My Valentine

Hello crafters,

I am kicking the month of February with not one but 2 romantic cards... 

First up a card for the Allsorts challenge, where the fortnightly theme chosen by Gail is Romance/Music. As usual you can also enter with the "Anything Goes" option.

I used the Lavinia stencil (Leaf Trails) with Distress inks, Memory Box dies (Cupid with swing, Pinpoint Heart Circle, Heart Sprinkles) and an envelope die (Docrafts) to contain my heart confettis from the Heart Sprinkles die.
The sentiment is made up of a Crafter's Companion word die and alphabet die (Sizzix Monde de Blonde).

I relished using some of my antique stash in this make, maybe a little too sweet for a man but I doubt it will make a big difference to him!

*************

Hop on to Allsorts for the chance to win stamps and stencils (random selection) from AALL and Create. You can enter up to 5 times and worthy entries will earn a place in the Top 7.  

 

  

Thanks for coming by,
 Craftyfield       I am entering the Simon Says Stamp Monday. 

                                                            Simon Says Stamp Wednesday and Addicted to Stamps  challenges

Fairy Christmas

Hello crafters!
Today my second inspiration make for our Country View Challenge held in the Facebook group is another Christmas card.

I created my own snow globe stencil with the help of a die (Crealies CLCZ08) and applied Elements inks with a smoothie.

With another DIY stencil I sponged white pigment ink to create a hill.

I then stamped the Fairy Fir Tree (LAV478) several times with Versafine ink as well a small tree from the Lavinia Tree scene set (LAV219). 

I added Mia (LAV284) holding a Mini Fairy Lantern (LAV588)

For a finishing touch I splattered some iridescent medium with a brush, more interesting than white for "snow".

2 layers of mats and voila a magical Christmas card! As I write this I am realising that this is quite similar to a tag I made last month here.

To enter the challenge, hop on to our friendly group here and upload your project to the challenge album. a place on Zoe Hillman’s next workshop at the Country View Crafts shop in the new year!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield       I am entering the challenge Stamping Sensations, 

                                                              We Love Stamping and Lost Coast Designs

Autumn has arrived

Hello crafters!

Today I have a first inspiration make for our Country View Challenge held in the Facebook  group. This month the theme is "Autumn Richness" and to celebrate the new season, not that it's my favourite, I chose to make a decor item. 

The base has been recycled from a particularly big wooden packaging, the lightweight kind that comes with some ready made dishes. It was round but I cut it as an Octagon and flattened it (I have worked out that an ordinary steam iron works well for that). 

For the background to the "Autumn" I used the AALL & Create die set Infinarty (#39) and the Lavinia stencil Leaf Trails (ST017) with Distress inks.

I added my title, die-cut with the Sizzix Alpha set 662228 and stamped 2 leaves (stamp from my own collection).

The 3D elements are the fantastic mushrooms moulded with the Stamperia Silicone Mould Woodland Mushrooms (KACMA502) and the fallen leaves a mix of die-cuts and punched leaves from cardstock inked with Distress Oxide inks.   

For now, I have left the knots of the twine as you can see them whilst I mull over how I am going to transform the back into a Winter/Christmas decor piece, but, if possible, I will hide them with metallic leaf brads.

To give you an idea what it looks like in situ in the house: 

To enter the challenge, hop on to our friendly group here and upload your project to the challenge album. You could win the Paper Artsy bundle seen below from the Country View Craft shop.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield     I am entering the  Allsorts, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday

                                                        Stamping Sensations,   We Love Stamping, 

                                                        Simon Says Stamp Monday challenges 

All About the Gold

Hello crafters!
Today I am showing more Stencil Magic inspiration for our Country View Challenge held in the Facebook  group. This time I have used stencils with foils... 

I applied DecoArt Black Gesso as the base for my page. When dry I collaged a printed image (freebie) to this background with DecoArt Decoupage medium.

I then used several stencils (Mini Stencils sets 28,35 and 39 all from Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz with Cosmic shimmer Flake and Glitter Glue. This medium allows foils, metallic flakes or glitter to be applied on top, any time after drying, so there is no need to hurry up. Washing the stencils immediately though is strongly recommended....

I used 2 types of foil, Stix2 foils which work with adhesives and Go Press foils which are designed to work with heat (think Hot Foil Plates) but also work with the glue. I used both types because I wanted to have the 2 shades of gold.

I added colour around the gold stencilled areas and to darken or lighten certain "lost" areas of the image, such as the eyes with pencils, water based pens and gel pen (I tried different medias with varying degree of success).

With the foil reflecting light and surrounding colours getting a picture that gives a good idea of what the page looks like in real life has been difficult so here are 2 other photos in different lighting, the first taken with the sun on the page and the second in artificial light at night, 

In hindsight I should have painted the back of the image behind the woman with white paint or gesso to get the areas to shine through, whereas with the black Gesso she looks a bit too dark and that's without considering her decidedly morose outlook... 
Still, the end result gives a good impression of a centuries old painting, which I'm not unhappy with and I certainly had fun making this project.

To enter the challenge, hop on to our friendly group here and upload your project to the challenge album. You could win the FULL set of newly released Ranger/Tim Holtz® Distress Spritz 😲, yes you hear that right the FULL set... so what are you waiting for!!!

Thanks for coming by,
 Craftyfield   I am entering the Creative Artist, We Love To Create, 

                                                           SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday and Allsorts challenges

Stencil technique with gel medium

Hello crafters!
Today I have a first inspiration make for our Country View Challenge held in the Facebook  group. This month the theme is "Stencil Magic".
With different techniques and mediums, the possibilities are endless...
My tag uses medium with a stencil to preserve a colourful background: 

For the background I used my most colourful Distress Oxide  Inks. 

I then applied gel medium through one of the Tim Holtz Mini stencil set 10 (THMST010).

 

 

When dry I added water splatters, and Distress Oxide spray in Tea dye, wiping the inks off the gel medium. 

The focal image is a Paper Doll accompanied by several Field Notes Snippets, a doily die-cut and a butterfly die-cut from an inking session leftover piece of card. I also gave my lady a bit of tissue tape (old Ideology/Tim Holtz) to stand on, coloured with inks.

I added some liquid glass beads which came out yellow as they picked up the underlying tea dye pigment rather than stay clear...

Not for the faint hearted but instead of a light coloured spray you can use a dark ink instead for maximum contrast.

To enter the challenge, hop on to our friendly group here and upload your project to the challenge album. You could win the FULL set of newly released Ranger/Tim Holtz® Distress Spritz 😲, yes you hear that right the FULL set... so what are you waiting for!!!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield     I am entering the Allsorts and We Love To Create challenges

Make Me Smile

It's the middle of the month but today is my first post for May's Country View Challenge held in the Facebook  group. The theme is "Make Me Smile" and I immediately thought of those Visible Image alcohol based stamp sets.

I first printed the sentiment on my base card to avoid spoiling a finished image... tip: always print a draft on cheap paper first!

I stamped bottle, glass and cork on white card and die-cut the images with the matching die set (99% Chance Of Wine). I coloured the bottle and cork with pencils.

 

I used the stencil Morocco by Daily ART to create a wallpaper impression and applied Distress inks for the table.

Finally I positioned the die-cuts on the based card.

I hope this card makes you smile and inspire you to enter our May challenge, if you do you could win 3 of the new colours of Versafine Clair inkpads, but you will need to join our friendly Facebook group here if you haven't already.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield      I am entering the Allsorts and Stamping Sensations challenges

Love tag

Hello crafters!
Today I have a second piece of inspiration for our Country View Crafts Facebook group for the February challenge, where the theme is "All About Love".

On a gessoed tag, I built the background using Distress Oxides sprays in Walnut Stain and Picked Raspberry, stamping partial areas of Stamperia images from the set Lady by Antonis Tzanidakis (WTKAT09). 

When all of this had dried, I added stencilling with transparent texture paste (Ranger/Tim Holtz) to which I added drops of re-inker (Worn Lipstick, Prize Ribbon and Salvaged Patina). The stencil is Lavinia Leaf Trails ST0017.

I put together a cluster on top of a doily cut with 665587 - Sizzix Thinlits Die - Heart Mandala by Eileen Hull.

I used a Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Paper Doll (TH94235) and some Field notes Snippets (TH94049)

The sentiment is in the form of 2 die-cut words (from the TH /Sizzix Thinlits words 660218 Love) and a Wooden heart from my bag of bits is the final touch.

That's all for this month of inspiration at Country View Craft group ... if you want to be in with a chance to win one of the latest Sizzix/Tim Holtz die sets, you'd better hurry and enter our challenge as it closes at 12 GMT today! 

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenge

Here comes the sun

Late in the season (the one that skipped the UK entirely) I am enjoying the sunshine, and this inspired me to create a bright and cheerful tag with, literally, the flower of the sun!  

I started the background with Distress Oxide sprays and added some stamping with a very old A5 stamp by Docrafts (A5 Background clear stamp "Musicality"). 

I applied gel medium with a stencil from the Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencil Set #28 (MST028) and sprinkled Cosmic Shimmer Artic Red embossing powder over it, The EP is a translucent red but depending on the angle has a gold/green lustre to it. 

And to add a bit more bling I created a glitter border with "proper" glitter which I normally try to avoid as it has a tendency of re-appearing for days on end on any and all surfaces (including the humans in the house). 

My focal point is the sunflower that I built with the Julie Hickey Designs Sunflower Bee stamp and coordinating dies sets, with 2 die-cuts of the stamped image, one of them on foam pads. The centre is also popped up with pads to give more dimension.  

Finally, I added 3 pieces of paper ribbon (Lakeland, must be over 15 years old...). 

The shine shot...

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the SSS Wednesday SSS Monday  Allsorts,

                                                        Stamping Sensations and Lost Coast Designs challenges

A glass half full

Today I have a CAS card from my Gin and wine series made as a gift. 

This one uses the Stamp set Keep Your Gin Up and the wood grain stencil from the mini stencil set 10 by Tim Holtz.

I used masks to layer the stamping and stencil the background and coloured the bottle and lemons with pencils.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Lost Coast Designs and We Love Stamping
                                                       challenges

                  

 

Valentine's card - Together

Happy day! Today is the day of our new Country View Challenge, hosted this month by Jane who has chosen "Be Sentimental" as this month's theme.

Of course we expect to see lots of Valentine's cards but the main thing is to have a sentiment, a phrase or some inspiring words... so quite a lot of options.

For my Valentine card I used quite a few oldies:

First I cut a piece of masking tape the same size as my base card: 6"x6" and stamped the heart (Papermania Sew Lovely - part of a magazine freebie I believe and probably 10 years old...) on it. I then cut it out, keeping both innie (the heart) and outie to use later.

I left the heart stamp on the stamping platform so I was sure to have the stamp in the right place when I came to stamp it on the base card.

I positioned the outie on my base card and stamped a texture through the heart opening, here a Create A Card stamp by Impression Obsession with a canvas texture.

Then I stamped the heart on the base card, phew perfect placement!

I positioned the innie onto the base card to make sure the sentiment I was going to stamp was in the right place and straight... When happy I took the heart mask off and stamped on the base card.

I added a background with a stencil from the Mini Stencil Set THMST010 (Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz) and some Distress inks.
Finally I added some other words as some sort of embellishments, both by Rubber Dance, the quote by Josiah Holland and the "Always" from a very well liked Nostalgic Couples set and the Together from the Beautiful Words set.

This is taking me back to stamping at its best and, if the object of your affection is far away, perfect for posting as it is absolutely flat with no added weight!

Over to you now, have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog and link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop, just make sure you follow ALL the rules (they aren't that many...)

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenge

Grapes

The change in temperature has been brutal and I do feel a twinge of regret thinking about these scorching sunny days of summer, but Autumn is here and with it, harvests and of course Halloween. 

"Halloween or Harvest" is our theme this month at Country View Challenge, hosted this month by Miriam. 

My first make celebrates the grape harvest which will be turned into wine. Soon enough we will be able to drink the new wine, still a bit fizzy and not entirely "adult", popularised by the Beaujolais Nouveau.

To create this page I used a stencil set (French Vine by Crafters' Companion) which turned out to be a mistake... I thought it was 6"x6" but in fact was a large 8"x8",  too big for cards and so it languished untouched in my stash, until now.

The set comprises 3 stencils allowing an increasing level of detail to be applied each time with darker inks. The stencil does all the work except for the addition of coloured pencil around the grapes, 

Over to you now, have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog and link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield    I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenge

The moon, stars and Honeysuckle cottage

My lovely team mate Sue at the  Challenge has chosen Stars as the theme for our June Country View  Challenge. Daunting but such a good idea! Here's my take on this theme: 

The Moon and the Honeysuckle cottage were stamped and masked first, before I created the background sky, hills and grass with brayers and brushes using Distress inks. 

I stamped the path, trees and the Dandelions to finish. I lighten the stones on the path with a brush and water. 

Finally I stencilled the stars, a Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Stencil Set #43, with thick Gesso. 

With hindsight I wonder if the placement is the best. my idea was stars around the cottage as if it was magic (with Lavinia we ARE in a magic world!) but in terms of composition I'm not so sure....

Anyway, it's up to you now, have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog and link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop.

Also... I heard they are some special Jubilee bargains to be had... 

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   

Cats aren't just for Christmas

For my previous inspiration make for the May  Country View Challenge, on the theme of Cats & Dogs, I used a very old set bought in Lakeland when they sold crafts items (I still rue the day they stopped!). But now I was in a quandary... what else could I possibly use for the theme?!
Well... Snarky Christmas cat to the rescue!

The background of the tag is a Gelli printed paper with layers of DecoArt Mixed Media fluid acrylics.

I stencilled some bricks (Tim Holtz Mini Stencil Set #43) on the right with a mixture of Cosmic Shimmer Multi-Tex, glue and Distress Oxide re-inker in Salvaged Patina. On the left I used the Tim Holtz Mini Stencil Set #28.

I stamped and paper pieced the cat from the Snarky Cat Christmas set (CMS416) without its distinctive Christmas hat and the ribbon knot on the box.
The sentiment is from the Snarky Cat Halloween set (CMS407) layered onto some of the AALL & Create Washi Tape #13 - Fasteners, which I also added below right.

And of course the dog from a Paper Dolls pack! Not sure this particular canine is that menacing but, the scene still made me smile...

Over to you now, have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog and link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield    I am entering the Paperbabe, Allsorts ans SSS Monday challenges

Cats at play

Today I have an inspiration make for our new Country View Challenge, hosted by Rachel 

who chose Cats and/or dogs as the theme. 

I was a bit worried about what to do as I don't have pets related stash but I had forgotten

 a very old Lakeland set and decided to give it a bit of love... 

The background is Distressed inks with added stamping (Kaisercraft texture clear stamps: Perfume and Botanical) and stencilling (Imagination Crafts MA-24). 
I stamped all the images in the set in Versafine black ink. 

There is no reference on the Lakeland set but I think I saw the very same images in a set by Artemio, also many moons ago. 
Finally I added my journaling, a reverse pun on the proverb, as I was thinking if the cats did their job and the mice have gone away they have earned some play time! 
And yes, in the name of artistic license, I took liberties with the grammar... ! 

Over to you now, you have plenty of time to make something with Cats and/or Dogs and link up your project to the Country View Challenge blog for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop.

Thanks for coming by,
 Craftyfield     I am entering the Paperbabe and SSS Wednesday challenges

Thursday Throwback - Stencils and powders

Welcome to my second Thursday Throwback posts on the STAMPlorations blog. 
Here are my takes on Shirley's card. 

Card 1 supplies;  Flutter Zen 1 Layering Dies and ARTplorations stencil Senecio 1 

Card 2: same as before: Flutter Zen 1 Layering Dies and ARTplorations stencil Senecio 1 

Card 3: Beyond the Trees – ARTplorations Slimline stencil and For the Birds Dies - CUTplorations. 

Do hop onto the STAMPlorations blog for the full details.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   

Spring Bunny

Welcome to my second inspiration piece for our Country View Challenge on the 

Theme of "Spring is coming! 

I stamped the bunny from the AALL & Create Stamp Set In the Wild (#529) with water based markers and my trusty stamping platform. There is so many stamps in the set I haven't even used all them yet, and I love this slightly grunged up but realistic look of the images. [Yes this is my stamp set of the moment!]

I coloured the flowers and leaves with watercolour but the bunny's colours are just stamping. I should add that some of the details of the image has been lost because of the texture of the paper.

The background is stencilled in Distress inks with one of the stencil from the Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencil set #35.

As was mulling over how to finish and mat my card, I had to use my sewing machine for some repairs and decided I should take the opportunity to sew a border.

The sentiment is stamped on a die-cut tag (Impression Obsession IO Flags Die Set DIE015-F)

You still have 2 weeks to link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop, so hop on over to the Country View Challenge blog for more inspiration and details on how to enter.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield      I am entering the Paperbabe, Stamping Sensations, 

                                                           We love stamping, challenges

Sweet Robin Tag

With a bit of crafting time just for me I made this tag with some of my favourite stamps by Crafty Individuals, the Sweet Robin Redbreast (CI-456) in particular hasn't seen much action lately and so I was eager to give it some air time! 

I built up the background colours with several colours of dye inks sprayed with water: 

I then used Just the ticket border stamp (CI-498) and Inky Script Background (CI-436) to add interest before applying gel medium with the Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencil Set #10 (MST010). 

On top of the gel I spread embossing powder in Midnight Sapphire, a dark Blue EP mixed with fine mica. Below a close-up of the shine:

I stamped the bird (CI-456) on the tag and on a separate piece of card and popped the fussy cut bird on foam pads.

I think a yellow beak or orange breast would have helped the bird stand out more, but I wanted to follow an analogous colour scheme (3 adjacent colours on the colour wheel) so this wasn't an option!  

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield      I am entering the following challenges: Allsorts, River of creativity,                                                             Stamping Sensations , SSS Wednesday and Lost Coast Designs (I                                                                hope my  Sweet robin tag with Stencilled Swirls qualifies...)                                                                            challenges