"Hippo Birdie Two Ewe" Birthday Card

 

This is a cute card I made for a boy turning 5. The inspiration came from a background I created using a turnabout stamp I got off Aliexpress and a AAA birthday card challenge which I you can link to here.

If you just want to watch a card process video on how I made this card then please click here or the link below...

 

The first step was to trim my background to fit an A6 card base.

Next I grabbed the black circle and die cut animals from my stash that I wanted to use and arranged them onto the background to get an idea of how I wanted it to look. The die cut animals were made using a stamp set I got off Aliexpress - I loved the play on words that the sentiment 'hippo birdie two ewe' presented and the stamp set came with stamps for the animals to match. I had already colored these animals in using my STA dual tone aquarelle watercolor brushmarkers; click here for a link to a review I did on them.

I took the 'hippo birdie two ewe' sentiment and placed it onto the black circle - I decided the critters would 'dance' or sit above the main sentiment. The position of everything also needed to accommodate the recipient's name below the main sentiment.

Using silver heat embossing powder, I heat embossed the 'hippo birdie two ewe' sentiment onto the black circle.

After that I used double-sided tape to adhere the black circle to the background. Ideally in the middle of the background but I'm lazy so I just eye-balled this one.

Then I arranged the die cut creatures around the circle and sentiment again to make sure I was happy with the arrangement before using double-sided tape and liquid glue to adhere them. I used liquid glue to lessen the chances of the tiny little details on the edges of the animal diecuts to catch on something and rip off the card front. For my review on the glue pens I use click here. To make sure that images stuck down flat whilst the glue was drying, I placed an acrylic block on top.

I decided to stamp the recipent's name "Robert" using the capital letters from my Concord and 9th perfectly penned stamp set and my ranger archival ink in jet black. I just used an acrylic block to this, stamping each letter individually onto a yellow sentiment strip of card that matched the cardstock used for the background. To finish it off, I cut banner edges to each end of the sentiment strip.

Final step was to adhere the front notecard to the card base using double-sided tape.

Of course my laziness meant I had to re-trim my card front because it overhung the cardbase. Don't be like me and eye-ball trim your background, just measure it properly otherwise all your work might end up with an unbalanced looking card front.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

 

CAS Simple Trees Christmas Card

 

A simple tree outline card to add to my CAS cards. This card was inspired by the CAS christmas card challenge which you can link to here.

 

For the process video on how I made this card see the link below or click here.

 

SSS Clean Line Christmas stamp set has three tree outlines so I decided to line all three up next to each other on the front of a white notecard. 

First I used ranger archival ink in sap green to stamp all three images, then removed the two tree images on the left and right to leave the centre tree image. I then use momento cottage ivy ink to re-stamp the centre tree image with a darker green to give it contrast and interest. Of course I'm using a stamping platform here to make it easy for me to re-stamp exactly on top of the image I'd already stamped.

Next step is the sentiment. I chose a sentiment stamp with "season's greetings" inside a rectangular box and decided to heat emboss that using black embossing powder.

I decided I wanted to mount the card front onto a red card base but I wasn't fond of the high contrast between the white notecard and the bright red card base. To combat this I decided to grab a blending brush and my Stampin' Up Cobbler Red ink pad and quickly add what I'm going to call a 'red fog border!' I liked how this softened the feel of the whole card; I just hope it doesn't break the CAS Christmas card challenge rules (sorry blog moderators if it does, but hope you enjoyed visiting my blog anyway).

Anyway, happy crafting.

Mel Crafting.

Touchfive Alcohol Markers Review

Touchfive Alcohol Markers

Sorry for taking a while to post another blog, I have been distracted with other things and lost a bit of motivation but now I'm back and happy to finally post a review on the Touchfive alcohol markers I bought off Aliexpress for about US$18 last year. For the video review head over to my youtube channel "Mel Crafting" or just click here or view the link below.

First impressions are OK. I bought a 60 piece set and the Aliexpress seller threw in a couple of cheap pens. The listing said a colorless blender would be included but I didn't get one so I was quite disappointed with that.

Some of the tips were poking out and needed pushing back in so consistency of assembly of the markers isn't great. However, they did come in handy zip-up Pouch to hold the makers and it fitted a few extra markers I bought to complement the set so that was a bonus; again though the material of the bag is quite thin and does have a cheap kind of a feel to it.

Touchnew 60 set zip pouch

The markers have a bullet tip and a chisel tip for each color. The caps feel very secure when you take them off and they give a nice click when you put them back on so I felt their was little chance of them drying out due to a loose cap. Holding them and drawing/coloring them was comfortable in my hand, I would have preferred a round barrel rather than the square profile but I didn't get a sense of any control issues.

Touchfive bullet tip

Touchfive chisel tip

I swatched both the bullet tip and the chisel tip ends, noting down both the number and name printed on the cap of the markers. All the markers were juicy when using the bullet tip. I found marker 99 "Bronze" had a dried out chisel tip whilst marker 69 "Prussian Blue" had feathering issues with its chisel tip.

Touchfive 60 Marker Set Swatching

Marker 69 Prussian Blue Chisel Tip Feathering

Marker 99 Bronze Dry Chisel Tip

Moving onto some alcohol marker blending. I tried out sets of three in colors that I would commonly blend together when I make my cards. What I found was that some markers were easier to blend than others; so that missing colorless blender would have come in handy...

Testing out the Blending

I'm mostly happy with the color range for what I use them for (cardmaking/coloring), but I would have liked more in the purple range because, well, purple is my favourite color. The set has a great range of reds, blues, greens and brown/yellows with quite a few greys so really only limited by your imagination.

Overall, I recommend this 60 marker set of Touchfive alcohol markers as a first set for someone looking to try alcohol markers out but who also does not mind having a limited purple color range and can live with imperfect blending.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

STA Metallic Brushmarkers - Review

STA Metallic Brushmarkers

So I got enticed by AliExpress recently and my stationery obsession led me to buy a 10 pack of STA Metallic Brushmarkers. For those that prefer to watch video reviews, click here or view below for mine...

I paid US$6.81 including shipping. I had the option to select a bullet tip but I went for the slightly more expensive brush tip end because I didn't have a set of brushmarkers, well I have watercolor brushmarkers (click here for more details on those) but they are quite different to these.

First up the package arrived safe and sound, I ordered it during lockdown level 4 in New Zealand on 30th April 2020 and it arrived on 23rd May 2020, that's just over 3 weeks - no bad during a pandemic...

The package itself was well packaged and undamaged. I was delighted to see it came in the sturdy plastic case as shown on the seller's listing. By the way, I bought these off a store called "wangwangkong Store" and they are pretty much as described in the listing but there were a few things that I was disappointed with. 

Well Packaged, Undamaged AliExpress Package.

Bit more on the plastic case...it's textured! The diagonal lines in the photo are actually slightly raised and gives it a neat feel. 

A

Plastic Case

The markers themselves are a thinline brushmarker so good for delicate colouring. As they are a brushmarker, I tried getting broad lines and I got good solid thick lines. Although the brush tip is nice and flexible, it felt delicate and one of them was a little frayed after a few strokes.

Testing on White Paper

 

The ten colours are (metallic): Black, Grey, Red, Blue, Olive, Green, Brown, White, Purple, Gold. All except the white were very pigmented. When colouring you can draw over the top of ink pen lines as well as other colors of the markers. The ink in these markers is most brilliant or vibrant when used on black or dark paper/card. I did not like the white, I wanted more pigmentation. I did not like how it seemed to write clear, even on black paper...you could only see a faint white marking when it had dried - the photo seems to brighten the white much more than it looks in reality.

 

Testing on Black Paper

I'm not great at handwriting or calligraphy but when I tried to do some basic brush strokes, they were achievable but I found the brush tip difficult to control.

Testing Brush Strokes

I tried these out on an acrylic block to test how well they write on plastic. Not so great. The ink bled and moved around a lot - not something I would recommend doing with these markers.

Testing on Plastic

Overall, I do like these metallic brushmarkers and they are a reasonable price. There is a good variety of colours in the 10 pack and whilst most colours performed well and gave a great metallic sparkle, expecially on dark cardstock... I didn't appreciate the lack of pigmentation in the white marker. These markers are ok for colouring, drawing and lettering; the fine brushmarker tip means intricate work as well as the bold lines or fills are not a problem. However, the tips seemed delicate and easy to damage or fray so you do need to watch the pressure you apply. As the stroke is hard to control I would steer away from these if you are a beginner calligrapher or lettering artist.

