Spring Inspiration

Hello again! Today I am sharing with you my DT project using this month's colour inspiration.

I used the butterfly stamp from the new WOW! Embossing Powders Stamp Set Simply Amazing. I embossed each butterfly with different powders - Easter Sparkle, Pastel Pink, Pastel Blue, Purple Glow, Pastel Purple. Then I cut out each butterfly and mounted them onto the card. I took three buttons and embossed them in the same colours and added them to the butterflies.  I used a WOW! Embossing Pen to make the dots on the card and then sprinkled over the different colour powders.  The greeting is from the stamp set Love Beyond Measure. I simply poured over two colours of pastel powder at the same time to get the two tone effect.

Don't forget there is still time to join in with this month's giveaway! Pin It Now!

Creating a Faux Leather effect

Some time ago I saw Tim Holtz demonstrate this technique. I made a sample piece and stashed it away in my ideas folder for later. Much time passed until I decided to create this little book cover. I was aiming for a sort of medieval old book effect and the WOW! Powders helped to create this perfectly.

For this technique you will need the following:

Grunge Paper,
Distress Ink
WOW! Clear Gloss Embossing Powder Ultra High, Copper and Gold Ultra High Powder 
Embossing Ink Pad
Heat Gun
Embossing Folder
Die Cutting / Embossing Machine

1, Using the Direct to Paper technique cover the grungepaper with Distress Ink, here I used Walnut Stain and Brushed Corduroy.

2. Once the paper is covered with ink, pour over the WOW! Ultra High Clear Powder and heat. You need to do this quickly as the Distress Ink doesn't stay wet for long.

3. You should now have something that looks like this

4. Using the Embossing Folder run the piece through the die cutting / embossing machine to emboss. Then rub over the embossed areas with  Black Soot Distress Ink. I also used a gold ink pad to highlight the embossed areas.

5. The "metal work" was created from Grungepaper shapes which were covered with embossing ink, coated with a mixture of WOW! Copper and Gold Ultra High Powders and the heated.

6. The metal work was then attached with silicone glue to mimic a book cover

I hope you have fun trying this new technique - Emma (The Sparkly Fairy)

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Giftbag

March is nearly over, can you believe it!! Doris here with another contribution to the design team blog. I think it is always nice to have some pretty packaging in store. It makes even last minute presents look WOW - like I have thought about it for ages :)

For the flowers I stamped a medium weight card stock with one of the new large WOW stamps – a french music sheet (nice!!), embossed it with metallic gold rich embossing powder and cut out scalloped circles. You can use a die cutting machine, a punch or simply use your scissors, it does not have to be very neat.

To form the flowers I stabbed a hole through the middle of 5 of these circles, stacked them on top of each other and secured them with a brad. Then I proceeded to scrunch the discs up artfully, starting with the top disc and working my way down. So easy, even I can manage it. To finish them off I edged the sides of the discs with the colour of the bag. For this you can use for example an ink pad, felt tip pins, crayons. Have a look around your stash!

The bag is cut with an Accucut die and here I embossed the French music sheet with clear embossing powder to create a tone in tone effect. The bag is finished off with a tag stamp with 'thank you' from this set and its own flower

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Beautiful handmade wedding stationery

You will need…

    Pearlised Ivory Pocket Card
    Pearlised Ivory Pocket Insert (x2)
    Pearlised Ivory Card
    Ivory 10mm Satin Ribbon
    Wow! ‘Vintage Wallpaper’ Stamp
    Wow! Silver Pearl Embossing Powder
    Heat Gun
    Clear Pigment Ink Pad
    Large Acrylic Block

Step One

Ink up the Wow! ‘Vintage Wallpaper’ Stamp using a clear pigment ink pad.

 Step Two

Align the stamp with the wedding card outer and carefully press it onto the card. Without moving the stamp, firmly press all area’s down.

Step Three

Sprinkle Wow! Silver Pearl Embossing Powder over the stamped area and tap off excess onto a sheet of plain paper.

Step Four

Hold the heat gun 10cm away from the card and heat the powder until it turns glossy and leave to cool for a few minutes.

Print the text for Insert 1 and Insert 2. Stamp and heat emboss the top section of each insert.

(optional) Perforate a line just above the reply card section on Insert 2 to make it easier for people to reply.

Print out personalised Wedding Invitation Tabs.

Step Five

Add a strip of ribbon to the front of the pocket using double sided tape and then carefully add double sided tape along the edges and fold together to create the pocket. Cut out the personalised Wedding Invitation tabs and attach one to the front of the invite using 3mm thick foam tape (or foam pads).

Step Six

Slide the inserts into the outer pocket and add a pencil mark of where to punch a hole. Slide the inserts out of the pocket and make sure they are aligned directly on top of one another then punch a hole through both inserts. Cut a piece of ribbon 20cm long and thread the ribbon through the hole and tie in a secure knot. Diagonally trim the edges of the ribbon to prevent fraying and give a professional finish.

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Wedding ideas...

Hi, it's Amy here again and this month I have a few different wedding ideas to show you including a simple wedding invitation and different ideas for displaying those precious photos.

First, to display all those photos how about a mini book like this one I made last year. I used various stamps from my stash, (ask me if you want me to tell you what stamps they are), and the following powders Ebony, Metallic Gold Rich, Lilac Shimmer, Metallic Silver, and Violet Pearl (this looks so different on black).

Next how about this simple wedding invitation using WOW Metallic Silver and Pastel Blue embossing powder from this months colour inspiration. I also used the WOW stamp sets French Music and Gratitude and a Tim Holtz die.

For another way to display your photos what about scrapbooking. Here are a couple of wedding themed layouts I made last week for display at the NEC.

Using the new Make a Wish stamp set (fab!) and Bright White and Burgundy Red embossing powders 

On this next page I had the idea to extend the photograph using embossing powders. It's inspired by a textile class I took last year. Stop by my blog on sunday for more details.

Thats all from me for now, hope you enjoyed the post and found something which inspired you. Leave me a comment, I'd love to know what you think. x

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Home from Home

 NEC Birmingham 22-25th March 2012 

Well folks, it's that time of year again.

Fasten your seat belts, buckle your wallet and lock your credit card in the freezer! It doesn't seem 2 minutes since WOW were at the NEC in November with everyone.   I cannot wait to see all the products on offer and talk to customers on the stand which incidentally is DO8.   Hope to see you all there.  Drop in on the demonstration and make and take areas, take the weight off your feet and learn something new about embossing powder.  The make and take workshop lasts for approx. 20 mins, book your place early as they get full in the first hours of the show.

Marion Emberson will be our guest stamper and her new designs for WOW will be available to buy. 

Take care

Speak soon.... 

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My "Inspiration" is Music

Hi, Christine Saunders here again with some new ideas on recycling and Altered Art -

One of the themes for March was "Inspiration" and as Music of all kinds inspires me I thought I would make an Altered Art project with a music theme. 



  

I then inked up some cardstock using a clear inkpad  

then embossed it with Pastel Peach and Purple Glow

 embossing powders. I then punched out some 

flowers and added them to create a decorative corner

to the case. Adhesive Gems and were placed in the
centre of each flower and green punched leaves
added to finish.  

Altered Art - Picture Frame.    



I decorated an old CD Case with torn, inked

papers and stamped butterflies onto Vellum which I then embossed with WoW powders - Pastel Peach, Purple Glow and Easter Sparkle. 

I also inked up some old music papers and added these to the front of the case for decoration. 

Embossed Punched flowers.





I  love altered art and re-vamping things -  making something new from old.  I found an old cardboard picture frame and thought I would alter it  to give it a new lease of life.   I stamped the frame using the "Flourish" background stamp and Pastel Peach embossing powder.

I stamped very lightly with a clear pigment pad so that the image only touched parts of the frame. This gave a distressed look.

