Blog Re-design

You may have noticed a different colour scheme etc. on my blog. It is going through a metamorphosis at present, so bear with me until I am happy with it.

Mini Altered Book

Altered books are a lovely thing to create. This one is part of a swap run by Dansmum (Hazel) on the UK Stampers Forum. She sent each of the swappers two pieces of clear polypropylene to use as covers. They were approx 5 x 3 inches in size.

Materials:

• Jacquard Lumiere acrylic paint (pearl blue)
• Stazon (imperial purple)
• Gold metallic spray (Sticky Fingers)
• Decorative self adhesive ribbon
• Satin Ribbon
• White rub-ons
• Blue mulberry paper
  

I painted the covers on both sides with two coats of Jacquard Lumiere paint in pearl blue, allowing the paint to dry between coats. I then used a starburst stamp and stamped randomly with Stazon in imperial purple on both the front and the back covers. I used the Sticky Fingers gold metallic spray to then spray over the covers lightly and allowed this to dry. I applied the self adhesive ribbon top and bottom of the front cover and finished with a flourish rub-on and the word 'Art' on the front.

The handmade paper was cut to size and two holes were punched with the Cropadile. The book was held together with two pieces of light purple satin ribbon, tied into bows.

Hope you like it:-)

'Angel'

Here is my (very late !) entry for last weeks UK Stampers Challenge. The topic was Angels, so I did a card using two stamps. One from Graphicus (the angel) and one from Paper Artsy (the script). I stamped the angel twice on mauve cardstock with Versafine onyx black and cut one out as a mask. I then masked the angel and overstamped with the script stamp. I then used Distress inks and blended the colours using cut'n'dry foam. Colours used were, spiced marmalade and mustard seed for the top and weathered wood, faded jeans and broken china for the base. I used gold artists ink applied by brush to highlight areas of the wings, sword, halo and crown of the angel image.

I then double matted the card leaving the last mat oversize at the left and right edges. I applied glossy accents in two stripes and stuck on Stewart Gill amber byzantia bijou blend glass chips. This was then mounted onto white cardstock.

Hope you like it :-)

Red Hot ATC

Here is an ATC I made for this weeks TMTA (Think Monday Think ATC) Challenge whose theme was red. The background is made by sticking random pieces of printed paper onto the cards surface and adhering with matt paper Mod Podge. When dry I have used a corner flourish stamp and versamark and heat embossed with marquesite EP. The lips were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with claret EP. The words were stamped with studio G letter stamps and black Stazon. The whole ATC was edged with red chalk ink.

Hope you like it :-)

Edited to say I got my card in the TMTA Sampler........what a nice suprise !!

Another Christmas Decoration

I have wings, again !! and without Red Bull !!

This is another Christmas decoration I made from a template cut out of patterned cardstock, scored, folded and then treated in the following manner: I stamped the unformed cutout randomly with a small rheindeer stamp with Versamark and heat embossed these with clear embossing powder. With this acting as a resist, I used shabby shutters distress ink laid down from the pad onto a non-stick craft sheet. This was first spritzed with water from a mister and the card laid down a couple of times randomly onto the spritzed ink and dried with a heat gun between coats.

The coloured card was then folded and a hole cut in the top flaps to accommodate 4 pieces of ribbon 2 each in red and gold, knotted at one end and threaded through the end flaps. The tabs of the card were adhered with extra strong double sided adhesive.

Next, two wings were stamped onto heat resistant acetate and heat embossed with silver embossing powder before cutting out carefully and adhering with mini glue-dots to the back of the ornament as shown. I then selected an epoxy sticker and applied centrally. The words were cut from printed paper and adhered with glossy accents. The front and back of the ornament were finished with dots of red stickles glitter glue.

I am in the process of making a batch of different decorations which I hope will go onto decorate a large gilded twig as my substitute Christmas tree.

Hope you like it :-)

Xmas Inchies

These Xmas Inchies were done as part of the UK Stampers 3 x 3 Inchie swap. I have used black mountboard as the base. Small studio G Xmas stamps were stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder. I then dabbed on Starburst stains in red, green and gold. The EP acts as a resist and allows the black background to show through. They were each edged with Krylon gold pen.

