Happy New Year!

December got lost, I am looking forward to 2014!
Here is a tag I made just to say Happy New Year to all who have given me encouragement over the past year. Thank you for your comments and for sharing your inspirational art work.

I hope 2014 brings you all you would wish for and much success with the crafting.
Julia x

Sparkle Twinchie

My late in the day entry for the Show us your Twinchie's Challenge is a little different for me as its all about the words. I thought this stamp from Kaisercraft would fit the theme as it is an "anything goes" challenge with bling.

The background is Old Paper and Tumbled Glass Distress Stains, my current favourite pair for a nice translucent base.

The stamp is from a Kaisercraft set called Confidence. The words are stamped using Adirondack Earthtones dye ink in Bottle, Denim and Red Pepper and embossed with Ranger holographic embossing powder. A quick spritz of Sheer Shimmmer (frost) and the twinchie is done.

Its a bit more sparkly than the photo in real life and I think it has a sort of graffiti look to it, at least that was the idea.

TH Christmas Cards

A quick post of two of my Christmas cards using Tim Holtz products.

The backgrounds are tumbled glass, old paper and brushed pewter distress stains on Ranger manilla cardstock. The mini blueprint snowman, wreath and Merry Christmas sentiments are stamped using black archival ink and the snowflakes stamped using blue jeans and gathered twigs distress ink. Both cards finished off with some diamond stickles around the edges.
I quite like the way the snowflakes fade away when stamped on top of the metallic distress stain, I might make some more of these ..... if I have time ....
I hope you like them.

Thanks

"Less is More" : Week 145 Challenge - A one layer card - Thanks

"Thanks" or "Thank You"? I had this conversation with a friend recently who felt quite strongly that "Thanks" was not so sincere as saying "Thank You". Interesting isn't it. Its even more difficult to describe her reasoning because it needs to be heard not read. Where sentiments on cards are concerned, I tend not to use them very much apart from the standard "Happy Birthday", "Happy Christmas" or the more formal "Best Wishes". Personally, I have no problem with "Thanks", its an informal version of "Thank You". Language is tricky especially when written.

On to the card. My entry for the LIM challenge (because I like the challenge of one layer cards) uses my favourite leaf, a very old wood mounted stamp that I've had for years. I used masking tape to make the stripes in distress ink then masked them out and stamped the leaves in Colorbox chalk autumn shades. Then I over-stamped the red leaves in red pepper archival ink, drew the black lines around my "ribbon" and added the Thank You sentiment (Penny Black Gratitude set).
The colours have not come out to well in the photo which is a shame. I don't like this time of year, difficult to get photos as the light is not so good.

Happy JOFY Christmas

So many ideas in my head for Christmas cards this year and here is a relatively easy make using PaperArtsy JOFY 19 only, no mixing in anything else from any other stamp plates.

For the background I stamped the stars in black archival ink on Kraft paper and stuck it on a white C6 card. The panel uses two of the images stamped and coloured with Inktense pencils. I used exactly the same colours as on the packet that the stamp set came in, what a cheat, but it got me in the mood to do other things.

Here is another thing. I wanted to use my new Jofy JM30 to make a little Christmas card but .... it turned into a birthday card.

The frame and panel were cut from white cardstock using a Spellbinders die, The presents stamped and coloured with Promarkers and some glossy accents added to the green dots. As before, I was looking at the packaging on the stamp and all the JOFY stamps have this really nice faded dot pattern around the edges so I thought I'd have a go add adding that to the frame. I used Festive Berries distress ink through a stencil and then drew around the edges with pastel blue Promarker. To finish it off I added a Happy Birthday sentiment from an old Papermania set and doodled around the edges.

Now I'm off to browse what others having been doing because I need a bit more inspiration right now.

Nautical Knots

I really liked the knot that Chrissie used on her card for the Less is More Challenge : Week 143. The challenge is to use string or twine. Following the instructions in her link I made the knot in bakers twine and it looks nautical so I constructed my nautical card around the knot .
For instructions to tie the knot, follow the link on the Less is More Challenge blog.

Ingredients:
Hobby Art Harbour set - Yacht, sea gulls and water stamps
Background for the focal image coloured with pan pastels and promarkers for the Yacht
Bakers twine
Blue and white cardstock
Anchor charm from a bag of charms bought on ebay

My friend's son has a birthday on Friday so this one will be going to him.

