Leandra Inspired Tags

Another of the techniques on the scopes Leandra demo'd was two corners and the middle with two colours. I first learnt this with Sue at Paper Paradise, but I think Sue got it from Leandra!! I gave this tag quit a few white washes to fade everything into the background.

I was going to use different colours but I still had loads left on my craft mat, so did the same again. After I'd stamped in the background I knocked it back with the white, but wanted it darker than the first tag so went back in with the colours.

After my first layer of paint I stamped an Ellen Vargo criss cross stamp in blue all over the tag. After about six layers you can still just about see the lines, top left half way down. I also did the stencil bumping on the right hand side.

I guestimated where abouts the face was going to go and added some off white, another of Leandras traits. This is a Paper Bag Studio image stamped in black stazon.

So for both tags I have used exactly the same colours yet they have turned out so different, due to all the different layers.

I think you can still watch the Periscopes as they are listed on 'katch.me'. Just search for PaperArtsy or click here.

Country View Crafts have a theme of making your own backgrounds.

AJ Atc's

Over at Art Journey they have a theme of ATC's this month.  I created the backgrounds using TH distress paints, barn door, mustard seed, mown lawn, salty ocean, picked raspberry and picket fence.

Unfortunately I don't have that many AJ stamps and the ones I do have are rather large for Atc's, but I went with what I had and this is how they came out!!  I used black versamark ink on them but I don't think it mixes well with the paint as it's still wet now even after heat drying!!

Have a Heart

The background of the mdf heart was firstly painted in snowflake fresco paint, then coloured with beach hut and limelight.  Sky, green olives and south pacific were also used randomly.

The AJ image was stamped in black archival ink, masked off and other AJ images were stamped in various colours of distress ink, mowed lawn, crushed olive, evergreen bough, broken china, peacock feathers and salty ocean.  The words were stamped in black archival and co-ordinating fibres added.

This months AJ theme is shades of blue and green.  I haven't joined in for a while as my stamps haven't fitted in, but as this months is a colour theme I thought I'd play along.

Alison is asking for words, words and more words over at the Our Creative Corner Challenge, so this fits in perfectly.

Grunge Paste Casey

This was really spooky!! I've been playing with my new body image stencils over the weekend and I'd grunge pasted this image onto one of the small mdf plaques and set it aside to dry, and then this popped up on my Blogger dashboard.

So as I was half way there I decided to give Linda's technique a go and I love the results!!!

Background is a mix of fresco paints in stone, mushroom, very berry, claret and squid ink.

Precious Moments

The theme over at Simon Says Stamp and Show this week is buttons, from one to a whole handful.  This is the smaller of the 3 mdf plaque sizes, base coated in snowflake, coloured with beach hut, lime light, south pacific and hey pesto.

My intention was to stamp the LP image and colour it white to re-stamp it, but it came out so well the first time, I didn't bother.  The fringe on the bottom is from a part of a stamp on the LP003 plate and I used black enamel accent to hi-light the circles for a bit of texture!!  And then of course I added the buttons to fit in with the challenge!!

Hobby House also have an anything goes theme this month, so I'm hopping over there to enter too!!!

Neutral Colours

Over at Art Journey they have the theme of neutral colours so I was able to join in this month with my AJ grunge plate of stamps.  I used timber brown stazon for the main image and then various colours of distress inks for the background images.  To make it look more natural and distressed I used a paper distresser around the edges and inked it with walnut stain.  The backing is a piece of kraft card coloured with walnut stain and again distressed the edges.

AJ Anything Goes

Over at Art Journey this month they have a free theme.  The only stipulation is to be in with a chance of winning the 10 Euro Gift Cert is to use AJ stamps.

This is another piece of my gelli plate background, never ending isn't it!! I stamped the images from the Grunge AJ plate and used black and white Posca pens to doodle. 

AJ - Round

This month over at Art Journey they have chosen the theme of 'round'.  I used a cog stencil with turquoise tint (580.8) pan pastel over black card.  I cut some spellbinder circles from patterned paper and gave them a coat of watered down honey dew fresco paint.  I stamped various images onto each circle and mounted them over the cogs.  I mounted the whole piece onto white and then black at opposite corners.

