January journal page

I've only just realised that I hadn't shared my journal calendar page for January with you. I needed bright and colourful to get me through  the month.....

Spot the Stampotique image..... yes I did cut all of that fence out......

Love heart throb, he's a fab stamp.

Feet!

Ah, what a lovely couple.

The squares with a bite out of them are my favourites.....

I'm entering this into the Stampotique Designer challenge #81- journal cover or page.

Studio 12......a competition

OOoh, first of the month. that means a competition over at the studio12 blog.

Here's my DT project to help celebrate! I think I've said before that I'm a bit weird about bookmarks (actually I think I could have stopped at I'm a bit weird, ha ha ha.....). I have a new one for pretty much every book I buy and it stays in the book, like a little flat friend.

Soooooo, new book. Actually several new books. Which means new bookmarks......

I love the signpost on the Picknix CD, just looked like it was pointing out my page......

Lots of doodling, sort of reminded me of layers of soil and rock under the ground. The background is a scrap left over from another project, and it's sprayed with cosmic shimmer mists. I used watercolour pencils on the sign and black and white pens to doodle.

Right, so off you pop to the Studio12 blog, check out what the rest of my team mates have been doing and see what the competition is..... it's my first one, so I have no idea how it all works!!!

Princess castle for my Princess

I've made my Miss Little Legs a fab chipboard photo album for Christmas. I'm sooooo chuffed with it :)

Isn't it pretty? Fit for my Princess.

Hopefully she'll love it too! I'm all ready for Christmas now and sooooo over excited, I'm worse than the kids.......

Surprise!........and a portrait.

I've LOVED making this card!

The challenge at the Stampotique Designers blog is to make a Triptych card. The front of mine has my favourite Kitty stamp glaring out at you.

....and here's the surprise! Now, who wouldn't want a bunch of skull balloons on their birthday?

I used a technique or two from the Tim Holtz Grungy Monday challenge- for more info check out the L3 blog! I love this cobweb mask, the background was inked first and then sprayed with cosmic shimmer misters. I picked up a new colour at the NEC on Sunday, Twilight Black, and no, I didn't just buy it cos I'm obsessed with vampires......well, maybe a little bit.......OK, OK, it totally influenced my decision and I am totally obsessed!

I've had a busy week and it has been tiring, but today was a lovely day- it was the Mother's Day performance at Miss 5 year old Little Legs' school- very sweet- big lump in my throat- all of the children had painted their Mommies, and this is how my daughter sees me......

......actually it's not bad, right colours, features in mostly the right places.....I love it!

Pressies!

It's a beautiful day here, clear skies, fresh air and no snow, woohoo! I'm tidying up some files, and came across these presents I made for Christmas. Thought I'd share!

These mirrors were made for my friend's two boys.

Both are Ikea mirrors, sprayed with Cosmic Shimmers, then stencilled and embellished with lots of bits and pieces and stickles for extra glitter and shine.

This is a Tissue box cover I made for my sister in law.

 Again, sprayed with gorgeous green Cosmic Shimmers and then stamped with a green Stazon ink pad. I found that using unmounted stamps without an acrylic block enabled me to be a little bit more flexible where the box wasn't precisely flat. The more precise images I stamped onto tissue paper and then adhered to the box with a good coating of modge podge. The modge podge went all over the box to seal it and then dry I put some Stickles on to make it sparkle.

They all went down well! This year I'm starting my present making much earlier, so that it's not quite so rushed.

Beautiful dreamer

Guess where I went on Sunday???? I made a last minute decision to go with my lovely friends to the Hobbycrafts exhibition at the NEC. I know I said I wasn't going to go, but........hey, a girl can change her mind, right?

One of the things I was on the look out for was this set of stamps called Beautiful Dreamer by Curious by Design that I'd seen someone demoing with at the Artisan show earlier in the year. I really regretted not getting it at the time, so when I saw it at the NEC, I snapped it straight up. Isn't is gorrrrgeous?

Last night I had a little play and came up with........ATCs!

The background is out of my box of preprepared ATC backs and is sprayed with Glimmer Mists. The image stamped in Russet Archival ink and then parts of it watercoloured in with distress inks to pop it out a bit. The red microbeads at the bottom were hidden away in a drawer, lonely and forgotten about, but when I saw the challenge over at The Craft Barn to make an ATC using microbeads, I dug them out!!

I made a few in different colours- this one is really delicate.

Again, it's a preprepared background with glimmer mists, then popped out with Distress Inks as watercolours. The little flower is an almost see through pressed real flower. These are both going as RAKs to some of my chums over at the Docrafts ATC forum, where I've set them a little challenge to guess how many stamps I bought at the NEC show.........


Ingredients


Stamps- Curious by Design- Beautiful dreamer
Inks- Russet Archival ink, Distress Inks in Pumice Stone, Rusty Hinge, Bundled Sage and Pine Needles
Stash- Premade backgrounds, red microbeads, pressed flower

Oh the things you do when an idea hits you!!!!

This is what I spent aaaages doing yesterday after having AN IDEA!

Stage 1 of THE IDEA- sore scissor fingers

Cutting out itty bitty Stampotique figures. I'd had AN IDEA and that was what I needed to do to make it work. Good as my scissors are, this was a bit fiddly.

Stage 2 of THE IDEA was....

Lot of punched flowers and some glue and the Flowerheads (as named by my son) were born. Awww, cute!

Stage 3 of THE IDEA...

My Flowerheads ATC. The theme at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog is "what does summer mean to you". Well to me, it means colour and flowers and outdoors and sunshine and more daylight to craft in. AND now it means Flowerheads too.

I love the Stampotique stamps, they seem to encourage me to think outside the box a bit.

Ingredients

Stamps - Stampotique and Anita's (background leaf swirl)
Inks- Memento Tuxedo black
Cosmic Shimmer- Meadow Lush on background
Stash- lots of punched flowers

Bookmarks.... I'm not mentioning the obsession this time.....

Regular readers will already know about my bookmark obsession, so I'm not mentioning it in this post...... However, I have made a couple of new bookmarks, woohoo!! One is a gift, the other I'm not sure whether to keep or not as yet.

The challenge over at Tuesday Taggers is Vintage bookmark, so with that in mind, I came up with this.....

The background is Distress Inked and Cosmic Shimmered and then stamped with lots and lots of vintage images. I wasn't keen on it after the first round of stamping, so I just kept going until I was! There was also a bit of inking through sequin waste and dusting with Perfect Pearls in Copper.

The main image is from a Paperartsy plate, and the other images are Paperartsy and another clear vintage set of Kay's (I was at Kay's when I did the stamping!). The very slightly rude lady has a layer of brown netting totally failing to cover her modesty, lol. I finished off with some ribbon, lace and a little vintage-y charm.

Ingredients

Stamps- Paperartsy Vintage Nudes 1, Clocks 5, Mini 61; Vintage set of unknown origin
Inks- Distress Inks in Fired Brick, Barn Door, Walnut Stain; Impress inks in Fawn and Autumn Leaf
Stash- Cream ribbon, cream lace, brown netting, charm, eyelet
Cosmic Shimmer mister in Lava red



I'm entering this into-
Tuesday Taggers Vintage bookmark challenge
Challenge Up Your Life vintage challenge

My second bookmark is a much prettier affair. Believe it or not, the background was made from swooshing my blank white card on the remnants of the inks and cosmic shimmer from the vintage bookmark above! It all came out very pale pink.

I stamped the dragon fly in a soft pink ink, and the leaf stem and dragonfly definition in bundled sage Distress ink. I also inked the edges in the Distress Ink. The dragonfly is a gorgeous stamp of Kay's (I'll ask her where it's from), and I stamped it again onto green vellum and cut it out, then stamped the words (I think they're Paperartsy) onto pink vellum and ripped them out.

An eyelet and some ribbon and it's done!

Ingredients

Inks- Stazon Black, Distress Ink Bundled Sage and Fired Brick, Memories Soft Pink
Cosmic Shimmer Mist- Lava red
Stamps- Stampin Up Watercolour Vine, Paperartsy Petals 3, Lost Coast definition, Dragonfly source not known
Stash- Cream ribbon, vellum in pale green and pink

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 :)

You and me, me and you.

Had a teeny tiny spot of time with nothing in it this morning, so I sat at my desk, and this is the result. Don't they make a stunning couple?

Background is cosmic shimmered, stamps are Stampotique and a really cheap phrase stamp I picked up for pennies at Dunelm. White gel pen for skin and highlights and a bit of doodling round the edges.

Had a difficult day today at work, but a smashing one at home- lots of cuddles from my kids and deliveries from the postie and home delivery man. I got..... Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints- 10 different colours!!!! Also my latest Stampin' Up delivery with 4 different stamps sets and an ink pad (like I need any more.....) Finally but far more important- my Tim Holtz book and assorted goodies from QVC. So that's tonight sorted with Sir Tim of Holtz and his wonderful ideas............ Very, very happy smiley face indeed.

Time and Key ATCs

The challenge theme over at Tuesday Taggers this week was time. As usual I decided to make an ATC, which turned into 3!!

Janet has also noticed that this final one also fits in to the theme over at SCD, where the challenge is ATCs with keys.

All 3 have a cosmic shimmer background, and the stamps I've used are from a Paperartsy set I hadn't used before. About time I got them inky.

Monday blues and a naughty cat

I think I have the Monday blues today, I'm hoping a quick blog post will cheer me up a bit. Woke up this morning to find a minor disaster awaiting me on my desk, courtest of my naughty cat. I've been working on a set of 10 tags for a swap with the Altered Art Tag swap group on Facebook, all of which were very nearly finished and were lined up drying on my desk. Dotty the cat had sat on my desk this morning, dipping her paw into my waterpot (I should have emptied it, I know!!!) and flicked water over 3 of my tags! They're drying on the radiator, and I'll see if anything is salvageable later on. Aaargh!!!

So, in the meantime, a couple of new ATCs to show off.

This is a little sneak peek at what my Tags will look like- a similar background and the same snooty lady stamp, but I won't tell you any more, as I want them to be a surprise.....

This is a Tim Holtz stamp, borrowed from my mate Kay, along with her background, so not much work in it from me really!!!!! Lots of beads in the corners.

OK, I feel a bit better now.....

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

I've been adding a few bits and pieces to my Docrafts gallery, and thought I'd share a few bits here as well.


First there's this- made in December for my friend's little girl (she's also my little girl's best friend). It's a little 8x8" canvas. Painted, inked, stamped and embellished. Simples! Couldn't put it up before Christmas in case her Mom saw it....

This ATC is one of my entries for a swap (again on Docrafts)- for back to basics stamping, using just black and white. I've used a Stampin' Up dragonfly and clear heat embossed him to make him pop up a bit. I love my dotty stamp as well, so I used it on the flower too! Couldn't find any black ribbon so I took the scissors to the inside of my top and cut off the hanging ribbons......go on admit, it, you've all done it!!!!

And finally...... some tags that are works in progress.....

I made these after watching a Paperartsy tutorial on You Tube via their blog. Take a look it's fab. So, these are made using Ferro paste and stamping into it to get a raised effect. I used all Paperartsy stamps too. Once dry I rubbed darker colours of acrylic paints into the stamping and then followed it with lighter colours on top, so that the indentations stand out. The blue one has a smudge or two of silver Croco on it too, which is a Crackle paint I just had to try out...... So, my next move is..... well I have no idea what to do next. They need something else on top of them, but inspiration hasn't struck me yet!! Any suggestions?