Ahhh ..... tissue!

Happy Sunday evening folks ......

Our weekend is almost over ....... I hope you've had a good one.
It's been lovely and relaxing here .... for a change!

It's time to get another challenge underway, with the Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge

The theme for August is all about Tissue Paper.  It's not something I use regularly but, when I do play around with it it's always fun!
There's lots of ways to use tissue ...... stamp onto it and then apply it to MDF, wood, canvas or your cards and journals. This gives a really nice delicate effect.
Use Bleeding Art tissue to apply colour to your projects .... this works great on canvas or watercolour card, makes fab background pieces.
Or ...... watercolour just plain white tissue paper, like I've done for my inspiration piece here ......

 
This fun technique is a favourite of one of my Blog buddies .... the lovely Loll Thompson. She's been using tissue a lot recently .... check out her YouTube video for some great ideas.

Inspired by Loll's techniques I used Distress Inks to watercolour my tissue paper ..... smooshed the ink directly onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water and then laid the piece of white tissue paper on the top to soak up the colour

Once it was dry ..... it doesn't take long ...... I scrunched up the tissue, opened it out again and then stuck it down onto a piece of white cardstock, using IndigoBlu's Slap It On as my adhesive ..... this makes it easier to work with.

You can see I left all the creases in the tissue and even added a few more as I glued it down ...  this gives a great texture.

Whilst this was drying I die cut my birds (CUTplorations For the Birds dies) once from plain white cardstock and once from black.  I then layered the two together off set ever so slightly to give a shadow effect ......

I also die cut a stitched frame and cut the tissue down to size so that it would fit behind the frame with the die cut birds on the top.

I added a stamped sentiment underneath ......

And a little stamped banner to the top ...... just look at all that lovely texture from the tissue paper

I had a piece of the coloured tissue left over so .... for the inside of the card I stamped part of my greeting .......

and used the tissue to die cut the rest ......... I don't like to waste anything as you know!

Don't forget as with all the HLS Challenges, there's a prize for the challenge winner ...... a $20 Gift Certificate to spend in the HLS Store .... so get creating!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy what's left of your weekend.

It's been very quiet here today ..... no family Sunday lunch.  I think both of the kids have been making the most of their time at home.  Lauren has had her first full day off in two weeks so she spent the day with the little man and Robbie, and Chris well .... he's had a tough week, bless him!  He's been watching the builders tear his pub apart ...... eeeek!

   

The Prospect closed it's doors last Saturday night and is undergoing a huge re-furb.  Floors have been taken out, the pool table's gone, all the decor and the TV.......... and the walls are currently a nice shade of bright green apparently! Thankfully it's only the undercoat! 

It's all supposed to be finished by the end of the month ..... re-opening night is scheduled for Thursday 31st August ........ we're looking forward to that.

Have a great week.

Cheerio until next time .......

Christmas is coming .......

Hello again .....

I know, I know ......... some of you haven't had your summer holidays yet and here's me going on about Christmas.  I do have a good excuse though .... it's time for this month's Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge ..... Ho! Ho! Ho!

The theme is Anything Goes .... anything Christmas that is ..... with an optional twist of using a Poinsettia

I love poinsettias at Christmas time but I do struggle to keep them alive past the end of December ..... it's not just poinsettias, plants in general really. I'm definitely not green fingered ..... I had a cactus that died!!!
That's why I have a beautiful fake poinsettia ..... comes out every year and goes away with the decorations in January ..... easy!

I have a few poinsettia rubber stamps too ....... here's one of my favourites, Scarlet Majesty from Penny Black

Speaking of Penny Black ..... that's where I spotted this idea of using black ink on this style of stamp along with the Kraft card.  One of their Design Team ...... Heather Hoffman, created some beautiful designs, I just had to give it a go.   A totally different look from the traditional red, but quite elegant I think. I love it with the touch of gold too.

I did use the MISTI, and quite an old Onyx black Versafine Ink pad as I didn't want the colour too dark. I also stamped onto Crumb Cake cardstock from Stampin Up ...... this is a lovely smooth card and a great Kraft colour.   I love how you still get all the detail from the stamp, the veining in the petals and the shading ...... gorgeous!

The sentiment ..... one of the HLS Christmas Sentiments, has been heat embossed using a gold powder

And I finished off the design with a sprinkling of Fran-tage Chunky White embossing powder, to give the look of falling snow ...... sprinkled randomly on the top and gently heated from underneath, so as not to blow it all away.

I do love how this turned out ....... it's so different.   In fact this might just be one of the designs I use for my Christmas cards this year. What do you think?

Check out the HLS Blog for all the challenge details along with more festive inspiration from the rest of the Design Team

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy your weekend.

Cheerio until next time ......

I've got that Friday feeling ......

Happy end of the week .......

Are you ready for the weekend because it starts right here ...... mine does anyway!

It's the first Friday of the month and that means a new Craft Stamper Challenge gets underway.

The theme is Anything Goes so it's up to you what you create ...... a card, a journal spread, a 3D project. Maybe a piece of home decor.  All we ask is that there's some actual rubber stamping on your project somewhere.

Here's a little inspiration for you ......

I love this stamp from Carabelle Studio  ........ it's been sat in my New Stash Box for ages (along with a load of other stuff!) waiting for a chance to be inked.
A simple card to make ..... I did use my MISTI though, to stamp it a couple of times and get a good ink coverage.
I used Black Versafine ink onto plain white cardstock .....

I then added colour to her dress and hat using Alizarin Crimson Brusho (love this colour!)
I sprinkled a tiny bit of the pigment powder onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water and then used a paintbrush to apply the colour

A few dots of glitter glue on her dress, a little acetate smooshed Distress Ink (Weathered Wood) in the background and a touch of Lemon Brusho on the lamp adds a bit more interest  .......

And a few clear sequins here and there add a touch sparkle

I also stamped the design on the inside of the card too.

As always we have a fabulous challenge sponsor ....... this month it's Keep on Crafting

And the prize for the challenge winner (randomly chosen) is ..... two great stencils and two rubber stamp sets ..... see the picture below

Don't forget we also have a Design Winner .... chosen by the DT.  They will get their winning project published in the Craft Stamper magazine, a winner's profile on the Craft Stamper Blog and an invitation to be Guest Designer on a future challenge .... not bad eh!  You can find all the challenge info with the rules and guidelines on the Craft Stamper Blog along with more inspiration from the rest of the DT.

Speaking of the magazine, the latest edition hits the shelves today .....

and guess what ..... one of the lovely ladies that comes along to my workshops has had a card published!!  Congratulations to Carol ..... well deserved.  You can find her gorgeous creation in the Ready, Set, Stamp article ...... it's a full page spread!  It's so exciting ..... I think it's the first time she's been published so as you can imagine, she's very pleased.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day and have a fabulous weekend.
We're hoping for a quiet one I think .... it's been a busy week!
I'll be back a little later on ..... with another challenge for you.  Get your festive spirit ready!

Cheerio until then ......

A little bit of Flower Power ......

Happy Wednesday evening .......

How's your day been?  It's been wet and windy here ..... a huge change from yesterday when we were down on the quay having lunch in gorgeous sunshine.  Hopefully it's only a blip and the sun will be back tomorrow.
The wet weather was a good excuse to stay indoors and unpack the rather large Stampin Up order that arrived at mine this morning ..... not all for me I must add.  Lots of new goodies to play with though .... when I have the time!

Today sees the start of this month's Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge ...... and it's all about Flowers

As with all the HLS challenges there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the winner, to spend in the HLS store

Don't forget ..... keep your entries Clean and Simple (CAS).  One main focal point, lots of white space and embellishments to a minimum.

I've used the large bloom from the HLS Especially for You stamp set ...... I love this image!
It's simply stamped onto a piece of white card, coloured using Zig Brush pens and then die cut with a simple stitched square die

I added a very pale wash of blue colour to the background (scribbled a Zig Brush pen onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water and then used a paintbrush to apply the colour)
And used the same pen, again with water to add a touch of shading around the flower.

The panel was then attached to my card using foam pads and a pretty sentiment stamped just underneath.  The Thanks is from the stamp set Thinking of You  ...... a really pretty set of stamps, the font for the sentiments is gorgeous and ..... it's currently in the HLS sale!

I finished off by adding a few tiny dots of glitter glue ......

Check out more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team over on the Happy Little Stampers Blog

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

Cheerio until next time

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month ......

Happy August folks!

What happened to July??

Sorry I've been AWOL, things are a little busy around here.  It's the school summer holidays so I've been spending my time with the little man ....... it's been Pokemon, puzzles and ice cream sundaes (yum!)
We're off into town again later and Grandad is coming this time ........ no doubt a visit to the toy shop will be on the list .... and maybe lunch somewhere nice.

Before we dash off though, and before it gets even crazier around here with the start of all this month's blog challenges, how about a sneaky look at some of the new designs coming soon from Sweet Poppy Stencils.  It's not been all play, I have spent some time working in the old craft room ...... things to do, deadlines to meet and all that!  

Lucy is back on our TV screens this month with some brand new stencil designs and ..... some fab new products too.  Shimmer paints that are just gorgeous ....... you'll want all the colours, I do!   A brand new crackle paint system ...... that's next on my to do list!  And some great little cement stones in two different sizes ..... perfect for adding texture to your projects.  Everything is on the website right now so if you can't wait until the TV show get it all now!

I managed to play with a few of the new stencils ........ how about the new Boozy Bubbles.  A really useful design I think, perfect for any celebration

Use the stencil as is or ....... why not mask off part of the design.  Use just the glasses for wedding cards, anniversary designs or cards to those special friends ....

Here I've simply used glossy white stencil paste with a sprinkling of fine gold glitter.

A simple die cut word ......

and a stamped greeting to finish off ......

The bottle is great too ...... 21st Birthdays, again weddings, anniversaries, New Year cards even, or just when you want to say Well Done You!

White paste again and the glitters ......

And a little kraft tag added, stamped with a greeting ..... easy!

There's some new inspirational word stencils too ....... these are a fab size, perfect for canvases or journaling

One of them is Dream

I've used it here on a small canvas ......

I painted the canvas first using various colours of acrylic paint ......

I then stencilled some detail onto the background using the Sweet Poppy Wild Flowers  (one of my favourite designs)

The word was then stencilled using Black Archival Ink applied with a sponge ......

The butterflies were stamped directly onto the canvas, and again onto some cardstock coloured with co-ordinating Distress Inks.  These I then fussy cut and attached over the top of the ones stamped onto the canvas.
Stamping the butterflies onto the canvas meant that I had the detail of the antenna ..... no need to fussy cut them ...... stamping them onto coloured cardstock meant that I didn't need a perfect image on the canvas which can sometimes be hard to achieve because of the textured surface, and if it's a stretched box canvas like the one above it's even harder to stamp onto because the canvas can actually move.

I added touches of fine crystal glitter to the butterflies and splattered some white paint onto the background

And to finish off I added some dots of gold paint here and there for a touch of shimmer

Don't think that the inspirational word stencils are just for canvases or larger projects .... they're perfect for using on your cards too ......

There's that Wild Flowers stencil again, on a simple inked background.

And I've used the word down the side of the card ......

This time I mixed the Glossy White Paste with one of the Sweet Poppy mica powders to get a matching colour to the inks I'd used.

I think there's six words in all ....... Dream, Hope, Create, Believe, Inspire and Respect. Which one's your favourite?

Thanks for popping by ...... the sun is shining here so I think lunch down by the quay sounds like a plan. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio until next time