My camera doesn't like black... UK Stampers CJ entry

This is Jean's journal, and I wasn't surprised when I saw the interesting page shape and the Zettiology stamp. I loved the stamp straight away, but did take my time deciding what to do with her. Early in the month I knew I wanted to use my Cherry Pie art doll, but it was so much bigger than the page. Then a song came on the radio and that was it... listen here:

Shame the camera doesn't pick up the details- I used a lot of interference mica powders in the background to create a sort-of psychedelic wallpaper effect. The lyrics to the opening verse are written around the door, and in the mini-envelope is the key to the door!

Colour: Versafine, Paint Dabbers, lots of black ep, Moonglow ep, Stickles, Stardust pen, gold paint, Stazon, Ranger white pen, Cosmic Shimmer/Perfect Pearls, Sharpie pen
Stamps: Zetti (head), Cherry Pie (art doll and flourish)
Other: Funky foam (to create the niche behind the door), Grungeboard door furniture, tiny key from my stash, corrugated card (for door, flattened using Cuttlebug)

Mother's Day

Before I start describing the top card, I just want to say that it wasn't that colour! My Mum loves coloured card, and so I used a soft turquoise card as the base. I have tried to get the colour back using various editing tools, and it wasn't happening, so I am sorry, you will have to imagine the real colour.

Anyway, this is the card and stampbord brooch I gave to my Mum for Mother's day. I used my new Elusive Images plate, which I absolutely love- expect to see a lot more using it as it is really versatile.

Colour: Card: Distress Ink, Whispers Dye Ink, Versafine (used on acetate then embossed), aurora ep, Sakura glaze and Stardust pens, Stickles; Brooch: Dee Greunig Blending Blox, Whispers Dye Ink, Stickles, Sakura Stardust Pens, Stazon, Opals UTEE, silver Paint Dabber
Stamps: All Elusive Images
Other: transparency, shrink plastic, wire, brooch back, blue card, Stampbord, butterfly charm.



I also wanted to share with you my own Mother's day card, made by my little budding artist. Inside it says 'Remember when you do my washing that I love you'. Bless! I couldn't eat the cookie as I am gluten intolerant, but my little boy was more than happy to eat it for me :)

January's Inchie Swap- Let's Celebrate

These are super-simple, as I couldn't think what to do for this theme! February's theme is 'Oriental' so I should be able to do something more interesting.

Colour: Glimmer Mist, Distress Inks, Brilliance Ink, Stickles, Sakura silver Pen Touch pen
Stamps: Cherry Pie (Klimt star) and Stampendous
Other: Wording from the computer, star sequin waste used as stencil, eyelets from my stash (hammered for texture)

Colours CJ- Sid's Red Book

I'm still in catch-up mode at the moment with photos. This is last month's CJ entry, in Sid's book. Everyone had to choose a colour as well as a stamp, and Sid's is (obviously!) red. Well, I rose to the challenge, and don't think it could be more red if I tried! I was actually inspired by Gustav Klimt, as Sid's stamp is design from a Klimt nude. I tried to recreate the patterns created by Klimt in this painting, Medicine, but in a more textural way. I used texture paste, red embossing powder, paint and gilt wax to create the pattern, and the main image is triple embossed. I hope Sid likes it- it looks even better in real life, I promise!

Colour: goache, gold and red ep, Liberon gilt wax, Brilliance ink, stickles, Sakura pen
Stamps: Paperartsy and Cherry Pie
Other: Texture paste, red gems.

Altered wooden box

Apologies for the rubbish photos, I took these on Tuesday, and I don't think it was bright enough for decent photos at any time of day, let alone 9am! I need a light box...!

This was a pressie for my best friend, Vicky. She gave me a beautiful altered triple frame in return- I will photograph it the next time we have good light.

Colour: Nick Bantock dye inks, Anita's acrylic paint, Stickles, Versamagic, Sakura clear Stardust pen
Stamps: All Paperartsy (inside the lid of the box I used tiny flowers from one of the minis, but they are not visible in the photo)
Other: Box from The Range, and tiny handle made using my new toy, the Ranger melt pot, plus a Krafty Lady mould.

I absolutely love my Melt pot, which was my pressie from Paul, and used it a fair amount for the handmade gifts. I forgot to order any more UTEE, though, so must get around to that this week!

All of my Christmas cards

This is all of the cards sent this year (minus a couple I forgot to photograph). The stamps are all Paperartsy and Cherry Pie, and I used all of my favourite products and techniques on them. Thanks for looking!

Little Art Doll for a Swap

This is my first attempt at a shrink plastic art doll, so please be gentle with me! I think it's mostly OK, but I am not pleased with the face. I do like it from behind, though- do you like the grungeboard wings? It's such great stuff to work with. The tassel skirt was inspired by an art doll by Linda Baldock, although with hindsight I should have been more generous with the fibres. Oh well, you live and learn!

Colour: Versamagic chalk inks, Stazon, Stickles, Sakura Souffle pen, Versafine, Aurora embossing powder
Stamps: All Cherry Pie
Other: Prima flower, Grungeboard wings, wire, Lucky Squirrel shrink plastic, gem

A Tag Made for the Sunday Challenge

The theme was 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' at UK Stampers last week, and this is what I made.

Colour: Glimmer Mist, Versafine, Stickles, Sakura Stardust pen, Nick Bantock dye ink
Stamps: All Cherry Pie
Other: Redicut gems, fibres

Playing with my Brayer

The good thing about making ATCs in threes is that you can have a play around with one image. This is for UK Stampers September swap, and the theme was 'Buildings or Structures'. I faffed around for most of this month, thinking up ideas and discarding them, and determinedly resisting Elusive Images new Paris stamps, and then last night I decided to use this Paperartsy stamp, which is a stand-alone ATC-sized image. I had bought a new brayer recently, and thought it would be the ideal stamp to use it with. Little did I know that it wasn't like using a paint-roller and tray- I had ink-pads flying around the room, and ended up with the inkiest blue hands ever! Then (after begging for help on the forum) Joanne came to my aid with a link to a Youtube video, and the penny dropped- you take the pad to the brayer, just like taking the pad to the stamp. Sarah came up with some good advice, too- I love forums :D !

Colour: Marvy 'Dee Greunig' Blending Blox, Distress Inks, Versafine, Sakura clear Stardust pen
Stamp: Paperartsy
Other: Woodware brayer

Cherry Pie 'Tribute to Women' Swap

When I find a technique I like, I tend to do it over and over, so I'm afraid it's the Cuttlebug/Glimmer Mist/Paint Dabber/metal tape thing again! This is a 4" x 4" piece for a wall hanging swap which Marina from Cherry Pie hosted on her Yahoo group. We each made 12 identical pieces, and Marina collated them, punched them and bound them into a gorgeous hanging piece of art, which arrived this week. I love swaps, as I am always so inspired by other peoples' creativity (I love blogs for the same reason!), and I hope my offering has inspired the recipients, too- at least to ask 'how did she do that?'
Other techniques I used here (just in case anyone is inspired, ho ho!): heat embossing onto ribbon, using gold Krylon pen on Dymo labels, then distressing with black Stazon, mount board painted with silver dabber before using alcohol ink to colour, heat embossing using clear lustre powder, then spraying with Glimmer Mist, and good ol' water colouring with Distress Inks and H20s! I think that covers the lot!

Stamps: All Cherry Pie
Colour: Glimmer Mist, Paint Dabbers, Distress Inks, H20s, Sakura Glaze pen, Gold Krylon pen, Versafine, Stazon
Other: Dymo labeller, mount board, white card, metal tape, satin ribbon.

Altered Pringles tube

Would you believe this used to be a Pringles tube? Sid had the idea of doing a swap based on the idea of altering said tubes, and I hosted the swap on UK Stampers. It was quite a challenge to come up with a good idea, as I usually only decorate flat surfaces. I ended up buying some Windsor and Newton Galleria Modelling Paste, and used it to add texture to my tube, before using a silver paint dabber and alcohol inks over the whole thing (See Isa's blog for a step-by-step tutorial of this great technique). I then did my latest favourite technique, which is to use paint dabbers over metal foil which has been embossed with my Cuttlebug, wipe some of the paint off, then spray liberally with Glimmer Mist. The photos aren't brilliant here, as the light was appalling that day, but it looks a bit like distressed enamelling. Love it! I have another piece, also part of a swap, which uses the same technique, and tonight I'm making 'metal' themed ATCs, so guess what I'll be doing...

Colour: Alcohol inks, Paint Dabbers, Glimmer mist, Distress Ink, Versafine, Clear Sakura Stardust pen, Brilliance Ink (for edging)
Stamps: Tanda (alphabet), Cherry Pie (art), free love stamp
Other: Stampbord, felt from the alcohol ink applicator (perfect colour match!), silver-coloured wire, silver-coloured beads, newspaper, rock-crystal bead, butterfly heat-embossed on acetate (like the one on my header!), shrink plastic.

The swap was great fun, and this is the slide show. I got Petra's little tube, and I'm using it to store my mini-misters!

