Journaling at FSC

Yes the theme is 'Journaling' at Fashionable Stamping Challenges this week and we have the amazing Kate Crane as our Guest Designer. If you haven't seen Kate's fabulous work you can see it at 'The Kathryn Wheel', do pop over and take a look.

I love Kate's work and often pop over for a dose of inspiration.

The background for this tag is a gelli print and I have added some DIs and additional painted textures over the top.

Girl with heart purse from Stampotique was stamped on the tag and on card, coloured with Inktense pencils and cut and stuck over. A great technique as you don't have to worry about the fussy bits when cutting round the image like the dangly bits from her hair and at the bottom of her dress.

The sentiment I found on the internet, but fits her beautifully I think. I just generated it on the PC and printed it out.

The sun is shining for the second day and I have been out in the garden having a good Spring tidy up - yay, at last Winter might just be going. (Sorry that's why I am a bit late publishing today, I had forgotten to schedule it - duh!!!).

I hope you are getting some of the sunshine wherever you are.

Happy Sunday.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Challenges to have fun with -

Anything but a Card - Inspired by (Kate Crane)

Bloggers Challenge - Backgrounds

Use a stamped image at PanPastel UK

Another week flown by and a new challenge announced over at PanPastel UK. 

What stamps are you using this week? I have used Artistic Outpost stamps for my focal image and sentiment.

This is a large size 10 tag blended with PPs. I scraped some onto my craft mat and used them for the wrinkle free distress technique, stamping over with archival ink and sealing with fixative spray.

The mill was stamped onto card also blended with PPs and  'watercoloured' using PPs mixed with water, highlighting with black and white pens, When it was dry I used a palette knife to scrape rock candy crackle paint over it, mounting onto Tim Holtz kraft resist paper blended with DI.

Before I crackled the main image I scanned it and printed it cutting small portions to fill the picture wheel and covered these with glossy accents. Using a TH stamp and picket fence DS I stamped over the wheel and blended walnut stain DI round the edges.

The small tags were blended with DIs and the quote added then stapled together.

Supplies

Stamps - Artistic Outpost - Old Grist Mill and Think and Wonder

            - Ultimate Grunge - Stampers Anonymous

PanPastels - various browns, greens and yellows

Picture Wheel die

Size 10 tag

Kraft resist paper stash

Those who enter the challenge stand a chance of winning a trial set of PanPastels from Berni our fabulous sponsor at Your Creativity Store.

Happy Sunday and thank you for visiting today.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Challenges to have fun with -
Artistic Outpost Referral Programme - Anything Goes with AO stamps

More snow

Just a quick post from me today.

Firstly look what is happening outside in the South of England this afternoon. It's the 4th of April and Spring should have sprung but this persistent winter just keeps on hanging in there.

Luckily I have been at the craft shop with a fabulous group of ladies making collage cards. They wanted to make the one I had made in January and here are their versions.

Thanks ladies for a lovely morning of fun and creativity. Several of them will be back with me on Saturday when we will be making a domino book. I look forward to showing you that one.

I hope you are tucked up somewhere nice and warm today - oh my gosh I have just looked out of the window and the wind is now causing blizzard conditions and the snow is beginning to settle quite fast. We are going out tonight so I hope it doesn't last long.

Enjoy the rest of the day.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Butterflies at CVC

Good morning all, how does that saying go "Pinch, punch, it's the first of the month and no return." April Fools Day - have you been got yet?

Being the first of the month it's a new challenge over at Country View Challenges and the lovely Gabrielle has chosen the theme of BUTTERFLIES. Well of course that suited me right down to the ground.

This started life as a thimble holder acquired from an antique stall in Bridport last year.

Painted, sanded, crackle paint, distress inks and tissue tape added to the box itself and hessian mats in all the spaces.

Lots of little things collected including a photo of each of the grandchildren and .......

lots of butterflies, some Tim Holtz and some The Graphics Fairy.

I loved finding all the bits that could be made into butterflies like a pen nib, key, pins, a bulb and bottle etc.

and cages to keep some butterflies in and some out.

Country View Challenges is monthly and we have changed the rules slightly this month so that you can enter as many times as you want with as many types of style be it card making, tags, mixed media projects, art journalling, in fact anything crafty. So I hope you will join us and there is a generous £20 voucher for Country View Crafts on-line shop for the winner.

I hope your Easter weekend has been good and that you have found some time to 'play'.

Have a great week and see you at CVC challenges.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Challenges to have fun with this week -

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

Sunday Stamper - Nature

Stampin' 4 the weekend - Anything but a card

Anything Goes at PanPastel UK

Happy Easter fellow bloggers, I hope you are having a wonderful weekend filled with family and chocolate lol.

At PanPastel UK today we have an anything goes theme so show us anything you are working on this week and you don't have to use PanPastels to enter.

My DT piece is an Easter greeting to you all wishing you peace and love at this special time of year.

The main image is from Craft Individuals stamped over blended PPs with a layer of rock candy crackle paint around the edges. When dry the crackles were blended over with brown PP to help them show up more. The focal image has been layered onto a piece of Tim Holtz paper which has been dipped into biscotti perfect pearls mist into which I added some clear embossing powder so that when it was heated between dips it added some gritty texture as well. (Too difficult to see on this piece).

The eggs embellishment was made by adding some suze wienburg utee dyes to utee on a heat mat and heating it until it is a liquid form. I had prepared some little containers with some panpastels scraped from around the edge of the container and sprinkled these over the molten utee and heated it all again then stamping into it with a Stampin Up stamp of eggs. When cool I smeared treasure gold over it and painted the back with white acrylic paint to make the eggs stand out more.

The wire represents the hen coop with sunny ribbon and red flowers to match the blend of colours in the image.

We have an Easter egg hunt in the garden today, the girls look forward to it every year, they think it's great fun.

Have a wonderful day yourselves.

hugs {brenda} x0x

More family history

The challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show this week is 'Quotable' and I wanted to do another vintage family history piece having made the hessian backed board a couple of weeks ago of my Grandfather. So this is his parents, making the lady on the left and the gentleman my Great Grandparents Charles William and Annie Axon (nee Brown), with the lady on the right being Edith Ellen who is Annie's sister. I would guess this is early 1900's as they married in 1890.

The quote is from Dyan Reaveley's set "The Right Words" which I felt fitted this photograph of a happy family threesome together. I added the lock, key and heart to fit in with the words.

The background to the photo is chipped sapphire and vintage photo distress inks dipped with picket fence distress stain added in. The base background is from Tim Holtz French Industrial paper stash.

The heart was die-cut in card and then given several layers of distress embossing powders, white fine EP and then lastly a layer of clear EP.

I can't believe it's Easter already and I will be around Sunday with my PP DT piece but wishing you and yours a very happy Easter and a lovely weekend.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Other challenges to have fun with -

Sunday Stamper - Shiny (metal embellishments and the heart)

Rogue Redhead Designs - Sentimental Focus

Wow EP challenge - Anything Goes

Eclectic Elements ATC Extravaganza at UPA

Firstly I just had to share that I have got a place for a 2 day Workshop with Anna Dabrowska at the end of August.
Woo hoo how exciting is that? And I see from the email list that I know quite a few of the other participants too. I am soooooo looking forward to it.


............................

Right onto other little exciting things.

The new publication at Unruly Paper Arts this month is focussing on ATCs and there have already been some brilliant ideas in the articles published.

I have made a little concertina book using three ATCs and some phrases which could be given to someone as a gift or just kept because you like it lol.

If you would like to see more please click the link and be taken across the the UPA blogozine.

Thanks for visiting me today.

hugs {brenda} x0x

HEADS UP

The Country View Anything Goes Challenge finishes this 

SUNDAY so you still have a couple of days to enter if you haven't already or if you want to enter a different type of project. 
ALSO there is a fabulopus GIVE-AWAY to enter, no strings attached. Have you put your name down for it? Look HERE.

Dreaming of Lilies

Two samples for Crafty Individuals today, don't you just love their vintage designs?

This beautiful Lily stamp just cried out to be watercoloured so I had fun playing with my distress markers and watercolour paper.

I was really only experimenting to see how the markers would work, but I finished with two images that I was quite pleased with and could work with.

This card shows the Lily image stamped with coffee archival and watercoloured from the craft mat and a waterbrush.  I just added some masking tape and other collage bits straight onto a craft card.

The second sample has the image stamped with Adirondack dye ink (pesto), given a blast of heat and then also watercoloured using the waterbrush with markers scribbled on the mat. I had to be very careful with this one though as the dye ink reacts with water, so the lines and patterns are not so well defined. I did use the fine end of the DM to draw the Lily back in, but in my style this time which is rather sketchy rather than distinct lines.

I love this simple detail.

These are the four experiments before I chose the two above to work with.

Hope your weekend was good and have a happy week ahead.

hugs {brenda} x0x