Wednesday 27 August 2014

Anniversary Card

August 27th

Here is a card I made using the Funky foliage stamp.

I masked off a strip to create a narrow border and stamped the image above it. I added a moon mask behind the foliage and masked off the stamped image.

I then used distress inks ....fired brick; wild honey and mustard seed and clarity brushes to create the background.

The foliage was coloured using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils which are great for subtle shading.

I used a little of the distress ink on the moon after removing the mask.

 

 

The border was divided randomly and I used the same pencils to add colour to it and my favourite word from the word chains for this anniversary card.

The little bird finished it off.

I need to get better at stamping this as it is such a large stamp but I was quite pleased with how it turned out and the next one will be better!

Hope you like it too.

Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils

Note about these amazing pencils. I had a tin of 36 of these and while chatting to Barbara Gray at our retreat about whether to buy the Spectrum Noir pencils and which tin to chose she said that really the Faber-Castell Polychromos were the Rolls Royce of pencils but obviously expensive.

I decided to think about them a bit longer and then won first prize of £100 in our work lottery and managed to find all 120 pencils for £104 a bargain! So I have invested in them. They are amazing and I am really enjoying using them. A good use of my prize money I felt!

 

 

 

Monday 18 August 2014

A card for Alice Rose

August 18th 2014

Today I returned home after visiting my daughter and son-in-law to welcome my new grand daughter, Alice Rose, She joins Eddie (4) and Adam (2) and is very beautiful!

 
Card for Alice Rose
 
This is the card I made to welcome her into the world.  The back ground is done using my first attempt at shaving foam and then enhanced with a touch of distress ink using a make up sponge.
I thought it was perfect for this months challenge, I have been meaning to enter for months and am finally managing it!
 
I hope you like it.

Sunday 10 August 2014

Mosaic project

Sunday July 20th 2014!


A slight delay has occurred...........
I found myself distracted from my card making and lured into the world of mosaics.
Now bearing in mind I have never made a mosaic before this was a major challenge.
I find the Internet invaluable and utube, in particular, as a teaching resource. I scoured both and read some books and then as I'm a hands on kind of person just decided to get going.
We have a small pond in the garden, it has three seats incorporated into the design and it has all been painted with an outdoor paint. The seats are constantly wet from the fountain and I was faced with peeling paint and having to try and keep it looking nice which had become a constant job.
I decided mosaic seats might be a more permanent solution. So set about making some!
The pond

I found some designs I liked on the web and then adapted them.


Each seat is subtly different. I thought the fish theme was probably suitable.


I found some mosaic tile sources on the web and opted for Murano glass tiles. They are good quality so cut well with tile nippers and have interesting colours through them. They come in 2cm squares.


I played about with the design as it was all new to me and then decided just to 'go for it'.
because the seats are going to be in a wet environment the suggestions was that I should use something called 'Hardie Backer Board' which is a cement based product, quite thin and has to be scored and snapped, this being harder than it sounds. Topps Tiles were incredibly helpful and sell this product. They also suggested a cement based glue which needs to be applied in small areas as it sets very quickly.


This is called the direct method where you put glue down and then fix the small pieces in place. I learnt half way through, there is a better way to do this, called the indirect method but I had already got going by this stage. The result is that there is not quite enough of a gap between the pieces and they are not entirely smooth....



first seat completed.



2nd seat completed

3rd seat under construction


close up


and completed


The seats once completed had to be grouted. I chose a dark grout (black) as I felt it would help to bring the design together. With hind sight I needed a bigger gap between tiles and by the time I got to the third seat I was using more of a square tile but you live and learn and I was pleased with how it had turned out. The whole project took a month and was very therapeutic. I m planning the next!....


here are all three grouted.



and finished!

before


and after!


See you soon, hopefully with cards next time.....