Spring has sprung ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  I have had a few projects on the go and thankfully I finally got to finish and photograph one over the weekend and here it is …

This is about 10cm x 20cm

You can see the depth from the funky foam

This is one of my favourite flower stamps and is well used

A final look I hope you like it - we do!

Created for me and especially for these Challenges
 Anything But Cute Challenge #12 earth day

I was inspired by the blue & the flowers

A Vintage Journey Challenge #40 Spring is in the Air 

Country View Crafts Challenge Spring

Craft Stamper Challenge Spring Flowers
Frilly & Funky Challenge It’s Not Easy Being Green

  Rubber Dance Art Stamps Colour Challenge

Simon Says Stamps Work It Wednesday Challenge Pastels

Southern Ridge Trading Co. Challenge Anything Spring

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Pastels

The Ribbon Girl Challenge April Any Image Goes

A couple of months ago the very lovely and mega talented Kim Costello (of Paperbabe stamps) shared this awesome video tutorial.  Kim used a paper napkin to create fantastic texture on a MM piece of art and I wanted to give it a go.  I had DH order me a specific design of paper napkins that I loved whilst doing the online grocery shopping.  The images on my napkins are very pretty however they are very, very thick.  I’d assumed that they were multiple ply and I would be able to remove a layer or two. 

This time I didn’t completely follow Kim’s tutorial but I did learn something new, lol, and I will be trying something different with these napkins in future.  The chipboard I used was the last of a 12” square thick piece that I recycled.  Some of my paper stash had gorgeous thick chipboard or similar packaging on the back of the packs.  I said had because I have nabbed them all for my practicing so next I will start on the chipboard sheets I won from Country View Crafts. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp: very old Dogwood Rose stamp #

Miscellaneous Tools: paintbrushes; heat tool; bulldog clips water pot; Big Bite

Supplies

Card Paper:

Thick recycled product packaging

Snippets of Sheena Douglass A4 White Stamping Card

Sainsbury’s: pretty napkins

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Beautifully Grunge; Landscape

Versafine IP: black

DecoArt & Pebeo acrylic paints

Embellishments:

Twine (thank you Ruza)

Adhesives/Mediums:

Maimeri Glossy Gel; Collall all purpose glue; funky foam; double sided tape

# VOS: very old stamp no idea who made it originally, 10+ years old

April journalling ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  I made some time to play in my journal and I created two new A5 journal pages: whoop whoop!!  Here is the first one …

Love my birds!

Lots of ink and paint

  

The birds!

Here is my second page …

Lots of detail and texture 

More ink and paint

The flowers and butterfly

I need to practice my definition lines!

The butterfly, love her!

A final look at the flowers & birds

A final look at the butterfly & flowers

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

  Anything But Cute Challenge #12 earth day

Country View Crafts Challenge Spring

  Happy Little Stamper’s Mixed Media Challenge 

Things with Wings

 Stamplorations Stamps Mixed Media Challenge 

#40 April Stencil Sunday

 Tando Creative Challenge April Colours

I’ve been playing with shades of blue, pink, yellow, purple and white more this must.  I must have been inspired by spring lol!  Both of these pages were fun to create and it felt good to get mucky creating something that is just for me and about me.  I had an A4 piece of card that I had mopped up excess AquaTints onto and I used that for both journal pages.  I cut the card into two A5 pieces and started to experiment.

On the first page I allowed myself to go with the flow, just grabbing stencils and paints and going with it.  On this page I used the paints as is, not watered down at all and because I was careful not to completely cover the ATs you can still see some of the colour behind the gesso and acrylics.  Some parts of the first page have more paint than other parts.

On the second page I allowed myself to think about it a bit more before adding acrylic medium and paints.  I watered down the white gesso and the other colours of acrylic paint before applying them through my stencils.  It was a worthwhile experiment as I am surprised at the difference in these two pages and that’s caused by watering down the acrylics.  The second journal page includes my drawn and coloured flowers which I am happy with lol!  I’m not used to saying ‘my own drawings that I am happy with’ lol.  In fact, shucks, I feel shy saying it.  The Spectrum Aqua pens were a Christmas present from my lovely hubby and I sat on the sofa Christmas Day playing with them, trying them out and I am happy with my pretty little flowers.

