A couple of little scenes

My Brother-in-Law celebrated his birthday recently and it was the perfect opportunity to use my new inkylicious stamps, Reflections-Black Forest and Mini branches twigs. You can find them on the recently added pages of the Inkylicious website. All stamps are from Inkylicious. I dusted with memento tuxedo black, dandelion and canteloupe inks and Fossilised Amber Distress ink. Final touched were added with a white and a stardust clear sakura pen. 

 My second card is the one that I made Steve for our wedding anniversary, This lovely harbour scene is a hobby Art Rubber cling stamp I simply stamped using my big and juicy waterfall pad and then spread some colour using a waterbrush. I then added some fossilised amber DI for the beach and roof tops. The background is old wood floor from inkylicious, stamped in memento rich cocoa and dusted with tea dye DI. The sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse.
This does remind me of places along the Yorkshire coast, like Staithes and Robin Hood's Bay...Where does it remind you of? Well we finally broke up from School on Tuesday and I have been busy finishing a magazine commission since then. As this was christmas themed I have decided to not join in with Rudolf day this month and do extra for next month. My head is definitely not in Christmas mode, lol! I now intend having some serious R&R for a couple of weeks, which will definitely involve visiting some blogs and some crafting and colouring.
Thanks for looking!

Less is More - one layer and leaves

When I saw the challenge was leaves at Less Is More this week I knew straight away which stamps I was going to use. I bought these Chappell Road maple leaves at the first show I ever went to in Leeds many years ago. I stamped them in Big and Juicy Foliage, sponged around the edges with Tea dye distress ink and used a damp brush to spread a little colour across the leaves.
I thought I would also show you yet another triptych card that I would have submitted for last week's challenge had I finished it in time!

The Allium stamps are from Lavinia and I used Copper embossing powder this time. More details about how I made it can be found here.
Thanks for looking, and I hope I will get round to visiting a few more of you this week!

Brayer or dusters?

I know there are lots of  people who prefer either dusters or brayers, but I have to say I love both and have no particular preference. I love the way I can create shafts of light in woodland using a brayer, like these two examples a la Barbara Gray, but inspired by Crafty Linby's cards here.

For the first I used the Clarity silver birch and 2 sizes of Birch leaves with big and juicy waterfall. The sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse.

For the second, I used the same stamps as above, but also added two Lavinia ferns. The ink was Adirondack Butterscotch, Lettuce, Meadow and Bottle. Both examples were done on Silk Art card.

However, I also love the versatility of Ink Dusters with which I find I can create softer landscapes and add patches of colour and shading. I've had another play with my ink dusters and 'flight of dreams' stamps from Inkylicious, using my Creole Spice Kaleidacolor ink pad.

I am entering this card into this week's Allsorts challenge where the theme is 'You've been Framed'.  

I've also had another go at a beach scene, this time trying for a more sunset/ evening feel - I don't know how successfully though!

 I used a mixture of Big and Juicy soothing sunset, Memento desert sand and rich cocoa, and a touch or two of walnut stain and dusty concord distress inks. I used the Seascape memories and essential grasses stamps (Inkylicious). I used white gel pen to add a few little highlights where the sun is catching the water. The lovely little shells on the base card are also from the seascape memories set, stamped in chalk ink and brilliance inks. I'm entering this card into the latest challenge at Stamping for the Weekend where the theme is holidays.

So, there is definitely room in my crafting world for both brayers and dusters. Thanks for looking!

A quiet Sunday

Well, I've been indulging myself a bit today, and this is the result.

The card was the first thing I made. I began by colouring a piece of card with a mixture of distress inks in mustard seed, dried marigold and spiced marmalade. I stamped the daisy (Inkylicious) onto the coloured card with versafine and then bleached the petals. I was quite please with how the petals were left with a hint of pink - much like real daisies. The background was created with my ink dusters and big and juicy soothing sunset, which I overstamped with a script stamp (Inkylicious) and the sentiment is from a set by Hobby Art called Scene-it sentiments. Here is a close up of the card.

I'm entering this into the Stampman challenge where the theme is Anything goes with summer colours.
Now here is a closer look at the box.

I covered a 21cm square piece of thin card with colour (Soothing sunset B&J) using my ink dusters and the script and a small daisy stamp all from Inkylicious. I followed Elaine's fabulous origami box tutorial. for the folding and then decorated the lid with the stamped daisy, this time masked whilst I used cut and dry with distress inks to make the background. I finished it off with icicle stickles on the centre of the daisy. I'm entering the box into the challenge at Allsorts where  the challenge is anything but a card and Stamptacular Sunday, where the challenge is Fancy folds (Hope my origami box fits the bill).

Finally I'm going to share with you a card that very nearly ended up in the bin.

There I was happily stamping the base card with the leaves (Inkylicious) when I dropped the inked stamp, which seemed to bounce about 4 times and leave marks and splodges all over! I walked away and left it for a while, as it was going so well up till then! I decided to use part of a die cut to cover it up in the end and thankfully it doesn't look too bad. The main image was one of those I created and painted whilst on holiday with Hobby Art stamps and aqua markers. Thanks for looking!

In Fantasy land at Sir Stampalot

Good morning friends! Today is the first day of May and that means it's time for a new challenge at Sir Stampalot. Our theme this month is"Magical Worlds" and it can be as simple as a single butterfly or full of fairies, unicorns and wizards, it really is up to you.
I went for fairies this time and here it is!

