Steam punk, dylusions and loads of cogs! (tutorial)

 

Products Used:

 

• Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplates die
• Ranger Dylusions-
• Melted Chocolate
• Squeezed Orange
• Dirty Martini
• Stampendous stamp - Clockworks
• Kanban stamp set - Steampunk, Jasper
• Tim Holtz movers and shapers cogs die
• Stampendous Fran-tage embossing enamel
• aged copper
• aged Taupe
• Distress ink
• vintage photo
• rusty hinge
• crushed olive
• Distress Paint
• antiqued bronze
• tarnished brass
• Tim Holtz stamp - time is a companion quote

 

I have struggled to make fathers day cards over the years because when I make them I want them to reflect my dad, or my dad-in-law or my husband. Same with birthday cards for them. Why are men so hard to create for???

Anyway I had recently visited our local Hobbycraft and every time I went in the last month or so I had seen this gorgeous Kanban stamp set and kept umming and ahhing over it. What would I really use it for? Well this last time I decided I would definitely buy. It was on sale for £5 and I doubted it would be that easy to come by in the future. Unfortunately when I looked for it, it was no longer on the shelves and I thought I had lost my chance. Luckily for me though, a very helpful employee had a look in the back for me and found one!

 

Of course when you get new stamps you have to try them out immediately right? So I stamped all three of the characters in the set onto watercolour paper and painted it with my distress inks.

 

I took my stamp pads in the colours I wanted and pressed them into my splodge mat (or non stick craft sheet) then I used my waterbrush/paintbrush and added a bit of water on the side and mixed with the colour as I needed it.

 

I used vintage photo for his trousers, scarf and hat. I added more colour to where the shadows were and dragged the colour with water only away into the lighter areas to create depth. I did the same with rusty hinge for the jacket and trim on the top hat. I shaded the darker areas with faded jeans and used crushed olive for the jackets trim. I used antique linen for the face and tarnished brass and bronze distress paint for the base as I wanted to give it a slightly more metallic look.

 

I liked the colouring so much that I cut it out to use on a tag with the intention of making it a fathers day topper. Not sure I achieved that but I tried!

 

I sprayed my tag with Dirty Martini, Melted chocolate and squeezed orange. I then water stamped onto the dry tag with my inkadinkado clock works cling stamp to fade it into the background.

 

I used the cogs from the same Kanban stamp set and stamped them around the tag (making sure they would at least partially be visible once  I stuck my character down. I embossed these with fran-tage embossing powder in aged taupe. I love these embossing powders. They look make things look so real!

 

I usually use white embossing powder with my dylusions tags so that the image will stand out. Only here, white really wouldn't have worked with the orange and browns. So I chose gold embossing powder and stamped my tim holtz stamp in the corner. It says:

 

 

 Time is a

companion

that goes

with us

on the journey.

It reminds

us to cherish

each moment

because it

will never

come again.

What we

leave behind

is not as

important

as how we

have lived.

 

What a great quote right? Makes you think.

 

 

After the full background was finished I started playing  with placement. I cut some cogs with my movers and shapers cogs die from Tim Holtz and placed them around my character to find the best fit. I overlapped some and put some on top of the other but I made sure that I wouldn't be covering too much of the cogs that I had stamped earlier. I also had a clock charm that I wanted to incorporate into the tag somewhere so I played with the placement of that as well.

 

 

 

 

Obviously the white cogs wont do so, to make them as realistic as possible, I painted a few of them with tarnished brass distress paint and others with antique bronze which I then coated with fran-tage aged taupe and aged copper. The paint itself when heated starts to bubble so if you aren't after that sort of look then I would chose to use a different base or be careful of how long you heat it. I like the texture so I heated them extra long just to get more bubbled up effects. I actually figured this out by accident one day doing just this. I was a little worried about the bubbles and tried to flatten them a little after it had cooled a tad but it left a sort of pocked mark look which reminded me of hammered metal.

 

Once those were all done (I made more than I was going to use just in case) I placed them back on the tag where I wanted them, again overlapping some but keeping them in a slightly more natural placement, like you would see with actual cogs.

After all the base pieces were stuck on, I positioned my steampunk man at an angle on the tag over the cogs. This did cover most of the background ghost stamping but if you look closely you can still see it. I decided I didn't want the clock charm where I had originally put it. The way the position of the man is the clock would have been stuck right in the middle and would have broken up my 'flow' if you know what I mean. It also would have covered up a lot of the painted detail that I was so proud of. I still wanted it on the tag though because of the time reference in the quote so I attached it with some thin brown satin ribbon at the top. Its a little bit bigger than what would work best but I still like it.

So here is the finished tag! In the end I don't know that this works as a fathers day card for my family in particular. Maybe if I attached it to a card base that had a train coming around a corner???Hmm more thoughts!  Anyway, I hope it gave you some inspiration to create your own steampunk goodness.

 

Have a crafty day!!

 

~Sam.~

A Hougie Envelope (Tutorial)

I'm a huge fan of my Hougie Board & use it or many things from simple card folding to more complicated project folds. I'm even lucky enough to be on the Hougie Design Team :D One thing I regularly use my Hougie board to make envelopes for cards so I thought I'd make this tutorial to show how I do it. I've started to make 15 cm square cards & don't have any envelopes so it's great to be able to make my own.

It's really easy to do - all you need is 2 sheets of A4 paper & some washi/ paper tape. If you don't have the washi tape you could use strips of patterned paper.

Place your paper on your Hougie and place your card centrally on the paper. Choose the next groove out on either side of the card & score all the way down the length of the paper. Do the Hougie trick.

Turn the card & paper 90 degrees and butt into the corner of the Hougie. Score on the groove below the bottom of the card. Do the Hougie Trick.

Trim the paper so it looks like this

Fold & the basis of the envelope is ready. 

Attach the second sheet of A4 to the top edge of the base with washi tape.

Trim it to give the desired size overlap & cut the edges at an angle.

Fold & Stick the flaps. Use Washi tape to cover the side & bottom edges of the envelope so all the edges match.

If you have envelope glue you can use that on the flaps. Alternatively use a small strip of washi tape.

Nice & easy & you can make envelopes any size you want. 

Lucy x

In one drop of water… (mini tutorial)

This is just a bit of a quick show off/ mini tutorial on a tag that I made a while back. I am seriously in love with Ryn's stamps and if you haven't heard of her, definitely check her out!

 

Products used:

• Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplates die
• Dylusions ink spray
• Dirty Martini
• Calypso Teal
• Designs by Ryn stamp- water droplets
• Inkylicious stamp - Handwritten script
• Uniball Signo Broad white gel pen

I used one of my ready cut Tags on watercolour paper and sprayed it with Dylusions ink sprays in Dirty martini and Calypso Teal. This combination is definitely one of my favourites.

 

I stamped inkylicious handwritten script stamp in the background with peacock feathers distress ink and then stamped Ryn's water droplets stamp onto the tag at the bottom and top corner with stazon black ink. This is important as it enables me to continue using water on the tag without ruining the detail in this stamp. I used my water brush with water only and 'painted' the inside of each droplet and blotted it with a towel. Dylusions inks are NOT permanent. So when I placed the water on each of these spots, it removed the colour slightly. More depending on how long you let it sit and how many times you repeat the process. Make sure you blot the water away otherwise you wont get as strong of an effect because the inky water will just soak back in.

I wanted to bring my water droplets to life even more so I used my white gel pen (current favourite is Uniball signo broad white gel pen) and emphasized where the highlights would be on the droplets. This made it more look more realistic and like it was really coming off the page.

 

I did not have a sentiment or quote that worked (at least none that I liked) so google search really came in handy here. I knew I wanted something to do with water so I played around searching with different keywords and found a quote that I did like. The stark white of plain card would be too strong on this tag so I chose to stamp my quote on vellum with small individual letter stamps and stazon black ink (vellum after all has a bit of a slick surface and I really didn't want it to smudge). I cut them into strips and positioned each where I wanted and stuck it down using a small amount of permanent tape runner.

 

I had some thin wire that had what looked like clear water drops along it which I had acquired in a swap at some point. I wrapped this around the bottom of the tag to add some dimension. Its a bit hard to see but I still really like it.

 

I finished the tag off with some ric rac ribbon in a similar teal/green colour and done!

I hope once again you got a little bit of inspiration!

Have a crafty day!

Sam.

A foamy fix! Quick, cheap and easy fix for Bigz dies.

If you have ever bought Bigz dies second hand, you may have run into this problem. Even if you have bought them new and just used them a lot it may have happened to you. Specifically on the small sections, in my case the small circles. The paper starts to get stuck and unless you pick each bit out as soon as its done, you will end up with a very compacted section which can affect its cutting ability. And even if you remove the paper every once in a while eventually the foam with compact itself down to nothing and this will happen over and over which is what happened to me below.
 

As you can see in the first  photo, the paper is compacted in the space quite tightly. In the second and third the paper has been removed, and you can see that the foam has flattened into the space and is no longer useful.

So to fix this its quite simple! All you need is some foam....
 

 

And some glue. My particular favourite for this is Tombo Mono Multi glue. This stuff is great and sticks really well!

 

 

So all you do is cut foam pieces that will fit over the space and just run it through your die cutter as if you are cutting out a shape like normal. Then take those pieces out, run a bit of glue in the space and replace the foam pieces. I used 2 to fill it to the original foam line but it really depends on how deep you need it to go for your particular die. Voila! Good as new!

 

As you can see, I've run it through with my paper and it works!! Now I don't have to stop what I'm doing mid project and painstakingly remove the huge bunch of paper every time! 

Ps- this most likely wont be as much of a problem if you use your die as and when you need it, with only one sheet of paper each time. I, however, use tags a lot lately which is what this die is. So I tend to cut several sheets at a time which is what I love about bigz dies. 

Well that's me out, I hope you found this quick fix useful! I know I will now keep some foam hidden away just in case!

Have a crafty day!

~Sam.~

Live in the sunshine! (Tutorial)

 

Products Used:

• Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplates Die
• Distress inks in multiple colours
• Adirondack paint dabber - white
• Distress Paint
• Fired Brick
• Wild Honey
• Mustard seed
• Peeled Paint
• Broken China
• Chipped Sapphire
• Tim holtz embossing folder - Rays
• Technique Tuesday Stamp set - Bring on the Sun
• Alcohol Inks
• Tim Holtz Ideology - Facets
• Tim Holtz Components Rubber stamp - Dots
• Stampendous embossing powder - White
• Visible Image stamp set - Ink splats

 

First of all, I apologize for starting the pics in the middle of everything and not from the beginning. I often start projects with no idea what Im doing or where Im going with it so I tend to forget to take the pictures a long the way! 

 

So here we go. For the background tag I used distress inks in various colours and to be honest this particular tag probably started out as using up leftover ink from another tag I was doing. I promise I will make a tutorial on that technique in the future and post the link here. So I had my lovely spare tag already colours and just got a random bit of inspiration and decided to paint a rainbow on it! I had new distress paints that I really wanted to use so here is where these came in. Distress paints are not completely opaque like most paints and with my lack of planning ahead I had to improvise so what I did here was paint the background shape with white acrylic paint. I had my Adirondack paint dabber at hand but since I wasn't dabbing I just removed the lid and stuck a paintbrush in.

 



with coloured edges

without coloured edges

Once I let that dry I did the usual ROYGBIV on the rainbow colour in distress paint, Except for the purple which I did a bit of colour mixing with the blue and red as I don't yet have purple. The slickness of the white paint and the distinct properties of the distress paint made it separate a bit but to be honest, I quite like that look as it sort of gave it a grungy effect. I then used my blending tool and some chipped sapphire distress ink to bring in a vignette affect around the edges. This is something I do a lot as it seems to add a lot of depth to my tags with just a small amount of effort.

 

 

 

At this point I left that tag to fully dry and using a clear tag that I cut from used packaging I embossed it with Tim Holtz Rays embossing folder and coloured it with some red and yellow alcohol inks.

 

Going back to my first tag, I created a mask of my rainbow by tracing it onto a post it and used white paint to stamp some texture onto the background with my sanded wooden stamp. I pulled out my 'Bring on the sunshine' stamp set by Technique Tuesday and selected the Sun=<3, the Irish blessing and the definition stamps and randomly stamped them with memento black ink. I also used Visible Image Ink splat stamps and stamped those in mustard seed distress paint all over the tag. Its a subtle look but I think it gives it a bit of extra texture. We like texture!

 

I placed the clear tag  on top for positioning and drew and cut out a cloud shape from white vellum, which I then embossed in white embossing powder with a dots stamp. I wasn't overly fussed about perfection in this case with the embossing powder because, remember, we are going for a bit of a grungy look. This I stuck to the clear tag with foam adhesive squares. I cut these small and stuck them behind each of the dots so it was very secure but the foam wasn't visible.

