Clean and Simple Christmas

A clean and simple Christmas card for you today using Darcy's stag from PaperArtsy (EDY16).

This is a 5" by 5" card, the background kraft card is embossed with snowflakes and Christmas words from one of Tim Holtz 2017 stamp sets are around the border. It wasn't that quick to make as I had to fussy cut the stag after I had coloured him with Copics but there is no inky, painty business going on so nothing to clean up afterwards.

This will probably be my last post before Christmas so wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for the festive season.

Festive Overlays

More Christmas cards have been made in super quick time thanks to Tim Holtz 2018 Holiday Hacks YouTube video inspiration. Here is the video if you have not seen it :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6UI-lKvOl4

My cards, all stamped with Distress ink (not oxides);

I've also used the same stamps for some other designs which are my own, here is one example;

The small holly branch makes a nice background but the interesting thing with this one was the blue that comes out in the stamping when you use frayed burlap distress oxide. I think my stamp was slightly damp when I stamped with it as it had been cleaned previously with a baby wipe.

This is a great set, probably my favourite of the 2018 TH Christmas release.

The Country View Challenge theme for December is Christmas so I would like to enter my stag Christmas card in that challenge.

Stencil Trees

I am sharing a quick post today of two little Christmas cards I have made using the Tim Holtz shifter tree layering stencil.

Tim Holtz Stencil THS113

The sentiment is from Festive Overlay CMS357 by Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection.

The trees on the right are using Tumbled Glass and Evergreen Bough Distress Oxides and on the left, Peeled Paint and Cracked Pistachio.

I have made quite a lot of Christmas cards this year, if I get the time I will post some more.

Bye for now.

2018 Topic 19 : Tissue Paper

For the PaperArtsy challenge this time, the topic is tissue paper. Lots of options with this topic and I have chosen to use bleeding art tissue. Here is the challenge link with the inspiration:  PaperArtsy Topic 19 : Tissue Paper

My completed entry is a card but when I started playing I wasn't entirely sure where I was going with this.
Here is the card using the bleeding art tissue technique for the background and stamped tissue paper flowers.

I used my new stamps that I got with my win for topic 17 the other week: JOFY 62.

I started by die cutting lots of hexagons from tissue paper, arranged them on the watercolour card and painted them with water.

See how the colours bleed into one another, isn't it lovely.  At this point I had to walk away and not be tempted to peep. I think I left it for about 20 minutes. Then I peeled off the tissue when it was dry. This is the result :

The colours have bled into one another but still we see the hexagon shapes. This is a good technique for backgrounds.

I stamped the JOFY flowers onto some book pages and cut them out and also stamped the flowers on white tissue. They were applied to the card with Mod Podge. I finished it off with a bit of doodling with a gold pen and mounted it on the card.

I hope you like this one.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post, I really appreciate those comments.

Bye for now.

2018 Topic 17 : Colour - A Box of Eggs

The latest PaperArtsy challenge is a colour challenge which is always fun. Here is the link:
2018 Topic 17 : Colour - A Box of Eggs

There are many colours of eggs so I picked a few pastel colours from my Fresco paint stash and made a postcard. During the week I was stuck in traffic going home one night after work so that was a good opportunity to think up some ideas as I was going nowhere fast that night. I had several ideas and if I get time I will do them, strangely, this postcard was not one of them. This little project was just to get in the mood.
The photo looks darker than the postcard actually is as it is a grey rainy day today, perfect for doing craft projects though.

Stamps used;

PaperArtsy ESC01 and ESC04 by Scrapcosy

Fresco Paints;

Ice Blue, Sage, Seaglass, Vintage Lace, Concrete

Ink;

Watering Can archival ink and Limestone dye ink (Altenew)

One Cup at a Time

PaperArtsy Challenge Topic 15 : Artist Trading Coins

I like this challenge because I like artist trading coins and you can pretty much do anything that takes your fancy as long as the coins are 2.5 inches in diameter. Click on the linked title to go to the PaperArtsy blog and see the great selection of inspiration posted there.

Here are my tea themed artist trading coins using the lovely Scrapcosy tea stamps from ESC16.

Materials used:
Fresco Paints : Peach Nectar (the new Courtney Franich paint), Concrete, Vintage Lace (not the new Courtney paint, it is a very old one, one of my first purchases. I wonder if it is exactly the same as the new one).
Stamps : PaperArtsy Eclectica ESC16 by Scrapcosy
Watering Can archival ink

Have a good week everybody x

#scrapcosy

Time for Tea

I have new toys to play with and it rains at last outside so I have an excuse to play all day.
I made a tag just to get into the mood although I have already way to many ideas for using my new Scrapcosy stamps from PaperArtsy. The trouble with too many ideas is that I mess around and don't actually produce anything for ages. I want to make a mini book, some cards, ATCs, a canvas and more but there are just not enough spare hours so I will exercise some control ... for now.

The first thing I wanted to do is enter the PaperArtsy Challenge #13 : Colour - Mint, Sage, Claret and Gold. That is a colour combination that works really well for vintage designs.
Here is my tea themed tag :

I used images from the new release stamp set ESC16 by Scrapcosy, the new Seaglass Fresco paint for the background and infusions to colour the images mixed with matte glaze. The lace and word cloud are stamped and embossed with WOW metallic brass sparkle and the spoon has metallic glaze on it to make it shiny.

The cup was stamped on smooth stamping card which had a pale blue wash of stormy sky oxide so it is not a stark white. All the images were fussy cut and the cup mounted with some foam pads to give it dimension.

So the tag ended up as a clean vintage design rather than the more grungy vintage that I originally had in mind but I am quite pleased with it. Seriously, those stamps are so good I reckon you can do anything in any style with them and get a good result.

A close up of the word cloud and don't you think that postage stamp is cute.

OK, that's me done for today. I'm off to make some tea. x

Artist Trading Coins

The hot weather is getting to me, making me lethargic. To get motivated to do something, I watched a couple of YouTube videos today hoping to get a bit of inspiration. I'm never disappointed, there is so much talent out there.

I found a great demo/tutorial by Mike Deakin for Artist Trading Coins (AT Coins), a new trend in miniature works of art which I had not tried until today.
Here is the link to Mike's blog with the video embedded:
https://mikedeakinart.com/other-mixed-media/snippits-artist-trading-coins/

I pretty much followed the tutorial but I used Fresco paints for my backgrounds. These are fun to make and a good size for experiments too. I like to make small things. The coins are 2.5 inches in diameter.

Here are my coins :

Ingredients I used:

Paperartsy Fresco Paints 

Tim Holtz Paper Dolls

Tim Holtz Big Chat stickers

Potting soil archival ink

Happy Sunday everyone. x

Lino Cut Hares

A quick post today as it has been some time since I shared anything on my blog. I have been lost.
This is a card I made using Hobby Art Lino Cut Hares clear stamp set CS208D.

An easy card as it just required a bit of masking and stamping and colouring with Copic pens.
Happy July everybody x

Paper Dolls

PaperArtsy challenge Topic 10 : Paper Dolls

I just love these Tim Holtz paper dolls. Each character fires up my imagination. Who are they? What are they thinking?
These two are all dressed up but tough, serious little girls. I sent them out into the early summer woodland where there are foxgloves, butterflies and the sounds of birds singing.

Here is my small canvas for the challenge;

Ingredients.

Rubber Stamps : PaperArtsy EKC08 by Kay Carley

Fresco Paints :  Glacier blue, Venice blue, Spanish mulberry and Steel grey. 

Washi tape

Tim Holtz paper dolls

Tim Holtz paper punch butterfly

Happy weekend everybody x

Vintage Neutrals

PaperArtsy challenge Topic 9 : Vintage Neutrals.

A great topic and some fabulous inspiration on the PaperArtsy blog. For my project I decided on a tag and my inspiration was Alison Bomber's beautiful tag which you can see under the above link.
My tag is nothing like Alison's apart from using Tim Holtz paper dolls for the focal image. I have used one of Alison's lovely quotes from the Dreaming and Doing set (Eclectica EAB07).

I started with a painted background with Chutney and Tikka Fresco paint which looked too dark so I knocked it back with some watered down gesso. Still too dark so I dry brushed chalk fresco paint on top of that. Then I used a Kay Carley stencil (PS061) to add some leaf fronds. The paint I used was Irish Cream.

I tried a bit of crackle glaze which worked a little but not very well, I will need to practice.

I added some flowers from ESC03 by Scrapcosy stamped with watering can archival ink and stamped the quote on a Tim Holtz die cut wood plank which I had painted with chalk and white fire paint. A couple of brads and a button to finish it off.

The photo looks a bit blue, that's the photography, there is no blue on my tag!

A great topic again and a chance to use some paper dolls. I am quite pleased with this one.

Handmade Matchbox

PaperArtsy Challenge Topic 8 : Boxes.

Last weekend when I saw the PaperArtsy challenge inspiration, the example that caught my eye was the matchbox art. I have never tried making a box so retrieved my old envelope punch board that has been gathering dust on the shelf and searched the internet for instructions to make a matchbox. I found a good one and made a test box out of kraft card. The test box worked so became my final box.

Here is the You Tube video I found:
http://www.ddstamps.com/dd_stamps/2013/12/another-box-using-the-stampin-up-envelope-punch-board.html
Thanks to Diane Dimich for the instructions.


I decorated my box with Jofy images from stamp sets 13 and 24, stamped directly onto the box and stamped onto old book pages. What to put in the box? Well, it is always useful to have a few gift tags to pop on presents so I made three matching gift tags.

Here is my matchbox project.

I decorated the inside of the box.

.... a view of the front of the match box.

.... and the three tags.

That project was a good way to relax after spending the morning tackling the wilderness that is my garden on such a hot day. 

Until next time, have a great weekend everybody. x

Crafting with Kraft : PaperArtsy Topic 7

Kraft card is so versatile and I really like the natural effects you can achieve using it. For the latest PaperArtsy Challenge we use Kraft card as the base. 

The PaperArtsy challenge blog for Topic 7 : Kraft Card has many inspirational ideas for using Kraft card.

I wanted to use a stencil for texture on my card and I was thinking leaves. I really like black and white on Kraft but to add some colour to the composition I decided to experiment with texture paste mixed with paint. Then I tried texture paste with infusions (Emerald Isle) and really liked the result.

Here are the experiments:

On the left is the texture paste applied through a stencil, sprinkled with infusions and a quick spritz of water. I really like that effect. The middle panel is a mop-up of the texture paste left of the stencil mixed with the infusions. The panel on the right is mermaid Fresco paint mixed with texture paste and applied to the stencil. 

I stamped some leaves on Kraft card and cut them out. After arranging them on the panels I ended up with two cards. I think I know which one I like best.

PaperArtsy Stencil PS090 by Sara Naumann

Leaves and Wish sentiment from PaperArtsy ELB29 by Lin Brown

Quote on the second card from PaperArtsy EAB04 by Alison Bomber

Kraft card as a base material works for me for CAS cards so I prefer the Wish card with the bright mermaid texture paste but I am pleased with the effect of the infusions so will use that again maybe with a mixed media project.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has done for this challenge. x

Bunting and Banners

The topic this fortnight for the 2018 PaperArtsy Topic 6 is Bunting and Banners.
I was in the mood for a bit of collage and paper cutting so I have made this card.

Stamps used for this project :
PA Eclectica ELB14 by Lin Brown
It was nice to get that set out again, I've always liked that one.

Lots of stamping of windows, doors, bricks and bunting on some paper from my stash by Studio Light. Then lots of cutting out and re-assembling the house. It took hours, I spent ages fiddling with those tiny pieces until I was happy. This is a great way to use up all those pieces of paper you keep because you like them or those paper pads you bought and stored away and forgot about.

