Sunday Postcard Art

Sunday Postcard Art is asking for 'dance' this week.  Any medium / technique but the postcard has to measure 6" x 4".  Onto glossy card I used three colours of alcohol inks, stream, cloudy blue and juniper, using the stripes technique.  I stamped the wonderful Art Journey image in forest moss stain, which came out really well.  I stamped the dance with faded jean stain and the top sentiment with vintage photo stain.  I edged the postcard with forest moss stain.  Them stains have won me over again!!!!!

Shrink Plastic

Well, would you believe that I've never ever used shrink plastic before!!!!  I've got loads but just never got round to using it!!!  Well today all that changed.  But I was totally blown away by just how much it shrinked!!!  This was the original size of the stamp, now look at it!!!!

And again this Crafty Individuals stamp, amazing how much it's shrunk too, but even more amazing that it's all kept it's proportions and you can still read all the words clearly.

And finally, here is my 'little' collection.

Fraz in the woods (again)

Gosh it's been a gorgeous day here so we decided to take Fraz for a trot around Bradley Woods.

He was trotting along quite happily, just look at that flag.  He loves it in there!!!

Then he came home and flaked out!!!!

Distress Stains on Vellum!!!

As I was blog hopping I found this fab idea (but I can't remember where I saw it, so if it was you, please let me know and I'll acknowledge you - sorry!!).  Cover a piece of vellum in various colours of distress stain.  Above I used broken china, weathered wood, faded jeans and dusty concord.  Spritz with water and blot off with kitchen roll.  Scrunch up and carefully unfold a few times and then punch or die cut shapes.  I did snowflakes in preparation for next years holiday photos!!!!

For this piece of vellum I used fired brick, wild honey, forest moss, peeled paint and dusty concord.  Again I spritzed and scrunched and die cut some flower shapes and leaves.  Haven't decided what to do with them yet, just arranged them as above for the photo.

JFF - Week 10 - Circle(s)

It's Vons turn to choose this months JFF theme and she has chosen 'shapes' with the first one being 'circles'.  I covered an old cd with small pieces of lasagne and then painted with gesso.  I applied another layer of lasagne and then another layer of gesso.  Once dry, I painted with mushroom acrylic dabbers.  When dry, I rubber across it with my finger using gold to get a contrast.  The image is from one of the CI books.  The outside of the inner circle is covered in rock candy distressed stickles.  I put brads in the metal plate which says cherish and attached with silicone glue!!!

The other side is backed with a piece of background card that I'd previously made.  Ribbon and fibres were added underneath the backing.

Birthday Card

It's my mums birthday in May so I set about making her a card using the scrunched flowers idea which Kate recently used on her mothers day card.  The colours don't look so faded IRL but it's so hard to get a decent photo!!!  I used spun sugar distress stain around the edges.  The flowers and leaves are sizzix die cuts stamped with timber brown stazon using the scratches background stamp.  They are coloured with spun sugar and walnut stain stains. For the leaves I used forest moss and peeled paint stains. 

There is quite a lot of depth to this card as the flower sizes sit inside each other but from the first photo it looks quite flat.

I added a sentiment and some pearlised gems.

Thanks Kate xxx

Grungy Monday #2

Grungy Monday #2 challenge was to watch t!ms video clip and use the same technique.  I digressed again, as he used distress inks and I used the stains.  I decided to use a different colour wave this time, peeled paint, faded jeans and dusty concord.  The resist stamped images are from the tattered florals and flourishes alteration range.  I stamped the main stampers anonymous image in walnut stain stain and the word giggle in dusty concord stain.  The lines were stamped with the scratches stamp in forest moss stain. I ripped the piece out and walnut stained the edges with the stain.

Simon Says Challenge

As you know I can't stop playing with my distress stains, so this time I made something for this weeks Simon Says Challenge, which is anything but a card.  The background was coloured with antique linen and wild honey stain.  I then used the timeworks masks with the walnut stain and vintage photo stains.  I die cut the car from brown core card and run it through the diamonds in the rough cuttlebug folder and sanded it back.  I cut the trim from corrugated cardboard.  The cogs are cut from cork, chipboard and cardboard and inked with the darker coloured stains.  I also die cut a flourish and inked with walnut stain stain.  I stamped the phrase with vintage photo stain, ripped around it and coloured the background with antique linen stain.  I cobbled it all together and this is what I came up with.

