My Treasures of the week with Brenda Brown

This is my treasure. A hammered Acer leaf onto white cotton. Quilted with free machine stitching onto   the leaf. Little hand stitches added around the leaf for further quilting. Stretched and stitched onto a handmade twig frame and weighted with a shell.

Natural objects, for me, have such a beauty which is seldom surpassed.

The challenge is open until May 20th so there is still time to add your treasure to Brenda's blog: Bumblebees and Butterflies.

Family with Stampotique

Yo yo my big bro

This is my contribution to the current "Family" challenge at Stampotique.

I have 3 brothers. My mother married twice which resulted in my having 2 much older brothers. There was about 13 years between us. I had one brother who was very tall and I had to skip when walking with him just to keep up with his long legs. I thought the size difference between these two really depicted this difference and gave me fond memories during its make. And what fabulous large feet he has. Perfect, as I used to stand on his feet and we used to dance around the room together.

Shattered Stains: CCC5

Linda, from Studio3L, has set us a new challenge this week called Shattered Stains. The details of this technique are available from Tim's new book,"Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2."

A fun technique, but I had no idea which die to use to try it out. I had a light bulb moment when I was looking through them. Since the technique is a wrinkly crackly finish, I thought of skin when it has been in the bath too long. Fond memories came flooding back to me of bath times with babies and toddlers. Always magical and they can just stay in that bath for ages when they have fun toys to play with. Watering cans to fill bottles, wheels that spin when powered by water, squirty toys and that must have, a wind up toy of some sort. Just a few of the toys my children had. Bath time was so special that I used it even in the middle of the day if they became very distressed or when temper tantrums struck. If your children are at this stage, just try it and see if it works for you and them. Afterwards they tended to be wrinkly, cuddly and much calmer. All to be finished off with a cuddle and a bottle of milk and with any luck we both then could have a little snooze together.

This cherub die is a delight. I can just remember the silky feel of babies skin, the wonderful chubby bums and limbs and the most evocative smell. Mmmmmm, one day I may be a grandmother, but apart from the odd lapse I am in no hurry. I would much rather my children to enjoy their young adulthood first.

Simon Says Stamp is the generous sponsor again this week.

The post below this one is my make for the CCC4 challenge. I knew I would not make the deadline, but  I would love it, even so, if you took the time to view it. It was such a great technique which I thoroughly enjoyed and one I will definitely use again.

Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge 4: Faded Layers

What a hectic week. Here, there and everywhere. I knew I would probably not be able to make this until Friday, but that is fine. I am at least keeping up with the challenges and it is great to actually try all the techniques in the book. Compendium of Curiosities, Volume 2, page 43.

I will not give away the technique as it is all in the book, but what a great effective technique. I really enjoyed myself and I just love this elephant. Elephants must be one of my favourite animals. Gentle giants unless annoyed. If I were an elephant I maybe able to remember more? At least I wouldn't forget.

If you do not know these current challenges then hop over to Studio3L. There is a new challenge technique every week.

Rogue Redhead Vintage Pastels

Whilst making this I thought the colours reminded me of Vintage Pastels. What do you think? I guess some of the squares may look more like Grungy Pastels?

However I found a fun way to use the Rogue Redhead design plates in an alternative way. I think it is rather fun to create a mosaic type card by using a variety of the images. There are some great makes over on the site so why not take a browse. Just click the link.

ATC Stampotique Challenge

Just recently I have been trying out a different genre of stamps from Stampotiue. I felt this photo booth stamp was ideal for the current challenge to make an ATC. I also decided to go for a monotone design as photo booth photos used to always be in black and white. I also like to create in black and white from time to time as for me it is a bit like cleaning my pallet.

Marbled Stains: CC2C3

This week over on Linda's blog, StudioL3, we are tackling a new technique from Tim's newest book, Compendium of Curiosities volume 2, page 46. I decided to try the technique out on a tag. Once dry I added further texture with the new texture stamps and distress ink. I really like the Stormy Sky with the Frayed Burlap colour. There is something about blue and brown together which I really like, or am I just reflecting the colour of our weather at the moment?

Once all this was dry I added some more stamping with Tim's word and number stamps. I added the Converse Sneaker stamp as I felt it was appropriate being a stamp I designed for the Artistic Stamper. As it was sitting on this muted background I decided to add some white highlighter pen to lift the white areas and I went around some of the edge in yellow, green and fuchsia pink coloured pencils to lift it further and make it feel more 3 dimensional.

The sponsors this week are Eclectic Paperie. Aren't we lucky, not only are we inspired to play but there is a prize too for the lucky winner for this weeks sponsor. Thank you!