Something Saturday - Black Ice

Hi there Creators,

Today I'm showing off this Black Ice technique, all you need is silver foil cardstock, stazon black ink and a stamp set.

The basics of it is: stamp carefully onto the silver foil with Stazon Black ink (the stamp will tend to want to move slightly when you stamp on foil), allow to dry then drag the stazon ink pad across the foil card.   You end up with a sort of aged looking Sepia/Black & white image, I think it's really cool - let me know what you think 😃

Here is the card I made up before the video, I thought the Heron Habitat stamp set would look good with this technique, reminds me of old Chinese pictures, I ended up using the Heron Habitat bundle (dies and stamps) as I do love the gorgeous tags in it, and thought the long wave type die would look good on the side

 

Then this piece of foil is the one I actually stamp up in the video, and this is how I made the card with it, there are actually 3 different foils in the Silver Foil Specialty Pack, there's a Brushed finish, Matte Finish and Mirrored Finish.  The one above is the mirrored finish, this card is the Matte finish.

In the video there was one piece of foil (the brushed finish) that didn't go according to plan.  So I figured if life gives you lemons.... make lemonade 🤣, so here's what happened to that piece of foil card that got accidentally bent, after the ink rubbed off (it was not good! lol)  I figured seeing as it already had a crease mark I might as well give it more, then I wondered what it would look like if I heat embossed it with gold......  By the way, don't you just love the crispness of the stamped images?  They are called DistINKtive Stamps (it is trademarked to Stampin' Up!), and give a layered look within one stamp, still amazes me that a stamped image can look so amazing.

Quite an interesting effect!  what do you think?  what I did was wiped the versamark over it once I'd creased it up, and dusted over the gold embossing powder, then brushed a heap off (or it would have been completely covered!), and heat set it

If you missed out on seeing the video, here it is....

Let me know what you think (especially about whether my "oopsie" card worked)

I hope this inspires you to create

God Bless love

Heather xox

Something Saturday - Joseph's Coat

Hi Creators, 

A friend mentioned recently seeing someone doing this technique and suggested I did it as a video, it's one of my favourite techniques although I haven't done it for ages, and I hadn't done it since we had Blending Brushes, Oh my goodness it's a game changer - so much easier!

It's called Josephs coat for relatively obvious reasons - that you get a beautiful multi-coloured pattern.

Anyway on to the photos, here is the one I created in the video, I'm quite impressed with how it turned out, as I really couldn't see where I'd stamped so I was kind of guessing 🤣  I forgot to use my embossing buddy hence the lighter areas where the embossing powder stuck to the cardstock, all in all though I'm happy with it.

And my finished card, I decided to minimise the bits that the excess embossing powder stuck to by popping some vellum over the top, it allows the pattern to show through, and I've heat embossed the saying with white powder.  Oh, the Stamp set I used is Natures Prints Stamps such a lovely delicate set. (click the link to see the whole set)
 

 

I've also used some of my latest bling: Fine Sparkle Adhesive Backed Gems  Bought these to share with my Craft@Home group, and have to admit I rather like them 😃

The first piece I made up was this one, using the Art Gallery Stamp set

 

And some more of the Fine Sparkle gems.....

 

 

To do this you'll need blending brushes, some bright colours and a dark colour.  Also Versamark, clear embossing powder, an embossing buddy and heat tool 

You start off by adding bright colours randomly to your cardstock, then use the embossing buddy to reduce the static on your card before stamping using Versamark, dust over with clear embossing powder and heat set it.  Lastly brush the dark colour over top thoroughly, and using a tissue wipe off the excess from the clear embossed images.  and Voila your images will pop off the page!

 If you missed the video, here it is:

 

I hope this inspires you to have a go too

God Bless love

Heather xox

Something Saturday - Snow & Mice

 Hi there Creators

Snow way - Snow and Mice!  (been waiting to say that for ages 🤣)

Ok, this week I thought I'd show off the Snowfall Accents Puff Paint, it's so fascinating!  to begin with it's this watery liquid, that you can dot/draw on, then magic happens when you heat it up with the heat tool, and it becomes this puffy snow stuff!  I think it works well with the Caroling Mice host set (you can only get this set if you purchase over $250 of goodies or host a party/ gather up orders to get you over $250)

Here's the 2 cards I made before the video:

This one first, which is kind of hard to photograph the white snow on white card (umm didn't think that one through lol)

 So then I got smart and went with night of navy (which makes sense as I'm envisioning the mouse singing in the night)  I've coloured a bit of green watercolour pencil into the gaps in the snow to give the ground a bit more of a grassy effect.  I thought the Merry Melody embossing folder would go well with this too.

So then I thought I should do something else and Tom (hubby) suggested waves - perfect!

I think it works really well as the "froth" in the waves crashing over using this gorgeous Waves of Inspiration stamp set

If you missed the the video, here it is 😃

I hope this inspires you to create.

Happy Crafting

God Bless love

Heather xox

Cards for October class

 Hi there Creators,

these are the cards we'll be making in my classes next month, the class dates are: Wednesday 5th 10.30am in Laanecoorie, Thursday 6th 7pm in Laanecoorie and Saturday 8th 10.30am in Maryborough.

I thought we'd do 2 Christmas cards again this month, as we work our way up to 3 in November and 4 in December 🤣

This first card uses Quatrefoil embossing folder, then the Handmade wishes bundle (stamps and punch)  I love this punch I think it's so versatile!  I did do a blog/video on it back in July, you can see it here if you want to find out just how versatile it is: https://mccarthyheather.blogspot.com/2022/07/something-saturday-handmade-tag-punch.html,  for some reason this embossing folder to me looks "Christmassy"  To see what I used click here: What Heather Used

Last time someone mentioned that we hadn't done much by way of embossing folders recently, so this month we're rectifying that 😃  This next card uses Charming Landscapes Embossing Folder (there's 2 in the pack, the other one has mountains, which also might work with this, umm might have to play around with that one too!  Anyway I've also used the Wisteria Wishes Stamp set.  To check out what I used click here: What Heather Used.

Next Up, I was thinking I haven't used my Jar punch for a while, and I thought it would be cute to use it as a little fish bowl, then I had the saying stamped directly on the card, but it went a bit "skewiff" However there's always a way to fix these things 🤣  I quite like combining my "sea'y" stamp sets, so this combines Friends are like Seashells and A Fish & a Wish, and having not found a good use for the white pieces of Vellum Layering designs previously I'm quite happy with the strip of it down the side of this card.  You probably can't see this in the photo, but I've added some window sheeting on top of the jar to make it look more glass-like.  To see what I used click here: What Heather Used

Last but not least, I thought it would be nice to do a "fancy fold card" it is quite simple but it packs a bit of a wow (I hope)  I love this spiral or plaited look down the side.  Check out what I used here: 

What Heather Used

Do let me know if you can join me at any of the classes (Laanecoorie one's do have a capacity limit, so get in quick!).  If you can't make it I hope these inspire you to create in your space.

God Bless love 

Heather xox

Something Saturday - Explosion card

 Hi there Creators,

Today on the back of doing an explosion card with the kids at school for Father's Day, I thought I'd make up one for a video.

I've used the gorgeous Abigail Rose Designer Paper, love the soft muted colours, in the video I end up making the innards for 2 cards, so here are the finished cards.....

I decided to go nice and simple and let the gorgeous card speak for itself a bit of the Natural finish ribbon, and some of the Iridescent Rhinestones (gee these go with everything!)

Then on to the inside of the card, which is what I show how to create in the video, I've used a bit of vellum to pop the saying onto.

 

To get the colour to stay on the vellum, first I've inked my stamp in Versmark, so the ink will stay wet for long enough, then inked it in my colour (in this case Early Espresso - which turned out pinker than I expected!🤣 (if you ink with colour then ink with versamark you'll end up with ink in your versamark pad!) Then stamped and added clear embossing powder, then heat set it.  It's the only way to get a colour other than Stazon to stay on vellum!

Then the other card I fussy cut out one of the flower bouquets from another sheet of the Abigail Rose paper, and popped this up on dimensionals onto another piece of the designer paper

then inside the card, again I used the versamark/ink/clear heat emboss trick on the vellum.  This time I went with soft suede which seems to come out a truer colour!

If you missed seeing the video, here it is.....

 

I hope this inspires you to have a go too.

