Some days nothing seems to work out right, so today has been a day of sticking with simple and making the best of it! Fortunately, I had already made a couple of cards I was actually happy with, so it’s not all bad, but with all the cleaning, organisation and prep for Mum coming, plus a day with my granddaughter, I seem to have mislaid my inspiration.

I have another week to play because plans changed, so I’m hoping to find it again in the next few days.

Try it on Tuesday have a ‘Book paper’ challenge, and Moo Mania have a ‘Sheet Music’ challenge, so this one fits both, having both music and words on the page (from an old hymn book) I used.

My new Oxides arrived and I had a quick play with them the day they came, just playing around with colour combinations, so I could get a feel for them.

This one uses Dusty Concord and Spun Sugar. I thought the Dusty Concord would overpower the Spun Sugar, but to my surprise, they actually worked well together.

I stencilled opposite colours over each half of the card, then used these lovely Woodware bubble flowers, which I love in white. I then couldn’t decide on words, but this one just seemed to fit because I really liked the colours I was using.

Then a simple Tatty Button card – I do love these images – cute and quirky at the same time… I hadn’t noticed that realise was spelled with a ‘z’ until I was cutting it out… I was good and didn’t change it

I’m determined to use up all my offcuts and bits I found in my reorganisation, so the next two are made with ‘snippets’…

Love the Mowed Lawn and Broken China… though the butterfly isn’t quite to scale, lol. I swiped my Versafine Clair black inkpad across to get the ground bit… and made a mess of it, but it almost looks deliberate!

This is not my usual style but it was actually fun to do, though very difficult to photograph because of the pastel shades I used to colour her! The background is a mop up from another card I was making, with More Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar added over the top. It’s a lot smaller than I usually make these days because it’s another card snippet and the little girl/fairy was already stamped on a scrap of card, ready to cut out  – it’s about 3.5”.

This is for Pixie’s Snippets Playground Challenge.

Another snippet card… made with the Dusty Concord, Spun Sugar and Seedless Preserve, again, stencilled over in opposite colours. I love these Lavinia Thistles. I’ll enter this into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge. 

A Kraft card for the Shopping Our Stash challenge… using Brilliance Moonlight White and Broken China Oxide through the stencil. I love this Penny Black Flower, though I tend to forget all about it.

I’ll link this into the Penny Black Saturday ‘Anything Goes’ challenge, too. (Obviously NOT a Baby card, though that is just optional..)

Finally, a card made with Hot Colours for Tuesday Throwdown. I used Ripe Persimmon, Mustard Seed and Barn Door for this, with a little Picked Raspberry stamping. I added colour with Posca Pens, so I’ll also enter this into the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge, Make your Mark.

.I have more, but I’ll share them at a later date, hopefully with some more successful results from my next couple of playtimes.

I was fortunate enough to win the SSS Monday Challenge this week – for the second time – yay!!! I’m chuffed about that and have already placed my order.

That’s all for now

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx

Just nipping in to join in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Add a Little Sparkle.

A nice, clean and simple card this time…just what I was in the mood for. Salty Ocean Oxides sponged over a circle and some simple stamping.

Close up to show the sparkle

I’ll enter this into the Penny Black and More ‘Wings’ challenge, too.

Another Kraft card for the SSS Wednesday Challenge, which is to use dies and/or punches.

Finally, another Sheepz birthday card, using cerise acrylic paint and Toasted Marmalade Oxide, with a bit of white acrylic stamping… I love these sheep!

I’ll enter this into  

Creates and Makes Anything Goes.

Hopefully, I’ll be back soon…

Thanks for looking

Cath

xxx 

…almost!  Well, it is because it was art that was deliberately cathartic…

That’s the current challenge at Art Journal Journey.

I was reading something written by someone and an old song by a Christian band from the 70s and 80s, Second Chapter of Acts, kept playing in my head. This is the title of the song . Not a pretty page, but it says all I wanted to say and was definitely how I felt!

