Water

Tueday Taggers theme this week was 'messing about in boats' (!) or water .

I love these sketch stamps - not mine unfortunately - but they have such a 'peaceful' quality about them and I have a few stamped images courtesy of a crafting friend . This one fitted the challenge perfectly.

I coloured the image with promarkers and made use of the new stash of Nestabilities to cut out.

The edging is a Martha Stewart punch. The ships wheel I found in my stash whilst I was looking for an anchor or shell or similar to put on the card - I'd forgotten all about it but it looks just fine!! I resisted the usual tempation to overload with flowers/ribbons/embellishments - I wanted the image to really be the focal point and like the simplicity and clean lines of the finished card.

I have also submitted the card to the ABC Challenge - B is for Blue.

No cards - just a canvas!

Have just put the cards to one side for a few days - have made a present for a friend who's brithday is imminent (so can't show you! But will be able to very soon!!!!) and then just played about a bit making messy! Gel Medium everywhere and bits of torn napkin now litter the floor and desk.... but enjoyed myself!

I am no expert with paper napkins but confess now to looking at them in a different way after seeing some gorgeous creations from other people. I like the layering technique although unfortunately I do have a tendency to be 'heavy handed' so consequently I usually end up with lots of torn bits on the canvas!!

This tiny canvas measures just under 3" square and I use them this size to practice the technique. I used 3 different napkins and I think this may be considered a 'work in progress'. I am off to look for some twigs to make a frame and some rough twine to make a hanger!

Work in progress or not I am submitting this to the challenge at 'Tuesday Taggers' (Canvas) which this week is being sponsored by the fabby Art From The Heart store. Am also submitting into the Gingersnap Creations Random Redhead Challenge entitled 'Sunshine'. Although there isn't an actual sun to be seen on this canvas, it reminds me of sunny days.............and looking out of the window right now I NEED a sunny day!!!!!

One of my first stamps!

This poor stamp has been tucked away for a very long time..... I bought it when I first decided I would start stamping..- bought it, looked at it and until today it's never seen any ink! It's called Floral Collage and is made by 'Stamps Happen'.

I coloured the image with promarkers (even the background 'cos like a fool I'd stamped it onto bright white card.....lol). After tearing the edges I used a mixture of Antique Linen distress ink and Dove Grey stazon around the torn sides and then mounted it onto card that I think Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen had a hand in designing. (Do you remember him - he painted walls and ceilings the most dreadful colours and used MDF everywhere!)

The paler background paper is by Artylicious.

I re stamped the dragonfly and coloured it then highlighted with glossy accents before 3d'ing it. (Please click on the picture to view it full size to give honest opinions about my colouring in and shading!)

Button (which is a sumptuous sludgy green and doesn't show up very well on the pic) and flower from my stash.

Now for the challenges -

Tuesday Taggers - Bugs. This week's challenge here is sponsored by The Craft Barn - go visit!

Passion for Promarkers - 2 images (which I did with my dragonfly layering!)

Corrosive Challenges - Spring

Papertake Weekly - Open theme

Charisma Cards - Spring

Shamrocks

Another card made for my charity stash.

Image was a digi freebie from Tiffany's Garden.

I printed it out onto inkjet watercolour paper for texture (which doesn't show up very well in the pic!) and coloured with promarkers, then just used a corner punch to give the edge a bit of decoration.

I think although this is a plain card, it's quite a nice one! (Even if I do say so myself!!LOL)

Card submitted into these challenges -

Shirleys 2 Girls

Tuesday Taggers

Cute Card Thursday

Tellens Place

which all have a 'green' theme and the challenge over at One Powerful Hour is Luck.

Puppy Love!

One Stop Crafts has a sketch challenge this week and the theme over at Simon Says Stamp is 'What's Love got to do with it', whilst the theme at One Powerful Hour is not surprisingly, Love, and finally Tuesday Taggers also has a theme of ... yes, you've guessed, Love is All Around!

This is a Lili of the Valley stamp. Think it says everything about friendship and the unconditional love you get from a dog.

I remember a saying - 'happiness is a warm puppy' - and whoever said it got it right!

Image coloured with promarkers and edges inked with Tattered Rose Distress Ink, all papers from K and Co and the greeting is a stamp from Inkadinkadoo.

One Card - 3 challenges

In between normal life have managed to make a couple more cards the last few days.

This card fits 3 challenges this week, I based the design on the sketch provided by Mercy's Tuesday Challenge , whilst Shirley's 2 Girls Twisted Thursday challenge was to use hearts somewhere on the design and the gang over at Tuesday Taggers had set the challenge of using birds and a tag!

The papers are all from DCWV Latte Matstack. I used the free stamp from this month's Craft Stamper magazine which had been designed by the talented Glenda Waterworth .

I used the same background papers to make the tag and finished the card with some cream ribbon.

