Using Books to craft ...

Hello there,

I'm back today with a brand new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this week was my turn to choose the theme, so here goes with ...

'BOOKS or BOOK PAPER'

Now, when I first saw crafters tearing up books to use in crafting I was horror-struck! Those of you that know me well will know that reading is one of my favourite pastimes (as well as crafting, of course) and I have far too many to count at home - everywhere you turn there is a bookcase, or a stack of books that don't fit in any of the bookcases! And they have to be real books too - I even turned down a Kindle e-reader as a gift in favour of my beloved books.

But, I had to keep up with the times, so paid a visit to one of our local charity shops and bought an old book for 50p - that way I could use it to craft and my money was doing some good, right?! And I have to admit, I love stamping on the book pages now - the stamps take on a whole different look. So all that said, here's what I came up with for my DT inspiration ...

I have used one of my new 'Bird Crazy' stamps from Tim Holtz (which are a reasonably new purchase and I have been dying to use them - they are so quirky!) I stamped him straight onto the book paper with black archival ink and then used distress inks in 'Shabby Shutters' and 'Mermaid Lagoon' to colour him and add some splodges of ink behind him. 

I have created layers using some kraft card and some co-ordinating colours of card, together with a piece of corrugated card to create the design. I also added some eyelets to the main image so I could thread a piece of twine through them for extra interest. 

The sentiment was printed on my pc and then chopped into pieces - it makes me giggle and I think it suits his expression perfectly. A couple of buttons to finish off and balance out the design.

Hope you can come and join us - I would love to hear your own thoughts on tearing up those books!

Hugz, Jan xx

Nature

Happy Tuesday,

It's time for our next challenge over at Cardz 4 Guys and this week Kim has chosen the theme of

'NATURE'

I am loving being a part of this new challenge blog - it has given me a new found appreciation of male themed cards, something I always avoided where possible in the past. It has been a pleasant change to make more masculine projects, rather than my usual cutie, over-embellished style!

Here's what I came up with for this weeks DT inspiration ...

The size of this project was dictated by the 3.5cm squares of book paper - I punched these out first and arranged them on my cardstock to see what size I needed (matted and layered the project measures 17.5cm x 13.5cm). The book paper squares are tinted with 'Antique Linen' distress ink and edged with 'Walnut Stain' distress ink. The stamped image is called 'Bullrushes' by Inkylicious and is stamped with Vintage Sepia ink - I added a few little mounds of earth using the ink and a sponge to anchor them. I also stamped the birds and the little 'nature' lettering at the bottom. I decided to tear the edges of the card and ink them with matching ink to give a more rustic feel. Finally I added a piece of brown twine around the card before securing it to the background layers. Hope you like it!

If you have a minute, why not pop over to the blog HERE and check out some more fab inspiration by my teamies.

Hugz, Jan xx