Mail Art

Firstly, here's wishing you all a fab Bank Holiday Monday !!

Here is my first entry in the Lots To Do challenge blog for week 21, whose subject is........... yes you guessed it 'Mail Art'. I have had this stamp for absolutely ages and have never used it until now.  It's massive and I do like it now I have brushed the cobwebs off it at last. Love the words as it's obviously taken from an original postcard !

The stamp was inked with Versafine onyx black and stamped onto white card.  The card was simply coloured with cut'n'dry foam and Distress inks in old paper, antique linen and scattered straw using  the Tim Holtz swirl mask to add a bit of contrast. I went over areas (ie the postage stamp) with a waterbrush which sort of bleached out the ink in an interesting way.

I then just highlighted the Post Card words with a red Marvey Le Plume II pen to finish.

Sid xx

Home Tag

As you probably know I have been taking part in the Weekly Rolling Recipe Tag Challenge run over on UK Stampers Forum.  This weeks tag (No.19) had to possess the following features:

1. Trees

2. Houses

3. Heat Embossing

So here is mine.  I started with a white card trimmed to size and stamped the trees (Crafty Individuals) with Versafine onyx black ink.  I then adhered and trimmed two pieces of 7 gypsies printed paper, top & bottom. The blue in the sky was added with Memento ink and cut'n'dry foam in summer sky and danube blue.  A daisy border stamp (Inca Stamps) was stamped along the bottom in Versafine onyx black ink.

Next the house was cut from chipboard and coated in Versamark ink before sprinkling on silver, silver pearl and enchanted gold Heat It Up embossing powders.  This was heated with the heat gun until melted and one or two more pinches of the powders added as needed to get the desired effect.  I wanted the roof to be textured.  The window hole was backed with blue paper and a blind drawn on in white pigment pen.

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The joins between the paper and the trees were covered in stitches drawn in with a white pigment pen and I then applied aqua Stickles to the leaves on the daisies in the border and stuck the house in place with Glossy Accents.  The word 'HOME' was then applied with printed vellum stickers.

The whole tag was edged with dark green chalk ink and a beige eyelet applied with the crop'a'dile and tied through with beige/brown fibres to finish.

Sid xx

Pretty in Pink

I made some paper flowers with the TH Sizzix tattered florals alterations die a short while back and here I have used one on a little gift box I crafted.  The box started life as a box of  Whittard coffee beans and I first prepared it by painting with a couple of coats of french mauve Decoart acrylic paint.  Once dry I used the smallest flower  negative from the diecuts as a mask and applied Adirondack Dimensional Pearls through the stencil with a dry coarse natural sponge in a randon fashion.  I allowed this to dry before adding white centres to the stencilled flowers with a white pigment pen.

I dug out some polymer stamps from Anna Griffin of an oval frame and the words 'Sending You Inspiration' and stamped the frame with Versafine onyx black.  This was coloured with Marvey Le Plume II pens and trimmed out.  I then backed the frame with the same spotty pink printed paper I had used in the flower and again trimmed out.  This was then stamped with the words.

The edges of the box were touched with chestnut brown chalk ink as was the edge of the frame and the printed paper was distressed a little with the ink.

The box was then decorated with the frame being stuck into place, the flower and pink ribbon bow applied with glue dots to finish.  I love the matt finish to the box and it has a sort of 'material' feel to it.

Sid xx

Square in Square

This is my entry for this weeks Wednesday Stamper blog challenge whose subject is 'It's Hip to be Square'.  I used a couple of polymer stamps from Inkadinkado kindly given to me by Godelieve as part of a fab prize of goodies when she celebrated her 1,000,000th hit on her blog..........now that's some going !

I started with a 2in square of Stampbord and stamped this in Versafine onyx black ink with the stamp.  I then used barn door & rusty hinge Distress inks to colour the edges and centre of the tile with cut'n'dry foam and a waterbrush.  Some parts of the image were coloured with Inktense pencils and a waterbrush.  I used a scratch tool to etch into the stampbord clay surface on the images and around the edge.  I then used some more barn door Distress ink around the edge and heat embossed this with detail clear embossing powder. I edged with dark brown chalk ink.

The background mat was made using Sticky fingers Summer spray inks onto white card and when dry followed by various colours of chalk inks applied through a bit of sequin waste. This was cut and matted onto a piece of maroon card.  Both mats were edged again with dark brown chalk ink.

The Stampbord tile was then applied centrally with glossy accents and the word Serenity stamped top right in Versafine onyx black ink to finish.

Sid xx

Caged Bird Tag

I used two more Sizzix products in this piece. I was recently given the Tim Holtz 'Alterations' Sizzix Caged Bird die and  I also used the 'Bingo' embossing folder.

I took some more of the metallic fantasy paper I have had for such a long time and put this through the Big Shot using the embossing folder.  The numbers from the die were really popping on the metallic paper.  I then randomly dabbed over it with some gold Ranger paint dabber and rubbed off a lot with a dry paper towel.  I dried with a heat gun to set the paint.

Once dry the embossed and painted paper was put through the Big Shot again using the Caged Bird die which does such a fab job of making the cage, bird body and wing.  I next took the bird and wing and dabbed over the raised portions with a dark brown chalk pad and whilst still wet dusted over with detail clear embossing powder and heat set this carefully.  This enhanced the brown chalk ink a lot.  I next took a piece of duck-egg blue embossed card and attached the cage carefully with Glossy Accents without sticking down the central bars. This was then trimmed out around the outside of the cage.  The bird body was glued in place by sliding between the bars and the wing attached last over the bars.

I embellished the holes at the bottom of the cage with some blue dimensional paint and a blob of Stickles glitter glue and applied a self adhesive gem for an eye for the bird.  The hole at the top of the cage was threaded with gold elasticated cord wrapped around with blue eyelash fibres as the hanger.

I was originally going to put this onto another background but decided it looked good to me as it was.  Very shiny and blingy.......as I love this finish !

Sid xx 

Memories ATC

This ATC was made by using self adhesive sheet, embossing powders, metallic flakes (Crafty Notions) and a new embossing folder from Sizzix by Tim Holtz (Artistic Stamper).The image of the couple is from Crafty Individuals, the bird is a Martha Stewart punch and the word stamp from 7 gypsies.  Some swirls have been stamped over the background in fuschia Stazon ink and a small adhesive gem added.

Sid xx

Vintage ATC

This ATC started life as a piece of black card cut to size.  I painted it with Lumiere hi lite violet acrylic paint and allowed it to dry, this almost entirely obliterated the black but provided a fab interference colour.

I then inked a swirl stamp and stamped randomly in onyx black Versafine on a piece of scrap salmon pink textured card. Next I sprayed this with peacock mica spray and dried with the heat gun. Five squares were then punched out with a square punch.  These were edged in Stazon black and put on one side. I then sprayed the background card at the edges with the same mica spray which balled up to produce a mottled effect.  Next a Crafty Individuals stamp was inked with black Stazon and stamped as shown on the background.  The face was glossed with Sakura clear glaze pen. The squares made earlier were then adhered across the ATC as shown.

The swirl stamp was next inked with fuschia pink Stazon and stamped several times. A small piece of silk ribbon was frayed and adhered and embellished with a small adhesive gem. The edges of the card were inked in mauve chalk ink to finish.  It's much more metallic and shimmery in real life as these never photograph well.

Sid xx

Charming !

These little key charms were made as part of a swap run over on UK Stampers Forum by the lovely Minxy.  She kindly hosted the swap and each participant (14 in total), made 14 charms which were sent to her.  She had the massive task of fixing all the different charms to a bracelet that she had made before sending back our fab finished works of art.

