Encre, papier, ciseaux

Have Yourselfie a Merry Little Christmas

Inspiration: MFT Sketch #458 + Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Christmas)

I love everything Birdie Brown, and she hit a home run with her latest stamp set, Christmas sELFies. It includes adorable selfies from with different winter characters. Here, I went Christmas with my card, but the snowmen and polar bear could work really well for more generic cards. I can't wait to play with the other images some more, but for this card, I picked the North Pole trio: Rudolph, Santa and an elf. I used the sketch to layer three different patterned papers from the cute Holiday Cheer paper pack from Sunny Studio. I tied some green and white trim between the top and bottom panels and I also added white sequin trim between two of the lines on the pattern paper. I die-cut snowflakes out of Tropical Tide glitter cardstock, which matches the patterned papers very nicely.

I was kind of excited that this stamp set does not require the purchase of a die set (instant savings!). The image are just squares. I created my own Polaroid by cutting a white rectangle and stamping the image centered at the top. I used my Polychromos pencils to color the image. I blended some of the colors with mineral spirits. By the way, my store owner shared the best tip in one of her weekly videos: you can use the Alcohol Ink Blending Pen from Ranger and fill it with mineral spirits (Gamsol), whic allows you to blend your pencil coloring without the use of stumps. I was so excited when I heard that because I like the use of mineral spirits to get an even look, but I've always hated how finicky stumps are. Initially, I had a few and I used sanding paper to take the last color off, so it was taking forever to color an image. I later invested in doubles of a few sizes and I was using the same tip for the same colour family, but I still felt like stumps were a hurdle to work with. Enter the alcohol ink blending pen - it's a game changer! It works really well, especially the smaller tip, and you really just have to scribble on scrap paper to take off the last color, like you would with regular blending pens. It works great, in large or small areas. But learn from my mistake - add a very SMALL amount of mineral spirit inside the marker. I was too generous when I filled mine and it not only leaked everywhere when I was fililng it, but the pen kept leaking for weeks even after I took some of the liquid out. I took I had either ruined it or that the tip was not working, but after a while, it stabilized and now I've got the perfect flow. I also like that I don't have to keep the mineral spirit open on my desk and run the risk of knocking it over, so this one is a big win.

I wanted Rudolph's nose to stand out so I trying options - clear gem, red gem, I was thinking of doing red Stickles and then I realized that the red confetti from Pretty Pink Posh I bought this week are the exact size of his nose! The metallic shine is just perfect so I added it to my image with a dab of glue. I also added gems in a few spots on the card, including clear ones on the tuques at the bottom of the card.

For the envelope, I picked a green metallic one and I embossed my image with pink powder in the corner. I repeated the same embossed image inside the card as well.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Christmas sELFies (My Favorite Things)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White
Patterned Papers: Holiday Cheer (Sunny Studio); Tropical Tide Glitter Cardstock (Tonic)
Ink: Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!); VersaMark; Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Accessories: Melon Mambo Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!);
A2 Fairway Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); Wonkly Stitched Rectangle Dies (MFT);
Red Confetti (Pretty Pink Posh); July and August Crystals (Studio Katia);
Polychromos Pencils (Faber-Castell); Christmas Day Snow Dies (Echo Park);
White and Green Cord Trim, White Sequin Trim (Michaels)

 

Christmas Carols

Inspiration: July 2019 Card Maps Sketch + Simon Says Stamp Monday (Let's Get Ready for Christmas)

As is the case every year, there is a lot of yummy patterned paper offered again this year, but I think the gold star might go to the Merry Little Christmas collection from Pebbles. Every single sheet of the 6" x 6" is absolutely scrumptious! Most of it as gold foil as well (and so do the stickers), which makes it extra special. I couldn't wait to play with those new papers. I don't know if this card highlights this beautiful collection as well as it should, but at least I dove in and created something to get started. I'll probably have more time in the upcoming days to do more with it.

The layout was inspired by a Card Maps sketch and the various pieces helped me showcase a mix of various patterns from the pack. I also liked that it had a sentiment banner, since one of the pages is a cut-apart that has "Merry Christmas" banners on it. I added the stitching detail with a white gel pen as it felt a little bare on the page. The carolers are a sticker from the Accent Sticker sheet.

