#3Up Challenge - Happy 10th Birthday

August was PaperArtsy's 10th birthday and to celebrate Leandra invited us to play along with the #3Up Challenge, except this time, instead of getting 3 items we all got a huge package of all sorts.  This was my bag of goodies.

There were instructions and some rules which are all documented on the piece of paper top left in the photo.

This was the colour pallet I was given to work with.

The wooden frame was coloured with squid ink fresco paint and given a light rub over with stone.

I stamped tissue paper in black stazon with an image from the Ink & the Dog, Buttons #5 plate.

The tissue paper was ripped and randomly stuck to the frame using mod podge.  Once dry it was sanded.

Now I had a bit of dilemma with these embellishments, initially I was going to use one as a pin cushion, but I couldn't push anything into it.  So, I decided to take one apart and discovered it was a metal dome!! Hmmmm.........what to do with that then!!

I wanted to give the image, Ink and the Dog, Buttons #6 plate, some depth rather than just placing it in the hole, so I mounted it in a couple of polystyrene corners, the ones you get in packaging.  .

I used dusty concord distress marker with a water brush to colour the background, re-stamped the tailor tags onto white card, cut them out and stuck them over the top to keep them white.

Then after lots more stamping, cutting, colouring, painting, re-positioning and finally sticking, this is how it came out.

One of the rules was to use at least one stamp from each plate.  I managed parts of all of them on Buttons #5 and I used all but 1 image from Buttons #6.

Hop over to the blog and see what everyone else did with their bag of goodies.

It's a Man Thing - Artful Times

I never seem to have much of a stash of male cards, so when I saw this weeks theme for Artful Times that's what I decided to make.  

I used the steampunk on the edge die to create this card along with Time Travellers stamp set.

3 Circles Tag

Over at Stampotique this week they are asking to see 3 circles.  Background is coloured with shades of pan pastels, the tree is stamped in versamark and covered in sticky embossing powder, which was heated and covered with dry glitter.  Once dried I coloured the glittered tree with renaissance treasure gold.  Stamped the scrolls and splodges in wild honey and rusty hinge distress ink. The faces were stamped in saddle brown stazon and coloured again with the treasure gold.

Black, White & Red

Fun with Atc's have a theme of black, white and red this week.  

A Bit of Bunting

My last piece for Out of a Hat Creations includes a banner as this weeks theme is 'banners or pennants'. 

I used the negative of the cabinet die frame, used LP stamps to decorate the sides and filled in with PA mini #61. I stamped in black stazon and accented the images with white posca pen.  The frame is coloured with a combination of haystack, pumpkin soup and brown shed fresco paints.  The background  is a piece that Paula created on her gelli plate and kindly sent me a while ago. I stamped the TH image directly onto it with black stazon. The LP image is stamped onto acetate and sandwiched between a couple of the layers to give depth.

I'd just like to say a big thank you to the girls for inviting me to DT for them and to say I've had a great time - thank you ladies xxx

Full of Inspiration

So carrying on with the colour combo Emma challenged me with, I decided to make another again incorporating all the set criteria, but I also took inspiration from some of this weeks projects on the PA blog, Helen Chilton with her heart, Leandra with the flower video and Lin Brown with the grunge paste on the arch and main background.  So lots and lots of inspiration used on this piece!!

Another Emma Challenge

Emma chose this colour pallet for us to work with for this challenge, but I set the criteria, which was to incorporate a bird, a flower, an arch and some lace.

So I chose the largest of my mdf plaques and used the back so I didn't have the bevelled edges to contend with.  I used a mix of fresco paints, elephant, sky, ice blue, French roast, eggplant and pansy. Distress inks, stains and paints in seedless preserve, weathered wood and iced spruce.  I used a number of die cut shapes, a diamond stencil and some TH tissue tape.  All images are PA.

Stampbord Atc's

A couple more stampbord atc's using distress paints for the background and PA Ink & the Dog Mini images.

