INKY FINGERS

It’s been one of those strange weeks, with lots of appointments and things to arrange but I did manage to fit in a little bit of stamping for some important people, even if it was pretty quickly over and done.

This one’s stamped with felt tip pens (Tombows) – image Penny Black.

Another Penny Black image (always useful for quick, effective cards) but this time stamped in Brilliance Thyme ink.  Love that Nestie background, but if I’m honest, I used to deckle cut a lot of borders when I first started stamping, so it’s a bit like going back to basics – the hard way ;)

Glossy card, Dylusions inks and one of my favourite ‘cute’ stamps, with that lovely water droplet background I fell in love with on Carol Q’s blog. 

This one was for someone very special to me who’s having a  rough time of it lately.

Most of my craft room is packed up now – just hope I’ll be able to stamp again soon…

Enjoy your weekend!

xxx

PLEASE NOTE!

I’m in the process of moving this site to a new home:-

http://inkycorner.wordpress.com/

I’m sure it will take a while to sort out because I have a lot of other things on at the moment, but right now, I’m struggling because my current email provider has moved to another major company.  Unfortunately, they’ve duplicated some IDs and I’m unable to sign into more than one at a time., which has really messed up my Blogger and Yahoo accounts! 

I’ll keep posting in both blogs for a little while, but hope you’ll join me at the new one!  Sorry about this.

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It was my birthday not long ago and my lovely friends spoiled me (Thank you to all) so I made some Thank you cards to send. 

I had a few to make and very little time, so they had to be quick and uncomplicated.

I’d wanted to try this for a while now, so I die cut a butterfly mask in acetate, then sponged and stamped through it.  I quite like this effect, but the ‘Thank you’ should have been further up in the right hand corner.  I’ll get that right next time…

Thanks for visiting and welcome to my new followers!

xxx

Happy Easter and God’s best blessings to you all! 

Some of my friends have been using some of the new (very stylised) floral stamps designed by Jo Firth Young and I quite like them, but daren’t buy anything more at the moment…

Another friend suggested drawing similar flowers and sent me one of her sketches, which encouraged me to have a go, too. Here they are in my A4 journal. 

I’ve been really surprised at how much freer I feel with a bigger page.

I’m going to enter this and my ATCs into this week’s Simon Says Stamp challenge, which is ANYTHING GOES.

I also put my name down for the KCUK March ATC swap, Paris, one of my favourite places.  I don’t really make many ATCs these days, and I’m not sure if the hostess will accept them at this late date, but here are my very simple offerings.

I started with inky backgrounds I’d already made, flicking a little water on for a bit of contrast, then adding a little colour with Promarkers, Copics and pencils.  The bottom one is one of my new Birthday stamps (which I love) and I’ve used a couple of the others here and there.  I can see me using them quite a lot in the future!

I can’t really get all my stamps and inks out right now, because I’m putting them all away.  I’m trying to downsize drastically and need to prioritise and reorganise! I may go AWOL for a little while…

Hope your weekend is very special!

xxx

I’ve always loved natural, rustic things and Kraft papers and bags fall right into that category, so I’ve used them for years on and off.

I followed a link the other day which led to a really pretty card on Kraft, with a hint of turquoise, one of my favourite colours.  I can’t remember the link – sorry and hope I’m not offending anyone – but here’s my version of what I saw and I love it!

The background (Darkroom Door) is stamped in Versamark and clear embossed.

Have a lovely Easter!

God Bless you

xxx

I think there’s an element of psychology at work here – I’m stamping Spring colours while outside it’s snowing – AGAIN!  I’ve had no mail for two days because of the snow and I just came back from braving the elements to go to town, in search of some fresh food!  Brr!  It was supposed to be raining by now – NOT snowing again OR forecast more for tomorrow morning!

So here’s my second Spring Colours contribution to KCUK and this time I used very Spring like colours – bright and positive.  Spring is also the theme for the Everybody Art Challenge 228, so I’ll be posting a link there.

Forgot to mention that I used Dylusions inks on glossy card, which is why they’re so much paler – then added a touch of Adirondack Sunshine yellow and stamped with Adirondacks Meadow and Bottle. 

Stay warm, everyone and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

xxx

Just a few bits I made recently…

Spring Colours challenge on KCUK.  Not really spring colours but at least they’re pastels… and they’re also ANALOGOUS colours (all side by side on the Colour wheel) so I’m entering it in this week’s  Our Creative Corner challenge.

This one’s a Birthday card for someone…

… and so is this one.

While this one was a Mother’s Day Card.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

xxx

Been doing a bit of journalling in my A4 journal the past week or so – it really does help and although the size of the canvas is scary at first, it gives you more space to breathe, somehow…. I enjoyed building these layers with Neocolours and inks.

Need to get a rubber (eraser) on the pencil lines before I forget!

Have a great week!

xxx

Another way of tidying and recycling. 

All made from scraps of card and scrap images.

I’d like to enter the little birdie card above into the Make my Monday challenge for this week.

And an altered box for a special present :-D

I used Pearlescent acrylics from Ranger and Brilliance Reinkers, with Scrapbook paper squares on the top and bottom, toned to match with the same Brilliance inks and paints.  Stamped with Brilliance inks.

Have a great week!

xxx

It was time for the new challenge at KCUK and I chose Tamp-a-Tile, which you can see here, beautifully illustrated by Anja. 

Thanks for such clear illustrations, Anja :-)

Unfortunately, I ended up rushing to do a couple of samples, so they’re far from perfect and I didn’t like the blank line between the sections, so I left it out and darkened the edges instead, but it was fun to do something a little bit different.  It’s almost - but not quite - a grid technique! 

Have a great weekend!

I’m going off to Stamp Club for the first time in a couple of years, hoping to learn how to make a Word Book with Ann!

xxx

Since Izzi arrived, I’ve come to realise just how lovely it is when people remember you as a Grandparent – isn’t it amazing what a difference experience makes?

I made a simple card for the newest Grandma on KCUK.

While I’m here, I have a BLOG CANDY ALERT!

I don’t know how many of you have seen/tried Lindsay Mason’s journalling stamps (Or seen her fab journalling) but you should!

Lindsay is very kindly gifting some BLOG CANDY, as you can see below.  Click the photo to get to her blog.  All you have to do is comment :-)

I don’t think you can ever have enough words/sentiments, do you?

Have a great week!

xxx

I’m starting to list ‘stash’ on Ebay again, so thought I’d give you a quick ‘heads up’ that there are some brand new Timmy stamps available there, along with a few others I found – more to come!

Clicking the image will take you to the latest listings.

xxx

Happy Saturday!  Hope you’re all well?

Before I show you my latest ‘makes’ I’ll share what I did with one of the cards in the last post. It was looking way too plain for me, so to brighten it, I cut off the front and attached it to a square white card – I think it looks a whole lot better!  The white card is hammer textured, so it adds a bit more interest and looks better in real life.

My closest friends all have birthdays in the next few weeks (and a few weeks beyond)  and two of them share the same love of this colour combination with me, so I was able to indulge myself, using pigment inks and clear embossing powder.

I love this Penny Black Fuchsia stamp and use it over and over in different ways.  Here, it’s used with Tombow felt tips to make a far more subtle card, but staying with the same colour combo.

Have a great weekend!

xxx

We’re having a Take Ten (make a card in ten minutes) challenge on KCUK and these were my two entries, both very simple and both made with the same stamp.

The first one is in one of my favourite colour combinations which just happen to be in a Brilliance tricolour inkpad, so we get that lovely pearlescent sheen, too.

This one is used in reverse – stamped in Versamark, then clear embossed and sponged afterwards, giving a much more subtle effect.  I also used a very different colour scheme (rust and sky blue) and added a few blue ‘jewels’ to the flowers, for interest.

This one’s for one of my oldest friends, who is very special to me. We were working out how long we’ve known each other last week and it’s 40 years!  Wow, that makes me feel so old!!! 

The scanned colours aren’t perfectly true – there are lilacs, peaches and oranges in there, along with the yellows. It’s much nicer ‘in the flesh’, though I say it myself ;-)  I was aiming for the faux airbrush effect you get from using a texture sponge.

The theme at Crafty Cardmakers this week is Blooming Images, so I’ll enter the top two into that and will have more to enter in the next day or so.

Have a great week!

xxx

What a beautiful day, here in North West England – I hope the sun has shone on you, wherever you are.  Nature’s awakening and there’s a lovely, gentle calm over everything – I love this time of year!

To make it all better, I found my little Samsung camera, so I’m a happy bunny.  It was a poor second best to my SLR but since I’ve well and truly lost that, I’m happy just to have a camera!  Watch out, Izzi – Grandma’s about!

I actually made this last week, using two of my all time favourite inks – Memories Hunter Green and Soft Leaf - but wasn’t completely happy with it, so put it to the side until I made my mind up what to do with it.  Today, I decided I liked it, but I wanted it to go on cream, then I fancied embossed corners and a pretty ribbon... that’s how this card happened.

I played with the background on this one and really enjoyed it.  Maybe my inspiration is creeping back a little… almost afraid to say it!  Still couldn’t face stamping an image or cutting out, so I used one from my basket – same with the words. Still, that’s why I have baskets of images – to inspire me!  I think the little girl’s from Lost Coast and the words are from Stamp Camp.  Not sure you can see the faces in the background…

Love the inkiness and I even used Walnut ink on this, too, which is very unusual for me these days.

I’ve had the 7 Gypsies tissue paper (music) for years and years (probably around 10 years…?) but haven’t used much, saving it for ‘something special’.  Today, I just decided to tear it up… hey ho!

Have a great week and may the sun shine on you all!  Hope to get to visit more of you this week.

xxx