Fiskars stamp press

Have had a fab day with a fair few of my buddies at the Sincerely Yours craft show in Taunton.

Spent a few pennies and did a couple of make and takes and came back knackered.  Not so knackered that I couldnt have a play with a few of my new toys even though I ought really to be tidying up ready to head out for an adults only holiday tomorrow.  Ooops lol.

I bought, the large fiskars stamp press, got to admit I've done a 180 turn on this little (or not so little treasure).  Not wishing to sound as though I'm blowing my own trumpet I consider myself a technically good stamper.. not the most imaginative, not the best with colours or originality but I rarely misstamp an image, or get smudges and even sentiments are rarely stamped wonky.. so I didnt see that I'd get much benefit from it.  I even said to Martine at Oyster that I couldnt find a reason to buy one... ok, fast forward an hour.. alchie ink tag make & take and out comes the glossy card and a warning from teach about being careful not to slide the stamp.  I stamped ok, I usually do on gloss card but  Ding, one excuse found.. that most evil of surfaces.. the one that can have even the most experienced stamper trembling in their boots... acetate!!  I'd hate to say how many times my stamps have skidded or I havent got a full impression because I've been worried about it slipping.  Cant see that happening with the stamp press, you're not touching the stamp or card and there's only one way the stamp can go.. down.  Sold, so I hurtled off to Oysters stand and got the large one, reason for the large one is those large 6*6 background stamps that I love but rarely use.  Pita getting out a big shot plate to use as a block and you have to be so careful to get all of the areas pressed down, I bought the special rocker mount but have never really got on with it.. wish I'd had the stamp press then.  Woohoo, talk about making it easy to use.  Impressed or what lol. I'm not going to get rid of my blocks and I doubt I'll use the press for tildas/bellas/kimmies but I can see it being used quite a bit for the really small stamps that are easy to catch the edge of the rubber.

I also bought the new envelope punch board, still cant see me using it to make envies because I find it easy enough to make boxes or for 6*6 a pack of 50 for a few quid at the range will suffice.  But going to find it really handy for making file tab pages for mini albums and I'm seriously thinking of making some desktop stamp storage for my most used sentiment & worker (grasses/flourishes etc) ums.

Also lurking in my shopping bags were a baby vest die from MFT, a really unusual congratulations background stamp from AnnaMarie.. it has gaps where you can then stamp words.. like new baby, on your special day, passing your exams etc.  Worked quite well to make a background panel for a baby card I made this evening, only gripe is it has a definite left margin but not a right one so it's not great for making full backgrounds.  Maybe I can convince Annamarie to make a much larger version lol.

I also got a woodware tag & sentiment set, it was in the reduced bin and had a couple of nice sentiments but nothing special.  As always a few more nestie dies, they werent all in stock so Oyster are going to post out the ones oos but I did manage to get the border one I've been after for ages, yay.  That naughty Tracey went on to show me a new sparkly ink paint that comes in a Koi waterbrush and dries pretty much instantly.   Oooh, really sparkly so just for the sake of my buddies I had to buy one so I could report back after my holiday ;o) 

Just heard Ade's car pull up so going to dash and start doing a bit of tidying,  ttfn

one layer sketch cards

Not sure why but when I saw the sketch I've used for this card I wanted to see if it would work as a one layer card using nothing but ink & a stencil/mask to create the pattern blocks.

1 week later and I still cant find where I've put my box of masks so instead I created paper ones and got out a few stamps I havent played with for a long time (ever with the dandelion fluff lol)

Using from back to front, frayed burlap, gathered twig & walnut stain ink.  With hindsight I should have blotted the gathered twig and used the 2nd generation ink rather than pure as it's a bit too dark.

2 background stamps are ones I bought from Stampsandmemories a year (ok 2) ago and I think the dandelion is from Lavinia Stamps but I cant swear to it.  Sentiment is from SU and I used one of my new spellbinder dies to create the tag for it to sit on.  Matted on to dark brown stardream and a cream card blank.   Sketch and Stash where I got the sketch from has a lot to answer to as I then went on to try with a few other sketches, masks and the same inks & card lol.  Barely made a card all year and now I've done 3 in less than 24hrs!  Hopefully Sandra, Lorrs & Jackie wont be reading this seeing as it's their bdays this month ;o)

take 2

Another take on a sketch using nowt but ink & rubber.

Layout is from CAS(E) this Sketch and I've taken a bit of liberty with it.

Masked panel primarily inked with frayed burlap, gathered twig, walnut stain, and a touch of chipped sapphire, forest moss and dusty concord. 

Over stamped with a SU image and sentiment in choc chip ink.  Matted onto dark brown stardream and a cream card blank.

Photo doesnt show it but the panel has been edged with a gold krylon pen.  I'm still not sure if the sentiment is in the right place or not but Ade likes it.. and it's not often he says that lol

take 3

This is the 3rd card made when I was playing about with sketches.

Again playing using frayed burlap & walnut stain distress inks.  Photo doesnt show it but there are tiny hints of tumbled glass, worn lipstick, bundled sage & dried marigold on the main panel.

Layout is from Sketch Saturday
Flower & sentiment stamp - StampinUp, flourish stamp is one of the stamp a page I bought from stampsandmemories.

I started by cutting 2 masks, one for the thin panels and one for the central panel. 

Central panel was stamped first, masked, then the masks for the thin panels were laid over the top.  Everything but the panel was masked off and I had fun with all of the distress inks mentioned. Bit of a booboo, I used tombow repo on the masks and a tiny bit of it must have stuck to the card and this really went dark when inked over.  Voila, one small sentiment cut out and stuck over the top and all is well.  Does mean that I'm going to have to stop being a tightwad and buy some ready tacky masking paper if I want to play around with this style again but I suppose I can find something else to buy at the same time ;o)

 Finally all the panels were drawn around for definition, krylon gold on the panel, crumb cake marker on thin panels.  Matted onto deep brown stardream then a plain cream cardblank.  This isnt my favourite of the 3 cards but it was fun playing around with nothing but ink & rubber.

yay my mojo is back

It's a friends birthday next week and while showing hubby how to use copics I started colouring in this lil Whimsy fairy for her card.  I'd picked up a few random colours for the hair and to my surprise they came out quite well for when you want a coppery red E15, 18, 35 and Y38.  Stickles on her wings are still wet so I've been wafting it with the heat gun like crazy as I've got to post it tonight.  Oops.

papers are a random mix from first edition pads, dies from Spellbinders, sentiment, and punches from SU and the layout is from Sketch Saturday.

Picnic basket

This is the finished project that we're going to be making for the September playday.

Made from 2 sheets of a4 card and a few sheets of Dream Catcher paper from First Edition.

The basket is my own design, handle and lid edges using a Martha Stewart punch, various leaf & flourish dies from Marianne Designs, Cheery Lynn & Memory Box. The flowers are all made from scratch using the bitty blossom spiral dies from Spellbinders. I have to admit to being chuffed with how the flowers came out even if they did take an age to ink edges then fiddle with each petal to try and get a realistic shape. I've learnt my lesson about hot glue guns so stuck (no pun intended lol) with my trusty tombow.

Not sure about my colouring on the Tilda, no matter how often it's explained I still don't get where to put the shadows and I have a habit of going too dark in places. Joanna Sheens Elegance paper, copic e00s, v00s, rv10s, rv42, c's, Cut with one of the spellbinder label dies.

Thought I'd enter this one into the current Just Magnolia challenge, Anything Goes with the optional handmade flowers.

and, Dutch Dare Card Challenge who's theme this week is Anything But A Card.

another box

Last box with the doily die for a while, I cant face cleaning the bits from the floor lol.

Hard to see from the photo but this box is 8" by 6" by 7" and was made with 5 sheets af a4 card. I made it to hold a large selection of bath & body gels for my sons girlfriends birthday pressie.

If I'd remembered it was her birthday earlier I'd have lined it with mount/chipboard so it's not exactly sturdy. 4 doily strips, 4 of the smaller lacy "sqrs" which where cut and turned into corner decorations, a spellbinder motif die designed by Sue Wilson (sorry it's name elludes me at present) finished with 3 kort & godt roses tied with ribbon and placed into a beadcap. You can't tell from the photo but I hotglued 4 large pink crystal beads under neath to create a pretty version of the TH decorative box feet.

Doesnt look that great in the photo but in real life it turned a relatively inexpensive gift look quite pricey ;o)

Get me, I made this one at playday on Sunday!! Ok, wee bit of exaggeration there.. I had the card & base tag made already so just coloured and cut the image there ;o)

Papers are from a pretty naff docrafts pack, Marianne Design scroll die for the tag with some bronzy buff cream to highlight the embossed area. Marianne Design stamp that I've had a couple of years without inking. Not keen on my colouring, I didnt have any Elegance with me so used Staples paper and it's not the best. I dont overly get on with red copics either lol.


