Creative Card Making with Jennie

Hello and welcome to this fourth Friday of the month which means that one of us shares a Creative Card Making tutorial. And this month it is my turn!

I don't think it matters where you live in the world but postage today is very expensive and yet it is lovely to be able to send cards for all different occasions. As a result I have been working hard on my single layer stamping techniques and combining this with my love of the ATC.

So today I am going to share with you how I put this card together which looks extremely effective but is all one layer.  And ..... the best thing is you can have a number of ATC sized pieces all ready to make a card whenever you need to. I know that many of you will probably already use this technique but I am sure there will be some Creative Travellers with us who have not tried it yet!

I like to use a good quality card for the stamping so took an A4 sheet of white cardstock and trimmed it up into nine ATC sized pieces - 2.5" x 3.5".

Having chosen the stamps I wanted to use I then had to think about what order I would be stamping them in to have the most important stamped element sitting on the top. In this instance it is this wonderful flower, with the second layer being the circular post stamp and finally two background stamps, one text and the other more detailed. The stamping will be done from top to bottom with each top layer being masked. I have limited myself to three layers here but you can do many layers ..... !

I have tried lots of different mask products but always come back to the good old post it note! I find the sticky piece at the top of the pad is more than sufficient to adhere to the project and they will last a good few times without disintegrating. (Use a larger post it note pad for larger stamps.) Just ensure that you stamp a largish piece of your stamp onto the sticky layer. Then fussy cut the flower for your mask.

I then stamped my flower onto the ATC.

And masked it with the post it note flower. This flower had alot of "floppy" leaves so it needed a bit of washi tape to hold it in place as well.

Then to stamp my second layer, ensuring that some of the stamp lies over the flower.

I made a mask of this circular stamp and adhered it on top of the area of stamping.

This then allowed me to use my two background stamps to stamp over the whole of the ATC. This time I have used Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) to get a lighter look.

And hey presto! when you take all the masks off everything is layered behind the flower.

I used a few of my stamp sets to create some different designs in the same manner and then had a lovely relaxing time painting them.

I blended a little Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) around the edges of the ATC and added a gold edge with Gold nib style pen. I like to layer the ATC onto a piece of corresponding card just slightly bigger than the ATC (2.5/8"x 3.5/8").

Whenever I need a card I add the layered ATC onto  a plain 6" x 6" card blank with my sentiment stamped in the bottom corner. (Again you can get ahead and stamp a few to have ready!)

It is easy to make up a nice little batch of ATCs using different stamp sets and have them ready to add to card blanks as and when you need them.  It is also a great way to familiarise yourself with some of the stamp sets you might not have used for a while.

It can get a little bit addictive! and don't forget about extending it to the envelope as well.

I hope this tutorial might inspire you to grab some of your stamp sets and see them in new light and go some way to saving you a little money next time you need to send a card.

Thank you for joining me me on the Creative Card Making journey today and don't forget there is still a little time to join in our current challenge which is "Tissue Paper".

Jennie x

A little extra musical inspiration...

Hello all!  It's Alison here, your tuneful host of this month's Words and Music challenge.  Our new itinerary means that in the third week of our challenge month we stop off for a while with the host for some extra inspiration.  It might be a tutorial for their challenge project, or a whole new creation.

I pretty much shot the bolt with my step-by-step for Under the Greenwood Tree over at Words and Pictures, so I'm here with a fresh bit of musical inspiration for you... a quick tag full of melodies and musical thoughts.

For my main project - Under the Greenwood Tree - I went for some song lyrics as the inspiration, so this time I've taken the other approach to the theme and used both music paper and some words about music on my tag.

I started by gluing down some vintage music paper onto a standard #8 tag.

I applied Versamark ink through the Tim Holtz Harlequin stencil and then a couple of coats of Seth Apter's fabulous Vintage Beeswax powder.  Just look at that glossy dimension, and the warm honey-coloured tone.  It's lovely.

I spritzed some Pumice Stone Distress Spray, followed by Broken China, and then flicked water droplets over the top, and sanded the edges for a more distressed look.

I added a wash of white paint, wiped back, and then splattered tiny droplets, and used a lid to add some circle shapes in a couple of places.

These Sizzix Coffee Marks die-cuts had been hanging around on the table for a while after being rejected from some other project, but I decided their time had come.

I stamped the quote from my PaperArtsy EAB03 Music and Silence stamp set, cut it into sections, and doodled around the edges with a fine black pen.

The wonderful Paper Doll dancer was also asking to come and dance amidst the music.

And just down by her feet, you find out who wrote those words.

I mounted the tag on some white card, just to echo all the white accents going on, and doodled some more fine black lines around the edges of the tag.

The whole thing is topped off with some Distress Ink-dyed crinkle ribbon and curly paper string.

I don't use black very much, but it was already there in the printed music, so I went with it - but to me this doesn't look very "me"... what do you think?  It's always good to experiment though, right?

I hope this has given you an extra nudge to come and get musical with us this month at A Vintage Journey.  Check out the details of the Words and Music challenge as well as the fabulous inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides and then come and join us on the journey.  We'd love to see you there.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Alison xx

September Destination Inspiration - Arriving At Terminal 3

Hello and welcome to the third Destination Inspiration for September.  Autumn with you today to guide you along the journey with the contents of our travel bag.

Our bag this month is filled with goodness:

Product : Gesso

Technique : Any form of Resist

Colour : Olive Green

Substrate : Chipboard

I decided to play along with our current challenge, Altered Art.  At my job we were all given these lime green journals as gifts from a recent conference.  I thought it would be fun to grunge it up and give it a face lift.  

