Try it on Tuesday: Stencils and Dies and Monsters...

Hey,

Happy Friday!

I found a new to me challenge this weekend.. Try it on Tuesday.. I liked the current theme, Stencils / dies or both and so I decided to play along.

I went with both stencils and dies - I made a ton of gelli plate backgrounds a while ago using a fave Neat and Tangled circle stencil and distress paints.

I dug one out and die-cut it using a mini triangle cover plate - which I bought second-hand on a Facebook group, I think it is by MFT.

I love the end result, the big circles with the random triangles works so well.

No card is complete without a Monster..and for this card I decided to break out one of my faves by My Cute Stamp (a gift from Jen). I love this Monster so much, that I stamped him, scanned him in and die-cut a bunch on my Silhouette, as he has no dies.

For the final touch I added a sentiment by Hero Arts - which came in this set and was also a gift (from Cheiron)..my friends gift me Monster stamps all the time, they are WAAAY too kind.

I have just noticed that my Monster matches the pink background LOL..honestly that was an accident.

Cx

CASology: Pun..

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I had a late start today...feeling a bit blah.

But making a card for this week's CASology cheered me up a lot!

The cue card is a particular fave of mine -

I love a pun and I have tons of pun stamps.

I decided not to default to some of my tried and tested ones, but broke out a piece of NBUS, by Avery Elle 'Swans'.

My card was super simple to make, I coloured and die-cut the Swan stamp and added some distress paint to my panel to create a messy 'water' type background.

I stamped the sentiment and hearts from the set.

It will make a lovely thank you card for my Hubby, who has been amazing throughout this long and tedious wait for my work permit.

Have a great weekend.

Cx

ICAD17.. Week Two

Hey,

Happy Monday!

Today I am showing you my week 2 makes from ICAD17. See week one here and go to Daisy Yellow's blog for more info.

It was hard to pick a favourite this week, I love everything except my weird Tetrahedron..so hard to visualise in my opinion.

Anyway I've decided to go for Day.10 Sunshine Yellow as my pick for fave..

I covered the index card in patterned tissue paper and then painted over it using Mustard Seed Distress paint. Then I added black paint splatters.

I had originally planned to cover it in a bunch of the yellow MFT flowers that you see, but it didn't feel right, so I added a strip of chevron washi tape and dug around in my random die-cuts pouch and found the Deer.

It all came together so well accidentally, this is why I am loving ICAD random lovely things are created.

Cx

ICAD 2017...

Hey,

Happy Sunday!

Late post from me, I just got back from all day classes taught by Cheiron.

They were awesome and I learnt alot! AND the weather is glorious here in NYC - Summer = yay.

Today's post is about ICAD 2017 (Index Card a Day)..It is run by Daisy Yellow and it's awesome fun.

The idea is to make something with a 4x6 index card as your base every day. Prompts are provided, but you can go off prompt if you want. It runs from June 1st to July 31st. You can jump in whenever you want.

I have LOVED the first week, I got to dig out some fun stuff from my stash and step out of my comfort zone. Plus side being that I now have 7 gorgeous pieces of art. In the photo above they are in day order from bottom left clockwise.

I used so many different techniques and got all experimental..

I've decided to pick a favourite one every week and tell you about it, instead of boring you to tears by describing each one!!

My fave from week one is - Day 3: Vintage -

I love this, it came together so well. I covered the index card in patterned tissue paper and then painted over it with various shades of distress paint. I added the doily and distressed the edges of it with ink. The dress form I stamped onto white tissue, so it would look more transparent when added to the card. The butterfly is from my stash and I added black ink to the edges of the card.

I love all the layers, so far out of my comfort zone!

Cx

Themed Journal...Lyrics..

Hey,

Happy Monday..

I recently started a new art journal. It's smaller and landscape, as you can see.

I love my original journal, but I wanted this one to be more structured. Don't get me wrong, I still want to apply paint / ink / stuff randomly, but I thought an overall theme would be nice.

The background to this first spread inspired me to add the lyrics from a cartoon called Sealab (truly odd), Hubby and I love the theme tune and weirdly sing it all the time!

So I thought, why not make this a lyrics journal?

Here are a few more of my spreads..