What I want to rave about is the Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils from Faber-Castell I managed to score on sale during Labour Day weekend. I had signed up for the local art store emails so that I could specifically get a set when it would be on sale. I have said in the past that despite my best efforts, I had trouble loving the watercolor pencils I had on hand. They're from Stampin' Up!, but it's nothing against that company specifically - I had also purchased watercolor pencils of a similar quality in the past and the results were the same. The tip of the pencils is hard, the colour achieved is not that saturated, the pigment is hard to move around on the paper. Because of those results, I had turned to watercoloring with inks, learned to master the technique and given up on the pencils. The Faber-Castell ones had me curious, since I was so happy with my coloring pencils from the same company. After watching online videos where people compared the Albrecht Dürer pencils with other brands, I could tell they were nothing like the watercolor pencils I have previously owed.

So the pencils were delivered while I was short on time to sit down and stamp. I was still curious about this new acquisition, so I stamped a holly image from the nearest stamp set and picked random colors to try the pencils out. It only took a few strokes to decide that I love them. What a difference! Granted, they are pricey, but at least the results are there. If I can get such a pretty result from a quick first try, imagine once I've got a few hours of practice under my belt! I handcut this image and tried to add it to my ornament card at the time, but it was distracting rather than pleasing to the eye, so I left the image aside and today, it caught my eye while I was putting together the card. The colors and scale was working much better on this card.

Now, I can't wait to color a bigger image with the pencils.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Fêtes étincelantes (Christmas Gleaming - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Mint Macaron (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers and Accent Stickers: Merry Little Christmas (Pebbles)
Ink: Basic Black Archival Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Wonky Square Frames Dies (Avery Elle); Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils (Faber-Castell);
Just Stitching Double Rectangles Dies (Lawn Fawn); Button (Autumn Leaves);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Crumb Cake Medium Envelope (Stampin' Up!)

 

October 31st Bat Pocket

Inspiration: CAS on Sunday #162 (stencil) + TGIF #225 (splatters) + ColourQ #264

I wanted to use the Woodland Critter Huggers Bat Add-On dies and I decided I would use it added to a treat pocket instead of using it on its own. I had done a previous Halloween pocket using Stampin' Up!'s Copper Dotted Treat Bags and I decided to stick to the same format. I drew color inspiration from an old ColourQ combo and I inked the bag with Shaded Lilac and Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink to create an ombre look. I then added water to Liquid Stardust and splattered the whole background, to add shimmer and to get the ink to oxide. I wanted to use the Mango texture paste from Izink and I decided to use the Numeric stencil from Tim Holtz with it. I then realized instead of using the whole stencil that I could use tape and isolate individual numbers to add a nice big 31 in the corner. I like how it turned out. (On a quick product review, the Izink pearly pastes have gorgeous colours, but I wish the texture was more firm. It's quite liquid, which makes it easy for the paste to get underneath the stencil. It also takes a surprising long time to dry, considering I didn't add a thick layer. I had to wait for the first number to dry before placing the stencil over the 3 to get the 1 in the right spot. I was working on other elements while the paste was drying and despite my best efforts, I still manage to get my hand in the paste while the first number was drying and again once the second number was added. My other pastes dry out much quicker than this one does, so that's a negative for me.)

For the candy the bat is holding, I was eager to try out the pearlescent vellum. Not my idea, this was shared in Lawn Fawn's videos and I thought it looked awesome. I went further with that idea, though, and added an additional layer of vellum on the candy itself, over a layer of colored cardstock, to get the look of an actual wrapped candy. You see the color through the wax paper wrapping, but it's not as bright. I used the wrapped candies on the bag itself, but kept the colorful candy in the bat's arms, to get a pop of colour against the black.

I punched two holes at the top of the bag to tie Pear Pizzazz chevron ribbon through. Regular punches were not going that deep, so I pulled out my Big Bite Crop-a-Dile punch. I've had that thing for over a decade and I rarely get it out. When I did a big stash purge a few years ago, I put it in the box of things that would go, then as luck would have it, I needed it to add a hole to a page and out of the box it came, then I put it aside to decide if I really wanted to keep it. So it doesn't get used every month, but it does get pulled out every so often, like for the project here. It's not so much trying to get money back that's my concern, more the fact that I'm running out of space to keep it all. This is one of those bulky items that doesn't get used a lot, but it serves a very specific purpose and when you need it, there's not a whole lot of alternatives. Anyway, I was able to punch through the two layers of the bag easily and to get wider holes that accomodated the wide ribbon nicely. Right now, the tails of the ribbon are a little too long for my liking, but there's reason for that: I will need to fill the bag with candy and retie the bow afterwards, so if I cut it short right away, I would have trouble tying the ribbon back without having the ends fray on me, so I've left some extra length to accomodate that and I will clip at my preferred length once the bag is ready to hand out to a lucky sugar lover.

To finish the bag off, I added one of the green buttons I have rescaped from an old project, crystal stars and Iridescent Mini Star Confetti. Those are tiny. To handle them, I use the precision glue from Stampin' Up! which has a needle tip and a jewel picker to pick the mini stars and place them on the glue dot. By the way, I have purchased other bottles with needle tips a couple of times to use with various adhesives (medium matte, collage medium) and I have been unlucky. Either the pin gets stuck in the top of the bottle and then the whole thing becomes useless or the adhesive inside is too thick for the needle tip. The precision glue from Stampin' Up! is very runny, so much so that you almost don't need to press on the bottle, just tip is down and the liquid will flow out. This means you have to be VERY mindful of the amount you put on your piece as it will very easily ooze out when you place it down on your project, and the glue dries shiny (not matte) so it really shows when it leaks. That being said, because the glue flows so easily, I do keep going back to it. I've learned how to control it better and because I don't need pressure, I can use my left hand (a.k.a. the almost useless one since I'm a righty) to apply the glue and add the embelishments with my right hand, which offers better precision. So right now the precision glue reminds my favored option, but I think there's room for improvement. If I could find something just a touch thicker with a matte finish that comes in a precision bottle, I'd be sold.

Another purchase I have made is the Nuvo craft spoon. It was one of those items that I eyed for a long time before splurging because having it will make your life easier, but you can definitely craft without it and find workarounds. I finally got it and it works so well to get embellishments out of the containers and also to place little quantities in shakers, I used it the other day to add a spoonful of glitter in the snow globe tag I made. It allows you to count quantity as well, to test out how much you should use to fill a shaker of a certain size. All in all, a purchase I am happy with.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Basic Black, Basic Grey, Petal Pink, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz,
Wisteria Wonder, Pumpkin Pie (Stampin' Up!); Pearlescent Vellum (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Wilted Violet, Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide (Ranger)
Accessories: Copper Dotted Treat Bags, Stampin' Dimensionals, Pear Pizzaz Chevron Ribbon (Stampin' Up!);
Liquid Stardust, Woodland Critter Huggers Dies, Woodland Critter Huggers Bat Add-On Dies (Lawn Fawn);
Crystal Stars (Buttons Galore & More); Button (Autumn Leaves); Mango Paste (Izink);
Iridescent Mini Star Confetti (Pretty Pink Posh); Craft Spoon (Nuvo)

 

 

Mad Hatter Cat

Inspiration: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Anything Goes)

This project evolved from a vague idea I had to use my new Copper Dotted Treat Bags (Stampin' Up! annual catalogue, page 173) and try to create a black to grey ombre look on it with a brayer, then add purple icing paste over it with the Manuscript stencil. Once that was done, I decided this would make for a great Halloween project so I pulled out the Hip Haunts dies from Tim Holtz (from his new 2019 release). I started working on the cat and I was going through frames or background options in my mind. I was going to reach for the wonky square frames from Avery Elle and when I did that, I remembered the Starry Scene stamps from Avery Elle. I thought the big starry sky would look great as a background behind the cat, so I pulled it out and placed it in my stamping platform. I used blender tools to add three colors of Distress Oxide to the stamp: Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon. I stamped the image a few times on Bristol cardstock, spritzed with water to oxidize the ink and get water splatter, then I dried it with my heat gun and die cut  the image.

