Happy Feet

Hi, the lovely Kristen is our hostess this week at Stampotique, and she wants us to take her to the ocean.
The ocean is my happy place. It is calm and soothing and I love the sound of the waves. So this week, I challenge you to create an ocean themed project. I can't wait to see what you come up with.

It seems to me that mermaids get all the attention when it comes to the sea, so this time the penguins are the stars.
Most of my work in progress photographs got deleted in 'computergate', so here is the same one from lots of different angles lol.

The background is just watercolour. I was very brave and drew my own birds - can you have black seagulls?

Don't you just love these guys sitting on their little Stampotique icebergs.

I've used
Penquins
Squiggle Arms
Ocean and
Stones and Grass Cube (for the icebergs)
There's also some stitching for the waves.

Those black seagulls really are the star though aren't they lol.

Happy Feet has been stamped with 
Alphabet Upper and Lower.
This was such a fun piece to make and I alternated between singing Happy Feet, and Under The Sea. I only know know a couple of lines from each so there was plenty of de de de da's too.
Please join in with our challenge and remember there are gift certificates for lovely rubber to be won.
Hope you like it, and thanks very much for looking x

Come Fly With Me

Well it's nearly the end of another month, and for my second piece for Country View Crafts I've made a tag.

I started by covering my chipboard tag with Craft Consortium world map decoupage paper. This is the first time I've ever used this and I really like it. You don't have to trim the edges you just sand off the excess. The balloon is from a Sam Poole set, and I've multi stamped it, and used it on shrink plastic. The ticket is a TH journaling ticket.

The sentiment has been stamped on shrink plastic 

 and onto some ribbon.

I have a confession to make (or maybe two) I'm a little bit of a horder and a re-cycler. These embellishments have been used in previous projects, but I thought they would fit in nicely here.

There's still time (if you're quick) to enter our On Your Travels challenge.

Thanks very much for looking x

 

Tweet Tweet

 I'm really enjoying playing with my Pebeo Dyna paints at the moment, and I needed a 'man' card. So fluffy kitties and dickie birds right?

The background is an Andy Skinner stencil, and Dyna's on black card.

Tweet's has been stamped onto watercolour card and coloured with distress stains.

I'm entering this into the That's Crafty stencil and mask challenge.
Hope you like it, and thanks very much for looking x

It's Worse Than That He's Dead Jim....

... my computer that is! Now I know that 7 years and 1 month is a good age for a computer, but that's no reason to conk out on me. And how do I know that he's 7 years and 1 month old, because I had a 7 year warranty that why! I had hoped he'd be back from PC hospital in time for me to blog this weeks Stampotique piece, but his vital signs are not looking good. So I'm typing this on a borrowed lap top that too small for Mrs Ham Fist, so please forgive just about everything :-).
Anyway, the aforementioned challenge at Stampotique has been chosen by the lovely Arwen and she wants us to get our mean heads on and stamp a background with inexpensive household materials. Now I'm from Yorkshire and we have somewhat of an (undeserved) reputation for being - now what's that phrase regarding a ducks bottom (you know the one, and wouldn't it make a good stamp) so here's my stamping on a budget.

These are my 'stamps', it's bubble wrap, some foamy kind of packaging, and a silicone heat mat.
I have to take lots of photographs 'cos I like to be a couple of challenges in advance and I forget what I've done lol.

DecoArt Multi Surface Satin paint applied with an old AA card.

Black gesso and the packaging.

Painted bubble wrap

I was surprised at how well the heat mat stamped :-)

They were VERY bright so I gave them a sanding to bring it down a little

Then I added some text with Pan Pastels. I've used
Journey Collage
Romantic Text and
Text Block 3

As the backgrounds are quite busy, I've kept the stamping
 very simple and used white embossing on black card.
I've used
Kate's Angel
Hold On Tight
Sing and
Barcode Text 2

So please dig out your household goodies and join in with our challenge.
I'm entering this into a couple of challenges
Craft Stamper take a stamp- anything goes, and 
We Love To Create anything creative/mixed media/inky goes, and
Try It On Tuesday - Hot and wild (colours or animals)
Hope you have a fab weekend, and thanks very much for looking xx

Twinchies In Wonderland

Happy Wednesday, and welcome to a new Stampotique challenge.
Janet Klein  is our hostess this week and she's got us thinking twins:

Twinchies are small works of art that measure 2 x 2".  Create a set of twinchies using your favorite Stampotique images (or if you don't own any yet, feel free to use any stamps that are not digital).

