SCD Colour Challenge: Blue and Burgundy

Halloween is nearly upon us so I just had to use these images again before they may not be so appropriate. What a shame. Does this mean they have to go away again for nearly a year? Anyhow this is the last week of the colour challenge with us at SCD and as the title says the colours are Blue and Burgundy. I created this background with acrylic paints and then ran it through a Tim Holtz embossing folder. Highlighted the embossed sections with black ink. So really should I say downlighted? Then I cut the post from another Tim Holtz product, the Hanging Sign die. Covered it with Ferro Gold Iron Viva paint, when dry fixed the sign with jump rings and chain. Loads of fun.

Forgotten to post with Gingersnaps

Mona Mona

Here is a post I quite forgot to post. It is for a current Gingersnap Challenge for the use of Versamark. This is another technique from the Master out of his book, Compendium of Curiosities. It uses 2 contrasting acrylic paint colours and between the layers clear embossing. For more detailed instructions take a look at the book. It is a technique that is new to me and I was keen to do something that was, so I tried some contrasting colours to see how they compared.

Yellow and Green with SCD

The colour theme this week over on SCD is yellow and green. I have used an Artistic Outpost stamp which I haven't used for ages. I love the way the yellow is shining through the branches. It feels simple yet evocative.
Pop over and take a look at all the other great creations the design team have produced.
It has been fantastic to have so many players this month. Love seeing what you all create.

Arches with Gingersnaps

Togetherness

I hope you can see the arch in the background! I think this is a delightful image and I felt it depicted Togetherness perfectly. It is stamped onto glossy card which has had the tartan effect alcohol ink background technique applied first. Courtesy of Tim Holtz from his book Compendium of Curiosities.

I was going to use a different arch but another team member had already used it, so i thought I would use this instead.

Orange and Black with SCD

Another colour challenge over on SCD and this week the colours are Orange and black. Well I had to, didn't I, use halloween images! If I don't use them now when will I? The right time of year and so fun. I love these mini halloween images from the Master! The size seems to allow for more to be used. Sounds good to me.

I have loved visiting all your creations and look forward to this week. Oh, by the way you don't have to do halloween, just in case I gave that impression. Create anything you like as long it is orange and black!

All Dressed Up with The Stampsmith

For me there was no other image that could portray this theme better! This is such a classic image and there is no doubt about it Marilyn is all dressed up! This is my entry for The Stampsmith Challenge.

How to stamp onto Lumpy Bumpy Surfaces

If you don't know how and want to know the process for stamping on lumpy bumpy surfaces there is a tutorial over on the Gingersnap blog. Here I have used the technique to decorate a frame but it could be used for many different items and also for canvases.

Purple and Green with SCD

I went away for a few days and I forgot to post this before I left. I am home now so am catching up with what I should have done earlier.
SCD have a colour challenge going on this month where you can make anything you like in the colours set for the week. This week the colours are purple and green, which I think is rather a fab combo. I decided to make a card and play with this little fellow. I decided to add buttons to the bubbles I had printed on the card.
We had lots of players last week, which was fantastic. Thank you everyone and I hope we have a good number this week. There are some beautiful creations already both with the design team and crafters joining the challenge. I hope you may join in too!

Melon, Green and White with PDCC 50

Wow I have just had one of those days that is a bit magical, and this is the result. I started the day by collecting dark red acer leaves. I then proceeded to hammer them onto fabric to give these truly beautiful acer leaf prints. Isn't it just something special? I then made a quilt sandwich and free machine stitched around it. The frame is a Cuttlebug die which I call wonky frames. I have several; squares, rectangles and circles and they are all rather wonky, which I love. Much better than boring straight. This has been stitched into place so that the quilting piece is fairly dimensional. The image above is a close up. The finished item is below. I have submitted it for The Play Date Cafe Challenge 50.

The leaves are punched out and a backing of green glimmer ,isted paper mounted behind. The words are some great ones from Creshendho. Available from The Stamp Attic in the UK. These have been stamped onto some inked paper that includes green and melon colours, scrunched for texture and ironed. 

Here are the challenge colours.

Altered with The Stampman

This is my altered piece for The Stampman Altered Challenge. It is an altered paint sample card that has been turned into a "Scrapling" A Scrapling is a small card that is 1.5 inch x 4.25 inch card. (1.5 x 8.5) It opens like a card and I have become addicted to making them. They make such charming note cards and so fun to make. Recently Gingersnaps had a art swap of these little things, but this swap is now closed. However a new swap of 4 x 4 inch wintered themed images is now open to join in.

Gothic Elements with Gingersnaps

The current theme over on Gingersnaps is Gothic Elements. There are some fantastic creations over on the blog so hop over and take a look. I certainly had fun with this one and of course it lent itself to theose stamps I am rather partial to. Stampotique.

The background image is one of Itkupilli available to download from her site. She has lots of amazing images many very suitable for this time of year. Well worth having a look. 

The frame was textured and stamps applied. The Stampotique batwoman was layered so she looks as if she is walking out of the frame. An Alterations die has been used inside the frame. Stamps have been applied onto the frame and some Of Tim's dies added. The Stampotique stamps are available in the UK from The Stamp Attic.

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.