Botanical

Just enough time to squeeze in another pearlescent make in the Paper Artsy challenge, still inspired by Alison/Craftytrog (you can read her post : here), this one with a more Vintage look.

I used Paper Artsy ELB33 for the background motifs and the central flower is by Rubber Dance from the Antique Botanicals set.
I had to emboss with clear EP all of the stamping, as I found out that the ink I used just wouldn't dry on the pearlescent glaze!

Difficult to capture the shine, especially in artificial light (and with a phone camera instead of my trusty traditional camera) but here goes, the "Shine" shot:

As my followers are probably sick of the sight of my posts, I promise no more posts until the 1st of November...






Also entering the That's Crafty and SSS Wednesday challenges.

Black & White

I did warn you there'd  be more posts this weekend...

Still working with Alison/Craftytrog techniques for the Paper Artsy challenge (her post : here), I tried a different version in a monochrome colour scheme for a manly feel:

The stamps I used are from the HP1008 set and a crakle motif (Crafty Individuals) to supplement the feeble crackles I got from the paint.

And of course, tilt the board to the light and hey presto, pearlescence...












Have a great Sunday!


Also entering the SSS Monday, Fashionable Stamping ans SSS Wednesday challenges.

Flower and leaves

This could be one of many posts... Don't feel guilty for not commenting on all posts coming up this weekend, as I know you're all very busy!

I have been inspired by Alison/Craftytrog who made an inspiration piece for the Paper Artsy challenge. You can find all the details here.

 

 

I followed Alison technique quite closely so I won't bore you with the details, I 'll just mention the stamps I used, a flower from the HP1111 and the leaves from ELB33.

 

And since the challenge theme is pearlescent, I should try and show you a bit  of that shine, which doesn't come out very well under artificial lighting.

See you soon,
Also entering the That's Crafty and SSS Wednesday challenges .

Iconic

The wooden hinged diptychs remind me of Byzantine icons and this is the inspiration for my Craft Barn DT post today.

The past, and present face each other on the inside:

I used several techniques to give an aged look to my diptych and you can read all the details on the Craft Barn blog.

Supplies:
Hinged wooden icon
Gesso
Paper Artsy stamps from LCP02 and HP1008
Brilliance ink in Graphite Black
DecoArt and Paper Artsy Fresco paints
Mini layering stencils TH010
Gilding wax
Crackle medium

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday, Creative Artiste challenges.

Fauxdori inserts

Today on the Craft Barn blog I'm showing how to create some inserts for your Midori (Fauxdori). I did a step by step for the cover last month which you can see here.

Some pics to whet your appetite:

Come and find out on the Craft Barn blog how I did these and other inserts, plus a lot more pics...
Warning you might need to get a cup of your favourit beverage at hand, this is a long post!

Thanks for coming by,
I am showing my make to the Mini Album Makers, as it completes last month's album, which did make the Top 5 BTW...

Flowers along the path

It's time to show you a second inspiration piece for the Stamplorations Theme and Sketch challenge. If you missed my first post you can find it here.

This month's theme and sketch are:
 

Today I made a card following the theme only and chose blue and violet as my colours.

First I die-cut a length of masking tape with the Stitched Snow Hills - CUTplorations and applied it on the whole card. I created a gradated path from blue to violet with Distress inks.

I stamped flowers from Dee's Artsy Impressions - Smile set, with the masking tape still in place, for my background motifs.

In the foreground, I stamped the calla lily from the same set with black ink after removing the tape. To colour I first retrieved the white of the card with bleach, then used coloured pencils.

The sentiment stamped in black ink from the same stamp set completes the card.

Let's have a look at the whole card front and back:

Hop on over to the Stamplorations blog for more inspirational makes from the DT. You still have 10 days to enter the challenge and you don't need Stamplorations products to enter.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Addicted to stamps, Penny Black and more challenges.

    

Fire and Ice

Paper Artsy is having a Glitter fortnight and I have been inspired by Nikki and the fab technique she used on her project and was running out of time to enter the challenge....

I used a double sided adhesive sheet and placed some die-cuts on one side (Diesire - Delicate Swirls Overlay Die) before applying gilding flakes (IndigoBlu Winter Dawn).

On the other side I placed a pine branch die-cut (Impression Obsession Pine Branch), which I had already embellished with embossing powders (White, Aged Aqua - Stampendous, Wow Seaglass).

Tipped half a bottle of fine glitter over it (Art Institute)... Added a sentiment die-cut from black cardstock - I'd planned to emboss it with gold glitter but I felt I had reached the point of TOO MUCH glitter already!

And unusually for me no stamping...

The shining effect is incredible, although in my case, as the glitter is blue, it does interfere with the lovely warm colours of the gilding flakes. A close up and like Nikki I am attempting video:

I would recommend the technique, despite the glitter mess and bits of flakes flying around, well worth it in the end!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Addicted to stamps challenge.

Gift for the girls

There is nothing like a hand made gift for the girl that has everything... something with a personal touch and absolutely unique, is the answer for those times when nothing fits the bill.

With a fast approaching Christmas, I constructed and decorated this box from Art-C for a girlfriend to keep her jewellery in, well some of it anyway...

It's an easy project and, having chosen to cover the box entirely with paper, a fairly quick one to make too!

Supplies:
Art-C Masonite Shelf with Drawers kit
Imagination Crafts Rice paper
Scrap of recycled metal die-cut (Spellbinders - Persian accents)
Kaiserkraft stamp
Imagination Crafts: Starlights in Dark Orchid
DecoArt Metallic Lustre Wax Finish - Champagne Ice
Gesso
DecoArt Matte medium
DecoArt Ultra matte varnish

Do come over to the Craft Barn blog for the full step by step.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Monday, Inky Chicks, Creative Artist and Craft Stamper TIMI  challenges.

A prickly post

Welcome to my second inspiration post for the Country View challenge! The theme is Mixed Media with Autumn colours, chosen by the lovely Rachel.

I hadn't intended this to turn out quite as Mixed Media as it did in the end... a lesson in what NOT to do!!!

The Mixed Media element is the wooden background which started with 2 colours of acrylic paint, scraped on kraft card.

I then applied Grungepaste through a Tim Holtz layered mini stencil (no 10) and sprinkled some powders, scraping over the paste with a palette knife.

Unfortunately there was a lot of white showing from the grungepaste so I decided to add more powders and sprayed water to give an overall wash. Hmm, I overdid it and the piece got really dark...

From then on I threw lots of things at it in the hope of recovery: sanding block, Treasure gold, acrylic paints till I got a reasonable result! In my panic I didn't think to take pictures of my efforts.

The focal image, an irresistible Zentangle hedgehog from Rubber Dance, didn't give me as many problems, although I did choose time consuming techniques to create this image where, unusually for Zentangle, there is no black to be seen...
I made extensive use of my stamping platform to stamp each colour individually, applying in turn waterbased markers to flowers, leaves, bark etc...

I did the colouring with pencils, without the addition of solvents or burnishing pencils.

Some die-cut leaves and a sentiment (Beautiful words by Rubber Dance ) finish off the make.

Thanks for dropping by and having a look, now it's over to you... if you enter our Country View challenge you could win a £20 voucher to spend on some new stash...  I'm looking forward to see what you will make!
I am entering the Creative Artist Mixed Media, Lost Coast Designs, We Love To Create, Rubbernecker, That's Crafty, Rubber Dance Forever, Stamping Sensations, Penny Black and more, SSS Monday and Vintage Journey challenges.

Autumn days

The Stamplorations Theme and Sketch challenge is back and to my delight I have been invited for a further 3 months as a Guest designer!

This month's theme and sketch are:

For my first inspiration piece, I used both (entries in the challenge are only required to follow either the Sketch or the Theme) and made this CAS card:

For some reason I was intent on using vellum, so I stamped the leaves from the Trendy Leaves set with a Kaleidacolor inkpad (Autumn Leaves ) and used a piece of blue vellum to matt my focal image, the Better than Autumn stamp . This was also stamped with a Kaleidacolor inkpad,  Blue Breeze this time.

I coloured the image with pencils and added the sentiment from the Better than Autumn set.

Now, I'll share with you my experience with Distress Oxides on this project, the inks I had originally planned to use.
I had stamped the leaves using Distress Oxides onto the blue vellum, thinking that the inks would be opaque and the blue would only show in the script and other details of the stamps. As far as opacity went, yes, the D.O  delivered... BUT... within minutes of drying all I could see was the whitish layer of pigment ink, and none of the bright Fossilized Amber and Fired Brick dyes! I'm guessing this is something to do with the absorbency, or rather lack of, of the vellum. Do share your experiences in the comment, I'd love to understand more.

Digression over, do come by the Stamplorations blog for more inspirational makes from the DT and do enter the challenge! Remember that you don't need Stamplorations products to enter and there are prizes to be won...

I'll be back on the 20th of October for a second inspiration post.

Keep on crafting,
I am entering the Craft Stamper TIMI, Uniko Studio, Infiniment Scrap, and Addicted to Stamps challenges.
   

Autum leaves, the metallic version

Today is the first of the month so if you've come for my DT inspiration post for Country View Challenges, you'll find it here.

Paper Artsy are having a Metallic challenge this fortnight and I was inspired by Alison Bomber Vintage take on the shiny stuff.
I let my make be a bit more colourful and of course I used different stamps, but otherwise I followed Alison's steps.


For the background I have used the leaves and 3 dots from the ELB33 set; the leaves with inks in autumn shades and the dots with Versamark embossed with Stampendous embossing powders (I mixed them up directly on the stamped image).

The focal image is from the ID02 stamped in sepia and aged with Distress inks.
The sentiment from the ELB33 set has been treated the same way.

The leaves have been die-cut (Marianne die) and embossed using several layers of gold and copper powders.  I have used a sticky dot to keep them in place. To hide any of the sticky dot remaining on show, I applied a snippet of gilding flake.

A bit of thread finishes the page.

A few shine shots:



I love the shine of the white fire paint on kraft and white, a real find from Alison!

Before I take my leave, an announcement:  I am happy to report I have been invited back as a guest designer for the Stamplorations Theme & Sketch challenge which is returning from the summer break on October 7th. You can see all the details of the new (and old) Stamplorations team here.

Have a great (crafty) weekend,
Also entering the SSS Monday, That's Crafty, SSS Wednesday, and We love to create, Stamping Sensations and WOW Embossing powder challenges.

Mixed Media with Autumn colours

Autumn is here with all its fiery colours... which provides this month's Country View Challenge inspiration for the theme chosen by the lovely Rachel, Mixed Media with Autumn colours.

License to play then...

First I cut a tag from a piece of corrugated cardboard saved from my recycling bin and tore some of the upper layers. I applied some Gesso and stencilled (Layering stencil by Tim Holtz-MTHS028) some grunge paste. I added clear crackle in places.

Whilst this was drying, I die-cut some leaves from a sheet of fun foam and painted them with DecoArt Mixed Media acrylic colours.




I also created a frame by stacking 4 die-cuts and painting them in red, brown and gold.
The image I want to frame is a charming Rubber Dance Vintage lady (Resting Woman) which I stamped with Distress Oxide inks.
Interestingly, more "oxydation" happened after the stamping without the addition of water on top of the image. Maybe the moisture from the glue underneath?

With the pastes dry, time to get some colours on the tag, with my favourite Prima Bloom sprays. I added a few specks of walnut dye (this is the Bistre container in the photo).

These don't dissolve too quickly and I obtained concentrated colour, a bit like splatters.







When dry I applied Treasure Gold Onyxite in places, as well as on the frame I had painted earlier.

I added a snippet of black metal (also saved from the bin) die-cut with a Mixed Media Thinlit in a corner.

I assembled my frame, leaves and a ribbon and stuck everything with gel medium. A applied a few dew drops with DecoArt Transparent Liquid Glass on the leaves.

A closer look at the textures and the shimmer from the sprays...

That's it for today, I hope this has inspired you to create a Mixed Media project of your own and to enter our Country View Challenge here, where you will also find plenty of ideas from my teamies!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Vintage Journey, We Love To Create, Uniko Studio, SSS Monday, Addicted to stamps, Stamping Sensations, SSS Wednesday and the Rubber Dance forever challenges.