Dabbling in Distress Paints.....

The new range of Tim Holtz Distress Paints have arrived at Crimson Cloud and we have been dabbling with them all day. These are no ordinary acrylic paints! Not only do they blend beautifully when wet, when they are dry they stay put. Which means you can put layer after layer on until you are happy with your result.

I put together a couple of projects today using the Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar distress paints.

And here are the two projects -

 I took a piece of heavy weight cardstock and dabbed the colours on - making sure I used the lightest colour first. I then spritzed the card heavily with water (you could use a pearly mica spray here) and moved the card around so that the paint spread and blended. I used my heat tool to dry the paint, and then dabbed any excess wet paint from my craft mat onto the painted card to add texture and interest.

I cut the cardstock in half to create two panels for my two cards.

For the Dreams card, I embossed my panel with the Sizzix Birds and Lace embossing folder

 and sanded the embossed impression to reveal the birds and flowers. The sentiment came from the Creative Expressions Birds stamp set

To create my second card, I embossed a piece of white cardstock with the Creative Expressions Bark embossing folder

I used one of the brand new Couture Creations Ivy Doilies and die cut it from my second panel of painted cardstock

 The sentiment comes from the exclusive Crimson Cloud Sitting Fairy stamp set

I am now off to clean up the paint splatters from all over my craft room - even my lap top keyboard has some suspiciously pink fingerprints on it!
Mel
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Messing with Masks

Recently we have been messing with masks! In this case, two Touch Of Mica Masks - Basket Weave

and Ivy

To create this card, take two sheets of the Coredinations Whitewash card stock - I chose one with a pink core, and one with a tan core. Cut a square of the tan core sheet and emboss in your die cutting machine with the Basket Weave mask.

Cut a larger square (7.5 inches square) of the pink whitewash card. Place your Ivy mask on the card, leaving a two inch border of card free so that it won't be embossed. Run through your machine. Your mask may not have covered the full height of your card. If this is the case, run through the machine again, making sure that you tape your mask in place so that it does not cover your existing embossing. (Ideally you need a Grand Calibur or similar size machine to emboss this large size card).

With a spare scrap of the tan card, emboss the ivy mask leaving an un-embossed panel at the bottom.
Stamp your sentiment from the Creative Expressions Thoughtful Sentiments set

 onto this panel.

Stamp four fans from the Creative Expressions Oriental stamp set onto tan card, and emboss in white.

Using Cosmic Shimmer drawing inks, paint in the wings.

Cut out the four fans. Take some of the drawing inks and drip onto your craft sheet. Dip a length of the American Seam Binding (or you could use Vintage Ribbon) into the ink to colour. Dry with a heat tool.

Assemble the card, using the four fans to create two butterflies. Bend the fans to give them some shape and attach using Pinflair glue to give them some lift.

Use some pearl swirls to create Butterfly tails and the pearly glue to create antennae. Tie a bow with the coloured seam binding and embellish with Creative Expressions hat pins and a pearly brad.

Dot Cosmic Shimmer pearly glue around the edge of the card to finish it off.  Make sure put your card aside for at least an hour to let the pearly glue dry!

Mel xxxx Pin It Now!

Art Nouveau Lady

I am so excited that we have finally got the new Art Nouveau Cricut cartridge in stock - it is definitely my new favourite!

I couldn't wait to get started with it so decided to make a thank you card for some friends.

The handbook for this cartridge has a new (to me) feature - beside each shape they list the minimum size for optimal cutting. Very handy if, like me, you get frustrated with trying to cut the shapes out too small.

I chose my favourite image on the cartridge (woman2) and cut her out at 8 inches along with all of her layers.

As you can see she cut out beautifully. I wanted a simple background for her so cut the background arch using "lily" - layer 2 at 7.5 inches and 7.75 inches in two colours.

To add a bit of texture, I embossed the background using the Touch of Mica Ivy Mask.

I hope you enjoy this cartridge - it could become your favourite too!
xxx Pin It Now!