There's going to be lots of photographs but not so many words (phew)

 First of all I cut out my twinchies, then stamped and masked the characters.
The backgrounds have been coloured with distress markers and a squeezy thing.

All the colouring has been done with Prisma pencils.
As it's Janet's challenge it seemed only fair to use her stamps! 
We have Mad Hatter 

Chessy

Rabbit

Queen of Hearts

And of course, Alice herself.

Hope you join in 'cos this is a really fun challenge.

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.

Enjoy the rest of your week, and thanks very much for looking xx

Only 168 Days To Christmas.....

Haha, is that too much information. No I've not gone into Christmas mode, it's just that this weeks challenge at Stampotique is to use attachers, so I thought I would make a Christmas card that needed lots.

In a fit of madness I decided to make a stepper card, just my sort of thing, lots of measuring and a requirement for 'straight' Think I'll stick with reasonable square from now on lol.

This is my front panel, I've covered Oh Tree.. and covered it with gilding flakes. Daniels Tree Topper (small) has been stamped and coloured onto shrink plastic, along with Christmas Ornaments Cube.

There's also Front Door Shrubbery. This has been covered with snowy acetate 

Next came Chilly, he's been coloured with Prisma pencils.

and attached with eyelets.

More staples and eyelets

and jump rings.
So that's one card done!
Christmas is now well and truely out of my system 'till mid December :-)
Please join in with our challenge and dig out your brads and eyelets etc.
Enjoy your week, and thanks very much for looking x

Hi Honey I'm Back!

Well I've had a lovely holiday and I've come back to a heatwave - all that's missing is the sangria... and the sea.... and no work... BUT there is this weeks Stampotique challenge which is to use ribbon, so here's my tag.

 

I've had this sticky backed ribbon since dinosaurs roamed, so decided to do a bit of weaving. I thought I'd leave it a bit wonky 'cos straight is just boring :-) I've put some washi tape around the edge to try and neaten it up (a bit of a big ask, even for washi tape I know)

The flowers are Janet's Sunflower (large) and they've been stamped, embossed and coloured with DecoArt Americana 3D Gloss Enamels 

Grow Your Dreams has been stamped and covered with gilding flakes.

So dig out your ribbon box and join in with our challenge, you could be a lucky winner of a $30 gift certificate.

I'm also entering this into the Love To Create  mixed media challenge. 

Have a lovely weekend, and thanks very much for looking xx

Mind The Gap

Happy Wednesday and welcome to the new challenge at Country View Crafts which is On Your Travels. In February's Craft Stamper Helen Chilton made a wonderful canvas and I wanted to have a go. This is nowhere near as fab as Helen's, but I did enjoy trying. Helen took us to Paris, but I'm taking us to London.

I started with an A4 canvas board and stamped with Artist Outpost stamps in various colours of Stazon ink. This was then coloured with Distress Sprays in Mustard Seed and Peeled Paint.

I used Deco Art glass paints to colour the individual elements and cut out and attached.

There is also a napkin here, an old Tim Holtz stencil that I've gone through with my favourite Deco Art black gesso.
The compass is from the Special Touch Map Mask and I've gone through it with Cosmic Shimmer clear texture paste, then a bit of Treasure Silver to make it pop.

There's lots of other bits and bobs, a bit of Frantage, some washi tape and lots of sewing.
I hope you'll join in with our challenge and show us your travel themed projects.
Enjoy your week, and thanks very much for looking x

I'm linking this to the Artistic Outpost challenge, as all the stamps used are from their London sets, and also 
Art Journal Journey where the challenge is Post and Postage