"Making Crafts" with Grandma Lynn!

Firstly I'd like to wish you all a belated Happy New Year and apologise for my lack of posts lately. Life just got a bit in the way!

We try to visit our oldest Grandson, Max (who's two years old), as often as we can and before Christmas I started to take up a few bits and pieces to see if he'd like to try making things. We started by making an advent calendar from bauble shaped die-cuts. Max stuck a die-cut number (from 1 to 25) on each one and I punched a hole in the top of each and threaded them onto a book ring. I found a large beaded tassel in my stash and added this to the bottom of the last page, which gave the whole thing a bit of weight and helped it to hang properly. His Mum Katie hung it on the Christmas tree so that he could turn the page each day until it was time for Santa to visit.

The next week we made Rudolph gift tags from circles of kraft card - Max stuck on wobbly eyes and a small circle of red mirri - card for the nose. I had die-cut several snowflakes from brown card and I then cut these into individual "arms" of the snowflake, which we then used two of for antlers. I punched a small hole and threaded some stripey red and white bakers twine through so that they could be attached to parcels. However Max decided that he liked them and that they should be hung on the tree, so they never made it onto gifts!

The following week we all made a batch of Christmas cards together. We started with some die-cut Christmas trees which Max stuck onto cards and decorated with a sparkly glittered star sticker on the top and some smaller shapes stuck on with foam dots to decorate them. The biggest success though were the snowmen cards. I had die cut some cute snowmen from Papertrey's Shape Up series of dies https://www.papertreyink.com/pti-dies/papertrey-ink-shape-up-series-snowman-die-collection-set-of-3/  and I also cut some colourful accessories from the same die set using Sizzix self adhesive coloured and textured papers. The snowman's features were then stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink and the accessories in co-ordinating colours. You can see the matching stamp set here  https://www.papertreyink.com/stamps/shape-up-snowman-accessories-mini-stamp-set/ . I am sorry that I wasn't able to take any photographs as I needed to supervise Max and he was impatient to play! He loved dressing up the snowmen in different coloured hats and mittens and we were able to make about 5 or 6 different cards before he got too tired and needed a nap.

I had obviously started something, as when we visited in early January Max started jumping up and down as soon as Katie opened the door and he saw us. He kept shouting out "Grandma Lynn ... making crafts"! I felt really guilty as I hadn't taken any craft supplies with me that time and he was disappointed. He now says "Making Crafts" every time he sees me, so I seem to have made an impression!

So a couple of weeks ago Katie brought Max to our house for a change and we decided to try to occupy him with a variety of different activities. First Grandad David showed Max how to plant tomato seeds and lobelia seeds in small seed trays and then water them. Max seemed more interested in poking the soil with his fingers and taking out the labels! Whilst they were gardening I made a batch of carrot cake buns so that they'd cool while we ate lunch. After we had washed Max's hands and eaten sandwiches Katie supervised Max while he helped me to decorate the buns. They had risen quite a lot, so I ended up cutting off the tops and cutting the tops in half to make butterfly buns. I piped on some cream cheese frosting, replaced the lids and Max added some carrots made from icing to form the butterfly bodies. I think we did a good job between us!

 

 

Evidently Max thought so too, as he polished off all of his cake in record time and wanted more! I must admit - they were delicious! We remembered to send some home for Max's Daddy too :)



 

 

After we had cleaned up sticky hands again (Max and Grandad) we decided to do some stamping and play with Grandma's "Magic Powder"! Out came some black card, a Versamark inkpad, a selection of brightly coloured Mica powders (we used a combination of Blonde Moments, Perfect Pearls, Sticky fingers pearly powders and Pearl-Ex), an acrylic block and some wonderful quirky little stamps from Waltzingmouse Stamps. I chose two large and two small stamp sets, Half Pint Heroes, Half Pint Heroes Additions, Half Pint Heroines and Heroines - Fairy Princess. All the cute kids characters have separate heads so that you can choose which one you'd like, so it's easy to make cards that are personalised for the recipient.  I stamped the Princess and the frogs onto black card using versamark ink, then sprinkled different coloured mica powders over the inked image. Then I gave Max a large soft paintbrush and showed him how to dab the powder so that it stuck to the ink. I also gave Katie a soft cloth and when Max had finished she wiped away the excess mica powder and polished the card to get a clearer image. The photo below shows the image with the powder added, but before brushing. I was quite generous with the mica to start with, but realised that I actually needed a lot less for a clearer result. Sorry about the quality of the photos - I had to take them really quickly before Max got bored (after all, two year olds only have a short attention span)!



 

 

This shows the princess after she was polished. It's not the neatest piece, but a good first attempt from such a little boy! 

Then we tried  again with the balloon image from the Half Pint Heroines stamp set, but using the curly haired little boy's head from Half Pint Heroes, so that it looked more like Max! Here he is again, concentrating on "painting" with the pearly powders.

 

 

This is the finished balloon. We also used the sun stamp and there are some extra little fingerprints and smudges too!

 

 

Now we were on a roll! Out came the elephant from the Heroines set with the curly haired boy.



 

 

Then we used the same head with the body of the boy with his teddy from the HP Heroes additions set and added a couple of extra teddies for good measure.

 

 

 

The next card uses the cloud and bird stamps from the Half Pint Heroines set together with the cute little car and smoke trail from the Half Pint Heroes set. Max decided to try out a new technique for this one - he sneezed over it and then applied the mica powders (bless him - I think it was all that loose powder flying around that made him sneeze)! Although the mottled effect gives added texture and is quite interesting, I recommend that you omit this step if you try it yourself!

 

Here is our little man watching the rocket and stars (from the Heroes set) appear. Don't you just love his snowman jumper?!

 

 

You can't really tell in this photo, but the rocket is metallic green, with orange flames and silver stars. It looked good in real life! Max is fascinated by outer space, so I think he really liked this one.

 

 

 

Finally, we used the HP Heroes set to create an underwater scene, complete with colourful submarine, fronds of seaweed and a shoal of little fish.

 

 

 

 

After we had finished with the stamps and mica powders I sprayed all the pictures with cheap hairspray (about 50p a can from ASDA - WALMART if you're in the USA). This sets the mica and stops it from smudging any more. Cheap hairspray is best for this as the dearer ones often contain conditioner and perfume, which you don't want for this technique. If you are doing this with young children, just remember to keep the hairspray well away from them to avoid accidents. It dries really quickly and the card can be safely touched in a couple of minutes.

 

We had a great time playing with these stamps! I strongly recommend that you check out the Waltzingmouse website as there are some fantastic examples of cards made with these little kid's characters - there is so much that you can do with them! I'm sure that Max and I will be using them again (maybe when he is old enough to stamp and colour them himself).

 

http://www.waltzingmousestamps.com/products/half-pint-heroes

 

http://www.waltzingmousestamps.com/products/half-pint-heroines

 

 

I am hoping to get some more time to stamp later this week, so hopefully I will be back again soon with another post and some slightly more advanced artwork for you!

 

Lynn

JustRite Challenge #108 and #109

I have two cards to show you today - both were originally made for JustRite Friday Challenges, but I misjudged the time difference between the UK and the USA and missed the deadline - twice!

Challenge #108 was a sketch and I needed to make a birthday card for a friend who likes gardening, so I went with a leafy / floral theme.




I started with a mint green 6" x 6" square card blank and added a slightly smaller square of teal coloured card. Then I stamped the Leafy Background Stamp (SW - 04555) twice onto pale green card using Memento Teal Zeal dye ink and trimmed the stamped images to make four equal sized squares to fit my card front with a small gap between them. These were then stuck on with double sided tape. I chose the largest size die from the JustRite Custom Dies JB - 03990 Vintage Labels Two set to cut the label shape out of pale green card. This was then stamped with the matching large stamp from the JustRite Clear Winged Vintage Labels Two and Three (CR - 04465) stamp set, using the same Memento Teal Zeal ink. I cut a small oval from teal card using a Spellbinders die, stamped the sentiment from the same set using Versamark ink, covered it with white embossing powder and heat set it. The large label shape was layered onto the card using foam pads to add some dimension. The card was then embellished with four teal coloured rhinestones and some aqua and white mulberry paper flowers, together with a couple of leaf sprays which were cut from patterned paper using a Spellbinders die. Finally the small oval label with the sentiment was layered on top, again using foam pads for dimension, but also to cover the stems of the two flower sprays.

My second card was for challenge #109 WOW - white on white. I needed a sympathy card for a friend who had recently lost her father and immediately thought of white lilies. I wanted a classic looking card with a lot of different textures, although these are difficult to see on the photo below.

