A Trio of ATC's

Good morning and happy Friday. Today I'm over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground with my trio of Stampotique ATC's. 

I have a very happy seahorse playing in the seaweed.

Some acrobatic starfish...

And can you guess which one is me...

There are lots of Stampotique stamps here in the store, and more are on order. AND they now come wooden or cling mounted. This is a real game changer for us that are now totally dependant on our stamping platforms.

I'm entering these into the current Stampotique ATC challenge, and the Craft Stamper TIMI anything goes for May.

Enjoy your day whatever you are doing, and take care x

Now That's What I Call A Party!

Good morning and happy Friday. Today I'm sharing my second 'Tea Party' piece for this month's Country View Crafts challenge. Nothing says party quite like the Tim Holtz crazy gang.

This is my Dad's birthday card from the end of last month. As I'm typing this on a very cold Easter Monday I've not given it to him yet, so although it's in the past it's also in the future??? Who says time travel doesn't exist lol. We were all meant to be in Tenerife to celebrate his 80th but the best-laid plans eh! I'll tell you something, he's going to have one heck of an 81st!

So who remembers these? Yes, of course, I had to buy Tim's distress paints, but then I hardly used them. But, as I knew I was colouring my crazies with distress markers I wanted to use the same colours, so out they came!

Soo lots of paint, stencilling, and flicking later we have a background. If you look carefully you may spot the kitchen sink in there!

Then a little bit of mark-making in black acrylic to make the colours pop.

Wow, my photographic skills know no bounds do they... in my defence, I was busy at the time. I stamped the accessories on leftovers from my bit box.

Then I added the Stampotique happy birthday banner - and later on, I just about covered it up again lol.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my crazies, but I do lose the will to live die cutting them. So for the simple shapes, I just cut them out and saved the dies for the animals.

Everything has been coloured with Distress Markers, clear embossed and either glittered or Glossy Accented.

Here they are all together - they were definitely worth the effort!

I've used quilling strips on my balloons and die cut a little 80. I wanted to put it on the yellow balloon top right, but Neil said it looked better on the blue balloon and I don't often let him have his own way. To be honest it's usually "I don't know/care" so it was good that he had an opinion lol.

So I hope you like it, I hope my Dad likes/liked it, and I hope that next year we all have brilliant birthdays.

I'm entering my card into the Craft Stamper TIMI challenge for May, which, as always, is anything goes.

Thanks very much for looking and take care x

Shoot For The Moon

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Today I'm over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground with my Stampotique Canvas.

This is very much inspired by a Mixed-Up tutorial that featured Just A Girl And Her Imagination stamps, I loved the look of it, but didn't want to copy so I tried to go my own way.

 Just look at that, a blank canvas. Isn't it the scariest thing you've ever seen!

 So much finger painting later and I have a background.

 Next, I wanted some crackle clouds for my sky, so out with the crackle paste and my homemade stencils. 

 I also wanted a bit more texture on my canvas so I used a sponge and more paint.

 Next, I added some text stamping with one of my favourite Stampotique text stamps.

 I also added lots of texture pastes through stencils.

 I love how these clouds and stars look.

 I wanted to stamp onto silver, but I hate stamping onto Mirri card so I painted my own silver card.

 This was for Angelboy, another of my favourite stamps.

 In fact, I've used lots of my favourites here. The background is Journey Collage - this and Shoot For The Moon are two of my - you've guessed it, favourite sentiments.

So here we are, all done, and I have to say it, I really like this. There are oodles of Stampotique stamps here in Dot's store, and more are arriving soon.

I hope you like my canvas, and join in with our challenge over at Ink Art Designs.
I'm linking my canvas to this months TIMI anything goes challenge at Craft Stamper.

Take care, and thanks very much for looking x

#mayflowermarlene Week 1 Tags

Good morning and happy Tuesday. I hope everyone is keeping well. Last week I shared my first two tags for the Art By Marlene challenge, and I'm happy to say that I've kept going for a full week! (This is mega for me as I usually get bored/run out of time/both after 2/3 days) I've been posting them on Facebook every day, but I'm also going to put them here on my blog as this acts as my own record.

 Day 1 Flower Power

 Day 2 Feeling Groovy

Day 3 

Happy Florals 

 Day 4 Bright

 Day 5 Pastel

 Day 6 Mother's Day

Day 7 Potted Plant

I've used the ABM huge tags as my bases, and I also used lots of paints, texture pastes, stencils, collage papers, die cuts, dies, and of course stamps.

So only another 24 to go, see you next week - maybe.... xx

Well The Weather Outside is Flippin' Lovely Actually

Good morning and happy Saturday. I'm typing this on Friday afternoon, sat in the garden in full sunshine with a cold drink at the side of me, so life doesn't get much better (ok someone waving a magic wand and getting rid of Covid-19 would make it better). Unfortunately, the forecast for Sunday is a bit grim, with the chance of snow!! So in view of that, here are some Christmas cards!

The theme this week over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge is C&S, Clean and Simple, which should actually be Complicated and Stressful! 

These stamps may not be new, but they are still some of my favourite favourites!

I hope you have a happy and safe day whatever you are doing.

Take care xx

Happy #mayflowermarlene Month

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Marlene of Art By Marlene fame has a fun new challenge over on her Facebook page, called #mayflowermarlene. The theme is floral and there are new prompts every day for 31 days.  The first is Flower Power, and the second is Feeling Groovy. Here are my first 2 tags.

 It's part of the challenge to use the same substrate every day, so I'm using the Art By Marlene tags.

I've prepped ten of them in the hope that I'll carry on going till the end of the month. I'm not very good at seeing things through to the end, but here's hoping!
Take care, and thanks very much for looking, Sue x

We're Having A Party!

Good morning and happy Friday! Today sees the start of a brand new challenge over at Country View Crafts, and it's been chosen by the lovely Miriam. This month we are celebrating the Tea Party! I've gone with the birthday option for my first piece.

 I started by making an inky textured background with watercolour paints and Izink texture paste through an Art By Marlene stencil, then added some stamping with a favourite Stampotique text stamp.

Next came the bunting. You can't have a party without bunting! I do have a stamp but I wanted to add some fabric so the triangles have been die-cut and sewn. I painted them with matte medium first to give them some strength and so they would hold their curl.

 

The guests of honour are from an Art By Marlene set. They've been watercoloured and then clear embossed.

 

And all put together with my go-to Tim Holtz birthday sentiment. I really enjoyed making this - even the faffy bits lol. I had to do the right-hand rabbit 3 times, it's like I have a mental block when it comes to colouring him in - the first 2 went straight in the bin. Then I took them out, tore them up, and put them back in!

I hope you join in with our challenge - go on you know you want to, we all definitely need a virtual tea party at the moment!

Enjoy whatever it is you are doing, stay safe, and thanks so much for looking x