Sparkle Christmas card and stamping and embossing help

Here is my beautiful sparkling Wreath card using the lovely stamp by Woodware that I have designed for The Fruit Pixie. The stamp is a clear cling stamp so you will need a clear block to attach it too. These blocks are re usable so you only need to buy them once. You then take the clear stamp and peel it off the packaging and attach it to you block. Place your block on a level surface, stamp side up and apply the ink evenly across the whole stamp using light taps. You should always apply the ink to the stamp, don't push the stamp into your ink pad or you will just end up with an inky mess and you will wast a lot of ink.   Then turn your stamp over and gently press it onto your card. Always keep one hand in the middle of the stamp block at all times to stop it rocking. Gently press over the whole stamp to push the ink onto the card, you don't need huge pressure or you will squash you stamp and the image will be blurred. Small stamps don't need as much pressure as large ones. Each stamp is different so I always try out a stamp on scrap paper to see how much ink and pressure you need to get a good image before I apply it to my project.  If it's the first time you have stamped I would recommend stamping on a separate piece of card to your project and then cutting it out, either as a topper or cut around it, that way if it doesn't quite go to plan you have not spoiled a card you have worked for hours on. The more you stamp the more confident you will get.  The great thing about clear stamps is you can see through them so you can place them exactly where you want them. After stamping wash them in soapy water and leave them to air dry or use a stamp cleaner. Once dry put them back on the packaging and keep them in a cool dark place. If your ink has stained your stamp don't worry this happens, they will still stamp well. Once you have mastered stamping you will want to have a go at heat embossing, which is what I have done on my card.

To heat emboss you will need an embossing ink some embossing powder and a heat gun. For this card I have used a red tinsel embossing powder I have had for about 15 years or more so the powder will never go off!

To heat emboss you ink up your stamp with an embossing ink and stamp onto your card. Then cover your stamped image in your embosssing powder as you used to do glue and glitter as a child. It's a good idea to have a scrap piece of paper under your project so you can pour the excess powder onto it then back into the pot. You will notice just how little you will have used. Give the card a good few taps to get the excess off the card. If you have trouble with  embossing powder sticking to other areas of you card try wiping an anti static bag over your card before you stamp, it really dose help.

You then need your heat gun. Now they may look like a hairdryer but they don't blow like a hairdryer and get much hotter. If you use a hairdryer you will just blow all the powder off your card, nothing else. Now as I said the heat gun dose get hot so if your card is small you might want to hold it using a peg so you don't burn you fingers and of course don't let children do it. 

Turn your heat gun on and let it just run for 10 seconds or so to get hot, every heat gun is different and you will get to know yours. Once it is running hot hold it over a part of your image and wait for it to melt, it won't take long and once it has melted to a smooth surface immediately move on to the next bit. Keep going until it is all melted to a smooth shiny surface. Don't keep it on a melted part or it will melt into the card and don't wave it over the image or it will not melt evenly. Leave to cool before you touch it. If you find places where it hasn't melted then just go back in and melt it down.

This process is mesmerising, no matter how many hundreds of times you see it happen it is still magic!

So perhaps have a go at stamping or embossing if you have never tried it before it dose open up a whole other world. Or if, like me you haven't done it for a few years, get out your embossing powders and play with them. 

You can find all you need for you card in the shop 

The Woodware Berry Wreath stamp -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/woodware-clear-magic-stamp-berry-wreath-26345-p.asp

Acrylic blocks -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/acrylic-block-5-x-3-12-10780-p.asp

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/acrylic-block-6-12-x-5-10776-p.asp

 Embossing Ink for you stamp -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/embossing-inks-407-c.asp

Embossing powders -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer-embossing-powders-312-c.asp

An anti static bag wiped over the card before you stamp and add you embossing powders really dose stop the powder from sticking where you don't want it, so only on the ink!

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/woodware-magic-anti-static-pad-23796-p.asp

If you have any questions about stamping and heat embossing please ask me, either by email or here or on The Fruit Pixie face book page and I will do my best to help.

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The magic of Christmas card

    The Fruit Pixie, who I design for has a lot of wonderful Christmas dies and I have used one of them from Couture Collections and Spellbinders to make this cute card. The merry Christmas die is one of my own.  

The base for this card was cut on my Silhouette Cameo but you could quite easily use a standard card base and get the same effect.   The background paper is from the Craftwork Cards Festive Chalkboard paper pack.         To give the buildings their glow I cut the die out in grey card then using scraps of yellow and orange card I stuck each piece to each individual building and trimmed the coloured card down. I then used my clear glitter pen to give it some sparkle. For Father Christmas I cut in once for the base colour in red then just covered the specific areas with the corresponding coloured card. So brown for the reindeer, gold for the sleigh runners etc then trimmed the and glued them to the respective places. It sounds a lot of work and I admit you wouldn't want to make 100 of them but it is enjoyable and looks great in the end. You can find the thing I used in the shop here - Sizzling house die - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/spellbinders-die-row-houses-23756-p.asp. Father Christmas die - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/couture-creations-dies-649-c.asp Craftwork cards Festive Chalkboard paper pack - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craftwork-cards-8-x-8-collection-pack-festive-chalkboard-25677-p.asp  

     

Bicycle birthday card

    I know we are rushing towards Christmas at what feels like top speed but I thought I would just stop to take a breath and make some cards using the Craftwork Cards Blackboard set before I start on the Christmas ideas.

   This is another great set from Craftwork Cards this time using a black background throughout. Now I don't use black really in my crafting but they released a Blackboard Christmas kit last year and I must admit I really enjoyed using it and the cards look lovely. So do give this kit or the Christmas one which is available in the shop too, a try they do make beautiful cards and, as all Craftwork cards kits, are so easy to use.

   This kit is the same as the others with a pad of papers, die cut toppers and a bag of their Candis

 For my first card I chose the bicycle paper in the pad. Their papers are designed so well, you can use the image on the paper by itself, as I have done here and there is still plenty of the paper to use in another project.

As you can see there are lots of other pastel colours you can use to compliment your image, I chose the soft duck egg blue from the Core-dinations range.

I chose one of the backing papers and backed it with the same colour Core dinations card.

Another of the papers in the pad has lots of little icons you can cut out and layer.

Then to finish off I used one of the die cut sentiments in the corner.

Add some spots of glitter pen and some shine on the berries using the a glaze pen and you are done.

You can find this kit in the shop here - 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craftwork-cards-8-x-8-collection-pack-chalkboard-25681-p.asp

The Christmas version here - 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craftwork-cards-8-x-8-collection-pack-festive-chalkboard-25677-p.asp

You can find ideas for using the Christmas version of this kit here - 

http://thefruitpixie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/chalkboard-christmas-cards.html

and 

http://thefruitpixie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/festive-chalkboard-christmas-countdown.html

and here - 

http://thefruitpixie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/craftworkcards-festive-chalkboard-from.html

The Core Dinations card here - 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/coredinations-super-assortment-nostalgia-15491-p.asp

The card bases here - 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/50-craft-uk-6-x-6-card-blanks-white-14478-p.asp

 Hope you like this card and have a look at the kits, they are something different to play with.

Something Wicked art journal

This year on the AJC ( Art Journal Caravan ) we had a Halloween journal to work in on the days leading up to Halloween. There was a challenge for each day with something to either use in your page, like a quote, or inspire you to write in your journal. Here in the UK Halloween has only taken off in a big way in my adult life so having no real childhood memories to journal about, plus I was away in Vienna for a week of it so had limited equipment to play with, I mainly chose the quotes and arty challenges to do. I also picked and chose my challenges rather than doing them in order use to being on holiday.  The Journal itself I made using watercolour paper for the pages and then a stif card to form the covers.    So here is my finished journal - 

This was my front cover, we had a few titles to chose from. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the letters

 

 

                              Page 1 is one of the poems given to us all hand lettered and then filled in using die cut bats and stars.  

                        Two challenges here. My potion for happiness and then on the right another saying all hand lettered   

                       The page on the left is an altered photo made into a witch,on the left another saying hand lettered with a lovely         witch cut with my Silhouette Cameo   

Now this was such fun, we had to write a story and then insert icons now and again. I used to love these as a child!

 

 

Another hand lettered page using die cuts I did using my Silhouette Cameo.

 

 

 

For the page on the right we had to use a reverse stencil. So I cut a 13 out with my Cameo and the put it on my page a used spray inks and then added to it using crayons.

The right page's challenge was you favourite Halloween film. One of mine is, as you can see, The Fearless Vampire killers which is a really funny film.

 

 

Then the last page, the challenge was a quote from Poe, of course it had to be The Raven. How can you possibly have Halloween without The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.  

 

Then the back cover. The 31 is the 13 I used as the reverse stencil switched to make 31.

 

I think you can see how much fun I had working in this journal. The Art Journal Caravan is full of gems tike this so do have a peek at it if you want to journal but are not sure how to start or want something a bit different to do in your journals.

 

                                                                        http://shoptangiebaxter.com/