INKY FINGERS

I think I’m gaining a new respect for those of you who regularly have hot summers… we’re just not used to it in the UK!  I love it, but it does have its drawbacks in that it’s WAY too hot to stamp or even to play with paints!

I deliberately got up early this morning, so I could do a bit of stamping

Try it on Tuesday’s current challenge it ‘Things with Wings’…. 

…and the Butterfly challenge has a colour wheel, with the letter ‘v’ for this month… butterflies, violet and vertical lines…

SSS Wednesday challenge is ‘Anything Goes’

Dare2bArtzy’s challenge is Bright Colours

Double D Challenges is also Butterflies

and

Moo Mania’s Challenge is Favourite Colours…

This is made with my favourite colour combo (turquoise, sky blue and violet oxides) and I’ve used Stampendous butterflies and one of my favourite Quietfire quotes.

Since I made the butterflies from snippets, I’d also  like to enter this into Pixie’s current  Snippets Challenge.

I’ve enjoyed stamping butterflies for a change so here’s another one, this time a Paperartsy stamp.

My thoughts turned to one of my favourite places when I was making this one…

I’ve also been making ATCs on the theme of Friends/Friendship for a Tribute Swap to one of our longest standing members, who very recently passed away...

My blogging program keeps changing font  and my laptop is REALLY slow, plus my keyboard isn’t working properly - never has since an old friend of mine tipped a hot cup of tea all over it, but it’s worse some days than others and this is definitely one of them, so I’m using an external keyboard, which means I’m at an angle.   I’m beginning to think nothing in my house likes humidity.  Outside, one of my container tomato plants has actually scorched!  That’s one thing I really didn’t expect.

It’s a good job I REALLY like the sun…

I think I’d better stop there and come back when things cool down a bit… lol. 

Thanks for looking

Back soon

Stay cool!

Cath

xxx

Today is a good crafting day

I live on the main road, not too far from a large Tesco, Aldi and Iceland, not to mention pretty close to an M6 junction and to the A580, so the roads are always MAD busy here. Not to mention that there’s a primary school behind my house and another one across the road, plu a busy Nursery directly across from me. My craft room is at the front of the house, so I have learned virtually to tell the time by the sound of traffic. I love being in there on Sundays and Bank Holidays because the roads go really quiet when the supermarkets close… it’s great! 

Today, it suddenly went quiet just after 2pm. I wondered what was happening and suddenly remembered the football. Sure enough, the football was live at that moment. The roads are almost empty! If I hadn’t already been shopping, it would’ve been a great time to nip over the road for some

The challenge for this week at Allsorts is Sweet Treats. My first reaction was ‘eek!’ – I don’t have any ‘sweet’ stamps… so I hunted around and surprise, surprise – I actually DO have some ‘sweet’ stamps! I just don’t use them very often – or in some cases have never used them, shame on me

So I thought I’d have a change and go seriously cute and sweet… even using a deckle card, which is rare these days.

…just realised I forgot to add the glitter to the butter cream!  I’ll so that later.  I coloured these very sweet House Mice with Prisma Pencils. Although they look very sweet here, I wouldn’t be very happy if I found them lurking in my kitchen!

Sweet Stampers have an ‘Animals’ challenge, so I’d like to link that, and Sweet Stamping have a ‘Food and Drink’ challenge, so I’ll link to that, too.

I was playing around with some new stamps and trying to do a CAS design, but I wasn’t over happy with my results…

Then I really messed up on one by adding a few bits of painted Distress Oxide – it just didn’t work. SO, with nothing to lose, I started dipping into Oxides smooshed onto my craft mat and spritzed with water. Then I added a little stencilling with Moonlight White and finally, a few spatters with white paint.  I have to admit, I really like the end result.

I’d like to enter this into the Word Art Wednesday Challenge.

I liked the inks over the white embossing, so I did a little resist with them, stencilling over the Oxides with Moonlight White. I was also challenging myself to use more die cuts; I used five on this

This is for the Make My Monday Resist embossing Challenge.

The previous day I found one of my old ‘Faux Batik’ backgrounds, with a stamp I used to use a lot, so – knowing there was a Faux Batik Challenge at Art Cards Challenge,  I started playing with it, adding inks and experimenting to see if the Oxides would cover the FB image or not. They did, but I used a baby wipe to wipe them off, so you can just about see the (reverse) image in the background on the right hand side. I discovered that if you use another piece of card instead of (or as well as) newsprint or Kitchen roll when you iron off the EP, you get a lovely reverse Faux Batik effect.  You can, of course, take this a little further and create another resisting image, but I hadn’t done this on the piece I found, so I just overstamped it.

