Hi Everyone,
It’s the end of the holiday weekend and i managed to get a LOT of crafting done (while my boyfriend was busy fishing…which I did also manage to participate in too!) I was playing around with watercolour paints and Gesso and all sorts of things I’ve never used before. Needless to say it became quite messy! I also found time to do a little more conventional stamping and embossing.
I try to plan for family and friends birthdays as far in advance as possible, as my work often takes me away from my crafting table 🙁 This weekend I made a birthday card for my boyfriend’s sister. She loves bugs (each to their own…) and so I thought the stamp from the Mindscapes collection from Inkadinkado would be perfect. These stamps are so cool – if you look carefully, all of the images are made up of other tiny images. Very clever.
The Ladybird (Ladybug for my American friends) is inked in Versamark and embossed in rouge Zing! powder onto a deep blue card diecut, distressed in Fired Brick Distress ink. In the same blue card, I dry embossed the hexagonal pattern, sanded it lightly and applied Fired Brick in parts, corner chomped, and mounted it onto dark red card (probably my favourite card colour combo right now).
The green ‘leaves’ are actually a ripped up egg carton, which i painted with light and dark watercolours, Walnut Stain Distress ink and then spritzed with Buccaneer Bronze Lindy’s Stamp Gang Moonshadow Mist. I stuck them down with Matte Mod Podge onto a piece of cardboard (cut from a cereal packet!) and brushed the MP all over, making sure all of the pieces hung over the backing cardboard to hide it. I saw this idea on Vivian Keh‘s site and thought it was very cool!
The diecut Ladybird was then mounted on dimensional adhesive. By the way, I only discovered Vivian’s site recently. It is worth checking out her projects – they are inspired and very creative. I plan to try her glue gun technique in the near future.
Using the egg carton got me thinking about all the other household items I have innocuously lying around that could be put to good crafting use. This weekend I used bay leaves, salt, sugar, and aluminium foil (as well as the aforementioned cereal and egg boxes). Go hunting – you’ll soon find out what I mean. Although it will mean more trips to Walmart*…
Jenny
*Other grocery retailers are also viable options 😀
