Pretty pretties.....

OK, time for a pretty-fest. Tune out if pretty ain't your thing.....

OK so the plan is....make a card I need, make an extra to sell, or for when I need one later on.... well, that worked today- I made 3. Makes sense, right? Once I've got the papers and bits and pieces out for one card, I may as well make another one! I had time to fiddle about with things today, I had great intentions of making lots of things today, but as ever, time ran out.

This one looks a bit like a fairy version of me aged 5. Threading the ribbon through the holes was MUCH fiddlier than I thought. Seriously. Still not sure it looks worth the effort.

This last one's a bit smaller, and this is the one I intended to make, for a birthday party my Miss Little Legs has been invited to. I mean, my kids have a much better social life than me, they may as well have nice cards to take with them......

OK, so I'm entering these into the following challenges.......

Card 1. Passion for Promarkers- sketch

Happy Daze- little black dress (I tried to choose a stamp, cos I wouldn't be without a stamp, but couldn't pick just 1, so I went for bling, I love a bit of blingy sparkle)

Card 2. Crafts and me- stripes

Card 3. Try it on Tuesday- Anything goes (Wonderful world)- because it's a card for my Little Legs and she makes my world wonderful.

I <3 Promarkers- include a number

Stamp Man challenge- pear or pair!

The new challenge at The Stamp Man is to show us a project using a pear or a pair of something. I've got this fabulous patterned pear stamp from the Stamp Man, so it was  a no brainer to use it!

The pear is stamped by inking the stamp with a Versamark embossing ink and then a green Versafine- then brushing it over with green Perfect Pearls. By inking up with the Versamark first, then another ink on top, you can use any inkpad as an embossing pad.

The card is quite simple, layered Kay&co and 7 Gypsies papers, and some cute little wooden fruits.

Ok, so now it's over to you- show us your pear/pairs! There's loads more inspiration on the challenge blog, and a Stamp Man voucher up for grabs too!

The Stamp Man challenge- monochrome

Apologies for my tardiness! Life's kinda gotten away from me a bit lately, and crafting has taken a back seat. I've started my new job and I'm settling into a new challenge and new hours, which have had a toll on my organisation at home! However, the children are back at school which means I get some daylight crafting time, woohoo, so no excuses!!!

This fortnight at the Stamp Man the challenge is monochrome- soooo, white and another colour- I went for standard black I'm afraid, but I'm kinda pleased with the result.

This gorgeous Hero Arts Clings Stamp-Engraved Flower stamp doesn't need much, it speaks for itself. So it suits a simple colour palette.

Right, over to you guys, pop over to the Stamp Man challenge (button on my right sidebar) and show us your stuff!

Art from the Heart's 10th Birthday celebration blog hop!

Welcome to a very exciting blog hop in Celebration of 10 years of Art from the Heart!

Lots of exciting things happening at Art from the Heart next weekend where the big birthday bash is happening. Want to know more then do click here .

So in Celebration we are having 5 birthday blog hops.

You should have reached my blog from here Ann and are on the Stampotique hop

here is my project..... an altered child's board book.

I used
Stampotique stamps- Heads; Mort had a pincurl; Peggy; Rocky; Kitty; Angel Boy; Two sticks
Dylusions spray inks- 
Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 stamps- I am my art
Sakura gel pens
Posca pens in black and white
Twinkling H20s
Scraps of fibres, maps, book pages, gems, springs from broken pegs and a red heart that was adorning my last Art From The Heart purchase.

Before you move on - you will need to collect a letter from me which is T.

This is part of an anagram of a Stampotique product

Once you get back to Dy's blog please email your answer to Ben.

So after leaving me a comment you need to move on 
Julie

Have fun hopping!

The Stamp Man Challenge- Travel

The new challenge over at The Stamp Man challenge is travel.

I had to make something quickly before I went on my jolly holibobs, so I whipped up a quick bookmark. Hopefully, this scheduled post has worked, cos I'm back today and I'll be drowning in washing......

The background is sprayed inks, and the lovely car is from the Aspects of Design plate 10- Men's. Available from the Stamp Man as ever. I wanted to emboss the car and have it all glossy and black, but I have zero luck with black embossing powder. So............. tip of the week is....... ink your stamp up with a clear embossing ink pad, then straight away ink it up with your chosen colour- in my case Versafine onyx black. The use fine clear embossing powder. I'm particularly fond of this technique as it allows me to use my favourite Versafine and keep all it's clarity with fine details.

Righto, over to you, show us your travel stuff- there'll be loads of inspiration on the DT challenge blog as ever. My teamies are the most talented bunch :)

The Stamp Man Challenge- Anything goes.....with summer colours

Oooh, it's Stamp Man challenge time again!

This fortnight is my challenge and I want to see......Anything you like.....but in summery colours. So think ice creams, seaside, flowers, sunshine and bright summery days. OK, it may be raining outside my window, but a bit of summer crafting can lift the spirits!!!

I make no apologies for taking the inspiration and technique for my card from a gorgeous spread in Craft Stamper. It's a fabulous way of creating a feature panel. 

Firstly take watercolour paper and spritz lightly with water, then doodle over it with something waterbased- I used Aquatone sticks, but I would think watercolour pencils would be viable. In the article, they used the new Inktense blocks, but I've only got one of those, lol.

Then I lightly spritzed my stamp with water ( I used the fabulous butterfly from the Stamp Man's butterfly beauties set), and coloured over it with the colour sticks. When I stamped it, it bled out perfectly onto the paper. You can soften edges with a wet paint brush, so don't drench it all with water or it'll blur too much. Once you've got the look you're after, blast it with a heat gun to stop the colour spreading. I flicked a few droplets of colour onto the image from a paintbrush too, for that splatter effect.

Once dry I stamped a script stamp randomly with Bundled sage Distress Ink.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, and I used a little offcut from the watercolour paper to co-ordinate.

A nice tip is to keep spritzing and stamping the stamp onto some more card, I've got another couple of gorgeous background sheets to use on other cards.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Stamp Something: Dog days of summer

Fussy and Fancy Friday: Use a lot (I used more than 3 sparkly gems)

This is what lack of sleep looks like......

........ I've been having insomnia bouts, but last week I managed to put one to good use..... well sort of good use.....it went a little bit weird.....

All made from the bits in my leftovers tub! Still rocking the Octopode and Stampotique images :)