Crazicards Crafty Blog

If you follow my blog you will know that I recently started fundraising for Cancer Research and that I have a few items on my website Crazicards that are for sale and a percentage of the profit will be donated to my Cancer Research fund . You can read all about it on my Just Giving Page here.

Things are going well and the shopping trolley tokens have been a hit so far. And as a little thank you I have been sending a little thank you card with every fundraiser item which have also gone down quite well.

Here are a few of the new cards I made ready to go out with the next items that are sold, I try to make each one slightly different is some way.

For the first two I used my Tim Holtz Distressed Ink Pads to create the backgrounds using my trusty cut 'n' dry foam.

I then over stamped with my Creative Expressions British Wild Flowers and Meadow Flora using two different colours of distressed ink before I sprayed gently with water to help defuse the background a little. The more you spray the more the ink will move so it's just a case of playing to see which effect you like best.

Once that had been dried I added a little shimmer to the buttercups and thistle with my Sakura pens just to give the topper some sparkle.

Then I stamped an Elusive Images butterfly onto some shiny card and coloured them in using my Promarkers. For the antenna you can either draw them onto the card as I have or you could use wire or waxed cotton if you have the time.

 
TIP: Use Momento or Adirondack dye based inks for Promarkers and Stazon ink for Aqua markers. Always make sure your initial inked image is completely dry before you start to colour in as the edges may bleed if it's still wet.

You can also emboss the image which will fix it fully, you can then use either type of Promarker to colour in.Once the butterflies were coloured in I covered both of them with Glossy Accents and left them to dry for an hour or so.

Whilst they were drying I used my Rich Gold WOW embossing Powder to highlight the edges of the toppers and sentiments. And once the butterflies were completely dry I cut them out and put the cards together.

For the third card I used the same techniques for the background except I sprinkled the back ground with a little water and dabbed it off to get a speckled effect. And I used one of the gorgeous British Butterflies from Stamps Away.

I just love Sheena Douglass don't you?

And I just love her "A Little Bit Sketchy" range of stamps as they give all of us the chance to play with so many different mediums.

 I sat and watched Sheena on Create and Craft the other day full of a cold but still as enthusiastic as ever about what she was showing to the viewers. Bless her...

Anyway in this particular programme Sheena was showing us how to use her stamps with watercolour pencils and chalk pastels. Both of which I have had for absolutely eons and never really used much.

So after being super inspired by Sheena I dug out my pencils and chalks from the dark depths of the spare room, where I keep my stash, and had a little play.

The first picture is coloured with the watercolour pencils and using the Nature Accomplished stamp set. It took me a while but it turned out OK although I say so myself and also considering that I used my cheap watercolour pad which is only 180 gsm. I will definitely use my Bockingford watercolour paper next time as I think the result will definitely be much better.

This second image is also on my cheap watercolour paper using the Milestone and Moments stamp plate and using my chalk pastel pencils to colour it in. This is the first time ever that I have used these pastels and I must admit I wasn't as happy with the results as I was with the watercolour pencils.

But that could be the paper I used I guess and  for a first attempt it's not too bad, practise makes perfect as they say. So next time I shall try the pastels using the right card stock and hopefully the end result will improve with more practise. I would most definitely recommend that you have a go with your watercolour pencils and chalk pastels if you have them, it's really rewarding and I know you will be happy with the end results once you have finished.

Have fun and Happy Crafting :O)

So what did you get up to over the weekend?

Besides the usual shopping and tidying up I managed to squeeze in some crafty things. I wanted to have a go at making some different style of flowers which was fun and very addictive (lol).

I have heard a lot of people say that once you start to make them you will not be able to stop. And now I know why they say that, as I really enjoyed making the flowers because I managed to get rather messy, like you do....

Here's a few of the ones I made:

This is the first rose I made using my Tim Holtz Tattered Floral dies with watercolour paper. I used this type of paper as I wanted to see what effect the ink would have from the Tim Holtz Distressed Inks and Cosmic Shimmer Mister Sprays.

To get this effect I simply sprayed Cosmic Shimmer Ocean Sunlight onto my craft mat and sprayed with a little water. I them spread the ink over the craft mat with my hand before adding my flowers.

I was quite happy as the ink soaked in to the paper in a kind of tie dyed way but you can't really see that from my photo. The only problem I had with the watercolour paper was that it is very fragile when wet.

Once the paper has been sprayed and dried it is quite stiff which is great for these flowers and you can shape the petal quite well. You just need to remember to cut in between each of the petals so that they don't tare when you stick and shape them.

Once this rose was dry I sprayed it again with a Cosmic Shimmer Mister which from memory was the  Sunlight Mist.

I also had a play with the rest of Tim Holtz Tattered Floral dies and made this fabulous flower using two of the large flowers and the same two  medium flowers as I used for my roses.

Again I decided to use the watercolour paper for this flower and I used Tim Holtz Distressed Inks Vintage Photo, Scattered Straw with a hint of Spiced Marmalade, and the Bronze Blush Cosmic Shimmer Mister to finish off with. Sounds like a 3 course meal doesn't it ...

To ink the flowers I simply dabbed my ink pads onto my craft mat and then added water, one colour at a time.

This was by far the messiest one to make as I scrunched the flowers up once I had finished inking them up. So I would suggest that you wear some rubber gloves to protect your hands before you start to play.  Again once the flowers were dry I sprayed them very lightly with the Bronze Cosmic Shimmer Mister spray and then dragged the petal edges through the excess spray left on the craft mat.

Once dried I glued them together with my hot glue gun, the two large petals first followed by the two medium flowers and I added a nice fancy metal bead I had in my stash for the centre. I really like the look of this flower and will most definitely be making a few more of these in different colours. The only thing to remember with this particular type of flower is that it is quite big at 2.5 to 3 inches across.

You can alter the width slightly when you put it together as long as the flowers are still damp. You can spray it with water to re-shape it if you want to after you have glued it together

And this is the third flower I made. For this one I dabbed my Chipped Sapphire distressed ink pad onto my craft mat and sprayed it with water. I then spread the ink over the craft mat before adding my flowers. This gave a much deeper covering to the flowers which was really quite vibrant before the flowers dried. (Once the flowers dried they had a more distressed look to them which is great).

Once the flowers had been dried off using my heat gun I stamped them all over with the word "bloom" in silver ink. And once I put the rose together I dragged the petal edges through the silver in pad and also a little gold.

I just love these roses and they are perfect for adding to your cards, boxes and photo frames. If you haven't had a go at making these yourself yet I really suggest you do give them a go, you will be really glad that you did, and once you get the hang of it you will know doubt have a big box full of many different types and styles of paper flowers that you can use on all your projects.

Tomorrow I will show you the two stamped Sheena images I had a play with over the weekend. I have never used watercolour paints or pastel chalks along side my stamping so this was something new to try and it turned out ok for a first go ...lol..

So until tomorrow....happy crafting :O)

Well I am really thrilled to say that the card that I made during my tutorial sold instantly.  A "BIG" thank you goes out to Mrs S Buchanan,  from Kent, for her generous donation, I really appreciate your support. It means a lot to me and Cancer Research.

Luckily I did make a couple of extra cards and I have now added them to my Fundraising page on my website here.

Here they are:

This is an A5 Portrait card. Again using the Mica Mask leaves background but this time i used darker Cosmic Shimmer Mists to give a more earthy feel to the card.

I really love this Elusive Images tall trees stamp plate, it has a fabulous oriental feel to it. And the verse is just perfect for this scheme.

It reads:

A tree is known by it's fruit,
A man by his deeds,
A good deed is never lost,
He who sows courtesy reaps friendship,
And he who plants kindness gathers love.

I just love these Mica Masks from That Special Touch Of...

They are just so versatile, you can run them almost any type of embossing machine such as the Spellbinder Wizard or cuttlebug. Check your machines instructions if your not sure on how to build your embossing sandwich.

You can ink your mask using dye based inks and use them to print onto your card, fabric, paper and vellum etc..  

Top Tip: Stazon Ink and permanent pigment Inks may mark you masks. You can still use them once they are dry but you have to ensure your mask is thoroughly dry and clean before using on a new project.

You can use them for dry embossing as you would with your normal embossing folders or you can use them for wet embossing using Cosmic Shimmer Misters, Tim Holtz Distressed Inks and even craft pastes.

Infact there are so many things that you can do with your Mica Masks it's incredible. And one of their best features is that once you have finished getting all messy you just need to throw them into a bowl of warm soapy water and give them a wash and your ready to start over.

One of my favourite ways to use my Mica Masks is to create embossed backgrounds using Cosmic Shimmer Misters and tissue paper. Here's a card with an embossed background which I made for my February Cancer Research Charity Fundraiser Project using this technique.

Here's how I did it:

Tools you will need : -  Your Mica Masks, an embossing machine, cheap tissues or toilet paper, ink misters, Mica misters or for a more natural look a plain water mister.

And to clean up afterwards wet wipes and paper towels.

You can also create this effect without an embossing machine by using a soft brayer and a sponge but I will save that technique for next time....

Step 1

Choose your mask and the misters you want to use for your project. For my project I used Cosmic Shimmer Rich Gold and Golden Mint. And I selected the Leaves Mica Mask which is one of my favourites.

Step 2

Place your mask onto the base plate of your embossing machine and cover with tissue paper, make sure you get plenty on there but not too much as this will be difficult to run through your embossing machine.


Step 3

Take your Cosmic Shimmer misters and spray the tissue paper making sure that you get plenty on there. You can add as many colours as you like but for this project I chose just the two colours.

Tip: If you don't have ready made misters you can either make your own using perfect pearls or you can use just plain water for a more natural appearance.

When your happy place a sheet of card or paper over the tissue paper followed by your embossing mat and then your top plate.

When your happy place a sheet of card or paper over the tissue paper followed by your embossing mat and then your top plate.

If you don't have a wizard you will need to follow the instructions you have for your machine to get the right sandwich.

TIP: I place the card or paper between to prevent my rubber embossing mat and top plate from getting covered in ink. At the same time you will get a sheet that is also embossed and inked. You can use that sheet on another project.

Step 4

I have been a member of the Graphicus Guild for a while now but due to circumstance I never seemed to be able to find the time to join in with the monthly swaps that are ongoing.

So one of my New Year Resolutions was to make sure I join in swaps more often this year. So when January's swap was announced I put my name down straight away. The subject was New Beginnings and you could either make an ATC or a Tag.

I racked my brains for ages to see what I could possibly do an this is the Tag that I made:

 I made a large tag and then set about stamping with versamark ink and embossing with Clear WOW powder, several flowers from the Creative Expressions stamp plates - British Wild Flowers and Meadow Flora.

I then used Tim Holtz distress Inks with cut'n'dry to colour the background. The stamped and embossed areas done previously created a resist to the ink and once I had finished with the ink the flowers really stood out.

I then created the flowers and coloured them using Brilliance inks which have a lovely shine to them. As these tend to be a little wet for a while I set them aside to dry whilst I stamped onto acetate the sentiment "Let the Adventure Begin" from the Elusive Images stamp plate - Artistic Affirmations.

I then stamped the beautiful butterfly from another Elusive Images stamp plate - Flora and Fauna  and embossed it using a pepper Wow embossing powder. The Wow powders are brilliant for this as you don't leave as much powder on the acetate as you do with other types of embossing powders.

I must admit though that I still use my antistatic bag on acetate as no matter how good a powder is it will still get caught in the static on the acetate, the bag helps to prevent that.

I then had to create the pupa, (I think that's the right word for it), for the butterfly to emerge from, and for this I tried several thing like Angelina Fibres and wool but neither gave he right effect. Whilst I was rummaging through my scrap box I came a cross a small scrap of hand made paper that had been stitched and when I pulled apart the two sheets the threads split giving quite a fluffy stranded effect, just perfect for what I wanted.

I then stamped and glazed a branch from the Sheena stamp plate - Faith for the pupa to hang from. The finished tag is almost A5 in size which I think is probably a little bit large, but I think it turned out OK for my first tag swap.

Here is the fantastic tag that I received from this swap. The detail is just fantastic and I am afraid this photograph doesn't really do the tag any justice as you can't see the superb Copper embossing of the lady tree or the deep Gold embossing of the swirly Sun. The lovely bead trim at the bottom is simply gorgeous.

I am now thinking of my next tag for the February swap which has a title of Romance. I am quite looking forward to taking part over the coming months and I shall be sure to share my tags and the ones that I receive with you all.

If they are all as beautiful as this one it will be wonderful.

I have been thinking of changing my blog template for a while and today I found one that I think is more in keeping with my style.

Hope you like it :O)

Well I have been busy during the last couple of weeks getting the new Crazicards Website Newsletter revamped ready for it's re-launch at the beginning of February.

This newsletter is aimed at being a much shorter and to the point newsletter. I aim to add new projects and tips in each issue as I never have been one to like those news letters that just sell you products and give you nothing else in return for your loyalty to their webstore.
 
I have also decided that instead of being a weekly news letter it will now be sent out fortnightly which will give me more time to hopefully bring you some interesting projects.

I thought you might like a sneaky peak of what the first project might be so here are a couple of images to tease :O)

This is another ATC I created called Woodland with a twist. The theme was to be Woodland and had to include something real from a woodland.

To make this ATC I started by creating my own background coloured card using perfect pearl pigment powders mixed with water and a Tim Holtz Shabby Shutters and a Broken China distressed Ink pad. I started by adding the shabby shutters and a light swipe of the broken china ink to the white card using Ranger cut 'n' dry foam. I then made up my mix of perfect pearl pigment powder and sprayed the coloured card.

Once dry I stamped the naked tree stamp from Elusive Images and embossed it.  For my real woodland item I chose pine cones which I cut up using garden sheers and stuck them together in the shape of flowers using 3D Glue Gel I added a couple of peel off glittery butterflies and then I finished off with a few rhinestones and some fabulous swirls  from my Tim Holtz Grungeboard plain elements pack painted Copper.

Here we have my ATC for the letter Q to keeping in line with the letter theme from one of my ATC swap clubs.

For the Q swap I chose Queen of Hearts as my title. Here's the finished ATC.

At some time in our lives we all come into contact with Cancer. Whether it is through our own personal experience or the experience of others.

In my case Cancer has been a factor in my life for quite a long time in one way or another.

My first close up experience of Cancer was with my Grandma, she was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer and sadly passed away in November 2005.

Since then I have had quite a number of friends and family who have been diagnosed with Cancer and some have survived  and sadly some have not been so lucky. The most recent encounter being that of my partners mum who sadly passed away in December 2010 from Stomach Cancer.

I myself am one of the lucky ones...


In 2008 I was told that I had cancer of my right side Parotid Gland which sits just below your ear. Nothing can prepare you for that kind of a shock, I only went to the doctors for treatment with dizzy spells....

Lucky for me though my consultant is at the top of his profession and I was in and out of hospital before I knew what had hit me. After the surgery in July came 5 weeks of intensive radiotherapy in November this helps to kill any remaining traces of cancer, Chemotherapy isn't an option with this type of cancer. And then once all that was over and done the long road to recovery began.

Thankfully I am now well on my way to surviving Cancer, there have been a few hiccups along the way and I am sure there will be a few more smaller ones a long the way but the chances of surviving Cancer in today's society are far better than they ever have been thanks to Cancer Research.

Without donations from the public Cancer Research wouldn't be as far along as they already are - EVERY SINGLE PENNY COUNTS - and could save the life of someone you know.

I wanted to do my bit and came up with the idea of fundraising by donating 100% of the profit made from the sale of my website shopping trolley tokens as well as a selected monthly craft item/s from my website http://www.Crazicards.co.uk

The Shopping Trolley Tokens will be a permanent item and the selected craft item/s will change each month. And I will also be donating handmade craft items that I have personally made. 100% of the sale price for my hand crafted items will be donated to my scheme.

Thank you for your support - it's people like you that helped to save my life....

If you would like to donate directly to my Cancer Research fundraising scheme at Just Giving please visit http://www.justgiving.com/Crazicards

Sadly 2010 ended on a very sad note as my partners mum passed away on 13 th December and the funeral was held on the 21st December. Thankfully Irene's passing was quiet and she is now at rest after a courageous battle with stomach cancer.

I made these two cards for John, Jan and Stuart.

This was the first time I had used the iridescent WOW powders and I must say they are brilliant and easy to use with minimal mess. The WOW powders change colour when you move them in the light and they look stunning. The stamps are from the Elusive Images range.

Now that 2011 is here I am hoping to be more active in the blogging arena, it's always been on my to do list but has never managed to get to the top spot, this year it is up there so hopefully you will join me on my journey of crafty things to come :O)

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and i wish you all Happiness and Health.

I just wanted to add these fantastic ATCs of Cinderella and her Fairy Godmothers which I received the other day from my lovely friend Sandra Buchanan. She sent them as a surprise as I wasn't feeling too well and she wanted to cheer me up a bit.

Well Sandra you certainly did that, they were a beautiful surprise and made my day, so thank you very much xx

Well I think I have broken the back of my Christmas cards now. I only have 3 left to do yippee !!! I just hope I didn't forget anyone.

I as mentioned in a previous post I chose trees as my main theme this year as I wanted to do something totally different and not so traditional. Here are a couple more of the cards I have made using My Create a Scene Tree stamps by Sheena Douglas.

Can you believe it there is only 31 days to go before Christmas is here. I can't believe just how fast time seems to be whizzing by these days. So much to do and so little time...

I have been busy trying to get the Christmas cards finished so today I thought I would show you the end results to the previous toppers I showed you.

This is the little fold out mouse topper. For the card base I added some Christmas velvet ribbon in dark green (Christmas trees) and Burgundy (the stars) with some gold cord to tie it all in. Sadly my photographic skills aren't up to and the end result doesn't look as good here as it does close up.


And here is the finished Magnolia Tilda card. I made an easel card for this one which I stamped with snowflakes all over. For the base I also stamped snowflakes but this time onto silver paper an i embossed the greeting. To finish off I added clear rhinestones to all the snowflakes on the topper and a couple of red rhinestones so the front stayed upright.Again my fab photography doesn't show the bling on this card too well.

Oh my time is just whizzing by these days. Had a really bad poorly day yesterday but thankfully although not 100% I am feeling a lot better today. Sometimes wish I could put myself in a bag and give myself a good shake up LOL :O)

Anyway here is the next topper I made for my Christmas Cards. I got this set of Cute Companions ages ago and never got round to using them, so I thought I would give them a go this year. They turned out really cute although I say so myself :O)

Right then here's another idea for my pending Christmas cards... This is just the topper for now. Hopefully I will get the rest finished over the weekend.

 I quite enjoyed making this topper. I used my Big and Juicy Waterfall ink pad again for the background. Then I stamped my Christmas tree which has been glittered with clear glitter for the bling factor. You can't have a Christmas card without bling now can you?

Once I had finished the background I stamped this lovely Tilda Stamp in Momento before colouring her in with Promarkers. I coloured in the fur around the hat, the boots and Tilda's angel wings with a clear sparkle Sakura pen. Once everything was throughly dry I glazed the Red coat, love heart and hat with Glossy Accents. You would get the same effect from Crystal Lacquer.

I think this one will be for one of my lovely nieces who live in Holland. And I am in the throws of making another one which will be great for my other niece.

I can't believe that Christmas is just 51 days away, yikes!!!!! And I haven't made even one Christmas card yet... I think I had better get my skates on or else Christmas will have been and gone before I know it LOL...

I have been playing around with a few ideas to make something totally different this year for family and friends. I love the traditional style cards but I thought something more modern might be in order this year and it has to include trees as I just love trees.

Anyway I tried out an idea the other day and here's the result.

Just thought I would upload another of the ATC's that I have received recently. This one was for our 'N' Swap and was sent to me by a lovely lady called Pamela. The title is - N is for Necklace and the ATC is lovely in the flesh so to speak.