More from my journal .......

Happy weekend .......

What a nice, quiet relaxing day we've had here.  The weather's still a bit grey and damp so we decided to chill at home.   A lazy morning with my new Stampin Up! catalogue .......  more things to add to the wish list! I did pop into town briefly this afternoon ..... I had a few bits to pick up and I also managed to grab a couple of bargains in the sale ..... not like me at all!!  And we've had the little man today,  so lots to keep me busy there ........ I'm getting quite the dab hand with Meccano!!
I even managed to sneak a little time in the old craft room too ..... so all in all, a very productive day.

If you read yesterday's post you'll have seen that I've made a start in one of my Dylusions Art Journals ..... I've finally plucked up the courage to get some ink and paint in the small one and I'm loving it!
In the past I've always done things on loose pieces of card or paper .... I didn't want to 'spoil' my journals but ..... enough is enough.  It's time to get over it .......  and just do it!!
 
It's all thanks to the lovely Jennie Boxall who has started up Creative Journaling 365 on Facebook. A group dedicated to journaling 365 days of the year ..... not sure I'll manage that but hey, I'm giving it a go!
There's no rules to follow, you can do as much or as little as you like and you can share your pages in the group.  There's already lots of fabulous artwork on there ...... great ideas from everyone, and if you get really stuck then Jennie does give a prompt each day when she shares her artwork, but you don't have to use it ..... you can just do your own thing.

Here's pages 2, 3 and 4 .... still haven't finished number 5 yet!

Page 2 ....... stencils

This is the ARTplorations Happy Flowers stencil from STAMPlorations.
The background was already coloured .......... see yesterdays post for products used  - I did both pages in one go!  The only difference is I didn't use the texture paste in the background, I used it through the main stencil instead.
White texture paste ..... then once it was dry, I put the stencil back in place and used Distress Inks to add colour

The words are form a JOFY set stamps, simply stamped onto white card and then cut and arranged over the page

I finished off with some black gesso splatters  across the page and added a few lines in the corner using some white paint applied with the edge of an old credit card

Page 3 ........ my current favourite ...... using scraps of paper

How cute are these guys ..... JOFY's lovebirds
I've used old book pages for the birds, coloured with Distress Inks ......

and scraps of designer papers found in my bit box for the bird house .....

and the leaves ....

The branch (another JOFY stamp) was stamped and embossed, and then coloured using Distress Ink

and the words are one of my favourite phrases from a set of Dylusions stamps.

You can see I've cut the individual lines and arranged them over the whole page.

Page 4 ....... large and small

Still keeping on the subject of wings I went for butterflies this time ..... lots of them, in different sizes.

Before I started stamping I stuck in a couple of bits of torn bookpage and painted over them, not too much as I still wanted to see some of the text in the background.
When this as dry I started the stamping.  First up I stamped the largest butterfly and embossed it using Ranger's Liquid Platinum EP .... love this! Then using simple masking to create a bit of depth, I stamped the rest of the butterflies across the page

I added in a touch of stenciling to the background ......

And finished off with some words ..... you never know I may just hand the words at some point, but for now my stamps are doing the work (my hand writing isn't that good to be honest!!)

That's 4 pages done .... and 5 is nearly finished.  Not sure it'll get done over the weekend though.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of the weekend.
I think a nice glass of red is on the cards for this evening .... it'll go well with the chilli con carne .... cheers!

Cheerio until next time

Things with Wings ........

Happy Wednesday ......

This week is flying by.  Touch wood, fingers crossed and all that ........ everything is going according to plan, but I probably shouldn't have said that.

It's time to launch another challenge over on the Happy Little Stampers Blog .... this time it's the turn of the Mixed Media Challenge.  We've got a great theme for you for April ..... it's all about ..... WINGS

Birds. butterflies, dragonflies, moths.  Angels or fairies or anything else you can come up with that's got wings.

Now I love butterflies and I do like to make home decor projects so ...... I've got a little altered frame for you, to hopefully inspire you to join in the fun.  Don't forget, there's prizes up for grabs .... but more about that later.

This frame has been lying around the old craft room for a while.  I found it in one of my tidying sessions ...... and it looked a whole lot different than it does now.

I took the whole thing to pieces, ripped out what was in there and started again! It's amazing what a sanding block and a coat of gesso can cover up!!

The frame itself  was decorated using texture paste through various stencils, and then the whole thing was given a couple of coats of black gesso

Once this was dry I then dry brushed over the top with a silver metallic paint, to bring out all the detail of the texture paste

I covered the backboard of the frame with some old book pages and then stamped the beautiful butterfly from Tim Holtz over the top.

A touch of colour was added using Distress Inks and a little water, being careful not to wet the book pages too much

A bit of dimension was needed so ...... I covered a piece of Clearly for Art Modelling Film with another book page and then stamped the butterfly onto it.  Coloured it using the Distress Inks again and then fussy cut around it.

If you've never used Clearly for Art before, it's a bit like a cross between thick acetate and shrink plastic .... only it doesn't shrink!  When you heat it you can mold and shape it whilst it's warm and then as it cools it will hold the shape.  The good thing is, if you don't like the result .... heat it again and re-shape it ..... cool or what!!

