Sea, Sand & Sun

Before getting down to the business of crafting, a word on commenting. I try and visit the blogs of those entering the Dictionary challenge and those fellow bloggers leaving comments on mine, but if your blog settings restrict commenters to Google + members then I can't do it.
I already have more ID's that I can remember passwords for and I'm not a great user of social media and if your entry is on Facebook, Instagram etc... I won't be able to comment either.

So don't think I'm ignoring you...

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After all the Spring makes, I am allowing myself a burst of summer feeling for the Craft Barn dictionary challenge. They gave the letter S and for a twist we have to include a shell. I thought of seashells and went in full beach mode! All I could think about is the famous song by Serge Gainsbourg with three S, and with the tune firmly ensconced in my brain, I had a vision.... Yes I knew I had the perfect stamps in my stash!

The post title was an obvious choice although I tweaked it a little...

In the foreground, I stamped a shell from the Paper Artsy set HP1111, inked with water based pens. The textured watercolour paper hides a lot of the detail from the stamp but I needed a base that stood up to lots of water.
The letter S is from a cheapo acrylic set.
All the other stamps are from the Rubber Dance Retro Beach set, inked with black Versafine.

I wanted to participate in the Paper Artsy latest challenge, and trying to keep white space was the most challenging part of this make, since I was intent on using my latest toy, namely the Paper Artsy Infusions, here the Violet Storms.
Now these little bottles of powders should come with a warning and a mandatory viewing of this video! Remember that like Brushos, Bistres, Color Bursts etc... those fine powders are VERY fine. They can, and do, go airborne and fly far with a gust of air. And that includes gusts of air created by a spray of water!

To keep it all under control I first masked with masking fluid (drawing gum, liquid frisket) all the stamping, then applied the water and the Infusion on top. Maybe a bit dark for the sea but I needed the contrast for the little boy.

Lots of you have been managing to include several other words with the same letter in your dictionary challenge pages and this is the first time I manage it... but today, with Serendipity on my side I had six! :))
Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Stamploration challenge.

Butterfly Beauty

Warmer weather calls for butterflies doesn't it ! SSS Monday want to see butterflies and they are such a universal theme, for adults and children, men and women, that it's one of the best to use to make cards for the "just in case" stock.

I created a small masterboard, with several layers of paints (Fresco by Paper Artsy) on a textured paper designed for oil pastels. I don't paint much in oil pastels and as this paper stands up well to wet media and the texture is nice it makes sense to re-purpose it!

I stencilled some texture paste, tinted with South Pacific Fresco paint, with a Crafter's Workshop stencil.
At this point I decided the background was too dark and added more paint in lighter shades.
I stamped a script stamp with white paint (Crafty Individuals CI-436) which yielded an imperfect distressed impression.

Finally the focal images were stamped, the butterflies from Crafty Individuals (CI-437)  which come as 2 steps images. I used black dye ink for the outlines and Fresco paints for the insides of the butterflies.

The sentiment is from the Rubber Dance Happy Birthday set, stamped with Versamark and embossed with detail white embossing powder.
Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Penny Black and more,  WOW Embossing powders,  We Love To Create and Tando Creative challenges

Clean and green

Sometimes it's nice to make something CAS with lots of white space. It feels like a holiday, and allows going back to Mixed Media and messy art refreshed and renewed!

Paper Artsy challenged us to use some white space, which doesn't need to be white, just empty, and this is what I did:

I intended to try stamping a background with an acrylic bloc, ink and a spray of water.
After several tries, I came up with a plan B that afforded me much better control: I used the reverse of a rectangular shaped polymer stamp and didn't need the spray of water, the most uncontrollable aspect of the technique!
The focal image and the branches are from the Paper Artsy set (HP1008) and I stamped partially the collage image, selecting only the face.

I don't know how I managed to resist adding anything else !

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering That's Crafty,  Casology, Stamplorations and SSS Wednesday challenges

Spring flowers

For my second Spring inspiration piece for this month theme at Country View Challenges I wanted to use one of the rubber stamp set from Paper Artsy's latest release.

For the base, I used an 8x8 piece of cardboard coated with gesso.

The grass colour has been built with South Pacific, Yellow submarine and Limelight Fresco acrylic paints fading the colour upwards with water. The sky is Lavender Fresco also faded into nothing using water.

The stamping was all done with black dye ink and I used all of the stamps in the EKC02 set, bar the sentiments. I created some rough masks by stamping and cutting the bigger blooms on a scrap piece of paper in order to place them in the foreground.

I added colour with white gel pen and yellow to orange colour pencils.

I really enjoyed building my wild flower field and the EKC02 makes it easy, as the small individuals flowers and smaller stalks are great to fill in between the bigger blooms.

If you're inspired, you can enter your own Spring make in the Country View Challenge
Thanks for coming by,
  Also entering the We Love To Create, SSS Monday and Vintage Journey challenges with my Mixed Media make.

Dotty about flowers

Today I have another flower filled post for you. I am duty bound to enter the Indigo challenge this month to show off my stamps from the Colour me range, as I have been lucky to win a prize !

I did lots of experiments with the stamps and, although I won't show you everything today, I'll reveal that the flowers look really good with Brushos and micas powders as well as stamped with ink. Watercolour was a flop, but then, that's just likely to be my technique rather than the designs!  I haven't tried with embossing powders or... well, still lots to try yet!

Several stamps called for a multi-panel card, which is an excuse to use my Accordion die...


On the cover I used the Lily on glossy cardstock coloured with inks using foam applicators.

















The papers all come from magazines freebies, the polka dot paper is actually pink dots on a yellow background although under British weather it looks grey!


From left to right, the first panel, is the Daisy stamped with dye inks and coloured with pencils.


 
 
The second panel is the Dahlia but it is actually the reverse side, coloured with alcohol markers.

The third panel shows off the detail of the Daisy stamp, with dye inks on glossy cardstock.

The stamps are slightly bigger than shown here as I had to fit the square panels of my accordion pages and cut them down.


 This is what my alcohol markers panel looks like on the front compared to the reverse:
 
I don't know about you but I thought that pink was too aggressive  and when I saw the watercolour effect of the back... I just had to use it!

The clue in the name (Colour me) tells me these flower images would be perfect made into small colouring books for crafty friends!

Thanks for coming by,
  Also entering the Stamping Sensations, SSS Wednesday and Polka Doodle challenges.

Resistance

I'm always attracted to door stamps so when the D letter came up at the Craft Barn dictionary challenge this was a no-brainer...

Prompted by the Paper Artsy and the SSS Monday challenge, I used a resist technique with wax paper to create a wall around my door (I used a Crafty Individuals stamp as my Paper Artsy door was too big for my panel) . I embossed the wax paper with the Tim Holtz Brick wall folder then placed it over the card and, protecting the iron with scrap paper, ironed on the design.

Then it's just a matter of applying Distress inks with blending foam. Easy peasy...

For the "pink" twist I added my letter D in a salmon pink so it didn't jar too much with the earth colours of the picture.

Thanks for coming by,
  Also entering the Artistic Stamper challenge

April in Amsterdam

Stamplorations challenges us to use splatters for this month's Theme & Sketch. I love a good splatter so I couldn't resist.

I was going to print a sentiment on the card front but I chickened out as so many things can go wrong with printers. In the end I have managed to print the sentiment inside, after endless setting changes. My printer doesn't like non standard sizes!


Stamps used:
Paper Artsy HP1601 ,  ESN10
Docrafts: Ticket Stubs 6x6in, chevron from All Aboard Air Mail set 4x4in

I then used Brushos on the background and splattered both the water and the powder. I use a small brush to dip in the Brusho pot and tap on top of the water. The idea of piercing a hole in the lid fills me with dread as this stuff stains like mad!

To get all the buildings on the card I had to extend the stamping over the spine and I thought it looked rather nice.




What do you think?
I suppose I should show you the whole thing flat too!











Thanks for coming by,




Also entering That's Crafty and We Love To Create challenge

All things spring

Time for a new challenge at Vintage Stamping Challenges.

Our theme this month is All things spring and I am showing you a late Easter make using the Animal Landscapes border 01 by Flonzcraft. This set has 8 different borders of which I used 2 for this  simple scene I framed with an old aperture card.


This is what I did, step by step:

I marked lightly where my oval aperture would lay on a piece of white cardstock and stamped my rabbits and poultry in black ink. Note that the rabbits are stamped in a downward curve, a benefit of using polymer stamps as they can be curved.

I had to do this first so I would know where to shade my hills next, using masks and several shades of inks from yellow to green. You can use standard paper to create hill masks, indeed the feathery line of torn paper can be a bonus, but here I used an adhesive release paper. It's very smooth and acts like a silicone mat for the ink.
For the sky area I created a sun mask with a circle die and applied blue ink fading it towards the horizon. I then removed the mask and applied a little bit of yellow on the sun.

I lined up my cardstock behind the aperture and measured where I needed to cut my panel to fit.
Once glued in place I added the sentiment stamped in red ink.

I hope you will join us for this spring theme at Vintage Stamping Challenges, you could win a $20 voucher to spend at Flonzcraft, our lovely sponsor. Your make doesn't need to be Vintage but will need to showcase some stamping (rubber, clear, foam etc...) but NO digis.

Thanks for coming by,
  I am entering the Craft Barn and the SSS Wednesday challenges with my spring make.

Spring in my step

So my dear readers, if you have missed the clues, I'm joining the DT of Country View Challenges, hence the spring in my step, since I am over the moon to join this talented bunch. Well, that and the fact that our challenge theme this month is Spring.

For my first post I made this tag with Brushos (Leaf and Moss green, Yellow and Ultramarine) on a gessoed background:

I stamped both small and large motifs of the Eastern Grasses set (Chocolate Baroque) in varied green inks. I used first and second generation prints to get a sense of depth in my spring morning impression of a field.
The Spring sentiment is from another Chocolate Baroque set stamped in black Versafine.

Hope this inspire you, but there is more inspiration from my new team mates over at CountryView challenge if you need it! So come on and join us with your own artwork, full of the joy of Spring!