Mixed Up Saturday

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,

From a rainy Gloucestershire,  we have rain forecast all day today, we really don't need any more surface water around here!  I hope it's drier and brighter where you are! 

Sue very kindly wrote us a Magazine Review for us, the free gifts are really useful, lets have a look.......

Simply cards & Papercraft Issue 251 review

This month has lots of Christmas and winter crafting ideas. The free gifts are both snowflake themed. One set of 11 stamps includes several sentiments and borders and from Pinkfresh studio there is a set of 4 matching stamps and dies

The first article using the freebies are cards designed by Nicky Gilburt. These cards are great for both Christmas and other winter events. The pink, blue and silver colour palette makes for some pretty cards. 

Tried & tested this month is the Spellbinders Betterpress letterpress system. 

The system helps you get a quality deep debossed letterpress effect simply. The basic set includes everything you need including a gorgeous floral Press Plate. You only need to add your die cutting machine. There are other Press Plates and starter set’s available too. You can use other card stock and inks but you may not get such a good result. I’m not sure I would use this system very often but maybe for those of you that make cards to sell you may find this is a handy addition to your stash. 

Claire Rhodes Brandon shows several different ways of adding colour to your embossing folders. They include using a brayer or paintbrush to roll ink onto the e.f. before adding your card stock and putting it through your machine as usual. Claire also uses watercolour paints to cover the embossed side of the card. I have tried that before with no luck, maybe I should have another go.

Here are some great off the page items designed by Sarah Jackman Read. Gift tags, gift boxes, gift card wallets and napkin rings are all made using the freebies and also the free downloadable matching papers, toppers and sentiments. In particular I love the unusual shape of the Snowflake wishes gift bag. I will definitely be making that. The gift card wallet is always handy and much nicer than just putting the gift card into an envelope isn’t it.

 As always if anyone would like more details about this issue please let me know.

Take care. Love Sue xx

Thanks Sue for another great Review,  the free gifts are worth the cost of the magazine, there are some great features too xxx

Some Colouring Techniques

I had a play with some ink pads and tissue paper to create backgrounds, I saw Marion Emberson try this technique with different products.  I used SU ink pads for this first one.  With the addition of some Gold Watercolour paint for added sparkle. 

Its so simple.....

Take some Tissue paper and scrunch it up, the more creases the better,  you then tap your scrunched tissue into your ink pad and randomly tap it onto your card, I masked off a square for a neater look, it dries quickly, I wanted a touch of shine, so I scrunched another piece of tissue and dipped it in my gold watercolour paint and did the same as with ink pads, I wasn't sure at first but as soon as I peeled the low tack tape off I loved it !! 

This second piece was inspired by Karen,  she had had a play with doing ink splatters with a fan brush, I have used mine to add finishing touches but never a full background.

So I took the same inks as before, squished them onto my glass mat and then spritzed with water,  i dipped my brush in and tapped the brush onto my scissors, the lighter you tap the finer the splatters.  I hope you can see the gold speckles in the close up, for those I used Gold Posca pen, I pumped it a little onto my glass mat and again spritzed with water,  then dipped the fan brush in and tapped away, I loved the delicate effect.  

Just a couple of different Colouring ideas for this weeks challenge, I have made these two pieces into cards that I will share with you next week ❤

I hope that you all have a super Saturday, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra

xxxxxx