Magical Winter Dawn (by Anne)

Good morning. Here is my first project with the lovely new Winter Dawn stamp. It is also my first go at parchment craft. It took a bit of getting used to using an embossing tool to add white highlights rather than adding shading for the colouring, like working in negative. Her eyes turned out to be a little scary but I was fairly pleased with the results. It gave my lady a very magical ethereal look. I hope that you like her.
Anne x.
Materials:

• Winter Dawn stamp
• Pearlescent white card, blue card and parchment
• Pergamano Tinta Ink (white)
• Alcohol ink pen (mid grey)
• Fine tipped white acrylic pen
• Stickles glitter glue (Diamond)
• Embossing mat and fine tipped embossing ball tools
• Needle tool and brass stencil for piercing
• Small poinsettia and snowflake dies, decorative layering dies

How it was made:

1. I created the card blank from an A4 sheet of pearl card folded in half. The largest die was placed on top such that it overhung the top edge to leave an opening hinge, then cut through both layers. The same die was used to cut a mat to glue onto the front and hide the flat top. The bottom was trimmed slightly so the card would stand without rocking.
2. A blue mat and white frame were then cut. I cut the parchment to fit inside the frame with a small border for gluing. I used the Tinta ink to stamp the image onto the parchment. Being new to parchment I really wasn’t sure what ink would work and I knew that this is designed for parchment. However, it is really designed to work with a dip pen. It did sort of work but the results weren’t the best and it was difficult to see the stamped image, especially from the back. I will have to research this. Maybe StazOn ink would work better?
3. I then used embossing tools to gently stroke the parchment on the reverse side to create the white ‘colouring’. Intermittently I let the parchment rest before further enhancing and whitening with the tools.
4. My poor lady ended up with very weird white eyes and eyebrows! I used the grey alcohol marker on the back to try and rescue her and add some shading. I also used alcohol blender to eliminate harsh lines drawn with the pen. I used the white pen to add the dots onto her pupils. I quite liked the shading and added some to her hair too.
5. The delicate snowflakes were a bit impossible to see from the back. So I simple used them as a guide for embossing the lines. I used a needle tool to punch through a brass stencil and add a little texture onto the background.
6. I glued the parchment to the inside edge of the white frame and mounted it onto the blue mat. Note: I don’t have the proper glue or snipping tools for parchment so it was a little tricky to work out how to attach it without the glue showing through. I used normal acrylic glue, hiding it under the edge of the frame and placed tiny dots behind the snowflakes where they would not be obvious. There are specialist parchment glues that are designed to dry clear and be hardly visible.
7. Finally I added the small die cut embellishments and added some glitter glue for sparkle.

I think I quite like this parchment stuff …. Oh dear …. Another addiction?

Gilded Heart (By Anne)

I created this one by recycling the clear packaging from the Flowering Baroque Heart clear stamp. Alternatively it could be stamped onto acetate using black Staz-On ink.

Materials:

• Image from the clear packaging coming with the Flowering Baroque Heart stamp
• 6X6 inch card blank, pink and black plain card
• Alcohol ink pens (teal, pinks, orange)
• Gilding flakes (gold mix) and acrylic glue
• Gilding wax (light and dark coppery gold)
• White gesso
• Stickles glitter glue (Diamond)
• Stick on faux brads (black)
• Ribbons (teal and pink)
• Embossing folder

How to make it:

1. Cut out the image from the packaging and colour the back with alcohol pens leaving the background clear.
2. Paint over the coloured areas with white gesso. This gives an opaque background to the translucent alcohol inks. Note: you need to work fairly quickly without over brushing the gesso as it will lift some of the colour from the inks. Leave to dry.
3. Apply a thin layer of acrylic glue to the back of the image and cover with gilding fakes, pressing down lightly. Leave to fully dry overnight. Once dry brush off excess flake with a sponge. Edge with a black alcohol marker and mount onto pink card (with acrylic glue) to frame the topper.
4. Use the embossing folder to emboss the black card. Lightly apply gold gilding wax to the raised edges. Trim and glue to pink card.
5. Wrap the panel with ribbon and glue onto the card front. Attach topper with 3D foam pads for dimension.
6. Finish with a few dots of glitter glue on the flowers, add faux brads and ribbon bow.

Flowering Baroque Heart Easel Cards (by Anne)

I love this month’s new Flowering Baroque Heart stamp from Chocolate Baroque. I just had to combine it with heart dies from my stash and some die cut flowers that I shaped to co-ordinate with the stamped floral image. I love creating shaped cards so decided on a set of easel cards using a large die cut bloom as a stopper.

I haven’t used my opaque gouache paints in ages so thought I would do something a little different with the colouring and stamp the image onto black card. I love the dramatic effect.

Materials:

• Flowering Baroque Heart clear stamp
• White, black, blue and teal plain card
• Versamark Inkpad
• Paints: opaque gouache (colours mixed: red, blues, teals, pinks) and gold water based paint with mica
• Alcohol ink pens (blues, teals, pinks)
• WOW embossing powder (Clear Gloss)
• Black PVA pearls
• Stickles glitter glue (Diamond)
• Fine tipped markers: black and white
• Heart and floral Dies
• 3D glue gel

How it was done:

1. I first cut the largest decorative heart, one in teal and one in black. A plain black heart was cut and glued onto the teal decorative heart. The Flowering Baroque Heart was then stamped directly onto the black card using Versamark. The images were then heat embossed with clear powder.
2. The images were coloured with the gouache paints, using the gold mica paint to colour the stamens. The outer border of the black decorative pearl heart was also coloured with gouache.
3. I used the plain heart dies to create the card blanks (in blue and teal) and inner black mats. The card was folded in half and the upper edge of the heart die placed so that it extended above and over the fold (cutting through both layers of card). The front panel was then scored horizontally to create the fold back for the easel. The topper was then glued onto the lower half of the front fold back.
4. The leaves and flowers were cut from thin white card and coloured with alcohol markers. I like using alcohol markers on 3D shaped items as the ink bleeds through colouring both sides of the card at once. They were shaped with a ball tool and embossing mat. 
5. Fine tipped pens were used to add faux stitching around the hearts. Black PVA pearls were dotted around the pearl heart frame. Glitter glue was applied to the flowers and stamped image for extra sparkle. The flowers were attached using 3D glue gel.

Another Babushka Scene (by Anne)

Good morning. I have created another scene using the lovely Babushka Russian Dolls. I did a bit of masking to create the background but stamped, shaped and cut out the dolls to layer onto the scene.

Happy crafting, Anne x.

Materials used:

• Babushka and Magical Landscapes stamp sets
• A6 shaped card blank and white stamping card
• Waste copy paper to create masks
• Ranger Archival Inkpad (Coffee)
• Watercolour pens
• Stickles glitter glue (Diamond)
• Brown marker pen

How it was done:

1. Stamped the background buildings using masks to cover the foreground images – straight onto the card front.
2. Stamped the dolls and cut out.
3. Used a marker to finish the scene and to edge (frame) the card.
4. Coloured  the scene and dolls with watercolour pens.
5. Shaped and glued the dolls onto the scene with 3D glue gel.
6. Finished with a little glitter glue for sparkle.