Distressed Twinchies

I'm attempting to revived the twinchies swap over on UKStampers.  Hopefully enough will join in for the swap to take place, so in anticipation I have gone ahead and made my twinchies.  The theme I chose is 'distressed'.  I created the background by colouring a large piece of card with various colours of distress stains, wild honey, fired brick, peeled paint, forest moss, antique linen, walnut stain and vintage photo and cut them into 2" squares.  The swap is for 6 twinchies, but I've made 7!!  I stamped the images in clear ink and used black embossing powder to cover.  I've added gems and swirls to some of them.  I edged them with various colours of distress inks, pine needles, tea dye and walnut stain.

Crafty Individuals Challenge #1

This month sees the launch of the CI challenge blog.  The challenge runs until 26 April, so plenty of time to get an entry in.  The theme is 'simply squares'.  So in keeping with the theme, I kept my piece very simple indeed using only squares!!!  The background is a 4" square of corrugated cardboard with the top layer torn off and coloured with walnut stain distress stain.  I then stamped my favourite CI-110 image with wild honey distress stain.  The stamp is rectangular so I cut it out using a spellbinders eyelet squares die cut.  I inked the edges with antique linen distress stain.  I attached it using two square brads and added three square gems top right.

It's in the mail

This months UKStampers theme is 'it's in the mail'.  Here are my 3 atc's.

Stamp Man Blog Candy

The Stamp Man have some fab t!m goodies up for grabs, but you have to be in it to win it.  Go check it out, it runs til 07 April - good luck.

Trees and Snowflakes!!!

Ok, I know winter is just about over, especially with this lovely weather we are enjoying of late, but I also tret myself to the tree die and the snowflakes on the edge die.  Only because I thought they would come in useful next year when I do my holiday scrapbook pages (my excuse anyway!!).  But obviously, I just had to have a play first.  So I tried out a combination of distress stains and distress ink.  The background for the tag is weathered wood stains, spritzed with water and dried off with the heat gun.  The snowflakes are coloured with faded jeans stain and blended with tea dye, frayed burlap and walnut stain distress inks.  They were then covered in rock candy distress stickles, for a bit of sparkle.  The tree is coloured with a combination of peeled paint, forest moss, walnut stain and vintage photo distress stains and again blended with pine needle and tea dye distress inks.  I then used glossy accents on the edges.  I used a paper distresser to distress the edges of the tag and coloured with tea dye distress ink and I stamped the little dots with the same colour.  Finally I added some fibres.

The trees and snowflakes were prepared exactly the same as above except I used clear rocky candy distress crackle paint on them and not glossy acents.  I cut a piece of corrugated, stripped the first layer off, painted the bottom in denim acrylic dabber and the remainder is a combination of aqua and cloudy blue acrylic dabbers.  I used espresso around the edges to frame the piece.

Grungy Monday - Number One!!!!

Inspiration to enter this challenge came from Alison and Hazel, thanks ladies.  This is my entry for this weeks premier of the new challenge at Grungy Monday set by Linda, the founder of the wonderful CoC challenges, but they have alas come to an end, so now she has started something new.  Hop over to have a look.

I sort of digressed with this though as I used my distress stains and glitter spray not the ink and the perfect pearls combo.  But I think it still qualifies as grungy!!!  The cog is grunge board coloured with walnut stain and vintage photo distress stains, the background is wild honey stain blended with tea dye distress ink over elements of the TH timeworks mask.

Fathers Day Card

Ok, I know it's rather early been as we haven't even had mothers day yet, but I was playing with my new dies.  I embossed the car with the diamonds in the rough cuttlebug folder and sanded it down as I used white core card.  I cut the other pieces from white card to contrast. I flipped the die so the car faces the opposite way. The hero arts letters are stamped in walnut stain stain, along with the background image, again hero arts and I also framed the card in the same stain.  I used old paper distress ink to lightly colour the background as the white from the card was really bright and way too clean!!!