Parts of the images have been scraped back to reveal the white contrast.

Hearts with Helen Chilton

Helen Chilton has joined in the PA birthday celebrations as you can see here.  I pretty much followed what she did, except I forgot the GP and by the time I'd remembered I'd already stuck the chipboard heart on the other side, so it was too unstable to add it, so I've left it naked!!!

And this is the other side with the crackle and the Sizzix primitive heart chipboard die shape.

Die & Cricut Cutting!!!

I decided to spend my bank holiday morning cutting shapes using dies and the Cricut from chipboard and white card.  I also found my PA grunge flower 2 & 3 dies which I cut from metal card (bottom right).

As I don't have any flower stamps I had to make my own design using a white posca pen.

Then I remembered I'd recently bought some coloured posca pens. I used the yellow, red and blue.

And again using Lins' techniques as seen here over on the PA blog I created this.

I'm also linking up to Altered Eclectics as they have a theme of anything goes - mixed media.

Inspired by Lin Brown

Over on the PaperArtsy blog all this month there are party celebrations going on, which only means one thing, special guest designers, loads of give-aways and prizes, but most of all, lots of fun.

So last night it was the turn of the lovely Lin Brown to showcase her absolutely fantastic piece, see here, using her brand new stamps.  As they are brand new, I don't have them, but I will be getting them. Now don't be shocked as they are a set of flowers and vines / leaves, but I can see so many possibilities for them, check them out here.

Anyway back to what I made.  I pretty much followed what Lin did with the background and the arch, but I used the mini 61 for the inside of the arch, used a TH scroll and I die cut a tattered flower in some sort of thickish fabric and stamped a LP face image.  Now Lin said to colour it first, but as I didn't even know if it would work and it was fraying quite a bit, so I left it au naturel!!!

Orange, Nature & Time Tag

Over at Dragons Dream - TIO this week the recipe is orange, time and nature.  Using a size #10 tag I coloured it with various orange shades of distress inks and spritzed it with water for a mottled look.  I randomly stamped time and nature images using the same distress colours.

I cut some leaves with the TH die in handmade papers and rubbed the distress ink pad over the top and curled some of the edges.  The die cut weathered clock was painted in antiqued bronze distress paint.  Twill and fibres were added.

Masks and/or Stencils

I picked these mdf shapes up from the MDF Man at Ally Pally way back in April.  I used Golden coarse pumice gel through the time travel stencil on the base and bingo and cogs on the outer face.

This is a close up of it once it had dried.

I painted the base with chocolate pudding and French roast fresco paint and the outer with nougat and Irish cream.  Pewter treasure gold was used on the base to hi-light the raised areas, but it doesn't show up very well in the photo.  The outer piece raised areas were accented with onyxite treasure gold. I added some TH rub ons, a book ring with chain housing a rusty key.

So grab your stencils/masks and play along with us over at Out of a Hat Creations.

PA Inspired Background

So using an mdf large plaque, I followed what Leandra did on her latest video here but used a few different colours, a circle stencil and parts of PA ink and the dog stamps.

Sanded over the grunge paste using a sanding block.

Close up of the stencilling and stamping after the dust had been wiped away with a baby wipe.

So then I decided to incorporate some of the background techniques that Michelle used on her PA birthday project which you can see here.

Close up of the snowflake lines using an old credit card and I loaded a paint brush and flicked it to get the light splatter.

Haven't done anything further with it yet, but when I do, I'll share it.


PanPastelUK have a theme of creating your own background this week, so what could be more fitting!!!

Games Chamber

Over on the PA blog this month there are loads of party celebrations and guests new and old.  In fact there has been, and will continue to be, a post every evening throughout August to celebrate their 10th birthday.

Now I've totally transformed Liz's project and if you take a look at what Liz has done here, and you know me, you'll know exactly why I went this way instead!!!

Using the Sizzix candy box and the TH postage stamp dies I created this.  Covered the background with TH papers and a coat of claret fresco paint. The inner drawer of the box was given a coat of south pacific and sky fresco paint and the outer with blood orange, claret and French roast.