It is a double easel card with squares brayered with Hydrangea big and juicy, and stamped with two Lavinia fairies and Hobby Art (Anna's collection - Just for you) stamps. these and the sentiment are mounted on nesties Fleur de Lis squares. the border along the bottom edge was made with an x-cut corner punch. Here are some close ups of the brayered panels.

You can see I added a little bit of glitter to the flowers.
What is the prize I hear you ask...

More lovely goodies from Sir Stampalot!
Hope you are able to join us this month with your magical creation. Don't forget to pop over to the Stampalot challenge blog and take a look at the fantastic work my talented teamies have created.  I look forward to visiting you. Thanks for popping by and for your lovely comments.

A couple of thank you cards

The theme at Less is More this week is Thank you or Congratulations. I opted for a couple of thank you cards, but I'm not thrilled with either. The first features some Hobby Art stamps with an Inkylicious tree and has been watercoloured with Distress inks. This base card wasn't a great surface to watercolour on, so the shading wasn't how I'd wanted it.

The second card was initially just going to be the inchie stamps (Inkadinkado) stamped directly onto the base card, but I tried and decided it needed some colour. I stamped again onto some glossy cardstock brayered with Big and Juicy spice, then cut out and stuck on. Using Macro on my camera has made it look less straight than it actually is!

The sentiment on this one is from Waltzing Mouse. I might try it again with some other colours. Any suggestions? Thanks for looking!

Halloween!

Good Morning! It's Tuesday and here is my DT offering for Tuesday Taggers where the theme is Halloween with some deep purple. there is also a lovely prize on offer from the Craft Barn.

Last year I picked up a set of Inkadinkado clear stamps principally for the spider and spider's web in the set (I'm unusual in that I love spiders). The witch is another from the same set. The trees are a Lavinia stamp and the background was brayered with B&J Hydrangea.
If you pop over to Tuesday Taggers you will see some amazing inspiration by my amazingly talented teamies.
Thanks for stopping by and I do hope you can join in this week.

And breathe...

Good evening, and may I say how good it is to be back in blog land. Ofsted is over, my sleep pattern is getting back to normal and it's half term (phew!)! I managed a little while at my craft table today working on DT cards, but then I thought I would show you this card I made for a friend at work a couple of weeks ago, as I haven't blogged it yet. The wheat (Hero Arts) and Grasses (Elusive images)  were stamped onto glossy card that had been brayered using B&J soothing sunset.
Very simple, but she loved it.
Thanks for all of your lovely comments regarding the inspection. What can I say? - it went okay. It could've been better. They could've been a little more pleasant. I really don't know why anyone would want to be an Ofsted inspector, and am fed up with them changing the goal posts so often.  Now I want to forget about it and enjoy a week off. Hope you all have a very relaxing weekend and the weather cheers up very soon!

Autumn Breezes at Sir Stampalot

Good Morning and welcome to October! This month at Sir Stampalot we have a theme of  Autumn breezes with buttons and a bow. Prepare yourself for lots of photos as I wanted to show you all the different parts of my criss-cross card!

Here it is sat on my window ledge. I started off with some pieces of glossy card stock and stamped some leaves (Hero Arts Clear design: scattered leaves) using Big and Juicy Spice. I then inked up my brayer, took a bit of the colour off and brayered diagonally across each panel.

The small leaf stamps on the central panel are from the same set and the corrugated card band around the card was coloured with creative colour sprays(Crafty Notions). The little leaves were cut with a newish die from Joy crafts using pearlescent paper.

On the reverse side of the central panel I cut an oval from some Artylicious Essence of Nature paper and placed more leaves around it, giving an area for a sentiment. The orange buttons were from very old stash (My Mum's button box, inherited about ten years ago, but the buttons are probably circa 1960!)

So there you go. Hope you like it. I certainly had fun with my Brayer! You can probably see I got a bit carried away! Now, drum roll please, as I'm sure you will want to see the amazing stash you can win this time round...

Isn't it wonderful? So, if you would like to be in with a chance of winning this lovely stash, take a look at the fabulous inspiration from my fabulous teamies over on the Sir Stampalot challenge blog and get creating!

Lovely trees

When I saw Glenda's new stamp sheet from Elusive Images I couldn't resist. I'm sure I've said before that I'm addicted to trees and the new essence of nature sheet has plenty! This is the first stamp I cut out and used. I brayered a background with Big and Juicy spice, masking the moon. I removed the mask and sponged Adirondack butterscotch lightly across the moon. matted on to black paper I mounted it on to a plain white card stamped with the sentiment (Personal impressions).

This is the blue version, brayered with big and juicy waterfall. They are very very simple, but I think in this case less is more. I've spent today doing lots of stuff for work and jobs at home, so hopefully I should manage some play time tomorrow. Thanks for looking and I hope you are having a great weekend!

Books galore at Tuesday Taggers

When our lovely Teamie Michelle chose the theme of Books at Tuesday Taggers I knew exactly what I was going to do. For several years I've had the Garden Fantasy sheet of Non Sequitur stamps, and there is a girl on it that always reminds me of the ghost of Cathy from Wuthering Heights. I got out my stamps, my brayer, a big and juicy pad (Hydrangea) et Voila!

The tree stamp is one I picked up from Encaustic art plus at Elsecar heritage centre. With clear embossing the outline of the girl the brayered ink wouldn't go right to the edge, but I think it makes her look quite ghostly. I finished it off with a quote.
Thanks for looking and I do hope you can pop over to Tuesday Taggers and join in the fun. Whilst you are there check out the amazing examples for our fabby DT!