Wall clock using combination of techniques & tools

I had no mojo or motivation to do anything today but, as my good friend Jax did too, I forced myself to do 'something'. I have had the clock blanks from Ali at Alisinkyfingers.co.uk  for an eon so when I stood up from my chair and saw the bag with them in, I knew what I was going to do. I began with the cardboard backing and painted it with magnolia emulsion paint. I dried it with a heat gun then took a Pritt stick and streaked across the paint. Then used some Papermania vintage gold acrylic paint and painted the entire surface, going over the glue. I dried it off then used a baby wipe to rub it back to show some of the magnolia emulsion through the acrylic paint. I then mixed a bit of course texture medium with Tesco Gold metallic paint for kids and scrapped it over the surface. I didn't want a thick texture so a lot of it was scrapped off as I just wanted a hint of texture. Again I dried it all off with a heat gun. I painted the entire surface with some Tim Holtz Clear Rock Candy Crackle paint and left it to dry naturally for a while until the cracks began to appear and then blasted it with the heat gun to speed up the process. Once it was dry, I took a baby wipe and after putting some distress ink on my glass mat, swiped through the ink with the baby wipe and went over the entire surface just to age it a bit. Once it was all dry, I used the 'cracked' stamp from Visible Image around the edge using Sepia versamark ink to give a subtle effect. 

The clock face itself is a Silhouette Cameo file and was cut from white centura pearl card (yes, really it was). I poured a little bit of sepia ink spray onto my mat and used a piece of ordinary kitchen sponge to ink over the entire surface. The photo doesn't do it justice as it does have a lovely gleam to it. Once it was dry, I again used the Visible Image 'cracked' stamp around the edge and one of the cogs from the same stamp set for the centre. When I held it against the main piece, the numbers were lost so I cut a circle on the Cameo to fit behind the numbers from plain brown card. I ran it through an embossing folder from Ali Reeve and used Creative Expressions 'enchanted gold' gilding wax to bring out the detail. 

Finally, I used a pokey tool to make 4 holes in the backing for the brads to give it some interest - and to hold the card stock onto the backing :-) The clock kits from Ali Higginbottom come with all the clock parts too so it is now sitting on my wall ticking away nicely :-) 

Hope you like today's little project.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today 

Results of my play day

Today, I just wanted to play with my silhouette cameo and try out some files that I had bought recently. Here's a desk caddy that I cut and decorated up with some free papers from Simply Cards & papercraft magazine 

 This card is made from an accordion rosette file that I bought. I also finally unpacked my Inkadinkadoo Circle Cog set (they ain't the easiest of items to break into !!! A milk carton is easier lol) I love the scribble effect on the card as I stamped the four corners on a rectangular piece of card. 

 I bought this mini magazine holder to take UK A6 cards. I did have to fiddle with the sizing a bit as the original was for US A2 cards which are a little bit different. I am happy with how it turned out though. 

And here is the group shot of all my projects for today.

Thanks for dropping by my blog today

"Silence" hanger

made this today as a gift for someone.

I painted a piece of hardboard with gesso, let it dry and then put some blobs of paparmania acrylic paint & Tesco Metallic kids paint on and scraped them over the gesso with a thin piece of plastic. I then used a fresh baby wipe and dipped it into some papermania cream paint  and wiped it all over the top of the previous layer. 

Once it had all dried, I stencil the sentiment using Black Soot Distress Ink.

I used a stamp from Sheena Douglas's Ageing Beautifully set around the edge. First with black soot distress ink, then with flitter glue in the corners and added guilding flakes.

I mounted the sheet onto mountboard that I had inked with distress ink. I secured it with eyelets and added 2 more for hanging purposes. 

I am thankful to Darcy Wilkinson over at PaperArtsy  for the inspiration for my piece and I'd like to enter it into the challenge 

Hope you like it and thank you for dropping by my bit of the internet today

Cazz xx

Simple 'home' card

A 2nd 'home' card for today. I am liking the clean lines in these cards.

I love my vintage distressed styles, don't get me wrong, but every now & then its good to get out of the normal way of thinking and do something different. 

New Home Card - maybe, whatever, who knows ......................

 

As with all us crafters, I have a bag full of scraps. Yesterday, if you scroll back through my blog, you'll notice I was working on a stencilled apron and subsequently had loads of little rectangles left over. I made a few of the 'clean & sleek' cards with some of them and last before I went off to bed, I spritzed the remaining rectangles with different colours and left them to dry over night. Today, I used just 1 for this card and layered in onto a scrap piece of mirri card. The idea being to have a piece of "art" on the wall of the "home" card. 

I had an odd piece of embossed card stock from a previous project (last week, month year... again, who knows). I rubbed over it carefully with distress ink then painted in the debossed leaves. I cut a square of card 10cm x 10cm and attached the embossed piece to this. I then attached a stirrer from any take away establishment. Then came the cutting out of the vase, stem and flowers from yet more scraps of card.

The die set used throughout is by Sizzix and is simply called 'flower vases'. The set consists of 5 vases, 5 stems and 7 flower heads. I cut the vase first and whilst it was still in the die came in from one edge only with distress ink. The over stamped it with one of Sheena Douglas's Ageing beautifully stamps

Attached the vase to the bottom of the topper with glue gel, popped the stem in and attached the flowers. A few gems were added to embellish the flowers. Then a butterfly just cos I could. 

And there you have it, a really pretty card from nothing more than leftovers.

Hope you like it and thank you for stopping by my bit of the internet today

Cazz xx

Some more clean & sleek cards

Waste not want not as they say. To see how these cards came about, look at my previous post :-) 

clean & sleek card

Earlier today, I cut out a stencil design and was left with a little pile of these little rectangles.

So as not to waste them, I lay them into my craft mat and sprayed them with various

ink sprays and left them to dry. I then edged them with Metallic Blue Marker from Letraset. Then I simply drew 3 lines with the metallic pen across a card blank and laid 4 of the rectangles over the lines.

The rubber stamp if from Papermania.

I like the effect - clean & sleek 

Pimped my cameo

After creating the pen storage box last week, I decided, after spending a while on Pinterest last night, to Pimp my Cameo. I also wanted to tackle the vinyl again as my first attempt was rubbish. But try, try and try again as they say so I did, did and did again. 

The 'create' word svg file can be found on Pinterest. It cut like a dream. was a nightmare transferring it as I don't have any transfer paper but I sprayed some stick & spray re positionable onto some used freezer paper and it sort of worked. I just had to wash over it with some sticky stuff remover. BUT it don't look too shabby. As I like butterflies too, I cut a couple from silver mirri card and dabbed some alcohol inks over them before attaching onto the lid of the cameo. 

Thank you for stopping by my little bit of the creative world today x

'Time' birthday card for the worst time keeper

The recipient will most certainly see the irony in this card :-)

So, the ingredients - where do I start, there are so many.

I am not one for sticking to one companies products and I mix & match on a constant regular basis. 

To start with I used Ali Reeve's Stamp & colour card and inked over with various shades of brown distress inks. Then I used a clock mask and lay it over the card and misted with water. Lifted the mask then rolled over kitchen towel to reveal the masked design. 

I then used Sheena's 'ageing beautifully' stamp set to create the cracked edges, the splats and the distressed corners. What a great set of stamps these are. 

The clock itself was cut on the silhouette cameo from a file that you can get from this site 

free svg blog    Can I urge you to go for the zipped file, there are 250 + images on it (I am not associated in anyway with the lady, just a very happy recipient of the files and there are some fab designs on the site)

I used the white silhouette marker pen to do the sentiment and the shape of the label before cutting it out.

The verse was sourced on the internet and credit given to the author, Nate Hawk. I printed this onto safmat and rubbed it down onto the front of the card. 

I then matted & layered with gold mirri card from Create & Craft.

Now, when I mat & layer with Mirri card, I am conscious of the price of a sheet of mirri card and also the wastage. If am matting underneath a layer of paperstock, then I DON'T gut the mirri card, but, as in this case, if I layering card stock over the top then I DO gut the card.

I simply turn the card over, draw 2cm round each edge with a ruler & pencil and cut it out - simples. 

You get so much more mileage for your mirri then.

Of course, it is entirely up to you how you do this or even, if you do this at all.

The rules aren't set in stone

Thank you for stopping by my blog today

Cazz xx

Vintage Birthday Card

Images from this card are from Jems Designs "Gentlemens" CD.

I printed the topper 3 times and used the 2nd & 3rd toppers for the decoupage.

The circles were created using frayed burlap distress ink pad and a lid from a miniature jam jar (like the one's they have in hotels)

Thank you for stopping by my blog today 

Cazz xx 

Wedding Anniversary Card

By the time this post shows up, my best mate and her husband should have got their post so I can now tell everyone that this is the card I made for Jax & Andrews anniversary.

I used the spellbinder entwined heart d-lite die to cut an aperture into the centre of a square of black card. The added a square of gilded card behind it. I had planned on putting some gilded corners onto the card but that didn't work out so instead I went to Plan B and inked up a flourish stamp with flitter glue and gilded the corner of the card and also the corner of the white card blank. 

The backing paper was created in Serif Craft Artist Professional 2.

Hope you like it and thank you for stopping by my blog today

Cazz xx

"Edgar" Birthday Card

This card is for my own son who turns 31 on the 24th. 

"Edgar" is coloured with Promarkers - various shades of grey's.

The stamp sets are available from Visible Image 

The cog dies are papermania and gilded with gilding flakes from Indigoblu, attached with papermania brads to finish off.

Jute is from Lidls :-)


Hope you like it and thank you for stopping by my blog today.

Wedding Card

 Here's a wedding card for a commission order. The client had seen a previous card with the lattice on and had asked for that to be used on this card. I have kept the design clean and simple - Less is more as they say.

This is my first time using Creative Expressions Silky Crush ribbon and the dazzlers. I doubt it will be the last. They are just stunning.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today

Cazz x

Teenage girl birthday card

Here is a card for a teenage girl.

I have used the Frederika CD and one of the precoloured images.

This cd is available from Polkadoodles 

The backing papers are from the matching paper pad

And its got TICKETS, I like tickets :-)

Thank you for looking and stopping by my blog today

Cazz xx 

95th Birthday card

Here is a card for a lovely lady who is 95th tomorrow (10th May).

I used the Spellbinders Lattice die that is available from Craftsite 

The butterflies are marianne dies as are the leaves

The topper was created on the silhouette cameo and I went over the top with a sakura silver star pen.

The background was stencilled with the waste from the leaf die using dusty concorde distress ink pad

Hope you like it and thank you for dropping by my blog today

Cazz xx

Fredericka Birthday card using preprinted topper

Sorry about the photo - am in a rush so its not as good as it should be x

Anyways, the topper for this card is a preprinted image from the

 Fredericka CD available from Polka Doodles

The patchwork panel on the edge is created from a stamp set

available from Dreamees  

I can't remember where the sentiment came from as I had printed & die cut it a while ago and

never used it at the time but it is perfect for this card.

The burgundy pearl backing paper is a pearlised envelope that fell off the shelf :-) 

Hope you like it and thank you for stopping by my blog today

Cazz xx 

Another "Visible Image" Birthday card

 Here is a birthday card made from the gorgeous "TIME" stamp plate available from Visible Image 

I have truly fallen in love with this stamp set. 

I have used the "cracked" stamp on the background of this DL card. I used a VersaFine inkpad in black

I then roughly lines up the fob watch stamp on the card and "by eye" worked out where the 2 wings should go and, thankfully, they came out just right lol

The fob itself was stamped onto black card with versamark ink and embossed with Gold Lustre powder from "Blonde Moments". I wanted a more muted, vintage gold as opposed to a bright, shiny gold.

