Crazicards Crafty Blog

I really thought I had already posted my original attempts at Paint Fusion but alas I was mistaken, either that or the blog fairies took them ha! ha!

So here they are in no particular order - my first attempts at paint Fusion....

First off we have the Poppies. They are painted onto simple grey board which has been painted with a dark coloured emulsion paint and then crackled with PVA and a lighter coloured emulsion paint.

I made it into a tag ready to go onto a card and then stamped and embossed the swirls and the word Poppies with Rich Gold WoW powder.

To finish off I also edged the tag with the Rich Gold. I really must try more of these poppies as they are so pretty.

Next up was the Berries. Again I prepared the grey board using emulsion paint but this time I didn't crackle, I tried to distress the paint by over heating it in places which caused bubbles to form in the paint.

The leaves were the hardest to paint here, it took 3 goes to get them looking like this, lol.

I added the berries using my thumb and the rubber off my pencil, not quite plump enough for me, next time I need to find someone with bigger thumbs to assist me ...

Again I stamped and embossed the swirls and the wording but this time using  Brass WOW powder.

Next up was the Lavender from Simply Sweet. I made another tag, but for some reason the crackle didn't quite crackle and the end result  looked more like a bad paint job with a slight surface crackle. If you click on the image and take a look at the larger image you can just about see what I mean.

Anyway as it was my first attempt I carried on in the hope that I could rescue the end result with distressed inks. And I think it worked out quite well in the end.

Last but not least I had a go at the Daisies. Again on a crackled grey board. I found these a little difficult to start off with. Judging the right amount of paint to use was a little tricky but I persevered and after several layers I think I got the hang of it. I need to work on my centres but for a first attempt I was chuffed to bits.

I have already posted my 2nd and 3rd attempts at paint fusion you can see them in the post before this one.  I now have many ideas in my head of where to take this next so pop back soon for my next adventures in Paint Fusion...

Until next time Happy Crafting xxx

Over the last week or so I have been playing with my Paint Fusion stamps again but this time I decided to be a little more adventurous and paint onto Canvas instead of board.

This first painting is on a small A5 ready primed canvas which cost a couple of pounds off the internet. I wasn't sure if it would take the emulsion paint or allow me to crackle it but it did and the result was fabulous. It did take a little patience though.

For this painting I used the Sheena Douglas Paint Fusion Daisy Stamp Set and the little bee from the promotional Butterfly stamp set. I used Slate Grey Adirondak ink for stamping. And I used my Rich Gold WoW powder to emboss the swirls and the little bees.

In order to use the stamps I had to use them off the block, inking them up and them pressing them down with my fingers. The impressions weren't brilliant but they were enough to give me a guide. I used a small box underneath for support when I stamped the word Daisy which made it a little easier.

I think the end result turned out great and it gave me a lot more confidence for my next challenge...


This is a 12" x 10" canvas I bought from the pound shop that now resides at our old Woolworth store. The actual frame is a bit rough but the canvas is fine and accepted the acrylic paints quite well for a cheap buy.

For this painting I used Slate Grey Adirondak ink to stamp the Sheena "A little bit Sketchy" Believe stamp set and I used the Berries Paint Fusion Stamp Set for the corners.

This picture took a couple of days to do and I am really chuffed with how it turned out, and it made my day when someone told me it looked like a picture bought from the shop.. I am a happy crafter now....

So now onto a new challenge of Sweet Peas and Roses, should be fun.

Until next time, Happy Crafting x

 I love to receive pictures from my customers showing me what they have been up to, so today I thought I would show you three cards sent in by Ina Wilkinson from Lancashire.


This fabulous card was stamped using the "A Little Bit Sketchy Cheers" stamp set from Sheena Douglas.




Ina said this was here first attempt at this style of card. And a fantastic first attempt it is too I am sure you will agree.

Ina also created this gorgeous double easel card which has been stamped and coloured in using some Cosmic Shimmer Paints and also Promarkers .

This a really pretty card and a lot of work has gone into it. I just love these double easel cards it gives the card so much more interest than the traditional single sided card.
 

And finally this is a gorgeous cross over card that Ina made using her Hougie Board.

The Kimono is a peel off and Ina has coloured it in using Promarkers and cosmic shimmer paints. Peel off borders have been used to add interest to the card edges and I na has also added one or two peel off butterflies to finish off.

Another terrific card.

Well done Ina I am sure the lucky recipients of these gorgeous cards were very happy.  Your cards are now in the Crazicards Gallery on my website for all my visitors to see.

Unit next time Happy Crafting xxx

In my stash box I have had a jar of Gesso for ages and to honest I have only ever used it once or twice to prime my projects before painting them with acrylic paints.

I have never really thought about using it for anything other that it's original purpose of priming my projects until today.

So what is Gesso?  I hear you say....

Well Gesso is traditionally used by artists to prime their canvas or any other surface ready for painting with oil or acrylic paints.

It is very much like white acrylic paint but is much thinner in texture, and when it dries it dries hard making the surface it is painted onto very stiff. It also has a slight texture to it.

The beauty of Gesso is that you can apply it to almost any surface, and then you can paint on that surface with acrylic or oil paint. For example, you can apply a layer or two of Gesso to an old CD or an old vinyl record and once it is dry you can paint on to it with acrylic or oil paints. The possibilities are endless!

So this month I decided to try something a little different with my Gesso and I loved the results so much I made into this month tutorial. I hope you will enjoy having a play too..

Small Note: I know a lot of people might not have any Gesso in their crafty stash so instead of Gesso you can also use your Acrylic Paints. The results aren't exactly the same as your paints are coloured  but the principle is the same so you can follow this tutorial but substitute the Gesso for your Acrylic Paints instead.

What you will need:

• A jar or tube of gesso - I used white but you can use any colour you like.
• Stamps of your choice - I used my Artistic Affirmations stamp set from Chocolate baroque (formerly Elusive Images).
• Glue stick for sticking stamps to block if required.
• An old paint brush.
• A spare acrylic block or some form of smooth surface - all will become clear.
• Cosmic Shimmer Mists or misters of your choice.
• Plain card stock
• Kitchen Towel & Baby Wipes

Step 1

Take your Gesso and a paint brush and add a layer of the Gesso to your acrylic block or other smooth surface making sure not to make it too thick or too thin.

I used an acrylic block for this as it is easy to handle, but you can use a tin lid, your glass mat or anything similar that is smooth and will accept your Gesso.

TIP: Make sure you give your brush and block a thorough wash before the Gesso dries.

Step 2

Now take you chosen stamp and gently press down into your Gesso layer. Make sure not to press to hard as that will squish the Gesso into all the nooks and crannies of your stamps and when you stamp onto you card stock you will not get the desired effect.


You can use a paint brush to add the Gesso but I found that this filled in all the nooks and crannies on the stamps I used and the resulting stamped image was blurred some what.

It's best to practise this step several times so that you get a feel for how much Gesso to use and how hard to press down when adding the Gesso to your stamp. The clearer the print the better the end result will be.

Once your happy with the result cover the whole of your chosen card stock with stamped images. Then allow to dry, this doesn't take very long but if your in a hurry give it a blast with your heat gun taking care not to scorch the Gesso.

TIP: Make sure you was your stamps straight away as the Gesso will be difficult to remove once it has dried.

Step 3

Once the Gesso is dry take your chosen misters, for my background I chose Purple Violet, Peacock Green and Ocean Sunlight. I just love this colour combination.

Start with you darkest colour at the bottom and graduate your colours over the card stock until you get the effect you are happy with.

As the misted spray hits the Gesso you will start to see that the Gesso peeping through the ink. The more your piece dries the more the Gesso shows through.

At this point you can either put your project to one side to dry naturally or you can dry it off again with you heat gun.


Step 4

Once your project is dry take a dry kitchen towel and buff your stamped areas, this will remove any remaining ink from the Gesso and if you used Cosmic Shimmer sprays it will bring up the sparkle a little more.

The theme for May's Chocolate Baroque Guild tag swap was Emerald. For some reason this was another one that I needed to really think about as we had 2 tags to make, but once I got going things turned out just fine - Well I think they did anyway...

Here is my first tag. Whilst I was rooting through my crafty stash I came across a set of Artylicious A6 papers. And lucky for me this gorgeous bird paper was in Emerald Green.

I wanted to make a feature of the Blackbird sitting on the branch so I covered it with some Crackle Accents. This really made the Blackbird and his perch pop out from the background but it still wasn't enough...

So I put my thinking cap on and decided to create a Moon from clear embossing powder so that you can still see the fabulous detail from the paper I had chosen. I then added some of my favourite trees from Chocolate Baroque Tall Trees stamp plate and embossed them with clear embossing powder also. I added some fancy mixed fibres and embossed the tags edges to finish off.

For my 2nd tag I chose another of the Artylicious papers also in Emerald Green. I chose the gorgeous Breath of Spring stamp plate from Chocolate Baroque. To start off with I stamped the main flower directly onto my tag and a scrap of the same background paper.

