Absent Without Leave...

Hi everyone...I had the most fabulous fun weekend catching up with lovely crafty friends but my Furry Companion was not best pleased at being left at home...he's got the sad eyes hang dog "make me feel guilty" look down to a tee and here we go again...he's got his grumpy face on and not happy I'm going to be absent without leave from the cubbyhole for the rest of the week.
I've scheduled a few posts to share some Fiskars projects with you that I've made with the Power Punches...the punches that do what it says on the tin and make light work of punching their way through thick materials...the kind of materials that other punches turn their noses up at...such as aluminium cans, milk cartons, thick plastic packaging, cardboard, chipboard, shrink plastic, thin balsa wood, self adhesive cork and canvas, a double layer of 300 gsm cardstock and are perfect for creating your own stencils from thick material or custom stamps from Funky Foam.

The punches come in 3 sizes...Large...Medium and Small perfect for creating layers and come in the most popular shapes...Circle, Tag, Arrow, Banner, Heart, Flower and Star...the ones that us crafters use on a regular basis.

And rather appropriately today's project is a Travel Journal. I applied Soft Gel Medium to the chipboard covers and covered with layers of wrinkled up tissue paper. Once dry I painted the covers with Black Gesso and applied Decoart Gold Rush Metal Lustre to soften the black for a rusted look and highlight the texture...

I created the background by layering up scraps of paper from Tim Holtz Correspondence Paper Stash Pad and used the Banner and Circle Power Punches with self adhesive cork and acetate to create tickets.  I fixed eyelets and threaded them on to Idea-ology Paper String Solids.  I used the largest pair of Fiskars scissors I could find to carefully open up an aluminium can, flattened it out and covered the back with duck tape...this eliminates the sharp edges when you punch out the shapes. I punched circles using the Large Circle Power Punch...embossed with a Script Embossing Folder and used a Texture Tool on the remaining aluminium before punching out the arrows.

 I used the Arrow Power Punch and Self Adhesive Cork to create the rest of the arrows.

The sentiment was created using Sizzix /Tim Holtz Wordplay Die and Core'dinations Distress Paper Stash and Self Adhesive Cork.

Fiskars very kindly gave me some Power Punches for a give-away so make sure you pop back on Friday to get your name in the hat. I'll be back tomorrow to share more projects...until then...

Toodle-oo for now

Hugs Kath xxx