I added a little heat to my butterfly, just to raise the wings a little.

A simple saying finishes everything off nicely ......

To make the words stand out against the text of the book page, I painted over where I wanted to stamp with a little bit of watered down, white gesso, stamped the words over the top and then added just a touch of colour.

Well ..... there you have it ..... and it really was simple to make.  

Are you ready to enter the challenge, or would you like some more inspiration?  

Pop over to the Happy Little Stampers Blog .... there you'll find some fabulous projects from the rest of the Design Team, along with all the details of this months challenge.

As always the challenge is sponsored by the HLS store

And because April is HLS's birthday month the prizes are ......

a $30 gift certificate for the challenge winner (nice!)

and then

a $10 gift certificate for each of our favourites (yeah!)

Get those entries in .... you never know it could be you!

Happy Birthday Happy Little Stampers!!

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

I'm off to grab a glass of something chilled, put my feet up and relax with Dr McDreamy.  Yes I'm watching Grey's Anatomy again!

Cheerio until next time

xx

It's all about the texture .....

Happy Friday!

Whoo hoo!!!!  It's the weekend .... thank goodness!  What a busy week! I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend .... as if that's going to happen!!

Just popping in this afternoon, with a quick post for this weeks Less is More challenge ..... time is running out, deadline approaching!!!

It's a Theme Week ....... we have to stick to the usual rules ...... CAS .... lots of white space and this week we also have to .......

ADD SOME TEXTURE

I've  used the gorgeous Stampin Up! embossing folder ..... Softly Falling only I've turned my embossed piece upside down ..... see ... not only for Christmas cards!

The sentiment is from Penny Black .... simply stamped in Rose Bud Memento and then cut into a strip to fit across the bottom of my embossed panel

To finish off I added a couple of die cut flowers (one of my favourite dies if you hadn't already guessed! ..... I do use this A LOT!!)

I've used two layers, one of which was cut from cardstock covered in an old book page for the flower head, and then both layers have been coloured using Distress Inks.

A few dots of sparkly glitter around the sentient inside and we're done!

Speaking of using old book pages that's what I'll be doing along with a group of ladies tomorrow on a craft workshop.  We'll be stamping onto them, using them as backgrounds.  Colouring them, fussy cutting and layering them. Should be a fun day ...... I'd better get in the old craft room and finish off getting everything ready.

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

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Text Me .......

Happy Friday folks,

It's the first Friday of the month and that means there's a brand new Craft Stamper Challenge.
It's the turn of Take a Technique this month and the theme is .....

TEXT ME ......

Now when we say text we don't mean sentiments or phrases ..... NO single words.  What we want to see is lots of text on your projects ..... think backgrounds!   Text or script background stamps, handwritten text, old book pages, scrapbooking papers with text, bits torn from magazines .... whatever you can find.

Our sponsor this month is ..... A Sprinkle of Imagination

And the prize is a fabulous £25 gift voucher to spend in the store ...... ooooh!

Not only that ASOI are also offering 10% off for blog readers.  Just use the code CSBlog10%  on any orders placed from February 5th right through to the 25th, with a minimum of £5 spend, excluding p&p.
Fancy that ......... well you'd better get creating.

Need a little but of inspiration to get you started ..... there's loads on the Craft Stamper Blog today .... and here's a little something from me ....... a quick tag card using an old book page for the background

I love using old book pages to stamp onto ..... the text always makes a nice interesting background.
Just be careful though ..... give the page a quick once over to check for any naughty words that may be on there ...... don't go using any of the Fifty Shades books now ..... oooh errr!!!

I simply glued my book page onto a piece of cardstock, to give it a bit more strength and then stamped the gorgeous Sunflower from IndigoBlu.
I embossed the image using a clear powder .... which makes things a little easier when adding colour.

In this case I've used my Distress Inks to colour the flower ...... mixed with a little clean water.  Not too much though .... remember it's an old book page, the paper might be quite delicate, you don't want to tear it.

Before stamping the words, I painted over the text with a bit of white Gesso just to tone down the book text a little so that the sentiment (STAMPlorations Subway Art Builders - DARE) would stand out more

I finished off with a co-ordinating ribbon ......

And a torn bit of book page on the inside ......

Again adding the colour in the same way

Now it's over to you ..... get texting!!!

Don't forget there 2 winners each month ...... the winner of the sponsors prize which is chosen randomly, and then there's the Design Winner chosen by the DT .... never an easy task I can tell you!!
They get their winning project published in the Craft Stamper magazine ..... oooh!  They're invited to be a Guest Designer on a future challenge ...... oooh!!  AND they get their own Winners Profile on the Craft Stamper Blog ..... whoo hoo!!! So come on .... give it a go!

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your day and have a great weekend.
I'm off out this morning ...... I'm going over to a friends for a crafty play day.  My craft bag is packed .... who knows whats in there.  We're not planning anything in particular  ....we'll just see what happens ..... probably lots of tea and biscuits and more chatting than crafting but hey! it'll be fun.
Then on Sunday I'm playing hostess for a Stampin Up party ..... another gathering of crafty ladies. Hubby will be locking himself in his office again ..... apparently we get quite loud ..... I don't beleive that!!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx