Reasons to Stamp in November with Gingersnaps

Housewife Day November 3rd

This is me every day when it comes to housework.

Stir up Sunday November 22nd

There is an actual recipe on the tag for Christmas Pudding if you can actually read it. The stamp is one of Paper Artsy's. 

National Espresso Day

How I love my coffee in the morning! I can feel it surging through my body waking it up.

This is also one of my favourite quotes "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single cup of coffee."

See all the other makes for reasons to stamp over on Gingersnaps. There are some great makes this month.

Stamp, paint, metal: Lots to Do Challenge

Oh how I enjoyed myself with this one! The Lots to Do Challenge this week. Sloshing paint and ink over the background. Throwing salt on it and waiting (boring) to dry. Then I could use the wonderful quirky Stampotique stamps, available from The Stamp Attic and Happy Daze in the UK. I also used some Paperbag Studio  stamps on the background. Which leads me to a question: Has anyone found the best ink pad to use over glimmery paints/inks. I find they all tend to sink behind the glimmer rather than sitting on top? I have tried Versafine, Archival, Stazon and Versacraft. I must admit I forget to try Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Soot Black. Maybe this would do the job? 

Halloween Inchie

Well here is my final inchie for October with Something Completely Different. Well this is Something Completely Different for me! You may have read earlier in the blog that I have been trying to learn Photoshop. Well this is me using photoshop for my inchie. The scary images came from a download I purchased from Itkupilli. She has some fabulous downloads many very suitable for Halloween. You can find her link on the side. I don't know about you but I find this image rather haunting and certainly scary!

So this is a new departure, new adventure in using digital images to create something! Quite a basic beginning but a beginning. I must spend more time learning photoshop I have been rather off the boil with it currently. So many other things to do! Not enough time!

What is quite peculiar is I have been re playing in photoshop and somehow, happy accident, created this colourway. seems even more scary than the one over on Something Completely Different. Why not take a lok and see which you think is scarier.

Time Flies: Artsy Craft Weekend

I was also very lucky to attend the Artsy Craft weekend. It was great. Lots and lots of crafting. New techniques learnt and new friends made. To attend was quite a big decision as it was quite expensive. Worth it but I did think of all the wonderful craft materials I could buy with the same outlay. However I was thrilled to go. Had a great time and would be very tempted to go again. Leandra and Lin were wonderful as were their whole team! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

This was my take on "Time Flies". I could not resist adding legs and a head to the main piece to create a wacky bird which could, maybe, actually fly!

The centre section was a new technique to me. UTE powder melted in a melt pot. Poured into a cookie cutter mould with the stamped card on the base. Quite tricky. I had several attempts at it before achieving this less than perfect example.

Halloween Night with the Play Date Cafe

Fingers crossed I am just in time.

Risque

I think I may have just managed to join in Gothic Arches this week by the skin of my teeth? Fingers crossed. This is my contribution to "Risque"

Halloween: Wednesday Stamper

Here is an item I made for the Wednesday Stamper. Halloween is a great fun subject for making things. Why not join in the fun?

"Face" Inchies: Something Completely Different

Over on Something Completely Different this month there has been an inchie challenge. This week the challenge is caled "Face". I have found inchies quite a challenge. They seem such a small item to stand alone. Part of a larger piece I find easier. However as the weeks have past I think I am learning and am finally getting my head around them. 


I even made another inchie just because..... I actually do think I am eventually getting my head around them. This stamp is part of one of the Crafty Individuals Tree landscape.

Cornish Heritage Farm : Haute Couture

I haven't posted for a few days so I thought I would duplicate a posting I did for Gingersnaps. Just incase anyone else is interested who does not know Gingersnaps.

Cornish Heritage Farms were very generous and sent the Gingersnap design team a selection of their stamps. I was sent the sheet called Haute Couture which had a wonderful image of the Eiffel Tower and some very elegant Parisian Women. I have had great fun using these stamps to create several cards and a tag. The quality of the stamps is great and they stamp really well.

Cornish Heritage Farms are sponsoring Gingersnaps this month and we have all been enjoying using their images. These are some of my creations.

Lots to Do and Brights

Boy! (where does this expression come from?) there has been lots to do this week. As you can see this is not a finished piece but something I have been picking up from time to time during the week and playing with in my sketchbook. I have been very inspired by Marion who makes wonderful things. Do visit her blog Bockel 24. I just love her work. She very kindly posted some instructions a while back as to how to start. So this is me trying to find the way to go. Still a long way to go! 

I have linked to the Lots to Do challenge in case anyone is interested.

Brads with Gingersnaps

This is my brad contribution with the Gingersnap challenge. The stamp is one of the Cornish Heritage Farms stamp sheet called Fashionista. it is a great stamp sheet to play with. Cornish Heritage Farms are the sponsors this month over on Gingersnaps and if you play along there is a chance you may win some of their stamps. Why not have a go.

I will be posting some more makes that I have put together using these stamps very soon.

The Three Muses: Numerology

It was only when I was checking the words in Alice in Wonderland that I realized the words I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!" were actually from a Walt Disney film. The words on the tag are the actual words from the book. Thank you The Three Muses for another great challenge.

