Meerkats Antics

Twice in a weekend! Is that a burst of creativity? No, not really, just a catch-up exercise. 2 weeks ago, I showed again my Meerkats Got Talent page on Facebook and they are so funny I wanted to give them a new platform after their disappointment at the singing contest. Today they are just having fun with fallen leaves:

I used a N0 10 MDF tag (That's Crafty) and applied acrylic paints with a painting knife. I bypassed the Gesso step and the result isn't any worse for it, in fact it is one the easiest and quickest landscape I have ever painted!

I stamped a few of the meerkats in various colours of Distress Oxide inks and coloured them with pencils. Then, I had to fussy cut them.... my most hated crafting job, but it had to be done!

The leaves have been die-cut and punched from a piece of Kraft colour paper to which I applied Distress Oxide inks in Fired Brick, Twisted Citron, Scattered Straw and Walnut Stain. And since the Oxides have a tendency to lighten after a while, I enhanced them with some Distress dye inks as well. 

Finally I spattered a bit of Walnut Stain Distress spray.

I layered leaves and meerkats on different levels with foam pads to give the impression they are wading through a stack of fallen leaves.

The little guys still make me smile and I hope they will do the same for you!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield           I am entering the Allsorts, Stamping Sensations
                                                                 and Creative Artist challenges

Frosty Christmas tree

It's been a while since I have made a Christmas card, but the time
is coming up quickly so better be prepared!

I used a spellbinders Nestabilitie die to make a stencil and inked the shape created with Distress inks, for a cold winter day sky effect. Then, I traced around the shape with a gold gel pen for an unobtrusive frame.

The tree, a Crafty Individual stamp (CI-462 "Large Christmas Tree") has been stamped with dark green dye ink.

The sentiment is die-cut out of an alcohol ink scrap (with rose gold metallic) and I added "frost" to the tree and on the snow with Stamperia Glamour - Sparkles in Sparkling White. This is both for texture and shine but is a bit difficult to see in the photos, I tried to capture the shine in this next one:

I matted the focal image on a pearlescent vellum card before adhering the whole to my card base.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Allsorts and SSS Wednesday challenge 

Autumn News

Well... the time has come... along with the falling leaves, shorter days and cold weather,  yes the first of October is the day we kick off the new challenge at Country View Crafts. 

You can read the announcement on the blog but the headline is this: the challenge will be run on the new Country View Crafts Facebook group. Once logged on to Facebook, joining the group is easy, just click on this link, then the "Join Group" button and reply to the questions to prove you are real crafters. 

All the details for entering the challenge, theme, rules etc.. will be available in the group as well.  

Will I be blogging my CVC DT makes you ask? For now, I intend to carry on publishing here because, if nothing else, it's a record for myself of all that I have done in one place and makes it easy to search effectively through my 1000 of posts or so! 

Thanks for coming by, 

 Craftyfield   

Stamped tree and die-cut leaves

Funny to think of Autumn when the weather has finally decided to turn hot and sunny for the hottest week since June! But Autumn and falling leaves is the theme of my card today: 

My focal image is a Crafty Individual stamp from the CI-450 set "Trees" inked in different colours. The sentiment is also from the same set. 

I created a floating frame with die-cut leaves from a masterboard coloured with Distress Inks. The smaller leaves are from a Joycrafts die and the big leaf is the from Memory Box. I popped up all the die-cuts on foam pads for the floating effect.   

I have used this technique a few times (here and here) and it has become a favourite, even if it is time consuming! 

Thanks for coming by, 

 Craftyfield   I am entering the SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday, 

                                                         Allsorts and We Love Stamping challenges

Here comes the sun

Late in the season (the one that skipped the UK entirely) I am enjoying the sunshine, and this inspired me to create a bright and cheerful tag with, literally, the flower of the sun!  

I started the background with Distress Oxide sprays and added some stamping with a very old A5 stamp by Docrafts (A5 Background clear stamp "Musicality"). 

I applied gel medium with a stencil from the Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencil Set #28 (MST028) and sprinkled Cosmic Shimmer Artic Red embossing powder over it, The EP is a translucent red but depending on the angle has a gold/green lustre to it. 

And to add a bit more bling I created a glitter border with "proper" glitter which I normally try to avoid as it has a tendency of re-appearing for days on end on any and all surfaces (including the humans in the house). 

My focal point is the sunflower that I built with the Julie Hickey Designs Sunflower Bee stamp and coordinating dies sets, with 2 die-cuts of the stamped image, one of them on foam pads. The centre is also popped up with pads to give more dimension.  

Finally, I added 3 pieces of paper ribbon (Lakeland, must be over 15 years old...). 

The shine shot...

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the SSS Wednesday SSS Monday  Allsorts,

                                                        Stamping Sensations and Lost Coast Designs challenges

Male Birthday card

Hello Bloggers! For those in the UK I hope you have enjoyed this bank holiday. Shame about the weather but at least, unlike previous summers, we can admire the green and pleasant land that William Blake made famous in his poem. 
The long weekend has afforded me more crafting time and this is what I did with it:

Once again, I reverted to type and chose a CAS design, almost all one layer bar the sentiment.

I started with colouring the distant hill with Distress inks, having masked the sky, then inked up the foreground (I masked the previous hill). I added grass detail with Stampscapes stamps in shades of green. 

Next, I stamped my focal feature, a plane stamp from the STAMPlorations "Born to Roam" set.
With the plane in place, I then added the clouds with inks and the Clouds stencil also from STAMPlorations. 

The sentiment is from Phill Martin "Essential Sentiments", popped up on foam pads and attached with twine. 

And for once I'm not unhappy with the result!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the SSS Wednesday Challenge,  

                                                        Addicted to Stamps and We Love Stamping challenges

Flower and Butterfly

Hello crafters, today I have a one layer card with the look of a matted one. 

I used my favourite inking technique for this collage stamp by Crafty Individuals (CI-521), applying water-based markers to each element in various colours. I then over stamped (using a stamping platform) with embossing ink and embossed the image with clear EP. 

I added watercolour to the left of the image, added a border with a pink gel pen. 

Finally, I created a border with a thin double-sided tape to which I applied gilding flakes.  

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the SSS Monday and Allsorts, challenges

Gift of Lemons

Today I have a card from my Gin & Wine series with Visible image stamp set Keep Your Gin Up. 

 It hasn't got a sentiment so can be used on several (or no particular) occasions.  

I first stamped the glass with grey and blueish inks and masked it. Bottle and lemons were stamped with coloured dye inks and the words in Versafine black.

All colouring was done with pencils.

Cheers!
 Craftyfield       Challenges entered:  

                                                            We Love Stamping and Stamping  Sensations 

Miniature Collage

Later than expected, I am showing you my final project for the Fodder Challenge #3.
The free access to these tutorials is now closed but you can join the Fodder School 3 to get those and a a year long tuition.
In the end I have managed 7 of the 12 lessons which I think is not bad at all! 

This project is using the day 9 lesson by @christinekarpiak. 

The process is described in the lesson, my own contribution is the use of eyelets to attach a piece of printed acetate (a square from a 12x12 sheet from 13@arts Bella collection).  

For the photo, I placed the "painting" on a square box to give the feel of a frame as I had none to hand, though I'm not sure it deserves one... 

Do tell me if you find the arrangement and colours pleasing or not!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the We Love to Create and Creative Artiste challenges

Mini tag book

The last 2 weeks I have been following the tutorials published for the Fodder Challenge #3. You can still register (it's free) to access the tutorials until the 4th of August, after which they will form part of their next Fodder school lessons.

This project is using the tutorial no 9 by  @meganquinlanstudio and some of the items I made in lesson 1.

Inside pages:

With the tags out of the pocket pages:

Quite an easy project and I thoroughly enjoyed using "old" stamps to decorate it, mostly STAMPlorations but also Rubber Dance (front cover) and Polkadoodles (Back cover) as well as a Unity sentiment (centre tag).

I had hoped the Fodder Challenge would help kick my creativity back into action and spur me into crafting and yes, it did that and took me out of my comfort zone too! Well worth doing, even if "fodder" is not your go to style of crafting.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Allsorts and SSS Wednesday challenges

Colourful Boat

To bring a bit of colour to our grey English summer, I inked up this detailed stamp (Crafty Individuals: CI-559 Of the Sea) with a variety of bright inks: 

I added a colourful border with washi tape (AALL & Create Washi Tape #13 - Fasteners) that I enhanced with red and blue alcohol ink markers. 

As a finishing touch I added a small tag I had stamped on glossy cardstock moons ago, also from Crafty Individuals (CI-428 It's a man's world). 

 

Thanks for coming by, 

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Allsorts challenge.

NOT going to the next round

Hello crafters, today I have another inspiration make for the Country View Challenge on the theme of 4 Legged Friend, hosted this month by Sue. 

Today's page is a send up of a very popular talent show. I'm not a great lover of that show as I feel over the years it's become less about the talent and more about the dramas but it's one of these silly ideas that popped up in my mind looking at the meerkats stamp set. Go figure! 

I battled with the Gelli plate for a suitable background. It had to be dark enough and not too busy, so after trying out stencils, and several mix of colours I got to this nondescript page. 

I used 2 meerkats stamps (one for the contestants and one for the judges) and coloured them with pencils.

I put the meerkats (Katzelkraft KTZ 216) in the spotlight by adding some yellow paint.

I created the banner on the computer.

The meerkats are not in stock anymore, but this would be so funny with other Katzelkraft sets with their bizarre "animals".

You have one week left so hop to it and create a 4 Legged Friend (domestic or wild) project and link up to the Country View Challenge. You can enter up to 5 times and there is a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop. to win.

*******
This is the last post on the Country View Challenges blog as we are taking a break in August and September whilst changes are made to the way the challenge is run. 

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield     I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenge and Allsorts