Aloysius goes green

Hi folks, here's another sample that I made for the Create and Craft TV show that Kay from Indigoblu presented recently. I was so proud to see my samples on the TV, and had a lot of fun making these.

This particular sample is another one of those book cards that I enjoy making so much. You have seen me make them before, so I won't go in to the specific details of how to make them, but there is a tutorial on the Whiff of Joy tutorial blog.

I used some green Bazzil card as the base card for the book, adding some old book paper for interest. This paper was quite old, so I layered it onto card to make the flower, to give it some strength. I used Claudine Hellmuth Matte Medium, taking care not to get any on the top surface, as I wanted to colour the paper.

(My good blog friend Elaine gave me a great tip that matt Mod Podge works if you want to colour over the top. I have now bought some, and am going to give this a go. She has had great success, and made some stunning pieces of art.)

I coloured some card with Old Paper Distress Ink, and then stamped the card with Flitterglu, covering it with some of the flakes. The result is a lovely shimmery crackle effect. I distressed the edges and coloured these with Walnut Stain Distress ink. I stamped the bear onto a piece of card coloured with Scattered Straw Distress ink, using Versafine Vintage Sepia ink, and cut the image out. I assembled the front of the card, adding some lace and a bow for the bear.

For the tag, I created the background as before, using Flitterglu and flakes on the crackle stamp. I then stamped Aloysius onto shrink plastic using Stazon Timber Brown ink. I coloured the image with pencils before cutting it out and shrinking it. I added a piece of lace and ribbon to match the front of the book card.

The niche inside the book was simply coloured with Distress Inks and stamped with the crackle stamp. Although the bear stamp could be used for a child's Birthday card, I felt that the colours I had used meant that this card could be suitable for a bear lover of any age!

I'll be back in a couple of days with another sample using the gilding flakes and Flitterglu. Pop over to the IndigoBlu website to take a look at all of the fabulous stamps that they have. I'm working on the next batch as you read this, preparing for the next show. Thanks for popping by, xx