There's still time to enter the latest Craft Stamper Challenge .......

Good morning ........ Happy Friday!

It's nearly the weekend again and I'm ready for it!
I've got a nice crafty afternoon tomorrow, then we're out on Sunday, it's the Queenie Festival down at Port St Mary this weekend, and I believe that the Continental Food Market is coming back to Douglas ..... yum!!! It's starting today and running through until the 23rd of the month, along the prom.   Choices, choices .... you know what foodies we are here!!

Anyway, back to today ...... it's time for a quick reminder about the current Craft Stamper Blog Challenge.  It's a Take a Technique month and it's all about using .....

Pens and Pencils

As always there's fab prizes up for grabs ....... the Design Winner, chosen by the DT who gets their project published in the Craft Stamper magazine, a Guest spot on a future challenge and a Winners Profile published on the Blog (oooh!)

And of course ..... there's our Sponsor prize .... randomly chosen.  This month our sponsor is the fabulous Chocolate Baroque .......

and the prize is this wonderful set of stamps ....... Artistic Affirmations

Ok .... need a little inspiration on what to do with those pens and pencils?   What about this .....

It's all been done using Distress Markers (apart from the sentiment which was stamped in Black Archival!)

To create the background I 'inked up' an acrylic block by scribbling directly onto the block with various colours of Distress Markers (mustard seed/spiced marmalade/abandoned coral and picked raspberry).  I then gave it a little spritz with water and stamped it onto a piece of white card.  I love how the colours blend into each other, and ...... you'll never get two backgrounds exactly the same.

Once the background was dry I used one of my favourite stamps ...... Penny Black's blush ......  and inked it up using the Distress Markers again ....... abandoned coral for the flower head and mowed lawn for the leaves.  Just wipe over the stamp with the marker, taking care not to mix the colours too much. Don't worry, if you take your time and you feel that the ink is drying, once the whole image is covered just 'huff' over the top before stamping and you should be fine!

The white dots are Enamel Accents, I thought they would add a bit of texture.

The words are from one of the latest releases from JOFY (JOFY38) I've stamped the sentiment then cut each word individually before adding it to the card

I also edged each of the words using the abandoned coral marker to make them stand out a little from the background

To finish off I stamped the flower on the inside, added a greeting and then splattered some ink across the card ..... again from the markers ...... scribbled onto a craft sheet, spritzed with water, and then picked up and flicked using a paint brush ..... you can't go wrong!

Now it's your turn .... what'll it be .... pens, or pencils?  Whatever you choose have fun ..... ooh and don't forget to include some actual stamping on your project ... it is Craft STAMPER after all!  Good luck!

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

I'm off to tidy the old craft room, pack my craft bag for tomorrow and then finish off some DT stuff. I may even wander down to that Continental food market ........ might find something nice for lunch!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Bring on the HAPPY .......

Happy Wednesday!

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month!  Can't believe it's July already (eek!) ..... only 176 days until Christmas!! (sorry) 
Let's not think about that yet though ..... the skies are blue, the sun is shining and it's getting HOT! HOT! HOT! Summer is here .... at last  (yeah!!!).  

It's looking like it's going to be a busy month too ...... hubby has a BIG birthday next week, it's our wedding anniversary at the end of the month,  I'm across in the UK again on a fabulous craft retreat, and there's a new DT for me!  Better get working on that To Do list I think!!

One of the jobs on there is this weeks Less is More Challenge.
We've got a Sketch for inspiration this week ......

Here's my take on it ........

The pretty Ranunculus Field stamp from Stampendous (love this image ..... and I'd forgotten I had it until I was packing up my craft room to move!)  Simply stamped onto white card using Black Versafine ink, and then coloured using Distress Markers and a touch of water ......

Matting and layering kept to a minimum, and a pretty sentiment to finish off ....

As always .... there's a little something on the inside too

Ah well ..... can't sit here chatting, unfortunately.  I'm off out again today .... it's the first Wednesday in the month so I'm off over to my crafty buddy's for a workshop this afternoon.  Lil and I are setting off early though and having a picnic lunch by the sea ..... just making the most of this gorgeous weather, you never know how long it's going to last!!!

Yesterday I was over in Peel and I found this .......

I'm giving it my best shot ...... there's always something going on over here!!

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

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

The Queen of Hearts

Whoo hoo!!! Done it, finally!

Tim's 12 Tags of 2013

Hi everyone,

Yes, my Tim tag is done - phew!!  Really didn't think I was going to make this month.  February has flown by so quickly.  I haven't done everything on the list, but, tomorrow is the start a new month, so there'll be a new list.  It's going to be a busy month I can tell.  First off it's my birthday - yeah! (21 again).   I have a few days away on the Indigo Blu Craft Retreat - can't wait!  It's the GNPE in Harrogate (lots of crafty stash to buy), and Lauren and Alex are back over again.

Anyway, on to my February Tag .........

Not quite the same as Tim's, but then again, it never is! 
As usual, I had a few bits missing from the supplies list.  The stamp being the main thing. However I did have a set of playing card stamps from Woodware that had the Queen of Hearts in it, so panic over.
I did think about using an actual playing card instead.  Seeing as how the other half used to play Poker for a living, there's no shortage of playing cards in our house.  Then I thought that was cheating a little - no watercolouring to do, so I decided against it.

I followed the master's instructions and stamped the Queen twice, onto watercolour card and used my Distress markers to colour her in.  The markers work beautifully on the watercolour card, they blend so easily with a touch of water. 
The tag itself was coloured using Distress stains, layering the colours, drying in between, and spritzing with water.

I stamped the image onto the tag, using Black Archival ink, made a mask to cover it, and stamped the image again either side. Then added my coloured Queen over the top of the centre image  I used a small heart from the same stamp set, to add a bit more interest to the top of the tag

I didn't have any of the seasonal embossed Kraft core cardstock, so a quick rummage through my embossing folders, and a search through my bit box for a piece of black Kraftcore, and this is how it turned out .....

Not bad ....... still the heart/valentine theme. 
I finished it off with some bakers twine, made the Cash Key using a bit of inked watercolour card and some Chit Chat stickers.  My pointing finger stamp is from a PaperArtsy set.

It was a bit of a rush job, but at least I made it - with a few hours to spare!   I wasn't going to miss doing my Tag now was I?! 

I'm hoping to join in with Tim's latest Tattered Florals challenge (it's one of my favourite dies). Check out his blog, there's some fabulous inspiration on there from people who have already given it a go.
Mine's going to have to wait until next week though.  The old craft room door will be closing for a couple of days this weekend, I have a friend arriving tomorrow morning, and staying for the weekend.   We've loads of catching up to do.  I will be posting on the Creative Studios DT Blog first though- if I get my project finished that is.

And on that note, I'd better be off.

Thanks for popping by today.  Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you all again soon.

Cheerio for now

Linda

x

Talk about last minute!

Hi everyone,
Just a quick post tonight I'm afraid.  I've got to get a wriggle on and get my card entered in this weeks Penny Black Saturday Challenge - I think I have about 1 hour and 30 odd minutes left.  I don't think I've ever been sooo late.  It'll be time for the next one if I'm not careful!!

OMG!  This was hard work today - loads of ideas but nothing seemed to be right.  Don't know what it was but my heart wasn't completely in it when I started,  plus I knew I hadn't got a lot of time - not a great combination.  Nothing has ended up in the bin though, apart from the rubbish!

I've almost forgotten what this weeks challenge is, it's so long since it went up. 
That's right, ....  it's     HOT METAL
We have to use some metal somewhere on our projects and all the usual PBSC rules apply.

Here's my entry.  It's my second attempt, as I wasn't happy with the first one.  Sorry, the picture isn't great either but the clock is ticking ....  Don't worry, I'll share the first attempt with you too before I go.

