Saturday 23 November 2013

Up,up and away...


...in my beautiful balloon!  Well, Major Thomas's balloon really - just the sort of thing to take Lady Ermintrude for a jaunt.  The theme at SanDee and amelie's  blog this month is balloons and it gave me a chance to complete a project I've been thinking about for some time.

I began with this Christmas Bauble -
And after some work with paint and GIlder's Paste finished with this...
As well as the paint and gilder's paste, I used a curtain ring, some chain, a bottle top, a bit of net and German scrap, and a flag made with a bit of cocktail stick and a stamp from Clarity.  And yes, I shall be hanging the finished item on the Christmas tree!


Tuesday 19 November 2013

Photo Inspiration at Ikesworld



It's Team B's time to share at Ikesworld Challenges and this time Ike has given us a photo to use as inspiration.

Aren't the colours gorgeous?  I enjoy the colours of autumn so much.  This year autumn has arrived late here and the trees have only just changed colour (in fact, there's one or two stubbornly remaining green at the mo).  There's definitely less daylight about, as well.  So, for my DT project this time, I decided to decorate a candle with Ike's Autumn Nymph digi, which I coloured in digitally , because the technique uses tissue paper which would be tricky to colour in with markers in this (small) scale.

If you haven't come across this technique before, it is incredibly quick and simple to do.  Print, draw or stamp your chosen image onto tissue paper.  (You can print onto tissue paper - the kind that you wrap precious items in, not the Kleenex kind- by taping the edge that goes into the printer first to a piece of ordinary paper.)  Tear around your image (the rough edges make the tissue "disappear" into the wax.  Then place your image onto your candle and wrap it in a piece of baking paper or greaseproof paper or wax paper - something that you can see through, will take being heated, and is non-stick.  It needs to be long enough to go all around the candle with a bit left over for you to grip.

Now, take your heat gun in one hand and pick up the candle by gripping the extra baking paper so that you can see the image through it and heat the candle.  The image will look faint and pale at first but as the wax melts it sinks into it, and it suddenly appears brighter.  Once that happens, move on until the whole image is clear.  Unwrap the candle and just as easy as that, you have a fancy candle.  Most pillar candles have a wick that is, strictly speaking, too thin, so that the outer shell of the candle doesn't get consumed. If this applies to the candle you've used, it can be burned - but do be careful as if the flame gets to the tissue, it'll flare up and you'll have an incident on your hands.

So that's my offering, and there's lots of inspiration over at Ikesworld Challenge blog.  How about joining in the fun?  We'd love to see what you come up with, and if you use one of Ike's digi's, you might win a prize!

Sunday 17 November 2013

Q is for...

We had to get there eventually...it's letter Q's turn in the spotlight at the Craft Barn blog Alpha challenge.  There's not an awful lot of words to choose from in my little dictionary, but after a bit of thought I've chosen QUARRELSOME.

The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland was a pretty quarrelsome person, so I've used her on my ATC.    I masked her with a Post-It and stamped the tiled floor and blended DI's over the background.  She's coloured in with Promarkers in bright primary colours.  

So I'm still keeping up and not many letters left...although one of them is X...

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Sunday 10 November 2013

Tim's 12 Tags - November

We've reached November already - can you believe it? - and this month Tim Holtz has shared one of the techniques from his Creative Chemistry 102 course.  This is an amazing effect and so easy to do as long as you can get hold of the chalk (don't children play with it any more?  I had to get the huge lumps of pavement chalk!  After all my years as a primary school teacher carrying bits of it around in my pockets, don't you think?) and theAntiquities embossing powder, which is what makes it all work!
November is very much about remembrance for me so I've chosen a this Poppy stamp from Sheena.  It is hard to see in this picture but the flower heads are coloured with red chalk and have been layered
up on silicone glue.  I'm going to try this again using a Versamark pen to write my own messages...

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Who dat cat?

It's Team B's time to take the stage at Ikesworld Challenges and we're showcasing Ike's Krazy Kritters.  Given a choice, I always go feline, so I've chosen the Kooky Katz for a Kinetic Kard.  In this case, a pushmi-pullyu card.

Here's the card -


Pull gently on the tabs and -


I added the "Who dat up dere?" wording to the digi before I printed it out.  I coloured the image with Spectrum Noirs - the cat looked ginger to me so I chose light browns, oranges and terracotta colours.  His eyes are actually quite a bright green, but the colour isn't showing up in the photo.  I blended DI's (Mustard Seed and Wild Honey) over the background

This one is actually quite easy to construct once you know how and there are instructions here   I enjoy making cards with something extra and I hope you like it - but you can make anything you like to join in the challenge at Ikesworld.  If you use one of Ike's digi's you're in with a chance of winning a prize and Ike has even got a freebie for you - you can't say fairer than that!

Crafty Hugs

Keren

Monday 4 November 2013

The C word...

Hello everyone, Friday again and time for another challenge over at Left of Center.  This week our sponsor is the wonderful Ike and our theme is "Tape or Twine".

I usually go for the Left of Center theme but this time I've played it straight and this is officially my first Christmas project of the year.  I used Bauble Cat and coloured it in Spectrum Noirs.


I diecut an aperture into the card and added some die-cuts - the large branch is from Marianne and the other bits of foliage are Tattered Lace, coloured with Distress Inks.  A few red gems and a bit of red twine, and there we are.  

So now it's over to you - why not hop over to LOC and see what my talented teamies have come up with - and maybe show us what you can do?  Looking forward to seeing your projects!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

N is for...

Not long to go in the Craft Barn Blog Alpha Challenge, and I'm still keeping up.  This time we've reached  letter N, and I've chosen

Nocturnal

A no-frills ATC, this time, beginning with a bit of Antique Linen DI to soften the color of the card a bit, then masked off a circle for the moon and then Stormy Sky, Black Soot and Dusty Concord blended over the background.  I stamped the bat and the branches using Surfacez ink and drew in some stars and highlighted edges with white pen.

And there we are - I wonder what the next letter will be?

Crafty Hugs,

Keren