Tim Holtz Birch and Pine CMS280 stamp was used for the background, stamped on white card with Vintage Photo distress oxide ink.

I die cut the letters for "HOME" and added them to my banners and used a Tim Holtz paper punch for the folded circles on the bunting (a scrap of TH paper that I couldn't bear to throw away was just enough for these and they matched).

The panel was then mounted on Kraft card.
As it was a home themed card I felt I should photograph it in my home and guess what, it matches my new vertical blinds, this pleases me a lot.

Bye x

I'm a flip-flop kind of girl

I am sharing a little tag today that I made with my new Tim Holtz side order dies and mini embossing folder. The idea is based on what I saw in one of Tim's YouTube videos.
I really like these little sets but the dies are tiny, very tiny. Fortunately I have tiny fingers and love miniature things so this worked for me.

Here is my tag :

Have a great week everybody x

PaperArtsy Topic 5 : Nautical Colours

A wet bank holiday Friday is a good excuse to play in my craft room and catch up with projects I want to do.
The theme for the PaperArtsy Challenge Topic 5 is Nautical Colours and the inspiration on their blog is particularly good again. I was away last weekend so had thinking time but no craft stash with me to start work on this one but I did have several ideas. Strangely, I did not use any of those ideas. I had planned on making a tag but I have ended up with a card using my Scrapcosy sea life stamps from PaperArtsy (ESC10 and ESC12).

I started by making a Gelli print background using Adirondak dye ink : Pool, Denim and Stonewash applied with a brayer. Then I stamped one of the Scrapcosy images in red geranium archival ink and took the print. I added some water with my fingers to bleach out some of the dye ink to make bubbles which were later doodled with a white pen.

The seahorse and shell were stamped and embossed with white Wow embossing powder and painted with a little bit of gold Fresco paint. To finish it off, I used a Woodware stencil around the edges to add some gold embossing powder (metallic brass sparkle by Wow) and stamped and embossed some words. A small gem was added for the seahorse's eye.
All mounted on red and blue cardstock and a 7" by 7" white card.

Here is a close up of the seahorse :

These are such detailed stamps that I thought the embossing might lose that detail but not so, it looks quite nice in natural light as it is shiny.

Happy Easter everybody x

A Postcard Adventure

The challenge on the Country View Crafts Challenge blog for March is Postcards (6x4).
A postcard should have a message so I thought my message would be one of the quotes from the new Tim Holtz Theories stamp set that I purchased recently :
"Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures". I like that quote a lot.

Here is my entry for the March challenge:

I used Distress oxides for the background : Vintage Photo, Fossilised Amber and Candied Apple.
Stamps used :
Tim Holtz : Theories CMS329 and Ornate Trims CMS326.
White dots added with a white gel pen.

I really like the sketchy, grungy silhouettes on the Theories set as well as the quotes and the Ornate Trims set is going to be ever so useful I think.
I am off to play some more.

Have a good week everybody x

Friends in the Garden

PaperArtsy Challenge Blog Topic 4 : Whimsical.

I like the definitions of whimsical, a couple of the dictionary definitions popped out : "playful" and "odd" as well as optimism, hope and innocence. All good words that put you in a happy place.

For this challenge I used a mixture of Jofy and Kay Carley stamps on the same panel which I mounted on a card.

I started with a painted background (Captain Peacock) and stencilled circles in Teresa Green. 

Then stamped Kay's flowers and grasses and added some coloured details using white and dark pink Graphik paint pens. The faces are coloured with Promarks, cut out and added to the flowers. I finished it off with a few small flowers and a butterfly.

Ingredients :

PaperArtsy Eclectica EKC02 by Kay Carley

PaperArtsy Jofy 42

Fresco Paints from FFPA1 Limited Edition : Captain Peacock, Teresa Green and Granny Smith.

I have been having a think about what to do for this challenge all week and the finished result above is miles away from my original idea. Maybe I'll do another one.

I hope you like my little friends in the garden.

Happy Weekend everyone. x

Watercolours

We are not under the sea this week although I was tempted to enter the PaperArtsy challenge with yet another nautical project. The theme for Topic 3 is watercolours.
I had great fun watching YouTube videos so decided to have a go at using watercolour paints as I have a small travel sized tin of them.

I started off playing with a couple of techniques just to experiment.

I rather liked the cling film effect. I've used that in the past with acrylic paint but never watercolours, interesting texture, I like it.

So using a piece of watercolour card I taped it to a craft mat and applied some paint. Then scrunched up some cling film and laid it on top.

I wasn't sure how long to leave it but walked away for a bit, removed the cling film and dried it off with a heat gun. I was quite pleased with that background.

I decided it needed something bold for the focal image so I used a stencil with glitter paste. The stencil is PaperArtsy PS090 by Sara Naumann.

The sentiment is from PA Eclectica ELB29 by Lin Brown which I thought fit with the little birds sitting on the wire.

OK, that's it for today, I'm off to enter this one into the challenge and see what others have done.

Bye x

The Sea .... Again

This afternoon's playtime began with some Gelli prints. I wanted to make some backgrounds for my fish and sea creatures. I didn't really know where I was going with this when I started but I have ended up with three postcards.

I used Distress Ink applied to the gelli plate with a brayer, no oxides this time as I wanted a translucent look.
Tumbled Glass, Mermaid Lagoon, Milled Lavender and Dusty Concorde.
Then I stamped the seaweed and fish from PaperArtsy Eclectica ESC10 using Blue Violet and Cornflower Blue archival ink and took a print.
One of the panels has a moon. OK, no moon under the sea but we will call it a reflection I think.

Then I used black Versafine ink to stamp sea creatures and shells on the panels. I used some scrap card to stamp the words and coloured the letters with Distress markers, cut them out and stuck them on. Then I trimmed the panels and added some Dusty Concorde ink around the edges to finish them off.

Here are the three postcards.

I don't think I will ever tire of playing with my PA Scrapcosy sea themed stamps. 

PaperArtsy 2018 Topic 2 : New Seth Apter Fresco Paint

I am still feeling chuffed to bits after my win for Topic 1, the apron arrived and it is fabulous. I encourage you all to join in for a chance to win one.

Now for Topic 2, I don't have any of the new Seth Apter Fresco Paint, but I will get some, oh yes, aren't they lovely. Fortunately for the PaperArtsy Topic 2 Challenge we can use any Fresco paint and I have quite a selection now. I used some of my older ones for this month's offering which is a tag.

Fresco Paint applied to the background using a brayer and an old credit card : Irish Cream, Cinnamon and Chalk.
The door is from PA Hot Picks HP1601EZ, stamped in black archival ink and painted with Irish Cream, Cinnamon and Brown Shed.
The numbers, small doors and words are from HP1605EZ.

Always good fun using paint and stamps, I really enjoyed doing this month's challenge.

Victory

When I saw the new PapaerArtsy releases by Scrapcosy I knew I had to order the ship stamp plate, that ship reminds me of HMS Victory and maybe it is an image of the Victory. 

I played with a few techniques on these two cards and ended up with two similar but different results, one stormy vintage style and the other on a brighter day.

I tried out stencil bumping for the lettering but I used vintage photo distress oxide ink rather than archival ink, the result was quite weird but pleasing. The texture paste I used (Deco Art texture paste) reacted with the distress ink and the colour was absorbed into the paste. I quite like it. Here's a close up. It looks almost like wax in daylight.

The backgrounds for both panels which I have mounted onto cards are a mix of blues from the PaperArtsy Fresco range : Ice Blue, China Blue and Midnight. There is much more Midnight on the stormy version which is also edged with vintage photo distress oxide ink.

I found an old pot of Pinflair glitter paste in copper which I used for the screw heads. I am quite pleased with the rusty look of those.