They are dark, I admit....but have a subtle shimmer with the mica in the starburst stains!

Hope you like them:-)

Xmas tree decoration with wings

This is my entry for the UK Stampers Sunday Challenge No 18. We were asked to produce a festive tree decoration with wings. I used stamps from Tanda for the tree and the star. I do not know who made the wings stamp.

I used polyester acetate which would resist the heat from heat embossing and stamped the swirly tree with Versamark, heat embossing with Stampendous twilight embossing powder. I stamped the star on acetate and embossed with gold EP. These were cut out carefully and the tree adhered to some mauve and green paper with glossy accents. The star was attached at the back and a piece of green grossgrain ribbon attached behind. The tree was embellished with green stickles. The wings were stamped onto acetate with Versamark and heat embossed with gold EP, cut out and adhered.

Hope you like it :-)

'Who Said Red?' CJ

I have done a couple of earlier CJ's and all my work has become lost somewhere so have never actually received my CJ's back................very disappointing indeed !

I was a bit reluctant to have another go, but was tempted to do another on UK Stampers Forum hosted by Gail Milburn (Efemera). The theme was lightly based on the book 'True Colours' from Stampington which showcased a collaborative effort of art journals on a colour theme. This book has always inspired me anyway. Each participant was to choose a colour and an unmounted stamp and produce their CJ in this theme. My colour was RED because I sort of mopped up when the other participants had chosen their colours.

I had very little time to complete my CJ but here it is in all its glory anyway. This first pic is of the front. I covered some board with red textured cardstock. I then selected another shade of red and tore this into two leaving a space before adhering to the base card. This was given a couple of coats of matt paper Mod-Podge. I edged both raw edges with red metallic deco-balls. A red suede frame was backed with velvetised paper and adhered as shown. The heart was a clear acrylic embellishment backed with alcohol ink and held in place with a plate stamped with 'Who Said'. The RED was UTEE covered die-cuts and a stamped question mark.

I had just bought a Bind-it-All so intended binding my CJ with this. The inside left and right pages are shown here before binding.

Inside left page

Inside right page

The left page shows an image of the stamp and a wallet containing the stamp which I cannot trace to a maker! The right has the introductory dialogue printed onto inkjet transparency and overlayed on silver stamped hearts. The following image shows the pages together as they are in the CJ.

Next comes my double page entry:

My entry left

My entry right

The left page contains an image of the stamp coloured with dye inks with the mirror silvered and matted onto a transparency with swirls. This mat was adhered to a background made of gold on red paper which had the word 'Imagine' stamped twice. The background was pre-prepared with gold ink dabbed on through sequin waste. The right page had a similar background except a sentiment on vellum was edged top and bottom with velvet ribbon and was matted onto the same printed transparency before adhering to the page. A corner swirl stamp was used with white ink to finish. This is how the pages look together:

My last left and right sign in pages are here:

Last left

Last sign-in

These two pages use red striped backing paper, stamped with swirls and knibs with die-cut letters and tags made with the cricut and finished with red velvet ribbon. Embossed lips are used as an embellishment. Some suggested ideas are used on the left page. Here's what they look like together.

Here is the final CJ, all assembled and decorated with a variety of red themed ribbons.

That's it. Do hope you like it and that my friends and fellow contributors enjoy contributing to its contents over the months. Can't wait to see what the final work of art will look like.

Sunday Challenge No 16

Here is my entry for the UK Stampers Sunday Challenge No 16. I used a christmas stamp from Personal Impressions which I have never used until now. I first stamped using Stazon black and coloured all in with Sakura Gelly Roll Tiara pens (quite glittery but not easy to see in the pic). This was cut out and matted on a piece of grey metallic figured card with foam pads. The background card was made from pre-printed and embossed paisley/snowflake card.

Hope you like it :-)

Da Vinci ATC's

Here are my set of 3 ATC's, done for the UK Stampers November theme of 'Da Vinci'. I have used some numbers on each as I wanted to link these also to 'The Da Vinci Code' idea.

All three use either/all of Versamark resists, heat embossing, Distress Inks and Whispers dye inks. The main stamp is one from the ISC Da Vinci Pears plate bought via Scrapz. The numbers are from a plate I can't remember the origin of, sorry.

