L for Leather

I hope everyone has had a great weekend.

Mine was fun although I was working.......if you can call making cards working...lol!!!

I managed to get over to the craft shop with my little list of envelopes but anyone who knows me would tell you that I never come back with anything from my list and Saturday was no exception.

For a start they had none of the envelopes I needed, they only had a certain brand of rub on words which wasn't what I was looking for and the only die they had that I wanted was a Thin Cuts bow so I got that while they had it.

The Cuttlebug was new in but having so many die cutting machines and knowing that the dies would work in my Bigshot I wasn't tempted. I did buy two of the embossing folders.....script and textile which I think will be useful.

There was a bin of Anita's stamps all at £1.99 including the huge ones. I got a fleur de lys background stamp which I know was £7.99 previously plus a couple of others.

I found some decorative edging scissors at 99p a pair so I bought 3 different designs as I only have deckle edgers.

My best bargain though was a set of clear stamps........26 flourish and ornament stamps for the unbelievable price of £4.99 and that included a really useful sized block. I was very pleased with that I can tell you.

So that's more new stuff to play with........oooooh I do love shopping!!!

I spent most of Sunday making cards for the local shop but did manage to have a play later on.

The leather paper background I have used on the Vetruvian Man card was made when I was messing about with the floorwax earlier in the week so I thought I would use it before it got lost among all my other papers.

It's a really easy technique which I have done many times but the addition of the layer of floorwax to finish it off really makes it look fab.

To make it you will need a piece of thin cream card and this needs to be screwed up tightly to create lots of creases.

Flatten it out and rub all over with pale brown chalk. Make sure the cream is completely covered.

Next, take a darker brown chalk and apply lightly so that it just hits the creases in the card and highlights them.

Now you need to iron the card to flatten it out. I iron on the chalked side which seems to give a better finish.

Use a cotton wool ball to pick up some colour from a Brilliance Coffee Bean ink pad and rub sparingly into the card. Repeat with Brilliance Galaxy Gold.

You can leave it at this stage and it looks great.......the Brilliance ink gives a lovely glow to the effect but you can add a layer of floorwax for a much deeper shine.

I would advise dabbing the wax on rather than brushing it on as brushing can move and smudge the applied colour.

Leave to dry.

Although I mostly use this technique when I want brown leather paper, I have at times used other colours such as green and even pink so don't be afraid to experiment.

I have posted another couple of cards made using this background technique so that you can see how useful it is.......especially for mens cards.

Ooops.......had to edit this as I forgot to say that the hinges and key plate are cut from mountboard using a Sizzix die. They have been rubbed with bronze Glimmer Chalk and then grunged with a brown ink pad. More bronze chalk was added over the ink.

The key is a brad.

Have Fun

Bye for now

Sheila-x-