Man Cards #1

Hello you gorgeous peeps and welcome to my blog.  

It's been ages since I posted last .. the last couple of weeks just flew by me and I hardly even noticed they were gone until today!!  Old age creeping in I think!!  LOL!!

I'm here to share another 'Man' Card.  Only one more to go and then I should be done for this year.  Of course, next year it all starts all over again!!  

This card, and the one I'm showing you in a couple of days, are both predominantly (been reading the dictionary LOL!!) made with Prima's Engraver Collection.  Love these papers, especially for 'male' cards although there are also pages in the pad that can be used for girly ones as well.

This particular card was actually the second one made and I just used the left overs and bits I didn't use on the first one (which I will show you second!!  Confused????  Me too!!).

Did a bit of doodling around the edges and 'rusted' the keyhole with some Patina Rust acrylic paint.

The inside .. added some doodling here as well ('cos I like it!!).

Some closies of the layers ..

.. and done!!  This card is fairly basic .. not a lot happening on it (no crackle, no stamping, no splatters) but, sometimes, simplicity is best!!  Did sploosh some paint and gesso around though, 'cos I couldn't resist!!

Hope you like and hope you'll come back to check out the next one in a few days.

Thank you so much for visiting and do enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.

'English Rose Garden' - Cards for Megs Garden

Hi everyone and a very warm welcome to my bloggy space and a very special welcome to my new followers.  Thank you so much for joining me.  Hope you are all having a wonderful day. 

I'm back again to share my projects for the Megs Garden DT.  This time I have created two more cards with the lovely 'English Rose Garden' papers.  I think I mentioned in a previous post how much I love these papers.. they are so pretty and simply perfect for anything 'shabby chic'.

It is winter here in Australia and it has been bitterly cold and wet and I, for one, have certainly had enough of this weather.  I made these cards with some lovely summery colours just to brighten up the day a bit.

Megs Garden Products used

Papers

English Rose Garden Mini Paper Pack

Flowers

Lace

For the base paper I've used 'Leaves &Foliage' and then added some scraps from 'Bouquet of Roses' and 'Roses & Flowers'  plus a small scrap taken from the Butterfly Book Kit to add a little contrast.

I added a little texture with a Prima Damask Stencil and some paste and cut a small metal trinket in half and inserted it in between the paper layers.

The 'Puffy Paper Flower' (one of my favourite flowers to use) was coloured with acrylic paint.  I usually buy my flowers white and then mix my own colours of acrylic paint to get the shades I need.  Place them in a spray bottle, fill it up with water and the paint will spray quite easily.  I used the same method to colour the small paper roses.

The gorgeous lace was attached with a glue gun.  I simply gathered it slightly as I was glueing it down.

Used a couple of strips from the 'Pink Rose Vine' paper to decorate the inside of the card.  The left side was edged with Martha Stewart's Floral Vine Deep Etch Border Punch.

Added some seed beads, some twine made into a bow, some pieces of gauze and even a twist of cotton thread in and around my flower clusters.  Once everything was assembled, I dry brushed some gesso in random places to create some highlights.

So, that was card number one, and this is card number two ..

Megs Garden Products used

 Papers

English Rose Garden Mini Paper Pack

Flowers

Tim Holtz Studio Keyholes

For this card I used two pieces from the 'Roses & Flowers' sheet.  Cut them to size and distressed the edges with a distressing tool. 

My fave flower again .. the pretty 'Puffy Paper Flower' sprayed the same as on my previous card.

This bloom is the 'Ivory Primula'.  It is a lovely creamy white fabric flower which has been altered using watered down 'Peeled Paint' Distress Paint. 

Megs Garden also sells some Tim Holtz products.  This is one of the 'Keyholes'.  I simply glued it down and swiped it with a little gesso. 
 

The seam binding was sprayed with the same colour as the Primula then crumpled up and dried.  Wrapped it around the top paper layer and simply tied it in a bow.

Added some gauze in between the paper layers, some seed beads in a few spots and some strands of twine to the cluster.  Swiped some gesso in random places and my card was done!!   Adding these little touches just adds so much interest to a card .. well, I think so anyway .. LOL!!

If you wish to take a closer look at the products used here simply click on the product pictures and it will take you to the web page.  Also, why not go over and take a look at the wonderful projects created by my Team mates .. I know you will be inspired.  HERE is the link.

I hope I have inspired you as well.  Thank you so much for visiting and do enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

Feeling Sketchy #122

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog.  A very special welcome to my new followers .. so pleased and honoured that you decided to join me.

After being out of action for a few days due to a sore back (no more housework for me .. LOL!!! ..  I wish ..) yesterday I felt I needed some crafty time  and so I decided to join the Feeling Sketchy Challenge which finishes today.  I would have had this post up this morning but my monitor decided it didn't want to play and had to be re-calibrated so I could get my photos ready.  Hubby fixed it for me and then we had to go out so I thought I had missed the deadline.  Just checked it and I have an hour left .. talk about leaving it to the last minute!!  LOL!!  So here is the sketch ..

.. and here is my entry

As you can see, I followed the sketch pretty closely.  The papers are from Kaisercraft's Antique Bazaar Mini Pad and I did a little stamping and also some stenciling with Distress Ink.

The large bloom is from Megs Garden.  It was originally white with blue edges and I had it sprayed for a previous project but hadn't actually used it.  It was perfect for this card.

 

The circles were made with some string and I also added some seed beads.

 

The die cut quote is from the same KC collection as the papers.  As is my habit, when it was all assembled, I added some random swipes of gesso.

Decorated the inside with some strips of the same papers and also added another quote from this collection.

 

And there you have it.  My entry for the Feeling Sketchy Challenge #122.  HERE is the link if you'd like to take a look at the next Challenge. 

Thank you so much for visiting and leaving me some love.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.

2Crafty December Shares #1

Hello everyone, and welcome.  So pleased that you made the time to visit at this busy time of the year. So, Christmas has come and gone and I hope you all had a fabulous day and didn't suffer too much with the holiday hangover.  Now we can look forward to the New Year and, probably, an even worse hangover!!  LOL!! It's my turn again to share some things I made using some fabulous pieces from 2Crafty. First up is a very masculine card made for my oldest son's Birthday last month.   2 Crafty Chipboard used Hessian Patch Panel World Globe & Ink Set As I am wont to do on my cards nowadays, I added some patches of Clear Rock Candy Crackle to the paper.  I love that textured look, especially on 'man' cards.  

I only used the quill and ink bottle from the World Globe & Ink Set.  The ink bottle was coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink and then covered in Glossy Accents.  For the quill, I coloured the feather with VersaMagic Cloud White and added some light shading with VersaMagic  Midnight Black.  The spine was then coloured with  Distress Ink and coated with Glossy Accents.

The Hessian Patch Panel was cut into three pieces and was left mainly raw.  It was just lightly sponged with gesso as I didn't want too much colour on it.  The pieces were then layered in between the papers.  I really love how it looks, it just added the perfect accent to my card.

Once everything was assembled I simply dry brushed some gesso around the card, just as a highlight and accent.

  This was the first of my 2Crafty Chipboard December projects.  I will be sharing 2 more over the next couple of days and I do hope you will have the time to come and look.      Thank you so much for visiting and leaving a little comment.  I would love to know what you think. and remember, to find a 2Crafty Chipboard stockist near you simply send an e-mail to salesat2crafty@optusnet.com.au   Take care and God Bless oxo Marg  

Positive Tags

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog space.  A very special welcome to my new followers, so lovely to have you here.

Sorry that I've been AWOL for a little while.  I actually didn't realize it had been so long since my last post.  I had some problems with my computer which, thankfully, are now fixed and I have been a bit busy creating  but unfortunately can't show any of that as it's mostly DT projects.  I now have a lot of blog visits to catch up on and all that is apart from things happening at home.  Nothing drastic thank goodness, but still things that had to be taken care of.  Anyway, now that I'm kind of back to normal I find that I don't have a lot that I can actually post about except for a couple of tags that I made a while ago for my Positivity Journal.

I had to make these tags fairly simple so that they will fit into the pockets so, basically, I've only used some stencils and stamps on them.

 I cut these tags from Prima's Ledger Pad Collection as it is quite thick and sturdy.  Inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then stenciled with TCW's Mini Bricks Stencil and Tea Stain Distress.

 The stamps are both from Kaisercraft.  The butterflies are from their Tiger Lily Collection and I stamped it with Fired Brick Distress Ink and the quote is from the Blubelle Collection and was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black.

 The Washi tape with the script is from Tim Holtz, it is my absolute favourite, I use it all the time.  I have no idea who produces the other one though.

This next tag was cut from the same papers but then I used a technique from a tutorial shared by Jenny Marples on A Vintage Journey blog.  If you'd like to take a look for yourself HERE is the link.   It basically shows how to layer stencils and stamps etc. which I had done before but not quite in the same manner.   I didn't follow Jenny's tutorial exactly but I do like how this turned out.  

Painted the tag with gesso first and then edged it with gathered twigs D.I.  When dry, I used the Tim Holtz Doily Stencil with Crushed Olive Distress Ink and over that I used the Tim Holtz Burlap Stencil with Gathered Twigs.  Then it was stamped with a Prima script stamp and Walnut Stain D.I and Kaisercraft's Crackle Stamp and Black Soot D.I.

The die cuts are from Kaisercraft ...

... and the flourish was cut with the Hearts Swirl Die from Magnolia Ink.
As I said, these tags are fairly simple because I can't use anything dimensional on them, but I'm still pleased with how they turned out.
Slowly but surely my Positivity Journal is taking shape.  There is still a lot to do though, so it is going to take quite some time to finish, especially as I'm only working on it in my spare time.

Thank you so much for dropping by and for any comments you may leave.  I really appreciate you taking the time.

I do hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
Marg   oxox

Cherry Blossoms

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

Well, here I am again and with yet another Art Journal page.  For someone who really only does these once in a blue moon, I've been quite prolific lately.  I've been experimenting because I could not get the hang of using gesso to seal the pages  and stop everything from seeping through the paper.  Every time I tried coating my page with gesso first I seemed to lose all the colour once I started spraying.  Used a few different brands but all I would be left with is the shimmer and not much colour at all. Well, this time I coated the page with watered down gesso and, when dry, sprayed with watered down acrylic paint and the colour actually stayed on the page.  Woo!! Hoo!!

Once the paint dried I was able to spray with Distress Inks as well, and it all worked.  I haven't quite got the effect I was after, but I'm hoping that will come with experience.

As stated before, I coated the page with watered down gesso and while doing that I added in a few cotton threads for a bit of texture. The orange  colour is the acrylic paint.  I simply mixed some Vermillion with Ochre Yellow  until I achieved the shade I wanted.  Then, when that was dry I also sprayed with watered down Broken China and Mustard Seed Distress Inks.  You can just see the watercolour type blotches on the side.  That was the effect I was trying for.  Hopefully, one day I will get it all over. 

 Used Urban Artist  'Mt. Fuji Blossom' Stencil with some homemade texture paste, coloured it with watercolour pencils and highlighted with a white gel pen and a black sharpie.  Then went around the blossoms with a black watercolour pencil and a wet paint brush so they would stand out a bit more.  Not sure if I should have done that actually as it turned out a bit messy.

Unfortunately I forgot to do the stamping before I did the stenciling so the surface wasn't exactly smooth and the stamps didn't work too well but, I'm just going to say it adds character to the piece. LOL.  The stamps used are Kaisercraft's Tiny Dots and a Chinese or maybe a Japanese Script stamp.  It is also a Kaisercraft stamp but I haven't got the name of it I'm afraid.

 I searched the net for a Confuscius quote, but they were mostly quite rude except for this one which I quite liked.  'Wherever you go ... go with all your heart.'
So, there you go, I finally managed to do an Art Journal page that didn't seep into the back of the paper and make a mess of the next page.  Yay!!
This will actually be the last of my Journal pages for a while.  I have also been making cards as usual, but I can't show any of them here just yet as they are mostly DT projects although I've also been working on a project I purchased from Marion Smith Designs and I will be showing that in the next few days so do please come back and take a look at that.
I thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg