Live your life in Colour ......

Happy Friday .......

It's the weekend ..... whoo hoo!!!  It's going to be a good one too.  I'm off to the Happy Stampers show at Port Sunlight tomorrow ........ keep your fingers crossed for good weather, and a calm sea!

Before all that though let's get in the weekend mood with this month's Craft Stamper Challenge

As always the theme is Anything Goes, as long as there's some rubber stamping on your project somewhere .... it couldn't be simpler.

There's prizes up for grabs too.  Our sponsor this month is ....... Imagine Design Create

and the challenge winner (randomly chosen) will receive 3 of their fabulous stamp sets ....  see below

We also have a Design Winner, chosen by the DT, and their prize will be .......

• their winning project published in the Craft Stamper Magazine
• they will be invited to be a Guest Designer on a future CS TIMI Challenge
• and they'll have a Winner's Profile published on the CS Blog!

What are you waiting for!

I spotted this stamp on the Inkylicious website and I just couldn't resist ..... I love it!!!

I stamped the image onto some white cardstock and then used Pebeo Drawing Gum Masking Fluid to cover the zebras. You could cut yourself masks for each one but the fluid was quicker.
Once it was dry ..... it didn't take long ...... I used various colours of Distress Ink to create the background.

I simply brushed a different colour of ink over the top of each zebra, building up the depth of colour gradually.
Once I was happy with the colours I rubbed away the masking fluid and voila! ....... black and white zebras against a coloured background ...... love them!

I then added colour to just one of them using Picked Raspberry Distress, and splattered a little of the ink onto the background  ........ doesn't he look pleased to be pink!

The fabulous sentiment comes with the stamp and is so true ...... why not fill your life with colour, it's fun!

There's more colour on the inside of the card ......

A repeat of the Distress inks from the front ...... simply brushed onto the white card

and of course one of the zebras had to make an appearance .......

Now it's over to you.
Check out the Craft Stamper Blog for all the challenge details and more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day and have a lovely weekend.
If you're off to Port Sunlight tomorrow have a fabulous day .... spend loads!  I'll see you there ... hopefully!

Cheerio until next time .....

It's the weekend!!! .....

Happy Friday folks!

An early start for me again (yawn) ..... I've to be at the airport at 8am this morning so unfortunately  I haven't got a lot of time to chat.
In fact this is the start of a busy few weekends for us .... I'm away this weekend, it's hubby's turn next week ..... TT starts then too (that's soon come around!)  The weekend after that my brother is over here for a few days .... the beginning of race week.  Then it's the Summer Party where hubby works (always fun!) and we finish off with Senior Race Day (a bank holiday over here) on June 12th ..... phew!!!  Good job we've got a holiday booked for the 19th June ..... we're going to need it!!

Before all that gets underway, and the chaos begins ....... I want to get my entry in for this week's Merry Monday Christmas card challenge ......

Hmmm .... non-evergreen trees ......... will this do? ......

CAS .... but I'm pleased with the result'

I started by masking off a section down the side of a piece of white cardstock.  I then put another mask in place for the hills, and using a masking fluid and a paintbrush, I splattered the fluid across the piece of exposed card.  Once the fluid was dry, I added some colour with Distress Ink (Stormy Sky and a touch of Chipped Sapphire) to create the sky.  Once I as happy with the colour I rubbed away the dots of masking fluid leaving behind the white card underneath, giving the look of falling snow .......

I added a bit more shading down the rest of the panel to give the look of snow drifts and then removed the masks.
I stamped the little twiggy tree .... from Penny Black's clear stamp set ..... on the town ....... over to one side, to create my winter scene, and added a sentiment across the bottom

To finish off I added a touch of fine crystal glitter to the branches of the tree to add an icy sparkle

And of course there's a little something on the inside

Hope you like it.

Well .... I'm going to have to love you and leave you I'm afraid ...... I've got that plane to catch.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend.

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Arghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

(Sigh!) Looks like I didn't manage to sort out my font problem after all. One of yesterday's posts is insisting on being different!!  But, do you know what, it's going to have to stay like it is.  Life's too short. and let's face it, the font size is not that small that you can't read it.  So Blogger, I have to say you've got the better of me on this one!!
(Tiny rant over) 

Happy Thursday everyone,

Me and my big mouth!  Or was it due to the fact that it was the longest day yesterday, who knows,  but summer's gone again!!  It's a horrible day here on the Isle of Man (that's just for Deborah!), it's pouring down.  But it didn't stop my Postie stopping by this morning.  Bless him, he was soaked.  Look what he brought for me ......

summer for my craft room

Can't wait to have a play with these!!  But first I have some stuff to do in Douglas, if I can find the enthusiasm  to go that is.  Not even the thought of some retail therapy is making me want to head out in the rain.  Lets see what it's like after lunch - I can hear my craft room calling already.

Did anyone see Kay from Indigo Blu on C&C yesterday?  She had two fab shows - both sell outs virtually, and it was all Christmas!  I think the stamps are still available on the Indigo Blu website - here  but don't hold me to that.
I spent three days last week, full of Christmas spirit, working on samples for the shows.  It was nice actually to have a play around with Christmas ideas, it got me thinking about my own cards for this year.

I posted you some sneak peeks over the weekend, well get ready because here are the full versions.  Most of my samples were shown on the show, although Kay did say a couple were someone else's!  I do assure you though, all of these were done by little old me.  Here goes ....

These were all done with stamps from the Retro Christmas set. Lovely traditional images and a nice size too.  I love the jolly Santa.  He was coloured using Copics and then the fur on his hat was glittered.  So quick and easy to do.  The 'ho ho ho' was die cut in chipboard then flitter glued and flaked, and teamed up with last year's BoBunny Christmas papers.

Next is the Here Comes Santa set.  I love this set of stamps, you get so much on there.  There's a nice selection so you can even do some scene building like I've done here, with inks and a couple of masks.

The background turned out really well.  I used some Art Masking Fluid on the card first, just splattered (technical term there) randomly.  Once this was dry I used Distress Inks to colour the sky, using a mask to make my moon.  Then you just rub away the masking fluid and this is the result, it looks like it's snowing. Cool!

You don't have to use all the stamps to create a scene, just one of the small ones will do.  If you have a lot of cards to make this is so quick and easy.  The sentiment and the flourish are both off the same set. 

Oh Christmas Tree!

The Snow Queen is next, she's gorgeous

I'd used my spritzing technique to create an icy looking background then just stamped her directly on top - simple

Again this was just Distress re-inkers (Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans) diluted with water, and then Perfect Pearls.  Cling film crinkled over the top and left to dry.

And last but not least of the sneak peeks, the Christmas Deer - sooo cute!

Flitter Glu and Flakes

not just for cards ...

You can probably see a bit of Melanie Heaton influence here - the three little dots in the background on the card,  and of course the hanging decoration.
I think Mel is a fantastic crafter and a super demonstrator, she's full of fabulous ideas and great tips and tricks. And what this girl doesn't know about the Cricut machine just isn't worth knowing.    I used to go on a lot of her classes before moving to the IOM and I'm lucky enough to call her a friend.  She's on Create and Craft regularly, if you get the chance, keep a look out for her shows and watch because she's fab.  Check out her blog here too.  There's always great projects with detailed tutorials, and her show times are usually on there.

Phew!  That was a long one.  Thanks for sticking with it.  I have got more Indigo Blu Christmas samples but I'll leave them for another time.

Still deciding whether to brave the rain - ah well, there's always tomorrow!  Hope the weather's a bit nicer where you are.

Bye for now

Linda

x