A caged birdy

Dear all,

The other day I made a tag for a person who found a new job. She lost her job a few months ago and felt like a caged bird not being able to find any work. So I was very happy to hear she starts her new position on December 10th. Of course this is another opportunity for me to make her a card.

I die cut a # 8 tag from pre printed paper. It is a ledger layout. I then stamped the swirls with embossing ink and covered them in dusty concord coloured distress embossing powder. I die cut the paper swirl, bird and cage from black card stock and covered them in embossing ink. I then dusted them with perfect pearls powder to give them some sheen. The swirl in purple, the bird in red and blue, and the cage in gold. I glued them on the tag and added some little paper roses to give it some elegance.

I then distressed the edges of the tag and inked them with walnut stain coloured distress ink.

Here you can see the shimmer on the purple swirl.

I tried to make the bird resemble a red robin. Black card stock works the best with pearlescent powders I think.

 

I hope she liked it.

 

 

Take care and until next time!!

 

Frederique

A get well soon card

Hello dear bloggers,

Today I want to share a project that I made for a friend who broke his nose a few years ago and finally decided to get it fixed. After years of a runny and crooked nose he thought it was time to see a plastic surgeon.
And as I am not one to pass up on an opportunity to have a little fun, I made him a tag to poke at his vanity....he is rather vain....

 

I used a # 5 manilla tag and dragged it through bright colours of distress stain I put on my craft sheet. I created this great flame effect. I then stamped the dotty pattern with black stãzon ink .

The words are from the Dylusions range by Dyan Reavely. I stamped them on white card stock and cut them out. Inked the edges with Walnut stain distress ink and glued them on the card. And as this person is very macho I added the dark blue ribbon. The bulldog charm was to emphasise it all......the botched nose...... He had a very good laugh when I gave it to him this morning.

 

Until next time,

Frederique

Versatility of bookplates.....

The other day I found some nice jars at IKEA for the kitchen. However they didn't have a label. And as I like to bake I need to know what is in what jar.... So I decided to make labels for them using Tim Holtz's bookplate die and Ultra thick embossing enamel (UTEE) and mini brads.

The instant yeast.

The Vanilla sugar....however no vanilla has been added yet.....:-)

The sugar.

The flour.

I die cut four bookplates from heavy card stock and inked them bright red to match the colour of my mixer...... I dabbed them with embossing ink and gave them two coats of UTEE to make them sturdy enough to go on the jars. Then I cut our some rectangles from white card stock and wrote the ingredients on them using a calligraphy marker. I then glued a piece of acetate on the front to protect the paper from use in the kitchen. I glued the acetate to the back of the bookplates and let them dry.

The bookplates have two holes on the side and I put some brads there so it looks like it was tacked to the jar. Then I covered the back of the altered plates with heavy duty double sided tape and stuck them on the jars. Very appropriate for a country kitchen I think.....

 

Well that was it for now....until next time and tell all of your friends hahahaha.

 

Frederique

Japanese themed birthday card.

This is something completely different from what I normally make. Well the style is. The person I made this for loves anything Japanese. The food, the art, the writing. So obviously I had to make her a Japanese styled card.

The background is red card stock from the Core'dinations range from Tim Holtz. It is beautiful heavy card stock with a linen texture. I stamped it with a bamboo like stamp in jet black stãzon ink and the edges are painted gold. You can't make a Japanese card without red, black and gold.... ;-)

The front I made from a white tag, I die cut out of linen textured card stock and then I embossed with my Cuttlebug using a Provocraft embossing folder depicting a Geisha. How Japanese is that!!

First I was thinking to paint her but I have done that before and I'm not sure that the birthday girl would like that style. She likes modern simplicity I think, so I only inked her with walnut stain coloured distress ink using my ink blending tool. That way only the raised areas were coloured and the rest stayed lighter. The edges of this tag were also dabbed with the gold paint dabber.

I looked up on the Internet the birthday girls' name in Japanese and with a black broad calligraphy marker I wrote her name.

 

I stuck to the colours black and gold for the ribbons. I attached them using a tiny staple and covered it with a green self adhesive pearl to give it only a mini hint of colour.

Turned out quite nice, even if I do say so myself. The person I made this for was very happy with it and that is the biggest compliment.

 

 

In between all my cards and calendars, I still am working on my Christmas cards. I will post those after they have been sent obviously. But until then I will post my other projects as they are finished.

 

 

Take care and until next time...

 

Frederique

Love for Starbucks

Dear reader,

Today I want to show you a calendar I altered to expres my love for Starbucks. Even though we only have two Starbucks stores here in the Netherlands (one on the Airport of Schiphol, after customs, and one in Utrecht on the train station.) I love the branch. I get my fixes in Germany in Aachen, about half an hour drive from here.
Every now and then I take home a packet of sugar or a heat protection sleeve from the cup.
I was clearing out the kitchen cupboards and found all sorts of stuff so I decided to use it to alter a rather dull calender for next year.

I had some card stock with a coffee theme and incorporated some coffee beans to emphasise the theme even more.

I also made some detail photos for different techniques I used.

This is one of those calendars where you tear of a page each day and it has a joke on the back or a famous quote. Anyway, the cardboard on which the calendar is attached is boring, so I glued some things on there as you can see.



A sleeve that goes around your cup of hot java...





Here I highlighted the words by colouring them in with Liquid Pearls, just to make it pop.

Coffee beans, just had to be on there too.....

This mini tag I first stamped with embossing ink and heat embossed it with ultra fine clear embossing powder to give it some texture. I then coloured it with distress ink and the words are stamped with Archival ink.  I distressed the edges of the tag and attached a green ribbon in compliance with the green of the Starbucks logo.

This tag was made the same as the other little one, only using different colours ink. But same green ribbon as you can see.

I cut out one of the logo's from a sleeve and inked the edge with walnut stain distress ink. I love the logo.

The little packets of sugar are empty by the way. I cut them open on the back side to get the sugar out. The calendar hangs on the wall of the bathroom downstairs. And I didn't know if the sugar would react with the humidity in the room or not, so to be safe I took it out.

The cups and words I cut out from glittery card stock from "Nana's Kitchen" and the edges were walnut stained to make them more vintage looking.

 

And that was about it. Can't wait to hang it up on January first.....

 

Visit me again soon!

 

Frederique



anniversary mini album

Hello scrap fans,

Last month I have been busy with a scrapbook mini album for an anniversary for a couple.

I used various techniques I explained in earlier posts, so I decided to just show you the pages. As always privacy was respected but you get the idea.

I hope you enjoy!

Halloween tags and cards

As promised also the tags and cards I made for friends and family who indeed know Halloween, as it is not celebrated here in the Netherlands.....unfortunately. But that doesn't keep me from sending some scary wishes anyway....

Enjoy....

A few more projects from the last weeks.

Dear blog readers,

I thought it was time for another post with projects I have done the last couple of weeks.
Some are for birthdays and some are just to say hi. Halloween  projects will be posted in a separate post.

Enjoy!

Frederique

Birthday card

Hello everyone,

Today I want to share a project with you I made for an uncle of mine for his birthday. The funny thing is that he looks like the man from the stamp I used!

I created the background by stamping the flower texture with embossing ink and used the chinese red embossing powder by the Antiquities range from Ranger.
Then I inked up the paper with a light green distress ink and the edges with a darker green using the distress ink blending tool by Tim Holtz.

The die cuts I painted with the adirondack paint dabbers bij Ranger and the letters with Glossy Accents.

I highlighted the leaves with liquid pearls and the shield I gave a distressed look using black paint.

The photo was stamped with Stãzon ink on white cardstockand coloured it with distress inks using the waterbrush. I then covered it with crackle paint Rock Candy to give it a tattred look.

I put it all together using Glossy Accents glue and voilá... the card is ready.

Enjoy and untill next time.

Frederique

Mini scrapbook album

Hello again,

I want to share with you a little project I made for a couple who have been together for 16 years. And for that occasion I made a little booklet to congratulate them.

It is made from one 12" by 12" paper stash folded in a way so each page has a pocket. I will post that process in future. I am just getting the hang of this blogging so as I learn I will post the way I make projects more elaboratly .

The front and back of the booklet I painted with disstress crackle paint from Tim Holtz by Ranger and the corners pieces are die cuts and are painted with Adirondac acrylic paint dabbers also by Ranger and also I put on some Antiquities embossing powder from Ranger. Well to be honest 99.9% of the products I use are from Ranger. So I will only highlight the kind of products I use.

 

 

On the front I added a rosette accentuated with some distress stickles and the numbers are also painted with distress crackle paint.





In the frontpage and in the back page I punched a hole with the Cropadile Big Bite and added an eyelet in each hole and threaded a ribbon through it so the booklet can be tied shut.

That was the most elaborate work, the internal pages were easier as there was not much room for any embellishments. But I tried to make the most of it!

 I put something over the photos to respect the privacy of the people on them. But you get the idea of the project none the less I think.
On the page pictured above I took an ATC and stamped the woodgrain on it with a Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous stamp with Archival ink and distressed it with distress ink. The picture itself I cut to shape with a pair of craft scissors and in the corners I put in screw brads.

On this page I used a die punched piece of cardstock from my stash and coloured it with distress ink. The corners of the picture are cropped using the cropadile corner chomper cloud/scallop and I used some distress ink on the edges of the photo. To give it some oompf I added a couple of adhesive pearls. I wanted to use them in all four corners but then the booklet didn't close properly. Hence the ones in the middle of the side of the page.

On these two pages I wanted to put the message of the booklet. On the left page I put a mini tag stamped with a little sentiment and embellished with a small flower and a brass butterfly charm.

On the right I stamped a wineglass, as the couple appreciates the fine wines of this world with some sentiments, and I painted in the wine with Perfect Pearls to simulate the Rose wine they like.

On the next two pages I put a picture of both persons individually as you can see. One I cut to shape using caft scissors and the other one I tore the edges. Both photos I distressed a little bit with distress ink. I put them on ATCs which were inked with distress ink.

These last two pages are very Christmassy. I had a very nice picture of the couple under the Christmas tree so I got inspired. On the top page I put a snippet of the Tim Holz paper stash Holidays and a branch of fir and a little Santa boot charm to finish the look. The branch is white cardstock inked with Distress ink and some distress stickles to give it a bit of glitz.
The lower page is an ATC inked with Distress ink and sprayed with PerfectPearls Spray to give it a real festive look. I embellished it with a little die cut holly and some adhesive pearls.

And that concludes this project. I hope you got an idea how it came about.

Until the next project!