In the Kitchen

I saw the Craft Barn two weekly challenge theme whilst I was away visiting my Mum and had lots of ideas I wanted to try but having no supplies I had to wait until I returned. The theme is "All Around the House" so I decided on a kitchen themed card.

The background is stamped using a square cut off a kitchen sponge, a technique that gives you a lovely textured effect when used with paint. The background reminded me of kitchen tiles although the colours are deliberately random.

Paints used : 

Paperartsy Fresco Finish chalk paints - Granny Smith, Professor Plum and Captain Peacock.

Stamps by Marianne Designs

I would like to enter this in the Craft Barn challenge for this fortnight. I've not entered this challenge for a while, mainly due to lack of time but this challenge was just so inspiring and I really enjoyed it.

I'm off to take a look at what other people have done now and will be back soon.

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : O

It was Sunday morning and I spotted the next letter for the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary challenge was the letter O. I really only had Sunday to complete my page as I will be away next weekend and I didn't want to miss the deadline for any of these challenges. Thumbing through the pages of the dictionary I came across ornithology, a perfect word to showcase some of my Tim Holtz stamps.

Stamps used :
Nature Walk CMS181 from Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection.
Coloured with inktense watercolour pencils and a bit of tumbled glass distress ink for the egg.

This is a simple and quick one but I do like those TH stamps so a great opportunity to use them.

A big thank you to all of you who comment on my pages, I really do appreciate it and it encourages me to carry on. I really am enjoying this project.

Playtime with Paperartsy

It rained yesterday but rain does not stop play does it. A great excuse to catch up on jobs around the house and take some time out to play in my craft room.

My new set of Lin Brown stamps arrived in the week. As soon as I saw this release I knew I could not resist so purchased ELB30.

They are on the Paperartsy blog here:

http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/2016/08/new-pa-products-by-lin-brown.html

Inspired by Lin's example, I pretty much copied the style and design to get me into the mood. I wanted the panel to end up on a card so adapted it a bit and left some elements out as my panel was smaller than the grass stamp. It is big and begging to end up on a canvas.

This set is just delicious, apart from the grasses all the other little elements are so useful. I love that leaf in particular. 

I hate to waste paint so having used a bit of cut up kitchen sponge to apply the paint through my stencil, I pounced it all over a piece of white cardstock I had lying about on my desk and rubbed the excess paint through my stencil and got a pretty interesting background. The panel was small, approx. 6 x 4 inches so the same skeleton leaf and poem text fit but I needed a focal image.

I found the very first Lin Brown set I ever bought, the one with the lovely lino cut style flowers on it, and added that flower. I'm pleased with the result, here it is:

Materials used:

Paperartsy Stamp sets ELB30, ELB03

Ranger archival Ink : Jet Black, Cornflower Blue

Fresco Finish Chalk Paints : Lilac, Pansy, Sky Blue, Sage, Hey Pesto

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : H

H is for Holly. That is the word I have chose for the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary challenge this time.

H was one of the easier letters, so many possibilities.
The stamp is from Woodware and it has been coloured with inktense watercolour pencils as usual but with some Wink of Stella on top. The sparkle is subtle so does not photograph well.

Hope those of you in the UK are enjoying the August Bank Holiday if you have the day off. I am off out now for a wander in the sunshine.

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : Z

The alpha dictionary challenge this time is Z with a pearl. Just a little pearly twist this time, hmmm, well I didn't want to just stick a pearl somewhere on the page because the dictionary pages are so flimsy so I had no choice, I had to draw one.

I chose Zircon for my Z word and thanks to a bit of brainstorming with my pal over lunch in the office, I have opted for jewellery theme. Zircon is a gemstone (not to be confused with cubic zirconia which is a man-made crystal), often used to simulate diamond but comes in many colours, the most popular for jewellery being blue.

I used only one stamp on this page, the gemstone from a Lynne Perrella set. I drew the beads for the necklace and the shell with the pearl inside. Actually it looks a bit fat, more like a flower, it is a bit puffy. Ha! It was good fun to do and I probably should have drawn it in pencil first but you live and learn! From a distance the page looks a bit like a face, actually, the more I look at the page the more I am thinking this is not my best effort so will try to do better next time.

Have fun everyone,

Catch you later. x

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : C

I am still managing to keep up with the alpha/dictionary challenge at the Craft Barn even though each two weeks seem to fly by.
For the letter "C" I chose Circus. The circus reminds me of childhood summers and one in particular when my Gran took me to one which was closed. I never got to see a show, I'm not even sure I particularly would have wanted to. Here is my offering:

The stamps I used were from an Andy Skinner set and the images water coloured with inktense pencils as usual.

I hope to write more next time but for now, have fun in the sun.

Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : N

Here is my offering for the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary challenge. The letter this time is N so I chose Nautical, another one of my favourite themes - oh, I know, I have loads of favourites.

Stamps used : Kanban
Watercoloured with Inktense pencils.

There are other nautical theme words beginning with N, like navigate and navy but I chose nautical because it is more generic and for practical reasons, it appears in a good position on the dictionary page.

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
Sea Fever : John Masefield