Mens Winter Tag

So here is a colourful mens tag which I still managed to squeeze a little glitter and jingle onto!

I stamped the image onto a plain tag putting both Spring Green and Cobalt Blue on the stamp to give a colour graduation - a nice idea from the Craft Stamper Challenge - then embossed using Crystal Sparkle embossing powder for a snowy sparkle. I stamped and embossed twice more onto white paper and coloured all the leaves in with watercolour paints and cut them out. 

I used spray inks on the background between the embossed images the applied some Cobalt Blue pigment ink with my fingers to give more depth then heat set.  Once I was happy with the background colour I added the gold fence along the bottom, and placed the ribbons on top then started to layer up the decoupaged Ivy. 

I stamped and embossed a lovely sentiment using the Valentine red pigment ink pad on a die cut cream circle, then layered over the top of this with a gold die cut normally used as a watch frame. Finally I added more ribbon and bells to the hole in the top. 

Products used from Oak House Studio:  

Ivy Trail Stamp Pigment inkpads in Valentine Spring Green and Cobalt Blue  Spray inks French Mint and Spode Blue Crystal Sparkle embossing powder

Have fun. Suz xxx

Upcycled beer mat

As you've probably noticed, I do enjoy taking something you might otherwise throw away and playing around with it. So here is an old cardboard beer mat I aquired which I've made into a coaster for my craft table.

I gave the beer mat a coat of Gesso to completely cover the advert underneath and used a narrow decorating paint brush to give the paint texture and make obvious brush marks. Once dry I sprayed with French Mint spray ink from Oak House Studio and let it run into the brush marks of the Gesso and dabbed some away with paper towel to leave white patches. I then used the Squares Border Stamp to create a frame around the coaster with Cobalt Blue pigment ink embossed with clear powder and wrote some words inside the squares which I coloured in with a white pen. I then cut two hearts out, one from scrap white card and another slightly smaller from a magazine page.  Magazine pages tend to be stronger then newspaper and you still see the text clearly after spraying (so make sure you read what the text says!!!). I sprayed both hearts with a mixture of French Mint and Spode Blue spray inks and because they are different papers the colour 'takes' differently, giving a nice variance. I layered the hearts up and stuck them onto the mat using a glue stick as they are thin paper. Once dry I drew around the heart with a black charcoal pencil and smudged it in to give some depth I stamped the border again onto a white card scrap and wrote inside the squares, cut out each square and stuck them onto the heart. 

Just a bit of fun, but I love the colours and textures. I will spray the mat with a clear varnish so that I can put a hot drink on it without damaging it, didn't do this before the pic as it creates glare. 

Have fun with your projects. Suz xxx

Oak House Studio October One Stamp!

Hi all
The first time I heard about this challenge I thought it was a fab idea; how many ways can you use just one stamp! Here are a couple of my ideas. Hope you like them:

Make an acetate box lid
For this project I took an old jewellery box and just made a new lid using heat resistant acetate. I stamped the Christmas Corner image with Versamark ink and heat embossed using Copper Detail embossing powder from OHS. I then used glass paints on the back so that I didn't need to worry about going over the edges too much. Once dried I then went over the back of the glass paint just on the flowers with DecoArt Americana white acrylic paint so it was less transparent. On the front I added some glitter glue and gems. Once it was all dry (I'd put the glitter glue on so thickly it took ages!) I made up the box using super sticky double sided tape. To hide this and finish off the lid I added some pretty lace all around the sides of the box with wet glue.

Original box -
I used the lid as my base as it had a ribbon
 to hang from the tree, plus
 it was a lovely colour and better shape.

For the second project I decorated a cheap candle which came in a pack of 3 from the 99p shop - great stocking filler!I stamped onto tissue paper from used packaging with an archival ink pad - I'll try a pigment ink next time. I cut out the image, laid it onto the candle, took the waxy bag from inside a cereal packet, placed the candle inside it (after cleaning out any crumbs!!) and wrapped it tightly around the candle to hold the image in place (holding the excess waxy paper at the back of the candle).  This means you can see the image and how it is reacting to the heat. Then just use a heat tool and move it across the image until the tissue paper disappears into the candle - careful not to overheat any areas as this will distort the shape of the candle.

Oak House Studio October Borders and Frames challenge

This bright sunny card was made using OHS stamps and embossing powders. I stamped out hearts from the Stitch in Time stamp set in 4 different colours; firstly using a clear embossing ink pad then adding embossing powders: I heat embossed with pearl gold then copper detail powders. For the third and fourth colours I used a golden yellow and burgundy ink pad and embossed with the clear embossing enamel. I cut out all the hearts and arranged them as shown with one of the button stamps embossed in the copper colour for the middle piece, and also for the sentiment. I Then took a piece of cream card and stamped the frame border using clear ink and the pearl gold embossing powder and for the inner frame on the white card I again used the Golden Yellow ink pad and clear embossing enamel. I finally added a ribbon in a complementary colour and to that added a button. A cheery card great for a get well. For a more detailed list of the products used visit the Oak House Studio Blog. Suz xxx