Surfie girl

My friend asked me to make a 21st birthday card for her daughter. She wanted something beachy as she is always at the beach surfing. This is what I came up with.

I sanded back some Early Expresso Coordinations to make it look very, very rough. Of course I had to try some more brayering. I made the sun by masking after I had brayered a layer of Daffodill Delight. I then covered the sun and brayered the sky. The water was created by wrapping cotton around the brayer and then loading up with Indigo Blue. I ran it over scrap paper a few times to weaken the strength.The sand was squiggled with the White gel pen along the water's edge.

Next came my little surfer girl. She was made with White gloss card and I brayered it with Pink Pirouette. The surf board was brayered by masking one side and then brayering with Summer Starfruit. I then masked that side and brayered the other side with Primrose Petals. Her hair was cut from sanded Early Expresso coordinations card.

This is what she finally looked like minus the 21 that I added and forgot to photograph. Do you recon she will like it?

My ladies with brayered background

Now for a couple of ladies.  I found this great calendar with heaps of Art Deco style ladies. So that was my inspiration for this first card.

The background was done in sections as I wanted a night sky, water and land.

The sky was brayered in layers starting from the lightest to the darkest.
The water was done by wrapping fine cotton around the brayer and then loading with ink. I ran it off on scrap paper to make it less intense. I made a few squiggles with white gel pen to make it look like ripples on the water.
The land was brayered in layers the same as the sky but using the earthy colours.
The bridge is the Scallop Trim Border punch which I snipped into at each scallop.

The next card was very simple. The background was created by brayering bubble wrap and then laying the gloss card on top. I put scrap paper over and then brayered over. My lady was drawn with a fine black permanent marker on to yellow tinted acetate. I then cut it out and pasted it on to the card.  See as I said simple.

More brayer techniques

Here we are with a few more cards using the brayer.

Gloss card brayered with Calypso Coral.
Then brayered from each corner with Old Olive.



Brayer was wrapped in cotton and then loaded with Midnight Muse.
Then brayered over Whisper White card.

Background brayered with Summer Starfruit.
Then masked with ripped post it notes.
Then brayerd with Cajun Craze.

Background brayered and masked.
The top was then bounced with the brayer.
 

Brayer techniques

As promised here are a few cards I made for our Heartfelt Event.
The first few were all done by brayering in layers of ink starting from the lightest to the darkest.

 

Card: Cajun Craze, Whisper White, White Glossy, Wild Wasabi, Perfect Plum, Always Artichoke, Festival of Prints DSP
Stamps: Come to Bethlehem, Friendly Phrases, Dinoroar, Silhouette Sentiments
Ink: Calypso Coral, Cajun Craze, Certainly Celery, Lucky Limade, Gumball Green, Black Stazon, Wisteria Wonder, Perfect Plum, Daffodill Delight, Old Olive, Versamark, Primrose Petals

Stay tuned I will post more tomorrow.

Please meet my friend ....

The Brayer....

My newest favourite Stampin Up tool. On Saturday I was one of the Demonstrators who manned the brayer table on Product Playground at our Brisbane Stampin Up Heartfelt Event. Because of this opportunity I have come up with so many different ways to use the brayer I decided to make up a Brayer Sample book. Here are a few pages...

Background using ink refills dropped on to acetate and brayered. Then place gloss card face down and brayer

Ink refills dropped on card, fine cotton wrapped around brayer and glad wrap wrapped around brayer

Background is various thicknesses of cotton wrapped around brayer, masking, ink refills spritzed on card and brayered

Using the embossing folder with white craft ink and dazzling diamonds.

Background bleached bubblewrap and felt snowflakes dipped in bleach and brayered. Resist with clear gloss and versamark

Top background is brayered ink, spritzed and rock salt left to dry. Bottom background dark card brayered with white for misty look. Brayered and sanded, wax paper scrunched and ironed and brayered

Top background dark card brayered with string and then stamped with bleach. Bottom layer brayered in a frame Brayered and embossed stripes and tartan..

Background ink refills dropped on to acetate, spritzed and brayered, then gloss card placed face down and brayered.

I would like to share this sample book with all my Paper Angels Team as I think it would be a great training tool for new brayer users. Just ask me if you would like to borrow it for a class.

Oh just remembered..... please make sure when storing your brayer that you rest it on it's back.

While storms raged outside...

Just beat the heavens opening up thank goodness. What a terrific storm the trees were bent to near breaking point. AND all the while all the Stampin Up Demonstrators and their friends were safe inside the Convention Centre creating a storm of their own with card, ink, stamps, big shots, brayers etc. It was Brisbanes turn for the Heartfelt Event and I was very proud to be one of the demonstrators in the Product Playground area. Anna Wheaton, Genelle Little and myself were on the Brayer table. What is a Brayer you are all asking? Well it is now fast becoming one of my favourite tools. If you have been following my blog for a while you will realise I am a little bit arty farty and the brayer has just given me another tool to play ladies with. Although I did actually do a few cards without my ladies. I'll post some of them in the next few days.

So here's a breakdown of the day......

Arrived at the Convention Centre and set up the Brayer display boards and sorted out what we were all doing.
The doors opened at 10am and then the fun began. I was first up on the table and introduced some demonstrators into a brand new world of fun and creativity. Many had bought brayers and now really experimented. (This is yet another of the things I like about Stampin Up. Product Playground lets you play with the product and learn how to use it). I have a feeling that there might be a few brayered cards making their way into homes this christmas.

12.30pm Anna took over and I had a very quick lunch before heading off to the Handmade gifts presentation by Ruth Clarke. She came up with some innovate ways to create easy and beautiful gifts out of our yummy fabric. I think a few of my dear friends may be getting some of these for pressies in  the near future.

Next I did a quick dash around the display area and took a few pics of all the lovely displays. No time to dilly dally though as it was then into another presentation by Sophie Zadeh on Decorations. Oh my goodness is all I can say. I wanted to go home and play straight away. Stay tuned as I will be posting photos of her decorations shortly.

By this time it was 2.30pm and I'm thinking, where has the day gone and will I cover everything? Had a quick cup of coffee to recharge the batteries and then off to the greatest presentation by Liz Collett.
Now I know I could be a bit biased as Liz is my upline but she had the most awesome Gingerbread house cards and her Wish jar was so innovative and I love how she created cards out of the Simply Scrappin Kits. She just blows me away with her creativity. I am so glad I am part of her team.
Straight after Liz was a presentation by Kirsty Brown, what a wag she is. I love her sense of humour. She came up with some great ways of decorating and packaging.
The brown paper that comes in all our deliveries got well used with wrapping gifts and then decorating with fab bows.

Phew! Have I got time for a wee break? Nuh. Gotta check out the Demonstration booths that are spread around the main room. Madonna Dunn had some different ways on using our markers. Kim Gavarra got me excited with our watercoulour crayons on fabric. That is a must try.
Oh I nearly forgot, I made a decoration to put on the tree and received a free gift for doing so. How good is that?. Running out of time so looks like the make and takes that we all received will be done at home. Had to go pack up the brayer table with the others and say goodbye to my new found friends. Then home, once again beating the storm. Thunder and lightning and torrential rain sent us to bed early making sure we pulled out all the power leads from the appliances. Ahhh what a day.

Loving the Big Shot

The Big Shot is such a great machine. I find I am using it more and more with my projects. Gosh and to think that I once said I would never need this machine.
I was asked by a friend to make a book for her sons 21st birthday. She wanted something that all the guests could sign. I had forgotten that I took photos of this book until I downloaded my camera today. So pleased I did as it is always good to look back on what projects one does.
So here are the pics and a description on the pages......

I used some very thick craft board that I had put away "Just in Case" I could use it one day. I glued Very Vanilla card to both sides of it and then ran it through the big shot with the Scallop  Square die. I found a Celtic type cross online, so printed it off and cut it out so that I could make a mask. I sponged randomly over the page, spritzed all over, then removed the mask and spritzed a little more. I then covered it all in Versamark and clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.

For the back I prepared it the same way but instead of the Celtric Cross I cut out a 21 and stamped some keys.

All the other pages were covered with DSP. I cut out a frame from the now retired Beau Chateau DSP.
I made secret pockets and lots of tags that could be written on. The other DSP I used was the Neutrals Pattern Designer Series.
All the edges of the pages were sponged and then the pages were held together with rings.
I decorated the rings with bits of ribbon, string and a key.