Santa is Distressed

A quick update on my Christmas card making.
This one was quite quick and easy to do. Snowflake Fresco Finish acrylic paint dry brushed onto a square piece of Kraft card. The Tim Holtz vintage Santa, poinsettias and sentiment are stamped using coffee archival ink and the panel edged with Cosmic Shimmer gliding flakes (Warm Sunrise).

Twinchie Doodles

The theme for the Twinchie Challenge this week is to do some doodling so here is my Christmas Tree twinchie.
I used TH Distress ink in Evergreen Bough through a tree stencil, outlined the tree and doodled in it. I then added doodled lines around the border and that is it done.
I hope you like it.

Trees

The Less is More challenge this week is Trees. Here is my entry, a Christmas card made with a Christmas Tree mask and sparkle medium.

Recipe:
That Special Touch Mica Mask - Christmas Trees by Creative Expressions
Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium - Champagne
Rubber stamp Merry Christmas sentiment from PaperArtsy JOFY 19
Little crosses from Anna Marie Christmas Tree set
Kraft Card
Mounted on white 6 x 6 cardstock

I used the sparkle medium on the mask and cut out the triangular trees. I then mounted them on the Kraft card and added the sentiment and kisses. The larger tree in the middle is mounted on foam pads.

12 Tags of 2013 - October

I like to do Tim's Tags each month, I like to improvise if I don't have the ingredients, however ..... this one has cost me money!
Click here for Tim's Tutorial .

I started about a week ago with the background. I don't have the Distress paints but I do have PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints. It is 10pm and I'm on the floor in my spare bedroom marbelling paint! A nice messy job but I'm pleased with my background.
The following night I am feeling smug, I have the lovely frame die in my stash already. I don't have grunge board but I do have grunge paper so I cut the frame. I don't have any Distress Glitter, in fact I don't have any purple glitter either and I wish I did because I'd like to try that. I found some dark purpley green fine glitter and used that instead.

No moon and owl die, what a shame.
I planned to draw a moon and cut it out and use a small Tando wooden owl that I have already. The owl looked stupid on the tag and didn't I use that same owl last year on the October Tim tag? Yes, I think I did.
I have a half finished tag and I am not happy!
Yes, you guessed, I bought the owl and moon die and whilst I was about it I bought some mustard seed distress glitter as well. It is lovely, I don't normally like glitter but this stuff is crunchy and I like the textured finish. I decided not to put glitter on my owl having overdosed on the glitter stuff already so my owl was inked with black soot distress ink and then covered in glossy accents. I have a shiny owl and I like him.
I have no metal stars so I used some metal squares I found in my stash.
Here is my tag, a bit of an effort this month but at least I managed to complete the project.

Cabin by the Lake

Here is a little project from my weekend using my new Stampscape stamps to build a scene. I saw this demo'd at Ally Pally in September so the idea is not my own but the colours are my choice and I have adapted it a bit. Thanks to Shirley from Serendipity for this one. The background is brayered and the images stamped in black archival ink.

Ink used for the background : Kaleidacolor Caribbean Sea

Experiments in Miniature

Today is my recovery day from visiting Ally Pally at the weekend. I have to say, getting a ticket for two days was much more relaxing, more time to watch the demos and to remember what I saw. I am exhausted, I blame the hike up that hill from the carpark but its a good excuse to do nothing today other than play in my craft room.

I revisited brayered backgrounds this afternoon, its been some years since I used this technique. I have to say, its much easier when the end result is a 2 inch by 2 inch square.

Kaleidacolor dye inkpad : Caribbean Sea

Moon stamp : Stampscapes

Mushrooms : Lavinia Stamps

Make a Wish sentiment : Papermania

I will enter this one for the September Twinchies Challenge where the theme is "Anything Goes".

My second experiment was a technique I saw at the show yesterday using distress ink and water. I used Adirondack Woodlands dye ink for the background, I don't know why, I have plenty of distress ink but it is water based so the technique works.

Spritz the rubber stamp with water and stamp it on the background then dry it with a heat gun. The result looks like this:

The water removes the ink and leaves a fuzzy impression, a bit messy at this stage but the next bit is really good. I overstamped it with Adirondack dye based ink in Red Pepper and this is the finished leaf. I like this. Credit to the demonstrator on the Stamps Away stand for this technique which I will try out again on something bigger.

