Bird In Two Minds ATC

Firstly let me wish you all a very super Bank Holiday if you are in the UK !!

This is an ATC I recently made.  All stamps  are PaperArtsy.  The ATC was cut from blue cardstock and a bird stamp was inked up with Versafine onyx black, stamped and then heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder.  The red colour on the birds body was added with Marvey Le Plume II pen.

The background was made by layering Distress inks in spiced marmalade, dried marigold, barn door & fired brick applied with cut'n'dry foam.  I added some random dots in the same ink colours with a dotty background stamp.

Some scratches were made with a pointy tool and inked over too,  The two pence stamp was inked with Versafine vintage sepia and stamped as shown.  The mini bird was made from shrink plastic stamped with red Stazon ink.  This was applied, after shrinking, with Glossy Accents.

Finally a small red adhesive gem was added for the birds eye and the ATC edged with dark brown chalk ink.

Sid xx

A Remarkable Woman

It's nearly the end of the month already and my time as Guest Designer for the month of August over on the Artistic Stamper Design Team Blog is sadly coming to an end.

I have crafted another piece which I hope you will like and below is a sneak peek at some of it.  To see the whole thing along with instructions on how I made it click HERE.

Let me know what you think when you get there !

I have had a great time being part of the team and would like to thank Jennie and Hels and all of the others who have made it all possible.  Also I would like to thank everyone who has commented on my work and to say it's much appreciated !

Sid xx

'On Your Bike' Tag

Here is another tag for the UK Stampers Forum weekly challenge.  This weeks recipe is:

1. Dots

2. Transport

3. Fabric

I started with a blank card tag and took a piece of  Basic Grey printed paper, a design with a red distressed background and lime dots and used a Martha Stewart punch to scallop the left edge.  The blank tag was coloured down the left hand edge with chartreuse and camel Impress ink.  The backing paper was then applied leaving one layer of the scallops to overlap the left edge of the card.  A foam Dot stamp was inked with dark green dye ink and stamped inside each of the background dots to add a different shade of green.

I then stamped an old American bike advert stamp (Tanda) onto white card with Versafine onyx black ink, and coloured with peeled paint Distress ink.  Next a clear acrylic bookplate was covered in Glossy Accents and stuck over the coloured stamped image (positioning to suit).  Once dry the excess card was trimmed from the edges of the bookplate.  Two green brads were added through the plates holes.

Three assorted  red buttons were then tied through with lime green embroidery thread and stuck in place as shown with Glossy Accents.  A piece of red spiders web fabric was then added on small glue dots across the tag at an angle and trimmed off at the edges.  The bookplate was adhered onto the webbing with glue dots also.

A Lime green eyelet tied through with lime green silk fabric was then applied with the crop-a-dile to finish of the tag.

The colours are actually a bit festive I suppose, but I liked the really bright contrasting finish.

Sid xx

Flower Power Tag

This weeks tag for a challenge on UK Stampers Forum  is quite a complex affair but I loved doing it!  The backgrounds were all made using different materials and techniques such as mica sprays, stencilling through sequin waste with Distress Inks, tearing etc.

The ingredients this week are:

1.  Dots

2.  Using something Tim Holtz

3.  Transport

I started with white card and cut it to size.  I then applied 3 pieces of homemade background papers which had been torn at the edges and inked with spiced marmalade Distress Ink.  These were stuck on with a glue stick.

I then used a couple of stamps from Ecogreen from their Steampunk plate.  The first is of a cross-head screw and this was inked with Brilliance cosmic copper and stamped down the right hand side.  I then inked the netting stamp with Versafine vintage sepia and stamped a couple of times down the left hand side.

At the same time I took the chimney stamp and inked this with onyx black Versafine, stamping onto white card.  This was coloured with frayed burlap Distress Ink before trimming out to be applied later.

Next some PaperArtsy poinsettias were stamped with jet black Stazon and sprayed with green mica spray and when dry trimmed out (cutting each bract out to form a 'leaf').  These were adhered with glue pen along the bottom of the tag as shown.  Next a Hero Arts flower stamp was selectively inked with black Stazon and stamped above the leaves.

I then selected a Hero Arts printed paper flower and a large lime green brad, re-coloured with some terracotta alcohol ink applied with felt pad on an applicator.  The stamped and coloured chimney and smoke was applied with glue pen and the flower and brad applied below the stack through the tag.

