Stampbord - Bigger Tile

Have stopped in sheer desperation, after spending well over half an hour trying to drill a hole in Stampbord using a Japanese screw punch. Am in agony after struggling to make a tiny hole in my litte creation ... was nearly in tears with frustration. Eventually, after digging at the tiny gap with a cocktail-stick, finally succeeded in getting the eyelette setter to do the biz. Never going through THAT fiasco again – so went straight to Graphicus’ website and ordered a Crop-o-dile. Ahhhh ... relief!

Ingredients:
A bigger square of Stampbord
ColorBox Petal Point inks: Violet, Royal Blue, Green, Lime
Stazon
Versamark
Stamp n’ Stuff Gold Detail Embossing Powder

Method: Randomly dabbed the ColorBox inkpads all over. Readied a stamp from the Graphicus Peacock range with black Stazon. Hmmm ... took the colour off the Stampboard, leaving a white-ish design. Out with old faithful – Versamark and heat embossed the gold EP. Gave it a little buffing which lifted the violet ink off ( left of image) – but I quite like the effect. Ha! Will have to. Grabbed the camera and had the cheek to take photos of the mess made in creating this latest effort. It’ll look nice with a pretty ribbon strung through it, but for now I just want to find the energy to climb down from this Bubble for the night.

Stampbord Oval

Another late night sojourn with Stampbord – a bigger piece this time. As usual, thinking took more time than doing, and looks better in real life than my photos portray. Hopefully they give a good idea of the effects achieved.

Ingredients:

Large oval Stampbord
Glimmer Screens: Fanciful Stencils
Ancient Page Petal Point inks: Amethyst, Azalea, Palm Leaf
Sticky Fingers Shake-n-Spray Inks: Antique Gold and Gold
Sentiment stamp from the ‘WIGL’ set
Versamark and Versacolour (Gold)
Clear UTEE
Card: Antique Gold Stardream; Cream Tapestry; plain burgundy scraps

Method: Arranged one of the Fanciful Stencils on top of a large oval piece of Stampbord and sprayed with Antique Gold and then Gold (it sprayed better lol). Removed stencil before drying with heatgun. Replaced stencil and blended the Ancient page inks. Again removed stencils and dried with the heatgun, before applying Versamark, followed by 3 subsequent layers of UTEE. Once cool, applied a thick clear-drying glue to the circumference edge and decorated with rice-beads-on-a-string. Secured to card with glue gel as I didn’t trust tape of any description to hold the finished piece.

Originally stamped/embossed the sentiment onto the scrap of burgundy card, but made a right boo-boo of it. So rather than fling it away (oh the very thought!), yep, I did try it again on t’other side – but in the end, smudged it all over with the scarlet Ancient Page inkpad. Buffed it, didn’t like the result, covered it in Versamark and a generous helping of UTEE. Re-inked the stamp with a gold Versacolour and pushed it into the UTEE on top of my original effort. Aim was fairly ok and landed on the wording underneath. Decorated with a pretty ribbon and not too sure yet if it needs anything else.

Am off to make a fresh cuppa, as hubby will be getting ready for work soon! Happy Crafting :)

Stampbord Tile

Yee haa! Did it at last! Only had the Stampbord kit for half a year, sat looking at it and through the wee small hours, decided to have a go. This is the result:

Ingredients:

1 inch square Stampbord
Colorbox Petalpoint Pigment pads: Canary, Orange, Scarlet
Versamark
Clear UTEE
Moonglow Pigment Powder: Jade Pearl
Stazon: Jet Black
Graphicus ( http://www.graphicus.co.uk/ ) ‘WIGL’ Stamp on EZ-mount

Method: Daubed the Canary yellow over most of the Stampord from the centre outwards, smudged the edges with Orange then edged with Scarlet. Waited a couple of minutes for it to dry, then applied one coat of Versamark and dipped the square into tub of clear UTEE. Heated until melted, then lobbed it into the UTEE tub again, reheated and repeated once more. Before the final heating, prepared stamp with Stazon, leaving the inkpad resting on the stamp while using a cocktail stick to gently sprinkle a tiny amount of the pigment powder onto the granules of UTEE. Then did the final heating until it looked like glass, stamped image steadily into the molten UTEE and left it there for about 30 seconds before removing the stamp ... and voila! Am quite chuffed with my first attempt at using Stampbord – inspired by Glenda at Graphicus. Now, what else can I try – perhaps a bigger bit and just inks and scrape bits away with the special tools. Methinks there’s no stopping me now .

Happy Crafting :)

Birth of the Bubble

I guess a good place to start is with the birth of the Bubble with a few photos to show how it came about. All told, it took a couple of weeks or so in the making - delays caused thanks to offshore living. No joined-up shops here to nip out to for the odd DIY bits n bobs.

Apart from the whole room being our pride and joy, our favourite piece is the custom-built pull-out drawer-trays, that hold many and substantially laden boxes of precious papers. It's pure luxury being able to view each box with ease, instead of awkward lifting to access what I want - which invariably was at the bottom of the pile.

There's only a couple of misgivings, namely the climb up and down the ladder. The giggles used to hinder any loft explorations, as that final step ended up in hoots of laughter. An arm injury makes focussing necessary and am not only over the giggles, but getting fitter every day.

The other little problem is our wild weather, during which times the Bubble is out of bounds. The frequent roar of winter storms make it almost impossible to pursue such a calming hobby. Nevertheless, it's a wonderful haven in which to create and play with all things crafty. So watch this space for the arrival of some creations from the Atlantic Bubble.

Happy Crafting :)