Brayergirl's Book of Banter

Hooray - I've done my Thai Blog updates!

Well, two of them anyway! You can now read:

Spa Sunday and Last Day in Bangkok

Will update the final one as soon as I can.

I have completed another piece of work with my Bluebird theme. I'm still using up the scraps from making my ATC's! It's amazing what you can make from 4 A4 stamped sheets and 1 piece of 12"x12" PP! I don't have anything left now, but I'm still hankering to make an Accordian album with the same theme, I think it would be so pretty as a gift.

A lot of people have been asking me about these cards and ATC's so I think it must be time for another.......drum roll please .........'Make a Card with Brayergirl!' :o)

Unfortunately, I did not take step by step photos this time, so I will do my best to explain how I made it!

You will Need:   

Watercolour Paper or card

Patterned Paper (I used Karen Foster's Friendship Knot - LOVE that paper!)

H2O's in shades of Blue and one shade of Pink

White Embossing Powder

Stickles Glitter Glue in Waterfall

Versamark

Staz-On in Ultramarine

Versamagic in Spring Pansy

Colorbox Chalk in Prussian Blue 

Brilliance pearlescent ink in Twilight

Colorbox metallic ink in Sapphire Silk

Purple Card

Lilac Pearlescent card

Pop Dots and/or silicone glue

Quickutz alpha in Paige or any other of your choice. You could use rub ons if you like, but apply letters before the glitter glue or the embossing powder, otherwise the rub-ons will not lay flat and may flake off.

Stamps:

Birdcage Stamp and Eau de Cologne Stamp - Above the Mark

Small Swirl Stamp, flying birds stamp, single flying bird stamp - 100 Proof Press

French Words stamp - Stampington

Large Swirl Stamp - Purple Onion Designs

Floral stamp - Anna Griffin

Open Flowers (stamped on PP and cut out) - Caroline's Designs (Heartistic)

Instructions:

1. First take a piece of watercolour card or paper and splosh watery H2o's all over the paper, blending the colours as you go, but not too much, as you want the colours to stay true. Set aside to dry, or dry with Heatgun

2. Ink up the Anna Griffin floral stamp with the Brilliance Twilight ink pad and stamp randomly all over the paper.

3. Next ink up the centre portion of the Eau de Cologne stamp with the Prussian Blue and stamp in some of the gaps between the flowers

4. Using the Prussian Blue again, ink up the French words stamp and fill more of the gaps with the French words.

5. Ink up the small swirl stamp with the Spring Pansy, and fill more of the gaps and over stamp in some some places.

6. Finally, using the bird stamps, ink up with the metallic Sapphire Silk ink and randomly stamp the birds over the top of the paper. Apply Glitter glue to the centres of all the flowers. Set aside until the glue dries.

7. Cut your PP and perleascent card to fit your cardstock, leaving a border each time and glue in place. Next cut your stamped paper to form the central panel, but do not glue in place.

8. Stamp and white emboss (yes, it is embossing powder, I have never been able to find a white ink that works well enough on anything) portions of the large swirl stamp on the corners of the centre panel. Glue to the card.

9. Cut out your letters and arrange on the card and then stick them down.

10. On an off-cut of the stamped Background paper, stamp and white emboss the Birdcage and cut out. Mount the birdcage using pop dots.

11. Ink up your single flowers with the Ultramarine ink and stamp on the PP paper. Cut several out and arrange artistically on your card - I try to find 'natural' gaps in the stamped background paper for possible places where to stick the flowers, this seems to work quite well! Stick them in place using the silicone glue or a tiny pop dot. Finally, apply the glitter glue to the centres of the flowers.

Et Voila!

   

   

Sunflower Card

I made this card last night. Not sure if I will give it to someone, or if I will submit it somewhere. As you can see, my Altered ATC Album colours and images are still proving to be inspirational. I can't seem to get enough of this colour combination. It's so rich and is gender neutral too. I actually started to make a 'masculine' card using a stamped and painted Indian Elephant as the main focal image, but somehow the image just did not work. I think perhaps because the Elephant was a little small. It needed something extra, I might try again tonight and see what I can come up with a design using the Elephant and some other elements. Maybe some cut out Paisley images perhaps?

It's been a while since I last gave some card making instructions and so I thought I would do that today. If you would like to make this card, you will need:

1  Cream coloured square card blank.

2. 9cm square Gold card

3. 8.5cm square Indigo card

4. Cream card scraps (for the flowers, leaves and butterflies)

5. Stippling brushes

6. Stamp-a-ma-jig or other stamp positioner

7. Gold embossing powder

8. Heat gun

9. H20's in Sunflower, Olive Vine, Rich Cobalt, Snapdragon and Gold Dust

10. Kalediacolor pad in Creole Spice.

Stamps:

Paisley background stamp from Above the Mark.

