The Stamp Man - Circles

Well better late than never they say. This is my second post for today and my piece for the Stamp Man challenge. For this fortnight, as you can see, the theme is circles. I struggled with this one, Mr Mojo doesn't stay around when you are tired does he? And I lost some circle stamped pieces that Jill sent me to use - what am I like - honestly?

My inspiration was Laura Liddell's tutorial on how to make your own craft resist card at Gingersnap Creations and the colour combo at Play Date Cafe.

To get the colours and effect I wanted I ended up using -
DIs - dusty concord, mustard seed, peeled paint and black soot
Whispers colouring pens pinks and purples and Aquamarkers Bamboo
Archival black
Aspects of Design antique effect background stamp from The Stamp Man
TH Papillon and Mini Classic stamps
clear embossing powder and versamark
kraft card and white card
Spellbinders Lacey Circles

My learning for today is -
This was much more about technique than outcome. Next time I will try it on cream or white card to see the different effects. I also need to get some more large background technique stamps. Artist? Well I would like to think I'm getting there!!

Please pop over to the Stamp Man Challenge blog to see the fabulous designs from the team and I hope you will participate. Don't forget that Jill gives a £10.00 voucher to the winner as chosen by the DT, well worth an entry don't you think? Jill has her new on-line shop going live this weekend and she now accepts PayPal as well.

Hope your Sunday is going well. Thanks for stopping by today and thanks even more if you have been here twice.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Halloween Diorama

We have a fabulous line-up at Fashionable Stamping Challenges again this week, where we challenge you to make anything but a card. There is so much scope for this and the fabulous Stampettes have got some amazing inspirational pieces for you to check out. 

So what can you make with a canvas and a wooden frame???

A slow reveal - but warning photo overload!!!!!

I have had this piece in my head for months and months just waiting for Halloween to come round and it has also been in the making for weeks and weeks. I would do a bit, think some more, leave it and then come back to it again. I don't know how many times I have done that.

The frame was painted with gesso and stippled to give texture then stamped with 2 different background stamps, one in brown archival ink and the other in black, and then covered with a wash of PaperArtsy metallic glaze. 

I used TH tissue tape covered the back edges of the canvas. The stamp is from Crafty Individuals - thanks Lucy for letting me ink it up. 

After painting the image with DIs, I covered the bird with glossy accents.

So you can see I am using the back of the canvas to give me some 3D space.

It's been great fun collecting all the pieces and then putting it together. It looks a bit different now Shirley from when you last saw it.

Hand made labels, alcohol inks, beads and BBQ ash all make up the apothecary bottles. 

The labels are available from one of my posts HERE.

The spider and web are from a Halloween party spider web pack.

You can see that my melt pot and beeswax came out for this project - dripping wax over the cork stopper and letting it drip down the sides of the bottles.

The shiny skull is a valve cap!

Can you start to see what I have made?

Some jewellery, Charlotte doll mould, pumpkin and mushroom add to the overall effect. As does the skull and rose ring that I got from a car-boot sale recently.

The old watch was also from a car-boot and the bugs are off of necklaces bought from Primark in their sale at the end of the summer.

I am really pleased with this 3D diorama and will hang it in my hall for Halloween. Sarah at La-De-Dah is a talented and inspirational artist and hosts My Mojo Monthly - so this month I thought I would show this piece and I thought I would enter it and see if it is eligible for her creative surfaces focus, although it's not a book cover, so probably not - but please let me know Sarah.

So go take a look at what prize is on offer at The Fashionable Stamping Challenge blog and I look forward to seeing your creations over there.

If you are making a Halloween card, tag or project, please link it to my Halloween Printables post HERE. 

I am making some Halloween tags and will give one away on the 1st November.

I thought I would enter this into these challenges -
Crafty Individuals - Winged things
Happy Daze - Christmas or Halloween
Tando Creative - Spooktastic
Delightful Challenges - Make it dimensional
City Crafter - Going 3D


Happy Sunday to you all and thanks for stopping by to take a look at my creation.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox