Follow Your Art for the Craft Stamper Blog challenge .......

Happy Friday folks .........

This is the first of two posts today.
Are you looking forward to the weekend?  I know I am ...... we've got a clear diary this weekend, that doesn't happen very often!  We've nowhere to go, nothing needs to be done, we can just relax and do whatever we like ..... perfect! Just as well really as hubby is still suffering a little.
We have got the little man on Saturday night.  Pizza and a movie I think .... sounds good to me.

Before all that though, it's time to remind you of this month's Craft Stamper Take It Make It challenge. There's still plenty of time to play along.
As always the theme is Anything Goes ...... just remember to include some actual rubber stamping on your project, and you're good to go!

Here's a little inspiration for you.
This stamp from IndigoBlu has been sat on my NBUS mountain (Never Before Used Stuff) for ages.  I love it, and I'm so glad I finally inked it up and used it.

It's called Art Gives You Wings and it's full of amazing detail ..... I love this collage look

I simply stamped it onto a piece of what I call my mop up card, out of my bit box.  This one is a piece of watercolour card that I've used to 'mop up' bits of Distress Oxides left on my craft mat from previous projects ..... it's a shame to waste all that gorgeous ink! 
I've always got bits of cardstock on my desk so I use these instead of paper towels or wipes to clean my craft mat.  I just keep going with the same piece of card until I'm happy with the results. You get some great background pieces, without even trying!

I stamped the image using Black Versafine Clair and then heat embossed with a clear powder .... job done!
I did use gel pens to highlight the paint brushes, and I brushed over those amazing wings with a clear Wink of Stella pen to add a touch of shimmer ...... not sure you can see it that well in the photo but trust me, it's there

The sentiment is from Stampendous .... stamped and heat embossed in gold, then die cut and attached using foam pads

I finished off by adding some ink splatters onto the background piece, before matting and layering to frame the artwork.

As always with the Craft Stamper challenges, there's TWO prizes up for grabs. 
First we have a Design Winner ........ chosen by the Design Team from all the eligible entries.  We all vote on our Top 3 and the entry with the most votes wins!
The prize for this is a double page spread in the Craft Stamper magazine, a Guest Designer spot and a winner's profile.  What better way of getting your artwork noticed.

We also have a Challenge Winner, this time chosen at random from all the eligible entries.  They receive the Blog Challenge Prize, which this month is one of the brand new Sizzix Dies from Tim Holtz .....

Check out all the Challenge rules and guidelines on the Craft Stamper Blog.  You'll find more fabulous inspiration over there too .......... Happy Stamping!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy your Friday and have a great weekend.
I'll be back again very soon with the second post of the day.

Cheerio until then ......

Let's Get Inky for the Craft Stamper Blog challenge .....

Happy Friday folks .....

Welcome to the weekend.
The sun is still shining over here.   We've had a great practice week of this year's Isle of Man TT .... the weather has been glorious! Sorry to keep going on about it ..... it's just been so nice!! Hubby's taking next week off work so hopefully we should get out and about and see some of the races up close and soak up the atmosphere (as well as the sunshine!)
The fun fair has arrived (oh joy!) ..... Douglas promenade is now full of fairground rides, side shows and loud music!  Bushey's beer tent at the end of the prom, is well and truly open ....... full to the brim everyday and beer served in plastic cups!
We've got the Red Arrows flying in with a display next week, and we also have the Poker Stars Summer bash next Thursday evening to look forward to .... always a fun night! And then we finish the week with a Bank Holiday ....... it's Senior Race Day.  Let's hope the sun is still shining for that one.
And then when all the TT fun is over, it's just 6 days before we go on our little family get together to Bourton-on-the-Water in the the beautiful Cotswolds .... can't wait!

Anyway enough about all that ..... onto the more important stuff.
It's the first Friday of the month and that means a brand new Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge on the Craft Stamper Blog.
This month it's the turn of Take a Technique and boy have we got a fun one for you this month .......

Let's Get Inky!!!

Use more than one type of ink on your projects (ink pads, ink sprays, stains, acrylic inks etc.,) OR use more than one colour of ink.  Don't forget to include some stamping on there too!!

The fabulous PaperArtsy are our challenge sponsors this month .....

And the prize for the challenge winner is 5 BOTTLES of the brand new PaperArtsy INFUSIONS!!!

Infusions are little bottles of magic ....... water soluble particles made up of 2 components ...... dye colour pigment suitable for paper/card etc.,  and fabric, mixed with Walnut Stain.  The colour pigment powder reacts with water faster than the Walnut Stain, so you can control the colour-to-brown stain ratio ..... clever eh!
There's a whole bunch of fabulous colours ..... 12 in all, and the winner will receive the 5 bottles in the picture below (Lemoncello/Blackcurrant/A Bit Jaded/Are You Cerice and Emerald Isle)

OK ..... I've used Distress Inks (my favourites!) in 3 different colours, Versamark ink for the embossing and I've used one of the Infusions to colour the flowers.  Oooh .... and there's also Versafine ink for all the rubber stamping.

I started by inking the background using my favourite technique at the moment ..... smooshing with acetate.  Applying the ink to a piece of acetate, spritzing with water and then using the acetate to place the ink onto my cardstock ...... I love it!!
I started with a couple of pale colours ..... Twisted Citron and Salty Ocean.  The more water you add, the paler the ink will be.  If it's too pale you can always add more ink.

I repeated the process using Mowed Lawn Distress over the green areas, to add a bit of shading here and there

Once the ink was dry I added a bit more interest to the background by randomly stamping and embossing some text, using a white embossing powder.

I stamped the pretty bunch of flowers (from Stampendous) onto my card and then again onto a piece of card that I'd coloured using one of the PaperArtsy Infusions ........ Are You Cerice, and embossed them with a clear powder.

With the Infusions I simply spritz a piece of white card with some clean water, sprinkled on a little of the Infusions powder and let it do it's thing.  To get it to spread a little more I spritzed again with the water and watched the colours change as the Walnut stain started to dissolve .... magic!

The flowers were then fussy cut, attached over the top of the image on the card and finished with a dot of White Enamel Accents in the centers.

I stamped a couple of the Inkylicious butterflies, embossed them with the clear powder again and coloured them using the same Distress colours I used for the background.

Again they've been fussy cut and attached onto the card front.

I finished off with a sentiment ..... from Penny Black's T for Transparent set Heartfelt

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

more smooshing and more of those pretty flowers

Now it's your turn ..... go and get inky and have fun.  Can't wait to see what you all come up with.
Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'm off out today .... we're having a little crafty get together. No doubt there'll be cake involved, lots of chatting putting the world to rights .... and more sitting in the sunshine.  It's a hard life .... but someone's gotta do it!!!
Have a great weekend ...... I hope the sun shines for you too!

Cheerio until next time

It's a very special day today ......

Happy Friday!

And a very, very Happy BIG birthday to my darling hubby.  I don't think he'll mind me telling you ..... he's 50 today!!! You're catching me up sweetheart!!!  And NO you can't have a motorbike!!!

Before I dash off to start getting ready for the celebrations I have a little reminder for you about this months Craft Stamper challenge.
It's the turn of Take a Stamp this month ........ and its basically Anything Goes!

I love my stamps ...... and I've had the clever idea of starting to catalogue them all ......yeah right!!!
Can't see that getting finished anytime soon!!!
It's fun though going through all the boxes, finding stamps I'd forgotten I had (there's a few of those!) ..... stamps that haven't seen an ink pad since the day they were bought (shame!) and of course all my old go to favourites that get used all the time (like the little guy above in fact!)

The stamp I've used for today's little project is a Stampendous one ...... Rose Branch Border, which I've used very simply, nothing fancy, just stamped onto white card, cut down to size, and then put in a pretty, inexpensive frame to create this beautiful wall hanging ......

It's such a pretty delicate image, I used Vintage Sepia Versafine ink so as not to lose any of the detail

And you can see that I've added a few highlights with a gold gel pen ..... just to the centres of the flowers, to add a bit more interest and also shimmer a little when the light catches them

I also stamped a little vintage script alongside the flowers, just to fill in the open space.  Stamped with the same colour of ink only this time I used the second generation stamp, to get a more faded look

And there you have it .... a pretty, elegant hanging frame, with a real vintage look.

Now it's your turn.  If you haven't entered the challenge yet why not give it a go.  Or ..... even if you have entered, you can enter more than once you know ...... you can have up to 3 entries in fact.  That's 3 chances to get your hands on one of those prizes.

This month our sponsor is ......  the fabulous Art Journey .......

The challenge winner (randomly drawn) will receive 4 ..... yes FOUR fabulous stamp plates.  Check out the Craft Stamper blog for full details of which ones.

Then of course there's our Design Winner, chosen by the DT.  They will have their winning project published in the Craft Stamper Magazine, be a Guest Designer on a future challenge AND have a winners profile on the Craft Stamper Blog!  So ..... get out those stamps and start creating!  Have fun and Happy Stamping!

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

I've got a busy day ahead ..... house to clean and get ready, and food to prepare.  No, I'm not baking a birthday cake ...... best left to someone else that one!!!   I've just got a birthday buffet to put together. Nothing too big .... just a small gathering of family and a few of hubby's friends/workmates but no doubt it's going to get loud ....... and it's going to get messy! Good job we've mentioned it to the neighbours!!!

It'll probably include a poker game at some point, and a trip to the local cocktail bar.  Well .... you're only 50 once!  Headache it is in the morning then!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Hello .......

Happy Tuesday!

It is Tuesday isn't it ...... feels like Monday here what with the Bank Holiday yesterday, hubby off work and all that. And guess what ..... it's raining again!!!  What happened to summer?  Never mind .......  nice while it lasted eh!

I had quite a busy morning one way and another ..... so this afternoon was spent in the old craft room. I'm multi tasking in there at the moment ...... three projects on the go, plus trying to sort through my stamps ....... you can imagine what the room looks like!!!  Shall we just say, you can't see much of the furniture in there, or the floor for that matter!!!  But, as long as I don't move anything I know exactly where everything is ..... for now!

I'm playing along with another Blog challenge ..... this month's Happy Little Stampers Sketch Challenge is up and running .....  and there's a lovely inspiration sketch to follow .....

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

I think I'm definitely in a floral mood at the moment ......... it's either flowers, or those Crazy Birds from Mr Holtz ..... speaking of which, have you seen the new stamps to go with those crazy little guys ...... can't wait to get my hands on those!!

Sorry ..... where was I ......
The pretty daisies are from a Stampendous Perfectly Clear set (Daisy Stem Trio) which to be honest I'd forgotten I had ..... it's amazing what you find when you start going through boxes!

They've simply been stamped in black Versafine and then coloured using Spectrum Noir pencils

I added a few ink splats here and there .....

A little greeting, suitable for many occasions .....

And of course ..... decorated the inside a little too ......

Well I think that's it from me today ...... hubby's decided to start playing the piano and I'm finding it a little hard to concentrate when he plays three or four bars then calls out ...... 'name that tune' and I have to figure out what it is that he's playing!!!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'm off to grab a glass of something chilled and some of the goodies we bought from that new Deli I mentioned yesterday ........ will it be pate, or cheese, continental hams and chutney or delicious biscuits ....... decisions, decisions!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx