on the finished result.  Using a wet paintbrush, you then bleed the colour outwards to fill in the rest of the peel-off, and repeat!!  Simple!  I then repeated this technique around the bases to my flowers and leaves and bled it down.  I stamped a sentiment ( cant remember who made that one, sorry!), coloured in some pearls with my peel-off markers and attached...quick stitch effect using the fine point on the aqua markers and layer onto gold card..  hurrah a card that didn't take me half the night to make!!  That is very unusual for me....







Peel off's number two please.....
So, this wasn't the only card that I made using my peel-offs.  While playing around, I found that I quite liked the stencil effect that you get using peel-offs.

 I decided to use the peel-offs to create an unique background paper, like used on the two cards above.

I chose to use the silver peel-offs again.  I haven't coloured them in in this picture using the peel-off markers - but I did later on.  I attached the leaves in random positions across my cardstock, with some going over the edges to make it look like it's been cut from some cardstock.  Turning back to the lovely Spectrum aqua markers, I then coloured in each leaf and around the leaf - in the top left card I coloured in much more roughly than in the top right card.  Once the borders were around each
leaf, I used a wet paintbrush to bleed out the colour, topping up on more colour if I felt it needed it, and bled the colours into each other to create the background colour.  On the top right card, I used mostly one colour for the background and bled the others into it.





Next comes the fun bit!  The difficulty I have with stencils is that I don't always ensure that the stencil is firmly attached to the card, meaning there is gap underneath for the medium to pool in to.  With the peel-offs, you don't get that gap!  So when you peel it off, you get a lovely leaf pattern from the colour of your original cardstock, as you can see in the cards above, the whiteness of the leaf pattern offers a contrast to the colour work.  You do have to take card peeling it off, as the wet cardstock may peel off too.  Or, you know, you could be patient.  I'm not patient, though.
Stick your leaves to scrap cardstock and colour in with your markers and cut them out and you get lovely leaf embellishments like I've used in the cards above.
So there you go, two different approaches with the humble peel-off!  Thank you for taking the time to read my blog!!  Have a lovely day!

Sara
The heavy handed crafter

Busy busy busy..

Good morning!! Goodness it's been a while since I've been here!  It's been a very busy end to the summer holidays, with lots of lovely outings with my family, and extended family visiting too!  Does mean you don't get a lot of time for crafting.. or when you do, you feel far too tired to do so!

Then there is that major challenge that comes along that sits itself firmly on your craft table and refuses to move (or even to tidy up for you...).  It's name is Crafters block.  Goodness is that one a hard one to move!  So sadly, I haven't got much to show you while I try to push that thing out of the way.  Thankfully, though, we are rapidly approaching the time in the month where new craft magazines come out.. I am waiting for the one I have on subscription (thank you in-laws :) ) to come noisily through the letter box and land on the floor with the thud of possibility :)  (seriously, who thought it was a good idea to put a letter box so high up in the door?  Every time we get post it hits the floor with such a thud, you'd swear it was an argos catalogue and not just the bank trying to sell you a credit card!).

On the plus side, though, the other week I did get an exciting delivery!  I was naughty and treated myself to some lovely papers and stamps from Lili of the Valley.  (It turned out to be very naughty as later that week I had to pay to fix my car.  Something really difficult apart parting with money for your car!!).  I've admired their range for a long time, but never really bought anything until I went to a craft festival several months ago.  I'm not really one for buying online, I like to see the papers and look through them before commiting to buy, and I also want to see the size of the stamps.  Having had a chance to see them at the festival, and admired the many pretty paper packs, I gave in to the lovely sale they had on, thinking it as a little early birthday present to myself (which isn't until October, but hey, spreading the cost!!).

Due to how busy I've been, I've only recently had chance to play with them.  I bought six of the character style stamps and so I decided to have a play at stamping them and colouring them in.  Or at least, that was the plan, until my five year old saw them and decided that he, too, would like to colour them in...

