Autumn Patchwork

Good afternoon all and hope you're having a good weekend so far. Mine has been OK despite having to return a breadmaker that I bought 3 weeks ago after the kneading blade which lost a rivet and found it's way into the bread thereby causing my hubby a shock when he bit it (!!!) was replaced and then yesterday the same thing happened to me!!!
I have a card to show you which I've made for Gingersnap Creations GC74 Spicy Supply Challenge - Versamark which also fits this week's Lots To Do Challenge of Autumnal Colours.
The card has caused me a bit of a dilemma as I couldn't decide whether to add anything more to it and in the end kept it simple as nothing I added looked right. I hope you agree with me here!

The card features 2 techniques with Versamark, the first being Resist on Glossy Card. I stamped some leaves and flowers from Hero Arts CL426 Real Flowers and CL427 Antique Engravings in Versamark ink on the card and when dry, brayered on Distress inks in Aged Mahogany, Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Worn Lipstick. Some of the inks were layered on for depth of colour.
I then made some contrasting squares by stamping flowers on golden card in the Versamark ink and brushing with Perfect Pearls in Rust and Plum from the Naturals set.
I simply mounted the squares on a textured cream card blank to make them stand out well.
Hoping you think I made the right decision although any suggestions will be welcomed!

Vintage Travel Collage

Happy Monday everyone and I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm here today with my last post for a while as I'm off on my hols early Wednesday morning and won't be back until the end of next week.
This is the card I've made for the latest Ready Steady Stamp Challenge and I managed to use the following from the long list of ingredients:

Travel

Map

Patterned Paper

Cork

Film Strip

Brad

Glossy Accents

Distress

Round Punch to make Flowers

Ingredients Used:

Stamps : B Line Designs Paris PR217E and Eiffel Tall PR114D

              Hero Arts Old French Writing H2365

              Inkadinkado Vintage Car 91406-X

              Hampton Art Woman In Coat DF2296

              Art Attack Film Strip 

              All Night Media Clear Stamp Set International Intrigue 91416

Inks : Distress inks Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive, Vintage Photo

          Palette inks Raw Sienna, Noir Black

Promarkers for colouring

Glossy Accents on car body and wheels and woman's shoes and hat

Flower made from K&Co paper (circles punched, folded in to quarters, snipped towards centre and trimmed with deckle scissors. Scrunched then fixed together with a brad)

Cork letter P by Craftime

Acetate

Vintage Map from Art Freebies

Glossy card

Happily this card also fits this week's Lots To Do challenge - The Scenic Route so I'm entering it in that one too.

Age Is Just A Number

Hello everyone, hope you're having a lovely weekend with some good weather. It's sunny here although rather windy at the moment and I've been suffering with hayfever all week due to wind from the North blowing something off the South Downs.
I'm here today with an entry which fits 3 challenges, the first being Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper with the theme of Numbers as she's just celebrated a milestone birthday. The next is Gingersnap Creations GC56 Colour Theme, Burgundy, Ivory and Black which I've just managed to scrape into as it closes tomorrow. The last one is Hilda's Lots To Do Challenge with a theme of Quotes for which I've used one of my ever useful Penny Black stamps. I think along with Tim Holtz, they do some of the best quotes I've come across.
The card I've made was inspired by my very lively mother in law who is now in her 80s. She had an operation a couple of weeks ago to clear a blocked artiery. This took 3 hours during which time she was conscious and aware of what was happening, and it apparently took a long time because the surgeon said her artieries were looped like a roller coaster!!! She had a rest in bed the next day but I was astounded to hear that the day after this, less than 48 hours after the operation, she went out shopping with my father in law!!! The quote I've used here is perfect to describe her and I have great admiration for her determination to get on with life no matter what it throws at her.

The colour is a little washed out in the photo as my camera always struggles with yellowish tones so the ivory is really a little stronger than you can see here.
The card was quite simple to make. I embossed 2 ivory and 2 burgundy 7cm squares with the Sissix Tim Holtz Bingo folder numbers and rubbed burgundy ink over those on the ivory squares. I stamped Paperbag Studios Laugh PBS-004-1 in black on ivory card and layered it up on burgundy, ivory and black card. I stamped the quote, Penny Black's the Life 2709F in black on ivory card, cut it out and inked the edges with black.
I stuck the squares to a square of black card, stuck this to an ivory textured card blank and then glued on the remaining elements as shown.
All that remains is for me to say thank you to the Gingersnap Team who have been kind enough to give me 2 Ginger Gem awards in the last 2 weeks, a really great surprise and honour for which I can't thank you all enough.

The Rhythm Of Life

Hope you're all having a good start to your weekend.
Before I show you the card I've just finished, I want to say hello to a few new followers that have joined my little band recently. Thanks to you all and I hope you'll like today's creation which is a vintage style card, my absolute favourite style to make.
I'd like to enter my creation in the following challenges as I think it fits the theme nicely:
ABC Challenge with a theme of Q for Quotation
Gingersnap Creations Challenge GC46 Spicy Supply Challenge-Frosting
One Stitch At A Time Challenge with a theme of Vintage
And Lots To Do Challenge also with a theme of Vintage (thanks to Hilda for letting me know about this one as I managed to miss it in my reading list)

My image is by the lovely June of Dezinaworld from her beautiful Dance collage sheet. I printed the image out, cut her out and inked the edges with a blue grey ink to make her stand out. I then rubbed gently on the reverse with an embossing ball tool to round the image out.
I inked the edges of a white oval with VersaColor Topaz ink and stuck the lady on with foam tape. I matted this on a larger oval after rubbing the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink. I then made a pretty border with pearls and gems (it took a little while but I felt the end result worth it).
I made a panel using my Twist on Resist Technique with copper metallic ink, pearl embossing powder, Dried Marigold and Peeled Paint Distress inks and Olive Green Stazon ink (see my side labels for the tutorial on how to do this as it's easy when you know how!) The stamp I used is by Impression Obsession-Solid Florals CL124 clear stamp set.
I made a narrow panel embossed using the Cuttlebug Textile folder, rubbed it with Vintage Photo ink and then sprayed it with Vintage Pink Glimmer Mist. I added cream crochet lace and a pink fabric rose plus my text which I generated on the computer and over-stamped with a music score using Topaz ink.

Countryside Canvas

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a better day than me as I lost precious hours today after my washing machine decided to flood-the joys of a Dyson as when it works which is most of the time, it's fantastic, but when it goes wrong, it usually does it in the most spectacular manner!!! Just as well my washing machine is in an outside room as the amount of water was incredible. Fortunately, I think the cause was not the machine, but a blocked drain which is much easier to fix!
Anyway, enough of my woes and on to my latest creation which has been a work in progress for several weeks now and I finally finished it today just in time for this week's challenge at Lots to Do which is-a canvas! Here's my finished piece:

This came about because I fell in love with the new Crafty Individuals stamps and decided to make something a bit more permanent than a card. I recently bought some square canvas boards and wanted to make use of one, plus some Stampbord squares I've had for some time. The stamps are slightly smaller than the squares so I made a border with one of the border stamps which came free with my order (every time an order arrives Jean and Malcolm always include a generous amount of small free stamps!!). The stamped images were coloured with Distress inks and detail added with coloured pencils.
The canvas itself is painted with green and blue acrylic paints and sprayed with Olive Vine Glimmer Mist (my current favourite). I then stamped on some flowers and sprigs by Inkadinkado. The little butterflies are also by Crafty Individuals and were coloured with pencils.
Stamps Used:
Crafty Individuals CI-262, CI-263, CI-239
Inkadinkado 97623 Garden Delight

Artful Life

Hello everyone. Hope you've got a lovely sunny day like we have in the South today.
I've a card here which fits 3 challenges and which gave me very blue hands until this morning after an accident with a really leaky Cosmic Shimmer spray bottle. Was I glad I didn't have to go anywhere yesterday evening!!!
The first challenge is The Play Date Cafe with a colour theme this week of dark brown, tan, blue and green.
The second is the ABC Challenge with a theme of N is for New which on this card is the gorgeous butterfly and leaf stamps.
Lastly, the third challenge is Lots To Do with a theme of Backgrounds (make your own that is which you all know is right up my street!)

The collaged background here was created by stamping Judikins 2957 H and Hero Arts Art, Like and Beauty G2678 twice-once in VersaFine Vintage Sepia and once in VersaFine Majestic Blue. The brown images were then inked with Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. The blue ones were inked with Pine Needles and Broken China Distress inks. They were then sprayed with Olive Vine Glimmer Mist. These were then adhered to a card blank. A corrugated panel painted with deep blue acrylic paint was adhered across the centre.
The butterfly was stamped in brown on a background sprayed with green and blue Sticky Fingers inks, followed by Cosmic Shimmer Aqua mist.  It was embossed with clear powder and brushed with Distress Stickles in Tarnished Brass.
The leaves were stamped in brown, inked with Distress Inks and sprayed with Olive Vine Glimmer Mist for a bit of sparkle.

Vintage Christmas

Hello Everyone,
I've at last managed to finish my entry for the Play Date Cafe with the colours red, green and white. As it also fits the Lots to Do theme of snow, I am entering it in that one as well. I couldn't resist using a gorgeous vintage image of a little girl with a sledge kindly shared by Kerry at the Graphic Addict for my card as I have a friend who loves the vintage look and the colours are her favourite too.

Ingredients Used:
Holly Stamp by Personal Impressions
Poinsettia Stamp by Stampendous
Ornate Border Stamp by Impression Obsession
Red and Green Pigment Ink
Green Dye Ink
Peeled Paint Distress Ink
Clear Embossing Powder
I printed out the vintage image and trimmed the edges with deckle scissors then mounted it on a narrow border of white card. I made a frame by stamping the border round the edges of a white card rectangle (I masked the side edges after stamping and embossing them and then did the top and bottom) in red ink and embossed with clear powder. I then sponged Peeled Paint Distress ink over the top.
I stamped the holly all round the edges of a red card blank in green dye ink. I then stamped the poinsettia in both red ink and green ink and embossed them with clear powder. I cut out the whole image in green and just the flower in red. The card was assembled as shown and a computer generated greeting added.