Next CJ Entry

This is the next entry in the 'Just One Stamp' circle journal. We are not far from finishing now; we have three more to do until our own journals wing their way home, full of gorgeous artwork. And the really great thing about this group is that our organiser, Gail, has kept us all on track, so we have no missing journals to worry about, which seems to be a common problem in these kind of groups. Just to recap, here is the link to all of the previous entries.
The stamp which came with this journal is a feather. I don't know who it is by, but it is a beautifully detailed stamp. The previous entries were all so good, and I wanted to do something different, so I decided to turn the feather into a peacock's tail. White peacocks are thought to be incredibly lucky, and I know the journal's owner, Alison, is very ill in hospital and could do with some luck, so I had to make my peacock white. I also really wanted to use the turquoise, as for some reason it is my favourite colour at the moment and I keep using it on everything I do (even my new clock is that colour, and I hope to do a new header soon, too).

Stamps: Unknown (feather), Tanda (Peacock and Peacock feather)
Colour: Alcohol inks, Moonshadow mist, Sakura glaze pen, White embossing powder, Nick Bantock Inks
Other: Words printed on Conqueror Silica blue paper, ribbon from my stash, Self-adhesive metal tape from DIY store, Cuttlebug embossing folder

The background is alcohol inks on glossy card which I then sprayed with the Moonshadow mist. Because of the glossy coating, it beads up when sprayed, and when dried with a heat-gun, you get a gorgeous effect, with tiny dots of the turquoise mica powder (sorry, it doesn't really show up on the photograph). The patterned section is the metal tape, which I ran through the Cuttlebug then coloured with alcohol inks. I can see myself trying that again, and maybe using some glaze pens too- it could look great!

Canvas Tag Swap

These three tags are for a swap I am in on UK Stampers. I haven't joined in with any swaps recently, due to other commitments. I signed up for this one with only a week and a bit before they were due back. Well, I was inspired by working on the canvas, and I did the tags the day I received them. I was supposed to do two, but got carried away and did three! As you can see from the photos I basically used the same design for each one, but I used different techniques on each. I have added the 'recipe' below each photograph.


Stamps: Crafty Individuals (Flower), Paperartsy (Swirls), Stampin' Up (Bird)
Colour: Distress Inks re-inkers sprayed on using mini-misters, Moonglow moonshadow mist, Versafine Sepia, Sakura Stardust pen used with waterbrush, Twinkling H20's, Distress Inks (for stamping swirls)
Embellishments: Meiflower butterfly, Embelliscrap swirl.

For this tag, I sprayed on the colour and dried with a heat gun, before spraying with the Moonshadow mist and drying again. I stamped the swirls for the background, then sprayed with a matte acrylic varnish. I stamped the flower onto tissue, then attached to the tag using the same spray varnish, smothing it down with my fingers. I coloured the flower with the Stardust pen and H20s, sprayed the embelliscrap with the Moonshadow mist, and added the bird and butterfly.


Stamps: Crafty Individuals and Paperartsy, as before
Colour: Ranger Alcohol Inks, Moonshadow mist, Perfect Pearls, Versafine Onyx black, Distress Ink (sprayed), Sakura Stardust pen
Embellishments: Lampshade trim from my stash (I've had it since the '70's!), Star jewels from Hobbycraft

This tag was coloured with alcohol inks before spraying with the moonshadow mist. The alcohol inks really make this bead up and form tiny droplets, which give a great sparkle when dry. I then stamped the swirls in Versamark and added Perfect Pearls in copper and gold. The flower image was stamped on a piece of white card which had been sprayed with Distress Inks and Moonshadow mist, and the flower head was coloured in with the Stardust pen.


Stamps: As above plus Inkadinkado butterfly stamp
Colour: Adirondack Paint Dabbers, Distress Inks, Moonshadow Mist, Brilliance, Sakura Stardust pen, H20s
Embellishments: Lace, coloured using H20s, button from my button box

This final tag (actually the first one I made!) was coloured using Paint Dabbers, before spraying with the Moonshadow mist. The swirls were stamped with Distress Inks, and the flower done as before, except the flower head was coloured with H20s. I stamped the butterfly using Brilliance, then went over it with Stardust pen.

The Moonshadow mist is a walnut Ink with Mica powder added, and the one I have is a turquoise colour. It is good to add an antique look, but really comes into its own when sprayed over a toning colour, as in the tags here. It probably doesn't show well on the photos, but I will try to take some better photos at the weekend, so you can get the full effect!

2 More ATCs

I did these ATCs last week, but I had a tummy bug that wiped me out for a couple of days! After feeling better from that, I had to catch up on all of my housework etc, so this is my first opportunity to post these pictures. As you can see, I'm still inspired by my new Paperartsy stamps, and I also had some fun with shrink plastic and heat embossing.
All details as previous post.

Challenge Card- Ismaki

More info later- gotta go and swim! (Card challenge here!)

