About Me

My photo
I'm a retired primary school teacher, who started paper crafting in 2008, when I had a fancy to make my own Christmas cards. Since then, I have tried all sorts of techniques and styles - and I kind of like them all. I have been lucky enough to be on blog teams and large design teams and to do a bit of freelance demonstrating - and I love the challenge of working with different products. My crafting style is very varied - from junk journaling and art journaling, bookbinding and journal making, to quilting and patchwork - and of course I still make cards. This variety keeps me interested - and my crafty stash growing!! I'm always seeking inspiration for new projects.

Monday 13 May 2013

CCM Challenge #91 - Pick three different techniques

Sharon has  taken inspiration from her youngest daughter's recent 3rd birthday and therefore would like to see 3 different techniques on your card or project. Take your pick of 3 from the following list and be sure to state which 3 you've used:
  • Embossing (wet or dry)
  • Distressing
  • Masking
  • Making your own flowers
  • Paper piecing/patchwork
  • Shrink plastic 
Our sponsors this time are Milk Coffee Stamps who are offering a prize of 5 digis from their store, and Sir Stampalot who have a set of new Stampendous Fran-tage Mica Fragments on offer. 

                     






For my three techniques, I have chosen ultra thick embossing, distressing (using Kroma crackle) and making my own flowers.




I started with a blank wooden heart from The Range, and painted it with Pebeo Poppy Red Acrylic Paint. I wanted to create a distressed, crackled effect so coated it with a generous layer of Kroma Crackle and left it for a few days


It took a good 3 days for the crackle to completely go dry. While I was waiting, I decided to finally get round to playing with my new melt pot - which is where the ultra thick Embossing element comes into my project. I started by making my own flowers using the largest of the Bitty Blossom Spellbinders dies, and the newsprint paper from Papermania's Portobello Road collection. I dunked these into clear UTEE to glaze them.


Next, I used Spellbinders new Media Mixage Hearts One bezels and dies.  I cut more Portobello Road paper using the smallest of the dies, and put it into the smallest bezel, before pouring in the molten UTEE. To the remainder of the clear, I added some very old Papermania red embossing powder and some Cosmic Shimmer Lava Black. I poured a little of this into the smallest heart bezel (no paper this time), and also some onto the Scalloped Lace texture tread.

Before adding any of these elements onto the heart, I used IndigoBlu Slap it On to seal the crackle onto the heart.


I also wanted to play around with beeswax, so stamped a really old (think it's La Blanche) foam backed swirl stamp onto single ply tissue, melted some beeswax in the project pan, and added the pieces of tissue onto the heart. I have to say that I wasn't overly keen on the final effect of the wax, but will try again on other projects at a later date. To add to the collage effect on the heart, I also added some Enchanted Gold gilding wax (Creative Expressions) and used another of the swirl stamps with FlitterGlu and Crafty Notions Pirate Treasure gilding flakes. Because I wasn't overly keen on the matt effect of the beeswax, I gave it a waft of Spray and Shine.


I finished off by re-attaching the string and wooden bead that had originally come with the heart. I am pretty pleased with the finished result. There are some other bits and pieces I made at the same time with the UTEE - but I'll leave those for another day.

Pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog to see what the other DT members have come up with, then get busy on your project. REMEMBER, you need to use three of the listed techniques, and state what they are in your write up.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Cxx