The printed letters were selected, trimmed and applied to spell out 'Flower Power' with glue pen (easier to position adhesive using a pen). The tag was edged with maroon chalk ink and  a copper eyelet was applied with the crop-a-dile and a piece of gold metallic braid applied in a knot to finish.

I know that the 'Transport' part of the ingredients has been very loosely interpreted but I had the feeling that the flower with a chimney represented power to move, hence the title of the tag.  You probably think I am loopy (I probably am actually :-)).  Enjoy !

Sid xx

Drawers & Stuff !

Wednesday again and that can only mean WOYWW hosted by Julia on 'The Stamping Ground' blog !  We all have a nosey at each others crafty work areas..........it's hard to resist really.

This week I am featuring a couple more of my storage units.  The first is actually two (one on top of the other) little sets of drawers I got at the Art Depot.  They each have six dinky little drawers ideal for brads, mini bottles, coloured staples etc.

This one is another Muji set of drawers in a grey metal case.  They are quite narrow but very deep front to back, each holds around 10 pots of EP, glitter etc.  They are, of course, all FULL as usual !! Guess what, now I have opened all the drawers to take the pic I have discovered a few more things I had forgotten about ....... how bad is that?

Sorry for not getting round to all your blogs to leave comments last week, but it IS a real marathon.  I am off work this week so may have a better chance.  I would like to thank all you fab people who take the time to comment on my manic crafting space ......... it really is appreciated and fun too.  Have a great day !

Sid xx

Time for the Post

This is another postcard I have crafted for a swap over on UK Stampers Forum.  I had a paper napkin printed with timepieces on a gold and black background so I trimmed three of the timepieces out and separated the layes of paper in the napkin so I was left with a single ply with the image on - very fragile !!

The card was cut from coarse white card as I wanted a texture to stamp on.  The background was coloured with oregano Adirondack dye ink and cut'n'dry foam.  I then took a flourish stamp (PaperArtsy) and stamped this several times in the same ink, drying thoroughly before the next step.

I then glazed the background with a sheer gold acrylic glaze applied with a wide brush.  This allows the background colour and flourish to show through with a golden sheen.  One thoroughly dry I then applied a generous coat of acrylic matt medium, laid over the napkin images and carefully applied more medium over the top, smoothing down the images with a fine wide brush.  This was allowed to dry naturally overnight.

Final touches were to over stamp the words and the gears (PaperArtsy) on the card with jet black Stazon and edging the card with dark brown chalk ink.

The finish is antiqued and has a distressed look with a bit of depth.  This will go 'naked' through the post to my swap partner so I feel sure that the surface will not get damaged in transit due to the coating materials I have used.

Sid xx

Time & Tide ATC's

Here are a trio of ATC's done as part of a swap over on UK Stampers Forum.  The theme for these is 'Shades of Blue.

I started with white cardstock cut to size and used mica sprays made with faded jeans Distress ink and silver Cosmic Shimmer mica powder in a mini mister.  This was sprayed heavily until it ran in drips down the base card.  This was allowed to dry naturally.  A few coats were applied to give depth.

Next I sprayed  delphinium summer ink from Sticky Fingers over this until happy with the effect.  Some spatters and some drips were made also.  This was dried with the heat gun.

I next took some cheap blue glitter glue, applied swirls of this over each card and then dabbed over with a piece of dry baby wipe to distribute roughly, leaving an uneven and slightly glittery surface.  This was allowed to dry.

All the stamps used are PaperArtsy and I stamped the moth in black Stazon and a leaf in aquamarine Stazon as shown.The sentiment was stamped with Veramark ink and heat embossed with midnight sapphire obsidian Moonglow embossing powder.  The edges of the cards were coloured with wild iris chalk ink.

All three of the cards are slightly different but all have the same elements.  Hopefully I have captured a little of the detail of the surfaces on the pics.

Sid xx

On The Seashore Card

Here is a card I made recently using the free cover stamp from one of the Craft Stamper Magazines.  I started with a square piece of white card which I coloured with Distress inks in old paper and spiced marmalade with cut'n'dry foam to give a sandy colour to the background. 

