Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

Good morning and happy Saturday, welcome to the weekend! This is my first post using the new Blogger so please bear with me. I've literally just spent 15 minutes trying to create a post. I've ended up sending feedback saying I couldn't create a post, clicked send, and then spotted the huge + sign that I'd somehow managed to overlook. Doh!

So, the first of the month always means a new challenge at Country View Crafts, and this month Craftyfield has chosen Beside The Seaside. I'm really looking forward to some seaside time, and here's my first project.

I thought I had loads of 'seaside' type stamps, but it turns out that a lot of them are more 'under the sea' so I chose a few of my favourite PaperArtsy sets.

I started by making a watery background with Distress Oxides and added some stencilling.

Then I added some stamping also with Oxides and smooshed them to blur into the background.

By the time I'd finished stamping, I realised that it was all background and no main image.

So I cut myself a 6x4 aperture so that I could choose where to cut a couple of postcards.

As my original background was 8x8 I didn't have a lot of choices, but it is a good way of focusing on an image.

So I now have two postcards and I'm much happier with them.

So please join in with our challenge, and remember to stick to the Beside The Sea theme, no goldfish or unicorns allowed (I know because I tried 😂)

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

You Can Leave Your Hat On

Good morning and happy Saturday - welcome to the weekend! Today is the start of a new challenge over at Country View Crafts, and this time the lovely Teresa has chosen Splatters, Splashes and Drips. Here is my very splattery card.

I made this for my son's partner's father - luckily he has a sense of humour!

I started by making some watercolour paint with Brusho's in red, yellow, and blue.

 Then I used my fan brush to make spatters.

 As this was Brusho I knew I could add lots more water - the page just burst into life at this stage.

 I don't know who put these stamps away in this condition. Obviously I clean them everytime I use them....

 I used the same inks on the stamps to make my spatters.

 Then I added the sentiment from the Bee Crafty set. In the end I decided that it didn't stand out enough and I re-stamped it onto a banner cut with a Tim Holtz strip die that I'd had forever and never used. Once again if you keep something long enough....

I love this skeleton stamp set, but thought he would look better on a body, so I used my favourite Zinsky fisherman from Paper Artsy. 

Ah you can't beat a good head swap every now and then!

I hope you join in with our challenge and get splatting! There's a £20 voucher up for grabs for 1 lucky winner.

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

Be Careful What You Wish For

Good morning and happy Wednesday. I'm really happy to be sharing my second inspiration piece for the Country View Crafts 'blues and greens' challenge with you.

 A little while ago Marlene of  'Art by Marlene' fame ran a 'MerMay' event, and one of the prompts was to make yourself into a mermaid. I did this, complete with coffee cup and spare glasses, and my son thought it was hilarious (in a good way) and jokingly said that that was what he wanted on his birthday card. Well...

Why just put myself on when I can put us both on!

The background has been made with Distress Inks in blues and greens then I've cut holes to make the shaker portholes and used the nuts and bolts from the Tim Holtz Stempunk Parts bigz die. It really bugs me that I've only put 4 on each, but by the time I'd realised that something was wrong it was all stuck down, and I knew that I would only make it worse trying to fix it.

This is me as a mermaid using an

 Art by Marlene stamp, and a glasses die from a Timmy 'Crazy' set. I don't know what he finds so funny!

And here's my handsome boy decked out in his PaperArtsy Zinski gear. When he saw the card he genuinly didn't recognise himself which is why I'm allowed to blog this lol. The sentiment is from a Rubber Dance set.

And this is the picture that set this all off!

This is such a fun challenge, so I hope that you join in.

Have a wonderful week, and thanks very much for looking x

It's Alright, It's Ok...

Good morning and happy Monday! It's time for me to share my second 'In the Summer Garden' piece with you for this months Country View Crafts challenge.

I started by finger painting with my favourite Fresco Paints. I used Tracy Scott's second set and also Dolly Mix. This is my new favourite way to paint, and I learned it taking one of Tracy's classes.

Then I stamped all over with Tracy's PaperArtsy's flower stamps.  Just need to fussy cut them - shoot me now!

Two episodes of New Tricks later and they are all done! I've layered them up on some foam pads.

I've stamped my most favouritist (this really is a word - I checked!) 'happy birthday' stamp from JOFY14 then arranged my flowers. I need to make a box now to send it in (or I could just hand it over - sticking out of an envelope) - only joking, though that could work...

I really enjoyed making this apart from the cutting out, but 'It's allright, it's OK, doesn't really matter if you're old and gray'.... It's really hard for me to cut out and watch the TV at the same time 'cos I need to wear my reading glasses to see the scissors, or my fingers, so I look like a demented meerkat bobbing up and down looking over my glasses... just a small insight into my exciting world of bad eyesight and even worse telly!

Anyway, I hope you like my card, and that you join in with our fun challenge and the chance to win £20 to spend in the store. Have a wonderful day, and thanks very much for looking

Always Check!

Good morning and happy Monday.  I'm loving the latest fun challenge at Country View Crafts which is Be Humerous. Here's my card.

 I started with a brayer clean up sheet from a previous project. I really like the colours that had been created with the  PaperArtsy Fresco paints.

 This stamp sheet is such fun! I stamped these guys from Zinski Set 16 for placement.

 Then I stamped them again and coloured with Inktense watercolour pencils.

 They are really quite easy to cut out, which made me very happy as I'm not the worlds best at cutting out! 

 They're a handsome bunch aren't they!

I love this sentiment, it's from Carmen's Veranda and I know quite a few people that would appreciate it (you know who you are)

And there we are, all done! I had some scraps of card left over from the same project that the mop up card came from, so I made some banners. I know you can't keep everything, but I'm glad that I do lol.

There's loads of time for you to join in with our challenge, so put away the serious. and show us your funny side!

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

Pimp It Up for Country View Crafts

Good morning and happy Friday 13th!  I'm very happy to be sharing my second project for the Country View Crafts 'Pimp It Up' challenge. You can never have enough storage, so this is what I've been 'pimping'

It's an A4 kraft ring binder that's been kicking around (and falling off) the top of my unit for about a year now!

 There aren't many step by step photos I'm afraid 'cos I just started at the beginning, and stopped when it looked like it was done - not like me I know!

I started with a layer of gesso, and then just lots of Paper Artsy stamp sets. I've done all of the stamping in Ranger Archival as I wanted the ink to dry without having to heat set it.

This was great fun to make, I thought it would be a bit overwhelming, but I just stuck to lots of repeat stamping and limited colours, and I'm really happy with it.

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

Counting Humans

Good morning and happy Saturday. I'm a very happy bunny 'cos we're jetting off in search of sunshine today (though the weather forecast isn't promising much). We're leaving the kids home alone - hopefully now they're in their 20's they wont fight as much as they used to when left unattended for more than 5 seconds. I have given them lessons in how to transfer washing from their bedroom floors to the washing machine, but I don't hold out much hope!

Here is my second postcard for this months Country View Crafts challenge.

Once again I've used stamps from the fab new recent release from PaperArtsy

 I started by cutting my card to slightly less than 6x4 so that I could layer it up at the end. I've used both opaque and transparent Fresco paints and a gel plate. 

 Many layers later (but still some more to do) with lots of stamping and stencilling - I don't know where they all ended up on the finished piece!

Don't you just love these Zinski sheep! They just make me smile. All of the stamps have come from the same plate, and they've been coloured with the same watered down fresco's. Note to self, don't put a blob on your craft mat, you only use a drop from the lid, but I do it every. single. time!

I though I'd got over my phobia about buttons without thread and just stuck it down, but I couldn't live with it and had to poke holes through both layers so I could stitch it down. It's the quirky(weird) stuff that keeps us interesting isn't it - or so I keep telling Neil when he give me 'that' look.
I'm also joining  in with the  Paperbabe Anything Goes challenge 

I hope you join in with our postcard challenge, it's fun so go on, you know you want to. Have a lovely March, and I'll catch up with you when I get back (after the washing!) xx

A Pretty Curious Creature

Good morning and happy Thursday - welcome to March! It's my turn to choose the theme for the new Country View Crafts challenge, and I've gone for a really easy one -  Postcards. So anything you like, the only rule is that it has to measure 6 x 4 (inches). Here's mine.

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Stitches trade show in Birmingham, and while I was there PaperArtsy were running some training courses which I was REALLY happy to attend. One was with the lovely Raquel of Scrapcosy fame and she taught this class. 

What I MUST point out is that both Raquel and Leandra (Mrs PaperArtsy) are both happy for me to share these techniques. I always feel a bit iffy blogging about something I've learned on a course, but that is what these were for. So anything good is all Raquel, anything that's a bit wonky I'm claiming as my own ;-)

 First of all we made a background with 2 colours of Distress Oxides on a craft mat. At home I used 3 on a piece of card slightly smaller that 6x4. The colour was just smeared onto the mat and spritzed.

 Next came the exciting part. Do you remember when we all rushed out and bought Micro Glaze - well now we got the chance to use it. I must admit that mine is the original Judikins wax, I must have had it 10 years and it's still as good as new (and still in my top drawer - result!) The stencil just goes on top and you put a small amount of the glaze through.

Next you swoosh through another colour of D Oxide, I used Broken China and the glaze acts as a resist.

Stamping time now - I've used the beautiful seahorses and part of the sentiment stamp from set 12, and the compass from set 11. My two fossil fishes are mini's. I then matted this onto black card, so it's now 6x4.

I enjoyed this class SO much, and learned loads this is a link to Raquel's YouTube channel, you must check it out and subscribe.

I'm entering my Curious Creature into the PaperArtsy Watercolour challenge - it would be rude not to :-) 

So please, join in with our challenge, remember the only rule is it must be 6x4, have a wonderful March, and thanks very much for looking xx

Dare To Be Different

Good Morning and Happy Saturday, welcome to the weekend! I've been retired for over a year now, and I still think that one of the best bits is not working Saturdays (even though I only did one each month before) 
So new month , new challenges, and the lovely Jane has chosen a fun one for Country View Crafts, it's Things With Wings.  Here's my first piece.

Every so often I get the urge to get to grips with my Gelli plate. Then it usually goes away, and I'm left with a lot of mess and about 4 pieces that I actually like.
This is one of them.

So what to do with a busy background - make it busier of course! I cut a piece of fun foam and stamped with Distress Ink.

Then added some stamps from AALL & Create, and Gabi's Loose Threads from 49 & Market.

My leggy birds are a Lin Brown PaperArtsy set which have been paper pieced.

The wings and quote are from the same set.

This quote is by the lovely Tracy Evans and I thought it fitted my bird perfectly.

I couldn't have a PaperArtsy piece without a bit of Darcy, so here's a snail - he's quite happy around the birds as he's Googled them and they're not snail eaters! Other search engines are available, but my snail uses Google ;-)

So all done. It's your turn to put your best wing forward and join in.

I'm also entering this into the following challenges;
Deep Ocean Lots of layers, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday anything goes.

 Have a great weekend, and thanks very much for looking xx