Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day crafty people!  I hope you are having a good day whatever you are up to.  I am sharing this card today because it’s been handed over so the cat is out the bag!

I bought myself a few alcohol inks at the start of the year and I had an initial play with a few pieces of yupo paper that came with the inks and then I ran out of paper and I felt a bit stuck (because Yupo is pretty pricey!)  Then it occurred to me that maybe I could try them on other non porous materials that I has around my craft room.  I have a stash of acetate from craft material packaging so I cut a few pieces and got messy!  I felt a little defeated as I just seemed to make a mess!  This being an example.  I used three inks (sunshine yellow, red pepper and flamingo) and some blending solution and I tried making spots and blowing the ink around with the straw.  I had seen someone apply some foils to the ink when wet and I remembered that I had some foils that I hadn’t used yet so I applied some with the brayer to sticky patches and got a few copper patches.  I also did some blotting with a piece of old paper bag.

I wasn’t in love with the finished item (might just have been listening to too many true crime podcasts but I think it’s a bit like a murder scene!).  So I put it aside to dry off fully and then I had an idea!

I thought I could use the sheet as a colourful background for stamping on so I pulled out some poppy stamps from For the Love of Stamps by Hunkdory.  I used StayzOn ink and stamped on the back (i.e. not the side I put the inks on) and then fussy cut the flowers.

I liked these (phew!) and then thought I could make them into a Mother’s Day Card as my Mum likes poppies and has some beautiful big orange poppies in her garden.

After a bit of playing about I arranged the poppies on some white card with a few leaves from the same stamp set stamped in green as a base.  I layered it up with some black and white mats and then added some red and green pearls.  The sentiment is from a Lawn Fawn set.  I had some left over flowers so I used one on a little doily to make a gift tag.

Does anyone have any tips for alcohol inks?  I think someone before mentioned using shaving foam to do some marbelling and I’ve had a nice play with that (coming to a blog post near you soon!) All suggestions welcome!

I would like to enter this project into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge- Anything goes

My Time to Craft – Mother’s Day

Crafty Cardmaker’s – That Someone Special

Aud Sentiments Challenge 223 – any sentiment except Happy Birthday

Thanks for visiting Ginger Ninja Crafts, I hope you will come again soon.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

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Everyday kindness

Happy Weekend Crafty People!  I hope you are finding some time for creativity this weekend.  Today I am sharing the first post where I use the masterboard I made yesterday.

This project was inspired by the Happy Little Stampers March ATC challenge which has the theme of “hearts”

I used a 2.5 x 3.5 inch piece as the base for an ATC (artist trading card).  I wanted some inky hearts to choose from.  I took some off cuts of inky paper that I had left over from previous projects.

I used grey and black ink and stamped on some ink splashes, coffee mug rings, text, postmarks etc from the Vintage Collage stamp set from Crafty Individuals.

Then I die cut a different sizes of hearts and gave them a black edge with a sharpie.

I added some black stamping on the ATC background and then layered up some textured paper with the hearts and some words from Tim Hotz Idea-ology chitchat set.

Although I initially wasn’t happy with the masterboard I like what it has turned into!  I hope that you like my little ATC and enjoy the rest of your Saturday.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

Playing with mixed media

Happy Friday crafty people!  How is your week going?  I’ve had a really lovely one, the sun is shining in Scotland today and I’m ready for a chilled out weekend.  Way back at the start of the year I said I was going to start my art journal and I did (it’s only got one page so far but that’s a start…. isn’t it!).  I’ve been a bit stuck as to how to progress so I thought I would just have a play with some mixed media and see if a page emerges.

I took an A4 piece of card that had an advert on it.  Rather than writing out the process I thought I would share some pictures along the way with a few notes for what I used……

Book pages, napkin and tissue paper glued down with matt modge podge.

Cover some areas with white gesso

Random acrylic paint splodges!

