TRIPLE DECKER….DOUBLE STAMPING….

 Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

You know sometimes when you are working on a craft project and you get really excited inside because you have a feeling it is going to look really nice when it is finished? Well that is exactly how we felt when we started doing this card. This is a technique that we have seen before but never used, so really wanted to give it a go and are really happy with the results.

The card itself is made out of black card stock and as you can see in the photograph above there are three layers of a light cream card on top which is a Foundation Card from Creative Expressions, 220gsm and the colour is called 'Milk'. It is a real favourite colour of ours. As you can see the black card has also been used to create the borders for each of the cream layers and I think it frames them really well. All the layers were stuck down using a Crafters Companion Extra Strong Permanent Glue Tape, which is an easy to use double sided adhesive.

Two different stamps were used to create the images on the front of the card, The first one was a leaf style clear stamp from Woodware and was stamped using a Rangers Archival Ink Pad in "Watering Can", which created the soft background. Next using a Rangers Archival Ink Pad in "Jet Black", we stamped the flower stamp and this is what created the bolder look against the soft background. I think that the grey and black ink combined works well against the black and cream card, however you could use other ink pad combinations to create similar effects. 

To get the stamped effect on this card, you temporarily stick all the cream layers of card together and then do the stamping. Once done you then put the black layers of card inbetween. You need to make sure that you line the card up so that the image looks continuous.

To finish off the outside of the card, we used a Rangers Liquid Pearl in "Majestic Purple", which although quite subtle against the bold stamped image of the flowers, the colour compliments the grey and black colouring.

 Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

To make this project a bit more special by linking the inside of the card to the outside of the card,  as you can see from the photograph we also stamped the flower in "Jet Black" and added the "thanks" sentiment from PaperArtsy.  Just a little tip, but when using a colour card as the base for your project, you can use a more neutral coloured card on the inside to write your message. I think that the "milk" card works really well in this instance.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this project. The triple decker and double stamp technique is a lovely way to work and I have a feeling over the next few weeks you may see some more projects with a similar look.

Happy Crafting!

Dan

P.S - Just a reminder that we have a card making workshop at the shop in Wanstead this weekend on Sunday, so if you would like to join us please call the shop on 0208 530 1244 to book your place.

The Theme of Tonight….The Beauty of Simple Die Cutting - Project Three

 Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

Tonight is the last of the three projects in this series and I wonder if you can guess who had more influence in designing this card, based on the colour theme. If you follow the blog regularly you will definitely know! 

For the previous two cards we used dies designed by Sweet Dixie and Wild Rose Studio and we used different embossing folders as a contrast. The project in the photograph above is slightly different as it combines dies from both Wild Rose Studio and Sue Wilson at Creative Expressions. I have heard Sue Wilson say that she designs  her dies to work in conjunction with each other. I think that you can combine dies from different designers on your projects, which not only makes your projects more interesting but also means you get the most out of your dies.

The Butterfly dies used are the same as in the previous project, the "Peacock Butterfly" and "Little Butterfly" from Wild Rose Studio. 

The die at the bottom of the card was cut out in both black and white card using the Border die, from Sue Wilson's, Creative Expressions French Collection - Corner, Border & Tag die set. The set contains three dies. The white die cut was stuck over the black card using Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic glue. I hope that you can see from the photograph the shadow effect that this creates. The same technique was used in the top right hand corner of the card, this time using the Corner die from the set. I think both of these dies work really well with the delicate wings of the butterflies. 

Rangers Liquid Pearls in "Platinum Pearl" was used along the body of the butterfly to add some colour. Finally we stamped a sentiment from a stamp set by IndigoBlu called 'B.F.F', using a Rangers Archival "Jet Black" ink pad.

So that was the last of the projects in this series and as promised below are details of our next card making workshop. I hope you have enjoyed all the cards and reading about how they were made.

Happy Crafting,

Dan

x

Card Making Workshop - Theme: Die Cutting 

Sunday the 28th of June

12.30pm to 2.30pm

Cost £7.50 per person

(includes all the materials you need and of course tea, coffee and cake!)

Limited Spaces Available

To book your place, please call the shop on 0208 530 1244.

The Theme of Tonight….The Beauty of Simple Die Cutting - Project One

   Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

Hello,Happy Friday! So as the title says the theme of tonight is the beauty of simple die cutting and including tonight we will be posting details on the individual cards featured in the photograph above over three nights. 

For these projects the cards have been made using a range of dies from Wild Rose Studio, Sweet Dixie and Creative Expressions designed by Sue Wilson. To start this project series off, I wanted to say that each of the cards was made using 300gsm smooth white card and each of the card layers (the coloured card and the white card) was stuck down using Scotch Double Sided tape. 

I thought tonight I would start with the Fairy card, shown in the photograph below.

   Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

The die used on this card is part of a set from Sweet Dixie called 'Fairy and Butterflies'. As well as the fairy, there are also two butterflies that make up this set although we have not used them here. You can cut, emboss and stencil with these Sweet Dixie Dies, so they are good for working with. 

In order to create some texture we used an embossing folder from Creative Expressions called 'Sparkle Square' on about a third of the top white card and picked out the middle of the alternate squares by using Rangers Liquid Pearls in 'Mint Green'. I know I am biased but up close the Liquid Pearls look really beautiful against the white card.  

A piece of thin white card was stuck down using Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue above the embossed part of the card, mounted on turquoise card creating a two tone look. To finish the card off we added a sentiment using a clear stamp from Wild Rose Studio, stamped in a Versacraft Ink Pad 'Baby Blue' to give some contrast.

Remember to look out for the other cards over the next two nights and on the third night I will be posting details of our next card workshop. Can you guess what the theme will be?

Dan

x

Just A Quickie….

