Tag for Visible Image DT: Stand Out!


Hi and happy Wednesday!

Today I'm sharing with you a tag I made using the Visible Image 'Teenage Kicks' stamp set. This set has a powerful message, and for highlighting it I decided to keep the project pretty monotonous using only black, white, grey and a hint of red:


First I die cut the tag twice (using my Sizzix tag die); once from black cardstock and once from heavy white office paper. That white 250g paper with a bit glossy coating is just perfect for all inking projects; inks are easy to apply to a glossy surface, they mix well, and the price per sheet is fairly low.

I trimmed a few millimeters off the edges of the white tag so that the black tag underneath would create a thin border around it.


Using a dark grey Distress ink (Hickory Smoke) I inked the front of the white tag. The aim was not to create a perfectly smooth grey colour, but to variate the darkness of the colour tone.

Then I ripped pieces of standard masking tape (the type you get from the hardware store), and stuck them on the inked tag. I changed the ink to a darker one (Distress Black sooth) and applied a thin layer of ink around the masking tape strips. I did not used too much ink as I still wanted to leave the background rather grey than black.
   


When all the inking was done I first removed the masking tape strips, and then splashed plain water on the tag creating splash marks on the background. I dried the tag with a heat gun, stencilled some dots on the lighter areas, and sew straight stitches on the tag with my sewing machine. Tip: If you don't want to think too much about the thread ends start sewing right on the edge of the tag; that way you can just easily pull the loose thread ends on the back of the tag. Double sided tape will both secure the thread ends and attach the front tag on the background.


The main image is stamped on the same white cardstock and cut out. The shoes are stamped with red ink, cut out, and glued on the black and white image.
Aren't those sneakers so cool!


For more information on the stamp set I used please click on the picture below:


  

I hope you like my project. Thanks for stopping by in my blog!

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Card for May Craft Stamper Take It Make It: Enjoy the journey!

Hi,
Craft Stamper Take It Make It May challenge started a week ago. Entering is easy as "Anything Goes", as long as there's stamping somewhere on the project. Our generous sponsor this month is

http://www.designsbygeorgina.co.uk/


The prize is a fabulous bundle of goodies: Three stamp sets, and three stencils! Really worth playing for!

Here's my card with stamped main image and stamped background:

Stamped Card for Craft Stamper

I started with stamping the main image on piece of white cardstock. Repeated the stamping on a post it note, cut the image out and placed the self-made mask over the image. I inked the background with yellow, orange and brown distress inks, and while the mask was still protecting the main image I added some patterns on the background.


The chess board patterns are stamped with water: I misted the stamp gently with water, stamped on the inked surface, and dried the stamped pattern with pressing it with paper towel. The paper towel picked up some excess colour leaving the stamped pattern lighter than the inked cardstock. Isn't that an easy way to add simple texture on your project!

Once I was done with the water stamping I dried the cardstock with my heat gun and continued stamping on the background with brown, black and orange inks.

Stamped Card for Craft Stamper

For colouring of the image I used ProMarkers and a white gel pen. As additional decoration I used a piece of chess board chipboard that I cloured with a black marker and cut in smaller pieces before gluing down. The piece of white lace was coloured with mists to match the dark red colours of the image.

Hope you like my card and get inspired to play along our challenge! For viewing more DT inspiration cards please follow this link. Challenge details can be read here.
Happy crafting!

Hugs,
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Sizzix Inspiration: Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Hi!


Did you know today is national scrapbooking day? There's a lot of exciting things going on online, and as a little warm-up for the day I wanted to share with you a couple of 'Quick Makes' videos the Sizzix team has put together: A tutorial for making an easy holiday scrapbook layout, a tutorial for creating a beautiful framed poppy, and a tutorial for making a beautiful butterfly card! The butterflies on the last video are perfect also for embellishing your scrapbooking layout, so click *this link* and start crafting!

Sizzix Big Shot Inspiration Videos


Wishing you a creative day!
Hugs,
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Card for celebrating strong women

Hi,
A new Craft Stamper Take It Make It challenge has started today. Theme is 'Anything Goes', as long as you use stamping somewhere on  your project. Participating could not be easier!

