Celebrations/Anything Goes

Hi Folks, it's been a while since I popped in to say hello, we had such a busy time preparing for Christmas, that crafting had to take a back seat. I hope you all had a great time, I know that we did!

The project that I have to show you today is for the Artistic Inspirations Challenge Blog the theme this week is Celebrations/Anything Goes. I have made a card for my neices's 7th Birthday, so it fits the bill for a celebration quite nicely. I have used an image from Limited Runs, it is called Mushroom #2, and combined it with a couple of stamps from Lavinia stamps. I have placed these onto a backgroud that I first coloured with Distress Inks, then laid a Prima mask over the top, and used the same colours again, to get a stronger colour around the mask. I have then used a little star cluster stamp from Lavinia stamps all over the background, and added some Glamour dust.

The fairy wings were made by stamping the images onto some Crafty Individuals backing paper, and then sticking them to Clearly for Art before shaping them.

There are some great prizes on offer over at the challenge blog:

Eureka is offering the winner 5 digis of their choice

Nikki is offering the winner 3 digis of their choice

QKR is offering the winner 5 digis of their choice

So why not have a go at making something and enter into the challenge? You can make whatever you like, a card, tag, altered item, mixed media piece, it's up to you.

I hope you all have a great evening tonight, and would like to wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year. Thank you for your support in 2012, and I look forward to seeing what you all get up to in 2013. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Steampunk Clock

Here's another sample using the Steampunk Butterfly stamp set. This sample is showing over on the Design Team Blog today, but I would like to give you a few more details about it over here.

I started my design by painting two MDF cogs with black gesso, and then cutting out some backing paper from the Prima Firefly 6" x 6" paper pad. I stamped and embossed the cog fragment onto the papers with silver embossing powder, and added some Distress Ink around the embossing for depth. I sanded the edges of each piece to distress them. I then stuck each piece to the cogs. I glued the cogs together, and left them to dry.

I stamped two butterflies onto more of the Prima paper, cut them out, and stuck them onto Clearly for Art. I coloured the back of the paper with Distress Ink before I stuck them down, so that I would not have any white paper showing once I was finished. I heated the butterflies up, and bent them into the shape that I wanted.

I made a flower using silver metal stuck onto black card. I cut the shapes using a Nestability shape, and then coloured them with alcohol inks. I fixed them together with a brad, added a cog over the top, filled the centre with Glossy Accents, and dropped black glass glitter in the centre. I stamped some leaves onto the silver metal using Stazon Ink.

I cut a Tim Holtz clock die from chipboard, which I coloured with Distress Inks. I added embossing powder in various metallic colours, then I added some Stickles for a bit more shimmer. Finally, I added a few metal cogs to finish my design.

The clock has a working mechanism installed, and I made it in colours that I quite like, so I may hang it in my craft room.

This is the last of the Steampunk Butterfly samples for now, I hope that you have enjoyed them. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Use Christmas Colours

Hi Folks, I have a Christmas card for you today using Christmas colours. It is my Design Team sample for the Artistic Inspirations Challenge Blog The image is from Delicious Doodles and is called Holly Fairy. I have coloured her with pencils, and then used a digital download from Chocolate Baroque the sentiment is also from CB.

There are some great prizes on offer over on the challenge blog, hop on over and take a look. You can make anything you like, a card, tag, altered item, mixed media piece. The theme this week is Christmas Colours/Anything Goes, so the sky is the limit really.

Teri is offering the winner 4 digis of their choice.

Sassy is offering the winner 4 digis of their choice.

Susan is offering the winner 5 digis of their choice.

I am entering my card into the following challenges:
Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog Anything Goes
Flutterby Wednesdays Anything with a Fairy
Through the Craft Room Door Anything Goes


Thanks for stopping by, xx

Stained Glass Window

I have another sample to show you today using the new Steampunk Butterfly stamp set from Chocolate Baroque

When I saw the circular fragment, it reminded me of a church window, and I wanted to try and create that effect. After a bit of practising on scrap paper, I managed to achieve a reasonable attempt! I made a background using Distress Inks spritzed with water, then stamped the four sections of the fragment. I needed to mask a small portion off each time, using masking tape, as the fragment is too large otherwise. I then added the two spires from the Gothic Fragments stamp set. I needed to mask a tiny portion of these to then stamp the corners so that they appeared to be behind the spires. I coloured the images in tones of brown, using my Polychromos pencils, and added touches of gold Mica ink.