Ovals are fancy oval dies from Spellbinders and I used an old SU sentiment. Not a brilliant card, but will do for the neighbours that pop a card through the door first ;o)

splodgaway update

Not much in the way of oohs and ahhs I've found a new technique, or even that I've put it through its' paces yet :o( Ade's driving license is back so as soon as I've got the house back to rights (I dont do a lot of housework but 7 weeks of doing not much more than just keeping the kitchen useable..) I'll be able to spend the day with ink, cad and mat and see what I come up with.

But,

thought I'd let you all know how a couple of my friends got on playing with mine.

One friend (I love her to bits but she's not a gadget or gizmo addict and up til now thought a toaster bag quite sufficient as an ink mat..), well she isnt the bestest at inking edges but she had a quick go and within seconds had that impressed look on her face and said "sold"! I know I said I didn't think the mat would make anyone go from zero to hero but I have to admit I was secretly eating my words there.

Another of my buddies had a go, I'd say she's pretty much intermediate with inking and I wasn't expecting her to find the mat much better than she's used to but she immediately saw the benefit of having a finer coverage and admitted to occasionally having to go in heavy as a way of hiding pad marks.

Thumbs up from both of them :o)

bits and bobs

Yesterday was a rather quiet playday, half the usual suspects were either, poorly, knackered, on hols or working :o(

The theme was xmas in July and I found a stunning project for them on amazingpapergrace.com a gorgeous paper wreath using spellbinder dies.

Much mutterings from Ade about the mess I created in cutting out 24 doilys & 15 doily borders, a lot of glue and a bit of ribbon & flowers later I made the sample wreath for them all to see.





Talk about a waste of time, while I think it was favourably received everyone ended up colouring in images all day lol.

Ah well, I had fun making it ;O)






While the dies were out and I had Beccas page open I also cased a box she made and came up with this tissue box. Nowt more than a few sheets of card, bit of ink, cherry cobbler seam binding and a wooden snowflake. I have made another box using the dies as decoration but until the recipient receives it I cant show.

on my travels just to test the splodeaway mat

OK I sort of fibbed a bit.... but I do go out of my way to test things for my crafting buddies.

For Christmas I bought hubby a 2 day painting class with Charlie Evans and this weekend was finally time to drive all the way from Bristol to Morpeth (about 30 mins up past Newcastle Tracy).  I'll admit if I'd known Charlies studio was well over a 5hr drive away, Or, that I'd have to drive I think I'd have bought Ade something else and bought him a class when Charlie comes south to Cheddar.

Ah well, not to worry I had to drive it... bother, damnation and lots of rude words we had the journey from HELL!  Britain was under countless severe weather warning with risks of flooding in numerous places yesterday.  We set off at 11am and although it was raining it wasnt too bad until we got to Gloucester then the heavens opened and the water was just running over the road. Traffic was horrendous and the speed had to drop :o(  In many places I was lucky to see more than a few yards in front the car and had no hope of sitting in the outside lane driving at the speedlimit.   At times I was lucky to get up to 40mph.  Birmingham was worse than hell and I've lost count of how long we were stop start bumper to bumper never getting out of 1st gear.  We even had to pull in to a service station the other side as the engine was starting to overheat.  The weather didnt dry up until we were pretty much on the A1M and at the top end of Yorkshire.  Even then the mist and fog was horrible and we saw nothing of the scenery, I did get a quick peep at the Angel of the North tho :o)

Got up to Acklington, first Inn was fully booked (had had a disagreement with Ade on the way up as I wanted to book a premier inn... beds are comfy and they've generally got a decent wifi lol), decided to go with a nice looking hotel but the rooms were pretty pokey and the wifi didnt work! OMG I was literally on the point of tears, by now it's 9.30/10pm, we're in the middle of nowhere (I'm a townie) no way on this earth can I go 48 hours with out internet access.  Ok, it's mainly facebook games but I did need to check in with a few friends at Docrafts and get an address for a craft shop I only know is "about 40 mins from Newcastle and worth visiting"  I didnt even know it's name.  Major hissy fit, and we left the hotel and ended up at a much nicer one, Warkworth House Hotel.  I felt like I could have done with a step to get in the bed, and best of all I have wifi :o)

This morning I dropped Ade off at Charlies and plumbed in the postcode, eek, another 90 min or so journey.  So not what I needed after yesterdays nearly 10 hours at the wheel and all the time I'm thinking about my 3 selfish mates who were on their way to a class with Barbara Grey at Newbury (I could have been with them if it werent for this stupid painting class!!) Off I toddled to the craft shop I'd been told was good and just by coincidence is the home of a new craft gizmo that needs some testing...

