Banana Frog Blog

POTD - A spooky twist

Hi all, it’s my turn to share a project of the day with you and I cannot believe it’s October already! As we’re coming up to that spooky time of year I thought I would do a spooky twist on this project that I did way back last summer.

 
I’ve only used one stamp set for this project, Fairytale Princess with some coloured card, co-ordinating distress inks, pro-markers and a photocopier!

 
I stamped the castle image onto some white card with black ink and then took the image to a photocopier, enlarging it by 175%. I printed this into some green card 4 times and when I cut the images out made sure I added tabs to the bottom edge of all 4 and to the two sides of two of them so I can join them together as a square.

 
I also printed an enlarged image onto some white paper a couple of times so I had a template for embellishing the castle. I cut out the sections and cut out 4 of the larger arched windows to make green ones to cover the central heart window (not very spooky!) I also picked out some details with pro markers and coloured in the windows (you could of course cut them out)

 
I joined all the sides together and then cut a base out of green card to add to the bottom. Using my paper templates I built up sections on the castle in different coloured cardstock, using distress ink around the edges to add definition and also added them on foam pads to add dimension.

 
And that’s it a cute spooky castle! This would make a great little table decoration filled with Halloween goodies for a grown up party or why not add a handle and give it out to special trick or treaters. Whatever you choose to do I hope you feel inspired to look at your Banana Frog stamps with a new eye, maybe not seeing the obvious, and get creative?

Thanks for hopping by and until soon Happy Crafting

Love MJM x

 

POTD - Tweet and fluffy

Hi all and welcome to my little fluffy corner of the Lillypad for this month. I came across a box of feathers in my studio the other day and apart from wondering why I had them, I also thought what can I do with them and came up with this...

 
 ‘Tweet and fluffy cards’

I used the Hiya chick stamp set with its tadpole sister shake your tail feathers and the It’s all about hearts stamp set alongside my new favourites Letraset flex markers, coloured card, a doodle pen, a crop-a-dile and some black brilliance ink. Oh and some cheap hairspray (all will become clear!)

 
I stamped the bird with a big tail from the tadpole set several times onto some letraset paper and then here’s where the hairspray comes in, when the ink was dry sprayed the images with hairspray, this fixes the ink so it doesn’t run when the images are being coloured in.

 
I coloured in one complete bird image and then just sections for layers on another. Flex markers are brilliant if you haven’t tried them. They are lovely to work with and work well with the other letraset markers, they kind of work like coloured blenders.

 
I cut out a bird and its matching layers and curled these for dimension and then added some feathers behind the tails for some fluffy fun!

 
For the pink square card, I stamped out the large heart from it’s all about hearts onto some red card and some paler pink card. I cut out the pale pink heart losing the scallops and cut the red heart out leaving a border around the scallops. I also cut out the centre of the red heart and kept it to one side for another card. Using the small heart stamp from the Hiya chick set and the sentiment from the tadpole set I filled in the pale pink heart.

 
 
Sticking the pale pink heart to the base of the card I added the red frame on foam pads as well as the bird for dimension.

 
 
I used the red heart I had cut out of the previous frame on the blue card and added a sentiment from Hiya Chick. The pink strip of card is doodled with a scallop and cut out then punched with a crop-a-dile. The pattern on the pink card is created using the cute little flower stamps in the Hiya chick set.

 
 
And lastly the yellow card is matted with a teal and a hand doodled and cut out yellow rectangle of card. The sentiment is from the Hiya chick set as is the branch stamp which I stamped 3 times to build a bigger branch for my bird to sit on.

I like my brightly coloured fluffy birds and think they would make great scrapbook embellishments.... oh and they’d look fab on a home decor frame!

Thanks for stopping by the lillypad, I hope you’re well and happy and I’ll see you soon. Until then Happy Crafting

Love MJM x

POTD - Glue stick embossing!

Hi all and welcome to my corner of the Lilly pad for today. I thought I would share a technique based project with you that you can apply to all manner of projects, it also happens to be one of my old favourite techniques that I’d kind of forgotten about until it popped into my head the other day!

 
Triple embossing with a humble glue stick! I have created a hanging wall plaque to show you an idea for using it but the scope is endless from card toppers to scrapbook quotes, home decor to jewellery.