I used a key stamp from Elusive Images and stamped this on opaque shrink plastic with black Stazon.  I then used Sakura Moonlight pens to colour them before punching a hole with the crop-a-dile, cutting out and shrinking them.  I applied a small jump ring to each to finish.

I thought that they would be ideal because they were only 1 inch long and very lightweight too ! Click HERE to see the finished bracelets and all the charms.

Sid xx

'Orangery'

I have been following the Wednesday Stamper blog and think that this piece matches the theme of 'Orange' for this week.

I made a double matted plaque with a central plate made of chipboard.  The central plate was cut to 4 x 4 inches and prepared by painting with Lumiere burnt orange paint. When dry the background was stamped randomly with numbers from a foam stamp set from Making Memories using orange acrylic paint. Next fairly thick uneven splodges of spiced marmalade Distress crackle paint was added and allowd to dry. This was then brushed over with some spiced marmalade Distress re-inker to highlight the cracks.  

Next I stamped the dove plate ( clear polymer) in pumpkin pigment ink and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder.  This was cut out and edged with dark brown chalk ink.

I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz 'On The Edge' die to cut out the swirls from patterned cardstock, using both the negative and positives top and bottom.  They were adhered with glossy accents.

The two printed cardstock mats were cut to 4.5 x 4.5 & 5 x 5 inches.  They were matted with glue stick as shown and edged with dark brown chalk ink.

Finally the dove plate was added on foam pads as shown and some self adhesive typewriter key letters added to spell out the word 'Peace'

Very rich colours were achieved and the background sort of 'evolved' as I decided to add the layers.  Quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Sid xx

Is that a Tree House Tag?

This weeks Rolling Recipe Challenge No.18 on UK Stampers demands that we make a tag with these three elements:

1. Stripes

2. House/houses

3. Tree/trees

I had a funky colour scheme in mind and when I rooted through my paper stash and found the striped background paper I knew where I was going ! It had some fab bright colours in it. All the stamps used are by PaperArtsy.

I cut the base tag from white cardstock and covered it with the decorative paper with the stripes in a horizontal fashion.  That done I chose a house stamp and stamped this

with Versafine onyx black onto white card and heat embossed this with detail clear embossing powder.  I then used Inktense pencils and coloured the house as shown using matching colours to the stripes.  The colour from the pencils was added direct to the card and then spread with a waterbrush.  These pencils produce a transparent colour which can be built up in layers and act like inks which are permanent and waterproof when dry.  The coloured image was then cut out ready to apply to the tag.

I then used a swirly tree stamp and a flourish/ swirl which was inked again with onyx black Versafine and stamped as shown directly to the tag. The house was then adhered on shallow foam pads.

A piece of black & white polka dot ribbon was adhered at the base of the tag with a glue stick.  The word 'Dream' was added as a black glossy word brad.

Finally a yellow flower eyelet was added with the crop-a-dile and a short piece of narrow yellow velvet ribbon was tied in a bow through the brad whilst the edge of the tag was run over with chestnut brown chalk ink for definition.

This tag really makes a statement of colour, loving the sheer brightness of it !

Sid xx

Fishy, Fishy, Fishy Ohhhh!

This ATC is a fit for the TMTA challenge this week which was......wait for it........Fish !! I always find this one difficult because I dont have many fishy stamps. I have chosen one which is an oriental fish (?). 

The card blank was cut from white card and the background stamped numerous times with a background stamp from Tanda inked with Versamagic chalk ink in turquoise gem, aloe vera, tea leaves and hint of pesto.  The background was then painted with a fan brush and Moonglow Starburst Stains in delphinium turquoise and ponderosa pine olive in a criss-cross fashion allowing to dry between coats to add a feeling of depth.  As usual the mica shimmer cannot be seen on the photos but looks very nice in real life.

Next the fish stamp was selectively inked with Marvey le Plume II pens in yellow, violet and blue and stamped once. Another image of the fish was stamped in Versafine onyx black as shown.  Some little reeds were hand cut from lime green card and adhered with glue stick and the word 'fishy' applied with black rub-ons.

Finishing touch was to add some bubbles with Smooch molasses pearlised accent ink.

Sid xx

Flowers to 'die' for !

There are so many fabulous dies available for machines such as the 'Big Shot' I wanted to use a recently purchased die to make some grungy flowers.

So here are a couple of paper flowers I made using the new Tim Holtz 'Alterations' bigz die from Sizzix available from Jennie at The Artistic Stamper. The die cuts out 4 floral elements and I simply cut out two sets of petals, one in a paisley printed design and one in a plain pink with lime dots. I simply alternated colours to make the two flowers shown.

I used dark brown chalk ink to colour the petal edges a little to distress them and curled the paper petals with my fingers to add a little depth finally assembling each and holding together with a brad.

Will use them in a project soon.

Sid xx

Spirited Insight ATC

Here's another ATC I have called 'Spirited Insight' !  The base is white cardstock cut to size.  All stamps used are Invoke Arts and I stamped the eyes in onyz black Versafine three times, the last time without re-inking the stamp to provide a greyed out image.

The card was they sprayed with winter jasmine gold Moonglow Starburst Stain and allowed to dry.  Next the non-stick craftmat was inked with milled lavender and scattered straw Distress Ink and spritzed with water before rubbing the card face down in the ink.  This was done a couple of times and dried with the heat gun in between.  The spirit was stamped with onyx black Versafine and the numbers were stamped once in vintage sepia Versafine and once in Brilliance sunflower yellow ink (top right).  The edges were coloured with Memento rich cocoa ink applied with cut'n'dry foam to finish.

Liking the colourtones achieved with the inks on the background on this one.

Sid xx

House and Home Tag

Here is my next tag in the Rolling Recipe series on UK Stampers forums weekly challenge.  This one had to have the following elements:

1. Acetate

2. Stripes

3. Stamped house/houses

I started with a white card blank and adhered some printed stripey paper to it.  I then took some old bookpaper, tore it, added some ochre chalk ink and adhered this at the top of the tag.

I then took a house stamp (Zettiology) and stamped this in onyx black Versafine onto more white card.  I then used a brayer and a shades of purple Dee Gruenig blending blox (Marvey) to colour the image, adding a little ochre chalk ink also.  Some glossy accents were added to one or two of the buttons on the roof !  This was allowed to dry and was then cut out.

Next I took some acetate and stamped a buttons border stamp (Lost Coast Designs) in Royal Purple Stazon along one edge.  This was trimmed and adhered on the left side of the tag behind some of the buttons with Glossy Accents.

In the meantime, some dots (Tanda Stamps) were stamped bottom right with the blending block ink and another image of the house was stamped on the tag top right with scattered straw Distress ink.

The stamped house was added as shown on foam pads and the word 'home' stamped in vintage sepia Versafine ink with clear polymer stamps.  Finishing touches were to add a piece of aubergine velvet ribbon at the top, held in place with a material covered brad which had been coloured with the same blending block ink.

Love the Purple Stazon on the acetate.......it really makes it pop !

Sid xx

Secret Garden ATC

This ATC uses stamps from PaperArtsy. I started with a white card blank and used Moonglow starburst stain in tiger lily red orange, applied liberally in two or three uneven coats. Once dry a flourish stamp was inked once with pearlescent poppy Brilliance ink (very difficult to see but has a golden hue when viewed at an angle) and once with moonlight white.  These were dried with a heat gun and acted as a resist for one more coat of the Moonglow spray.

I then inked a seedhead stamp with vintage sepia Versafine and stamped as shown.  The 'secret garden' stamp was inked in Memento bahama blue and stamped as shown. Two splashes of Moonglow delphinium turquoise were added left and right and the seedhead was highlighted with crystal Stickles glitter glue.  The edges were coloured with chestnut brown Colorbox chalk ink to finish.