I coloured in the flowers using my Promarkers. I then decided to glaze the individual flowers on the spare stamped flower using Glossy Accents. And once they were dry I cut them all out individually - mad I know......

I decoupaged these onto the tags main flower before adding some Emerald rhinestones , a lovely little ribbon from my stash and a sentiment. I also added a little sparkle with a stickle glitter glue.

Then to finish off  I embossed the edges of the tag with Gold WOW embossing powder.


As this was a double swap I also received 2 tags. Here is the gorgeous tag I received from Joyce Dixon. I really like this tag as it catches your eye wherever you look at it because of all the different textures.

We have the gorgeous reflective Emerald ribbon, torn paper, torn vellum for the sentiment, Emerald rhinestones and a super little frame made from a very pretty holographic card. A fabulous tag thank you Joyce.

The 2nd tag that I received was from my good friend Sheila Jacob. And is fabulous as always.

For this tag Sheila has used my favourite Tall Trees stamp set which she has embossed in gold. To make the trees come to life Sheila has added Green embossing powder to the leaves and it looks really effective.

The trees have also been shadow stamped onto a lovely piece of artylicious paper and Sheila has used a leaf punch and the same backing paper to add little embellishments.

The satin flowers have inked edges and the hand made embellishment to the right of the tag is just fabulous and sets off the tag beautifully. Well done Sheila I  love it.....

I recently started an  Tag and ATC swap group on Facebook. If you'd like to join in the monthly swaps please visit my new group Crazicards ATC & Tag Swap page. Everyone is welcome.

Until next time Happy Crafting xx

The theme for May's swap was Faeries, I love this theme but I don't really have many stamps with faeries so I had improvise a little bit as we now have to make 2 ATC's for each swap.

This is the ATC I received from Mel and I am sure you will agree that it's a gorgeous little ATC and I love everything about it. From the textured background to the collaged fairy. There is such a lot going on in this ATC that you have to take a close look at it to take it al in.

And this is the 2nd ATC I received from Kate in Spain. Another gorgeous little ATC with lots of delicate detail. I especially love the pearl drops in the background and the little wings are just gorgeous and pearly.

Thank you ladies they are fabulous ATC's......


Here are the 2 ATC's I made for the swap.

This first one was created by stamping one of the butterflies, from the Chocolate Baroque (formerly Elusive Images) Patchwork  Butterflies stamp plate, onto acetate.

I then attached the butterfly to a sheet of A4 double sided adhesive and I cut it out. I then took a pot of Variegated Red gilding flakes and covered the remaining adhesive side with the gilding flakes. I love this technique because the final product never ceases to amaze me.

Next I stamped an image from an Inkadinkado stamp set I have onto acetate. I chose this set because if you look carefully the centre of the butterfly is in fact a miniature Fairy. Perfect to use as my fairy butterflies body. And once dry I coloured in the back of the fairy using my Promarkers. To finish off I added some coloured Rhinestones and a piece of wired ribbon from my craft stash which I made into a wave and used Collall 3D glue underneath to stiffen the peaks.

 For my 2nd ATC stamped the butterfly wings onto acetate and embossed them using Gold WOW powder. I then found a silhouette of a fairy on the internet which I cut out and then glazed using Glossy Accents from Tim Holtz.

To attach the wings I folded them in half and added a little 3D glue to the edge, I then placed this into the Glossy Accents so that the wings looked like they were coming out of the back of the fairy silhouette.

I added a lovely little yellow paper rose  and used one of my stickles glitter glues to bling up the background. I finished off by embossing with a WOW pearl embossing powder round the edges of the ATC.

I recently started an ATC & Tag swap group on Facebook. If you'd like to join in the monthly swaps please visit my new group Crazicards ATC & Tag Swap page. Everyone is welcome.

Thanks for dropping by.

Until next time Happy Crafting xx

Fathers’ Day is on Sunday, June 19th this year. Have you made your card yet?

Cards for men in general are quite hard to make so I decided to try something different this year and this is the card I made.

I embossed the background using my cuttle bug and  the Creative Expressions Time embossing folder. Once I had embossed the card I dragged a Walnut Distressed Ink over the top to highlight the detail.

I then stamped my stamp stamps onto watercolour card and the masked them up using post it notes whilst I stamped a fob watch.

I then chose several stamps from My Chocolate Baroque Miniature Curiosities set and stamped into each stamp in turn masking as I went along.  Once I had finished that I used Tim Holtz Glossy Accents to make the watch faces look like they have glass covers. I added the sentiment and made an insert and there you have it, my Father's Day card for 2011.

Until next time Happy Crafting xx