Tuesday, May 31, 2011

I miss Glinda......and other art journal pages. ....

How was your Bank holiday? I've felt as rough as Mrs Rough from Roughington. Now don't laugh, but I missed a step coming home from work on Friday and twisted my ankle. Ooooh it hurt. A LOT. Not one to miss an opportunity though, I took a photo of the bruises cos the colours were so pretty- I might see if I can recreate the colour scheme on paper at some point.....

So, I've had a journalling weekend. I did make a couple of cards, but they can't be shown yet, so here's my art journal pages......


Glinda the good witch from the Octopode Factory, along with some foam swirl stamps and a fabby little leaf stamp from Stampin' Up. 


Wicked Witch from Octopode again, the backgrounds on both are sprayed inks- some Dylusions, some not.... Both witches are glazed slightly with Sakura pens.

Finally........a bit of Stampotique action.....


....this is an ATC, and it perfectly reflects my mood most work days.......
I'm entering it into the HDH Macabre Monday challenge- E.M.O
E- Embellishment or EMO image
M- Material (the get over it is a cloth sticker)
O- Orange and lots of it.

 oh, and look what arrived in the post today.....


....mmmmmmm....can't wait to get inky.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Craft Stamper again.... with an Octopode bad hair day

I've got into the Trade It section in Craft Stamper again, with this little beauty....


Loving the Octopode stamps!!!!! Check out the Octopode blog for more strange wonderfulness.....

Friday, May 20, 2011

Hurray! It's Stamp Man challenge time again!

And guess what? It's my turn to set the challenge and I've gone for a recipe! Crossed with a bingo card really.....


Blue
Embossing powder
Stitches (real or faux)
Torn/ripped
Ribbon
Red
Die cut
Homemade background (no patterned paper)
Sparkle and bling

The idea is that you take three items in a row (horizontally, diagonally or vertically) and make something using all three. 

Here's mine....


I did a vertical line from the middle of the box- Embossing powder, ribbon and handmade background. I made a set of 2 little notebooks and at the front of the picture is a post it note holder/cover. 

The background is made with moonglow starburst stains (thanks Jill) and then stamped with little flowers from 

You can see the embossing a bit better in this picture. It's quite subtle.


Then I overstamped the gorgeous butterfly from the Aspects of Design 62 Butterfly beauties set in black. The ribbon finishes them off and pulls it all together.

Right, your turn now.... what will you make? There's a £10 Stamp Man voucher up for grabs! Head over to the challenge blog for more info.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Papertake- Bloom and grow
Crafts and me- Anything goes
Crafty cardmakers- Embossing

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

More skull balloons. Or I love Stampotique again. Either way, it's a card.

I'm in the middle of THE most difficult time at work EVER. No apologies for the capital shouting, it really is very stressful- my department is being restructured, so I'm in the middle of applying for jobs that will replace my current job. Yeah, like I said, difficult times....... so Sunday afternoon, I took a break from stressing and made this.


As you might imagine, I wasn't really in the mood for any thing cutesy and sweet. This new Stampotique boy and some Dylusions inks hit the spot perfectly.

The background is made from a Flake easter egg box (it was the perfect colour brown), stencilled with DIs and my new fab wall stencil thingy.  Lookee.....


So it's pretty well perfect for the Stampotique designers challenge, which is to recycle. I didn't want to waste any so I made this tag as well.....


.....but now I think it might be more of a bookmark, and I've got a recipient in mind as well, hurray!

I'm also entering this into One Stitch at a Time and Stamp Something, who both have an Anything Goes challenge on at the moment. Double hurray!

Right, better get back to my interview prep.........

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

WOYWW? Minnie Mouse!

Wanna see what's on my workdesk? I am remarkably proud of its tidy nature this week.


Mostly that's because yesterday I had a morning of crafting on the dining table with my lovely friends Kay and Michelle, so it all got tidied away a bit. Highlights of my desk today include.....

  • Minnie in a Snow White outfit
  • A new Inktense block that I'm trying out, loving the bold colour it's producing
  • A stencilled wall on the back of an Easter Egg box (it was just the right brown colour....)
  • ATC backs to be made into something interesting......

For more interesting desk based snoopery, check out Julia's Stamping Ground.

I'm having a little bit of a creative mental block at the moment. I generally find my Tuesday morning sessions with the girls to be very productive, but since the weekend I seem to be wading through cotton wool mentally, and it's certainly taking it's toll. However, this was produced......


It started off as an ATC and ended up as a fridge magnet. The doll's body is covered in gold foiling, a little bit sketchily, but I quite like that.

And that, as they say, is that!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

New Stamp Man Challenge- Poppies

Hurray, it's time for a new challenge over at The Stamp Man. It's quite a special one this fortnight, our hostess for this challenge, Janet, is asking for Poppy creations for a special reason. Check out The Stamp Man Challenge blog for more info.


My card was made with the glorious Hero Arts Clings Stamp-Engraved Flower and part of a sentiment from the Aspects of design sheet 621 Butterfly beauties. The poppy is coloured using watercolour pencils, with a few spots of black Stickles for stamen. A stamp this gorgeous doesn't need much more, so I layered it up quite simply, with a few swirls and some raffia that I've had since I first started crafting.

Well after having a glorious week of sunshine here, it's now threatening rain, so my plans for the day are severely curtailed..... ah well, better go back to crafting........

I'm entering this into the following challenges-
Crafts and Me Swirls challenge
Papertake Anything goes
Try it on Tuesday Something old, something new (new stamp image, old raffia)

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Kewt fringe!

I so enjoyed making this card. So much so that I nearly didn't give it away.



The background is sprayed with all different ink colours, with lots of squidgy runs. I then used a Tim Holtz music mask and various background diamond and circle stamps to create a lot of background. In fact, this card is more background than foreground. The paperclips stamp is a particular favourite, cos it is cute (kewt) and it cost 39p from a manky sale bin. Hurray for manky sale bins!!!!

The girl with the fringe is called Karin (I always say it in my head with an American accent!) coloured with pencils. Love that smile. 

I love it so much, I may make the person I gave it to give it back........ actually, if you're reading this.....send it me for my birthday, I won't mind that it's already written in.....

Wooooah, flower alert!

Well you can't say I didn't warn you.......



I think I've overdosed on petals now. It's a set of 4 ATCs, made in a connect 4 style, so that they work together as a whole, and hopefully individually. Most, if not all of the stamps are Stampin' Up, on a background that's sprayed with diluted inks. I've added definitions from an old encyclopaedia, and some cute little insects. 

The leaves are hand drawn with black fineliner and coloured green. Final touches were yellow stickles and white gel pen. I quite like the slightly faded, old look of these ATCs, which comes from the pale colours in the background.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Anniversary sweeties

When my brother asked me to make a wedding anniversary card for his wife and gave me a sweets theme, I thought straight away of the IBFD jars digi. I have used these images so many times. This time I just used the hearts and orange/lemon segments, I couldn't think how to colour the peppers so that they looked like sweets!


The sweetie jars are coloured with Promarkers and Stickled for sparkle. Here's a close up.


I'm entering this into the By the cute and girly challenge- Anything goes.

Ingredients
Digi stampIBFD jars
Rubber stamp- Swirl from Basic Grey
Papers- DCWV
Punches- Martha Stewart
Dies- Nestabilities
Stash- Stickles, gems, ribbon

New ATC challenge blog- first challenge is......Anything Goes!

So, the new ATC Challenge blog is up and running and the first challenge is underway. It's an easy one for the first time- anything goes! So, show us what little wonders you've been working on.

There's a fabulous DCWV paper stack up for grabs for the lucky winner, and lots of fabulous inspiration from the Design Team over on the challenge blog along with all the details and rules. Here's mine....


A big fat bee! I picked up the CArt-US stamp at the NEC show and he's fabulous. The background is a smacked acetate teachnique, and the flower stamps are all Hero Arts Real Flowers. The word is a rub on and I should really have called the ATC Scent, right? Except the bee spoke to me and it's called A Big Fat Bee......

The flowers are stamped using my Aquamarkers. I'm still unsure whether I like these or not, some of the colours are like paint, others watery and non existent. The jury's out, I might have investigate some tutorials.

Right, what are you waiting for? Show us your ATCs!