Rainbow Poppies #137

Today's creation started with a bright background created with five colours of distress paint.  Drawn simply with lines of paint.  I then dotted over some white distress paint and took a dotty mask and added the green dotted border down one side. 

I next stamped using archival black and stamped my greeting (Indigoblu) and my poppies (also Indigoblu).

I used my clear stamp block to draw a border around the words and added black shading one side and white the other to make it look three dimensional (also to make it look like I stamped it on an angle on purpose!! - oops). 

I coloured my poppies with Distress Markers - I was really impressed how much colour showed up as the background was so bright (now I need more distress markers to add to my four colours!!).

I added a few highlights and lowlights using black and white pens on the poppies and decided to also outline the flowers in white gel pen to make them stand out of the background just that little bit more.

A final addition was to add the dash border and then stamp a few swirls in toffee Versafine at the bottom to give it a base border.

happy crafting

Jane

www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

More than just stamping #117

I'm an addicted rubber stamper.  No hesitations whatsoever - give me a stamp and I'm a happy girl!... but I know not everyone is confident to create with stamps.  So, today's creation is to show you that there is more to art than just stamping.

I've had this background made for some time... just waiting for the right project.  It was created using Distress Paints with generous amounts of paint applied and then spritzed with water and then left a long time to dry saturated with paint.  Love the splodges and the way the wet paint has mixed.

Today I have used a peel-off sticker - white of funky flowers.  I've simply laid a selection of flowers onto my cardstock and then used some of the little circles and dots to add some movement.  I've added some white gel shading inside the flowers and leaves and also used it to add a border all round.

Then mount onto black and onto a 5x7 card.

hope you like it!

happy crafting

Jane

www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

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Little Blue Owl #106

I taught a fabulous group of keen crafting ladies at Stradbroke yesterday.  We created mixed media collage panels using a mixture of Cosmic Shimmer Misters, Distress Paints and Stains and a wide range of rubber stamps.

This was the sample I created to show them the finish of the Distress Paints.  I started by created a muted background using pinks and blues and blending them with my cloth.  I then added some pattern detail by adding paint through some masks and once dry I drew around the banner mask with a fineliner pen.

Next I stamped with the woodware viva Le Plume stamp using a blue ink to create some texture in the background. 

Next I stamped my Woodware owl onto the background.  It was very pale so I decided to stamp the owl on a separate piece of card and coloured him by using Distress Inks and applying with a waterbrush to give a watercolour effect.

finally I added my greeting - which is from Kaisercraft.

It's a lovely softly shaded piece - I was really pleased with the finished effect.  I'll be showing a bit of this technique at my demonstration on Saturday in store 10-4 which is to celebrate our 2nd birthday event!

happy crafting

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

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Little Acorn.... alright.. actually.. it's quite big!

Bit of an experimental one today!...  Playing around with my Tim Holtz Autumn Blueprint stamps again.  I started by embossing the acorn in white embossing powder.  I then applied Distress paints over the top - trying to get a sort of grungy stripe thing happening.  You need to make sure you wipe away the paint from the embossing powder to keep it's whiteness - but by doing this it helps the paints blend.

This time, rather than a greeting at the top, I added some Washi tape... not sure if it's a bit too bright in hindsight.. but got to experiment.. right?   I stamped with a swirl from one of my Chocolate baroque sets in Archival Purple ink, and then added the dotty border at the top by applying ink through a border stencil.  I then added lines of 4mm double sided tape (Stix2 of course!) and applied sparkly crafty fluff in Purple to create a border with a difference.

So what do you think.. did the washi tape work or not?.....

happy crafting
Jane

www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

PS - Don't forget we have a Sweet Poppy Stencil demo in store on Saturday at 10am.  Free to attend - just come along!

Creative Birch Leaf

Today's card features my Tim Holtz leaf stamps.  I started by creating a background using Distress Paints - this card was picking up the paint from my craft mat after getting the most of the paint off on a previous print.  This gave me a nice random effect in the background - nicely patchy!

Once completely dry, I stamped and embossed my leaf stamp.  I then used my Distress Paints in autumnal shades to paint in the detail, taking care to wipe the paint away from the embossed outline so that it remained nice and crisp.  I stamped my words (Chocolate Baroque) in Archival Black and as a final detail I used a dot mask to add my dotted border around the outside with a little walnut stain distress ink.

I was very pleased with this card.. the colours look even better in the flesh - nice and vibrant!

I will be doing a Sweet Poppy Stencils demo in the shop this coming Saturday - starting at 10am - hope some of you can make it!

happy crafting!
Jane

www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

All Hearts and Flowers

I've just come back from a fabulous two days at the crafting trade show.  So much to see.. so many demonstrations to watch - and I was lucky enough to do a workshop with Lindsay Mason too!

This is the project that we created.  We started with plain old brown corrugated card - one die cut into a heart shape.  We ripped part of the top layer off both pieces to reveal the corrugations and then painted them using Distress Paints (she must have known I was coming to use my favourite product!).

We had die cut flowers from the new fab Tim  Holtz grand tattered florals die from Sissix (we can order this die.. let us know if you want us to get you one!) - cut from various decorative papers and we scrumpled them and then inked with distress ink.  We added some shimmer paste onto the corrugations and then aseembled everything to create our wall hanging.  I was really pleased with the end fresult - I wanted to try using more subtle colour ways and this was a good way to start with the delicate pink and pale blue.

What a great use of leftover cardboard - I'll definitely be featuring it more in my creations!

I have come back from the show so inspired... lots of ideas buzzing in my head for future creations.  I've also placed orders at the show too... so watch this space for new products arriving shortly.... from a couple of new suppliers that I am very very excited to be able to stock (some of them took persuading to allow us to stock... not everyone gets to!).

happy crafting
Jane

www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

Pretty Pink Tag

Today's tag card is still sticking to the love heart theme (are you are pinked out yet???).  I started with the top tag for this card - a stamp I have had for years - its from Rubber Stampede called Rose Tag.  I stamped it onto one of my distress paint backgrounds and then used a Marvy Le Plum Fuschia shade pen to colour the roses to make them pop.  I cut it out and stuck onto white, cut it out and stuck onto a nice maroon/burgundy shade of card and then ripped a piece of the same card to be the tag at the top. 

I then set about making a background for it to go onto.  I cut myself a tag shape and covered it with Spun Sugar Distress Paint and a few light streaks of the Picked Raspberry paint and left aside to dry. My script stamp is a stamp I've had for years - the shopping link below takes you to the Indigoblu script stamp which would work well!  I inked it using Memento (probably Rose Bud - I forgot to make a note!) and then stamped my Clarity patchwork heart stamp in Plum Archival.

I embossed a piece of the burgundy card with the heart embossing folder (hasn't that come in handy these last few days!) and ripped the edges.  I then cut out the two little hearts, embossed one and added a little ink to highlight it and left the burgundy one plain.  It was then a matter of assembling my tag, matting and layering the large tag the same to match the small one and mounting it onto a 5x7" card blank.

I enjoyed making this tag... it was one of those projects that grew over a few days - I actually made the top tag a couple of weeks ago but didn't get round to using it - but it's fun to rummage through your made up bits and then incorporate it into a project.

happy crafting

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
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A bit of doodling...

Today's project is using more prepared backgrounds...  you may remember this background from a few days back, well this is the other half of the cardstock that I had already painted with Distress Paints - Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean with a little white applied through a mask. 

I've used stamps from two sets today - both Creative Expressions - Art Houses and the border is from Art Flowers.  I stamped and embossed the house using black embossing powder and then stamped both my border and the postmark using black archival pad.

The rest of the decoration is all entirely doodled on using either white gel pen, or black fineliner pen.  I went with diagonal dashes at the bottom.  The house was floating a bit so I added some dashes underneath it.  I then with a cross hatch pattern to the left and bubbles to the right.  Finally a few highlights here and there with the white pen and I was done!

I couldn't decide whether this piece needed some wording or not... but everything I tried, just seem to make it look cluttered, so I left it as it was.

happy crafting

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
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It's Tree-mendous!

I can't believe it's already been over a month since I started my project a day blog!  I wasn't sure at first whether I would be able to keep up the pace.. both with time and with ideas!... but so far so good...  It's certainly my aim to continue with something new each day for you.

Today's project is using the lovely tree from Indigoblu (Tree-mendous).  The background was one I had already prepared.  It's been created using Distress Paints and masks.  Ever so simple, just swirl together your colours (I've used 3 different shades - Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves) and then apply the dots through a mask with white paint.  If I'm having a messy play day... getting out the paints, misters etc...  I tend to always create a few extra sheets from just the project I'm working on.  As they take a little time to dry, it means that you can always have some interesting backgrounds to use on a day when you haven't got time to get all the messy stuff out and wait for drying times!

I took my background sheet and stamped my tree using archival black ink. I then stamped the words which was from a stamp set I had for Christmas and then matted and layered onto black card in the right size to fit my 5x7" cardstock.  My finishing touch is a little leaf charm tied onto a bakers twine bow.  I've stuck the charm and the bow to the card using Glossy Accents.

I hope you are all enjoying my daily projects... would love to have your comments to know what you think... what would you like to see..?  What sort of projects do you like best?  Or have I inspired you to create something that you would like to share...?  Go on and give me a shout so I know I'm not talking to myself! :-)

happy crafting

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
Shop for Indigoblu Tree-mendous stamp
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Dream in Colour Tag

I have had such fun this morning!  I have a busy few days lined up so today's mission was to create enough projects to share with you over the next few days.  I was lucky enough to be lent some different stamps from my good friend Sarah, so I started with the usual excitement you have of using new stamps!!

For this set I have used the Art Flowers from Creative Expressions.  These are a fab set for anyone who likes the artsy style (why haven't I got these in my stash already...!)  I thought I would have a play with the Distress Paints for this project and as they are quite a new product, I'm still learning my techniques and thought you might like to share the process!

 I started with a plain white tag - normal mat cardstock - nothing special!  I stamped and embossed the three ribbons with a silver detail embossing powder and then the create art stamp in black (it was supposed to be silver too... but threw over the wrong colour powder .. oh well.. happy accidents and all that!!).

 I then selected my paint colours (sorry for the blurry pic!)... Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean and Crushed Olive.  I wanted the blue to be the most prominent colour as I thought it would combine well with the silver embossed detail.  I started by spritzing the tag with water so it was quite wet.  I then used the sponge top to apply my colour all in the same direction.  Work onto a non stick craft mat because you can then use it as a paint palette so as not to waste your colours.  Once you have swiped over your three colours, take an old cloth and wipe your tag.  This helps to blend the colours, but also wipes the paint away from the embossed areas.  If you then need to apply more colour (I needed more blue) - just add it on, or pick up from your craft mat and use your cloth to apply more colour and blend.  Once you are happy, give it a very quick blast with the heat gun (not too intense as you don't want to further melt your embossing powder) just enough to 'warm' the card to help it to dry quicker.  This is what it then looks like.

 It was a little bare in the background so I took the flower stamp from the set and stamped it using Versafine Smokey Grey.  Just enough to give a little detail.

 I then stamped and embossed the flower and the greeting in black detail embossing powder.  I applied colour with the Distress Paints again- this time with more colour applied and I added in a little Picked Raspberry around the outside of the petals just to give a little contrast.  Again wipe away and blend with your cloth.  Cut out your pieces and stick on.  Finally I punched a hole in the tag and added a blue and green ribbon!

I had so much fun creating this tag... just love the finished tag!  I've so far managed to complete tomorrow's project, and a jewellery project for Friday... and I have the rest of the afternoon to create more - I definitely have my crafting mojo today!  hurrah!
happy crafting
Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
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