Country Craft: August 2017

Friday 25 August 2017

SA Rural Women's Retreat

Last weekend my daughter, Kieran, and I set up a card making table for the SA Rural Women's Retreat in Woomera, SA. We were expecting 4 groups of 10 women but ended up only having 5 women join us (and 4 of those women came twice). It was a little disappointing but the women who took part really enjoyed the cards.

I had made up a set of Christmas cards featuring the Be Merry Designer Series Paper and the Cookie Cutter Builder Punch.

Stamp Set: Better Together

Stamp Set: Cookie Cutter Christmas

Stamp Set: Hang Your Stocking

DSP: Be Merry

Punch: Bell
Punch: Starburst
Punch: Pretty Label

Punch: Cookie Cutter Builder

The ladies enjoyed these but asked for some birthday cards for the second day. So Kieran and I went home that night and whipped up a batch of birthday cards for them to make on Day 2. These were very popular, especially the balloon one.

Stamp Set: Badges & Banners

Stamp Set: Daisy Delight

Stamp Set: Happy Birthday Gorgeous

Stamp Set: Label Me Pretty

DSP: Birthday Memories

DSP: Delightful Daisy

DSP: Naturally Eclectic

DSP: Pick a Pattern

Punch: Balloon Bouquet

Punch: Best Badge

Punch: Daisy

Punch: Everyday Label

Punch: Pretty Label

Punch: Starburst

Embellishment: Gold Faceted Gems

Although a bit disappointing we really enjoyed teaching the ladies some new skills. None of them had EVER made cards before but they picked it up like real champs.

Ellen Budden

Saturday 5 August 2017

Polished Stone Technique

Our Craft Group had a play with the Polished Stone technique recently. It's a very simple technique, lots of fun to do, and can produce some stunning backgrounds.

Why don't you give it a go?

Materials

A4 Glossy White Cardstock - cut to size (I cut mine into quarters)
Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol)
Two or three Classic Stampin' Ink Refills
Cotton Balls

Method

Use only two or three different colours, otherwise it may look muddy.
Add some IPA (isopropyl alcohol) to a cotton ball.
Add a few drops of each colour to the cotton ball. The number of drops depends on how much of each colour you want. For example, you might use 1 drop of a darker colour and 3 or 4 drops of a lighter colour.
Dab the cotton ball onto the cardstock. DO NOT RUB! Just dab all over, you can go over places where you've already dabbed, if you like. It doesn't really matter how much you do, just keep going until it looks OK to you. If you turn the cotton ball as you dab you will avoid duplicating the pattern over and over.
Once it has dried, you can stamp directly onto the Glossy Cardstock if you like, to use it as a background, or run it through a Big Shot, or cut it into smaller pieces.

Examples

Here are some of the cards I've made using this technique. I cut a couple of the pieces in half and used them with Designer Series Paper but I think I prefer them whole as a background.