Flying high

The challenge over at ATCAS#16 is flying high. Hmmmm! Thinking cap on, don't want to do butterflies, I did a bunch of them for the twinchies challenge recently & no back linking allowed.....don't feel like birds....Aha! I know what I'll use a not-been-used in ages dragonfly from Paper Artsy.

A quarto sized white card, the dragonfly stamped using my Big n Juicy ink pad in Hydrangea & then clear embossed, some "stitch" marks in a toning fine liner for his "flight" line. I added a little Tumbled Glass DI to watercolour the wings - all it needed now was a row of small flowers along the bottom, I've stamped these in yellow & then coloured with shades of yellow & orange.

Time to enter the challenge!

Arrows

Well, after scratching my head & rummaging through my drawers... The only arrows I have amongst my stamps are a little Cupid  (Fiskars romance) and Artistic Stamper ethnic plate #015: hunter. 

The Cupid is quite small & the hunter does not seem a CAS design so I was a bit stumped for the CAS-UAL FRIDAYS CFC107: Hunger Games which needs at least 1 arrow!!!

I stamped the hunter onto Kraft with archival black & edged with Vintage Photo, crumpled it all up - unfolded it & went over the creases with more vintage Photo & a little walnut ink. Definitely not clean!

Then I took the Cupid & a small heart from the Fiskars romance set & stamped both onto a piece of red card that is ATC sized.

Still not really doing it for me!

More rummaging required....

Another Valentine theme! This ones a Clear Choice set of love stamps stamped using Festive Berries & some fake stitching added with a Staedler triplus fineliner in red... No, still not what I'm looking to link :-(

This time I decided to go with a 3 1/2" square white card, a Paper Artsy stamp from Bricks & Mortar 2(one way + arrow) stamped in black & a green promarker used on the arrow. I added a border of arrows using a stamp from an Invoke set(game pieces) using Mowed Lawn DI.

Still not quite right:-((

Same size card, same stamps... Different layout & a different colour (colorbox aqua)

 

For some reason these last 2 cards are on their side & won't rotate- sorry anyway, I am entering the last one for the challenge :-).

Thanks for sticking with me if you reached the end of this story!

Another tutorial

Another tutorial from Tammy, but ive not really followed it because i dont have a melt pot/UTEE!

Tissue paper stamped with Inkadinkado stamp (grape varieties) & coloured with Squeezed Lemonade,Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Seedless Preserves & Fired Brick

The tag has been embossed using the Dot Matrix folder & coloured (peeled paint, squeezed lemonade, seedless preserves).

I've wrapped a piece of coloured gauze around the tag, no idea want I used as it was done years ago.

I've used a punch & one of the leaves from the autumn gathering die that look a bit like vine leaves,

Once the leaves were cut out I used versamark & clear embossing powder to get the translucent effect. 

I coloured some metal "bunches of grapes" from my stash & also 1 slightly larger plastic one with alcohol inks in shades of purple/eggplant & green/lettuce - the plastic worked better than the metal ones.

I stamped a pair of glasses onto a heart shaped die cut (stash) coloured it with a Spectrum Noire blue pen....the cardstock was super absorbent so I've tried to remove some of the colour from the centre part around the glasses....result is rather mottled! You live & learn...and that's what this is all about :-)

You share the good and maybe the bad!

I then took a length of thread and added the grapes around the lower edge of the heart and used Glossy Accents to stick the leaves around the edge in several layers. I've stuck this down onto the main tag and then added a couple of hand written banners "cheers" & " Rosé de Provence".

 To finish off I used a length of the dyed gauze bandage, I seem to think I might have used silk paints to colour it all those years ago!!! Then tied a fine wire to tie around & create some tendrils by wrapping the wire round a kebab stick & an extra piece of random dyed ribbon.

It looks nothing like Tammy's lovely tag but it was her ideas that set me off on this journey for which I thank her :-)

Bloglovin!

Well as I am a total dinosaur when it comes to computers....I've signed up to bloglovin & I'm seeing most of the blogs that I follow but not all & then I'm getting some that never showed up on blogger!

I'm confused dot com!!!! Am I also supposed to post via bloglovin & if so how? I can see I'm have to spend the rest of the week on Google looking for answers!