Afterwards, I was thinking of either spritzing the circle with shimmer spritz or splatter some pearlescent watercolor on it. I went for the spray and it reactivated the inks way more than I had anticipated. Initially, I was worried I was going to mess up my circle, which I liked, but in the end, it ended up blending the colors beautifully and the result is really shimmery and has a mottled effect, which is perfect as it looks like a big moon. The image already has little star in it , but I added additional tiny star sequins around the cat.

I looked at ribbon options and decided to use Tangp Tangerine two-tone trim at the bottom. I added the circle to the bag using black adhesive foam from Brutus Monroe, something my local store got in stock a few months ago. I was initially very happy to find black foam and at a very affordable price for a roll. The store owner had mentioned in a video showing the roll that they hadn't tested it yet and didn't know if it gummed up scissors or not. I can now see why she's made this comment as the answer is, Yes, it does. Knowing that, I use my Tim Holtz scissors to cut it off the roll since they have non-stick blades, so that helps, but I also find that the backer is hard to get off the tape. Seeing as I have worked with both Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!) and the 3M foam, I find the Brutus Monroe foam adhesive more difficult to work with. As it stands, I will keep using the roll when I want black foam, but will prefer the 3M foam when color does not matter. We will see once I reach the end of the roll if I want to restock or not. Stampin' Up! has just released it's 2019 Holidays catalogue and there's some black Stampin' Dimensionals in there for the first time. It's going to be a nice addition to my adhesive stash, but it does not cover as big a surface as foam tape on a roll does, so the jury is out. Pros: price and black option; cons: gets blades sticky, cannot be ripped off easily (has to be cut) and backer is hard to get off.

Next, I looked for sentiment options. I was thinking a die-cut sentiment would look nice but there's not a whole lot of French words available, so I wasn't sure I would find anything suitable, until I remembered the brand-new set from Stampin' Up! called Mots de souhaits (Word Wishes in English), which covers various occasions, including Halloween. I was therefore able to find Happy Hallowee, which was the perfect size and font and made me very happy!

At the last minute, I decided to fold the top of the bag down and add a little decorative clip, which I topped with a All Eyes on You shape sprinkle from Simon Says Stamp. Here's another product review for you: unfortunately, as with a lot of enamel ornements, those yellow over time. This is unfortunate since the eyes in the kit are all white. (I've had some snowflakes shape sprinkles from Doodlebug that yellowed really badly within the first couple of years and I ended up throwing them away because they wouldn't have worked on any project.) Here, as long as I pair it with stuff that does not require for the eyes to be sparkling white, I can probably get away with it (especially on Halloween project), but for the price enamel shapes sell, this is pretty disappointing.

One fun tidbit about the cat: adding the glasses was a last-minute decision. Since I had already glued the eyes in place, they were a little too close together to fit properly in the glasses, so I was wondering if I would add them anyway and then the project shifted and the glasses went down and I thought they looked even cuter crooked on him! And then I realized I could shift the glasses down to the top of his nose and have it look like reading glasses. Those Hip Haunts dies are not for the faint of heart as they have a lot of really tiny details and you need to pass the die through your machine a bunch of time to get the various colors and gluing the pieces down is another fun challenge (fine-tip tweezers, a jewel picker, adhesive sheets and a fine-tip glue pen should be kept nearby to ensure a happy assembly experience). The results are undeniably adorable, though!

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Starry Scene (Avery Elle)
Cardstock: Basic Grey, Basic Black, Vintage Violet, Granny Apple Green, Sahara Sand, Grey Granite,
Petal Pink, Black Foil Paper, Silver Foil Paper (Stampin' Up!); Bristol Smooth Cardstock (Canson)
Ink: Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon Distress Oxide (Ranger);
Vintage Violet and Granny Apple Green Classic Ink, Basic Grey and Basic Black Archival Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Hip Haunts Dies (Tim Holtz for Sizzix); Starry Scene Dies (Avery Elle);
Tango Tangerine Two-Tone Trim, Mots de souhaits Dies, Copper Dotted Treat Bags (Stampin' Up!);
Black Foam Adhesive (Brutus Monroe); Manuscript Stencil, Amethyst Magic Icing Paste (Finnabair);
All Eyes on You Shape Sprinkles (Simon Says Stamp)

 

I Otter Smile When We're Together

Inspiration: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Black + White + 1 color) + Color Throwdown #530 + Fab Friday #157

I will admit that black and white with a color is a recurring color combo in many online challenges - and not a personal favorite. I just love working with colour, so while black and white is classic, I find it a little constraining. Today, though, I found inspiration quickly for the Color Throwdown combo. I had recently noticed that the image of the otter pair from the Christmas Like No Otter stamp set looked like it could fit perfectly into a heart and I had left the stamp set on my desk to see if I could make something based on that idea. Because I could color the two otters in grey, it was easy to build on my idea using the suggested color combo.

For the background, I was eager to test out my new Cosmic Shimmer Luna Paste. My local store had the full color range. They were all beautiful, but because they were a try, I went for the Monnlight Pearl and figured I could try dying it with reinkers to create my own variety of colours. Here, I started with the paste as is and I found a Hero Arts stencil called Waves that was perfect for my floating otters. Let me tell you - that paste is GORGEOUS! It's different from any other texture pastes I've used so far. It does not contain glitter and it's not a smooth metallic paste either. It looks like it contains micro foil flakes. The result has an amazing texture and shine. Love at first use!

For my main image, I stamped the otters and colored them with Copic markers. I then tried another new item I wanted to try: the Molotow masking fluid round tip marker. Last month, I had tested out the Nuvo masking fluid and I was not pleased with the application I got from the bottle's tip. As I talked about in THIS post, the fluid was runny and really hard to keep within the line. For that reason, I decided to give the Molotow marker (which I had seen at my local store before) a try. It was my first use and I'm really happy with the application. I got a nice, even coat and the felt tip allowed me great control over where the fluid was going. No bubbles, no running and great coverage. In this instance, I rubbed Distress Oxide ink around the image using the Blending Brushes from Picket Fence Studios. I also stamped the waves from the same stamp set in the same color ink. I used my adhesive remover and it lifted the resin right up, with no residue left and very quickly.

I wanted to add a French sentiment so I went looking for options. I thought for sure I could find something about being a great pair, but didn't have anything with that word. (It surprises me that after building quite a collection over 15 years, there are still some obvious sentiments that I don't have.) So I filtered my sentiment spreadsheet based on the the love theme and I found "I smile because of you" in a stamp set from last year's Stampin' Up! catalogue. I liked the sentiment, font and size, so I stamped it on a white heart and I sponged some grey ink around the edges to soften them up. Did the same to the edges of the grey scalloped heart.

Since the sketch I was basing my design on had a few more hearts, I die-cut a smaller scalloped heart out of black cardstock and added a striped heart in the middle. When I was looking at sentiment options, I had taken the XOXOXO Border die out. I realized I could snip it apart and use only XOXO in the smaller heart. I like how that detail turned out!

Then I started assembling. I cut my stenciled panel to size, added a black stitched frame around the card and decided to sprinkle some clear sequins and confetti to fill in the blanks a bit. Tiny clearn hearts were added around the otters because they look like water droplets.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Christmas Like No Otter (Lawn Fawn); Amour et tendresse (Love & affection - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Going Grey, Whisper White, Berry Burst
Ink: Berry Burst, Smoky Slate Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!); Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide (Ranger)
Accessories: Moonlight Pearl Luna Paste (Cosmic Shimmer); Blender Brush (Picket Fence Studios);
Waves Stencil (Hero Arts); Crystal Clear Hearts (Essentials by Ellen); Assorted Moonshine Sequins (Simon Says Stamp);
Sparkling Clear Confetti Mix (Pretty Pink Posh); Stampin' Dimensionals, White Medium Envelope, Sponge Daubers,
Sassy & Sweet Framelits, Glitter Enamel Dots (Stampin' Up!); Outside In Stitched Heart Stackables, Lacy Heart Stackables,
Stitched Rectangle Frames Dies, XOXOXO Border Die (Lawn Fawn); Markers (Copic)