I Know You, I Live You by Chaka Khan

Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

Fashion! by David Bowie

They are so easy to produce, I can't stop! There are actually a few more than these ones! I love interpreting the lyrics in different ways and it is fun thinking about what lyrics I should play with..

Way too many supplies to list here, if you are curious about anything leave me a comment and I'll reply.

Cx

Grungy Tag Cards..

 Hey,

At the start of my Christmas break I decided to step out of my comfort zone and play with some tags, stencils and paint.

I bought these great tags on sale at Paper Source as I thought they would be great for Ranger distress techniques.

Turns out they are and they aren't..they take the ink and paint perfectly, but they rumple a bit whilst you are working..that annoyed me a bit!

Anyway...moving past my brat like behaviour..

I used distress inks to colour both the tags and then I stamped and stenciled various things onto them before adding some distress paint splashes in white, black and blue.

I was pretty pleased with how they looked after even those few steps.

I used grey card blanks and stamped directly onto these using distress inks and I spritzed them a teeny amount for a bit of blur. I added washi tape to both bases for a bit of interest.

I had been planning to make both cards Happy Birthday, but I had a spare 'Hey Girl' on my desk and it seemed to fit the card below perfectly.

I really like them and they are a bit different to my normal style, they feel a bit like my art journal, which is a world apart from my cards..not sure why that is..

Cx

Concord & 9th Class...

Hey,

So FINALLY a week later, I have got round to writing this post about the class I went to at The InkpadNYC last Tuesday.

Taught by my friend and mentor Cheiron we used Concord & 9th stamps and dies..Which of course led to a whole new batch of purchases :)

The main card today sums up the little 'lady squad' that we have at the Inkpad..These ladies have been so awesome to me, encouraging me, inspiring me and supporting me on my craft and personal journeys..

We are having our first group playdate on October 15th, so look out for the no doubt hilarious post that will follow that day of boozing, eating, gossiping and crafting!

We made a whopping 6 cards in class!!! It was fierce...

Here are the other 5 in no particular order -

Aren't they gorgeous and despite us all making the same thing, no 2 cards were identical, which is cool.

I bought the You're My Person (has the gang stamp..) and Eat Cake and Celebrate sets..I really want the Wildflower set that we used on the 'Thank You' card.

Cx

Distress Techniques....

Hey,

Happy Saturday to you all!

I am probably landing as you are reading this...

Right after the loft art retreat I used the left over tags from our project to practice some of the techniques that Jenn had taught us.

It's taken me until this week to get round to making cards with them!!

Here are the 3 tags I started with, I have labelled them with the technique I used, just enlarge the photo to read the details.

The main photo is the first card I made and I love the Studio Calico wooden word bubbles. They are a lot of fun. This year I have used a lot more wooden items, I used to be daunted by them.

I die-cut the friend using a Mama Elephant die and I die cut it out of Kraft card twice and layered them, to make it studier. I added a couple of orange enamel dots to finish it off.

I really like it, its fun and really shouts fabulous to me.

The next card uses Lawn Fawn wooden words and stars and to make it a bit different I coloured a Tim Holtz Gum Drop using Orange Alcohol ink and covered the tag hole with it.

Fun cards and the orange card blanks really make the elements pop. I made the card blanks myself using the cardstock from my latest Simon Says Stamp cardkit.

Have a great weekend, I'll be hanging with my family and the animals...

Cx

Mixed Media Loft Art Retreat..

Hey,

So I had a super fun weekend, as JT was here for the weekend and we went to Providence to Jenn's last loft art retreat - she is moving, so I believe there will be Art Retreats, but no more Loft.

We had so much fun and it was great to spend QT together that is not work related :) We managed to lose JT's phone on the way to Providence, but all credit to JT, she just waved it off and got on with the weekend. Bill the super helpful Amtrak guy helped to make it all feel a bit better too, so a big shout out to Bill where ever you are, you are the hero of the weekend.

The collage, shows us getting inky, Mister Harley, our tags mid way through and some of the food that we ate - we ate and drank a lot, none of it was good for us and I am having to eat a LOT of vegetables to balance out the badness of the 3 days.

