ATC's Joy to the world
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Thursday, 24 November 2011
Couldn’t resist having a go at this one because I used to use this technique an awful lot with chalk inks. So, I got out my Colorbox Fluid chalks, which I’ve probably only used once in the last 5 years (shame on me) and my trusty stipple brushes and this was the result.
One of the biggest problems with these inks is the tonal variation from one pad of the same colour to the next and my purply colours seem to be a bit pinkish, but I love it anyway. I used Wisteria and Violet inks, with a little Purple Pansy (Versamagic) in places. The beauty of chalk inks is that you can layer lighter colours over darker ones – a lovely effect.
I’m still in Christmas mode – not sure how long that will last – and this is one of my favourite Christmas stamps. I thought I’d lost it the other day, but after a frantic hunting for what I reckoned to be about 8 stamps, I actually found a basket full of them – some I’d forgotten all about! Just goes to show what happens when you ‘put things away safely’ instead of in their usual place – they’ll stay with the rest of the Christmas stamps from now on!
The theme at Make my Monday is Snowflakes, Flowers or Foliage. I’m trying to get into a C mood now (I think … watch this space, lol cos I’m bound to change my mind soon) and so I concentrated on snowflakes.
I used my favourite technique – resist – stamping snowflakes as a background on glossy card, sponging various shades of blue and lilac over the top, using a torn paper mask. Trees were then stamped behind the hills, followed by a little snowman family, the great text (Stampinback) and lots of snowflakes (stamped in white and embossed in Hologram powder). I finished it off by sponging Snow white Dabber around the edges.
Here’s a close up to show the holographic effect – bit blurry but that’s because it’s suddenly gone very grey – again!
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Well, since I messed up last time and this has almost become a black and white challenge (with a hint of colour, lol) I thought I’d make some more cos I love black and white and especially with a hint of colour! This is the first of the batch – more to follow when I finish them off.
This is actually one of my favourite images but I don’t use it a lot because it’s big. I wanted the appearance of a sun setting low in the sky (yes, I’m into setting suns at the moment, can you tell?), so I sponged the sun (through a circle stencil) after I’d stamped and clear embossed the silhouette stamp.
I would normally add some more sky colour in pinks, blues and greys, but since this is LESS IS MORE, I’ll leave the white space!
Firstly, I must say a big THANK YOU to all the LIMettes for your lovely comments. Having looked at every entry for last week (I hope I didn’t miss any!) I have to say they definitely weren’t all justified. There were some amazing entries and I learned so much from browsing entries and blogs, so a big thank you from me, too.
In answer to a couple of questions, yes, it is an Inkadinkado stamp and the sun is sponged through a stencil, using DIs Barn Door, Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade. The words are from Stampendous, one of their earlier Clearly Stamping sets.
Having browsed through other entries, I’m not sure this image will be accepted because it isn’t solid, so I’ll be rooting out my other silhouette stamps and making another, lol. Sorry, Chrissie and Mandi.
I’ll be perusing the entries whenever I get the chance this week and I’m sure I’ll learn a whole lot more from you all!
I really would recommend this challenge – it’s a fab way to make you think and plan before you stamp – something I seldom do.
Friday, 18 November 2011
Part II of the KCUK Challenge is a 10 minute C card. (Eeek! Way too early to say the real word and to get all the C stamps out!)
Anyway, here’s mine.
The background is a Cuttlebug Smoosh (or is it Smooch?) – coloured with Memories Soft Stone ink, swiped over it before embossing. The stamps are Stazon on acetate, which had to be thermal so I could heat set them. Attached with brads and a bit of ATG under the tree, then matted first onto silver card, then onto grey. I had the card cut to size before I began and the card is a lovely, thick embossed card I use a lot because it absorbs inks well, so it dried quickly.
This was my second attempt because my first one didn’t work :-( I clear embossed and tried to use Glimmer Mists but NONE of my sprays worked! I was well miffed. I brought them downstairs to clean out but half of them still didn’t work, so I may just give up on them and use them as paints :-) Wouldn’t mind but I have loads of them, although to be honest, I haven’t used them much since I stopped doing workshops.
Forgot to say that this fits the Sunday Stampers’ theme for this week, which is Pine trees, so I’m going to enter it for that. It came to mind as I was thinking about which stamps to use and then I forgot. That’s what comes of rushing out in the morning, lol. Thanks for the challenge, Hels!
Had one of those days…
Went to use my Stampers Anonymous flourish and couldn’t find it. There are some stamps I leave permanently on mounts because I use them so often and that’s one of them – I think it’s the best flourish stamp I have. Then I decided I wanted to use my CI angels stamp – guess what? Can’t find that, either, so I was already frustrated before the Glimmer Mists incident. AND while looking for it, one of my A4 sheets of Christmas stamps fell behind the chest of drawers they’re kept on – aagghh! I need another good blitz in that room, I think, although I’m getting ready to move everything into another room, so sort of putting it off until then. I won’t be able to stamp for a while when I do that and I’m not looking forward to it!
(Quick edit – this was Thursday – just found my flourish stamp – Friday! Phew! Looked everywhere for it and then found it in my basket of used stamps – duh – minus mount! I’ve put it straight back onto a mount so that I don’t lose it in future :-) What a waste of precious stamping time, lol!)
Thursday, 17 November 2011
I love the rich colours of Autumn and after using my leafy stamps for the LIM challenge, I just wanted to do more. So a couple of days ago I started this before going to work, adding a bit to it the morning after. I need to use it now for an assignment, so I thought I’d take a photo before I start journalling – lines pencilled in because it’s official, lol – it needs to be neat-ish and plain writing!
I’ll rub the pencilling out when I’ve finished.
Here’s a close up of the texture effect, although it’s taken in sunshine (YES, we have sunshine today!!!) so it looks a lot lighter and the background colour seems to have disappeared.
Off to prepare a presentation on the Evolution of the English Language, but I’m going to try to start some quick and easy C card stamping later on – I have a ten minute challenge to do and some ATCs!
I’m entering this for the Happy Daze Design Team challenge, which is ‘Explosion of Colour’. We once did a swap on KCUK with a similar title, but I called it ‘Riot of Colour’ – Explosion sounds so much nicer, lol. Distress inks, Brilliance Dewdrops and Gesso can all be bought at Happy Daze.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Had a lovely hour yesterday, playing with the same colours of DI I’d used on my LIM leaves card, but this time on Glossy card and with stipple brushes. It’s a long time since these little friends of mine have been out of their basket. I used to use them all the time to add colour because I found it easier to place colour exactly where I wanted to AND because it’s good for you. There’s something about thumping a brush on that card – very therapeutic.
It has to be said that I’m not over happy with this one because I added micro beads in Sepia Accents but it’s given a bit too much dimension to the sunflower heart. Might just have to add more to the petals… will think about that one.
This one’s just a matted up version of one of my LIM one layer leaf cards. I liked the colour (Aged Mahogany) and the design, but thought it a bit too stark to stay on its own.
Sunday, 13 November 2011
They’re celebrating 600 followers on the Craft Barn Blog and look what’s up for grabs!
GOOD LUCK!!
Saturday, 12 November 2011
LESS IS MORE 41 – ONE LAYER CARD - LEAVES
53 very kind comments from lovely people at Saturday, November 12, 2011 This one’s Big ‘n’ Juicy Herb Garden
This one’s Versamagic Spanish Olive
I enjoyed using these stamps so much (after years of neglect) that I just had to make one more.
This one’s using Aged Mahogany, Spiced Marmalade, Bundled Sage and Wild Honey.
Friday, 11 November 2011
The Falling Leaves
Today, as I rode by,I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree
In a still afternoon,
When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky,
But thickly, silently,
They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon;
And wandered slowly thence
For thinking of a gallant multitude
Which now all withering lay,
Slain by no wind of age or pestilence,
But in their beauty strewed
Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay.
Margaret Postgate Cole
Thursday, 10 November 2011
I had to play with my pears once I’d got them all out and it IS the only time of year they’re in season…
I was determined to play for an hour or two today, so I made some backgrounds, using Adirondack Colour Washes. After stamping and embossing the pear and text image (one stamp - I used Petal Points to colour the pear before stamping) I played around for a bit with mica powders and gold ink, tore the card, edged it with Cranberry and Currant inks, then embossed a bit of gold Pear text on the corners. The white card isn’t white at all, it’s cream – not even off white. I took a photo and a scan but it didn’t show up in either, so I give up :-)
The gold and irridescent powders made it look a little duller, so I adjusted the colours a bit on the photo. Still can’t get it to look cream, though… x
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Ten minute pear card challenge
30 very kind comments from lovely people at Sunday, November 06, 2011Some fool (mentioning no names, ahem – wonder who that was?) set a ten minute challenge on KCUK, with the first part of the challenge being to use pear stamps.
Since I was the one who set the challenge, I thought I’d better get one done before I get busy again, so I got out my pear stamps – didn’t realise I had so many! I had a real pear fetish at one time, lol.
I opted for two of my all time favourite stamps, the Stampers Anonymous (or is it Stamp in the Hand) solid pear and text.
You can tell I was rushing because the inks aren’t properly blended and one of the words isn’t stamped properly but it was fun.
I had all the card cut to size (or I’d have been there for another hour, matching, he, he) then stamped the Pear text in Versamark ink. I then added colour to the solid pear stamp with Petal points, blending with fingers (I love inky fingers!). Background colour was then added (direct to paper and blended with fingers) with the same Petal points and a couple of other colours, wiped over to remove excess from embossed images and clear embossed again. I’d have positioned them differently if I’d had more time to think about it, but I only had ten minutes.
To be honest, because I used the ATG gun so quickly, I ended up with adhesive on the front of my terracotta layer, so had to rub that off with my adhesive remover rubber (one of the best things I ever bought after the ATG gun) and that took me over the ten minutes, but I wasn’t going to leave it like that!
I may be back with more pear cards because I found some crackers and some other stamps I’d forgotten all about.
Since these are two of my all time favourite images (unfortunately, I have too many ‘favourites’ to choose from) I’ll enter this into this week’s Just For Fun Challenge which is to use one of your favourite stamps.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
I needed some super quick cards, so I pulled out one of my all time favourite stamps, the Penny Black fuchsia. Fancied a change, so I stamped it in two colours of Stazon – Timber Brown and Saddle Brown – onto pearlescent ivory card, then embossed with clear powder.
Of course you can’t see the pearlescent finish, so this gives you more of an idea …
Using the same colours, I stamped on matte ‘off white’/cream card but the words stamp wasn’t playing well today, so I had to stamp it again in Versafine Sepia and emboss it. The card itself is pale pink pearlescent. Must be having a pearlescent day, lol – a rarity for me. This also fits this week’s theme over at Crafty Cardmakers.
I also needed another card to accompany something but time was short today, so I pulled a bit of Faux Batik out of my ‘half made’ stash, which just happened to use the same stamp (I have a few of these, waiting to be used) so I sponged on some Adirondack inks, stamped the fuchsia again with some more words and embossed. This one’s a bit ‘in your face’ colour wise, compared to the others.
The green card is actually much greener – not a nice pale green as you see in the photo (unless that’s my monitor, lol). I took photos today but may try scanning before I upload.
Here’s the scan and this is definitely a bit more realistic.
Told you it was ‘in your face’.
Right, just found out we’re being Ofsted inspected next week, so better get some work done…
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