The September theme at the Show us Your Twinchies blog is "Autumn and Autumn Colours" so this fits the theme for that challenge.

I hope you enjoyed my experiments and hopefully I will not leave it so long before posting again. September has been a busy month!

Countdown : 116 days

There are only 116 days until Christmas, a scary thought in August when the sun is still shining!
There is a new challenge on the Fun with ATCs blog where the theme is black, white and red and I ended up with this ATC, it wasn't intentional, it just happened. Earlier in the week I found a die cut bauble and started doodling zentangle patterns on it. When I saw the black, white and red theme for this challenge I thought I'd enter just for fun.

Recipe :
Die cut bauble, zentangled.
"deck the halls" sentiment from JOFY06 stamp plate by Paperartsy
Red pearl embellishment
Additional doodling around the edges of the ATC to finish it off by me.

Holidays and Destinations

My August entry for the Show us your Twinchies challenge entitled "Holidays and Destinations, Home and Abroad", is a variation on my last post.
I found some shrink plastic in a drawer in my craft room so stamped the Tim Holtz aeroplane and shrunk it, I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to watch it curl up and then flatten out to a tiny version of the original, a perfect size for a twinchie.

The background is pan pastels blended in purple and blue, I like that combination. I love maps. I collect old Ordnance Survey maps, yes, I love them. The background is overstamped with a section of the Papermania All Aboard - map stamp in coffee archival ink and the aeroplane added so its flying over the Atlantic towards the UK. That's my "home" part of the challenge theme because although it may be fun to go away, its always good to come home.

Travel and Destinations

I have been wanting to have a go at Tim's Tag for August for a couple of weeks but have been distracted by other things. So today I revisited the blog and decided to have a play.I like using the masking technique and particularly like the colours Tim used for his tags.
I have the aeroplane stamps but they are the mini versions so look a bit silly on the bigger tags that I have so rather than attempting a smaller tag I thought I'd just make a panel and mount it on a card.
As mentioned before, I liked the colours used for the background, frayed burlap and pumice stone but did not have those distress stains so used distress inks instead with a lot of water. I like it, it pleases me.
I won't describe the details here as Tim's tutorial is very good, go check it out via my link.

So, here is my "inspired by Tim" card :

This post is for Michael and Donna-Jean who are off on holiday (vacation) tomorrow. Have a great time!

Mannequin

Today's post was inspired by an idea in Craft Stamper magazine this month using the freebie stamp by IndigoBlu.

The mannequin is stamped using black archival ink and mounted on pink polka dot paper from my stash distressed with antique linen ink. The flowers and butterflies are cut from the same image stamped on white cardstock and coloured with promarkers then mounted with pinflair glue. The sentiment is from an Anna Marie Designs stamp set on a panel of the same polka dot paper. Added the dotty corners and ribbon and all mounted on a 6x6 Kraft card. 

I am 1

It is one whole year since my first blog post and I would like to thank all of you who have encouraged me along the way. I've learned so much from the blog challenges and from following the inspirational crafts people and artists over the past year. Thank you all so much.

I will start year two with my entry for this month's Twinchie challenge which is #4 Florals.
My 2 inch square piece is (predictably) a daisy from Paperartsy's JOFY 13. The background is stamped using a Judikins cube in shades of green and the flower stamped on white cardstock and coloured with inktense pencils then softened with a water brush, cut out and mounted on the background.

Happy Tuesday everyone and thank you for dropping by.

Masking with Flowers

Where does all the time go? It has been a couple of weeks at least since my last post. I haven't been entirely idle on the craft front although the day job has got in the way of any real creativity.
Last weekend I was playing with a set of Sizzix dies and stamps that I purchased at The Glitter Pot back in May. See how the time flies, I hadn't even got round to opening the packet!

Here are two cards using the same set : Sizzix Framelits & Stamps - Flowers, Scallop.
The first was and exercise in masking which can be quite addictive and is certainly effective. I have quite a stash of post-it notes now as I picked up a few advertising ones at a recent work exhibition and they are perfect to use for masks. Interesting to note that Tim's Tag for August uses the masking technique so I want to have a go at that when I get some spare time too, the examples are fabulous, I bet I don't have any of the materials so I'll have to improvise (or shop?).

Stamped with Memento Angel Pink, Rose Bud and Pear Tart on white cardstock and mounted on fuschia pink card from Craftwork Cards.

The cardstock is from Craftwork cards, as is the dotty paper. The flowers are stamped using the Memento Angel Pink ink pad and die cut and mounted with foam pads. A few gems added and the sentiment and the simple card is done. Its OK, I prefer the first one as there is more stamping and less bling but thats just my personal taste.

Have a great weekend and thank you for dropping by.

Julia x

Summer Meadows

Wow! A heatwave, I do hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine in the UK right now. Here is a little card I made this weekend with a summer theme.

The background is Tim Holtz Distress stains in tumbled glass and peeled paint splodged about to make a hazy summer day in a meadow feel. A bit of antique linen distress ink is applied around the edges to soften it and then some grasses from Hobby Art "Just for You" clear stamp set stamped in peeled paint distress ink. The cow parsley is stamped in sepia archival ink and to finish it off I added a butterfly (Hobbycraft Fly Stickers).

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone.

Music and Lyrics

#3 Music and Lyrics is the theme for the Twinchies challenge this month. Many possibilities, my first thought was to do something with a reggae theme with rainbows and bright colours as its summer but I went for the obvious as I love this little bird stamp from Crafty Individuals. I've used it many times over the years so here it is again:

The background is some music vellum from my stash. I stamped the bird image on the vellum and also on to white card and coloured it with distress markers, peeled paint and tumbled glass. Cut out the frame and the bird and pop them on with pinflair glue.

Crafty Individuals stamp CI-184

I will enter this one in the challenge but may well have a go at another one before the month is out.

Shades of Grey

Less is More have a colour challenge this week, Shades of Grey. They would like to see a minimum of two shades of grey and I think I have managed seven on this card, would have been eight if I had some grey pearls but I didn't so I used white. I put the project on some grey card to take the photo so that is arguably eight different greys. Oh, I popped some red on it too because, after all, it is a poppy.

What I used:
White A6 card : Craftwork Cards
Dark grey textured cardstock : DCWV
Grey floral paper : Craftwork Cards
Silver embossing powder : Ranger
Promarkers : Cool grey 1, 2 and 3
Dewdrop ink : London Fog
Hobby Art CSS001 Bordered Poppies clear stamp
Spellbinders Nestabilities A2 Distressed Edges die
X-Cut corner punch
Tiny pearls from stash
Red Sakura stardust pen

When you list them out, that is a lot of things to make one card!

In an English Country Garden

Well Summer came and I took off to have a look around Nyman's Garden this morning hoping for some inspiration for the Twinchie Challenge #6 : In an English Country Garden. There was plenty of inspiration, so much in fact that I stuck with my original idea but added a second one inspired by this pot .... so English.

These are my twinchies. The top one inspired by the pot has a chalk background in green and blue, the hanging leaves are stamped using peeled paint distress marker, the pot stamped and masked out then the trowel and flowers added. The images are from a Lindsay Mason Design stamp set called Watering Can Scene. The pot is coloured with promarker, the flowers stamped with blue archival ink and liquid pearls added to the centres of the flowers.

The twinchie below uses an image from a Craft Stamper magazine freebie, a really old one but I was really good last weekend and organised all my old free magazine stamps into one box so I can see what I've got. I quite like these blackberries so thought they would make a good focal point for the twinchie. The background is antique linen and mulled lavender distress ink, very pale but gives it that aged look with a hint of colour. I stamped the blackberries twice, coloured them with promarkers and cut them out and stuck them on with pinflair glue. The butterflies and strawberries are elements from a Lili of the Valley stamp, they are tiny, I thought I'd leave them uncoloured to look a bit sketchy. I prefer the second one.

I hope you are enjoying the weather. Don't stay out in that sun too long! 

Butterfly Twinchie

Challenge #2 on the Twinchies blog this month is Bees and Butterflies. A good opportunity to play with my Tim Holtz butterfly stamp. That lovely painted butterfly was just begging to be watercoloured but..... I didn't do that, maybe another day.
I made two twinchies with the same image. The first is stamped in black on a distress ink blended background. I used squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, peeled paint and mowed lawn. The butterfly is coloured with spiced marmalade distress marker. I added some black diamond stickles on the antennae and randomly on the card.

The second one is a prettier version. The background is worn lipstick distress ink lightly applied with a duster brush. Then I used wild honey and worn lipstick through a stencil to add some interest to the background. I like the way these two colours blend. The butterfly is stamped with rose bud memento dew drop and coloured with promarkers. Then I added a couple of gems.

I think I prefer the darker grungier one, I'm not sure. Perhaps I should have tried a watercolour version after all.

I got carried away the the butterfly and decided to make it into a card.

Black diamond stickle dots are added to the embossed frame which I coloured with mowed lawn and mustard seed ink and mounted on yellow textured cardstock. The edges were tinted with black soot distress ink to match the black accents and mounted on a white 6 x 6 card. A small bit of black soot got onto the frame hence the black paper flower which I think may have ruined the card. The yellow is too bright, I should have sanded it down I think.

You might have guessed I am not happy with this. I need to go do something else!

Rainbow Fish

The challenge on the CASology blog this week is fish. I've not played in the CAS challenges for some time but an idea came to mind last night so I made a card.

I started with a piece of white card just over 14cm long and drew 7 pencil lines 2cm apart. I don't have one of those positioning thingys so a ruler and pencil does the job fine but remember to rub out the pencil after the ink has dried or there will be nasty smudges. Stamp the fish in black archival ink 7 times and colour them red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple. Now I have rainbow fish.

I added some bakers twine and the happy birthday sentiment from my Papermania celebration set and mounted it on yellow cardstock that where the bottom edge has been punched with a Tonic Studios paper punch. All mounted on a C6 white card.

The fish is a mini angel fish from Clarity stamps.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Loves Me, Loves me Not

Inspired by Alison's lovely vintage tag project mentioned in my last post, here is  my Kraft tag, book pages and gesso project.

Two Kraft tags, stick on some pieces of torn book pages and paint roughly with gesso. The edges of the tags are distressed with vintage photo distress ink.

The daisies are from JOFY13 and stamped on the tag using black archival ink. The photo is rotated and I don't know why.

Colour the daisies with distress markers. I used mustard seed, wild honey, spiced marmalade and brushed corduroy. Tags complete. 

So, having made the tags, I had some of the book page left. To use it up I made the card using the same technique but on white cardstock and mounted on Kraft paper. This works better on Kraft card than on the white cardstock but I am pleased with the result. Love those JOFY daises, I think they are my current favourites.

Antique Songbird

Another project completed this morning, this time it is a card. I used the IndigoBlu Antique Songbird stamp, stamped it on white cardstock with Galaxy Gold, Elderberry and summer sky dew drops and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. It was hard to see the blue on the stamp so there is only a tiny bit of blue but I rather like the effect. The image was then coloured with Antique Linen distress marker and  mounted on purple card. I quite liked it at that point but there was something missing so I added the silk flowers joined together with a white brad and stuck on with Pinflair glue.

I hope you are enjoying what's left of Sunday and if you get a minute, go check out Alison Bomber's blog, Words and Pictures where she has posted a particularly amazing vintage tag project and in celebration of her one year blog anniversary she has Blogaversary Candy to give away if you leave a comment. Good luck!

Tando Frames

Just a quick post for today's project which I started last weekend and finished off this afternoon.

This is a Tando Creative Hexagonal Frame painted with Fresco paint in sky blue and then on top was a layer of Kroma Crackle mixed with a tiny bit of poppy Fresco acrylic paint. I left the frame for 24 hours for the crackle effect to happen and I am impressed. Its great to use, you layer it on thickly and it finds its own level then when it dries it cracks nicely to show the blue in the background.

The flowers are from JOFY 11 (PaperArtsy) and painted with poppy, eggplant and hey pesto acrylic paint. 

Lynne Perrella Fan

I've had a busy Sunday, the morning spent catching up on jobs around the house and the afternoon catching up on unfinished projects.
Using one of the new oriental Lynne Perella PaperArtsy stamp plates and one of the new Tando Creative fan kits, this is the result of my playing. I saw similar demo'd last weekend at the Craft Barn by Karen Gist and was itching to have a go.

Materials:

Tando Creative ORIENTFAN2 - using the medium sized fan

Lynne Perrella Collection LPC021

PaperArtsy Fresco finish acrylic paints : Squid ink and pansy

Crafty Individuals crackle background stamp

Ranger Perfect pearls : Gold, Cosmic Shimmer : Marine Aqua

Memento Dew drop dye ink : Elderberry and Brilliance Dew drop pigment ink : Galaxy Gold

Black archival ink and ultra fine embossing powder

The background is painted with pansy fresco finish acrylic paint and stamped with the crackle stamp using purple and gold. The frame is painted with the squid ink arcrylic paint, ooh, lovely colour.

I stamped the oriental lady image three times on white card (well, 4 actually in case I messed up and I did mess up) and heat embossed using the ultra fine embossing powder. Then the images were painted with cosmic shimmer mica pigment and gold perfect pearls. Then the tricky bit, I drew around the part of the images I wanted to use with a pencil using the frame of the fan as a stencil, cut them out and stuck them to the background. I used Pinflair Foto-Glue as its repositionable and this does require a bit of fiddling to get them all lined up as the frame is quite thin and doesn't leave a lot of room for error. 

The frame was stuck on with Mod Podge, I couldn't think what else to use so popped a heavy book on top of it and left it alone for an hour or so. That worked, all stuck firmly together.

I really enjoyed making this and I've another one waiting to be decorated in the pack, a smaller one. I'm thinking it needs some of those flowers in it .... you know the ones I mean.

Seaside Twinchie

The Show us your Twinchies June challenge theme is Summer at the Seaside, I love seaside themes and decided to go with beach huts. Here is my entry :

The images are elements from Crafty Individuals CI -278. The seagulls are stamped with versamark and then   two blue chalks used over the background, the different blues are so subtle they don't show in the photo. The beach huts overstamped in black archival and coloured with promarkers. All mounted on a 2 by 2 inch piece of turquoise card.

Happy Saturday.

Craft Barn Extravaganza

What an excellent weekend. I went to the Craft Barn Extravaganza yesterday and already knew I was going to treat myself to some new stamps as the new series of JOFY stamps from PaperArtsy were being launched this weekend. The demonstrators were mainly using PaperArsty products but thats OK by me, I love them.
We had a good chat with Karen Gist about the new Tando Creative products including a lovely fan that she was using for her demo. I got one and have been playing with it this afternoon but its still work in progress. Of course my favourite things at the moment are the JOFY stamps by Jo Firth-Young so I treated myself to two new minis and a large plate. I've been playing with those this afternoon as well. I think I have 5 projects on the go at the moment but here is a simple birthday card that I have completed using JM21 and text from one of my other plates..

The fuschias are coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils and then blended using water and a paintbrush and then mounted on a fuschia pink square card. I love these images, they are quirky and so much fun to work with.

Here are my photos of a couple of the demonstrators' displays: 

Jo Firth-Young

Kay Carley

Its really interesting seeing the other demonstrators' different styles using the same stamps. Perhaps one day I will get a style but for now I like experimenting, sometimes clean and simple, sometimes inky and messy and sometimes I don't know what but whatever it is I am doing I'm loving it and having loads of fun.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Julia x

Demos and Inspiration

I so enjoy going along to these demo days that our local craft shops run. It is such a good day out and you come away brain loaded with inspiration and maybe a few new things to add to the stash.
On Sunday I went to The Glitter Pot near Burgess Hill with a friend, we didn't know about the demo days at the weekend until I happened to notice a blog posting from Imagination Crafts mentioning that they would be there. So, a quick bit of organisation, like who picks up who and who is driving and off we went. The Imagination Crafts stencils are so nice and they have brought out some thicker ones that you can use for embossing with a 6x6 embossing mat, interesting.

Fab demo from Kay for IndigoBlu and I resisted buying the Kroma Crackle which was stupid because I think I want some of that, yes, I do want some of that! Kay was amazing, she showed us a demo of the flitter glue and mega flakes then did a one on one for my friend to try it, how kind.

One of the demonstrators was from Hobby Art and she showed us a quick card using some of the elements from the Butterfly Kisses set "Old Crock", a lovely image of an old car. So, I bought the set and Monday morning I had a go. This is the card I made:

Materials and recipe:

Butterfly Kisses stamp set - Old Crock BK-HA008

Background coloured with distress ink, shabby shutters, tumbled glass and edged with vintage photo.

