Wax seals - SAF 2014

Here's the card I made with the wax seal I created from the PTI SAF kit. In fact, all supplies were included in the kit, except for the ribbon and the gold embossing powder. By now it will be too late to link it up for the Renaissance challenge, but I sure had fun creating all these cards. Plus I've added more cards to my pile of birthday cards, which is a good thing LOL.

Velvet stamping - SAF 2014

Here's my card for the Renaissance challenge of PTI's Stamp-a-faire, using the supplies from the kit.

Vintage patterns - SAF 2014

I skipped a few centuries - although I did create a few wax seals to be used on two future cards - and grabbed the stamps from the 1940's set of the PTI SAF kit to recreate the Vintage pattern that Betsy Veldman had shown us. I did use slightly warmer colours and decided I liked the pattern after stamping my blue flowers onto the stamped red and yellow base pattern. This was my first time stamping an elaborate pattern and I loved it. The hardest part was deciding how to finish the card (red or blue banner, red or blue baker's twine or white twine, researching 1940s buttons on the Internet and then going through my stash of old buttons to find a suitable one...) LOL. Anyhow, here's my finished card and I really love how it turned out.

I'm also entering thismcard into the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS - Geometric

Mock mosaics 1 - SAF 2014

One of the most fun items I received in my PTI Stamp-a-faire kit was the mosaic die. I used it to cut a stencil and create a mosaic using some Aleene's true snow that I mixed with a tiny drip of Peacock feathers distress reinker (Ranger), but I haven't used it on a card yet. While my embossed layer was drying, I started another card for the SAF Mock Mosaics challenge. I did some stamping and then put my panel through my Cuttlebug with the mosaic stencil and then tried to keep all the puzzle pieces together by adhering strips of Post-it tape over the backside before removing the entire panel from the die. I temporarily taped the grid onto a piece of yellow cardstock and then painstakingly glued all my mosaic pieces into the grid openings using a glue pen.

After removing the grid, my stamped image looked a big mess, because the stamps I had used (Happy family by Echo Park) were too detailed for this technique to really work, so I decided to glue the grid in place and matted my panel onto green cardstock (Bazzill) and a Neenah Desert storm card base. I finished the card off with some twine and a tiny tag (coordinating set of Tiny tag stamps and dies by Simon Says Stamp).

I will definitely try this technique again, but then I will simply use some solid leaf stamps.

Faux frescoes - SAF 2014

The faux frescoes challenge of the PTI Stamp-a-faire event was a lot of fun: adding a thin layer of embossing paste (I used Aleene's true snow, since I don't have any white embossing paste yet, and that seemed to work well) and then stamp and colour on top once this layer was dry. I love the result.

The mosaic pattern and sentiment were stamped using the stamps that were included in the PTI SAF kit. The pomegranate stamp is from a Flourishes set that I bought secondhand. I stamped the image using Memento Rhubarb stalk (which I also used for the mosaic pattern) and Pistachio and then used a water brush to pull the colour in. After drying with a heat tool, I added a bit of darker green using distress ink and added the background using some more distress inks (Peacock feathers and Pumice stone). To add more detail, I stamped the outlines again using Memento Rich cocoa. I also used this ink to stamp the sentiment onto a strip of Neenah Desert storm cardstock and to ink the edges of my cardstock mat behind my faux fresco. Also love the soft texture of my fresco; it's a bit velvety.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenge:

Dutch Card Lovers - 216 Watercolour

Timer challenge - SAF 2014

As indicated in my previous post, I intended to have some fun participating in this year's Stamp-a-faire event organised by Papertrey Ink, and I did! To loosen the creative muscles at 7 AM local time in the US (2 PM in my corner of the world) we were to pick a colour scheme and a sketch and create a card within 20 minutes. By the time I had grabbed a sandwich, read the instructions and decided what I wanted to do, it was already time for the second inspiration installment. So I postponed the 20 minute challenge until Sunday afternoon.

Time was up when I started to adhere my stars, but after 4 more minutes, the stars were in place and brushed over with a touch of Wink of Stella glitter. Since I had coloured 3 strips of cardstock with Promarkers/Flexmarkers to create some custom-made coloured cardstock from which I cut stars in 3 sizes, I decided to create 2 more cards using up the remaing stars. I spent another 40 minutes putting these 2 cards together, so that's 3 more birthday cards added to my stock. Yay!

Materials used:

Neenah Solar white cardstock

Dark grey cardstock by Simon Says Stamp

Happy birthday stamp from the PTI kit (1960's)

Sentiment die cut from Paper Smooches Christmas words set

Star die cuts from Holiday shapes by Simon Says Stamp
Promarkers/Flexmarkers to colour the white cardstock for my emellishments
HA Soft Granite ink (2nd generation stamping of the sentiment)

Getting ready for SAF 2014

I've been preparing for this year's Stamp-a-faire event. I've been admiring Paperink products for a few months, but never bought any until I saw the SAF event promoted. The SAF event is all about getting inspired and creative, alone (as in my case - any other crafter living near Hersonissos, Crete, Greece?) or with some crafty friends, and this year's theme is about travelling through the ages and I could not resist the set of supplies that has been especially designed for this event.

