House and Gardens

Paper Arsty's blog theme is Houses this fortnight and we've been treated to House makes in all kind of materials and even in 3D!
Wanting to join the challenge, but without getting involved in paper engineering, I chose to create a whimsical house and garden not unlike that drawn by children.

My base is thick white cardstock prepared with Gesso.
I stamped with black dye ink all the elements, masking the house. The house is an old set by Polkadoodles (Gazebo Neighbours)and the flowers are from the Paper Artsy EKC02 set.
I coloured sky and grass with Gelatos, flowers with gel pens in iridescent colours (difficult to see in the picture but they do shine in a certain light...) and the house and bench with watercolour pencils.

Thanks for coming by,
I am also entering the SSS Monday Challenge challenge.

Beach Layout

I was the lucky winner of the March Vintage Journey challenge and I was invited to Guest Design.
The theme for this month's challenge, hosted by Astrid, is Embossing Pastes/Textures, a must have for Mixed Media work, and this is what I am showing today.

Hoping for warmer weather, I selected bright colours and let go the Vintage tones entirely, taking inspiration from beach colours for a holiday scrapbook page. The photo I have included is not actually the photo but a place holder I had great fun to design.

For the background I used sprays and Grunge paste with several stencils on my watercolour paper base.
As a feature I created a sandy beach on my "photo" and also in the top left corner with heavy gel medium, a touch of yellow acrylic paint and sand of course!

To make my fake photo I stamped the lady in Versafine on glossy paper (from the Take the plunge set by Rubber Dance) and coloured with Distress inks.

Finally I used some paste as a 3D glue to give my shells a more realistic shape.
To make them I first stamped them (all shells, starfish and seahorse are from the Rubber Dance Retro Beach set ), then fussy cut. I applied a bit of colour with Distress inks and shaped then with a ball tool, giving them a curve. The gel medium helps in supporting the curve as well as keeping the shells stuck!
I added a few sea creatures confetti (painted with gesso to dampen the garish colours), muslin, and micro beads.
Under this angle the sun catches the mica for maximum shine!

You can visit A Vintage Journey for more pictures.
Also entering the Our Creative Corner, Love to Create and That's Crafty challenges

Sand dunes and salty air

I love the month of June for its promises of summer holidays coming soon... and I'm already dreaming of beaches, sun and sand! I am listening to Groove Armada whilst I am writing this to match my mood.

I hope you are up for some seaside fun! Today I am proud to be guesting on the Rubber Dance blog with an ATB made up with stamps of a single set, the Retro Beach that I totally love.

With six sides, plenty of chances to get inky... and almost enough surface to show off all the stamps in the Rubber Dance Retro Beach plate. In fact I only left out one stamp! Pop over to the Rubber Dance blog to see more pictures (and all 6 sides).
But if you are interested on how I put together the Calico Craft cube, stay on a little longer as I have  more details below.

This is an Artist Trading Block (ATB) from Calico Crafts, their medium size, measuring 3 cubic inches (7.5cm³).

As you see from the pictures the "instructions" are burned into it, literally and it's all self explanatory. Place the "bottom" at the center and align all  the other pieces according to the letters shown. The "top" piece can be slotted in upwards or downwards.

Applying the glue requires a bit more thought as it needs to be applied alternatively on the top and side grooves, as this photo shows:

I used Heavy Gel medium for glue but I didn't glue the "top" part in case I want to put something in the cube later. Maybe some grains of sands, seashells....

Other supplies:
Brushos: Ultra-marine, Turquoise, Brown, Moss Green
Infusions: Violet Storms, Golden Sands
Inks: Versafine, Versacraft
Watercolour paper; Heavy Gel medium, Mod Podge and DecoArt Ultra Matte varnish

Are you looking forward to a beach holiday?


My ATB is entering the Craft Stamper, That's Crafty, Fashionable Stamping and Allsorts challenges.

Lest I forget...

Father's day is getting closer fast and I haven't got anything suitable in my reserve... Plenty of choice for girls, but boys...

I chose to ink up this elephant image from Rubber Dance and inspired by its designer (see Susanne's make here) I watercoloured it with the same pens I used to ink the stamp  (Zig Art Graphic).

I jumped on the opportunity to use some of my old stock of papers and used a piece of corrugated cardstock and a snippet of designer paper (Hot Off The Press).

The cards sketch has been provided by Stamplorations, although I flipped it, courtesy of a cutting accident!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Uniko, Stamplorations CAS, Polka Doodle, and Stamping Sensations  challenges.

Cas Blue

Creatively speaking I am all on a summer vibe... Today I painted some Frangipani flowers, love their smell and for me it's the scent of a beach holiday!

OK, so they're not true to life, what with being blue, but in my defence it's the colour for the Stamploration challenge!

The stamps are from the Plumerias set (Inspired By Stamping). I inked them with Distress ink to attempt a no line colouring, using watercolours. The solo flower is stamped with dye ink to get it to pop. I also stamped it twice using a mask (hand cut) to extend the flowering branch.

I added some leaves die-cut from blue cardstock (Tender Leaves by Memory Box). Again, not true to life, but Artistic license and all that...

As to the no line watercolouring I'm quite pleased with the result but the design doesn't really gel and I'm afraid I gave up on it after pushing paper around for what felt like hours.

I'll do better next time, promised!
Also entering the Casology, SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday and the Memory Box challenges.

Crackle for the terrified

First day of the month...it's time for another challenge at Country View and the theme chosen by Evelyn is Crackle.
To ease in those terrified by the real crackle, I picked an easy, no fuss, no mess method of getting crackle on projects!

The way to get perfect crackle every time... use a stamp and fake it! Plenty of brands have made crackle stamps, here I used one by Crafty Individuals, stamping it partially with a mix of brown and black inks.

And a closer look at that crackle!

Paper: Graphic 45
Die cut: Marianne Design
Flower: Prima
Vellum: Docrafts
Couple stamp: Rubber Dance

Thanks for coming by,

Something different

My blog followers will be taken aback with this one...

1) It's cute
2) It's a digital image
3) The background is part of the  base card and not created by me...

When I say I love all styles, I mean it, and though cute isn't my favourite, what can I say... I fell in love with Polka Doodle's Octavia. Here I have used Octavia Moonfly Wistful but watch out for more images popping right on this very blog...

I coloured her with alcohol pens and actually enjoyed myself tinkering away for what seemed an eternity to get the shades just right... I should say that as I don't have a large selection of pens I sometimes have to mix my colours on the nib.

I have cut the image with a Nellie Snellen die and mounted it on foam pads before sticking to my base, a printed card languishing in my stash, another Lakeland buy from moons ago. [In my defence this was a gift, I always thought buying made-up bases was a cop out].

I hope that my cute digital card won't keep you away!
As always, thanks for coming by,
Entering the Graphit Markers, SSS Monday and Polka Doodle challenges

Doodles tag

Paper Artsy challenge this fortnight is Scribbles and Doodles.

I remember doodling when we only had landlines with fixed cords and we had to sit still.... these days I'm just as likely to walk around with the phone or put the caller on speakerphone leaving my hands free for more urgent tasks! But since, I can't say I have doodled much and cannot claim to be proficient.

Still one had to try...

I used a piece of masterboard made with Fresco paints, including the stencilling and stamping and made it into a tag.
I used a Dreamweaver Butterfly stencil to apply a first coat of Gesso before a coat of Yellow submarine mixed with Matte Glaze. When dry I traced the stencil with a black fine line pen.

On to the doodling... inspired by Molly Hollibaugh's video on the challenge post here.

For no other reasons that the left hand corner felt bare I added this stamp (a magazine freebie from ages ago) with Archival ink.

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Wednesday and We Love to Create challenges.

Straight A

This time no twist, the Craft Barn Dictionary challenge is a straight A!

That, I have under control... I own all the stamps (and more) to illustrate my word, which had to be, Art. I purposefully avoided looking at the other entries but I am betting I won't be the only one choosing this word!

I have used papers from my scraps bin to create my collage and stamped in black Versafine, the Mona Lisa  and Art Definition (I only stamped the first 4 lines) from the Da Vinci set by Rubber Dance, the Collage and Art (word) from the Collage set, also by Rubber Dance.
Top is a scrap from a very old  Docraft 8x8 paper pack, bottom is a Kaisercraft paper and right are scraps from Paper Artsy Chatsworth paper with a wash of magenta Inktense.
I added a splat (embossed with white EP) and 2 coffee mug rings from the Messy Art set by The Artistic Stamper.

I didn't even have to print my usual dictionary definition since it's part and parcel of the design!

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Artistic Stamper, Stamping Sensations, WOW embossing powders, Craft Barn and Stamplorations challenges.

CAS Magenta Stencil

Today's card is plan B, so much so that it doesn't bear any resemblance to what I tried to make the first time! I would show you but it's so bad I can't face it...

I got inspiration from the Stamplorations CAS challenge and Simon Says Stamps to design my card and although it looks simple and is easy to make it took me a long time coming up with an arrangement I was happy with. I still don't know if it's "right" or not !

I used watercolour card as my base and stencilled what I think looks like Magenta ink (TCW Mini Ledger).
I added a sentiment (Papertrey ink - Delightful Dahlia Additions) embossed with green embossing powder (Olive by WOW Embossing powder).
My embellishment is made up of a Marianne Design flower, die-cut out of felt, and a brad all of it retrieved from the furthest confines of my stash and very nearly forgotten.

And before you leave, can I remind you there is a special Anniversary Blog hop going on at Country View Challenges where a Sizzix Big shot and Die Bundle is up for grabs. Read all the details here you still have a week to enter!
Entering the Allsorts, SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday, WOW Embossing powder and Casology challenges.

Monoprints

Paper Artsy challenged us to do some monoprints this fortnight.

As luck would have it I tried this on the very first warm day of the year and the paint kept drying out on me...  I got these (lacklustre) results:

Not great....




Although I quite liked this one as it reminded me of a sunset scene over London or Venice maybe. A great starting point if I could paint better...






Then there was this one, which may have some potential...


And finally the one I chose for today's project:




The tools I used to make marks were all found in the kitchen.... a cork, a fancy bottle top, and a receptacle that comes with the washing powder.
I added the yellow circles with a Circle stencil (Tando - Random circles) and coloured embossing paste.

To finish the page I added stamps from the Paper Artsy 1601 and journaling stamps from Prima.

I didn't have time to play more but this has certainly given me a taste for monoprints... I am considering getting a Gelli plate or maybe trying that DIY recipe!
Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the SSS Wednesday, We Love to Create and SSS Monday challenges

A Dragonfly's Journey

Another fortnight has gone by and it's time for the Craft Barn dictionary challenge. The letter is J with a twist... we need to have a dragonfly somewhere!
J was easy, I could have done Jalopy or Jazz but could I combine those with a dragonfly, nope...

In the end it's the Crafty Individuals challenge that provided me with a reasonable solution. Jean mentioned old favourites and I had decided to use the Crafty Individuals CI-001 stamp, a postmark stamp with a dragonfly, which is their first stamp and part of their logo. 
Postmark = travel, add voyage tags... you get Journey!

I first stamped 2 of the tags from CI-428 It's a man's world with Versarmark and embossed with detailed black EP. I masked them with masking fluid before stamping CI-001 in Versafine black.


I made a feature of the pesky dragonfly with a bit of blue watercolour pencil and some sparkle (Spica pen in clear) and embossed it in clear EP using a brush to apply the embossing ink (I have a refill bottle).

For colours I splashed some water and some Violet Storms and Golden Sands Infusion (Paper Artsy).

Lastly I added the dictionary definition and letter (old cheapo acrylic stamp set) to my page.

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Stamplorations, Fashionable Stamping, Stamping Sensations  and WOW embossing powders challenges