With the SSS Wednesday challenge of ‘Bright and Cheerful’ in mind, I made this next card, which was so much fun to make… the astute among you will notice that the words and stamps do NOT belong to the same plate…oops! I may just have ordered two sets…

I’d like to enter this into

Simply Papercraft Anything Goes challenge

A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes

Back to Basics – Heat Embossing

and

Daring Cardmakers – What a Wonderful World

I’d also like to thank Brenda for sharing the ‘fix’ for receiving Blogger comments again!  Yay Brenda! Many thanks – I really missed being able to reply to the lovely comments people make.

That’s it for now.

Back soon

Thanks for looking

Cath

xxx

On one of my blog wandering moments, I came across a Brushos technique that I hadn’t seen before and I really fancied trying….

Given that the current Allsorts challenge is to use at least 2 die cuts, which I rarely use, I thought this may well fit the bill.

You’ll find my inspiration post here.

Here are my die cut cards… I’ve only used two colours of Brusho on each one.

Using 6 die cuts, 2 double stitched squares, 3 flowers and 1 word… the ‘shadow stamped’ flower is a Penny Black iris.

This one has 3 die cuts…I’ve edited it because it was showing as much darker, but now it’s showing lighter The card base is a very deep green/blue – not quite turquoise – one of my favourite colours. Sorry I can’t get it to show up the way it is but this is a little clearer.

This one has 4 die cuts… and is probably my favourite. You can see the Penny Black stamp on the right hand side in the ‘shadow’ stamping.

So I decided to transfer the technique to my journal…

I did get a little carried away with more imprinting in the Brushos while wet, then stamping some background fillers in Broken Twigs and Delicata gold. I also added a little more red and yellow ink (Oxides) because the colours had lightened over the gesso. I used a gold pen afterwards, for a few highlights. I would love to be able to get more of these Sailor rolling ball pens but they don’t seem to be available anywhere! They really do look like gold, unlike most gold inks.

I used an old double ended Zig glue pen that I’ve probably had for 18 or more years on the flowers, and to my delight, it still works! But later, I noticed that some glue was still a little sticky on the pages, so I was worried they may stick together. Ping! I had a thought! Why not add some gold leaf to them…?

 

The words are from a Visible Image plate I found at Port Sunny and I love them! I added bits of journalling before and after photographs.

I’d like to link the journalling to the current Art Journal Journey Challenge and the above cards to

Stamping Sensations – Anything Goes

Penny Black and more – In My Garden 

Dragonfly Dreams – Anything Goes

My Time to Craft – Stamped Background

Mix it Up Challenge – Anything Goes

That’s all for now.

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx

I love colour and I love the depth achieved by sponging, using whichever type of sponge you prefer, but occasionally, a light touch is preferable and gives a totally different effect.  I know ink brushing has been around a long time, but I never really fancied it until I watched the video Anja linked to, showing brushing inks with cosmetic brushes and really liked the idea…

So I had a play to experiment with them.

This one uses Distress Oxides and a couple of Tatty Button stamps, with a Chocolate Baroque border below. The words are from Stampinback and I coloured Tatty with Prismacolor pencils. The ‘bubble’ effect is from the card – I often stamp on the reverse of hammer cardstock because it seems to take the inks really well.

Addicted to stamps and more has an Anything Goes challenge, so I’d like to link this one.

 

I had the current  ‘Just Add Ink’ challenge in mind for this one, using the following colours… though of course I used the equivalent colours of Distress here…

The colours didn’t show up too well because I used glossy card so that I could play with a resist technique from Nancy Curry’s Resist book that I haven’t used for a while. I’m not sure I like the effect of the brushes here….

Next, I played with some of my Brilliance inkpads for a change, this time sponging the inks on and trying to keep (roughly) to the same colour scheme. I decided to reink some of my pads while I was playing, which led to some blotching, but I still liked the effects. I used the same stamps (Tim Holtz mini wildflowers).

I’d like to link this to the Flower Challenge, which is to use one of their previous challenges. I chose ‘Focus on background stamping’.

Not knowing when to stop, I overstamped one of my crackle stamps, using Brilliance Moonlight White ink.

For this one, I used the brushes again, but this time with standard distress inks, playing with this Canada goose stamp and creating a background for him. I love the subtle colours here. I used some Inkylicious stamps in the foreground and finished off with a light brushing of Gathered Twigs.

For Crafty Creations’ Anything Goes challenge.

This (Lavinia) Fairy card was sponged with Distress Oxides, but using the two palest colours to keep it subtle; Squeezed Lemonade and Tattered Rose. I managed to lose one of my little ‘shrooms – I’m very good at losing small clear stamps   - but I love ‘shrooms, so hopefully it will show up soon! The two shrooms in the centre (ish) is a broken stamp but it still stamps well, even though I have to put the two pieces together every time I use them…. I just love them. Her wings are lightly coloured and glittered.

I’d like to link this to the Anything Goes challenges at:-

Love to Craft

Creative Moments

Dragonfly Dreams and

The Fairy and the Unicorn

And finally, in keeping with the more delicate theme, a simple journal page based on a Bible verse I love… the bottle sketch very rough, but I actually like the whimsical effect.

