CraftWorld Masterboard Challenge

 I've been on the CraftWorld forum for a few years but haven't participated in any challenges but then last week I saw a challenge that sounded right up my street. This is going to be a long post!

The idea is to create an 8x8 masterboard and then cut it as follows:

6x4 postcard

4x4 coaster

2.5x3.5 ATC

2x2 twinchies (2)

1x1 inchies (2 but I managed to cut 4)

It's been years since I last made a masterboard and as I'd only recently unearthed my Oriental box of ephemera I decided to go with an Oriental theme.

I find masterboards great for using up those sheets of patterned paper that you get in a set but don't really care for. This sheet was from an old Papermania set called Simply Elegant.

I started by sticking some torn strips of  Oriental newsprint (no idea if it was Chinese/Japanese/Korean). Then randomly applied some texture paste coloured with seedless preserves DI through a stencil. A small Hero Arts fan and a tiny oriental motif were stamped all over and I finished with some splatters of playful peony Twinkling H2O. When dry I cut out the various base elements and brushed the edges with faded jeans DI.

It's been such a long time since I made an inchie but I had managed to cut 4 (2 more than required) so I decided to make them all. I had a look at the 4 bases and tried to work around the bits of background on them.

The first was just folded bits of origami and washi paper with a gem. Next I used some Mizuhiki cord to make a tiny knot and added some gems.Third was a dragonfly punched out of washi paper. Lastly I stamped a Simple Expressions text stamp in Impress cherry pink and added a washi paper punched cherry blossom embellished with some Nuvo Drops.

I rounded the corners of both twinchies. The first was overstamped with an Oriental background stamp in Memento sweet plum and a postmark in Memento love letter. I made a small origami flapping bird from patterned paper, stuck it on a circle of vellum and added some Nuvo Drops. I had an image of a Japanese lady which I cut out, stuck on and outlined with a fine grey pen.The flowers are cut out from some patterned fabric tape and embellished with gems.

The ATC uses the Simple Expressions stamp that I used in my previous post with an origami paper obi. The sentiment is a stamp I had made many years ago.

The coaster took a while to come together. I wanted to use this beautiful old wood mounted stamp by Stampington called Cinnabar. Unfortunately the stencilled texture on the background was exactly in the centre of the 4x4 coaster. I decided to stamp the image so that I got the hair ornaments on the coaster and then to cut out the main part of the image separately to add on top. The image looked too stark against the background and I was thinking about what to do when I spotted a mask I had made for the image for another project. If the mask is reusable I tend to keep it with the stamp - in this case it was actually on top of it. I must have used it to overstamp a fabric texture and traces of it were still on it. It gave me the effect I was looking for and I found some coordinating green and gold washi paper to go with it. The text is a Paper Artsy stamp and I added a floral sticker, a Japanese symbol sticker and a small gem in her hair.

Looking at the postcard I feel I should have added some gesso to it to knock back the background  before adding the stamping but it's done now. I added a Chinese calligraphy stamp in Memento love letter and stamped the brush stroke bird. The text is by Paper Artsy and some washi type was used on the edges.

I really enjoyed this challenge, time-consuming as it was. 

More Butterflies

I'm having a bit of a butterfly moment - perhaps it's because summer is here and everything in the garden seems to be growing.
I started this card by lightly spraying some gold and copper ink through a Memory Box stencil (texture rhapsody). When this was dry I stamped a Memory Box stamp (gathered blooms) with Versafine Spanish moss. I masked off the flowers and stamped the stems again upside down to give the gathered effect of the stems. To hide the join where the 2 lots of stamping meet I added a die cut Marietta buckle by Memory Box and a bow made from a scrap of ribbon. Sometimes when I don't have enough ribbon for a proper tied bow I make this knotted bow.  Some punched butterflies completed the card.
I am entering this into the:
 Memory Box challenge for June - butterflies
Craft Barn weekly challenge - bows

Crafty Individuals Blog Challenge - June

I'm in a summery frame of mind and in the mood for some bright colours so when I decided to enter this month's Crafty Individuals blog challenge I grabbed my Impress inks and got started. The challenge has been chosen by Helen Chilton and is called 'Tag You're It'. I decided to use CI 376 Party Puffin and stamped him with cobalt Archival ink. I paper pieced him with some scraps from Crafty Individuals' Springtime paper pad and gave him a red glossy accented heart. The base tag is stamped with CI 207 Ferns & Grasses in various colours of Impress ink. I then decided it was too bright and wanted to tone it down. Now I know that all you arty types would have reached for gesso or a Fresco paint to do the job but I decided to use vellum (oh alright not exactly vellum but tracing paper from Smiths). I ran it through a Crafters Companion Beatrix Potter embossing folder and used it as an overlay. If you click on the image you should get a better view of the embossed flowers which give a lovely texture to the tag. I added the puffin and some bunting (the stamp is also by Crafty Individuals and came as a thank-you gift with an order). To finish off I added an eyelet (yay that's one less in my hoard!) and a grommet/washer(?) not sure what they're called but I bought a Big Bite case (I only have a Crop-a-dile) with a load of these things a few years ago. It says 'adorable, delightful, charming' which sums up this Puffin beautifully.

If you enter this month's challenge you can get a very desirable 25% discount on your web purchases here.

Autumn Leaves

Over on the Crafty Individuals blog, Jean Hardy has set a new challenge with the theme of  October. I was inspired by the samples provided by the DT especially Efemera's which used the crowned bunnies Alice Palace stamp (CI 372). It reminded me that I haven't used mine for a little while. I decided to make a little picture on mountboard to hang on my wall. I brayered a BG with wild honey, picked raspberry, ripe persimmon and aged mahogany DIs leaving a small area for the sponged grass (mown lawn and peeled paint DI). I cut one of the bunnies out and gave him a light watercolour wash and glittered crown. The tree (CI 234) was stamped with Adirondack terracotta and then I coloured the bird and branches. The punched leaves were coloured with watercolour pencils and scrunched up to give a little dimension. The computer generated text is a line from the very atmospheric song - Autumn Leaves.
There's plenty of time to take part in this challenge and if you do you qualify for a generous 25% discount code to use on the CI website which is a great reason to stock up on some more fabulous Crafty Individuals products.

Crafty Individuals Challenge - April

Spring in Fashion is the theme of this month's challenge on the Crafty Individuals blog. I have been meaning to take part in these challenges for some time but never getting around to it. I decided to take a different slant on this and take the title literally. In the Springtime everything in Nature starts to grow and becomes green again so I used one of the first CI stamps I ever bought CI-152 on a BG of peeled paint, crushed olive and shabby shutters DIs. I stamped the image in Archival library green and mounted it on some background paper from Book 1. I used a scrap of the patterned paper to stamp and 3D mount the butterfly for a little dimension. The base card was made in the same way with a little Impress emerald added as well. The text is computer generated.