Listen To Your Inner Voice

 Good morning and a very happy Friday, welcome to the weekend! Today I'm over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground with a page in my rag book. This is quite unusual for me as the pages don't come out, so I have to work directly into the book. I just had to put my big girl pants on and go for it!

I started with my favourite Dina paints and stencilled a very quick background. This is a lovely cotton rag book, full of texture.

Next came the scary bit! I know that you don't have to use all of a stencil, but I liked all of the words so...  I very carefully stencilled with black gesso, then walked away for it to dry completely 'cos I knew I would need to fill in the letters and I've ruined many a good pen by trying to ink over wet paint (and it was tea time so it seemed a good time to walk away) I did hope that the craft room tidying fairies would visit overnight, but they never turned up.

Much as I love this book, there's no way you can get a clear stamped image in it, so I decided to use tags. I  stamped roughly on copy paper to see where they needed to be, then stuck them together and gessoed over in white.

 I positioned the stamp right in the corner of my platform so that I could find the same place when I'd coloured her. Then I just stamped the lovely lady onto the tags, coloured her in, then re-stamped to add all the detail back.  I added a few blue stars  to tie in with the background

Then to finish, I used the same paints to make some hole reinforcers for the tags. I do believe you can buy a punch that does this, but this way I can make any size that I like.

This is the lovely stamp set that I used, and can be found here in Dot's store, along with lots of other Dina goodies which can be found here.

I hope that you like my page and that you join in with our challenge. You still have the whole weekend to make something featuring a stamp from the heaps of ranges that Dot stocks.

Have a very happy weekend, and thanks so much for looking x

Starry Starry Night

 Good morning and a very happy Monday. Today I'm over on the Lost Coast Portal To Creativity with my second piece for our Things With Wings challenge, and I've made a journal page.

I knew that I wanted to use Steampunk Icarus as my main image, and in a Starry Night homage.

I started by stamping and embossing the circles from Leonardo Accessories in yellow, but they turned out to be a sort of burnt orange. The Cracked Grass and Sky was embossed in white. My journal is textured watercolour so it can take loads of water, which is my next stage.

Then dipped and dried (many many times) in the blue distress inks. They resisted the ink beautifully, but I wasn't a fan of the colour of the circles so I stamped them again, cut them out and added them to my background.

I added some yellow Portfolio pastels, and

was much happier with this, so now on to the main images! 

I collaged some book pages and gave it a coat of gesso then I stamped my row of houses onto it using the stamping platform.

And it was an epic fail! The texture was too uneven for all of the stamp to hit it. That made perfect sense after I'd spent an hour of my life that I would never get back doing it!

So, on to plan B! Stamped onto my super smooth card and coloured with Distress Inks. Then my favourite - fussy cutting - shoot me now lol.

This is my leading man - Steampunk Icarus who today has flown too close to the moon! The moon is actually the centre part of the Goth Shrine.

I typed up the sentiment on my computer and added to the page.

These are the stamps that I've used. They are all by Lost Coast, and can be found here.

Cityscape

Goth Shrine (moon)

Steampunk Icarus

Leonardo Accessories

Cracked Grass and Sky

And there we are, all done! It's not quite as it was in my head, but then again I'm no Leonardo! I hope you join in with our challenge, just feature something with wings! Have a great day, and thanks so much for looking x

Things With Wings For Lost Coast Designs

 Good morning and a very happy Monday. It's time for another challenge today over at Lost Coast Designs and this time it's Things With Wings. I've made a page for my giant tag book, something that I've not done in ages!

I started by inking up some mixed media paper in Distress Oxides.

Then I just stamped and embossed in black embossing powder.

This one is using Art Doll and Hope.

This is Silhouette Angel and Goddess.

And this one is Lynnea and Eternity. The sentiments are all on one 6 inch stamp but I've chopped it up to make them easier to use.

These are the stamps, all from Lost Coast Designs, and can be found here.

Silhouette Angel

Art Doll

Lynnea

Mystery, Eternity, Hope, Goddess

I hope you like my page and that you join in with our challenge. There a chance to win some Lost Coast dollars, but you have to be in it to win it! 

Have a great week, and thanks so much for looking x

Keep A Green Bough

 Good morning and a very happy Tuesday. Today I'm sharing my second piece for the Country View Crafts "First Signs of Spring" challenge, and this time it's a journal page.

I started by putting some very pale PaperArtsy Fresco paints down just to make a start 'cos this was the first (and very white) page in the journal. Then I put some Aladine texture paste through various stencils in pink, yellow, and green as I thought these were good Spring colours. The silver paint was added through my new 12x12 Stamperia stencil. There are so many different patterns on this one stencil, I love it!

Then I used black gesso to stencil the Dina Wakley birds. The musical notes is another part of the Stamperia stencil. I have to say you NEED this stencil! I'm always a bit scared of the black gesso, it's either amazing at the end or a total disaster. Today, I'm very happy!

Next, I added some die cuts from a very old Spellbinders die just to define the musical notes, and it's all done. The text is from a Dina Wakley set and it's one of my favourite sayings

I also added a bit of stamping with a Dina script stamp 'cos as you know, too much white scares me lol.

Nope, I'm not cleaning my stamps or stencils, and you can't make me! The ink conditions the stamps, and it's just paint on the stencil - I did clean off the texture paste though so it wouldn't clog the smaller holes.

The Stamperia stencils can be found here

The PaperArtsy Fresco Paint here

Izink/Aladine Paints here and

Dina Wakley goodies here

I really am hoping for a nice early Spring now, or we could just cut to Summer - I've certainly had enough of Winter!

I hope you have a lovely day whatever you are doing, and thanks so much for looking x

Red And Gold For Lost Coast Designs

 Good morning and a very happy Saturday. Today I'm over on the Lost Coast Portal To Creativity with my red and gold project.

If you would like to see how this came together there are lots more photographs over there.

I've used

Ledger Background

Misc Words, and

Birds Collage Background

Have a very happy day, and thanks so much for looking x

My Lovely Kitty Cat

 Hello, it's me again, and this time I'm sharing my project over on the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground.

You may remember that before Christmas I started to work in my Art By Marlene accordion journal, and I've done another couple of pages in there.

I'm working on another double-page, on the background that I'd made last time. I started by working out where everything was going to go, and then I added the circles in the background. Then I added my sentiments.

I was using my stamping platform, and for some reason, it wobbled on the second stamping. Mmm, not good!

So I stamped it again on some patterned paper - aaargh, not good either!

So I stamped them yet again on some plain white card - much better!

Next, it was just a case of stamping, colouring, and adding my main images, along with a bit of white pen.

And this is what the pages look like all together.

These are the stamps that I used, and both sets can be found here in Dot's store.

I hope you like my pages, enjoy your day whatever you are doing, and have a very happy February x

Back To The Noughties For The First Signs Of Spring

 Good morning and a very happy Monday, I hope you had a great weekend! It's the start of a new week, month, and challenge at Country View Crafts, and this time Miriam has chosen the theme of the First Signs Of Spring.

The first thing that I had to do was go back in time about 20 years to find these pretty Spring-like papers that I knew I had 'somewhere safe'.  Then, I had to quickly You Tube 'how to make an easel card'  'cos that's been a while too! But once safely back in the correct space-time continuum the card came together very quickly.

I do like these happy bunnies, they remind me of Bridget Jones from the original film. I'm sure Tim Holtz must have been watching it when he designed the dies! I watch this film at least once a month just to see Colin Firth, but enough of that....

So, I hope that you join in with our challenge for the chance to win a £20.00 voucher to spend in the store. Take care, and thanks so much for looking x