Thursday 30 June 2016

Inspiration post at Stamps and Stencils.

Hi everyone, I have an inspiration post over at Stamps and Stencils today. I've been using a product that is new to me...Yupo paper and combined it with alcohol inks. Some inky messy fun was had, so I hope you'll hop across and see what I've been up to.


Thanks for stopping by. x

Tuesday 28 June 2016

A few cards...

Hi everyone, hope you're all well out there in blog land, just thought it was time to share a few cards I made recently.


Brayered paint, some stencilling and a flower to match.


This was  a card made in a rush....I had half an hour but luck was on my side at the time.




Next a painty background using a credit card to scrape the paint (a technique I saw on the PaperArtsy stand).


Took a few attempts to keep a nice clean edge as I am such a messy crafter. I added some stickles and white pen spots too.



And to finish this trio of cards, I'm sharing a trio of hearts.


A crackled heart


Colorstix and stencils on this heart


...and for those that may have wondered what I made with my infusions and gel experiments (see here), love how this turned out with the addition of a little treasure gold.


Thanks as always for stopping by.

Sunday 19 June 2016

Fabric play and pincushions

Hi everyone, following on from my last post I've been messing around with fabric. I've tried EPP (english paper piecing) before without much success, this time around I've created a pincushion...or maybe it's half a football!


At a recent show I'd picked up some grab bags of PaperArtsy 'minis'. I had some Egyptian cotton on my desk and just decided to stamp all the images on to the fabric in black archival...so why the pincushion?

Well, I'd recently seen someone demonstrating EPP and it tempted me get some of my tilda fabric out and have another go. It's quite a nice thing to do in an evening and not sure what I'll make but I'm enjoying dabbling and it's a work in progress.


I was then trying to think how I could use it and thought a pincushion might be quite a good idea. I found a lovely turtle or tortoise made out of hexagons and pentagons and realised I wouldn't be able to use what I'd made so far but would need to cut out different shapes and that's when I decided to use the stamped images.
I decided not to make feet or a head just a round mound, only when I came to sew it up did I realise in black and white it could look like half a football. Anyway it's made and I'm entering it in the current Fabric challenge at PaperArtsy.

I quite liked the idea of making pincushions and so using some more tilda fabric I created another style of pincushion.


Short post but hope you enjoyed it and thanks for stopping by. Ruth x

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Hessian Sampler at PaperArtsy

Hi everyone, I have a fabric themed project over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight for their new challenge. Hope you'll hop across to see what I've been up to....and here's a sneaky peek to tempt you!


As always, thank you all so much for stopping by, I truly appreciate it. R x

Thursday 2 June 2016

Floral Frenzy at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, well it's my turn to host this months challenge over at Stamps and Stencils and as I LOVE flowers and June is a month when they burst forth right, left and centre  the choice of theme was easy. FLOWERS, stamped, stencilled, handmade, premade as long as they are centre stage on your project and you've included some stamping or stencilling then we want to see your mixed media projects. I've opted for a vintage route this month and yes I've been using PaperArtsy infusions...again!


I started by using some infusions on card stock in blackcurrant and orange county, mixed with pearl glaze.


On this piece I applied the glaze it in a cross hatch pattern and I think I've also used golden sands as well.


I've applied Finnabairs 3D gloss gel through a stencil on this and you can see the colour starting to absorb


On this one I've used gold paint as a base, very loosely brushed on and this time I've added sage in to the mix.


It spreads out differently on a gloss or non absorbent background, and I've stencilled more gel on top.


I die cut some tattered floral flowers from the card and covered a piece of hardboard with some Prima paper I had from a Finnabair workshop


A wash of gesso and some light molding paste


Starting to layer up scraps


Some more gel and gesso and then a little clear crackle paste...it's all about the layers


Once dry, drips of prima blooms in Peony and Tea stain and some Lindy's stamp gang sprays.


Stamping, dry brushing...


archival ink around the edges and a few micro beads.


assemble the flowers


 a few embellishments


and it's complete.


I hope you'll be inspired to join in and please hop across and see some fabulous inspiration from my teamies.

I'm entering this in a couple of challenges, firstly Anything but Cute which is celebrating it's first anniversary...really, where did the time go? It's the first time I've been able to join in and as the theme this month  is 'Celebrate your style' it fits perfectly...'experimenting' and although I have quite an eclectic style, vintage and Finnabair style is one of my favourite comfort zones.

The second challenge is over at Our Creative Corner, where we are getting messy, well if you'd seen my hands after playing with the infusions and gel and paint and my creation isn't a clean and simple one, I'm hoping it qualifies for 'A Beautiful Mess'.  Sadly it's also their  last challenge for the time being so I wanted to join in.

As always thanks for stopping by. Ruth x