Gothic Arches: Famous Person

As you can see I decided to base my Gothic Arch famous person on Leonardo Da Vinci. I thought I had to add facts to the piece so this is what I have done including a self portrait of himself. He sounds as it he was the most amazing person. He was an illegitimate child of  a Florentine notary, and Caterina, a peasant. Leonardo was an architect, musician, engineer, scientist and inventor. He wrote most of his notes using mirror writing. Some believe that this was to keep his ideas secret. Here are some other facts from Buzzle.com

• Leonardo sketched the first parachute, first helicopter, first aeroplane, first tank, first repeating rifle, swinging bridge, paddleboat and the first motorcar.
• Leonardo was very much interested in the possibility of human flight. He produced many studies of the flight of birds and plans for several flying machines.
• He was also a sculptor, designer of costumes, mathematician and botanist.
• He made maps of Europe.
• He invented the scissors and hydraulic pumps.
• He designed a movable bridge for the Duke of Milan.
• He invented the bicycle 300 years before it appeared on the road.
• He drew the plans of the first armored car in 1485. 
  
• Leonardo would wear pink to make his complexion look fresh.
  
• He never married or had children.
  
• He was undeniably one of the greatest thinkers and well ahead of his time by hundreds of years.

These are just some of the extraordinary facts about this unique man.

Lots to Do Challenge: Cities

This is my contribution to the Lots to Do Challenge on Cities. I decided to make a mini folding book. It reminds me of a delightful week I had with my daughters and my very best friend in July this year. And yes we did do the Millennium Wheel. In fact we just got on before a wedding party entered the very next carriage, so we witnessed a wedding ceremony take place whilst we turned full circle.

Harvest Blessings

Over on Gingersnaps the sponsor this month is Cornish Heritage Farms. They very kindly sent us some stamps to use. The words Harvest Blessing is from one of their word sheets called 

'Friendly Kritters Holiday Expressions'

I really made this  to sponsor their kindness. There are some very useful expressions on this sheet. I felt this Paperbag Studios stamp portrayed the right mood.

LEARN PHOTOSHOP FOR FREE

I have been thoroughly enjoying these lessons. They are just brilliant classes. Very visual learning from people who use photoshop as their profession. You see their screen and the buttons they press right in front of you. I find it so much easier than reading a book. 

I found them so great that I have also purchased the downloads. 5 weeks for $45. Each lesson is over an hour long and I will have them available to refer to over and over again.

Last week they also hosted Lesa who did an amazing lesson on masks. She even showed us how to paint with a black paint brush to reveal layers underneath. Just amazing. If you are at all interested I suggest you go check it out!!!!

http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/free-6-month-photoshop-course/

Harvest

Cornish Heritage Farms are the sponsors for all of the challenges on Gingersnap Challenges this month.

There is a lovely stamp up for grabs, perfect for Autumn, winter and Christmas makes, called the pines. So come over and play and be in for the chance to win the stamp.

I know my contribution is quite similar to a make I did recently but I find it a powerful image and very evocative for me. I do find it extraordinary when the moon rises and it is visible so close to the horizon. It just looks so big. Most often seen around this time of year and often a wonderful rich orangey red colour, filling the sky red. I just had to make another version, this time with golden embossed pears ready for the reaping of the harvest.

Mad Hatter's Day over at Gingersnaps.

The Hatter is usually referred to as the Mad Hatter. However he is never called this by Lewis Carroll in the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I have made this for two reasons: 

The first being it is October 6th,  Reason to Stamp Day over at Gingersnaps and it is Mad Hatter Day. 

The second reason is that  Alice was based on a girl called Alice Liddell and believe it or not I am actually related to her.

Tag Tuesday: Birds

Pink Sky at Night

Shepherds Delight

I love tags and I love birds, and I love trees so I was very happy when I just had enough time to play tags this week. This is my make for Tag Tuesday.

Tuesday Taggers: Trees: Morning Light

I just found time to contribute this week to Tuesday Taggers. Here is my tree entry. I want to call it Morning Light as it rises through the trees.

This week The Craft Barn are sponsoring the prize of a £15 voucher to spend with them.

Zlightly Zetti Challenge with The Three Muses.

Great challenge. I feel much better after having made this. I was feeling really crotchety before. I am in the zone now.A great weight feels it has been lifted off my shoulders. Up to now I was doing jobs I just did not want to do. I just wanted to play. Gosh don't I sound like a spoilt child. Why not join The Three Muses and play along!

Oriental Inchies

Here are my first inchies for the Something Completely Different challenge. 

The first tag is my first make where I treated every inch as a new image, canvas.

Then I read a very inspirational tutorial by Ali Manning over on Gingersnaps which resulted in the second tag. It is well worth a read. I found it great.

Autumn Gothic Arch

This is my contribution to Gothic Arches. The theme being Autumn. This is the first time I have taken part in this challenge and I came across it from Sam's Blog. Thank you.

For me fungi really depict autumn. I have two brothers who are great fungi hunters and are very good at recognizing them. But enjoy cooking and eating them even more.