Monday, Monday

Good morning, Kirsten here, hope you've had a nice weekend.  Sorry the blog has been quiet the last few days, both Lisa & I have been busy working on projects that we hope to show you soon.

In the meantime, don't forget the challenge.  You have until 10pm on Friday  - August 31 - to enter your cards, scrapbook pages, tags, or whatever paper project you've created.  See the challenge page for all the details.  There's a £20 gift voucher to spend at Lisa B Deigns to be won.

We will announce the new challenge on September 1st.

Back soon, until then take care.

Kirsten

Altered Album, day four

Morning all, it’s Thursday already, I hope you’re having a wonderful week so far.  It’s finally cooling down here, thank goodness, not sure how much longer I can go without sleep.  Today, I’d like to show you the final pages of the altered album I made for Lisa’s paper crafting event art the end of July.  If you’ve missed the previous entries you can find them HERE, HERE & HERE.

The ‘cover’ looks like the frame of a filmstrip.  I blended acrylic paints – pastel blue, pink & green - over the inside & out.  When they had dried, I stamped the little Kanban bird with Stream Adirondack ink & stamped the music score over that with black Archival.  I added the metal bird & clock embellishment with a piece of bakers’ twine.




For the first page I stamped the butterfly with Versamark on white cardstock & heat embossed with white EP.  Then I blended Vintage Photo, Tattered Rose & Victorian Velvet distress inks on top & used a baby wipe to remove the DI from the embossed areas.

The dragonfly was stamped onto a piece of Kanban cardstock with Versamark & embossed with Stampendous’ Frantage  EP.  I flicked some water onto the card & quickly covered the water drops with the same EP & heat set.  This was a technique I had read about in an issue of Craft Stamper magazine & I was surprised that it worked.  You need to work quickly, but it’s great if you want a random, splatter effect.





This is the back cover.  I used the same pastel acrylics that I’s used on the front; the blue as the base, the green through  the stonewall mask & the blue & pink through a circle mask.  Added some stamping with Stream Adirondack & black Archival & that was it.



Products used:

• Artemio Butterfly Collage stamp set
• Kanban Script stamp set
• Kanban Seascape stamp set
• Kanban Floral Scrolls stamp set
• Kanban A4 cardstock - Calligraphy Rose
• Kanban Tickets stamp set
• That Special Touch mask - Stone
• Adhesive pearls
• Bakers' Twine
• Metal embellishments
• Distress inks
• Adirondack inks

Thank you for looking, I hope these posts have given you some inspiration.  If you like what you’ve seen why not share this blog with your friends?  You can also find us on Facebook & of course the website is www.lisabdesigns.co.uk

I hope to return tomorrow with something new to show you.  Until then, take care.

Kirsten

Altered Album, day three

Hello blog visitors, Kirsten here with three more pages from my altered, PaperMania album.  These albums are made of strong chipboard & are available in assorted shapes.
For this page I used Distress inks – Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint & Stormy Sky -  on white cardstock & flicked water on top to create a watermarked, mottled effect.  I stamped the crackled background & large clock with Old Paper DI & dried with a heat tool.  Then I stamped the Artemio butterfly three times with Frayed Burlap DI & dried.  The butterfly was stamped again, off centre, with Adirondack Watermelon ink.  I stamped it again onto white, scrap card & punched out three pieces for the opposite side.


On this page I hand cut a ‘house’ shape out of metal card, stamped on to it with black Stazon & when that was dry, I coloured it with Spectrum Noir pens & put it through an embossing folder.  I glued it onto the textured paper & stapled that to the G45 Kraft paper.  That in turn, was matted & layered onto  more textures paper & a torn piece of Core’dinations.  Note: the textured paper doesn’t accept DST very well, I have found that a wet glue, i.e., an ordinary PVA, works better.



This dress form is from Craftwork Cards, as is the backing paper.  I coloured the top of the dress form with Chipped Sapphire, then heat embossed with WOW Clear Sparkle EP.  The skirt was cut from gold cardstock  & put though am embossing folder.


Products used:

• Artemio Collage Butterfly stamp set
• Kanban Time stamp set
• Kanban A4 gold cardstock
• Graphic 45 ‘Elusive Wings’ 12x12 Kraft card
• Core’dinations 12x12 card
• Distress inks
• Adirondack inks
• WOW Embossing powder
• Hobby House mulberry roses
• Metal embellishments

Thanks for looking, I shall be back tomorrow with the final pages.

Kirsten

PS There’s still time to enter the challenge.

Altered Album, day two

Greetings, Kirsten here again with two more pages from my PaperMania altered album to show you.
I’ve been experimenting with masking tape recently & I like the results.  Even though this is just a cheap one, it accepts ink, paint & glue very well.  The background for this page is Graphic 45 Kraft card.  I sponged on acrylic paints & stamped with coffee Archival when the paint was dry.  I attached a pastel pink piece of textured paper to another, torn piece of Kraft card, then stuck torn pieces of masking tape on top.  ‘Make Memories’ was stamped onto a scrap of G45.



The butterfly was stamped with Flitter Glu & gilding flakes applied on top.  I love this technique, but it definitely needs practice – at least, it does for me.  You need to get the coverage of glue just right; stamp too lightly & you don’t get the full impression.  Stamp too heavily & the image is smeared.  But when it works, it works well & is worth the effort.  And always, always clean your stamp immediately.  The glue works best when it is slightly ‘tacky’, so use that waiting time to put your stamp in water & clean it thoroughly.
When I’d finished this page, it looked a little flat, so I mixed some gold mica powder with water in mister bottle & gave the page a spritz.  Interestingly, on the masking tape the water stayed a gold colour, but the mica seemed to separate from it.




The tag on this page was coloured with Victorian Velvet distress ink & the butterflies stamped with Stream Adirondack ink.  The Hunkydory butterfly was originally white & silver, so I coloured it with Faded Jeans DI, the silver resisted the DI, I used a brad to attach the matching acetate butterfly & clock hand.

Products used:

• Graphic 45 Elusive Wings 12x12 paper
• Graphic 45 Before Your Time 12x12 paper
• Kanban A4 cardstock – Delicate Scrolls, ivory
• Kanban A4 cardstock -  Romantic Roses
• Kanban Floral Scrolls stamp set
• Kanban Butterflies stamp set
• Artemio Collage Butterfly stamp set
• Indigo Blu Flitter Glu
• Indigo Blu mega flakes - Brighton Pier
• Hunkydory die cut butterflies
• Craftwork Cards card candi
• Bakers’ Twine

Thanks for looking, back tomorrow with more.

Kirsten

Altered Album

Hello blog visitors, Kirsten here.  Hope you’ve had a great weekend.  It is extremely hot here in the South-East, with temperatures reaching almost 30 degrees Celsius, which is much too hot for me.  Today, I would like to start showing you the altered album I made for the craft day at the end of July.  It’s a PaperMania chipboard album, took me almost three days to complete & I enjoyed every minute.  Direct links to all, available, products are at the end of this post.

This page was inspired by a project I saw in a magazine, (I think it was Stampers’ Sampler), ages ago, it stayed with me & provided the starting point for the album.    I blended Tumbled glass distress ink over the paper, then over stamped with Stream Adirondack ink.



I love adding texture, I think it gives a project great ‘touchability’.  I embossed the tag & randomly blended distress ink over it & attached the scrap of lace with a fabric glue.



Here's a close up of  the little tickets.  I stamped them with coffee Archival, coloured with Dusty Concord & Shabby Shutters DI, punched holes with my cropadile & added the bakers twine.



More textures on this page, with torn cardboard, old book text & an embossed heart.  The key under the heart is four die cut pieces glued together with Glossy Accents, then triple, heat embossed with Stampendous’ Frantage EP. 



The red embellishments are the inserts from the heat embossed key, I coloured them withb Fired Brick DI before stamping on them.  The letters from a tiny Hampton Art alphabet stamp set fit perfectly.



Products used:

• Kanban Tickets stamp set
• Kanban Script stamp set
• Kanban Butterflies stamp set
• Kanban Floral Scroll stamp set
• Kanban Wild Flower Garden stamp set
• Kanban A4 cardstock – Romantic Roses
• Kanban A4 cardstock – Vine of Roses
• Kanban A4 cardstock – Locksmith
• Kanban A4 cardstock – Calligraphy Rose, pink
• Marianne Creatables die – Hearts
• Marianne Creatables die – Lock & keys
• That Special Touch mask – Clouds
• Creative Expression embossing folder – Crackle
• Bakers’ Twine
• Woodware Punch – Inverted Corner Rounder

  There's still time to enter the challenge, all the details are HERE.  We had two entries yesterday from Maeve, who attends Lisa's Maidstone class.  Maeve doesn't have a blog, so I added the photos to the Challenge page & will assign them random numbers at the end of the challenge.

That's all for today, thanks for stopping by. I hope to be back tomorrow with more of the album.

Kirsten

Touch The Sky

Happy Friday, blog visitors, I’ve got a little wall-hanging to show you today. 
I made it for Lisa’s paper crafting event at the end of July. 
I’m going to do a step by step as to how I did this, it’s very simple, just quite a few stages.





1 Attach the chipboard pieces together on the reverse, using low tack tape.  This keeps them together while you ink & stamp, and creates. a seamless image.
2 Place the mask over the chipboard so that it covers all of the first piece, (label shape) & the top half of the second.  Blend Faded Jeans distress ink through the mask.  Dry with a heat tool.
3 Blend Tumbled Glass distress ink very lightly over the chipboard pieces, getting progressively lighter as you move down to the third piece.  Dry again.
4 Cut a circle in a piece of acetate & place over the top corner of the label.  Use a piece of cut&dry foam to blend Scattered Straw & Spiced Marmalade DIs onto the chipboard.  Dry.

5 Blend  Peeled Paint & Crushed Olive distress inks over the third piece of chipboard,  getting lighter as you move up to the ‘sky’ on the middle piece.  Dry again.
6 Stamp the floral stamps with crushed olive DI & colour the flowers with Spectrum Noir pens.  Remember to dry the distress ink, it will stay wet for a few minutes otherwise.
7 Die cut the bird on a branch twice, the second time from a paper the colour you want the bird to be.  Cut out the bird & glue to the first die cut with Glossy Accents & attach the branch to the chipboard.  Give the bird an eye by adding an adhesive pearl.







8 Add a quote to the third piece of chipboard.  This quote by Rumi was the inspiration I needed to make this project & I used an alphabet stamp set with black Archival ink.
9 Remove the tape from the reverse & punch holes in each piece with a cropadile or similar.
10 Thread through bakers’ twine or ribbon & there is a cute little hanging.







These chipboard pieces are covered with white paper & they took the ink very well.  I haven’t tried them with paint yet, but I think if the paint is added in very thin layers it should be fine.  The smaller two are ATC sized & are sturdy enough to take quite a few layers of papers & embellishments. 
Products used:

• Chipboard label & ATCs
• Bird on a Branch - Marianne Design Creatables (out of stock at the moment)
• Kanban Floral Scroll stamps
• Distress inks
• Baker’s Twine
• Clouds mask – That Special Touch
• Spectrum Noir pens

I hope you like this little project & if it inspires to create something why not enter it into this month’s challenge? 
You could win a £20 voucher to spend at Lisa B Designs.
Until tomorrow, take care & thanks for visiting.
Kirsten

Graphic 45 Banner

Hello blog visitors, here we are at Thursday already.  I hope the week is treating you well so far.

Today I’d like to show you a banner made with Graphic 45 papers.  Those of you who were at the recent crafting event in Maidstone might have seen this displayed above one of the stands.






While these 12x12  kraft papers are quite muted in colour, they are highly patterned, so the embellishments have been chosen to complement the almost monochromatic palette.  Pearl flourishes, white & cream flowers & black lace work very well together.






Products used:

• G45 Quote, Unquote
• G45 The Genuine Article
• G45 Before Your Time
• G45 Elusive Wings
• G45 Glimpse of Paris
• Petaloo flowers
• Pearl flourishes

That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with something else.
Thanks for visiting.

Kirsten

Kanban Steam Punk, day three

Greetings, here is the third & final day of the Kanban Steam Punk projects.  You can tell we liked this collection, can't you??  Let’s start with Lisa’s three cards, all of which would be ideal for the men in your life.

For this first one Lisa embossed a piece of Core’dinations card with an embossing folder, then sanded the embossed area to expose the core.





