2013 Calendar

Stampotique are kicking off the new year with a calendar / journal / diary page or cover.  I went for the calendar option, I did one page with a years calendar.

The background is an offcut from a piece made on the gelli plate workshop at AftH, mounted onto a piece of chipboard which was die cut with an on the edge die and painted blue.

The monsters and mushroom were stamped, coloured with distress ink makers, cut out and mounted onto the background.  The mushroom was a little dark and got lost in the blue background, so I lightened the blue with a white Artbar and outlined the image with a white Posca pen.

I printed off a calendar from a free Google download, cut the months into the same size, stapled them all together and attached them with twine.

I added a piece of ribbon to enable me to hang it from my computer desk.

A Little Tag

I thought I'd share with you this little (#8) tag.  Background is a collage of pan pastels, Eco friendly and Stewart Gill paints and stamping.  The main image is grungy silhouette by Dina Wakley stamped in black stazon, cut out and stuck onto the tag.  I have outlined it with the white Artbar.

ABAC - Challenge #4

Over at ABAC this week they are asking for Halloween or fall or the colours associated with it, so I decided to have a play around with my pan pastels and Dina Wakley stamps and came up with this.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Happy Daze - Steampunkery

This months theme over at the Happy Daze monthly challenge is right up my street - steampunkery!!

I decided to make a small canvas (5" x 7").  Covered the background with Stewart Gill translucent chocolate brown.  Used matte medium to glue down the clock face and the tape measure papers.  I used a Tando cog mask with texture paste to create the depth of the cogs bottom right.  Painted them with a mixture of acrylic metallic dabbers, luminere and Stewart Gill paints.

I added a couple of T!m cogs, a charm which started out gold, so got some distressed treatment and a key!!

Close up of the texture paste cogs using the Tando Creative mask.

Everything was assembled using glossy accents.

Don't forget to be eligible for the £15 voucher to spend in the shop, you have to use at least one product that Moira sells, which isn't difficult!!! 

This month I've used; matte medium, acrylic metallic dabbers and glossy accents.

Artful Times - Challenge 6

With fathers day in mind, Neet has chosen 'men' as this weeks Artful Times theme.  I decided to make a postcard size canvas.  I randomly swooshed crackle paint over the canvas and patiently waited for it to dry!!  Once dry I coloured it with blue and black Stewart Gill paints.  I die cut the umbrella man from music paper and gave him a coat of black translucent paint.  The 'John Lennon' quote is computer generated, cut out and glued on.   I then took the white art bar, outlined the image and the words and added a few hi-lights to the background around the sequin waste images.

Hop over to the challenge blog to see what Neet and Von have been up to and why not join us.

Tags

The girls over on the PaperPlay forum have been very supportive, so this month I sent them all a tag back with their atc swaps.

Over at Out of a Hat Creations, the theme is 'If I Had Wings', so I'm entering the above tag which was stamped with T!m's papillon plate in black stazon.

Lynne Perrella collection 003 stamp coloured with pan pastels.

Lynne Perrella collection 008 stamp coloured with artbars.

Lynne Perrella collection 008 stamp coloured with various ink sprays and paints.

Art Journey and Lynne Perrella collection 008 stamps coloured with various ink sprays and paints.

School Postcard

I haven't joined in with the Sunday Postcard Art challenge for a very long time, but this week I decided to change that.  Their theme is childhood, so I chose a school theme.  The background was created using a brayer, a credit card and Stewart Gill paints.  I stamped some random images into the background.  The letters were stamped onto tissue paper with black stazon.  I gave the background a coat of matte medium and carefully laid the tissue on top, but still managed to ruckle it a bit as I was brushing over it.  I did the same with the image of the school girl.  Once dry I went back in with the SG paints over the tissue paper.

Take a Stamp

I have seen in some Stampington magazines where a stamp is chosen and used in different ways, so with this is mind I set off having a play.  I decided to choose my new Art Journey 'Pear' stamp from the aptly named Pear plate!!.  As you can see I made an arch, an atc, a couple of tags and three cards.  This is a long post as I am going to explain each one below.  So either grab a coffee or carry on blog hopping!!!

The arch ~ stamped background using distress inks, adirondack dye inks and stazon in shades of purple.  I then gave them a light dusting of violet shade and ultramarine blue extra dark. I stamped the two pears onto tissue paper with timber brown stazon and cut them out.  I gave the arch a coat of golden matte medium, laid the first pear on and gave that a coat too and then laid the second one over the top and coated that too.

I used glossy card for both the background and the card.  The white card is stamped with olive stazon using the image from the TH papillon plate.  The pear is stamped in black stazon on to glossy card as the background was created using juniper, lake mist and willow alcohol inks.  Edged with forest moss distress stain and smudged in.  I used my one and only distress marker, picket fence to squiggle underneath the pear so it didn't look like it was floating, not sure if you can see it on the photo or not.

This is my least favourite one and the one I did last.  I covered the background with yellow and green Stewart Gill translucent paint.  I stuck on a few pieces of music script and added a bit more paint.  I inked clear ink through a piece of sequin waste and coloured it with burnt sienna extra dark pan pastel. I stamped the pear in versa mark but because it was dark by this time and the light wasn't good, I couldn't see where I had stamped to put the pan pastel and I was a bit heavy handed with it on the left hand side while I was sussing out the image!!!  I stamped the words in timber brown stazon and coloured it with some other Stewart Gill paints.

Atc ~ I stamped the pear in 3 shades of green using colorbox fluid chalk inks from the Autumn Pastel range.  I masked the image off and stamped the CI music background with saddle brown stazon.  I used orange extra dark pan pastel to colour the background.