 
I have used my favourite alphabet set from Banana Frog called Steelfish outline but you could use any of the lovely BF alphabets or patterns! I have worked on some chipboard rectangles as chipboard holds up to the abuse, a glue stick and a selection of cosmic shimmers ultra thick embossing powder, as well as clear embossing powder and some black archival ink.

 
Generously cover a chipboard rectangle with glue stick, make it quite thick and uneven to create the rough embossing effect.

 
Emboss the chipboard, the first 2 or 3 layers I use clear powder to save the nice stuff! You will see the surface has bubbled in places, this is where the glue has heated and the enamel has bubbled, all lending to the rough effect I love about this technique.

 
On the last layer add a few pinches of another colour embossing powder to create some more interest on the piece.

 
I carried on and embossed all 3 panels using different colours.

 
Spelling out the words with the steelfish outline on an acrylic block and inking it with black archival ink I reheated the enamel on a panel and stamped the word, get right over the top when doing this and stamp straight down firmly but not too hard to avoid the stamps slipping in the hot embossing powder.

 

 

 
I carried on and stamped all 3 plaques in the same way and then once they were cool took the glue stick to the edges of the plaques again but this time making sure to apply thick lumps of glue.

 

 
I covered the glue with some gold embossing powder and heated it ....this is my favourite bit! The glue really bubbles and moves around making the embossing powder do the same ... look at that distressed metal edge!

 

To create my hanging I glued the plaques along a length of hessian and hung it with some wired raffia.

So why not dig out that glue stick and some embossing powders and add your own twist of alternative embossing to your next project!

Thanks for hopping by and letting me share my little project with you, hop by soon to be inspired by the other froglets.

I’ll see you here next month, until then Happy Stamping!

Love MJM x

 

POTD - Chalky magic

Hi all and welcome to my little corner of the lily pad today where I’d like to share with you a project re visiting an old favourite technique and some of my all time favourite Banana Frog stamps.

When I started crafting seriously, after giving up life on the road working in theatre, one of the in things was to use chalks in projects. I used to love the different effects not least the way things can magically appear in front of you after stamping with clear ink. The other day I was rooting through some craft boxes and found my box of pastels and thought it would be fun to re visit the magic.

 
I have used the Tropical Garden stamp set (My first ever BF set) Round in Circles (One of my first DT sets and much loved as you will see from the photos!) and the Oh so cute Charming Prince set. I also used some bright coloured cardstock, some clear embossing ink, black archival ink, a box of cheap pastels, pro markers, Distress inks, some bobbly ribbon, paper flowers and some bling.

 
I ripped a mat from some contrasting card to stamp and chalk on and then set up some patterns on some large acrylic blocks using the round in circles stamp set, I stamped all over the yellow mat creating a pattern using the clear embossing ink.

  
Taking some shades of green from the pastel box I scribbled them onto some scrap paper to create some chalk dust ....

 
....And then using a cotton wool ball built up the colours over the stamped pattern watching it magically appear in front of me! I also like the way the chalk dust settles in the ripped fibre of the card around the edges. Tip! If you don’t know already a good way to fix chalk is to use a cheap hairspray, the cheaper the better!

 
I cut a mat for my topper and stamped the small leaf from the tropical garden set onto it blending 2 colours of distress ink onto the stamp before stamping the image. I also added the small sentiment from the Charming prince set in the bottom corner.

 
I stamped froggy from the charming prince set on a scrap of white card and coloured him in with my pro markers...

 
I cut him out and added him to the now distressed topper using foam pads to make him stand out.

 
Some bobbly ribbon, paper flowers and bling finished of my card along with a little doodling and hopefully I will have found out by now my mum loved it (It’s her mother day card! She loves frogs :))

So what oldy but goody technique do you feel inspired to revisit with your Banana Frog stamps? Whatever it is enjoy the re discovery and please do share!!

I hope you’re all well and happy and until soon Happy Stamping!

Love MJM x

Project of the Day - get messy with alcohol inks!

Hi all, what’s the best thing about crafting? Getting messy!! And today I thought we’d get messy with some alcohol inks!

 
Dream

 
The Ingredients

Super dreamy is the Banana Frog stamp set of choice for this project, a selection of alcohol inks, a black archival ink pad, some glossy card, some black card, embossing ink and some white embossing powder and some coloured distress inks.

 
Splatter 3 colours of alcohol ink onto some glossy card. The glossy card allows the alcohol ink to move longer before drying

 
Using a sponge ‘splodge’ (a technical term honestly!!) the alcohol ink into a pattern, mixing the colours up.

 
Drop some blending solution onto the pattern of alcohol ink, I love seeing the ink move and pool when you do this, a different pattern every time!

 
Stop when you’re happy with the pattern, remember less is more sometimes!

 
Using several of the stamps from the Super Dreamy set, stamp a pattern around the patterned glossy card using an archival or permanent black ink, I love the stark contrast of the black against the colours of the alcohol ink.

 
Mixing two colours of distress ink on the flower from the set stamp 3 flowers, mixing the ink adds interest instead of just one flat colour.

 
Cut the flowers out, stamp the title block onto some white card with black ink and blend some colour over it and using the embossing ink and white embossing powder stamp and emboss round the edges of some black card. Mat and layer your piece of glossy card onto some contrasting coloured card.

 
Piece your creation together adding dimension to the title block and flowers with foam pads. I wrote the word dream but you could stamp your word, the tadpole alpha sets would be perfect for this!

I hope you enjoyed getting messy with me! This technique could be applied to all sorts of crafting projects... enjoy! Until soon Happy Stamping!

Love MJM x

 

 

Project of the Day - That is the year that was ...

Hi all and thanks for letting me share my first 2011 project of the day with you! My new year never really gets started until after the panto season (some of you may know I am married to a comedian ... a whole other story!) and winging my way off on my hols (where I am right now Viva Mexico!) That’s the time me and hubby sit back and re assess the past year and look forward to the next. 2010 has been a crazy busy and exciting year for both of us and so I decided to scrap a retrospective page of the main events for me.

 
That is the year that was ...

 
The ingredients

Of course the Fireworks stamp set was the perfect way to get started with my page alongside a whole host of other Banana Frog stamp sets including; It’s all about elegance, Winter Wonderland, Swirls and Butterflies, Sentimental Style, Christmas Elegance, Steelfish outline (lower) and DeLouisville (tadpole) I used a soothing sunset big and juicy ink pad, black soot distress ink pad, smooch spritz in spun sugar, bazzill bling, a pink pencil, some ribbon and a piece of Basic Grey urban prairie paper.

 
I love the multi coloured effect of the big and juicy ink pads and started creating a fiesta of fireworks on my 12 x 12 creating my own patterned paper.

 
I continued to build the pattern up, adding several of the smaller stamps to one acrylic block to create clusters of patterns.

 
Next up was a good Spritz of spun sugar smooch ink. It doesn’t diffuse the ink as much as a spritz of water would but it does push back the boldness of the colours a little as well as adding a mist of sparkle to my firework display! I then distressed the edges of the 12 x 12 with some scissors and black soot distress ink.

 
Then I had a mad 5 minutes and went through all my stamp sets to find title blocks, there are so many different ones in all the sets! I decided I wanted quite a big title block so made my own stamping several of the different froggy ones I had found.

 
I cut out my home made title block and broke it down a little with some of the yellowy coloured ink from the Big and Juicy pad (the white was a bit bright) And then I added a selection of small photos from my year, adding them at different levels using foam pads to add extra dimension.

 
My titling I made using an old favourite method of mine by stamping the letters I needed from the steelfish outline set, cutting them into blocks and distressing the edges of the rectangles, as you can see I also very roughly coloured the letters in with a pink pencil. I love layering these letter tiles and giving them a slightly ‘wonky’ feel. The date comes from the DeLouisville tadpole set.

 
My final touches alongside a little journaling were a bit of ribbon (I am somewhat obsessed by bobbly ribbon at the moment!) and some bling in the centre of some of my fireworks which I think ties everything together as well as giving the layout a lift.

And that’s it my fun retrospective of 2010, I can’t wait to see what 2011 brings! I love using my Banana Frog stamps to create my own bespoke background papers, how about you? Thanks for hopping by, I hope you’re all well and happy and until soon Happy Stamping!

Love MJM x

 

 

Lilypad lesson - Canvas on canvas

Hi there and welcome to class. Today we’re going to look at altering a canvas on a canvas, do an image transfer and create a bespoke piece of home decor. Are we ready? Then we’ll begin, this is what we are creating

 
Me and you

11 years ago this month I was lucky enough to marry my soul mate. I came across this photo while I was looking through our wedding pics and thought it would be perfect to transfer onto a mini canvas I bought recently at the Artisan craft show.  The technique is very simple but effective and is a different way to display those special photos.

 
The ingredients; I used the swirls stamp set (on sale half price right now!) for this project as well as a small canvas about 7’’ x 5’’, an even smaller canvas about 2 ½’’ square. A big and juicy ink pad in waterfall, a clear ink pad, some blue embossing powder, some matt gel medium, a piece of overhead projector transparency to print on and some ribbons, gems and flowers for decoration.

 
Using some cut and dry build up your ink on the canvas, do it the same way as you would on paper baring in mind it stays a bit wetter sitting on the canvas. Using the waterfall ink pad gives lots of shades of blue to build up into a pattern. Dry the canvas with a heat gun once you’re happy with the pattern to fix the ink.

 
Pack the back of the canvas with some cardboard to create a solid unit to stamp onto

 
Using the large swirls stamp a pattern around the canvas using the different colour blues from the big and juicy pad. Again the ink will sit on the canvas so be careful with smudging and heat set as soon as you are happy, leave to one side to dry thoroughly and note that the images will fade slightly as they dry.

 
Size your photo to fit the mini canvas and print it on to a piece of transparency, the kind that is used for overhead projectors, you can get it in good stationary supply stores. Pack the back of the mini canvas as you did the main one to add a solid base to work on.

 
Cut it to size and apply a generous layer of gel medium (the stuff used to thin acrylic paint without diluting it, use a matte one) to the mini canvas, NB apply to the canvas and NOT the image!!! Lay the transparency onto the canvas straight away, print side down and rub the image onto the canvas, use your thumbnail or the back of a spoon. Keep rubbing until the image ‘melts’ off the transparency onto the canvas then peel away the transparency. Similar to using a rub on but a little more patience is required

 
The distressed look is part and parcel of the technique. Ink any exposed canvas including the sides.

 
Go back to the main canvas and this time use a clear ink pad to stamp the swirls and emboss them, building up the pattern on your canvas.

 
Attach the mini canvas to the main canvas with some strong glue, I used gel glue and then add ribbons, gems and flowers as you want.

 
I love my little canvas with all it’s dimension and swirled patterns, I hope you feel inspired to have a go yourself, I also hope you’ve enjoyed class for this session and thanks for stopping by, hop by soon as there is inspiration to be had in abundance from the other froglets and I’ll see you soon, until then Happy Stamping

Love MJM x

Stamping your scrapbook titles: Heat Embossing

In the second video of our Stamped Titles for Scrapbook Pages series, we cover basic heat embossing step by step.  This project features the Dominique Large letter set from Banana Frog, and if you like this font the smaller size is currently on sale for a crazily good price too, so get it while you can!

 

 

Have you heat embossed a title or an accent using your Banana Frog stamps?  Share a link in the comments so we can see what you've been making!

Come back soon for another video in this series as we branch out with the techniques!

Love and glitter,
Shimelle

PS: For those of you who have clicked over from the giveaway, the phrase you're looking for is the name of this set of stamps.

Project of the Day - Going Large!

Hi all, time for another project of the day from me and I had so much fun creating this! I think you will too and it’s a perfect summer holiday project to do with the kiddy winks! So how do you go large with Banana Frog stamps? Like this ….

 

 

A froggy fairytale

 

The ingredients

For this project you will need lots of froggie goodness in the form of the fairytale princess stamp set, the charming prince set, build a daisy and make a chain. You will also need some heavy weight white card, permanent black ink, a selection of pro markers, brilliance inks, stickles and the secret ingredient … a photo copier!