Simple matting & layering on this one, divided into nine background squares with a larger square as a topper.  The brown, speckled, squares are a gorgeous, textured 12x12 paper.  I don’t think it’s on the website just yet, but it comes in a range of colours & there are other textures available too.  I’ve used it on a few projects & I love it.





Lisa has used assorted pieces from the collection on this card, with everything at different heights to give lots of dimension.





These two cards are ones I made, using black cardstock.  I scored the first one to make a gatefold card.  I’m wondering now if I should take it apart & emboss the two panels, but at the time I was thinking “keep it simple, for once!!”





The inside of this card is the really interesting bit.  What you’re looking at is a printed acetate overlay, which exactly matches the A4 patterend diecut underneath.  Love these!  The photos don’t show how great they look & the depth they give to the image.





This is the second of the printed acetate overlay & the diecut.  You get the two acetate pieces on one sheet & the two diecuts on another.  Details of each are below.  Again, I kept this simple, because I wanted the focus to be on the acetate.  I think you can see the patterned underneath under & to the left of the topper.




These printed, acetate overlays are also available in postcard size, with different images.  You can find them HERE & the matching postcards HERE.

Products used:

• Kanban Time & Direction A4 diecuts
• Kanban Time & direction acetate overlay
• Kanban Cameo Clock Divas
• Kanban Cameo Clock Gentlemen
• Kanban Gold Mirror Cogs
• Kanban Clock Face
• Kanban Timeless cardstock – cream
• Kanban Locksmith cardstock – slate brown
• Kanban Time Machine sentiments
• Creative Expressions embossing folder - Time
• Craftwork Cards card blanks

That's it for today, I will be back with another post & something completely different.  Thanks for visiting.

Kirsten

Kanban Steam Punk, day two

Hello & welcome to another blog post.  Here are the cards Lisa made using Kanban’s Steam Punk collection of toppers & cardstock. 



I like how Lisa has layered the gold mirror cogs onto the textured paper & put the focal image on top.



The Petaloo flowers are a perfect size for these cards and give a feminine touch, any bigger & they would overwhelm the toppers.



The largest of the Cameo Clock divas fits the largest of the gold mirror cogs on this 8x8 card blank & gives extra interest, rather than simply matting the image onto a gold mirri circle.

Products used:

• Kanban Steam Punk Copperfield
• Kanban Steam Punk Amalia
• Kanban Cameo Clock Divas
• Kanban Gold Mirror Cogs
• Kanban Rosette Foil sentiments
• Kanban Steam Punk Ribbons
• Kanban Revolution cardstock – bronze
• Craftwork Cards
• Petaloo flowers

I’ll be back tomorrow with the final projects in this series. 
Thanks for stopping by.
Kirsten

Kanban Steam Punk, day one

Evening all, Kirsten here.  Sorry there was no post yesterday, I spent the day at Stamperama in Stevenage & then watched the entire closing ceremony for the Olympics.  By the time it finished – after midnight – I was too tired to even think about writing a word.  To start this new week we have projects made with the extensive collection of Kanban’s Steam Punk toppers & patterned cardstock, all of which are on the website.  As usual, I will put direct links to each item at the end of the post.  Today, I have two of my projects to show you & tomorrow I will show you some of Lisa’s cards.   

These were made with weddings and anniversaries in mind.  They could be very large cards or, with the action of ribbon, wall plaques.  The Catalina sheet is two images with decoupage sections.  I curved each part of the skirt around a bottle of Glossy Accents to give it lots of dimension & used silicon glue to hold the curves in place.  The cogs are die cut, but I decided to keep the largest ones together by taping them on the reverse.  Then I put them in an embossing folder & ran them through my Bigshot.

For this one, I decided to add paint & distress inks through stencils to the base before adding the Amalia toppers.  I stuck the chipboard letters to the hearts to read ‘celebrate’.  the letters & key are from my stash.  I’ve had them so long I can’t remember where they’re from.









Products used:

• Steam Punk Amalia
• Steam Punk Catalina
• Clock Face
• Gold Mirror Cogs
• Time Machine sentiments
• Revolution cardstock – slate brown
• Timeless cardstock – cream
• Taffeta cardstock – teal
• Marianne Creatables dies – Stencilled Hearts
• That Special Touch mask - Cogs
• That Special Touch mask – Watches
• Straight/Crosshead screw brads

That brings us to the end of today’s post.  If you ever have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments or on the Facebook page.  And remember, you still have plenty of time to enter this month’s challenge.