I did manage to make two cards with two of the stamps, though, so I'll quickly share them with you.  Also, I'm pleased to note, Trimcrafts competition for this month is on colouring in.  My medium of choice, currently, is distress inks and the self watering paintbrush, which I used on one of the cards, and that will become my first entry for their competition.  My other card was coloured in with Letraset promarker, which was a kind gift from my husbands grandfather for Christmas a few years ago.

Anyway, I've talked enough!  Here are the cards...

I hope you like them!!  The papers I used are from Lili of the valley, too.  I think the biggest praise I can give to them is that when I bought the papers, I liked each one of them and wanted to use each one..  I normally find with paper packs that there are one or two that I just wouldn't use.

Well, have a lovely day!! I'm going to go dry my hair!

Sara
The Heavy Handed Crafter

Origami Swans

Hello, it's been a while since I've posted on here, it's been a lovely busy week, doing a lot of family outings!!  Now it's late on a Sunday and time to unwind, and for me, crafting helps me to unwind and focus my mind.  Well, most of the time....

This post theme is based around swans, origami swans to be precise.  When I was little, we had an origami book and I loved making the swans out of paper...  pretty much one of the few things I could make at that age!  Thankfully for me, I can still remember how to make them... mummy brain hasn't affected all my brain, phew!

My interest in making origami swans came about when I read the latest crafting competition by Trimcraft, that being that you can design any card, just so long as the only product going on it was paper.  No embellishments, no gems, ribbons..etc...  trickier than I thought, because you want to raid your gem stash or some ribbons to match your colours!  I did it though, but I decided to use origami as the main element of the card..

So, lets see the cards I made with my swans!

Two very different cards, one has more of a mummy baby feel to it, the other more romantic.  I've taken a few pictures to show you how to make your own swan..

Step one

You'll need a square piece of paper.  I strongly recommend that the paper you use isn't too thick as it can make it difficult in the later folds.  I like the look that you get from using double sided paper, as you can see a contrast in the wings which is the underside to the paper.  For my mummy swan, I used 15cmx15cm paper.

The piece I've picked is from Dovecrafts Leyton pack.  Mine actually comes from samples from a freebie that came with Crafts Beautiful June 2015 magazine, so sadly I don't know if this paper is double sided in the actual pack.

Lay the piece of paper with the main pattern you want for the body of the swan lying down.  Fold diagonally - just one fold so no need to repeat with the other side - in half.

Once you've done that, fold the edges into the center, much like you are folding a paper aeroplane, so that the edges meet in the middle and you get a diamond shape.  Feel free to use a tool to make the folds sharper.

Step two

Once you've done that, turn the paper over, and repeat the previous folds, bringing the edges in to meet in the middle, as in the photo.

Now fold the paper in half length ways on the fold you had made earlier, and you want it so that the "tail" bit is pointing upwards at the edge.

Step three

Now it's time to make the neck.  To help with this fold, fold the thinner bit of the body upwards, across the rest of the body, and sharpen the fold.  Then you open up the body, and where the folds meet in the neck, push that inwards, and bring the pieces of paper over the body, so that you whichever side you hold the swan, there is a fold over the body where the neck starts. 

Step four

To make the head, repeat the fold you completed for the neck, part of the way down the neck depending on how big you want the head.  So, fold the head down at an angle over the neck, open up and fold the two sides over the neck.

If you want to give the beak a bend, then repeat this same technique for the beak.

Ta dah!  One (somewhat blurry!) swan!!  You can then attach as you desire.  For my mummy baby card, I googled how to make origami hearts just to add a few more elements to the card.

I really enjoyed playing with papers in this way.  One of the things that can be a little sad is when your double sided paper has really nice paper either side - this way, you get to see both sides!  

I hope you like my cards, and thank you for taking the time to read this!

Sara

The heavy handed crafter

Craft day, hooray!