The ship needed to be painted in HMS Victory colours so I used Nougat for the sails and Pumpkin Soup for the body of the ship. Here is photo of the Victory taken when I visited the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in 2015.

Here is the brighter version of my ship panel;

The images are stamped in black versafine this time. To get the detail of the sails and rigging I used my Tim Holtz stamp platform. I stamped the ship once, then painted the sails and body of the ship then stamped over it again so that the details can be seen. This is an easy way to paint these vintage images, especially when using opaque paints.

A close up;

I have a few more ideas for this stamp set but I have run out of weekend again! Hopefully I will get some more playtime next weekend.

Stamps used : PaperArtsy Eclectica by Scrapcosy ESC11

Stencil : PS094

Under the Sea Take Two

Continuing with the underwater theme from last week, my new PaperArtsy Scrapcosy stamps arrived in the week. Here are the results of today's experiments.

All stamped images are from PaperArtsy Eclectica by Scrapcosy ESC10.
The background is made using Distress Oxides and images stamped with watering can archival ink.
The fish have been stamped with Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink, painted with white fire Fresco paint and cut out. There is some oxide ink in the mix on the darker fish which was stamped with archival ink.
The white fire paint makes them look shimmery, here's a close up;

Carrying on with the fish because they are great fun to work with, I made a couple of little cards.

They are small 4" by 4" cards. The images are stamped with black versafine ink this time with glossy accents on their eyes. 

Finally, an experiment with a watercolour effect. These fish were second generation stamping spritzed with water (faded jeans distress oxide again). I cut it down to ATC size.

Go see Raquel's beautiful examples and inspiration on the PaperArtsy blog for this release, I loved playing with these fish.

http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/2018/01/new-paperartsy-products-scrapcosy-jan.html

Under the Sea

It's time to post a little canvas I started last weekend and completed this morning. This one was inspired by Mike Deakin's YouTube video tutorial for IndigoBlu;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZKvmBtcyrQ

My canvas is 5" by 7"

I used texture paste through my PaperArtsy stencil PS030 by Darcy Wilkinson for the underwater flora. Then painted the canvas with IndigoBlu luscious pigments mixed with water (green, aqua and blue). I bought those a while ago to try so only have three colours but they are perfect for a shimmery underwater background. As advertised, they are packed with pigment so those little pots are going to last a long time.

Stamps used :

IndigoBlu collector's edition 1 bubbles and 12 seahorse.

There are splashes of white gesso on there too.

The pair of seahorses were coloured with a Promarker I found in my stash called starfish, another sea themed word. I cut them out, stuck them on the canvas with cosmic shimmer glue and added some adhesive pearls (Mike's idea in the video, I liked that).

Here's a close up;

I love doing nautical themed crafting so had great fun with this one. I hope you like it.

Vintage Rose ATCs

ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) is the topic for the PaperArtsy blog challenge for January. Go check out the inspirational examples posted there.

I love making these miniatures as they are a great way to try out techniques and new stamp sets. I was given the PaperArtsy Vintage Rose set of stamps by Scrapcosy for my birthday in December so I chose to use them for my ATC entry.

I made a set of three. The backgrounds are painted with Fresco paints, the beautiful images stamped with black versafine ink and then I painted them with infusions mixed with metallic glaze. The smaller butterfly was painted, cut out and mounted on foam pads to add a little dimension to the middle ATC.

Stamp set : PaperArtsy ESC04 by Scrapcosy
Fresco Paints : Chalk, Mud Splat, Key Lime and Gold.
Infusions : Rusty Hinge, The Sage, Golden Sands
Metallic Glaze

A great topic for the challenge which has renewed my interest in ATCs.
I hope you like them.

Happy New Year

A rainy New Year's Day was a great opportunity to play with some of my new toys that I received for Christmas. Here are two simple birthday cards made positive and negative using the stars die by Pete Hughes from Sizzix :

Wishing you all a very Happy arty, crafty 2018 x