God Bless love

Heather xox

Something Saturday - A little something with Vellum

 Hi there Creators

A friend of mine, when I asked her if there was anything she'd like to see on my videos commented that vellum would be good (how it turns white when pressure is added to it)

For those of you who have done Pergamano work you'll know all about this, and Pergamano is all about vellum and the stunning effects you can get with it although it is somewhat painstaking! (it's been quite a few years since I did Pergamano work), however I happy to say there is a much quicker and simpler way to get some really cool effects with vellum 😃

First up, I had (before the video) made up this card, as you can see I've used the Wintry 3D embossing folder to create the snowflakes using vellum, I've actually used the Iridescent rhinestones for the 'bling' but coloured them with the dark Night of Navy Stampin' Blend (bear in mind the Stampin' blends are alcohol based so don't rub off if you use them to colour embellishments or ribbon).  Also if you're going to stamp on Vellum, you'll need to either use Stazon Ink, as waterbased inks will rub off, or stamp with Versamark and heat emboss with whatever colour suits your work.

I wanted to try out my new Gingham embossing folder next , and as I only wanted the pattern 1/2 way up the vellum I've put the Vellum all the way into the folder then the folder into my Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine sideways, so that I could run the folder only 1/2 way into the machine before backing it out again, If you put the vellum only partially into the folder (so the vellum sticks out at one end) and run it all the way through you end up with a line where the folder stops, and I didn't want that, I wanted it to kind of fade into the vellum rather than stopping abruptly.  Then I figured the Round and Square brads kind of went nicely with the design and also the Classic Matte Dots (I'm going with this being a 'bloke'y' card!)

Then lastly I've used my Simply scored Scoring Tool, the great thing about the Stampin' Up! one is that it's actually 12x12 so you can fit your whole scrap book papers into it (admittedly it does take up a fair bit of space)  Anyway I cut the vellum to 4" x 5 1/2" so I could score it into 1/2" blocks.

I find some of the designer paper a bit too dark, so I thought this would be a good way to lighten it up but still see it, I added a saying from Good Feeling Stamps, and used some of the cute little Loose flower flourishes that I usually forget about!  the leaves are cut using the Bough punch, you don't have to use the whole punch I just cut a couple of leaves off the end.  Oh and I added some of the iridescent pearl basic jewels in the centre of the flourishes, although they have sticky backs I did fill up the centre of the flowers with a bit of tombow first to make sure they definitely stuck well (seems to have worked 😉)

If you missed the video here it is: 

I hope this inspires you to have a play with your vellum and see what you can create!

God Bless love

Heather xox

Something Saturday - Using up Kit Scraps

 Hi there Creators

today I turn to scrap booking (very rare for me!), but I had some scrap pieces left over from last weeks kit after I'd pushed out the pieces I was using, and for some reason I felt they needed photos in the middle of them - or it could have been that I was going through a draw and discovered photos (from 8 years ago)  that I'd done nothing with🤣

One way or another I ended up doing a video to give you ideas as to how you could use them.😊  However as I didn't finish off the pages in the video, here they are for you to check out.....

In the video I create this blue piece with the 2 photos and white piece to write on

Then this section with the heart and the 2 photos beside it was the other one I showed off in the video

I've also used the Fabulous Frames Dies on the bottom photos

 

 

This next middle section was a piece from the kit that I thought the small photos of the boys on the toboggans would look good in I used one of the Heart punches for the middle top photo and used the Alphabest bundle for the lettering.  Oh and as it was snow I couldn't resist using a wide strip of the beautiful Snowflake Specialty Vellum

 

Again the Fabulous frames dies came into play with this next page, I've always thought the corners would look good on a scrap page.

 

 

And the last page is my usual scrap book style of shove as many photos as I can onto a page (I like the collage look!) but as I also wanted to show off a bit of the paper underneath I chose to write on a piece of vellum

Now I just have to find a scrap book album to put them in - as I do this so rarely I have managed to lose it, and apparently Stampin' Up! no longer sell 12 x 12 scrapbooking albums or page protectors - just one of those things you never look for until you need it (oops!)  Maybe I should have stuck to the 8x6" album size that we do have!  Little late now.....

Anyway in case you missed the video, here it is....

I hope you've found this useful and it inspires you to do something with your left over scraps

God Bless love

Heather xox