This month we have a gorgeous sponsor, Designs By Georgina, run by Craft Stamper design team member Georgina Ford. One lucky winner will get a great bundle of products; three stamps and tree stencils! Follow this link to Craft Stamper blog to read the challenge details and play along!


My inspiration project is a stamped, watercoloured and stencilled card I made for a good friend some weeks back. The stamped words all describe her very well- she's very special! For highlighting the strong message I did not want to over-embellish the card; there's just watercolours and stencilled golden crackle paste stars in the background. Many times less is more :)

Mixed Media Card with Stamping, Texture Paste, and Watercolors. By Elina Stromberg

Also the stamped faces are coloured with watercolours. Love that stamp set by Dina Wakley!

Mixed Media Card with Stamping, Texture Paste, and Watercolors. By Elina Stromberg



Mixed Media Card with Stamping, Texture Paste, and Watercolors. By Elina Stromberg

I'm wishing you a wonderful weekend! Hope you have time to do something that makes you happy!
Hugs,
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Art journal page: Inspire, Imagine, Dream!

Hi and happy Wednesday!

Recently I've become more and more drawn to art journaling. Don't get me wrong, I still very much enjoy scrapbooking and cardmaking, but working on an art journal page brings me so much pleasure. It's my creative playground.

Very often I include mixed media elements on my pages. I play and experiment, and feel that the creative process means so much more for me than the outcome.

Art Journal Page with Texture and Colors and Visible Image Stamps

This is a page I finished recently. I started with creating texture on the background with texture paste and a stencil. Once dry I misted the page with water and sprinkled blue and yellow bister on the page. The interesting thing about working with bister is that you cannot completely (and sometimes at all!) control the process and the flow of colours. Watching the colours take their own paths is almost meditative :)

Art Journal Page with Texture and Colors and Visible Image Stamps

After drying the background I stamped more pattern with Visible Image 'Ripped Fishnet' stamp. As inks I used yellow and brown Archival.
The sentiments were stamped using  VI 'Imagine Dream Inspire' stamp, and the yellow hearts were die-cut using my new 'Heartfelt' Sizzix/Tim Holtz die.

Art Journal Page with Texture and Colors and Visible Image Stamps

White dots are punched with a standard office punch, and the little chipboard grids in the two corners were some leftover pieces I had on my crafting table.

I'm really happy how this turned out!


For more information on the stamp set I used please click on the picture below:


  


Wishing you a wonderful day,
Hugs,
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Vibrant flowers with masking stamping technique


Masking Stamping Technique

Hello!
I love playing with colours. Bright colours, soft pastels, earth tones, vibrant colour mixes, muted colour palettes- there's a place and time for them all. May Jehkotar Craft Challenge offered a mood board filled with flowers and a key word 'strong colours'. What a perfect kick-start for a happy stamping and card making evening!

Creating three-dimensional layers is an easy way to add attractiveness and interest to any paper crafting project. However, with stamps and masks you can build layers even on a one-dimensional project. In this masking technique the idea is to cover a stamped image so that an image stamped over the mask will appear on the background. That may sound tricky, but it's actually a very simple technique!

Vibrant Flower Card with Masking Stamping Technique

For this card I used my new Altenew 'Doodle Blooms' flower stamp set, black stamping ink, post-it notes and ProMarkers. I started with stamping all four flowers several times on post-it notes, placing the stamp on the sticky end of the paper. Then I stamped the center flower on a piece of mixed media cardstock, covered it with my cut-out post-it mask, and stamped another flower partly over it. I covered that one, too, and stamped another flower partly over the second one. Easy!

Once my flower buquet was ready, the card front looked like this:

Masking Stamping Technique

After removing the post-it note flowers the layers become visible:

Masking Stamping Technique

For colouring the flowers I used my ProMarkers, but I could have used any colouring pens. I chose bright, strong colours, and just enjoyed the meditative flow of colouring. Oh what a happy moment!

Vibrant Flower Card with Masking Stamping Technique

With this technique you can easily create large backgrounds with a few small stamps, but also make stamped image collages and add interesting background elements to your character stamps. Very soon you will see your stamp collection in a whole new light- mixing images from several stamp sets is a lot of fun!

Wishing you a colourful day!
Hugs,
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