I painted my cover with clear gesso, then layered a couple of olive green paints over it.  I sanded the edges to let a little of the original color show through, then stenciled a pattern with Archival Ink and a sponge.  

Next, I cut a watercolor panel and embossed this amazing image from the new PaperArtsy Lynne Perrella Collection.  I partially stamped and embossed the script from the stamp below (also LPC) randomly on the perimeter of my panel.  I blended Distress Inks around the face.  In the end, I was unhappy with the embossed face, so I restamped in Versamark Sepia onto tissue paper and carefully adhered over the first image, sponging the edges to coordinate.  The sentiment is by 7Dots.

I embossed this gorgeous chipboard from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts in copper.  I used Distress Glaze to seal my stamped panel, then applied crackle paste along the edges of the adhered panel.  I wanted to use permanent inks since this will be handled, so I used ColorBox Chalk ink directly to the crackle once it had set.

The ribbon bookmark and elastic closure were both so bright!  I mixed Infusions with water and carefully painted them.  

Here's a little closeup of the textures and embossing resist...

And the finished product, simple, but filled with pattern and texture.  I hope you like it and are inspired to play in our Altered Art challenge.  Join us next Monday for Terminal 4...

Thank you for visiting today!

Autumn Clark - SewPaperPaint

Destination Inspiration Arriving at Terminal 3

I'm so pleased that you've arrived at Terminal 3 with me today!  Autumn from SewPaperPaint with you to guide you along with the contents of our travel bag yet again:

Product - any ink or acrylic paint

Technique - brayering

Color - pale blue

Substrate - book

I was in the mood to work with my new PaperArtsy stamp set, and with its hefty size I grabbed a Prima greyboard tag as my substrate, adding the layer of "book" in the pages I adhered with Mod Podge.  I dipped my panel in Vintage Photo Distress Oxide to get an earthy base for my pale blues.

Next I brayered three similar blue hues onto my substrate, drying each layer lightly before adding the next.  The moisture from the paint seemed to pull up the DOX and blend it into my layers - what an amazing effect!  I toned things down a tad with a light brayering of white gesso.  

I added some DecoArt texture sand paste through a dotty stencil and it also pulled up the DOX - I was thrilled!

I had recently won a giveaway from Shoregirl's Creations.  She included these amazing molded caulk lace bits from her tutorial HERE.  Do check it out, as these are flexible and dimensional - a must have for the mixed media artist!  Thank you Esther!  I inked up my butterfly panel with DI, and layered over a section of the silicone lace.  

I stamped my sentiment on a leftover panel and did a wrap around on my tag.  I added a gessoed flower from my tutorial HERE.  Finally, I added a butterfly wing left over from the Mini Album I made for Creativation this year.  You can find the details on that process HERE.

Our Creative Guide's have offered such amazing inspiration this May...

Arriving at Terminal 1 we had S@ndy's fabulous journal spread.

And our last stop at Terminal 2, with Amanda's fabulous book.

All in all, what a winning lineup of inspiration this month!  I hope you've been inspired to play along with our current challenge, Use a Quote.  Perhaps you will be the lucky winner of the That's Crafty gift voucher!  Until next time, Autumn <3

Destination Inspiration, Terminal 3 - Alison

Hello all, it's Alison here arriving at Terminal 3 of Destination Inspiration.  We've already stopped for wonderful projects at Terminal 1 with Anne and at Terminal 2 with Deb, and now it's my turn to create with the contents of the travel bag this month.
Just as a reminder, this is what's in the suitcase:

Product - Paint

Substrate - Tag

Colour - Smoky Grey Blue (think Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood)

Technique - Resist (paint, embossing or mediums)

And here's the tag I came up with...

I started by putting a coat of PaperArtsy Chalk Fresco Paint onto a plain manila tag, and then stamping Tim Holtz's Cracks background in Versamark and clear-embossing it.

So that was my paint and my resist - now for something for it to resist!  I used Distress Stains in Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood and Hickory Smoke to create the almost stained glass look.

Having the coat of paint underneath means the Stains don't soak into the tag in the same way - they sit on the surface a little and create lovely effects as you dry them.  You can see the grain of the paint brush strokes too, which I really like.

By now I'd covered all the travel bag contents requirements, so I was free to go in any direction with what to put over my background.  Whatever I did next, I would still have my lovely light-catching resist mosaic.

The gorgeous Bird Silhouette is a favourite die of mine so I cut him from some Tim Holtz paper and inked the edges with Ground Espresso DI.

Some more paper scraps provide the "ground" for him to stand on.  He's mounted on padded tape, by the way, to give that extra touch of dimension.

I was in a gentle frame of mind, so I cut some soft off-white Wildflower die-cuts to go behind him (also inked with Ground Espresso)...

... and I added some actual dried Wildflower stems to the mix.  I love the fragile dimensionality - not one for sending through the post, this!

Adding the lower parts of the stems was an afterthought.  They're just tucked in, but I think they're positioned about right to create the illusion that they're all attached somewhere behind his back.

Obviously I needed some words - Small Talk stickers to the rescue, as so often.  I can't think what I did before these little phrases were released.

So that's my Destination Inspiration tag for you.  I hope you like it.

Do drop in next Monday to see who's at Terminal 4 and, in the meantime, we'd love you to come and play in Amanda's fantastic Stencil It challenge - there's still plenty of time.  Thanks so much for stopping at Destination Inspiration with me today.  See you again soon.

Alison x