Pumpkins - FSC - Shades of Autumn

Well I have two posts for you today. This is the first for Fashionable Stamping Challenges, the other later this morning is an altered item for PanPastel UK.

I haven't played with my FSC sisters for quite a while, but feel that I can commit time to this amazingly creative team again now that the evenings are drawing in (so I can't get out in the garden) and I am not looking after any grandchildren either, the youngest is now in school full time.

I loved playing with this pumpkin stamp from Paper Artsy (one of the new sets I picked up at Ally Pally).

The pumpkins have been embossed with mustard seed, dried marigold and aged mahogany distress embossing powders and then I played with the new Graph'it markers and a white zig pen to fill the spaces and blend the colours into the embossing powder.

I used the bookcover 2 embossing folder, copper paint dabber and various shades of DIs. When I blended the DIs across to the image although I started light in the middle and got darker to the outside, I lost the definition of the pumpkins. To restore it I used my TH water brush and took out some of the colour which created that lovely mottled look and then ........... used my prisma colours over the embossing powder to give me more light and dark and therefore depth.

 I think this looks like a painting now.

What do you think?

(My daughter thought they looked more like apples so I have tried to put more shape into them).

This is one of those cards that came together so easily and didn't take as much pondering over as some of the other projects I do.

I hope we will see you for this challenge - don't forget this is a stamping challenge and digis for the main focus are not accepted, so lets see your inky designs. Pop over to Fashionable Stamping Challenges to see the rules and the challenge post.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing this with me. If you leave me a comment, I thank you sincerely for taking the time and for giving me some feedback.

Have a great Sunday.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Sugar Creek Hollow - Give thanks for autumn

Try It On Tuesday - Lots of Layers

PS - Don't forget my PanPastel piece will be next up a little later today.

Christmas is a comin', Christmas is a comin'

I know, I know, it's still early but I have got it in my head now, so here we are.

I had a play with my PanPastels again this week and made some Christmas tags. 

(At the top of this photo you can see a sneak peek of my PanPastel challenge DT piece coming up on Sunday).

Really easy - using kraft card, die cut the bauble shapes using Tim's Carved Ornaments.

Stamp using embossing ink and Crafty Individuals plate CI-241 snowflake stamp.

Dab white PanPastel over the top and gently blend a creamy tint and then a dark brown around the edges.

Spray with a glittery sealer.

I made a message label in PSE for the back and added some threads.

I think I might use brown paper for wrapping all my presents this year and these will be a great addition to them.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Out of a hat Creations - Christmas in October

Sweet Stampin' - Vintage

Christmas tag for FJ no. 2

I have made my second Christmas tag for the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas challenge, although it is for Linda's first challenge week - I'm just catching up. She has now posted her third one, so I still have one mare to catch up but not lagging behind too much lol. 

I am also joining in with the other Linda at Studio L3 for the Compendium of Curiosities challenge which is to use distress markers. Tim has 2 techniques in his book on P.50, I used the second, adding my own take on it of course.

I drew inspiration from Linda's gorgeous tag wanting to use the metallic distress stains and the marbling technique as explained on P.46 of Tim’s fabulous book, ‘The Compendium of Curiosities’ – Book 2.

I used picket fence, tarnished brass and vintage photo to create the background then added some peeled paint DI before flicking with water and drying. Don't ya just love these gorgeous Christmas Blueprint stamps by Mario III?

Using coffee archival ink I stamped both the Christmas tree and snowflake from the set and stamped the Christmas tree a second time, colouring it in with the distress markers and cutting it out. I added the baubles to the tree instead of to the side. The die-cut letters are the typeset strip die covered with glossy accents, I filled in the baubles with this too.

Some other bits and pieces to finish off including pleated tissue tape covered with the tarnished brass DS. I also painted the metal pieces & tree bulb with the picket fence and tarnished brass DSs, drying them with the heat gun as they 'pooled'. Another look I really love.

I have to say I wasn't happy with the tree at first, it stood out far too much, so I also painted it with the picket fence and tarnished brass DIs, it now blends far better with the rest of the tag whilst still being quite prominent.

You can see I put some snow round the branches too.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks for those who have entered each one. There is plenty of time to take part as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, so no excuses if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects.


Other challenges to have fun with -
Sweet Stampin' challenge - Vintage
Anything but a card - Shiny, Sparkly, Blingy - my die cut letters and baubles are very shiny with glossy accents over them.
That Craft Place - Make your own background
Crafty Mess challenge - Distressed / aged



***********************


Sadly I needed to make a sympathy card today. We had a phone call from Ken's sister on Friday to say her husband was in the Atkinson Morley hospital having had a huge brain bleed, he passed away Sunday afternoon.

***********************************

Have a good week and as my friend Joyce says, make sure you give your loved ones a cuddle when you next see them.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} xox

What's on your Workdesk? Wednesday - Just

I know I'm a bit late today for WOYWW #174, but I have been to my sister who lives over 60 miles from me and got back to pick the little grandchildren from school as the eldest is back in hospital and will probably be in for a while again. Since her big op she has been sick (physically) and the doctors don't seem to know what's going on. I hope they get it sorted soon.

As my desk has everything piled on it that was on the floor, ready for hoovering, I thought I would show you some of the shelves behind my chair. Not that interesting I know but maybe the next picture will be.

If you visited me last week for WOYWW #173 you saw part of a canvas peeking out and many of you said you would like to see it finished, so this is it.

It was the canvas we made at my workshop on Saturday and the ladies just loved it. 

Text paper and scrumpled tissue paper texture for the background, patterned paper squares edged with glitter, The Eiffel Tower image and die-cut and some embellishing.

Ooh, la, la.

I am entering this canvas into the Make My Monday challenge of Paris.

Happy WOYWW, hope you have had a good day if you are in the UK or ahead of us in time, and having a good day if you are behind us.

Please pop over to Julia's lovely blog at the Stamping Ground, she who organises and hosts this great opportunity to visit people's work stations all round the world. If you haven't yet ventured into desk hopping I have to say it's great fun.

See you soon.

hugs {brenda} xox

My Give-Away Winner

Just a quick post to congratulate the winner of my Give-Away. 

I used Random Org to select and as you can see the number generated from 46 entrants is number 2 and that is .........

***************

****************

*****

******************************

****************

********

********************************************

************************

************

KATHYK of PURPLE PRINCESS DIARIES

Congratulations Kathy.

I hope you enjoy the new supplies and if you send me an email (address on my sidebar) I will get these in the post to you.

A huge thank you to everyone who took part.

Watch out for another give-away coming soon as I have just reached 600 posts and I thought that should warrant another pressie for some-one.

I have been out all day today but I am now gonna feed the grandchildren and then once I have dropped them home I will get onto WOYWW.

See you soon.

hugs {brenda} xox

UPA - Add dimension to your canvas

It's October, can you believe????? with a new monthly theme at Unruly PaperArts and we are looking forward to seeing how you use canvas in your projects.

There are two RAQs (Reader's Art Quests) for you to enter, the first being a painted project and the second is about how you add dimension. My piece for the RAQ introduction is for the second one.

The addition of texture adds another dimension to your canvas. Textures can include gesso, modelling paste, fabrics, string, chipboard pieces, tissue paper, just anything you want to add really.

Here is my collection adhered to the canvas before I added a coat of gesso. We have muslin (fabric), kitchen roll, book text, paper lace, string and decorator's jointing tape.

This is glued to the canvas, once it was dry I covered it with  a coat of gesso, stippling in places to blend the pieces and creating more texture where needed.

You can see the changes in texture and some of the stippled gesso behind the butterfly.

This is my grandaughter, taken while we are at Disneyland this august and before she had to have that emergency op a few weeks later.

She is a star, so there had to be one on the canvas somewhere.

I feel like a Prima lady with all these flowers, but I really enjoyed making something different for a change and I am going to hang this on the dining room wall. It was recently painted and needs some new things to decorate it.

 I will be doing a step-by-step on how I add dimension and texture to my canvases which will be on my Eclectic Elements column for Unruly later in the month.

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things." 

Have a creative week.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Anything but a card - shiny, sparkly, blingy (lots of bits and pieces on here to meet that requirement).

Totally Gorjuss - Punches and dies

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Autumn - Fall into Fall

I did a workshop yesterday for a lovely group of crafters that come regularly to my classes and we made a French themed canvas (I will post it in the week), very shabby chic in style. When I got home I was really fired up to make something vintage and pretty and had a few challenges in mind to enter.

Frilly and Funkie - Fall into Fall

Sugar Creek Hollow - Wings (bees and butterflies on my tag)

Stampin' for the weekend - Floral

The Playdate Cafe - Wine, pumpkin, moss colours

So this is the result. I am really into extending my tags at the moment and have made 3 recently where I have added a DP mount, lengthening the tag, providing a frame for it and extra space for some embellishing and sentiments. I am going to call it my extended tag.

If you look closely you can see two honeycomb patterns, one was stamped the other a mask, I also stamped some plants and bees using Nature walk from SU.

The lace is from the Funkie Junkie Boutique and the words are computer generated.

I love the dimension of these flowers using the TH tattered flower garden die.

Have a great Sunday, it started beautifully sunny earlier but the wind has got up and the clouds have rolled in. Just hope it stays dry.

hugs {brenda} xox

Other challenges to have fun with -

Crazy 4 Challenges - Leaves

Sunday Stamper - What makes you happy (Lots of inky playing)
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

PanPastels - It's all in the sentiment

Another Sunday has rolled around and we see a new challenge at PanPastel UK where the focus is on using a sentiment on your project.

I lived up to my sentiment and decided to take a risk, well more than one actually. I have used a topper, unheard of for me, and also backing paper from the same set. 

I have mixed styles too adding a Dylusions quote and a journalling style backer using PPs and a great new embossing ink pad (for me) which really changes the colours. 

The butterflies were cut out from a spare piece of the backing paper. I have been doing some quite grungy pieces lately that this pastel card was very very refreshing, not something I have been doing lately. I don't think I have missed a moment of magic, but I certainly enjoyed playing with different materials and ideas.

I hope we will see you in your sentiment this week over at the PP challenge blog and if you are lucky you could win a fabulous prize from 'Your Creativity Store'.

Hope you have some fun creative time for you today.

hugs {brenda} xox

First Christmas piece for this year.

My second post for today. This tag was on my desk yesterday for WOYWW and as I said I needed to get it finished as I want to enter these challenges;

 Simon Says Stamp and Show - For the love of sparkle. 

Compendium of Curiosities at Studio L3 - Riveted Patchwork

The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas - Week #2 

(I've still got #1 to do but ordered some things so I can join in)

I have also made this for Crafty Individuals using stamp plate CI 136.

I used gold, cranberry and bottle alcohol inks on the metal riveted patchwork tag (this technique was my inspiration from Linda's fabulous tag) and red pepper on the metal star. I used stickles and treasure gold on the vintage Noel and have a glittered bauble; then taken the patchwork, and snowflakes as my inspiration from Linda.

I have used one of the mini snowflake rosettes from Tim's new dies.

I used prisma colours for the image but disappointed they didn't show up well on these photos, irl there is much more depth of colour on the faces and beard.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks as long as you enter each one. There is plenty of time to enter as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, giving plenty of time to catch up if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects. So let's see if I can get all 12 made this year.

The sun is shining here although the clouds are rolling in. Maddison had her first full day at school yesterday so I no longer have to pick her up at lunchtime, but I miss her already.

Hope your day is going well.

hugs {brenda} xox

Halloween - bloody, skull moon

Had to have a play with some Halloween bits.

Background made with smooching and dipping dark DI's. Stamped with crackle stamp and black archival ink. Dipped again in festive berries and ripe persimmon mixed with cosmic shimmer mists. Ribbon dyed with same colours.

Embellished with - a blood moon with skull (moon made with vintage optometrist lens), cobwebbed cat and spiked railings.

For some reason the photos look blurred to me today, I will try them again later.

Go wherever your creativity takes you.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

City Crafter - An early Boo

Crazy Amigos - No cards

TIOT - Lots of Layers