So I've been frantically trying to clear the table and getting some of my supplies organised so I can have a little fun this weekend. I also intended to get to bed early last night, but then our Kokkini decided she was staying out to play until 1 am this morning. She usually responds to our whistles and calls if she's not in before 11 pm, but not so last night. We were getting a little worried, because the last time she did not respond was over a year ago. When my husband finally managed to track her down around noon the next day (she gave a small cry when my husband was calling her), she was in shock, her jaw was all lopsided (turned out to be broken) and one of her rear legs was bent backwards (all ligaments torn). According to the vet who operated on her, she must have been hit by a car, and it's a miracle she survived, responded to my husband's calling while in shock, and made a full recovery, except for her right eye that she cannot fully close.

This morning, she decided to go out for a small walk and then came back in to sleep on the bed. She wasn't too pleased that I disturbed her to make a picture, but it seems she forgave me, because she curled up again and went back to sleep. Makes me wish sometimes that I was a cat LOL.

As for the SAF event, I have no idea what I'm getting myself into, but I have decided to just go with the flow and have some fun and the rest will follow from there.

SYS2 Day 7&8 and CTS89 - Just a note

Another post from me today, yay! In my hurry to get this card posted, the HA Pale tomato and Orange soda inks are still a bit blotchy (the Memento Dandelion ink gave full coverage at once), but I'm trusting the ink will even out. Day 7&8 of the SYS2 online card class were about using graphic stamps. As it turns out, I don't have many of those, but I assumed the backside of one of the tag stamps of the Tiny tags stamp set by Simon Says Stamp would also work. And it did...

I was inspired by the new sketch of CAS(E) this sketch but am now wondering if I followed it too loosely, but hey, there's a panel and a sentiment banner across LOL. The sentiment is from the Everyday Sayings set by Hero Arts. I heat embossed it in white (Artemio) onto a strip of black Simon Says Stamp cardstock. I finished the card off with some gold sequins from Darice.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenge:

A Blog Named Hero - 50 Ombre
Addicted to CAS - 45 Geometric

CTS88 Happy Birthday

For the SYS2 class I had picked out a background stamp that I wanted to play with, trying some new fun techniques such as acrylic paint resist. Since I could not find the white acrylic paint I knew I had hidden somewhere and using Picket Fence distress stain did not give the result I was aiming for, I decided to simply use the stamp as originally intended, using HA Passion flower ink.

I was inspired by this card that Maureen Merritt created for CASE Study 4th Anniversary week #2 (unfortunately I was unable to finish my card in time to link it up there) and the below sketch by CTS.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More - 109 CAS

Sweet Stamps - 183 Anything goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything goes
Seize the Birthday - Anything goes

TMS262 and SYS2 Bonus Day

For today's card I have combined TMS 262 with a technique that was featured during the Bonus Day of the Stretch Your Stamps 2 class, namely adding splashes of watercolour in a free form where you intend to stamp and then stamp the image on top.

Materials used:

Letraset Aquamarkers

Tim Holz watercolour cardstock

Neenah Desert Storm cardstock

PP Chanteuse Collection by Kaisercraft

Image by Imaginisce (Snag'em stamps Chick)

You die by Simon Says Stamp

Sentiment stamp by Stampendous (Birthday Wish assortment) - I masked the 'you' before stamping

Archival black ink

Sequins - large ones from Jenni Bowlin; small ones from a local bargain store

Black glitter embossing powder

Challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches - #262 + watercolouring

I love Promarkers - #232 Anything goes with Letraset markers

Seize the Birthday - Anything goes

Craftyhazelnut's PP challenge - always Anything goes with PP

SYS2 - Day 1 - Background Stamps

Day 1 and 2 of the current Online Card Class, Stretch Your Stamps 2, were all about using background stamps.

I combined the inspiration from class with Laura Bassen's DT card for CASE Study who are celebrating their 4th anniversary.

After heat embossing the Square Pattern backgound stamp (Hero Arts/BasicGrey) in white (Artemio) onto TH watercolour card, I watercoloured a section of the image using Inktense pencils. The fading out to the top and bottom happened when I was 'cleaning up' the embossing with a rather wet baby wipe. Instead of trying to clean up the smeared watercolour, I decided to turn it into a feature LOL. I love happy accidents like this one. The sentiment was cut using a MFT die. I then die cut another sentiment from plain cardstock and heat embossed it 3 times with sparkling black embossing powder. The black srtrips (Simon Says Stamp cardstock) were adhered to my A2 card base and then brushed over with my Wink of Stella glitter pen. For some extra sparkle I added a few sequins.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

CASE Study - Anniversary week 1

Simon Says Stamp - Make it sparkle

A Blog Named Hero - 49 Die a little