Let It Shine

 Good morning and a very happy Sunday. Today I'm over at the Lost Coast Portal To Creativity with my project for our Man Cave challenge.

 You may have noticed (or you may not lol) that I've been MIA for a little while. I've been having a wonderful 3 weeks away in Tenerife with my family. A lot of sun, a massive sand storm, far too much food - what's not to enjoy! I know that I've neglected blogs and social media, but family time is too important to miss - though I am looking forward to getting back in my craft room (brrrrrr) and catching up with you all!

I started by making my background on some La Blanche speciality card. I've had this in my stash for years and it takes the ink beautifully. I was aiming for grass and mountains, but I'm hopeless at the 'ripped paper and ink' thing. Definitely more practice needed!

I've made the grass with a fan brush, and added the flowers with the end of the brush.

I stamped the sentiment directly, but the card is so glossy that the stamp slipped, so I needed to cover it up (boo) which is why I stamped again and cut it out.

Then I added my waltzing cowboys!

These are my stamps, just two!

 Waltzing Cowboys and

Weird Light

I hope you like it, and that you joined in with our Man Cave challenge. If not, you've just got a couple of days left to get stamping!

Take care, have a great week, and thanks so much for looking x

Follow Your Dreams

 Good morning and a very happy Sunday. Today I'm back at Country View Crafts with my second project for our 'Year To Sparkle And Shine' challenge, and this time I've thrown just about everything at it!

I started by painting my canvas board black, then putting some texture paste through a Clarity stencil.

Next I stippled some Dina Wakley paint all over in dark colours.

Layer 3 of about 50 lol. I dropped pinches of Ayeda powders and Pixie Powders all over and sprayed with water. Then I stood back and watched the colour explode!

Much titivation and sparkle splodging later.... here we are! The stamps are by Just A Girl And Her Imagination (Tracy Easson) and I thought they fitted really well with my stary sky background.

Tracy Easson stamps can be found here in the store.

Dina Wakley stash is here.

And Pixie Powders here.

I hope you join in with us in our fun challenge and show us your sparkle!

Take care and have a very happy week x

Unleash The Flying Monkeys

 Good morning and a very happy Thursday. Today I'm back across at the Lost Coast Designs Portal To Creativity with my second project for our Let's Fly challenge.

Nothing says flying quite like monkeys does it!

I started by making my background with Distress Oxides. I wanted a gray murky look like the black and white part of the Wizard of Oz. I've used mixed media paper so I dipped and dripped to my hearts content.

I stamped my monkeys on and off the page. Then I stamped them again, cut them out, coloured them, and layered them up.

Then added some interest by stamping in metallic paint.

These are my stamps, I've just used the tip of the hat and the boots for my 'Wicked Witch of the East'

Gnome Witch On Broom

Stone House

Cracked Grass and Sky

Flying Monkey (Carmen's Veranda)

So there we have it, the flying monkeys have been unleashed!

I hope that you're enjoying our challenge, and that you join in.

Have a wonderful day whatever you are doing, and thanks so much for looking x

Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines

 Good morning again from me! Here's another new challenge to play along with, this time it's Lost Coast Designs, and the theme is Let's Fly. Here's my first project. 

As soon as I stamped my steampunk gentleman this song started running through my head (probably because I'm very old lol) so I knew that it had to be my sentiment.

I started by making my background with some mixed media card and distress oxide inks.

Then I stamped my flying machines for placement. I wanted to just stamp the buildings but I wasn't happy where I'd stamped them. They were a little bit too low for my liking, but that can be fixed later.

I stamped my flying machines again and embossed them with bronze embossing powder. I also stamped my 'Magnificent Man' and coloured and cut him out. 

I typed up my sentiment and added it. I'm still not happy with the placement of those rooftops lol.

So I inked up another piece of card and re-stamped them. You know what this means - yep - fussy cutting - shoot me now!

Oh but I'm so much happier with it now! It's mad isn't it, it's just an album page, just for me, no one is ever going to see it (apart from you guys) but I had to put it right! I've also inked around the spires to add a bit of 'old London smog'

These are the stamps that I've used.

Steampunk Dirigible

Flying Car

Cityscape

I hope that you join in with our fun challenge! There's only 1 rule, the focus has to be on real stamping - no digis allowed!

So once again I wish you all a very Happy New Year, and thanks so much for looking xx

Happy New Year

Good morning, happy Saturday, and a very Happy New Year. I hope you've had a wonderful Christmas and New Years Eve, and that you've got over your turkey and chocolate coma.

Of course, a new year calls for a new challenge at Country View Crafts, and this month's,  chosen by the lovely Jo, is Your Year To Sparkle And Shine. For my first project, I've made a journal page.

There's nothing fancy here, just lots of glitter card, mirri card, and a fair bit of die cutting. I've had this glitter card FOREVER. It comes out every Christmas as you can never have enough bling at Christmas.

I really like this Tim Holtz die, and should definitely use it more often.

 Susan has a great range of Tim's dies here in the store.

So please join in with our challenge and show us lots of sparkle and shine.

Take care, and have a very happy 2022 x