a masking tape tutorial

The other day I was watching a youtube video from Jennifer McGuire about faux metal embossing. She used distress inks and mica powders to create a background. That inspired me to play with masking tape, distress inks and mica powders too. I have lots of them and rarely use them.

So here a step by step on how I make one of those cards.

I used a piece of white card stock, a card blank, distress inks, blending tools, masking tape (I use frog tape for delicate surfaces), mica powder and a brush. Oh and some embellishments.

I put the tape down to make a pattern.

I ink up the card stock with distress ink and a blending tool. I prefer to use more than one colour so it pops a bit more.

In this case I used Cracked pistachio and abandoned coral distress ink.

Because distress ink stays wet a bit longer it is easy to use a mica powder. I decided to use a yellow one to give it a nice golden glow. I use a fluffy brush to dust it on the ink. 

To fixate the powder I spray it with a mini mister. Mica powders normally have a binder in it that is activated by water.

While the cardstock is still stuck down I dry the mist with my heat tool. This way it stays nice and flat.

I gently remove the masking tape and reveal the uninked parts of the card stock.

This is what the card looks like after I stuck the piece of card stock on the card blank and embellished it with a sentiment die cut and a stamped and coloured in cupcake.

Here you can see the yellow shimmer of the perfect pearl powder.

I hope you enjoyed the process and will give it a go yourself!

Take care and maybe until next time....

Frederique 

xxx

shaker card tutorial

Shaker cards have been around for a while but I have only recently started making them. And as I was showing them on my fb page, people kept asking me how I make them. So here a photo tutorial of how I make my shaker cards.

The basics you need for a shaker card are a frame, a background, a card blank, some acetate or plastic sheet and ofcourse shaker content.

 I die cut this Tim Holtz window frame and stuck the acetate on the back using double sided tape. This will be the front of my shaker.

 on the back of the window I stick foam tape. I normally stick two layers to give the sequins and glitter some room to move.

 Here you see the two layers. You need to make sure there are no gaps as glitter or other small parts could escape.

I fill the shaker with sequins, glitter and beads, and sometimes I use little punched figures for some interest. Here I used punched snowflakes that I coloured with Wink of Stella shimmer.

I take the backing of the double sided tape and stick my background piece on the back of the shaker. This way it has a nice background and you can mount it much easier to your card base.

Now the shaker part is ready to be stuck on the card and I can embellish and stamp the card.

I stuck the shaker on the card blank using double sided tape. I can now stamp the sentiment and embellish the window.

And this is how the finished card looks like.

I hope this was helpful and that it will help you make some too!

Until next time,

Take care.

Frederique
xxx

Bubble tutorial

Hello blogger,

Today I want to share a technique of making bubbles look more realistic. People keep asking how I make my bubbles look so bubbly.

First of all you need a good quality stamp. All my bubbles and droplets stamps are from www.designsbyryn.com. I love the crisp prints and the rubber is of such a quality it will last forever.

With this tutorial I am going to show the way I do it on darker paper. It is the same as on light card stock but I am skipping a step as I am not going to lift ink off the background.

I start with a nice quality card stock...

I mount the stamp on my block. I prefer thinner blocks as they bend a little so I can make crisper prints of larger stamps.

as my background is grayish, I like to stay in the same color scheme so I am stamping in gray Archival ink.

I cover the whole surface with the bubbles as I want it as a background and not a feature image.

I take a white gel pen and start highlighting.

 Here you see the difference between the highlighted ones and the plain stamped bubbles.

 After I was done I didn't want to cover it up too much so I turned it into a shaker card. The turtle is also a stamp by designsbyryn... The sentiment is a die cut from Tim Holtz /sizzix.

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial and if you have any questions or comments I would love to know.

Until next time, take care.

Frederique

#12tagsof2015 by Tim Holtz

Hello dear reader,

It has been a while since I crafted and even longer that I have blogged.

The June tag of the #12tagsof2015 by Tim Holtz was the perfect opportunity to write here again.

As I don't have the dies he used I had to improvise. As luck would have it, my hubs surprised me with the coffee blue print stamp set (among other sets), so I used one of the coffee stamps to make my tag.

I love the way it turned out.

Until next time... I hope I get the time to blog more often ;-)

Take care,

Frederique
Xxx

a Firefly challenge

A friend of mine is a big fan of the show Firefly.
I never heard of it befor she mentioned it and it was featured
in an episode of the Big Bang Theory. I still have no clue.

This friend showed me a piece of memorabilia relating to the show,
and I immediately thought...I have to replicate this in paper.

So I did. Well I tried hahaha. It took me a few tries and I
am not sure....but my friend, Megan, loves them. So in a way I
was successful hahaha.

I had to look up information on Pinterest as I didn't
know how or what or anything.

These will only make sense to Browncoats, as
fans of the show are called. ( yaay for pinterest hahaha)

This was my first attempt. I cut the tag and the piece on it to the desired
shape. Thee background is copper and the front piece is brass.
So I stained both in the respective colours with distress stain.
With an alphabet set I stamped the lyric on it and attached it to the background
with brads. Then I flattened them with my little Tim Holtz hammer.

I made this tag the same as the other one, only here I used paints instead of ink.
I still wasn't totally satisfied as the original is a metal plaque with the
lyric punched or stamped into it. So it is more dimensional.

So I had to think of something dimensional.......EMBOSSING PASTE!

This is the closest I came to the original. I cut two pieces of grunge board,
as that is chunkier than plain card stock. I painted the back with the copper paint
and then after it dried, I covered it with embossing ink and heat embossed it with copper UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel). It took a few layers as it kept bubbling up.
The smaller piece I covered with a thick layer of gold embossing paste. I let it dry for a short while and then stamped the lyric into it while still soft. This created the effect I was looking for. The ink however did not show that well, so after it was all hard I traced the letters with a black fine marker. I punched a hole in it with my Big Bite and put a black eyelet in it and voila!!

They are on their way to you Megan!!!!

thank you for dropping by and until next time....take care.

Love,

Frederique

Raindrops keep falling on his head...

Thank you for stepping by,

I made this from a blank manila shipping tag. I stamped the umbrella man in coffee archival ink and covered it with a mask. I make masks of most my stamps.

Then I stamped the raindrops in white stazon ink and then inked the tag using faded jeans distress ink and a blending tool. The white stazon works as a resist and the mask protects the stamped man. Then inked the edges of the tag with walnut stain distress ink and added the bow. And once done removed the mask.

To make the drops pop a bit more I went over them with a waterbrush to lift a bit of the ink off. This brought out the drop just a bit more...

I love love love the stamps by www.designsbyryn.com.

Until next time,

Take care...
Frédérique
Xxx

fluffy bow tutorial

Today I want to share how I make the fluffy bows on top of my tags.
I tried explaining it in various facebook groups as people kept asking,
but it is easier with visual back up I guess hahaha.

I made a tag out of ledger paper and embellished it a little bit
and stamped the sentiment on it. But the focal point is the bow in this case.

 I stained the ribbon in the colour abandoned coral. The February colour of distress.

 I cut a shorter piece off the ribbon. About 1/4 of the length.

then thread the shorter piece through the hole of the tag.

 Then I wrap the ribbon around my hand to create loops.

 I slide the loops off my hand..

 Put the loops on the shorter ribbon.

 And tie the loops down with the shorter piece of bow. This might take some practice...

 And then tie a bow and that is that...

is 

My finished tag with fluffy bow...

Until next time and thank you for stoppong by.

Take care

Frederique
xxx

Limited edition Stamptember stamp..part one

Hello there,

Thank you for visiting my blog.
Today I want to share a tag I made with one of the limited edition Simonsaysstamp Stamptember blue print set from Stampers Anonymous.
I was very fortunate to get a set as a present.

The manilla tag I inked with the wrinkle free distress technique using Victorian velvet and cracked pistachio distress stains. After that I used wild honey distress ink and a honey comb stencil to create another layer on the tag.

While the ink was still damp I sprinkled frosted crystal embossing powder over it and heat embossed it.
I stamped the stamp with black stazon ink directly on the tag and twice on watercolour paper.

I coloured in the ice cream and cone with distress markers and a water brush and cut them out.

I glued the complete ice cream on the stamped image on the tag and then glued another scoop on top of that.

I stained the crinkle ribbon with the victorian velvet, cracked pistachio and wild honey stains and dried them and made a ribbon on top.

Thank you for stopping by and until next time.

Take care.

Frédérique
Xxx

Natural fibres tag

Welcome to my blog,

Today I want to share how I made a tag for a challenge where I had to use natural fibres.
I inked a shipping tag with distress stains using the wrinklefree distress technique by Tim Holtz. You put some stains on your work surface and swipe the tag through the stains until you have the colour effect you want.

I ripped a piece of linen fabric to size and stained that with frayed burlap distress ink and wrinkled and dried it. I glued it down with my glue gun. I cut pieces of various natural twine and made bows and glued them down using hot glue.

I cut the dried up flowers out of our hydrangeas yesterday and saved some. I dipped them in molten UTEE and then coloured them with alcohol ink and glued them down with hot glue.

To make it speak I stamped the sentiment on the linen with stazon ink.

As a finishing touch I sprinkled some frantage embossing powder on the tag and heated it.

I am quite pleased with the outcome. The hydrangea part was an experiment that I had been putting off for ages, because I thought it would not work. But yaay!!!

Until next time,

Take care and until next time.

Frédérique
Xxx

Gift tags for sale

Dear reader,

I finally opened my little Facebook shop to sell my gift tags.

I use little manila tags and stamp the sentiment with black stazon ink. I stamp a background image with embossing ink and heat emboss it with antiquities frosted crystal embossing powder.
I ink the tags in different colours and ink the edges with some dark brown distress ink, this gives it more depth. I finish the tags with a piece of ribbon so people can attach them to flowers or a gift. I have a few in the selection now, but I will add more once they are done. 

They are in a set of six and can be any colour and background texture you want. I have various texts to go on them. A set of six tags, with ribbon, cost € 4,- excl. postage.  International postage is € 2,-  per set and domestic is € 1,- per set. Payments go via PayPal only.

I am happy to say that the first sets of tags have been sold already.

Take care and thank you for your visit.

Until next time,
Frédérique
Xxx