Heat and stick with gilding sheets.

Last week was a bit of a downer for us to put it mildly. 
Not only was my dad was in hospital having two operations.

We travelled the 200 miles to visit him and get his  little bungalow adapted and cleaned ready for his arrival home.

Not long before we left home Hubby received news that the mother of one of his close friends had died.

 I also received news that one of our friends/neighbours had also died that day.

Which left me wondering and worrying as to who the third would be as these thing tend to come in three's  I didn't have to wait long  to find out .   Just a day or two  after arriving home from dad's,  I received a telephone call  from my foster mother to tell me,  my foster brother Tony had died the same day as our neighbour.

So my next cards are sympathy cards, This is the first one. 
Tony was not a religious man and he doesn't want a religious funeral, So it doesn't seem right to send a religious card.

So I thought I'd try something different.


Here I used the Hello doily background stamp from Stampin' up.
I inked it up with versamark ink and stamped it onto black card. Instead of using  embossing powder,  I  chose to use Heat and stick powder.
You use it the same way as embossing powder ( but don't heat it for as long )

Once the  heat and stick powder had melted I covered it with an Abalone gilding sheet and pressed it down and rubbed  it into the  heat and stick. 
With a fairly stiff paint brush,  I brushed away the excess gilding sheet paying particular attention to the lacey areas  until the stamped image was  revealed .

 Warning,....I did find, if I brushed or rubbed a little too hard I wiped off the gilding,  so in some areas I had to apply more gilding flakes, which was fine as I had some flakes left to patch up the areas, I just kept on applying the flakes to the areas  that felt sticky until they no longer felt sticky.
The centre sentiment  comes from the Stampin' up set Hopeful thoughts and I  stamped the words  on to brushed gold foiled card,  using  Black Stazon Ink and then die cut the circles. 
I picked the green and the gold colours from the gilding sheets as the colours for my mounts.

Washer Necklace

Morning Crafters, This idea was featured in an SU  publication and I have been experimenting with it . I have tried two different ways of creating this washer necklace.
This one was created by covering the washer with versamark ink and white embossing powder and heating until the powder had melted and cooled down.
 Using a sponge dauber  and Stazon  Saddle brown ink,  I covered the entire surface with ink ,  while the ink was still wet , I very, very lightly daubed  a couple patches of  Stazon Timber brown ink and allowed it to dry completely. 
I chose Stazon ink because it does what it says on the can... It  STAYZ ON .  The last thing I wanted to happen was for my inks to run when I added the crystal effects.
 If you don't like the effect you have created you can always clean off the ink with Stazon cleaner and start again.
I  added a  very delicate gold corner peel off  and stuck it to one side of the washer and trimmed back the excess.
Using  the dark brown Stazon, I stamped a couple of flourishes on opposite side to the peel off and allowed the ink to dry.

Then I covered the whole thing in a thick layer of Crystal effects and allowed it to dry over night on a completely level surface. This is very important as the liquid will run to the lower side if your surface is not completely level.
When completely dry,  I looped the cord through the washer and added a lobster claw fastener  onto the ends  of the cord.

The second version was done by punching out a circle from glossy paper  the same size as the washer  and punching a second hole in the centre  (the same size as the hole in the washer)  glue the paper onto the washer and repeating the process of  daubing, stamping and adding the peel off and crystal effects.  (as above).                                                       

I have to say the easiest option was the paper. But it doesn't cover the edges of the washer as the embossing powder did,  so you can still see the metal edges of the washer.    If  I do this version again,  I think I would paint the washer  edges  first.                                              I have also done a couple of these using patterned paper rather than  daubing and stamping white paper.  Which is far easier and quicker . Instead of using a peel off   I used tiny gem stones but I added them too soon to the crystal effects and they sunk into it,  so they no longer sparkle.  Hence I have not photographed them.   Next time, I think I'll wait until the crystal effects has almost dried before adding them. ........Ahh,  We live and learn.

Well I think I have covered everything.... I hope I haven't made too many mistakes on this post. If any thing is unclear feel free to send me your questions I'll be more than happy to answer.

Laura X