Going for the One Layer Look

In the crafty world of the clean and simple, there is a challenge to make cards which consist of one layer only. Well, this is my interpretation. And yes, I've stretched the concept a little by layering up onto black card and mounting onto a backing card but what's the point in rules if you can't just bend them a little to get a nicer result?

Using Seth's drip die again, I cut into some thin paper, laid it over my card and beat it to perfection with Pickled Raspberry ink. You read that correct. Pickled. I've given up trying to read it as Picked. My brain adds the L and there's nothing I can do about it.

With mask still in place, I stamped a texture on top. I removed the mask, stamped one of Seth's circles in the middle and set about the rest of the design with a black pro marker.

As an experiment, it was fun to play and see what happened. And the result, whilst not perfect, doesn't quite deserve to be shown the inside of the wastebasket. However. Am I alone in thinking it now looks like a dripping eyeball?

To Become a Mixed Media Artist, You Must Do Just One Thing

Guess who's range of dies and stamps I'm still playing with? Well if you don't know, first of all, what rock have you just popped out from? Second, go read the last few posts.

Believe me, I'm certainly getting my money's worth. But that's not why I'm still using Seth's stuff. It's because I love the designs. I'm having all sorts of ideas. Usually, I buy a stamp etc, use it once and all inspiration in the well has dried up. With these artier designs, I keep coming up with ideas. I'm starting to impress even myself.

For this card, I had a scrap of die-cut black card lying around, created from the Coffee Ring dies. An experiment from the cards I made in the last post. Now I don't subscribe to the idea I hear a lot of creatives come up with of "I never throw anything away, it all get's used". Nope, if it's scrap, it goes in the wastebasket.

Don't read me wrong, I'm no money-bags who can happily waste supplies. I've just been crafting for long enough to know that the pile of scraps just builds and builds. A fraction may be used but what inevitably happens is that my craft space looks like a craft bin.

This time, however, I did find a use for the offcut. It was spared, because I did the one thing you must do to become a bona fide mixed media artist. The one thing you are contractually obliged to do, if you want to dare attach that label to yourself. I applied Crackle Paste.

Yup, that's the secret, my friends. Once you've crackled, you're in the club.

So I had my crackled offcut, I dabbed blue paint over the top and a good dollop of gloss varnish. I attached it to some other stamped and decorated card and because of it's zen like appearance, typed out and added the mot juste, Breathe.

You just wait, I'll soon be throwing inky shapes down onto my clean white canvases :D

More Makes from my Inky Stash

If you remember from my last post, I had plenty of colourful mixed media cards left over to carry on trimming into as well as a few offcuts. Enough to set about making two more cards with plenty still left over.

I used the same Drippy die from Seth Apter as last time, only this time adding a circle from another die set, Ring Around. The central star shape is from the stash of moulds I made a while back, painted with DecoArt's Black Shimmer Wax.

The second card was, well, a wild card, especially when compared to my usual comfort zone.  It began life with Seth's Coffee Rings die. The way he's designed them, you can run all three rings inside each other, through the machine and come out with a separate, whole, arty piece. I did the same for both green and yellow cards and pieced them together to make two circular designs.

I cut up one of the circles into quarters and adhered them to the corners of a red piece of card I had trimmed square. I laid the remaining circle over the top using 3D mount foam. Finally I added a clay embellishment which I had coloured with acrylic paint.

So yes, as you can tell, I may stretch myself out to the messy side and mixed media but the clean, graphic style pulls me back. It's interesting to see the results which arise. And best still, I have plenty of pieces on my desk to play around with and make more.

Messing About with Artsy Cards

You may know already from reading this blog that I'm a big fan of Seth Apter. And yes, that means I have amassed quite a stack of his stamps, stencils and dies.

I've been itching to have a play with them all, so I gathered together every product of Seth's which I own onto my craft table and grabbed some plain white card.

I then inked, painted, stencilled, stamped, stamped and stamped again. I used as many colours as I could lay my paws on. I made sure to use every stencil, every stamp.  After an hour of frenzied mess and a pair of frightening looking, inky hands, I ended up with a whole batch of decorated card.

I now have enough material to go ahead and make several projects. This card being the first idea I had. I grabbed my Drip Drop Die (I've had my eye on purchasing this since the second it was previewed on Seth's blog) sliced into several different colours and pieced together into the above design.

I gave the piece a coating of Triple Thick gloss varnish which made the colours pop. I lay it over some white card and then black, to see which I preferred and as you can tell, I drooled more over how it stood out on a darker background. I trimmed some black card down, ran it through an embossing folder and foam mounted to the final card.

I have plenty of offcuts and untouched card on my table to start making more projects. Should keep me quiet over the Easter holiday.

Hello Friend Card

Hello there my sweet lovelies

Today I've been playing around with die cuts and brightly coloured polka dot paper

Maybe it's all the quilts I've been seeing recently whilst blog hopping and browsing Pinterest that has spurred my interest in creating something so bright and colourful. I'm definitely awakening to the cheerfulness of playing with colour. I can see it in the photographs I've been taking recently. My eye is certainly being drawn to saturated, bright objects.

Anyway, I used BoBunnys Double Dot Designs and cut into the papers with Spellbinders' Dahlia die. The stitched circles & square were die cut with Lil Inkers Dies.

Gilded Gate Part 2

Yesterday I posted, amongst other things, about trying to make more use of some of my stash. In particular, I'd attempted to use my Spellbinder's Gilded Gate die. Thank you Jeanne for your suggestion about adding a banner with a sentiment. I may very well do so :)

I did have another idea brewing, which I tried out and works much better than yesterday's creation...

It has a clean design, it's colourful and it makes more sense as a card. As you can see, I've only used a part of the die this time, the end posts, which I trimmed down to give the appearance of candles.

I'm going to continue musing over the design of the die to see if I can make further use from it. It all depends how well my brain is working :)

Stretching Dies & Glossed Embellies

I've been having a bit of a play around today, making cards. A bit of using and reusing and it's been more challenging than I thought it would be.

My first card, for instance was borne from the idea that I wanted to cut out a basic shape and make it pop by adding a glossy coating to it.

I've seen Mark Gould use a Triple Gloss Glaze from Decoart on his ATCs, which has always impressed me. When I made the triangle embellie for this project, I didn't have any in my stash, so I used Ranger's Glossy Accents. However, this morning, my bottle of glaze has arrived, so I will be trying this idea out again and see how they compare.

The triangle embellie was easy to cobble together. I took some polka dot pattern paper, cut out a triangle with a Spellbinder's Die and stamped a flourish from Inkadinkadoo onto it, using black archival ink from Ranger. I painted on the glossy accents and left it to one side to air dry.

Today, I took the embellie and used it to create a card

And that could have been it, card-wise for the day but whilst I wandered down to the shops at midday, I was plugged in and listening to the latest podcast from Paperclipping Roundtable, Birded Out and the subject under discussion was how to make more use out of your crafty stash.

In the show, Jennifer McQuire said that before she bought anything, she had to think of at least three uses for it first. As it has a tendency to, my mind wandered to my own collection of stamps and dies and how it would have served me better to be a little more discriminating in my tastes.

One particular die came to mind, a Gilded Gate from Spellbinder's. I purchased it back when I was making projects in a shabby chic style. It's a die that looks like it works well as part of a created scene. Perhaps adorned with flowers around it's base. As I've only used it once, I wondered if I could use it in a cleaner, more graphic design. A card that, if I saw it in a shop, I'd be happy to buy.

Not easy. This eventual card came about more through trial and error than by design. The biggest problem comes from the fact that it's a gate! It's not really an image which can easily be used on its own.

I had an idea to cut it out from white card & stick onto black for an easy graphic look. But I wanted more colour, so I cut it out of blue instead. I had an idea of darkening the posts of the gate by sponging on some ink. I wasn't happy with the result so continued to ink the whole gate. I noticed the blue card from which I had cut the die piece from and placed it back inside. I tried it over a lighter blue card and it almost worked. However, I decided to cut the gate out again in a darker blue rather than use the inked up one.

I like the result...but...

Who wants to receive a card with just a gate on it? I haven't solved that issue yet. I need to sleep on it. I do have another idea brewing but I'll think on it a bit longer. I'm determined to make this die earn it's place in my stash.