It's here.  Summer holidays are here.  So Britain has been doing what Britain does in the summer holidays.  Rain.  So for the last few days, my little one has been stuck inside, finding many different ways of entertaining himself, with various degrees of messiness that make my craft room look like... well.. tidy.  Fortunately. for him, during reception he has made some very good friends, and he went to play at one of their houses today.  For eight hours!!

So naturally I crafted. Instead of housework.  Of course!

I'm still feeling very excited by this months Trimcraft stamping competition, so I went out the other week to see what extra stamps I could find, just to boost my collection.  Sadly not many - but I did come across a Sheena Douglass collection -  A little bit scenic Silhouette Garden.

So I bought it.

Then I discovered the problem that occurs when you go too stamp happy...  it sort of looks more arty than cardy, but nevermind!! I had fun anyway!

Haha see what I mean?  Talk about making a lot of work for myself!!  I'm not very good at cutting out things, although I did learn a handy tip which is to turn the card you are cutting as opposed to the scissors, which did make things a lot easier!

I'm not even sure where to start with this!  I stamped onto spare card because my images didn't always work first time - I think I'll try out various tips I have come across when researching how to get the perfect image and find what works for me!  Then I layered up the image..and layered.. and layered!  It was mostly made using distress inks, spectrum noir aqua markers and Versacolour stamps.

Now the second card I made sure was a lot easier for myself.  The lovely thing about stamping is that you can use a lot of the stamps to make your own unique background paper, bringing a very personal touch to your creations.

So..
Firstly I stamped the smaller of the two floral images all over the page.  I didn't always reink between stamps, that way you can get a faded look to some of the images.  The ink I chose for this was the VersaColour Lavender.
Using a fine paint brush, I stamped some distress ink Mowed lawn onto my rubber mat, and painted in the stem details.
I then stamped the Dusty Concord distress ink onto my rubber mat, to add shadows to the flowers.  For the lighter stamped images, I added more water to the inks.
Once dry, ink the edges of the paper with the Dusty Concord.  Stamp plenty of this ink onto the rubber mat, and then using a very wet brush - or a self watering brush, apply lots of ink around the edges, and then start to bleed the colour in

until it is very faint towards the middle, taking care to leave a border around the edge of each flower.

I layered the background paper onto lilac paper and green cardstock.  I stamped two larger flowers and coloured them in in the same way as I had done the smaller ones, and cut them out.  I wrapped ribbon around the card and attached the flowers.  I stamped the statement onto lilac paper and layered on green card, and placed above the two flowers.  I decorated the corners with some green gems (sometimes, I'll use some pens designed to colour in stickers to colour clear gem, this is a handy way of getting a variety of colours from buying just a clear gem pack). Once complete, I layered the entire set onto card stock.  Voila!  A much easier card to make!

Now I suppose I ought to go get ready for bed.  I think I'll avoid looking into the craft room for the time being!!  

Hope you all have a lovely rest of day!  Thank you for popping in!

Sara

The Heavy Handed Crafter

Christmas for crafters comes early!

Hello!!  It's been a while....again!!  I have so far failed in my attempt to gain another day in the week solely dedicated to crafting, so instead find myself resorting to finding whatever spare moment I can get, usually when my five year old is busy entertaining himself by pestering Daddy!!!  I sort of have to quickly, and quietly, sneak away before either of them notice!!

This months competition at Trimcraft has me very excited as it's all about stamping.  I've found myself getting a little bit more into stamping lately, especially as my collection of the lovely Distress Inks by Tim Holtz grows.  Sadly, for me, there are very few craft shops near me, and they don't stock many stamps.  I will be honest, when it comes to craft shopping, I do favour being able to pick them up with my hands and see how big they actually are!!  I was lucky in that I was able to pick up a Sheena Douglass stamp set from one of the shops.

Today, though, I haven't got the card made with her stamps to show you...mainly because I sort of turned it into too big a project, and it needs a little bit more work before I am ready to put it out there!  I find I tend to do that, start off with an idea and it sort of grows and grows, I need the crafting skill that is knowing when to stop!!!

