Another Stampotique Challenge!!

Have to say ....I'm hooked on these Stampotique challenges!! I was thrilled to be a 'Designers Favourite' again last time with my journal page! My journal is now on its way to Scotland for the next lady to work in it, and I am awaiting a delivery very soon of my next one.

This week the challenge over at Stampotique is A Bookmark and has been set by the amazingly talented Kate Crane!

Here is my offering......

I tried taking photos with a variety of cameras and in a variety of places, but not one of them shows up the sheen that was on the bookmark :(  I created the background using acrylic paints, then stencilled the stars using Viva metallic paint. I 'splattered' a little watery, silver paint all over and then sprayed with Glimmer Mist when the paint was dry.

I stamped Great Moon onto some card I had roughly painted silver, then cut it out. I also stamped the image directly onto the bookmark and stuck the cut out moon and star on top of this one. The owl is stamped onto white card, painted with acrylics and cut out. The sentiment is computer generated and the second owl is perched on a piece of old book paper. My usual bit of doodling was the finishing touch!!

Here's a bit of a closer view...

I then laminated the bookmark and threaded a ribbon through the top....this photo is really bad, as I knew it would be, because of the reflection from the laminate, but I hope you get the general idea!

My bookmark is already in use....although this will be temporary, as I am already the owner of a beautiful bookmark, which was a gift from my lovely friend, Helen. Here it is......and I'm sure you will see why and don't want to replace it at the moment!!

Thanks for looking and for leaving your lovely comments!!

xxx

A Very New Challenge....

In my last post I mentioned that I had an exciting mission coming up!! As many of you know, I have been wanting to dip my toes into the waters of 'Art Jounalling' for a while, but have never been quite brave enough! The ever lovely Kirsty Wiseman did an on-line class in June, and I thought this might be a good place for me to start....still working on this one(!)....but as a result of it I have made lots of new on-line friends and 10 of us have joined together to form a 'Circle Journal'. This has made me get my finger out and finally give art journalling a go!!
 As this weeks Designers Challenge over at Stampotique is  Altering a Book Page I have completed the first page in my journal and entered into the challenge too! Two birds...one stone, etc!!

Background completed!

Finished page!

I am thrilled with my first attempt and have realised how addictive this is going to become!! Background is created with Claudine's paints and Girl with Heart Purse and Marci are coloured with Dylusions Ink Sprays Their wings are from Lisa's Altered Images. I chose the bravery and courage theme as, personally, this is a big step for me! 

Here's the front cover of my travelling journal which I will say farewell to on September1st, and welcome back in June next year!

I have decided to make duplicate copies of the pages I do for the other journals, so here is the cover of that one..

...and finally, several weeks ago I mentioned it was my lovely mum and dad's Emerald Wedding Anniversary.

Kirsty came over and took some lovely photos for us...I'm sharing this one of the three of us with you.

Thanks for visiting...and commenting!!

xxxxx

HOORAY!!!!!

Well...at last I make it back to The Land of Blog!!! We had a lovely holiday in France, but it's taken me a while to get back into the swing of crafting...it always does! At least I did better than last year...I didn't reappear till January after my summer holiday then!! LOL!!

I did do a bit of stuff whilst away. I signed up to Kirsty Wiseman's 'Me in My Moleskine' journal class, so I packed the things I needed to start on that....Bethany joined me with this venture and we had a good time working on our books together. We had a pretty major disaster with a bottle of Jade Dylusions (why is it always the Jade one??), but apart from that all was well. Ian refused to take us out for dinner that night as he said we both looked like The Jolly Green Giant/ Shrek/ Princess Fiona .......you're getting the general idea?? That was fine by me, as he was doing all the cooking anyway!!! (The 8lb weight gain was a downside to that!!) Hopefully our little journals will be completed soon and I will share them with you then.

Last Friday I joined friends, old and new at the 'Ladies Who Lunch' Play Day in Sheffield. It was great to see people again and we had a great time in the morning following Ann's (Flutterby Crafter) instructions to make bobbins...not quite finished this yet, it needs further embellishment, but it was fun to do...hardly any swearing at all!!!

After lunch another Anne (Liverpool Lou) showed us how to make a concertina box file using the cover from an old hard-backed book. I have to say there was plenty of swearing this time , as fitting the folded card together was a little fiddly to say the least!! I have finished this one, and am absolutely delighted with it....

Now I have somewhere to keep all those tags and other bits that keep falling off the end of my desk!!! Thanks to both Ann/e's for your fabulous instructions!

Thanks for looking....have another exciting mission up my sleeve, but more about that soon!!

xxx

Hide.....and Seek!!!

I've had such a busy week or so, that I wasn't sure I would manage to enter this weeks Stampotique Designers Challenge. So glad I managed it.......the theme has been set by Valerie and is 'Use Up Your Scraps'.

Now I am a scrap-saver extraordinaire...when I first started paper crafting I kept the tiniest of offcuts...'just in case'!! However, I like new sheets of paper and am REALLY bad at using up scraps, even though I'm very good at collecting them!! So this challenge made me think a little...I spread some bits and pieces out to see what I had...

...and decided there must be SOMETHING useful amongst it!! Then I got my favourite box of stamps out (HONESTLY, it is!!) and that had lots or pre-stamped figures in it.... so they are sort of scraps, right??

I found a piece of paper that I'd hacked a flower off at some time and cut out the rest to make a border (forgot to take 'before' photo, but you get the idea?

I then found a piece of old book paper which had been previously sprayed with yellowy, orange inks and noticed that the words were rather appropriate to be made into a bright sunshine!!!

I chose images of Head and Olivia and when I placed them on the card they looked like they may have been enjoying a game of 'Hide & seek' in the tall flowers, so I found some apt words in an old dictionary!

 A bit of doodling (you know I can never resist!) completed my card.

When I showed it to Bethany she said, "It's lovely, but it doesn't really look like you used scraps!" I think I may have been a little grumpy when I assured her that I had!!

Hope you like it too....off now to complete preps for a small family gathering we are holding tomorrow to celebrate my lovely parents Emerald (55th) Wedding Anniversary!!

We are off on holiday on Friday, but I will try and update before we go...if not see you when I get back!

xxx

Hats off to....the colour of money!!

Been on a bit of a challenge blog hop to see what was going on out there and decided I could enter '2-for-the-price-of-1'!! If I'd put my mind to it I probably could have done more, but...hey, they'll have to be a separate post!!
Anyway over on The Sunday Stamper the theme is Hats and on Gingersnap Creations the colour challenge theme is The Colour of Money. Here is my entry.....which I think satisfies both lots of requirements!!

I opted for a purple theme to link in nicely with all those crisp £20 notes I was supposed to win on the lottery last night!!! (They pulled the wrong numbers out...AGAIN!). I created the background using acrylic paints and some spray inks, then distressed the edge and inked it with Dusty Concorde DI. I stamped Stampotique's Twinkie onto white card, cut him out and painted him with acrylics. The hat is a Dylusions stamp stamped onto some glossy card coloured with StazOn which I found in my off-cuts box. I finished off with a definition of 'hat' from an old dictionary, a computer generated quote....and a rather large bow!!

Thanks for looking and for leaving a comment...they really make my day!

xxx

Cards...and cats!!

I got my inspiration for my entry to this weeks Stampotique Designers Challenge from a small cushion I keep on my bed. The challenge this week has been set by Joanne Wardle and is 'Clean and Simple'. I'd been having a bit of a sub-conscious think about what I could do, but have never been  inspired by making the bed before!!! First time for everything, I suppose!! Anyway, here's the cushion that started it all....

.....and here is my 'clean and simple' creation!

I started by stamping Kitty onto white card, then masked her and stamped Daisy Daisy over the top. I added a touch of colour to the flowers and grass with Dylusions spray inks. I finished off with the typed sentiment and, of course, a touch of doodling!!

Couldn't finish without letting you see the REAL inspiration.....

....Charlie.....

...and Daisy!

Thanks for looking...and for leaving your lovely comments! I really do appreciate them....

xxx

Stampotique Acetate Challenge.....

I know....I know!!!! But I did tell you I'd be back sooner than you thought!!! I made this tag on Saturday as well as my pen pot, but as they were for two separate challenges, they needed their own blog entries! So this one is for the Stampotique Designers Challenge 31: Acetate.
The challenge was to create a project using acetate and Stampotique only stamps. The second part was easy, but I'm not a huge acetate fan....anyway, have to say, I quite enjoyed it!!

I started by cutting a tag using the Tim Holtz die with the 'Dream' inlay and coloured this with Broken China Distress Ink. The stars were made using a template and Wild Honey DI. I finished off by inking the edges with Black Soot and a bit of doodling (naturally!). I used the Tiny Star from Text stars to randomly stamp over the whole tag. The lovely Moon Girl is stamped onto an acetate tag...and this is where I discovered that acetate was so useful!! I had wanted her to sit on something, but the right way round she just didn't look right on the star....but when I flipped the acetate over to colour her heart I realised she fitted perfectly the other way round...RESULT!!! I stamped three Text Stars onto white card...one is on the original tag and is Moon Girls perch and the other two are stuck onto the acetate.

.....the acetate 'bit'!

I still had a bit of a gap on the right hand side and Moon Girl looks so 'dreamy' that I thought the 'Dream a little dream' words were just right!! I finished by tying the two tags together and sticking some black card behind the open word.

Hope you like......

xxx