The House of Black and White

I'm sad to say that this is my last post as a member of the Stampotique Design team. So a huge thank you to Carol and Jim for giving me the opportunity to use their amazing stamps. This was my first design team and I have loved every minute of being here.
The challenge this week is Black and White.

No prizes for guessing where the inspiration came from. Go team Arya!

I've used Miss Snottie

and Night.

I'm still on my holiday so I will catch up with you all when I get back.
Have a fun week, and thanks very much for looking x

Everything Has Beauty

Hello and good morning from Sunny Spain. Yep it's holiday time again, and it's also time for another Stampotique challenge. This time around Jackie has chosen 'butterflies and flowers, and all things garden' Perfect for Summer! This is what I made.

This was totally inspired by Kazza's fab tutorial, and has been made with Distress paints, inks, and crayons.

This is Carol's Flower (small)

Large Butterfly

and Beauty Verse.

I hope the weather is being kind to you wherever you are.
Have a great week, and thanks very much for looking xx

Man Up

Hi, and happy Wednesday. It's time for another Stampotique challenge, and this time Carol wants us to 'Man Up'. So this week anything with a male image goes. Here's my tag.

Only one stamp used this week, the very handsome Bowtie.
So ink up those manly men and join in with our challenge.
Have a fab week, and thanks very much for looking x

On The Street Where You Live

For the last couple of weeks PaperArtsy have had a challenge of  Our House. I really liked the sound of this, so this is what I came up with.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I started by brayering a couple of backgrounds with Fresco Paints.

I have lots of house stamps, so I stamped them out and did a bit of rough highlighting with a white pen. 
I cut all these out and then came the 'what now' moment.

So I painted a box frame with Bubble Gum and Coral and set about stamping.
This is Jofy 15 and the fab circles are Kim Dellow's (EKD01)

and Neville went on the other side (EDY09).

More dots on the top painted with Frescos's. 

The painted houses have been layered up inside. The flower on the outside is Jofy 42, and on the inside there is Darcy's EDY08, one of my very favourite stamps (along with Nev)

To say that I had nothing in mind other than I knew I wanted to make something, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I'm also entering this into the MMM challenge as the colours on my piece remind me of their Summer days challenge.

Enjoy the football (yawn) and thanks very much for looking x

Waiting For Mr Right

This month Lost Coast Designs have a new challenge and it's to use something see through. I must admit I do have a fondness of acetate, so this is what I made.

I started by stamping Waiting For Mr Right and the domino border onto a piece of acetate, (obviously not straight, that would be toooo boring) then painting over the back with acrylic paints.
Pretty uh - not.
Then it was just matted and layered onto my base card, and job done. 
This was a great challenge, I really enjoyed it, I think I shall keep the acetate out for a while.
Thanks very much for looking and have a great weekend - it's back to back sport here so no-one will notice if I'm missing for a while so it's back into the craft room for me!

I Can Feel My Heart

The fabulous Kassa has been doing some amazing tutorials. I love her use of colour and texture, so I've had a go too. This has been made with Dina Wakley heavy acrylics. They have been sadly neglected for a while so it was great to get them out again and re-discover the lurve. I've used a mix of stamps from Sheena Douglass for the skull and happy couple, and Stampotique for the flowers.

Rubber Dance Stamps have a colour challenge of purple, turquoise, and magenta so these are the colours that I've used.

Lost Coast Designs are also having a skull appreciation day - we should all appreciate our skulls more! I remember in my jujitsu days mine took quite a battering at times (when I didn't duck quickly enough lol). I also have a medical condition that means I have to use googly eyes whenever possible, even/especially when I shouldn't. I think they look quite sweet as flower centres :-)

I've just discovered Dream In Darkness which celebrates the odd and creepy (back to the eyeballs in the flowers) My wedding couple have been stamped and coloured on shrink plastic.

I've been making clay skulls too to show how much I appreciate them.
This was such fun to make, so thanks again Kazza for the inspiration.
Have a great week, and thanks very much for looking x

The Usual Suspects

Good morning, it's time for my second Country View Crafts piece for the crackle challenge. So here we have the Usual Suspects.