Flight of Fancy

I am really quite disappointed with this photograph. The original looks so much better ( well I think so anyway! LOL)

This is a 6" x 4" greetings card. I bought these stamps ages ago -(can't for the life of me remember whose they are)- the plate is four birds with varying degrees of fancy tails and flourishes. The challenge at Tuesday Taggers this week is 'Bursts of Colour' and over at Theme Thursday, this week's offering is 'Favourite Colours'. As I love all colours I couldn't select a favourite so decided to do a rainbow of colours instead and combine the two challenges.

The bird was stamped using Brilliance Ink Pads in Peacock and Twilight colours on glossy paper. The irredescence of these inks does not show up at all on the pic - (tried using the flash on the camera too - all I got was a silver outline!) - but trust me the lovely shimmering effect of these ink pads looks really nice on the gloss paper!

I used the same ink pads for the background of the card and this time ventured a try out with a brayer. Must confess I'm not very proficient with brayering technique but am not too upset at how the background turned out really, even though I definitley do need some more practice! I then used the flourishes from another of the bird stamps and stamped over the background.

Finally I stamped the words using the purple part of the Twilight ink pad. The rainbow organza ribbon came from my stash - can't remember where I got this from either - but I definitely need some more!

The Craft Barn is one of Tuesday Taggers sponsors - click on the owl above and go and visit their fab website and treat yourself!

Cutey Spooky!

I haven't had a lot of free time as I have been attending four Presentation lunches in the last 8 days all over the Northern Counties! Whilst pondering how I'm going to get rid of my expanded waistline I found some time to make a birthday card!

The recipient is away on holiday and will receive it when she returns home at the weekend.......

It's a bit 'cutesy' which is something of a change for me but I really liked the little witch and her cat! The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil. I coloured it with watercolour pencils, mounted it onto black card and the background is a freebie from Glenda's 'Artylicious' blog with some flowers and a couple of lightly glittered pumpkins mounted onto card and a greeting printed from the PC.

I have linked this to the challenge on Tuesday Taggers - pop over and see some fab interpretations of their 'things that go Bump in the Night' theme

and also at One Powerful Hour - who's challenge this week was 'Something Spooky' ... OK I know she isn't exactly SPOOKY but perhaps if you stretch your imagination you might find her just a teeny bit scary?????!!

Queen of the Silver Screen

With goodies on offer as a prize from The Craft Barn, I had to put an entry into this week's Tuesday Taggers challenge! The prizewinner is picked at random so everyone has a real good chance of winning.

This week's challenge was to make a wall hanging. I made one of these some time back (here on my blog) and gave it to a friend who is always encouraging me to try out something new.

This time I decided to try and move away from my 'comfort zone' and tried to make something in a vibrant colour. I am always leaning towards neutral or pastels so the puple and splashes of pink was something of a change!

The image was stamped onto some purple glitter paper. I have taken so many photographs to try and show what the colour is really like all without much success! Here where the image shows gold flecks they are, in fact silver speckles!! You will have to trust me when I tell you this looks so much better in real life than it does on the screen.....The star backing paper is a pale purple colour and the tickets etc are in co ordinating shades of purple and pink. The filmstrip was printed onto an inkjet transparency and I stamped the 'star' word onto the same purple glitter paper and stuck it behind the filmstrip. Lilac sequins, some beads and coloured stars finished the piece and I finally added some purple and silver fibres to hang it with. The whole thing measures just 4" square.

Free day!

I have today taken advantage of a day free from any paperwork or bowling! Please note I have also taken yet ANOTHER day off from housework too..................... I had one of those ' I refuse to spend my free day cleaning' moments this morning... the moment has lasted all day.

So on to making messy - and boy did I make a mess. I have had three attempts at doing a project as shown in this month's Craft Stamper magazine. It looked relatively straightforward thing but I have struggled so much you wouldn't belive - no matter how hard I tried, I could not transfer all the ideas and colours whizzing round in my head onto the slide mailers! After 2 failed attempts (both of which ended up in the bin!), I finally managed to complete a double slide mailer and a single one. The single one I will post at a later date and I really shouldn't be posting this as I'm probably going to give it as a gift in the future but I was so pleased to have finally finished it (and be satisfied with it!) that I took the pictures and here it is!

I am a little disappointed about how the pictures of the inside have turned out as the colour reproduction is not as vibrant as in real life - surrounding the two stamped images on the slides is a green background which has decided to show up as grey in the pic!

Tuesday Taggers have a theme of swirls and curls this week and as the fibre on the front is curly and there are stamped flourishes on the back I have submitted this for this week's challenge!

Pink and Black

I made this ATC a couple of days ago for no other reason other than the bits and pieces were laying about on the desk and I had a mad fit of 'tidy up'!!!

The pink background paper is embossed with a black velvety texture (like vintage flocked wallpaper) and I am going to submit this into the 'Tuesday Tagger's' challenge as their theme is 'texture'.

The pink and black paper flowers were from my stash and the fibres and black lace were just little loose bits at the bottom of the drawer so instead of throwing them away I used them up!

I threaded some black and pink beads onto some wire and used the 'mask' bead as a centrepiece.

I was a bit bothered that the whole thing was a bit too startling but couldn't decide what to use to 'tone it down'!! I left it laid on the desk for a couple of days and it's actually growing on me a bit so have posted it!