INKY FINGERS

It’s cloudy and grey here (again) after a week of bright sunshine and glorious clear skies but at least we still have more light, which is the best part of Spring! I love Spring.

Two more cards made using Versamark Resist, using different colours and slightly different designs.  I’d forgotten how much I love glossy card, but I must reink my Stazon – again!  I used Memories Black on yesterday’s but it doesn’t dry quite as crisply as Stazon.

I love this colour combination but haven’t used it for a while.  It’s Watermelon and Terracotta, with some rust and a bit of Sunshine Yellow (Adirondack).  The only problem with Adirondacks is that they do fade over time.  Back to two of my favourite themes – flowers and birds. I really love this Unity flower plate and use it often, in so many different ways.  I’ve also used my favourite flutterby and postmark stamps on this, with a great background mesh stamp I’ve had since I started stamping a LONG time ago – I think it was from Stamporium.

I have no idea where ‘the rite of spring’ comes from but I love this stamp.  Love these birds from Artistic Outpost and I sneaked a leaf or two in.  [Just realised the ‘rite of spring’ stamp is also from Artistic Outpost!]

Rainbow Lady Challenge – Butterflies

Three Muses - Spring

Have a great weekend!

xxx

Versamark resist on glossy card has always been my favourite technique so I’m being self indulgent today'.  I’m also revisiting a design I use often.

More beautiful weather here, and my last day to play before I go back to work after being off sick for a couple of weeks, so I’m Spring and flower focused today.

I’m also a bit mica powder happy, having forgotten how much I used to love them.

I went upstairs to do some resist, having a sudden strong yearning for my favourite technique, but didn’t get very far, although I did stamp some of my favourite Unity flowers in readiness.  I did a bit of journalling in very pretty paler colours but I’m not going to upload some of it and the rest isn’t quite finished because it’s for my April Calendar pages.

It was my birthday on Saturday and I’m feeling very blessed with all the cards and gifts I received, not to mention being treated to a brilliant afternoon and evening out, seeing one of my favourite bands and having a wonderful meal in a Pan Asian restaurant with my three favourite people!  So, I’ve been getting some Blog Candy ready – in fact, most of it was ready before my birthday and I had intended uploading on the day, but time ran away with me and I didn’t quite get it ready.  

Watch this space…

Have a great week, everyone!

xxx

There would be no butterflies

A very simple journal page, still using up the last little smidgeons of my almost empty glimmer mists, followed with a dusting of Gold Pearly powder.

Again, linking to Simon Says Stamp and Show your backgrounds.

xxx

I’ve been playing around with some of the remnants of my Glimmer Mists, using up the ones with very little ink left in them and this is one of the results.

The bigger white circles are white embossed Hero Arts Dot stamps and I scattered a bit of gold embossing powder over it, heating from the bottom, then edged with Krylon pen, which was also gold embossed.

The photo is a little closer to the colours and shows the glimmer a little.

I’m definitely enjoying rediscovering my Paperartsy stamps at the moment.

I’m linking this to the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, which is ‘Show your handmade backgrounds.’

xxx

It’s Mothering Sunday in the UK, so I hope you’ve all been spoiled!

It’s been beautiful here, today – a little chilly but the sky’s been blue, the sun’s been shining and the birds have been serenading most of the day.  I’d love to have gone out for some fresh air and a bit of exercise, but unfortunately had to wait in for a visitor who didn’t actually arrive and only let me know late.  Hey ho – I could’ve gone compost hunting if I’d known and done some planting, even if I didn’t get to go walking, but at least I  managed to do a bit of stamping.

Firstly I did another Wings ATC, although I messed up my little birdie by adding a bit too much white pen, so might just redo this.

Redone version – he actually looks better with more lighter feathers but not when it was so badly done.

Then I used one of my favourite stamps (Paperartsy numbers) to finish a background in greens and stamped with one of my favourite collage images (Stamp Out Cute) which is HUMONGOUS but I only used part of it.

And this one is all Netty’s fault  (he, he) for showing us a Tatty Button image – I fell in love with her and it’s so not my style, but I think they’re really cute. Anyway, I knew I had the perfect words for this one, so I made this and even used Twinklers to colour it – haven’t used those for about 6 years!

Finally, I finished off an ATC I started about a year ago.

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend!

xxx

I seem to have gone off ATCs…. although I enjoyed playing with more Paperartsy images and three from the Artistic Outpost plate I haven’t yet used.   BUT I decided to try some Wings ATCs for a swap over on Paperplay and here they are, despite the fact that I’m not a bit happy with them. and at this point in time, want to do another couple.  I’m in a bright and pastel mood, I think and because I’m still using old backgrounds (with loads more to go yet – uggh!) they seem so dark, although I did try to lighten the angel one a bit.  Might try a bit of bleach next time :-)

I finally got round to doing my journal pages for the KCUK mingle and boy did I find it difficult!  The page size – 6” x 4” and the fact that we had to keep to a theme really affected me but eventually, I had an idea and just went with it.

My poor little blackbird looks a bit odd but that’s cos I stamped him over where two pieces of text paper meet and had to colour over him with a black Sharpie!  I used Archival ink on these and I really don’t like it as much as Stazon – it isn’t quite so black, but it covers acrylic well.

I have very mixed feelings about these because I usually journal for me, not for other people, as a way of getting things off my mind and knowing that no one will ever really see them in person,  so I’m worrying that the recipient won’t like them!  There are 11 of us and we have to make two pages for each person on the same theme, so I suppose I’d better get used to it.  I’ll struggle to work on the same theme over and over again.

xxx

Just a bit of fun.

If I were Queen, everything would be different!

My entry for this week’s Crazy Amigo Challenge.

It’s also green so I’m entering it into this week’s Take a Word challenge.

This is how it looks now that I’ve doodled on it a bit.

[Note to self: Must stop journalling on everything!]

The bird on a bike stamp is from Lost Coast and the words are from Stamp Camp.

The second page is my entry for the Art Journal Journey Challenge, which is Flowers.

Still using up my scraps, I used another of my turquoise/green/pink/blue backgrounds and layered some stamping onto it, along with a few touches of colour.  I’ve used Stazon this time because I’m determined to ‘use what I have’ and I have a lot of colours of Stazon I’ve never yet used.

I made the mistake of looking for a stamp today and of course, the inevitable happened.  I ended up with a pile of stamps I have every intention of using but no doubt will have to put away again because I won’t have the time.

The main stamps are Paperartsy.

I went into my stamp room to start journal pages and ATCs but of course I did neither – I really annoy myself at times!

Have a great week!

xxx

Some of my favourite colours and still using up my backgrounds, too, with a bit of added colour, of course :-)

I haven’t made any ATCs for ages and ages, so thought I’d have a quick play with a few – this is my first.  A bit of artistic licence with the eggs, though because my colours didn’t work on the coloured background. I love these little girls

Have a great weekend!

xxx 

Michelle Ward’s final GPP challenge is ‘A Restraining Order’.

If you follow my blog regularly, you’ll know I love backgrounds.  That means that minimalism is NOT my forté but this page has been in my head for a couple of weeks – well, ever since I got the larger version of running Marilyn, that is!

I used stamps from Lost Coast and Viva Las Vegas with a stencil and words from an old (outdated) French dictionary. I have to say that I find ‘white space’ in a journal VERY challenging.

Although I haven’t been able to take part in the GPP team challenges very often, I’ve found them really inspiring and very challenging and am very grateful to Michelle for the inspiration – not to mention for her own wonderful artwork. I fell in love with her work when I first saw the images she created for Stampington and was over the moon to discover her blog. Thanks, Michelle.

xxx

It’s not often I let politics really get to me but tonight, I was so angry after the news (talk of raising train fares at PEAK times to discourage travel at that time – as if people who travel at peak would actively choose to stand on a crowded train if they had any other choice – duh!!!) – that this stamp, which arrived today, was almost screaming ‘Stamp me!!!!’ 

So I did – and while I was there, I played with a stencil, some golden mica spray and some charcoal and this is the result.

Sometimes I wonder if the qualifications required to run this country are lack of intelligence and being totally out of touch with reality – grrr!!! 

But right now I’m choosing to focus on the fact that life is filled with good things and it’s a beautiful day! 

Not sure what I’m going to do with it – probably stick it in a journal – but tomorrow, I’ll probably cut the stamp into several smaller stamps and mount it on EZ mount.  It’s a fun set!

xxx

This month’s challenge on KCUK is to use something new, unused or new to you and/or something you’ve had for ages. 

Continuing my mission to use up scraps, I used some of my stash of backgrounds to make my cards, with new and not so new images.

The first one is a set of stamps from Eco Green that I’ve had for quite a while but never used because I wasn’t sure I liked them once I’d got them.  I used three of them on this card, along with a text stamp, a scrap of swirly rubber and a postmark stamp I’ve had for ages. The background is water colour paper and Ecoline inks.

The second one uses a similar background, two new images and some Dylusions words I’ve had for a while.  I don’t think I’ve used this one before, so it was uninked until now.  I fell in love with the girls when I saw them on Vada’s Blog, here – I love the way she used it, too. Once I’d scanned this, I realised I’d missed cutting out part of the image between two of the girls but too late to do anything about it now.  The next one is nicely cut out already!

I’m entering the second one into this month’s Chestnut Theme Challenge at Gingersnaps, which is Words of Wisdom.

Do you ever think you may be a little obsessed with one particular colour family? I was washing my short sleeved t-shirts yesterday, ready for the Spring weather I’m hoping for when I realised just how bad I’ve become– partly because I was trying to find the perfect match for one particular skirt, but this is a bit OTT!

The weather’s back to normal in the not so sunny North West of England – grey and wet, although the sun is trying to peek through the clouds. Let’s hope he comes out to play!

Enjoy your weekend!

xxx

This is my entry for Kate’s 366 days challenge.  Hard to believe it’s March already!

Strange how things can change in a couple of weeks.  I made this in mid Feb but if I’d made it now, it would probably have been much lighter and brighter because the weather’s been so mild.

You could be forgiven for thinking I’m a little bird obsessed but that’s how I see the months.

This is a simple card I made earlier this week.

I definitely used a little too much charcoal but I’ve only just started to use it so I hope I’ll improve!

xxx