Hope you like them :-)

'Poppy'

Here is my entry for the UK Stampers Sunday Challenge. The theme was linked to Remembrance Sunday and the image had to be of a poppy. Here is mine.

The poppy was stamped after selectively colouring the flower and the leaves with watercolour brush markers. This was stamped on plain white card and then waterbrushed to produce a watercoloured finish. The image was then carefully cut out. The stamp used was from the Aspects of Design Floral plate. This was then applied with foam pads onto a pre-prepared cuttlebug textured mat. The mat was made by embossing a plain card with a Cuttlebug embossing folder then spraying with passion red and pink ink Glimmer Mists. This was rubbed over with the Versamark pad and this was heat embossed with blue pearl embossing powder. The mat was then matted on dark blue and pink card.

The C6 card was made from light blue cardstock and a printed acetate sleeve applied which had been inkjet printed with a design from the Artilicious filigree fusion CD Rom from Glenda Waterworth. The sleeve was applied with purple metallic eyelets and the poppy and mats adhered centrally. The acetate was very difficult to photograph to avoid reflections but you will get the general overall effect from the picture.

Hope you like it :-)

'Be Quiet' ATC

This ATC is my entry for this weeks TMTA challenge which was to produce a card with 'staples'. Here is my effort. Can I just say that there was no child harmed in the making of this card !!!!

The card has been coloured with Distress inks (aged mahogony, broken china & milled lavender) applied with cut'n'dry foam. The main stamp is one from Paper Artsy and the swirls origin is unknown. They were stamped in distress inks and onyx black Versafine ink. The words 'Be Quiet' were stamped with individual letters from Studio G in the same ink. I then applied a number of turquoise coloured staples over the mouth of the child and edged the whole card with copper Krylon.

Hope you like it :-)

Sunday Challenge No 13

This is my entry to this weeks UK Stampers Sunday Challenge set by Gail (Efemera). I did struggle with it though.

The challenge says 'Well it has to be Halloween! Create a 6x6 page with a Halloween theme..........but you must include some fabric and of course stamping! post your finished creations on the blog Happy stamping! '

I used a piece of printed background paper with a muted diamond design as the base. I then found a piece of blue satin fabric which I stamped with a paisley stamp (Tanda) in onyx black Versafine. I mounted this onto a suitable piece of backing card and stuck it in place with PVA glue. I then overstamped with the same stamp and Versamark which I het embossed with gold EP.

I have very few Halloween type stamps actually and found a stamp from Third Coast Stamps which showed a tribal head. I stamped with Versamark and clear detail EP three times down the right of the piece. I then applied Starburst Stains in delphinium turquoise over the embossing which acted as a resist showing up the images. I coloured the left hand side with broken china Distress Ink and cut'n'dry foam. The words were stamped directly onto the sheet with individual text stamps and the spiders all over the left hand side. To finish, the fabric plate was adhered with glue dots and the 'magic happens' plate applied with foam pads. Finally the whole piece was edged with copper Krylon.

Hope you like it :-)

Autumn ATC's

These three ATC's are my interpretation of an Autumn theme as part of a swap with a friend in America who I have been swapping with for a good while now.

The first was stamped directly onto orange base card with Versafine vintage sepia. I used the leaves set from the See D's range. I then hand coloured the leaves in Autumn colours with Inktense watercolour ink pencils before applying Versamark Pen to selctive areas and heat embossing with a range of embossing powders - clear, tapestry, penny copper and gold. I edged the card with a fine line of gold Krylon.

The second was made with two skeleton leaves which I coloured with Starburst Stains in yellow and brown before sticking to the plain white card with paper Mod Podge and allowing to dry. I gave them two coats. I then used various brown and green sprays from Sticky Fingers to colour the card and leaves. Finishing off with a copper spray and edging with dark brown Colorbox chalk ink.

