Keep It In The Family

This week Arwen McCullen is our hostess and with the coming of Halloween she is challenging us to a spooktastic challenge...

"Scary Confusion"

Here is what Arwen says about this challenge:

"I love creepy things and I like weird, combine in your work a little scary and a little confused"

I hope you will join us this week for this scary confusion challenge,  each month two lucky random winners will get a 30.00 gift certificate to our online store

Wow, what a challenge! here's my confused Stampotique family

I stared by stamping and masking Night in my journal then painting over with purple and grey distress inks. The web from Arwen's Memo Page has been used to fill in the gaps.

Big Bee and Medium Bee have been stamped, coloured, and cut out, and Mr Stripes has been stamped onto acetate and cut out.

Now for the confusion - off with their heads!

Mr Stripes and Carrot 2 of the cutest guys you could wish to meet until you put them together...

The sentiment has been made with ABC'S, this is brilliant for stamping and then cutting out the individual letters.

So the rest of the family (in no particular order) are

Hare

Girl With Heart Purse

Smushallaum

Smumanha

Smile

Miss Snottie

Karin

Kitty

Bowtie

I hope you join in with our scary challenge this week, remember there are gift certificates to be won to buy you fab new rubber.

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

A Colour Challenge For Stampotique

This week the challenge at Stampotique has been chosen by Gez , and she wants us to go with blues and browns.
I'm afraid I lost my step by step pictures when my old computer went to the big internet in the sky, but here's the finished card.

The flowers are a mix of white and kraft card that have been inked and stencilled, and a lot of white embossing.

The tag has been stamped onto Kraft, and the sentiment embossed.
I've used
Carol's Flower (large)
Carol's Flower (small) and
A Friend's Touch

This was great fun to make, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed a colour challenge.
I hope you join in too, and thanks very much for looking x

Wot No Summer!

Well I'm back from my holidays another year older and a little bit cooler (only temperature wise I've not turned into the Fonz) and it seems like Autumn is well and truly upon us. IndigoBlu have also gone into Autumnal mode, and so I've made this for this months challenge.

 This is an 8x8 box canvas that's been painted with Starburst stains, then had texture paste and Kroma crackle applied through a stencil.

These were wet wipes used for applying acrylic paint on a previous piece, I thought they were too nice to throw away.

So I've stamped the leaves and sentiment from the Live, Laugh, Love set.

I've also stamped the text stamp over the texture paste.
I'm pleased with how this turned out, especially the wet wipe leaves.
Hope you like it, and thanks very much for looking x

The Birds And The Bees And The Cigarette Trees

Hello and happy Stampotique Wednesday. This time around Claudine has chosen the theme of Birds and Bees.

The eagle eyed among you may recognise the beeswax 'hive' from a piece I made a while ago. I'm a great believer in re-cycling and as the original was looking a bit tired I decided it was time for a re-vamp.

I don't know why I make dangly things 'cos they are impossible to photograph. I have about 20 photo's of this swaying in the wind and dodging the camera.

I've used Big Bee and Medium Bee on tissue paper and shrink plastic.

I must admit, when I think of Queenie, I always think of her lol.
Hope you like it, and thanks very much for looking x

At Last!

Hi, today I'm sharing my second project for the Country View Crafts  'add texture' challenge. A while ago I was lucky enough to attend a Dina Wakley class on acrylic paint. I learned many things that day one being the boy does she work quickly! I came home with lots of samples of various techniques, and I'm sorry to say that they have sat in a carrier bag ever since :-( Luckily I'd written on the back so I know how they were made. When I saw what Jennie had chosen as her challenge, I knew that it was time to use them, and this is what I made.

This is a journal page with the samples of the different techniques.
The day started by adding a layer of Ranger Gesso to some Watercolour paper. I'm not going to give anything else away, but do take the class if you get the chance.

We used lots of her Heavy Weight Acrylics - these really are beautiful paints - such depth of colour!

We also used Texture Paste and Dina's stencils and masks.

Dina's stamps with the paints.

and I learned how to do an image transfer with paint.

the lady herself kindly signed my book. I didn't take my copies of her books as I thought she would think I was so sort of weird stalker if I asked her to sign mine, but everyone else had taken theirs lol.

There's still loads of time for you to join in with our challenge and add some texture.

I'm also linking this to the We Love 2 Create anything mixed media challenge.

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

We're Off To See The Wizard

Hi, and welcome from sunny Tenerife. I may not be home, but it's still Wednesday so it must be time for a Stampotique challenge.
This week Coby is asking us to make a tag, or use a tag on our project. I love to make tags so I really enjoyed this one.

Time to gather supplies, DecoArt Multi Surface paints in (not so) subtle colours lol.

I wanted to try the bokah effect with paint rather than ink.

With DecoArt gesso over the top.

Looking a bit better now it's cut into tags.

Time for the Media paints now for the guys.

We have Cowardly Lion

Tin Man

and Scarecrow. The words are from France's Typewriter Alpha.
Thanks for the fab challenge Coby.
I hope you join in too and show us a tag in your artwork.
Hope you like mine, and thanks very much for looking x

Kilroy Was Here

I know I'm showing my age now, but we'll not talk about that lol. Welcome to October which means it's time for a new challenge at  Country View Crafts. This month it's Jennie's to to chose the theme, and she's gone with 'add texture'. I've chosen something that you either love or hate (I love it) its graffiti.

There's lots of different textures in this one.

I started with the Crafter's Companion Dry Stone Wall embossing folder, and rubbed over it with Metallic Lustre in Silver Spark and Lavish Green.

My next layer is an embossing folder again  this time it's Pebbles. I've used Core'dinations Whitewash paper and then sanded back. I've gone over the top with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Transparent Yellow Oxide.

Time for my graffiti wall which was painted and stencilled in the same yellow oxide and Quinacridone Gold. For today at least these are my favourite colours.

Time for fun now. Lots of layering and tearing and a general scruffying of edges.
My graffiti sprays are DecoArt Mixed Media Sprays in just about every colour that I own.
The stamping in the centre has been embossed too for extra texture.

Next layer is White Crackle Paste which has gone through the same stencil, and rubbed over with black metallic lustre when dry.

This also went through an Andy Skinner stencil. Just look how these Media misters layer together!

I finished off with my rasta rat in the corner and a Dylusions crow in the centre.
This was great fun to make, I really enjoyed it.
I hope that you will join in too and add some texture to your art.
I'm also entering this into the We Love 2 Create Mixed Media/anything goes challenge.
Hope you like it, and thanks very much for looking xx