Both of the finished journal pages look good, well to me, they aren’t even or perfect and I love that fact.  However I am surprised to be saying this but at the moment I prefer the second page more.  It is much more even and less lumpy although it still has texture and that’s the one I prefer.  However I know that may change the next time lol!

Whilst waiting for the acrylic paints to dry on both pages I started to go through my pile of stamped and coloured images, my drawn images, and all my other bits and bobs as I knew I wanted to add more detail to both.  On the first page I decided to add Washi tape to the RHS of the page and I found two stamped and coloured Crazy Birds and I put them aside to add to the page too.  I cut mesh to approximately 140mm x 200mm, found my drawn and coloured panel and my stamped and coloured butterfly.  Once the backgrounds were dry I played with layout and then stuck everything in position: simples lol!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamps:

Tim Holtz: Bird Crazy stamp set; Perspective stamp set

Stencils:

Stamplorations stencils: gridlocked; wild flowers 

Tando Creative stencil: sequin waste

Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: wood grain

Miscellaneous Tools: heat tool; paintbrushes; pipettes; palette; water pot; sponge

Supplies

Card Paper: Card: Crafters Companion A4 Sheena Douglass card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir: Beautifully Grunge AquaTints; Aqua pens

DecoArt Americana paint: pink; teal

The Works: white acrylic paint

Pebeo: blue acrylic paint (it looks purple)

Gold EP #; Black EP #

Adhesives/Mediums: The Works: white gesso; Versamark IP; Washi tape #

Other: Hobbycraft: white mesh

# VOS: very old stash and no idea if still available to purchase, min. 8 years old

Red, white and blue for another sketchy ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend was good and your week has started well.  I got to play a little over the weekend and that means I’ve a red, white and blue sketchy card to share with you today and here it is …

  

A lovely C6 birthday card

I like this one - the distressed background and the colours are perfect!

These little banner stamps are wonderful and cute too!

A nice bit of distressing too!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Allsorts Challenge #360 red, white & blue

Card Mania Challenge CMC#79 spring

Country View Crafts Challenge Spring

Pixie’s Snippets Playground #226

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Pastels

  Stamplorations Stamps Challenge 

Sketch & Splatters: I followed the sketch and I had much fun splattering all over my stencil background!  I have a ‘thi-ang’ for splattering right now

  Stamplorations Stamps Anything Goes Challenge 

Time Out Challenge #55 Celebrations optional twist die cutting

Wednesday’s Creative Inspirations Challenge #249 Your Favourite Things:

Colours; paints; splattering; stamps; stencils; creating cards and other projects

It’s good that I finally made the time to play with these stamps over the weekend.  I won them just before Christmas and I’ve not had the time or felt up to using them.  So this weekend I had my first proper play and I used two of the bunting stamps and a sentiment from this set to create this card.  

This month I’ve started to use lighter and fresher colours.  It’s finally felt like spring; the light is changing, brighter in the mornings and evenings which I love.  However today it’s grey and really cold which I do not like lol!

I attached the stencil to an A6 piece of Sheena card and used Spectrum Noir AquaTints (ATs) washes to add colour through the stencil.  I had been playing with my ATs for another creation that I can’t share yet.   I deliberately wasn’t precise, I wanted a distressed wall, think I achieved that.  Once the background was dry I used the ATs to edge each side of the card stock and I splattered once again, I hope you aren’t bored of my splatters. 

There was still plenty of pale blue ATs wash in my paint palette so I grabbed several white snippets and coloured them with the blue ATs.  Once dry I used two of the banner stamps and a Versafine IP to stamp the banners on the pale blue snippets. Hunting through my snippets box I found a darker blue snippet and I used Versafine IP and Let’s Celebrate stamp to add the sentiment, the Let’s Celebrate is from the banners stamp set too.  I used my distressing tool to roughen the top and bottom edge of the sentiment banner before gluing it in position.  I trimmed the banners and played with the layout before being happy and gluing them in position.  Of course it needed sequins so they went on too and I was done!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp: Stamplorations Stamps: Dee’s Artsy Impressions Banners & Balloons stamp set

Stencil: Gridlocked stencil

Miscellaneous Tools: paintbrushes; pipettes; palette; water cup

Supplies

Card Paper: Sheena Douglass A4 White Stamping Card; snippets of that too

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Landscape & Beautifully Grunge sets

Versafine IP: black

Embellishments: EBay: sequins

Adhesives/Mediums: Collall all purpose glue; Washi tape

Blue and white ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend is going well.  Another card I created using the lovely Winnie and Walter stamp set.  I am head over heals in love with this set and I’m stupid proud that I managed not to use it for a couple of weeks lol!  Anyways here is my card …

   

Another A6 card - I am loving CAS at the moment!

The ink and paint and beautiful stamps!

   

I love these bird houses!

The adorable bluebird!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Card Mania Challenge CMC#79 spring
Critters & Creatures Link Up #3 at Ellibelle’s Blog

 Happy Little Stamper’s Mixed Media Challenge 

April is Things with Wings

Noor Design UK Challenge #17 Anything Goes

Seven Hills Crafts Challenge April Colours: I used blues mostly this time

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Pastels 
Time Out Challenge #55 Celebrations optional twist die/fussy cutting
Wednesday’s Creative Inspirations Challenge #249 Favourite Things:

Mine are clean and simple cards, stamps, inks and paints

Winnie & Walter Stamps Blog Join In & Win

It’s been quite a while since I last played with a limited palette and it’s something I want to do more often.  I stamped the birdhouses in position then the branches, adding some Post It notes masks to the top birdhouse and I extended the branch at the bottom of the top birdhouse.  I can’t remember the last time I did masking!  I stamped the bird onto a snippet of white card before colouring and then fussy cutting and adding to the card front.  This card is one of my favourite creations so far this month because of the lovely fresh blue and white and the fact that it is inky yet CAS makes me a happy bunny lol.  

A quick post from me as my back has not settled so sitting up is a wee bit of an issue again/still/always!  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp: Winnie & Walter Stamps: Happiest of Holidays stamp set

Miscellaneous Tools: heat tool; paintbrushes; pipette; water pot

Supplies

Card Paper:

Sheena Douglass white stamping card; paper for masks

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Landscape; Essentials

Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens: clear overlay

Versafine IP: black

Pigma Micron black pen

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue

A CASE card ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  Before I forget to do so I want to say thank you for all the lovely comments you have left for me especially with this stamp set.  I love playing with this set and it seems you all love them too, and that makes me very very happy lol!  When I saw the CASE card at Happy Little Stamper’s Challenge this month I had to play along and here is my interpretation …

  

I love it!  Very CASE but with lots of character too!

It makes me happy lol!

  

Lovely stamps!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

 AAA Cards Challenge #62 Anything Goes

Crop Stop Blog #15 Link Party

 Happy Little Stamper’s CASE Challenge April

Paperbabe Stamps Challenge #31 Anything Goes

Penny Black & More Challenge Birthdays

Pixie’s Snippets Playground #225 the centre piece is a snippet

 Rubber Dance Art Stamps Colour Challenge

Spectrum Noir Challenge on Facebook Pastels

Wednesday’s Creative Inspirations Challenge #249 Your Favourite Things:

creating stuff; flowers; paints; stamping; techniques

I loved the fact that the stamped flower was on both the top and bottom layer, that is a look that I have always loved and it was a technique I learnt when on the Design Team at Technique Time Tuesday.  I slightly changed my interpretation by stamping the flower twice, once at the top and once at the bottom.  I couldn’t find a similar leaf stamp so I stamped the flower again and I didn’t leave them black and white this time, I chose to carry the colour over to both layers.  I want to do this again with other flowers so I’m hoping to get another made for the challenges.

As I also wanted to enter Spectrum Noir’s challenge I needed to create a project with pastel colours.  The top flower is a little darker than I hoped but the bottom one is spot on.  I made two washes using the white from the Essentials set as well as the blue from the Landscape set, and the pink from the Beautifully Grunge set.  My next attempt with other flowers will be stamped and, hopefully, coloured with my Spectrum Aqua pens – they are so wonderfully juicy it is amazing how far the colour goes and how beautifully clean the colour is too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp: Tim Holtz Flower Garden stamp set

Miscellaneous Tools: paintbrushes; water pot; pipettes; palette

Supplies

Card Paper: Sheena Douglass A4 White Stamping card

Ink/Paint/Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Beautifully Grunge; Landscape

Spectrum Sparkle: clear overlay

Versafine IP: black

Embellishments: sequins from EBay

Adhesives/Mediums: double sided tape; funky foam; Collall all purpose glue; Washi tape