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

Travel With No Regret

Good morning and happy Tuesday. The Crafty Individuals Facebook group is currently running a 'travel' themed challenge. Well I do love a good challenge, and this one definitely was as I don't have any CI travel stamps, so this is what I made.

The only thing travel related was this one sheet of paper, so I had to treat it very carefully lol.

I cut it up and mounted onto postage stamp shaped pieces of card in black and white.

I stamped and coloured my lovely couple from CI-402 and added the stamps to a blue background.

I typed up the Oscar Wilde quote on my computer, and we're all done.

These lovely stamps can be found here in the UK, and if you're in Australia here in Dot's store.

Have a wonderful day whatever you are doing, and thanks so much for looking x

Bloom And Grow

Good morning and happy Sunday. It's ages since I've made any tags for my tag book, so I thought the Country View Crafts challenge of Splatters, Splashes, and Drips was the perfect opportunity to get tagging. 

 I started by cutting some tags out of glossy card, and choosing my alcohol inks. I've gone all high tech since I last did this technique, I've bought a can of air rather than using a straw. To be honest a straw is just as good and it leaves you two hands free so I'll be going back to that. Maybe I'll give my computer keyboard a treat with the canned air - not that it needs it (much!)

 I've used Studio Light and Aall and Create stamps for my images. In the end I had to tape my card down to my stamping platform as the glossy card was clinging so firmly to the stamps that it kept lifting. 

Then I added some stitching and dyed seam binding, and added to my big tag. You can add a bit of colour too with alcohol pens if you wish, but I think these stamps look just right on their own, and once you've added it you can't take it away again.

 I love how bright and cheerful these look, and it was good to make some tags again.

You've still got ages to join in with our challenge - in fact there's an extra day this month, so put your best splatter forward!

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

Tag You're It

Good morning and happy Thursday. Lost Coast Designs have a new challenge this month which is Tag You're It. I love making tags, so here's mine.

 I started by die cutting my tag out of heavy watercolour card and making a background with brusho's.

This is a set of Tonic dies and it's a whopper. The base die is 8x6 inches which means that I can use the beautiful Carmen's Veranda  Birds Collage Background.

I'm also entering my tag into the Stamping Sensations challenge which is Feminine.

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

Never Too Old For Fairy Tales

Good morning and happy Monday. Today I'm over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground with a card that I've made using stamps by Art Journey and Lavinia. 

I started by making a circle on my round gelli plate, then stamping the Lavinia Spiral of Spells.

I added more stamping with Lavinia and Art Journey stamps.

And added colour with Distress Inks, and sparkle with Brusho's.

I finished off with some white splatter - I got a bit carried away at this stage lol.

I hope you like it, the stamps can be found here in Dot's store. Have a look around and then join in with our challenge. The rules are very simple, just use stamps from any of the ranges that are in the store. 
Speaking of stamps there's a massive 20% off the wonderful Darkroom Door stamps, so thats always worth a look.
I'm entering fairy woodland into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge which is 'Anything Goes' and also the
Stamping Sensations 'Feminine' challenge.
Have a very happy day and thanks 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

January's Rudolf Day - Make A Wish

Good afternoon and happy Thursday. I know that Christmas has only just gone, but doesn't it seem like months ago already. As always it was very last minute for me despite saying 'never again, got to be more organised, bla bla bla'. I decided to make a couple of cards each month, but this month was a little busy, and we've been away, and I can always catch up next month, etc etc so I decided to skip January. Of course if I skip January, I'll also probably skip February, March, April...

So when I saw a Christmas card on Sally's blog I realised that I needed to get off the computer and get a Christmas card made, no excuses, so here it is!

 I bought my lovely Stamperia stamps last December, but they never came out of their packet then, so I was really pleased to use them. I'm ashamed to say that I have stamps that have never been inked, but I know I'll use these a lot! 

I have the papers too, but obviously they're just for stroking and drooling over - I couldn't possibly use them!

I've added lots of glitter to the rooves and some Glossy Accents for texture. My American spell checker doesn't like rooves, but roofs is just wrong!

I'm entering my card into the January's Rudolf Day and the ABC Christmas Challenge as both are 'anything goes' and also

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' where we are asked to Add Some Sparkle.

Well at least I've made a start, we'll have to see how long it lasts!

Have a lovely evening, and thanks so much for looking xx

Follow Your Dreams

Good morning and happy Friday - welcome to the weekend! For my second project for the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground I've been using my Lavinia stamps. I'm very late to the Lavinia party, but I really like their mythical stamps, and after watching demo's on Hochanda, decided to give them a try.

I started by making an inky background with Distress Oxides and inks. I also added some sparkle with the Brusho Sprinkle It's. I love the sparkle, but next time I will save it until the end as the little 'gritty' bits were a mare to stamp over.

I made a moon by using gesso and a round gelli plate. I used a brayer for the gesso as I wanted a textured background.

Then I stamped my Pegasusses/Pegasi/winged horses,  and dragon together with the Background Script, and fairy orbs.

This gesso stamped orb had gone a little bit pink, so I thought 'I can fix that' Oh No I hear you scream, it's not really broken so don't try and fix it. 

So after I'd nearly rubbed a hole in the paper trying to fix a non existant problem I had a real problem.

So I stamped the medium sized orb on a second sheet of paper and punched them out. The punch was a little bit smaller than the stamp but I was in no position to quibble.

So all my orbs now have die cut and glittered bigger orbs. I like to think that the moon now has many satelights.

I still needed to finish the card, but didn't have any Lavinia sentiments, so I stencilled one.

So please remember the golden rule If it isn't broken don't fix it. AND if it's only a little bit broken no-one else will notice, so just walk away!

Squillions of Lavinia stamps can be found here in Dot's store, and you still have another week or so to join in with our challenge.

I'm entering this into the Lavina challenge which is Moonlight Magic.

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