Playing with Tree stencils and colour sprays

Hi There! It has been over a week since my last post - I blame the person who stole the weekend! I have no idea where it went at all! I had a little play with some tree stencils (Thanks, Brenda!) and colour sprays a week or two ago and here are the results

 The one above was on navy card using clear embossing paste and  sprays with Mica, and the one below uses imagination crafts sparkle medium.

 Finally I used Grunge paste over card sprayed with Adirondack colour sprays and water. When it was dry I sanded it until smooth

The sentiments are all from Inkylicious. Thanks for looking!

Wings, fantasy and fiction at Stamping Sensations

This Month at Stamping Sensations we have a theme of Wings, Fantasy and Fiction. I had a big pile of paper coloured with a mixture of sprays - Dylusions, Adirondack Colour washes and Crafty Notions creative colour sprays. These seemed the perfect backdrop to some butterflies and a lovely sentiment from Inkylicious. Stamps in the background are also from inkylicious  stamped in Brilliance Starlight Black.

This month we are being sponsored by Crafty Devils, and this is the wonderful prize they are offering.

Just think of all the super goodies you could get with that! Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fabulous inspiration from my lovely teamies. I am really looking forward to seeing all your fabulous creations. Thanks for looking!

Steve's Birthday card

It was Steve's Birthday yesterday, so here is the card I made him. He loves Ducks, so this Crafty Individuals stamp was a must buy! I stamped it in archival black on silk art card and coloured with distress markers and dusted with distress inks. The background paper on the base card was sprayed with a combination of Adirondack, dylusions and crafty notions sprays. I stamped the grass (inkylicious) with Memento Olive Grove and put faux stitching round the edge with a Gelly Roll pen. I'm taking this to Di's snippet playground as the mulberry paper and the sentiment circle were snippets from my snippet mountain, as was the silk art card that the main image was stamped on.
 Hope you are all managing to stay warm and dry. Here it has rained rather a lot (no playtimes at all today!) and we had some decent sized snowflakes a couple of times, but nothing settled, much to my classes annoyance! Right, better go and get on. I've had a headache for a couple of days and I think only good sleep will cure it, so I am having an early night.
Thanks for looking!

A sneak peek and True blue

Hi there. Hope you are having a lovely weekend. I am enjoying a cuppa in the garden in between playing with new stamps from Inkylicious. some gorgeous scenic stamps and vintage stamps too. I will treat you to a couple of sneak peeks.

Hope you will tune in next Sunday (26th) at 11 am to C&C to watch.

Now, onto my true blue creation. 

I was having a little clear out of paper and found some that I had sprayed with crafty notions colour sprays in shades of blue. I then over stamped it with music and notes before stamping and embossing the guitar in white. Main image stamp is from the Stampman. It was pure chance that I spotted the theme at Allsorts this week was true blue, so I am entering this card there. Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments. I will be back soon with more sneak peeks and inkyness.

Scrap Sunday and an award

Last week I got a bit carried away with my scrap Sunday project, as inspired by Jules. I found some little offcuts of spritzed and sprayed paper and decided to weave it. It was very fiddly and time consuming and took longer than I'd intended! I added a couple of roses and some leaves punched from the same scraps of paper.  What do you think? I'm not sure! My scrap project for this week is much more to my liking. I went for a sepia tones for this one.

The main stamp is a very old Stampourium one stamped onto watercolour paper using Walnut Ink DI with a hint of wild honey DI in the colouring of it.

Finally I would like to say a huge thank you to Kay Carley who gave me this award. This one is REALLY special as not only has it come from an amazingly inspirational crafter, but the winners get to qualify for a free digi stamp from Digi's With Attitude!  How cool is that?

In order to qualify for your $5.00 Digi's With Attitude! Gift Certificate you must state 3 things that make you different from everybody else and nominate 5 blogs. Lastly you need to display the Blog Award Badge (above) in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi's With Attitude! Challenge Blog.