Stencil and structure paste and acrylic paint

 

Ink sprays

(I’m a bit sorry I sprayed the lady’s face with the pink ink, it somehow makes me think of Jack the Ripper!)

Wooden leaf stamp with paint, circle stencil with paint and some “lid stamping” to make “bubbles”

The last thing I did was to trim off the edges.   To be honest I wasn’t very happy with it but I decided to keep it as a base for a page in my journal as well as a couple of others projects!  I’m hoping that by trying out different techniques I will get a better idea for what works and be able to produce something that I like more!

Anyway I will be sharing what I did with this over the next couple of weeks (the first one will be up tomorrow morning!)  I’d love to hear if you have any advice or tips for me!  Thanks so much for having a peek at what I’ve been up to.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

 

Trouble in a tutu!

Happy hump day crafty people!  This is today’s card featuring the Trouble in a tutu stamp set from Clearly Besotted Stamps.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Cute

Aud Sentiment Challenge – any sentiment but Happy Birthday

Have a wonderful day and I really hope to see you again soon.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

G for Glitz

Happy Tuesday crafty people!  Can you believe it’s the last week of March already?  I’m back with the third of my cards for the ABC Christmas Challenge for March which is the letter G and the prompt G for Glitz!  I do love a bit of glitz in my cards so I pulled out my glitter card stash and chose this dark navy.

I used a Tonic Studios die set which included the dove and the Peace sentiment.  I paired the glitter card with a crisp white and layered up the card with some wet glue.

Hopefully you can see the full glitter effect here.  I am also entering the card into the Crafter’s Castle March Challenge – anything goes with optional extra of using glitter.

Thank you so much for stopping by the Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, I hope you will pop back soon.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!)x

Back in the craft room!

Happy Monday crafty people!  How was your weekend?  We had a busy and productive weekend building out greenhouse, it was a long job but we are so happy with it and I can’t wait to fill it up with plants.  Here are a few pictures of the process and end result just in case you fancy a sneak peak!

I am happy to be back in my cosy craft room making things from paper again!  Today I have a card which I made to enter the MFT Sketch Challenge (see the sketch below) and the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge which asks us to use lilac, sky blue and white.

My starting point was that I wanted to use up some of my extensive washi tape collection!  I started by using some scrap card and covering it with a few selections of washi tape.  I forgot to take a picture of the colours I used for the card before I cut it up but here are the others to give you an idea of what I did!

Then I simply cut out triangle shapes and arranged as per the sketch.  I added a few pearls in lilac and pale blue and a Happy Birthday stamp from a MFT set.

I hope that you like this simple card.  I think I will have a go with some other shapes and patterns too as it was such a nice way of using those washi tapes, I’m so good at buying them and they are not appreciated if they sit in a box on my shelf!

Thanks so much for visiting Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, I hope you will pop back soon!

Crafty hugs

Jenny

U is for Unicorns

Happy Saturday crafty people!  How is your weekend going?  I’m super excited today to share a card with you as a guest designer for the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers .  This is because they liked one of my previous cards (this link takes you to the winning card blog post)  and crowned me as Queen of Snark (what a fab title!)

They have really fun challenges and I thoroughly recommend checking out the blog if you haven’t yet….. it might be addictive!  So today’s post is U for Unicorn.

I chose to use the Woodware Francois Read Unicorn Stamp and I heat embossed it in silver on white paper.

I wanted to give my unicorn a shimmery finish so I used some Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powders which make a lovely paint when you add a little water to them.  I left the unidorn body white but used the Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen in clear to give him a shimmer.  Once he was dry I fussy cut him out.

I was going for a night sky look so I used navy cardstock and added a few stars (cut from mirror card and a scrap of left over paper that had some ink spray on it.  I then mounted it on a pink mirror card and added one of the sentiments from the same stamp set, heat embossed in silver on the navy card.

It’s always tricky to get a photo that shows shine and shimmer when it’s lying flat so I took another one on one of my shelves!