Going to paste from my post on the docrafts forum, so apologies if you''ve already read it there.

Had a lovely few hours and several cups of tea at Suzicrafts, home to the splodgeaway mat, today.  Well worth a visit if you're Stockon on Tees way, took about 90 mins from just north of Morpeth.  Nice stock, very well priced and the staff are very friendly.  Nice big table that you can sit and craft away the hours which today had huge piles of mats being packaged by hand but I still got my rather large posterior on a chair and would have been happy to spend time getting inky.

Didnt get a lot of play with the mat so this is just initial thoughts and I need a lot of testing before I tell everyone to go out and buy/avoid.

The mat is weird, totally not what I was expecting.  Feels shiny to touch but the tool doesnt glide on it when  ink free.  Fairly sturdy so doesnt ruche at edges.     I'll admit to being dubious about the claims of it saving ink but in use it does seem to only need a small smear of ink.  I'll compare 2 new sponges with a dark ink when I get chance to see if the foam stays cleaner on one before saying for definite but leaning towards the claim being genuine. The mat isnt heatproof so no sticking a hot cuppa on it, or using it underneath a heat tool.  Wet wipes null the surface so it needs to be cleaned with a few drops of water and some loo/kitchen paper. 

Needs a tiny smear of ink, far less than the demos on tv, ink gets rubbed into the mat with the blending tool before you start inking the edges of the card.  Coverage was good and a young lady by the name of Hannah (who was visiting and having a play)was inking card like a pro, not bad for someone 7years old.  IMHO if you rival Sir Tim using a normal craftmat and a blending tool you arent going to see much a benefit for just inking the edges of a card.  If you're heavy handed or prone to stripes/corner marks it could very well help.  Not a miracle tool that gets you from zero to hero in a flash, but I can see it helping a lot of people.

Dont think it's just a tool for those who want to blend ink around the edges of card, there are other inky uses for it.  I need to have a good play with some of the splatter techniques but there's a large difference to the "ink on mat add a few spots of water" on a traditional craft mat.  With traditional the card will pick up all the ink and give a lighter spotty effect where the water has been dripped, with the splodeaway you only get ink where the water has dropped, not a full coverage.  I think there's going to be some new techniques found with the mat but I need a few days away from driving the pig around to have a good play.  Not going to swear to that but..

One technique that Tom did show me was using the mat as a brayering aid.  Add tiny amount of ink to the brayer then roll the brayer over the mat in a sort of random way.  Ink coverage on the brayer became super fine and there was no need to roll the brayer over scrap paper to get rid of excess ink.  Once inked there was less of a harsh edge/stripe on plain card (not so good with coated) and what there was was instantly blended away.  The brayer was being reloaded with ink straight from the mat.  I was horrified while Tom was brayering..  card straight on top of the inky mat and he looked like he was painting a garden  wall!!  Card stayed pretty clean underneath (that sold me pretty much on it's own!)  and with no delicate flicking of the brayer but he had a better coverage than I've seen from some of the quite experienced brayer users.   Again I dont think the tool is a miracle but it might help those that struggle to load a brayer properly or end up with stripes.

All in all I was quite impressed.  I'm not saying (yet) to replace the craft mats with it but if someone hasnt got a craftmat and doesnt want to use heat with it then good place to start.  

Will post a much more indepth review when I've had chance to test it thoroughly.  I had brought inks, stamps and card with me intending to do that this afternoon but they were too chatty and before I knew it the day was over Ooops lol

new stamp

I havent bought a new Tilda for a very long time but this one just jumped off the shelf screaming my name.  Many a time I've had to come home from the beach with sopping wet skirts because I couldnt resist paddling in the waves or reaching in for yet another shell.  Mum is exactly the same so as long as I remember where I put it that's who the card is for.

Papers are Authentique, "Gathering" and are a totally not me colour but they lent themselves to a seasidey theme.  Layout is from Sketch Saturday

Copics to colour Tilda were just various oranges and I scribbled the sky & sea with b0s & bg0s with no attempt to blend them "properly"  The hair is my favourite, E71, 74, 77 & 79 and the shell e20s.

Flowers are from Wild Orchid, frondy diecuts from Marianne Designs, sentiment is a mix of SU and a Whimsy ticket.  SU orange card, payper box burgundy card and the lace from Ribbon Box.  Thanks to Tracy for the pearl trim.. came in dead handy.