It was great to do the mixed media loft art retreat together because we were both a teeny bit out of our comfort zone and it was good to have my all time fave craft person with me, JT knows me so well, she just laughs when I get all weird...

JT used stencils for the first time ever and I managed not to freak out too much about my fingers being so dirty / inky..it was hard, but my new Ranger craft scrubby is going to help me deal with this moving forward.

It was a lot of fun, our table was a hoot. We learnt so many new techniques, which I'll be showing over the next couple of weeks, as I had a post class play at my desk on Monday - seeing if I had retained all that we learnt.

My fave new technique is the one where you create a blended distress ink panel, spritz a stamp with water and lay the tag onto it. It reacts and kind of bleaches it, like this -

I put my canvas together on Monday, because I didn't want it to get damaged on the train and I love how it looks -

I can't wait to hang it and visit JT and see her's hanging up too.

JT and I were lucky enough to win prizes in the raffle - I am very pleased with mine -

Fun times.

I just want to say to JT - thank you for coming all that way, you made me so very happy, hanging with you is always awesome and playdates are the most fun, especially when they involve Fried Pickles and Flower Monkey Sliders...

Love you man.

Cx

One stamp four ways...

Hey,

Every now and then I like to choose a stamp, stencil or die and spend a couple of hours making things with that item as the focus.

This time I chose the Brushstrokes background stamp by Stampin' Up.

I wanted the background on the main card to look like the sea, so I applied a variety of blue distress inks directly to the stamp and spritzed it with water, then I laid my cardstock on the stamp and hoped for the best :) The anchor is a new punch I got in a closeout sale and the sentiment I have had for nearly 7 years!

I made four quite different cards -

Kaleidacolor ink, SSS Sentiment, Lawn Fawn wood star, painted with distress paints and glitter

Distress Ink, Studio Calico wooden words, Lawn Fawn wooden stars, painted with Hero Arts paint dauber 

Distress Ink, Avery Elle pineapple die, Poppy Stamps glasses die, Crate Paper sentiment, Paper scrap

I'm pleased with how they have all come out, I think I like the background on the pineapple card the best. I like the faded out feel of the yellow.

Cx

Class makes...

Hey,

Hope you had a good weekend.

I had a nice one, chilling with Hubby and attending class at The Inkpad NYC on Friday, taught by my good friend Cheiron.

I love her classes they are fun - there is a regular crowd of ladies and they are great to be around.

I love the cards we made in this class, the main photo was my fave card from the evening. Here are the rest.

So much fun to make, we used pastes, paints, inks, stencils, multi-matt medium, markers, stamps and a few paper based items.

It was great on my table, we were very collaborative and helpful, it was a nice fun way to spend Friday after a crazy week at work.

I also managed to empty my wallet in The Inkpad - but in my defense there were a lot of great things on sale as well as full price items, alongside class discount :)

Cheiron and I will be seeing each other again in two weeks when we do another road trip to Jenn Shurkus' Loft Art Retreat - cannot wait!

Cx

To be continued..

Hey,

So following on from yesterday.

I thought I'd show you some things I made using the die-cut remnants that I keep.

I started with these - stupidly forgot to take a photo before using and the hello is too damaged to be photographed..

I used Distress stains, inks and paints through the 'stencils' and then either stamped, stenciled or heat embossed over the top.

I am super pleased with the butterfly, as that is the Tim Holtz Lace stencil over the top of the Distress paint and I heat embossed it too...technique cray cray.

So the title of the post is the point of how these cards will be finished. Like the main card today, they will have no sentiment..

I like to do this, so when I need a card and I am low on inspiration I have something that I have already made ready to go and it helps me.

Then I just add a sentiment or an embellishment and they are ready to go. Fun to do when I have the time..

Cx

Heating up background stamps..

Hey,

Happy 2016..

Back to work for me today - sigh..can't really complain as I have been off for what feels like forever.

It has been a lot of fun, but not a lot of desk time and I leave for London on Friday, so I'll be chomping at the bit to finally get some time at my desk in about 2 weeks..

I did manage to squeeze in a couple of sessions and today's cards are from a brief play at my desk on Saturday afternoon.

I love Hero Arts background stamps and I saw Kristina Werner use the one on the card below and really wanted it. I finally managed to get my hands on it a couple of months ago in a sale.

