Chocolate box Christmas

For those of you who came for the chocolate, apologies… I am only talking about to the picture on the box! Today's offering is a Christmas card which I had great fun creating.

I wanted a brightly coloured night sky, a bit "Northern Lights" and used a mix of Brushos and Infusions (Violet storms) to create it, adding shimmer splatters for stars.

I used paper masks and masking fluid to protect the hills and the stamped cottage before applying the powders.

The small trees on the hill are from Lavinia (Tree Scene set) and both Cottage (CI-460 Build a Landscape) and foreground tree (CI-209 Winter Trees) are from Crafty Individuals, stamped in black Memento ink.

I added watercolour in the foreground for snow and acrylic paint for the snow on the trees and roof.

Let me know what you think...
I am entering the Penny Black and more, Polkadoodles, Paperbabe, Craft Stamper TIMI, Unikostudio, Addicted to stamps and SSS Wednesday  challenges.

A crown of leaves

Today I have a second piece to inspire you to enter our STAMPlorations Theme & Photo Prompt challenge.

  You can link any makes, not just cards, as long as you include some stamping and follow either the theme or the photo inspiration (or both for even more of a challenge!)

 

I followed the theme and made a Thanksgiving card.

I inked the leaves stamps from the Trendy Leaves set with the Autumn Leaves  Kaleidacolor inkpad and fussy cut them.
I layered them in a circle on a doily I sprayed with Distress Oxide spray in Blueprint.
I placed the sentiment, a sticker from the Just Thankful clear sticker set,  on a other circle to finish.

I hope you like my card and will play with us in the Theme & Photo Prompt challenge this month. As always, there are prizes to win and you still have 2 weeks to enter...

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And don't forget, whenever  you shop for STAMPlorations products you can get 20% off with my code: STAMPGIRLCRAFTY

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Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Casology and  SSS Wednesday challenges.
   

Mysticism

Already time for my second inspiration post for the Country View Challenge, where the theme, chosen by yours truly, is Hands Stamped.

Today I have a Journal page for you, which is loosely based on Halloween. I know, I know it's already happened but it was still in the future when I was making it. I assemble images relating to Astronomy, dark woods, a full moon, incantations and a black cat in what I hope is a Journal page with a foreboding atmosphere.

As a base for my page is a scrapbook paper which I darkened at the edges with Distress Oxides. I also used some Distress spray in Blueprint at the centre for colour variation.


For the moon I used Gesso and stamped and embossed the moon image from the Paper Artsy set HP1903.

I stamped and embossed in white the other 2 large stamps and the hand written note in black ink on a hand made paper piece pretending to be vellum (the olden times vellum, not our crafter's translucent stuff!)




I partially stamped the tree image, a large square background stamp from Impression Obsession, and the cat (a Craft Stamper magazine freebie) in black ink. I anchored the cat with a dark grey pastel stick.



I created a sort of milky way with white pastel which I brought around the cat for a bit of mystery and into the trees as menacing fog. To finish I added stars with white Gesso (if it looks blue it's because the Gesso picked up the blue dye from the Distress Oxide spray) and some iridescent splatters.

All a bit odd maybe, but I thoroughly enjoyed pulling together these stamps from my stash and all in all I quite like the page!

Over to you now to create something with stamps for our Country View Challenge. I am curious to see the stamps in your stash or failing that your carved vegetables and found objects … you use in your makes to make an impression..

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday, Creative Artist, Craft Stamper TIMI, The Artistic Stamper challenges.

Bird's Nest

Today STAMPlorations are kicking off a new Theme & Photo Prompt challenge!
You can link any makes, not just cards, as long as you include some stamping and follow either the theme or the photo inspiration (or both for even more of a challenge!)

 

I was inspired by one of my favourite ARTplorations stencils, the Retro Circles and used it with both standard gel medium and crackle medium on a vanilla tag to create a background.

I applied colour with Brushos in Moss green and Purple as well as some Rusty Car Infusion (Paper Artsy). The crackled circles trap the crystals and concentrate the colours whilst the standard gel medium creates an effective resist.

My focal point is a bird from the For the Birds stamp set stamped with Blue Versafine Clair on coloured paper. I placed in on a mat with wrapped "wool". Top left,  I added the other die-cut birds from the Matching For the Birds CUTplorations set and bottom right a sentiment from the same stamp set.

Your turn to create something with 3 colours or less and/or following our photo inspiration. There are prizes to be won... a $15 gift certificate to the winner and $10 to the runner up chosen by a DT member as well as a $5 gift certificate each to three randomly drawn players.
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And don't forget, whenever  you shop for STAMPlorations products you can get 20% off with my code: STAMPGIRLCRAFTY

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Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Craft Stamper and SSS Wednesday challenges.

     

Book cover Vintage motifs

This month I have the pleasure and responsibility of choosing the Country View Challenge Theme. My choice will come as no surprise to my faithful readers...

Thinking of all the tools in my craft stash from stencils, dies, paper and moulds, although I love and use them all, my number one crafting items are stamps. Yep, a true stamp-a-holic…

Obviously this led me to choose "Hand Stamped" as the theme!

My inspiration piece is a book cover that went through a make over with the help of paints and stamps.

 

First I gessoed and applied a first coat of Deco Art paint in Buff as a base.

Next, I painted thin layers of paints in Cyan, Quinacridone Violet and Blue Green Light.
I let that dry and stamped Crafty Individuals Baroque Splatter with Violet Archival ink.

Before strengthening the colours I stamped more images, this time with black Archival as I knew some of the starkness of that ink would be softened by subsequent layers of paints. The stamps are from Stampendous, designed by Andy Skinner.

Several washes of paints later.... By now I was happy with the depth of colour but sadly my Baroque motifs were nearly invisible! I stamped again, without putting on too much pressure this time since this will be my last layer.
To finish my stamping, I used Turquoise, Grey and Violet Archival inks, mixing colours direct on the stamp. (Hero Arts/Basic Grey - Luscious Ledger stamp).

And just as I have done you can carry on adding paints and stamps, layers after layers until you reach the look you are after!

A close up for you :




I hope you will join us in stamping this month at Country View Challenges and if you do you could win £20 to spend on... stamps (or any other crafty supplies) that take your fancy!

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