Flower Necklace

There had been a discussion on the Leatherworker's forum about whether you could use a paper diecut machine for leather. I have one of the original Spellbinders Wizard machines so thought I would give it a try since I know that it can handle fairly dense materials. I used the Tim Holtz tattered florals die from Sizzix. I tooled to get more definition and dimension. I coloured the flowers with Copics then antiqued with leather die. The damp leather shaped well and I was pleasantly surprised at how lightweight the final pendant is.

Key tag

Just a little thing I made for my son-in-law using his logo. It was the first time I had done this type of carving. I found that the copic markers worked really well to colour the main figure and the edging.

Luggage tag

When I was planning to use the copics for colouring the leather on the purse flap, I decided to try it out on some scrap leather first. This was belly leather which is not the greatest but it was good enough to practice both the tooling and the colouring. I did learn a lot from this exercise. The tooling made it impossible to groove the stitching line and I should have cut around the patterns on the luggage tag opening more carefully. Actually things were not going too badly until I used the wrong tool to make the holes for stitching, as I was waiting for the correct ones to come. These holes are much too large and really detract from the tooling.

Even though the stitching aggravates me, I did use it when travelling a couple of weeks ago because I do like the tooling.

Hobo style purse

I have been playing with this in my mind for a long time and finally got it done. As a first one, there were many things that did not work as well as I hoped. But I can see a lot of improvements in my tooling and I learned a lot about the does and don'ts in construction. The flap sectioned tooled.

I am getting much better definition with my tooling. A lot of it has to do with getting some better bevellers from Northern Lights Leather Tools.

I hand painted the background using Golden Acrylic paints and air brush medium. I did get some of it on the leaf but it doesn't show after the leaf was coloured.

I coloured the flowers and leaves with Copic markers. This was a real learning experience as they behave a lot differently on leather than on smooth cardstock.

Then I antiqued with a dark brown hilite stain to pull it all together.

This wasn't the best fabric for the liner as it is a cotton, but I loved the print. I can always replace it if it wears out.

The blue leather I bought at Tandy leather on sale. I'm not sure that is shows in the pictures but it isn't navy and isn't royal blue, but somewhere in between. A really pretty colour with denim.

More views.

More Christmas cards

These cards are made with images from the new Oxford Impressions Christmas plate Sleigh Bells. This card expresses my wish for peace this Christmas.





This quote seems made for these boys.




This card makes use of the masking technique. The quote is from the St. Nicholas collection.






I was so happy to see this formerly retired image back in this collection. She is one of my favourites. The snowflake was cut on my KNK electronic die cutter.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Dress form christmas card

I had fun combining this image from the Oxford Impressions Dress Forms and Corsetry plate with the Christmas tree from the Sleigh Bells plate. I drew the lights on the form and coloured the whole thing with Copic markers and air brush.

Deep Sea Voyage

Suzanne at Oxford Impressions has been doing plates that are steampunk in feel. These cards are done using images from The Deep plate, based on Jules Verne type sea images. The gentleman is from the Steampunk Elements plate. My version of a diving bell was done using my Klik N Kut to cut out the basic shape from cardstock. I covered it with metal tape and added dimension using Ten Seconds Studios metal tools and acrylic paint. The background was done with Ranger Colour Washes. The fish were stamped on cardstock, coloured with Copic markers and then embossed with clear embossing powder. I used prismacolour pencils for the sea weeds and corals.



Taking a cue from the ladies that use Stampscape stamped images in conjunction with photos, the diver was stamped onto a photo from a recent snorkelling trip. The porthole was cut and embossed with my Wizard and circular dies. I used the copic airbrush to create the wood look. Pencil crayon defines the individual boards.

Alice humour

These cards use images from the Illustrated Alice plate at Oxford Impressions. They are coloured and airbrushed with Copic markers. The word phrases are computer generated. I hope these bring a smile to your day.

Published in Somerset Studios

Thursday was a fun day. I returned home to find the latest Somerset Studios magazine in my mailbox, as they had published 2 of my cards from the call for art for Alice in Wonderland. I had taken pictures before submitting them and would like to share them here and to mention that the stamps are from Oxford Impressions, as the stamp credits are missing in the magazine writeup. Of course, their photography is much better than mine and they staged them really nicely, but you get the idea.

Wish

This card uses images from the Bonbon plate and background text from the China Dolls plate from Oxford Impressions. It's my take on the coveted item, lovingly torn out and the page saved from the catalogue. For boys, I think it used to be bicycles and wagons, and in my imagination, the girls would have loved the dolls and the tea sets.

Some Valentine cards

I like the simplicity of this. The decorative paper pulls this all together very well. The stamped image is coloured with waterbased markers applied by paintbrush.
The images are all Oxford Impressions.




This card is coloured with both Copic markers and the airbrush and overstamped with distress inks. The hearts are made on my KNK electronic diecutter, using a file by Mary. All stamps are Oxford Impressions.




I really like this image for the haunting quality she has. The stamped image is coloured with waterbased markers, applied as paint. All stamped images are by Oxford Impressions.




This girl is so Parisian, I thought she was perfect for outside the candy shop. She is coloured with waterbased markers, used as paint. The store image is coloured with Copic markers. All stamps are Oxford Impressions.

Simply Alice

Often I find that some of the most effective cards can be some of the simpler ones to do. This classic Alice image from Oxford Impressions is stamped with Memento black ink on cardstock from the Paper Temptress and coloured with Copic Markers. The phrase is a green core black cardstock strip, run through a dymo label maker and sanded. The background layer is a scrapbooking paper. I enjoyed doing the purple caterpillar and this paper matches well and pulls it all together.

Winter cards

Due to an unforseen postal delay, I didn't receive the St. Nicholas plate of stamps from Suzanne at Oxford Impressions until after Christmas. So I decided to make winter cards, rather than holiday ones. For this card, I used gold mirror card, embossed with my Wizard using a cuttlebug folder, and coloured with Ranger alcohol inks. I think the effect looks like pierced metal. I used images from the St.Nicholas and Winter Snow plates.




The bird was stamped with Memento black on card from the Paper Temptress and coloured and airbrushed with Copic markers. I kept the card fairly simple, using layers to accent the colours in the image.



This card is stamped with Memento black, coloured and airbrushed with Copic markers. I used antique linen distress ink to overstamp the label onto the image. All stamps are Oxford Impressions.

Halloween cards

This card uses an image from Oxford Impressions and a cutter file from Ileana Russell, I Scrap Designs, for the phrase. I thought it was a great one for this image and made for a fun card. It is coloured and airbrushed with Copic markers.



This is a simple card using images from Oxford Impressions, that just sets a mood or tone for Halloween. Distress inks were used to colour this card.



This is my take on a more ghoulish card. The stamps are all Oxford Impressions. I remember reading a bunch of Poe's short stories as a teen and thinking that he had a very strange mind. But I still remember some of them, even these many years later. Distress inks and acrylic paints were used to colour this card.



All the images on this card are from Oxford Impressions as well. It is coloured with distress inks and copic markers.