Kristina had created a watercoloured background and heat embossed over the top of it..so I thought I would try that out too.

I also had a great moment when Jenn Shurkus sent me her Hero Arts background stamp that I had admired, seen on the main card today. How sweet was that?!

Both of these cards were really simple to make and I had a couple of heat embossing blips that I managed to cover with the wooden embellishments.

I coloured the wood embellishments using Distress paints - the main card uses Candied Apple and the second card used Picket Fence (it didn't photograph that well). The sentiments are by Tim Holtz.

Close-up the heat embossing is really cool, the watercolour backgrounds really pop.

Have a good day back at work..try not to overdo it :)

Cx

Happy Birthday to Me and Jade...

Hey,

So today is my birthday - I share it with my good friend Jade - she lives in Australia.

We are both crafty and always make each other fun things - she made me this one year.

I thought it would be fun to make her a little set of mini canvases. I am really pleased with the end result. Cheiron's tutorial inspired me.

I thought that this little project worked perfectly as my entry for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge this week - No designer papers..

Not a paper in site..

Here are my steps -

1 - Get your supplies together

I found the little paint pots handy for mixing paint to create a 3rd shade of blue and taping the canvases together was very helpful.

2 - Paint your canvases

I used 3 shades of blue and chose to paint them in a random way - no reason, just because I could.

3 - Now for the fun bit, stamp (my stamp is by Unity) on tissue paper and adhere to your canvas

I use Liquitex medium matte gel for this job - it is the bomb! (tip: clean your brush with a wet cloth as soon as you are finished, then let the brush sit in water until you are done and the brush will be as good as new..)

4 - Now decorate your canvases..

I used a mix of stamps, stencils, stickers, texture paste, glitter spray, distress inks and distress paints.

Oh and to be sure that there would be no smudging, I sprayed them with fixative - I just use a Blick own brand one.

Aren't they fun..can't wait to hear what Jade thinks.

I am not doing anything too heavy today for my bday, I have the day off, so might shop or play at my desk or just sleep off my jet lag..din dins tonight somewhere fun with Hubby.

Cx

Boo!

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I am off to London tonight, be back just before my birthday..its going to be a busy week.

As you know I played along with the MFT contest yesterday.

I recently bought a few new MFT items - the Mummy stamp and die were part of that little haul..

I wanted to make a Halloween card for a friend's Son, he hasn't been very well and despite his age (he's 5) he loves getting cards :)

To make it a bit different and not too spooky, I die cut the black card with a SSS stitched die, then I used a Tim Holtz stencil and white distress paint to create the background. I love the effect that I ended up with. I went over some of the lines with a silver wink of stella brush pen, to add some sparkle.

I stamped, coloured and die-cut the mummy and affixed him/her to my card with foam tape.

The stamp set comes with some really fun sentiments, but I decided to stamp Boo in random places in white on the background.

I am very happy with it, it fits my mental brief and I think Reuben will like it too.

Have a great weekend, my posts will be scheduled next week, so I won't be AWOL.

Cx

Friends with techniques...

 Hey,

So I loved class at the Inkpad a few weeks ago, I really wanted to try out some of the techniques Cheiron taught us and I also felt that the Gelli plate needed an outing.

I also wanted to use my new Mama Elephant stamps and die (bought at the Inkpad), to make a few cards for some of my friends.

Here are the four cards that I made -

They were a lot of fun to make.

Card 1 - Technique used - ink onto a stencil (Stampin' Up), spritz with water, flip over onto your paper - EEK!! 

Card 2 - I used a gelli plate here - first time - love the result. Stencil is by 

Card 3 - Technique used - apply stain through a stencil (Hero Arts) and then spritz with water and dry.

Card 4 - Technique used - apply white distress paint through a stencil (Simon says stamp), using a dabber. When dry blend ink over the paint for a resist.

I used a lot of  things, as you can probably tell... Ranger distress inks, stains and paints. Bling by Simon says stamp and papermania. Card blanks by American Crafts. MFT stitched oval and rectangle dies.

So much fun to make and a really great first outing for my new Mama Elephant stamps and die.

Cx