So, here are my three things:
      1. I LOVE spiders, but am afraid of bees and wasps
      2. I drink my coffee black with sugar but my tea white without
      3. I have been known to appear as Freddy Mercury and Jon Bon Jovi at the school talent show!
I now need to pass this on to 5 people, although I could choose so many more! Here they are:
1. Lynne 
2. Lisa
3. Chris
4. Brenda
5. Jules
Thanks for popping by x

Experimenting for Allsorts

It's been another busy week so far, but in a bid to have a go at the Allsorts saving nature challenge I dug out some bits of Amazon packaging that I had a go at spraying and altering a little while ago. I really liked the effect, but hadn't really though about making them into a card. Here is a close up first to show you a bit of the corrugated packaging.

 

I sprayed it with crafty Notions creative colour sprays, then when it was dry I added a variety of glitter, seed beads and  micro beads. I used gold acrylic paint around the edge and heated it to make it bubble.

I stamped a paper artsy castle, embossed in Sheena's wow powders (Brass) and coloured with distress inks. I mounted it on a base card stamped with the same stamp and brushed with pearl pigments in gold. 
My final offering is another very simple scene masked and sponged with distress inks. The tree is a Lavinia stamp.

Thanks for looking!

Snow day!

Well, I made it in to work this morning, but it was coming down so heavily by eight o'clock that our school had to close, so I had an unexpected day at home with Meg (her school has been shut every day except Tuesday this week). We did a bit of baking, I made a few cards and we went out in the snow and took some photos.The first card is very simple using a penny black stamp, promarkers, a ready made sentiment and a cuttlebug folder. For the second I used a creative expressions stamp(Tree), my favourite leaf swirl (Hero Arts), creative colour sprays, rainbow drops (Crafty Notions) and a cuttlebug folder. The third was a free stamp from the Craft Stamper Magazine and lots of distress inks.  So now you have seen my cards, I will show you the snow.

It's fascinating, this white stuff, but I'd really like it to go away now, as my trip to Sir Stampalot's ultimate rubber stamping Demo day is seeming more unlikely.

Texture at Tuesday Taggers

Here is my Card for Tuesday Taggers this week where the theme is Texture, chosen by my lovely teamie, Zoe and sponsored by Tanda Stamps. I was a bit lost for inspiration at first, but I'm quite pleased with the result. It started off as a cardboard frame for a twinchie which I covered in a thin layer of embossing paste and stamped into. I can't say it was very good, so when it was dry I rubbed some turquoise paint and chalk ink over it (slight improvement). Then I used 3d copper paint to draw some leaves around it, but they looked a bit messy, so I tipped copper micro beads on top. The flowers (Crafty Notions) were stamped on to tracing paper that had been coloured on both sides with broken china distress inks. I used a range of craft notions creative colour sprays over scrunched paper to make the paper on the left, bordering it with more 3d paint and micro beads to disguise the uneven cutting! The swirl (Paper Artsy) is also stamped in Broken china onto the base card.  It nearly went in the bin at least 3 times, but I'm glad I didn't. I've had to get the vacuum cleaner out though, as my tidy tray and the micro beads had rather a lot of static and they kept leaping out of the tray and onto the carpet! Thanks for looking!

Tag You're it Challenge - Heaven Sent

Here is my entry for this week's Tag you're it challenge where the theme is 'Heaven Sent'. I was a bit stumped at first, but after running a tag through the cuttlebug and spaying it with some creative colour sprays (Crafty Notions) I came across my crafty individuals Christmas images book and saw this lovely picture of angels coordinated perfectly. I stamped a Paper Artsy swirl in Blue versafine over part of the tag. Then  I made a flower from fusible film, adding a brad and a couple of ribbons. Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Allsorts and Easel card for Rosie D's

Here is my card for this weeks Allsorts challenge where the theme is Happy Birthday. I decided to go for a sepia effect/ shades of brown easel card. The poppy image (penny black) is stamped with vintage sepia versafine and coloured with tea dye and antique linen distress inks before spraying with gold creative colour sprays (Crafty notions). The stamp on the beige card is also penny black and stamped in versafine vintage sepia. For the stopper panel I used the Happy Birthday sentiment (Elusive Images) and the ornamental Grasses (Craftwork Cards).