I then used Adirondack terracotta ink and stamped the shell image four times as shown and whilst still wet heat embossed with kaleidoscope embossing powder.  This embossing powder changes colour when heated and gives a subtle rainbow effect dependent on how much heat is applied and is not easily seen in the pic.

When cool a series of dots of  Adirondack Dimensional Pearl in stream were added and allowed to dry.  The plate was then edged with turquoise chalk ink.

The plate was then adhered centrally to a sea green pearlescent card blank.. A piece of narrow velvet ribbon in green was threaded through a small brass buckle and crossed over adhering with small glue dots to finish.

Very simple and easy to do.

Sid xx

Piled up !

Been taking pics of little piles of stuff scattered in various places in the craftroom (otherwise known as 'The Cave').  This entry is for Julias 'WOYWW 63' over on 'The Stamping Ground' Blog.

First shows a few of my folders of unmounted stamps, I use laminated A4 sheets as a base and EZ mount/Cling-on them for acrylic blocks.

Here's a pile of Sizzix dies and some of the more familiar Tim Holtz alterations.  Nowhere else to store them at the moment.  They do look a bit unstable....don't they?

Final pile is of my Sizzix alpha die sets, next to skeins of silk sari ribbon and cord.

When I look there are actually piles of stuff everywhere, quite alarming really.  There you have it.  Will visit yours over the next few days.

Sid xx

One Day Tag

This tag was inspired by some of the stamps I own.  I am sure, like me, you probably have lots of stamps across the range of types.....some cute and some arty. Must admit I move with my inspiration with the stamps I have ( but also like me, you wish you had loads of others !)

Anyways, this creation took place with using PaperArtsy stamps in general. The base was cut from white card and was stamped with little birds and galaxy gold Brilliance ink.  Adirondack wild plum was used to stamp with a flourish stamp and wild plum Adirondack ink.  Distress inks in forest moss and dusty concord were applied with cut'n'dry foam.

Two pieces of background card scrap were added....one on the bottom left with sequin scrap detail and another on the right with the stamped and coloured detail of houses (predominantly violet). These were adhered with glue stick and trimmed to fit the tag.

The remaining additions were added and were made by stamping the PaperArtsy floral stamp (two sizes) on a printed background paper with Adirondack wild plum and Distress  ink in forest moss.  The Paperatsy dies were used to cut out the flowers.  The large one was stamped with a fleck stamp in wild plum and was heat embossed with detail clear EP.  The other two flowers were stamped in a similar way, the middle one applied on the background with foam pads.  Each of the three flowers were embellished with a seld adhesive gemstone as shown.

The sentiment (PaperArtsy) was stamped in onyx black Versafine ink and the whole tag edged with violet chalk ink.

Finally a black eyelet was added with the Crop-a Dile and some Fab indian satin cord added through the hole.

Sid xx

Life's a Machine

As you may be aware I am Guest Designer for August at the Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog which has been launched this month.

My inspiration this time came from the stamps I used and a couple of things I had hanging around. This time it's a grungey, sort of Steampunk piece very different from my other floral item.

Here is a little taster of the item I made and it uses a number of different items available in Jennies fab online store.  Please click HERE to see more of the piece along with full instructions on how I made it.

Hope you like it and it gives you inspiration.

Sid xx

Too Whit two Who ?

You may have seen these two little fellas sitting with their backs to you in the WOYWW post.  These two were also made at the sewing day I attended.  The one with the blue eyes I nicknamed 'Isiah', simply because one eye is higher than the other.  The other seems to have a rather long beak !!

Anyway they were easy to make with machine and hand sewing and once again I must thank Efemera again for her tuition and materials.  How ever many you make they all turn out different too. Anyway I think her owls are better than mine and for some reason I kept calling mine penguins !

Sid xx

Ohh! what a mess !

Once more the journey into the recesses of my crafty space is unwinding !  Thanks, as ever,  go to Julia on the Stamping Ground Blog for asking us to show our workdesks and this is for WOYWW 62. This view was taken of my immediate working area of around 1 square foot !!  Actually most of the items remain of what I used to make the postcard in my previous post.  Yes, that's an upended bottle of glossy accents in the background (nearing the end of the bottle so need to keep the remaining liquid at the tip).

