INKY FINGERS

Last week, I won some Blog Candy from Minxy – woohoo!  I very rarely win anything, so I was thrilled and even more thrilled when it arrived.

This is Minxy’s gorgeous tag.

This is how the Blog Candy looked when it came out of the envelope…

and here it is in all its glory.  Lots of fabby things to inspire… LOVE those flutterbies and can you see all those tickets and trimmings???!

Thank you VERY much, Minxy!!

I’ve been a BAD Blogger the last week or so but my son’s in hospital, so life’s a little chaotic, not to mention emotional.  Thanks for all your lovely comments – I really appreciate them.

I love the Splash of Colour challenges on Playdate Café, so I had to try this one.  Never done black and white with green, so this is a first.

 

The images are Tim Holtz (Flourish), Raindrops on Roses (words) and Art Journey (woman and butterfly).  The green is Adirondack Clover ink, watercoloured.

It’s glossy card and I’ve used Stormy Sky, Tumbled Glass and Pine Needles Distress inks for the background.  It doesn’t show very clearly because the ink was so light, but there’s an alphabet stamped behind the main image, stamped after masking the little boy.  Might have to recolour that bandana and his clothing and shoes – I used distress inks but they seem to have faded into the background with it being glossy card…  I’ve now added some Copic colour and white highlights, so I think it looks better.  May try to get a photo tomorrow to compare.

Where’s this week gone to?  It’s absolutely flown by but then again, a lot has been happening here.
It’s Wednesday, so it must be WOYWW!
I cheated a little here and took the photos on Tuesday cos I knew I wouldn’t be using my desk for a little while – sorry.  Not so much happening on my desk, I’m afraid – so there aren’t many changes here from last week, except that you will notice – ta da!!!

…my wonderful, fabby, dabby sparkling NEW WOYWW easel, courtesy of the wonderful Julia – and (I presume) Mr Dunnit, bless their little cotton socks :D  Thank you VERY MUCH, Julia.  It arrived Tuesday morning and made my day!!!
Stepping back, this is the view of the desk.  I did manage a little bit of stamping and inkiness yesterday morning, so you’ll see some of the results (and the aftermath, lol) there.

These are the shelves over the desk.

Well, I finally made a decision – with a little help – so the winner of the blog candy is…..

Spent this afternoon making some Fairy ATCs for a KCUK swap, so here they are.

These are the colours we were given to work with for this week’s challenge.

Here’s my attempt, though I found it hard to get the right blend of colours – they’re not quite right.  I could’ve gone darker, which would have actually been easier, lol.

I stamped the words and Harlequin in Versamagic Wheat, then clear embossed (not easy to see), as I did the word Love (Hero Arts).  The tulips (Penny Black) are stamped with Versafine, clear embossed, then I added a few white highlights with my Ranger Inkssentials white pen.

That mark isn’t on the card, btw – it’s on my scanner – it’s clean now but it’s a bit late for the card and no, I’m not rescanning, lol.

Today, while having a sort out, I found my blo pens, which I’d never used.  My friend, Dot, makes some great backgrounds with these, so I thought I’d try them out.  This is what I made and I think it’s a fair illustration of Heat – one of the Gingersnap Challenges of the moment.  Stamps are Hero Arts and Stampin’ Up.

This is just a quickie – very similar to some I made before, but with different words.  It’s one of my Ecoline ink backgrounds, which I love so much.  Stamps are Paperartsy and Inkadinkado.  I really love these kids’ words.  Funny, really cos I can easily pass on chocolate, apart from the odd square or two – I know, I’m weird!

Here are B & C of my Alphabet Postcards for Lots to Do. 
B is for Blue and for Birds – I used the blues (Distress inks Chipped Sapphire and Tumbled Glass) so that it fits into the Gingersnap Shades of Blue challenge.  There’s also a little bit of Adirondack Slate on there, at the bottom ;)  Stamps from Paperartsy and Time to Stamp.  Large alphabet stamp from Ma Vinci's Reliquary.

This is the Colour Challenge for this week on Play Date Café Challenge.

Here’s my effort.

