Opus Gluei Challenge #147. Free for all.

Happy New Year to you all, I hope it will be a very joyful, healthy and creative year for you :-)

The lovely Rosemary has set an Anything Goes challenge for this fortnight.

I have Steampunk Fever at the moment so I made a triple twisted easel card for one of my sons.

This is my most ambitious easel card to date. 

They are so easy to construct but look stunning, do give them a try if you haven't already. 

Beate at Split Coast Stampers has done some wonderful video tutorials on YouTube.com regarding their construction.

Click on any picture to make it bigger.

 

I've used Chocolate Baroque Steampunkery stamp set heat embossed in black and coloured with Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints (same as Twinkling H20's) .

Stamped the blue cogs on the background blue card using the cogs from the Chocolate Baroque Steampunk Christmas set. Oh be still my heart they are such wonderful sets of stamps.

I also used Tim Holtz dies; cogs on the edge and the clock face one.

I used blue alcohol ink on some bottle tops and cut some spellbinders cogs out of silver mirror card and glued them on the top of the bottle top with glossy accents.

The metal letter tags I've had for years and have no idea who made them, possibly some Santa's Elves that retired long ago...

I've been greasing my axles and I feel all geared up for some piston powered creativity, I know you'll be riveted to hear this - mwah!

Happy steamy creating all through 2013.
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #141. Colour challenge Turquoise and Red.

It's my challenge this fortnight and it's one of my favourite colour schemes Turquoise and Red with black, white and Kraft as neutral colours.
Hopefully I can illustrate what a versatile colour combination this is.

Firstly just by changing the focus of main colour gives such different moods to cards using this colour scheme.
Here are 4 of the same design all with different main colours.

Click on any picture to make it bigger.

 

I have used a Penny Black stamp set called Petal Party and the decorative border is in a Stampendous set called Elegant Borders.

I think this colour scheme works wonders for Halloween.

 

I've used a howling wolf from a Chocolate Baroque stamp set called Howling Moon and the spiders are from an Inkadinkado set called Creepy Crawly. I've also used Distress Inks in Festive Berries and Peacock Feathers.

It's also great for Christmas.

I've used the same distress Inks and a Chocolate Baroque stamp set called Snowflake Flourish and Spellbinders Reverse Wonky Rectangles.

To make a masculine teenage card I used a Kraft Card blank and muted shades of turquoise and red and an Inkadinkado stamp set called circles and dots.

Well I couldn't not include my favourite fella now could I?
Wolf whistles please for Stampotique's Heart Throb.

What? You want more Heart Throb?
Oh go on then, seeing as it's you, he'll meet you under the mistletoe...

I used Spellbinders Create-a-Flake Three for the Snowflakes.

I hope I've managed to inspire you to use this colour combination.

Happy creating with turquoise and red or anything else crafty you've got on your desk!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #135. Where'd you get your suntan?

This fortnight's challenge is mine and it's to make a project based on anywhere you could get a suntan.
I thought we could think about traditional sun holiday destinations or your back garden/yard, on top of the Eiffel Tower, sitting in a canoe, anything really that you can make a story up to explain how you are getting a suntan so it fits the challenge, you know how I love a tall story.
For example, the mermaid whose dream was to get a suntan and how she managed to fulfill that dream. How did she do that? Was Sponge Bob Square Pants or the police involved? Maybe her fairy Grandmother came to her aid? How did she stop her scales from drying out?

I am over here in very soggy England, we have had rain, rain and more rain for what feels like a very long time but if it would just stop raining for a few days I might be able to get a suntan in my back garden.
If I was to lie on tinfoil out in my garden right now you would here the rain drumming on the tinfoil fortissimo style (the music term for very loud which I looked up on Wikipedia, gotta love that website and all the wonderful people who have contributed to it).

I need a raincoat and some fake tan...

So here is our house in the middle of our street.
 I loved that Madness song from 1982, yes, it really was that long ago!
You can see them in action over here on youtube if you fancy a bit of nostalgia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwIe_sjKeAY
Pssst turn it up very loud ;-)

Click on it to make it bigger.
I used a 5x7" canvas that I painted with acrylics to make the background in nice bright colours. I put a coat of Decoart Ice Crystal glamour dust paint over the top. This gives a wonderful subtle sparkly sheen to it.
I die cut some white clouds on textured white card using Memory Box dies.
I used book pages from the wonderful Author Louise Rennison book "It's OK I'm wearing really big knickers!"
 If you love colloquial English then you will love Louise's writing style plus she is very funny.
I used a retired set of Chocolate Baroque stamps called Retro Florals and the brights range of Ranger Adirondack Dye inks to stamp with.
The birds are Inkylicious.
I used scraps of designer papers for the windows and doors and the die cut fence panels are by Go Create.


Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #124. Warm Fuzzies.

The lovely Rosemary has set this fortnight's Opus Gluei challenge which is Warm Fuzzies.
Now it could be a project made with felt or other similar texture or you could focus on something that gives you warm fuzzy feelings.

I chose to feel the LOVE and settled on the lovey dovey donuts of a Valentine's card for Himself who likes the colour purple. 
I prefer the colour red and seeing as I was making it, it's mainly red!

Click on it to make it bigger.

The top heart pulls up for the message which I haven't written yet OR maybe it's written in invisible distress ink that you have to lick for the writing to appear.
Oh come on, surely you're not surprised?!!
You know full well that Tim Holtz can do anything with Distress Inks. 

 

My card was inspired by Joanne Wardle's Tent Fold Card project on page 29 of February 2012 Craft Stamper magazine. All you need is a piece of A4 white card.

I used Distress inks in Festive Berries and Seedless Preserves. 

Chocolate Baroque stamp sets Daisy and Butterfly, and Seed pod and Butterflies. 

The background flourish stamp is Personal Impressions.

I also used Tim Holtz movers and shapers heart cutters and a blue Woodware 2 inch heart punch.

Happy Valentine's Day 

Gini

xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #121. Out with the Old and In with the New.

Firstly may I wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Deena over at Opus Gluei has been very clever with her challenge title and theme because it is basically a free for all challenge just use some old stash or some new stash or a mixture of both and create something!
How clever is that?
I love clever play on words so Deena is off to a roaring start in 2012 and I hope the same is true for you.

I thought I would make something useful for this time of year so I made 6 identical Thank you cards and then I made another 3 identical general cards using a seahorse stamp from Chocolate Baroque.
My new stuff is the yellow sequins and the 3 and 3/4 inch square shaped blank cards from Craftworkcards, the rest is from my stash.

 

I have used some of my favourite inks, Brilliance Pearlescent Inks, I have use the tricolour pads in Peacock, Twilight and Aurora.
I used the background stamp from Penny Black Slapstick called Paisley Swirls but I think it looks great as stylized sea.
The flourish is from Inkadinkado called Sketchy Flourishes.
The Many Thanks sentiment is from Hero Arts Sending Smiles messages.
The With Love sentiment is from Papermania Hampstead Collection, Icon and sentiments.
The Dress form is a 3inch Woodware Punch Dress 2.

I've also used standard sized sequins which I think give a better balance of size on these small cards rather than using Card Candi which is bigger.
Here is a size comparison photo. See what you think.

For the Pinafore dress card.
I drew a pinafore template to fit the card blank on white card and coloured with distress inks using Rangers cut n' dry foam.
Spritzed with silver mica mixed with water in a mini mister.
The background stamp is from Chocolate Baroque and has been coloured with distress inks, the little Teeny Weeny stamps used on the Pinafore are also Chocolate Baroque stamps called Curiosities and Teeny Weeny Meadow.

I coloured Icing Sugar Card Candi (white) with Versamagic chalk inks to get an accurate match in colour.
Did you know you can colour Card Candi with your inks?
It makes the Icing Sugar white pack endlessly versatile.
Inks I have successfully used to colour the Candi are Distress Inks (dye ink), Versamagic (chalk ink), and Brilliance (pigment ink).
I use small 3D foam pads which are 2mm thick to stick my Card Candi on with.
The brand I use is Stick It! code number STI 4100. Very cheap and work well.

Happy Creating in 2012!
Gini
xx

Merry Christmas to you Cards

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, peaceful, prosperous and creative New Year.

If 2011 was a crapper for you too, then let's believe in the miracle of Christmas and that next year will be full of wonderful surprises, peace and prosperity with a large daily helping of joy, excellent health and happiness.

If 2011 was a fabulous year for you I hope next year is even better.

I have told Santa just how good you've been this year so make sure you hang up a really big stocking tonight, I mean really BIG, you know;

a humungous whopper of a stocking - yes, you have been that good and so have I.

Here are just a few of the Christmas cards I made this year. Each one badly photo'd and wonky, no change there then. If you want to see it wonky even bigger, click on it, if not then just tip your head to the side a little bit.

 

Happy creating right through 2012!

Gini

xx

Tando Creative Challenge No 3, Spooktastic October.

This month's Challenge over at Tando Creative is SPOOKTASTIC and I'm entering just in time.

I've used just 1 of the 3 parts of the printers tray from the Mini Printer Tray Round (152mm diameter with stand) pack.
I have split the pack so I can make 3 printer's trays just like I did with this Printer Tray pack.

Click on it to make it bigger, although I must say that the bat's background setting is hopeless, they are never good but this one is particularly pathetic. I couldn't easily find a white area big enough and I didn't exactly go the whole mile in trying to set the scene in ambiance, I think I went roughly 1 and 3/4 inches instead.

I used Distress Inks and Andirondack dye Inks and sponged the backgrounds and used stamp sets:-
Chocolate Baroque - Howling moon
Inkadinkado - All Hallow's Eve

I drew the bat wings and used small black sequins glued on with Anita's 3D gloss to form the wing ribs.

I won't have got it anatomically correct so this bat won't fly, just saying in case you were looking out your window for it.
Although I could always stand outside your window with it dangling on a string and shake it suitably in the style of a bat in flight and for added authenticity I could emit a sonic whistle or audible squeak, what do you think?
(I've got until tomorrow night to get to your house...)

Happy Halloween creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #116. Something wicked this way comes.

The lovely Kirsten at Opus Gluei has challenged us this time to make a project to celebrate Halloween so I have followed the Split Coast Stampers Shadow Box card instructions here for this 3D card. But I made the card centre a lot bigger and I punched a Martha Stewart border using Layered Arches and sandwiched that between the side panels for a bit of additional interest.

Mwah-ha-ha.............. Your carriage awaits you and it's ready to whisk you away; past the howling wolf and up, up, up to the creepy castle where your destiny awaits you...

OR if that doesn't tickle your fancy then a huge bar of your favourite chocolate, a foot massage, a large glass of wine, a roaring open fire and the person(s) of your choice :-)
(Feel free to change or tweak any of the above aspects to make your perfect evening entertainment - 'cos I'm helpful like that.)
Click on it to make it bigger.

The stamps are from Chocolate Baroque and are the new Halloween stamp set called Howling Moon. They are gorgeous aren't they?

The spider border and the sentiment is from the Inkadinkado set called Creepy Crawly.
The black ink is Versafine heat embossed with clear fine detail embossing powder.
I sponged Distress Inks in Stormy sky and Chipped Sapphire to colour the card.
I used a white Derwent colour soft pencil to colour the moon and I lightly shaded dark green Colour soft pencil over the foreground of the centre card to give some definition to the ground area. Derwent colour soft pencils work beautifully over distress inks.
The sentiment tag is from the Spellbinders Fancy Tags set.
The fence is Martha Stewart's Iron Fence border punch.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Seaside Box Card

I am still in a sea themed crafting mood.
I have made a box card following Debbie Dolphin's  wonderful tutorial on page 46 of the August 2011 edition of Craft Stamper.

I am entering this card into the Crafty Individuals Challenge - Bright and beautiful. 
I think I've made by the skin of my teeth timewise and I've used papers from the Seaside book of Background papers Book 6, which is my favourite by far of the 6 books of background papers they've brought out. They are so pretty I really couldn't bare to add to them on most of the panels of the card, I'll be braver with them next time.

Also the new monthly challenge by Tando Creative Go wild.
They have a wonderful prize and you have until the end of the month to enter.
I'm just starting to use chipboard shapes in projects so it's a perfect challenge for me.
I think sea creatures are wild enough and they certainly are weird enough, who would ever dream up seahorses, such weird, sad and lost looking little creatures whenever I've seen them in Aquariums.
My gorgeous sea stamps are from Chocolate Baroque that you can find here.
They are inside the box.

I'm also entering the Sir Stampalot Challenge which is Whatever You Fancy this month. They also have a prize and you have until the end of the month to join in.

 

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #110. A picture is worth a thousand words.

This fortnight's challenge is a tricky one if like me, you like to add words to your creations, and I nearly always do so.
The Opus Gluei challenge is to create something without words and let the image speak for itself.
I have created a 5 x 7 inch canvas which hopefully makes you think of summer.
Click on it to make it bigger.

Now you know how it is when you are desperate (oh so desperate) to get hold of a crafty item and then when you finally get it, you sit and sit and can't quite come up with something to make that you know you will actually love and want to put it up on your wall and not just making something for the sake of it, which is quite different.

Well this is what happened to me with the Woodware pack of 12 blank jigsaw puzzles which size at 4 x 51/2 inches, which are great and need NO surface preparation.

But thank goodness a trip around my favourite blogs in blogland took me to the super talented stamper Willy Anderson and her jigsaw creation in this post which has inspired my canvas. Thank you Willy!

How I made it.

If you like working with acrylics you may have come across a series of special property gold acrylics that you can either:-

• use on their own,
• over the top of coloured acrylics to add a translucent shimmer (similar effect as watercolour H20's give), 
• or mixed into a colour to produce a unique lustrous shimmer to the colour.

I use Golden's  Interference Gold (Fine) #4040-4 from series 7
and 
Golden's Iridescent Gold (Fine) #4010-4 from Series 6.
(Golden is the company name.)
They give the most amazing shiny effect, I  mean really majestic shiny as oppose to glitter glue shiny.
Don't get me wrong I love my Ranger stickles but these are in a whole 'nother league of shiny.
I'm talking 'bout POSH shiny.
 For this project I used Golden Interference Gold (Fine) #4040-4 from series 7 neat (I'm talking hardcore shiny) on a white canvas.
It gives a shimmer so good you could rub your cheek on it and give it a lick, yes truly, it really is that good.
This paint is truelove shiny.

The Woodware jigsaws come in plain white.
I used Chocolate Baroque (formerly Elusive Images) Doodle Birds and Doodle Butterflies collection stamps.
I stamped straight onto the jigsaw firstly the peacock feather with versamark and clear heat embossed it and then stamped the bird (and the butterflies on white card) with Brilliance Ink in Mediterranean Blue and clear heat embossed them.
I used tumbled glass and mustard seed Distress Inks and the applicator tool to apply them.
I liberally used Arctic Frost Glitz Gel (Imagination Crafts) over the stamped images. I spread this gel with a small wet paintbrush which I keep re-wetting, because squeezed neat out of the tube this gel is very thick and looks like kiddy snot combined with rabies froth, sorry but it does and it isn't a good look.
I used white PVA to glue the jigsaw onto the canvas and glue dots for the butterflies.

So do you feel like making a shiny something or a picture that is worth a thousand words?
You have until the 13 August to join in using Mr Linky over here!

Happy creating!
Gini
xx