Butterfly Thanks

I made this thank you hanger for a friend which fits in perfectly with this weeks Pan Pastels challenge.  The background is yellow ochre pan pastels with script, diamonds and sequin waste stamped over the top with versa mark.  The butterflies were stamped in versa mark and coloured in the violet and turquoise shades.  The thank you sentiment was stamped in timber brown stazon.


I am also entering this piece into Snazzy's blog challenge as their theme is 'spring colours'.

Guilding Flakes and Glues

I decided to have a little play with various mediums and guilding flakes.  Note to self, once guilding flakes have been sprinkled on image, do not exhale!!!!

This was my attempt using Mod Podge - not very good

This was my attempt using Golden matte medium - not successful at all!!

Although not perfect, I got the best results from good old PVA.


I think I probably chose the wrong stamp to try this with.  A bolder one with less detail may have been better. 


All the glues were painted onto a piece of cut n dry foam and applied to the stamp with the foam.  You need to wash your stamp fairly quickly after you've stamped it.


I might do a little more experimenting with another stamp!!

A Little Haul

Well, being as I haven't been able to get out for ages due to my ankle injury, I decided to treat myself to a few new crafty things.

Dictionary Card

Whilst over at Art Journey perusing their rubber stamps, I came across their challenge site.  This month they have the theme of dictionary pages, so I set to and created the above card.  The quote is from the sweet dreams 2008 set, the main image is from precious moments 2010 and the numbers and circles are from the grunge 2008 plate.  The main image was stamped in black soot distress stain. Dylusion acrylic and Stewart Gill paints were used to create the background by scraping the paint around with an old credit card.

Artful Times - Challenge 3

Neet has chosen this weeks Artful Times theme of 'Time'.  Again I decided to go with a 6" x 4" postcard.  The background was created with glimmer mists and dylusions sprays.  I randomly added some gesso to the background.  The bottom image is a Hampton Arts border stamp and the top image is from T!m's game of life plate.  The clock and the girls are printed from a bought digital download, cut out and added to the postcard.  I then took a white pen and outlined the images and the stamping.
Come over and join us this week.

1:1 swap with Burn

I recently did a 1:1 jigsaw piece swap with Burn.  She chose vintage and I chose green.  You can see the one I made for her here.

She has written my name on it.

A close up of the fab quote.

And this is the lovely bracelet that she made for me.  The green beads are absolutely gorgeous and the dragonfly finishes it off perfectly and it fits a treat.

Thank you Burn.

Scrapbook Page

I recently received an email inviting me to order 50 free photo prints (99p p&p), so I took them up on the offer.  This is one of the pages that I did of Fraz last year in the woods.  Those of you who know me, know I go for simple layouts and not much fuss as I like the photo to be seen and not distracted by lots of embellies and frills.  Anyhow, I decided to add a random 'pink' and black flower that I'd previously made, and I love how the page has come out.


This weeks Pan Pastels challenge is to 'add a flower' so I am entering my page of Fraz into this weeks challenge.  Hope over and give it a go, you don't have to use pan pastels on your entry.

One for the Boys

This week over on the PanPastel challenge blog their theme is 'one for the boys'.  The card was run through T!m's brick texture fade and coloured with various colours of pan pastels.  I die cut the umbrella man and gave him a honeycomb umbrella.  The nestie was die cut and stamped with T!m's quote.  The edges were lightly coloured with distress ink.


This week Simon says stamp & show has the theme of 'anything goes' so I am also entering this piece into their challenge.

Artful Times - Challenge 2

I decided to go with a 6" x 4" postcard for this weeks Artful Times challenge.  I made the background by spraying various inks and colour washes in shades of green onto a piece of card.  I then took a piece of cling film, scrunched it up and sort of unravelled it a bit and stuck it over the top of the card for about 2 hours.  Once it had dried I carefully peeled it off.  I then randomly applied acrylic and eco friendly paint in no particular fashion.  I stamped the image onto acetate using black stazon.  I inked all the fabrics up in either green distress stains or spray inks.  The green piece of twill in the middle is behind the acetate and has the word 'dream' on it.  The side and bottom pieces were applied with the glue gun.  The image was printed off, cut out and stuck on top of the acetate, so there are actually 3 layers to this postcard.
So please feel free to pop along and join in with us this week over at Artful Times.

