my Crafty Corner

Cards and other handicrafts made by Jean Straw

Tuesday 31 December 2013

Purple Sparkle

Here is another card using Imagination Sparkle Medium, this time in a lovely purple and silver combination called Diamond Quartz.The inspiration for this card came from some of the art work I saw displayed on on the Imaginations stand at the NEC show back in November. The stencil is one of theirs too and they also sell some pastel printed papers for backgrounds but on this occasion I wanted to have a go at making my own. I used torn paper and a die cut paper circle with broken china and dusty concord Distress Inks to do this. Next I placed the flower stencil over the background and and added more dusty concord ink with a duster brush.I then moved the stencil slightly to the left and secured it with tape and applied the sparkle Medium. Having removed the stencil I set the card aside to dry thoroughly. My base card is approximately 6" square and I cut a pearlised mauve mat to fit, and when dry I trimmed the image panel to fit just inside it.When all was stuck together I stamped the Inkylicious quote with Memento London fog ink.
I am entering this at Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
                   and at Make It Monday - Anything Goes.
I would like to take this opportunity to say Happy new Year to all my followers and readers, thank you all so much for keep coming back to look at my work, and for your lovely and encouraging and friendly comments.
Jean x

Friday 20 December 2013

Birthday Sparkle

Today I am showing you a card that I made a few weeks ago for one of sisters whose birthday was at the start of the month. The base card is a white 6" square with a pink mat cut slightly smaller.The top layer is made using white card again and a stencil from Imaginations Crafts. First I anchored the stencil down with masking tape, and then used more tape to cover all but the area I was working on. Using just one colour at a time the flowers leaves and stems were coloured with duster brushes and Distress Inks. I think the colours I used were spun sugar, peeled paint and probably vintage photo. I used a yellow pen for the flower centres. I then covered the flowers again and uncovered the butterflies and applied Imagination sparkle medium to them. This is one of the new ones that I bought at the NEC last month and is called Rose Shimmer, it is a pretty mixture of pink and gold. Next I removed the stencil and left the sparkle to dry completely, then I replaced the stencil and used the spun sugar ink to colour the centre square and then overstamped it with the birthday greeting. It was quite a job doing the multi coloured stencilling but I was quite pleased with the result.
I am entering this at, Seize The Birthday - Anything Birthday
                                Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Thank you for taking a look and for all your comments which are much appreciated.

Thursday 12 December 2013

Fantasy Butterfly

This is the card that I made for my Granddaughter's birthday last weekend. I began by stamping the Chocolate Baroque butterfly image onto white card with Memento elderberry ink,and coloured it with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. The edges were shaded with tumbled glass Distress ink, and then it was layered onto dark purple card. The base card was cut and folded from white A4 cardstock to make a 5" x 7" card. I used a Crafty Individuals border mask and a purple Imagination Sparkle Medium to create the border. The ribbon and bow are seam binding coloured with the same distress ink as I used on the image panel, and the greeting was cut with a Britania die from the same purple card as the mat. Having assembled everything I decided that I wanted a bit more dimension so I stamped and coloured the butterfly and the lowest flower again and cut them out. I used an embossing tool to add a little shape to the pieces and then used silicon glue to fix them over the original image. I didn't raise them very much and I don't think it shows up much in my photo but it was enough to add a bit of interest to the card.
I am going to enter this at Stamping Sensations - Free And Easy. 
And as I used snippets of card for all the stamping and for the die cutting I am also entering it at the
Pixies Snippets Playground.
Thank you for your looking and for your comments, all much appreciated.

Saturday 7 December 2013

Christmas Angel

I'm here with a quick post this morning so that I can just about squeeze in through the gates of the pixies playground before they close up for this week. I made ten of these cards over the last couple of days and as it was dark last night I couldn't get a decent photo so had to wait till this morning. The angel and flourish are Penny Black stamps and the greeting is Chocolate Baroque. The stamping is all done with Memento black ink and coloured with Promarkers. I also used a gold gel pen to highlight the flourish,and a little star dust Stickles on the wings. I stamped all the angels on pieces of ivory card from the snippets box and the mats from more snippets of blue glitter card and some from blue mirri card. The glitter one made a better photo. The oval dies I used are Go Kreate. I made an awful ink mark on the top corner of the first card I made and decided the only solution was to cut it off which I did using a corner rounder. I quite liked the result and so did on all of them .Right I am dashing off now to link up with Pixies Snippets Playground.
Thank you for visiting and for your your comments which are much appreciated.

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Christmas Journey

There are still some hi-jinks going on at Pixies Snippets Playground this week in celebration of Di's 100 weeks of hosting last week. So for this card  I used a snippet from my "bits" box to stamp this lovely image so I can go and join in the fun again. The stamp is Stampendous stamped with black Memento ink. I then shaded the edges with tea dye and vintage photo Distress ink before colouring the image with Coloursoft pencils. The backing paper is printed from an Artylicious CD, Seasons Greetings, from Chocolate Baroque, and cut with a deckle blade in my paper cutter and then edged with a gold Krylon pen. I tied a red ribbon  around and added the sentiment on another snippet. The stamp is Chocolate Baroque and I used a Go Kreate die to cut it out.
I am also going to enter this at,
Cards For Men - Anything Goes
Here Come The Boys - Anything Goes For The Boys.
Thanks for looking and for your comments, I really appreciate them all.