Jar Just 4 Me

I recently got into covering things in Idenden tape and have been experimenting with what I can do with it.  This is one of my crazy projects.  Not seen this done, so this is a learn as I go project.

Be warned.  Lots of pictures.

I started with a Douwe Egberts coffee jar and stuck on some foam lettering.  I've not used foam letters with this tape before.

This is plasterers joining tape.  slightly self adheasive. I got this in a pound shop.  Great for adding texture.

I normally try to keep the tape as flat and crease free as I can.   This is my first project where I have crumpled up the tape to add texture.  I have only crumpled in one direction so all of the creases go from the top to the bottom of the jar.

I haven't decided what  I want to do with the lid yet so I have left it alone. 

This was taken after applying 2 coats of gold acrylic paint.

I have applied black acrylic and wiped most of it off.  Ihave also added bronze acrylic to the letters.  More on the chain later.  It has turned out a bit darker than planned, but I will keep workin with it and see how it turns out.

Bound in orange

My first binder was filled as soon as I finished making it and I still hadn't housed all of my acrylic stamps.  What's a girl to do?  Make another one, that's what.

This one will be flame coloured, lots of oranges, reds and golds with some black thrown in.  I'm not sure what it will look like yet, but I plan on trying a non Steampunk style as that seems to be all that I do at the moment.  It may still have a slightly Gothic feel as I have some nearly black chain that I plan to use on it.

I got these chipboard letters as part of a scrapbook kit that I used to subscribe to, but I could never think what to do with them as the colours didn't really work with any of my projects.  I'm still experimenting with my embossing powders, so yes, you guessed it, I embossed them.

I started off using the Create and craft gold ink pad shown on the left, but the coverage wasn't quite what I wanted.  Great if you were going for the corroded metal look, but I wanted smooth.  The main problem I think, was that the chipboard letters had a shiny finish.  I tried the colorbox ink pad on another letter and it worked perfectly, so I used it on all of the letters including the T that I did first.

 This is the finished result.

22/09/2011

To make this background paper, screw up a piece of thin white card cut to the size that you want.  Flatten it out as much as you can using your hands and then wipe your ink pad over it.  I have used dried marigold for this.

Now go over your sheet in your main background colour.  I have used mustard seed.  At this point I spritz the page with water and dry with my heat gun, but you can skip that bit.  I just like the effect I get from doing that.

Swipe over the page again using another colour.  I have used spiced marmalade.  I then covered my card stock with grease proof paper and ironed it a bit.  I cover it in grease proof paper because I am using my steam iron with the water emptied out and don't want to get distress ink on my clothes.  I didn't iron it completely flat as that is not the effect I was going for.  I want this to be fairly textured.

 At this point I have stamped a gate along the bottom of the page in fired brick and then partially embossed it in gold.  I have also stamped a rose (again using fired brick) and embossed it in black.

I had a go at stamping a curly design along the top, but as the paper isn't flat, this didn't work too well.

I stuck my letters in place with hot glue before I decorated them.  Unfortunately, at this point I realised that the black embossing powder leaves a slightly oily texture if used over large areas and sticking things to the black letters was difficult.  I have decorated the letters using mirror mosaic tiles, buttons, a paper clip, gems and card candy (paper dots that look like brads).

This is where I added flourish die cuts and flowers

The finished item

I have used one of a pair of earrings on the side.  Ir is an antique fold coloured rose with a diamonte at the centre.  I love the chain tassel at the bottom.  I removed the earring hook and hot glued it into place.

Stamping Binder

This is a binder that I bought from Paperchase for £3.  It is A5 in size and I plan to keep all of my acrylic stamps in it.

I'm into Steampunk at the moment, so this binder will definitely have that vibe.  I haven't decided on the colour scheme yet, but I know I will be using cogs (real ones if I can  get them), charms, chains and the whole thing should have a slight grunge feel to it.

Edited 17/09/2011 to add

I screwed up a sheet of white card and then wiped my "Faded Jeans" distress ink pad over it so that it caught the colour on all of the peaks.  I then used a sponge to add "Broken China" distress ink, spritzed it with water and then dried it with my heat gun.  i then screwed the cardstock up again and swiped it over with Broken China to catch the peaks again.

I put a sheet of grease-proof paper over the top and ironed my card stock flat.  I have added "Shabby shutters" and "Black soot" distress inks and stamped some flourishes in black soot and heat embossed with black embossing powder.  I have added some more flourishes in faded jeans over the whole sheet.  I then lightly inked the sheet in broken china and heat embossed with clear iridescent powder to give the whole thing some shimmer.

I die cut a frame from grunge paper (Yes more Tim Holtz).  I painted it with "Old paper distress crackle paint.  It goes on smooth and with in about 5-10 minutes it starts to crackle.  It's a one step paint and very easy to use.

