Simply Gorjuss

Today I am sharing with you a card I have made that has taken me virtually all day!  That is because today was aimed at being a "play and see" where it takes me day.

I started the day playing with my Spectrum Noir Watercolours making backgrounds on watercolour card and then sometime experimenting with different promarkers to colour in my Gorjuss stamp. 

I then decided to take one of my accordian card dies (Create a Card) Diesire from Crafter's Companion and cut out the watercoloured card stock to make a frame using the snowflake overlay which looked lovely in the blue.  I also cut another piece of card that I had washed with my watercolours using a scallop edge die from the set.  

A quick look through my paper stash and I found that the background paper from my Serenity cardstock (Craftwork Cards) would pull this altogether especially if I made use of the tiny flowers that come with the Serenity paper craft pad. Fortunately for me that I had already pressed these out and shaped them into flowers some time ago whilst sat in front of the television!

Decorated MDF Box

I have been getting really crafty with my latest project and moving into the realms of mixed media!  I had a box that needed decorating and I wanted to use some embossing paste on it. I searched through my stencils and found one that I liked both the scale and design of.  I then used some of my tacky stencil glue to hold it in place on the box whilst I spread the embossing paste (Dreamweaver product) over it.  The paste dries within one hour which means not too long to wait before I could start on the next side!

After I had covered all the sides and the lid I then used some grey paint, suitable for using on mdf, to cover the inside and outside of the box.  This product came from Imagination Crafts and it comes in a 60ml bottle.  It is lovely and thick and I highly recommend it because the coverage was excellent and gave a lovely finish. 

The final coat of paint is another product from Imagination Crafts called Starlights.  Starlights are a metallic paint that come in a variety of colours.  They have a super metallic finish.  I used the very beautiful teal and silver paints, dabbing it on and blending together to create different hues of blue.

Here is the end result.  I now have a decorated box and I am using it to put my Tattered Lace corner embossing folders in.

Butterfly & Dragonfly Cushion Covers

A new week has passed us by and I am writing about a new craft experience for me.  I purchased some lovely linen looking cushion covers from Hochanda recently with the intention of printing onto them using some stamps from Indiglo Blu and some of their fabric paints.  I also tried using my Luminarte Silk paint (all purpose paints) which work on a varety of surfaces including fabric.

I used Indiglo Blue's Raven Black Metallic Paint to stamp the lovely dragonfly, one of my own small butterfly stamps in the Indiglo Blue Kingfisher Blue Paint and the larger butterfly I stamped using the Luminarte Silks paint.

Before working with the paint I put a piece of 12x12 cardstock inside the freshly ironed cushion cover to protect any paint leaking through.  

I used some sponges to apply the paint to the stamp but it worked equally well and if I may say perhaps better, when applying the stamp to my craft mat area where I had some paint.  With this method your fingers kept clean and this is important in case you accidently get paint onto the fabric.

Anyone trying this for the first time, have a go on some scrap fabric so that you can get used to knowing how much paint you need on your stamp.

Here is the end result.  Some cushion covers for our home which I am very proud of and had fun making.

Leonie's Wee Stamps

I couldn't resist getting my hands on these little stamps by Leoni Pujol.   They are really useful for pattern building.

I created my own stencil of the word "Father's Day" using my Cameo Silhouette and then used some Stencil Glue by Pinflair.  This is a really good product.  You use a sponge to apply it, wait five minutes then you have a tacky background.    I then stuck down the words and sponged colour over this. Following this I stamped these little dies over the words and finally, coloured them in with sparkle pens and gel pens.  Only when I had completely finished working on the card did I peel away the words to reveal the area underneath.

Here is the end result.  I hope you enjoy them.