NEW BACKGROUND, HEADER ETC

Since it's Summer at last, I thought it was time for a new look - hence the new header and background.

Maybe the background is a little plain, but you know me - it won't be left like that!

Hope you like the new look - feel free to leave a comment!

METAL TOOLING & FOILS - WITH FREYJA

We haven't had any tutorials for a while - so here's a brilliant one on Metal Tooling with Freyja.

All artwork & How To notes copyright Freyja Lee.

FREYJA SAYS:

Gold Leaf & Punches

Not stamped cards, but easy to do and they look very pretty. A tall card makes the most impact with this type of design..

• The black card uses a Giant Flower Punch and a matching clear sticky peeloff fixed over the aperture.
• Apply gold leaf to the sticky side.
• Optional - attach another peeloff onto the back sealing the gold leaf. Not necessary if you use a card insert.
• Attach a multi coloured peeloff butterfly over the leaf and tiny flowers from the same sheet at the base. Add ribbons for extra colour.

• The blue card uses a giant 3.50 cm punch to make thre apertures.
• As before use sticky squares, back with silver leaf (real silver leaf is luxurious and not expensive to buy) and add peeloff snowflakes ad gems to the apertures.

Silver Heart

Stamp - nonSequitur 'Italia' Stamp Plate
The English Stamp Co.2102 Leaf

This is the easiest design of all using, a small piece of metal foil with a simple printed or pattern placed on top and traced with a stylus. Take the pattern away and impress the design more deeply.


It is not difficult to work free had copying a pattern or making your own.

• The leaf is embossed twice onto coloured vellum and cut out.
• The background is from the Italia plate and silver embossed .
• Two rectangles of sparkle gauze are layered with the other elements as shown.

Oak Leaves


Again no stamps, but very effective with real leaves traced onto heat coloured brass tooling metal.

• Very easy to do: add the veins copying the leaves after cutting out following your outlines.
• Heat colour two pieces of fine mesh and attach with squares of black card and bleach painted peeloffs.

Girl With Plaits


Stamps - Magenta M17069Q

This card uses the stamping and tooling method.

• Stamp one half of the image with Brilliance ink on heat coloured Copper metal.
• Turn under the edges and flatten, or file raw edges carefully.
• The butterfly has been drawn on paper in one piece, and transferred to foil with freehand decoration on the wings.
• Cut out and shape around a wooden spoon handle.
• Stamp a brown panel with Brilliance ink using any suitable small Ethnic design image.
• Twisted wire curls around the head and string wound round a brad.

Clown and Leaves


Stamp - Magenta M23388Q

• Stamp one of the three stamp images onto copper metal sheet and emboss on both sides to get the right effect.
• Bleach peeloff leaves, remove leaves and mount the metal panel to a card of choice.

Foiled Flower Tiles


Stamp -Rubber Stampede Cosmos Blossom 2877B

• Stamp the flower six times spaced out onto black card with Versamark and 'Heat and Stick' or 'Stamp and Bond' embossing powder.
• Just melt with a heat gun and immediately apply powder coated foil - here rainbow but plain available if preferred.
• Cut the card into squares or use a 3.5cm giant punch.
• Arrange the squares over a cream panel and attach punched shapes in a decorative way over the panel.
• Add jewels and a stamped on acetate greeting with two mini brads.
• Finish card as shown.

TIP: Note six stamped images, keep one for a quick punched card - see Gold Leaf and punched cards

Foiled Mums


Stamp: Any open floral image.

• Stamp the image onto acetate.
• Run through a Xyron maching or apply double-sided photomount onto the back.
• Apply powdered foil to the sticky back.
• Attach with a choice of panels.

TIP: If using a plain foil sprinkle a little glitter, PearlEx or a few gold leaf flakes before applying the foil.

Ophelia


Stamp -Rubber Poet DB-47-B
Any suitable background stamp

• Stamp and black emboss the image onto acetate.
• Colour on the reverse side with gel pens before applying a sticky backing and silver leaf.
• Stamp and silver emboss a background.
• Mount the acetate panel as shown or use mounts of your own choice.

Aren't they all just fabulous? Thanks, Freyja!

LOVELY BLOG AWARD

I am thrilled to announce I got a One Lovely Blog Award for the BladeRubber Blog!

This must mean I'm doing something RIGHT for a change, lol.


Thanks so much to June Campbell at Scrapping By Design blog.

Here's the rules for the award:

To accept the award, you must share the love.

1. Add the award to your blog
2. Link to the person from whom you received this award
3. Nominate 7 more blogs
4. Leave a message on their blog letting them know they have received ‘One Lovely Blog Award’

Here we go...