It wasnt until I had the card photoed and on the blog that I realised I havent got the oval placed quite straight, oops lol.

A few recent cards

This is a card I made for a good friends birthday.  I wanted to play around with dies rather than using a stamped image as the focus.

It looks quite simple but surprising amount of work,

base cream card embossed with swiss dots embossing folder.

Gold pearl card cut and embossed in a Sue Wilson design spellbinders die edged with black soot distress ink.  Stamped sentiment cut with labels 4.

Black flourish die from Cheery Lynn.

The poppys are my own design cut from red canson Mi'Tientes cherry red paper, inked with black soot before being sprayed with lava red cosmic shimmer mist and a hint of of mango blaze.  3 were layered with black cuttlebug snowflake dies scrunched up to form the centre.  The other three were wound around diamante pins before being shaped.  Leone Em fronds punched from gold card to hide the pins.  And finally in the corner 3 faux pearls using cosmic shimmer gold pearl pva glue.

 

I was so pleased with Jackies card I decided to make one similar for another friend from Playdays, Lorrs.

This time I went with a patchwork embossing folder from docrafts on pearl card which has been distressed with frayed burlap ink.

I used a spellbinders pendant die, scalloped circle nesties, circle nesties and a sentiment from SU.

Again the cheery lyn flourish die.
The flowers are my own pinwheel design cut in various sizes and inked with several yellow & red distress inks.  Sadly I was in a rush so photoed the card while flat and in the box.

A bit of a break from flower cards, this is one I made for my friend Sandra.  I often use Anya stamps for my playday friends and decided I wanted blues & greens so went with my faber & Castell watercolour pencils.  Sandra's very much into distress so I went with papers from either Bo Bunny or paper cellar.  Wild wasabi & baja breeze cardstock all distressed with frayed burlap ink.  Sentiment from SU, cut with labels 4.  Black taffeta ribbon and a few gems.  With hindsight I'd have used copics to colour in the Anya image but by the time I'd decided that the card was already finished and the image stuck.

Huge apologies for yet another bloomin variation on the poppy card, if you think you're bored with them I'm even more bored lol.  Hubby loved the poppys so much I've had to make an identical one for his dads 80th birthday and today I've had to make one for our friend Daves birthday.

Dave is hugely patriotic and has many many England flags around his house.  For those overseas the English flag is white with a red cross and our national flower is a tudor rose.  So for Daves card I had to go with red and white and I drew a tudor rose for scal.  You can't see if from the picture but I went with a SU lattice folder which looks like basket weave from one side but the side I have facing is lots of tiny crosses.  Real red SU ink & card and white card from Annamarie.

May playday projects

The next playday is May 13th and we're making postit note/memo holders which are based on a project in the last Magnolia Tilda magazine.

The first is my take on a remembered view of Sandras mag, without the sizes used I went with 12" * 8.5" so that I could use 5" strips to fit the martha stewart patp on the inner box as well as the outer frame.  Once I saw the mag again I realised I should have gone down a size on each dimension and made the inner box smaller.  Not to worry I enjoyed making the first so much I made a 2nd while at the Yeovil playday.

Concord crush ink, pebbles papers (I think), tilda stamps and wild wasabi and concord crush cardstock.  Marianne flourish die, martha stewart punch around the page, eyelets and flowers from Wild Orchid.

This time papers are from BoBunny, early espresso & very vanilla cardstock, frayed burlap distress ink, memory box flourish die, flowers again from Wild Orchid and an Anya image.  Both images were coloured with copics.

Bday card for Dad

Not sure if anyone can rember the saga of Dad looking and reading last years birthday card around the wrong way or not... but I haven't ;o)

So this year I wasn't going to spend the same amount of time stamping and colouring images so I thought I'd go for something a bit less me.

Voila, nowt but some inked edged card, my new spellbinder die, martha stewart punch, SU embossing folder & cstock, ribbon, cosmic shimmer pearly glue to make some faux pearls (loving this glue and need more colours) and a stamped sentiment. 

I have used the sketch from Sketch & Stash blog for inspiration.

Fleeting visit from my mojo.

My mojo has paid me a very brief visit no doubt encouraged by the whip master known as last minute desperation lol.

Not amused to find my first visit back to blogger in nearly 5months and the settings are all new... eeek not even sure if this is going to post.

