Gingersnaps Debut!

'Home Sweet Home' is my very first DT project for Gingersnap Creations, the theme for which was ‘ginger, copper or rust’. I like those kinds of colours so that was a good start! I seem to be using a lot of corrugated cardboard lately (I use up the many pizza boxes my stash gets delivered in!) as I love the texture it adds. Plus it’s free!

I am going to try to post a short tutorial for everything I create over on the Gingersnaps blog so if you like any of my creations do pop over here for more information. I enjoyed making this, now just have to persuade other half to let me hang it somewhere - he is not exactly into the whole craft thing!

Materials…

ISC Tranquil stamps (bird and branch)
Hero Arts Branch Background
PaperArtsy script mini (MN61)
Memento Ink: Tangelo; Potter’s Clay; Rhubarb Stalk
StazOn Ink: Timber Brown
Cream acrylic paint
Red scrapbook paper (Basic Grey)
Corrugated cardboard
Alphabet letters (Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey)
Bit of sponge
Twine

1 Cut a piece of corrugated card (mine is 7” x 5 ½”), tear off the top sheet to reveal the corrugations but leave some of the paper intact in places. Sponge with cream paint – wipe all the excess paint off the sponge so it is practically dry to get a light coverage which retains some of the colour underneath. When dry, stamp small portions of text around the edge in places to add a bit of extra depth. I use a bit of cheap bath sponge for this; no need to use up your expensive Cut-n-Dry for this type of painting.

2 Ink the background stamp with all three colours of Memento Ink and stamp onto cream card. Trim to size and distress and ink the edges. Stamp the branch on the lower portion. Stick to the corrugated card along with a piece of red paper.

3 Stamp the bird twice onto brown card in brown ink and cut out. Turn one of the birds over to get a mirror image so the birds face each other and ink it up with the brown StazOn so the colour tone matches the first bird. Add to the branch with 1mm foam pads. If I am using a solid stamp and cutting the image out, I always use colour on colour stamping (e.g. brown ink on brown card) – that way if my stamping is a bit ropey it doesn’t show anywhere near as much!

4 Ink up the letters ‘home’ with the brown StazOn and when dry (won’t take long) add them to the composition. Stick letters to spell ‘sweet’ onto a scrap of red paper and add that too.

5 Finally punch two holes and tie string through to allow the plaque to hang. I knotted the string at the front using the knots as a decorative element (a tip I picked up from fellow Gingersnapper Jo Capper-Sandon – thanks Jo!).