Various game pieces and embellishments were added to decorate and create some feet!!

Altered Eclectics have an anything goes theme, so I'm entering into that this month too.

Beeswax Atc's

For Frances birthday project over on the PA blog she's been playing with beeswax, her new design PA mini stamps and PA postcards!!! All is revealed here!!

I decided to use the new style postcards, so just left the background plain as I figured there'd be too much going on if I added any more colours!!  As I didn't have the brand new stamps either, I used a couple from the Urban Snapshot range, arched apertures #2.  

Atc with Orange

Been playing with stampboard again!!  I coloured the background with ripe persimmon distress stain and also rusty hinge and ripe persimmon distress inks.  Stamped the LP image in black stazon and added hi-lights with the black and white posca pens.

Primitive Postage

Over at Fun with Atc's this week they are asking to see die cuts.  I cut a primitive heart from a Sizzix die, coloured it in honey dew fresco paint and over stamped the main LP image.  The background is painted in tinned peas with a bit of sage added and the main LP image stamped in black stazon.  The background script was stamped in olive green stazon and the atc edged in green olives fresco paint.

I then decided to mount it onto the TH postage stamp alterations die, which is covered in script patterned paper and coloured with hey pesto fresco paint, which is translucent so allows the text to show through as Simon Says Stamp Wednesday have a theme of monochromatic, so I've gone with the greens.

And of course Simon Says Stamp Monday have a theme of Make the Cut and again this piece fit perfectly.

Summer Days

I made the frame from the cabinet and mini cabinet dies from T!m Holtz.  Painted with pansy fresco paint and stamped in black stazon with a row of birds from a TH stamp plate and I'm sorry, I don't know where the words are from.

The main image is from the same stamp plate as the words.  I coloured it with distress ink markers, gave it a couple of spritzes of water before stamping.  This gave a lovely watercolour effect against the stark white card.

Why not join in with us this week over at Out of a Hat Creations with your 'summer days'.

Heart, Resist, Time

Frances has been using the resist technique in the 3rd PA project here.  I decided to combine all 3 projects in this piece.  The first using a heart shape, the second using the time theme and the third using the resist technique.

I painted an mdf heart shape in nougat fresco, stamped the image from Ink and Dog backgrounds #2 plate with versamark ink and covered in clear embossing powder.

Close up of the heated embossing powder.

I used PA crackle glaze on the bottom half of the heart and painted the top coat in French roast fresco.

I ironed off the embossing powder and then sanded the whole piece back.

I stamped the background scripts and words from my brand new Sara Naumann #3 plate in picket fence distress paint.  I took a couple of Maya Road clock faces and a distressed flower from the strip I cut for yesterdays piece.  Stamped the quote onto kraft card in timber brown stazon, cut out each word and framed them using a white pencil.

Take Time

Frances second project on the PA blog which you can see here is all about time.  I covered a piece of chipboard with T!m's tissue paper, coloured it with hey pesto fresco paint and when dry used the Tando cogs stencil with grunge paste.

Once dried, I coloured the cogs with the green shades of portfolio pastels and smudged them with my finger.  I also added zesty zing, limelight and smoked paprika fresco to the background.

Using the tiny circles stencil and the darkest green portfolio I added some circles to the bottom corner.

I die cut the weathered clock from chipboard and slapped some grunge paste on.

Once dried I coloured it in French roast and then I mixed some pewter with hey pesto and sponged that over the top.  Once dry, I sanded back as France did on the heart on project one.

Added the T!m strip die flowers, along with a bit of black portfolio pastel to the cogs to further distress them, stamped over them in black stazon and stamped the quote from Clocks #3.  Onyxite treasure gold was applied to the clock hands and frame edges.

Simon Says Stamp Monday have a theme of make the cut, so I'm entering with this piece.

Wow, this make was spotlighted on the Simon Says Challenge above!!