Crafty As L

My post this week features the card and ATC I made for this month’s Visible Image ATC swap, the theme of which was “Use Kraft”.   I quite like using kraft card and tend towards monochrome makes with it.   These makes ended up using just gold and white but had lots of texture and dimension. To begin, I cut the ATC (2½” x 3½”) and a 4¼” square panel for the card and white heat-embossed the sentiments, which are from Grunge Greetings . After masking the sentiment with a sticky note, I applied Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste through the Rotation stencil. Whilst the paste was still damp, I sprinkled on gold embossing powder in places as I wanted some of the white to show.   This was then heated which melted the powder and made the paste bubble-up, creating that lovely texture. For the focal element, I stamped the dragonflies from Brighter Days using Versamark ink on thick vellum.   I then added gold embossing powder in stripes and knocked off the excess before ...

My projects this week are those I made for the Visible Image ATC swap.   Whilst I made them at the beginning of the month, one of them had to make its way to Australia and only arrived at the end of last week.   It’s been over 40˚C there so the thought of a snowman and some chilly weather was most welcome! Given that the theme was “Sparkle & Shine”, I started by white heat embossing snowflakes from Sketched Snowflakes onto Tim Holtz Sparkle Plaid Kraft card. I’d decided on a checkerboard design so cut a bunch of squares from white card.   I then used elements from Christmas Jumper to decorate each, starting with the sentiment.   For all the images, I stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and clear heat embossed so that the embossing would resist the metallic paints I used to colour them. Next, I repeated the procedure with the characters.   They were the perfect size for my squares which was fortuitous since I’d not planned that. I wanted to liven up t...

In the Visible Image fans Facebook Group, each month, lovely Jane organises an ATC swap and gives a theme to follow.   This month’s theme is “All About Books” and gave me the perfect excuse to use a page from one of the French novels I got from a swap box whilst on holiday in France – I left them an English book! To begin, I blended Mustard Seed, Peack Feathers and Salty Ocean Distress Oxides through the A to Z stencil. I glued the ATC onto the back of the stencilled page and carefully cut around it and set it aside to dry.   From the remaining page, I tore a strip and glued it onto a 5¼” square of white card.   Once dry, I stamped and clear heat embossed some of the elements from Free Your Imagination . I wanted the book pages on top to be white so I stamped them again on a scrap of paper, fussy cut the two centre pages and glued them in place. Using the remaining scrap of the stencilled page, I stamped and clear heat embossed the sentiment.   I cut out eac...

My projects this week are the card and ATC I made for the Visible Image October ATC swap which had “Autumn Vibes” for the theme.   On the day I made these, it was blowing a hoolie and multi-coloured leaves were swirling all over the place, which inspired my makes. Using the Autumn Leaves stencil, a variety of Distress Ink pads and small blending brushes, I layered the leaves to cover the ATC. To give a little shadow to create dimension, I painted on watered down Gathered Twigs Distress Ink around the edges of the leaves and also painted on some leaf veins.   For some sparkle, I spattered on gold watercolour paint and edged the ATC with it too. Whilst the ATC was drying, I turned my attention to the accompanying card.   I began by stamping the large tree from Into The Woods in Versafine Clair Pinecone ink on kraft card.   I sprinkled a little gold embossing powder on, knocked off the excess and then added clear powder and heat-set. To make the tree canop...

My project this week was the card and ATC I made for this month’s Visible Image ATC swap.   Our theme this month was “Say it with words”.   I've found it hard to be creative as our little girly cat disappeared almost 3 weeks ago and, despite all our efforts, there has been no news and Mr L and I are feeling very sad.   Looking through my VI stash, the sentiment in Glimmer of Light   spoke to me so that’s where I started. On an inky mop-up piece of card, I trimmed it make my ATC and card front and started by stamping and clear heat-embossing the moth, sentiment and light bulb. Next, I used the Strobes stencil, with the central blob masking the light bulb, and blended Black Soot Distress ink, fading to the outer edges.   I also blended ink around the edges too. I repeated these steps on the card front too, adding a large light bulb from Shining Bright .   To make the light bulb glow, I added some gold metallic watercolour paint, flicking it out alo...