I stamped the pear image on the plain white tag in bamboo leaves Memento ink, masked it off and stamped the twigs image (from the same plate) in various colours of distress inks and adirondack dye inks.  I spritzed it with water and stamped it onto the tag.  I took the scroll from the same pear plate and again used various colours and randomly stamped it on the tag corners.  I took a wet paintbrush to my art bars and coloured the background of the tag.  I used forest moss distress stain to edge the tag and added the fibres.

I stamped a script Paperartsy image in versa mark all over the tag.  I used ultramarine blue extra dark pan pastel to highlight the script.  I went over the whole tag with a combination of violet shade and turquoise shade pan pastel.  I stamped the pear images in cool peri and eggplant adirondack dye inks, cut them out, mounted them onto the tag with 3d foam and added fibres to finish.  I edged the tag in dusty concord distress stain.

And this is my favourite one, a card.  The three pears were stamped in olive, timber brown and saddle brown stazon.  They were masked off to create the effect.  I gave them a bit of shadow using my artbars.  I edged the card with one of the greens from the Colorbox fluid chalk autumn set as above.  I stamped the word 'friends' in timber brown stazon on a separate piece of card, edged it and stuck it on the card.  The whole thing was then attached to a white card.

Dictionary Card

Whilst over at Art Journey perusing their rubber stamps, I came across their challenge site.  This month they have the theme of dictionary pages, so I set to and created the above card.  The quote is from the sweet dreams 2008 set, the main image is from precious moments 2010 and the numbers and circles are from the grunge 2008 plate.  The main image was stamped in black soot distress stain. Dylusion acrylic and Stewart Gill paints were used to create the background by scraping the paint around with an old credit card.

Scrapbook Page

I recently received an email inviting me to order 50 free photo prints (99p p&p), so I took them up on the offer.  This is one of the pages that I did of Fraz last year in the woods.  Those of you who know me, know I go for simple layouts and not much fuss as I like the photo to be seen and not distracted by lots of embellies and frills.  Anyhow, I decided to add a random 'pink' and black flower that I'd previously made, and I love how the page has come out.


This weeks Pan Pastels challenge is to 'add a flower' so I am entering my page of Fraz into this weeks challenge.  Hope over and give it a go, you don't have to use pan pastels on your entry.

Pan Pastels

I thought I'd just show my starter set of pan pastels which I got earlier this week.  I decided on the extra dark (warm) set along with the single light grey (top right).  The sponges were freebies included with the starter kit.  They all stack up and screw into each other, so the bottom of one becomes the top of the other and there is one lid for the stack.  The singles come with a lid of their own!!!

I played around with some of them to create some backgrounds, some of which I used on the previous atc's post.  The tag and top two green atc's already had acrylic paint and sprays on them, the other three atc's and postcard are from white cardstock.  I have some foam make up pads on the way from a friend who kindly said she would pick some up for me, so when I get them I will be able to apply more cover as the free sponges are quite small and I also found them quite hard.

Atc's - PaperPlay Swap

I made these atc's today for a swap we are having over at 'PaperPlay'.  Alison chose the theme of 'wings'. If you'd like to join in the swap, come on over and register on the new forum.

I used my new set of pan pastels to create the backgrounds then added various other mediums.  I did a bit of stamping and added images and charms etc.  I outlined some of the stamping using a white pen, distressed the edges with a paper trimmer and inked them with walnut stain distress ink.

Steampunk Canvas

I picked up a couple of these canvas's from The Works earlier in the week because I wanted to have a go at a larger one, this is 12" x 10".  I used dylusion spray inks in lime, vanilla custard and burnt orange to colour the background.  I then put some masks down, flourish (TH), brick wall (Creative Expressions) and barbed wire (TH).  

I then coloured four smaller canvas's and edged them with bottle acrylic dabbers.  

And this is what I created with the pieces.  I stamped images onto tissue paper and used digital images bought from an Etsy site.   I gave them a coat of Stewart Gills paint from the colourise range as they are translucent matte paints.   Added charms, chain, clock parts and prestuds.  I used three of the smaller canvas's.  Used some TH tissue tape, an idea-o-logy ticket, washer and a corner.  From Lincoln I bought a new sizzix 'dream' word die, along with a pad of chocolate box co-ordinations card stack, so I chose the green backed one, die cut the dream and cogs images and sanded back the brown to reveal some of the green.  You'll probably have to zoom in to see it properly.  Finally I edged the canvas with bottle green acrylic dabber.

This weeks Stamp Man Challenge is circle it, so I'm entering this canvas into the challenge.

Clock Canvas

This was an 8" x 8" canvas that I picked up last week at the Lincoln show.  I coloured the background with various shades of green distressed stains.  I used my SG paints too.  I stamped in timber brown using my new Hampton Art alphabet letter background stamp and I stamped tim's circles in mulch brown eco-friendly paint.  I also used cactus green stazon on the scratches stamp.  I used rust lumiere paint to colour the wings, the clock face and the charm.  Behind the clock I put a piece of vellum, previously scrunched and used a brad to attach the hands.  The wings were run through an embossing folder and coloured with lumiere metallics rust and olive green.  

Simon Say's are asking for wings this week.

****Edited*****


Photo taken in the sun

International Atc Swap

I've made these 8 atc's for a swap.  There was no theme and no limit to the number you can send in to be swapped.  I created the backgrounds using my even newer stewart gill paints (had to get some more after the first batch!!).  Cut them into atc size and created the above.  They are now winging their way to Oz to be swapped.