I just dry brushed acrylic paint over a page I wasn’t happy with and rooted through one of my mixed font alphabet boxes for the letters I needed, deliberately mixing them up to get the effect I wanted. The sheepies’ words were perfect for what I wanted…

    

I have family coming to stay soon - for two months in all - so I’m busy reorganising my spare (storage) room and cleaning the rest of my house – including some necessary reorganisation of my craft room, because that’s now where my printer lives.  I NEEDED to play a little yesterday for a little light relief!

Once upon a time, I really loved this image (Bella Rosa) and stamped it a little while ago, aiming to use it for a project, but then changed my mind. I decided to play a little with her to see what I could come up with. The words are a quote from Audrey Hepburn.

It’s perfect for the Try it On Tuesday Challenge of ‘Add a quote’.

I now have a basket filled with images I stamped, but didn’t use, so I’m on a mission to use them all. I have no idea where the image is from – Lost Coast or Stampinback would be my best guess. The background stamp is a Carabelle image… slightly double stamped, I know, but because it’s muted (Hickory Smoke) I decided it wasn’t noticeable enough to affect the finished card and is barely noticeable in real life.

I’ll enter one of the above into these challenges:-

Creatalicious – ATG with option of no patterned paper

Fashionable Challenges – Use your Inks (third entry)

Simply Papercraft – Anything Goes

and

Addicted to Stamps – Anything Goes

Here’s another neutral card – again in greys, though I’m not sure which ink because it’s another image (Penny Black) I had already stamped and I decided it would be perfect for a Sympathy card. I just stamped the sentiment, then die cut the bottom with a Penny Black die, to detract from the plainness.

I also made another sheepie card, but I’ll show you that one next time.

Thanks for looking

See you soon – I hope! I’m hoping to get some more playtime in before I go AWOL for a little while…

Cath

xxx

… and wheat are the colours in this month’s Butterfly challenge. I did attempt to make wire antennae, but couldn’t find any wire thin enough for my hands to manipulate properly. The wire I did find was too thick. That’s what happens when you decide to have a drastic clear out

To be honest, the wheat was a last minute addition. I didn’t think it would work but it’s not too bad, I don’t think. I used Prisma pencils to colour the butterfly (while watching a great Wimbledon semi final) which is on an Oxide background, spattered with white.

This one is the same colours (minus the wheat) so was also made with the Butterfly challenge in mind, but was made specifically for the CAS Watercolour Splash challenge.

Moo Mania and More also have a Butterfly challenge, hence the focus on butterflies.

This one’s a simple card featuring a butterfly and text, coloured with pastel shade Oxides.

Onto some simpler cards… this one was an attempt at a mono effect, inspired by some cards I saw on Pinterest. I’ve used Hickory Smoke Oxide on this one, stamping the larger flowers with the Black Soot Distress Oxide.

Along the same lines, this one also uses Hickory Smoke, with some Iced Spruce… though it’s not easy to see it.

Back to bright and colourful for Dare to be Artsy’s Birthday Challenge, using the lovely sheepses

I was playing with a technique I saw on someone’s blog – sorry, can’t remember how I got there – smooshing stripes of Distress or Oxide inks across watercolour paper, then blending the colours with a small paintbrush and water. The Picked Raspberry isn’t as washed out as it appears in the photo, though.  I also had an old friend’s birthday in mind as I was making this.

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

Try it on Tuesdays – Add a Quote

Everybody art Challenge – Birthdays

Fashionable Challenges – Use Those Inks

Simply Papercraft – Anything Goes

Sorry to anyone who was trying to view these images, but I had to correct a link I’d duplicated, but Live Writer had an error while retrieving and my images disappeared.  Seems to be okay now, though…

Back to the tennis… back soon!

Thanks for looking

Have a great weekend!

Cath

xxx

The Challenge at Try it on Tuesday is ‘Add a Quote’, so I played with a few of my quotes…

This is one of my favourite all time quotes and fits in perfectly with one of my ‘God Words of the year, which is ‘Brave’.. It took me ages to decide which image to use but I had to go with this one because she looks so fed up of her monotonous, every day life … I used an acrylic background I’d already made and kept it pretty simple, so as not to detract from the quote.

Courage isn’t always being bold enough to do something big and risky, but is about facing the things life throws at us, no matter what they may be… and sometimes is simply about getting up and facing life itself, when we’d rather turn over and go back to sleep, or just hide away from the world. 

