INKY FINGERS

Staying with the ‘one colour plus white’ theme because it’s easy and quick.  I feel guilty for making such simple cards and ATCs – I like to put a bit more work into them, rather than simply stamping and layering, but hey ho!  Needs must when time is precious…  These have all been clear embossed, then most of them have been cuttlebugged, lol ;)

Really should be working and have an essay open here and books all over the kitchen table but couldn’t resist a quick play with a couple of my new stamps.
Had a great day at Port Sunny, meeting up with lots of old friends and some lovely bloggers I’d only ever ‘seen’ online, but never met before, which was brilliant.  Good to meet you, girls!

Here’s my K page for the Chunky Alphabet swap, which also happens to fit into the PDCC 46, which is a Colour Splash (Black and white with a splash of Gold, Pink or Copper).  I’m not over pleased with it because it didn’t work out exactly as planned but I really don’t have time to play around with it right now. ( I managed to sneak an hour yesterday to make this, lol – hope to get to the next two letters later in the week!)

And K for knots, he, he!

Back to J again for my 4x4 pages and although I stayed with the J for Jigsaw theme, I added a Japanese slant this time.

Found the latest GPP Street Crusade yesterday and just had to have a go – especially cos my mind was in turmoil over something at the time.  The brief is to use acrylics in journal pages but using only a scraper – or old Credit card/store card – and maybe some stencils of some kind.

I gessoed my altered book pages first, using an old credit card, then applied the paints in layers, spritzing with water now and again, followed by stencilling using a fern stencil I love but haven’t used very often.  It’s a metal stencil so I couldn’t move it around enough to get random ‘off the page’ imprints, which I would have liked.

    

 

This week’s Challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers is Clean and Simple.
I don’t do a lot of CAS because I love to play with inks, but I do really enjoy simple card designs now and again. I’ll be making a DT card for the ‘Spotlight’ part of this challenge, but couldn’t resist making a couple of very clean and simple cards for fun.

 

Here are  my letter I’s for both Alphabet swaps – first the Postcard swap for Lots to Do and the 4x4 for the KCUK Chunky book.

Been busy getting ahead with these two Alphabet swaps the last couple of days, so I don’t have to worry too much in the next couple of weeks – best laid plans of mice and men?  I’m rushing and it shows, but these are my swaps for G & H

… and Frame and Flutterby (well, that’s what I call ‘em, lol)

The Bank Holiday this week has made the days seem to come way too soon.  Can’t believe it’s Wednesday already!!  It’s time to SNOOP - WOOHOO!!!    If you don’t know yet what What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday is all about (and you really, really SHOULD DO) then pop over to Julia’s blog to spy on what everyone’s revealed this week.  It really is a lot of fun!!   (Oops, I've put the wrong number up there, so my link is taking people to the wrong entry - duh!  My apologies - this is WOYWW 65, lol!

Anyway, here’s a snippet of my desk this week, which actually contains a WIP (Work in Progress), lol.  NOT showing my whole desk this week cos very little has changed, apart from the fact that it’s probably worse than it was!!!!! 

1. Stamp image(s) in Versamark or clear Embossing ink, then emboss in clear powder. 
2. Apply colour, using your favourite method but be sure not to use permanent or pigment inks, which will cover the embossed images and spoil the effect.  Water based inks, such as Vivid, Distress, Adirondack, Big 'n' Juicy, Kaleidacolor, Memento, Marvy, etc etc are ideal.  If there’s ink on your embossing, wipe off with a piece of kitchen towel or a baby wipe..
3. Cover the embossed card with a piece of kitchen towel (newsprint or brown paper work just as well).  Set an iron to HOT (no steam) and IRON over the material covering the embossed bits, leaving it over them for 15 seconds or so.  You know your own iron, so you’ll know how hot it’s getting.  If you need to, lift up the paper/kitchen towel to see if the embossing powder has lifted up.
4. When embossing powder is removed, overstamp with more images (or the same – works particularly well with flowers and people, creating a sort of shadow effect).
5. Clear emboss new stamping if you like, to create dimension.

