Something different

My blog followers will be taken aback with this one...

1) It's cute
2) It's a digital image
3) The background is part of the  base card and not created by me...

When I say I love all styles, I mean it, and though cute isn't my favourite, what can I say... I fell in love with Polka Doodle's Octavia. Here I have used Octavia Moonfly Wistful but watch out for more images popping right on this very blog...

I coloured her with alcohol pens and actually enjoyed myself tinkering away for what seemed an eternity to get the shades just right... I should say that as I don't have a large selection of pens I sometimes have to mix my colours on the nib.

I have cut the image with a Nellie Snellen die and mounted it on foam pads before sticking to my base, a printed card languishing in my stash, another Lakeland buy from moons ago. [In my defence this was a gift, I always thought buying made-up bases was a cop out].

I hope that my cute digital card won't keep you away!
As always, thanks for coming by,
Entering the Graphit Markers, SSS Monday and Polka Doodle challenges

Doodles tag

Paper Artsy challenge this fortnight is Scribbles and Doodles.

I remember doodling when we only had landlines with fixed cords and we had to sit still.... these days I'm just as likely to walk around with the phone or put the caller on speakerphone leaving my hands free for more urgent tasks! But since, I can't say I have doodled much and cannot claim to be proficient.

Still one had to try...

I used a piece of masterboard made with Fresco paints, including the stencilling and stamping and made it into a tag.
I used a Dreamweaver Butterfly stencil to apply a first coat of Gesso before a coat of Yellow submarine mixed with Matte Glaze. When dry I traced the stencil with a black fine line pen.

On to the doodling... inspired by Molly Hollibaugh's video on the challenge post here.

For no other reasons that the left hand corner felt bare I added this stamp (a magazine freebie from ages ago) with Archival ink.

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Wednesday and We Love to Create challenges.

Straight A

This time no twist, the Craft Barn Dictionary challenge is a straight A!

That, I have under control... I own all the stamps (and more) to illustrate my word, which had to be, Art. I purposefully avoided looking at the other entries but I am betting I won't be the only one choosing this word!

I have used papers from my scraps bin to create my collage and stamped in black Versafine, the Mona Lisa  and Art Definition (I only stamped the first 4 lines) from the Da Vinci set by Rubber Dance, the Collage and Art (word) from the Collage set, also by Rubber Dance.
Top is a scrap from a very old  Docraft 8x8 paper pack, bottom is a Kaisercraft paper and right are scraps from Paper Artsy Chatsworth paper with a wash of magenta Inktense.
I added a splat (embossed with white EP) and 2 coffee mug rings from the Messy Art set by The Artistic Stamper.

I didn't even have to print my usual dictionary definition since it's part and parcel of the design!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Artistic Stamper, Stamping Sensations, WOW embossing powders, Craft Barn and Stamplorations challenges.

CAS Magenta Stencil

Today's card is plan B, so much so that it doesn't bear any resemblance to what I tried to make the first time! I would show you but it's so bad I can't face it...

I got inspiration from the Stamplorations CAS challenge and Simon Says Stamps to design my card and although it looks simple and is easy to make it took me a long time coming up with an arrangement I was happy with. I still don't know if it's "right" or not !

I used watercolour card as my base and stencilled what I think looks like Magenta ink (TCW Mini Ledger).
I added a sentiment (Papertrey ink - Delightful Dahlia Additions) embossed with green embossing powder (Olive by WOW Embossing powder).
My embellishment is made up of a Marianne Design flower, die-cut out of felt, and a brad all of it retrieved from the furthest confines of my stash and very nearly forgotten.

And before you leave, can I remind you there is a special Anniversary Blog hop going on at Country View Challenges where a Sizzix Big shot and Die Bundle is up for grabs. Read all the details here you still have a week to enter!
Entering the Allsorts, SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday, WOW Embossing powder and Casology challenges.

Monoprints

Paper Artsy challenged us to do some monoprints this fortnight.

As luck would have it I tried this on the very first warm day of the year and the paint kept drying out on me...  I got these (lacklustre) results:

Not great....




Although I quite liked this one as it reminded me of a sunset scene over London or Venice maybe. A great starting point if I could paint better...






Then there was this one, which may have some potential...


And finally the one I chose for today's project:




The tools I used to make marks were all found in the kitchen.... a cork, a fancy bottle top, and a receptacle that comes with the washing powder.
I added the yellow circles with a Circle stencil (Tando - Random circles) and coloured embossing paste.

To finish the page I added stamps from the Paper Artsy 1601 and journaling stamps from Prima.

I didn't have time to play more but this has certainly given me a taste for monoprints... I am considering getting a Gelli plate or maybe trying that DIY recipe!
Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Wednesday, We Love to Create and SSS Monday challenges

A Dragonfly's Journey

Another fortnight has gone by and it's time for the Craft Barn dictionary challenge. The letter is J with a twist... we need to have a dragonfly somewhere!
J was easy, I could have done Jalopy or Jazz but could I combine those with a dragonfly, nope...

In the end it's the Crafty Individuals challenge that provided me with a reasonable solution. Jean mentioned old favourites and I had decided to use the Crafty Individuals CI-001 stamp, a postmark stamp with a dragonfly, which is their first stamp and part of their logo. 
Postmark = travel, add voyage tags... you get Journey!

I first stamped 2 of the tags from CI-428 It's a man's world with Versarmark and embossed with detailed black EP. I masked them with masking fluid before stamping CI-001 in Versafine black.


I made a feature of the pesky dragonfly with a bit of blue watercolour pencil and some sparkle (Spica pen in clear) and embossed it in clear EP using a brush to apply the embossing ink (I have a refill bottle).

For colours I splashed some water and some Violet Storms and Golden Sands Infusion (Paper Artsy).

Lastly I added the dictionary definition and letter (old cheapo acrylic stamp set) to my page.

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Stamplorations, Fashionable Stamping, Stamping Sensations  and WOW embossing powders challenges

Botanicals

I love this month Rubber Dance's challenge colour scheme, perfect for a Vintage feel and my choice of stamp, one of the images from the Antique Botanicals set designed by Katy Leitch for Rubber Dance.

My make is being shown off on the Rubber Dance blog as I am honoured to be guesting again!

The background is a 6x6 paper from a Melissa Frances pad, which I have distressed with ink and stamped with portions of the text image from the Collage Mix plate.

I colour matched a white doily (well half a doily!) using Distress inks to the blue of the challenge.

Embellishments:
A piece of vellum (Lakeland I believe-yes THAT old!), a piece of muslin, a piece of ribbon, a wood impression button (Trimcrafts Curiosity Corner) and some die-cuts.

I stamped the Camellia and  the small flower with Walnut Distress ink, after eliminating the Versafine in Sepia for lack of oomph. --- I do wish Versafine would come up with a dark brown!---

Anyway... Distress ink is not the best for detailed stamps so I was quite happy with the results, as the impression is still very good despite using Distress.

I used coloured pencils (Derwent) on the Camellia.

I decided I wanted to have some vellum (love the stuff, have loads but hardly use it) and cut a fishtail banner to place underneath my image.

Finally I decided to machine stitch a few elements in place and add a stitched border for extra interest.

I do hope you will like my card and are inspired to join the challenge at Rubber Dance.

Thanks for coming by,
  I am entering my card in the Penny Black and more, Stamping Sensations and Live & Love Crafts challenges

Just add shine!

Today I am back on the Country View Challenges blog for a second Stencil inspiration piece .
Look at the shine on this... lots of mica involved!

My previous creation was made with lots of DIY stencils but for this one I have only used bought ones.

As a test, I made a rubbing with an orange wax crayon to create a resist for the later stages. Orange I hear you say...in my defence this is all that is left after being kid-handled...	Then I used the stencils with sprays	I am mixing brands and the design you see here is technically a mask, not a stencil!

After drying the sprays I moved on to inks, Distress for darks and white pigment for lights.	Lastly, I used a stencil with coloured texture paste. It looks grey when wet but it dries dark grey, very close to black.	For the finishing touch I used Treasure Gold in White Fire, Amethyst and Onyxite on the raised texture.

I added the Finnabair figure (Prima) as a focal image, stamped on mulberry paper, I darkened the borders with a black pencil, added butterflies (Calico Crafts), a piece of muslin and mounted the whole thing on a sturdy piece of cardboard to flatten it.

I do hope I inspired you to dust off these stencils and maybe try a new technique/media with them! Come and show us at Country View Challenges for a chance to win a £ 20 voucher.

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering That's Crafty, Stamplorations and We Love To Create challenge

Layered Stencil

Today we are kicking off the new challenge at Country View Challenges with the theme of Use a Stencil.

Also, alongside our Challenge, we are running a Blog Hop with a Sizzix Big Shot Machine & Die Bundle as the prize. To enter, you must be a Follower of our Challenge Blog and Hop along to each of our Design Team Members Blogs and leave a comment. We will still be running our normal monthly challenge and those who link their Use A Stencil projects will also be entered into our £20 Voucher draw. The Winners will be picked at random in early June.

I am first in the hop
Christine   ------> You are here!
Gabrielle
Jennie
Rachel
Sue
Evelyn
Doreen
Nikki
Monika
Hazel
Brenda
Corrie
Jane

Lots of possibilities with stencils and, for this first project, I wanted to use "flat" techniques with the stencils. [It turns out later that I couldn't resist a bit of dimension..]

You can use stencil as a resist with a variety of mediums that all work in a different manner.
Here I have chosen Gesso and MicroGlaze (now available from Rangers as Distress Glaze).

Gesso gets slightly tinted by the dyes in the sprays whilst the MicroGlaze is totally impervious to wet media... on top. I did get some staining from underneath however, as my tag got wet through!

So it looks distressed... let's call it a happy accident and carry on...

For sprays I used all different brands as I have been buying one bottle every time a new brand comes along in order to find the Holy Grail (the fine spray bottle that doesn't not clog even with micas). If you're wondering,  I do have a promising lead but have to play test some more.

Both of the stencils used for resist have been die-cut with thin dies using junk mail.
The Harlequin is the Tim Holtz Mixed Media 1 and I was lucky to manage cutting this recycled plastic. Generally plastic yields to the pressure of the dies, indenting the material, but not cutting it through.

After the sprays were thoroughly dried, I used stencils with Distress inks. That's when I decided to stencil my London skyline (also recycled junk mail) with texture paste rather than inks. For good measure I then stamped into it before it dried completely.
I won't tell you how long to wait because it depends on so many factors, I haven't worked it out for myself! The trick is to create a test area of the same thickness on a piece of scrap paper to test when it's ready.

I painted the city in black and used Treasure gold in Amethyst (Paper Arty) to pick out the details, then decided to stamp a few things in black ink on the tag itself and a quote on a piece of card.
Quote and compass are Rubber Dance stamps, the cities borders are from Flonzcraft.

In this photo you can see how shiny the micas are, and reflect the light intensely compared to the Treasure gold.

The final touch is an arrow (Tando Creative) which, although made of fairly thick chipboard), can be embossed in a standard embossing folder. After embossing I pressed the arrow into my black dye inkpad and when dry I brushed Tresor gold in Amethyst and White Fire.







I hope you like my tag and that you will try out these, or one of the many stencil techniques available. Come and join the Country View Challenges with your stencilled makes.

Don't forget to leave a comment below before visiting my teammate Gabrielle for your next stop on our hop!

  I am entering the tag in the SSS Wednesday Challenge and Tando Creative challenge.