I made the background by spritzing glossy card with water, then dripping on Brilliance reinkers in Pearlescent Lime and Pearlescent Purple and spritzing again.  That’s a Bubble wrap impression in the corners, although the Adirondack Citrus looks yellow, for some reason…   Some of the circles are coloured with  a purple Jelly Glaze pen and I added three little gems for a bit of bling.

The theme at Theme Thursday this week is to make something ROUND.  I actually woke up – early, I might add – thinking about this today.  In the end, I did something a little different to what I’d imagined but it was still fun.

I started with three different sized circles, cut out with my trusty Creative Memories Circle Cutter, used them as masks and sponged Wild Honey and Barn Door Distress inks on glossy card, edging with some Rusty Hinge, then used a reverse mask of a circle punch to stamp some of the Non Sequitur Time words through, creating circles of text - the others are spirals, anyway.  The clock face is a Heidi Swapp clear stamp but the face clock is another Non Sequitur.  The brown ink is Memories Chestnut – a great colour!  There are so many circles on here that I couldn’t count them but it was fun to go with a theme like this.

This also ties in with the NEW Stampman Challenge, which this week is ANYTHING GOES.  Non Sequitur stamps are available from the Stampman.

Had a quick play with this image because I came across it (yes, I’d forgotten I had it but I wish I could find the ones I was looking for!).  I knew it would fit the theme at Weekend ATCs, which is the Sea, so I spent some time colouring with Copics and Promarkers.  More bleeding Copics…

Been a good girl this afternoon and have finished off the third recipe card I’d half decided not to bother with, but at least they’re now done and all the recipe cards I’ve received are punched and ready to go into their owners’ books.  We’re just waiting for one more set, which is taking a round the world trip from Germany, I think.  I still need to do a Contributors page before I can send them off. 

It’s very simply stamped ;)  This is the back, stamped with Brilliance Gold.

Here’s the front, coloured with Glimmer Mists and Starburst Stains dabbers – both painted on with a brush – then stamped with second generation images, using Adirondack Twilight Purple and Slate.

Mine look so simple compared to others, but at least I’ve done them and I am putting the books together :D

Okay, here’s my desk – and this is about as good as it gets when I’ve signed up for lots of swaps…  You can see lots of other desks on Julia’s blog.

Well, I gave in, lol.  I was so determined I would get the things I’m committed to do out of the way before I started to play but I just had to have a little play – and intend having a couple more, as soon as I can, lol.

So here’s my entry for this week’s Lots to Do Challenge, where the theme for this week is People and Places.

I found my yummy Claudine Helmuth stamps, so I’ve almost finished another card, too.  I keep forgetting about these, lol.  The base for the image is Caught in Crystal, but unfortunately, you can’t see the yummy crystallisation you get the more you heat it – it really is so pretty and glistens.  I stamped the image again on white and layered the CIC over the top, to define the images, then stamped again and cut out ‘La Cathédrale’ which I attached separately with toning brads.  Yellow’s not a colour I often use on its own but I quite like this effect for a change.

I have a few things ‘on’ at the moment so before I do any challenges (which I’m aching to do, lol) I decided to get those other things out of the way first.  This is the first – my second recipe page for a KCUK swap.  I was only supposed to do one recipe so this was a bit of a wild card because some of the others are late in arriving and I thought I’d surprise those taking part in the swap.  I have another one coloured and cut, too but not sure I’ll get around to stamping it, so may leave it out.   It was a bit of a disaster because one of the Glimmer Mists I was using to paint the pages fell over (of its own accord, of course ;)) so I mopped it up with all the recipe cards.  Looked REALLY good BUT it was gold and some of it obscured the text – not good if you want to read it, he, he:)

Then, since it was a Thai recipe, I hunted for Thai stamps, only to find that I’ve given away the only ones I had which would have been suitable, so I had to go with Plan B and think outside the box.  No decoration on the front – it’s bright enough, lol – but it’s taken me AGES to do the back because I stamped the image with Versamark first, added Moon Dust in several colours (to show the straw and the drops of perspiration - not mine, the perspiration of the chicken on the left) then stamped it again on white card, cutting it out then colouring with Copics. I WAS going to colour the book but after all those hours and becoming totally disenchanted with bleeding Copics and severed limbs which came off when applying the Glue Stick.  (I mean bleeding Copics in the literal sense, of course – see the chicken on the book cover, to see what I mean and this is one of the simpler ones, which didn't bleed as much.  Those who know me well know I really wouldn’t use a word like that – probably one stronger, I have to admit!)  I’ve decided that the only really good thing about Glue sticks is that you can move the image around to get it in perfect position before it dries – other than that, I really don’t like 'em very much at all, other than for covering book covers! I won't have my usual 'Glue stick' rant here - I'll save it for another time, but I really would only ever recommend TOMBOW glue sticks for craft work.  All the others dry up, clog up and leave horrible lumps!   It gets on your fingers, then transfers to the images and then there are the bits all over the pages – yuk - and I applied the glue on an old Yellow Pages, best use for it cos you can turn the page after each application and have a clean surface to work on!  I was SO glad to get back to my ATG gun when I attached the recipes to the backs!  I have to say that I did lots of giggling when colouring with the Copics cos the expressions on the faces of the two outside chickens really tickles me, they look terrified!  So here we have yet ANOTHER chicken recipe.

Over at Crafty Cardmakers, the challenge for this week fortnight is a photo challenge and here it is.

The text (US Artquest) was stamped on glossy card with Versamark ink to get a resist effect, then heat set, followed by sponging Adirondack Meadow and Pool inks all over, then stamping the text randomly over the top with each colour.  The flourish and flowers are part of the stamp, so the little girl was stamped in Permanent ink, then again on white matte card, cut out, coloured with Promarkers and the two inks, then glued over the top of the stamped image.  The flowers were coloured with Gel pens and embossed, the wings glitter glazed.  The words (Paper Inspirations) were stamped on white card, cut out, layered onto black card, then attached randomly, with heart brads and gems to complete the theme.

Please visit Crafty Cardmakers Challenge Blog to see what the rest of the fab DT have made for the challenge.
The sponsor for this challenge is Joanna Sheen, who is offering a £10 voucher to the winner.  There’s some great stuff at Joanna’s, including EZ mount and Promarkers at a good price with FREE P&P!!  

CHALLENGE RULES

Please leave a link to your actual card in Froggie.

If you don't have a blog, please email entries in.
You can combine your challenge with however many you like using any technique or style. Any papercrafted item accepted (scrapbook LO's, ATC's etc) You can also enter up to 3 times per challenge, its all about encouraging crafting after all!   You must also mention Crafty Cardmakers Challenge, with a link back, in your blog entry in order to be considered for the prize.  Best of luck with your challenge!

I forgot to post this so will do it now.  I have another two recipes in progress, which I’ll finish off if I get time before all the other recipes are in but we’re already late, so I may not get the time.  I need to be putting the books together!
I enjoyed doing this, although I’ve done something similar before.  Nice recipe, too :D  Couldn’t get the depth of colour, no matter how hard I tried – there’s a lot more pale green on the background than you can see.  Hey ho – will have to work on this colour matching!

Well, if I didn’t know any better, I’d suspect that my friend, Jo and I had been colluding – but we didn’t and my desk’s much messier than hers – and the worst thing is I’ve been working on the dining room table this afternoon cos of the mess!!  In all honesty, I’d just piled some stuff on the desk as I’d finished with it, so it’s waiting to be put away.  Anyway,  here’s my WOYWW entry.

I’m working on other things today, but I wanted to get these things uploaded while I remember ;)
The first one is an ATC which uses the watercolour technique on the Art Cards Challenge Blog, touching the edges of a stamped image (using water based inks) with a paintbrush.  It also fits the Fun with ATCs floral Challenge for today.  It was a good excuse to try out the Freebie stamp with this month's Craft Stamper - I really like it but then I like a lot of Innovative Stamp Creations stamps!  I've used Wild Honey and Walnut Stain Distress inks on it - both to stamp and to colour.  The 'splodgy' bit is one of my favourite filler stamps which I've had for years and years and years - about 8 - but you can't see how lovely it is on this.  It's like a star burst - really pretty.