Alcohol pens and blending solution

I wasn't going do a blog today until I saw a post on my facebook feed. Someone was showing what they had done with alcohol inks, blending solution and glossy card and it reminded me that I had a play around last year to see if I could get a similar effect with alcohol pens and it was pretty successful.

Simply scribble or colour blobs ( technical word) onto a mat and then add some blending solution. Take a piece of glossy card ( I used cheap photo paper from a pound shop) place it glossy side down onto to inks and turn as if on a pivot although you can move the card any way you like. Lift and if you like set aside or if not go back into the ink or even add more and then go back. Do this as much or as little as you like with as few or as many colours as you like. I did like the ones with the addition of metallic promarkers and they give a similar effect as the alcohol ink mixatives by Ranger.

I also squiggled wobbly stripes of alcohol pen onto glossy card and blended with blending solution on a felt blending tool.

Hopefully you can understand what I mean here are a few pictures of what I did ( please excuse the fluffy slippers)

K x

Playing with my blog

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Trying out a few things to improve my blog. Hopefully I won't lose the whole thing.

OK that seemed to work so to add a little more interest to this page for now whilst I am messing I will add a few pictures I happen to have on my laptop of some of my crafting from years ago.

Not great pictures and not my best work just some I took a while ago to show someone.

K x

Thoughtful Thursday

I don't feel like I have done very much today but I have been working around Leonie's hours on Hochanda. I haven't bought the stamps today as I know there are some I probably wouldn't use but others I would use a lot. I am trying to use what I have and only buy things I know I will use as soon as they arrive. I have been a buyer and hoarder of craft things for far too long and am determined to use what I have.

Today I glued the felt onto my fleather which I am making a case for a hard drive with so that hsn't got much further on as it needs to be completely dry now.

I also got my Groovi kit and plates out and made a couple of pieces...........

I used to do traditional parchment craft years ago and I found out my piercing tools and scissors to cut out the butterflies. I need more practice and it feels like my visit to the optician at the weekend is well over due. I also got out some Adirondack pens that must be about 10 years old and I was amazed that they worked really well after all that time. Again I need more practice and the sun isn't orange but more of a yellow (rubbish photography and bright pink mat).

I enjoyed making these even though I am not 100% happy with them as my mind started to wander. I was thinking about how come I am into crafts when my education has been science based. 

I have always been into crafts of one sort or another I guess from knitting, cross stitch, embroidery to scrap booking, decoupage, pergamano etc etc. Thinking about this reminded me of my Grandparents and when as a child I would go to their house and my Grandma always got out all of the bargains she had bought to show us. I have always loved a bargain. My Grandad would always get out his latest sketches or oil paintings in progress to show off and ask for opinions. So I guess it must be their influence and my mum paints too. My daughters both enjoy various crafts too so I guess we are an arty, crafty, thrifty family..... I love a bargain!

Kx

One of those days .......

Hi again I came back for a second day and want to thank everyone who looked at my blog yesterday and especially to those who left a comment.I spent yesterday wondering if I may be talking to myself so it was lovely to see the number of views and the comments.

So today I am feeling really tired but had a plan of sorts of what I wanted to do whilst remembering to take pictures along the way. After a couple of cups of coffee I got started organising my things when my mum rang to say she and my dad were going to call round to see me. No problem I thought it is always lovely to see them and they don't usually stay long except today when I had ideas buzzing in my head they stayed for over 2 hours.

I did manage to play around with some things I started the other day using Leonie's masks and stamps which I love and have really enjoyed using.

For the backgrounds I used Pinflair Gentle Blends and a blending tool (see pic) both which I discovered before Colour Cloud and smoothies.

I am not a great stamper as I find my hands shake just as I am putting the stamp down and I have recently had surgery on my right shoulder. I found that the stamps did slide on the mask if I wasn't really careful and also using my pink stamping mat helped to reduce the smudge. I used a memento ink pad in Tuxedo Black. Next time I think I will try my new Stampeazee and see if it helps at all although I will have to be careful with positioning.

I have taken pictures twice once after the stamping and then again after I have played around using alcohol pens. I think some look better before the colouring and some maybe better after.

I did have issues where I think I used too much spray adhesive on the masks and left them on too long so the white space looked smudged in some cases and in others the surface of the card tore slightly. (I used Sheena's stamping card).

the green here is far more subtle than it looks here.

I doubt I will ever be a good photographer and the pictures are taken using my phone. I am an absolute novice with alcohol pens despite having a large quantity of them. On the create picture I used 3 shades of green and blended the result is much more subtle than in the picture where it looks alarmingly bright.

I did intend to try and finish the fleather hard drive case today but that will have to wait as I have another cup of coffee calling.

I may get a little more done later before I watch Leonie with her new stamps. I can't wait to see what she has as her first set are absolutely brilliant and a joy to use.

Hopefully I will be back with more tomorrow as I shouldn't get any interruptions. Bye for now......

Kx

Hello

Hi I am not really sure where to start but I guess a little bit about me would help.

I am a mum to 3 children who are all at university and have been married eerrmm 29 years this year (I had to get the calculator working there). I also have 4 cats and all sorts of other animals which belong mainly to my son. My house often reminds me of one of my favourite books when I was growing up - My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell.

I used to be a teacher but unfortunately have M.E (C.F.S.) and fibromyalgia along with various other health issues.

3 years ago I stood up and fell over in our conservatory and broke my hip which resulted in two lots of surgery and a hip replacement. This didn't go well and consequently I am awaiting a replacement of the replacement.

I am hoping to keep this blog lighthearted though so hopefully you haven't stopped reading.

So why the name Karen's Coffee Break? Well I guess I take lots of breaks which usually involve a cup of strong coffee.

I have recently got back into crafting after a long break and was considering calling the Blog Karen's Crafty Corner as I seem to have corners all around the house.

A crafting area set up in what we call the small dining room (no idea why as there isn't room to dine)

The conservatory

The lounge

The next series of pictures are of my craft room which is a constant work in progress and I am forever trying to organise. I am determined to get a lot of it sorted before my next stay in hospital though and labels and organised boxes are appearing as well as some floor being visible. It will be a while until I can step over boxes to get into the room.

So the point of this Blog? Not to bore everyone I hope and to share my craft creations, thoughts and trials and errors. 

Today I have shown in the first 4 pictures some of the things I am doing at the moment. Playing with Leonie Pujol's stamps and masks, decorating plywood magazine boxes (with my youngest daughter), making a fleather case for my eldest daughter's hard drive using Sheena Douglass' technique and a Rowandean embroidery - The Seagulls as well of loads of colouring books and pens and pencils.

I am hoping to get more done with the hard drive case today as well as experimenting possibly with alcohol pens on the masked, stamped images. I have loads of other things going round in my head which include all of the deep embossing crystals I have to play with, a card and tin foil technique with embossing folders and the metallic gilding polish and loads more.............

So hopefully that's the boring stuff over and my next post will be updates on what I am actually doing.

Until then here are some pictures of things I have made recently.

and finally one of each of my cats the tabby is about 7 years old and the other 3 are 2 year old sisters .....

I will post again soon with some work in progress and finished projects soon.

K xx