Merry Kissmas

Hello, from hopefully sunny Spain (though as I type this it's cold, dark, and I really should be in bed 'cos I'm up again in 3 hours lol)

It's our last Stampotique challenge of the year, and it's to use your alphabet stamps or images to make a letter of the alphabet. I've kept it simple and gone for the letter O.

Everything was stamped directly onto card and then watercoloured. This was really scary and something that I normally avoid at all costs lol.

I'm even a convert to sequins after last weeks challenge!

You gotta love this guy, he must be everyone's favourite angel.

I've used

Towering Gifts

Merry Kiss-mas

Daniel's Tree Topper Large

Christmas Ornaments Cube

Altered Alpha

There's still a while to go before the big day, so I hope that you can find time to join in with our challenge.

Hope you like it, and thanks very much for looking x

Winter Wonderland

Hi, here's my second piece for this months Country Views Crafts challenge 'Make A Scene'

This was great fun as I got to play with all my favourite Stampotique stamps to make the scene.
I used watercolour paper as my base card 'cos I knew I wanted to use pastel and water colour pencils.

There's quite a bit of depth to the card so no way is it going in an envelope!

I added lots of Stickles to the windows and icicles for a bit of bling.

More stickles on Chilly

The 'Wonderland' has been cut from the Tim Holtz Holiday Words thinlits set and stuck down with Stick It. This stuff is amazing, really good for the intricate die cuts.
There's loads of time left for you to join in with our challenge, so come on and make a scene! Hope you like mine, and thanks very much for looking x

Puttin' On The Ritz

It's new challenge day at Stampotique, and today Valerie has chosen sequins. I must admit this did throw me a little as they're not something that I use much (ever) and as I couldn't find mine I had to buy some more lol. So in homage to Strictly here's The Tweedles Puttin On The Ritz.

I used foam board so I could pin the sequins in to place. Here are my two Dapper Dan's The Tweedles and they've borrowed top hats from Mad Hatter.
I hope that you can 
a) find your sequins and 
b) join in with our challenge. There are only 2 this month as rumour has it December is quite busy, but there are still gift certificates for 2 lucky winners.
Have a fun week, and thanks very much for looking x

Making A Scene For Country View Crafts

Hi, there's a new challenge this month at Country View Crafts, and it's to 'make a scene'. I must admit I do find this challenging, I quite often make scenes without thinking about it, but when it's what I 'have' to do, my mind goes blank. Anyhow, here it is.

This was a game of 2 halves, altering my beautiful (not) plastic frame, and

stamping the picture for the centre.

I did the frame first 'cos it's so cold in my craft room (and it wasn't the warmest of weeks) so I knew it would take a while for all the painty layers to dry.
I'm afraid there are a ridiculous number of photographs but I was pleased with how it turned out.

All the paints and mediums used are by DecoArt. I used
black gesso, then texture sand paste - I love this stuff, it makes such a difference, subtle but you know it's there.

Time for the paint now, I used Media fluid acrylic in Carbon Black and Quinacridone Gold.
After all this I had a nice rusty looking frame, but it looked a bit dull for a Christmas scene, so I added some Metallic Lustre in Champage Ice.

I've been practising my mega crackle, and I used my red piece to stamp the postcard onto.

I made a background with Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry and Scattered Straw, then toned it  down with some cheesecloth. I stitched it all together and that was the image done.

I glued some glitter to the frame to give it a frosted look, and that's my scene finished.

I promise, no more photographs lol.
I hope you find time to join in with our challenge - rumour has it Christmas is coming so it's a quiet month right :-).
I hope you like my scene, and thanks very much for looking x

Christmas Is Coming!

Hi, it's Wednesday again (where did last week go to) so it's time for another challenge at Stampotique. This time around Nellie has chosen the theme of 'quick and easy Christmas cards' Here's what she says.
'It's that time of the year that you know you should have started earlier with making your Christmas cards. So now you have to come up with some quick and easy (yet stunning of course :-) )'
You are so right Nellie, I should have started months ago, and next year I will be more organised (yeah right!, I've been saying that forever!), but here's two cards at least.

I took the photograph on Saturday when we still had snow and ice - brrrrr.

I've been practising my crackle with my DecoArt paints and mediums and ended up with these for my backgrounds.

 Then a bit of stitching and layering (no it wasn't quick but it was quite easy)
Here I've used 
Chilly
Merry Christmas and
Giant Snowflake

Same again with
Reindeer and
Tree-O
Two cards done, that's Christmas sorted then lol.
Please join in with our challenge and show us your quick and easy Christmas cards (if they're really quick and easy I may steal your ideas lol) - just kidding - I've already bought a box! Oh the shame :-)
Hope you like these, and thanks very much for looking x

Black And White With A Touch Of Bob

The challenge this fortnight at That's Crafty is 'black and white with a hint of colour', so here's the one and only Bob Marley.