A Sweet Treat

Ever since Gillian pointed me in the direction of the PanPastel UK challenge blog, I've been smitten, don't ask me why, I just think it's a fab challenge blog.  I love to try and join in using my PanPastels and this week was no exception.


The theme is 'sweet treats' and I had no idea what I was going to do, and in fact, I nearly didn't do anything, but I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Feb/March 2012 Stampers Sampler and in there were some fab cup-cake designs. So this got me thinking and this is what I came up with.


The base is coloured with permanent red extra dark and the top a combination of yellow ochre and orange shade PanPastels. I stamped with versa mark and revisited the areas to make the clear ink pop.  I stamped a TH image from the rockstar plate in walnut stain distress ink. The PaperArtsy Lynne Perrella image from the 03 plate was stamped on a separate piece of card in timber brown stazon and swooshed over with the red PanPastel sponge.  All images were outlined with a white gel pen. Gem pearls, ribbon wire and a mini bottle top were added to finish off.


I really do hope that this qualifies for this weeks challenge as I wasn't sure if sweet meant sweets as in chocolates and candy or if cakes as in a dessert were also included.  Anyhow, whichever, I really enjoyed making it and rising to the challenge.

ATC

I entered into an atc swap for one atc.  It is a paired swap, so I asked my partner, whom I didn't know, what they would like as a theme and she said, 'being as it's coming up to Easter, how about spring / floral', so this is what I came up with.


The background is created using Derwent Artbars from the pastel section.  I then stamped a script over the top using picket fence distressed stain.  The main image is from Crafty individuals plate CI 185.  I inked the stamp with various colours of distress stain.  I added a pearl gem to the centre of the main flower and three top right.


I am entering this Atc into this weeks Pan Pastel challenge, which has a theme of Easter.

Number Atc's

I'm hosting a numbers atc swap over at the PaperPlay forum.  Check out the icon on the side bar if you want to come over and join us.  So here are my 3 atc's.


All the backgrounds were created with my new Artbars.  I then stamped various images into them, which was weird as it brought the wax off and it stuck to the stamp.  The clock was stamped onto a piece of card, coloured with distress stains and cut out.  I used a white pen to outline some of the numbers on the others.  I over stamped the man image on the green one with picket fence distress stain.  I used a paper distresser on the edges of them all and coloured with distress stains.

Birthday Cards

I needed some cards for March birthdays.

For these first two cards I stamped in versa mark ink and coloured the backgrounds with various shades of pan pastels.  I used my Hero Arts birthday surprise stamp on all three of the cards.  Top one is stamped in picket fence distress stain as is the background on the second.

I stamped this image in two colours of distress stain as well as the birthday surprise.  I also went around the edges of the craft paper with stain too and curled and ripped the edges.  I coloured the image background with pan pastels and tore the excess off leaving the raw white of the card showing.

Pan Pastel Cards

A new challenge blog called unruly paperarts has launched today and they are asking for sponging spectacular. I am unsure if these cards will qualify, as I did use a sponge but I'm not sure if you have to use ink as it says 'start applying soft inky goodness'.  So I'm entering these cards as I've used a sponge to apply the pan pastels. If it's not right, I'm sure someone will let me know.

I had a purple and blue moment with my pan pastels.  Both images are stamped in versa mark and coloured with pan pastels.  The background is stamped in picket fence distress stain on the top card and the happy birthday in dusty concord.

After I'd used the pan pastels I inked up the same image with picket fence distress stain and stamped over it again but slightly below the original to give it a faded look, this is why the image looks blurred, but it's not really. Looks much better IRL!!!  The background paper is from a piece I made ages ago.

Simon Says Make a Tag

Over at Simon Says this week they are asking for a tag, as are we over at Artful Times.  So if you are playing along with Simon Says please feel free to join us too. Simon Says Stamp has a theme of anything goes, so I'm entering this tag there too!!!


I decided to go with a male postage theme, why I have no idea, that's just what happened!!!  I stamped the car and the carte postale in timber brown stazon.  The image is from a crafty individuals mini book and is covered with an idea-o-logy fragment.  Brads, ribbon, postage stamp and the paper clip were added to finish.