Great entry level metallic brushmarkers to add a bit of sparkle to any quick doodle or sketch. I would buy these again if I wanted some metallic brushmarkers for simple projects. If I needed to use them a lot over a long time or wanted perfect brush strokes, then no, I would not buy these. 

Hope you enjoyed my review.

Happy Crafting!

Mel Crafting.

  

Birthday Card - Stellar Space Window

Stellar Birthday Card

For the process video on how I made this card click here or check out the video below:

 

This card used the stars and moon background I made using small stamps from multiple stamps sets - check out my blog post here on how I made it, or watch the video below.

Clear Heat Embossed Stars and Moons Background

I decided to only use half the background so that I could make another card. I used my Sizzix big shot to cut a 2.5 inch diameter circle out of black cardstock. This will be a circle window on the front of the card that looks through to the stars and moons background.

Circle Window and Embossed background

From here I grabbed my space themed stamp set and decided I wanted the sentiment "Have and Stellar Birthday" to feature on the front of this card. I also had some stamped and colored images from this set so I wanted to use them up too. Conveniently they were already die cut as well. Just for completeness, I used alcohol markers to color the images.

Space Themed Stamp Set

I did a rough arrangement of the background in the window with the die cut space images to gauge where to place the sentiment.

Space Themed Die Cuts and Rough Card Layout

Then I used my We R Memory Keepers stamping platform to stamp the sentiment onto my card front using clear embossing ink - as I will be heat embossing, I of course used an anti-static powder tool all over the card front first. After that I sprinkled white Ranger embossing powder all over the sentiment, tapped off the excess then used my heat gun to melt the powder and set the heat embossing. This gave the sentiment a stand out bright and bold look on the black cardstock.

Washi Tape Used to Position Background

I wanted a slight stand off inside the window so decided to adhere foam tape to the back of the card front around the window. Because I wasn't using a whole card of background, I needed to also use washi tape to position the background correctly in the window. This ensured the background is placed exactly where I want it behind the foam tape.

Foam Tape

Adhering scrap cardstock

I removed the backing paper on the foam tape then used some matching scrap cardstock to cover the remaining exposed sticky foam tape. Using scissors to cut off any excess.

Using double sided tape and foam squares, I stuck the space images down to the front of the card as shown below.

Final Card Layout

To finish I adhere the card front to a navy blue card base and use a guillotine to trim off any excess.

And this card is all done. For another card using the same stars and moons background click here for how I made my starry shaker birthday card or for the background itself click here.

Starry Shaker Birthday Card

Below is the process video for the Starry Space Shaker Birthday card:

That's all for today. Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Birthday Card - Starry Space Shaker Card

Starry Space Shaker Card

This card was another inspired by the stars and moons background I made earlier. Click here to go to the blog post on how I made that background or watch the following video:

I wanted to make a shaker card so I grabbed my Sizzix big shot and cut a rectangular window out of a white card front.

Before I get too far ahead of myself (and if you prefer) - here's a link to the process video for this shaker card:

So I cut the window at an angle to give it a bit of interest.

I found this sentiment strip from a moon stamp set I bought off Aliexpress that said "You're out of this world" that I wanted to use. I decided to stamp and heat emboss that sentiment above the shaker window using black embossing powder.

'Moon' Stamp Set

Sentiment Stamp Positioning and Angled Window

Heat Embossed Sentiment

 Using an old presentation report cover, I cut out a clear plastic widow big enough to cover the window and stuck it down using double-sided tape.

I grabbed my stars and moons background to check the look before placing foam tape all around the shaker window.

Foam Tape

The foam tape lifts the card front higher above the background so that the shaker elements have somewhere to move around in. I made sure the foam tape was placed as close as possible to the window to prevent the loss of my shaker elements.

I then removed the backing paper on all of the foam tape and filled the window with a sprinkling of glass beads (which I was using as my shaker element). You can use anything as your shaker element, I just decided to use these beads as I found them in my stash and I had no other plans for them.

Filling Window with Beads

Now I grab my stars and moons background, stick it down on top of the foam tape placing it over those beads to enclose them in the window. I then use scrap cardstock to cover up the remaining exposed sticky foam tape and to make sure the back of the card front is all level.

