Cuttlebug swap

I am in a swap where an element of the swap item must be made using a Cuttlebug folder. I made a card!! This is getting to be a habit - no cards for months then 3 in the last week or two!




I sprayed some watercolour paper with Outside the Margin's Tungsten Carbide and Granite Luster colour washes, and another sheet with Gold. I ran the darker sheet through my Wizard in a diamond patterned Cuttlebug folder. I also sprayed some tags to match the darker paper and ran those through the Wizard in the same Cuttlebug folder.

I attached 3 gold charms to the tags, attached the tags to the gold card with gold brads, and attached the gold card to the dark card with double sided tape.

A simple card which looks rich and textured.

Paper quilt

I have been working on an idea for a birthday gift for my friend Maggi. It has been slooshing around in my brain for a couple of weeks, but it didn't start coming together into a piece of art until yesterday. Sadly, I am now very late for Maggi's birthday, but as she likes to extend her birthday, I hope she won't mind too much!!!




I began by using colourwash sprays on several sheets of Fabriano cold press watercolour paper. I love how this paper absorbs the colours and seems to glow, it may be more expensive than others but I think it's worth the extra cost. One of the sheets came out a lovely pale coppery colour, with steely blue and slightly gold areas. I used this as the base for the piece, which is around A4 sized.

For the top and bottom embellishments, I punched small flower shapes out of a deep red and gold background paper, then cut some coppery bronze organza and layered it over both punched pieces and used brads to hold the fabric and paper in place. I gave the black brads a little touch of copper Treasure Gold to tone them down before I used them.

The circles down the side are the same deep red paper, run through a different cuttlebug folder, and with 2 layers of flower shapes punched from deep black/gold cardstock added using brads.

The horizontal piece under the circles is the same deep red background paper with little metal beads and sequins added. I coloured the metal beads with 'rust' alcohol ink and Treasure Gold in copper and indigo, then attached them to the paper with fine copper wire.

The small squares with hearts are the same paper, overstamped with gold ink in a tile pattern. The hearts are shell buttons and I attached them to the paper with fine copper wire, adding a small bugle bead to cover the holes. I added a couple of the paper flowers I had punched out of the top border to fill the gaps between the squares.

The large heart is made from Hearty air dry clay, painted with black gesso, then rubbed with indigo, ruby and copper Treasure Gold. It is mounted on a torn piece of darker steely blue & tungsten watercolour paper, which I ran through the Wizard in a cuttlebug folder with a diamond pattern. I stamped small text on the paper before adding the heart.

The piece above the heart is the last of the deep red background paper. I sprayed some white tags with colourwash sprays, then ran them through the Wizard in a brocade patterned cuttlebug folder. I added Treasure Gold in copper, gold and sapphire to add colour and give them depth, then added a small charm to each using fine cotton thread. For sequins glued to the corners added the final touch.

The final and largest element of the piece was made by stamping charcoal coloured Xpandaprint onto an interesting paper bag, then heating with a heat gun to make the Xpandaprint bubble up. I rubbed this carefully with gold and copper Treasure Gold, and mounted it onto some more of the steely blue watercolour paper, which I also stamped with text.

I am really pleased with this piece, I am tempted to frame it and keep it myself, I hope Maggi likes it!!!

Burgundy & lime skinny page

What a colour combination - it's WAY out of my comfort zone!!!! I apologise for the scan quality - my scanner hates anything with dimension.



For this side of the page, I adhered green tissue over green cardstock, then stamped some text using deep red ink. I added a piece of burgundy coloured ribbon, which was sheer with flocking - I thought it added interest and texture. I took some hot press heavy watercolour paper, and spritzed it with several red colourwashes, then gave it a coat of Tulip non permanent glitter, then a final spray of Adirondack raisin colourwash.

I dried the cardstock, cut it into pieces, and ran it through the Wizard in a Cuttlebug folder. For the light green embellishment, I spritzed some Stampbord with water, then zapped it with a Milwaukee style heat gun, and the combination of heat and water created little bumps. I painted it with acrylic ink, then stamped it using Crimson Copper Brilliance ink, and embossed it with clear embossing powder.


For this side of the page, I adhered coloured deli paper. I had sprayed this green using Lime Jello colourwash spray from Aileen. I stamped over the top of the green paper using chalk ink and a texture stamp from Hearts in Touch.

I made some gauze 'paper', something Jessie told me about:

Take a melamine tray, and lay a sheet of silicone baking paper on it. Lay a sheet of cling film/saran wrap on top, then a sheet of gauze (or scrim) on top of that. Spritz the gauze lightly with Johnson's Klear/Future floor polish - just enough to dampen it, not enough to make it soggy. Move the gauze around on the cling film with your fingers until you have an interesting collection of ripples and rucks in the fabric. Next, spray with colourwashes (usually more than one colour, and they blend into one another beautifully, but for this project it had to be burgundy so I used Ranger Adirondack raisin).

Finally, lay another sheet of silicone baking paper over the top, lift the 'sandwich' off the tray, and lay it on a heatproof surface and iron the whole thing using a hot dry iron. The liquid polish and colour will sizzle and hiss, but the piece will dry, and the heat will also fuse the gauze to the cling film/saran wrap, leaving you with a 'paper' which can be adhered to your artwork using double sided tape or gel medium. It can also be die-cut or punched.

