Birthday Card - Watercolor Galaxy Space Themed

 

Once again, another space themed card. This time I'm using a galaxy background created using watercolors with space themed embellishments. I needed a birthday card for a gift to my nephew so used a happy birthday sentiment with 'Whoa' in front to give it a bit of an 'out of this world' feel!

As per my recent trend, I made a process video of how I put this card together and a link to it is below or you can click here.

First step is to create the galaxy background. I was playing around with some watercolor paints I recently got and decided to make a galaxy. It's made by brushing shades of yellow, green, blue hues near the centre the piece then surrounding it with a dark purple hue then very dark blue (almost black) was painted around the outer edge. I then let the piece dry overnight before using a paintbrush to flick white acrylic paint flecks all over the piece for stars - I added a little water at times to help dilute the paint and make it easier to flick the white specks of paint everywhere. Again I let that dry overnight before adding my sentiment strip and space themed embellishments.

So, once the watercolor galaxy background piece was dry, I arranged the space themed die cuts I found and had hanging around in my stash on top of the galaxy background. I had already coloured these using alcohol makers (a review of the markers I used can be found here) so they were ready to use.

I also decided that I wanted to make a birthday card for my nephew who I was going to give a gift to soon. I found some stamps in my stash to create the sentiment "Whoa. Happy Birthday" The 'whoa' part is to give the sentiment a bit of an 'out of this world, kind of feel to match the space theme I was going for.

As I wanted to heat emboss the sentiment I place the black cardstock sentiment strip in my stamping platform then used it to stamp the sentiment 3 or 4 times with clear embossing ink. I then sprinkle white embossing powder over the sticky ink sentiment and tap off the excess. I do this over non-stick baking paper so I can easily recollect the excess powder for use next time. 

I then use my heat gun to heat set the embossing powder. I decided I wanted the rocket die cut to cover the end of the sentiment strip so it looked like the sentiment strip ends at the rocket so I trimmed off a bit off the end of the sentiment strip.

I stick the sentiment strip down using double sided tape over the nebula part of the galaxy background. Using foam tape behind the rocket die cut, I stick it down over the right hand side edge of the sentiment strip ensuring the end is covered by the rocket.

Standard double-sided tape is used to adhere down the rest of the space themed die cut elements.

Last thing to do is to adhere the card front to a card base. For this I decided a black cardbase would suit the space theme and used double-sided tape to adhere the card front to the card base, ensuring that there is an even border of black around the card front before pressing it down.

And its all done!

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.

Birthday Card - Spinner - Lion

Birthday Lion Spinner Card

Back again with another spinner card, this card is similar to my previous bear spinner card, which you can find here. However this time I'm using a watercolored lion die cut, an orange card base and utilizing a card front with a window cut out I found in my crafty stash. If you prefer to watch a video click here or view below for the process video.

I have this white note card with a slanted window cut out of it. This note card was torn and ripped in a few places so I needed to conceal those imperfections. I decided to make a spinner card.

First step was to die cut the windows for the spinning element to spin inside. Using the note card with the window already cut out of it, I lined up a matching sized orange notecard and the front cover of an orange card base. Then I cut out the windows using my Big Shot die cutting machine.

I took the orange notecard (with the window cutout) and black heat embossed "happy birthday" under the window.

Time to make the spinner element. I grabbed the white note card and taped some red string I found across the window, securing it using double-sided tape and ensuring the string is taught. I then sandwiched the string between the front and back images of the lion using double-sided tape.

To assemble the card, I adhered the orange note card to the front of the white note card using double-sided tape; making sure to  line up the windows. Then I did the same to adhere the card front to the card base.

All done.

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.

  

Good Job Mama Card

 

Good Job Mama Card

Today this post is about how I made a card perfect for a new mum or a mum who could do with a loving hug. Click here or see below for a link to my card process video:

Inspiration for this card came from stuff I found in my crafty stash including my 'good job mama' stamp set and a background I stamped and colored using my STA watercolor brushmarkers. I was coloring the background piece to test my brushmarkers as part of my review of those markers so I wasn't really being careful in places, hence why a lot of the coloring is outside of the lines!

Because of this 'poor' coloring I needed to hide the imperfections somehow whilst making a good looking card. To do this I decided to overlay vellum on the top of my front notecard.

To start off I cut my  watercolor piece to the largest square I could using a square diecut.

I then cut some specialty paper (Typewriter Luxury Designer Paper from Cristina Re d-i-y stationery) to 10.2cm x 20.4cm to make a square card base that is 10.2cm x 10.2cm square.

Time to cut the vellum. I cut it 0.5cm longer than the watercolor piece on one side to allow me to fold it over and behind the watercolor background to help with securing the vellum.

I then decided to heat emboss in black a love heart as well as the sentiment "good job mama, you are doing a great job" on the vellum. If I had red embossing powder I would have used that for the heart but I didn't so never mind. These sentiments/images are from the stamp set called "Good job mama" from Simon Says Stamp.

Time to put this card together... so I used double-sided tape to adhere the vellum to the watercolor background. I make sure to score, fold over, and tape down the excess to get a good hold. I leave the right hand side flapping about so that you get a little pop of color every now and then as you hold, open and close the card. The vellum does a great job of obscuring the imperfections in my coloring without taking away the beauty of it.

Next, I decide I wanted a bit of dimension to the card so I use foam tape to prop up the card front and adhere it to the front of the card base.

And that's how I made this "Good job mama" card.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Clear Stamp & Dies Storage - Monochromatic look

I'm quite new to the whole cardmaking/ scrapbooking world and as I've become more into the craft I've accumulated many stamps and decided I needed a way to store and organise them. I like the monochromatic look so you'll see there's a lot of black, white, and grey tones when it comes to my craft supplies storage.

Clear Stamp (and coordinating dies) Storage Envelopes

This post will be about how I currently store my clear stamps and coordinating dies. I do something a bit different for my die cuts which I'll cover in another blog post. Click here or below to view the video I made showing my stamp and ide storage.

As you can see I use 230 x 162mm black envelopes to store my stamps. I purchased 50 of these from AliExpress for US $19.78. I use white pigment ink to stamp the entire stamp onto the front of the envelope so I can see what is inside. In this case I used Stampin' Up craft ink in Whisper White. I use a piece of A5 sized inexpensive cardstock to add a bit of stiffness which also acts a a divider between the stamp set and any coordinating dies. To keep the dies under control in the envelope (especially once they're separated), I use a piece of magnetic sheet under the dies. If I have a mask or spare cut out images I store them in the envelope too so they're all together with the set they belong with.

I did a silly thing of throwing out the packaging without noting down the manufacturer or stamp set name so I don't know what a lot of my stamps actually are. Where I do know I use a brother letratag label making machine to print a label and stick it to the flap on the back. Unless I'm storing more than one stamp set in the envelope, then I stick the identifying label on the front near the stamp set it goes with.

Example of label for an envelope holding one stamp set

Example of labels for an envelope holding more than one stamp set

At the moment I'm storing all my crafting gear in re-purposed cardboard boxes as I wait for my partner to let me have a craft room!

Close Up of stamp storage Box

Stamps Storage in Box

For my dividers I cut a piece of core flute slightly longer than the envelopes (about 255 x 165 mm) and label the top. I organise my stamps by theme but that's just my preference.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

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.