I started with these colours of Deco Art Multi Surface paints for the background, then made the mega crackle with Weathered Wood and Crackle Paint.

Just starting to crackle here-, it's fun to watch as you can see it crack right before your eyes. The image transfer was then done with DecoArt Matte Medium. This was my first attempt at using this for image transfer, and I'm really pleased with the result.
Hope you like it, and thanks very much for looking x

Saturday Night / Wednesday Morning at the Movies

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Today the fabulous Corrie  has chosen our Stampotique challenge. 

Hello and welcome back to another week and another challenge here at Stampotique's Designers Challenge Blog. 

This week Corrie Herriman Is our hostess and she is asking us to do something in the theme

"At The Movies"
Here is what Corrie says about this fun challenge:
Make something this week inspired by the movies or a move star and as always, have fun!!!

We hope you will join us this week

So here's one of my favourite films.

You can't beat a black and white film lol. 

I started with a scraped on layer of black gesso on my faithful chipboard album (only 1 page to go now) and stamped Village and the stars from Design Cube and embossed in white.

Elliot (Old Timey Frog) is cycling across the moon with ET (3 in a round) in his basket.

Can you imagine if ET said 'phone home' now? they would have to follow it by 'please obtain the bill payers permission first... calls are charged at bla bla rate and from a mobile it could be significantly more... or you could text on bla bla bla or tweet at #phone home# Your call is important to us so please hold the line etc etc lol.

Life was much simpler in ET's day :-)

I hope you join in with our movie night and thanks very much for looking.

IMPORTANT REMINDER:

Please read ALL RULES on the linkz page before linking your creation.

If you didn't follow the rules posted, you may have been deleted.  

Feel free to relink your creation with the correct information for a chance to win.

Have a great week xx

Baby You're A Firework

Hi, it's my turn today to post my second piece for the Country View Crafts 'blue' challenge, and here she is.

The background has been made with Distress Markers and a spritzer tool. Then there's Perfect Pearls Mists sprayed through a stencil.

Finally there's Gold Pearl texture paste, and Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch Distress Inks that have been put through a sunburst stencil.

I liked the stencilling, but decided that it needed more, so I added some colour with Portfolio Pastels and Art Bars.

Stampotique lady now in place

And the sentiment added with a label maker.

All done and stuck into my album for safe keeping.
There's still lots of time for you to enter our challenge so please join in.
Enjoy your day, and thanks very much for looking x

Achieve Greatness

I was lucky enough to go to an Andy Skinner workshop last weekend, and so I've been busily trying out the techniques while I still remember them. 

These are a couple of the steps in pictures but I'm not giving Andy's techniques away except to say that there's a lot of crackling and rusting.

I've used Media paints, Weathered Wood Crackle, Matte Varnish, and Crackle Paint.
Have a great weekend, and thanks very much for looking x

Box It Up

Hi, the fabulous Sam has picked the theme this week for the Stampotique challenge, and she chosen 'boxes' Here's what Sam has to say.
"I think we all have boxes that we throw away and so this week I'm inviting you to take an empty cardboard box and and later and decorate it to your hearts content.I can't wait to see your boxes, have fun!"
Won't you join us this week?

Great challenge Sam, here's my box

I started by covering my box with newspaper and watered down PVA. It's a Spanish newspaper so I didn't have to look out for naughty words lol. When it was dry I gave it a coat of watered down gesso.

Now for the fun bit, I stamped and coloured lots of images with DecoArt Glass Paints. I must admit I got a bit carried away with this part lol.

This is how it looks from the top

and this is the side view. Like a good soldier I didn't leave any images behind :-)

As usual I used quite a few stamps but I have left some white space lol.

I've used

Mushroom Forest

Trees (2 sided)

Bushes

Leaf

Sunflower Large

Mushroom Group

Splattered Mug

World All Her Own

So take your empty box and join in with our challenge, for the chance to win $30 of new rubber from the Stampotique store.

Enjoy your week, and thanks very much for looking x

True Colours

Hellooooo from a very foggy (but strangely warm) Pontefract. It's Wednesday so it's - oh wait, no - I'm late again - It's Thursday so it's time for another Stampotique challenge! This week the lovely Carol has chosen bright colours. Perfect, just what we need at the moment as we are surrounded by gray (no NOT 50 shades thank you very much)
Here's what The Fox says

This week Carol Fox is our hostess and she is challenging us to "Bright Colors"

Here is what Carol says about this challenge:

"Bright eye popping colors to brighten up November"

So let's see your best and brightest projects this week.

I've used the second half of the blue background from my previous project as I though it would be perfect for my new seahorses who have been coloured with Inktense pencils.

Isn't Rudy a handsome chap!

Just like his brother Reggie, this is 2015 boys can wear pink!

The bubbles are from Design Cube

and the edging is my old favourite Splatter Long 

So please put away the Autumnal for a day and join us in our quest for bright colours- you know you want to :-)
Have a fab day, and thanks very much for looking x