Step out of the Box with PDCC 49

Step out of the Box is my contribution to this weeks Play Date Cafe Challenge 49 already. The time flies.
As you can see from the inspiration image below the colours were rusty orange, hot pink, turquoise, and chocolate brown. Colours I enjoy to work with. Mind you there are few colours I do not mind playing with. So here I have used a Tim Holtz Ledger stamp for the background after colouring the paper with Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge distress inks.. A Paperbag Studios sandal stamp, which I love, stamped with chocolate ink over paper distressed with Broken china and Tumbled Glass.  A Paperbag Studios spiral bound notebook stamp around the edges over a border cut from a die, also from Mr Holtz.

Colour Combo Month at SCD

Colour combo month at SCD. My friend Gez has chosen these fab autumn colours to start us off. I really like this stamp and as I had never used it thought it would fit in with trees losing leaves. However these trees have lost their all leaves which really shows I should have waited to use it until  the end of winter just before the leaves start to grow again and after their fine pruning. But I could not wait.

So please come and join us at SCD this week. You can make anything as long as you use these colours:

Oranges, goldie yellows and browns. Look forward to seeing your creations.

Black with the Sunday Stamper

This fabulous creation was all due to a fantastic workshop I attended run by my friend Hels at The Stamp Attic. We had such a good time and what a great make to take away with us. The Stamp Attic are running some great workshops at the moment so why not take a look.  This one was called Rosy Heart Art.
We were all given some metal sheets to work with and shown how to do that beautiful rose. I was so pleased with mine as the colours were just glorious. Navy blue metal rubbed away to show silver underneath. It was a lush colour combination. To get the colour to rub away we applied black Stazon and then just rubbed. Most of the elements were softened in colour by using this technique., black Stazon and elbow power.

It doesn't show up to well but these dinky bottles are so cute. I decided not to fill mine with beads and ink but took it home to add Bermuda pink sand. It really is pink but the photo does not do it justice. Needless to say the pink sand is quite a heart wrench for me as this is where my mother was brought up and returned there to re make it her home when she retired. I have many memories and adventures from time spent in Bermuda from my teenage years and beyond.

Stampotique Challenge: Vintage SDC 16

Goodness this card really made me chuckle when making it. It really appealed to my sense of ridiculous! Pretty vintage papers and ribbons with the central window filled with distressed papers with some very vintage characters stamped on to it. You can't get more vintage than these fellows, Lol.The peel offs are vintage too! So vintage I had problems getting them to stick! So Stampotique I hope you enjoy this silliness.

Friends with the Art Journey Challenge

This is my contribution to The Art Journey Challenge  the subject being Friends. I have used some new stamps by Art Journey. As well as liking to work with birds I like to work with fish. They always bring back grand memories of scuba diving in Bermuda on the reefs. I always loved swimming with the fish but I also believe that good friends swim together!
Hope you enjoy.

As Mad As.... PDCC 48

Look at these magnificent Mad March Hares! I think these two are just so noble and I love the way the taller one's eye just follows you from wherever you look at him.I just adore this stamp and also the colours from this weeks challenge. Blue, lime and grey. The stamp comes from 100 Proof Press.

Why not join in the fun at Play date Cafe!

Film Boy for Sunday Stamper

Film Boy

This is my contribution to Hel's Sunday Stamper, the theme being films. This stamp by Art Journey is called Film Boy which I thought was suitable. 

I tried an experiment with stamping this. I stamped the image twice. First with blue ink and then over stamped with black. I knew I would not be able to line it up properly, which I was after. I wanted it to look like old prints were the registration is not quite right and also to give the effect of when a film jams it sort of jumps on one frame. So I was quite pleased with how it turned out. As I wanted for once.

Haunted with Gingersnaps Creative Connection

“I am participating in a GC Creative Connection. I heard about this month’s GCCC - Haunted - from  Helene Huber at    Gingersnaps . Why not play along? Post a creation to your blog mentioning my post and the Creative Connection post on Gingersnap Creations. Let’s all craft it forward and see how far we can get this connection to go!”


Here,  as you can see, I have had lots of fun. Totally OTT but why not once in a while after all I had all these new dies to use from Tim Holtz!  I have also used the clowns faces from one of his stamps too,  as I find the image quite terrifying. You can see them laughing at you in the bottom right corner! I smooched the die cuts with silver ink after embossing them first in a folder. I think the effect is quite good. I also stamped cobwebs onto the glass which has worked really well.

A Ticket to Fly

This week it is my turn to choose the theme for arches over on SCD. I have chosen birds. I enjoy working with birds and felt the arch shape lent itself to being a bird cage. However I do not really like to see birds in cages so mine has a ticket to fly! We have hundreds of sparrows in our garden and they must think our garden is a good restaurant. I have to fill the bird feeders daily! We have certainly done lots for helping the dwindling population of sparrows. Of course we have other birds such as tits, robins and blackbirds, the odd finch and when it is really cold a thrush. However I do like to see them flying free. Hence this make.

Seeing it photographed I think I will add a few stamps in the background on the tag as it looks a little empty and too dominant.

Hope you come and play along and look forward to visiting your birds!

Neutrals plus one colour with Gingersnaps

This Wednesday see the start of a new challenge over on Gingersnaps. It is a colour challenge of Neutrals plus one colour, so anything goes with regard to what you can make. I have chosen a small canvas that sits inside a frame. The main stamps are Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi images. The frame has been covered in Terra and painted with Trad Tan with stamped images applied. I decided to team up the neutrals with a soft turquoise. There are other items and colour combinations for you to see over on the Gingersnaps blog.

Distressing with The Stampman

I am on a roll! Another creation. This I have made for The Stampman challenge under the theme distressing.

As you can see this has had a fair bit of distressing.

I am enjoying these dress stamps by Creshendo as it reminds me of being a child and playing with paper dolls. Then I would want them to be all perfect and now a bit of grunge is called for. Lol.

The Red House on the Hill

How many weeks since I have played along at the Play Date Cafe? I am not sure but ages and far too long!
The colours this week are green, turquoise, red, black and white.
So this is my play result of today. I hope I am lucky enough to win the Paperbag Studio sponsors gift because I love their stamps. Fingers crossed.
This one is for you Roben-Marie.


I have also had a friendly nudge from my friend Hels who says these are the colours for Sunday Stamper, so I will also enter it for her wonderful challenges. All this crafting puts retirement into a different category . Once addicted there would ever be time to be board. Roll on retirement.

Arches with SCD: Stars

Italian Moonlight

This is an early stamp that I bought so it has been great to get it out again to use. It is well worth going through your stamps from time to time to find some old favourites that have been buried in drawers. I chose this one to use for the Star challenge because it has stars in it and it is an interesting arch shape. The therapy continued with the colouring in.

Stampotique Birthday Challenge

This is the first time in ages I have had time to join in the Stampotique challenge. School holidays are over and I am enjoying more regular "me" time and am thoroughly enjoying playing.

Why not pop over and take a look and join in the fun!

Gingersnaps New Challenge: Inchies

Well this is my inchie collage for the new Gingersnaps challenge.  I rather liked the pretty pinks alongside such scary images. It sort of made me chuckle, the incongruousness of it!
Well I am in the UK and I do not know whether anyone else has had this problem? Trying to find a 1 inch square punch that actually cuts 1 inch. I have bought several that say they are 1 inch but it is measured across the diagonal not the sides! I am somewhat frustrated by this. Can anyone help me please?

50's Style Arches with SCD

This week at SCD the arches theme is the Fifties. So I had a bit of fun with this glamour puss. I just love all those different 50"s style patterns on the borders and the colours they used. Come and join the fun and see what you come up with. For more inspiration visit the SCD blog and see what the other designers have come up with.

Arches and Lace with Something Completely Different

A new month and a new theme over on SCD. This month we are playing with Arches and this weeks subject is to incorporate lace in your design. So here is my contribution. There are some fabulous creations made by the design team so please hop over, take a look and come and play. Can't wait to see your interpretation on the theme.

My Unique Technique: Embossed leaf

Today I will show you a technique I developed to preserve fall/autumn leaves and to enhance them. I adore oak leaves. I just love their infinite variety of shapes and I find them all so unique and beautiful. I am completely drawn to them so I thought up this method to try to preserve them without drying or pressing them for ages. They are slightly stronger than dried ones but are still fragile and can break over time especially if they find themselves stored in a pile of papers or cards.

The finished leaf. Isn't it just beautiful?

So if you are interested in how to achieve this hop over to Gingersnaps where there is a tutorial showing you how!

 Once made you can then use them in your creations and projects.

Here I  made one into an ATC.  The ATC background was tissue paper stamped, torn, layered and glued. The leaf was matted and layered  onto card. cut out and gold pen run around the edges of the mat. The edges were stitched and beaded. 

As you can see part of a lobe has broken off over time but I did find it bunched up in a pile of papers, which did not help.

And Lavender dipped in silver....

Hope you have fun with this technique: Laura Liddell

Ancient Ages with Gingersnaps

The theme over on Gingersnaps this week is Ancient Ages. I am not sure I understood the era correctly but my thought process was you cannot get much more ancient than Cave Paintings nor more magical. Hence this being my contribution rightly or wrongly? After all the challenge sparked this thought process from me so it achieved in its purpose as an inspiration.

These are one of the earlier 2 stamps I ever bought as I always found their imagery provoking. Take a look at what the other designers for Gingersnaps have come up with. Probably a more accurate era. But the main objective is to enjoy!

Of the Sea

This week on SCD the challenge is to make an ATC size Torso on the theme "Of the Sea" This is my contribution but there are some really glorious makes by the design team this week. So hop over and take a look. Well done team!!!!

Red and Black Torso

SCD torso theme this week is red and black. Here is my little number. Embossed black card highlighted with red chalk and red embellishments added. Hop over to SCD to see the other design team creations.

Memories and Torsos

This weeks theme over on SCD for Torsos is memories. See what memories you can put onto your ATC sized torso that are close to your heart. Of course you can take the theme any way you wish. Hop over and see what the other design team have created.

Paint with Gingersnaps

The Gingersnaps challenge this Wednesday is to use paint. On this piece there are a number of different paints used. There are first patches of  Terra paint applied to create patches of texture. While still wet dampened stamps were pressed into it to create further texture. When dry acrylic paint was then added over the background. You can see where a cog mask was also used. Some metal was passed through a cuttlebug and sprayed with Adirondak  spray ink. The wings were painted with acrylic and then lightly stroked with a pale precious metal colour that creates a subtle sheen. Around the edges and over some high spots Ferro gold iron was applied. Croco clear paint was added to the heart once the purple acrylic was dry and the surface of this has a subtle crackle on it. The backing paper has been painted with acrylics too.

A Bit of Bling

What a great challenge we have in store for you this month over on SCD. This is Carol's brainwave and great fun it is too! These torsos are about the size of an ATC so not too daunting. I really enjoyed playing with this and this is my contribution. Can't wait to see what the rest of the design team have come up with. And also really exciting we have a new design team member, Artyjen. How cool is that!!! A great favourite of many of us and it is just so exciting she has agreed to join us. WELCOME!

Brown, orange and blue tag with SCD

Been away last week so I am trying to catch up with my postings. It will be similar next week too as again I will be away with my girls in London. This is my tag for SCD this week to include brown, orange and blue. This was great fun to make with all the terra and ferro paint in the background. Hope to see your creations on this theme.

Yellow, orange and red with Gingersnaps

The colours yellow, orange and red are the new challenge over on Gingersnaps. I just love paisleys and I thought these wonderful sumptuous colours just lent themselves to this look. These paisleys are really quite dimensional and the large one has numerous layers to it, several layers being copper metal. The stamp is designed by Elusive images at Graphicus. It is also glitzy as you can see quite well the glimmery mists that I have used on the background.

Circle tags with SCD

Rather late posting but here is my contribution to the Circles challenge over on SCD this week. I must admit not only do I enjoy making tags but I also enjoyed the circle challenge immensely. The cogs were cut from a Tim Holtz die and covered with a Terra paint coating, the covered with ferro paint and on the high points some metallic paint gently applied to ad a bit of contrast. The background postage stamp is a Paper Artsy Stamp. The cogs were attached to the tag with large eyelets and paper fasteners all adding to the circle theme.

Resaved image

Well I have re saved image and have uploaded again. I will keep fingers crossed and go check on another computer!

No did not work. Will sleep on the problem and try again.

Fantasy Tag with SCD

More tags this week and the theme is Fantasy over on SCD. Here is my take and what is more fantastic than some of the images and stories from Alice!

I was blown away last week by the creations for "Are you sitting Comfortably?" Loved them all and I loved how people interpreted the theme. Just fabulous. Thank you to everyone who played along or left wonderful comments. It does make the week better and more fulfilling.

Have a go at this weeks and see what you come up with. Can't wait to see your creations. Take a look how different the design teams are over on SCD.

Have a good week!

Are you sitting comfortably? with SCD

We are still on tags this week with a new theme. Are you sitting comfortably? There are quite a number of chair images around at the moment so I thought this would lend itself to these. However any take on the theme is fine. Mine definitely changed since setting the theme. I think it is fabulous how everyone on the SCD design team has a different angle to the theme just proving how versatile it is. 

Hop over and have a look. We would love you to play along.

Tags are the July theme over on Something Completely Different. Great fun in my mind! 

This weeks theme is Hearts which lends itself to so many different interpretations and layouts. 

Here I have used one of my all time favourite stamps, which I call Balloon Hearts from Paperbag Studios, available in the UK from The Stamp Attic. 

Come join in the fun. I love tags.

ATC Gingersnaps Art Exchange: Soar

The deadline for joining the current Gingersnaps Art Exchange is fast approaching - July 1. This is a popular exchange, but there is room for a few more players. We welcome participants from all around the world.

Specifics
Format: Artist Trading Card - 3.5" x 2.5"
Theme: "Soar"
Media: Any but should include some stamping
Number of Pieces: 4 for 4
Sign-Ups/Withdrawals: by July 1, 2010
Due Date: July 15, 2010

All the exchange details are on the Gingersnap Creations Yahoo Group.In order to participate in the exchange, you will need to become a member of the Yahoo Group, so that we can maintain proper communication. The membership process is quick and easy.

If you have any questions, you can drop us a line at gingersnapstamp@gmail.com.

I am the co-ordinator for the swap in the UK so you do not have to send items to the States. It is so much fun to take part in these Art Exchanges as it is wonderful to receive fabulous things from other creative people. Why not give it a go. It is ATC's this time so not too demanding but lots of fun.

Flora and Fauna with SCD

This weeks Skinni ( 3 x 5 inches) theme is Flora and Fauna. This is my take on the theme. The stamp is an Elusive image stamp from Graphicus which I have inked with pens and then spritzed before stamping to give a watercolor effect. The butterflies are just Anita stickers which are quite fun as they are 3 Dimensional and slightly glittery. Since it was Flora and Fauna I thought I better photograph it in the garden.

Reasons to stamp in July with Gingersnaps

Rabbit Week

Embrace your Geekness Day

Rock N Roll

Quite simply these are my contributions for July. Hop over to Gingersnaps and see all the other reasons to stamp in July and the great makes by the design team.

Blue and white with SCD

The theme this week for Skinnis over on SCD is blue and white. I love this image and sentiment. It is so strong it really does not need anything else apart from itself.  I just embellished the edge with some ribbon. The image is one of the Paperbag Studio stamps available in the UK from The Stamp Attic.

Skinni cats with SCD

No the cats do not have to be skinni! You can have fat cats, cuddly cats, stripy cats, spotty cats, whatever as long as there is a cat!

This is my make and the saying just made me laugh. This Stampotique cat (available in the UK from The Stamp Attic)  looks so guilty here that I thought it enhanced the joke. It was just calling out for a hand pointing to the guilty party!

Enjoy the make this week. Remember Skinnis are 3 x 5 inches.

Hop over to SCD and see what the rest of the design team have made.

The Mad Hatter Blog Hop: Come and have some fun with Gingersnaps!

 
Welcome to the Gingersnap Creations’ Mad Hatter’s Day Hop and Hop Stop #8
 
The Gingers are celebrating Mad Hatter Day and hope that you will hop along with us!


The reason Mad Hatter Day  is today (10/6/2010) is because of the 10/6 in the hat band. When we had sterling coinage this was the way prices were often written. It would have meant 10 shillings and sixpence. In the UK we put the day before the month. I know it is the other way around in the USA. 
 
If you’ve already been hopping then hopefully you have just come from Lynn at Trash to Treasure Art. If you are starting here, welcome! It's a loop so you can start anywhere along the way!

At each stop, you need to collect a word! There are 10 stops in all starting and ending with the Gingersnap Creations blog where you can get all the specific information and get a peak at the the goodies in the Mad Hatter Giveaway.
 
When you get all your words, 8 in all, unscramble them to form a quotation from the beloved classic, Alice in Wonderland. Once you have your guess at the quote, email it and your name to gingersnapstamp@gmail.com by June 25, 2010. We will be picking one lucky winner at random from the correct entries to win the Mad Hatter package! We’ll let you know who won on June 29, 2010.
 
If you visit all the stops, you should end up right back at Gingersnap Creations with 8 words! Unscramble the words to come up with the correct quote and email it on to gingersnapstamp@gmail.com. That's all there is to it!
 
If you get lost along the way, you can see the entire route at Gingersnap Creations.
 
My word is "a".
 
Your next stop on the hop is Shar at Ill Tempered Ink.  Have fun and good luck!

Transparency at Gingersnaps

This weeks theme at Gingersnaps is Transparency. This is one of those wonderful Brag Bags with see through pockets with which you can show off your art work. When I first saw these several years ago I thought it a wonderful idea. After all many of us make things and then do they go in a box or a drawer? Or does everyone post all of theirs to family and friends? Anyway I felt this was a grand alternative. You can also insert new artwork  when you want a change.

 This is my contribution to the theme Transparency. These bags were available from Graphicus but I do not know whether they are still available through them?

Way behind on postings!

Well this is the first image to post. We went away last week and camped. Enjoyed glorious weather and even got our sailboat on the water which John has very lovingly restored. Felt quite an achievement. But it has meant I am way behind on posting and haven't created anything last week. This first image is for Gingersnaps and their current challenge "Wings" I must admit I flung this together at the last moment but still had fun doing it.

The second image was for the SCD challenge where Skinnis are the format this month and this weeks theme is house or houses. I love these Paper Artsy stamps and they remind me of an English seaside town, possibly Aldburgh, which is close to where one of my brothers live, so reminds me of him!

I feel rather out of the zone at the moment, what with the garden and the plants to plant out and having a week away.