Embossed, with eyelets.

This is a scan.

The theme for this week’s Crafty Cardmakers is a Lady Gaga Video. 

See stills on the Crafty Cardmakers website if you prefer not to watch the video – definitely not my cup of tea, lol!

From the video, I focused on silver, white, diamonds and bling but also on the part where she looks in a mirror, which is why the frame is there.

I stamped the image (Time to Stamp Glamour Girls) in Brilliance Starlite Silver on Glossy card, then cut to fit the frame (Life’s Journey from K&Co).  The background is stamped with a Kars’ Harlequin Background, then heat embossed with a Silver/White sparkle Embossing powder.

The silver mesh (from my stash) was attached with a bit of double sided carpet tape (Wilko special, lol) behind the frame, then with 6 silver square brads – 3 at top left, 3 at bottom right – turned to look like diamonds.  I didn’t want it to be firmly attached.

The word ‘Divine’ was from the same stamp plate and was stamped and embossed with Fine silver Embossing powder, then layered onto silver mirror card.

Wire embellishment (Woodware) was attached with Glossy Accents and after attaching the stamped layer to a piece of silver mirror card, then to a folded white card, I attached the frame to the front – again with super strong Double sided carpet tape, to keep it secure.

The prize for this week is approx £10 worth of Die cuts from

Susie Sugar of Die Cut Dreams

We’d love to see you take part this week. 

Thanks for looking.

After struggling with a DT project which was way outside of my comfort zone, I decided to play for a little while this afternoon – just because!!  Happily, the colours I used (which are some of my favourites) just happened to fit into this week’s Playdate Café Challenge, which is this colour scheme.

It doesn’t look quite straight, but it is – it looks that way because I mounted the top layer onto thick foam tape for a change – the scanner has obviously struggled with the 3D effect.

All Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) stamps, with Distress inks in Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage and Stormy Skies, then some Adirondack Pool added.

This is another scrapling I made quickly, yesterday.

Just had a couple of hours to play, so I made some backgrounds with Ecoline inks – watercolour paints.  I just used a pipette to put a few drops of red and yellow on a non-stick craft mat, then spritzed with water and picked up the colour with some white card.

Then stamped the Paperartsy image (and clear embossed) and the Hero Arts Friends stamp (using Wild Honey Distress ink).  The words are from various stamp sets and are all clear embossed.

Theme Thursday challenge for this week is Children.

Gingersnap have a red, yellow and orange challenge but they also have a Paint challenge, so this fits both.

Rainbow Lady’s Challenge for this week is ‘Paint it’

Don’t think I’ve ever entered a card for so many challenges in one go – quite coincidental, lol.

(I’ve changed the image to a photo because the scan made it look more ochre than orange and it was WAY too bright!)

It’s been one of those weeks and here’s the proof in all its glory.  NOT a very tidy desk this week at all – in fact, it’s as it very often is, lol. 


I made a few things really quickly, one after the other, and have been out nearly every day with John, so I left it as it was when I finished, without moving a thing or cleaning a stamp and haven’t touched it since. 


Now you see the chaos I really work in, he, he.  I did proudly display my latest creations in my beautiful WOYWW easel, though – you can see it, honestly, if you look VERY closely – he, he.   You can also see a card front I got from Vix yesterday – lovely colours – and I like those stamps – ooh, disaster!


I should probably be ashamed, but guess what?  I’m not, really.  I nearly always end up working this way, hunting for bits to use beforehand so that I have things to choose from and I rarely have more than this amount of space to work in – unless it’s something bigger, lol.  Even if I start with a totally tidy and clear desk (which is rare) it ends up looking like this.  It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better cos I won’t have time to tidy it but NEED to stamp soon or I’ll go nuts!  It won’t take me long to tidy that lot up when I’m ready.  Every item has its own home to go to.  If only you could see the floor…