Butterfly stamp from Sunday International

Leaf stamp (one side of a block) from Judikins

Sunflower stamp (unknown, but any sunflower stamp will work)

a) Start by stamping the Paisley background stamp all over your cream base card, using the Creole Spice inkpad. Line up the images using your stamp positioner until the card is completely covered.

b) Next stipple all over the card and background using colours from the inkpad. Start with yellow and make sure that a lot of yellow is applied. You can use a stipple movement or a swirling motion, bot worth equally well. next add some of the green, finally add small touches of the purple and indigo.  It is important not to add too much of the darker colours, so I kept the darker shades towards the edges of the card.

c) Next, on your scraps of cream card, stamp and gold emboss: 1 Butterfly, 6 leaves and 5 Sunflowers and 2 Sunflower centres.

d) Paint all of your pieces, roughly following my example, (note: the darker 'green' on the leaves is actually the Rich Cobalt paint, I also used this with the Olive Vine in the centre of the Sunflowers) Leave all your painted elements to dry.

e) Mat and layer your Gold and Indigo cards and stick them to the front of your Paisley stamped card. You have a choice here, you can either stick them down 'diamond' style or just square centrally in the middle of your card.

f) Cut out all your elements. When cutting the sunflowers out, do the following: Cut 3 full Sunflowers out, Cut 2 Sunflowers without the outside leaves and then cut out 2 Sunflower Centres.

g) Build your 2 Sunflowers back up again by using thin foam pads - use my example as a guide. Try curling the inner petals gently with your fingers to add a bit more dimension.

h) Arrange your flowers, leaves and butterfly on the card until you are happy with the layout and then start to stick them down. It is best if you stick the flat Sunflower down towards the back of the card so that the dimensional Sunflowers look as though they are in front of the flat Sunflower and are popping out of the card. When sticking down the leaves, try not to stick them down completely, this way you can curl them up slightly.  Position the butterfly wherever you want to. You could perch it on one of the flowers if you wanted to. Stick the Butterfly down by applying glue just to the butterfly's body - again this gives you the chance to bend up the wings away from the card so that it looks as though it is fluttering.

and there you go - easy isn't it! :o) 

      

It's Hip to be Square

 

I LOVE making square cards. There's something about the perfect symmetry that I love to work with - there's no better shape to draw the eye into a focal image - and of course its always fun to go outside of the edges once in a while. There's also no better shape to show off elaborate borders. I'm finding that I am definitely changing in style recently. I'm becoming more and more involved in stamped collage type work. I love sourcing different images and combining them in surprising ways. It's always fun to mix designs from 'modern' style companies like Hero Arts and designs from more Avant Garde companies like 100 Proof Press . I'm amazed at how many Hero Arts stamps I seem to use in this way.

Another direction I seem to be taking more frequently is using coloured paper to stamp on. The batik method works particularly well on coloured card because if you choose wisely, the colour of your base cardstock can really add a whole new element to your design.   

So - do you want to know how to make this card? (By the way, I don't do measurements so you'll need to play to see what works best for you)

Instructions:

1. On gold coloured cardstock, stamp Diamond Border stamp from Stamper's Anonymous twice in Versamark and then apply clear embossing powder and dry with Heat Gun.

2. Paint borders using alternate colour combinations of Purple and Red H2O's - allow to dry.

3. Place the embossed gold card stock between two sheets of cheap paper (No printed paper or you will get Newsprint all over your design (Actually, that might be quite fun, I'll have to try it!) ) Set your iron to hot (No steam) and iron the top sheet of the cheap paper until the embossing powder melts away leaving a crisp impression behind (It's magical, trust me!)

4. Trim your borders so that they are straight and then cut them in two, straight down the middle.

5. On a deep Orange piece of card, stamp and clear emboss Anna Griffin's Medallions Background design. Set with heat gun and then paint with Purple and Gold H2O's. Allow to dry and then remove the embossing powder again using an iron as described above. Cut paper into squares that are 2cm x 2cm. These will form your corners.

5. On deep Orange card stock, stamp Hero Arts Medium Harlequin design twice in Purple Chalk Ink ( I used Versamagic in Grape Concord). 

6. On gold cardstock, stamp Clown and 'ball' (100 Proof Press - link under 'Favourite Websites') in black ink and cut out. Stamp 'Admit One' design from Purple Onion Designs in red ink on the same Gold Card and cut out.

7. Assemble card onto Square Black Card stock using my picture as a guide. Mount the Clown and Ball on 3D foam pads to add dimension. Et Voila!