It's all about the Background

Good morning crafty friends and followers,

I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready to begin another week. I had a manic cleaning day yesterday (oops, sorry to swear!) I blame it on this warmer weather - spring cleaning and all that. Anyway, that's enough about that! Lol.

It's time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday and this week our Fliss has chosen the theme 'Make your own Background'. Well, the possibilities are endless and it took me a while to decide which method to use for my card. As I use my distress inks and Promarkers all the time, I wanted to do something a little different - so here's what I used to make my background ...

A roll of metal tape, a Cuttlebug embossing folder 

and some alcohol inks.

And here's what I made ...

Here's how I made the background in three easy steps:

Step One 

Start with a piece of plain white card measuring 13.5cm x 10.5cm 

and cover it with lengths of metal tape, 

wrapping it around the edges onto the back to secure.

Step Two

Pop the piece of faux metal into the embossing folder 

and pass through your chosen machine.

Step Three

Apply your chosen alcohol inks all over the embossed piece 

until blended together.

I have matted my background onto a piece of black card before adding it to my 6x6" card. The flowers are stamped onto a book page, cut out and then coloured with 'Twinkling H2Os', which leave a lovely shimmer. The sentiment is from 'Creative Expressions' and is stamped with Versamark ink and embossed in black. Some die-cut leaves and a couple of little punched flowers finish off the card.

I am really looking forward to visiting your blogs this week to look at all your handmade backgrounds.

Hugz, Jan xx

It's all about the Texture

Hi there,

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend - we have had quite a bit of rain here.  I have been playing a continuous game of washing out/washing in all weekend! In between my crafting, of course! Lol.

I have gone all 'Steampunk' today making a special card for a design team call.  The theme is 'Texture' and I have tried to show this in several ways.  Here's what I made ...

The background paper is from the TH 'Lost and Found' paper stack and I distressed the edges with my scissors, before inking them with Walnut Stain distress ink.  I then inked through the clock mask and heat embossed some little cogs and gears down the right hand side with gold detail embossing powder.  I stamped some wings, gears and paint splodges onto the background paper and added some little torn pieces of text from an old book.

The main image is a Kanban stamp - partly coloured with Promarkers and the jacket is paper pieced. The image is backed with brown coredinations cardstock cut using a Spellbinders Labels Seventeen die.  It has been dry embossed with an embossing folder and then sanded back to show the core.

The 'Steampunk' lettering was mainly created on my pc, apart from the letter 'S' which was cut from a piece of card covered in metal tape, embossed and coloured with alcohol inks.  The flower was made in the same way.

Additional embellishments include a heart cut from corrugated card and inked with distress ink together with an additional brass-coloured wirework heart, a little brass clockface (which I added some chain to), some metal washers and a 'Dare to Create' sentiment.  I also treat some parts of the card to a sprinkling of gold Frantage embossing powder.

I think I managed to get some texture in there - hope I didn't overdo it! Lol.  I am off to submit it now and should find out at the beginning of September if I have been successful.  I hope so - wish me luck.

Hugz, Jan xx