Sid xx

A Pear for All Seasons

Here is a bright little fruity creation I made using very few materials. I took a piece of white card as a background and coloured this directly with Nick Bantock chartreuse leaf and sapmoss green inkpads direct-to-paper.  The pear image (Stamp in the Hand) was inked with Versamagic hint of pesto chalk ink and stamped once in full and then several times after selectively inking the leaf and branch.  A little Versamagic pumpkin spice was added to the pear as an accent.  A yellow Marvey Le Plume II pen was used to colour the veins in the leaves.

Another swirl stamp (Paperartsy) was then inked with Brilliance sunflower yellow ink and this was heat embossed with clear detail embossing powder.  Two dark green skeleton leaves were cut to fit and applied with very small amounts of Glossy Accents.

The words (Stamp in the Hand) were stamped onto white card with Versafine onyx black and trimmed out before colouring with lots of the green NB inks direct.  A mat was coloured with  Nick Bantock van dyke brown ink and adhered and trimmed behind the words.

The plate was then matted twice onto orange and espresso textured card before applying the word plate on foam pads.

Sid xx

Butterfly Philosophy Tag

      

Here is Tag No.16 in the series of Rolling Recipe Tags hosted on UK Stampers forum by the lovely Efemera.  This week we had to include the following:

1. Stripes

2. Stamped Butterfly
3. Acetate

I started with white card, cut to shape.  The top section of the background was coloured with Distress ink in scattered straw and pumice stone applied with cut'n'dry foam.  I used a clear stamp from Li'l Davis Designs and inked this with more scattered straw Distress and stamped onto the background 2 or 3 times. I then chose some stripy paper and cut it at an angle with scallop decorative scissors and applied in lower half of the tag with glue stick.

I used pumice stone Distress ink to ink a solid butterfly background stamp (Elusive Images) and stamped this in the centre to act as a background for the acetate overlay which was stamped with another Elusive Images detail butterfly stamp in black Stazon and trimmed to size. This was adhered over the solid background in 4 places with Glossy Accents.

I then embossed the word 'philosophy' onto a strip of card and coloured again with scattered straw Distress ink, applying as shown.  I added a metal corner embellishment on the left.

                                

Finishing touches were made by applying a piece of silver braid, tied in a bow. A grey eyelet applied with the crop-a-dile and a length of grey decorative fibre tied through the eyelet.

I wanted to keep this one very simple and the colours of grey, straw and black seemed to do the trick.

Sid xx

Bee Line ATC

Back to my beloved  blues on this buzzy ATC.  The background was made by applying Distress inks in chipped sapphire, tumbled glass & stormy sky with a piece of cut'n'dry foam onto white card.  This was then spattered with drops of water to mix and spread the background and was dried with a heat gun.

Next I used a solid circle foam stamp and Brilliance mediterranean blue ink and stamped several times over the background.  The bee was stamped with vintage sepia Versafine and the obdominal stripes coloured with yellow Souffle pen.  The hydrangea was inked first with dandelion Memento ink and then overstamped with onyx black Versafine.  The word plate was inked with Versamark and heat embossed with Blond Moments fresh satsuma iridescent embossing powder.  Some little reflections were added to the circles with blue Souffle pen (to give the impression of bubbles).  All stamps were from a clear set by Artemio (Belgium).

Two blue gems were adhered with glossy accents and the whole thing edged with iris blue Colorbox chalk ink.

Sid xx

D is for Dragonfly

This ATC has a background made with home-made mica sprays and Distress Re-inkers.  I used moss greens and golds, spraying several times and drying in between coats with the heat gun.

I simply stamped with a circular stamp (Stamp in the Hand), a swirl and an open leaf stamp in green chalk ink and vintage sepia Versafine.  I then added a metal dragonfly brad and a metal embossed 'D'.  The 'fly' is made with gold rub-ons. Finishing touched were added with a little white opaque pen.

Sid xx