Exquisite Halloween

Hello crafters, today I have a bit of inspiration for our Country View Challenge over on Facebook on the theme of Autumn Magic. This time I went "Halloween", mainly because I used stamps Tim Holtz included in his Halloween release although the botanical, script and advert could be used for any occasion! 

I prepared the background with Cloud 9 Cobble Stones ink (Lisa Horton), it's a "blending ink" and yes,  it does blend well in the same way as Distress inks. 

I used all 3 stamps in the Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz CMS453 set. The large floral I inked with Scattered straw and Walnut Stain Distress Oxides for a wilted look.

I added Ideology label stickers, Paper dolls and a spray of "blood" with an old Unity stamp.
I mounted the scene on a piece of black Core'dination cardstock (Black Magic), which I embossed with a goo design (another antique find from my stash - Pop Culture by Cuttlebug) and sanded. 

If you want to enter the Country View Challenge for a chance to win a stamp set from Tim Holtz's latest release and haven't joined our Facebook group yet, hop on over and click on "Join Group", answer a few questions and upload your project(s) in the album. But be quick as there are only 5 days left to enter...

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday challenges

                                                         and Lost Coast Designs

Oak leaves and mushrooms

Hello crafters, today I have a bit of inspiration for our Country View Challenge over on Facebook on the theme of Autumn Magic.  

Before that a word to my email subscribers:

Yesterday you received an email from me with the two blog posts that were published last week. This is a case of technology gone rogue or rather my failure to understand how migrating to the new system worked...  It should all be fine from now on and today's post should not appear more than once...

The scene has been built with the following Lavinia stamps and a mix of dye inks and Versafine: 
- LAV431 Moon 
- LAV 564 Mini Forest Mushroom 
- LAV 760 Oak Leaf Flourish 

- Tree Scene 

Hills were created with paper masks, and I used a paper from an old pad and a piece of Kraft cardstock to mat the image. 
The final flourishes come in the shape of leaf brads, which I have had in my stash for decades, having bought them when they were all the rage... but aren't they perfect here?! 

So, if you haven't joined our Facebook group yet, hop on over and click on "Join Group", answer a few questions and upload your project(s) in the album. The DT shows off new makes every few days to inspire you... 

On another note... you may have noticed I have changed my profile picture, the vision in pink of a Sarah Kay girlie to which I hung on way too long, for a more representative image of my style, combining both my love of CAS and Vintage.

 
Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Stamping Sensations, and Allsorts  challenges

Meerkats Antics

Twice in a weekend! Is that a burst of creativity? No, not really, just a catch-up exercise. 2 weeks ago, I showed again my Meerkats Got Talent page on Facebook and they are so funny I wanted to give them a new platform after their disappointment at the singing contest. Today they are just having fun with fallen leaves:

I used a N0 10 MDF tag (That's Crafty) and applied acrylic paints with a painting knife. I bypassed the Gesso step and the result isn't any worse for it, in fact it is one the easiest and quickest landscape I have ever painted!

I stamped a few of the meerkats in various colours of Distress Oxide inks and coloured them with pencils. Then, I had to fussy cut them.... my most hated crafting job, but it had to be done!

The leaves have been die-cut and punched from a piece of Kraft colour paper to which I applied Distress Oxide inks in Fired Brick, Twisted Citron, Scattered Straw and Walnut Stain. And since the Oxides have a tendency to lighten after a while, I enhanced them with some Distress dye inks as well. 

Finally I spattered a bit of Walnut Stain Distress spray.

I layered leaves and meerkats on different levels with foam pads to give the impression they are wading through a stack of fallen leaves.

The little guys still make me smile and I hope they will do the same for you!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield           I am entering the Allsorts, Stamping Sensations
                                                                 and Creative Artist challenges

Frosty Christmas tree

It's been a while since I have made a Christmas card, but the time
is coming up quickly so better be prepared!

I used a spellbinders Nestabilitie die to make a stencil and inked the shape created with Distress inks, for a cold winter day sky effect. Then, I traced around the shape with a gold gel pen for an unobtrusive frame.

The tree, a Crafty Individual stamp (CI-462 "Large Christmas Tree") has been stamped with dark green dye ink.

The sentiment is die-cut out of an alcohol ink scrap (with rose gold metallic) and I added "frost" to the tree and on the snow with Stamperia Glamour - Sparkles in Sparkling White. This is both for texture and shine but is a bit difficult to see in the photos, I tried to capture the shine in this next one:

I matted the focal image on a pearlescent vellum card before adhering the whole to my card base.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Allsorts and SSS Wednesday challenge 

Autumn News

Well... the time has come... along with the falling leaves, shorter days and cold weather,  yes the first of October is the day we kick off the new challenge at Country View Crafts. 

You can read the announcement on the blog but the headline is this: the challenge will be run on the new Country View Crafts Facebook group. Once logged on to Facebook, joining the group is easy, just click on this link, then the "Join Group" button and reply to the questions to prove you are real crafters. 

All the details for entering the challenge, theme, rules etc.. will be available in the group as well.  

Will I be blogging my CVC DT makes you ask? For now, I intend to carry on publishing here because, if nothing else, it's a record for myself of all that I have done in one place and makes it easy to search effectively through my 1000 of posts or so! 

Thanks for coming by, 

 Craftyfield