Unlikely Friends

Good morning and happy Friday. To celebrate St Valentine's Day I'm over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground with my Unlikely Friends.

I've taken the plunge and opened my new Art My Marlene journal. This has 300gsm pages inside so it's fabulous for throwing the kitchen sink at.

I've coloured both my background and images with Brusho's. Dot has now started to stock these too.

I seem to have lost my photograph of just the background, but it was like this but without the stamping and stencilling ;-)

These are the stencils that I've used, again they're by Art By Marlene.

I LOVE these stamps! These are the unlikely friends.

Here they are coloured with Brusho's on heavy watercolour card.

And here they are all in place. I took a photo at this stage just in case I messed up the next bit - the splatter!

I've tried many ways of splattering, but the one I've had most success with is with a fan brush. Luckily it all turned out OK, so I've just added a few sequins and we're all done.

I love how they look together!

I've given them some Glossy Accents to make their eyes shine.

You can find the wonderful Art By Marlene Stamps here 

and the Brusho's here 

I'm also linking this to the Craft Stamper Anything Goes TIMI challenge for February, and the

Stamping Sensations Feminine challenge.

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

I'm Adorable...

Good afternoon and happy Monday. After a very lovely Summer, we're definitely into Autumn now, and with this in mind I've made a tag for this month's Rubber Dance colour/theme challenge.

 I started by making a gelli print with DecoArt Premium acrylics in the challenge colours of red, orange, and violet. I hadn't cut into the I Love Leaves plate, so I stamped it directly onto the painted gelli plate to remove some of the paint. I LOVE this print!.

 Next I brayered another sheet of A4 with the same colours, and stamped the full sheet again. I embossed 1half in black, and the other in white.

 I cut a huge tag out of the gelli print background, and added some further stamping, with Round In Circles, Grungy Swirls, and Vintage Script.

I'm so happy with it at this stage it seemed a shame to cover it up, but you can't keep a good cat down so...

I stamped Curious Cat onto an old scrap of card as the colours seemed just right for my project.

So after a little bit of cutting out, there we are. The sentiment is from Friends Fur-ever, and I thought it was just right.

I'm also entering my very curious cat into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Tag It, and the Craft Stamper TIMI anything goes for October challenge. 

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

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Autumn

Good morning and happy Wednesday. It's a lovely day here today, but I can't kid myself that Summer is still here, it's definitely Autumnal now, so out have come my Autumn colours.

The owl's are a Rubber Dance set, Owl Do Good and I've coloured them with PaperArtsy Infusions and Satin Glaze. I don't know why I associate owls with Autumn, I'm sure they're an all year round bird lol.

Don't forget we have a new Facebook group at Rubber Dance where you can enter our challenges and show all your Rubber Dance makes. Just click on the link if you're not already a member https://www.facebook.com/groups/311557542913461/    

I'm entering them into Dot's challenge at Ink Art Designs, the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies, and September's TIMI challenge at Craft Stamper.

  Have a very happy day, and thanks for looking xx

Live Your Dreams

Good afternoon and happy Saturday. I've been having a play with some of my new Studio Light and Dylusion stamps and a huge MDF tag that I've had for ages, and this is what I've made.

I've used DecoArt Americana Premium Acrylics and blended them on my tag. My lovely lady has been coloured with pencils, then I've gone a little mad with my white pen and sequins.

I'm entering her into the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge which is All Things Bright and Beautiful,  the Craft Stamper TIMI June challenge, and also the Happy Little Stampers  mixed media challenge.

Have a lovely weekend, and thanks very much for looking x

Fill Your Heart

Good Morning and happy Monday. Over on the Paperbabe blog there is a new fun challenge 'dots'. I've just got a new stamp set from there (now that the January spending ban is over) so I wanted to give it a try.

 I started with a piece of a brayer clean up sheet cut to slightly smaller than 4x6.

 Then I added my dots - lots and lots of them. There's washi tape, and also background stamps from the Paperbabe Whimsical Woodland set.

 Then I stamped my sweet foxes. It's a two part stamp so you can have any colour you like. The sentiment is from the same set.

I think they look really sweet altogether. The eagle eyed amongst you may notice the shiny silver heart - in the words of 10cc 'it hides a nasty stain that's lying there' Note to self, never try to remove a tiny mark that doesn't even show - it turns into a HUGE mark that does! I've matted it up onto a piece of black card so now it's 6x4 and one for my postcard album!

There seems to be lots of hearts around at the moment - it must be the time of year;-) so I'm also entering this into the Happy Little Stampers  Anything Goes With Dies challenge, and Craft Stampers TIMI challenge for February.

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

What Dreams May Come

I've been having a bit of a play over the last few days with some new Deco Art chalk paints, Andy Skinner stencils, Seth Apter dies, and lots of stamps.

I started by putting some DecoArt modeling paste through lots of stencils onto an A3 canvas. I'd put a couple of layers of paint on this previously, then chickened out because the size of it scared me.

I've just got some DecoArt Americana chalk paints, so I manned up, chose a few colours and started scraping!

A couple more colours and a bit of white pen and I was happy with the background. To be honest I could have just played at this bit forever.

I used the same colours to paint a couple of mixed media sheets, and stamped them with the Seth Apter PaperArtsy stamps. These were for the die cuts.

Here are the PA stamps again.

And some from Stampendous.

Some die cutting....

This one's my favourite.

 The quote is the title of a Robin Williams film from a few years ago. It was very dark and I didn't particulary like it, but it's stayed with me all this time, so perhaps that's the sign of a really good film.

I'm entering this into the 'anything weird or creepy' challenge at Dream in Darkness,  the TIMI Anything Goes challenge at  Craft Stamper, and the Put A Stencil On It challenge over at Mixed Media Monthly 
Thanks very much for looking, and have a great week x 

Autumn Paint

Hello and happy Monday. Here is another of my 'out of the garage' creations. The plasterer comes tomorrow so that's another stage closer to me moving back into my craft room. I can't wait as it's getting a bit chilly in that there garage (and I keep falling over the washing powder) lol.
Autumn is well and truly here now, and this is what I've made today.

The background has been made with Dina Wakley masks and Brusho's. The stamps are by Rubber Dance and I think they are wonderful. They just stamp so crisply. 

Rubber Dance's colour challenge for October are these lovely Autumnal colours, and Craft Stamper  has an Autumn challenge too.
I'm also entering this in the That's Crafty  clean and simple challenge - still the hardest challenges in the world!
Have a very happy week, and thanks very much for looking x

Into The Woods

Good afternoon and welcome to Super Saturday. As you see the Olympics rule in our house, so no one notices when I'm not there :-) 

I made this for the Tando facebook challenge.

These are the colour for the challenge. Very pretty, but not perhaps my go to colours. But I really did enjoy working with them.
I put the Distress Inks down first, then did the white circles through a home-made stencil with white embossing ink. There is a name for this technique, but for the life of me I can't think of it.

The stamps used are both by Stampendous, they are Chilling, and the text on the frame is from Raven Background.

I really enjoyed this, and for once it came together pretty much as I had it in my head, so that's a result!

I'm also entering this into the Dream In Darkness and Craft Stamper TIMI challenge. I hope that a home made stencil counts :-)
Have a fab weekend, sneak off and play, no one will notice xx

Be Unique

Well I'm really enjoying my week off work (apart from going to the gym at stupid o'clock). Today I've been catching up with the PaperArtsy blog, and this week they are asking us to use resist techniques, so here's what I came up with.

There's also been some recycling going on here too. This was a project from a couple of years ago - it's been thrown into a box and generally forgotten since then.

So I painted over with gesso and white chalk paint.

Then I added blue, yellow, and pink Fresco's, and stamped and embossed images from Darcy, Lin Brown and JoFY. Then I painted over again with black gesso.

Once dry I wiped off the gesso, and luckily there was something left underneath. I added some Portfolio pastel on the bare bits, and some words.

I also added a tiny bit of silver Treasure Gold to bring out the old texture.

I'm also entering this into this months Craft Stamper MITI challenge Spring Flowers, That's Crafty All Things Bright and Beautiful, and Love to Create Anything Goes.
Thanks very much for looking x

Live, Laugh, Love

Hi, it's been a day of sport on the TV today, so I took the opportunity to slope off, and have a play in my craft room.

The background has been sprayed, stamped, and stencilled in pink, yellow and green.
The flowers in the corner have been stencilled with Portfolio pastels. I love the way this goes into peaks when you use it thickly.

All the stamps are by Indigo Blu, I've used the crackle stamp from the Alice in Wonderland plate in the corners.

I inked another piece of card to stamp the flowers and leaves.

Words added to the corner, and all done.
I'm linking this to a few challenges 
Indigo Blu, yellow, pink, and green,
Craft Stamper TIMI Spring Flowers,
That's Crafty All things bright and beautiful,
and 
The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - dimension

This was fun and I now have a card made for when I need one rather than having to make one the day before :-)
Thanks very much for looking and have a good week x