This next one is simply a nature quote and I had to go looking for the author of the quote. I knew it was a quote because I remembered finding it online at the time. It was easy to find, thankfully, so I just wrote the author’s name underneath..

This is my entry for the No patterned paper challenge at Simply Create Too. The background is stamped on watercolour paper.

I was rudely interrupted mid-post by a phone call from my lovely brother, thanking me for this card I made him yesterday and posted immediately… not bad going for Royal Mail, whose service has definitely not improved since privatisation. I’m happy about that.

I had to rush out for the bus to get to a Hospital appointment, only to receive a phone call when almost there (10 mins before the appointment and on the second bus) cancelling it… you just have to laugh, don’t you?

Said brother has had to learn to survive on very little sleep over the last five or six years and really struggles with it, so I thought this was pretty apt and might just cheer him up. It did

I love these sheep!!!

I’ve had this picture in my head for a couple of weeks and am really pleased with the result.  I love the idea of the bottom one being almost totally squashed and the middle one falling over…

I used snippets for the sheep, so this qualifies it for Pixie’s Snippets Challenge

and

I used lovely Oxide inks for the background, which fits Fashionable Challenges ‘Use Your Inks’

Back to florals…

I revamped the card that I managed to mess up with a stamp that didn’t work properly, stamping on scrap and adding it over the top of the misstamped verse.

I LOVE harebells, so I tried a simple version on Kraft card, too. The Prisma pencils show up so beautifully on Kraft.

The stamp was a disaster again – this time the word ‘day’ wasn’t straight, but I stamped it again and cut out the word day for a little quirky touch.

I’ll link one to the ‘In My Garden’ challenges at

Stamping Sensations

Country View Challenges

and

Allsorts

and Anything Goes at Perfect Time to Craft.

Make My Monday’s challenge is Fantasy, so this is for that challenge.

I used LOTS of glitter (Stickles) on this, too. Love that Carabelle border stamp.

I’ll also link it to the Crafty Friends challenge of Fairy and/or Fantasy.

It’s been really nice to craft a bit without melting, even though I do love the sunshine when it’s here.  Lovely again this afternoon, though… a bit of a surprise! Hope you’re all still enjoying the lovely weather.

Back soon

Thanks for looking

Cath

xxx

Another great challenge at Art Journal Journey, chosen by Chris - Art for Art’s Sake.  So I got out my acrylic paints and brushes, added lots of white to my chosen colours, and painted… or is that daubed? 

Then I stamped some lines here and there … and finally, the word ‘play’ which I embossed and outlined in black,  adding the word ‘Just’ by hand.  (But you’d never have guessed that, would you – NOT!)

That’s Crafty’s Challenge is Close to Nature, so I’d like to enter the above into that…

… and the challenge at Allsorts is Baby Animals, so I played around a bit with animals…

I don’t think I have any real baby animal stamps, so I improvised a little… is a goose an animal??? Not sure it is but here are my geese…

For the next one I used smaller stamps – they COULD be babies!

I bought this stamp years ago, when staying with my best friend in France (who is actually Swiss) who is a stamper.  I fell in love with it for some strange reason, but of course I’ve never used it.  I genuinely thought it was a baby giraffe in that hammock until I stamped it, lol, so no baby animal here but I still like it. I’ve left it blank so that I can stamp a Boy or Girl on it when I use it. 

Stamping Sensations have an ‘In my garden’ challenge, so this is my entry…

And this is a stamp gone wrong… I had coloured some pretty flowers with Prismas and decided to add this greeting…  It’s the first time I used the stamp, so I hope it isn’t the acrylic that’s really poor quality. I did notice that the Versafine pooled up a bit on one of my trusty Penny Black stamps, so maybe it’s just the heat. I hope so!

Pretty bad, huh?

I’d like to enter the Anything Goes challenges at

A Bit More Time to Craft

Crafty Creations

and

The Crafty Addicts

Hope you’re all enjoying the lovely sunshine. I am and I’m taking advantage of it while it’s here!  Everything else will still be here when the sun is gone 

Have a lovely weekend.

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx