Opus Gluei Challenge #131 Sew what?

This fortnight's theme has been set by the lovely Jana over at the Opus Gluei Challenge and it is to use sewing in your project.

I got my 22 year old sewing machine out, and apart from the white casing having turned yellow with age, it started up just fine after 10+ years of slumbering in a cupboard, a big well done to Elna I think.

It is much easier to sew on card than material.
I used a size 70 needle (lingerie needle) and loosened the tension a bit from what I would sew mid weight cotton fabric with.
I set the stitch size to 3.1. (I would sew mid weight cotton fabric using a 2.5 stitch size.)

I used a Craft Stamper project (page 44 March 2012) by Sarah Engels-Greer which was using 2 or 3 red (Archival Vermillion) stamped inches with lace and red ribbon on white square cards.
I thought these would have been quick to create but seeing as I wasn't copying the designs it took a good long while.
I used a different ink to the project. I used Rocket Red Brilliance Ink which has become my new favourite ink evah.

This is what I came up with, these were such fun to create maybe you fancy making some?

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.
The first one uses a Prima stamp set (code 655350-2011-11. Sorry I can't find a name for the set on the packet) and the flower is Crafty Individuals.  I also used the 2 smallest dies of spellbinders set Wonky Squares.
I used red backed double sided tape to stick the ribbon and lace on the card and sticky 3D foam blocks to adhere the stamped card shapes.

This next one uses Tim Holtz stamps.

This last one is Prima stamps again and doesn't have sewing on it - oops.
The little red dots are ruby red liquid pearls by Ranger. The latest release of liquid pearls have a new formula and work much better than the original liquid pearls which were, in my opinion, crap for making pearls - sorry but I thought they were rubbish.

The only danger I found with making these cards was I got so focused on rearranging the layouts for another unique card that I was forgetting to ensure it makes a pleasing looking card.
I like them but I wonder how many non card makers will like the cards?

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #130. Beyond the garden gate.

The lovely Rosemary has set this fortnight's challenge at Opus Gluei.

And what a fabulous challenge from Rosemary, I could make hundreds of things with this theme as I'm sure you could too. 
I made an Easel Card of a posh house and garden scene which is a Docraft stamp by the artist Michael Powell, and er I went a bit mad with the lace, which unlike shiny stuff,  it would appear you can have too much of -hrumph.
I used part of a silk scarf (a bargain charity shop find) to make the curtains.

I am staggered by the two hours it took me to colour the picture with Derwent inktense pencils. I wasn't messing about honestly, but colouring solidly. The curtains mask some of the picture so the stamp is a bit wider than shown on this card.
His latest range of stamps, just out, are even better and are seaside, beach huts and lighthouse themed.
No wonder I don't do much colouring....
It would have been quicker to get my watercolour paints out and do it with them, but Inktense pencils are just fabulously vibrant and bright.
Once you get a taste of them there is no going back...

Hope you are inspired by this theme and join in.
Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #129 Use flourishes in your project.

My turn this fortnight over at the Opus Gluei challenge blog.
You can interpret this theme in two ways;
either use a flourish(es) in your project 
or create a project based on what makes you flourish as a person.
I chose to use physical flourishes on the cover and behind the flowers inside a box card for my MIL.
Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

 

 

Ingredients:

Kaisercraft Gypsy Sisters papers 6x6inch pad.

Roses are Spellbinders, Spiral Blossom One cut from Pearl Centura card (Crafter's companion) and sponged with Distress Inks in Victoria Velvet and Aged Mahogany. The Distress inks come out paler on this pearl card and have a lovely subtle sheen. 

These spiral flowers are much quicker to make than the alternative method of cutting varying size 6 petal flower shapes and cut out some the flowers petals, and layering up the flowers. 

With the spiral roses you just need to wind it up from the outside inwards and bung some strong glue on the rounded center to hold it together. The rose you make is quite deep. The depth of the ones I make are 2cm.

The leaves are Hero Arts 3 leaves cling stamps on the pearl centura card using black Brilliance ink which gives the right impression on this card.

 To colour the leaves I first brayered with Adirondack dye ink in meadow (it takes a few hours to dry properly) and then highlighted along the leaf veins with Pine Needles Distress Ink using a Ranger cut n dry pen nib.

Crafty Individuals flourish stamps in Aged Mahogany on the background paper behind the inside roses.

The girl facing the sea is an ISC stamp coloured with watercolour pencils.

The fancy tag on the front is from the Spellbinders Fancy tags two set. 

The flocked flourish on the from of the card is one of the Kaisercraft papers.

To get the depth right on the box to fit my roses, I cut a 10cm wide strip of white card that I scored every 1cm. ( You glue 4 concertina panels together to make the rectangle shape. I used white PVA glue for this.)

This gives you a 2cm deep box. 

So the middle panel dimension of your card needs to be 2cm wide.

The other dimensions depend on what side card you want to make.

Craft Stamper has a picture tutorial done by Debbie Dolphin for a box card on page 46 of the August 2011 edition of the magazine. 

I used this article to understand the construction, but used different card dimensions with the help of my trusty calculator and my one braincell when it was around the front. 

Happy creating with or without a braincell and/or calculator!

Gini

xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #128 What else do you know?

The lovely Kristen has chosen this fortnight's Opus Gluei challenge and it is to use a technique in your project that you haven't used for a while.

I haven't paper pieced a stamped image with designer's papers for ages so that is what I have done with this Mollie Bloom beach hut stamp in this easel card.
The chicken is hand drawn on designer papers and the sky is tumbled glass distress ink with a turquoise mica powder mixed with water sprayed on the top.

Now can you guess what the chicken is supposed to be sitting on?
No?
Now it may look like a box but that is where you would be wrong see, as it is in fact a raft -  allegedly. *cough*
If you are wondering why I have put a chicken on a raft in the sea, well why not, I like chickens and they lay lots of eggs and it's Easter... so I think they deserve a holiday by the seaside.
So as I'm sure you can do better than a box masquerading as a raft for this challenge please join in as I'd love to see it!

Happy Creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #127. In like a lion out like a lamb.

The lovely Deena over at the Opus Gluei Challenge Blog is asking us to use an animal in our projects this fortnight.

As I am feeling less than dapper due to a stinker of a cold, I really do have MAN FLU ladies.
I apologise profusely to you all for not doing any blog visits this last fortnight and I do feel I should mention that I have MAN FLU even though I have girl parts, because it's crossed the species barrier - what can I say.
I will be short and to the point, if you can call 5'9" short that is and I'm not actually particularly pointy either; more soft around the edges because really why would anyone want to do exercise when they could be making something out of paper, shiny and glue?
And also I'm working steadily towards beating the world record for "an arse so big it blots out the sun" (just joking,  hmph).

I love making Birds on Wheels pictures and a bird is an animal too.
I have blogged this design before as cards I like to make, and honestly I could use my whole stash of designer papers making them, hundreds and hundreds AND hundreds of them but then I would be like the lady with 40 indoor cats; what on earth would I do with them all...and wouldn't my house stink a bit and wouldn't that seem a tad compulsive disorderish too?

However - this is the very poshest Bird on Wheels I've made to date, it's another 5" x 7" canvas as I seem to be going through a phase of making these canvases lately.
It is a flocked paper bird and it's so posh and shiny it's probably illegal, I mean regal.

 

Happy Creating!

Gini

xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #126 Branching Out with Madam Fairy.

The lovely Electra over at Opus Gluei has set the challenge this fortnight to use anything to do with trees or nature in general in your project.
Please welcome Madam Fairy who enjoys nature so much that she is often referred to as Nature Girl.
Click on the photos to make them bigger.

Of course her spare time is quite limited because she is such a busy Queen dealing with her royal subjects and doing her fairy duties as well as attending school.

Her mother thinks she is a proper little Madam and this off duty candid paparazzi photo clearly shows her mother to be right.

 Oh where would we be without the paparazzi and their high moral standards and their profound understanding of dignity and human rights, eh?

I tell you what; I am hopeless at using up my scraps by turning them into something artistic.
I think this card clearly shows that from now on my scraps and surplus bits need to go in the bin not in my shortly to be defunct scraps drawer.

For the canvas I wanted to use my new Memory Box die - Catalina Wreath as it has branches holding it together; well at least when I had the idea it seems like it had branches on it but maybe they are more like long green bits but very natural green bits... Anyhow I used white card to die cut it which I coloured with a cotton bud and Versamagic inks in Aloe Vera and Pixie Dust.
I stamped a Lost Coast stamp with Adirondack dye ink in meadow onto white card then cut it out with a Nellie Snellen die.
I painted a 5"x7" canvas with acrylic paints and used bubble wrap to apply some of the paint and then dry brushed white paint over the top to calm the whole thing down because it was very bright, which was lovely but didn't make a very good background as it competed dreadfully with Madam Fairy and that would never do.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #125 That's the Ticket

The lovely Jana over at Opus Gluei blog has sent out the challenge That's the ticket.

I am Ticket Stash Poor but I do have an old Craft Stamper Magazine freebie ticket to the Enchanted Kingdom stamp from years ago so that was my starting point.
This plaque will have to go on the wall as I can't think of another way of displaying it as it is a decoration and a completely nonfunctional thingamajig.

Click on any picture to make it bigger.

 

I cut the largest Nestie Postage Die out of chipboard. Leaving the die in place I sponged two layers of Worn Lipstick Distress Ink onto the front using cut and dry foam.
I painted Deco Art Glamour Dust ice crystal paint around the white edge of the chipboard for some subtle shiny.
I used Kay and Co paper throughout.
I cut the largest Nellie Snellen die MFD010 out of the flower garden paper and edged with Worn lipstick ink.

I stamped an old Dovecraft Fantasy Fairy or Fantasy Flourish stamp set (can't remember quite what it was called) using Versafine in Imperial purple and used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch (the one with the 3 butterflies on it) to cut some little butterflies.
Everything glued with Anita's white PVA unless described differently.

I painted a 3 inch Swan Vesta matchbox with Docrafts Artiste Acrylic Paint in Lush Pink. This is a good matt acrylic craft paint for the price £1.25 for 59ml/2oz. It's thinner than Reeves Acrylics or Claudine Hellmuth studio acrylic but thicker and more opaque than Dylusions Acrylic paint. There are some lovely bright modern colours in the range too.
I added a rectangle of paper to the bottom of the drawer and added some beads around the inside edge using Anita's 3D gloss as the glue.

I stamped the ticket in Versafine black onto gold card and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
I used 3 layers of foam pads to raise the ticket up.

I wrapped a piece of patterned paper around the sleeve of the matchbox and used a scoreboard to score folds where the corners are so it gave a neater wrap effect.
I cut 4 Marianne Design die cut flowers and followed the instructions on the back to make the 3D flower. I used Anita's 3D gloss to glue a bead in the centre of the flower and used silicon dimensional glue to glue the shaped petals to the base flower.
The flourish is part of a Sizzlits set called Decorative Flourishes Set 656538.

Happy Creating!
Gini
xx