I then embossed hearts taken from the "Is it a Bird" stamp set around the frame using Opaque Pastel Blue Regular powder. 

I also used the tree stamp from the same set  and embossed this with Pastel Peach powder three times.  I used an embossing pen to colour in the hearts on each tree branch and re-embossed each one with  with Pastel Pink, Pastel Blue and Purple Glow. The trees were then placed overlapping on the left corner of the frame to finish.

I hope you like these projects.  Take a look around your home and see if there is anything that you can "alter" to create something new. I'll be back next month with more projects using the WoW powders and next time - "Foils" which I love - they are so versatile and make your projects spring to life. Happy crafting.. 

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Chic Jewellery

This is where it all began. I was taught by Sheena Douglass  at a training day, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on some grunge board and embossing powders  They are soooo easy to make and cheap. Yes cheap… 49p ish per bracelet or £1.10 ish per watch strap! Great for girly parties and pressies etc.

The grunge board smells like new leather – gorgeous and if you’re like me can get hooked on the smell like tar and petrol!!

Sheena gave us all the instructions to make the straps and I’m sharing that with you today.  You can make your own designs on the straps with the embossing pen or use your stamps.

With daily wear I’ve found that I get around 2 months out of a watch strap or if it is for special occasions, 6-10 months.  At the end of that time however, 70-odd pence of the original price is re-useable – the hitch fasteners just unscrew and go onto the next strap. Recycling at its best!

The watchstrap I made is 1 full length of the grunge board.  If you have a thicker wrist, you may have to use the grunge board diagonally to get the length.  Out of one piece of board you should get 2 medium watch straps or 4 bracelets.

The board comes in different textures; from plain to stripes to circles imprinted in the board. Again it depends on what floats your boat.  I usually use plain so I can decorate it how I want.  The packet comes with 10 pieces inside and retails for around £8 to £10.

My wrist is 18 cms circumference.

Anyway here goes, have fun…..

Materials required:

·         1 piece of grunge board

·         Base coat of either acrylic paint or cosmic shimmer sparkle paint. You need something to  stop your inks seeping into the grunge board.  Plus you need to make it water resistant.

·         Stamps or embossing pen

·         Clear embossing ink pad

·         WOW Ebony super fine embossing powder

·         Distress inks in whatever colours you have

·         Glossy accents 

·         Black soot distress ink

·         Ruler and pencil

·         Watch face with spring bar/pins (where the strap is usually joined to the face) 

·         4 x Tim Holtz hitch fasteners
·         Hole punch

·         Antistatic bag
·         Cosmic Shimmer paint (optional)
·         Acrylic Paint

1.       Take the watch face and measure at least 1 cm each side of the face.  This will be the base making sure that you cut the grunge board length ways.

2.       Measure the width of the spring bar/pins that the grunge board will go through.  Mine was 1.8cm.  Cut 2 x pieces of 8cm in length. (This will feed through the watch  pins and hold the face onto the grunge board).

3.       The grunge board has a rough side and a smooth side. Depending on your taste use either side but I always use the smoother side next to my skin.

4.       On the rough side, paint the acrylic paint or cosmic shimmer sparkle paint onto the 3 pieces of board.  Heat dry.

5.       Dust over the 3 pieces with the antistatic bag so that if the base is slightly damp the embossing powder will not stick.

6.       Use any acrylic paints you have to decorate the 3 pieces.  I coloured them in pink.

7.       On the base piece I then used black soot distress ink to add depth to the edges. Heat dry.

8.       Again I used the antistatic bag to dry off the distress ink.

9.       With the embossing ink I stamped circles all over all 3 pieces of grunge board and put ebony embossing powder over the top and heated.

10.   I then took my distress inks and used them as watercolour inks. I put the colour on a craft mat and mixed in some glossy accents.  This is an acrylic base and so will get the distress ink to stay on the board and not wash off in the rain (don’t forget it is water based!).

