Happy Valentines

Here is wishing everyone a fabulous Valentines Day !!!!!

Here is a piece put together with 5 things I had sent to me by a member of UK Stampers Forum as part of a Random Swap. 

The five items were an oversized paperclip, a polymer clay pebble with the words Natural Beauty, a wooden bird, a rusty heart and a bookring.

I took some fuschia pink cardstock and punched around with Martha Stewart punches.  Then I used Dusty Concord Distress ink and applied this with a sponge around the edges.  I applied a mask centrally and sponged through this with the same ink.

Next I stuck the bird in place with Glossy Accents. 

The gold paperclip was then coloured with some red pepper AI and some felt.  This was then clipped into place to hold the rusty heart as shown.

Final touches were to add the polymer clay sentiment and to place the bookring through the filigree at the top left.  The piece was highlighted in various places with white pen to complete.

Sid xx

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Perfect Day Journal Page

Here is Week 5 of the Mini Journal weekly challenge over on UK Stampers Forum.  This weeks requirements are:

1.   What is/ would be your perfect day?
2.   Include a picture on your page.
3.   Use some stamping on your page.

I always love being in a warm climate, sat on a beach with my partner drinking cocktails.  So Sun, Sea, Sand & Cocktails is the theme.  Wish I was sat there right now !!!

I started with a white card cut to 4.5 x 6 inches and smooshed with Impress dye inks in lavender, ultramarine & lemon yellow as the base.  I then stamped a postoid from Invoke arts on the bottom left in archival black ink.

The picture was printed onto ordinary copier paper, trimmed and stuck in place. I found a couple of different diameter round lids and used these to mark some circles in yellow and ochre acrylic paint as shown.

I got to work with the Posca markers in black, yellow, white and journalled the words on the page along with some doodles.

A plate was cut and coloured with Impress in chartreuse and lemon yellow with the recipe for my favourite cocktail 'Nothing' and actually looks very much the colour of the finished cocktail.  This was stuck in place and some holes punched with the Cinch to finish.

Sid xx

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Sweeties Journal Page

This weeks mini Journal page is all about sweets - yes those sugary things that the majority of us love so much.  Efemera challenge over on UK Stampers asked us this week to include:

1. List 5 sweets you remember from your childhood 

2. Where did you buy them and what did they cost?

3. Include some kind of sweetie wrappers on your page

I used 10 sweets ('cause I had a very sweet tooth !!) and I used to buy them from several shops on the way home from school.  I have used some cellophane from 'Roses' as my wrapper.

I started with a piece of striped printed paper cut to 6 x 4 inches.  I coloured with worn lipstick and spiced marmalade Distress inks. Stamped some text with vintage sepia Versafine in a band, and stamped some swirls in spiced marmalade Distress ink on the left. 

I punched out a bottom border from darker paper with a Martha Stewart punch and stuck this in place and used alpha stamps to print 'sugar & spice' in archival ink at the top.  I also added a printed panel with the words 'the best thing'.

I doodled with a white opaque pen and the page was embossed through a TH Sizzix embossing folder to add a distressed journalling area and the raised portions rubbed over with an ochre chalk ink pad.  I used a fine black pen and wrote the journalling in my horrible hand along with some other words linked to sweets adding some other bits with a fine gold pen.

The sweetie wrapper was from a box of 'Roses' and I attached it after twisting centrally with a large sticky dot.  The sweet was made from card painted with metallic pink acrylic paint and doodled on with Stickles glitter glue before applying with another sticky dot.  The page was stuck in place on the base card and some holes punched with the Cinch to finish.

Sid xx

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'Africa' Inchies

I am running an inchie swap over on UK Stampers Forum which is a Continents swap.  There are six swaps - one per Continent each month for 6 months.  There are nine inchies per swap culminating in a challenge to use all the 54 swapped inchies in a craft creation. The first Continent is Africa and these are my swaps.

I used a stamp from Tanda (Advert Plate 2) which has a tiger image as part of the stamp.  This was first stamped 9 times with Archival black ink on stout white card.  I then used a 1 inch square punch to selectively punch out the tiger.  Once done I coloured the image with Copics.  The borders were dotted with fine gold pen and red Copic.

Once done I used a Sakura clear glaze pen to highlight just the tigers.  Once dry each inchie was edged in blue iris chalk ink.

Sid xx

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Best & Worst Journal Page

Here is a belated week 2 of the weekly journal challenge over on UK Stampers Forum.  Efemera wanted us to use the following three things in this challenge:

1. Your best Gift

2. Your worst Gift

3. Use some recycled packaging/card on your page

I used lots of purples on this page.  I started by die-cutting a snowflake die on the Sizzix with some printed paper with a purple cloud design. The page was then cut from plain white card and stencilled through some of the die-cut off cuts with purple wisteria Glitz Spritz mica dabber. I applied dusty concord Distress ink with cut'n'dry foam over the stencilled background. Some flowery 'Dove of the East' rub-ons were also applied to the background.

The Glitz Spritz was then applied to some of the diecuts in layers and allowed to dry.  Some of the diecuts were stamped with a swirl and dusty concord Distress ink.  Once dry the diecuts were stuck in place on the background. 

Two card corner embellishments (Dove of the East) were cut from some used packaging and applied with glossy accents to the left hand corners as shown.  The main words were made up from black self adhesive letters applied as shown.  The words were outlined with fine black pen.

Next I used Nesties dies to cut the smallest (aubergine card) and next to smallest labels (purple cloud card) which were matted.  I then used a mauve Souffle pen to hand-write (ughhh !) the other words.  The larger mats have drawn in circles at each corner filled with gold pen to simulate rivets.

The panels were then stuck in place and the card edged with purple chalk ink to finish.

Sid xx

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Schooldays Journal Page

I have already blogged my first page earlier and this is page 3 of a 6 x 4 inch journal page suggested by Efemera as a weekly challenge over on UK Stampers Forum.  If you keep up there will be 52 pages in this one.

She needed the following things on this page:

1. 10 random things about your schooldays

2. Use lined paper

3. Add some inkblots and doodle in the margin

I have used a sheet of lined paper as my base and onto this have stramped some inkblots in archival black ink with a stamp from PaperArtsy. I have also stamped a grid in danube blue Memento dye ink, 'see me' in red Memento and some pen knibs in vintage sepia Versafine ink.  The page has been coloured with old paper Distress ink applied with cut'n'dry foam.

I have used vintage tin number stickers and a fine black pen to add a sum and line of numbers and have doodled various things on the page.

I couldn't bear to look at my handwriting on this so printed out the 10 things from my schooldays onto plain copier paper, trimmed and stuck in place as shown.  Brought back a lot of memories, some great and some not so great !!

Sid xx

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Serendipity Surface

Here is a shot of my workdesk,warts and all, taken last night for WOYWW.  For those who don't know what this is it stands for 'What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday' where the lovely Julia of The Stamping Ground blog invites you to reveal all.

All sorts of stuff on it this week !!

Sid xx

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Mini Journal Page

This is my first piece of crafting for this year !  Simply have had no time with other things getting in the way.  I am taking part in a weekly mini journal challenge being run over on UK Stampers Forum by Efemera.  We are to do one postcard sized page at 6 x 4 ins each week on a theme.  This weeks theme required:

1. A Photo

2. A handmade background

3. 3 things you want to achieve this year

I cut my card and allowed an extra 1/2 inch on the left so that I could punch holes with the Cinch.  I then used a selection of Dylusion paints in Yellow, Orange & Pink from Dyan Reaveley to colour the background. For the circles I used lids of various sizes dipped in the paint and applied direct.  Some paint was applied with a sponge through some sequin waste too.

I stamped with a frayed linen stamp with Brilliance moonlight white and sprayed with some Teal Glitz Spritz mica spray. White opaque pen and silver and gold pens were used to decorate as shown.

I then diecut a slide mount with the sizzix and used a pic of Avatar behind the mount aperture.  The mount was coloured with blue and orange Memento inks applied direct with the word 'Chameleon' written on.

The journalling was done on a cut up clocking-in card, coloured with orange Memento and written on with fine black rollerball pen.  I chose to 1 - Do More Craft, 2 - Finish what I start & 3 - Go places !  I have also written around the circles Goals, Aspirations & Targets.

Let's hope I can keep up with this challenge in line with my second goal.

Sid xx

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The State of Things

Here is a quick shot of my shelving unit and floor in my craftroom, things seem to be spilling out onto the floor on a regular basis these days.  This is my entry this week in the WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday) challenge run by Julia on The Stamping Ground Blog.

Really must do a bit of organising !!!

Sid xx

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Happy New Year !!

Here is wishing all of my readers, followers and kind commenters a Very Happy, Healthy & Prosperous and Creative New Year in 2011 !!

Sid xx

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