I stamped a flower from the Bold Bloom stamp set onto acetate, using Stazon, and then added some multi-coloured flakes behind the image. Once this was dry, I added this to the centre of the 'window'. I used fine line masking tape coloured with a black Copic pen to represent the leading on the window.

To complete the background, I used a stamp from the Texture Fragment stamp set, using three different colour Distress Inks, and stamped randomly to create a stone effect. I then used a sentiment from the Artistic Affirmations stamp set in the top corner.

This card is showing over on the Design Team Blog today, but if you keep checking back there will be lots more inspiration from my Design Team mates over the coming days. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Offer of the Week- Family Christmas

Each week, over at Chocolate Baroque Glenda is running a 'Stamp of the Week' offer. This week, the stamp set on offer is Family Christmas It's a lovely set, and I have been rummaging through my photo archives for some samples to show you.

Here is a sample using the lovely angel, decoupaged and coloured with Copics. I have used a beautiful download that was a freebie from Glenda, printed onto pearlescent paper.

I have again coloured and decoupaged the image on this sample, using Copics. The background was made using gold embossing and Distress re-inkers.

A rocking horse should rock, shouldn't it? So, I made a card that rocks for this sample in a simple monotone scheme.

Here's a super-sized tag with a fragment dangle on the bottom using a piece of book paper as background paper for my stamping.

Finally, just to show you that corners don't have to be square, I stamped lots of corners, and made them into a wreath, using Stickles for the berries. The backing paper is from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD.

The offer on this set runs until tomorrow, when there will be a different set to buy at a great price. Hopefully, I've given you a few ideas for this set, and I'll have a rummage for the next one! Thanks for stopping by, xx

Dressing up in Steampunk Style

Hi Folks, here's a sample showing over on the Chocolate Baroque Design Team Blog today. I'm giving a more detailed description of how I made it over here.

I love using these dress forms, as they are cheap, but look great once they are altered. I painted the base firstly with a coat of gesso, then a coat of acrylic paint and let these dry. I stamped some tissue paper with the images that I wanted to use, and coloured some of the areas with various shades of browns and oranges, using my Polychromos pencils as I know that these do not bleed when using Matte Medium. I cut around the images, and applied them to the dress form and the base, using Matte Medium, covering the top as well. This helps the tissue paper to disappear into the background fairly well.

I then applied a coat of beeswax, using a large brush. I melted this with my heat gun to smooth out any thick areas, and then let it set again. I buffed the whole thing with a duster, to bring up a nice shine.

I stamped a couple of butterflies onto brown card using copper EP, which I cut out and added to the project, using rusty keys for their bodies. I then made some flowers using metal and crinoline. I used the peony die to cut these out, and coloured the crinoline with Rusty Hinge Distress Stain. I embossed the metal shapes with an embossing folder, and then wiped the raised areas with alcohol ink to remove some of the colour. I fixed the layers together with some faux screw brads.

The last touch was to add some copper wire to the stem of the project.

I'll be back in a few days with another explanation. I hope you'll pop back! Thanks for stopping by, xx

Steampunk in Flight

There is a new set of stamps out over at Chocolate Baroque which means that luckily, I have been playing again. Well, working very hard, to produce some samples for the Design Team, I should say. Several of them will be showing over on the Design Team Blog over the next week or so, but I have one to show you today that is just for here.

I created a background using Distress Stains, including one of the metallics, in a soft palette, and then stamped the cog fragment, and the arch fragment over the background, using the toning Distress Inks. I then used a Gold paint dabber, and added some embossing powder, mica flakes and glass glitter in two of the corners.

I stamped some of the roses onto gold metal, and cut them out, puffing them up using a large paper stump. I then stamped some of the tattered wings onto card coloured with Distress Inks, and cut these out. I fixed them together using hinges, and added some coiled wire behind for antennae. Once I stuck the 'butterflies' to the card, I added a trail of tiny clock cogs and more glitter glass behind each one, and stuck little cogs to their antennae.

I coloured some seam binding with Distress Stains to match the overall colour scheme.

It was my Wedding Anniversary last week, and I made a slightly more masculine version for my OH, in a different colour scheme, using a computer-generated text. The font was a free one called 'Steampunk'

I'll be back tomorrow with one of my DT cards, as I'm giving in depth explanations over here each time, rather than bogging down the DT blog. I hope you'll pop back, as I've loved working with these stamps, and I've got lots to show you! Thanks for stopping by, xx