I bought this fab revolving storage unit for my Distress inkpads and foam.  It holds all 36 colours and makes selection of colours very easy.  I have labelled the end of each pad with a white label and coloured it with the appropriate colour.  That reminds me....must use that peacock feather !!!

Finally a shot of my little tray of Cosmic Shimmer micas.  I often use these in my own made mica sprays.

That's it folks, enjoy mooching and as always I will spend a little time looking at yours over the next few days (too many to do in one go).

Sid xx

A Flying Postcard

This postcard is oblong despite the apparent shape on this pic !  It was made as part of a swap over on UK Stampers Forum where we were to send mailart to a chosen swap member.  This one goes to Lorraine.

I made it by cutting a piece of heavy white card to size (4.25 x 6 inches) and then stamping in Versamark with a dots stamp and heat embossing with maroon and pearl green embossing powders.  Once cool I used Distress inks in shabby shutters, fired brick & peeled paint applied with cut'n'dry foam.  A TH swirl mask was used in the top right corner and a fine dots stamp was stamped with the three colours of Distress ink to add a grungey look.

The butterfly was stamped, foiled and cut out and applied with glossy accents.  The text was added with rub-on letters.

I finished by edging with maroon chalk ink. The reverse was treated with inks only and the text handwritten with maroon Marvey le Plume II pen.

This one is 'Flying' it's way to you Lorraine !!

Sid xx

Chiffon Flowers

A week ago on Friday I had a fab visit to Middlesbrough where I met up with an avid bunch of crafters lots of whom contribute to the Scattered Scarlet blog on a regular basis.  This visit had been planned for ages because they all have a regular day getting together at a local community centre where they set up shop with sewing machines and materials and make alsorts of fab things.

Some while ago I had bought a relatively cheap electric sewing machine mainly for sewing card and paper for my general papercrafting but had never really made anything with it in fabric.  This was my chance at learning a thing or two from some very expert ladies who make their machines sing !!  These are three chiffon flowers I made with rough cut layered circles of various chiffons. 

The technique is simple.  Once the various sized circles are layered one on another a small square piece of paper is used to add substance and the machine is used to sew randomly in circles through all the layers and paper.

The next step is to heat carefully with a heat gun to melt and shrivel the chiffon so it curls and shrinks until a pleasant effect is obtained.  Important to be careful not to set fire to the whole thing though!

I have sewn a square sequin and some black seed beads into the centre of one of them, to add a bit of further decoration by hand.

These could easily have a brooch back attached or alternatively could be used to decorate a simple cotton bag that you had made.  Bit of a different departure for me but I really enjoyed the day with them............and learned such a lot of technique. The time flew by.

I had booked a local hotel for the evening and Jan kindly invited me to her home along with everyone else for a super barbecue which was cooked to perfection by the men in their lives.  Thanks Jan !! We had a fab get together and I will definately be doing it again soon.

Sid xx

Muji Unit

At one end of my long table is this little Muji storage unit that I bought ages ago.  Thought I would show you what's in it and on it spurred on by Julia Dunnit on the WOYWW 61 challenge. Pop on over and have a nosey at everyones stash and workspaces on there.  I am intrigued by how we all have different ways of arranging our stuff.

The top has a tray of often used embossing powders, two boxes of coloured mica powders, some TH masks, bubble wrap and scraps. Actually I had forgotton what was on it so I did a pic of each shelf and found things that I had forgotten I had.

Shelf one houses some moonglow mica pigment powders, tin of xmas tags, roll of adhesive foiled tape, box of pastels, box of oil pastels, copydex, scissors and foam tape.  Ohh and a little brayer !

Shelf two houses a sand art kit, 2 palettes of metallic waxes, set of 64 glitters and a foil tray with mica powders and spray bottle.

Shelf four houses, 3 boxes of mulberry paper shapes, polyclay extruder, cotton wool balls and cookie cutters.

Bottom shelf has a circle scribe, and a box of polymer stamps (backgrounds) and some Kato liquid polyclay. A voice in my head says that I must use some of these fabby things in the near future.

Will be looking at your places later on.  Enjoy !!

