Yay!!!!!........Castaway Result

Coo it's a sign that I am back on top form today. Been whizzing about here, there and all over.

Finally went and got my hair trimmed and used the voucher that I was given for Christmas by Deb at the craft shop. Then into town for a few bits. Back home and as it's my day off hubby always expects one of my specials for tea so I made a fish pie today. Halo is now all nice and sparkly again. DD has me booked to watch a DVD tonight and I must admit that I am looking forward to seeing Marie Antoinette.

So not much time for cardmaking then today and you know how when you have a new product and you sit and read the instructions and follow them to the letter.......everything ends up looking pants doesn't it? Well in future I shall glance at the instructions, laugh hysterically and then chuck the damn things in the bin.

Having ignored now the instructions on the Castaway ink pad and going with my own instincts I have some good results at last on ordinary card.....it took me about ten minutes tops to do

The stamps used for this project are from the Tandastamps India set and very fab it is too.
So the pink card (which was just cheap matt cardstock) has been stamped with one of the small accent stamps using the Castaway pad and I didn't wait for five minutes as it said on the label..........I just ironed it as soon as I had finished stamping. Admittedly it did take a while for the effect to come through but once it did I was very happy with it even though it was a lot more subtle than I had expected.
I wanted the background to look like a piece of fabric so have embellished it with tiny peeloff dots and lines. The image was then stamped and embossed onto gold pearlised card and cut out. I had wanted to mount this onto a plain orange card but didn't have any so I took a cream pearlised card and coloured it first with Stazon Mustard and then dragged the Stazon Pumpkin over the top for a distressed look. This is probably better done with an ink pad that has had a bit of use rather than a new one.
Dead chuffed I got a result so will play with that a bit more now that I know what sort of card is best for it.
Next on my list will be the Memories Mists which I have just bought four of in some yummy colours. Will let you know how I get on with those.
Right well I have just been tagged for the very first time so I have to sort that out and pick who I will tag...........this may take some time so please try not to snore if you fall asleep while waiting........lol!!!
I have just one shot at this tonight so I hope it works
[url=http://craftsbycarolyn.blogspot.com]Carolyn[/url] has tagged me
1)Find the nearest book
That was up on a high shelf
2)Name the book and the author
Enquire Within Upon Everything by Herbert Jenkins one of those books you dip into and has information on just about every subject. Given to some poor soul as a Sunday Schhool prize in November 1928.........I bought it for stamping onto or altering in some way.
3)Go to page 123 and then the fifth line of text and type the following three lines onto your blog
the solid form, and if stirred as it
cools it separates in a state of fine
division. As this process is trouble
An article on Sal Ammoniac as a Freezing mixture........very very boring.
OK so I tag
[url=http://craftblog.craftybutterfly.co.uk]Wendy[/url]
[url=http://all-the-things-she-said.blogspot.com]Nicola[/url]
[url=http://jo-kill.blogspot.com]Jo[/url]
Please, please let it work cos I don't have time to redo it if it doesn't.
Night night all
Sheila-x-

Just another manic Monday

Don't know why I titled this as manic Monday as I have had quite a lazy day actually. Got the laundry finished and then as I wasn't very fit for stamping I have spent the day making some embellishments with my Tag-a-long and dies. I've made funky cars, tools and graduation caps and diplomas today using up some offcuts of DCWV textured card. They look fab so I'll make those up into cards this week.

I left the Castaway stamping because I had an e mail from a friend who keeps a careful cyber eye on me. She had read yesterdays post about me not feeling 100% and decided to remind me of what I tell the ladies in the classes I teach............if you are not happy with what you have done, don't throw it away immediately. Put it away, take it out again in a few days and look at it with fresh eyes. So I took her advice.............thanks hun.......that made me giggle and I feel much better for it.

I couldn't go another day without some cards to share so I have got together a small selection that I have done using the Floorwax technique........one of my favourites as the look on peoples faces when you tell them what it is made with is just priceless.

The first card is done with an Anita's stamp and I have used lovely metallic acrylic paints in blue, pink and green. The background is handmade metallic crinkle paper. So easy to make.

Take a piece of paper cut from a brown envelope and screw it up as tightly as you can to make lots of tiny creases in it.

Unscrew the paper and flatten it out but don't iron it.

Now apply Versamark ink all over the paper. Push the pad down firmly to make sure the ink hits all areas.

Cover with silver embossing powder, shake off the excess, then heat with your heat gun.......et voila........a piece of scrummy crinkley paper.

I usually make a piece just the size I need for a project as the edges look nicely finished off.

Floorwax Technique Instructions

Materials needed-:
Stamp of your choice
Stazon Ink Pad
Sheet of Acetate
Metallic Acrylic Paints
Johnson's Klear Floorwax
Stiff tissue paper as used for gift wrapping.....not household tissue such as kitchen or loo roll
An old or cheap craft paintbrush
*Cover your work area if possible with plastic rather than paper*
**Pour some floorwax into an empty screwtop jar for ease of use**
To begin with make sure that your acetate is larger than your stamp image by at least one inch all the way round.
Stamp the image onto the acetate using the Stazon ink pad and allow to dry for a couple or so minutes.
Turn the acetate over and working on the back of the image add a small puddle of floorwax followed by a few drops of each colour of your acrylic paint and gently swirl the colours together with the brush. Do not overwork it as you will end up with a muddy mess.
Make sure you take the floorwax and colour well beyond the edges of your stamped image.
Next crumple up a piece of tissue paper large enough to cover the back of your work and then lay it over the floorwax/paint mix and press it down gently.
Paint the back of the tissue with another layer of floorwax.
If you use a fairly thick acetate one layer of tissue is enough but for thinner acetate you can add another layer and then finish off again with floorwax.
Now leave on one side to dry or if you are impatient dry thoroughly with a hairdryer.....this will take some time.
Once dry you can trim and mount as desired.
***It is not neccessary to use an image within a frame. Mine are within frames for ease of cutting out and layering in workshops***

This second card is made with the large stamp from a set by Rubbadubbadoo. I love this stamp for use on graduation cards or leaving school cards. I even used it once on a special order for a card for someone who had just got divorced.........lol!!!
I've used metallic blue and pearl white paints for this one.
The seagulls are cut with a Sizzix Sizzlit die.




This final card is stamps from yet another Rubbadubbadoo set and I love this for mens cards and the inspiration for this particular card design came from an etched copper picture that used to hang at home when I was a child.
I've used copper and gold paints and the finished pieces have been mounted onto layers of Stardream card which has a lovely sparkle to it.

I have decided to add a Techniques section to the blog where I will post all the techniques used in posted cards. Hopefully this will save you trawling through everything to find what you want and it will save me having to type out the technique every time I use it.

I'll be starting it tomorrow and will add the floorwax technique first.

Well I had best go and catch some more sleep as I am at the shop tomorrow. It's not my class so I will just be till chick and the customers won't want to see me doing my impression of a wretched hag.......lol!!!

Night night

Sheila

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Castaway Ink Pad */$%*!@

Feeling just a teensy weensy bit frustrated today as I have been playing with a Castaway ink pad and it just ain't doing what it's supposed to do.

Well I don't suppose I should blame the ink pad........I just don't seem to have any cardstock that it works on.

For those who don't know what a Castaway ink pad is......you stamp an image, let it dry for five minutes then heat it with an iron and you should get a bleached effect where you have stamped.

I'll need to experiment a bit more and have a good dig around in the card cupboard.

You watch I will just find the right card and all the ink will be gone from my pad.

I do need to get something done with it as we have had them in stock at the shop and I will no doubt be asked questions when people spot them on the shelf.

I've also been up and down all day tackling the weekly wash and I swear the neighbours must have shoved their laundry bags through my door as four people could not possibly make that amont of washing in one week.

After sorting it I discovered that most of it belonged to my DS who has not yet grasped the concept of the seven day week........you know.......seven days equals seven tee shirts, seven pairs of socks etc.

There must have been thirty pairs of socks and I counted 25 tee shirts, several pairs of jeans plus all his work gear.

I feel a bit of a talking to coming on for that young man.

Shocked hubby a bit by also cooking a Chilli from scratch for our evening meal and serving it up at 5pm on the dot..........I think he nearly passed out.

DD is on night six of a seven night, night shift and I do like her to have her meal before she goes to work rather than take it with her.

I have rashly promised that next Saturday I will make our favourite Winter Pork Casserole for probably the last time this winter. It seems to have got quite warm this last couple of days so we won't be needing stews and casseroles for much longer.

Took a bit of time off tonight to watch a movie, the remake of one of my all time favourites The Wicker Man.

What a pile of rubbish and waste of time that was.

Even the gorgeous Nicholas Cage couldn't save it for me.

Caught the last of the Top 100 Sex Symbols and I shall be chaining myself to some railings somewhere and demanding a recount.........Johnny Depp is waaaaaay sexier than Angelina Jolie any day.

Anyway.....sorry for all the waffle and the fact that I don't have a card to share.

Hopefully I'll be able to do something with the Castaway pad tomorrow and if it's good enough I shall post it.

Night night all

Sheila

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Daring Cardmakers 20/20 Vision

WOW a toughie this week from Kathy and it's taken me all day to decide on a design for this one.

Stamping as usual from me cos if I tried to get clever with papers, flowers and brads I would come badly unstuck.

So twenty faces, twenty pairs of eyes, twenty mouths.....however you want to count it....there are twenty.

I've been dying to use these Stampington stamps for ages and this card was also a good way to use up some small pieces of cream card.

Images are stamped in black Stazon and then cut randomly and coloured with my Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads........I just lurrrrrrrrve those colours.

The images have been mounted onto black card and then onto a cream card blank....which you can't see on the scan.

I did try to put a frame around it in my photo programme but it didn't look too good.....lol.

The word is cut by my mate Jimminy Cricut in Base Camp, using a shadow cut for the black and then normal cut for the coloured letters which were cut in cream card and then inked.

So have you 'Dared' yet?

Thanks girls........I enjoyed this one.

Sheila

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Daring Cardmakers-Men

Making cards for men is the challenge from the Daring Cardmakers this week and when it comes to mens cards I always thank heaven for rubber stamps because without those images I would struggle to make any mens cards at all.

So the cards I am sharing today are both done using the same set of stamps from Rubbadubbadoo but done with different techniques.

The beautiful background on the blue card is a technique called drunken chalks which I love doing because you get a different look every time you do it.

For this technique you need to have-:

Fluid Chalk Ink Pads

Encore Metallic Silver Pigment Ink Pad

Surgical Spirits (Rubbing Alcohol)

White Gloss Card

Cheap Hairspray

I wanted to get a sort of misty early morning effect for the background here so I have used fluid chalk inks in blues and mauves.

Starting with blue at the top I have coloured direct to paper just by dabbing the chalk ink pad onto the card.

The next step is to cover the whole of the piece of card with the metallic ink until you can no longer see the chalk colours applied.

Then take a piece of cotton wool and soak it in Surgical Spirits.

Starting in one corner and working your way across and down the card, dab the cotton wool onto the metallic ink. Dab once and then move on, try not to go over the same spot twice.

You will see the metallic ink start to fracture.

Now either leave on one side to dry or if you are impatient like me.......dry it with a hairdryer.

Take some soft facial tissue and start to very gently buff the card. Some of the silver ink will come off but some will stay behind having been dried by the applied spirits.

Every time you do this technique, even with the same colour inks, you get a completely different finish so I usually make two or three pieces and then choose the best one for the images I am using.

If you are not happy with the look of your first application just re-apply the metallic ink and the spirits again then dry and buff.

Once you are happy with the look of your piece....spray with two coats of cheap hairspray and leave to dry.

The silhouette images look really good with this technique and couldn't be easier.

Stamp your image onto plain smooth card and cut out. Then using the same ink pad that you stamped with just cover the cut out image.

If you use a different ink or a pen to colour you will see the outline of the ink pad ink through the colour which spoils the effect so I always stamp and colour with Stazon.

The second card is just really chalking but then I have spritzed over that with a Sticky Fingers Autumn Inks Spray in Olive.

All stamping has been done in Stazon.

While I am not the author of the Drunken Chalks technique how I have described it above is my own version of the technique which works best for me.

Surgical Spirits is a flammable substance so as always please always observe good working practice and work in a well ventilated area........and put yer fag out!!!

Thanks as always to the DCM Team for the challenge.

Sheila

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