This project was made for one of my facebook friends to give to her best friend since childhood.  Now I couldn't make anything less than I'd like to give to a friend I've grown up with since playschool. (Cass, you still aren't forgiven for sneaking off to the registry office and telling no one) Voila one bookcard, always impressive to look at but not so challenging that the returning mojo is going to take one look at and upsticks ;o)

Sadly it arrived in Sweden a couple of days too late for the wedding but Sara seemed happy enough with it.

Martha Stewart patp, retired SU papers, SU card pretty in pink & concord crush. SU taffeta ribbon in pretty in pink. Wild Orchid flowers, Cheery Lyn die (it hates my bigshot and cuttlebugs) Tilda and Edwin coloured with copics.

I made a small vellum envie to hold a money gift but it's only loosely held in place with the flowers so that the Bride & Groom can place a photo if they'd like to.

Sir Tims Tags

Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas started a couple of days ago.. wooohooo. Time for me to make do, bodge, get inky and burn myself time ;o)


This is my version of the Sir Tims first tag and I've taken more than a few liberties lol. I dont have his noel, banner & foliage dies so I've had to make my own noel in scal, use punches and hand cut the banner from brown wrapping paper then use the SU music wheel to add some pattern, not that you can really see anything of the banner lol.

Tim used silver glitter over his noel but I wanted to do something with a bit less bling so double cut the word, distressed one with walnut stain and covered the other with tombow mono and some gold leaf from indigo-blu before offsetting them to get a slight drop shadow.

Tag was cut from green textured card which was then embossed, partially heat embossed as per Tims instructions. I don't have those pretty pearls or the ribbons so I used 2 different sorts of ribbons and attacked em with a heat gun to get them to crinkle.


I did use the tattered pinecones die (and burnt my fingers on the hot glue gun) but I had to use Cansons Mi-Tientes art paper and distress it up a bit with walnut stain. There are some bits rescued from the year befores' crackers, couple of hat pins and various punched & diecut leaves.

It might be a real bodge job but I really like my tag.

New card on test.

Going back a couple of weeks I was asked to test some cardstock which Joanna Sheen was considering stocking. Now a lot of folk know I like to test things to see if it "does what it says on the tin" so I jumped at the chance to have a play. Oops, adding in it's called Elegance Satin and it's available in 300gsm and 160gsm.

One massive ink & paint testing day later I'm making a start of a review. I'm writing this over a few days and a good week or so before posting to the blog so if you notice any time jumps it's because I'll add in as I go rather than edit to make it look like I sat and typed all in one go.

If you're not particularly finniky about your colouring and are happy with your current card which you buy because it's cheap you might just as well skip the next couple of paragraphs where I'm having my normal rant about card ;o)

From the outset I have to make my feelings clear about paper & card quality. For me the quality of the paper is paramount, if I'm going to spend my time making a card I want it to be as good as I can possibly make it. When hubby first started painting many moons ago I really couldnt see the point in him buying artist quality mediums or quality watercolour paper because in all honesty he wasn't very good at painting. Roll on a fair few years when I've finally taught myself to like rubber stamping and I have a need to "paint"... I finally see the point.

Best quality mediums and papers actually make it easier to blend and give a better result. If I don't get a good result I know it's not the paper or pen that's at fault, it's me needing to improve! Yes the mediums & paper are slightly more expensive but I see no point in saving a few pennies on a sheet of card if it's noticeably cheaper or I don't get as good a result. You will get a better result with best paper & cheaper mediums than you will expensive mediums and cheaper/unsuitable paper.

Back to the review, it's a long one so I hope you're sitting comfortably.

I'm going to take this in a few sections focusing mainly on alchohol markers but I'll also test them with: 2. watercolour techniques (pencils, crayons, inkpads & markers) 3 polycrhomo & pastel pencils, 4 timholtz type techniques, 5 a few other oddsies.

1) alchie markers, I tried copics, promarkers, flexmarkers and spectrum noir pens on an image stamped with memento.

I switched to neenah from staples text and graphics a while back because I wasn't happy with how e0000 & e000 were turning a weird orangey colour but while the neenah is ok for keeping a true colour I found it prone to bleed across the lines. Using Joannas 300gsm card and the copics, wow just doesn't do the card any favours. I prefer a very blended look rather than a quick light dark quick blend method so I really scrubbed in a lot of layers in very small areas and allowed no drying time in between. Where I would have expected to get a huge bloom because I'd saturated the card there was none, nada, zip, not even a sniff of bleed. I had to have another go just to make sure it wasnt a fluke but my memento was hiding out of sight in amongst the chaos... so I tried a walnut stain distress ink and coloured in with a 000 pen literally straight away... a few people are going to be reading this and thinking smudgy mucky mess... nope, no smudge at all, the walnut ink stayed in perfect position. I was Impressed with a capital I about that one! Taking more care colouring the images I found I didnt need to blend quite as much as I normally do and looking back on the images a couple of days later I can't see where I changed pens. Not often that's happened before as I can nearly always see an echo of the blending area. I have to be honest I did then try the 160gsm and I had the tiniest of bleed along a hairband on an image, it could have been me going over the lines but until I've done a few more images I'm not going to swear to it being one or the other.

