Rocky's Crafting Blog

     This little gift bag is from a template by Papermania, I've included a fifty pence piece so you can gauge the finished size.
     This week at The Technique Twist the challenge is Faux Patina, there is a link to a tutorial which I found very helpful. I have opted for an old leather look rather than metal for my bag.
     I started with white card from which I cut the template. To emboss the sides I did one side at a time as my folder is only a 6x4 . I inked my folder with Old Paper Distress Ink on the embossing side of the folder before embossing my card. Once out of the folder I then Inked with Brushed Corduroy, Gathered Twigs and a dash of Aged Mahogany to get the various shades of brown.
     The shine comes from Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Wax Autumn Bronze which I rubbed on to the card with my finger. Let the wax dry off then buff it up to a nice shine. The tag is Grunge Paper with an eyelet through it, hung on some old gold ball chain. The clasp is a gold button stuck on with ultra sticky tape, I have used a foam pad underneath the flap to lift it up a little.
     I had a very messy time making this but it was fun, I shall definitely be making some more.

      This is a CASE card from Technique Time Tuesday's current challenge. I'm hostess this month with the Faux Silk technique, there is a video tutorial on TTT to show you how we've done it.
     I have chosen a card by a very talented lady named Kimbo to CASE. There are some really great cards entered this month but Kimbo's caught my eye because of the oriental theme and the fact that she had heat embossed tissue paper.
     I chose green tissue to emboss with bamboo leaves, then I crumpled it up and opened it out again. To my surprise non of the embossing cracked at all, maybe it's the Cosmic Shimmer powder that's the secret, I'll have to experiment further. Once opened out the tissue is stuck on to white card but not smoothed out completely, some of the wrinkles must stay to imitate silk.
     The image panel is stamped in Archival Olive Green on cream card, it's an old PSX stamp of my Mum's. Both image and background panels have been mounted on black before being put on a pale green water stamped card.
     The coin is a gift from a fellow DT member, thanks Karen, with a few Mizuhiki cords knotted through it. There is also a Mizuhiki knot at the bottom. Karen of Stamping In Pink has been campaigning to bring back the oriental style, I've been trying to help because I love it's simplicity and style. I think with the launch of some new oriental stamps by Sheena Douglass that we may be on to a winner!
     Please pop over to TTT and take a look at the DT cards and challenge entries, there is still one week left to join us.

     Welcome to my DT contribution for month three at House Of Cards. Each month we have a theme but each week we have a different style within that theme. This week it's Shabby and Vintage with a gorgeous colour palette of lilacs, purples and a splash of coral.
     For my card I've chosen to omit the coral and stay with shades of mauve. The background is a white piece of card inked with a mixture of Distress Inks Seedless Preserve and Milled Lavender, then water stamped with a Hydrangea flower.
     The doily is cut from mauve card with an X-Cut die, inked over with Adirondack Eggplant ink and decorated with Cosmic Shimmer Pearl PVA in purple. The silhouette is also an X-Cut die and coloured with Eggplant to match the doily, card edge and leaves, it is mounted on foam pads over a cream circle because it looked too dark over just the doily.
     The flowers are Hydrangea paper flowers I got at a craft show a couple of years ago, coloured with the same distress inks as the background and then dabbed over with a little mauve mica powder. The gems have been coloured with an alcohol marker so they tone in as well.
     Please pop over to the challenge site and have a look at the lovely creations from the other girls on the DT, I'm sure you'll find something to inspire you to join us at House Of Cards.

     This seasonal brooch has been made from drink cans. It's quite a good way of recycling something and turning it into a hand crafted gift for Christmas.
     To begin with cut open the drink can carefully, I would suggest wearing gardening gloves when you do this to protect your hands and use an old pair of scissors. At this stage the edges are sharp but once die cut they are rounded over slightly and much safer to handle.
     I have used a Sizzix Bigz die, Tattered poinsettia. These dies have a blade embedded in the foam so they are sharp enough to cut metal, unfortunately Spellbinders and similar rely on pressure on the ridge to cut and metal is just to thick.
     My flower has been coloured using Alcohol Inks but alcohol markers will also work well. The metal can be passed through an embossing folder to get texture on the petals but this time I have just used a nylon tool to score veins on them. I remembered I had a metal craft tool set in the cupboard so I have been making great use of that again, it has some really useful nylon tool heads as well as a selection of fancy pattern wheels.
     There are two large petal sets, one coloured with greens, one coloured with green and red, then one middle size petal set and one small both coloured with red only. The centre is coloured yellow as is the paper fastener that holds it all together. There are lots of really nice brads available that would look great as flower centres but paper fasteners work just as well and they can be coloured too.
     I have stitched a brooch back to a felt flower shape that has double sided sticky sheet on it, once the brooch back is on I have peeled off the sticky cover and placed it on the back of the brooch. This saves trying to glue the brooch back on ( I tried that and it didn't go well!) and it covers the brad back making it all look tidy.
     I hope you have a go at this, it's much easier than it looks and you have a valid reason to drink something fizzy now!

      Here is this weeks Christmas card.
This one was inspired by the colour choice at 52 CCT and CraftyHazelnut's  request to 'cut it out'.
     I was recently lucky enough to find this Papermania 6x6 stamp in a sale bin for £1, now who could resist that!
     I chose to stamp and clear emboss on white card, then ink over with Distress Ink Festive Berries.
     I didn't want to put cut outs on top, that would be too easy, so I used some Sizzix Movers and Shapers to cut holes in my background instead.

      When I held this over my Kraft layer it looked a little dull, so I used some double sided sticky sheet under where my holes would be and covered them with Glamour Dust Crystal, this kept the Kraft look but added some sparkle.
     All that was left then was to cover the back of my die cut background with foam tape and stick it to my Kraft layer. I suppose you could say it's a bit of a back to front card but it was something I just had to try.
    

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

     Last week I showed a Christmas Collection Box and promised further details of the snowman and angel, well here they are.
     The snowman is two small polystyrene balls stuck together with a cocktail stick spike between body and head. The balls were then covered with PVA glue and sprinkled with white flock.
     Once the flock was dry the tiny black gems were stuck on for his eyes and a really tiny nail art gem for his nose. His mouth is a series of small dots made with a permanent marker.
     His hat is made using the top from a lip balm stuck on to a small black card disc and coloured with a permanent marker. His scarf is a small length of blue fancy knitting yarn.
     He is stuck to a card base that has been covered with flock and clear glitter and he is backed by a small piece of snowflake scrapbook paper.
      The baubles are cut with the smallest Spellbinder bauble dies, four for each bauble. Each shape has been folded and stuck to the corresponding side of the next shape with black thread running down the middle. To get the baubles to hang properly I made a false ceiling with card and taped each thread securely to it before gluing it in place.
     The angel is made using two beads, two finding and a post. The dress is a flower trumpet and the head is a pink bead, the wings are one little finding and the tiny cap at the top is another.
     They have all been threaded on to the post, once threaded the end has been turned over to make a loop so it can be hung ( would make good seasonal earrings) or it can be bent over to look like a halo.
     This little box has been fun to make, if time allows I would like to make some more for Christmas to have dotted about the house as this one is now travelling the show circuit with J&C Creations.