memories

I have been trying to muster enthusiasm to start on a few scrapbooking pages and had a look through my existing layouts (it usually works...) and found this one that just didn't work.

The background had been stamped, embossed with clear powder for a resist effect, sprayed and foiled...
Fortunately, because these are vintage photos, I didn't glue them to the page but used tissue tape to hold them in place so I could easily start again.

First I thought the background colour was too dark so I wanted to add white paint without losing all of the kraft background.
I have been wanting some 3D matt gel but I couldn't get any in the shop and bought the Ranger transparent texture paste, figuring it would be similar. I stencilled it through a Prima/Finnabair doily stencil in 3 places and when dry applied white paint over the paste and embossed areas wiping with a wet rag to reveal the design.

I added a doily die-cut (Prima) and a flower and leaves die-cut (Marianne dies) from metal and painted with acrylics.

Can't say it's perfect but it's definitely better than it was... I have a facing page to be transformed too so I better get to it before I lose interest!

Thanks for coming by,

I am entering  the WOW Embossing Powder and Paper Artsy challenges.

Flowers and Diamonds

This fortnight Paper Artsy is exploring acrylic gels and mediums. As a fairly recent acrylic dabbler I am still unsure as to what product to select or how to use, so I was keen to  test some of the ideas published by the DT...

However, I also wanted to try out my new supplies acquired on my holidays, Izinks acrylic inks, and got a bit side tracked from my starting inspiration of Paua shell effect as demonstrated by Lin Brown on the PA blog.

Yes the stencilled gel medium stayed but the sprays made way for the Izinks (no shine), so different altogether. My other use of gel in this project is as transfer medium for a piece of Chatsworth paper one of my favourite technique!

My base panel is gessoed wood, the stencil has been die-cut with Tim Holtz mixed media Thinlits.

I stamped the tulip from the ELB03 set with paint but the impression just wasn't good enough (more practice required for this tricky technique...) and I had to use a fine brush to go over the lines, finishing with coloured pencils.
I added a butterfly die-cut (Impression Obsessions) sprayed with a mica mist and stamped and embossed "Artful Blooms" from the same stamp set.

As to the lustre of the Paua shells... there's always next time!

Also entering the PolkaDoodles, Tando Creative, We Love 2 Create and Stamping Sensations challenges.

August Butterflies

Time for the August calendar challenge at the Craft Barn.
I used the Rubber Dance colour scheme, perfect for a bright summer's day feel.

I have made this page on acetate, it is the reverse of the page I did for May, which explains the weird shape of my cardstock.

I used flower stamps from Papertrey ink and the butterflies are from a Crafty Individuals set (CI-231) where I have tried to stamp both "solid" and "line" images on top of each other user a stamp positioner (my paper moved...). I am still in two minds as to whether or not to cut this plate apart, in this instance it would have made my life a lot easier!
I added some green and blue distress inks in the background to round off my garden impression.

As I was writing this post I realised I'd left off the most important part...the calendar, so here is another pic:

Just as well, the calendar manages to hide the more-brown-than yellow butterfly...

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Penny Black, Country View (Summertime) and We Love 2 Create challenges.

Coloured pencils

We are challenged to do some colouring this week for the Craft Barn.
I thought of this stamp of an old car which is perfect for detailed colouring with pencils. I say pencils... I have coloured it with alcohol markers too, but I prefer the control I get with the pencils.

To keep with the masculine feel I kept everything else simple.

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering The Artistic Stamper and Craft Stamper challenges.

#35 Gone Shopping

This month as a lot of us are away on holiday relaxing with limited or no craft stash, Vintage Stamping challenges is having an Anything Goes theme, easy isn't it!


I chose to pull out my 50's Girl with attitude, at least this is what I call her, as she makes me feel positive.
I also used the small image of the 50s lady's legs from the same set.

In a Mixed media mood I combined paints, crackle medium, embossing in Vanilla and Blueberry (WOW powders) for my background.

To stamp my 50's girl images I used waterbased markers and then coloured them with pencils.

I'll admit I took a lot of inspiration from a previous make that I currently use as my phone screen saver. It brings a smile to my face when the phone is activated to see the "Gone Fishing" sign.
You've got to get your fun where you can....
Anyway, I think of this tag as the female equivalent and I might even swap it with my Gone Fishing screen saver!

If you are on holidays, enjoy your time off and don't forget you can enter our Vintage Stamping Challenge with any make, as long as they have some stamping- no digis allowed!

I am entering this tag in the We Love 2 Create, and  That Craft Place challenges.

Clean & Simple

The latest Craft Barn challenge is Clean & Simple... Well, it's actually quite difficult to do CAS, as if it is too simple, the result is usually underwhelming.

Hope you will like this one, it is simply stamped but I tried to make it more interesting by applying several colours of inks to the image (Crafty Individuals- 429). The sentiment is from another Tree set (CI-209).

I suppose I should warn you that I have a bit of an obsession with Tree stamps. I have many, from several of my favourite brands, and more than any other theme including flowers and butterflies!

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering  the We Love to Create challenge.

Circle and Flowers

The Craft Barn had a Wreath theme last week so our challenge is to come up with a circle where flowers are involved.

