Rocky's Crafting Blog

     I started with a white card blank and taped it to my craft mat with masking tape, so I could keep a white border all the way around the card. Then I stamped the lighthouse image with blue ink and the sentiment block aswell, with the ink left on the stamp I stamped on masking sheet, cut out and covered the block area.

      This was made for my niece who has the most gorgeous hazel eyes, I thought of her when I first saw this stamp.
      The card started with a square of white card on which I stamped and embossed Simmi by Lavinia Stamps. I then stamped on some Stix2 masking sheet, cut it out and covered the eye to keep it white.
      Using Distress Oxide Ink I coloured it a very pale pink, covered it with a stencil and coloured again with the same ink but a little more of it.
      After removing the mask from the eye I coloured the iris with watercolour pencil and a touch of brown mica paint, it's not easy trying to match someones eye colour, especially when you have to do it in secret.
      The eyebrow pattern is coloured with a darker Distress Ink painted on with a water brush, then tiny gems were stuck on to give it a little sparkle. The edges of the image panel didn't look quite right so I edged it with the same pale pink ink as the overall pattern.
      It really needed some black to make the image pop so a couple of mat layers split up by a bright pink pearl card did the trick and by mounting it on a white card blank it brought out the white of the eye too.

     Welcome to the first challenge of the new year at The Male Room, our theme is 'New Beginnings'. As usual our challenge will run for two weeks so you can join us with your masculine projects.
      I chose to make a 'New Home' card using one of my media plates and some new Lavinia Stamps. I challenged myself to produce a masculine project with what are usually considered rather feminine images.
     To start with I stamped the Gnome house in Versafine black, then stamped on some Stix2 masking sheet and cut it out. With the mask in place I used the media plate to add a circle of shades of blue, trying to get a darker edge on the side farthest from the house.
     I stamped two toadstools in blue and used a water brush to lift some of the ink away where the spots are, this worked better than expected on the I-Zink's.
     With the mask still in place I dried the stamping and then used a stencil on the media plate to add Versamark, just before stamping this layer I used an ant-static pad over the inked area and then stamped this layer over the blue inks. A dusting of pearl mica powder now revealed a starburst of light form just behind the house. This has a picture changing effect as the card is tilted in different directions, one way you can see the toadstools and the other you can see the starburst, perfect for a magical card.


     Please pop over to The Male Room for lots more inspiration from our DT and a great guest designer too. Have very Happy Crafting New Year.

     A new challenge at The Male Room begins today, this time it's all about 'masking'. It's a very useful technique for stampers, opening up the chance to build a scene with just one stamp.
      I stamped my image on to masking sheet three times and cut them out. I have used sticky notes in the past but have had mixed results because they move, Stix2 masking sheet doesn't move and it's low tack so your stamped image is safe.
     The first image stamped was the one that would be in the foreground, he was then masked while his friends were stamped beside him. Once you remember to start at the front and work back, masking can help you build some great scenes.
     With all three gnomes masked I used some torn paper to make another mask for my snowdrifts. Holding this firmly I used Distress ink to create the sky, then I spritzed it with water to create small blotches for snowfall.
     Moving the paper mask down, over the gnomes, I added a very small amount of the same ink to create shadow, making it look like another snowdrift is just behind them.
     With the addition of a little ink added by damp brush around their feet they were ready to colour.
     After removing all masks they were coloured with alcohol markers and spritzed with a pearl mica spray so the whole image panel glistens.
     I also coloured the edge of the card with Distress ink and spritzed it so it would match the image panel, the slight difference in colour is because the base card is different. A small silver mat layer added to the panel before mounting on the card gave it a little Christmas shine.
     Now the problems started when I went to add a greeting, I tried several different ones, die cut, stamped, embossed, but non of them looked right. So I have taken the decision to leave it as it is, I may come across one later that I like but I would rather send it out like this than add something that I feel doesn't look quite right.
     Please pop over to The Male Room to see the DT inspiration, come and join us with your masking projects. You also have the opportunity to join us on a more permanent basis as we're looking for DT members.

     The new challenge at The Male Room is 'school colours',  it doesn't have to be school themed, just something masculine showing school colours.
     I have a digi in my stash that I thought would be just right for this challenge. With a few adjustments to the mortar board and gown, so I could add a splash of yellow, it would be just perfect.
     The image was printed out on white card, then I made my adjustments and cut a mask to cover him. Then I secondary stamped some pencils to make a background using a rubber stamp that was pre-loved when I got it and I've had it about six months.
     There was a slight halo around part of him where I didn't get the mask perfectly placed, but that was easily remedied by colouring a small border around the whole image with a very pale grey marker.
     When it came to the mat layers I wanted to have the same shade of yellow, so I used the same marker on a white card mat. You only see the edge so only the edge has to be coloured, I also made the black layer the same way. This method saves having stacks of coloured card, and we all know it's never the right shade, as well as making a perfect colour match possible every time.
     There is no greeting at present, that will be added when it gets used, I'm thinking it might make a great good luck card.
     Please pop over to The Male Room and have a look at all the DT inspiration, come and join us with your masculine creations.

     Summer has definitely arrived at the House Of Cards with a bright and breezy photo prompt, we would like to see you use Stripes and/or Colours inspired by our photo.
     The picture made me think of bees, it was the pattern of the umbrella that struck me first so I set about finding a bee image. Now you might think that was easy.....it wasn't!  I have a few (ha,ha) stamps and dies but not one single bee that was suitable, so I resorted to the internet and it's mass of free images. A bee stamp and die are now on my wishlist. With my bee image printed and die cut I just had to make a background to show the stripes.
     What better than sun rays to provide the yellow stripes. After a search through my stencils nothing much inspired me so I went through some dies and found the prefect one. I die cut some strong card and used that as a stencil to work three shades of Distress ink through.
     The striped panel didn't look right on a white card blank so I coloured the edges yellow, then stuck the panel flat and the bee die cut on foam pads. It's a very simple card with a sweet and simple message so I have decided not to add anything else to it.
     The House Of Cards challenge runs all month so please pop over and join us, all you have to do is make a card inspired by our photo prompt.

Stripes and/or Colours

     A new challenge starts today at MHK Designs and I have used a new set due for release later this month as it fits the challenge prompt perfectly, this set is called Birdcage Silhouettes.
     I started by printing the birdcages onto an A6 piece of watercolour card, then I cut a mask using thin card and heart shaped dies.
     Once the mask was in place I sprinkled red Brusho over the hearts and spritzed with water, taking care not to get it too wet so it didn't run under the mask.
   
 
     Once the red hearts were dry I covered them with the die cut shapes from the mask to protect them when colouring the background. This was made using blue Distress ink and a mask of different sized circles to create a Bokeh effect, building up layers of colour with various sized circles until I was happy with it.
     Adding in the chains for the birdcages to hang on was done at the end so the ink wouldn't get smudged. Then the image panel was mounted on a black background layer, I have kept it as a flat panel so I can put it on the wall above my desk but it would make a nice card too.
   
 
     We have lots of new stamp sets to show you this month so please pop over to MHK Designs blog to see them as they appear, come and join our challenge and you may win some of them. You can see all of the great designs we have in our Etsy shop, including some gorgeous backing papers.

Birdcage Silhouettes

      A new year, a new month and a new challenge at the House Of Cards. This month we have a winter scene with cool colours as our prompt.
     Just before Christmas I got a Tim Holtz tree line die from Sizzix so I decided to use this with some stamps I've had for years.
     I have used Memento ink Grey Flannel to stamp the castle part way up the white card. Then I cut the trees out and used the waste as a mask to create a forest in front of the castle. Distress Ink Hickory Smoke worked well for this, I just had to make sure I used very little to start with and got darker as I came down the card. The fog effect is the result of not inking much below the tree line leaving lighter gaps, I hadn't planned this, it's one of those happy accidents.
    The dragon is stamped in the same grey ink, as black looked a bit harsh on my practice piece. The castle has silver window shine that can be seen at an angle and the whole card has a dusting a pearl mice applied in a mister.
     To add a tiny splash of the dark red from the challenge prompt I added a thin mat layer to the image panel and then mounted it on a black card.
     The House Of Cards challenge will run until the end of the month, so when you get time please come and join us, we would love to see you interpretation of our prompt.

Add a building and/or colours

     Welcome to a new colour challenge at The Male Room, we would like to see something masculine using blue, orange and yellow.
     After a recent visit to the show at Ally Pally I have some new stamps and a mask to play with. The background is made using an Indigo Blu stamp and mask with the yellow and orange Distress Inks. This layer of inking has been dried before stamping with a Visible Image stamp using Distress Ink and then clear embossing powder.
     To keep it simple it is then trimmed and stuck on to a blue card making it very flat and quite thin which is perfect for UK postage rates.
     Please come and join us at The Male Room, we have lots of inspiration to help get you started.

Colour Challenge

     The Male Room challenge this time is Thanks or Thanksgiving, you have two weeks to make your masculine project and join in the challenge.
     I chose to make a very simple card, with just a small amount of decoration. To do this I masked off a strip down my card blank, I use my trusty pricking mat from Woodware, it has no holes in it as it's never used for pricking. It's great for stamping on as it has a little give in it, perfect for working on an uneven surface and grid lines for getting things straight.
     Low tack stencil tape from Stix2 masks off the work area and holds down the cog stencil too.
     Using Distress inks I coloured the card, carefully removed the tape and stamped my greeting in Archival Ink Coffee, there was a tiny smudge by the Y so I covered it up with a little star peel off.
     Come and join in with giving thanks at The Male Room, anything masculine as long as you follow the theme.

        When I saw Asha's card it looked familiar, then I remembered I have a stamp from the same range so CASE-ing Christmas this month was even more fun than usual.

      I stamped the house from Chocolate Baroque onto plain white card and stamped a mask onto sticky notes aswell.  After cutting out the mask and covering my house I stamped snowflakes using Versamark and clear embossed them.
     I tore a piece of paper to make another mask to go across the bottom of my card and coloured the sky with Distress Inks Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concorde.
     Once coloured the sky was spritzed with water and blotted, then spritzed with a water and pearl mica mixture to make it sparkle.
     The mask at the bottom was moved down and across slightly, then I used Faded Jeans to create another snow bank but kept it pale.
     The house is coloured in using watercolour pencils and a water brush, the small tree has a gold garland wrapped around it which was made with a gold glitter pen. The large tree has red glitter decoration made using Stickles, the snowflakes also have a small clear Stickle centre to them.
     The greeting is from another Chocolate Baroque set stamped in Archival Cobalt and clear embossed. It is all mounted on a piece of white card that has had the edge coloured blue with an alcohol marker then it's on a 7x5 white card blank. Small and thin enough for standard postage but still with a little sparkle for the season.
     Come and take a look at Asha's card at CASE-ing Christmas, visit the Design Team to see what they were inspired to create and then come and join us with your project and you could win a prize in our random draw on the 25th of October.

     This weeks project for Creative Expressions is again using John Lockwood's stamp set Flower Hearts Elements, but this time the roses. It was my friends wedding anniversary last week so it's safe to show this now.
     I began with a white card panel the same size as a small DL card. I stamped a small empty heart in the middle on the right hand side, then I masked it off and stamped over it with a rose heart.
     Then I stamped two more rose hearts at the top and the bottom, with two empty hearts between them. All the hearts are in line because I followed a faint pencil drawn line which I later used as a guide for cutting.
     I cut away the card to the right of the hearts and backed it with some gold paper. I cut a Spellbinder border from the same gold paper to run up the left of the card.
     The hearts are coloured red with a Graph It alcohol marker leaving the empty hearts clear for words.
     The sentiment comes with the stamp set, it's embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Bright Gold. The names are added using an alphabet peel off sheet.
     This whole panel is then mounted on a small DL card blank. Doing it this way means my alcohol marker doesn't show inside the card to spoil it.


Materials used 
CE John Lockwood Stamps - Flower Hearts Elements
CE Cosmic Shimmer Embossing Powder - Bright Gold

     For my mid month inspiration at CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra I chose to raid my stash of toppers. I have a small box of toppers that I have made either at demo's or craft club meets just waiting to be mounted onto cards.
     This little chap is an Inkadinkado stamp that's just perfect for another mask and distress image. The snowman is stamped on to plain white card, then again on to a sticky note. Cut out the snowman on the sticky note, minus his arms (it's OK, it doesn't hurt him) and the scarf fringe, place this mask over the stamped image on the card.
     Tear a strip of paper to make another mask, this time for the snowdrifts. place the paper strip across your card and begin to colour the card with Distress Ink Faded Jeans, move the mask down and colour again but this time with a little less ink and a little less pressure. Repeat this again, making sure you leave the lower area white.
     Spritz the card with water and dab off with a clean piece of kitchen towel, this will give you the snowflake effect.
     Remove the mask from your snowman and allow the card to dry. Once dry colour in the hat and scarf. Mount on a small layer of silver card and then on to a decorated card blank.
     This card blank has been stamped with a selection of snowflakes in blues and silver, making a random pattern, you only need to stamp the edge that will be seen
      This year I am a little behind with my Christmas cards so having a topper stash box is proving to be very useful. I hope you like this little fellow, he has a few friends waiting their turn in the box so you may see them pop up from time to time.
      Please pop over and take a look at the DT mid month inspiration at CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra, come and join us with your creations.

      This weeks challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown in a one layer card. I am so far behind with my Christmas cards I just had to make the effort to join in. Here is what I came up with after looking at the DT inspiration.
      I really liked what Deborah had done with a die so I set about trying to do something similar but with a different shape. I put the die under the front of my card with the rubber embossing mat on top of the card front and hoped I got it right, if not then it would be a die cut window card for another time, but to my joy it worked! This gave me an embossed shape to work with.
     The snowman is stamped in Archival Jet Black on the card and also on a sticky note, making sure his hat is well on to the sticky area, this is to be used as a mask. I also die cut a window in thin card with the same die for a mask.
     
     Placing the snowman mask over the stamped image and the mask window over the embossed shape, I then used a torn piece of paper to make another mask. This last mask was used with Distress Ink Faded Jeans to create snowy hills in the background. Before the ink could dry I flicked water over the scene, left it for a little while and then mopped it away to create a snowflake effect.
      Once dry I removed the masks and coloured in the snowman. The green in his scarf is a little too dark but other than that I'm happy with him. He has a little shading done with a Promarker.
      To get the silver around the embossed shape I placed the die over the shape and drew around it with a silver glitter pen.
      The greeting stamp is embossed with silver.  It was bought as a larger stamp and I have carefully cut it so that I can use parts of it separately. If you do this don't trim the parts, this way you can put it back together again to use the full stamp and it will meet up perfectly.
     Now that I have the masks cut I can make a few more of this style of card, in different colours, to help boost my card stash.

     This weeks Christmas card was inspired by 52 Christmas Card Throwdown's challenge of using only greens and one neutral colour.
    I began by die cutting a Spellbinder tree from copy paper to use as a mask. The mask ( the bit with the tree shaped hole in it ) was put on gloss card and then I used Distress Inks Bundled Sage, Forest Moss and blending foam to create a vague brayer type effect of graduated greens. Once I was sure this was completely dry I used the tree shape mask to cover the coloured bit and stamped in Archival Ink Olive with a Chocolate Baroque stamp from the Madonna and Trees set. This gives the appearance of the scroll tree being behind the fir tree, I then stamped again without the mask so I now had a scroll tree in front as well.
    The greeting is also on gloss card that has been coloured with Bundled Sage while the die was still on it so I got a small white edge. The greeting was stamped in the same Olive ink as the scroll trees and mounted on foam pads.

    The Archival Ink takes a while to dry so I then set about finding a star to put in the top corner, this also came from a Chocolate Baroque set and was stamped in Olive green. I have stuck a small green gem in the middle of the star to add some 'twinkle'.
    The gloss card was then mounted on a white card that has had its edge coloured with Forest Moss so that it tones with the rest of the card.
    CraftyHazelnut's challenge is to use die cuts, this may only have one stuck on it but they were most definitely used to make the card. Using the dies as masks is another way of getting your full value out of a considered purchase, just what every crafter likes to do!

   This card is for my friend Sue, it's her birthday next week. Her partner calls her Sue Bear and she likes blue so I think she'll be happy with this.
   I would also like to enter it in a challenge over at Make My Monday, the theme this week is monochrome.
   To begin with I put a mask over a white card and used Distress Inks Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans and Stormy Sky to make the background. Then I brushed silver mica powder over the ink before it dried to get that shine (just like the Mother's Day cards).

    I have stamped the little Penny Black bears using Faded Jeans and water brushed them as well as blending the edges while the die (Spellbinders - Wonky Squares) was still in place. Each bear is mounted on foam pads.
   The letters were silver, they have been coloured with a blue permanent marker.  There are various sized clear gems on some of the flowers to add a bit of sparkle.