All the paints and mediums are from the DecoArt Media range. 

The background was painted in Cobalt Turquoise the I rubbed my Cherry Chapstick (cue Katy Perry) through a brick wall stencil, and painted over in Yellow Oxide.

Once dry I rubbed away the paint, then used an Andy Skinner stencil for the words and lines.

Time for the crackle now. I used Crackle Glaze painted quite thinly to give small crackles.

 More crackle with some Patina Green Antiquing Cream rubbed through.

I really like these small crackles.

So characters in place and finished off with some washi tape. All ready to go and see the new Alice Through The Looking Glass film.

There's loads of time for you to join in with our challenge, so crack on with your crackle!  Have a great week, and thanks very much for looking x

All Creatures Great and Small

Good morning and happy Wednesday. The Stampotique challenge this week is All Creatures Great and Small. I thought that I would go with all undersea creatures, so this is what I made.

This is a photo frame that's been in my stash since time began, so it's time it came out to play.

The frame was gessoe'd and painted in Dyna paints. Then there was lots of stencilling.

Seaweed was stamped and painted then sequins randomly added. Thank you Sam for my new sequin addiction lol.

The background was stamped with Daniel's Hearts and Rudy and Reggie have been painted and coloured with pencils. I put in some acetate so that I could add some sequin insides.

This was how it looked at this stage. I thought that the ammonites weren't showing up too well, so I added some black ink around the edges.

I wasn't sure which I prefered, but it was too late to change now lol.

So I had a wipe around with a baby wipe, then splattered a bit of white paint, and I'm much happier now.

I'm also entering this into the That's Crafty sea challenge.

I hope you have a fun week, and thanks very much for looking x

Boo

I know this is late, but someone seems to have stolen the whole of June, and when I find out who did it I shall deal with them accordingly... 
The Stampotique challenge has been chosen by Coby this week. Here's what she has to say.

"Say Boo to little children and they will laugh.... use the word Boo in your projects this week to let us laugh."

I don't know about laugh, I think this bird would give me a nasty fright!

I've used

Cracks
Playing Card Front
Card Corners Cube
You Did What   and
Alphabet Upper

Have a fun week, and thanks very much for looking xx

Clock of the Heart

Good morning and happy Friday. It's the 3rd day of June and I've still not seen the sun, I feel like Eeyore with my own black cloud lol. The wonderful Andy Skinner is running a Time challenge on his blog, so this is what I made.

There are a ridiculous number of photographs so I'll keep the words down. All paints and mediums are from the DecoArt range (need to order more Quin Gold now) and all the stamps are by Andy Skinner.

I started with a MDF pocket watch and gessoed. Then added the bits and bobs. The circle portions are the Tando punch outs that are left over from last years Mixology.

Next I added Texture Sand around the edges and in random splodges. It was all painted with the semi transparent blues and greens, with Paynes Gray and Quin gold for the rust.

Cut out lots and lots of cogs and 'rusted' them too. Stamped with the Andy rust stamp, then dry embossed and added Metallic Lustre.

More Tando innards that have been stamped and embossed with Andy's clock. I must admit the embossing didn't last, I sanded it back to get rid of the shine.

Lots of dry brushing, then went over it all with a Prussian blue wash to blend it all together, and used some Silver Spark (my new favourite) Metallic Lustre to the numbers.

Yay time to build now! I used an old CD for the base, and stamped the Andy clock in Stazon. I must have had this ink pad for 10 years now. Rusted and dry embossed a few more cogs.

The heart has been painted in a mixture of Pyrrole Red, Primary Magenta, and Paynes Gray, then it's been dry embossed and rubbed over with Burnished Brass lustre. A bit of rusty wire (and lots of hot glue) is holding it all together.

A few words from Culture Club (yes I'm that old) on my mop up tag that's been stencilled with black gesso and Andy's stencil. This song had been going through my head as I was making it all so it needed to make an appearance.

There we go, all done! I must admit I do like it, so it's not got thrown in the box in the corner - yet!

I'm also entering this into the MMM 2nd anniversary challenge and have chosed 'dimention' as the theme.
Have a great weekend, I hope the sun shines, and thanks very much for looking x