Spritzing, Stains and Sketches

Posted on 29th April 2012 by Neil

I did get to making some cards this afternoon after the marathon quilting session yesterday. I’ve had a go at combining a couple of challenges again – the ‘Less is More’ sketch has a square centrepiece and sentiment, with lots of white space recommended. The other challenge is a new one to me – a ‘Seriously Creative Challenge’, hosted by Creative Accents, to do something with stains or sprays. Here are my creations:

As you might guess, the results of my experiments can be somewhat variable! The sprays used are Dylusions Ink from Ranger in Black Marble and I used Bubblegum Pink on a Magenta stamp as a watercolour stamp ink. I can guarantee my fingers are stained, as is quite a lot of stuff on my desk – the overspray is a nightmare – until I decided to create a spray booth in a cardboard box. The sentiments are all printed in Archival Jet Black and are from the WOW! Everyday Sentiments clear stamp set.

Three Shades of Green with a drop of yellow

Posted on 7th April 2012 by Neil

It’s ‘Less is More’ challenge time again – and this week I’m a little earlier than I have been for the last couple of times! The first week of the month theme is colour, and they’ve set the task of creating a clean and simple card with three shades of green. I used the Hero Arts ferns set of stamps, and Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Forest Moss Distress Inks. A spritz of water, punched flowers and a few drops of liquid pearls and here’s my entry:

Spring { petals }

Posted on 5th April 2012 by Neil

It’s Lucky Dip time over at the ‘Less is More’ challenge, and this time they have set a colour theme based on one of the fabulous Design Seeds schemes:

I decided to make my card with ProMarkers again this time, and picked the closest matches in colour: Cool Grey 2, Grey Green, Meadow Green, Blossom and Rose Pink. Here are three cards that I stamped and coloured using the set colour scheme:

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 10

Posted on 1st April 2012 by Neil

It’s a sad day – the last of the lessons at Creative Chemistry. Only the bloopers video to go tomorrow and a few more days on the forums and we say a fond farewell to the Professor. I have a feeling he’ll be back though! It’s been a cracking class and thoroughly enjoyable, although however it’s dressed up, just having a one tag finale was a bit of a damp squib! And the Rock Candy Distress Stickles doesn’t even show up very well on the scan 🙁

The notes on sealing and protecting your work were brilliant though. And if you’re going to be applying Distress Stickles across whole cards or tags, they’d better bring out a bigger pot!

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 6

Posted on 1st April 2012 by Neil

At first I thought I’d have to skip Day 6 – Distress Markers – as I haven’t yet received my order I put in using my birthday funds. But then I remembered I had three pens from a workshop with the Professor himself back in February! Here’s two of the technique tags:

I used the coated card stock I usually use for ProMarkers in place of the speciality stamping paper, and though I can’t directly compare, from the description given during class, it seems to do the same thing. It’s the Ryman Bright White Coated Card 200gsm.

Less Is More: Take Three Challenges

Posted on 30th March 2012 by Neil

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

Posted on 27th March 2012 by Neil

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.

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 5

Posted on 27th March 2012 by Neil

I’m still catching up with my CC101 homework – today I’m publishing Day 5 on Day 7 🙂

Day 5 was all about playing with Distress Stains – the first tag showing their effects on kraft resist with distress inks over and stamped with jet black archival ink. The second builds up the colours on a wet tag with distress stains before drying off and overprinting with Picket Fence Distress Stain applied to a stamp and dried off quickly before overstamping with archival black. Finally is my attempt (the first one) at doing the distress stain marbling using the Picket Fence Distress Stain – it turned out ok, but I think I’ll have to try different colours and surfaces to get a more marbled effect.

WOW! with a bit of Creative Chemistry 101

Posted on 24th March 2012 by Neil

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:

More butterflies – and the odd moth

Posted on 18th March 2012 by Neil

I’ve had a creative day today – and this is one of the results. I’ve used the new Attic Treasures stamp from Tim Holtz, masking tape, Promarkers and a Letrajet attachment, a bit of Letraset metallic tape and a few stick on pearls. I’ve kept it clean and simple to enter the ‘Less is More’ masking challenge this week, and the colour scheme fits the ‘Passion for Promarkers’ yellow and pearls challenge. Oh, and me being me, I looked up each of the winged things on the interweb to find out what colours they should be…

I’m thrilled to be showcased over on the Less is More blog for this card – what an honour to be the first LIMister!

perfectly4med

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