Are we there yet? A Little Bit Craft DT time.

March? MARCH? Are you sure? Flippin' 'eck, this year's going a bit quickly, I haven't quite got used to writing 2014 yet, and here we are in March!!! It's true that time speeds up as you get older.

Anyhoo, if it's March, then the good news is that it's time for a new challenge at A Little Bit Crafty. Yippee! The theme this month is- Are we there yet? Ooh, a few ways of interpreting this one..... I went for a destination, a cityscape canvas.

I'm using the old masking fluid technique again, with a Stampotique cityscape stamp.  OK, that's working, now let's add lots of Dylusion spray inks- reds, orange, yellow, a spot of white and granite. Splodge it about with some bubble wrap for interest....... yay, my fingers are inky :)

Oops, that yellow bit looks like a sun, so let's add some stencilled circles in Distress Inks and emboss them gold.... While the heat gun is hot, might as well add some embossed white text.......

A couple of words from a text stamp- destination and place on tissue paper, with some glossy accents to make them pop out? Oh go on then......

A few choice phrases from Pride and prejudice to finish. Yup.

OK, I like it. Phew! 

There are some amazing prizes up for grabs this month, so get over to the blog and check out the fabulous Design Team inspiration.

True Love

Well, you all know I like my vampires, right? And my Stampotique stamps...... and red.......

Put 'em all together and I came up with this.....

It's a canvas, and I made it for my lovely husband for our wedding anniversary..... well, cards get put away don't they- thought he might prefer this.

Acrylic paints, lots of pen and glue top circles, Lovely is the Sound stamp on tissue paper and a 3d heart. I love it! Head over to the Stampotique blog for more gorgeous weird stampyness. Did I mention I'm the August guest designer..............?????

The Craft Cupboard trilogy- win a Craft Stamper apron!

Any Craft Stamper fans out there? I know there are...... well, there's a much coveted Craft Stamper apron up for grabs on the Cupboard Trilogy blog- and if you've got the fab free heart stamp from last month's magazine, you can get crafting and win it!

Here's my second entry- my first is a couple of posts down- the zentangle heart.

This one's a little 5x7 box canvas- I'm so chuffed with how it's turned out. The background is painted with semi opaque acrylics, the heart are watercoloured and glazed/ semi glazed. It's lovely and bright.

I'm also entering this into the Happy Daze challenge- a technique you love to use. Hope it qualifies- I love making those little circles and lines with paint! Lots of pen and pot tops and the edge of a card ATC.

Oh and if you like this enough to want to buy it- check out my Folksy store and you can!

A Stamp Man canvas

I may have mentioned that I've joined the Stamp Man design team once or twice....... well I had a play with some new Aspects of Design stamps - Artistic Elements. Ooh, it's a lovely set, just my sort of designs, and lots of images on the one set, so lots of scope for use which I like.

I painted a little square canvas with red acrylic paint, then used the scrolls on the edge of the little frame stamp  in the set to stamp around the canvas in white Brilliance ink.

Canvases are impossible to stamp onto so I stamped the keys onto tissue paper in black and sponged some red Distress Ink over. I ripped the tissue paper and glued it onto the canvas using glossy accents.

The gold frame is stamped into gold friendly plastic with black Versafine, and the two phrases were stamped onto tissue paper and adhered with glossy accents again.

Got a few more ideas for these stamps, so watch this space.......

Ingredients

Stamps- The Stamp Man Aspects of Design 62- Artistic elements
Inks- Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Ink Fired brick
Paint- Claudine Hellmuth Ranger Semi-gloss acrylic paint- Dash of Red
Stash- Canvas, white tissue paper, white gel pen, Glossy Accents, gold friendly plastic

WOYWWAC- Happy Anniversary!!!!!!

WOYWW (What's on your workdesk Wednesday) is a year old, and to celebrate Julia asked us to make something with the WOYWW initials on it and show it off on our desks this week. Can you spot mine? It's not very big.....

Can you see it??? In amongst the usual rubble on my desk? Some Paperartsy stamps out- I used some on my project and going through my PA drawer inspired me, so I got a few choice sets out to use this week. Plus a bit of tissue paper and ribbon that was on some bath bombs (ah, stop laughing, when was the last time YOU left a potential bit of stash still wrapped around something????).

OK, here's a bit of a close up......

Now can you spot it? Extreme close up in a mo. Firstly, what do you think of my new ink/Promarker storage???? An absolute bargain from Dunelm, it used to be 6 TV remote storage boxes. Turned them on their side and everything fit perfectly!!!!! OK hold on, I'm zooming in....

Here's my little canvas. The eye is watching you!!!!!! I shall hang it above my desk I think.

Huge thanks to Julia over at Stamping Ground and everyone else who lets me nose around their desks each week. I really enjoy myself each Wednesday, which would normally be a boring middle of the week sorta day. Long may it continue!!!!!

A princess name plaque for my little princess

My lovey Little Legs (aged 4) has been a very big girl and has slept right through the night for a whole week. TO celebrate, she asked me for a pink picture with her name on for her bedroom this morning. Mommy worked her magic and Hey Presto! here it is......

It's a 10 x 30cm canvas (just under 4 x 12 inches), which I sprayed with Candy Pink Cosmic shimmer mist, then swished it around with a paint brush to make sure it covered all the white. Then I sprayed with more Candy Pink and a splodge or two of Mallow Blush. Once dry, I stamped over it with some foam swirly stamps and foam letter stamps in Blazing Red Stazon, I find anything less permanent doesn't stay put on the coloured canvas.

I'd already coloured a Kraftin' Kimmie image with Promarkers, so on she went, along with some paper flowers and a generous dotting of Stickles.

She is very pleased with it, and is already asking Daddy to put it on her wall!! Not bad for a morning's work, eh?!

I'm entering this into.......

the Kraftin' Kimmie challenge which is Anything BUT a card,
the Celebrate something challenge at Stamp Something,
Shiny, sparkly and special over at Papertake,
By the cute and girly's Celebrations challenge.

Phew! That's a lot of challenges, and a happy girl :)

Mini sunflower canvas- Crafts and Me challenge

I've finally had the energy to make something! It's a little canvas I bought from Dunelm a while ago, about 3 inches square. The challenge over at Crafts and Me is ANYTHING BUT A CARD, so I thought I'd try using a Sweet Pea stamp on it.

I painted the canvas with Claudine Hellmuth Ranger Studio semi-gloss paints in Dab of Yellow and Altered Orange. Once it was dry I used the lid from a  pritt stick to make some rings in Pastel Yellow and some gold acrylic paint. I quite like the current trend for splodgy paint circles!

 I stamped the Sweet Pea stamp Sunflower Angel onto card already coloured using the smacking acetate technique and Distress Inks. A bit of a cut out and some gold gel pen highlights and she was ready to be stuck on to the canvas.

I think that the mottled effect works well. I added some ribbon as her puppet strings, clear stickles to enhance the wings, and some flowers and buttons to finish it off. The words are stamped onto tissue paper.

Loving these Sweet Pea stamps!