 

 

Stamp the lovely castle image onto some white card using a black ink and then put the image into a photo copier enlarging it 250% so it fills the width of an A4 piece of card. You will need 4 copies to make all the walls for your castle. Then cut off just the roofs and turret décor pieces and photocopy 4 sets of these at 250% again (see pic lower down)

 

 

While you have the ink pad out stamp the princess and prince, frog, coach and all the accessories onto some white card using a permanent black ink.

 

 

Now you can return to your childhood and sit and do some colouring in with your pro markers.

 

 

Before you cut out the castle walls, on two of the images mark a tab 0.5cm wide on each side of the wall from the bottom of the turrets to the base of the wall as you can just see in the picture, these tabs will fold over and be the bits you stick to the other 2 walls to create the castle square. The other job you need to do at this point is stamp some vines climbing the castle walls. I used the stem and leaves from build a daisy and the tiny flower in make a chain to do this. As the stamps are acrylic you can bend the stem into different positions to create your vines and I used brilliance pearlescent inks for a little added sparkle.

 

 

This is where the sets of roofs and turret décor come in, colour them the same as your castle details and add a little magic to them with some stickles.

 

 

Cut out all your walls (remember the tabs on either side of 2 walls) and characters with their accessories and assemble the castle as I said by gluing the tabs to the walls to create a square. Stick the roofs and details onto the turrets with some small foam pads for extra dimension.

 

 

Create some little stands for the characters and the coach by cutting small triangles from white card and sticking to the back of the pieces. Tip! Stick the stand a little way up from the base so the piece leans back slightly (if the stand is level with the base it will stand too straight and fall over)

 

 

To play dress up with your characters put a tiny piece of white tack on the back of the accessories and swap and change to your hearts content!

 

 

And that’s it, your very own froggie fairytale! A little bit of fun and proof that the only limit to your Banana Frog stamping is your own imagination. I hope you’ve enjoyed my little project and feel inspired to create your own, please share if you do!

 

Thanks for hopping by and I’ll see you soon, until then Happy Stamping

Love

M x

Project of the Day: Vintage Chic(k)

Well here I am back again to ease you into some Sunday morning creativity...

And as it's the day of rest, the card for this project is quite simple yet looks like you have gone to some effort for the recipient. ;o) 

There are no step-by-step instructions required here, but I will share some recent discoveries (enabling alert) that I feel are a bit of a must-have companion to your Banana Frog stamps, plus some other tips for getting the look of this card.

If you've not spotted them yet, the stamps I've used are from Hiya Chick! and Sentimental Style - very versatile sets that are both awesome for a contemporary or vintage look.

So, tip one: If like me you love the look of vintage-ness, but are not confident using really vintage or grungy papers... you need to get yourself some of October Afternoon's Thrift Shop line. It has lovely bold yet subtle colours, but in very friendly patterns. You can either rock the vintage look with your Banana Frog stamps, or go all modern.

Tip two: Grey is the new black... well, sort of. The ink I have used for the birdcage is a grey dye ink pad from Memento (London Fog). It actually has an almost silvery look to it on this card, but it's fantastic for providing a bit of variation in your stamped image and is less harsh than good old black ink.

Tip three: You need Rock Candy Stickles. Oh yes. Never mind the fact you can never have too many Stickles... For vintage sparkle and an oh-so-subtle accent to the birdcage stamp Rock Candy totally did the job!

Tip four: Journaling cards and stickers are your friend. They really are the easy way to frame your stamped images and greetings. No measuring or cutting necessary!

Tip five: Make decorative borders interesting. If you have a border punch, see how you can mix it up a little and thread through some twine or ribbon.

Tip six: Add some depth. Just by trimming the front of the card a half inch or so before using the border punch, it makes the decorative border stand out even more.

Tip seven: Masking - it will save you a lot of frustration! To get the bird in the cage without the stamped image going beyond the edges, I first stamped the birdcage on my card. Then I created a mask by stamping again on some scrap paper and cutting out this bird cage. Finally I positioned the mask over my card and stamped the bird in black where I wanted it to appear.

Tip eight: Use left-over scraps to decorate the inside of your card to tie your entire look together.

So there you have it, one very simple yet effective card. 

Happy Sunday!