Hello

Playing around with That's Crafty! MDF Tags to make a diptych featuring one of the Katzelkraft mushroom stamps brought together with quite a few That's Crafty! products in this project along with some scrappy paper pieces to try to evoke that sense of walking through the forest.

Katzelkraft Unmounted Rubber Stamps Mushpignons
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set The Language of Trees Set 1
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set Textures Collection Set 1
That's Crafty! Surfaces MDF Tags Pack of 6 #8
That's Crafty! Stencil A4 Circles TC40002
That's Crafty! Medium Walnut Ink Crystals (substitute with Walnut Ink Powder)
That's Crafty! Multi-Purpose Craft Adhesive
That's Crafty! Interference Gold Paint
That's Crafty! Pearl Inks Black, Tree Bark 
Archival Ink Pad Jet Black 
US ArtQuest Mica Tiles 5inx6in
Distress Ink Pad Walnut Stain
Extras: eco dyed paper, black sewing thread, needle, tape 

The first step for this project was the same as I recently shared where I placed two of the MDF tags side by side and attached them with tape to form a hinge, I used zinc oxide tape.

I dipped into my box of prepared cardstock but if preparing from scratch it is easy to achieve this effect by spraying firstly with walnut ink. If you do not want to dissolve walnut ink crystals/powder then there is of course the option of That's Crafty Flat Matte Spray Walnut. To this, adding small amounts of the Pearl Inks and quickly misting with water. Prepare a second sheet of cardstock this time only with Walnut Ink, again misting with water.  Allow both to air dry.

Once dry, use the MDF tags as template to cut out two tag shapes from the cardstock adhering with the That's Crafty! Multi-Purpose Craft Adhesive.  

With Distress Ink, repeatedly stamping one of the leaves from the Mushroom stamp set and a texture stamp from Textures Collection onto the tags. A few scraps of eco dyed papers were adhered before repeatedly stamping text stamp from The Language of Trees

 
Onto the walnut ink sheet of cardstock, stamping the mushrooms and fussy cutting before adhering to tags, creating scribbly outline and layering with scrap of eco dyed paper.

 

I assembled my chosen shadow first using That's Crafty! Multi Purpose Craft Glue. It's really easy to put together as you'll see if you buy some.

I painted the background and the outer sides of the shadow tag, choosing to leave the inner sides plain for contrast. I stippled on a mix of Green, Lime and Yellow to give a slightly mottled effect.

I prepared the background for the shadow box area next and decided to use one of my mop up paper towels which are used to mop up any leftover ink spray after I've pressed on a piece of paper to pick up excess - well I did say I hate waste! I use the paper towels over and over in colour themes until they're almost fully coloured.

I chose a green and yellow themed towel for my background and used the gorgeous new Funky Arches mask with Light Texture Paste to add a pattern vertically down the inky towel. As the paste dried, some of the ink from the towel seeped into it and gave it a touch of colour in places - serendipity rules ok!

Once the paste was dry, I discovered that the reverse side was even more textured so I decided to use it that way round and cut it to size then glued it in the shadow area.

I then created my embellishment, choosing to use an ATC in the centre. I covered the surface with a piece of green ink spray paper, sponging a deeper green Distress ink around the edges.

I stamped my chosen floral spray on smooth cartridge paper with black ink and coloured the image with Zig Clean Color pens and cut it out. I shaped it with a large embossing ball tool and glued it to the atc with dimensional adhesive.

I raised the ATC in the background by adding several pieces of MDF waste underneath and my artwork is done.

The show is available to watch on catch up for some great inspiration from Jo Channon.

See you next week.

With Halloween only a few days away I've created a 'Halloween' card to share with you today. 
It's a quick and easy card to make - so ideal for any last minute cards you may yet have/want to make. 
The design can easily be reproduced so in just a short time I reckon you could rustle up quite a few cards to give/send just in time for the 31st. 

This is the final one in the series of blog post I have done for the Templates 3. For this book instead of adding all four flaps with spines to create the box I have altered the side so that I have some pages inside instead making it suitable to use as a mini photo album instead of leaving a space into which a gift could be placed. 

This make is constructed by using Templates 2 A and 2B  to create the outside of the box. I drew round both  templates onto brown cardstock and then addered the flap of 2B to the right side of 2A creating two spines in the process. I then used 2 C to create the upper and lower flaps. which were secured in place along the top and bottom of the central panel created in the step above.

I then covered the cardstock using Fleeting Moments papers sandwiching a magnet in place as I did so (on the right hand flap this needs to go on the inside of the flap and on the left hand flap on the outside of the flap). On the inside left hand flap I added a corner of torn paper to create a pocket into which I tucked a piece of decorative paper and then added a fussy cut element from the collection on top of the pocket making sure that I did not adhere it to the tucked in paper element.

On the inside of the right hand flap I added a thin strip of paper to make a band into which I slipped a folded piece of paper. Decorative elements from the paper collection were then added for some extra detail.

I added pockets to the inside of the top and bottom flap tucking in tags cut from the paper collection.

To add my pages using decorative papers this time I took template D and placed it so that the spine score lines were towards my right. I then drew along the top and bottom of the template (not including the tab area)  and marked the score lines. I then flipped the template over aligning the score lines and completed drawing along the top bottom and non tabbed side of the template to give me a long piece of paper with the score lines in the middle. These were then reinforced using a bone folder creating a narrow spine which I then adhered centrally to the spine of the cover. This was repeated for the opposite side thereby creating a total of 4 pages (8 sides) which I left plain but there is enough space to add a mat and layer or photograph.

Finally I added elements from the co-ordinating die cut extras pack adding Glossy Accents to the top element - this piece means that when you open and close the box album you have something more substantial to handle and will keep the book from becoming tatty as it is opened and closed over time.