Autumn Leaves

Welcome to my second inspiration make for our Country View Challenge,  hosted by Jane, who chose Leaves (The leaves are falling) as the theme.

This time I created a journal page with Autumn colours:

First I applied some texture paste and stamped into it before it dried completely with Paper Artsy ELB33 leaf stamps. Judging when the paste is ready is the most difficult and I did have a few false starts!

The texture paste I used was also an experiment, as I used the Cosmic Shinner Multi-Tex powder to make it. What is the point of making your own paste?

For me having a single pot of dry powder to make a custom recipe for a project means that I

a) need only one pot instead of  many AND

b) the product will not dry in the pot between uses because I don't use a particular product often enough.

In effect it saves me both space and money!

Once the paste had dried I sprayed lightly with water and sprinkled Brushos powders. Unfortunately I had forgotten that dye inks do get absorbed in  texture paste and when dried the colour was very much faded...:

I put plan B in motion... which means using a pigment rather than a dye (something to do with the molecular size of the particles) so I pulled out my Paper Artsy Frescos and painted on several colours trying to match the colours I already had underneath.

For the focal point I sprayed Distress Oxide in Walnut Stain, which dried out turned out grey blue, I guess this is how this colour "oxidises"... Never mind, grey could work too.

I die-cut a bunch of leaves from remnants of Gelli prints with added inks here and there.

For the sentiments I used rub-ons to spell my quote, an in joke in our family hailing, in a roundabout way, from Game of Thrones.   

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,
I am entering the Inspiration Station (the colours and Autumn theme inspired me), Simply Create Too,  Sweet Stampin', and the Alphabet challenges.

Snarky Cats Christmas 2

Did you like my Snarky cat on a sledge? Well here's another Christmas card with the Snarky Christmas Cats stamp set (CMS 416).

The card is simply stamped in either Memento London fog, coloured ink or black (the bells) and coloured with pencils.

There's more to come... I am aiming for 10 cards in the same style...

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Allsorts, SSS Monday, Paperbabe,  and Stamping Sensations challenges.

Tropical beach Journal page

Summer is almost over and what a damp squib that was in this country! Yes, whilst some of Europe and America burned (literally in some cases), England still is a green & pleasant land!!! 

On our Country View Challenge, which this month is hosted by Jane, we want to see leaves. Well you might be thinking of the ones which fall and turn to yellows, reds and browns but... not me!  As I said, I didn't have my summer yet so I am taking you with me to the beach in this journal page.

I first created a fiery sunset with iridescent sprays (my current supply includes the older Prima Color Blooms and the new Cosmic Shimmer Airless Misters). The Airless Misters can be sprayed at any angle which makes life easier and they do not clog.  After drying, I stamped the trees which are part of the Tropical Sunset stamp (Crafty Individuals CI-497).

I added a bit of blue pencil for the sea, white accents for the waves with a Distress Crayon and a bit of pencil for the sand texture.

Finally I added my die-cut leaves from a coloured piece of card (combination of watercolour and Distress inks) and a bird (from the CI-272 stamp set)

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,
I am entering the SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday challenges.

Let it snow Snarky Cat

It's been very quiet over here and it's not because of the holidays... touchy subject since. for many of us,  Covid cancelled all plans! My mojo, however, managed to take some leave, hence the lack of creativity on this here blog.

 
At last, I tackled a few Christmas cards with the fab Snarky Cats Christmas set
and here's the first one.

As well as the Snarky Cats (CMS416 from Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz) set I used old freebies from magazines, the Let it snow and the gloves. The snowflakes have been stencilled the in blue with Distress inks and a My Favorite Thing stencil.

I inked my cat with Versafine Clair in Pinecone and Memento in Rhubarb Stalk with the help of my stamping platform.

I do hope it brings a smile as this is part of a set I made as a gift! 

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday, Addicted to stamps, Stamping Sensations and We Love Chocolate Baroque challenges.

Monochromatic stencilling and stamping

 Welcome to my second inspiration post for our Country View Challenge, where the theme, chosen by Debs, is "Monochromatic".

I like stamping scenes and usually they are in colour so I thought this would be an interesting experiment for me.

I used masks cut out of paper for hills, a stencil for the clouds (Stamplorations) and the left hand motif is from a stencil created with an old punch (EK success). 

The stamps are all Lavinia: 

Tree scene

Badger

Mini mushroom

Leaf Trails

as is the Elements ink in Merlot I used for everything but the badger, and the Multifarious card. 

I hope I have inspired you to create a monochrome project to enter our Country View Challenge. 

For the avoidance of doubt you can use white and black as the lightest and darkest hue of your chosen colour but no other.  

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Casology and Paperbabe challenges.

Monochromatic card

As we finally had a bit of hot weather I have been thinking (obsessing) about the beach and the big blue. So it was pre-ordained that I would choose blue when our August Country View     Challenge came around with Monochromatic as the theme, hosted by Debs!

I settled on a birthday card with a cheesy sentiment:

The background waves were made with an inked embossing folder, using 2 colours of Distress Oxides.
The dolphins were stamped, coloured with pencils and fussy cut. The stamped sentiment is embossed with white detail EP.
Both the folder and the stamps are from a recent Creative Stamping magazine (issue 97).

I hope I have inspired you to enter our challenge, but do have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog for more inspiration. If you do link up a project you will be in with a chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday, Allsorts challenges.

Sensational Stamping

Exciting post today!!! Well exciting for me anyway...
I am guest DT for Stamping Sensations, having been selected as the Featured designer for my June challenge entry.
The August challenge theme is "Any Celebration" and as the A level results (high school leavers exams) are due this month I plumped for this graduation image by Polkadoodles. I know, the ONE time I get a spot on Stamping Sensations and I use a digi... me... a hardened hand-stamped afficionado!
In my defence, the owl is cute and I didn't have anything else in my stash.

Once printed I coloured the image with alcohol pens and die-cut it with the Layers, Frames and Banners Rectangle die set (JHD-CUT-1003) from Julie Hickey Designs.

The sentiment is from the STAMPlorations set Everyday Sentiments.
Let's hope the grades are good and I get to give my owl card!

Hop on over to the Stamping Sensations blog to get inspired by the DT.


Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Polkadoodles, Paperbabe and SSS Wednesday challenge.

Coffee themed Ephemera tiles

To please the many coffee lovers, STAMPlorations have released coffee themed Ephemera tiles along with a host of new paper products such as card fronts, ATCs etc... The Newsprint Coffee tiles comes 6 to a postcard (which can be used as is), each tile measuring 1.75 " (4.5 cms). 

To add my personal touch I used pencils in this card:  

I cut windows out from a piece of  white cardstock to put 4 tiles behind and added the sentiment from the After Coffee set.

 
Next, I created tags and added a bit of foiling round the edges on one of the tiles (left tag, bottom tile). Sadly the foiling looks white on the photo. 

The one on the right has a dimensional cup, stamped (After Coffee), fussy cut, coated with Liquid glass paint (DecoArt)  and popped up on foam pads. The sentiments are also from After Coffee .

Do check what my teamies made with the Carpe Diem and What's Up Ephemera tiles sets on the STAMPlorations blog. Heads up, there might be prizes to win...

 
Thanks for coming by,

   

Flowers for a lady

I have been trying to poke my (crafting) mojo in order to kick it into action...

I stamped one of my latest rubber stamp, Movie strip collage from Chocolate Baroque and coloured the image with pencils, taking my time tickling the paper until satisfied.
I find this technique therapeutic, it does relax the mind and gives a lot of control, unlike markers, which prevents disasters.

I added stencilling with Leaf Trails (Lavinia) and die-cuts to finish.

The arrow is from the MFT Blueprint set 7 cut from a STAMPlorations clear sticker (Mixed Media Backgrounds #2) , the flower from a very old All Occasion die and the Best Wishes from STAMPlorations Everyday Sentiments.

That's all for today but I hope there will be more soon!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday, We Love Chocolate Baroque, Stamping Sensations,  Allsorts, Addicted to stamps,  Paperbabe and Unikostudio challenges.

Steampunk and textured tag

Welcome to my second inspiration post for the Country View Challenge, hosted this month is by Monika, who chose "Use a stencil or two..." as the theme.
Still under the influence of Tim Holtz I produced this second tag, more masculine and a little steampunk:

 I first stencilled sand texture medium through 2 of the Tim Holtz Mini stencil set #43 and added embossing powders, starting with a bit of Seth Apter, Emerald Creek Vintage Beeswax, then a bit of Aged Copper (Frantage), finishing by Pirate gold , a dark gold.

After the texture medium had dried I "cooked" the EP with my heat gun, then sprayed the tag with several colours of Prima Color Bloom.

My focal point is a paper doll placed on a stamped piece of card (from the Stamperia "Lady" stamp set) with several cogs (665225 - Sizzix Bigz L Die - Mechanical by Tim Holtz) painted with black gesso and "distressed with acrylic paints for an aged look..

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,
I am entering SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk's ultimate challenge (very sad loss), River of Creativity and Allsorts challenges.

A stencil, crackle paste and embossing powders

Summer is here, although in the UK it has all the hallmarks of a damp squib! Still, when the weather is bad it's time to craft... and enter our Country View Challenge!
This month it is hosted by Monika, who chose Use a stencil or two... as the theme.

I took inspiration from Tim Holtz session on Textures and medium to create this tag.

The stencil is Tim Holtz Mini set #10. I used Crackle medium, but as I didn't have the Ranger one I used the Prima Texture Paste Clear crackle which gives smaller crackles compared to the Ranger one.

This is why, when I added a mix of embossing powders on top, the crackles disappeared, leaving only a slight texture which gives a bit more dimension to the blooms.

For powders I used Wow! in WH01 Apple red, WH06 Lemon, and a mix of WS78 Seaglass, WE13 Skinny Chai Latte, and WS49 Vintage Peacock to get an approximate green for the stalks.

Once the crackle had dried, I sprayed the whole tag with Prima Color Bloom Sprays in Cobalt and Green and inked the edges to enhance the crackles.

Finally the sentiment is from the STAMPlorations Blooming Buds set.
In the (weak) sun you can just see the shine from the sprays and embossing powders.

This exercise reminded me how much I love playing with embossing powders and how good they are on top of stencilled texture media! So go on have a go and link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop. 

For more inspiration have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenges.

STAMPlorations turns 8!

Welcome to STAMPlorations 8th Birthday Celebrations! The DT has new products to show you and there are several ways to win prizes for joining us! If you don't come from the STAMplorations blog make sure you hop over to the post to read all the details.

This is what I did with the Birthday Bundle #1, which consists of 4 products:
1. Blossom Sprays #4 4x6 stamp set
2. Radiate Happy 3x5 stamp set
3. Design Blox Template #5 - 6x10, 10mil
4. Art Border #1 CUTplorations thin metal die

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First up, a simple card with the Blossoms spray #4 stamp.

As the stamp is big enough to fill most of an A2 (US size)/A6 card , I simply stamped the image with Versafine in Sepia and coloured it with pencils. The panel has been die-cut with the Stitched Snow Hills dies set.

Second a set of ATCs with the Radiate Happy stamp set

I used the stencil Blox #5 to create my backgrounds with different colours of Distress inks, masking with washi tape or paper when changing colours. I then die-cut the ATC's with the smallest of the dies in the Stitched Snow Hills dies set.

Finally I added sentiments from the Radiate Happy stamp set, embossing some of them with Wow! powders (Earthtone Olive, Primary Apple red, Skinny Chai Latte and Metalline Violet)

If you are doing project Life or any kind of scrapbooking, these are ideal as journaling cards as I have used here: 

Next I focused on the Art Border #1, I like versatile products and this one delivers so I wanted to show you what you can do above and beyond cutting a border in a card, as nice as it is...

On this card, I used only one edge of the die to die-cut my card base all around with the line of dots. Turning the die the other way you would get the line with the hearts as I did in this next card at the bottom.

I used the die again as a border on the right and stencilled a background with Distress Inks, brushes and the stencil Blox #5. My focal point is one of the new Vintage Blooms ATCs and my sentiment is one of the Radiate Happy set.

Finally, since the die only cuts the design, you can cut the die repeatedly to cover a whole card or more!!! The only limitations are the size of your paper and the size of your die-cutting machine:

Check out this my post here to find out more about this card.

The STAMP girls are showing inspiration for all the challenges on the STAMPlorations blog so pop by and don't forget to comment along the way for a chance to win.

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Whenever you shop for STAMPlorations products you can get 20% off with my code: STAMPGIRLCRAFTY

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Thanks for coming by,
My Blossoms Spray card is entering the Stamping Sensations challenge as I love colouring with pencils!