The third used white card as the base with three applications of marigold yellow orange Starburst Stains from a dabber. I allowed these to dry and then stamped a leaf See D's stamp in brown pigment ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I then cut a strip of orange textured paper and punched leaves out of it at, mounting this over some green paper. This banner was then applied with glue to the top half of the card. Two lengths of chiffon ribbon were attached top and bottom of the leaf strip using double sided tape to adhere. The top ribbon was decorated with blobs of Stickles glitter glue in green. The edges of the card were finished with dark brown Colorbox chalk ink.

Hope you like them :-)

Sunday Challenge No 12

The UK Stampers Sunday Challenge set by Efemera this week is:

'The clock's ticking.................British summer time ends next Sunday 26th and the clocks go back 1 hour so get your skates on and create 2 ATCs with time as your theme, use the same stamp for both but a different technique for each!'

I used a clock stamp and the words Tick, Tock on my two cards.

The first one demonstrates a soot stamp-off technique. I first coated the card with a couple of coats of batchelor button blue Starburst Stain and allowed to dry. Then I lit a candle and held the coated surface (moving continuously) close to the flame, depositing soot over the surface and covering up the colour. I then used the stamps without any ink to remove the soot, leaving the coloured surface below to show through. I then sprayed the card with cheap hair lacquer to seal the soot onto the surface.

The second uses triple heat embossing and two colours of pearlised Deep Image Crystals UTEE from Once Upon A Stamp. The stamps were inked up with Brilliance mediterranean blue to act as a release.

Hope you like them :-)

Newest Stamps ATC's

Here are my three ATC's for the UK Stampers monthly swap for October. We were asked to used three of our newest stamps. I used various colours of Whispers dye inks to colour plain white cardstock using cut'n'dry foam. I then used three stamps from a set of 4 Dovecraft 'Laura Ashley' stamps to stamp centrally wirh Versamark ink. I then heat embossed with metallic powders. I then used three swirl stamps to embellish and again heat embossed with metallic and Moonglow EP's. I edged all three with Krylon gold pen.

Hope you like them :-)

Halloween ATC

This is my entry into this weeks TMTA challenge (think Monday Think ATC), which was centred around Halloween. Simple plain orange card background coloured with Whispers dye inks in purple and blue and cut'n'dry foam. Overstamped with spiders webs, spiders, a swirl and the word 'B00.....00' in Versafine onyx black. The bodies of the spiders have been coloured with green pearlescent Lumiere acrylic paint and the whole card splashed with blue interference ink from Sticky Fingers. Edged with Colorbox chalk ink in purple.

Hope you like it :-)

Simple Card

This card has been made as a challenge set by Diane on her blog , one of our forum members. She is kindly giving away some blog candy to the lucky random winner and the challenge closes on Saturday 25th October 2008. The challenge required that a card was made using no more than two stamps, one embossing powder and one colour of ink with no printed backgrounds. I kept it very simple.

I used plain petrol blue card as the base and then stamped with Versamark ink using an All Night Media stamp (48362A) and heat embossed this with Moonglow desert moon turquoise embossing powder. I then trimmed this and matted the plate on some textured turquoise card which formed the base of the card. I then stamped a Clarice Cliff style stamp from Tanda stamps in onyx black Versafine ink on another square of turquoise textured card which was applied to the centre of the matt with foam pads. All edges were coloured with Colobox turquoise chalk ink.

That's it ! Hope you like it :-)

Sunday Challenge No 11

This is my UK Stampers Sunday Challenge No 11, whose theme was to use a store credit card as the base. I gave the card (WH Smith giftcard) a thick coat of randomly applied beige acrylic paint and allowed to dry. I followed this with a stripe of slate grey acrylic paint dragged over the surface with the edge of a piece of scrap card picking up the high spots of the previous coat of beige. I then brushed the background with gold calligraphy ink.

I then used an ISC stamp from the pear plate and stamped in iris Stazon directly over the background. I then used a See D's letter P stamp and again stamped top right with iris Stazon. I then threaded six round gold beads onto gold wire and bent over the ends to secure, bending the wire to form a corner. This was stuck in place with adhesive as shown. The edges of the card were finished with purple Colorbox chalk ink.

Hope you like it :-)

3 x 3 Inchie Swap No. 2

Well, finally finished my inchies for the UK Stampers 3 x 3 Inchie Swap No. 2. This months theme is 'Autumn' being the appropriate season for this. Enjoyed doing them though and have had a very crafty weekend and have done loads of projects.

I started with a 3 inch by 3 inch square of orange card and applied Adirondack inks in lettuce, raisin and butterscotch working well with cut'n'dry foam. I then stamped randomly with various leaf stamps from the See D's morsels lattice & vine set using Distress inks in mahogany, pine needles and dried marigold. I used a vine stamp and applied Versamark randomly and then heat embossed the vine impressions with penny copper EP.

The piece was then cut into 9 individual squares with the cutter. I used a Fiskars floral corner punch and cut out 18 orange and moss green leaves applying 2 to each square with glue stick. The inchies were then edged with dark brown Colorbox chalk ink.

Hope you like them :-)

'DARK'

This months theme for the UK Art Raffle is 'Dark', to be interpreted any way we liked. This art has also been entered into the 'Goth Style' Wednesday Stamper challenge for this week.

I wanted to do a dark atmospheric number so I started with a yellow card as the base and applied Adirondack dye inks with cut'n'dry foam to obtain a murky overall background. I used bottle, denim, egglant and slate to get the effect I wanted, using small pieces of foam and picking up the ink after first applying ink to a non-stick craft sheet.

I had acquired, many moons ago (pun), a laser cut sheet of tree silhouettes and I cut one of these out and sprayed with Moon Glow Glitz Spritz in desert moon wild iris, allowing to dry naturally before edging with silver Krylon to reflect the moons silvery glow. This was set aside. I then stamped the base with a foliage stamp (anon) in Brilliance pearlescent lime.

The devils face was a stamp I have never used before and came from a grab bag from Third Coast rubber stamps in the USA. I stamped this several times in Versafine onyx black to go behind the tree. The stars in the sky were stamped with a dotty stamp (anon) with Brilliance mediterranean blue and the moon was applied top right with silver Krylon and a circle stencil. The bird was stamped onto black/silver card with black ink and cut out before edging wings, beak and tail with silver Krylon. The word 'DARK' was stamped with magnetic stamps from Making Memories and onyx black Versafine.

The tree was applied over the devils faces with glue stick and the bird applied with silicone glue as shown. The scene was matted onto black and green carstock to finish.

Don't think 'I' would like to walk past that tree on a night like that !!! Hope whoever is the lucky winner this month is not put off by my rather macabre art.

Hope you like it :-)

'Ophelia'

A bit earlier this week with the TMTA Challenge for a change. I think that some of the contributors must be up at dawn on Monday mornings making ATC's to be the first to enter !!!!

This weeks theme is 'Ophelia' so I wanted to do something a little stylised and depicting the glorious figure of the lady of Shakespeare's Hamlet fame and fortune.

I took some plain white card and embossed with a swirl Cuttlebug embossing folder. This was then wiped over with the Versafine onyx black inkpad to ink only the relief swirls on the card. I then cut this to ATC size. I then used a stamp from the Majestic Women plate from ISC and stamped on pastel pink tissue in Versafine onyx black. When thoroughly dry I applied this over the inked ATC with lots of ModPodge paper medium and ensured that the tissue was firmly pushed down over the relief before allowing to dry.

The background swirls did show through but in a muted way and obscured the image of the girl with the flowing hair. I used a water brush and inks to colour the face, lips and eyes of the girl and highlighted the swirls in the girls hair with dark brown pen to accentuate the hair.

Then I took some paper flowers and adhered with glue as shown and highlighted the centres with dimensional pearl paint in silver. The word 'Hamlet' was stamped as shown with magnetic stamps from Making Memories and onyz black ink.

Pastel pink Colorbox chalk ink was applied around the edge of the card to finish. I thought the overall effect was subtle and had depth.

Hope you like it :-)

Wednesday Stamper

This weeks Wednesday Stamper challenge is 'Brown Combo'. I made my own background card by spraying textured green cardstock with Moon glow Glitz spritz royal emerald fire, Glimmer Mist spring mint and Sticky fingers grass green spray inks. I allowed these to dry naturally to produce a rich opalescent sheen.

I then took a corner stamp with a lady on it and stamped this on pale green card in Versafine vintage sepia, tearing around the edges and edging with dark brown Colorbox chalk ink. I used a dotty stamp to stamp the top right corner of the base card and the torn out image with the same brown chalk ink. I then stamped two more single ladies face images on light green cardstock in Versafine olympia green, wiped over them with sage green chalk ink and edged them with dark brown chalk ink.

I then layered one of the images over the original sepia corner and attached with foam pads for relief. The sepia corner was also added as shown with foam pads. A strip of printed paper was adhered along the width of the card at the bottom and the second ladies face attached over this on foam pads.

Two epoxy stickers were added and some flourishes stamped on with gold Marvy Metallics to finish. I seem to be going a bit green at the moment but, along with blue, it is my favourite colour after all.

Hope you like it :-)

Mother Nature

This is my entry for the TMTA (Think Monday, Think ATC) challenge which this week is entitled 'Mother Nature' and which I am rather late in submitting.

I first prepared the background on white card using Distress inks in shabby shutters and pine needles blended in with cut'n'dry foam and spritzed lightly with water, blotting off excess water with tissue. I then stamped onto acetate with a bramble leaf stamp (anon), several times in Stazon ink in olive green, mustard, pumpkin and eden green overlapping to produce a pleasing effect. The acetate was trimmed to size and fixed, stamped side down, over the ATC background with 4 square copper brads to finish allowing the background to show through.

I wanted to produce a dreamy effect incorporating the glorious colours of Autumn as one of Mother natures astounding annual feats.

Hope you like the effect :-)

Buildings/Architecture 6x6 page

This weeks Sunday Challenge by Efemera on UK Stampers Forum is 'Architecture/Buildings' so I decided to make a 6inch x 6inch page using one main stamp from Zettiology (29-143-J).

I stamped this onto plain white cardstock with Versafine onyx black ink. I then trimmed to size and applied layers of Distress Inks with cut'n'dry foam in broken china, milled lavender and tattered rose, graduating to form a sky effect. I then used Marvey LaPlume 2 pens in rose pink and mauve to highlight various sections of the buildings. I then applied a Versamark pen (fine end) and picked out sections of the buildings and heat embossed these with fine detail clear embossing powder. The plaque was finished with a Klimt swirl corner stamp from Tanda Stamps stamped twice in the blue area of the sky to give the impression of clouds using Whispers azure seas dye ink.

The completed plate was matted onto pink and then blue cardstock and edged with blue iris Colorbox chalk ink.

Plain and quite simple, but I liked the way it turned out.........hope you do too! :-)

Floral ATC's

Here are my three ATC's for a lady across the pond. The theme this month is floral and I have accomplished this by using some ready made fabric flowers as embellishments. The backgrounds on the pink and blue ATC's have been made by blending dye inks in various colours and the pink one has black spatters from a wet brush loaded with black acrylic paint. Some floral stamps have been used in red Stazon and silver pigment ink and one has a fragment of old bookpage added at the bottom. The leafy ATC was made using Lavinia clear stamps and adirondack inks embellished with dots of crystal Stickles glitter glue.

Hope you like them :-)

Structure ATC

Here is an ATC done for this weeks Wednesday Stamper challenge. I thought hard and long about this one. The theme this week was 'Structure'

I decided that I wanted to go natural, so I chose some natural sisal webbing dyed blue as the background. This was adhered to a white base card with glossy accents. I then used some real bark fibres for the bottom left hand corner which I stamped with letter stamps in black Stazon before overlaying on the webbing as shown. I heat embossed some loose pearlised blue EP in an irregular stripe half way up the card and applied some iridescent lilac seed beads to the top right again with glossy accents. The card was finished by edging with dark blue colorbox chalk ink.

I liked the texture which provide some structure too. Hope you like it too :-)

'Bling'

This is my entry for this weeks UK Stampers Sunday Challenge No.9. I wanted to really go very glittery and glitzy so I started with stamping a Lost Coast Designs large clown doll rubber stamp which was stamped with onxz black Versfine ink onto plain white copier paper. This was then coloured in with Inktense ink pencils and a waterbrush. I wanted the wings to be a bit parrot like in colour. When done I cut out the image with a pair of decoupage scissors and set aside.