My first thought was to do a Christmas card (got to start them sometime) but like I said, things didn't go according to plan.  So, a quick change of mind was in order - I'm obviously not ready to start with the festive stuff just yet.
Even though I didn't end up with a Christmas card,  I have however,  used a Christmas stamp. 
One of my favourite PB stamps is the 'fantasy' tree and I thought as it was out on my desk, I could actually get away with using for an everyday theme.  I think it's worked.
I used my Distress Markers directly onto the stamp to ink the tree - Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo, and added some small punched flowers for blossom. (it doesn't look Christmassy now!)  The papers are from the Je T'adore collection by Making Memories which I've mat and layered onto some brown pearlescent cardstock.  All the edges have been inked with Worn Lipstick DI, and a couple of the edges have been punched.
My 'Hot Metal' is in the form of eyelets down the right hand side (5 of them), 2 more to tie the ribbon through and then the little bird in the tree is a metal bead.

sooo tweet ......

This one got a better reaction when it was finished.  I was quite pleased how it turned out, and my son has already claimed it for his girlfriends birthday later in the month so it can't be that bad!

Here's a quick look at my first attempt.........  well it's a Christmas card.  Not sure if I like though.

The metal on this one are the bells around the reindeer's neck.  I'll put it away for now, and come back to it later 

Well, that's it from me today.  Sorry it's a bit short and sweet.

Thanks for popping by.  Have a lovely weekend.

Bye for now

Linda

x

I haven't finished yet!

Hello again,
You just can't get rid of me today can you.
Here's my second Blog Challenge for this week - the Penny Black Saturday Challenge PBSC
This weeks challenge is .....
                                 5 Circles
The usual rules of the challenge apply and this week we have to use 5 circles on our project - buttons and gems can count towards the 5. 
Here's what I came up with .....

I'm having a real vintage/distressed phase at the moment, not that I'm complaining. 
I found using 5 circles a bit of a challenge though.  I wanted to use 5 actual circles, not counting gems or buttons, but it just wasn't happening. However, looking at the finished card  you could argue that I have in fact used 6 circles and a button, making 7 in total, but I'm sticking with 5.  The main image on the large circle (1), then two smaller stamped images (3), the one with the sentiment on (4) and the button (5).

The gorgeous stamp is Penny Black's butterfly suite (4182K), which I stamped in black Versafine ink and then dusted Victorian Velvet DI over the flower and used Distress Markers to colour the leaves and add some shading.  The edge was coloured with a mix of Old Paper, Tumbled Glass and a little bit of Pumice Stone.  I used the markers again to colour the butterflies.
Prima papers were the perfect match, the spotty one is from the Jack and Jill collection and the others came from the gorgeous Nature Garden paper stack.  I distressed the edges, did a bit of tearing here and there and added a little bit of vintage lace as I was matting and layering - using up all the bits I kept finding on my work desk.  The smaller circles were cut and embossed using Nesties, and a little bit of DI was added while the dies were in place.  I found the lovely MOP button in my stash and added some lace behind and a bit of coloured twine to finish off.  I even did the inside too, to use up what was left of the papers.

I like to decorate the inside of my cards, especially the larger ones.  It makes them a little more balanced and less likely to fall over.

I would like to do one more post tonight, but whether that will happen I'm not sure.  Maybe I should leave it until the morning when my head's a bit clearer.  I've been on the computer most of the day and it's beginning to drive me nuts.  Blogger is messing with me again too.  Stephen came home and noticed that the font size had changed on my last post.  Could I change it back - NO!!!!  After walking away and leaving things for a while I've managed to get this post back to normal (ish) not sure it's worked on the last post though.  We'll see what happens once this has been published.

Thanks for putting up with me today, and taking the time to read my latest ramblings.  If you've stuck with me all day, you can't have got much else done!  I'm going to take a break for a while and would you believe, do some ironing.  I'm also going to watch the Indigo Blu shows I recorded earlier.  Kays been on the telly doing her stuff today with Christmas stamps, and I believe they were sell out shows - Yeah!!  That also means I can share with you what I was busy with last week.

See ya later

Linda

x