Unfortunately this isn't the best photo but the weather is really dull - sorry!!!

Bonfire Night

Over at PanPastelUk this week they have a theme of Bonfire Night.  I cut T!m's on the edge townscape die from patterned paper.  Stamped the three Art Journey stamps in white ink and went over them with a gelli glaze pen in white and orange.  I used embossing enamel around the outside edges.

Just One Colour - AJ

Over at Art Journey this month they are asking for 'just one colour' to be used in our creations.  So I challenged myself to use blues.  I used denim, faded jeans and broken china distress stains for the background.  I used Stazon Hydrangea blue for their trousers, Adirondack Denim for their shirts and Salty Ocean Distress Ink for their heads!!!  

Then I decided to try orange.  I used Dylusion ink sprays, squeezed orange and orange with a splash of mica which is one from the pre-Ranger Dylusion set.  I used a mixture of spiced marmalade and dried marigold distress inks for the middle of the main image.  I went around the outside frame with Stazon pumpkin.  Once stamped I added orange distress stickles to further outline the frame.

Then of course I had to try a green one.  The background is a mixture of shabby shutters, peeled paint, crushed olive and bundled sage distress stains.  The main image is stamped in meadow Adirondack ink.

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!!!

Stampotique One Layer

I've held off putting an entry into this weeks Stampotique challenge, which is a one layer card, because my Stampotique stamp order left Phoenix last Saturday and I was really hoping it was going to arrive for the weekend so I could play all bank holiday, but alas the postman never came, so I turned to my trusted Moth Fab and combined her with some Art Journey stamps.  The background is picked raspberry distress inks with TH fabulous flourishes images spritzed with water and stamped into the distress ink to create a water mark effect.

All the images were stamped in black stazon, some are enhanced with a white uni posca pen along with Moth Fab.

Top Tip Tuesday also have a one layer card challenge, so I'm also entering that too!!!

Art Journey & a Photo

Art Journey's theme this month is 'use a photo'.  I've had loads of fun with this one.  I printed out a photo from our ski holiday (2011, as I missed this year!!), just onto normal photocopier paper.  I covered a large piece of chipboard in the shape of a jigsaw piece with white gesso.  I then gave it a coat of acrylic dabber paint in sandal.  I outlined it with cloudy blue acrylic paint. I gave it a blast with the heat gun to make sure it was totally dry.  I then painted on a very generous coat of Golden soft (matte) gel.  You have to be quick as it dries really fast.  I put the printed copy face down into the gel and used an old credit card to really smooth it over.  After a few seconds I peeled the paper off and voila, the image had transferred.  It's not perfect, but I was very happy with the result.  I then gave it another coat of the gel.  Once dried, which wasn't long, I added a bit more acrylic paint with my fingers to the sky.  I stamped on the AJ words, Precious Moments and swiped them over with a bit more paint.  I stamped the AJ characters onto a separate piece of card which I'd painted with juniper acrylic paint, cut them out and mounted them onto the jigsaw piece.  Finally I added some fibres.

**Apologies for the quality of the photo but it's been raining, thundering and hailing for most of the day, so not good light at all for taking photos!! 

Today the sun was out and this photo is a much truer representation of the colours.

5 x 5's

I coloured the backgrounds with various shades blue of distress inks.  I spritzed various stamps and took the ink off with the water and blotted with kitchen roll.

This one is crushed olive and mowed lawn distress inks and a mixture of Dina Wakely and Art Journey stamps.

And finally shaded lilac, pickled raspberry and seedless preserves.  I used my new TH classics #1 stamps for the main image and the words, again more Art Journey and another dragonfly stamp.


And yes Kate it is sort of pink, but not really as it's pickled raspberry and raspberries are traditionally red, so it's just a shade of red!!!

Tick Tock

Just a simple atc from me this week for the 'Time' challenge over at Out of a Hat Creations.  The image is from the Aunts Art Journey plate and stamped in black stazon over the distress stains background of bundled sage and broken china.  The  crackle stamp is from the Art Journey Numbers plate and stamped in shaded lilac distress ink from the spring collection.  The atc is edged in faded jeans distress ink.