Paperbag Studios - Home Sweet Home

Paperbag Studios have a new theme set for their July Stamp Challenge.

Theme: Home Sweet Home
Deadline: July 31
Details: Create your take on the “home” theme using any Paperbag Studios stamps! Upload your submission to your blog or the PBS gallery and comment on the July PBS stamp challenge post (found here) with a link to your creation!!!

Winner will be selected in early August and will receive a $10 coupon toward Paperbag Studios stamps!

The background was painted with a mixture of white acrylic and streaked with some pale blue and green Adirondack dabbers. Stamps are from the Flourish Plate.

Sunday Postcard Art - Fabric

Spent a lovely day yesterday with Cotswold Embroiderers Guild. The class was run by Carol Coleman who's recently published a book called Fibredance, making fabric jewellery. She's made some fabulous pieces so have a look at the website if you're interested in that sort of thing. Being a novice, I spent all day making this piece LOL. As this week's Sunday Postcard Art, set by Audrey Hernandez, is fabric, this seemed a perfect entry so I've made a background and I may well use it to decorate the cover of a journal. (click on the pic for a more detailed view)

Craftstamper August

Phew - it's all go at the moment! Several of our forum members took part in an inchie cube challenge a few months ago and you can see the results in this month's magazine. It's always fascinating how one item can be interpreted so differently. Here's a sneak peak of mine......

Paperbag Studios - New Stamps

Paperbag Studios are releasing a new half plate of stamps today.

Some weeks ago, I was a invited to join the Creative Team (probably one of the high moments of my life LOL) so I have had a chance to play with these already.

This is a 10 x 7 cm canvas

For this one, I stamped the image on claret coloured tissue paper and mod-podged it onto a wooden crown shape.

Just got carried away here.......!


... and this is corrugated card swiped with gesso

They're a gorgeous set of stamps and very easy to use. If you want to see more samples from the creative team, hop over to the PBS site for a look.

TMTA - frogs

Haven't had time to enter a challenge for ages. Anyone who's looked at my blog before knows I love the Gemini Angel Arts images and I've used one yet again here for this week's TMTA challenge.

Stampers Sampler Jun/July

Having whinged recently that I'd sent some work to SS nearly a year ago and that I didn't think it was going to be published, lo and behold this magazine plops through my letterbox today with a two page spread of the submitted samples. Moral of the story - never give up!!!

If you haven't seen the samples, here is the link to the item further down my blog. Stampers Sampler have used the top and bottom samples.

Craft Stamper July - Canvas Sampler

The new issue of Craft Stamper is out and this month's Craft Stamper is just full of inspiration and creativity again.

This month, I've made a canvas sampler which is just a fun way of recording different techniques and ideas in a decorative way on a canvas board. There are lots of different things to try. Hope you find it easy to understand and enjoy having a go at some of the techniques. Here's just a sneak peak at one part of the board as the magazine doesn't like us to show the whole item.

Collaborative project - part 4

It's Audrey's turn this month. The pictures are from Crafty Individulas, some rubons, a lovely swirl stamp that my friend decided she no longer wanted (although you may decide you like it after all Pen!) and some Papermania jewels.

.... and a couple more...

This one with the Art Journey plate in this month's Craft Stamper....

.. and this one using nestabilities dies, an SU punch (the top border) basic grey paper and the image is a rub on.

cards

I need to make a few birthday cards so here's the first. Stampotique (Rocky) and the lovely new Paper Artsy papers.

Still Stitching

I've not given up the paper arts, just trying different skills at the moment LOL. This is a project from an old Quilting Arts magazine which I've wanted to try for ages. It involves making a background with muslin covered in watered down PVA, tissue paper on top all crumpled and left to dry. I then painted it with Lumiere paints. The pattern was traced on the back and I pinned on the front a layer of kunin felt and 3 layers of gauze and stitched the pattern from the reverse side through all the layers. The fun part was cutting out the pattern shape with the soldering iron and the slow part was stitching on the beads! PS: It wasn't easy to get a good photograph.

Ooh fibre arts!

I've been fascinated by and following Sue Bleiweiss's work for some time now. Would love to do more fibre arts but am finding it difficult to make the cross over (I stick with what I know LOL!).

I finally got around to having a go at making some silk paper recently - which was great fun and then decided to make this booklet with it courtesy of a mish mash of instructions from the free projects on the Two Creative Studios site.

Don't look too closely at my stitching, it's not perfect - that's why there are two metal crimped pieces attached to each corner!

Three tags

Just goes to show how quickly you can make something if you have a great set of stamps. These are all from Michelle Ward, on the same sheet, and all for a good cause and took me about 10 minutes. I may embellish them slightly but I don't think they need more more decoration.

Mixed Themes

I really enjoyed making this. It just came together and it fits with three themes too: Saturday's Workout - Make a collage, Lots to do - Lets face it and Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Flowers. The background papers are new from Paper Artsy and the colours are just gorgeous. You can click on the image for a larger view as usual.

Twiddleybitz giveaway

These guys do some very interesting wooden shapes and have a blog giveaway ending on 10th May. Go here

Craftstamper June 09

Woo hoo - I've got some things in Craftstamper this month -

Items made with cover stamps from the fab Crafty Individuals

And two cards as part of the Art Journey Stamping Contrasts article using their Smile plate

The magazine looks really good again this month, packed with all sorts of different articles - go take a look!!

I pressed the send button too soon earlier so apologies to anyone who follows the blog if you got an empty post!

Thanks Kaz

For the blog award. Would you believe I subscribe to over 70 blogs at the moment. Thanks to everyone whose wonderful artwork and poetry (you know who you are!) inspire me! Kaz has some fab creations on her blog. Go visit here

Jo's birthday - shades of mauve

I often mess about with my craft things with no particular aim in mind and end up with lots of odds and ends. While having a sort out the other day I found this Stampsmith picture (Maude) that I'd tried stamping with Brilliance Pearlescent Crimson but never used as well as a piece of aluminium I'd embossed and then coloured with eggplant alcohol ink. After some rummaging through the old paper stash, I found a piece of Diane's Daughters Rustic Gems Amethyst range (still available) and some lace which I sprayed with Adirondack eggplant colourwash. Added some grungeboard wings and hinges (coloured in eggplant and smeared with silver wax) some dew drops and a couple of flowers layered together - hey presto one birthday card for Jo!

This close up was actually taken by Jo and is much more accurate colourwise than my garden one.

Collaborative project - part 2

It's now Joanne's turn to have her twinchies made as part of our forum's collaborative project. She chose cream and Sepia with black accents. The background was made with Glimmer mists and then run through the printer.

My Needlework Box

I made this pre-blogging and pre-rubber and ink days but I like it so much I thought I'd show it to you. Once I'd finished the stitching, I thought it would be nice to do something different other than framing it so had the needlework box specially made. I think what I like is the intricacy. I know I really enjoyed stitching it.

... some detail - note the little beads sewn over the ribbon

... and the finished item

Woo hoo! I've won a competition!

I'm so pleased and surprised LOL. I entered the picture below (also further down on my blog) into the Blade Rubber "Floral" competition and came first! Thanks to everyone who voted for the entry and congrats to Jo and Diane who came second and third.

Simple Pleasures

I made this a while back but didn't blog it. I printed one of the Prima iron orchid paintables onto acetate then cut out another one and layered it on top and embossed it with glitter embossing powder (it's quite subtle!)

ARTSpecially ATCs - the return trip

What a fantastic weekend we've had at ArtSpecially. If you ever get the chance to go, I can thoroughly recommend it!! What's so nice is having all the different workshops to attend inbetween the retail therapy. Penny and I went to workshops run by some of the well known names from the Dutch stamping world and it was lovely to meet up with old friends and new, not least Hermine, Nellie, Caz, Grietje and Mariska. Here are some of the ATCs that I managed to swap. (spot the accidental upside down one!LOL)

Where are we..........?


..... and an Amsterdam canal.

TGIF - My Secret Garden

The TGIF theme this week is Secret Garden, hosted by multi-talented Jo Capper Sandon. I enjoyed making this.

Thanks Gillian...

Thanks Gillian for nominating me for the attached award. I'm supposed to nominate my top 10 fave bloggers but there are loads more than that on my list. So here's to all you fab bloggers out there who produce such wonderful art work..... cheers!!

ARTSpecially ATCs

I'm in the lucky position of going to ARTSpecially next weekend (all being well, no catastrophes she said.. hoping not to temp fate!). When Pen and I went to Stempelmekka last year, we did some major trading in ATCs so hoping that the same opportunity will arise this year, we've been busy making more. Here's a selection of mine.

unloved artwork! LOL

I submitted these for publication sometime back but it doesn't look like anything's going to come of it so I've blogged them because I REALLY liked them.

As you've probably guessed, the background paper is from Crafty Individuals overlaid with Iron Orchid paintables. I coloured the back of these with gold Krylon

Stamps are from Crafty Individuals, Third Coast and Lazar Studiowerx.

Click on the pics for a close up

Paula's birthday

There have been a lot of birthdays recently! This was for Paula.

There's a collaborative project taking place on our forum. Eight of us to make 3 tiles each in a colour scheme picked by one of the participants who will then receive them in the post . We all get to choose our own colour scheme and will end up with a set of 24 tiles to do with as we wish. Chris is the first person to receive her tiles. Can't wait to see what she does with them.

I had a couple of false starts. I did make this set but wasn't sure if Chris would like it. She'll have to chose LOL!

Calling all Zip-e-mate Owners....!

I may be way behind on this one but you may find this useful!

I bought a zip-e-mate some years back but never really got into die cutting until I recently discovered that the nestabilities dies and cuttlebug folders and dies ALL work in my zip-e-mate. So anyone out there who's about to chuck it away ... DON'T!!!

If you would like the sandwich list just email me......

Arty Girlz Challenge and Mixed Media Monday

I've just finished this today. Been working on it for a couple of weeks. I tried to choose cheerful spring time colours. It's just beginning to feel like there might be some brighter, slightly warmer weather on the way.... hooray!! You don't really get a sense of the depth from the photo but the box frame is about 2.5 cm deep and the inner pic with the checkered border is sitting on a block of wood to bring it forward from the base. The Arty Girlz Challenge this week is Smile.

Edit: Mixed Media Monday is Spring Colours so have entered that too.

.. another birthday card!

It was Galina's birthday recently. This card's on plasma and I had a go with the sewing machine too. Definitely need to do a bit more of that. The stamp is Lazar Studiowerx. Joanne - thanks for the lace(!)

I also made an alternative VERY bright version. The sun was shining directly on it when I took the photo. It's verging on lary. Thought you'd like to see the matching crocuses (crocii?)

Thanks to Pen for the idea with the metal shim round the flower.

A couple of acetate cards

It was recently Chris's birthday on our forum and I made this with one of my new Cornish Heritage Farm stamps. I really like their collage stamps.

I also made this card recently to send off but unfortunately, I haven't been able to part with it yet

...... lol

Socks

There seems to have been a lot of sock knitting going on this winter so I dug out the double ended needles which have nearly rusted away through lack of use (well not quite! LOL) and made these....... They're VERY cosy.

I've blogged!!!

Feels like it's been a while but I've been busy doing other stuff. Had fun making this although I've perhaps gone a bit over the top with the beading. It's still difficult to take photos outside even with the sun shining as it's still very low in the sky.

Edit: The stamp is from Lazar Studiowerx who sadly have just ceased trading in rubber stamps. I've collected a few of their artstamps and they're all gorgeous. The rest is rubons (not clever inking Joanne LOL!!)

Close up of the fringe....

Birthday daisy

Made this for my friend Pen's birthday. It's a great big daisy on a scalloped stamped acetate background. We always have a birthday guessing game on our forum as to who made what. I thought I'd done something different this time but most people still guessed it was me! LOL

TGIF - Houses

Haven't done a challenge for a while and this week's TGIF appealed. You could use this as a wacky invitation to a party.

Meet Sackboy

Anyone who's child has a PS3 will probably have come across this little character from Little Big Planet. There was a free knitting pattern in the current issue of Simply Knitting so I was persuaded that I would like to make him LOL. He's VERY cute and about 10.5" tall (about 25 cm).

Happy Christmas

I've been sending this to all my forum pals plus a few others. I've got very attached to these quirky Stampotique stamps this year. I didn't like them much at all when I first saw them. Funny how you get used to things.

Thanks to everyone who's left such great feedback. It's been so encouraging and I know it's helped me loads. Hope you all have a very happy Christmas and 2009 brings you what you want.

Sock monsters

I've been looking at these guys every day this week as I drove past the local art gallery. Eventually I had to have a go myself so bought the kit! They're ever so slightly bonkers LOL.


.... close up detail of the little one....

Christmas Noel

We put up the decorations on Monday and there are a few items that I made in my stitching era. This is one of my favourite pieces, partly because of the detail and all the different techniques that were employed. The hardanger was the scariest. Basically this is a drawn thread work technique where you stitch then cut away the unstitched spaces that are left. All that hard work, one snip in the wrong place and that's it. Eeek!! LOL

For the stitchers who are interested, this is the opposite to Lefkara lace (which the Cypriots produce) where they cut and draw the threads first before stitching. Dunno which is worse really! Here's a more detailed pic which you click on.

... And a wedding

One of our forum members Audrey is about to get married. Carrie, who is brilliant with textiles came up with the idea or making a wedding present from us all. We had to design 4 squares 2.5 x 2.5 inches in jade and cream (ish!) and she very kindly took on the job of putting it all together.

They're also perfect for this week's Arty Girlz small art challenge and Crazy Amigos hearts

Here are the squares .....



... and here's the fabulous finished article.

Another birthday card

Lots of forum birthdays this month. This was the card I made for Nellie

Birthday card

Audrey from our forum had a birthday a few days ago. Used one of my favourite stamps to make this. The image is on stampbord.

A tag

Had a chance to play this afternoon and amongst other things ended up with this slightly strange tag. Image is from Gemini Angel Arts.

LB Class - Dream, Believe, Create, Inspire

Had a fab day recently with my friend Pen at LB Crafts creating a canvas. I can't remember when I was last so covered in ink and goo LOL. Have only just managed to finally put it together although I'm not sure it's complete yet as well as find some daylight time to take a reasonable photo. You should be able to click on the pics for a more detailed view.

Birthday tag

I made this for my forum buddy Karin's birthday. The Stampotique image is stamped on acetate which gives it a slightly 3D effect.

Wednesday Stamper - Snowflake Kisses

Nice to have time to do a challenge again. This one's for Wednesday Stamper. This is an acrylic tag. A right wotsit to photograph.

A Tag

I made this about 3 weeks ago and was going to send it as an alternative birthday card but I can't bear to let it out of my site LOL

I made this about 3 weeks ago and was going to send it as an alternative birthday card but I can't bear to let it out of my site LOL

I've been tagged....

By Patti.... and I'm supposed to tell 6 random things about myself.

1. I've always fancied being an F16 fighter pilot (yes, I can see you've all collapsed in a heap laughing! LOL)
2. I've spent most of my life working in a hospital and wouldn't change it.
3. My nickname as a child was Wiggle
4. I like to eat hot lime pickle straight out of the jar
5. My favourite meal is steak, chips and salad
6. I've known my best mate since we were 12 and we still only live 12 miles from each other even though we're about 100 miles from where we grew up!

and the rules are:
The rules are as follows:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

The people I have tagged are:
1. Pen
2. Joanne
3. Deb
4. Karin
5. Paula
6. Chris

Thank you Sue Roddis!

I had a lovely visit to Stamp Attic recently and spent way too much money LOL. Whilst there I saw a little book that Sue Roddis had produced for a class that she had held there and had to have a go.....

Then I had a go at doing my own version.......

I think Sue's version is better! LOL

My creative brain cell's gone away!

I got stuck this afternoon with a few projects half finished and no idea what to do next so ended up finishing this cute little bind-it-all calendar from a tutorial I spotted on the Inspirational Tips, Techniques and Tutorials blog. I used one of the Crafty Individuals pads and then created a calendar template which I printed onto acetate and layered in between the CI sheets. It was basically just cutting and glueing which was about all my brain was capable of LOL!! The CI papers are gorgeous. By the way, there were lots of left over strips which I've recycled by glueing onto a piece of A4 card with spray mount. Hey presto - 2 sheets of collage paper.

Helpful Blogger Award

I was a bit blown away to receive this very unexpectedly from Calv, particularly when I read what he'd put about me and my blog..... and no I didn't realise I'd been a help LOL!! Thanks again Calv.

I'm supposed to pass this on but seeing there's at least 30 people whose blogs I regularly visit at the moment, it's very difficult to make a choice so I'm going to do my usual and say thanks to all the talented bloggers out there whose creativity just keeps growing and growing!

PS.... you must go and look Calv's blog and see his amazing inked fruit!

Wednesday Stamper and a birthday

I made this for Carrie's birthday. I really enjoyed making a different shape to usual. It also folds completely flat and fits into a normal C6(?) sized envelope. You can find the instructions here on Youtube. As the colour scheme also fits in with Wednesday Stamper, here's my entry.

Craft Stamper November

I've got an article about gothic arches in this month's Craft Stamper. The new format magazine seems to be going from strength to strength and there are some great contributors this month, not least my two forum buddies Jo and Penny. I'm only allowed to show a sneak peek as magazine policy doesn't allow the full pics for three months but you could always buy the magazine LOL!

Puzzle Piece Swap and TGIF Lace

I've been lace gathering recently (as opposed to wool gathering LOL!) and this weeks TGIF was the perfect opportunity to use some. This piece is also part of a swap that I'm in too. I'm really stuck on these little flowers at the moment. BTW - the image is actually a rub on.

Just playing.....

Had a chance to mess about with my new stamps this afternoon. I've been playing with this for a few days on and off and finally finished it. Not very clear but it's on an A5 acetate card. Can you tell the sun is actually shining today? LOL

EDIT: Just had a tip off that Crazy Amigos is flowers this week so off to enter. (thanks JO!)

Stempelmekka

As some of my stamping friends know, Penny and I managed to get ourselves to Stempelmekka this weekend. What a fabulous weekend we have had (apart from the 10 hour journey home!) If you have never been and want a show that's purely rubber stamping, no peel offs and lots of collagey artsy stamps, this is where you should be. It was fab to meet up with so many internet friends and put faces to names (you know who you are LOL) and I managed to some major ATC trading. Here's a pic of all the ATCs I traded. It was fascinating to see so many different styles. Can you see yours?

TMTA - Dancing

Here's my TMTA entry for this week. Love the colouring of this image.

Received a RAK

I received an unexpected RAK which I thought was gorgeous so thought I would post it. Thanks Sylvia!

Multi-challenge

I've managed to cover a few things here. Back at the beginning of August, Hermine created a beautiful background and set a challenge to make something with it; Jo has also set a challenge on our forum to make something that's "a set" and finally Crazy Amigo's has a tag challenge this week.

Gothic Arch Challenge - Black, white & a hint of red

I started this black and white fairy door some time back and never finished it so here was an excuse to get it done for this week's gothic arch challenge. It's not quite my usual style. The insects liked it. If you look closely, you can see a woodlouse crawling up the right door!

"I Love Your Blog" Award

I am very chuffed yet again to be nominated for a blog award. This time by Willy (from Tenerife) and Jo for the "I love your blog" award. I'm going to opt out from passing it on this time as I've only recently done this but I very much appreciate being nominated and many thanks again to everyone who leaves such lovely comments.

A few ATCs

My friend Pen and I are going to Stempel Mekka in September (yaaaaay!!) so I thought I'd better start making a few ATCs. Nothing spectacular but back on the old alchy inks and some of my fave images. I thought if I get a chance to trade with anyone from overseas they might appreciate the one with the Queen on. Perhaps I ought to add "My husband and I......" LOL

Rein's birthday blog challenge

Rein has a birthday challenge over on her blog. I thought this was such a cute pic (thanks for the heads up Jo!) and here's what I did with it... I've had the sheet of paper forever. It's one of those you don't want to cut up but I took the plunge LOL. I did have a minor catastrophe - or so I thought when I accidentally melted the acetate and it started to curl but in actual fact I quite like the effect and carried on melting it. See the pic below. I also really like the way the family appear over the top of the baby image.

Blogging Friends Forever Award

I have had my first award from overseas(!) Finn and I have been admiring each other's blogs for a while and she has given me the Blogging Friends Forever award - one of the people nominated has to live overseas so I guess thats me! I opted out of passing an award on last time but there are quite a few blogs that have given me inspiration lately so I'm going to pass this on.

Here are the rules:
1. Only five people allowed
2. 4 of them have to be dedicated followers of your blog and 1 has to be new and live in another part of the world.
3. You have to link back to who gave you the award.

1 Firstly to Patty who has finally started a blog. I love looking at the stitching
2 Nellie who's blog was one of the first to inspire me and does great things with colour
3 Kaz for her gorgeous artwork
4 Ingvild Bolme recently discovered and produces amazing creations on her scrap pages..
5 .. and finally Viola who creates the most divine mixed media work

Distress ink Challenge

One of the groups I belong to had a distress ink challenge this month. So I came up with this. Stamps are Artistic Outpost and Third Coast. It was quite difficult to get accurate reproduction of the colours. They are not as loud as this in real life.

Dans la maison il y a....la mer

First time I've done this challenge although I've liked the look of it since it started. I knew straight away which stamp to use.

TMTA - Turquoise

This week's these on Think Monday Think ATC is turquoise. Nice! Thanks to Hermine for the freebie background on her blog (from ages ago) which I used on this.

A blast from my past - stitching!

I was looking at Patti's blog the other night (see my sidebar) and it reminded me that I had done a sampler some time back and couldn't remember what I'd done with it. After some searching I dug it out and couldn't believe firstly it was so long since I'd stitched it (1998 - it says so!) and secondly that I'd gone into so much detail. I think it's gorgeous so thought I'd blog it. It's on 32 count linen for those of you who know and includes drawn thread work and different types of stitch. I'll have to get it framed instead of leaving it sitting in a box.

Tags - and a giveaway!

Had a go at messing about with the Tim's July technique challenge. The first one's very bright and turned out differently to what I expected(!) but I like it. The second's one's the complete opposite!

Um..if anyone's interested, I'm quite happy to give them away. I'm getting quite a collection of artwork and it would be nice if they had good homes to go to. If you leave a post over the next couple of weeks and which one you would particularly like, if there's enough interest, I'll draw a name for each at the end of that time and let you know. Closing date is 25th July LOL!

