Crazicards Crafty Blog

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.

Well as promised in my last update here are a few of the fabulous ATC's that I have recently received from my friends. I hope you like them.

Mum and I do a little ATC challenge between us each month and here is mum's version of Autumn. I just love the little squirrel nestled in the leaves. Really pretty for mum's 2nd attempt at an ATC.

This super ATC was sent to me by my friend Sara for this months "P" Swap the details is fab.

I joined an ATC swap group a little while ago and so far I have had some lovely ATCs sent to me from the other members. I never thought I would enjoy making ATCs but so far it has been great fun and I am now trying to get my mum interested too.

Here are just a few of the ATCs I have made and later in the week I will add a few I have received. I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them.


This first ATC was for my N Swap. I made by stamping onto stampbord and once dried I etched out some of the light and the stars. I named this atc Night Sky. I used a brayer and a big and juicy waterfall ink pad for th background and I stamped the trees with Black archival ink pad.

This next atc was a variation on my P swap. The original had just 3 ribbon roses where as for this one that I made for my mum I made 5 faux porcelain roses from paper. Once the flowers were made I dipped them into my melting pot to give them that porcelain look. The atc base was coloured and stamped using Tim Holtz distressed inks and I finished off by adding a few rhinestones.


 I'm looking forward to the next atc which is Q, but I haven't decided what to do quite yet.

I just love this time of year, all those fabulous colours of Autumn are just magnificent. I recently made a little card for my mum using the Create a Scene Trees stamp set by Sheena Douglass and also using the Autumn Foliage stamps by Rubbernecker Designs.

I started by creating the coloured background using my stamping up dye based ink pads. I then stamped the leaves all over in a contrasting colour but a little faded. And then on top of that I stamped my bare trees in a fabulous rusty colour. Once the car was dry I used glossy accents to highlight the faded leaves and I am so pleased with the look as it makes the leaves just pop out of the page at you.



Once everything was dry I added a lovely dobby ribbon to close the card with and stamped another tree image on the back where I placed the sentiment. I then made a matching envelope which was stamped with the leaves.





After I finished the card I decided to make an ATC to go along with the card, mum and I have started to swap ATCs recently so I thought this would be nice to go with the card I made for her. I made the dangly from shrink plastic and beads and finished the corners off with brads.  made 2 ATCs as I couldn't decide on the colours to use. The spare one was sent to a friend who is in the same ATC club as I am.

Can you believe yet another month has flown by since I last posted on my blog. I have no idea where the time goes. I do know that it feels like the older I get the faster the time goes.......

I think I need to invest in the software that types for you as you speak, I could do more things at the same time and would probably find more time to update my blog. I just wish I had more happy things to write about but at the moment that's not going to be the case as it would seem that Cancer likes the members of my family both near and far.

First it was me and now my partners mum has been diagnosed, her father is also suspected of having it and my sisters father in law is currently going through all the tests. So this 1 in 3 malarkey is not so in my family circle. Life can be so unfair at times...

Anyway on a brighter note things over at Crazicards.co.uk are going well. The site seems to be picking up a little and I am slowly but surely getting more products loaded up and even more are on their way. I am also working on a new gallery where I can upload my projects and I am hoping to have a section where all the customers at Crazicards.co.uk can upload their own art work for everyone to see, it's going to be great. All these things take time though so for now I have created an off the shelf gallery where I will be uploading some of my crafty projects. You can visit my temporary gallery by clicking the link here, I hope you enjoy your visit.

I know I have promised to do the box tutorial several times so I am not going to make any further promises as to when it will be ready to view, things are just to mad here to be able to say it will be ready any day soon. So I will just say that it is in the process and once I get some breathing space I will get it finished I promise....

Well doesn't time fly.  So many things have been going on in this neck of the woods that sadly the blog had to go on hold for a while.

So what's been happening? Well I continue to recover from my cancer operation and treatment. It's been 2 years since my operation and 18 months since the treatment finished and after dealing with the side effects caused by the treatment and medication I am now moving along quite nicely.

Still have a few issues going on but hey that's life and they will sort themselves out eventually, I hope lol :O) If not then they will be dealt with as and when I guess :O)

On a sadder note my partners mum is currently dealing with cancer and due to her age and the type she has it's not the outcome we wanted. She is in our thoughts constantly.

On a happier note the Crazicards website is coming along well and the site is up and running on my new host without any further downtime issues thank goodness.

I have just uploaded Martha Stewart punches and Tim Holtz goodies so please feel free to drop by. You can even say hello as I have now got live online help setup and working. I still have a huge amount to be getting on with but I am adding new products all the time and I am also working on a new gallery and a few project sheets for downloading. You can find the website "here", I look forward to seeing you soon.

I also need to mention the box project I promised a while back, I haven't forgotten and it will be here within the next week, all being well.

Here's a few projects I have done recently:

This card was inspired by a tag I saw in the Craft Stamper magazine, I just love trees and the Crafty Individuals Hug a tree Stamps a just divine. I changed a few elements from the articles tag design and attached the tag to a card blank.

This next project was a complete 1st for me. I made the Arty Farty Colin Car as a wedding card for a family member. I totally enjoyed making it and have had an idea to stamp all over the next one.

Well as I haven't yet had the chance to get my tutorial up and running I thought I had better upload a nice little card I made the other day from a new lot of shaped cards I have just got.

It's not normal for me to try a different shaped card, I usually stick to the straight edged boring shapes LOL so this quite suprised me when it turned out like this:

I coloured the flowers and butterfly with my Sakura Gel pens then glazed the whole butterfly with 3D glaze which really set it off nicely.

I finished off with a contrasting panel and some 3D flowers and left the inner panel blank until I can decide whether to add another panel or leave it blank.

Anyway enough from me for today, have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend.

I have entered this card in the "Sunday Stamper 100" competion, make sure you pop on over to check out all the fab entries, there is some great talent out there :O)

Well I just don't know where the time goes. One minute it's January and the next it's April already and I will soon be 40 something.........

The new website is coming along a treat, although my service provider has been a big nightmare over the last week. The database server went down and no matter what you say to them they were oblivious. Anyway they eventually listened and everything is back up and running now thankfully.

So if you haven't been to visit already please feel free to come take a look and tell me what you think, all critiques welcome good or bad. You can find me here.

I recently decided to have a go at making an exploding box. I have seen many different versions of this type of box and I will be posting my version here along with a tutorial how to make a similar box once I get the wording right so that everyone can understand me that is LOL.....

I'm really pleased with the end result so pop back soon to read all about it.

Right enough from me Happy Easter.

I used a set of Get in Shape Chunky Numbers to make the layers for my card. Then I stamped music all over as the person this is for is heavy into Northern Soul music. I embossed the music in Gold. And then I decided to stamp the base with a large Happy Birthday backgound stamp using versamark again but this time I decided to use some pretty sparkly Gold perfect pearls.

After layering everything up I mounted everything onto Gold mirri board.  I always find it hard to make a card for a man but I think this one turned out ok.

I have entered this card into the Polka Doodle Special Birthday Challenge #10 this week.

Flutterby Wednesday #100

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #74 - Anything Goes

Daisy May Challenge - Anything Goes

Rosie-D's Challenge - Spring

The Pink Elephant #58 - Spring 

Stamp Something - Cream & Green Challenge

Just wanted to add a new card to my blog and it seems that it will hopefully also be one I can enter in the Polka Doodles challenge and one or two others too this week which is great. I am also an avid stamper and wanted to do something that involved stamping and origami flowers. And this is what I came up with.


I stamped the hummingbird and flowers with versamark then embossed them with detail White Opaque embossing powder.


Then I attached the vellum to the Black mat with brads which I had coloured to match, I only had purple to hand, and then added the black and white oragami flowers with half pearls to finish off. Oh and not forgetting my favourite spotty ribbon. I am well pleased with this card, I hope you like it.

 
Here we are with another card. I thought I might try making some origami flowers and this was the result. They turned out quite well and I will definitely be having another go at making different sizes and shapes.


I chopped off the bottoms and added the brad with a big blob of silicon glue to give them a bit more strength on the card. And finished off with the gold ribbon and sentiment. So my conclusion is making your own pretty flower embelishments is well worth it. I will be trying some other techniques out in the next few weeks and will report back with the results.

Well I finally got round to having a play with the promarkers I bought some time ago and I am addicted LOL....

Here is a card I made using them on a Sugar Nellie stamped image I did some time ago on Watercolour paper. I used Archival ink to stamp this image which is not the right one but I thought I would still have a go.

Quite some time ago I had a notion that I wanted to start crafting again but due to work commitments I was too busy to even think about it.

Then in June 2008 my life was turned upside down after a visit to the doctors several months earlier for dizzy spells turned out to be Cancer just under my right ear. Totally unexpected this knocked me right off my normally sturdy little feet. But I made a vow that same day that I wouldn't let Cancer beat me and after a rather bumpy rollercoaster ride I am still here 19 months later although a bid worse for wear LOL.

Once I got through my operation in July and was well into my radiotherapy I decided that my life had to change and that I needed to concentrate on me more rather than my business. And that I needed to find a more relaxing less stressful job that benefited me more. So I started thinking about what I might want to do and then the light bulb went on one day, I love to do arty things and cards so why not have a craft business.

Anyway to cut a very long story short whilst I continued with my treatment and then the recovery afterwards I was planning in my mind the how's what's and why's of my new business and I also had to think of a logo and the main thing a name for that business.

And that is basically how Crazicards Craft Supplies was born. It's been a long time in the making but I got there in the end. So if your reading this message please take a few minutes to pay me a visit or tell a crafty friend where to find me. I am adding new products on a regular basis so hopefully there will be something for everyone.

Onwards and upwards as they say, have a great crafy weekend.

Angie
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