3 Amigos

Hello everyone, finally managed to finish my entry for the current Ready, Steady, Stamp challenge where you have to pick at least 5 ingredients from the long list of DT member Nefertiti's gorgeous set of skinnys.
The ingredients I picked as as follows:

Skinnys 3 x 5 inches

Cats

Multi Colour

Hand Drawing

Gems

Here's what I made:

I made the backgrounds by brayering with Kaleidacolor inks in Blue Breeze, Desert Heat and Berry Blaze. I then doodled on each one with markers to make a background pattern. I then stamped over the top with Memento black ink and my favourite script stamp, Hero Arts Old French Writing H2365.

I stamped the cats, The Party Cats set by Lost Coast Designs, in black Memento ink and coloured them with Promarkers in various shades. I cut them out and added gems to the hats. I just adore these cats which are so whimsical and cute but a little bit naughty.

I added the cats to the skinnies with foam tape and added computer generated text to finish.

I'm thinking these will make great card toppers when I need a quick card with a bit of a difference.

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.

Shy Girl

Hello folks, hope you've all had a lovely weekend and some good weather. It's been trying to rain a little here on the South coast today but the sunshine has just appeared again.
I'm here with my rather late entry for the current challenge at Ready, Steady, Stamp which I started just over a week ago and then had to stop for a while due to other commitments. I managed to finish it off yesterday evening at last. For those of you that don't know, the challenge rules have changed a bit and now every 2 weeks one of the Design Team members will make a project and list the ingredients used. The challenge is to make something using at least 5 of the ingredients and I found this good fun as the list this time is quite long and there are plenty of things to choose from.
I used the following on my card:

Cream, Brown and Green

Rectangles

Embossed Metal/Metal Embellishment

Distress Inks

Dry Embossing

I made my background paper using my grunge technique with Distress inks in Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint and one of the lovely stamps from the Inkadinkado Garden Delight clear stamp set which I really love as the stamps included are so useful. I stuck this to a cream card blank I made.

I made a frame for the lovely photo from June's Art Freebies blog by cutting a piece of cream card and stamping all around the edges in VersaFine Vintage Sepia using a tiny Anna Griffin flourish stamp. I put the photo on a mat of brown paper and then on the stamped panel.

I then embossed a panel of cream card with the Sissix Tim Holtz Alterations Damask embossing folder and put this on a panel of brown paper trimmed on both long edges with the Martha Stewart Arch Lattice punch. I added this to the card with some brown floral ribbon and the photo panel.

As a finishing touch, I made a metal foil flower using a Woodware floral cut and emboss punch. I deepened the embossing effect with a ball tool and rubbed on Olive Green StazOn ink. I then bent the petals for a 3D effect and added a little black StazOn to the edges to make them stand out. I then added a Making Memories round embossed metal brad in the centre.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Hello everyone, I'm here today with a very late entry for the current Ready Steady Stamp challenge which closes today having got rather behind due to DT work (will be back tomorrow to show you the samples made for Polka Doodles Nikky's TV show which was on Sunday and went really well with the brand new CD selling like hot cakes).
Here's the recipe to follow:

I've made a piece of artwork using a lovely house shaped shadow box which I bought at the Craft Barn extravaganza. They've got quite a lot of really useful blanks so it's well worth a look at the website as they're also very good value as this one cost me just £1.75 (an absolute bargain!!!). I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with my blogging friend Fiona and see some great demonstrators including Jean and Malcolm from Crafty Individuals, Kay Carley, Beatrice Neumeister, Leandra Franich, Lin Brown and of course Isabelle Norris of the RSS challenge.
Here's my artwork:

I painted the frame with turquoise and purple acrylic paint and then rubbed on white, turquoise and lime VersaColor inks to tone it down a little. I stamped flowers from the Inkadinkado Garden Delight clear set on in Memento Grape Jelly and white ink.
I then made the central rectangular panel by using direct to paper technique with the VersaColor lime ink on white card then stamped on flowers in the same lime together with turquoise and some grape.
I stamped the butterfly on white card with the grape ink and also on acetate in StazOn royal purple ink and cut them out when dry. I bent the acetate wings up slightly, stuck the butterflies together and glued them in the corner of the frame.
I stamped a Magenta heart image twice with the grape ink, cut out just the centre of one and inked with lime. I then did the bit I wasn't sure about which was to hand write all the text with a purple Promarker and a purple fine liner,  cut them into rectangles and ink the pieces with lime. I assembled the remaining pieces as shown in the photo.

She's Got The Look

Hello folks and I hope you're all doing OK this week. I'm here with my finished entry for the latest Ready, Steady, Stamp challenge with the ingredient list below:

Some of you probably know that my younger daughter has been doing an Art Foundation course prior to her degree and she will be studying for a Fashion degree at Kingston in September. As I'm always surrounded by her works in progress and various fashion magazines, this particular challenge is right up my street so I hope you like what I've made.

I found a fascinating Good Housekeeping book about the 1950s a little while ago so my card was inspired by the fashion adverts in there. I've used a couple of them on the card as they fit my theme perfectly.
I made 2 background paper panels, the first being Tim Holtz's Old Paisley stamped in black on white card. The second uses Hampton Art's Scratch Pattern 2635J and was stamped repeatedly in Distress Crushed Olive and then black to make a plaid pattern. I glued these to my card blank.
I then added to 2 cut out images, some small fabric swatches and sequins. I added a text panel from the book and a Dymo text strip at the top.
I made my half flower embellishment by punching 2 black and 2 white hearts and sticking them together in an overlapping fashion to make the shape you see. I then embossed the piece with the Tim Holtz Alterations Sissix Damask folder and stuck a green sequin in the centre.

In Gear

Second post of the day with my finally finished card for the current Ready, Steady, Stamp challenge. I have to admit I had a real struggle with this one as it's racing themed and that's not something the men in my family like that much so I was a bit stuck for ingredients.
Here's the recipe:

And here's my card:

I made a stripy background paper using Distress inks in Barn Door and Mustard Seed and 2 stamps - Anita's Distressed Stripes and Hampton Art Scratch Pattern 2635. I inked over the scratch pattern with the yellow ink.
I stamped the car - Inkadinkado 91406X - in black on mount board and embossed it with clear UTEE. I inked round the edges with permanent black. I inked some of Maya Road's chipboard gears with Black Soot Distress ink.
I made a small journalling panel with a Paper Artsy script stamp and inked it with the red and yellow inks. My Polka Doodles Not For Girls CD came to the rescue with some car themed background paper and I assembled the card as you see after inking the edges of the pieces with black.

Angel Art

Hello everyone, it's a gorgeous sunny day here today and much warmer at last so let's hope it decides to stay this time.
I have a card to share with you that I made for the current Ready Steady Stamp challenge which is to use these ingredients:

I really enjoyed doing this one as it gave me the chance to break out my lovely set of Oxford Impressions angel stamps which are fabulous quality and look like photos rather than a stamp.

I made the background paper by stamping Clearly Inspired Stencil Flowers roses in blue metallic pigment ink and embossing with Renaissance Aquatic embossing powder by Enchanted Creations. I then sponged Tumbled Glass Distress ink over the top. I stuck this to my card blank with a piece of embossed silver card from my stash and stuck white crochet lace and silver ribbon over the join.
I stamped the angel (isn't she cute!) on Judikins glossy coated paper in VersaFine Onyx Black and left her to dry. I made a background for her by applying Silver and Stream alcohol inks to acetate which I glued to white card. I put this on a mat of the silver card and then black paper trimmed with the Martha Stewart dot scallop punch. I glued the angel on.
I then inked a wooden heart (I could hear Elvis singing in my head whilst doing this lol) with silver Encore ink and then stamped roses on with blue and embossed with clear powder. The roses went a darker shade of silver when I did this.
I altered a slightly garish metal flower by dabbing on the alcohol inks to tone it down a bit and stuck this to a paper flower (Prima). I finished off by assembling the card as shown with a quote I found and loved which I stamped with the roses in turquoise ink to blend in more.

Music

The white rabbit has struck here again cos I'm late. late, late for the current Ready, Steady, Stamp Challenge which I've been trying to get finished for the last 10 days! As usual, there are 5 ingredients and if you use all 5, which I have, there's a fabulous chance to win a Paper Artsy prize kindly donated by Leandra.

Here's what I made which is a little piece of art on mountboard

I've actually used one of the new Paper Artsy Hot Pick stamp sets, HP1005, which I bought at Ally Pally along with the bird die from their fabulous new range of dies which match some of the hot pick stamps.
I've also used one of Hobby Art's fabulous new clear stamp sets CS013D Anna's Collection-Floral Greetings which has some gorgeous flowers and leaf sprigs.
I covered my mountboard with a piece of vintage music score I found in a charity shop and inked it with olive VersaColor ink. I stamped the grass from the Paper Artsy set twice in black on another piece of music score, cut it out and inked with violet and olive. I stuck this at the base of the panel.
I cut a piece of corrugated coffee cup holder, painted it light green and dry brushed on some white gesso. I then stamped a leaf sprig from the Hobby Art set all round the edges in black. I stamped the large flower 3 times on music score and the smaller one once. I inked these with pink and purple inks and cut them out.
I stamped the Paper Artsy bird in black, cut it out with the bird die and inked the white with purple ink. I then stamped song and bird, cut them out and inked them with pink ink. I printed out the computer generated music text, cut this out with scissors and scallop scissors and inked with pink.
For the rubber ingredient, I used a spare piece of red rubber from some unmounted stamps I recently cut out. I trimmed the lower edge with scallop scissors and inked it with olive green Stazon ink although the end result came out almost black.
I ssembled all the pieces as you see in the photo.

Fairy Queen

Back with another post at last after several busy days sorting out family things and my younger daughter with her ongoing back problem.
I've finally finished my Ready Steady Stamp challenge artwork after starting it and having to stop due to the above problems and found that it also fits the theme of the very first Sir Stampalot challenge which is Fantasy. Here's the Ready Steady Stamp recipe:

I've made a piece of wall art using a set of stamps which I've had for a couple of months and have been itching to use.

The stamp set is by The Queen's Ink and from the Paper Relics range. It's called Flight Ref PR-012 and is available from The Stamp Attic.
I stamped all the elements with black Memento ink and coloured them with various Promarkers. I then cut them all out.
I covered a frame mount with pink and brown paper by Papermania (the Red Hot capsule collection) and covered a piece of mountboard with paper from the Green capsule collection. I painted a piece of corrugated packaging with dusty rose acrylic paint and assembled the panel with this behind the frame.
I added the fairy as shown and decorated her with pearls and gems. I punched a border with a Martha Stewart punch and another piece of pink paper then punched out some green paper hearts and stuck these elements on the left hand side with buttons for embellishments.
I finished off with some Prima leaves and flowers and generated the Queen of Hearts text on the computer and coloured with a Promarker.
I've been a bit cunning with the numbers on this piece and if you look closely you'll see they're on the Fly text panel.
Thanks for looking.
Fliss x

Bird Song for RSS Challenge 16

I'm taking a well earned break for a short time in the middle of doing a VAT Return (you can probably guess what I'd rather be doing lol) to show you my finally finished piece of artwork for the latest Ready, Steady, Stamp Challenge. This is along with the very sad news from Isa Norris that this might be the last one as the number of entries has dropped and the team are not sure if they can carry on due to this. I really will be sad as I love this challenge which always makes me think outside the box, and I hope makes me create my best pieces of artwork.
Here's the challenge:

I have thought outside the box here as rather than put a frame on my artwork, I've actually used a blank frame to make it and here it is:

The frame I used is one of the Papermania Bare Essentials range. I painted the inside sky blue and the frame leaf green using acrylic paints. I'd already decided to break out my new Artistic Outpost stamps so this is why it ended up these colours. The stamp set I used is called Serenity and the colours requested by the challenge fit the set perfectly. I stamped the tree scene inside the frame using Brilliance Pearlescent Olive ink and stamped the larger swirly image all round the frame in the same ink. I then stamped the Harmony and Symphony text on the frame in black, followed by more stamping with the swirly image and black ink for a layered look.
I next painted a piece of thick cardboard packaging with lighter blue and green paints and distressed it a little with black ink. I stamped the bird song image on white card in black and stuck this to the pale blue/green panel. I then stamped the smaller swirl round the edges in the olive ink.
I stamped a bird from Crafty Individuals CI-248 in black and coloured it with pencils. I then cut out the image and fixed it to the panel with foam tape. I fixed the panel to the frame with glue and stacked foam tape.
Finally, I made a flower by punching and cutting out circles of white card which I stamped first with the swirl design in olive ink and then with the serenity text in black. I sprayed them with water and scrunched them for a shabby look and fixed them together with a brad. I stuck the flower in the right hand corner to finish.

Time Is The Key

Hello all. Time for another challenge card which I didn't think I was going to finish in time as there aren't enough hours in the day at the moment to get everything done!
This one is for Ready, Steady, Stamp Week 14 challenge with 5 ingredients as usual:

I really enjoy these challenges as they really make you think outside the box and I actually managed to combine one thing this time as the die cut border is made from funky foam. Might be cheating a little but I thought any more on the card would be too much lol.

The stamps used here are both by Crafty Individuals. The little girl is CI-110 anf the flourishes on the background paper CI-173.
To make the background, I wanted a shabby chic effect so I stamped the flourish background repeatedly on cream card with green and copper inks. I then rubbed sand beige ink over the top. I tore the edges and rubbed them with copper ink.
I stamped the little girl collage in black on white card and sponged on Split Pea and Sand Beige VersaColor inks. I trimmed the edges with deckle scissors. I cut a piece of copper metal sheet, trimmed the edges with the deckle scissors and embossed it using the Cuttlebug Textile folder. I glued the collage image to the metal.
The die cut funky foam border started off purple and I altered it by sponging with antique gold, then sand acrylic paints. I added dots to the centre of the flowers with a black dauber.
The heat embossed metal was the most tricky bit as I wanted to emboss my metal flower with copper powder and stamp into it but it all peeled off! I had to settle for just embossing it with the copper powder and then layered it up with 2 beige fabric flowers and a copper brad. I added green Prima art leaves to finish.

Christmas Wishes

Hello everyone. It's been a few days now since I've been able to do any crafting as we've been without heating since Monday morning (really bad timing as Monday night went down to 1 degree!!!) and hot water since yesterday morning. Also have had a house full of very noisy workmen as we're having to have a new boiler because the old one packed up. Doesn't do much for creativity!
I've finally managed to get the second banner for the Ready, Steady, Stamp Challenge finished so without more ado. here it is

The brief this time was to include a Christmas Tree, Eyelets, Cut 'n' Dry Stamping and Kraft Paper with your colours.
Ingredients Used:
Swirl Tree SC2009E by Hobby Art
Crafty Individuals CI-237
Christmas Wishes F3682 Hero Arts
Border from Impression Obsession WP130
Brilliance Pearlescent Olive and Purple Inks
VersaFine Spanish Moss Ink
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
Acrylic Paints in Aqua, Lilac and Olive
Krylon Gold Leafing Pen
Brown Kraft Paper
Ranger Tarnished Gold Embossing Powder
Crystal Transparent Embossing Powder
Gold Bow
Purple Eyelets and Purple Pearl Cotton
Cut 'n' Dry Foam and items to impress (brooch and texture plate)
My banner background was painted with acrylic paints and stamped with the Crafty Individuals background in Spanish Olive.
I ended up with 2 Cut 'n' Dry backgrounds as I couldn't decide which I liked best! The lilac one was a texture plate impressed and stamped in Pearlescent Purple. The other was a heart shaped metal brooch which was then stamped in Pearlescent Olive on lilac card.
I stamped a border on the torn Kraft paper and embossed it with the gold powder. The tree was stamped in Spanish Moss and embossed with the crystal powder.
I threaded purple cotton through the eyelets several times. The gold bow and stamped, inked text completed the banner.

Fly Me To The Moon

The challenge for the next few weeks over at Ready Steady Stamp is to make a Christmas banner which will make a lovely decoration to be treasured for years to come.
The Challenge 9 ingredients to use are:
Stars
Your Colours
Glitter or Gems
Heat Embossing
Stamped and Cut Out Image
The colours I have chosen for my banners are Aqua, Purple, Olive and Gold as I wanted something a little different from traditional red and green. Also, the baubles for my tree are shades of aqua, green and purple so the banner will go well with those.

The scanner turned the colours a bit washed out so the true effect is much richer.
Ingredients Used:
Crafty Individuals CI-071
Flourish from Crafty Secrets clear set Cherubs SM02
Border from Impression Obsession clear set Ornate Borders WP130
Acrylic paints: Olive, Aqua, Purple, Lilac, Metallic Plum
VersaColor inks: Violet, Boysenberry, Lilac, Heliotrope, Turquoise, Celadon
Palette Noir ink
Brilliance Pearlescent Olive ink
Embossing Powder: Clear and Tarnished Gold (Ranger)
Gold Krylon Pen
Stickles Crystal Glitter Glue
Folk Star Punches (Woodware)
Aqua Glitter Card
Prismacolor Pencils
The main background was made by inking the triangle with the lighter shades of VersaColor inks then dry brushing the acrylic paints over the top. The Flourish design was stamped all over in the Brilliance Pearlescent Olive ink. The edges were inked with the Boysenberry ink then the gold leafing pen run around them.
The star was made using a pattern enlarged from the punched star. I inked it with shades of purple and stamped the flourish in the olive ink. I sprinkled on clear powder while the ink was still wet and embossed it. I ran the leafing pen round the edge.
The border was stamped and embossed with the Tarnished Gold, then inked with aqua and lilac. I cut it out with deckle scissors.
The image was coloured with Prismacolor pencils and cut out. I painted the moon with the glitter glue. I assembled it all, adding inked computer generated text and punched glitter card stars.

Snow Bird RSS Challenge 8

The ingredients for the latest challenge at Ready Steady Stamp are as follows:

1. C for Christmas
2. Lilac, Black & Silver
3. Snowflakes
4. A Skinny (2x4)
5. Crackle

This is my take on the ingredients.

1. My background paper is stamped with snowflakes which were embossed with silver. I then sponged on Pretty Petunia VersaMagic ink and stamped on further snowflakes with Lavender Sachet Palette ink.
2. I stamped the bird image (Crafty Individuals CI-224) in black ink and added colour with pencils and sponged inks in lilac and lime. I then inked the panel with embossing ink and embossed with clear powder, repeating the step 3 times. I inked up with embossing ink again, added clear powder and heated it to melt it, then stamped a crackle pattern stamp into it whilst still hot. I trimmed the top and bottom edges with deckle scissors.
3. I cut a strip of silver card and embossed it with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder. I stuck the snowflake paper to a square card blank and stuck the silver panel on the left side. I matted the bird panel on black card and stuck this near the top of the siver panel.
4. To finish the card, I stamped the Christmas greeting by Stamp n' Stor on white card and trimmed it to a skinny strip. I trimmed the side edges with deckle scissors and stuck it to the right side of the card. I added a poinsettia embellishment with a brad centre.
   

Autumn Gold Ready Steady Stamp Challenge 7

Here's my entry for challenge 7 over at Ready Steady Stamp and the 5 ingredients to use are:

1. Autumn
2. Brown, Cream and Ochre
3. Staples
4. Distress inks in the background
5. Hessian

  This is what I used to make the card:

1. The background is Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed and Vintage Photo Distress ink on acrylic paper stamped with maple leaves in Vintage Photo.  The maple leaf stamp is by Personal Impressions.
   
2. The tag is Acrylic Resist Technique (see side labels) using Yellow Ochre and Raw Sienna acrylic paints with the maple leaf stamp. A leaf stamped in Vintage Sepia VersaFine ink then clear embossed, coloured with Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo and Fired Brick Distress inks and cut out was added on one side.
3. The leaf panel is made using the Encapsulated UTEE Technique (see side labels) with Scattered Straw on the background stamped with Hero Arts Long Writing in Vintage Photo. The leaf is stamped in Vintage Sepia VersaFine  ink and clear embossed. It was then coloured with Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo and Fired Brick Distress inks then cut out.
4. The letters are Hero Arts LL829 Artistic Uppercase Alphabet stamped on twill tape with Vintage Sepia VersaFine ink and cut up.
5. The acrylic resist tag is attached to a hessian frayed edge tag with a hessian loop and stapled together. A button was sewn on the top.

                                                                                                       

Best Friends Ready Steady Stamp Challenge

I found out about the Ready Steady Stamp Challenge via Sue Roddis's blog and felt I just had to enter as I bought some more of Tim Holtz's gorgeous masks at Ally Pally last weekend.
For the challenge, you have to use 5 ingredients:
The letter B
Colours pink, white and grey
Brackets
Masks in the background
Corrugated card
This helped take my mind off the unwanted thing brought back last weekend, a nasty cold, and stopped me feeling sorry for myself lol!

 

The background paper on the card is white card on which I arranged the masks from the Floret mini set. I then sponged pink acrylic ink over the masks which covered one side of the card, removed them and repeated this on the other half. When it was dry, I sponged on a little charcoal grey and metallic rose acrylic paint for an antiqued look. I trimmed the right hand edge with scallop scissors.

I painted a rectangle of corrugated card with deep pink acrylic paint and then dry brushed on white, charcoal grey and metallic pink paints.

I stamped the little girls image (CI-084 by Crafty Individuals) on pink marbled card with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink and trimmed close to the image. I cut a piece of white corded card larger than the image and embossed the left hand side with the largest border from the Cuttlebug Frills set. I then trimmed the left edge with scallop scissors. I stuck the image on as shown.

I improvised my bracket using part of the Ornamental Dies 37-1509 for the Cuttlebug and grey card. The saying is part of a stamp by Paperbag Studios PBS-009-E and is stamped in the grey VersaFine ink and just the phrases cut out.

I assembled the card as shown on a grey recycled newsprint square card I made and added a Dymo printed word under the image, one of my treasured Hero Arts fabric printed flowers (don't really want to use these-just want to keep them and look at them lol) and some flat backed grey pearls from Kanban.