I'm not as comfortable with promarkers & flexmarkers as I am copics but I quite surprised myself and found they blended easier than normal. As with the copics not the slightest sign of bleed and I used a pink lavender flexxie straight over walnut distress ink, again no smudging. I do have my suspicion that the lighter flexmarkers were bleaching out the darker colours more than I'm used to on neenah but it could have been my imagination so this weekend the playday girls are going to be inadvertent testers lol Ok, consensus is in from several of the playday ladies and it's a huge thumbs up with questions on where can they buy and how much. Like me Tracy managed a little bleed but just like me she thinks it might have been her fault rather than the cards. No one reported colours being bleached out so it must just have been me having a rather long day.

Finally I tried the few spectrum noir pens I have with it. If you've read my review of spectrums you'll know I'm not a fan, I don't like how they blend and I don't like the nib marks they can leave behind. Sorry Joanna, the card hasnt made me like the speccies but they did react better to the card than they did on neenah. Nuff said about spectrums otherwise I'll be having more hate mail for not liking them.

2) watercolour techniques.

Umm, odd one this one as I wasnt expecting the results I got. If you're used to watercolouring over the back of linen/hammered cardstock or whatever you happen to dap your hands on first you'll be fine. If you're used to best quality hot pressed watercolour paper you wont be impressed. Using pencils, inks & markers with a damp brush I found I needed more wet than I'm used to which makes it harder to control the shading. I also found the pigment didnt really want to move around which made graduated blends very difficult. Oddly though I found a much better result with my SU watercolour crayons and they felt nice when applying to the card as they glided rather than stuttered over the surface iykwim. I would still prefer to use my langton watercolour paper.

3) polychromos & prismas. If I'm using my polys as a colouring pencil I prefer a paper with a bit of key to it so I can use the lighter pencil to pull the dark colour through. No chance with this card, it's far too smooth and I can't lay down enough layers. Colouring all over then softening & evening it all out with stumps and sansador worked really well. I'm not a big poly user tho and sent some paper off to one of the ladies I class as an expert prisma colourer iner and as soon as she gets back to me I'll add in her response.

4) Timholtzy type techniques. For those who haven't got on with cutndry and blending over the edges of card.. best try this and think again!! We've been told good alchie pen card isnt good with dye inks but this card is fab! It's silky smooth and the cutndry (I was using the tool) just glided over the surface and even deliberate edge lines blended away really easily. I covered a whole a5 sheet with no problems taking the tool into the centre and the ink reacted beautifully when I sprinkled it with water. From there I tried the wrinkly free technique.. wiping a few pads across the craft mat, misting with water and dunking a piece of card in to pick up the colour. First one not so great as I was penny pinching and used the back of an image I'd tried to watercolour... the versafine was pulled through the card and over the top of the distress inks. New card, same test... great result, I'd have to say the best I've had as there was no muddying of the colours except the edges but that was down to me leaving it to airdry because I was too impatient to get to the next test lol. Next I tried stamping with distress ink and pulling the colour out with a damp paint brush.. the ink didnt move in the slightest.. tried again.. new stamped image and a soaking wet brush.. still the same and not a smidge of colour movement. I'm stumped at this.. the ink reacted so well to raindrops that I was fully expecting it the colour to drag out and leave a soft line, weird!

5) oddsies, bet everyone is wondering about this lol. Will keep it short and sweet as it's just a collection of little tryme's.

Folding, the 300gsm is so heavily pressed it feels more like 250gsm so I wouldn't use it for a postage box but for a hand delivered box it's ideal. It scored and folded beautifully without any cracking, creasing, puckering or scuffing along the fold line. Very neat, precise and professional fold. I found it also embossed in a folder well and again with no tiny rips in the embossed areas, makes a nice surface to then ink over. While the bigshot was out I tried the 300gsm with my very intricate snowflake edge memory box die that's as finnicky as I am about card. It cut beautifully, popped straight out of the die and I had next to no bother seperating the diecut from the waste.

Brayering, now I'm not a Barbara but I get by as a rule. Even if I say it myself I had a good result with a brayer, a kaleidacolour inkpad and the 300gsm card. Very even tones, with no stripes (I'm prone to stripes if I haven't brayered for a while and I haven't had the brayer out for months). The card isn't glossy so I didn't get that polished look but it was nice to have a soft sheen rather than a gloss. I'll certainly be using this card with brayers again.

Paint Fusion/Onestroke. For those who've tried paint fusion you'll know what I mean by sticky dry brush... for those who don't it's when you're halfway along with a brush stroke and the brush feels as though there's no paint left or that it's sticking to the paper. This is one of the worst feelings as you need the brush to move smoothly as you twist & wiggle and as soon as it gets sticky you don't get quite as good a result, well I dont. Normally if I'm doing a long variagated leaf I get to the end of the stroke and the brush is sticky and I can't get a nice lift & slide to finish the leaf. I've often been tempted (and have occasionally) added an artists flow medium to the paint to try and avoid sticky brush. On a stroke of genius I tried with Joannas card and the brush just slid so smoothly not only did I get to the end of the stroke but I turned the card and managed the otherside AND I got the lift that I rarely manage. Woohoo, I might just be brave and onestroke all of my christmas cards this year.. In reality I won't tho as I have the attention span of a gnat and will be hankering after rubber and copics and distress inks before they're all done.

Now if you've skim read because it's such a long review in short,

A maazing for alchie pens, not great for watercolour painting, fantastic with distressing inks & techniques, great for brayers, good for folding but not postage boxes, works well in diecut machines & embossing folders, good for sansador & pencils, must have for paintfusion/onestroke cards. My personal opinion is that this is a fantastic card which more than deserves a home in any playroom.

more dodgy photos lol

Well at least this one is around the right way even if the colours are as murky as the local "stream"

This is a late edition to Sundays playday projects but fits in nicely with the handkerchief card.

I found the project in this months Papercraft Inspiration but Kay found a rather nice project on a blog. Jackies is much nicer than mine though.



Not much to it really, first edition papers, crumb cake 12" card, crumb cake & pretty in pink taffeta ribbon, spray of flowers, retired su sentiment and lots of frayed burlap ink. In real life it's much paler than the pic and the burlap isnt as grungy.

3rd card in 2 days

I've got no idea why this one is posting sideways. It was taken the right way up, is the right way up on my pc then I upload it! Perhaps it's taken offence at the way the camera flash has affected the colours lol.

This is the 3rd card made in just over 24 hours and if anyone is wondering who lit a fire underneath my rather large rear... Kay did when she reminded me we have 3 birthdays this month! lol

This one is using a Miss Anya stamp, first edition papers, SU card (pool party and calypso coral), a marianne flourish die, memory box flourish die, leone em punch & flowers.

Third card also coloured with copics! I can't say who but someone else is to blame for that as she asked me to try a new card that she's thinking of stocking. Well what could I do but give it a good testing. I'll post in a few weeks with a review and let on who it was but I will let on that the card was enough to reignite my interest in copics and cause me to go spend a fair few pennies on the new ciao shades.... and a few more sketch. Kay spent ages at playday sorting all my pens into numerical order and marking the charts as to which of the storage cases they were in... oops Sorry Kay... not only have I had about 60 of them out without putting them back yet.. when the new ones arrive the system will need doing again ;o)

Anya bday card

Taking photos mid evening in winter is never a good idea but the weather has been foul here today and if I wait for decent light this one would never have seen a camera. In real life it's a very pale mint blue with mink & soft pink papers and I've used a sketch from sketchnstash

Very neglected miss anya stamp with new papers from firstedition. Pool party cardstock, crumb cake taffeta ribbon and a sentiment from SU.

Coloured with copics, predominently g000, 00, 02, R00, 02, 20 & e40s.

ott or what lol

It's one of my bestest mates birthdays next month and I'm always pulling her leg that she puts too much stuff on a card. So in honour of her 80s disco dancing days I had to go ott (for me) with the flowers and glitter lol.

Layout from Sketch Saturday.

Tickled pink image coloured with loads of copics, mainly 0xx ones, (g000, b00, bo2, rv02, rv04 etc).

Papers are retired SU ones, with retired barely banana embossed in a folder and a weeny amount of stickles added to each dot. Tempting turquoise card & the curly cute sentiment are from the current catty. Bling & loads of flowers to finish. She'll prolly say it needs something down the left side and she'll prolly be right lol.