Inspiration Post at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, I have an inspiration post over at Stamps and Stencils today and keeping with the current challenge theme of 'Elements of Nature' I've been playing with skeleton leaves again to create a book....so this book has leaves inside and out! Here's a sneaky peek, please hop over to the blog for all the details.

Thanks for stopping by x

Take 3 spoons at Stamps and stencils

Hi everyone, it's my turn for another inspiration post over at Stamps and Stencils. This time I've been playing with spoons...to find out more please hop across here.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Happy Holidays at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, the very talented Toni is our host for this months challenge over at Stamps and Stencils. The theme is Happy Holidays and I'll let Toni explain in her own words...

It's that time of year where you may be thinking about dusting off your passport and digging out your swimsuit! Yes it's holiday time ! Whether you're a lover of the seaside or someone who enjoys a city break, we would love to see your holiday inspired projects. This could be journalling, altered art, or even a good old card. Just remember that we are a mixed media challenge blog and your project should reflect that and as the name of our blog  suggests, don't forget to include some stamping and stencilling

So how did I get from the above to my creation? Well a happy holiday for me would involve the sea and walks along a sandy beach with our dog. It hasn't changed from when the children were young, it was something we all looked forward to on arriving at our destination... looking for 'treasure' on the beach or exploring rock pools. At first I was thinking whitewashed or bleached wood and sandy colours, with plaster moulded shells but I was restricted by the supplies I had and the moulds or stamped images into plaster just didn't work. I then remembered a holiday where we visited a 'fossil beach' and found an ammonite and then wondered if I could use UTEE instead instead of plaster...so that's the route I travelled.

I started off with a 6x6 deep edge box canvas, I removed the canvas and flipped it over.

The supplies, the ammonite stamp is quite old but you can get alternative ones or a nautilus shell stamp would work well.

Clear UTEE heated till it starts to turn amber and then a little gold leaf and brown mica flake was added.

Poured on to a mat and the stamp had some versamark and chalk fresco on it before stamping. I had no idea how it would turn out but boy did I like the result....the bubbles just added to the effect.

I could have left it as it was but I wanted it to look more defined so I added some treasure gold to the ridges. The base is grey board which I roughly marked the aperture on to.Next grunge paste firstly just textured with a palette knife, then once dry I stencilled some more through the bubble stencil. To finish some fresco paint in pumpkin and irish cream dry brushed on.

I wanted the image to be raised up so the light would show through from behind so I've used 3D transparent gel medium. (UTEE doesn't normally adhere well, I used some superglue on the back of it and adhered it to a piece of clear acetate before adhering that to the gel)

Onto the frame, chalk fresco lightly washed over the whole frame. On the sloped sides of the recess I randomly covered half with irish cream, then filled in the remainder with pumpkin soup. Crackle glaze and a top coat of chalk.

Onto the sides

Saffron archival stamping, then a wash of thinned chalk fresco.

Stamping in irish cream and another 'wash'

Grunge paste again through a stencil, dry brush irish cream and a wash of chalk fresco.

A tickle of treasure gold to finish. 

Please hop across and see what the rest of the very talented design team have made, We're so looking forward to seeing your holiday inspired projects.  Hope you enjoyed the post and as always thanks for stopping by!

'Small is beautiful'

Hi, it's time for our June challenge over at Stamps and Stencils and the very talented Julia has chosen the theme this time. Here's what she has to say about it. For this challenge you are asked to make or alter something small. This could be a tiny book or journal, an ATC or ATB, a small canvas or box/tin of similar size - anything as long as it is small.You must use at least one stampand one stencil on your project.

Well I quite like making small things so I had lots of ideas but eventually settled on altering a small ATB (3.8cm). It's very quirky for me, so I'm hoping at least one visitor I know may like it.. DG?

A few years ago I never really 'got' art dolls, things have changed and I've now become quite smitten, especially by the very talented Trish Latimer's art doll creations. I was influenced by her work in creating mine...though you might not think so :-)

I used copper wire for wings and the colour scheme just grew from there. The photo above is on canvas but I swapped it at a later stage for a larger photo as the canvas didn't look right. I used greyboard squares for the panels.

We have to use at least one stamp and one stencil this month..well I used 2 stencils with art basics graphite texture paste and 3 stamps with the triple embossing technique (see Yvonne's fab tutorial here) 

Copper treasure gold..in abundance!

Cotton reel painted in black gesso and some text stamping with copper embossing (of course) and I used some texture paste on the base panel.

Still not sure if the photo is too large but I wanted to use the image of my mother when she was about 10. Paper flowers transformed the same way and some beads in gel with mica powder.

It was so difficult to choose which panel should be on the front, as I liked them all.

The graphite paste has a sparkle which catches the light as well as the sheen from the copper.

Please hop across here for all the details and visit the rest of the very talented DT creations, hope you'll be inspired to join in, we can't wait to see what you come up with!

In these shoes........?

I made these a while ago, inspired by Leonie Pujols tutorial here. I had some scrapfx freebies and I really couldn't see me using them but they were perfect for this.

 Really liked the end result ......great for a card for one of my nieces. The only extra I added was on the base of each shape I stencilled some treasure gold through before I started dipping them.

I used the same stencil and treasure gold to make the background for the card, added some walnut stain DI around the edge and the central panel was embossed using one of TH sizzix embossing folders. Think I might keep the green shoe, reminds me of when I used to wear platforms...