Friendship Card

I'm so lucky with the friends I have, and this gorgeous stamp set was lent to me by my dear friend, Hazel, and I used it to make a card for my dear friend, Lynne. The set is aptly called 'Friendship'! I think this counts as making the most of a loan as I seem to have stamped it on a domino, a frame, an alcohol inked background, and shrink plastic (the flowers, and 'girl with a fringe'). I used my Inktense pencils with water on the domino and frame, and then dry on the shrink plastic so it intensified to the same shade when shrunk. I don't make many cards these days but making embellishments is always rewarding!

Masculine Coaster Book - Artistic Stamper

I made this little coaster book yesterday with a huge range of Artistic Stamper stamps and their new backgrounds. I coloured the coasters with glimmer mists and distress inks then added different backgrounds - dots, stripes, harlequin, houndstooth, then the main images. The twill and ball chain and the watch pieces are from the Artistic Stamper, and the key and pillar are art moulds. This is a bit different to my usual style, a little bit quirky and lots of masculine imagery. Good to be able to get all these masculine stamps when you need them, though.

The Final Mirrored Compact!

This was the one I made as a gift and I know it's been received safely so ok to blog. There won't be any more for a while until I can go to Hobbycraft and get more mirrors - maybe for Christmas gifts! It is Crafty Individual papers as before, but a melt-pot clear UTEE piece in the middle - image transfer in as much as I peeled the white layer of paper off the Colisseum image so the piece is quite transparent.

Little Book with Fabric Pages

This was going to be another mirror compact as it has been made in the same way, but I thought I was getting a bit repetitive, so I made some fabric pages and turned it into a little book. I used Crafty Individuals stamps, including the new background on the covers, which is such a fantastic stamp and will, I'm sure, become a favourite. I used some gorgeous Basic Grey Porcelain paper, which was painful to cut into, and then I coloured the fabric with Glimmer Mists and Distress Inks to match it. I then coloured the dominoes to match with Brilliance inks, and pressed them into the portion of the CI background stamp that I wanted, and glazed them with Crackle Glaze (didn't get much crackle, though). I haven't photographed all the pages as you get the general idea, but I then stitched them together and sewed them into the book spine. I was going to go round the edge of the dominoes with the Viva Precious Metal Gold Paint but then I thought, no Lucy, put your hands on your head and walk away from the paint ........!

Coaster Swap

My friend, Ann, asked a little while ago if I fancied doing a swap with her. For the first one we did, I made a carousel, with horses dancing around gold poles, which I called Fairground Attraction. She made me a beautiful Diorama, which was what got me started on making them myself. This time she suggested coasters, and when I said I had been collecting them in pubs she said, 'oh, I could have sent you some blank ones if I'd known'. So she has now kindly done that so I will be able to ink them up and be more creative than with the beery ones. She made me a coaster book Post It holder, which is hanging above my craft desk to use for masking. She's now confirmed she's received my coaster wall hanging so it's ok to upload it now. I kept it quite plain, partly because of trying to become more minimalist, but mainly because I loved the Crafty Individuals Travels in Italy papers so much that I didn't want to cover them up too much. I used some Venetian glass beads I have been hanging onto for the right project. (one photo is the front, and the other is the plainer back view).

Canvas Using Image Transfer of Background Papers

I was playing around with different image transfer techniques and my friend, Hazel, said that you could transfer backing papers onto canvas. I love the Spring papers by Crafty Individuals, so I have used these, and a selection of their stamps. I left the sides fairly plain because I liked the pretty paper showing through.

Venice Stampbord Block

This is an 8 x 8 Stampbord Block from the Artistic Stamper, and has been stamped with the Oxford Impressions Venezia set. The word 'Venezia' has been stamped on a Stampbord domino and then Crackle Glazed. I stamped the Santa Maria della Salute (I hope that is right, I have never been to Venice, although I would love to!) in a darker ink and did some scratching back of the detail, as I wanted this to be my focal image.