Tuesday 28 January 2014

TIO 158 - the letter L and script

I've been meaning to post this for a couple of days - Hopefully I've read the instructions on DragonsDream Tag It On correctly see here.. The challenge was to use the letter L and script.  I covered a large tag in light paint, stencilled a section with grunge paste, crackle glazed it and painted over in Pansy Fresco paint. I then hi-lighted the stencilled area with Moon Light paint and treasure silver wax. I've added some white script stamping to the background.

The letter L comes in to play with the lace stamp along the bottom edge and that this tag is for my daughter Lauren. I've also stamped a bird cage onto to tissue to finish off the tag.

Not sure what happened to the colour in my photos, looks like 2 completely different tags ! I missed what little day light was about today - Thank you for looking x


 

Sunday 26 January 2014

Heart & House

We've certainly been spoilt over at PaperArtsy so far this year - so many fantatsic projects and Guest Designers. Just not enough time in a week to try them all.

This little project was inspired by Jo Myhill who made on heart on a house design - mines the other way round. I've had this little house hanging around for ages. I'd painted it and crackled it (pre finding PA crackle glaze) and never like the result.  A bit of sanding, stamping and 3 layers of UTE later I'm liking it alot better.

The background's a spare piece of card, pained in Mud Splat, Stone and Blush.  I also had a happy acccident of finding TG adhered to the archival stamping in places - not sure why ?

I thought this would make a lovely New Home pressie so added a wooden key as well.

thank you for stopping by x


Friday 24 January 2014

Brayered Background

After seeing Ellen Vargo fantastic projects using a brayer plus the entries from other crafters I felt I needed to give this technique another bash - so here are my cards made from a A4 brayered sheet. I've added some preprinted tissue and some stamping in white as well. I would use this sort of background again in the future for men's cards -I really like how the stamped image stand out from the bright colours.







 

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Tag inspired by Ellen Vargo

Well I've finally dusted off my brayer - who couldn't after seeing the wonderful projects from Ellen Vargo over at PaperArtsy, click here.

I've never had a lot of luck getting a good result with brayering ink but after a couple of attempts I'm quite pleased my tag (first one went in the bin!).

I've used Claret, Tango and London Bus for the background.  Added a few bubbles in Honey Dew and some texture paste through my latest mask with hint of T Gold.  You can't quite see but I've also added a dashed border in black pen.

I might try and have a go on a larger piece of paper later in week. Who knows I might be a convert to using a brayer yet !




Sunday 19 January 2014

Pink Butterfly Canvas

A collegue recently said she loved anything to do with butterflies - this gave me the idea for another canvas project.

The background is painted a dark pink, crackle glazed and then painted in PaperArtsy Nougat Fresco paint.  I've then added some printed tissue, pink stamping and a touch of treasure silver in the corners.

The swirl of butterflies were cut using my friend Karen's die and scraps of paper from her collection.  The large butterfly is a Cheery Lynn die I've recntly treated myself to.

I would like to enter this into the challenge on Feeling Crafty, details here.




Saturday 18 January 2014

Blue Box Inspired by Julie Ann Lee

I was really pleased to see that Julie Ann was the GD for PaperArtsy - her crafting is always a true inspiration and her blog is one of my favourite reads. Julie Ann's blog.

By pure coincidence I purchased a wooden box last Sunday afternoon for something I'd got in mind for the new HP1212 stamps I won in a draw before Christmas - popped onto PaperArsty that evening to see that Julie Ann's first project was also a box.



 I've used a limited pallet of colours through out to get a vintage french look - the bottom is Nougat, crackle glaze then Lake Wanaka. For the top I reversed the colours.  I'm still in two minds whether to add any stamping, treasure silver etc to the bottom. I really like the crackle so wasn't too keen to cover it up.

For the top I've added some flowers at the corners in GP tinted with Lake Wanaka. I then painted a piece of card in Space Cadet then used a background stamp and white embossing powder to give the look of wallpaper that I was after.  To this I've then an array of bits and pieces, including stamped images, metal scissors, die cuts and some buttons that have been around in a tin as long as I can remember (literally!)


I haven't decorated the inside other than painting it as the use I had in mind for this was somewhere to stash my old wooden cotton reels and piece of lace.

Close up of the top

Inside - spot the feather ?



Thank you for looking. Is any one else thinking of attending Stamperama next month ? It would be lovely to meet some fellow PA followers in person.



Thursday 16 January 2014

Birthday Card for Mum

With Mum's birthday coming up I thought I'd better get cracking on a card.  I've tried to make something bright and cheerful to remind her spring is on it's way (well soonish) and also including her favourite colour, green.

The JOFY sets 9 & 14 were the perfect size for this card.  I've masked off some flowers to stamp the background - not something I've ever managed to pull off too well before. The whole thing was looking a bit flat though, not sure the photos show it but I stamped the large flowers again onto scrap, coloured them and decoupaged them onto the main picture to add some texture/dimension.

I'm entering this into the Arty Inklings challenge,  see here.




    

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Sketch 150 - Polka Dots

I've made a pledge to myself to use up "old" stash - this image has been sitting in my to do box for ages.  I found the perfect inspiration to how to finish it on Try Stampin on Tuesday's blog in the form of a sketch, see here for details.

Hopefully this will first of many entries over the next few months - thank you for popping by !

 

Sunday 12 January 2014

Springy Doll !

This post is also inspired by Clare Lloyd the GD at PaperArtsy this week, see Clare's altered spool here.

I wanted to have a go at something quite out of my comfort zone - both in colour (orange is normally my last choice to work with) and also design (not very good with faces for some reason, must relate to something deep in my childhood). So this posed a problem as I didn't have a suitable face stamp to use = a bit of freehand drawing (yikes!).  The body and movable arms,attached with tiny brads, are adapted from HP1004. For colours I've kept to Hey Pesto, Tango and Sky.     

The whole thing is put together in a similar way as Clare's but using the flowers from the same stamp set for the top and bottom of the spool. 

I've great fun creating this - thanks Clare !





Saturday 11 January 2014

C&S Inspirations from Clare Lloyd

The new GD on PaperArtsy this week is Clare Lloyd - she has shown us some fantastic bright and cheerful projects.  I decided to have a go at a card in her style of less is more - always harder than it sounds.  I made the first border using some small montage stamps I have but then couldn't find anything to finish the card off with.

I'll come back to this one another day. Next I decided to go oriental using stamps from Lynne Perrella LPC022.  I repeatedly stamped the small stamp in the strip I'd masked off.  The main image is stamped then colour washed in Beach Hut FP.  I liked the way the water warped the paper slightly so I've kept this as part of the design by attached it with silicon glue. Could help but add one little charm !




Thursday 9 January 2014

Using up Stash !

I came across the Our Creative Corner blog earlier this week - can't believe I've not found this before !

Well their challenge for this week is No More Shopping Sins - say no more, I'm sure like many crafters I could enter this every week this year and still have stuff left.  We all have that special something or two stashed away because we can't bear to use it.

I had a 65th birthday card to make so decided to use a sheet of dark purple paper and some lilac vellum I've had for months now.  I used a die-cut card blank and hi-lighted the plain sides with stamping using a clear embossing pad and mica powder. I wanted the papers to be the main focal points of the card so kept the centre quite simple. The vellum was used to make the flowers which I've embossed using both clear and silver embossing powder on different layers.  I've also used another hidden treasure as the large flower centre, a Creative Expressions Dazzler. I then used up all the scraps to make another 2 cards.





I didn't make any New Year resolutions so I think I'm going to set myself a personal challenge of using up items like this. 

thank you for stopping by !


Thursday 2 January 2014

Christmas Cracker - Abstract canvas prep

Another great video from Leandra at PaperArtsy, see here.  Messy but great fun - I started off using up the excess GP I'd mixed up from the last project. My pictures don't show up the colours too well as I've keep the background quite subtle.



But I'm pleased with the different textures gained from stamping etc.

In contrast I've coloured a pre-printed acetate butterfly with blood orange, tango and a mixture of the two.  A few die cut leaves give the butterfly something to rest on.