Glycerin Rescue

Hi everyone. Today I wanted to share how I rescued my Versamark clear ink pad. I am sure it can't be just me that ends up with a really grubby,dirty ink pad...at least I hope not lol

So I carefully pulled the foam away from the plastic case, and then washed the foam out in warm soapy water. It did clean up pretty well, but was still grubby and stained. 

So I turned it over, and used superglue to glue it back into the case. I then added some glycerin to reink it. I rubbed this in with a finger till it sank into the foam and then I added a bit more. You need something gummy/sticky that won't go solid like glue, glycerin seems to work great. 

I used this glycerin, bought from Boots pharmacy. 

You can also find smaller bottles in the baking department of supermarkets. 

and yes it does work just fine, it is nice and sticky and the embossing powder sticks to it perfectly. This image was done with WOW embossing powder. 

So now I have a lovely clean and freshly inked clear pad and I can get back to embossing. Definitely not my original idea, but I saw it mentioned so many times online I had to try it. 

Why don't you give this DIY reinker a try.. 

Darcy x

Calendar Challenge 2015: April

Hi everyone, it is that time again. Today the link goes live for the April show and tell of our altered calendars. If you are new here then read THIS POST to find out what we are doing.

As a reminder here are the rules for April ..

1.. Keep a part of the original picture and incorporate that into your design

2, Technique -  use drips and splatters

3. Add - a repeating shape or word as many times as possible

4. Blog your calendar page and link up from April 1st 2015

This was how my page started this month. To me it is extremely boring and wishy washy, with no real focus.

I added a coat of matte medium to give the page some tooth as this calendar is printed on very shiny paper. Then I used gesso to blank out the page, leaving just the patch of water lilies.  I added the gesso really thick in some areas to add texture.

One of the rules was to add repetition of a shape or word as much as possible.. I used the whole alphabet and repeated it all over the top and bottom pages.

Next I added my base colour, leaving out a stalk for the lily pad area, turning it into a mushroom, and also a couple other shapes. The colour was hideously yellow, but that’s ok, its just a base layer. I won’t be naming these colours as they are really old,cheap craft paints that I am trying to use up so I can get rid of the bottles as they are taking up space. and they are starting to smell a bit funky.. they are donkeys years old.. 

I continued to add paint, blues and greens.

Then as my letters were disappearing I decided to add another repeating shape with this leaf stencil. (Clarity Stamps)

I took all these colours down onto the bottom half of the page too.

Next I used some of my new stamps.. first I stamped onto the page an then whited out the shapes using snowflake 

..and then I was able to colour in the shapes and add patterning.

I was then able to go back in with the stamps, and a doodle pen.

The other rule was to add splatters and drips.. so here are the splatters. I added 3 colours of splatters.


I used the leaves from my new stamps sets to stamp lots of leaves on old scraps of painted papers.

I also stamped the month, days and numbers from HPXT06. 07 and 08 These calendar stamps are brilliant and so useful.

These were stamped  and then matted onto the new Bougainvillea..

this is how the top half looks now.. with lots of white highlights here and there.

The bottom matches, but is less busy… however it does need something more..

I stamped out this fairy from Lavinia stamps and made her all sparkly using WOW Starry Night. She is stamped onto regular smoothy  painted with Blue Oyster, then cut out leaving a small border.

She was then added to the planner page. The rules state splatters or drips, so I decided to add both, here are the drips done with just Metallic Glaze 

and here it is when dried, it looks like she is watering the flowers or sprinkling fairy dust on them..

Here is the whole thing finished..

Hope you liked that. Link up your calendars and then go visit each other.

Here are the rules for May.

1.. Keep a part of the original picture and incorporate that into your design

2, Technique - Make marks,... scratching or stamping into texture paste/thick gesso/spackle/glue anything that will hold the shape

3. Add – an image that depicts your star sign/horoscope (drawing,painting,magazine image)

4. Blog your calendar page and link up from May 1st 2015

Here is the link for April

Darcy x

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all those celebrating today here in the UK. Here is the card I made.. 

I began by cutting 3 strips of card, one wide and 2 a bit thinner. On each one I used WOW embossing powder in Opaque Vanilla White to emboss an image from my new stamps. Here you can see the background leaf stamp used. 

I also used the central flowers and the border design from EDY12

It's hard to see but here are all 3 pieces embossed. 

I then added a watery wash of paint over each strip of card. This one uses Bougainvillea from the new Limited Edition set by Lin Brown. You can see how the embossing powder resists the paint. 

All 3 pieces were edged with a black pen and attached to black card. 

I then dragged some white satin ribbon through Jade and left it to dry. 

I then wrapped the ribbon and the lace around the bottom of the assemblage. 

I painted a tiny tag with Buff, then added rub ons. I also used a beautiful stick pin from The Ribbon Girl.

These were added to the knot in the lace.

Voila! all done. 

Darcy x

Sunday leftovers...

Sorry not roast beef, I am still playing with leftover paper. This time I am using up some of my 'scratch' paper, otherwise known as scrap paper.

Whenever I paint, or spray or stencil..I have spare paper at the side of me. I wipe off excess paint onto the scrap paper. I clean my brushes onto it. I put it underneath when I am spraying. I end up with multicoloured pieces of paper that are mostly just too pretty to throw away.

Some are book pages, some are where I tried out a new stamp, most are just sheets of cheap printer paper. Don't try and plan out these papers, that is not their purpose. They are just sheets of paper to protect your table, protect the page underneath, or to clean your brush...The way to get them looking interesting is to use them over and over.

Today I started with this piece, I cut it down to a square. It has spray ink on it, some Fresco paint, some stamping, and even a bit of grunge paste. 

I stamped my zip heart from EDY01

Coloured it with translucent Fresco paints..and painted the grunge paste black. 

I added Treasure Gold..

and mounted onto a card blank. 

Next I took some book page, and stamped the cog heart from EDY02 

I have no idea what is already on this book page, obviously some paint, and looks like some script stencilling, but there was also some weird glue type stuff lol

I added embossing ink to the heart and covered it with clear embossing powder. I have a few brands, but I do like the powders from WOW...

Once heated, I inked the edges, matted onto scrap card and mounted to a small gift tag. 

hard to see here, but the heart is very shiny, and looks cool against the matte paint in the background. 

For my last one, I took this piece..it had been used for cleaning stencils. I added my cog background stamp to the lighter half. Then I tore it all into strips. 

I stamped the sentiment from EDY01 onto another scrap piece, that was in a contrasting colour, and layered them all up. 

The pink stencilled paper was alternated with the cog stamped paler pieces. 

The sentiment on green and blue, was matted onto black card. 

The heart was meant to be something else entirely. I was working on a square piece with a heart in the middle, the heart had clear embossing powder on it, and the background was loaded with paint. It all fell apart. Not one to give up,well not too easily... I pulled away the wet paper and was left with just the heart, looking a bit the worse for wear. I covered it in Treasure Gold, and then deliberately snapped it in as many pieces as possible. I wanted it to be completely broken apart. 

I then glued the heart to the card, using glossy accents. I squished it inwards so that the cracks would push the whole thing upwards and make it 3D. Of course it could never go through the post, but I really like the broken heart.  A happy accident, and one that I would use again as a 3D embellishment. 

Have a great week ahead. 

Darcy x