Twelve Tags of 2012 – July and August

I have been creating, honest! I just can’t share some of what I have been doing due to commercial sensitivities, but as soon as I can, I will… and some of my creativity is on projects that are taking just that little bit longer to complete.

But I can share these two tags that I have done for this month’s Manic Stamper Craft Club, continuing my series of Twelve Tags for 2012. The first features triple embossing and a smidge of the frosted window technique for the ripples, as well as paper crafted water lilies. The second is napkin decoupage with a stamped and coloured image artfully placed on top. Fuller instructions will follow on the Manic Stamper blog once term has finished!

Jubilee Tag

I’ve been away from the computer for a little while – last weekend was doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks for the first time, and this weekend I was meeting up with some of the team down at WOW! Embossing Powder HQ. I’ve also been working on some hush hush commissioned work, which with college work has left little time for playing. I did manage to squeeze in some quality time with my embossing powders though to reprise my June Twelve Tags of 2012 tag in embossing powders. For more details on how I did it, pop over to the WOW! Embossing Powder blog.

Father’s Day Card

It’s not long until Father’s Day (at least in crafting days) on 17th June, and I created this card for my monthly slot at the WOW! Embossing Powder blog as part of my design team responsibilities. The theme is month is Earthtones and ‘manly projects’! If you want details on how to make the card, here’s the link. And don’t forget their really easy to enter challenge!

Less Is More: Take Three Challenges

It’s been tricky to find five minutes this week to sit down and do the ‘Less Is More’ challenge card – but I managed to get it done just before the closing time this evening. The theme this week is ‘take three challenges’ and my card fulfils these three past rules:

  • Week 4: Three Squares
  • Week 20: Monogram
  • Week 31: Metallic

Of course, the observant will note there are four squares… I didn’t notice I’d used a square card until it was all done and put together! Hope that doesn’t count toward the total number… The monogram was an accidental discovery – I triple embossed in WOW! Metallic Silver Ultra High and stamped my signature monogram into it. I then tried to catch the raised parts with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink, but missed, so carried on. Rubbing it back has produced this fabulous gunmetal finish. And I’d forgotten how tricky it was to photograph metallic surfaces!

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 7

There… I’ve just finished catching up with my CC101 homework and done the tags for today, Day 7 – embossing powders. The first tag uses clear embossing powder over  multicolour distress ink stamped images as a faux batik effect – it resists the layers of distress over the top. Second tag shows my favourite technique – faux rusted enamel. And finally using distress embossing powder as a resist – I love the matte finish.

WOW! with a bit of Creative Chemistry 101

I’m up early, all excited about my stint at Hobbycrafts at the NEC, Birmingham today and tomorrow on the WOW! Embossing Powders stand. They have just brought out some silicone moulds – come and see the jewellery pieces I’ve made (I’ll pop them on here next week when I have a moment). Also created last night using their new embossed resist card with inspiration from the Creative Chemistry 101 Day Five teaching on Distress Stains comes this little (8x20in) sampler for the show:

WOW! Butterflies in flight

I spent the evening yesterday slaving over a hot oven… though 160 C is probably a moderate oven thinking about it. I was baking butterflies – not as cruel as it sounds, as they were made from embossing powder. I spent more time tying the darn things together than making them, but judge for yourself whether the results were worth it:

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WOW! Some new stamps :)

Very exciting news – WOW! Embossing Powders have new stamp designs available. Here’s a quick card showing some of them, with a minimalist design suitable for beginners.

I’m entering it into the ‘Less is More’ one layer challenge this week as well. I’ve prepared an instruction sheet ready for the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC, Birmingham (22nd-25th March) – here – I’d love you to have a look and let me know if it’s clear enough!

 

Simply a Mother’s Day card

I’ve found a challenge blog that suits my natural card making style – ‘Less is More’, a clean and simple challenge blog. There’s so much less of the layers and lace and embellishments and frippery – just a clean simple card. So I thought I’d enter a card into their neutrals theme challenge this week. And then I realised I hadn’t done a ProMarker card for a while, so thought I’d enter the same card into ‘Passion for Promarkers’ challenge this week on their Mother’s Day theme.

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