The verse is ‘You have counted my wanderings, put my tears into your bottle….’ and is from Psalm 56:8, which is my inspiration for the page. I’d like to link it to Art Journal Journey’s ‘Inspired by…’ challenge.

I’m off to play some more, in between other bits I need to do.

Thanks for looking

Back soon

Cath

xxx

Try it on Tuesday this week is For the Boys.

Here’s my entry.

This one was inspired by Avril’s DT sample for Fashionable Stamping’s Seaside Challenge, but uses a DoCrafts Michael Powell stamp, watercoloured with Inktense Pencils. I finished it off by handwriting words I associate with the seaside around the edge.

I’ll also enter the above card into the Country View Challenge ‘The Written Word’ and

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour – Anything Goes.

This next one was just a play around with stamps from Port Sunny (Lavinia Stamps and I can’t remember who the words are from – sorry).  The words in the background are from Visible Image and will be used again because I love them   I used inks, stencils and lots of water splashing. I quite like the touch of Squeezed lemonade with the Shaded Lilac. The centre flower is coloured with Oxide and glittered – shock, horror!

There’s an Anything Goes challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More, so I’ll enter the one below… I think she is from Stampinback (I particularly love the fact that she has her own shadow – I have her in two sizes) and the words are from Non Sequitur. 

Because there are spots and speckles on this card, I’d like to link to Just Add Ink’s challenge – Spots, Splatters, Speckles (Choose two).

That’s all for now. Thanks for looking.

See you soon.

Cath

xxx

I worked on this journal spread a while ago, but only finished them off yesterday, so I thought I’d share them for the Art Journal Journey ‘Inspired by…’ challenge.

It’s inspired by a Waterboys track, ‘Trumpets’…

Make My Mondays Challenge is Embossing Resist… this is my first play with one of my favourite techniques.

I stamped on white card with Versamark, then stamped the verse in Versafine, embossing with clear embossing powder.  I then sponged on distress inks - Salty Ocean, Peacock Feather, Toasted Marmalade and Mustard Seed, wiping the excess ink off the stamping with a paper towel. Then I stamped the Hero Arts wheat a couple of times in Mustard Seed ink. I love resist techniques and there’s a Faux Batik challenge over on another challenge blog, so I may well be doing some of that soon…

This is a card I made a while ago, using some new tree stamps from Marianne.

And here’s a little card made with a scrap background piece I found… though I did add some colour to it. The butterflies were from my ‘already cut out’ image basket, as was the word ‘Prayers’.

I’d like to link to

Simon Says Monday Challenge – Anything But a Card,

Butterfly Challenge

and

Snippets Playground

Back soon.

Thanks for looking.

Cath

xxx

The theme at Art Journal Journey this month is ‘Inspired by…’ – what a great theme

My first entry for this is inspired by friends and friendship…

I think the hardest thing about getting older is losing people who’ve had a big influence in your life and been very precious. Sadly, we tend to take people for granted until they’re no longer here, and this is my inspiration.

I firmly believe that everyone who comes into our life is sent by God for a reason… sometimes it’s only for a season, but other times the friendship lasts a lifetime and as we are the sum of our experiences, so each friend makes a contribution to who we are – some more than others….

I gessoed my pages first, applying some thickly so that I could stamp into it for texture, and some sponged with natural sponge before it dried. Then I decided I wanted pastel type colours and grabbed my Adirondack acrylics – I really ought to use what’s left before they dry up like the others…

I stamped with Distress Oxide, then clear embossed it. I’ll probably add a lot of journaling to this later because it aroused lots of memories, especially of friends no longer with us and others who are quite poorly.

On another note… this is my entry for the Allsorts Penny Black ‘In the Garden’ challenge, and I’ll also enter it into the Penny Black Saturday challenge, which is ‘Anything Goes’… obviously, I haven’t gone for the optional challenge of ‘Masculine’ in this one…

I’ve been playing with one particular stamp the last few days – variations on a theme. Here are the results.

I stamped three of them in black, then coloured with Prismacolour pencils, the other one is stamped in a dark brown, though it’s hardly apparent that it isn’t black!

Here are the individual cards.

I had to reimagine the last one because my very reliable stamp smudged when this very unreliable stamper stamped it

I stamped the flowers first, then overstamped some text in Delicata Shimmering White, which works well on Kraft card, before colouring. On the third, I stamped the background first, using Versamark, then heat set it before stamping and colouring the final flower.

Here’s another card using the same stamp, obviously focused again on friends... I stamped this one in the Stamping platform, using Tombow pens, adding colour little by little.

I’d like to link to the following challenges:-

Country View Challenges – The Written Word

Dragonfly Dreams – Anything Goes

A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes

Not Just Cards – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – All things Bright and Beautiful

That’s all for now.

Thanks for looking

Back soon

Cath

xxx