PA Coasters

Over on the PA blog it's Darcy's turn to wow us this week.  She's gone for a coaster overhaul which you can see here.

Now usually spray inks, stencils and me just don't mix, have no idea why, but it usually looks a complete mess.

Luckily for me on this occasion, it worked out okay!!

Knocked it back with snowflake fresco paint.

I don't have many flower stamps, but felt I needed something 'open' as in not blocks of black in, so I went for this Stampotique flower and swirl, but couldn't resist a bit of text. I think that text from the PA Ink and the Dog backgrounds plate is my most used stamp!!

Then I swiped it back with a baby wipe to give it a distressed look. I now wish I'd used a more contrasting colour of Adirondack colour wash, but never mind.

And finally a couple of coats of satin glaze to seal it.

Handmade Books

I made a few notebooks for crafty Christmas presents this year and used my Cinch to make the holes.

Close up of the holes and stringed knots.

Maz kindly lent me the T!m tattered leaf die and I used it to cut cork, corrugated and handmade papers.

Again I used the Cinch to make a series of 9 holes for the binding.

I used lots of different handmade papers for the inside including rag and fibre papers, banana, gunny, bagasse and some nepalese mountain paper.

Grungy Monday #5 #2

I so enjoyed making my Grungy Monday #5 piece that I made another one!!  Again I used a piece of corrugated.  This piece is about 7" x 7.5".  I cut the niche to house the word 'journey', a t!m movers and shapers die.  The background paper is a sheet from an 8" x 8" stack from GCD Studios - Paris Nights.  The background behind the niche was created with dusty concorde, peeled paint and weathered wood distress stains.  I embossed a piece of chipboard type card with t!ms steampunk embossing folder and swooshed weathered wood and peeled paint distress stain over it.  I cut the car from cork.  The extras (bumper, wheels etc) and the word were cut from brown white core cardstock.  The quote was stamped, die cut with a spellbinders label and coloured with antique linen and peeled paint distress stains.

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.

Sunday Stamper - Wings of a Dove

This is my contribution to this weeks Sunday Stamper challenge which has the theme of 'wings'. The background is alcohol inked in various colours. The birdcage stamp is from the PA hot picks plate. The dies are T!m's Alterations and the words were printed onto safmat.

Flower Faces

These tags were made using the floral set of alteration dies and the PaperArtsy grunge flower die (the leaf). I got the idea to put the faces in the middle from a piece that Alison (craftytrog) made for the Lotstodo Challenge.



The flowers were cut from various materials including sand paper (thanks Deb), fabric, cork and thick card. The leaves were cut from T!m's retro grunge pad.

Lotstodo Swap - Tags

And the last one for the moment is for 3 tags with the theme of 'circles, cogs and/or wheels'. I have made 3 but can only show you this one at the moment!!!!

Alteration Dies by T!m Holtz - Sizzix

After having a play with my mates dies, I decided I just had to have some, they came yesterday, so last night I was having a play, along with my new Paper Artsy stamps. The fab things about these dies is that you don't have to mess around with the sandwich. I put through thick cork, thick card covered in paper, thin fabric and leather and all I used each time were the 2 cutting plates. Once I'd cut the cork ones I stamped them with some of the new PA Hot Picks stamps.



This stamped background is the new PA clocks 3 set on alcohol inks. The largest cog was cut out of leather but was suede on the other side, a stamped cork cog was set on top and another stamped cork one to the right. Thanks Hilda for the pieces of cork.

A Few Simple Cards

Got loads of birthdays and a couple of anniversaries in October and the beginning of November, so had to make a start on a few cards. They are only very simple as the people receiving them, don't really appreciate them - mostly family!!!

This first one was inspired by Sue (ex Paper Paradise)

She was holding a class yesterday and showed me the cards she was using as samples. I fell in love with the 'green' one on her blog, no surprise there then!!! So created something similar. The image on the one I made is a rub on, kindly given to me by Maz, rubbed onto a piece of cork, kindly supplied by Hilda. I love the way the rub on crinkled as I tore the piece of cork off!!


Again very simple, a couple of pieces of paper, joined by a piece of ribbon. A flower, a couple of leaves and a sentiment added


Again a couple of different papers, a piece of sticky lace to cover the join. A couple of skeleton leaves and a paper leaf, 5 small flowers bound together and a bow added to hide the join


I found this car on the internet, printed it 4 times and decoupaged it. It obviously looks flat on the photo, but it's actually come out pretty well