I stamped the 'Live in the Sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air' stamp, again from Technique Tuesday, onto white card and cut out Live in the sunshine which I then framed with black pen and stuck to the clear tag as my sentiment.

 

Once everything was attached where I wanted it, I fastened the clear tag to the other in the corners with mini brads. I chose an orange ribbon to tie to the top, attached a droplet style facet and sun charm to it. Below you can see the finished products.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed and maybe got some ideas and inspiration along the way!

Have a crafty day!

Sam.



Dandelion Silhouette

Hi Everyone,

 

This is a my first project for Crafty Genius and I really hope you like it

 

 

This is an A5 Card that I made when I was playing with my dylusions.

 

Using the London Fog and Crushed Grape I spritzed onto Hammer White Card to create a background and then rolled with kitchen roll.

 

I cut the card to size

 

 

I then stamped using the BEAUtanicals dandelion, and then stamped the loose dandelion seeds several more times using Black Soot Distress Ink. When  it was dry I then highlighted with a white inkssentials pen.

 

I then layered the section onto black and then purple standard cardstock.

 

I put that to one side and got a white piece of cardstock and then embossed with the Inkables Offset Dots using my big shot and then cut and layered onto the same purple cardstock.

 

I stuck the embossed layer onto the card using double sided tape keep it flush, and stuck the stamped layer on using double sided foam to add dimension.

 

I love this card as I was a centre stamp and lots of layers and blooms etcetera kind of card maker and it's lovely to do something different.

 

Thanks for Looking I hope you like it.

 

x x Bev x x

www.craftywithsplattitude.blogspot.co.uk

 

My stickles storage solution

You know how satisfying it is to have a craft space and have all the matching things in one perfectly placed spot, well within reach of the crafting hand? Don't deny it, I know I'm not the only one!

Anyway, I have been in a never ending process of sorting out all of my crafty goodies but still keeping them at arms length. You know that you use more when you can get to them easy. I have a few essentials that I just can't put away as I use them so often so they are pretty much always cluttering up my desk. I tend to use glossy accents on practically very project and if I use any glitter I find stickles so much easier. So I decided to have a look (on Pinterest of course) for a solution to store my stickles and I found this post:

So I decided to make it. It looked easy enough.

Since I am not in the states anymore I found it a little more difficult than usual finding the acrylic stand. You can get it from almost anywhere in the states but here I had to do some searching to find a cost effective solution. I first went to staples but they has only one option, and that was expensive. They did however have mini versions so if you don't have as many stickles you could always do one of those! Well, I finally found one in Rymans, for around £4. So much better cost wise. Then I just got some cheap sticky Velcro from wilkinsons and went to work!!

The plan was to lay my strips across the board which took a bit of fiddling because rather than measuring (who measures???) I laid the strip across, cut the length I wanted and used that to measure the rest of them. Then I placed one of the bottles on the board at about the location I wanted it to sit and stuck down my Velcro strip. To help me place it straight, I used my cutting mat and grid to line it up. I then proceeded to repeat these steps until the board had all the strips I needed.

Once I had placed all of my strips onto the acrylic board, I then cut squares of the attaching side and stuck them one at a time to the frame. I peeled off the sticky bit and then stuck my stickles bottle onto that with the label facing outward at the height I wanted. For the next one I did he same but I lined it up with the one next to it so I could be sure that each bottle had the Velcro stuck in the same spot and would be even and straight all the way across.

I purposefully kept the gap between my top strip and the second strip a bit closer together as I wanted to be able to attach my larger bottles of glossy and/or crackle accents as well. 

As you can see, I don't have nearly as large of a collection of stickles as the person from the inspiration photo but at least I have room for more! With this being an acrylic frame you can leave it as is, with nothing inside and looking like the stickles are floating....

....or you can add any decorative papers you may have in your stash. You finally have a use for some of those pretty papers that you buy and are too pretty to cut up! Yes, I know your type!

 

 

 Now, this doesn't necessarily have to be used for stickles. You could also use it to store your foam distressing pads like I've shown below! Think outside the box and you can come up with anything!!

 

Go easy on me as I've only written one tutorial ever before. I hope you enjoyed (and benefited) from this tutorial!  

 

Have a crafty day!

~Sam.~