Love and Be Loved

 Good morning and a very happy Friday. Today I'm over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground with a card that I've made. 

One of the great things about the Ink Art Designs challenges is that they are always 'anything goes' as long as you use stamps from ranges that Dot sells. Sometimes though it's nice to have a bit of a prompt, so I checked out this month's Crafty Individuals challenge and it's A New Dawn. I see plenty of dawns now as we swim from 7.15, so at this time of year we see the sun come up from the swimming pool. The dawns are spectacular with the pinks and purples in the sky, so with this in mind, I made my background.

Starting with Distress Inks and Oxides on some mixed media paper I dipped and dried.

Then I added my rising sun....

and promptly toned it down a bit!

Then I added lots of background stamping and some stencilling.

My lovely hares are my focal point, just coloured with the distress ink that they are stamped in.

I wanted to stamp my sentiment but knew that it may not stamp too well with all the paint and texture in the background.

So I added an acetate wrap and stamped my sentiment on that.

All of the stamps are by Crafty Individuals and can be found here in the store.

Please join in with our challenge over at Ink Art Designs, just use stamps from the range that Dots sells and you'll be in with the chance to win the stamp of your choice.

Thanks so much for looking, take care, and have a very happy day x

Trick Or Treat

 Good morning and a very happy Monday, I hope you've had a great weekend. Today I'm sharing my second 'Halloween make a scene' piece for this month's Country View Crafts challenge. 

Once again it was time to dig out my Tim Holtz dies, and remember a snow globe isn't just for Christmas!

And out from under the bed in the spare room came these! It's mad isn't it, I couldn't wait to buy these a few (maybe 10!!) years ago, but then I never used them.

Embossing folders anyone? I'm ashamed to say that this one has never been out of the packet. I really should use them more often and will try to do so in the future.

So after much cutting, embossing, and a ridiculous amount of faffing we have this! Although not a great fan of Halloween this does make me smile when I see it.

I hope you like it, and that you also join in with our fun challenge. Don't forget, you must be true to our theme to be in with a chance to win a £20 certificate to spend in the shop.

Take care, happy haunting, and happy crafting x

Spirits Take Flight

 Good morning and a very happy Wednesday. Autumn is certainly drawing in now and Halloween is filling the shops. With this in mind, I've made a non-spooky All Hallows Eve journal page using my Lavinia stamps for Ink Art Designs.

I started by making my background with Distress Oxides and stencils on some watercolour paper.

Then I just built up my design using lots of little stamps as well as the large ones. I love this tiny one, as it's a little bit like paint splatters but not as risky lol.

I've stamped the bird from the Crow set onto tissue paper as there was too much texture on my moon to get a good image. It also means that you can reverse the image too. On the right, I've stuck it down with decoupage glue, and the one on the left is decoart ultrafine glitter paint. The paint actually blurs the tissue better than the glue.  The sentiment is also a Lavinia stamp, I've just added an extra 's' to the 'spirit'

I added a few Tim Holtz bats - nothing says Halloween better than bats!

And we're all done! I hope you like it and that you join in with our monthly challenge. As always it's Anything Goes, you just need to use stamps from the ranges that Dot sells here in the store. 

I'm also entering my page into this months Lavinia challenge which is All Hallows Eve. 

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

Keeeeeeep Dancing!!!

Good morning and a very happy Thursday.  Welcome to October, one of the best months of the year 'cos it's my birthday month! It's also Halloween, not something that I particularly celebrate as we're quite often on holiday, but guess what, this year we'll be at home, so if anyone is allowed out, we'll have a lantern lit and a spooky welcome awaits lol. The new challenge at Country View Crafts this month is Halloween - make a scene.

Now October is also the month that Strictly begins. My gruesome twosome have been practising the Hokey Cokey and they've put their left arms in!

It just goes to show that you should never get rid of your old Tim Holtz dies. I would have been lost without these as I don't have much of a Halloween stash.

I hope that you like our challenge and join in with us and make a Halloween scene. There's loads more inspiration over on the Country View Crafts blog so please go and check it out.

Thanks so much for looking, take care and have a very happy October x

 

Christmas is Coming (ish)

 Good morning and a very happy Tuesday. I don't know about where you are, but it's starting to feel very Autumnal here, so before you know it, it will be Christmas!  Today I'm over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground with my trio of Stampotique Christmas cards. I love Stampotique's Christmas range, there really is something for everyone, from the cute to the headless snowman, and Dot has an amazing range here. I'm typing this all in the dreaded New Blogger, so if you see words but no pictures or vice versa just pretend that you've not noticed 😂.

Ok, the first picture is in, and I've found all the old buttons that I used to click, so it's looking good!

I started with a sheet of A4 black card and gave it a thin coat of gesso, then I brayered these 2 shade of pale blue Fresco paint. The white blobs (snowflakes) have been applied directly from my new touch up paint. It's from Lidl and it comes in a tube just like the old fashioned pump whitener. What can I say it was 79p so I had to try it and it's perfect for what I wanted it for.

I couldn't use white again, so I've used pink for my stencilled snowflakes - much better than the yellow stuff! I've also added in some text in a dark blue.

Skinny cards seem to be all the rage at the moment. Back in't day when I wor a lad we just called them DL cards, but for today I'm going to be up to date and call them 'skinny' So the background was chopped into 3 and sewn onto my base cards.

This is my first one, I really like the snowglobe and you could put anything you like in there, not just for Christmas.

This is one of my favourite Kate Crane stamps, though I must admit I did put the two dots in for her eyes. That is where my drawing ability ends and I did have to practice first on a dummy face.

And finally, my favourite. Anything with these 2 guys on is going to be my favourite! The sentiment has been stamped onto acetate as the card underneath is so textured.

And here they are again, all together. I hope you like them and that you join in with us over at the stamping playground. As always the theme is 'anything goes' as long as your main focal point is from a range that Dot sells in the store.

I'm entering my cards into the ABC Christmas Challenge where the theme this month is S for snowy and T for Tinsel. My cards are all very snowy.

 Thanks very much for looking and have a great day x

More Complementary Colours For Country View Crafts

Good morning and happy Wednesday. For my second piece for the Country View Craft's challenge, I am using 2 pairs of complementary colours, red / green, and blue / orange.

I chose some of my favourite PaperArtsy stamps by Tracy Scott and started stamping, then I made a mess and started all over again!

So, background take 2! I just need to choose my complementary paints.

If I had to pick a favourite colour it would be Beach Hut, but I have to say I've not yet come across a PaperArtsy Fresco that I didn't like! 

So after much tongue sticking out (yes I really do, I'm such a child), my background is painted.

Then I chopped it up and layered it all onto black card.

I've stuck it all down again with foam tape so it's one to be hand-delivered otherwise it will have to be parcel post! For some reason I seem to have changed the original orientation - luckily I don't think it makes a difference.

I hope you like it, and that you join in with our challenge - remember that you must use complementary colours - that's the whole theme of the challenge.

Take care and have a very happy week x

Christmas Is Coming!

Good afternoon and a very happy Tuesday. Just a  quick post from me today to share the MDF pieces that I made for Lisa Horton's shows on Create and Craft last week. They are all fabulous designs, and importantly, take anything that you can throw at them (including half a pot of texture sand paste that I used to cover up the mess that I'd made)

All of the mediums are from  DecoArt, including the multi media range, glass paints, and good old Snowtex.

For this one I've used lots of lovely glass paint on to acetate, I would normally put the smooth side to the front, but I wanted the texture to show. The frame has been covered with gilding flakes.

This is such a sweet frame and you get 2 in the set, so that means 2 of these gorgeous deer. For this one, I've used DecoArt Multi Media paint and lots of Snowtex.

Now this one, oh my life what hasn't it had on it! I wanted to do a distressed metal effect so put lots of rusty effect colours but it looked awful! I'm a bit out of practice with the old rust effect and some of my teamies had done this and theirs looked wonderful. No way could I let mine stand next to theirs lol. So I took my Deco Art Texture Sand Paste and gave it a very good coating. It would either cover the multitude of sins or it would all fall apart! I then walked away and left it overnight. I hardly dare look the morning after but it was still standing and it looked rather well! You could still see little glints of the silver showing through which looked quite icy so all was well. I added little touches of watery blues and silvers which sat nicely in the crackle from previous layers. The candle is for display purposes only, I couldn't get a battery one, but now The Range is full of them bless 'em!

Now this one is for people of a certain age! Who remembers 'the test card and some music' This was such fun to do and what's a TV ariel for if not to wrap tinsel around! It's also a great size to use as a shadow box, so fab and functional, just like me 😉

All of the MDF is available from Create & Crafts - and there's a 4 x Flexi-pay offer at the moment - just saying! It will also be available directly from Lisa soon, and it's free p&p on orders over £30.00

Take care and have a very happy week x

Have A Jolly Time

Good morning and happy Wednesday. I'm having a change of scenery today, my son and his partner have gone away so we are cat-sitting for a few days. I've been having a play with my Crafty Individual stamps for my DT piece for the Ink Art Designs stamping playground.  I set myself a bit of a challenge, I wanted to make a Christmassy canvas using non-traditional Christmas stamps, so here it is.

I started by making a colourful background with paint and distress inks.

Then added some stars and circles through a stencil.

Just ready now for my Crafty Individuals stamps. The background is CI 514 Paid in Great Britain, and the wonderful puffin is by Alice Palace. The Christmas hat is from the Katzelkraft accessories set, and they can all be found here in Dot's store. 

The red and the purple made my eyes bleed a little at first, but now I'm quite liking the combo.

I hope you join in with our challenge over at the stamping playground, just use any stamps from the ranges that Dot stocks.

Take care and have a very happy month xx