Edit: I feel very guilty - I completely forgot to do the draw. I hadn't realised it was so late in the month DOH!!. My son has pulled a couple of names and I am pleased to announce that the green/yellow tag is going to Barbara and the red tag to Em.

This one is VERY grungy!

Blog Award!

To my surprise (and pleasure!) both Kaz and Jackie have given me this award which I've never come across before. I'm supposed to nominate 7 other blogs that I admire and visit frequently. So I've been racking my brain and honestly there's way too many to chose so I'm going to be a complete wuss(?) and use the opportunity to thank everyone who's blogs I have visited for all the wonderful inspiration and to those who have visited my blog thank you for all the encouraging and positive comments. It's been an absolute joy!!!!!

TMTA - Colourful

This week's theme on TMTA was Colourful - brilliant!! The background was made months ago with a mixture of gesso, acrylic paint and Lumiere (I think). The image is Gemini Angel Arts.

Dotee Doll

Anyone who visits my blog regularly will know I'm a fan of Dot's blog (listed in the sidebar). Her Dotee Dolls have become world famous thanks to the internet. I've been wanting to make one for a while but not having much fabric or the right type of bead hadn't got round to it so I finally decided to order from her Etsy shop (yes, I know, all the way from Australia). So here she is and she was great fun to make! LOL

TMTA Stone (or Blue for You)

Made this by accident really. I was looking at the subject for TMTA this week and realised I had the opportunity to use one of the cemetery pics which I've started collecting recently. The image is actually a gel medium acetate transfer. The light outside's really weird at the moment - sort of pre-thunder storm, hence the slightly strange colour to it.

Be Inspired!

I thought the shape of this book was very interesting when I saw it on the Kaisercraft site but it was too big for me so I halved the dimensions. Papers are by K&Co and rub ons Rhonna Farrer. Front cover was done digitally with some Rhona Farrer borders, plus some Paper Whimsy images and Paperbag Studio stamps. I might add a few more bellies over the next few days but I've run out of steam for the moment. LOL For more detail click on the pics.

Quick cards

Got some stuff from Darkroom Door recently including the tags in the middle of these cards.

Forum birthday

Jackie's birthday this month. I've been incredibly busy at work the past few weeks so it's been quite difficult to get my head round crafting recently but I was fascinated by this unusual card fold and had a play with it. (I've always loved origami)

... and here the link for the Youtube video if you want to have a go. (Thanks Leo!)

Pendant Challenge

May's challenge over on our forum was to make a pendant and at last I got around to soldering. I really enjoyed it and it was much easier than I thought it would be. I sent this one to Joanne.

I also made a background to keep it on when she wasn't wearing it. The butterfly stamp in the background is one of the first designs by my best mate Penny. You can buy them from The Stamp Bug. I think they're really good and I hope she carries on designing.

Then I had to make another one for me! LOL

Ozzie Owl

It's my dear ole Mum's birthday on Monday. She loves owls and this is one of her phrases when something's funny! The owl hasn't actually got earrings (although it does give him a slightly jaunty look LOL!) He's stuck on with Velcro and you can pull him off the card, attach a chain and turn him into a hanging.

We don't stop playing.....

..... well I certainly don't stop playing LOL. I downloaded some digital backgrounds from Iron Orchid via the Prima Hybrid site the other day and printed one of them onto watercolour paper and painted it. This is what I ended up with.....

A Play Day!

My friend Pen and I had a fab day last Friday at LB Crafts making a mini book. The class was held by Leandra who owns Paper Artsy and if you didn't already know, she has some fab stamps. We tried loads of different techniques, not least using the Ten Seconds Studio moulds (taught by Linda), making backgrounds with distress inks, gel medium, gesso, stamping on acetate, stamping on fabric etc. We came home feeling completely revitalised. Here are some of the pages. It's not quite finished yet but you get the idea.

and then we tried scrapbooking.....

The the April monthly workout challenge on the forum was making a scrapbook page with a happy theme. Never done scrapbooking before but playing with the digital kit from Shabby Princess was very interesting.

Angel of Death (!)

I made this recently. I was going to send it as a birthday gift/thingy but then I thought it might be considered a bit dark and depressing for a birthday. I love it so I'm happy it's still here. She's become known as the Angel of Death in our house though LOL! I think it shows off the old tree in our garden quite well too.

Notebook swap

We did a notebook swap on our forum recently and had to put either the name of the person we were sending to or something to indicate their name on the cover. This was my entry made with the new PA stamps.

Tales of a Blogger (or blowing my own trumpet again!)

Sometime back, I thought I would submit an article on blogging and challenge blogs to Craftstamper Magazine and this month it's been published! If you click on the second picture, you can see some of the challenge sites that I mentioned.

Triangle Card (and Mixed Media Monday)

I've been having fun with my Pearl-ex paints this afternoon and ended up with this. The triangle card idea came from Godelieve's blog . There's also a triangle envelope template to go with it. If you haven't come across this blog before, spend some time there, it's a great stamping resource.

EDIT: The theme is PAINT over on Mixed Media Monday this week so here's my first entry!

Saturday's Workout - AAI's

Being a bit dense sometimes, I couldn't work out what AAI meant on this week's Saturday Workout challenge and then it clicked "adirondack alcohol inks!" LOL - how could I resist!

and a variation..........

Finally another chance to blog! (and TGIF)

The weather's been so rubbish, I haven't been able to take any good photos of my recent efforts but here's a couple. As you can see, I've been enjoying using this stamp recently.

Edit: Joanne's just pointed out to me the theme on TGIF this week is acetate so here we go!

I got some really good clear stickers from QVC. They were hellishly expensive but I thought I would probably use most of them so kept them. You can hardly see they are stickers once you've burnished them on.

