Favourite Stamps at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning and Happy New Year! As it is the first Sunday of the month, it is time for our January challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month we have a lovely theme....

****Use your Favourite Stamps****

For my card this month I used stamps and stencils from Inkylicious and a little white gel pen and liquid pearls. My favourite stamps are the inkylicious moon and tree, but I do reach for the splatter stamp and the willow  twigs on a regular basis too!

  The background was created using ink dusters, sponges and inks.  I used memento lulu lavender to stamp the moon and to blend the paler to darker inks. Adirondack mountain rose and peach bellini made the moon shine section of sky. Dusty concord, chipped sapphire and black soot Distress inks formed the darker sky and the hills, using a mountain valley stencil.  

Please can I remind you we are a stamping challenge so must see a stamped image which reflects the theme as the focal element of your artwork , this means:

Stamping must be the central point of attention and interest

Our prize this month is from  our lovely sponsors, Tattered Lace.  Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous creations from my talented team mates and more details of that prize! Thanks for looking! 

Beside the Sea...

Back in June I made my Dad's Father's Day card with the Hobby Art Stamp sets called Water's Edge and Shore Scenes. I used the Inkylicious waves stamp for the water. More recently I used the same stamp sets to create another scene for my Pearl Wedding Anniversary card for Steve.

These stamps are so beautiful! I think I might be playing with them some more soon. Both cards used a panel of silk art card for the scene and then the bird was coloured with Zig Clean colour markers on watercolour paper, cut out and stuck on with 3d glue.
Thanks for looking!

Hares

Here are some cards I have made using Hobby Art Lino Cut Hares stamp set, designed by Janie Burnett-Bleach. I used Izinks and memento inks to dust the backgrounds onto silk art card, before  stamping with memento ink. 

The moons were stamped in versamagic ink and dusted with mica powders, which was then sealed with hairspray.

I love these stamps and the cards were so quick to make. I have a funny feeling that I may have a bit of an addiction to hare stamps, lol. Just bought another two sets this week, when I already own 4 other sets! At least it isn't as bad as my tree addition!
Thanks for looking!

A taste of Africa

After seeing Emma and Deby of Inkylicious on Hochanda last week, I got my ink dusters out to have a play, and decided to use the Serengeti sets of stamps.

I used memento inks and a mountain valley stencil to create the scenes. For the second one I put a few dots of clear stardust sakura pen for stars in the sky. I used white gel pen to highlight the stamped images.

I'm entering this second one into the current challenge at Allsorts, where the theme is Happy Birthday.

I used the off-cuts from the first card to make my last card, and think it might be the best of the lot! Definitely as far as the white pen goes! I am taking my Elephants to the snippet playground as I used snippets. Don't let the elephants near the hooch, Sarn!!!!
Thanks for looking!

May Challenge at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the month and time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations. Our Theme is Anything goes, so a nice easy one for you and we are sponsored by Crafty Individuals. The Usual rules apply, you can enter up to three times, combine with other challenges, use any make of stamp......but can I please remind you we are a stamping challenge and stamping must be the focal/predominant element of your work. Conventional rubber/acrylic stamps and digital images are acceptable, but pre-coloured digital images and toppers are not. For my card I used two Crafty individuals stamps, CI-430 and CI-387. The background was stamped in Stormy sky and dried marigold DI. I stamped the main image on to silk art card with Archival ink and coloured with distress markers and a water brush.

Crafty Individuals is an exciting web based venture into the creative world of crafts and altered art products and produce an eclectic range of unique and top quality art rubber stamps, cutting dies, masks/stencils and paper craft products. One very lucky winner will win a £35 voucher to spend in their store.
Do pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at all the fantastic creations by my lovely teamies. There are some absolute stunners this month! With a theme like anything goes, it would be rude not to join in, lol, so I'll look forward to seeing all your lovely creations! 
I'm entering my card into the Crafty Individuals blog challenge too, where the theme is anything goes as long as you use one Crafty Individuals product .
Thanks for looking!

July Challenge at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! Another month at Stamping Sensations has flown by! We had some brilliant entries for June, but now it's time for a new challenge, in which we would like you to

* * * * * FEATURE A CREATURE * * * * *

Show us your projects featuring a creature (or creatures!) of land, sea or air!

Please do remember that as we are a stamping challenge, your entry must include some stamping if you wish it to be considered for our prize or Top 3 positions. It would be a shame to miss out, as our sponsor this month is once again Little Claire Designs, who have very kindly given us a most generous £35 voucher for the lucky winner to spend on their website.

As soon as I saw our topic for this month, I knew which stamp I would use! The beautiful Hedgehog  on Little Claire's Silhouette 'Whisper a Wish'

 I stamped the base card with Inkylicious delicate vine in shades of pink and orange. I used silk art card and masked around the edges with masking tape. I then used my ink dusters to make the scene using peach bellini and sunset orange Adirondack ink.Finally I stamped the silhouette stamp in archival black ink.
You can feature any type of creature in your entries this month, and of course remember you can enter up to three times with any type of cards or projects. The DT have featured some simply adorable creatures in their samples, so do go over to the Challenge Blog and have a look at them.
If you are looking for more creatures, you can check out my garden photos below. Thanks for looking!

Inkylicious Willow Trees

If you went to Ally Pally and stopped by the Inkylicious stall you may well have seen this gorgeous tree stamp. I love it! It is so delicate and beautiful. I have been playing with it for a few days, and I can see it will be used lots! For my first card I ink dusted the base card in dandelion, lilac posies and tuxedo black Memento ink. I then did the same with a silk art card panel, masking off a moon/sun. I stamped the tree and added spots of quickie glue to all the buds on the branches before sprinkling with irridescent glitter. Here is a close up.

I then stamped delicate vine in black onto the base card to form a sort of frame adding some punched flowers with liquid pearl centres. I think it needs a sentiment top left, but can't decide which one to use yet! All suggestions welcome!

My second card is a one layer card. I masked off a panel that I dusted with Adirondack inks in mountain rose, slate, black and denim, masking a moon. I removed the masks before stamping the tree and added spots of star dust stickles. With this sky I was trying to recreate a sky we had during that smoggy week we had at the beginning of April. I may well try that sky again with a pinker sun next time.
If you need this tree, keep an eye on the Inkylicious Website or look out for Inkylicious at Stamp Magic, Doncaster Dome on 8th June 2014 or Summer Crafting, Doncaster Race course on 12th and 13th July.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments!

Three Snippet makes

When I make square scene cards I often end up with lots of strips of silk art card where I have cut them off an A5 piece to make the square. I thought I would have a little play with wetting my ink dusters and see what combinations I could come up with.

On each of them I used just two stamps, Willow twigs and the birds from Windswept, both from Inkylicious. I did use black soot distress ink on this last one, but all the others were from residual ink on the dusters and water. I also added some dots from glitter glue or gel pen on each one.The mats were from my snippet box too, so I think these qualify for Pixie's Crafty Snippet playground this week! Thanks for looking and I hope you managed to stay warm and dry today!

Second Video Tutorial

Hi There! I am back at work and feeling my age this week, lol! Teaching year 1 is rather tiring at the moment! After lots of editing by Megan, here is the finished video tutorial for the Pine and Lake scene I made recently, which looked like this.

My finished card second time round is very slightly different from the first, but not far off! I hope this video shows clearly how ink dusting on Silk art card is not as difficult as some would have you believe, and also how to use wet ink dusters to create a water effect. With four ink pads, ink dusters, three stamps and some water you too could make a scene like this!
Let us know what you think and if you do have a go then please pop it on your blog and link back here, leaving me a comment so I can come and have a look. Thanks for watching and for all your lovely comments. If you have any requests for future tutorials you could let me know those too.