Placing Background Over Window

Covering the Exposed Foam Tape with Cardstock

Shaker Window!!!

 
Time to make my 'Happy Birthday' Sentiment strip. I grap a strip of black cardstock and a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment stamp from Simon Says Stamp Greetings Mix 1 stamp set.

Simon Says Stamp Greetings Mix 1 Stamp Set

 I place the card strip into my We R Memory Keepers Precision Press Stamping Platform and proceed to stamp the sentiment onto the strip using clear embossing ink. Then I heat emboss it using silver embossing powder and a heat tool.

Placing Card Strip and Stamp into Stamping Platform

Clear Embossing Ink

Stamped and Silver Heat Embossed Sentiment

After deciding I want this sentiment strip to sit across the bottom right hand corner of the card. I bring in my stamped and die cut space themed images which I've already colored using alcohol markers and arrange them on top of the card front.

Arranging Sentiment Strip and Space Images

Then I adhere everything down using double-sided tape and trim off any excess using scissors.

The last step is to adhere the entire card front to a black piece of cardstock using double-sided tape to finish the card. This card doesn't have a standard opening card base so it is intended that your card message is written on the back - I would use a white or silver gel pen in this case because I have used black cardstock as my final backing.

Many thanks for visiting my blog, if you'd like to see another card where I use the same background click here to see my starry window space themed card or click below for the process video:

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting

Sneaky Crafty Tip - Small Stamps Star and Moons Background

Clear Heat Embossed Small Stamps Stars and Moons Background

Hi there, today I'm going to explain how I made this stars and moon background using small stamps from multiple stamp sets. For the process video on how I do this please check out the you tube video below or by clicking here:

Often our stamp sets contain small images that are often left unused or we don't know what to do with them so I thought hey, why not make a background with similar themed little stamps.

I got the inspiration for this from the small star stamps in the Hand Lettered Holiday Stamps set from My favourite things. This stamp set has lot of small star images and so too did my space themed, birthday celebration and a christmas stamp set which I got off Aliexpress.

First of all I place all the little stamps I'm going to use for this background onto an acrylic block for safe keeping. I'm paranoid that I will lose them so by using an acrylic block I know exactly where they will all be whilst I get other resources ready to make this background.

I decide to used an A6 sized navy blue cardstock and I place it into my We R Memory Keepers stamping platform. I then place the little stamps so they stamp in one corner of the navy card front. As I'll be heat embossing this background I use my anti-static powder tool to make sure the embossing powder only sticks to the places where I've stamped my images. I use clear embossing ink to ink up the stamps, close the door on my stamping platform and press really well to make sure I get a good image.

As I've positioned the stamps to stamp on one corner of my notecard, I can save time by turning the notecard upside down and re-stamping. Now I decide to heat embossed what I've stamped. Before I sprinkle on my clear embossing powder I lay down a sheet of non-stick baking paper with a crease in the centre - this crease is to collect the excess powder and make it easy to pour back into the container. Once covered in embossing powder I use my heat tool to melt the powder.

I replace the notecard in my stamping platform so I can fill in the gaps of the background by re-placing the small stamp images where they are needed. Once again I clear heat embossed those images.

The result is a wonderful raised background with a bit of shine. You can use any combination of small stamps that you may have in your stamp sets to carry out this technique and make your own background. I'd love to see what you come up with.

I use this stars and moons background to create space themed cards below, click on the links to see how I made them.

Space Cards Using Stars and Moons Background

Stellar Space Window Birthday Card

Starry Space Shaker Birthday Card 

Happy Crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Product Review - AliExpress Glue Pen

AliExpress Glue Pen

This is a product review for a set of glue pens I bought off AliExpress.

I paid US$1.55 for a set of 5 (only 4 are shown in photo because I gave one to my 4 year old and it has 'disappeared'!).

Check out my youtube review video by clicking here or see it below:

These glue pens arrived in great condition. They are sold empty and my intention was to fill them with liquid glue in the hope that I could more efficiently glue my die cuts and embellishments to my cards and crafty projects.

First thoughts are that they are pretty good quality. The lid feels sturdy and gives me the impression that it will last many uses without cracking or becoming brittle and disintegrating on me. Of course if you run it over with a car or drop a perfectly position rock onto it it'll probably break but under normal use I think it'll be fine. The tip is easily removed to fill and easy to replace. It is quite easy to fill, no need for a funnel but this is dependent on what you are filling from - my bulk liquid glue bottle has a narrow dispensing nozzle. Once filled, you can give it a good squeeze and there are no leakages - excellent.

After using it for a couple of months, I can say that it is air tight enough that the liquid glue doesn't go off, so no lumpy, partially dried glue reservoir to try and figure out how to deal with.

In practice on real projects, I love how I get really good control. Little dots, thin lines, thick lines, blobs are not a problem. I especially found it useful for adhering die cut sentiments to cards even really thin and delicate die cuts was not a problem.

My old method of squirting a blob of glue onto a scrap piece of paper and using a toothpick to glue any add-ons on to my crafty projects is out the window now that these glue pens are my go to tool for the job.

I'm pretty sure you can fill these with glitter paint or glitter glue or anything of liquid glue consistency where fine control and placement of goopy goodness is required for your crafty projects.

Definitely recommend these glue pens and have yet to find something I don't like about them.

Check out these crafty projects where I use this glue pen:

Birthday Beads Shaker Card



Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting

Housewarming - Simple Happy Housewarming

Happy Housewarming Card

I needed a card for the housewarming I'm attending in the weekend. Found out I didn't have one so decided to see how fast I can make one. Turns out the answer is about 15 minutes (once I've figured out the design).

This card is obviously very simple to make and by definition very basic and very easy to achieve. Nevertheless, click here or below for the process video.

I started off looking through my crafty stash and found some leftover dies cut phrases and letters. Quickly had a sort through to see what sentiments I could make and settled on using a 'Happy' die cut and the negative space of letters that spelled out 'housewarming.' Both of these dies cut outs were from using diecuts I bought off Aliexpress. The 'Happy' die cut is actually part of a set that includes the sentiment and its shadow, here I only use the sentiment. The alphabet diecut set I used actually cuts both the letters and a square block of negative space around the letters. This means the die cut letters can be used in multiple ways: The letters on their own, the negative space on their own, or both using contrasting card stock. Here, because I found everything was cut out of black cardstock, I decided to mount it onto yellow card stock to give it good contrast.

To adhere the diecuts to a yellow card front I used liquid glue inside a glue pen. Again I got the glue pen off Aliexpress; I bought 5 of them and they come empty so I filled one with liquid glue then used it to dot glue on the back of the diecut pieces and placed them on the card front. I purposely tried not to make anything too straight and went for an 'organic' look with the placement of the letters and the 'happy' phrase; but if you want to be a bit tidier, feel free to use a t-ruler to line up the letters.

Check out my blog post where I review this glue pen here, or just click below to view my video review...

Using this glue did warp the card front a little; to avoid this you can use higher weighted card stock or different glue. To fix this issue I just place the card front between non-stick baking paper, put inside a book and put a heavy weight on top, leave it overnight and come back next day to a fixed card front. As I was rushed for time, I decided to adhere my card front directly to a yellow card base using double-sided tape anyway, trimmed off the overhangs and then placed inside book under weights etc. This cheat step worked a treat, though I wouldn't recommend for more seriously warped card fronts.

And we are all done. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it.

Happy crafting.

Mel Crafting

Christmas Card - Vellum Overlay

Vellum Overlay Christmas Card

I wanted to try out my alcohol markers properly so I stamped this bold flower background and used my touchfive alcohol marker - which I bought off AliExpress- to try out some colour blending.

Flowery Background Outline

To stamp this background I used Gina K Designs Jet black ink as it is alcohol marker friendly and coloured it all in.

Alcohol Marker Colored Background

Then I used clear embossing ink onto vellum to stamp "Wishing you the happiest Christmas filled with love, cheer & joy" from Simon Says Stamp's Holiday Greetings Mix 1" clear stamp set. Then I sprinkled gold embossing powder over the top and heat set it. I folded the top edge of the vellum over the top of the coloured background.

Vellum Overlay

To keep it in place I used double-sided tape to stick vellum on top edge to the notecard. Then I adhered leftover red strips with clear embossed stamping to the top and bottom edges. I founda  navy blue card and stuck the notecard to the front of that.

Finished Vellum Overlay Card

All done!

Happy Crafting!

Mel Crafting.