The sentiment was stamped up with the versafine black ink pad and simply stamped onto white card stock and cut out at odd angles. To make a mat to fir, turn your sentiment over and place face down into your backing card. Draw round it and remove the stamped card. use a see through ruler and line it up along your pencil marks with a 5mm gap (or whatever you choose) and draw a line along each side. The cut this out. turn it over and your stamped piece SHOULD fit perfectly 

Hope you like it and thank you for stopping by my blog today

Cazz xxx 

Male "Time Flies" birthday card

 Here is my 2nd male card of the day. Male cards are like buses, wait for ages to have to do one then 2 come along in the same day. Anyway, for this card I have used the "Time after Time" stamp plate from Visible Image  I just adore the "cracked" stamp, which I have used on the back of this card with a sepia versamark inkpad.

I used a square of black card over the Kraft card. I used a versamark inkpad and an old stencil brush to roughly brush ink over the edges of the black card then dusted over with "mink" mica powder. It gives a very subtle effect. With the gold pearl card, I again used the "cracked" stamp and a versafine inkpad in sepia tone. 

The corrugated paper is from packaging and roughly brushed over with the same old stencil brush with the sepia ink pad. 

The watch and the wings were stamped onto black card with versamark and I used a fine detail gold embossing powder before simple cutting out and layering up with a little bit of foam tape. 

The sentiment was stamped onto a piece of kraft card, again with versamark and fine detail gold embossing powder.

Hope you like it and thank you for dropping by my blog today

Cazz xx 

Male "Cogs & watches" birthday card

 Here is the first of 2 male cards I have been commissioned to make. I'm not one for sticking with just 1 supplier products for a card so there is a complete mish- mash with this card. 

To start, the backing card has been run through a mask from Clevercut. Then I rubbed over it with gilding wax from Creative Expressions. You can pick up a good selection of Creative Expression products from Julia Watts  shop on Amazon. I used "Cast Bronze" & "Patina". This was my first time of using them and I love them. I need more, no honest, I do :-) 

The watch die is from Papermania and can be purchased from Craftsite  I cut the parts I needed from black card stock and used a small piece of gold mirri card to put behind the watch face. Now, I don't have any proper flake glue (you wouldn't think I went to a craft show at Ally Pally yesterday would you !!). So, I thought I would try using my regular Cosmic Shimmer dries white glue on a piece of cut & dry foam. Now, whilst it didn't do the job as you'd see on the telly, the flakes DID stick to some bits. I then rubbed more gilding wax over the top & I love the effect. So, its not the right glue, but then again, its not the wrong glue either. 

 The stamped sentiment is from the wonderful Visible Image  The complete set is called "Time After Time". It is such a fantastic set and probably won't stray very far from my work area in future. I stamped it onto a piece of brown card using versamark and embossed with ultrafine gold detail embossing powder. Then tore the edges of the card and again used the gilding waxes round the edge

The cogs and brads are again from papermania and I used the same technique as I did for the watch above.

The whole design has been set a Papermania Kraft card stock

I'd like to enter this card into the
Cards Galore Challenge 

Hope you like it and thank you for dropping by my blog today

Cazz xxx

Wedding card

I was asked to make a wedding card for an order and I had seen a similar card on Facebook recently so went along with the idea I saw there. If you are the person that posted the picture of their card, please let me know so I can give you due credit for the idea.

For this card, I used a topped from the Christine Howarth Chrysalis CD available from Crafters Companion. Its such a stunning image it doesn't need much else.

I then used a Spellbinder Die to create the background. The die is available from Craftsite
This was then matted onto gold mirri card.
I cut the leaves from a spellbinder die and a marianne die.

The flower is made from 14 layers of tissue paper

cut from a scalloped edge X-cut circle die. 

Simply cut them all out, separate the layers as they will stick together at the edges when you cut them. then lay them back on top of each other. Poke a hole in the centre just big enough for a brad. The size / colour of brad doesn't matter as you won't see it anyway. Begin squishing up each layer of tissue around the brad to form the flower. Then attach on top of the leaves.

Hope you like it and thank you for stopping by my blog today

Cazz xx