Use a stencil ... for Less is More

Happy Thursday ......

How's your week going .... better mine I hope.  I feel like cr-p!!
Maybe it's the post holiday blues, or the fact that I feel completely battered and bruised ..... I ache everywhere!!
But ..... after feeling really sorry for myself yesterday, it's time to get busy and take my mind off things.
So ...... I'm playing along with this weeks Less is More Challenge.  It's a Recipe Week and the theme is

Use a Stencil

I came across this pretty panel in my box of UFO's (UnFinished Objects) and thought it was perfect for this weeks challenge.

The stencil is from STAMPlorations .... one of their ARTploration stencils called Happy Flowers and I've used it to do some stencil mono-printing.

This is such a fun technique to play around with.   You simply apply ink onto the stencil (I've used various colours of Distress Inks), spritz with some water, although on this one I've used Rangers Perfect Pearls instead, to give it a little shimmer ....

then you lay down the stencil onto a piece of card, give it a little rub over the top and voila! ...... you have your print .....

A simple sentiment to finish off and we're done .... simple

Maybe I do have the post holiday blues ..... Bourton seems such a long time ago.  We had a fabulous week doing absolutely nothing! It was so nice having the whole family together.  We ate too much, drank far too much, and basically relaxed and had fun all week.

The sun did shine .....

And the locals were as friendly as ever ....

They'd even left the bunting out for us .......

although it was probably left over from the Queen's birthday bash.

There was lots of ice cream ......

and afternoons by the river .....

We did venture out of Bourton occasionally ...... to the nearby Cotswolds Wildlife Park and Gardens ..... they have rhinos on the manor house lawn!

And you can get up close and personal with the giraffes ..... so cute!!

Someone enjoyed themselves that day ....

Then towards the end of the week we spent an afternoon on a steam train .....

before being joined by a friend of ours ....... who the little man showed that the only thing to do on a warm afternoon in Bourton is to get in the river ..... and chill!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.
That's me done I think .... time to curl up on the sofa with the soaps.  I'm not very good at feeling under the weather.
See you in July!

Cheerio until next time .....

Happy Birthday to You .... Happy Birthday to You ......

Happy Birthday dear STAMPlorations
Happy Birthday to You!!!

Happy Wednesday folks ......

It's been a while since I blogged ....... but the holiday is over and things are getting back to normal again.

It's a very special day today ...... STAMPlorations is 3 years old ... whoo hoo!!!  and it's party time.
Over the next few days Shery is holding a Birthday Blog Hop to celebrate along with a Linky Party so you can all join in the fun.

There's a special stamp release to mark the occasion ..... Kathryn's Big Wishes by Dee's Artsy Impressions and lots of other new goodies too .... see those matching dies!!!
There's also prizes up for grabs .... comment on the blog posts and link up to the party to be in with a chance of winning.  You'll find all the details on the STAMPlorations blog
Commenting closes on July 5th and the winners will be announced on July 7th .......  so come on, join in the fun.  Use the mood board below to inspire you to create a project with a party/bithday theme, post it on your blog, along with the mood board and link to the party ..... simple

I've been playing with the new stamps, and they're so much fun ......

You can't have a party without balloons ..... lots of them!

I simply stamped the large balloon and embossed using Ranger's Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I made a mask for the balloon and continued to stamp the image across my piece of card.
They were coloured using Copic Markers, and I finished them off with a touch of  clear Wink of Stella

The strings are from Dee's Balloons and Banners set

and the words are from a set called Party Time

You can see I've added a touch of colour to the background using my favourite acetate smooshing technique ..... and there's also a little something on the inside

Are you in the party mood now? ....... remember create a project with a birthday/party theme,  post it on your blog, or Flickr, Instagram etc., and link it up to the STAMPlorations page.  Show the mood board in your post, comment on the STAMPlorations Blog and the DT posts  to be in with a chance of winning one of the fab prizes.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio until next time ....

Bleeding Art Tissue .......

Happy Monday ......

And Hello from the very beautiful Bourton-on-the-Water.

The sun isn't shining quite as much as in the picture, but we're still having fun. The cottage is just as we remembered it ..... it's so nice to be back!
As you can see it doesn't take long for the Walmsley family to settle in .... and if it rains .... we just go inside!

We have had some sun and as always, we made the most of it .....

An afternoon by the river ....... watching the world go by, what could be better!

Anyway ..... enough of our Cotswolds shenanigans ..... here's something I didn't get time to blog before we came away.

Thursday last week was the regular craft workshop over in Ballaugh and everyone had fun trying out the Bleeding Art Tissue technique.
Now I've only ever tried this on canvas so it was fun to try it on good old cardstock ...... standard card and watercolour card ..... and these were my results

The card on the left is watercolour card, and I simply arranged some tissue shapes onto my piece of card, brushed over them with water and left them to dry.

They don't take long to dry .... you can use a heat tool to speed things up but in my opinion it's better left to dry naturally.
Once it's dry, remove the tissue shapes and you're left with a fabulous background,  see how the colour has transferred from the tissue onto the card.  You'll never get two backgrounds the same, and depending on how much water you use and the type of cardstock, the results will be different.

I simply stamped over the top using one of my favourite stamps (blush from Penny Black) and a black Versafine ink

And then finished off by adding a touch of acetate smooshing with some Distress ink, a simple sentiment ....

and a touch of glitter glue to the centers of the flowers

This was the same technique on a piece of regular white cardstock

More tissue shapes, brushed over with water .......

I overlapped the tissue shapes this time ..... see how the colours blend into each other ..... pretty or what!

I stamped my favourite Tim Holtz butterfly .... again keeping things simple in the plain black ink, letting the background do the work.

I wasn't too keen on all the white space so I simply took a wet paintbrush and brushed over the top of the colour ..... giving this sort of a colour wash to the background

A couple of sequins and a simple sentiment add the finishing touches

This is such a fun technique to do ...... why not give it a go.

Thanks for popping by ..... have a great week.  We're here until Friday so still loads of time for relaxing.

Cheerio until next time

A fabulous work of art ........ then it's back to Bourton we go

Happy Friday ......

Just a quick post this morning to say .... Cheerio!
I'm off to the UK later to spend a nice relaxing week (as if that's going to happen ...... when do the Walmsley's ever do relaxing!) in the lovely Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-Water.  This will be our home again for the next 7 days ......

 ...... the picturesque Fairlie Cottage on the banks of the River Windrush ........ apparently, they say that this is the most photographed cottage in Bourton ..... the last time we were there, every morning when you opened the curtains there was always someone taking a picture so they could just be right!! It is a pretty cottage though .,.... especially when the roses are in full bloom.

Anyway ... I have a plane to catch so must get on.

I'm playing along with this week's Less is More Challenge .... well, it is One Layer Week after all!

The theme this week is ......

SPLATTERS

You all know how I like to splatter ink here and there ...... so I just couldn't resist this one.

Distress Stain splatters ..... straight from the bottle .... love doing this and the results are always great.

I cut a mask the size of my sentiment (Stampin Up! Work of Art stamp set) and placed it onto my card.  I then took the bottles of Distress Stain .... Picked Raspberry, Twisted Citron and Squeezed Lemonade..... and literally splat them straight down onto the card, over the edges of the mask

This is so much fun to do .... no two splats are ever going to be the same, and, depending on how hard you hit the bottle onto the card, it will vary the size of the splatters.  The harder you hit the card with the bottle, the bigger the 'splat'

Once the mask was removed I stamped my sentiment in the middle, and then using a fine liner I drew around where the mask had been

And I had to splatter the inside too ......

Well that's it from me this week ...... I'm off to throw the last few bits into the suitcase and then we're on our way!

I'm not taking any craft stash with me either ..... so it really is a break.  I am taking my laptop though so I'll be able to keep an eye on things.  And my note book is coming with me too, so I can jot down ideas and plan stuff.  I'm looking forward to a really lazy week.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day and have a lovely weekend.

Cheerio until next time ......

Feeling blue ....... not me

Happy Thursday ......

Only one more sleep to go then we're off on our little trip to the UK .... whoo hoo!!

Before I go I just want to remind you of this months STAMPlorations CAS Card Challenge.   As always the theme is Anything Goes, with an optional Colour Twist.  June's colour is ......

BLUE 

You don't have to use the Colour Twist ..... as it say's it's optional.  You don't have to use STAMPlorations products to enter the challenge ...... but it would be fabulous if you did!

I've gone for the colour twist ........

A little bit of white embossing onto my blue background ......... which is 3 shades of Distress ink, Tumbled Glass on the bottom (think my ink pad needs re-inking!!), Salty Ocean in the middle (one of my favourites at the moment), topped off with Broken China.

The 'happy' is from the STAMPlorations Sentiment Builders range .... simply stamped over the background colour and embossed with a fine detail powder.

I stamped one of the cute birds from Shirley's (The Bee's Knees) Small Birds stamps on the bottom ...

and coloured him using my Distress inks again ..... Salty Ocean and Twisted Citron.
I cut around his beak slightly .... you'll see why in a minute.

The word 'birthday' (also from the Sentiment Builders set) was stamped onto a scrap of white card, cut out and the edges dusted with just a touch of Distress.  I then attached this using foam pads, just under the edge of the bird's beak to make it look like he was carrying it ...... cute!

A few spatters of ink here and there finish off the front .....

And look who's sneaking on the inside too .....

There's still plenty of time to enter this month's challenge, and if you need more inspiration then pop over to the STAMPlorations blog and see what the rest of the Design Team have been up to.  We've got two fabulous Guest Designers this month .... Loll from Stamping with Loll is joining in the fun along with Ann of Ann Chuang Crafts.
You'll also find the challenge rules (there's not many) and details of the winners prizes on the blog too.
Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'm off now to finish packing pack my suitcase .... not sure what to take, the weather forecast is not that brilliant.  We might just get rain all next week .... not that it matters.  We'll still have fun even if it's wet!!

Cheerio until next time