1. I've added the award to the sidebar (faster than a speeding bullet, lol)

2. Thanks to June at Scrapping by Design

3. This is the hard bit... choosing 7 blogs...

The Scrappin' Cop

Deb is a whiz at Photoshop and creates tons of digital scrapping resources, plus dingbats, frames, fonts, .pngs - all sorts of wonderful digital stuff - which she is very generous in sharing for FREE. Also good digital links. She's also a full time cop! How on earth does she find the time...

RubyMay Days

RubyMay has a lovely blog: mainly cards, always inventive, plus some altered books, altered cutlery, freebie vintage images - a very nice mix. RubyMay also has a nice touch with her photography and I like the actual layout of the blog too - lots of pictures, brief posts which get straight to the point (nothing like me, then) in a nicely readable font which makes it a pleasure to stay a while.

PaperArtsy Blog

Leandra Franich is the owner/designer of PaperArtsy Stamps, which I love - and also has brilliant ideas re projects, tips etc. You'll have seen her work in Craft Stamper etc, and seen her demo at the stamp shows. Did you know she writes a fabulous blog as well?

Lemoncholy's Flight of Fancy

Kecia makes the most wonderful altered art and found object jewellery - very unique. She's also a fan of SteamPunk (me too) so that makes her very OK in my book! She's also been featured in Belle Armoire Jewellery and Altered Couture.

Pink Days Studio

This blog is in Portugese, but don't let that put you off. This is the Gracious Living blog - the eye candy, the style... if I win the lottery some day, I know where to go for the best interior design ideas! Elegance meets Shabby Chic. You'll see some amazing & inspirational ideas here.

Creative Chatter

Shari won those stamps in the Giveaway competition we had for BladeRubber's 100th post - but that's not why I am giving her this award. She's getting it for two reasons: her broken leg & ankle, and the very jazzy & artistic cast she's wearing - and the fact she has some stunning artwork on her blog. So I hope this cheers her up a little. If you like ATCs, check out some great ideas.

Before the Stroke of Midnight

Lori is a little bit mystic and loves fairies. Saying that, she's also definitely non-cute and leans towards the Waterhours and Burne-Jones styles - very Art Nouveau and very romantic.

4. This is the fun bit, leaving a message on their blogs!

WORDPRESS HELP - PICTURES & HYPERLINKS

Copyright-free image Tack-o-Rama

Yes - I know this is a Blogger blog, but I saw a plea for help on one of the Yahoo groups - asking how to post pictures on WordPress blogs.

So how could I refuse?

Plus, I know there are WordPress readers of this blog -so I have written a How To article especially for you on my WordPress blog.

Hope it helps!

THE THREE "R"s

Once upon a time, we were all in school and we had to learn the three "R"s - reading, writing and arithmetic.




All artwork copyright Chris Rowe of Bling-kin-ek

So I have great pleasure in presenting Chris Rowe's take on the Three "R"s with this wonderful set of Twinchies!

Chris has a wicked sense of humour - I was tickled to death when I saw her blog, Bling-kin-ek.

















Blinking heck, I thought - this sounds like my type of person... then saw these adorable Twinchies... and fell in love! In fact, I wish I had thought of this idea.

















I hope you're all noticing that Chris has used just one stamp throughout (the pen nib) which, along with the background paper and the lettering, also helps to unify the theme.

So this qualifies for the Just One Stamp spot as well!

DO go and have a good look at her blog - it's great fun.

CROCHET PATTERNS

Photo and design copyright Beansieleigh at Beansieleigh Babbles

And now for something completely different:

Beansieleigh of Beansieleigh Babbles has designed a wonderful crochet pattern for a doll's dress.

This post also contains hints & tips for a doll's makeover!

Copyright Beansieleigh

And as if that wasn't enough, what about crochet donuts?

These are a great beginners' project, and make fun pin cushions.

Here's the link for the pattern.

Crochetville has also kindly given permission for you to use the pattern to make for items for sale - great for all those charity stalls at the Summer fairs!

Yarnjeannie has used a different yarn and made hers into scrubbies for non-stick cookware.

I am constantly stunned by all the ideas out in Blogland -with all the latest buzz about knitting, it's high time we had a crochet revival too!

OFF ON HOLIDAY SOON? NATURAL REMEDIES

Are any of you off on holiday soon?

You might want to take a look at Maidenshade's natural remedies for ear infections, styes etc (from swimming pools, too much chlorine etc).



Stay Safe - Copyright Susie Jefferson

Isn't it fascinating what you come across on the web!

Don't forget that sunscreen - you can still burn even on cloudy days.

And don't forget to drink plenty of bottled water, to prevent dehydration and stomach upsets. If you are somewhere bakingly hot, you also need to make sure you increase your salt uptake (you might even need salt tablets) to prevent dehydration through excess perspiration, muscle cramps etc.

Lecture over, lol.

KREATIV BLOGGER AWARD

For those of you who are interested, I just got a Kreativ Blogger award! I'm so excited!