Instead, I have different stamped card design to show you... Now I know it's July, and most aren't ready to think along these lines for another four or five months....  but today I'm sharing a Christmas card, my first one of the year in fact!!  I've not yet reached the point - and the stock - to be able to ship out bucket loads of Christmas cards for everyone and their dog, but I do have some nice things that I've collected and stared at over the years!  Crafters who do make their cards, though, do have to start early to be able to get through them all!  The craft shops and Create and Craft are all starting to sell this years Christmas designs, cant wait to see them!!

Today's card is made using Michael Powell's stamp Silent Night, it's a lovely Christmas village design which I absolutely love working with.  I think Docrafts used to sell it - I'm not sure as I have lost the packaging, and sadly it was out of stock on his website (made the mistake of looking and now I want more!!)

Here is how the stamp looks when stamped out in black ...

Now if you just excuse the fact that I am so far hopeless in getting the middle of my stamps to behave...  trust me, I have spent some time researching, so if you have any handy tips, please share!!

Now for this card, I wanted to do a little experiment.  I decided to firstly create a colourful design with one of the stamped images, using Tim Holtz distress inks...here it is..

Very easy to make, as I find the distress inks lovely to work with (and this is coming from someone who usually favours acrylics over waterpaints!!).

I then decided to create different effects by sticking to one colour and using different tones for it.
I started with greys..

Then blues....

Brownish yellows...

Then reds,,,

I found it to be a really easy effect to achieve, and with the style of the shape and working with distress inks, I wasn't overly bothered if I went over the lines.  Using the red style, I'll share with you how I achieved this look...

Step one

Get ready!!  These things are a lot easier to do if you have everything that you need ready.  I love my blending mat, it keeps the ink wet for a long time, and if it does dry out, you only need to add a little water to be able to use the ink again. It is also wipe clean, brilliant!!!

I stamped out a bit of each ink pad I wanted to use, here being Spun Sugar, Festive Berries, Ripe Persimmon and Fired Brick.  I also use a self watering paintbrush - these are very handy as you fill them up with water and you're ready to go!!  I just squeeze it if I wanted the brush to be wetter, or if I wanted to clean the brush - or you can also dip it into water to clean.

Step two

Start by using the lightest colour that you have of your distress inks - in my case this was Spun sugar.  Load up your brush with the ink and paint the entire stamped image - don't worry if some of it looks darker than other bits, as this adds to the effect.

Step three

Start to add detail.  I worked with the Ripe Persimmon and the Festive Berries to start to add depth to the stamped image and to create different tones of buildings..  I also painted in the moon and stars and the lights..

Step four

Add some more detail!  I used the darkest tone I had, being the Fired Bricks, to add more depth and darkness to the buildings, and some of the brick details, as well as colouring in the trees..

I then mixed some of the Spun Sugar with Ripe persimmon to create a tone to use for creating the shadow on snow effect..

Step five

Create the tone you want for the sky, depending on how dark you want it..  it's also nice to start of a bit darker at the top and use the water on your brush to help bleed the colour down towards the main image.

There you have it, a completed image.  

I finished off each design - except for the coloured one, by using Docrafts metallic markers on the moon, stars and lights, just for a little extra special tone.

For my card itself, I decided to have two on the front, then you open to another two, and finally open to the middle of the card to find the coloured image.  I only have A4 white card stock, so I had to use two and trim them to 20cm wide, scoring at 10cm, and then mounting one 10cm section on to the other, so that it would open up.  I mounted my images onto Trimcraft "Dovecraft Back to Basics Christmas" pack and inked the edges with distress inks.  I stamped my statements using Trimcraft wooden stamps - great little things that come in a variety of fonts, very cheap too!!.  I then used a black marker to create a sewn on effect ( couldn't do it with a real sewing machine, I have no skills with one!!)...

Here is the finished card, I hope you like it!!..

Thank you for taking the time to read this!!  Hope you can have as much fun with these inks as I do!  

Have a good day,

Sara

The Heavy Handed Crafter