Playing with H20s

I wanted to play with my Sheena Douglas stamps again today, and also to use my much neglected H2Os.

I had already made the flowers using the Pebeo Fantasy paints when playing last week, so these were the basis of the colours I wanted to use.

The background was a wash of H2Os and mica powders.  I tried many variations, before I decided to use this background.  (some were done on watercolour card, , and some had the swirl painted with H2Os, during the process of deciding the effect I wanted!)  This one was actually done on normal 160g white card.

I then stamped the swirly spray from Sheena's Flower Power set, and coloured it with Promarkers; then added glossy accents to give it dimension and added the enamelled flowers.

I created the 70 and the sentiment in CAP2 , creating an embossed effect on the 70, which was cut out and then glazed with glossy accents again.  

For the sentiment I used one of the CAP special effects   to which some background colour was added using an Ink Duster brush, and Big & Juicy "Spice" inkpad.  This was then edged with a black  Promarker and glossy accents added to the letters.

Again this has been a bit of a deviation from my normal card - but I had a lot of messy fun achieving it!

Thanks for dropping by.  Hope you like the card.

Mags

A Little Bit Sketchy meets Fantasy Paint Fusion

Inspired by Sheena Douglas's new stamp range which I received this week, I created this card from my daughter.

Finished Card

The background was stamped on beige pearlescent card using the Always Floral stamps, and the leaves coloured in with black Promarkers and then over-painted with a turquoise H20 and some white mica powder for highlights.  The flowers were from the same set and the small ones were treated the same as the leaves, but the large one was outlined with antique lead liner, and then painted with a blue Pebeo fantasy paint, and cut out when dry.  Some matching gems were then added.

The topper was then matted on to black pearlescent card and the basic card stock was white pearlescent card.

For the sentiment I worked out the size I wanted and created most of it (words and flourishes) using CAP2,  and once it was printed off I stamped the little flowers from the Always Floral set in London Fog, and then "distressed" it with a turquoise from my Big and Juicy Mountain Meadow, using an ink blending brush, and edged it with Black Promarker, before matting onto some more Black pearlescent card.

I hope my daughter likes it - the flowers are her favourite colour! 

Work in Progress

For those of you that know my usual style of card, this is something quite different for me !!!!! - but I have to thank Sheena for the inspiration.  I can see me using these stamps on normal paint fusion type projects, as the leaf spray is really useful.  I can also see me using them with the Pebeo paints.  It's not often I do a lot of stamping, but I know what I like and I could see the versatility of these stamps.

Thanks for popping by.

Mags

Birthday Cake

It is my daughter's birthday on Monday and I have made this cake for her:

Birthday CAke

as you can see I used some of the little painted discs that I made the other day.  When I made the sponge I made extra mixture to make some fairy cakes.  The cake is half chocolate, half lemon sponge (using the Batter Daddy bought from Joanna Sheen's shop.  I then used the remaining mix to make some lemon cupcakes and some chocolate cupcakes.

a selection of cupcakes

I don't profess to be a cupcake maker, so I am still experimenting!  The chocolate cupcakes, were spread with buttercream dipped in chocolate sprinkles and then more buttercream piped around the edges.

The lemon cakes were decorated with buttercream and then sugarpaste which had been "embossed " and then dusted with blue dust. (click on the picture and you will see the embossing more clearly)  Like the chocolate ones I added a rosette of buttercream and placed some more of the discs on them.  For three of them I piped some roses on a cocktail stick (I would have done more, but the buttercream was getting warm and didn't want to play - I must admit I normally prefer to make the roses in Royal Icing.)

OK so they are not "perfick", but they taste good!

Mags

Man's card

Oh how I hate men's cards!   However, thanks to my MCS disks and my CAP2 programme I came up with this for my nephew's birthday this week.

The background and the steering wheel were CAP elements, and the "Have a Great Day" was also created in CAP.  The rest of the elements were from MCS.  I used the stencil tool to create the musical notes in the glasses.

Oh yes and I created the imitation arrow using CAP2, which if you click on the image you will see marks the "double 19" on the dartboard for his age!

Mags

Fantasy Painting

At last I have got around to trying out my Pebeo Fantasy and Moon paints.  Only had them a few months!  

I did have a teeny tiny play when I first got themto see their effect on a bit of card, although the intention was to use them on jewellery, as that was what the demonstrator at the Bead Show was doing......... and then Sheena Douglas brought out a range of them and some stamps to go with them.  Naturally I bought the stamps, but not the paints as I had already got the two starter sets.  I then had to find somewhere that sold the tubes of liner - fortunately I found a place fairly local to us that stocked them.  So I was all set to go and then what happened? - Christmas!

Anyway here is my first serious attempt using one of Sheena's stamps and the imitation lead liner on pearlised card.

I used Turquoise Fantasy Moon for the flowers, and got a bit adventurous and added some Eggshell White from the Fantasy Prisme collection, with Apricot (Moon) for the centres.  The leaves were done with Emerald (Prisme).  The outline is the Imitation Lead liner.  

The outline done before adding the paint

It is a fairly easy technique to apply the paint (having first given the paints a good stir) - you just apply with the end of a cocktail stick and drip the paint in and then move it around to fill the outlines.

This show the effect whilst paint still wet

The finished  project - dried.

I really love the effect.  I am a great fan of Moorcraft pottery - and this is a very similar effect.  So now I am looking for other things I can paint over the summer with a view to more handmade Christmas gifts.  The paint is suitable for all surfaces - so it is going to be fun finding items to paint.

Finally I did try another stamp and a slightly different technique of just painting on the paint, but as you can see the effect wasn't as good, (and I don't think I stirred the paint enough either!).  I used pale gold liner for this one.  It did start off with more paint in the petals, but I couldn't see the detail of the lines in the flower, so removed some with a brush.  It pays to experiment - as I shan't do it this way again - I shall go back to using the cocktail stick and getting a better "enamelled" finish.  (However, I might experiment with some glossy accents over the top of this one in the meantime!)

Using a paint brush to apply the paint.

Thanks for popping by.

Mags

Painting on icing

Well -  inspired by Stephanie Weightman, I have been trying out some painting on icing.  Basically you use powder dusts and confectioners varnish and then do your one stroke painting.

This was my first attempt on a plaque - bit busy but I was practising and trying to get the feel of it.   Need a little practise on my ribbon painting - lol!  For this attempt I used leaf glaze rather than full strength confectioner's glaze. (so for the uninitiated about half strength)

As I had an odd  bit of sugarpaste left over in the cupboard, I decided to cut out two sizes of circles using a glass (well two sizes of glass).  I let these set hard for a couple of days and then attempted to make some little "toppers" that I can either use on cupcakes or around the edge of a cake.

The blues ones on the left were painted using full leaf glaze, but I experimented with the pink and the blue ones on the right, by just painting with confectioner's "paint mate".  I found it slightly easier to work with this and the finished result wasn't a lot different.   

As you can see I attempted to do some leaves on the little plaques as well, but they just didn't seem to work, so I just painted single roses in the end.  I did do one daisy.  I wasn't sure that the daisy was going to look right, but later when I added the centre it looked OK - so wish I had done a few more of those - well there is always next time!

It is my daughter's birthday next week - so hopefully I will use these and will be able to share a finished cake,

Trying again!

Well it appears Carol had the answer - I had to use Google Chrome!  I do hate being dictated to (I  do not like Chrome!)  (and Chrome seems to want me to use american spellings too! sorry Google - I am English and I know how to spell!   will have to see how to stop that now! grrrr)

Anyway here are a few things I have been up to!

First two are variations on a design for two friends birthdays done with Serif  CAP2.  The silk effect background is from a Joanna Sheen CD, and the colour altered as required.

using my favourite scrabble tiles

similar design, but with  faux embroidery added to the background.

using up some stash

using Forever Friends cd

first attempt at a cha-cha scarf - using crochet rather than knitting to create it
(daughter like it so much - made her one with rest of yarn )

a little owl made with a loom kit  (bought the kits for chrimbo pressie for the girls....
.... and decided I needed one too!

Secretly chuffed with the scarf as I am useless at knitting, and always wanted to try the cha-cha yarn; and the little owl was fun to make.  When I bought the yarn for the scarf it was a pretty random choice of colour - and blow me down a couple of days later, I saw some khaki jeggings which exactly matched in Sainsburys - well it would have been rude not to buy them!

A Belated Happy New Year

Well there is no excuse is there - I just haven't remembered to blog and that is it .

I thought I would share some of the bits I have done so far this month, but it looks like Blogger doesn't want to talk to my computer, as the photo upload link has gone into a sulk.

Hopefully I can sort it soon.   In the meantime - Happy Crafting!

Mags