And I got tagged by Maidenshade too - all this in one week: my head is spinning.

You might want to take a look just to see who I'm tagging and awarding in turn - there are so many talented people out there, and these might be artists you haven't come across before (and in my opinion are well worth a good look).

STAMPINGTON - FREEBIE BACKGROUND

Those lovely people at Stampington have just released a set of 5 freebie vintage wallpapers for you to download and play with!

Just right-click to Save Image As onto your own computer. I'm thinking these are perfect for layering vintage cards - and ATCs of course!

JOURNALING

A lot of people ask me about journaling - this wonderful little video by Sirens Idyll sums it all up.

Just turn up the volume and chill...

LAZY WEEKEND JIGSAW

Guess what I just found? An online jigsaw link!

Just click the puzzle to play. It's not as easy as it looks...

Have a go - it'll drive you crazy. I am hopeless at jigsaws, and this pink duck one took me 16 minutes (I'm so ashamed.)

Have fun!

JUST ONE STAMP - SUSIE JEFFERSON

Copyright Susie Jefferson for Craft Stamper magazine 2005

I thought you might like to see an old article I wrote for Craft Stamper magazine, back in The Day.

Three different views, one stamp (by Magenta).













I have scanned all the pix at high resolution, so you can actually read the text. There's also an origami envelope. Please allow a little time for the pages to load.












Just goes to show how different a stamp looks, just by using a different colour.

JUST ONE STAMP - FREYJA LEE

I thought you'd like to see more of Freyja's cards - and found some using the same stamp but with very different results. Just shows what a change of ink can do!

MONOPRINTING

A quick & easy method for monoprinting is to use a plastic page protector (cut round the sides, leaving just one side hinged) or two pieces of acetate. Using re-inkers, squirt a few drops of ink onto one side of the page protector or acetate, then place the other piece on top. Press lightly to spread the inks around, then open up again. Place two pieces of card (glossy is great) back-to-back, shiny sides out, onto one inked surface. Close the page protector, or place the other piece of acetate ink side down, so the card is sandwiched in between the inked surfaces. Press lightly, then remove. That's your monoprint background!

Ancient Fragment 1 Copyright Freyja Lee

Freyja says:

This card uses only Brilliance inks.
Make a panel with gold, copper and silver Brilliance re-inkers.
Stamp the image with black ink in the centre and cut closely around adding a similar black layer, before stamping (brown ink) with suitable elements and attaching to the rest of the background, tearing the outside edge.
The background is taupe coloured main card stamped with various images from the NonSequitur 50C plate with brown ink and edged with a Copper Krylon Pen.
Add a piece of string or raffia.

Ancient Fragment 2 Copyright Freyja Lee

Freyja says:

This card uses the dye ink method.
Make a red and yellow background.
Stamp the image with black ink and tear around one side, mounting onto a torn black layer.
Stamp lightly textured white card with red ink using suitable stamps - here from the NonSequitur Greco-Roman plate.
Layer as shown onto a rusty red main card.

RESIST

Another great effect: stamp your image once onto white card (Versamark or clear pigment ink) and allow to dry (or use a heat gun). Glossy card or matte clay-coated card works best. Once dry, swipe over or brayer over with inks - the stamped image will resist the colour and show through as a ghosting effect. Stamp again with your chosen image in the ink of your choice.

Scripted Leaf 1 Copyright Freyja Lee

Kaleidacolor "Creole Spice" rainbow inkpad

Scripted Leaf 2 Copyright Freyja Lee

Adirondak "Winter Sky" rainbow inkpad

Freyja says:

These cards use the clear ink resist method.
Stamp the leaf with Versamark and when dry brayer over with the rainbow pad.
Over stamp with black ink adding any other small stamps and embellishments.
Mount as shown.
Stamp used: Stampington Scripted Leaf C8426

Don't you just love these! And why don't you email me with pix or scans of YOUR artwork to display on the blog.

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO LATELY

I just realised with a shock that it's June already! Time is passing too fast...

So I just thought I'd do a quick post, so you'd know what I have been up to this last week or so.

Well, I designed some more stamps for Blade Rubber which have been accepted, so some very exciting news on that soon!

Watch this space!

And I am the proud possessor of a new 22in monitor, which means I can see what I'm doing at last. Trying to do all that Photoshop stuff on a 17in square monitor was miserable (never mind the eye strain and the headaches...)

I have also finally finished rewriting my website. It's now pretty much finished although I still have a lot of galleries to reload. What is NEW is the Freebies section, where I have blog backgrounds, blog buttons and a tutorial on how to write your own email buttons for your Blogger blogs. And some buttons for WordPress users too. You'll also find tutorials in the Gallery and on the Techniques page on my own blog.

I think it's really starting to come together at last.