As an easel card I am also entering it into this week's Rosie D's challenge where the theme is Easel cards. Thanks for looking!

Out of my comfort zone!

This week at Tuesday Taggers it's my turn to chose the theme. I don't know what I was thinking, but I came up with 'Step out of your Comfort Zone!' I wanted to push myself into doing something different to my usual style and try something new. Now it has been a little scary, but I've done the cover and first page of an art journal using lots of paint and no ink or stamps at all! The cover was painted with my acrylic daubers and some bubble wrap. The dragonfly is from Twiddlybitz. I also used a silver creative colour spray over the whole thing and some crystal glaze over the dragonflies body.  I bought the Journal months ago, and it had been lurking in the corner of my craft space ever since! I think it's the word art that puts me off. I dropped art at school when I chose my options, as I couldn't draw most things. I guess that's why I love stamps so much! So, all I'm asking really is for you to try something new or different to your usual style... go on give it a try! You could try a colour scheme, a technique, a different fold or even a different craft altogether! Pop over and take a look on the Tuesday Taggers Blog.  Hope our fabulous DT inspire you with their creations!

I saw this quote in one of the American magazines I was flicking through the other week. I thought 'How true!' and decided to try my hand at some of this writing on wiggly lines. I think I need to work on my lettering! I used my Aquatone pencils and a wet paint brush for the background and quite enjoyed myself!

I've been inspired by Allsorts!

Here is my entry for this week's Allsorts Challenge where I've take my inspiration from a beautiful bracelet belonging to Emma. The circle of the bracelet and the variety of the butterflies really drew my eye, so hopefully I've done a decent job in interpreting it. The background is stamped with a mixture of Crafty Individuals and graphicus stamps, and the butterfly is from Innovative Stamp Creations. I used bundled sage, tumbled glass and peeled paint distress inks, then embossed with silver over the top. The butterflies I coloured with watercolours and then sprayed with creative colour sprays, attaching to my easel card with 3d glue. I managed to find a few minutes this morning to take a photo of it out in the garden in my skimmia japonica.

I took another inside to try and capture a bit of sheen from the creative colour sprays on the butterflies. Thanks for popping by!
Edit: I've just found out that Emma has chosen this card as one of her top five. Thanks Emma!

Where oh where is my Mojo?!

I've managed to make a couple of cards over the weekend, but again I feel my mojo isn't all there. The first is very like some we saw on the Stampman stand at Harrogate, where the Funky Flower stamps are available. I coloured them with my promarkers and used my martha stewart punch and retro flower punches.
The second card has a border across using the Craftwork cards Graceful Grasses and Martha Stewart punch. I added 3 inkadinkado inchies form the 'Spring is Here' set, but now they are stuck on I am not sure about them at all!

Wonderful!

Yesterday Lynne, Megan and I went to Harrogate to the Great Northern papercrafts extravaganza. We had a wonderful day. The weather was glorious, the shopping was fab, we met up with a couple of blogging friends and we had a lovely picnic in the sunshine! It was lovely to meet Debbie and Lisa for the first time. I hope they are both getting some 'playtime' with new goodies today. I have spent a bit of time playing with my new stuff and have come up with two cards. The first features 'Funky Flowers' stamps I bought from the Stampman. I stamped onto the base card with versamark and brushed over with pearl pigments from Blonde Moments. I coloured the main image with my promarkers and added some diamond stickles
I'm not sure about this second card, but I am so in love with my Martha Stewart Doily lace border punch I wanted to try it out straight away! I did a happy dance when I found it! The 'Graceful Grasses' stamps are by craftwork cards. They are stamped onto paper that I coloured with adirondak colour washes.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what people make with their lovely goodies. Does anyone fancy an ATC or tag swap made with their latest goodies? Leave me a comment if you do.

Flower pot card

This idea has been in my head for about three weeks now and I've finally got round to doing something about it! The card came from Craftwork Cards (Floral goodie bag) and was plain cream. I used distress inks on it and then teamed it up with the Ruby Tuesday flowers from Graphicus. I coloured these with distress inks too and spayed the outer petals with Aubergine creative colour sprays. I put a circle of card over the back of the flower, as it looked a bit messy! BTW- if you are wondering where my card is for Passion for promarkers this week I haven't managed to take a decent photo yet - I'm waiting for daylight!

A couple of Birthdays

My good friend Julie has a birthday this week, and I was really stuck for ideas for her card, but yersterday we were talking about birds in the garden - wrens in particular, so I thought I would do something with this one. The text stamp and the Wren are from Crafty Individuals. The flourishes are from Personal Impressions. I sprayed card with a mixture of creative colour sprays for the background and stamped over with Adirondack and versafine inks. The wren was stamped in stazon onto shiny card and coloured with distress inks.
This card was made for our neighbour,who celebrated his fiftieth yesterday with an eighties- themed party. He plays guitar and used to be in a band, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to use my Inkadinkado rockstar set that I had for my Birthday. I put mirri card through the cuttlebug and grunged it up with brown stazon for the background.

Hope she likes it!

A workmate asked me to make a 60th birthday card for a friend. I asked for some ideas as to what she liked. She said she trusted me to do my own thing, as she loved all the things I have made for her before. Her parting comment was 'She makes a lot of cards herself'. Oh boy! Where to start?!!! Anyway, after much thought here is the finished article. I only hope it lives up to her expectations! The rose stamp is from Innovative Stamp creations friendship plate. The seedhead stamp is from Stamp to your Art's Content. The tag had direct to paper chalk ink in burnt sienna, with a few sprays of creative colour sprays in bronze, gold and Jaffalicious. The paper was from K and co.

A bit of sunshine

The rain here has been torrential for most of the day, although it has just stopped. I decided I would not pop down the road to pick up a copy of Craft Stamper, that's how bad it was, lol! I am feeling virtuous though, because I have done 7 reports today! If I can do a couple more this evening I will only have ten left to do! There is an up side to rain!

Anyway, I thought I would have a break and make a card. I used distress inks in spiced marmalade, fired brick, dried marigold and mustard seed. The stamps are all from graphicus, and the 'Flower' is also sprayed with gold creative colour sprays. I wanted to create a little ray of sunshine on such a dark day ;o)

Guzziesue came to play...

This was the craft table an hour ago as Guzziesue had come round to chat, drink tea, eat some yummy ginger cake and flapjack made by Meg, and stamp some fabric. We have been going to get together for some time, but other commitments got in the way. Anyway we finally managed it and I am sure we will see some stitched seedheads on fabric before long on Travel, fibre and thread. Whilst Sue was playing with blues I had the distress inks out - Mustard seed, Spiced marmalade, fired brick, antique linen, shabby shutters and peeled paint. As usual, I couldn't resist a quick spray of Creative Colour sprays (Crafty Notions) in gold and rain beetle before I put it all together.
The Stamps are Ruby Tuesday from Graphicus, and I took two photos, one catching the light and one not, so you could see the effect of the sprays. I stamped with versafine inks, as these are waterproof and don't run when sprayed. It was a very enjoyable evening!

Half term, Yes!

Yesterday we went to see my Dad, and went a little walk with him to 'the Carrs', a large green with a river passing through and mill dam. The resident swans have had eight cygnets, which we watched as the parents chased off any ducks that got too close. The male also took on a child's bike that he had abandoned on the path!
I am sure Megan will blog her photos of them very soon. When we got home Megan went out for the night for a sleepover at a friends house, so after tea I made a couple of cards. The first uses some Heart stamps from Blonde Moments and a greeting from the front of a Creativity magazine. The background is done with creative colour sprays (Crafty Notions) and the hearts are painted with Blonde Moments Pearl pigments mixed with water. Not my usual style, but I'm being a bit more diverse at the moment!
The second card is one I have been going to make since my birthday! The Ruby Tuesday plate from Graphicus was one of my birthday presents, but I have to say it came as a bit of a shock when I saw just how big the flowers were! Still, They will fit onto a 5"x7" card, so here it is.
I coloured it in the same way as the previous card after heat embossing the image using clear EP on black card. I'm now off to rediscover the surface of my craft table before I go and help Steve with hedge cutting in the garden.