I took some hammered lilac base card and sprayed this with Glimmer Mists in passion red and periwinkle, fairly heavily and allowed this to dry naturally to avoid curling. When dry I overstamped the card with Versamark ink and a Dovecraft Laura Ashley design stamp which was heat embossed with violet pearl iridescent embossing powder.

I then stuck the large clown doll image centrally on the background card and decorated this with a variety of glitter gels. The plinth was enhanced with Krylon gold pen. Three flat backed cabouchons were added to the clown hat and two small red cabouchons added to the cheeks of the face. The 4 corners of the background were then adorned with tiny lilac seed beads held in place by glossy accents. The whole piece was matted over a slightly larger sheet of red glitter card and a vellum tag with the word 'Bling' spelled out with clear dimensional self adhesive epoxy letters. The thread was coloured violet with permanent ink and attached with a metallic violet mini peg.

Very glitzy and glittery, but very difficult to photograph too. In real life it is positively 'BLING'.

Hope you like it :-)

Art Doll Charm

This is my little (3 inches tall) Art Charm Doll done for a swap on UK Stampers Forum. Pinky is running the swap and I have just finished mine.

I printed a doll parts template from the internet onto plain copier paper and then stuck this to a large sheet of black shrink plastic with glue pen. I then cut around the parts and soaked off the template paper with warm water, leaving me with all the bits. I then punched holes in the appropriate places with the crop-o-dile so I could assemble the doll when finished.

I decided to use Opalite inkpads in crystal blush for the arms and glacier blue for the legs. The stamps are two of my unknowns......but I thought they would give a decorative pattern when shrunk down. The torso was sprayed with starburst stains to achieve a mottled, shiny appearance. All parts were shrunk carefully with a heat gun and flattened whilst still hot with an acrylic block until cool. I only decorated one side of the doll with these. I painted the rear of the doll with blue matt acrylic paint and sprayed with fixative. All body parts were edged with gold Krylon pen.

For the skirt I used silver header pins and threaded numerous blue beads and just bent over the ends roughly with pliers to hold the beads onto the header pins. I then cut a length of fine black wire and threaded this through the two leg holes on the torso and threaded the beaded header pins onto this before securing at the front by twisting neatly at the rear of the doll. I then applied dabs of gold krylon on the torso as shown. All parts were attached with silver jump rings so the legs, arms and head were articulated.

The picture of the vintage ladies face was stuck to the head with glossy accents and a malachite star stuck on with glossy accents.

The silver lobster claw clasp was attached to the head with another header pin for hanging purposes.

This is the first of its type that I have made and I don't think it is very serviceable really. I found it a bit tricky but was quite pleased with the results though and it has given me more ideas for future pieces.

Halloween Invite

I was asked by a friend to do 20 Halloween party invites for the forthcoming celebrations on 31st October. One of the cards is featured above.

I took some maroon cardstock and made the card blanks to a size of 5in x 5in. I then took some orange whitecore card and cut this into smaller squares to be matted onto the fronts of the cards. I then used one of my new cuttlebug embossing folders (Cobweb) to emboss these. Once embossed a Whispers black dye inkpad was lightly rubbed over the embossed surface to accentuate the web design I then sprayed lightly with Sticky Fingers silver shake-n-spray to give the webs a bit of glitz. When dry the matts were adhered to the front of the cards and a 2 inch piece of silver cord was cut and stuck onto the web with one end at the centre of the web.

I searched high and low for some spiders to adorn the webs and finally found some in a £1 shop. I adhered a spider with a glue dot at the other end of the thread.

Some plaques were made with the same card and these were stamped with a 'You Are Invited' stamp from See D's celebrations set. The plaques were then applied on foam pads to add relief.

The card inserts were printed on the inkjet printer and applied inside the cards. Maroon envelopes finish the project.

Hope you like them :)

Peace

This weeks Wednesday Stamper challenge was to produce something in the theme of 'PEACE'.

I decided to use a Peace Paperartsy stamp from the Winter Wonderland Plate 5. This I stamped in black Stazon three times slightly offset on purple paper. I then used Inktense ink pencils and a waterbrush to shade the faces and hair of the figures. I then cut out the piece.