11.   I then used the bottom of a small bottle and drew half moon around both ends to get the rounded edges on either side of the 3 pieces of grunge board. I then cut these out.

12.   I then made 2 holes with my cropadile (large hole) at one end of the strap. This then went around my wrist and with a pencil I poked through to find out where I needed to place the hitch fasteners.  Once the pencil marks had been done I used my cropadile (small hole) and punched the holes in the board.

13.   Screw the hitch fasteners into the board and then open and close the strap a few times to get the board pliable at the holes.  If it is stiff you can always get some scissors and nick the grunge board going inwards on the strap to loosen the holes.

14.   Put the strap on your wrist with the fasteners underneath, then place the watch face on the top and mark off through the spring bar/pins where you need to cut into the grunge board to put the 1.8cm through to secure the watch face.  Make sure you can see the watch face.  You will notice that the slits will be more towards you that away. This is correct.

15.   Cut the grunge board with a craft knife (be careful) making two slits.

16.   Check your watch face again on the grunge board.

17.   Feed the small pieces through the spring bar and slits on either side of the watch face. Make small holes in the small pieces where you want the hitch fasteners to go.  Use a pencil and mark on the base piece where you want the holes to go.  Punch the holes (small on the cropadile). Screw in the hinge fasteners.

18.   Finally turn the watchstrap over and fold over each other the flaps underneath (cut to size).  Glue in place with very strong glue.  I used Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue.       

19.   Voilà your watchstrap.  Don’t forget that once you are fed up or it has worn out, take off the hitch fasteners to use on your next watch strap and the strap will cost you even less 'cos you’ve recycled.

The above is also used to make the bracelets the only difference is

·         that you cut the grunge board into 4 length way pieces.

·         You don’t need to get a watch face and it only needs 1 hitch fastener to secure because it is thinner.

There is also a product called grunge paper.  This is exactly the same constituency as grunge board but thinner and can be used to make flowers and embellishments.

Bracelet

In the picture there is also a pearl bracelet - one of my many finds in Debenhams of all places!  The bracelet was in tact but the face had lost its cabochon so I paid £3 for it from a bargin bucket reduced from £15!

I took it home and placed a piece of white cardstock in the centre and drew around it and cut it out.

I then played about with mustard seed distress ink for the bakcground, getting different shades. 

I then took the 'live life laugh often' words from the 'with love' clear stamp set and stamped with clear embossing ink, then ebony ultra fine powder.

I then covered the words with glossy accents and placed a glintz (clear glass)bubble over the top and let it dry.  This drys clear.  Hey presto a new bracelet.

You can see these at the next show as I'll be wearing them. Also we will be showing you some more jewellery techniques with embossing powders.  SShh don't tell anyone I've told you......

Hope to see you at the NEC in March.  Take care.......

Sheena's Instructions as promised.....

    



              and some of Sheena's designs.......

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Simply Amazing Cameo with a Burst of French Music

Hi everyone! It's Sandie here again and today I would love to share a card I created with the fantastic new stamp sets now available in the WOW! Embossing store.... 

... but first I must wish you all a very happy {Lá le Pádraig} ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!

In line with this month's DT theme and colour palette I have used Pastel Purple embossing powder to make my Mother's Day card.

For the background, the stamp set I used was French Music. I trimmed it down and matted it onto some lilac cardstock. The frame and cameo are from  Simply Amazing. - I hand cut around the frame, matted it onto lilac cardstock and handcut around that. Then I mounted the cameo onto a white doily using 3D foam dots and adhered the doily down on to the French Music background.

To embellish I've added some purple ribbon and coordinating flowers, finishing with 5mm self-adhesive flat backed pearls on the ribbon.

We have an easy challenge for you this month, you don't even have to create anything! Just leave some comment love for our Design Team and at the end of the month - Saturday March 31st = we will do a random drawing from the DT blogs and one commenter will receive a handy carry case with 12 WOW! Embossing Powders of their choice! You will find a full list of the design team blogs on the sidebar :)

We will be attending the upcoming Hobbycrafts show @ the NEC in Birmingham, 22nd-25th March 2012. (Booths D08 and D10{workshop}). Do stop by to say hello if you're there!! 

