Crafty Individuals' Challenge - Santa and his Sleigh

 

There is still time to enter the December Crafty Individuals' challenge which is to make something Festive. Why not enter those Crafty Individuals' Christmas cards you have been making? All the details are here, and there is a fab prize.

I have made this Santa sleigh, covered with Crafty Individuals' Christmas background paper. The recently released Santa stamp was embossed in black for definition and coloured with Distress Inks, as was Rudolph, which was cut away from the stamp 332 so that he appears to be pulling the sleigh. I embossed loads of fir trees in green embossing powder from the set 257 to fill up the sleigh.

Thank you so much for all your support, comments, and friendship this year. I hope you have a very happy and healthy Christmas and New Year, surrounded by those you love.

12 Days of Christmas Noel Plaque for Snazzys

Over on the Snazzys Blog I have my second make using the gorgeous Graphic 45 '12 Days of Christmas' kit. I would love you to pop over and visit me there!

12 Days of Christmas Clock

Today is my first day as Design Team member over at Snazzys! I hope you will pop over there and say Hello. We were sent a fab Graphic 45 '12 Days of Christmas' kit to work with and my first offering is this clock.

I went to Snazzys in Swindon for the first time yesterday with my friend, Jean, and had a good natter with Val and Don who were so kind and friendly. If you are within striking distance of Swindon it is a fabulous shop to visit and has such a great selection of products by Ranger, Eco Green, Paper Artsy, Kaisercraft, Chapel Road, and lots more. If you are a shopaholic as I am, it is very near the Great Western Factory Outlets!

For more photos and details of how the clock was made (a trip to Poundland was involved!), pop over to Snazzys!

Think and Wonder Plaque

I've made this plaque for the Artistic Outpost anything goes Referral Programme for November using the little girl from the Think and Wonder plate. I stamped her onto shrink plastic which I cut with the Tim Holtz arch die and then filled in the edges with the floral border from the Flapper Fashions plate and coloured it with Pro Markers. I painted the plaque with various green shades of Fresco Finish, giving a mottled effect.

I used some grunge paste through the Mini Art Is stencil and then mixed some with the Fresco paint and spread it through the Mini Chicken Wire. I stamped the plaque with text from French Flight and Flower Market in shades of green and blue Archival ink, and then the flowers and butterflies from Flower Market in Black. I filled in with the mesh from Whimsical Musings. I made some clay wings to go behind the shrink plastic arch and highlighted them with Treasure Gold in Ice Fire.

To finish off I edged the plaque with Ice Fire and added some pink hanging cord.

You can get Artistic Outpost stamps from them here

Art Doll Carol Singer

I just got back from France this evening and I must be crazy as I walked in the door and straight into my craft room! Whilst I was away I had spotted that the lovely people at the Eclectic Paperie were having a challenge to make an Art Doll. I really fancied this and some ideas started to take shape over the coming few days, thinking I had all of November. Then I thought to look back at the challenge deadline and realized it was today, my return date! I also wanted to join in the Indigo Blu challenge which is Chocolate Orange, which also closes today, at 8 pm, just to make it that little bit more interesting! No chance of photographing my make in daylight but I can always switch the photos tomorrow. For what I had in mind I thought the new Jane stamp by Indigo Blu would be perfect. I had wondered about using one of my favourite Lynne Perella stamps but I felt for an art doll something without too much decoration already incorporated into it was the way to go. I also felt as it is such a huge stamp that it would work well on shrink plastic and that this would have more substance than just a stamped image on cardstock.

 

I always think the difficulty with art dolls is making something self-supporting and I'd had an idea for a while of using a mini easel so that the struts were the legs and the canvas the body, and the whole thing would then stand up on its own and everything else could hang off it. I painted the canvas orange and covered it with music script tissue wrap and painted the easel chocolate brown. I stamped Jane in brown and made an orange shrink plastic flower for her hair from the Live Laugh Love set. I didn't completely shrink it but stopped whilst it was curled up a little to give it some shape so it would sit proud of her head. I gave her rusted wings and a ruffle collar made from the Alterations rosette die so she looked like an angelic chorister with the music script body. I added a rusted light bulb so she could look like she was going carol singing with a lantern.

I gave her 'dress' a zipper and added a row of tiny orange and white buttons along the bottom. I pulled the feet off a skeleton and painted them a 'live' flesh pink and glued them onto the struts of the easel. I finished her off with orange lipstick and pearl earrings. Well, it would be rude not to!

Exciting News - Snazzys DT!

I hope you will share with me my exciting news! I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the design team for Snazzys scrapbooking and stamping design studio in Swindon, which also has an on-line shop. It is the perfect opportunity for me and I am so excited. Congratulations too, to my new teamies Diane and Claire, and to the lovely Minxy who is staying on.

My introduction is over on the site and I would love it if you said Hello to me over there. We were asked to pick a favourite item we had made in the past as an example of our work. I chose the tin man which I made a long time ago now but still like. It is not a very 'stampy' project but it was fun and reflects my love of using things that I have lying around and upcycling them. The original project is here.

I am really looking forward to making my first projects for Snazzys!

New Crafty Individuals Stamps!

Crafty Individuals have just released five gorgeous new stamp plates! The top three are Christmas although the girls under the umbrella could be used without the greeting at any time of the year and I think will be a favourite. I am crazy about that Alice Palace owl though! The bottom two are perfect for friendship and the flappers will co-ordinate with the previously released flappers if you already have any from that range. The one on the right says, 'To Love and be Loved is the Greatest Happiness'. That's my belief.

You can get the new stamps from here.

Lynne Perella Canvas Board with Metal Flowers inspired by Alison for Paper Artsy

 

 

 

I didn't have very much time this week but I wanted to make something for the Paper Artsy challenge as the lovely Alison (butterfly) has been Guest Designer. She made an amazing house with lots of layers of paint, stencils, and stamping, and I particularly wanted to try the rusted metal flowers. Alison used rusting powder but she also recommended a combination of Blood Orange, Cinnamon, and Brown Shed Frescos so I used these on some metal flowers from a Primark necklace and some leaf charms and photo corners. I added a sprinkling of Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder for the textured aspect of rust, which works well. I did as Alison suggested and painted some of the flowers with Vanilla and then sanded back to the rusty paint.

To save time I wanted to use a substrate I had already prepared. A few weeks ago you may remember I was transferring Thorndon Hall papers onto canvas using Fresco Satin Glaze so I used one of these. I wanted to use the new Lynne Perella stamps I had chosen from winning the draw last week. Thank you Leandra! I painted the lady with Frescos and then added a feather from the same set, LP 007. Such a gorgeous set!

I am entering this week's challenge which is here.

Flower Canvas Inspired by Jo Myhill for Paper Artsy

 

 

This week Jo Myhill has been back at Paper Artsy as Guest Designer with some more beautiful artwork including showing us how to make a masterboard. I chose to make some of the Lin Brown Eclectica flowers and, like Jo, I don't have the die, so I did the same as she did and stamped them out to use the shape. I loved the colour combo of Frescos she used of Claret, Pewter, and French Roast!

 

I painted the six by six inch deep canvas with Vanilla and used grunge paste through the Mini Ledger mask and highlighted the raised areas and the edges with Claret on a piece of cut n dry foam. I used some of the buttons on the sides which we made during Alison Butterfly's recent week as Guest Designer, which I thought was a lovely idea and I knew I'd return to it.

I embossed the flowers as Jo had done with a dots embossing folder and highlighted them with Ice Fire Treasure Gold. I didn't have the embossing powder she used but I found an old one in my stash called Silver Pearl by do crafts which worked out ok. I coloured the resin flowers which I bought from the Paper Artsy stand at Ally Pally with more Ice Fire which I also used on the metal leaves.

I am entering this into this week's Paper Artsy challenge.

 

Last Chance for Crafty Individuals' October Challenge ......

Over on the Crafty Individuals' blog you have until 11 pm tonight to enter the October challenge. This is my Hallowe'en themed contribution. I used a reversed deep canvas which I painted black and then framed with Crafty Individuals' mauve background paper. I stamped the Hallowe'en image and embossed it in black and then coloured the crow and the church with Pro Markers in shades of grey. I then filled in the crow with an embossing pen and clear embossed it and sponged Distress Inks over the whole piece in Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, and Spiced Marmalade and glued it into the recess. I lightly glued some fake cobweb inside the aperture and around the frame. I took a Poundland skeleton apart and you can just see the hand sticking out. I filled in the skull eyes with Glossy Accents mixed with red alcohol ink. I used a Sizzix embossing folder for the bats and carefully cut them out and dotted them around the cobweb, and finished off with a large spider!

Crafty Individuals' October Challenge - Christmas Joy

Over on the Crafty Individuals' blog the challenge is to make something depicting what October means to you, be that Autumn, Hallowe'en, or Christmas preparations. I decorated this little photo frame using Crafty Individuals' background paper and the gorgeous Angel stamp. I embossed her in black and then filled in the wings with an embossing pens and embossed them in gold, to make the whole image stand out.

All the details of the challenge are here, and you have another two days to join in. It is well worth doing so as there is a brilliant prize, plus you can claim 25% of any Crafty Individuals' purchases just for joining in. I think that's amazing!

Lynne Perella Greenhouse inspired by Liz Borer for Paper Artsy

Phew! I don't know how long it took the original artist, the very talented Liz Borer, to make her glorious items as Guest Designer for Paper Artsy this week, but it sure has taken me a long time to make my version. I started on Wednesday. Wednesday last March, that is. It must take even longer when you are the one designing the item. I have based my house on two of Liz's projects, taking elements from both, such as shrink plastic, the house with its compartments, the decorated bottles, and the mauve colour scheme. I don't have any Paper Artsy Hallowe'en stamps so I decided to use Lynne Perella and I toyed with the idea of using them in a spooky way but having made a few Hallowe'en projects this year (I've got one more in the wings) I thought I would leave the spider's web alone this time.

I started out with a cardboard house shaped box from Tiger, and painted it with Little Black Dress with Pansy for the back of the sections. I embossed some pieces of Paper Artsy metal with a cogs embossing folder for the roof and rubbed it with Little Black Dress. I used Thorndon Hall mauve paper for the outside panels. All the stamps are Lynne Perella or Lin Brown Eclectica and all the flowers are on shrink plastic apart from the tulip in the large right hand section which is clay.

I have edged the compartments with the Tim Holtz Tattered Lace die on black card and all the embellishments have been rubbed with Ice Fire Treasure Gold. I was going to glue the feather from the Lynne Perella set to the background but decided it looks pretty popped inside the little bottle. The Pansy backgrounds have been stencilled with grungepaste mixed with more Pansy through two different stencils, Mini Vine and Roman Letters.

I am entering this week's challenge here.

Under a Steampunk Spell

Over on Unruly Paper Arts I have a tutorial on a spooky canvas made using the Steampunk Spells papers by Graphic 45. I used some Tim Holtz arch dies from Eclectic Paperie and Claudine Hellmuth canvas and transferred the paper onto the canvas pieces. I then decorated the canvas with stencils and steampunk embellishments. I hope you will like it!

Indigo Blu Challenge - Things with Wings - Hallowe'en Owl Shrine

On the Indigo Blu blog they are having a challenge to make something with wings. Last month I was lucky enough to be picked and it is such a generous prize - I chose two A5 plates, Hocus Pocus and Sarah's Choice. I thought the Hocus Pocus one would be fun for Hallowe'en as I don't have many suitable stamps and this one has an interesting mix, with a beautiful owl on it. I thought he would fit the bill as my 'things with wings'. I'm a big fan of Indigo Blu as the stamps always stamp up beautifully, and Kay is so sweet and helpful when you meet her at shows. I watched her Create and Craft shows on television last week and jotted down lots of tips and techniques to try and there are some new release stamps I have got my eye on!

I decided to make a wooden shrine and a number of things went Pete Tong along the way! I did the shrink plastic owl a couple of times as I painted the background and the owl, which looked lovely and I will use it on another project but it just didn't stand out enough as a focal point, so I redid it in plain black and white. I measured it carefully to get it to fit within the art mould frame, which I made up in clay, painted in various shades of brown, and highlighted with Ice Fire Treasure Gold.

 

I wanted my colourscheme to be Hallowe'en colours of purple and green but the purple background gave me a problem of other things not standing out against it. I mixed green paint with my Kroma Krackle for the base of the shrine and patiently left it a couple of days and all was fine, but once I had added the Ice Fire it was more gold than green, although very pretty, so I didn't really have any green in my project. I used more Ice Fire on the photo corner charms and the edges of the shrine as I had nothing to lose by this time! The spider got some too! I then found I couldn't do the gold embossing I had planned around the side edges as my ep was a true gold, so I used some orange K and Co trim which is really pretty, and decided on orange as my additional Hallowe'en colour instead of the green.



On the left hand panel of my shrine I embossed the 'Magic' wording with purple shimmery embossing powder and on the right hand panel, the spider and its web. I applied Croco Crackle in Blackberry through a Harlequin stencil in several places over the shrine and once it had cracked, applied a little Treasure Gold. I then stamped the script from Sarah's Choice, which is lovely, in Galaxy Gold Brilliance, which is a soft gold which goes well with the Ice Fire, to fill in all the gaps. I embossed some bats on black card using a Sizzix embossing folder and carefully cut them out and stamped them with the script in Galaxy Gold for a little twinkle.

I stamped the words 'A friend is like an owl, both beautiful and wise' in shrink plastic' and positioned them under the pumpkins which added a pop of colour. To finish off, I added some fake spider's web around the frame and dotted the bats around the piece.

Tulips Inspired by Joanne Wardle for Paper Artsy

This week on Paper Artsy, Joanne Wardle is back as Guest Designer with clean and simple cards, concentrating on die cuts. I haven't got any of the Paper Artsy dies so Petra kindly lent me her tulip die with the matching Lin Brown Eclectica stamp set, which I love. I made two very similar cards, both cutting a stencil to smear the grunge paste through, but on the one above I used it directly onto the card. On the one below I die cut the card and smeared the grunge paste through the stencil on the inside.

I am entering the challenge here.

Castle Street - Inspired by Alison aka Butterfly for Paper Artsy

I hadn't intended to do a second challenge entry for Paper Artsy at all. Then last night it was a toss up between Bruce Forsyth and Alison aka Butterfly - no contest really! Although I did have a sneaky half hour with Sarah Millican! My craft room lured me back in for the evening as my favourite of Alison's three projects this week had been her incredibly imaginative, quirky, and downright mad Dollshouse Street. I love Alison's work and I think this is her best ever and I think we should see more of her mad side - let it out!

I really wanted to try Alison's technique of using the side of a piece of card and some Frescos to do the sky in horizontal strokes and the grass in vertical stokes. I was afraid in my hands it would look like a child's painting but it is surprisingly impressionistic. You have to be quite free and not think about it too much. I used a piece of mountboard where Alison had used a wooden piece from a child's toy. Alison had used the Doll range of stamps from Ink and the Dog but I only have one set so I decided to go with Lynne Perella, with the addition of the Mini Script 26 and Hot Pick 1009.

I started off by stamping all the Lynne Perella stamps I have in Coffee and Sepia Archival on white card stock and then desconstructed them. Alison had houses and I had castles!! So I fussy cut around turrets, and for the other shapes I used a mixture of dies - squares, arches, and a shield for a gherkin building! I also cut a set of Tim Holtz Pediments, some in plain white card, and some in shrink plastic for the smaller buildings, and stamped these with script. I then played around with placement of my pieces.

In addition to the free-style grasses I also stamped the grasses and birds from HP 1009 in brown and green although I don't think this was strictly necessary. I edged the whole piece in Sepia and then finished off with some Treasure Gold in Ice Fire.

Button Doll Canvas Inspired by Alison aka Butterfly for Paper Artsy

Over on the Paper Artsy blog this week, it's been the turn of one of my favourite people, Alison aka Butterfly, as Guest Designer. When Alison was up last time I was in France so I didn't have a chance to join in following her wonderful inspiration. This time she has been using the Doll plates by Ink and the Dog which are such fun! I decided to copy her 6 x 6 canvas as my challenge entry this week. I pretty much did as Alison recommended except where I didn't have the same stamps, as I don't have the feather, so I stuck with the Doll plate. I used the same neutral colour palette which I found hard as I do like my colours.

My favourite part of Alison's make was definitely the buttons which were such a great idea, and I will definitely do these again. Thank you so much, Alison, for bringing us such great inspiration!

Canvas Inspired by Jo Myhill for Paper Artsy

On the Paper Artsy blog this week they have a new Guest Designer, Jo Myhill, and I have had a good mooch around her beautiful work! I have not had much time to play over the last few weeks and have either not joined in the challenges or have done a rushed job. It's been a combination of being in France then being poorly, getting behind with things, and Mum worries. Over the last couple of days I have had a dabble and made a canvas using image transfer which was one of the techniques Jo used in one of her lovely projects. She had transferred a photograph of a flower onto a piece of fabric as a focal point on a canvas. I didn't have anything suitable to use so I decided to transfer some Paper Artsy Thorndon Hall paper onto canvas using the same method Jo described, with Fresco Satin Glaze, finishing off with Gloss Glaze to get rid of the remaining scuzzies and brighten the colours. It's best to use the papers that do not have text as it will reverse it although if it's just for a background and you want a grungy look I don't really think it matters too much personally.

I thought I would do a bit of a comparison between some inexpensive canvas paper I bought on e bay which I stuck down with the Satin Glaze, and some expensive Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back Canvas which you just stick straight down, which was quicker but I didn't think there was much difference in the results. Above you can see the two Fredrix pieces centre and right, and on the left I have stuck a piece of Thorndon Hall onto a piece of canvas board with Stain Glaze. Below you can see a piece using the Sticky Back Canvas.

I then prepared my 8 x 8 canvas using Frescos and a daisy stencil and Treasure Gold in Ice Fire.

I used a couple of the Fredrix pieces of canvas. I love the texture and feel of them! To get the rough edges I cut a slit then tore them which was really easy.

I stamped the Letters and Numbers in Snowflake around the edges.

For the leaves I used a stencil with some grunge paste and then cut around the shape it left then highlighted with Treasure Gold in Ice Fire and glued the pieces in place.

I stamped a selection of flowers on sticky back canvas. I was experimenting so I painted the canvas with Frescos but some I stamped with Frescos and some I stamped with black Archival. I painted the dots in the centre on some and added shading. I cut into the petals quite deeply and roughed up all the edges with my scissors to emphasize the canvas. I backed some onto grungepaper to give them some movement, then I backed some onto packing acetate for the same reason but a cheaper outcome.

This was another experiment. I bought some of the gorgeous resin embellishments from Leandra at Ally Pally and coloured them with Ice Fire. On the left are some of my own clay embellishments and on the right, the resin ones. I think the resin took the Treasure Gold slightly better. Bearing in mind the cost of moulds, clay, UTEE, etc, I don't think it is worth making them myself as these were such an amazing price and variety. A brush gets into all the grooves.

Finally I stamped Garden of Dreams onto a torn piece of the remaining canvas transfer. Again it was easy to tear around the words in a straight line. This is the assembled canvas with the resin flowers in the centre of the canvas flowers.

I am entering this into the Paper Artsy challenge which is here. I am quite pleased with this. Not totally, but then I never am. I think it benefitted from spending a bit more time this week on all the individual elements before pulling it together. It's a shame with photos you never quite get the texture as the canvas is so much nicer than plain paper.

Paper Artsy Canvas with Shrink Plastic Flowers

On the Paper Artsy blog this week it's been the turn of Liz Borer to be Guest Designer, and Oh! her projects have been glorious! Liz's sense of colour is wonderful and apparently the Bora Bora Fresco Paint which is one of my favourites was named after her. I believe the legend is she mixed this colour at a Paper Artsy class she attended and became known for it. She made the most beautiful frame covered in hand-stamped fabric with a Lynne Perella image in the middle - gorgeous! In this post here she made shrink plastic buttons to use in fabric or dressmaking themed makes, or any project really, and of course I loved them! A few weeks ago I had made a batch of shrink plastic pieces using Paper Artsy images and as I didn't have much time this week (in fact I didn't think I would join in until this morning) I thought I would use them. They don't have holes in to make them into buttons but this is definitely something I am going to do; in fact I would like to add them to some of my clothes. Thanks Liz!!

For the canvas I rolled grunge paste on with a brayer which we were taught to do in a previous blog post (all the tips and techniques are starting to build up now; it's like being on a course!).  I then painted it with Frescos, adding some touches of Metallic Glaze which has quite a pearly white quality which lightened it a bit. I stamped the canvas with script from Lynne Perella 014 in Coffee Archival.

I stamped Lin Brown Eclectica tulips onto black card with Frescos and highlighted with white gel pen and stamped Artful Blooms in Snowflake. I stamped with the Words and Numbers plate around the edge. I then made the shrink plastic pieces with the Teacup Lady from Lynne Perella LP014, with a little of the script Mini 26 around the edge of the larger piece as a fill-in, and cut them with scallop circle dies.

I hope I will have a bit more time to play next week as this week and last's were quickies! I am entering the challenge which you will find here.

Lynne Perella's Hallowe'en Pumpkin Hat

Over on Paper Artsy this week it's been the turn of Joanne Wardle as Guest Designer, who has a beautifully elegant clean and simple style which is deceptively hard to emulate. I have been going stir-crazy with my crafting, or lack of it, as I was in France until last night so I missed Alison Butterfly's week of inspiration as Guest Designer and I am also an enormous fan of hers. So this week I have had plenty of time to plan what I was going to make whilst I was away, but almost no time to make something.

Before I show you my rather quick and basic card though, I thought you might like to hear my rubber stamping related story of my journey home, which wouldn't have been funny were it not for the fact that it's completely true, and also the sort of stupid thing I do. While I was in France I had been trying in vain to get my crafting fix by stamping up some mixed greetings and sentiments ready to put onto cards, and I grabbed some blank notecards I keep next to the computer for writing reminders and messages on, and stamped off onto them each time I changed my ink colour. A few days later I was looking on-line for the train times for the last leg of my journey home and I grabbed one of these notecards. I turned it over, wrote the departure times down, tucked it inside my passport, then put it into my carry-on bag so I wouldn't forget it. Well of course I then did forget. So I handed my passport over to the customs officer, and inside he had a little card, in alternating green and fuchsia ink, which read:-

'Thank you So, So Much'
'You Are Amazing!'

Honestly, you couldn't make it up!

So, this is my rather rushed card for this week's Paper Artsy challenge:-

I wanted to stick with Joanne's Hallowe'en theme but I didn't have any Paper Artsy Hallowe'en stamps so I thought, I know, Lynne Perella stamps are characterized by women with unusual headresses, so why not a pumpkin for a hat! I chose the lady with the teacup on her head from LP014 and made a pumpkin from shrink plastic and fresco Butternut and Smoked Paprika and Green Olives, as Joanne had been using shrink plastic this week. I embossed it before shrinking with clear embossing powder. I coloured the image with distress inks and used greens, purples, and orange as I think of these as Hallowe'en colours.

Joanne had made some wonderful streaks of Fresco paint on her cards and I knew I would mess up if I tried to do an artful brushstroke. Early one of the guest designer had made washi tape so I thought I would paint some microporous tape:-

It was lucky I had put it back in the medicine cabinet rather than in my craft room otherwise I would never have found it! I coloured some with Eggplant for a gothic purple, and some with Pumpkin mixed with Smoked Paprika and then some streaks of Pumpkin added on afterwards. This meant I could tear off some strips however I wanted it to look. This is something I will definitely try again.

Sorry it has been a bit of a rushed make and it's a shame I haven't had a bit more time as I have had loads of ideas this week!! Hoping to meet some lovely Paper Artsy friends tomorrow!!

Indigo Blu Shabby Chic Heart

I've made this papier mache heart for the Indigo Blu 'Shabby Chic' challenge. I collaged together images from Live, Laugh, Love, the Poppies, and the Mr Darcy sets.

I painted the base with Paper Artsy Fresco Finish in Claret mixed with Rusty Rose for opacity, and then Crackle Glaze, then Mushroom. I painted the images with Frescos.

I stitched the lace to the cord that was already on the hanging.

Eclectic Paperie Bloghop - and now they stock Crafty Individuals' Stamps!

Just to let you know that there is a fabulous bloghop with amazing prizes to be won over at Eclectic Paperie to celebrate Kim's first anniversary as the new owner.

I had a wonderful month in August as Guest Designer and I am so sad not to be able to make an item to contribute to the bloghop due to holiday plans, but I shall be hopping away!

I am absolutely delighted that Kim is now stocking Crafty Individuals' stamps so that those of you in the US can get your hands on them more easily. Kim must have been up all night deciding which of the enormous range she was going to stock, and I think she has done a great job! You will just love the selection she has chosen - some old, some new!

Hope you will join the hop. I'm off to do just that!

Crafty Individuals' New Stamps - and a Simple Lighthouse Card

Crafty Individuals have brought out these gorgeous new stamps: tremendously varied! My favourites are the flowers on the top left which will be so useful and are so pretty and delicate, and the middle one with the lighthouse. But don't you just love those adorable cheeky penguins?! The collage stamp top right is typical of the beautiful vintage collage style which drew me to Crafty Individuals many years ago, and the stamp bottom right is the first, I think, Christmas release of this year.

I am always drawn to lighthouses and the decor of our place in France has them dotted about, particularly in our bedroom where we have lamps shaped like lighthouses. It seems to be a bit of a French thing, or maybe just in Brittany. They also feature in much of Colin's photography so they are special to me for that reason too. I wanted to make a masculine card for my big brother, David's birthday on Friday and I mixed the new set of stamps with some of the older CI nautical stamp sets. It's a very, very simple card, just lots of images overlaid in different shades of ink, with the main image in black to make it stand out. Always feel very self-conscious when sending home-made cards to family!

Chinese Stampbord Tile Box with Crafty Individuals' Stamps

I have a little tutorial on Unruly Paper Arts for this Chinese style wooden box with glazed Stampbord tiles. I have used Crafty Individuals' stamps with a bird theme for the tiles.

Lynne Perella Hanging Heart Inspired by Helen Chilton for Paper Artsy

Another amazing week on the Paper Artsy blog and Darcy has launched some fabulous new stamps in the Eclectica range! I have made a papier mache heart using Lynne Perella stamps inspired by Helen Chilton's post which you can see here, and am entering it for the challenge here.

I followed Helen's advice and painted the heart with Snowflake first so that when I painted the Limelight it would be a strong colour, then added the crackle, then thick brush strokes of Bora Bora. I used the script from LP 014 in Magenta Hue Archival and the Mini 26 which echos the script at the bottom of the teacup lady, also from LP 014. I covered her with Fresco Gloss Glaze which Leandra advised a while back in her video to bring out the colours.

I made a shrink plastic heart from LP 015, using the script to fill in the blank edges, taking inspiration from Carol Quance's charm bracelet a few weeks ago (love how all the tips start to come together). It was an afterthought to turn it into a flower by adding a shrink plastic stem from Lin Brown's Eclectica. The finishing touch was to stitch some of the funky bobble trim that was in my Monster Monday box to the cord, which I thought went well with the neon colours I had used.

I would just like to say on here, huge congratulations to the Paper Artsy followers who are having their amazing work showcased on the PA blog at the moment. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at their projects last night. Just as much fun as seeing the talented Guest Designers.

Marche aux Fleurs

I've made this canvas framed panel for this month's Artistic Outpost referral programme as I like to join in each month. I love their stamps! I have used almost exclusively Flower Market, but the floral edging round the canvas piece is from Flapper Fashions. On the wooden frame I have used a stencil for the corners with grunge paste and highlighted it with Treasure Gold in Ice Fire. I have used Fresco Finish paints for the frame and the canvas piece. On the frame I mixed Bora Bora with Pewter to make a metallic turquoise which is a technique Leandra has been showing at shows and over on the Paper Artsy blog. You can make any Fresco into a metallic colour by adding the Old Gold or the Pewter.

Tim's Tiny Things Trinket Box

Here's a sneak peek of my final piece for my Guest Designer month over at Eclectic Paperie. It's a little box with tiles on the top made with Tim's Tiny Things stamp set and his French Industrial Papers, both of which I love! It's been such fun doing this guest month, and has really taken my mind off my worries and given me a challenge to focus on. I did make a number of other projects that I either wasn't happy with or gave up on though, so I did have a major wobble along the way. I always enjoy doing a mixture of work for other people, where you are motivated to do your best as you want to represent their company well and justify their faith in you and their generosity, and doing work for yourself where you can have a dabble without any pressure and experiment and maybe teach yourself some new techniques along the way.

So I hope you will pop over to Eclectic Paperie and see me there. Kim, the owner, has been very good to me, and the particularly talented design team she has have been kind enough to leave me thoughtful and sweet comments each time, which has made me feel very welcome.

Last week I didn't tell you too much about the story of the valve gear thingy embellishment on the top left of the tart tin. I thought it had a definite Tim Holtz accoutrements look about it. We've had lots of puddles of DIY stuff sitting around the house over the past year (just realized last week, it's been a year since we returned home from the rented accommodation, and not much progress really). Some of it has been left over from the builders, and some of it things Colin has been working on. There had been a red valve sitting on the window sill in the kitchen for ages and I thought, if no-one claims it, I will have it for a project, so I asked Colin and he went mad! He said, do you realize, that operates the boiler and is really important! He was quite unreasonable. I said I just wanted to stick it on a project. It was so unfair!! So I waited until he had gone out to Tesco and took an impression of it with Mould N Pour and quickly popped it back into the boiler cupboard. I then made a mould out of silver oven bake Fimo, baked it, and painted it red, then glazed it with Fimo glaze. I then chipped some bits off with my craft knife in the same places as the chips on the original. The silver clay underneath wasn't quite metallic enough so I touched it up with a bit of re-inker from my Silver staz-on and a brush. He got back from Tesco and walked into my craft room and spotted it immediately. He's got eyes in the back of his head! He said I told you you couldn't have that! He was very cross. It was so funny! You can't kid a kidder though and he realized very quickly it was a replica.

Can you tell them apart:-

I thought of taking a mould of the Stop-Cock but after burst-pipe events of last year, perhaps that would be a joke too far!