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.

A masculine Santa card

I apologize for the fact that this photo is a little out of focus. I took it quickly right before I gave it to the recipient and obviously my camera settings were a bit off. Hopefully it is good enough for you to get the idea.

This card was done for my son-in-law and is my attempt at a masculine card. I used my Wizard and some cuttlebug folders to texture the cardstock. This is my take on a technique that Annette showed on her blog here. I used gel medium to glue the sections together and Golden fluid acrylic paints to colour the background. I really like the almost leathery texture that these paints give to cardstock.

The Santa face was stamped on tissue paper and adhered to the background with gel medium. It was painted with some glaze lightly tinted with raw umber to give a more antique feel and a gold Adrirondack dabber was used to add metallic accents. The lettering was done with a dymo labeller. I used aged copper brads and turners as embellishments.

Supplies used- Wizard, cuttlebug folders, Golden fluid acrylics, Adirondack gold paint dabber, copper brads and turners, Santa stamp by Rubber Stampede, dymo label maker