Love & Romance

February arrives and it's all about Valentine's day! I didn't want to make anything "twee" though since I am likely to give it to a man! So I took inspiration from the Vintage Journey challenge to attempt to make something in Tim Holtz style. But how do you define his style? Well I am not an expert...
I settled on the following criteria: TH and tags are forever linked so it had to be tag, distress inks had to be used, stamping, and of course the TH Lovestruck die. The Cupid was too big for my tag so I used only the heart and arrow.

I wanted to play with water too so I got some paint to drip down my tag, this washed away some of the distress inks, never mind, I liked it this way.
I gave my heart some crackle, as TH is fond of crackle, added metal in the form of foil where Tim would of course add some of the ideology stuff.

Stuck on my tag are remnants from other projects, it was either that or the bin :
2 pieces of stamped tissue paper (Paper Artsy stamp), plasterboard tape, the 2 hearts piece of a border die cut, scrap of textured paper. This will give you an idea of how much I actually keep!

Something was missing in my background so I added some stamping using a stamp from the Stitch and Frame set, part of the pile of stamps I recently won at the Rubber Dance Challenge.

Hope you'll like my TH inspired piece,


Other challenges: Country View Crafts, Pan Pastel UK, Wedodoobadoo

Spring colours

Welcome to the new challenge at Vintage Stamping Challenges where this month's theme is Spring Colours.

I saw this set of Grass and Meadow Borders and immediately thought about a wild spring meadow. Of course the borders will look great silhouetted in black against any coloured background but I wanted to try them in colours, building several layers to make a meadow.

I used watercolour paper and painted the sky in blue watercolour. I then roughly masked the area for the flowers which I sprinkled with water and Brushos. I then stamped my borders (3 stamps) layers, inking with inkpads but mostly with pens in a variety of colours.

I cropped the meadow in a long rectangle and matted it over a flag banner, mounting it on a lavender card base. I then simply added a sentiment embossed in white.

Love the details of the stamps coming through, see those tiny butterflies?
If you like the technique but don't own any Brushos, the same effect can be achieved by scraping watercolour pencils or crayons on a wet background with a sharp craft knife (sparingly).

Why not join us and create something full of the joy of spring! As always, you don't have to create a vintage project, but you DO have to include stamping though - no digis allowed. Our lucky winner will receive a fab prize of a $20 voucher from Flonzcraft so don't miss out on your chance to win!
Go on and hop on over to the Vintage Stamping Challenges blog and see all the DT’s work for more inspiration.

I am entering my meadow in the Stamping Sensations challenge.

Shiny Things Inspired by Pam Thorburn

You may recall this book cover (image right) which  I decided to complete using the same colour scheme but with shine!
I took inspiration from Pam Thorburn's project that you can see here with her step by step and Finnabair Sparkle and Shine blog hop.

My base textures were sequin waste, drywall tape (joint tape/scrim), Memory box Tessatina die-cuts, X-Cut Corner die-cut (from the Trim Borders set) and a piece of lace. Sadly this last piece doesn't work particularly well.
I also used the letters to form the word "Dies" since this is what my book will contains. Sounds ominous, but I couldn't think of another relevant word under 5 letters!

I applied my metallic tape with pieces roughly cut to the sizes of the different textured areas in a bid to make the joints look as natural as possible. A slow progress and delicate touch is required at this stage, the tape is thin and can tear (translation: it did tear!)

After painting with Frescos and removing the colour from the highpoints I added Gloss medium in the recesses, here and there, to adhere fine glitter for more shine...

To finish I used a stamp from Paper Artsy Hot Pick 1204 and made embellishments with Tim Holtz Hardware Findings die, painted, crackled and silver foiled in places.

And if you wondered... yes I haven't finished the spine! I plan to use fabric for that so I don't have to deal with any cracking.

Thanks for coming by,

Inspired By Keren Baker

For the second topic of the year Paper Artsy has chosen metal. Another exciting theme for me since I love working with metal.

Keren chose plumber's tape and since I have a large roll, I had to try her ideas... or at least one of them! It will be obvious from the photo that I stuck to Keren's design very closely and only substituted the focal stamp by one from Hot Pick 1206 and added a key/feather motif from a Ten Seconds Studio mold.

I found the embossing quite hard to do since, from the back, I couldn't see very well where to emboss as I had left the paper liner (my tape is adhesive). Alternatively a piece of aluminium (those ready meals in foil dishes for instance) would do the job adequately.

I didn't find a good way to take the photograph of the shiny metal either!

Of Time and New Beginnnings

January is a month to reflect on the past year, how the time is marching on and also for new resolutions and new beginnings.
This is the inspiration for this panel, as well as Gelatos since I have just started using them and want to experiment with them.

For the background I die-cut a piece of cardboard with a Spellbinder label die and I stamped the Calligraphic Mat 13(The Artistic Stamper) before appling Gesso and Vanilla Fresco paint roughly over it in a thin layer.

Then I scribbled the Gelatos over the dry panel and used my fingers to smooth the colours.
The doily pattern was created with a doily stencil and a wet wipe by taking the colours off.

I used a Craft Stamper freebie stamp for the large clock and sentiment,  and the small clock from the True Gentleman set (Flonzcraft).

In the foreground I stuck a Papertrey Ink clock die-cut and stamped the letters of the month instead of the usual numbers. J for January etc...

I am entering the Artful Times, That's Crafty, The Artistic Stamper and Stamping Sensations  challenges.

Thanks for coming by,

Calendar Challenge: January Aqua and Snowflake

The Craft Barn "endurance" challenge has started and this year it's a Calendar challenge. You can choose to make one page per month or 12 separate calendars (to give out maybe). I chose to make the one and have already some idea as to how it will be structured although I will not reveal it just yet.
A girl's got to keep some mystery...

For this first page the colour is Aqua and the word Snowflake.
I created a scene with Stampscapes stamps and watercolour hills to which I added falling snow with a splattering of gouache.

This being a very small area I have fixed my calendar to the image with a snowflake brad so it can be opened and closed.

Can't wait hear what you think about this...

L'hiver en couleurs

Winter in colours is the theme at Katzelkraft, which had me stumped for a bit until I remembered my Carnaval de Venise stamp sheet. Since the Carnival happens in February it can pass as a winter theme can't it?

L'hiver en couleurs, c'est le thème du challenge Katzelkraft, qui m'a posé problème jusqu'à que je me souvienne de la planche Carnaval de Venise. Le Carnaval se déroulant en Février je me suis dit que cela peut passer pour un thème hivernal, non ?
J'ai décidé de créer un tag utilisant un fond réalisé précédemment avec des Brushos. J'ai choisi celui-ci:

I decided to make a tag using one of my background made with Brushos when I first got them. I selected this one:

After cutting out the tag I stamped and embossed in white the words Carnaval and Venise, adding the circle pattern as well. For added texture I embossed with a Tim Holtz folder (Postcards) and a Harlequin motif as a border, highlighting the raised motifs with gold paint .
The Venetian lady has been stamped on tissue paper with Versafine and stuck on the tag. I was expecting the Brushos colours to show through quite a bit but this isn't the case. To finish I added the mask on the lady's face, it's the perfect size for her!


Apres avoir découpé le tag j'ai tamponné et embossé a chaud les mots Carnaval et Venise en blanc, ainsi qu'un motif Cercles. Pour donner plus de texture j'ai aussi embossé avec une chemise Tim Holtz (Postcard) et un motif Harlequin en bordure, l'embossage mis en valeur par une application de peinture dorée.
Ma Vénitienne a été tamponnée sur du papier soie avec de la Versafine et collée sur le tag. Je m'attendais a ce que les couleurs vives des Brushos apparaissent en transparence mais en fait, non...
Comme finition j'avais un masque de taille parfaite pour la belle dame donc je lui ai donné!

I am also entering the Craft Stamper challenge.

Merci de votre visite /Thanks for coming by,

Framed Scene

Time for another Crafty Individuals challenge, the theme is Create a scene and I couldn't be happier!

I created my scene using stamps from a mix of brands. From Crafty Individuals:  the birds (CI-329 ), the foreground grasses (CI-207) and large tree (CI-209). BTW Crafty Individuals are having a 'Tree Fest Week'  and offer a 20% discount on their tree stamps, including their latest release which has made my wish list!

The frame of my décor piece is copper coloured metal which I embossed with a stencil and further wet embossed with gold powder for an antique look. The inspiration for this is trying to recreate a painting with its frame, just smaller! Why buy your wall art when you can DIY!

I am a bit disappointed with the colours and realise I need more colours AND shades of inks to achieve the depth of field I was after. All those inkpads need a lot of space though so it won't happen overnight...

I am also entering the WOW embossing powder, Penny Black & more, and Lisa.B.Designs challenges.

Hope you like my "painting!

Fragile Papers

This is the theme for the first Paper Artsy challenge of the year. Leandra showed in her video the many papers she had that fit the theme and I must admit to own most of them as well! I HAD to enter the challenge just to use a few....

They were some great artwork shown in the blog and my page has been inspired loosely by Kate Yetter in this post as well as Leandra's video.

At first things went well and I was happy with my background stencilled in gesso and overlaid with water and Brushos :

Then I got carried away and lost control of the piece, which looks a bit like a dog's dinner... Never mind I'll do better next time.
To my stained glass window I added the papers, added texture paste through another stencil, stamped small dots (EEV06), applied Gelatos (streaks left, top and in 3 corners). I added 3 roses made out of tissue paper, leaves and a piece of muslin. I decided to add some Fresco paints on the muslin and roses.

The main image is from Hot Pick 1207 and I have left it without colours as if it was a black and white photo.
I am also entering the Craft Stamper challenge.
Thanks for coming by,

Ice Skating

It seems my mood is not on mixed media at the moment... Today I have a CAS card with a character ... Yep, out of the ordinary for me but I needed a stamp for a winter sport and this is it! I got this free in a magazine one or 2 years ago and I'm not sure I ever inked it!

 

I stamped the skater with Brilliance ink and coloured with alcohol markers. Then I applied some Winter Snow Sparkle Medium (Imagination Crafts) mixed with a drop of white acrylic paint to get some "snow" with a palette knife. The light is so bad nowadays that the photo doesn't do justice to the shine of the SM.

I added a the sentiment from the same stamp set on a scrap of paper and voila... CAS and quick.

I am entering the Imagination Crafts, Live& Love Crafts and Pan Pastels UK.
Thanks for coming by,

New Year card

It's January, and traditionally we expect cold, frost and snow and this is reflected in this month's challenges themes! I decided to follow the theme with a New Year's card using a stamp I just bought in the sales. It happens to be a Halloween stamp (Stampendous) and although I only make Halloween cards under duress, I couldn't resist the bargain... Still, I knew I could work with it and replaced the "Beware" warning by a coat of silver paint and the year. Not so frightening now!

To colour the image I used watercolours in 2 shades of blue adding some black on the stonework which didn't stamp as solidly as I wanted it too because of the grain of the watercolour paper.
I splattered some white for snow and, on a whim, the left over silver paint on my palette.

I am entering the Rubber Dance, Craft Stamper, and the That's Crafty challenges.

Thanks for coming by,

P.S Those with eagle eyes might have noticed I have an addition to  my bragging column (on the right panel) Yess... I won the DT pick at Rubber Dance for December but I was also lucky to win the random prize.  Watch this space for projects with their lovely stamps...

New Year, New Stash

This is this month's theme at Vintage Stamping Challenges, not really an imposition, is it?

Whether Father Christmas chose your gifts well, or you succumbed to the January sales, you should have no problem in joining us. As always, you don't have to create a vintage project, but you DO have to include stamping though - no digis allowed. Our lucky winner will receive a fab prize of a $20 voucher from Flonzcraft so don't miss out on your chance to win!

For my new stash I used the True Gentleman stamp set and also pulled my new-ish Brushos inks.

Started by spraying some water on a piece of watercolour cardstock and added some Brushos powders in yellow, green, red and blue, adding water where needed .

When my colours were dry, I simply stamped one of the Gentleman in the set and some of their accessories in black Versafine ink.

A closer look at the Gentleman and his dog:

 

I bleached the Gentleman's face and the dog's muzzle, just so you could make him out from all that deep colour. Bear in mind that not all colours bleach equally well. For instance the Ultramarine Blue only bleached out to a turquoise, whilst the red readily fades into nothing.

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed making this piece and I am itching to try out different approaches and colours.

Go on and hop on over to the Vintage Stamping blog and see all the DT’s work for more inspiration.



I am also entering the card In the Country View Crafts challenge.