I added some gauze to the left hand side of the page, and die cut some flower shapes form the offcuts of the watercolour paper I used earlier. I die cut some circles form the lime green background offcuts, and stamped a little girl's face on them. I die cut some smaller flowers from the gauze, and added the embellishments to the page using gel medium.

Experimental ATCs

An ATC for a swap with the theme of 'Experimental'. I made some background paper by laying a nappy liner (brands which work are Gerber in the US or Boots own brand in the UK) onto a sheet of non stick baking paper, the sprinkling small pieces of Fantasy film and snippets of Angelina fibre all over it. I then sprinkled Opals embossing powders in pinks and blues onto the nappy liner, covered it all with a second nappy liner and another sheet of non stick baking paper, then ironed it all with a hot dry iron. You can see the Opals melting, and can 'move' the liquid embossing powder with your iron. Wait until cool, peel apart. you can add more embossing powder, fantasy film or fibres at this point, and re-iron if you do.

The Opals melt into the nappy liner and the nappy liner will start to melt into holes, so be careful not to iron it all for too long! When you peel it apart it may not look too inspiring, but if you give it a quick blast with your heat gun, the surface will become shiny. You end up with a flexible sheet that you can use in a variety of projects.

I adhered this Opals paper to some lilac pearlescent paper using gel medium, then cut it up and layered onto ATC sized card.

The butterflies are made form tyvek. You can get tyvek 'paper' and tyvek 'fabric'. They both work, but the fabric is much easier to use for this technique and gives a more flexible result. I took a butterfly stamp, painted a piece of tyvek with watered down lumiere paint, cut it into pieces, and laid each piece on the stamp, covered with non stick paper and ironed it. The tyvek melts quite quickly so you have to keep a careful eye on what you're doing!

I peeled the tyvek off the stamps, and cut around the butterflies. The body is gold dimensional paint, left to dry overnight, then coloured with Treasure Gold in Royal Amethyst. I made some tine antenna from gold wire, and added those before finishing the ATC with a gold sun charm, and a stripe of Golden's gold mica flakes small.

Image transfer card

Well, I didn't make a card for months, and then I made two in a week!



This card is for Jenny, and the lady on the front is an image transfer created from a simple digital collage. I found a picture of some lace on Google, and worked on it in Photoshop Elements. I removed the background with the magic wand tool, then changed the colour of the lace. The lady is a copyright free image from Art-e-zine, and I changed the colours to be blue hues, and then layered her over the lace background and printed. I smeared the print with a thin layer of regluar matte medium, and smeared a piece of linen with a similar thin coat, then ran the paper and fabric threough the Wizard, twice.

I layered the transfer onto pearlescent blue card, duck egg blue matte card, and then onto the main background, which is stamped and embossed pearlescent blue card. 3 little start charms finished it off nicely!

Fiona's IT girl gift

Layers of watercolour paper, coloured with colourwashes,
some embossed in Cuttlebug folders.

I combined the papers with gel medium image transfers onto linen,
ribbons, organza, sequins and beads to make a paper quilt.
Inspired by Beryl Taylor.....

I hope Fiona likes it!

Image transfer card

This is a card I made for an image transfer swap on CCSwaps. I haven't made a card for months. The botanical image was transferred to a piece of linen by printing the image onto Epson double sided matte photo paper, then smearing both the image and the fabric with a thin layer of Golden regular matte gel medium, and running the paper and fabric through the Wizard.

I am finding this method for creating image transfers is pretty reliable and works well onto fabric, gessoed mount board, watercolour paper...


I layered the fabric image transfer onto watercolour paper, then onto embossed card (used the 'distressed stripes Cuttlebug folder for this), and then again onto more watercolour paper. The papers were coloured with pesto and butterscotch colorwashes, and I used small scraps with brads and ribbon to make the embellishments above and below the main image. The whole thing was layered onto green cardstock.

And now for something completely different

I am making a gift for Fiona, based on the theme of 'Inspiration' - whatever inspires me as an artist. It has been hard for me to think of one thing or person that inspires me, as I draw inspiration from all sorts of places.

So I put that to one side, and started working on another swap - an image transfer swap Annie, and then I found my inspiration LOL


I am inspired by Beryl Taylor's work. She makes beautiful wall hangings from watercolour paper and fabric. But the thought of all the sewing puts me off. So, I decided to see if I could create something based on her work with less sewing and no fabric. I'm delighted to say the watercolour paper held up well!

I used colourwashes in greens (Annie's favourite colour) for the background, with splashes of autumnal golds, on torm pieces of heavy watercolour paper. I used 2 gel medium onto fabric transfers, and layered the papers and fabrics together with gel medium. I added brads to one strip of paper, and eyelets to another, then sewed beads and sequins onto ribbons through the watercolour paper. I'm quite pleased with this, and now I have the process sorted out, I'll make a start on Fiona's!!! Thinking mainly turquoisey blues with a touch of hot pink or purple...

Watch this space!

Lutradur ATC

This ATC is made using lutradur. The lutradur was charcoal coloured, so I added some subtle gold tones using a colorwash spray, then used a stencil and Xpandaprint to create the fern. Xpandaprint is something where less is definitely more. If you use too much, when you heat it, you have mountains instead of subtly raised bobbled texture. I coloured the fern with Treasure Gold wax rub ons, then used a hot marks tool melt a squiggly pattern into the lutradur. I adhered it to a dark gold cardstock using matte gel medium, and added the dragonfly charm. Finally, I punched a couple of small holes and threaded beaded wire through them.