If anybody has any advice....I'm all ears :-) 

Signed 

Lost & confused.com

Two for one

Inspiration struck in the middle of an opening title: FREE, I scrolled down....someone has used a similar idea! Too bad as I had already decided to use the same idea on another challenge....

CAS-ology "FREE" & CFC106 "off the edge" are the 2 challenges I am entering with this card

A pale blue card, 3 white clouds, a hot air balloon coloured with Spectrum Noire &  soar.The cloud in front of the balloon has been raised with foam pads.

 The stamps came with Creative Stamping 11. 

Gina

I had a "middle of the night" moment last night ! I found myself wondering if this little lady would fit on a moo. She does!  So out with the promarkers & scraps... The background is distress inks & random stamps- cannot for the life of me think what I created it for but I do remember that it was ages ago. Something about this stamp made me think Gina Lollibrigida ( that's showing my age!) so she is trendy in a bright red dress - always seem to think of her in red & as I cannot remember if the movies were b&w or not I am unable to put it down to an overactive imagination :-)

I think I'll post her over on the moo mania page!

Surprise

Another recycle topper here using cardboard, gesso, ancient dictionary, another pice of cardboard that I've die-cut into a star that has then been stamped with a freebie from get stamping & some pieces of ribbon that have stars punched from them. No doubt this one will find its way onto a masculine make :-)

And now I'm off to play with another piece...see you all soon!

Recycled

A piece of cardboard, some gesso, a strip of ancient dictionary (thanks Jenny Wilson!) that's been aged even more with vintage photo ink, some leaves from my recycle stash, a paper rose & a few seed pods! All set now for an autumn card :-)

There's also a strip of brown ribbon under all that but it's largely disappeared:-(

Fashion

The current challenge across at MOO-MANIA is fashion so here is my contribution !

Claire Curd stamps, promarkers and a scrap of paper later.... It's handbags at dawn & shoes to die for! :-)

Pages 1 & 2

Pages 3, 4 & 5

Goldfish

The CAS-ology challenge for this week is FISH and I don't have very many fish....they are also quite small so I did some pondering and decided that I was getting my Craft Stamper freebie out AGAIN!

I've stamped & embossed some paper scraps with the fish design in gold & then stamped the background with an Artifacts stamp that looks like water swirls using a colonial blue pigment ink that I've clear embossed - I've used the same ink around the edge of the ATC.

I also stopped by Hobbycraft this morning and quite by chance they had a fisherman stamp there for £1.... Never one to miss out on a bargain....it found its way into my basket Oops!

So he's made his appearance on another ATC and I am entering him over at the challenge.

Angels or demons

Well despite my love of Halloween I have no devils or demons in my stamp collection which is quite amazing! I do have a cute-ish kind of angel that came with a magazine but she's not really doing it for me :-( so I've resorted to a Christmas angel for the challenge over at Try It On Tuesday   

Don't ask me what colour the main card is (round here they'd probably call it "sharny"). I've coloured some white tissue paper with DI in scattered straw & stamped in archival black, then torn some strips that have been stuck onto the background. The angel is embossed & coloured with promarkers  then i used a Sissix framelits die to cut the angel out, the greeting is stamped in archival black on a piece of card inked with scattered straw & then fussy cut before being stuck on with some foam pads. Along the top @ bottom I've got strips of Pine Needle Border from MEMORY BOX & a strip of gold ribbon from my stash - there was about 1/4" extra!!!

Map quest

A clean n simple card.... Paper Artsy grunge flower + leaf dies, the leaves are cut from a scrap & the flower covers the Nice area, our nearest airport when we are in France - I flew in & out of this airport so often when I went to boarding school just a few hours north of here that I will always associate it with holidays ;-)

So I am entering this at CFC105

Thanks for looking!

Happy Fathers Day

Just a little something to mark the occasion....

A moo made from a scrap, part of a Tim Holtz stamp & the banners are made from more paper scraps that have been stamped with the words from a Craft Stamper freebie from a few years ago.

Happy Fathers Day Dad!

Hexagonal teenagers!

Another week, another chance to combine 2 challenges :-)

And as the code word for LIM is hexagons.....

Here is my entry for both challenges:

4" square card, 6 hexagons cut out of paper scraps using a very small patchwork die - can you believe I actually have a lap quilt made out of pieces this small & they are all different! I'll have to take a picture & share it sometime :-) the centre hexagon was drawn using another patchwork template (another quilt) and the frame is from a set of alphabet/number dies (Cuttlebug). I stamped a set of gaming consoles in the centre - they came with a Creative Stamping magazine. 

That takes care of my nephew's birthday card, he will be 14 later this summer.

Tammy's tutorial

I wanted to try tammy's tutorial when I saw it the other day, so as I had some playtime today I decided to get inky!

I have used the same colours and followed her instructions, except, of course, I did not have all the ingredients so I did my usual & improvised a little.

When it came to stamping the background stamp I did not have any of the Vintage Photo distress stain so I went with DI instead....ah! Too strong! So I wiped with a wet wipe, applied a little more colour to the sides and went with a second generation stamping - much better :-)

The flower is from Elusive Images and I've water-coloured it with scribbled felt tip pens. I did 2 flower heads & decoupaged the second one so that I could apply the central 3 petals at different heights .

Chit chat stickers are stuck onto some paper scraps that blend with the iris. No tiny attacher so I've used regular stapling! The tag has been stuck down onto some cream card, the edges coloured with vintage photo and some Caron threads (amethyst & teak) to finish things off.

All in all, I am pleased with the results and love the way the Picket Fence distress stain softens the inks and makes them lovely pastels.

CAS 48 yellow

Time for another Clean & Simple this time we should YELLOW! 

This will at least bring me an illusion of summer because it seems to have gone back into hiding, that or it's being held hostage somewhere! In which case lets pay the ransom & get it back....

Anyway, my card today is a 4x6 that I've covered in some yellow paper which has a subtle floral print, the stamp is from Hobby Art (set of 4) that I won a few years ago- I've stamped & embossed then coloured with Spectrum Noire pens but the blouse is paper pieced. I have used Nestabilities  to cut her out. A ray of sunshine on another grey day, I hope she makes you smile :-)

Twinchie time

 Yesterday was summer & I wanted to be at the seaside, today....it's back to cool & grey :-(

So to cheer myself up I made some seaside twinchies with some paper remnants that were lying on my desk

The background is glossy card that has been dragged through spritzed Big n Juicy Hydreangea 

The starfish are Stampington shore cliff elements & have been stamped in black on the background whilst the larger one has been stamped in Colorbox Q Dune then embossed with Distress powder in Antique Linen and raised on some foam pads.

Another Stampington stamp from the same set, a sand dollar that has been stamped in Dune pigment ink then clear embossed. The background is inkadinkadoo script stamp, not sure about the ink used!

More remnants, metallic paints for the background, another Craft Stamper freebie than has been stamped onto a pale scrap where I have cut away the "water" the frame is coloured with a Spectrum Noire pen, the large shell has been cut from a scrap of the blue gloss card and the small scallop is part of a set of 4 stamps from Rubber Stampede.

Metal paints as used for the Tim Holtz April tag challenge this time and stamped with another Craft Stamper freebie, a little Promarker colouring and the fish has been layered up (cut from another paper scrap)

For this one, it's another scrap (stamped?!) of the Hydreangea card but not glossy this time round.

A silvery-grey diecut (Cuttlebug) and the shell is part of a Paper Artsy stamp (Lynn Perella plate 1)

A mottled background & a Stampington shore & cliff Shell that has been stamped with peacock pigment ink & embossed with a pearlescent blue powder.

A freebie stamp with Craft Stamper by Crafty Individuals that has been stamped onto more of the glossy card that has been dragged through big n Juicy Hydreangea .

Pity the sun has not come back today but I did get into my craft room with a clear conscience :-)

TWINCHIES

I got a bit carried away with the butterflies & bees twinchie challenge! Here are some of the butterflies that I stamped out on some paper scraps, mainly craft stamper freebies- the middle one & the bottom dark blue / gold are Stampington ones

Triple layer embossing

I have taken a La Blanche stamp for this one....and I am entering it over at Moo-Mania!

I coloured some paper with old paper distress ink and then stamped the image twice using walnut which I then clear embossed & once with peeled paint & again it's clear embossed.

The foliage either side of the main image has been coloured using a Spectrum Noire pen.

The different layers have been edged using the appropriate DI ink. The top layer is Moo sized.

The stamped images have then been mounted onto some papers from my stash and I will be using this card for a December birthday .

HAP-BEE-NEWS

The luck just keeps on rolling! Another occasion to enter two challenges with one creation although there are more twinchies...

So here is my entry for the current TWINCHIES: butterflies & bees challenge and CAS-ualfridays CFC104: banners & flags....

Pink Petticoat bee & words stamps, I've used a mix of Promarkers & Spectrum Noire, added a little iridescent embossing powder to the wings and the banners are coloured with the same pink & orange that I used to colour the bee.

Tim's remnants

I still had some papers & stamping left over after making my June tag for the Tim Holtz challenge so here is a card a made with the leftovers 

I used the same stamps, the only difference here is that the dragonfly has been coloured in blues & mauves, the ribbon has been pulled through a double hole at the top of the tag and the whole thing has been mounted onto a white card.

WHEELS FOR MY MAN

Another chance to enter 2 challenges at the same time, I must be on a roll :-) the really odd thing is that I also just happen to need some male birthday cards soon so I made the most of the fact that DH was on the golf course this morning. 

My mind was buzzing with ideas last night....so not much sleep was had but who cares!

A 4x6 white card, a length of ribbon from my stash, a Sissix framelits diecut that already had some blue ink on it & a stamp that came with Creative Stamping (issue4) I used  a silver pen to colour the grille, headlight surround & bumper whilst the bodywork was coloured with a Denim Blue Promarker.

For this next one, another 4x6 white card, 2 lengths of ribbon, the same Sissix diecut that has been stamped with the clear stamp of Tim Holtz's old jalopy using black pigment ink & clear embossing powder. This is the one I am entering for the 2 challenges.

My third card uses another stamp from the issue 4 set from Creative Stamping, a different framelits die to cut both the white card and some blue paper. I've coloured the metalwork on the motorbike with a grey Promarker , a Staedtler triplus fineliner for the bodywork and the tiniest touch of red for the tail light! The shadow was created with the grey Promarker & then gone over with a blender pen.

And then, because I could....

an ATC where I have stamped the wheel (creative stamping issue 10), coloured with Promarker & metallic rollerball, die cut using a circle from Spellbinders, stamped the rope design at either end (also issue 10) coloured with Spectrum Noire pen and finally stamped COWES WEEK  in black ink around the wheel.

I'm linking this entry with TIOT and also CASology 47

Thanks for looking & any comments :-)

June tag

Good weather has kept me in the garden :-) which is why there has been a wait for this post! I started day before yesterday & at last I've got a result.

No distress paints other than black & white in my collection, only chipped sapphire & dried marigold markets....

So I have pretty much followed Tim's instructions, used 2 felt pens that are close to "picked raspberry" & "worn lipstick" plus the dried marigold marker to colour the dragonfly, dusty concord DI for the accent & a grey felt for the shadows. A touch of picket fence distress paint for highlight & gathered twigs for the edges. I used watered felt tip for the splats. 

The tag has been dragged through spritzed DI picked raspberry /dried marigold & dusty concord then edged in gathered twigs. I have lightly stamped the tag with the background stamp from the Papillon set & then  stamped the row of butterflies a little heavier in archival black.

The paper ribbon I coloured using worn lipstick & dried marigold DI. it's been tied as a double bow & held onto the tag with a short length of a Caron thread. 

I hope you all like it - it was fun to work in wild colours for a change!

Congratulations

An entry here for the CAS Friday challenge 103: congrats

The paper is from my stash, the stamp is Pink petticoat which has been coloured with promarkers & tiny gems added for the centres. I've added a strip of "lace" a spellbinders die (Persian accents) & the greeting comes from a freebie set of stamps. 

I'm sending this to friends who celebrate their anniversary in a couple of weeks :-)

Colour & circles

Two challenges that I can tie together this week :-) its a first so I'm doing a little dance for joy!

It just so happened that in a Chocolate Baroque grab bag there was a steam punk  flower/seed head & I'd not yet got round to playing with it- shame on me! But that's what happens when you disappear for 3 months... Things get put on hold big time. 

Anyway, I stamped it in black onto white card, this ties in with the hinges, house number of my front door, the cogs are a Paper Artsy mini MN60 that I stamped in rusty hinge distress ink - the door is brown outside & white inside. I've coloured the edges of the panel with a little more rusty hinge ( now the panel looks a little on the cream side!) and I've stuck a cog from my stash to frame up the central clock face. 

I am entering this at Less is more 122 (colour of your front door) and also Addicted to CAS (circles)