I started with a white 8" x 8" card blank and used the scalloped die from Spellbinders Edgeabilities E8 - 007 Classic Edges One to cut the right hand edge of the card. I trimmed a little off the top and bottom of the card so that the scallops were of even sizes. Then I added a panel of iridescent white quilt effect paper to cover the front of the card. I found a sheet of gorgeous satin effect card stock that I had been saving in my stash and dusted it with an anti - static bag before stamping the long lace panel from JustRite Lace Medallion Labels CR - 03905 and the large Lace Background Stamp CL - 03920 using Versamark ink. I covered the Versamark ink with WOW opaque white embossing powder and gently heat set it from underneath to prevent any scorch marks from overheating. I used the zig zag die from Spellbinders Edgeabilities E8 - 007 Classic Edges One to cut the left hand edge of the long lace border panel and the scalloped die, together with a Spellbinders heart patterned insert die to cut the right hand side. The long lace border was then adhered to the card with double sided tape and the excess was trimmed from the top and bottom so that it was flush with the card base. The lace background panel was cut out by hand, leaving a narrow border all round and then stuck to the card base with double sided tape.

I die cut a label from pearlescent white card with one of the dies from JustRite Custom Dies JB - 03990 Vintage Labels Two and then stamped the matching lily spray stamp from Floral Vintage Labels Two CL - 04455 using Versamark ink. This time I chose WOW vanilla white embossing powder and heat set again from underneath. I curved the label slightly and used foam pads (single layers down each side and double in the middle) to make the panel more prominent. I used a Spellbinders fancy tag die to cut the smaller label from a piece of satin effect card and stamped the "with sympathy" sentiment from JustRite Large Fancy Sentiments CR - 03815, using Versamark ink and WOW vanilla white embossing powder as before. The small label was then mounted on the bottom of the card using foam pads. The finishing touch was a length of white organza ribbon tied into a multi - looped bow and attached to the folded edge of the card.

 

 

I was a little outside my comfort zone making a White on White card as I love to use lots of colour, but I was pleased with how it turned out. The lace stamps are really delicate in spite of their size and the lily flower spray was just the job - although I think if I was to make a similar card again I would like to colour the flowers in very pale pastel shades to make them stand out a bit more from the background.

 

The main thing I have learnt is to check international time zones more carefully and to leave a bit more time to upload my blog posts so as not to miss the deadlines again!!!

Happy Birthday Little Man ...

Our first grandson, Max, had his second birthday today and by all accounts he has enjoyed himself all day! We bought him a Lego airport set as he loves watching aeroplanes and his Mum and Dad took him to Legoland at the Trafford Centre for a birthday treat.

Here is the card I made him for his second birthday.

I started with an eight inch white card blank and added a layer of gingham patterned paper from the Petal Fresh collection by NitWit Collections for Lili of the Valley. Then I added a large square of pale blue card to represent the sky. I used Memory Box dies to cut the clouds from white card stock and the letters and numbers from blue card stock. I used a Zig 2 way glue pen to stick the sentiment onto the clouds, which I then stuck to the blue card base using double sided tape for two of the clouds and sticky foam pads to raise up the other two clouds.

Little Max is always asking to be taken to the airport so that he can watch the aeroplanes taking off and landing, so I was delighted when I found the "Little Man" mini clear stamp set from Kaisercraft http://www.thecraftbarn.co.uk/product.php/34741/kaisercraft-mini-clear-stamps-little-man . I stamped the cute aeroplane onto blue card stock four times, using Memento Danube Blue dye ink. Then I fussy cut each layer out and decoupaged them together using clear silicone, so that I could angle the wings etc. Whilst the silicone was drying I stamped the vapour trail using Papertrey Fresh Snow ink. Next I added a strip of double sided tape to the back of a piece of bright green card stock before using a Magnolia Doohickey die to cut out the strip of grass. Adding the tape before I cut the card made it so much easier when I came to stick the grass to the bottom of the picture!

Max also likes being held up to look out of the window so that he can spot the birds outside. For that reason hubby is known as "Birdy Grandad" so I just knew that he had to have some birds on his card too! These two are separate dies from Marianne design and I cut them both out of brown card stock. I then used a Versamark pen to colour the leaves on the branches and the wings and eyes of the two birds. Whilst the ink was still wet I applied some pearly pigment powders (I used Blonde Moments pigments powders, which I bought from Dyan Reavely at Art from the Heart some years ago) using a fine paintbrush. I brushed off the excess powder and polished with some tissue before adding the bird and branch die cuts to the card using my Zig 2 way glue pen. Finally I added the plane with a dab of silicone and angled it so that it looked like it was banking round. All done!

You do have to imagine that the birds are in the foreground - otherwise they are far too big and out of proportion to the plane - but hubby pointed out that as Max is only two he isn't likely to complain about the perspective just yet (although he is very clever)!