                                                

Design and photograph World © Lyn Wilkinson - All rights reserved

Have you ever wondered what you can do with a rubber stamp, a black ink pad and Rangers Liquid Pearls in various colours? 

Well just take a look at the card in the photograph above. I like a lot of people today, text and email to say thank you or send a message to someone but I always think it is so much nicer when you send a card or when you receive one, especially when it is handmade. The nicest thing about crafting whether it be a card, tag or other projects is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. I think this card is really simple but effective and I love the bright colours among the contrast of the back and white.

I used a Clear Magic Stamp from Woodware to make the images and 'Just a note' sentiment, which I stamped with a Rangers Archival ink pad in 'Jet Black' on 300gsm smooth white card. Once the ink was dry I applied the Rangers Liquid Pearls in 'Daffodil', 'Ruby Red', 'Hydrangea', 'Key Lime', 'Baby Blue'  and a couple more!

This card is really simple to produce and you could set up a mini production line to do a few for your card box, that way you would have some in reserve for when you needed them.

I hope you like it. I had fun making it.

Have a lovely time crafting this weekend and look out for some extra posts on the blog!

Back with another project on Tuesday.

Dan

Introducing Wild Rose Studio

  Design and photograph World © Lyn Wilkinson - All rights reserved

Wild Rose Studio is a UK papercraft company owned by a husband and wife team, who you can tell from looking and working with their designs are passionate about creating beautiful products.

We have been stocking their Speciality dies and stamps since opening Craft Boutique at 84 last year and have received great feedback from our customers who have bought the dies and stamps from us.

A few weeks ago on one of my posts I said that I loved black and white together as a colour combination on all things crafty. Well I am also a huge fan of blue and white together as I always think it looks crisp and fresh and that was my inspiration for this card. The base of the card in the photograph above was made using smooth white card, 300gsm. I then added a smaller layer of card in a cornflower blue and topped that with smooth white card again and used the partial die cutting technique on this layer to create the butterfly which is Wild Rose Studio's 'Peacock Butterfly' die. To stick the different layers of card together I used Scotch double sided tape, this is a new favourite product of ours and one we have recently started stocking in the shop.

I then used another Wild Rose Studio die new for 2015 called 'Olivetti Corner', this worked beautifully on two of the opposing corners of the card adding a real ornate feel to it. Using Rangers Liquid Pearls in 'Baby Blue', I decorated the body of each of the butterflies and the tops of the wings and the flowers on each of the corner dies. 

Finally I stamped the Happy Anniversary sentiment using a Versacraft ink pad in 'Sky Mist' which I find is a versatile colour when you have introduced blues and greys into a project. The clear stamp itself is also from Wild Rose Studio and I like to use them when I do not want a sentiment to look too over powering, especially on a card.

I hope you have enjoyed your introduction to Wild Rose Studio. Look out for more posts over the next few weeks that will feature more of their Speciality dies and stamps.www.craftboutique84.com

Happy Crafting,

Lyn

A Tropical Combination

                                 Design and photograph Word © Lyn Wilkinson - All rights reserved

We are huge fans of PaperArtsy at Craft Boutique at 84, stocking their full range of Fresco Finish Acrylic Chalk paints, a large selection of rubber stamps and other PaperArtsy 'crafty stuff'. When there are new products available we love to order them in and of course try them out!  Pictured above is the most recent Limited Edition set of paints by Lin Brown. Fun, bright and versatile, from what I understand inspired by a trip Lin took, there are four colours in the set and they are called 'Banana', 'Tangerine Twist', 'Caribbean Sea' and 'Bougainvillea'. The set retails at £15.60 and is available to buy from our website or shop in Wanstead and being Limited Edition, they are only available while stocks last.

Also in the picture is a fabulous set of new stamps from Jo Firth-Young, comprising of five stamps individually trimmed and mounted on EZ mount. The set called JOFY Collection 32 has a butterfly, two different types of flowers, a honeycomb shape and 'thanks' wording and is priced at £19.99 from Craft Boutique at 84.

We really wanted to combine Jo's flowers in the stamp set with Lin's paints to give a tropical feel. As the paints are so versatile, using a water brush with them on the cut out flowers you can see that they create a very different effect to when they are not watered down, as you can see from the bright pinks and blues on the base of the Manila Tag. The cut out flowers have been finished off by using Rangers Liquid Pearls in the centre of them and then glueing them to the Manila Tag with Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue.

This was one of our favourite projects which we did last week because the products are great to work with, we hope you like it too.

Look out for more ideas and another 'crafty' project on Friday night.

Lyn and Danielle

Dan's Hydrangea Card

Design and Photograph World © Danielle Wilkinson - All rights reserved.

Some of the latest products to come into the shop are from STAMPENDOUS! and we are just in love with their Jumbo Cling Rubber Sets and co-ordinating dies like the set featured in the card above. This one is 'Cling Hydrangea Garden' that I have stamped and cut out. 

I used a Rangers Archival Wendy Vecchi 'Watering Can' ink pad for the stamping as I thought it was more subtle to use a grey than a black which may have looked too harsh. For colouring the flowers and leaves I used various Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads working with a Tim Holtz Mini Ink Blending Tool, which is great because it is small and round and easy to work with. Some of the Distress colours I used were 'Mowed Lawn', 'Seedless Preserves' and 'Victorian Velvet'. 

To make the centre of each of the flowers I used Rangers 'Daffodil' Liquid Pearls. I wanted the leaves to stand out more than the flowers, so used WOW! Clear Gloss Embossing Powder which created a beautiful shine. I stuck the flowers and leaves to the background paper using Stix2 foam pads to create a 3D effect. 

The wording is part of an A5 JOFY rubber stamp from PaperArtsy, JOFY Collection 26 which again I stamped in 'Watering Can'. 

Happy Card Making,

Dan