I hope that your day is also filled with unicorns and glitter, or if not maybe pizza and wine (that’s what I’m hoping for!).  Please let me know if you head on over to the Snarky Stampers blog, I’d love to check out your creations.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!)

Cocktail Friday!

Happy Friday crafty people!  I hope you are all set for a fun weekend.  We usually have a cocktail on Friday so this card feels like it’s right on time!   It’s an entry for the Alphabet Challenge which is currently on z for zesty colours.

I started by making an inky background and adding some splashes of water to leave some white spots.  I cut the border and added borders in other zesty colours.  The cocktail stamp is called Cocktail Time and it’s made by Crafter’s Companion.  I stamped it with archival ink and coloured it with watercolour pencils.

I finished it off with a sentiment stamp to say Well Done because what’s better than a cocktail to celebrate an achievement!

If you are celebrating Friday with a cocktail then cheers to you!  Thanks for taking time to visit the blog, it makes my day 🙂

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

Ombre Background

Happy Thursday Crafty People!  I hope you are all having a fabulous week.  I have a fishy card to share today for the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge, for the theme O for Ombre.

I started by making an ombre background using some distress oxide (blueprint sketch and salty ocean) and distree inks (faded jeans and shaded lilac).  I blended them together from palest to darkest before splashing with some water to leave some white spots and splashes.

I used the lovely furry friends stamp set (a recent magazine giveaway) for the sentiment and heat embossed this in gold on some navy cardstock.

I chose the gold fish from the Rare Earth Cute Critters stamp set.  It’s such a detailed stamp that I simply stamped it in Izink ink (honey) on white and orange paper before fussy cutting them both out and layering the orange behind to leave a drop shadow.

I mounted the ombre paper on orange before adding to the navy card.  The fish was glued on with some gold gem bubbles.

I hope that you like my fishy card!  Thanks so much for visiting the Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, I hope you’ll come back soon.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x

Shaker card

Happy Wednesday crafty people!  I hope you are having a fab week.  I’m back today with my contribution to the Back to Basics and Beyond Challenge Blog which today has a new challenge to make a shaker card.  I haven’t made any of these for a while (I must admit I find them a bit of a faff!) so I ad a rummage in my stash and dug out my acetate and and 3d sticky pads and got going.

There are lots of tutorials on youtube but I thought I would share how I put together my card in case it’s helpful!

I started by cutting the front panel for my card and I cute a circle window for the shaker.  I also cut a little scalloped frame to go around the front of the window to make it stand out a little more.

On the reverse I use some double sided tape to cover the window with some clear acetate.  I used some from Dovecraft but you can also use some from packaging.

The next step I did was to add 3d pads around the window and around the edge of the panel.  I did a double layer of 3d pads to give plenty of room for the sequins to move around.  While I still have the 3d pads covered I take some fine powder (using the EK Powder tool) to swirl around the edge of the window.  This just stops the sequins sticking to the sticky pads so they can move around when you shake the card.

I wouldn’t like to admit how many times I have forgotten to add the acetate until after I have added the sticky pads which is super annoying (have you ever tried to remove 3d pads? it’s not a fun job!!).  Am I the only one?

Then I added some sequins, I like to use mini sequins but you can use different sizes and or little beads.

I had cut a circle of patterned paper for the background to the shaker window so I put this on top of the sequins and then added some wet glue to the back.

Now the sequins are safely secured so you can turn the panel over and stick it down to the card base.

To decorate the frint of my card I used a fairy die and stamp from Joanna Sheen.  I think this die was a magazine gift and I love it.  It’s fab for paper piecing so I gave my fairy some brown hair, pink mirror wings and an ombre dress with some stars on it.  I heat embossed the sentiment in white and added it to the bottom corner.

I hope that you like my fairy card and I can’t wait to see all the shaker cards that my fellow design team members have come up with.

Do you have any tips to make shaker cards easy?  I’d love to hear what you think and if you have entered the challenge give me a shout in the comments. Thanks so much for visiting Ginger Ninja Crafts.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x