Weekend Music Video

This time it's Nine Inch Nails and Dead Souls, from the soundtrack for 'The Crow'. What is it about Saturday nights and nostalgic goth music?!

'Quotations' ATCs

I am so tired tonight, so won't waffle too much, but since I have a very busy few days planned, I wanted to show these photos tonight, while I have the time. These are this month's ATCs for UK Stampers, with the theme of 'quotations'. After much dithering about which quotations to use, I turned to the stamps for inspiration and realised that my favourite Cherry Pie images were once again begging to be used. I also wanted to make clear acetate the main material, and I am really pleased with the result. The lettering is all from the computer- if you print onto the wrong kind of acetate (i.e. laser or photocopier transparencies using an inkjet printer) the ink does not dry, giving the chance to add embossing powder. And between the front and back layer of acetate, I have used a simple image transfer of newsprint onto clear packing tape, just to add a little texture. The main images are stamped onto newspaper, and I love the idea that they will yellow and age over time.

Stamps: Cherry Pie, Paperartsy
Colour: Versafine, Stazon
Other: Laser transparency, embossing powder, newspaper, clear tape

Thanks for looking, and a special thanks to everyone who has left a comment. It really inspires me, especially when time to craft or blog is limited. I'll try to keep posting!

Latest CJ Entry

Here we are again, with this month's CJ entry for my UK Stampers 'just one stamp' project. We are so close to finishing now, only two journals to go, then our own finally come home! It's very inspiring to see each journal as it arrives, especially now they are so full of gorgeous artwork. There are some very talented stampers involved with this, and I feel lucky to be involved.

Anyway all waffle aside, this is my take on the little flourish stamp which arrived with this journal. I was inspired with the idea of recreating this piece of art "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa" by 18th Century Japanese artist Hokusai, although I will 'fess up now and say that a previous entry to mine also was inspired by waves. The two pieces are totally different, though, so I hope the journal's owner doesn't mind.

I started off with an origami paper design which I printed onto some Japanese paper. ( The site I got it from has got some amazing free papers and projects to download). The waves were stamped and embossed onto the same Japanese paper, sponged with ink, then ironed to remove the embossing. Interestingly, the paper became transparent when embossed, and now looks like vellum. The background was embossed with the dots and sponged with Distress Inks. Mount Fuji was taken from the original print. Everything was cut and assembled (there was a lot of cutting!) then I added a copy of the original to piece of Stampbord.

Stamps: Flourish (unknown) Field of Sky (A Stamp in the Hand)
Colour: Distress Inks
Other: Japanese paper (Hobbycraft), white and clear embossing powder, Stampbord, Cut'n'dry foam

Prepare to chill out...