Right, I have finally got 5 minutes spare! Yesterday was so busy, tomorrow will be the same, today I may have to go and have a nap when Dan does! About yesterday's card: the stamps are all Cherry Pie. The centre panel was stamped in Versafine, then watercoloured using Distress Inks and highlighted with Sakura Stardust pens. The background to that panel was stamped using Brilliance Graphite Black (wow, that is black! It's very juicy though, so not good for detail work) and the other two sections stamped in Brilliance Lightning Black. The stars and heart were gold embossed, then I added the ribbon which had the words stamped on it. I may change this as it looked like the right colour at night, but changed completely in the daylight.
It was fun using the sketch, I feel it's a good way to experiment and learn about good placement and balanced design. This week's sketch is now up, and it's another good one!

Cards for Babies.

Has it really been three weeks since I last checked in? As you can see, I have been busy. As well as making all of the cards, I have been to lots of baby parties, and held our own for my little one year old. Happy birthday to them all! The last of the parties was today, and although they were fun they were also exhausting! Babies, cake and toys equal noise and grizzly little ones after a couple of hours. And I'm sure it only gets worse as they get older!
As you can see from the photos, I have a couple of new toys. First of all, I have some new stamps, the fairy is from Wendie Rhodes and the boy with the balloon is Magnolia (the other two Magnolia stamps were kindly sent to me by Kym, thanks so much, Kym!). Then my lovely husband bought me a Cuttlebug for Christmas, and said I could have it now, bless him! Other than those, I have used H20s for all of the colouring in, and stamps from Stampendous, Aud Design and Forth Dimension. There's also a little Glossy Accents, Brilliance and Sakura glaze pens thrown in for good measure.
I found it interesting doing these cards. The colouring in was really good fun, but the designs were hard to do! I think grunge is much more my usual style, but I will have to get good at these cutie things too! Wish me luck!
PS I owe a couple of Ladies a RAK over on 2Peas. I haven't forgotten, just didn't make the time to organise it! Will sort this weekend.

Isa's Alpha Challenge- J

This week has been a bit of a struggle for me, time-wise, so I am very happy to be able to post this card at last! Isa is back from her Summer holiday, and she has put her challenges onto a new blog. You can see the button for it on my sidebar, with the Wednesday Stamper and TMTA buttons. I like Isa's challenges, as the only real rule is that you need to use a word on your entry that begins with the alphabet letter of the week. Then there are a couple more options which you can choose to use, or not. I tend to try all of the options, as I like a real challenge!
This weeks letter is J, with the extra options of using a bright yellow and making a Christmas card. As you can see, I have done all three. I couldn't think of another word other than Joy, but Christmas is not the season to get all funky for me, I love it in all of its traditional glory!
The stamped panel is a yellow metallic watercolour background, stamped with the Hero Arts script in Distress Ink Vintage photo, and the Hero Arts harlequin background in Versamark, then brushed with Perfect Pearls. The other panel is an image transfer of a K and Co Christmas paper, transferred using Matt Medium onto gold Mirri card. Then both the panels were edged with Versamark and gold embossing powder. The letters for the word 'Joy' were changed to gold with my new Sakura Pen Touch pen (the budget alternative to a Krylon pen), then distressed by touching it whilst still wet. I did the same to the stars. The cardstock is Bazzill.
As usual, you can't really see the overall effect in a photo. Doing an image transfer over a bright gold card gives a real depth to the translucent image, rather like the gold backing on costume gems. And many thanks to Julie and Carrie, who have both done photo step-by-steps on their blogs. This time I found it easy, and only made a couple of holes in the image with my fingernails as they are quite long! The tip I really liked was to use a baby wipe to take off the backing paper, I found it much easier than a wet fingertip (and much safer, as no jar of water waiting to be knocked over!)
PS I was really surprised and delighted to find that my Wednesday Stamper entry for last week is on the Sampler. Thanks so much, Wednesday Stamper!

Scrapping some photos!

I have taken so many photos over the last year or so, and every time I download them onto my laptop I think "That will make a great layout!". Of course, I tend to spend my craft time stamping, as I just love playing with inks, but I have finally bitten the bullet and done a page. And there is stamping on here, honestly!
This page is in the 8 1/2 x 11" landscape format, to go in my new Papermania album. The cardstock is Bazzil, and the patterned papers are Junkitz and Basic Grey. The chipboard letters are Making Memories, painted with orange acrylic paint then stamped with my Judikins circles cube. I had to paint over the stamping with a couple of coats of acrylic, then I added Glossy Accents to make the balls effect. The metal letter brads were black inside the letters, I used a Sakura Stardust pen to go over the black, and used a punched heart over a 'v' (I figured it wouldn't be missed!). Anything else was from my stash, which I really have to use before I get anything new!
I enjoyed doing this layout. I have always struggled a bit with 12" x 12", as it is not an instinctive shape to design around. After all, most magazines, books, and paintings are rectangular! I can see myself doing some more pages soon, I have got a whole album to fill!