Sneak Peek of UPA Acrylic Ink Technique

Over on UPA I have shown a technique using my favourite inks for making backgrounds and colouring fabric. If you are interested hop over and take a look.

Easter Bonnet

I had an urge to make an ATC since I have not made one for ages. I thought Easter Bonnet would be an appropriate subject, which also meant I could play with this delicious stamps from Rogue Redhead Designs from the sheet Milliners Misses. This is such an easy sheet to use and the images are just fabulous. Follow the links and take a look.

Spring has Sprung with Stampotique

Yes, my warped sense of humour is up to its old tricks again. I could not resist this fellow doing a bungy jump! My least favourite thing I would want to do in the whole world. Despite which it looks like Twinkie's rope is too long and it will be so long for Twinkie.

Spring has Sprung is the current challenge with Stampotique. There are some great contributions. So do take a look. 

Unruly Paper Arts Launch Day!

The new online Blogozine that launches today.  I nearly wrote "lunches": for people who lunch. 

What ridiculous fun! I almost feel like Spike Milligan. LOL

This is the new creation of Sharon Briss who co founded Gingersnap Creations with Ali Manning four years ago.

Today is the release of UPA's front page, schedule of contents on the right hand side and RAQ's. Yes I am terrible at acronyms. I always have to re work them out. These are Readers Art Quests where you can join in the fun yourselves. Just like Gingersnaps there will be a different theme each month.

You too can become a Guest Contributor, just click on the Contributor Call button and have a read. Hope to see you there!

There will be new things going on at UPA throughout the month so do check it out regularly. New postings and new articles all the time, with many techniques being shown.

It should be a lot of fun. So please come and take a look and have an explore around the blogozine.

Just click below and hope to see you there!

The first issue/month is called Inky Minx. So if you like to get inky and play around with colour why not play with us!

Stash use up! with Ali at Vintage Page designs

This morningI noticed Ali's challenge over on Vintage Page Designs was nearly up. The clock was definately ticking. So I just had to support  fellow Ginger and dear friend Ali in the challenge. So I hot footed it up to my craft room, where for the past 2 days I have been having a mega re arrange, and threw together this collage using lots of bits a pieces in my paper pile and some scraps of fabric too! As you can see I have problems throwing anything away, feeling the smallest strip of scrap must have a life in a project somewhere. But I am always glad to use them in a project.

Good luck Ali with your ventures. Your blog looks really professional, clean and creative.

Copper, Ginger and Rust with Gingersnaps

I cannot quite believe it! This is the last Gingersnap challenge! Gulp! Swallow back the tears!

What the most fabulous time I have had on this design team. Such good feelings all the time and so well orchestrated by Shar and Ali. All good things have to come to an end. It seems to be a law of life.
But it is not all tears as both Shar and Ali have new ventures to follow and Gingersnaps is morphing into UnrulyPaper Arts with Shar at the helm, using her publishing skills to launch a blogzine magazine. So you cannot get rid of me that easily as I am very honoured to be offered a slot in this new venture. Mixed feelings of sadness and excitement.

Back to this Copper, ginger and rust creation. The Borders are a download from Retros cafe Art Gallery. DP25 I do believe. Lots of great and useful borders on this sheet. Mega useful for me. The frame had numerous layers of paint on it. Pink then Copper paint/glaze and then Ferro Iron textured paint.
The background is made from acrylic inks and spray ink. The stamp is a Lynne Perrella stamp from paper Artsy, which I then adorned with bits and pieces from my stash.

Hope to see you in the future with UnrulyPaper Arts!

Art Journey : Turquoise

I have had this made for a while now but just not got around to photographing it. I made it for the March challenge with Art Journey which was to use Turquoise. One of my favourite colours! As I have said before I love this image, Film Boy, hence three frames of him. The rest is just playfulness.

I noticed this morning there was only 4 hours left for posting, so in the nick of time, again!

Wearable Art with Stampotique

I decided to make some fabric brooches for the

  Wearable Art Challenge at Stampotique.

I took some close ups of the brooches but the camera really did not like to photograph the fabric. None of the close ups were quite in focus even with the macro on.

I first coloured the fabric with Acrylic inks and then stamped the images with Versacraft ink. Set the ink with a hot iron and further coloured them with paints, many of which were Stewart Gill paints. I then experimented with sewing them into brooches. The first one was stuffed but this did not really give me the look I was after. I then tried wading and zigzagging around the image. I much preferred this and to give them more definition and texture I quilted around the characters and into a few of them.

I did manage to get a close up of this one in focus. Metallic paints were added after to give more depth.

Last Century with Gingersnaps

What a great challenge this week from Gingersnaps. I have love doing this one and using the most fab downloads from Retro Cafe Art Gallery. These are some ATC collage sheet backgrounds by Debrina Pratt DP125. For me their sheets are some of the finest images.

I have just loved using them with some of my other stamps. The cyclist are from Crafty Individuals. The middle one is a Tim Holtz stamp and adage ticket. The last one  I think, is a Scroll Works stamp. I feel

 they go so well with these backgrounds. A good match.

I just love these two as well. The Tim Holtz gentlemen and the wonderful Wendy Vecchi fellow who is waving as the balloon takes off. I like the sense of perspective they give. 

How Exciting is this? I am into Rubber!

How exciting is this? Yes I am into rubber! I cannot believe it and this is how it happened. I entered a stamp designing competition run by Jennie at The Artistic Stamper and she chose my designs as the winner! Over the moon or what!

I had wanted an image of converse sneakers for sometime but I could not find any. What  iconic footwear these sneakers are and I felt justified themselves as being an image to use in our stamping adventures. I know I will be using them a lot!

This is my first creation with the stamps. It is also my contribution to The Artistic Stamper March challenge, which is Travel. I have made a collage with some of my favourite stamps. I love these words from Tim Holtz and felt they fitted my adventure perfectly. The sneakers may look slightly blurred. This is because I double stamped them. First with Maroon Archival ink and then over stamped them lightly with black. It may not be everyones like but I do like this off set printer look and the aged feel it gives. Having the two colours also lets the image stand out a little more.

So if you feel the need to own an image like this in your stamping then march over to the Artistic Stamper where they are available in Jennie's store.

I am also entering this into The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge which this week is anything goes.

Retro Cafe and Playing catch Up

I seem to be playing catch up this week. I am not quite sure what has happened to cause this?  So this is my rather late posting of the Gingersnap challenge to use Border Punches. Retro Cafe are also the sponsors this month at Gingersnaps and I am featuring a sheet of their wonderful downloads, Houses 3 collage sheet, to create this fold up terrace.

The above image shows the outside with the two border punches. The notebook edge and hydrangea flowers both by Martha Stewart.

This is the inside. Excuse the pun, but I am rather fond of puns.

Do check out the Retro Cafe art Gallery site. They do have the most exquisite images to download.

Gate Fold Card for Rogue Redhead Designs

I had to quickly make a card for John's Mother today so I combined it with the current Rogue Redhead challenge of a gate fold card. I have used the relish reading plate for the cover and inside the flowers from the Floriculture set and words from the Bits and Pieces plate.

Pink and Purple with Stampotique

It has been a while since I have posted. I had not given up for lent. But I thought I would break my fast with my Pink and Purple contribution for Stampotique. I was playing with my wonderful acrylic inks. I do love them. Rich clear colours that are colour fast once dry. I have also used some wax resist on top of them and played around with some stencils. 

I also just had to play with Marci again. Very fond of Marci! She wanted to come out to play in her new sparkly frock.

Leap with Gingersnaps

As it is a leap year and today is the leap day, Feb 29th, the idea is to use this as the challenge over on Gingersnaps. Rather fun in my opinion.

I have used these wonderful stamps from The Stampsmith called Life is a Balancing Act that have been designed by the artist Jack Sherman. I just love it when I have the opportunity to use them. There are some great tips and tutorials on the site as well.

So come a join the fun and jump for joy with us over on Gingersnaps!

Stamped Background with Rogue Redhead Designs

The current challenge at Rogue Redheads is to use a background stamp. I have used the background stamp from Beach Babes and paired it up with an image from Just Sayin'. This was then coloured with watercolours and mounted onto some backing papers and a grungy edge added. The challenge is on going until March 4th. So why not join in?

2 Colours with Gingersnaps

There is a fab challenge over on Gingersnaps which is to use 2 colours. I love colour challenges so it was right up my street. I have chosen to use Coffee and Wine. A fine combination both as colours and taste. And who better to show them off but one of the elegant stamps from Rogue Redhead Designs from the Milliner Misses plate. Simple, uncluttered and to the point.

Which 2 colours will you use. Rogue Redhead Designs are the sponsors this month at Gingersnaps so there may be a chance of a win from them?

Faux Water Colour with Gingersnaps

At Gingers this week the challenge is to use a faux technique. I decided to use a faux water colour technique. I have found a wonderful very smooth water colour paper which is ideal for stamping on.
First I wetted the paper. The paper needs to be damp but not too wet. The first image I stamped was too wet and gave a very runny blurred image. I rather liked it but thought for the challenge should try a slightly clearer image. So paper damp but not too wet. I then coloured the stamp with water soluble pens, huffed on them and then stamped. I did the same for the border, which is one stamp repeated around the image. Added some more colour with water soluble crayons to give a bit more colour.


The stamps used are Carnival dreams by Rogue Redhead Designs. 
Lots of lovely stamps for just $6

Stampotique CASE a designer

Stampotique's challenge this time is to CASE (copy and steal everything)  one of their design team.

I have decided to CASE  Willy with  her Black and White and a hint of colour creation. You can see hers below.

I had great fun doing this, hence the "Giggle" and "Laugh" words. It was a bit like a craft holiday.

This is one of the items I made for the Masking Tape challenge currently running over on Gingersnaps, but I decided to post a different one. This is now being shown over on the Rogue Redhead blog.

The two stamps used are from the Floriculture plate.

First I adhered Tim Holtz tape onto the tag and then swiped the tag with gesso. Once dried I added some pan pastels which coloured differently where the gesso was underneath. I then decided to take some of the masking tape off as you can see. I inked the stamp with versamark embossing pad and stamped. Then added a darker shade of pan pastel over the stamped image. Then the same stamp was re inked with Black Archival and over stamped. "Le Jardin" was stamped onto masking tape and adhered to the tag. The edges were darkened and ribbon attached.

Masking Tape with Gingers

I have a roll of masking tape that is about 6 inches wide which I put to use for this challenge. 

First I punched a circle from the roll and used it as a mask for applying ink through for the sun. Used the sun stamp from the Floricultural set from Rogue Redhead Designs to over stamp.

Then I ripped and edge of the bottom of the masking tape and applied chalk onto the visible white card. 

I continued doing this up the page in different shades of yellow and ochre to create the sand. I then over stamped with Distress Ink Tea Stain using the texture stamp from Beach Babes. I also used the wonderful little sailor boy stamp and the flying birds again from Beach Babes. Finishing with the beached Starfish from the same plate.

All the stamps I used are from Rogue Redhead Designs who are the generous sponsors of this months challenges over on Gingersnaps.