Spring Has Sprung - Well Almost

Good morning and welcome to April, where is this year going!
There's a new challenge over at Country View Crafts, and Monika has chosen Spring.

I was recently lucky enough to attend a PaperArtsy training day, and this is a mash up of a couple of projects that we made there. I had a fabulous time, and learned loads, not least that Leandra can make a tiny sized blob of paint go on for miles! 

The box frame has been painted in Bubble Gum and Coral Fresco paints and then stamped with the fabulous Emma Godfrey stamps.

The box also has 2 sheets of glass, one on the front, and one in the middle.
The front one was stamped with the wonderful Frosting Glaze which I have never seen before, but I LOVE it, and words from the same stamp plate.

I mixed some Frosting Glaze with a little Bougainvillea fresco and dabbed through a Lin Brown stencil on the second glass panel.

The technique for the back panel was taught to us by Kim Dellow using tiny amounts of Fresco's and a paint splodger and it was one of my favourites of the day.
The stamps used are by Emma Godfrey and a hot picks set.
I had a brilliant time, learned loads, and got to meet lots of lovely people.

I'm also entering this into the That's Crafty challenge All Things Bright and Beautiful, and the 
Craft Stamper MITI challenge Spring Flowers.


I hope you join in with our challenge this month, and thanks very much for looking x

Is Vic There?...

Good morning and happy Wednesday (it is for me 'cos it's my day off work this week) :-) We have a fun new challenge over at Stampotique, chosen by the fabulous Valerie called 'What's Old is New Again', and this is what she says about it.
"Re-purpose, re-use, recycle, and alter - words that are music to my ears!  Is there something destined for the trash heap that you can give a new art-filled life?  Or perhaps you're tired of that old wall hanging - can you give it a make-over?  My challenge for you this week is to take something old and make it new again!"

Here's my altered frame

The frame is in a very fetching black plastic that I bought as a set of three for not very much at all, thinking that I would alter them. Of course they just got in the way for about a year, and then were burried in a corner of my craftroom where the sun doesn't shine.

It was treated to many coates of Pebeo paint, and has been randomly stamped with Text Block 3 This was then heat embossed, which proves that you can emboss plastic, but it smells a bit funny (and where's that smoke coming from) :-)

Don't you just love this pooch?, his name is Vic and is one of Roc's new release stamps.

As soon as I heard his name I was back in 1980 (OMG 1980 really!!) and the old Department S song Is Vic There? 

Ah happy days I had a Human League hair cut, and it was all my own colour :-) sigh...

Anyway Vic has been stamped and coloured with pencils.

This was a really fun challenge Valerie, and I hope you join in too. Please remember the rules, there aren't many but they are important 

IMPORTANT REMINDER:

Please read ALL RULES on the linkz page before linking your creation.

If you didn't follow the rules posted, you may have been deleted.  

Feel free to relink your creation with the correct information for a chance to win.

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

Industrial Birds

Hi and Happy Easter everyone. I'm back with my second piece for this months Country View Crafts Industrial challenge.

I started by using Deco Art paints to create a faux rust, and then die cut with the Tim Holtz Tick Tock die. The background is silver card that's been embossed with a TH Texture Fade.

 Now for my industrious clockwork birds. They're a Paper Artsy hot pick, and they've been stamped onto their metal card.

The sentiment is from the same set, and has been stamped on to shrink plastic.
There's still time for you to join in with our challenge, so get your industrial head on and play along.
I hope you enjoy your Easter break - don't eat too much chocolate (is there such a thing), and thanks very much for looking x

I'm Happy....

It's Wednesday, so that means it's time for another challenge at Stampotique. This week Nellie has chosen birds has her theme.
"So close to Easter, I would love to see you use birds and stuff related to birds, such as, feathers, eggs, nests etc... in your artwork"
So meet the Pharrells.

This is another of  new designer Terri Richardson's stamps, and is called 3 On a Branch. They look very happy so that is where the quote has come from.

I'm happy has come from Roc's new Happy Camper text, and the musical notes are from Fiesta.
This was a really fun challenge, and I hope that you can join in.
Have a great week, and thanks very much for looking x

The Luck O' The Irish

Top o' the morning, and happy St Patrick's Day! This week Jackie has chosen the Stampotique challenge, and here's what she has to say.
"St Patrick's Day was lucky for me, I married my husband on this date, so I would like to see the luck of the Irish in your projects. Such as lucky clovers"

So here's my lucky Irish piece.

I've used Arwen's fabulous Playing Card Front together with the Card Corners Cube for the playing card, and Kira's 3 Dwarfy Gnomes.

Now here's where it gets messy 'cos I've done it as a page in my chippy album and it's now FINISHED. Oh yes, finally done! so here's all the album together. There's a test at the end so you've got to keep going lol.

I'm so pleased it's done 'cos I'm not know for finishing things, but this was a real joy to make.

So please bring out your inner Irishness (is that a word?) and join in with our challenge.

There's also still time to join in with the blog hop - so much new rubber up for grabs.

Have a very happy week, and thanks for looking x

Say It With Flowers For Stampotique

Hi, happy Wednesday and welcome to another Stampotique challenge. Today Carol has chosen the theme and she wants to see flowers.

I started by making a couple of ATC sized backgrounds with some inks and stencils.

 I used the wonderful new Terri Richardson stamps on the blog hop, but we didn't get to see the full stamp, so here they are now. This is Prairie Flowers

and this is Thistle Bouquet.
There's also Antique Description in the background.

As Mother's Day was just around the corner it seemed like a good idea to turn this into a card, so I made a larger background with the same inks and stamp and there we are.
I hope you join in with our challenge this week, and show us your flowers - if today is anything to go by they could be water lilies!
Hope you like it, and thanks very much for looking x

Hop Hop Hop

Hi, after many wonderful teasers on the Stampotique face book page, it's finally time for our new release blog hop.

You should have arrived from Kathi's blog, and if you didn't, you may want to start the blog hop from the beginning at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog.

 I haven't made a slide mailer for ages, so now seemed a good time.

This one is called You Did WHAT, just look at that face lol.
The text is from our own Arwen and is called Mirror Text.
All of the new releases can be found here.

Here's the inside of the mailer.

We have Under My Wing

Prairie Flowers, and Thistle Bouquet.

And on the back is 3 On A Branch.
Next you need to hop along to Corrie's blog for some more inspiration.
I warn you, you will not escape the hop without NEEDING lots of new rubber.
Make sure you leave comments on all of the blogs as there are $30 gift certificates to be won for random winners.
Have a wonderful day, and thanks very much for looking x

Approach With Caution

Hi it's me again - 3 posts in 3 days, I think that's unheard of for me lol.
I'm please to say that it's my turn to be hosting the challenge over at Stampotique. I sometimes think that we can get a bit caught up in our crafting and try to make everything a mini masterpiece, so my challenge this week is to make something in 30 minutes or less. This doesn't include the time taken to gather your supplies, (and certainly not to tidy up)
I can't be there with my stopwatch, but I will know if you spend 31 minutes on your piece lol, so throw caution to the wind, grab half an hour and have some fun.

Meet Betsy, she's one of our new stamps, and can be found here. I just masked off a piece of watercolour card, sprinkled with Brusho's then stamped the little lady herself.
I've stitched around the edges, and because of time constraints this isn't straight. Ok if I had 3 days it still wouldn't be straight!
I love this stamp, isn't she just screaming Easter. She can however be a bit of an angry bird, hence the Approach With Caution.
So, 2 things for you to do this week, enter our blog hop, and also my challenge, just think of all the new rubber you could win.
Hope you like it, and thanks very much for looking x