Sandie

xx

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Wedding Frame & Invite

Hi Bloggers, Rachel here and it's my turn to' WOW' you all today.

I decided to follow the Wedding theme and make a frame - but then I noticed that the brief was Wedding Invitations so I made one of those too!
As you can see below, on both projects I stuck with the pastel colours but also used Bright White on the invite and Gold Rich Pale on the frame to give some contrast.
Anyhow here are my offerings:

On this invitation I used Pastel Pink and Bright White Embossing Powders. I cut the window using a Nestie and used an Embossing Pen and Pastel Pink EP to edge it.  The music is stamped onto vellum, embossed using Bright White EP and then torn. The tree is from the 'Is It A Bird' stamp set.

This picture frame took a little longer to create.

I used a Malma mirror from Ikea - such a tiny mirror and massive frame:). I primed it with a coat of gesso and then randomly painted it with two colours of green acrylic paint. Then for the fun bit! Stamping and embossing the whole frame using the Brocade stamp and Pastel Yellow EP. The swirls were cut with a die and coated with Gold Rich Pale EP, as was the sentiment. A few flowers, metal corners, and of course, a special photo and you have a lovely keepsake.

I hope you like my projects this month - keep tuned to see all the other lovely things created by our talented Design Team.

Have fun!

Rachel x

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March Challenge and a winner!

Better late than never - but here it is: the WOW! Embossing Powder March Challenge!

The challenge for this month is leave some comment love for our Design Team and at the end of the month Saturday March 31st, we will do a draw!

Leave comments on our Design team's lovely projects and you will be entered into a draw and win a handy carry case with 12 WOW! Embossing Powders of your choice! 

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Resist stamping

Hi there,

Nikki here again, my how fast the last month has gone.
I am really enjoying playing with the wonderful WOW powders that there are - so many to chose from and everyone of them just delicious!!
For my post this month I thought I would show you some resist stamping.

This is where we use clear ink to stamp out our design, then emboss it with clear powder (trust me, the finish effect is fantastic!).
Cover the whole paper/card stock with your choice of coloured ink, then wipe the ink off the embossed design with a tissue or cloth.

This is the card I made using this technique,

I used stamp sets - gratitude and build a butterfly along with powder, WA01R clear gloss regular.

Here are some of the close ups,

I love using this technique - let me know if you use it so that I can pop along to your blog and have a look.
This card will be at the NEC in a few weeks, make sure you pop by the WOW stand and say hi to us if you are there (I am sooooo excited about going!!! - I will be there on the Thursday).

Happy crafting
Nikki x Pin It Now!

AN EASTER GIFT.....

And not a bit of chocolate in sight... mainly because I ate it first !!!
Seriously though, why not make a gift this Easter, forget the chocolate, AND this will last a lot longer, it would also make a great wedding gift !!
So, grab yourself a plain wooden frame and using the Gratitude Clear Stamp Set, Versamark and WOW Clear Gloss Powder, randomly stamp and emboss some leaves, then spritz with one of your favourite water based spritzers, I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.

Once you've spritzed, wipe off the excess with a baby wipe and this brings the clear embossed image to life

For the next step, you must make sure the spritz is completely dry, otherwise the next lot of powder will stick to it.
I then took the Call Me Clear Stamps and randomly stamped the script stamp on the frame, making sure I overlapped the leaves and applied WOW Platinum Powder, heat set, don't worry that it's overlapped, it won't affect the design underneath.

This shows it before it was embossed .... I don't know why I did that LOL !!!
Next I took a white felt flower and stamped and embossed on to it, again using WOW Platinum Powder and the Call Me Clear Stamps

Add a felt butterfly to the flower and attach to the frame and there you have it.... a great little gift !!

Hugs
Marion xx

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