Not sure what I'm going to do with this - might make it into a hanging thingy. The flower embellishment at the bottom is from Papermania. There are a couple of different packets containing 3 different ones each. They're really good quality. Again - I've used a sticker for the quote.

Birthday

Made this for one of the girls on the forum and was really pleased with it. It's a 6 x 6 inch acrylic square. The image is an acrylic paint transfer. I really like making hanging thingys at the moment. The photo turned out really well too. I think the tree made a really good background (this is probably my 20th attempt at taking a picture - it travelled all round the garden before I was happy LOL ).

Quick card

Was in a hurry to make a card and came up with this. The DCWV Far East pack and sticker was just perfect.

RAK Received!

I received the most gorgeous card from Chris yesterday (and some lovely goodies too!!!). It's made with one of the new Art Journey plates and the colours are gorgeous as are the stamps used.

TMTA - Zentangle

This week's TMTA has taken me right back to school. This is not exactly a work of art but I've had fun recreating the doodles that we used to put on our school books in secondary school when we were bored in class! LOL

Art y Pico Award

I am so chuffed (!) Deb has given me an award. It's my first blog award. Thanks very much Deb!

The rules are as follows:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte Y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these conditions.http://arteypico.blogspot.com/

Here are my five choices: Penny, Hermine, Chris, Viola and Jo

I know some may already have received this award but it's in appreciation of their lovely artwork and inspiration to me.

Paper Whimsy Acetate Card

Decided I wanted to make something with one of the PW images yesterday and ended up with this... The background paper is a digital one from Lazar Studiowerx.

EDIT: I've just realised - the paper was not as above but a free download from Shabby Princess

Chunky Fat Book Swap

I entered a chunky fat book swap on one of the group's I belong to and so many joined we all ended up having to make 27 pages!!! Apparently it's called a chunky fat book because you're supposed to use lots of embellishments on the page. It was hard work, particularly as I don't do simple! I'm looking forward to getting the finished product and to see what everyone else has made.

Work in progress........

Finished!!!

For Emma

I made this for Emma's birthday. I wasn't sure about the Squiggly Ink stamps at first, always takes me a while to get used to anything(!) but I love them now! LOL

Skinny Saturday - Open theme

I've been messing about with Claudine Hellmuth's technique doing image transfers with Ranger acrylic dabbers. It's a bit fiddly but I'm quite pleased with this result and I like the distressed look it gives. It accidentally turned out the right size for Skinny Saturday's open theme. You get a better idea if you click on the pic to enlarge it.

Stampers Sampler April/May

Well, this is probably as good as it gets! Last Autumn I didn't know whether to jump up and down with excitement or nerves when I was asked by Stampers Sampler to submit some puzzle pieces for publication. Well it finally came off and I am so pleased with their results. They have done me proud! My forum mate Jo (Master Stamper!) has some fabulous work also. Go take a look at her blog.

TMTA - Texture effects

I have been away for Easter and came back desperate to make something and as I haven't managed to enter a challenge for a while TMTA was perfect. It's not too easy to see the background but it's made with a mixture of gesso and dabbers.

Noughty Birthday

I made this for my best mate's birthday earlier this year. I must be honest and say that I got some inspiration from Nellie on this one. The hinges are grunge board by the way.

Published! (bind-it-all box)

Wow - I knew I was going to have a few pages in Craftstamper this month but I was a bit stunned to see my project on the front of the magazine!

and this is the original....

Simple Pleasures v2

I really can't decide about this one. I need to stop looking at it for a couple of days and come back with a fresh eye.

Simple Pleasures

There has been some discussion about this stamp on the forum I belong to this week so I got it out and had a play. The tag is a background created with spray inks and the stamp is on an alcohol ink background.

TMTA - Insects

TMTA is insects this week so I dug out one of my favourite stamps that I haven't used for ages.

Copycat Tag

Anyone who regularly checks Tim's Holtz's blog will know this is a blatant copy of his February challenge tag but I liked it so much I wanted to try one of my own. I love the way he stitches with the wire.

RAK DAY

I've had a great post day. I received a late birthday hanging from one of my group buddies Suse and a tag from my forum friend Kaz. Thanks very much both!!!

New Home

Everyone on the forum I belong to seems to be moving at the moment so I had to make a few "new home" cards recently.

Spread Your Wings and Fly

I'm really enjoying making tags at the moment. It's a great change from cards. Here's the latest. I've nicked Tim Holtz's idea of stitching with wire. I don't expect the colours will be everyone's thing - they are quite loud (!) I reckon I'm going to have to invest in a new digital camera soon. I just can't get the colours to come out quite right at the moment.
23 02 08 - updated image with this as colour reproduction is better.

Wednesday Stamper - Asian

The challenge on Mittwochstempler (I love that word!) was Asian this week. I have been in love with this chap for a long time and now he's all mine! LOL The stamp itself is 18 cm (nearly 7") tall and incredibly detailed.

Under the sea....

Have managed to finish this off. You can just about see the glittery effect to her hair. Unfortunately the background green card has come out looking a bit anaemic. I'll have to start practising with my PSE5 to see if I can enhance it! LOL I love the little pearly doodads. I've found some black ones too....

A day at home! (.... and Wednesday Stamper!)

I've had so little time to craft recently that I decided to take the day off and play. As it was I still couldn't stay away from the work emails (sad person!). Here are a couple of things I managed to put together. There are a few half finished pieces but the light's going so I'll finish them another day and add soon. (Addition: Just realised this fits in with this week's Wednesday Stamper too!

Nice blue dangly thing on the bottom!

This is my favourite. It just fell into place and I love the rub on word which just happened to be one had from a magazine as a freebie. (Added 3rd Feb - variation on a theme in green)

Skinny Saturday - Pierrot

Yahoo, finally had time to take part in a challenge again. This week's skinny Saturday is Pierrot which I've interpreted quite loosely(!) I will be so glad when the sun comes out and I can take better photos again.

Tags

I've finally finished a couple of tags which I started before Christmas. Not totally sure about either of them. I think I've "over- grunged" the red one (if there is such a phrase! LOL). The image is Paper Whimsy and I've used rub ons and some grunge board. The green one is the same technique as tag 7 of the Christmas tags on Tim's blog. I like the effect of this except that it's impossible to stamp on afterwards.
It's also very difficult to get a good photo at the moment as the light is so low. Roll on spring!

You can click on them for a BIG image.

Published!

Coo, it's been a while since I posted. Life's been busy and I can see it being busy for the next couple of weeks too. Anyway, I was very pleased to have some of my puzzle pieces published in Craftstamper just before Christmas so thought I'd show which they were.



Hope you like them!

Skinny Saturday - Distress Inks, (or press the fast forward button)

Well I think we can all empathise with this poor little chap. I came across the quote while I was doing Saturday Stampers challenge (buttons!) and thought it went great with this pic. Couldn't use it for that challenge but it worked for the Skinny Saturday one instead. The background is distress inks rubbed on a non-stick sheet, sprayed with water, place a piece of card on top, lift off and leave to dry. This is for all of you who want to press the fast forward button! LOL

Saturday Stampers - Multi-tasking

Cor blimey - the challenge on Saturday Stampers really was a challenge this week! It took me all day on and off yesterday. (lucky me -I'm home alone!). So - the diamonds were a Paper Artsy stamp - stamped with Versmagic chalk pad, button wisdom and friendship were in the quote, buttons - stitched on, butterfly and girls image courtesy of Nancy Dooren (thanks Nancy!)

Created by Hand - Alcohol Inks

Came across the Created by Hand challenge by chance yesterday. Had to have a go at this being such a fan of the old alcohol inks. I've done so many creations in the past with these inks. They are fab.

Addition: For those of you who have an eye for detail - I've just noticed a couple of splodges down by the tags. When I took the photo - it was getting dark and I had to go out into the garden to take the picture without the flash but it was raining. The "splodges" have now dried! LOL

Addition 2: ..... The stamp I used is from Artistic Outpost and this card is now up on their gallery!

Skinny Saturday - Diptych

Skinny Saturday's challenge was to make a diptych this week. I think I made the challenge slightly fiddly for myself by doing a diptych that was 5 x 3 in total size so it's quite small but I aim to make a bind it all book eventually with my entries. It's slightly longer on the right edge to allow for the binding. (By the way a diptych is a flat object made up of two parts - writing or pictures, usually hinged and pronouned diptik)

Tags

I wanted to make something other than a card for a friend who is also slow at creating (like wot I am LOL). So I came up with these tags which have words of inspiration on them. If anyone hasn't come across the Crafty Individuals 6 x 6 pads yet - go have a look at them, they are FAB!

TMTA - Hollywood

The theme on TMTA this week is Hollywood. Well this stamp of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis always makes me laugh and it seemed appropriate. The spelling mistake is intentional by the way(!)

Wednesday Stamper - Wild West

Busy week and running behind as usual. Wednesday Stamper is Wild West. I've always had a thing with the wild west. Love this stamp and don't get to use it much. I actually made the domino at least a year ago so here was the perfect opportunity to use it. Have NO idea who makes the stamp. I just acquired it. If anyone knows let me know. Click on the pic for more detail.

Additional: Thanks to everyone for the great feedback on this!

Who are those guys?

TMTA - Friends

Strangely I decided to make some ATCs on Sunday which I haven't done for ages and when I looked last night they perfectly fit the bill for the TMTA theme. I cut out the windows, stamped an image on a piece of card, coloured some acetate with alcohol inks, placed over the image and used the same colours of ink to colour the front of the ATC. By the way, I took this technique from the Stampington Transparent Art book. It's the page by Nancy Curry.

Saturday Stampers - Winter

This week's Saturday Stampers subject was winter. I've been dying to play with acetate for a while. I'm not quite sure I've hit the spot yet but I'm pretty pleased with the result, It's a right "£$*^% to photograph. The light bounces off it in every direction! This is about my 25th go on top of the hifi loudspeaker about 6ft off the ground with me balanced on the back of a chair.

..... and now I've had to add another image because I can't decide if this shows it off better. DOH!

Skinny Saturday - Fairies

Skinny Saturday challenge is fairies. Thanks Sarah - perfect opportunity to play with my Gemini Angel Art images again LOL. Apologies the photo is slightly over-exposed due to my camera being on the wobble but you certainly get the effect of the glitter!

Gothic Arch Challenge - Party!

Better late than never! This week's challenge was by Dymphie and in honour of her birthday which was on the same day. Here's a Japanese tea party. Anyone who's has looked at my blog before may have noticed that I really like these Basic Grey lollipop sticks. There seems to be a quote for every occasion.

Wednesday Stamper - Children

I haven't had much play time recently but the subject for this week's Wednesday Stamper is one I've done lots of things for so here's one I made earlier!

Bind it all Box

I had a couple of days off work from time owing so finally had the opportunity to make this box. The fiddliest bit was threading the ribbon as you can imagine!

Gothic Arch Challenge - Flowers

Another great challenge this week. I went back to my alcohol inks which I haven't played with for a while. I found a great quote, apparently from the Koran. It didn't work with the arch but here it is anyway, "Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul."

Skinny Saturday - Wings

Life is full of challenges at the moment and here's a new one - Skinny Saturday! I really enjoyed this one. It just came together and was the perfect opportunity to use this "skinny" Gemini Angel Arts image as well as my new flourish stamp from Stampinback. I also made an extra length of black card at the top so that at a later date I can incorporate these into a bind-it-all book (hopefully!) Thanks Sarah!

Gothic Arch Challenge - Vacations Places

I enjoyed this week's gothic arch challenge once I got going. Hadn't realised I had so many seaside stamps LOL

Saturday Stamper Treasures

This week's subject was treasures. Well I guess mine are the RAKS I receive and the little bits of artwork I create so I took a photo of the noticeboard which has all my RAKS etc on it. I found the quote on the internet which I rather liked. The full quote is "Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness." Saint Augustine (354-430) I admit this is not particularly artistic but it is true to the subject matter LOL!

I always knew...

Here's another challenge I haven't tried before "4 x 4 Friday". I'm slowly working through them all but new ones keep appearing! (see sidebar). This week the subject was black and white. I'm not sure about this. Its very plain compared to what I've been making recently. I feel like I've left something out (LOL) but I like this quote.

Saturday Stampers - I dream of trees

I was asked to do some projects for a magazine recently but got myself all stressed about it and couldn't make anything yesterday afternoon LOL. So I gave up, went surfing and found the Saturday Stamper challenge and had a go at that instead. At least I haven't lost it completely yet! The tree stamp is from a plate by Time To Stamp. The colour reproduction isn't perfect by any means. The acetate overlay hasn't helped as usual. You do get a better idea if you enlarge it (and it's HUGE!) The background was made with a mixture of different Creative Colour Sprays from Crafty Notions

Life is confusing

I had a play recently with no particular aim in mind and ended up with this! It makes me laugh. She looks so fed up! What I like about it and what isn't clear from the pic is that it has a gold glisten from the spray that I used as part of the background which makes it glow in the right light. It seemed a perfect first entry for this week's Wednesday Stamper!

Alcohol Ink

I made these a while back but I just can't bear to part with them as I love the colours so much. They're much less complicated that the type of thing I've been making recently but I really love this stamp from Club Scrap and the card and the alcohol ink colours compliment each other so well (to me they do anyway LOL)

Welcome to MY home

I got the new Paperbag Studios plate last week and had a chance to finish a project yesterday evening. My son wants this for his bedroom door LOL! As it was quite a long piece it's probably easier to view if you click on it to enlarge it.

Gothic Arch Challenge- Family

I had fun with this one. I've been wanting to use this picture for a while and this was the perfect opportunity. It's of my mother (second on the left), her sister and their parents (my grandparents). I have no idea what they were doing but I really think it just encapsulates a moment, hence the caption. I really did capture it too as I covered the arch with an acetate overlay using the same quote and popped the clock on top to protect it all. It was difficult to get a good picture because of the acetate and it's still not great. The die cut on the bottom is a Quickutz Revolution one.

Windsong

Had to take about 20 photos of this one before I was satisfied I had a good copy. It either flashed or the day light shone too much off the acetate overlay. I'm going to have to get PSE5 and learn to manipulate photos. Now I have to find someone to give it to!

Another Zutter

I love this little book. It's not very fancy as I'm going to carry it around with me. I am having such fun with this machine!

Gothic Arch Challenge - Moon

Here's my gothic arch challenge for this week.

Moving Home

Well here I am over on Blogger. I haven't been using Word Press for 5 minutes and I could already see it's limitations. Does that make me a blogging tart? LOL I've already had some lovely comments over on the Wordpress blog and I'm very loathe to lose them but I don't think I can transfer them over.

Zutter Bind-it-all

Here’s my first effort with the bind it all. It’s a fab little machine and I got the bag to put it in today as well!

The inside cover was made with some lovely marbled paper which I have. The texture is great for book covers and it glues well. There are many colours available.

Gothic Arch Challenge

Here we are on Bank Holiday Monday and I’ve had a chance to play. Thought I’d take the plunge and enter a challenge so here’s my effort. You can see the others here.

As I liked the theme I thought I would try a different version and came up with this…. I like the slightly “dark” feel to it.

My Digital Camera's Playing Up!

My digital camera is definitely on the blink. This is the "Prince for a Day" image. I thought it was pretty interesting though!

Prince for a Day

The background for this came from Hermine’s site and is free to use. (scroll down the page to see it) The image is another Gemini Angel Art one.

A Fishy Tale

Love this. I’ve borrowed HEAVILY from Hermine. The background was done with some Creative Colour Sprays sold by Crafty Notions. I reckon there must be a big similarity to the Glimmer Mists.

Slide Mailer

Well, I’m not sure about this yet or whether it’s quite finished. I’ve spent ages adding stuff, layer upon layer of different things. I think I’ve tipped over from grungy into completely messy! LOL I’ll look at it for a few days and decide. If anyone has any suggestions pass them on……. You get to that stage where you have to go away and leave something for a while before you can look at it objectively. Oh, by the way, this is a couple of pics of my mum and dad before they got married - over 50 years ago!

ATCs

I guess I’m backtracking a bit but here are a couple of the ATCs I made to swap at Newbury. I’m surprised I was able to give them away as I really liked them!

Mermaid

This is one of the Fairy Kids images from a Gemini Angel Art collage sheet, transparencies from Crafty Individuals, blank chipboard (which I covered in a mix of green embossing powder) and my own transparency (the mermaid wording). I did try the bubble background technique by Trish Bayley. You can just see the bubbles in dark green. It all adds to the general effect!


I made this as an entry to a monthly challenge on one of ths stamping groups I belong to.

Lost in Your Dreams

Another puzzle piece. I love the Gemini Art images and
recently acquired a couple of sheets.




.

Sucked in!

Hmm, well as usual with me, I wasn't going to get sucked into what everyone else is doing and as usual I have. So here's my new blog and here's a giant puzzle piece I made this afternoon that I'm pleased with. I used Adirondack acrylic dabbers and mainly Paper Artsy stamps.