The House of Black and White

I'm sad to say that this is my last post as a member of the Stampotique Design team. So a huge thank you to Carol and Jim for giving me the opportunity to use their amazing stamps. This was my first design team and I have loved every minute of being here.
The challenge this week is Black and White.

No prizes for guessing where the inspiration came from. Go team Arya!

I've used Miss Snottie

and Night.

I'm still on my holiday so I will catch up with you all when I get back.
Have a fun week, and thanks very much for looking x

Everything Has Beauty

Hello and good morning from Sunny Spain. Yep it's holiday time again, and it's also time for another Stampotique challenge. This time around Jackie has chosen 'butterflies and flowers, and all things garden' Perfect for Summer! This is what I made.

This was totally inspired by Kazza's fab tutorial, and has been made with Distress paints, inks, and crayons.

This is Carol's Flower (small)

Large Butterfly

and Beauty Verse.

I hope the weather is being kind to you wherever you are.
Have a great week, and thanks very much for looking xx

Man Up

Hi, and happy Wednesday. It's time for another Stampotique challenge, and this time Carol wants us to 'Man Up'. So this week anything with a male image goes. Here's my tag.

Only one stamp used this week, the very handsome Bowtie.
So ink up those manly men and join in with our challenge.
Have a fab week, and thanks very much for looking x

On The Street Where You Live

For the last couple of weeks PaperArtsy have had a challenge of  Our House. I really liked the sound of this, so this is what I came up with.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I started by brayering a couple of backgrounds with Fresco Paints.

I have lots of house stamps, so I stamped them out and did a bit of rough highlighting with a white pen. 
I cut all these out and then came the 'what now' moment.

So I painted a box frame with Bubble Gum and Coral and set about stamping.
This is Jofy 15 and the fab circles are Kim Dellow's (EKD01)

and Neville went on the other side (EDY09).

More dots on the top painted with Frescos's. 

The painted houses have been layered up inside. The flower on the outside is Jofy 42, and on the inside there is Darcy's EDY08, one of my very favourite stamps (along with Nev)

To say that I had nothing in mind other than I knew I wanted to make something, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I'm also entering this into the MMM challenge as the colours on my piece remind me of their Summer days challenge.

Enjoy the football (yawn) and thanks very much for looking x

Waiting For Mr Right

This month Lost Coast Designs have a new challenge and it's to use something see through. I must admit I do have a fondness of acetate, so this is what I made.

I started by stamping Waiting For Mr Right and the domino border onto a piece of acetate, (obviously not straight, that would be toooo boring) then painting over the back with acrylic paints.
Pretty uh - not.
Then it was just matted and layered onto my base card, and job done. 
This was a great challenge, I really enjoyed it, I think I shall keep the acetate out for a while.
Thanks very much for looking and have a great weekend - it's back to back sport here so no-one will notice if I'm missing for a while so it's back into the craft room for me!

I Can Feel My Heart

The fabulous Kassa has been doing some amazing tutorials. I love her use of colour and texture, so I've had a go too. This has been made with Dina Wakley heavy acrylics. They have been sadly neglected for a while so it was great to get them out again and re-discover the lurve. I've used a mix of stamps from Sheena Douglass for the skull and happy couple, and Stampotique for the flowers.

Rubber Dance Stamps have a colour challenge of purple, turquoise, and magenta so these are the colours that I've used.

Lost Coast Designs are also having a skull appreciation day - we should all appreciate our skulls more! I remember in my jujitsu days mine took quite a battering at times (when I didn't duck quickly enough lol). I also have a medical condition that means I have to use googly eyes whenever possible, even/especially when I shouldn't. I think they look quite sweet as flower centres :-)

I've just discovered Dream In Darkness which celebrates the odd and creepy (back to the eyeballs in the flowers) My wedding couple have been stamped and coloured on shrink plastic.

I've been making clay skulls too to show how much I appreciate them.
This was such fun to make, so thanks again Kazza for the inspiration.
Have a great week, and thanks very much for looking x

The Usual Suspects

Good morning, it's time for my second Country View Crafts piece for the crackle challenge. So here we have the Usual Suspects.

All the paints and mediums are from the DecoArt Media range. 

The background was painted in Cobalt Turquoise the I rubbed my Cherry Chapstick (cue Katy Perry) through a brick wall stencil, and painted over in Yellow Oxide.

Once dry I rubbed away the paint, then used an Andy Skinner stencil for the words and lines.

Time for the crackle now. I used Crackle Glaze painted quite thinly to give small crackles.

 More crackle with some Patina Green Antiquing Cream rubbed through.

I really like these small crackles.

So characters in place and finished off with some washi tape. All ready to go and see the new Alice Through The Looking Glass film.

There's loads of time for you to join in with our challenge, so crack on with your crackle!  Have a great week, and thanks very much for looking x

All Creatures Great and Small

Good morning and happy Wednesday. The Stampotique challenge this week is All Creatures Great and Small. I thought that I would go with all undersea creatures, so this is what I made.

This is a photo frame that's been in my stash since time began, so it's time it came out to play.

The frame was gessoe'd and painted in Dyna paints. Then there was lots of stencilling.

Seaweed was stamped and painted then sequins randomly added. Thank you Sam for my new sequin addiction lol.

The background was stamped with Daniel's Hearts and Rudy and Reggie have been painted and coloured with pencils. I put in some acetate so that I could add some sequin insides.

This was how it looked at this stage. I thought that the ammonites weren't showing up too well, so I added some black ink around the edges.

I wasn't sure which I prefered, but it was too late to change now lol.

So I had a wipe around with a baby wipe, then splattered a bit of white paint, and I'm much happier now.

I'm also entering this into the That's Crafty sea challenge.

I hope you have a fun week, and thanks very much for looking x