Being quite literal, due to a chronic lack of imagination, I decided to make a circle frame with flowers stamps. For this technique clear polymer stamps are ideal because they can be shaped and also allow for repeated stamping without the need for a stamp positioner.
I used the middle size Dandelions from the Lavinia set, selected for its size after testing which ones would give me the circle size I wanted.

For my background I used a stencil (Crafter's workshop Garden Gate) and used Brushos in Moss green and Dark brown. With hindsight the choice of colours/stencil could have been better but I didn't have time to start again.

Inside the circle I stamped the Large Path (Lavinia stamps) inked with water based markers. I added a light wash of green for grass.

 Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Lavinia, That's Crafty and We Love to Create  challenges.

Lady who latte

Time for the Crafty Individuals challenge and this month we need to show some face... I have taken the theme literally and chosen a stamp with a human face, settling on a lady from the CI-285 stamp which I have associated with the "Ladies who latte" sentiment from the set CI-401.

I don't know what happened but, once I had stamped my lady, I moved on to the background and forgot to colour her. And once I had everything in place, I decided to leave the image uncoloured. Hey my lady is allowed to wear white isn't she?

I used a paper from the latest Crafty Individuals pad, Weekend in Seville, adding colour with Gelatos in Lavender and Violet around the outside.

The doily is from Dovecraft but I had to change the colour by adding some blue Gelato.

I die-cut a frame from White Wash Core'dination and a piece of "lace" from material both with dies from the X-cut set Trim Borders.
I shaped some punched/die-cut flowers layers together and added a die-cut butterfly as finishing touches.

The card layout is courtesy of the Vintageutfordringen challenge who had this sketch:

Thanks for coming by,

 Also entering the Tando Creative and Craft Stamper challenges.

Time

The new theme for the Paper Artsy challenge is Time and I toyed with several versions until this one :

The background has been sprayed over a Cogs and gears stencil (TCW) in blues and brown.
I used the Wordle.net again (see my previous post) to generate my time words panel and printed it on top of a Brusho'ed and Micro glazed stamped panel.

My feature stamp is from the Hot Pick 1206 and I made a watch face embellishment with a bottle cap.

Also making an appearance is the Mixed Media thinlit by Tim Holtz (recent purchase) which I used on a piece of copper coloured metal.

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering  the Craft Barn, Craft Stamper, That Craft Place, and  That's Crafty challenges.

Tic Tag Toe

Sandy & Amelie Steampunk Challenges are playing Tic Tac Toe this month and I selected the top line.

For my crackle I used Imagination craft crackle medium on top of red and black acrylic paint. My top layer was originally pale lavender but looked awful and I applied Transparent oxide to change the colour.



For my words, I created this panel with selected Steampunk words - who knew there are dedicated sites to Steampunk words? - using Wordle.net and printed it on cardstock that I had already stamped with a Harlequin motif (The Artistic Stamper) in ombre fashion.


The top Hat is a stamp by Flonzcraft (True Gentleman set), die cut with a Nellie Snellen die and complete my Tic Tac Toe line!


To that I added bits from my odds and ends jar, previously cut, stamped etc..:

• The Eiffel Tower: Tim Holtz Alteration Paris embossing folder
• British flag:  The Artistic Stamper London set

If pressed to justify how these all fit together, I can come up with a reasonable explanation... coz I had to do precisely that when my OH challenged me.
In short it's a representation of the "Entente cordiale" between the France and Great Britain.
The English lord is tipping his hat to the Old Lady (that's the Eiffel tower, BTW). And since the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 it's the correct period for Steampunk. Phew!! I should get points for that...

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the Craft Barn, The Artistic Stamper,  and Crafty Sentiments challenges.

Turquoise waters

The colour turquoise and the Beach hut theme for the Craft Barn July calendar challenge only means one thing... the BEACH!!!

As delighted as I was with the Beach concept, I didn't have a lot of choice of Beach huts! A few years back Docrafts came out with some Beach Huts stamps, designed by Michael Powell, and I resisted buying them thinking that I might be able to grab them later in the sale... Of course the best designs never do get on sale and the Beach huts never joined my stash.

I decided to use a Crafty Individual paper instead (Book 6 - The Seaside) for my huts and transfer them with gel medium on a piece of watercolour paper.
The sand and sea were painted in with watercolours.

If you think the calendar is strangely placed it's because I placed it where I could hide the worst mishaps! I'm guessing the gel medium wasn't completed dry when I started rubbing the paper layer and as a result I rubbed some of the image as well...

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering the We Love to Create and That Craft Place challenges.

Destination Italy

The Rubber Dance challenge this month has a theme of Travel & Vacation and Vintage Journey has a theme of Destination. This is the perfect excuse to use my Venice stamps (Katzelkraft) which don't get much use!


The colour scheme provided by Rubber Dance is:

I used lots of Tim Holtz products, though I'm not sure the way I put them together would be his style!
The Mixed Media Thinlits was used as a stencil and a die-cut piece is glued to the top right corner.
Some tissue tape plays a framing role and I also used a bit of card embossed with the Paris Alterations folder.

The stamps in the background are both Rubber Dance, the small Diamonds pattern stamped in blue (barely visible I know) and the map from the Travel plate stamped in black and embossed with clear EP.

And if you think there is a lot of Diamonds this is because the Harlequin motif and Venice go hand in hand (at least in my book) and the Craft Barn has a theme of (playing) cards this week!

Thanks for coming by,

Also entering  the Country View Crafts (On your travels) challenge.