Feline tag

A few challenges were requiring animals and I just inherited of a stamp set with Vintage cats' images that I just wanted to use! It was sold by Lakeland at the time so very very old!

I played for ages with my background and now can't remember the sequence of things but after the gesso I had several layers of Infusions and matt medium, Distress Oxides, Crackle paste, Grunge paste mixed with black paint and finally brushos...

It's that last bit that turned my tag into a fully grungy and dark piece, instead of the multicolour bursts I had in my mind's eye. Oh well...

I stamped the cats on tissue paper and using an acrylic paint pen coated the back before sticking down on the tag. I added a quote from A Paperbabe stamp set using the mouse from the same set as an accent.
Some Treasure Cold in Onyxite add a bit of shine on the Grunge Paste circles and butterflies.

I hope you've enjoyed your long weekend and took the time to craft too!
I am entering the SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday, That's Crafty, A Vintage Journey, Creative Mixed Media and SanDee & amelie's Steampunk Challenge challenges.

Journal cover

So I finally did it... I am getting a proper Journal.

When I say "get" I mean convert something into one, you know I can't resist a bit of recycling... I got this diary recently and, since half the year is already gone, it seemed pointless to use it as a diary. Plus with the calendar thingie on the phone...
I am not great with dimensional or 3D makes but Paper Artsy is investigating Assemblages this week and I was inspired by Alison's background here.

I started by selecting the shapes to add to my background, although later I changed my mind about the bottom label (which is hiding a logo).

Then I used gel medium to stick all the shapes and added a bit of crackle paste around them. This turned out to give subtle crackles but they are all lost in the final piece.

For colour I went back in time and used Inktense sticks, mainly because I couldn't find my Tim Holtz Distress crayons... I used a mix of mica sprays and water to spread the colours.

To add interest to the background I stamped (all from Paper Artsy) the scripts stamp from ESN10, the bell from ID02 and the leaf and circle trios from ELB33. The quote is from Hot Picks 1204, stamped on tissue paper. 
Finally, I used a small tag I had already stamped (Crafty Individuals CI-428) and embossed with clear EP to fit the Dovecraft frame I had selected for the bottom. I did several layers of green embossing on the frame, adding a sprinkle of Aged Aqua (Stampendous) on the last layer.

Having found my Distress crayon I used the Vintage to add shading to the tags and hearts.

I tipped the book to catch the sunrays in this photo so you can see the beautiful mica shine!

It had been such a long time since I did a bit of Mixed Media that I really enjoyed it so I must thank Paper Artsy and Alison who gave me the required push!

Thanks for coming by,


Also entering the Creative Mixed Media, WOW Embossing powders, Vintage Journey and SSS Wednesday Challenge challenges.

May Sketch inspiration

Welcome back for my second inspiration make for the Stamplorations Theme & Sketch challenge.
This time I am following the sketch.

For my base card, I partially cut the cardstock (Ranger Distress Mixed Media - Heavystock) with the Crazy Double Running Stitch Die.

I adhered a piece of vellum (a very old collection by Docrafts) centrally, only using glue at the top.

I used the Trendy Birds 2 stamp set and inked one of the big birds and 2 other bird motifs with a multi-colour inkpad (Kaleidacolor - Vineyard). I fussy cut them and glued them on the vellum.

I stamped the sentiment from the Fond Expressions 2 set on a rectangular piece of cardstock and rounded the corners with the 1/2" corner chomper.

Do check out what my teamies made on the Stamplorations blog and if you missed my first inspiration piece it's here. Then you will have no more excuse not to enter the challenge, following the theme, the sketch or both!

Thanks for coming by,

Powerful flower

Welcome to my second piece of inspiration for the Flower Power challenge at Country View, hosted by the lovely Monika.

I haven't got any work in progress photos but there is nothing complicated about this card. All stamps are from Paper Artsy, old and new.

I used watercolour cardstock for my stamped panel and stamped the flower (Hot pick 1205) using dye inks in purple and greens.
I masked the flower and overstamped repeatedly with the blade of wheat (ELB33) and the branch in black (Hot Pick 1008).

I used watercolours to paint the flower and die-cut the panel with the Sizzix Thinlits Mixed Media. I added some Distress ink in Squeezed Lemonade to the base card before attaching the finished panel.

I added the sentiment, another Thinlit die also designed by Tim Holtz (660215), cut out of black cardstock. I am quite partial to these words sets and already have several in my stash...

I had planned to add a piece of twine and maybe some splatters, but, in the end, I thought my "powerful" flower should stand its ground alone!
As an after thought I should have used hot pressed (smooth) paper rather than this textured card as the imperfect stamping made it difficult to accurately colour the flower.

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering the Artistic Stamper, Addicted to stamps and Craft Stamper TIMI challenges.

A B C...

Welcome to my first post as a Guest Designer for Stamplorations Theme and Sketch Challenge!

The most eagle eyed amongst my readers will have noticed my side bar badge and I had been sitting on this piece of news for such a long time I am really excited to make my debut!

 

For my first inspiration make I chose to follow the theme - Alphabet.
I don't know about you, but I have lots of rub-on remnants from when I first started making my own cards and sentiments were either rub-ons or peel offs... how things change! What better way to use up those extra letters from disparate sets than making a feature out of them... I do love a stash busting project!

I applied randomly all my rub-on on a piece of cardstock and coloured with distress inks before stamping the cup from the After Coffee set. The "C" (for coffee of course) was then protected with a layer of glossy accent. Once fussy cut I used a bit more ink to define the cylindrical shape and provide contrast with the C.

To make the background I stencilled some crackle paste onto watercolour card using the Retro Circles ARTplorations. After drying, I tapped Brushos and Infusions powders in several shades of yellow and red with a brush and sprayed water until I was happy with the result. I expected the paste to resist somewhat the colours but to my surprise the stencilled areas came out darker than the rest. The effect was pleasing so I kept it.

I cut a piece of card with one of the Stitched Snow Hills CUTplorations  and stamped the sentiment (also from the After Coffee set).

A splattering of white acrylic paint and a piece of twine finish the card.

I hope you are inspired to enter the May Theme & Sketch challenge, following either the theme, or the sketch, or both! Do check out what my teamies made on the Stamplorations blog and do come back on the 19th of May for a second dose of inspiration.

Thanks for coming by,
Also entering That's Crafty  and Craft Stamped TIMI  challenges.

Make a wish

My method of scrapbooking is so slow I haven't done much recently and I am glad I finally managed one layout to add to my Vintage album.

If you want to read how I made it please go by the Craft Barn blog where I have written a step by step. I will share here some of the ideas behind my choices.

The photo is one of the rare photos we have of a great aunt. The story goes that she was a seamstress and this influenced my choice of paper and embellishments (buttons, lace, fabric, thread etc...) but was a frustrated actress. I believe this photo was taken on the occasion of a village play and is the only one where my great aunt shows her fun side.

I don't often do single pages layout as I have too many pictures but she deserved a full page to herself, her 5 minutes of fame at last...
Thanks for coming by,

I am entering the Craft Stamper TIMI challenge.

Flower Power

First day of the month, May day, Bank Holiday in the UK and most of all... time for a new Country View Challenge! This month Monika has chosen Flower Power as the theme, so we will be looking forward to  your floral makes.
Being a bit short of time these days, I designed my card around shortcuts and using some of my older supplies.

I used this very old stamp set and taking direct inspiration from the way the stamps are lined up in the pack I placed a selection on my card base and picked them up all at once.

Then I let the inkpad do all the work for my ombre look by using the Kaleidacolor in Blue Breeze, inking all the stamps in one go.

In the picture left I show the pack from which I used the base card and sentiment stamp. It's a magazine freebie from... years ago and it came in handy!



Without further ado the finished card:


Over to you now... if you enter our Country View Challenge you could a win a £20 voucher to spend on crafty goodies so get crafting!

Thanks for coming by,






I am entering the Penny Black and more, That's Crafty and The Artistic Stamper challenges.

Oops I did it again!

I do hope I've just popped that song into your head for the rest of the day...

Sometimes a crafter is in need of a card to say sorry and, believe me, better be prepared with one so you only have to write and post it. Creating with the pressure of an immediate deadline is so stressful!

With this in mind, I have been making some "Oops" cards, using a new stamp from USA based Joggles, who produce quirky stamps new to the Craft Barn.

Supplies:

Joggles Quirky Bird No3
Distress Oxide Fossilized Amber
Inktense pencils
Chicken wire stencil
Memento black ink
Stampendous alphabet stamp set (very old!)

Do pop over to the Craft Barn blog for a step by step.

If you have noticed my visits to your blogs have been haphazard of late, know that this isn't me ignoring you. I have been dealing with a family situation which hasn't left me a lot of time for crafting or blogging and I have focused on my existing DT commitments. Soon, I hope, with a routine established,  normal service will resume...

I have acquired some new followers recently (I so wish Blogger sent notifications!) and I'll take this opportunity to welcome them.

As always, thanks for coming by, and for those on an extended weekend, enjoy!!

I am entering the SSS Wednesday, Addicted to CAS, Stamping Sensations and Addicted to stamps challenges.

Trying out the Distress Oxides

After seeing Tim Holtz demos I had to lay my inky hands on some of his latest ink formulation, the Distress Oxides. He promised they would be different to anything we've used before and it's true.

Today I'm showing a step by step of a card made with Distress Oxides over the Craft Barn blog and I share my experiments.

Supplies:
Distress Oxides in Faded Jeans and Fossilized Amber
Impression Obsession Cover-A-Card Rooster
Honey Doo Lilies stamp set
ELB33 from Paper Artsy stamp set
Carabelle Studio Weft fabric and numbers Stencil
Black Lace: Docrafts
Flower: Prima (antique collection) re-coloured with the DO inks of course!

Do pop over the Craft Barn blog to get all the inside info!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Craft Stamper TIMI and Fashionable Stamping challenges. (one of my favourite things is making my own "paper" with large background stamps)

The magic of rust

So as it turns out, everything I touch turns to rust... magic! That's my superpower sorted... But don't worry I'll share my tricks with you!

For this second rust inspiration piece for the Country View challenge, I wanted to create my rust effect with paints and used a Gelli plate to get my base rust. I used ArtDeco Mixed Media paints in Yellow Oxide, Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Blue Green Light and a Tando stencil (Random Circles).

I love the Finnabair stamps, great imagery and they aren't too expensive, and now the whole range is available at Country View I will be able to pick up the sets I missed out on!

I thought I might stamp the cog/wheel from the Trust the Magic set but, in the end I didn't find a space for it. Instead, I used the sentiment Trust the magic and turned it into "the magic rust". I take my fun where I can and it tickled me to subvert the sentiment in this way...
Now I need a suitably humoristic quip for the inside of the card, involving poking fun of a male recipient getting one year older, along the lines of "sorry you're going rusty".
Ideas in the comments please!

For embellishments I used die-cuts made with the Hardware findings Tim Holtz Bigz die, and painted layer upon layer of paint finishing with a touch of ArtDeco Metallic Lustre in Champagne Ice.

Core'dination Black magic and brown cardstock have been die-cut with MFT Blueprint 7 dies

There are so many ways of getting the rust look you are spoilt for choice if you want to enter our Country View challenge... And if you do, you could win a £20 voucher to spend on crafty goodies!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the We Love To Create, Creative Mixed Media and Mixed Media  challenges.

Scenic Stamping

This one has been in the making for a while now... First, it took  me a long time to work out the placement of the stamps for a reasonably realistic perspective, secondly, I dithered about the colours and finally, the finished painting waited for me to have time to blog it!

I love scene stamping and the latest stamp sets from Crafty Individuals are great for this and mix perfectly with a lot of the tree stamps sets I already have from them. Yes my favourite stamps must be tree stamps!
I chose a panorama layout partly because I wanted to fit more stamps and partly because it would be a complete change to my default setting of a square make!

Stamps sets:
CI-460 : I used all the stamps in the set
CI-449 : the figures
CI-450 : The trio of trees on the left and the trees directly in ahead of the figures.

Since I stamped this, Crafty Individuals added a stamp set with sheep that would have looked at home in my empty paddock... If only I'd known....

I have used Versafine black for all the stamping and used regular watercolours and brushes for the colouring.
The paper is watercolour card which I cut to size. (approximately 11cm x 30cm or 4.5"x12").

I quickly painted a bit of cardboard to mount the painting to take the photo whilst I decide if I want to frame this scene or work on another (better, obviously!)

So there you have it an English landscape and no drawing involved!
Do let me know what you think in your comments...

I am entering the Fashionable Stamping, Stamping Sensations and the Craft Stamper TIMI challenges.

Of rusty supplies...

No April fool, no joke, we're going rusty at Country View Challenges! All lovers of things aged, distressed, grunged up this is your chance to shine and maybe win a £20 voucher to spend on goodies!

For my first project I used a professional product to ensure a perfect rust! Rust powder is the simplest and truest rust form possible for crafting... Here in the UK, it is sold by popular brand Paper Artsy, and stocked in all the good craft shops, including Country View Crafts of course.
If you have held an Infusion bottle from Paper Artsy you will be surprised at how heavy the Rust bottle feels, although it is the same size as the Infusion! This is because the powder is actual metal and not a pigment.

To use, coat the items to be rusted, in my case some cardboard cogs, with an acrylic medium and sprinkle the powder over the top. Let the medium dry, then spray water or water+vinegar to activate the powder and within 20mns to half an hour the rust colour will appear as if by magic!
Don't forget, like I did, to paint a basecoat for your rust effect BEFORE applying the powder!
 
 
I chose dark grey and blue, and had to apply it after the rust... Alcohol inks were perfect and disaster was avoided. [Sorry no photos of said rusting cogs in action...]
Before I get further in my explanations let's show you my make!

For the background I coated my canvas with a mix of Primary Cyan and Prussian blue DecoArt fluid acrylics with some thick gel medium.


Next I applied some crackle glaze and, when dry, a coat of medium grey acrylic. It didn't look very good so I added some pink acrylic ink and then some ochre.

My focal point is an image by Katzelkraft which I stamped on tissue paper with Brilliance ink. I chose this ink because Archival or Versafine inks have a tendency to spread on such a thin paper. Using a wet brush around the image I obtained a feather edge to the image , this helps to get the tissue paper to "disappear" on the finished canvas.
I painted the back of the figure in white where the highlights are, and stuck it with acrylic medium, coating the top as well as the back.

I stamped some texture with a Prima clear stamp (Peeled Paint) and embossed with a mix of powders that include Wow Black puff, clear UTEE, Frantage Aged Copper and some tarnished gold. I can't be more precise than that as I use the same container for my mix and I can't remember what it had in it before I added that day's powder...
It's fun to see the results though!

For the finishing touch I added my rusty cogs with acrylic medium, adding a snippet of fabric and some micro beads.

Do visit the Country View Challenge blog to see more inspiring projects by my teamies and come back from my 2nd Rusty make later this month.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Vintage Journey, SanDee & Amelie's,  Fashionable Stamping, The Artistic Stamper and SSS Wednesday challenges.