Distress inks and foam blending fun!!

OK...so I've been playing with my seldom used Distress inks and my blending foam pads.... yes... your fingers do get all dirty... but the results are totally amazing... I love anything torn, distressed or old.. so this is just up my alley!!

STEP ONE:


This is a plain length of cream shimmer card... I started out blending the Weathered Wood distress ink onto the cream  card stock. A inkssentials craft sheet is imprtant when blending, I'll try to explain, but its alot easier when someone actually shows you... lay your card across your craft sheet and blend with your foam pad running the foam from the craft sheet onto your card... this way... the ink covers the card smoother and blends a lot easier... you won't get those blotches of color on your card... instead it will blend smoothly..need help.. pop by and I'll show you how 'p)





STEP TWO:


 I added Vintage photo over the previous inking....try to cover areas not previously covered with the 1st color... you want to see some of the 1st color coming thru.







STEP THREE:


My Fired brick pad is very wet... so I really had to use a soft touch when inking the blending foam... and also when introducing it onto my card.


It's starting to take shape.. I am getting to mixture of colors I am looking for. 





FINAL STEP


I wanted to tone down the red a bit, so I added some more Weathered wood to the equation... 


I used this background on my Q R S swap we currently have on the go... I will load the completed project after the swap has been sent out to my group... I can't possibly spoil the surprise for those 13 ladies... so PLEEZ bear with me...


thnx for popping by...


with inky fingers


hugz


shamela

A special 50th Brithday

One of my dearest friends has a special friend celebrating her 50th Birthday this week. When she asked me to make her a personalised card, I had no idea what her friend liked....she basically gave me carte blanche to do as I wished...


As I was about to score my card in half... I thought... OK.. why not make a gate fold card... and so a gate fold 50th birthday card was born...LOL...

Since this is a special 50th birthday card, I decided to use Curious metal card as a base, found this totally wonderful scrapbook paper in my stash which I thought gave a lovely ladylike soft finish. I saved the off cuts and used that for the embossed butterfly.

Stamped her name and the wording Happy Birthday in Versa watermark and embossed with gold embossing powder...phew.. haven't done that for a while.. I prefer the detailed embossing powder as one gets a much nicer cleaner finish... well worth the extra bucks... I also added some self adhesive pearls on a few flowers to add an extra bit of bling... 

I didn't know how I was going to add the number 50 to the card...and eventually decided to stick it onto a die cut butterfly and push the whole lot thru my wizard to emboss...finally using my butterfly cuttlebug die cut set...LOL... knew I would need it sometime... >vbg<... U know it was one of those just have to have's.... 

I initially printed my birthday poem onto a plain white page and decided it just didn't fit the part... so dove into my stash of patterned card and found this beauty which just fitted the part so beautifully... just enough pattern to still read the message. 


thanks for taking the time to pop by
hugz
shamela ;p)

Terrific Turquoise ATC

Well our card group has been at it again.... we recently held a Terrific Turquoise swap hosted by Debbie Harris... and what beauties our wonderful stampers came up with... .this was my contribution. I started with curious metal ice white card and brayered with Kaleidacolor I then spritzed the entire page with my fine spray water bottle and allowed the ink to blend and run which created this soft background. The card stock has its own sparkle so this is a really quick and easy background to make. (idea is courtesy of my friend Sheilah Simons in KZN). I stamped my image with Memories black ink and used glossy accents to apply flower soft for foliage in my basket and on the branches. Once dried I applied glossy accents to my bird and basket to accent it.

I punched the edges of a lighter shade of turquoise and layered my bird image onto it. To finish, stamped a background swirl onto the sides of the dark turquoise card with versa watermark ink and layered with bird image. To finish, I applied crystal stickles (my all time favourite). 

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek into my work. Have a wonderful weekend & TFL


hugz


shamela ;p)

A new toy for my shop!

I am soooo excited.... lucky me... I have added the luxury of a laser scanner to my shop... its taken me about 3 days to catalogue and scan all my stamps, inks and embellishments onto my PC.... only the paper and card to go.... but once this is done, I will have the luxury of just scanning and printing an invoice... no more tedious handwritten invoices... so from now on... its a quicker exit... LOL.... will load some pics soon... it doesn't look impressive... but  I am just lovin it!

hope you can visit soon...lots of new Penny Black have arrived and soon Hero Arts will have to be crammed on the shelves..

thanks to all who have already popped in ;p)

hugz and thanks for popping by

shamela

Some more pics of our school holiday programme

We did lots of new things this holiday.... we created the most amazing little booklet from scratch.... a great way to use up all your bits of card/paper and have some fun embellishing the cover. We opted to bind it with ribbon & fibres, but you can use binding rings or your zutter if you are lucky enough to have one. 

the side of the card is scored so your little book will close and open easily...please feel free to contact me if you would like to find out how to make your own booklet.  this can be adapted to any size ane even be made into a mini album, baby year book...the list is endless.  I'll post pics of my guest book also made earlier this year ;p)

TFL

Have a great day

hugz

shamela ;p)

Taahierah opted to use her name as the title for her book and because her name was too long for the cover, she decided to place the letters individually around the T - cool idea Taahierah... 

Ayesha wanted to use her book as a diary... her wording ":life is about celebrating the moments"  from Hero Arts was so apt for a diary... and this from a 7 year old...  smart thinking ;p)
I  allow complete artistic freedom to my students, so all colours, styles, setting out of covers are all their own ideas.... with a little bit of guidance from me...

and this is what the little people came up with.....

I have always found working with children expands my horizons..they have such a fresh way of looking at life and have no inhibitions.... I do love teaching my classes because even though I am there to teach, help and guide them, I enjoy allowing them the freedom to choose their own colors, inks, stamps and titles for their scrapbook pages and cards..... do take a look at the color combinations and ideas they came up with... the basic sketch was a guideline, the the rest were all theirs.....mummy's are gonna have to go out and buy picture frames for these beauties.... not too bad for first time scrappers ;p)