The branches and foliage are first and second generation stamping, I used an old green marker pen.

The car image was coloured with Promarkers.

Mounted on pale turquoise card from Craftwork Cards.

Just as well we had a Bank Holiday on Monday so I had a chance to play. 

Watercolour Paper

The free stamp on the Craft Stamper magazine this month is a JOFY design from PaperArtsy and its a lovely one. I tried it out stamping on watercolour paper and then used distress markers to colour it, nice result on the watercolour paper.

I am entering this one in the new Twinchie blog challenge where the theme is "Free for All" although Zoe from the design team already used the same image, mine uses the technique from the magazine and I wanted to try using the distress on watercolour paper.  I really love this little stamp and I can see I am going to use it a lot. 

What a lovely bank holiday weekend its been so far, what a difference a bit of sunshine makes. Hope you are enjoying your Sunday wherever you are. 

Doodles

Zentangles are structured patterns, drawn by hand and usually filling in white space. Some people describe it as doodling. Doodles are unfocused, sometimes unconscious drawings which doesn't quite fit with structured patterns but the patterns themselves are often unplanned, at least they are for me. This card started off as an experiment with a Dreamweaver stencil of a cat. I just decided he might look good with zentangle patterns and was quite pleased with the results so made it into a card. I left it black and white as black cats are supposed to be lucky and mounted it on red textured cardstock just to get a little pop of colour.

Materials :

Dreamweaver Stencil LL3020

Sakura Black Micron pen

Ribbon and cardstock from stash

Good Luck die cut sentiment from Craftwork Cards

The Less is More Challenge for week 120 is a theme, the cue card is Cats and/or Dogs so I shall enter this one for that challenge. Lets see if anyone likes it.

Poppy Scene

Wow! It did not rain today after all so I went out for a wander around Borde Hill Gardens, a gem of a place in West Sussex with a particularly nice little art gallery and a great tea room. I just had to share this photo of a poppy I saw today, the blue was stunning.

So on to the artwork. Yesterday I was playing with my Hobby Art Poppy Scene-it set (CS044D). The design for this card isn't entirely my own work as its loosely based on something I saw at The Craft Barn last time I visited. The example I saw had a scene framed with poppies around it so I wanted to have a go at something similar. My scene and poppies are coloured with promarkers and the poppies and leaves cut out and added to the frame. All mounted on red cardstock embossed with a Cuttlebug flower embossing folder.

Having seen the blue poppies today, I think I need to try something in blue.

Hope you are all having a great weekend and a big thank you to all those who comment on my posts, means a lot to me.

Floral Tiles

Maybe its because it is Springtime but I'm in a floral mood at the moment. I was experimenting with Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Thick Embossing Crystals, I love the effect you get layering them up, very satisfying to see them melt.

Stamp : Penny Black Slapstick Cling - Mosaic

Coloured with Promarkers, cut into four and embossed with the UTE crystals (3 layers), mounted on black card and then arranged on gold sparkle paper.

The birthday circle is a die cut sentiment from Craftwork Cards.

I'm wondering what else I can do with this stamp, perhaps something monotone with one of the flowers highlighted in colour or maybe stamp it with various distress inks and use it as a background for something vintage. When I first got this one in a sale I wasn't sure what to do with it but as always when you use something for the first time other ideas come to mind.

For Those in Peril ......

I've missed a few months of the Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013 but having a few days off work this week I had a go at the May technique using rub ons. I'm not keen on them but had a sheet of vintage nautical images that I bought years ago and never used so they were ideal to use to try out the technique that Tim descibes this month. Details are on his blog so I won't repeat them here.

Its as well the tag should be inspired by Tim's example as I had none of the materials used except distress stains and ink. So, the main image is from a PaperArtsy set, the rub-ons represent the sea and in particular fishermen. I didn't think the film strip tape suited the theme of my tag so I used rope instead. The distress stain colours I used were Stormy Sky, peeled paint, dried marigold and shabby shutters.

Here is my tag:

I have a number of ancestors who were seafaring folk, including my Great Grandfather who was a fisherman and a volunteer lifeboat man so it was nice to do this tag with him in mind.

All the best,

Julia