Sid xx

Changing Seasons Canvas

I was honoured to be asked to be contributing artist for the month of August in the new Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog.  This is the first of my pieces inspired by two of my favourite colours plum and lime. This canvas is mounted on a board back but you could use any canvas or the Claudine Helmuth sticky backed canvas and make your own. I will always provide an ingredient list with links to the Artistic Stamper online store where you can get the goodies needed to make the canvas or one of your own.

Ingredients:

1. Canvas (7 x 9.5 ins)

2. Adirondack Dye inks (Wild Plum and Lettuce)

4. Adirondack Dimensional Pearls Paint (Wild Plum and Lettuce)

5. Martha Stuart punch

6. Glossy Accents

7. Metal plate embellishment

8. White Card

9. Clear UTEE

10. Versamark inkpad

Stamps:

1. Florals plate

2. Dots Background

I started by preparing the canvas which had already had a coat of white gesso.  Don't know whether you know that the Adirondack Dimensional Pearls can be thinned with water and used as a pearlescent paint.  I squirted an almond sized blob of wild plum into a saucer and added a little water so the paint was quite thin and applied a liberal coat with a 1.5 ins wide brush, allowing to puddle in places.  Whilst still wet I did the same with the lettuce and then dried with the heat gun.  The finish is subtle and also has retained a super pearlescent sheen.

I then took the dots background stamp and again applied neat dimensional pearls to the stamp with the brush and stamped randomly in both the wild plum and lettuce, drying once again with the heat gun.  Remember to wash the brush and the stamp thoroughly between colours and after use as the dried paint can be a devil to remove from the stamp !  That was the background completed.

Next I took the florals stamps and stamped two of the large plain edged flower, four of the medium line- edged flower & four of the small line-edged flower with Adirondack wild plum ink onto white card.  I then used a waterbrush and drew in the wild plum dye ink from the outside of the flowers into the petals and once dry cut them out.  I then used the Adirondack lettuce ink as paint and applied some to the inside of the lid of the inkpad and used the waterbrush to complete the insides of each flower. 

Next five of the closed leaf and five of the open leaf were stamped onto white card with lettuce Adirondack dye ink, the large leaves being further stamped with a hessian texture stamp.  These were then trimmed out.

All the finished flower elements and leaves were then coated with Versamark and heat embossed with one coat of clear UTEE to add a nice shine to them.  The flower layers were then assembled with Glossy Accents.

The top and bottom borders were cut with a Martha Stewart punch from card that I had painted unevenly with a narrow brush with a wash made from the wild plum and lettuce inkpads by rubbing them onto a craft sheet and spritzing with water.  The background was built up until it looked good before drying and punching.

The borders were trimmed to size and applied top and bottom with Glossy Accents. The flowers and leaves were arranged on the canvas and finally stuck in place with more Glossy Accents. The centres of the flowers were finished with some blobs of the undiluted Dimensional Pearls and the changing seasons metal plate was applied as shown.

I only literally used 2 colours on the whole canvas but in a number of different types of media. Hope this has inspired you to make one in your own style, the stamps are really good to build up flowers and on this one I particularly liked the watercoloured effect on the petals.

Sid xx   

The Rent Angel Tag

Here is a tag I have completed for this weeks UK Stampers weekly challenge.  I wanted to go a little brown and dingy for the theme.  The ingredient for this week are:

1. Bunting

2. Stamped image of a child

3. Sepia

I started by cutting the base tag from white card and then applied layers of vintage photo and frayed burlap Distress ink.  I then took a text xtamp (PaperArtsy) and stamped twice with Versamark ink and heat embossed with copper embossing powder.

Next I took a frayed hessian stamp and again heat embossed with copper powder in a couple of places on the tag.  I had a little printed rent receipt which I edged with more vintage photo ink and stuck this in place on the background and trimmed off at the edge.

I then took a house stamp(Zettiology) and inked the roof with vintage sepia Versafine ink and stamped this several times on white card.  The roof triangle bits were trimmed out to represent bunting and coloured with vintage photo before sticking onto the left edge in opposite directions.

The little girl stamp (Crafty Individuals) was inked with vintage sepia and stamped onto white card, coloured with vintage photo, trimmed out and stuck in place over the receipt.

Final touched were to add some gold Bedazzles with Glossy Accents and to add a copper eyelet applied with the crop-a-dile and to tie a piece of trimmed metallic brown ribbon through the hole.

Sid xx