Thank for stopping by, see you tomorrow.

Kirsten

Kanban Kensington Collection

Hello blog visitors, Kirsten here.  How’s your Saturday been?  It was HOT here.  I managed to do a little in the garden & I gave everything a good watering, which I hope will be enough until it rains next week.  Yes, I know, but that’s what the forecast says & that’s never wrong, is it??


Anyway, you’re not here to read my weather ramblings.  After showing you Lisa’s HobbyArt cards yesterday, it’s the turn of her Kanban Kensington collection projects today, these were on display at the recent Papercrafting event, so some of you will probably recognise them.  Those of you who have used Kanban products previously will know that they are always good quality & the toppers & cardstock are about 250gsm, which means they are very strong & won’t fall over in the slightest breeze. 

I don’t think I’ve used the combination of black & cream on a card, but it works very well here & there's lots of bling too from the gold swirls & flowers.  From using other Kanban collections, I know they cardstock takes distress inks very well, so if you wanted to give your cards even more of a vintage feel, add something like Old Paper or Antique Linen, which will tone down the cream & blend a little Walnut Stain around the edges.



Lisa used Craftwork Cards white card blanks for these projects &  she has added some folds to the the three below, which gives them extra dimension & interest.









If you click on the individual images, a larger picture should open, enabling you to see more of the detail.  On the card above Lisa has  cut out a lady from one topper & added her to this one with 3-d foam & then gone around the edge of the silhouette with gold glitter. 





You can add lots of detail to this collection with brads, adhesive pearls & gems, glitter.  Mat & layer the differently patterned backing card onto plain card, Core'dinations, for example, add organza ribbon along with paper or fabric flowers & you will  have lots of texture too.  With a collection like this, less is definitely not more.

So, what do you think?  We hope these have tempted you to try the Kensington collection for yourself.  All the products used are on the website, each one is listed below with a direct link.  Why not make a card & enter it into this month’s challenge?  All the details for that are HERE.

Products used:

• Regal Ladies
• Baroque Postcards
• Baroque Blooms
• Regency Butterflies, black
• Regency Butterflies, cream
• Baroque Cameos
• Vine of Roses cardstock, ivory
• Regal Elegance cardstock, ivory
• Delicate Scrolls cardstock, ivory
• Tudor glittered acetate, black
• Tudor glittered acetate, gold
• Petaloo Darjeeling Collection Hydrangeas
• Joy Craft Mini Organza ribbons
• Pearl brads, gems & flourishes
• Craftwork Cards card blanks

Thanks again for visiting.  I hope to be back tomorrow with something else to show you.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Kirsten

Hobby Art Happiness

Hello blog visitors, Kirsten here.  Happy Friday to one & all, hope you’ve had a lovely day.  The weather here has been wonderful, I’m hoping it continues tomorrow, as the garden needs my attention.  I have six beautiful cards to show you, all of them made by Lisa, using Hobby Art stamps.  ALL of the stamps are now available on the website, you can find direct links below.  I like the versatility of these stamps, they can be used for virtually every occasion throughout the year, just by changing the colour schemes.

This little birdhouse looks great hanging from the tree & the accompanying birds are very sweet.  As are the birds in the second card – I think the two on the right might be getting a telling-off from their mum.










Now, these two little fairies just might be the cutest ever.  Lisa uses Spectrum Noir alcohol ink pens to colour her images & the shading on these is really beautiful.








Finally, two cards using the Poppies stamps.  I tend to think of red when I think of poppies, but I can see these being any colour from yellow to purple & beyond.  And have you spotted the tiny mouse on the easel card??  The gingham cardstock on these is available in three shades.




Products used:

• Birdhouse clear stamps set
• Woodland Scenes clear stamps set
• Nesting stamp set
• Fairy Girls stamp set
• Poppies stamp
• Sentiments clear stamp set
• Vintage Ginghams A4 papers
• 3mm Ric Rac Ribbon

Hope you like today’s projects, they’ve certainly given me some ideas.  Clicking on the links above will take you directly to each product on the website.  Thanks for looking & see you tomorrow.  And don’t forget the challenge.

Kirsten