This is what it looked like 25 minutes after I applied the paint.

I have inked my frame with Tea dye, Vintage photo and faded jeans distress inks and then coated the whole thing with clear iridescent embossing powder which I then heated to get this shimmer effect.

I have added a black organza bow to the corner and loads and loads of flowers.  I have also added green stick on gems.

I have used my snowflake die to make a corroded metal piece from white card stock  I used Vintage photo distress ink to colour it before adding embossing powder.  I have found it gives a better effect than the tea dye I was using before.  I created a swirl using flat back pearls and glue dots.  I stamped the edge of the frame with black soot and then embossed.  I then used a gold leafing pen to highlight the swirls.  The key on the frame came from a cheap necklace that I picked up a few months ago.

More flowers, a hand made cog and green stick on  gems,

This is Atlantea.  She is one of Kenny Ks new Steampunk burlesque range.  Yup, I gave her green skin.  She is coloured in orange and green with silver glitter pen.  There are touches of brown on the areas that look like leather.  I inked around her with Tea Dye then masked with post it notes before spritzing with water and drying with my heat gun.

This is the finished item.  You need to click on it to see all of the features.  There is lace, gold chains and flowers all over.

The making of a card

I don't use much green in my card making.  I guess you could say I am a bit scared of it, but I am not the proud owner of 2 green distress inks, so I thought I should put them to use.

Earlier today I made cogs and coloured a flourish to match.  Here is the rest of the card and how it went together.

This is the base for my card. I have distressed the edges using a Tim Holtz distress tool for a slightly shabby look.  I then inked my card with Vintage photo, then shabby shutters then peeled paint distress inks.  After applying each layer of ink, I have spritzed with water and dried it using my heat gun.  This gives a slightly dappled affect and softens the edges of where I have inked.  I use a square make up sponge to apply distress inks, so that is a very important step.

The stamp I used along the bottom is by Kanban.  It's a border stamp so I had to stamp a couple times to get from edge to edge.  I used Black soot to do the stamping and then embossed with black embossing powder. I have embossed the who thing using a cuttlebug embossing folder.

I wanted a tag with the greeting on it.  I have inked this one with the same inks as the base piece.  I have since realised that I should have edged it with black soot to make it stand out more.  I have added one of my newly made cogs to the hole and added ribbon and fibres.  Peel off lettering is great for cards.

I wanted a frame for my image so when I die cut it, I used two sizes at the same time.  One cut out my image and the other cut the frame, so they fit together exactly.  I have put random streaks of copper leaf on the frame.  The ink (black soot) doesn't stick to it, so you get a lovely burnished effect.  I then added some embossing powder and created a slightly bobbled shiney metal effect.

When I am making a card I try to lay out the different elements to see how things will work together and try a few ideas.  As you can see, when I laid out this card, the tag had not been inked and the metal elements were still silver.  I also needed to colour the image.

This is my finished card.  To see some more close ups of the finished item head over to my other blog Craftily Sugar Brown.

Cogs

I like to push myself craft wise and learn new techniques.  I have recently discovered Steampunk.  I love it, but it is way out of my league making wise.  I'm going to give it a go though.  First thing I am doing is trying to make some cogs as I don't have any for my new project.

I had a dig though my scraps drawer and found some decent weight white card.  I am going to attempt to make the cogs using some build a snow flake dies that I have.

I wanted a distressed feel to my cogs as I will be using them on a grunge project and this is what I used.  A non-stick craft mat is an essential piece of kit.  I use it for so many different things.  I have used Papermania black embossing powder.  I usually use Heat it up and right now I think I prefer that to Papermania.  Got to use tweezers for this.  I have used a copper leafing pen by Krylon.  These are not cheap, but are well worth the money.  I got a really good deal on this on ebay.  Got to have Tim Holzt distress inks in your kit.

The die cuts have been copper leafed using my pen.  I didn't bother too much about  keeping the finish smooth because of the type of project I was doing .  This has just one coat on it.  I then added a few dabs of black soot ink and added embossing powder.  I used my finger to take off any extra I didn't want and then hit it with my heat gun.  Use your tweezers for this bit.

 The finished effect is kind of bubbly and glossy.  I love it.

 This is the matching flourish I made.  Mental note to self.  Don't use die cuts from glossy paper for this.  I had yo use two coats of copper leaf to this one because of the gloss, but it worked.  I inked and embossed the same way.  Left hand side is the before and the after is on the right.

Yep another blog

I like to think that I am quite innovative.  Whenever I m out I am always looking for things I can craft with.  Things I can use in different ways.  I have started to get into altering things.  I have seen some amazing things out there that other people have made.  I only wish I could be so good.


This blog will not be about entering challenges.  It is simply my journey in crafting.  Things that I try out and the end result both good and bad.  I will be linking or showcasing some of the things that I have tried in the past.