Then I used a bird and twig stamp which I stamped on white paper with olive green Stazon. I then cut the bird from the leafy twig and just used the birds head. I collaged all three elements onto a home made background made using spray inks. I again used Inktense ink pencils and the waterbrush to add colour to the twig, leaves and bird. The idea was to make it appear as if the bird was holding the olive twig of peace. Once satisfied with the colours I edged the plate with silver Krylon pen.

Sunday Challenge No. 7

Here is my offering for the UK STampers Sunday Challenge , this weeks theme is 'Talk Like a Pirate'. My pirate theme is undersea and I have made a sort of collage piece depicting pirate treasure.

I painted a real scallop shell with a couple of coats of Lumiere green acrylic to start. Then I made a little square box (coloured with metallic green ink), and attached a large green flat backed jewel to the top. I then threw in some coins, pearls and other green and black large jewels. I made a plate out of dark green leather texture card and spelled out the words using wooden scrabble pieces which I edged with green dye ink. Finally I stamped a map of the world and heat embossed in gold EP colouring the background with green and blue dye inks.

It was really done very quickly as I have pondered all week as to what to do. Hope you like it :)

My heart.............ATC

This ATC was done as my first entry to the Think Monday, Think ATC challenge. The subject this week is Handwriting.

I cut the ATC from white board and adhered a piece of printed background paper to it with handwriting printed on a cream background from K & Co Lifes Journey. I then chose a rubber stamp with the words 'My Heart Is Like A Singing Bird' and stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed with Stampendous twighlight embossing powder and a heat gun.

I cut out a medallion from the same paper and dabbed this with moonglow delphinium turquoise Starburst Stain, again drying with the heat gun. The ATC was sprayed with moonglow desert moon endless sky Glitz Spritz and allowed to dry and edged roughly with some more starburst stain. I used a calligraphy swirl stamp (anon) and stamped twice with Brilliance meditteranean blue ink.

The medallion had a small fabric flower applied centrally and this was secured with a pewter coloured square brad before attaching as shown with foam pads to give depth.

I would have used some of my own handwriting..........but it is really bad, so I opted for a stamp instead.

Hope you like it :)

Structures ATC's

This set of three ATC's was done as a swap on UK STampers Forum. The subject was buildings/structures and I did a series of rather subdued,( for me) , ATC's.

All three incorporate clear adhesive tape transfers. This technique is simple, but effective and here is a summary of how to do it:

First select your image from a glossy magazine, (it must be glossy for the transfer to work), and cut out what you want roughly. Next, take a strip of the widest clear self-adhesive tape that you have and place carefully over the image without trapping air or creasing the tape before firmly rubbing over the surface of the tape to ensure an intimate bond with your image. I find it best to use the flat surface of a bone folder or alternatively the handle of your scissors to do this burnishing. When you are happy that the image is well adhered, trim it to the size, or width, of the tape that you used.

Next, get a small bowl and fill with warm tap water. Place your taped image into the water, (it will curl up), and wait for a minute or so until well wetted. Then use your fingers to rub off the wetted paper from the back of the tape. This is a bit messy but you will find that the printed paper goes into a pulp and when rubbed off leaves an image of what you covered with the tape on the sticky side of the tape. Ensure that you remove all of the paper and rinse the tape and image thoroughly before allowing to dry.

If you are lucky this image will still be adhesive and ready to apply to your surface (ATC in this case). If it is not sticky then apply a thin coat of Glossy Accents and smear over the surface before applying to your receiving surface. Again, burnish the transfer onto this surface with the edge of a bone folder or the handle of your scissors until happy that it has stuck. The image is transparent and does allow whatever is on the background to show through, so plan what you intend to do before you apply the transfer.

I used three colours of background card - lemon, peach and green - first trimmed to size, which I stamped around the edge with vintage sepia Versfine ink and a couple of border stamps from All-Night Media (48361B & 48363B) before applying the tape transfers.

The finished ATC's have words stamped on with black Stazon ink using Making Memories magnetic stamps to finish. They were edged with dark brown Colorbox chalk ink.

Hoping you like these :)