Imagination is boundless

Over at this weeks PanPastelUK challenge they want to see us using sentiments or verses.  I've chosen to use a stamp from T!m's Stuff to Say plate.  The background is alcohol inks with a bit of distress ink thrown over the top!!  The paper clip stamp is from Art Journey numbers plate and the main image is Lynne Perrella collection 003 and coloured with distress ink markers.

Yes, shock horror, no pan pastels used!!!  But as it says in the rules, you don't have to use them, you can use any medium!!

A Bit of Bling

This week over at Simon Says Stamp and Show they are asking for a bit of sparkle.  Well for those of you that know me, you'll know by now I don't do sparkle.  I coloured this tag with wild honey and tarnished brass distress stains.  I stamped the Stampotique bees in black stazon.

I gave the whole tag a coat of distress rock candy stickles.  I've just bought the new style one from Oyster Stamps.  It's in a pot with a brush like the crackle paints.  It's much easier to apply than using the smaller bottles with the nozzle.

So this is my bit of bling!!!

It's all about the Squares

Over at Stampotique this week Val is asking for squares.  I masked off a buff coloured tag and painted green lines over the uncovered areas.  I've never used Claudine Hellmuth studio paint before but it really is nice.  I picked up the landscape green out the half price basket at AftH.  I stamped my new Stampotique 'oh tree' stamp in black Stazon.  I stamped the row of faces, cut them out and hung them on the tree.

I added a bit of red pepper and a coating of rock candy distress stickles.

Artful Times - Challenge 14

I chose this weeks Artful Times challenge theme and I stipulated a postcard which must contain alphabet letters and / or script.  The background was created by layering various brands and colours of spray inks and Stewart Gill paints.  The TH alphabet was stamped lightly over the background in black soot distress stain and the letters accented with a white pen.  A Paperartsy alphabet strip was stamped down the left hand side and a numbers strip along the bottom.  I stamped a ruler image on paper and coloured it with brushed corduroy distress ink, tore it and attached it to the background.  The '5a' was cut from the TH Wordplay die in chipboard and coloured with walnut stain distress stain and outlined with a black sharpie.  The word believe is a rub on and finally I added the image.  All the edges were distressed using a paper distresser and edged in walnut stain distress stain.


Check out what Neet and Von made over at the Artful Times blog challenge.

Hands On

Been playing with my distress inks and stains today and made this tag just for the fun of it.  No challenges, just because I wanted to.  Had a ball creating the layers on the background.  Stamped the circles in picket fence distress stain and dried the immediately so it retained more of the colour.  Stained the ribbon in some of the colours on the tag.  The charm says Life and was coloured with pitch black alcohol ink.

AftH - Harrogate

As some of you know and some of you don't, I have this week off work.  Martin had to take his car to Harrogate and the garage just happened to be 10 minutes up the road from Art from the Heart.....well what else was I going to do for a couple of hours!!!  I did get a bit of a shock though as I thought they'd moved out, but they were just downsizing shop space!! A few bargains to be had too.

And when we got back home my other bargains had arrived from Oyster and The Craft Barn.  These were both in the sale.  I'm going to have a go at making some custom stamps with the cut~n~dry felt.

Art Journey - Wings

This month over at the Art Journey challenge blog they are asking for 'wings' which I have struggled with.  Not because of the wings, but because they like you to use the AJ stamps and I only have one with a wing on, the above bird and I'm not a fan of birds, so I was pondering for ages what to do!!!  I created my marbled background using distress stains and the lighter patch in the middle is because I used the picket fence stain.  I used the crow and the lady from the Lady Clock plate and the crackle effect stamp is from the Numbers plate.  I hope this qualifies, but if not, not to worry, I had fun creating the background!!!

Eyes Down

This week over at the PanPastelUK challenge blog their theme is 'good luck' so I decided to try my luck at a game of bingo, by making a good luck bingo tag.  I know it's pretty hard to see from the photo, but the piece of metal at the top says 'good' and the charm at the bottom attached to the twine says 'luck'.  The background is forest moss, crushed olive and brushed pewter distress stains, edged in vintage photo distress ink.  I stamped the bingo plate on to a thick piece of vellum and lightly coloured it with permanent green shade (640.3) pan pastel. Well you just knew I had to use some somewhere been as it's the pan pastel challenge.

Halloween Mouse Trap

Halloween is this weeks theme at Out of a Hat Creations, so I decided to have a go at decorating another mouse trap.  After sanding and giving it a coat of gesso I painted it with sunset orange acrylic dabber.  I stamped the skull and the web in black stazon from the new mini blueprint T!m Holtz plate.  I went over them with black enamel accents.  Once dry added a couple of charms and crystals for the eyes.

Misty Autumn Glaze

I had so much fun playing with my new metallic stains, sticky embossing powder and guilding flakes I decided to use them on a tag for this weeks theme over at TIO Dragons Dream as chosen by Elizabeth.  The background is antiqued bronze, wild honey and rusty hinge distress stain.  The mini leaf images are stamped in versamark, covered with sticky embossing powder which was heated and then the flakes were applied and rubbed over with a scoochy sponge.

So the brief for this weeks recipe was:

Mica/Ink Mists, Autumn Colours, Glaze and as always at least one real stamp on your tag please

This is a close up of the leaf which has been stamped with walnut stain distress ink onto the mini tag and coloured in with glossy accents.

Tattered Flower Autumn Tag

Simon Says Stamp challenge this week want to see our embossing, so I just had to get out my new Ranger sticky embossing powder which I used with my new purchase of guilding flakes from Joanna Sheen.  I used my new T!m blueprint stamp plate which I picked up at the Manchester show to stamp the mini leaves in versamark.  The background is the new metallic antiqued brass distress stain mixed with wild honey.

The tattered flowers I'd previously prepared.  I gave them a  splash of rock candy stickles and glossy accents!!

Bah - Humbug!!!

This week over on the Stampotique Designers challenge blog, Maria wants us to make favour boxes.  I decided to go for the humbug shaped ones.  They are real easy to make, take a square, put tape on 3 inner edges and then on the remaining outer.  Make a tube, squeeze the bottom edges together, put your favour inside and then squeeze the opposite way to make the top.  I then ran the ends through a paper crimper.

By the way, don't forget to decorate before you start sticking!!!  

Anything But A Card - Texture

Over at Anything But A Card (ABAC) this week they are asking to see texture, so I decided to make another box using the flowers I'd made earlier in the week.

I made the box from my new Sizzix die (box candy drawer) using chipboard and then running through a couple of different colours of chocolate box core card.  I needed to use the crease plate for these as they were much thinner than the chipboard.

Once cut, I put them through the Cuttlebug stylized flowers embossing folder and sanded to lift off the brown and reveal the pinky / purple core colour.

I added a T!m idea-o-logy hitch fastener and a distressed flower to the front of the drawer to make a handle. 

A view from the side.

And finally with the drawer open.

Steampunkery Box

Rach made my buy the Sizzix box candy drawer die (only joking), but I did buy it!!  This is the first thing I've made with it.  I cut the die from chipboard and painted it with lumier and metallic dabber paints.  I stamped it in black stazon with a border strip that I picked up at the Manchester show.

For the drawer handle I used a mini light bulb, added a mini key and some watch parts.

For the top I used die cut shapes, cogs and crown circles.  I stamped the circle in the same stamp as the box.  Covered a cog with T!m's tissue tape and added black paint and a watch part to the smaller cog.  Used a metal cog, a couple of washers, a spinner and brad to hold it all together and a single watch part top right.

And for the inside I coloured some white tissue paper with black soot distress stain, scrunched it up and placed my little bottle full of steampunkery goodies inside.

This is my completed box with the drawer open.

This month Happy Daze have a steampunkery theme.  I've already entered once this month but you can enter up to 3 times.  Remember to qualify for the £15 voucher all you have to do is use an item sold in the shop.  I've used Metallic Acrylic Dabbers, black Stazon, black soot distress stain and I stick everything with glossy accents.

Simon Says Stamp and Show are asking us to use any kind of tape on our projects this week, so I'm entering my box as I've used T!m's tissue tape to cover one of the cogs.

I made the Simon Says Stamp and Show top 3 with this and here's the blinkie to prove it!!

Summer Sizzlers

This week over at The Stamp Man the challenge is to make a card with hot sizzling summer colours.  The orange and yellow were really bright so I toned them down slightly with a scraping of white gesso.  I stamped the Dina Wakely images in perfect medium and coloured with permanent red (340.5) and violet shade (470.3) pan pastels and mounted onto a black card.

Autumn Tag

I'm entering my tag into two challenges this week.  PanPastelUK are asking for autumn/fall, so I've chosen to use the autumn colours and Simon Says Stamp are wanting to see hexagons, chevrons or neon, so I've used hexagons.  

The background is antiqued bronze, mustard seed and wild honey distressed stain.  The shimmer is from the antiqued bronze metallic stain.  I stamped the Stampotique images in perfect medium and coloured them with orange extra dark (280.1) pan pastel.  I used the Crafters Workshop hexagon stencil with red iron oxide extra dark (380.1) pan pastel around the edges.  I used my new rock candy stickles to brush over the dragonfly and bottom left corner and added 3 pearls to the right.  I added an autumn array of fibres to finish.

Oriental Influences

Over at Out of a Hat Creations they have gone all oriental.  I decided to decorate another mousetrap.  After giving the base a coat of gesso I painted it with a bright red Steward Gill paint.  I stamped the background writing in black Stazon from a stamp on the Paperartsy Asian plate 3 set.  The images are from a mini book called ATC Oriental Paper Pad by Leisure Arts.  Oriental charms were added to finish.

Tattered Flowers

These are some of the flowers I've created with my new TH Tattered Flower Garland decorative strip die which Rach0113 inspired me to get (along with lots of other things!!) when she shared her recent haul.

I then took them outside in the (don't faint) sunshine, and although there is lots of shade, you get a truer colour.

One thing I will do different next time I make some is sand off the card before running it through the die, I lost a few petals sanding afterwards!!!

Orange, Mustard & Navy

Over at Stampotique this week, Jane has informed us that she loves the colours orange, navy and mustard, so this week she has challenged us to use that colour combo in our creation.

My background is orange Dylusions acrylic paint together with Stewart Gill translucent paints, ochre and I used a credit card to apply the blue.

I stamped the Stampotique flower, dragonfly and little bee in perfect medium and coloured with extra dark blue (520.1) pan pastel.  I used my new Stampotique alphabet stamps to write the word 'freedom' in denim Adirondack ink.  I painted the edges of a piece of white card with denim acrylic dabber and mounted.

I did exactly the same with this piece but this time used Dina Wakley stamps.

ICHF Show - Manchester

I decide to try my hand at another show after the disaster of the last one so I went to the ICHF hobbycraft show at EventCity in Manchester.  The exhibitors were a mixture of paper craft and textiles. 

There were some lovely samples on display.

There were also some demo's going on but I didn't get any photos of those!!

And some fabulous costumes.

And more. 

After lunch it really emptied out.

A complete contrast to the previous show I attended at Donington.

And this is my stash!!  I finally got my hands on a set of the metallic distress stains. 

And when I got home, these were waiting for me too, my delivery from Oyster Stamps.  The white Posca pen was from Tiger Pens.

Artful Times - Challenge 13

Over at Artful Times this week Von has chosen the theme of 'make a tree the main feature'.  Now I don't know if I have succeeded in this challenge or not but here is my tag.  The background is permanent green (640.5) pan pastel through the Crafter's Workshop mini branches reversed stencil, outlined in a black fine nib pen.  (This is my tree!!)  Orange extra dark (280.1) pan pastel through the circles of the mini punchinella stencil top and bottom.  The arrow is coloured with raw umber (780.5) pan pastel, the word is  stamped in timber brown stazon and attached with brads.  The Stampotique Kamona was stamped on a separate piece of paper in timber brown stazon, cut out and attached to the tag.  Finally I used glossy accents on random dots.