INKY FINGERS

The challenge at Allsorts this week is Autumn Glory, so I thought I’d play around a little more with Autumn shades. There’s also a Nature challenge on Alphabet Challenge.

This is one of two of my favourite leaf stamps – it’s big - this card is 6” square! I made a lot of cards with both stamps last year, but mainly the other one, so I thought I’d ring the changes and use a different word stamp.

I played with this stamp first, inspired by a card I’d seen at CAS Mix-up., but I’m not happy with the way it turned out, so I decided not to use it for the challenge.

I also made a monochrome card, using Gathered Twigs in both Oxides and Distress, though I first sponged the background with Antique Linen Oxide, stamping an old Hero Arts paper texture stamp over it in the same colour. I stamped the centre leaves in Distress ink, embossed them, then masked before stamping the others in Oxide. Using a damp paintbrush, I blended the colour I’d stamped, then added some second generation background stamping in Oxide. Third generation may have been better on hindsight. I then stamped the words in Distress Ink, clear embossed, and added some touches of Distress ink painting over all the  leaves and around their edges.

This This is for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Shopping our Stash have a Smooshing Technique challenge, and since I love smooshing, I had to play! This card is A5 size – not small!

Addicted to CAS have a Diamond challenge, so I made this simple card as an experiment – I learned from it…

That’s all for now

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx

I couldn’t miss this week’s Allsorts challenge  – blue’s my favourite colour. This is the first card I made… not all blue, but lots of it and water in the form of rain – even if my raindrops are upside down

I was also playing with more Autumnal images… the first two are for the Paperminutes challenge,Torn Paper.

This one is just a leafy card in my favourite Autumn shades.

… and some Autumnal ‘shrooms and thistles!

There are lots of Autumn challenges around:-

Stinkin’ Inkers – Leaves are Falling

Crafty Cardmakers – Autumn Colours

Make My Monday – Autumn Colours

Crafty Friends Challenge – Autumn

SSS Wednesday Anything Goes

Back to Basics and Beyond – Inky Backgrounds

Thanks for looking

Back soon

Hello all!  Just grabbing a few minutes while waiting for my next round of visitors. They’ll arrive later tonight, so before I go AWOL again, I thought I’d better show you my latest cards.

It’s Autumn and what a contrast in the weather!  Here in the North West, we’ve been buffeted by very strong winds and lots of rain, although I’m very thankful it’s been much milder here than it was over in Ireland and Scotland and even in other parts of the North West in the last few days.

I love Autumn colours and particularly love leaves and trees, so I couldn’t help but be inspired by the glorious colours around me.

I’ve used a variety of leaf stamps on this card, and a variety of Autumn shades, ending with gold crackle, to give that warm, autumn glow. I used Oxides but I did a little stamping and edged the main card with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and also used a bit of Rusty Hinge – it gives a lovely warmth to the other shades. (I have to admit to being disappointed by the Oxide, particularly because I was really looking forward to its arrival).

I then had a change and used one of my precious pear stamps – an old Stampers Anonymous image I hadn’t yet tried with the Oxides. The results were mixed – needs more work

This next one isn’t very Autumnal, but the colours are…and I had fun making it. It’s an old Lost Coast stamp – about 8 years old.

The next one was on a background I made with Mum…

…and this is an attempt to introduce some sunshine.

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back soon with some more – only one more week to go…

I’d like to enter these challenges:-

Make My Monday, Autumn Colours

Back to Basics and Beyond, Inky Backgrounds

Crafty Creations, Anything Goes

Ellibelle’s Crafty Wednesday, Autumn

Retro Rubber, School

Crafty Cardmakers, Autumn Colours

Dragonfly Journeys, Autumn/Autumn Colours

Thanks for looking.

Back soon

Cath

xxx

What a great challenge over at TIOT – Slap it on!

I had a great playday, with Gesso and inks, experimenting with Oxides over Gesso and creating a bit of texture with some of my favourite leafy stamps.

My page didn’t work out quite as I’d planned, but I still like the end result.

I’d decided to take photos as I played, so here they are:-

First some scribbles with Neocolor watercolour pastels, then painted with water.

You may wonder why I bothered with that when you see the next step… but so did I, to be honest

I applied gesso to the page, which I need to water down a little, but I needed to build it up around the edges, so I left it as it was. I then stamped leaves into the parts where I’d slapped it on thickly, to create some texture. Next, I started to add ink – Oxides – in autumn shades…

…building up colour gradually, and spritzing with water and drying with a heat tool between colours, then overstamping with various leaf stamps in the same shades of Oxide.

Finally, some touches of Gold (Delicata and Treasure Brass) and Autumn words stamped randomly, with the quote in the centre.

Final result… I’ll show a photo and a scan side by side. It was hard to photograph the shading because the gold bits were reflecting! Neither is totally accurate.

While creating the page, I did another page next to it but started by stamping off the gesso from the stamps, so that there were some gessoed bits and just added Oxides over the top.  The rest of it was completed as above.

Side by Side…

It was so much fun getting messy with Gesso – something I haven’t done for a while.

I do hope you’ll join us over at TIOT for this fortnightly challenge – it’s a great chance to get messy!

The Throwdown Tuesday challenge is to ‘Add Texture’, so I’d like to enter that with my page along with That’s Crafty’s  Forever Autumn Challenge.

See you soon!

Thanks for looking

Cath

xxx

Some people I know would say I’m good at ‘making a scene’ but that aside, I made a simple scene for the challenge at Allsorts, using Oxides and Inkylicious stamps. I used to stamp a lot of scenes, but I haven’t been doing many lately, so maybe it’s time to start again…

I was browsing my downloaded ‘Ideas’ folder and came across a partially masked card, so I had to give it a go. I suppose this is a sort of scene, too, but not quite what I understood from the challenge. It was fun to make.

Back to rainbows…

I’ve been playing with more rainbows but I thought I’d do a comparison of Oxides and Distress Inks, so here’s how I started… I just swiped these three colours on my craft mat (I have a glass one beneath my non stick mat).

These are the Oxides.

 I then spritzed with water

Oops! I missed this morning’s post – so sorry

It’s Week 2 at Try it on Tuesday and we’re continuing our theme of ‘Childhood’. I journalled a page…

… using my new (to me) Unity Stamps again. It’s a very simple page, with white stencilling and a few water droplets, using three colours of Oxides. The grass is a  bit heavy but I struggled to find the time to play. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it

We’d love you to join us in this challenge – children images are so much fun to play with!

I’ve been making rainbows! After showing Mum how easy the Oxides are to blend, I ended up with a few backgrounds to play with, so I made these cards with them.

This one was made with the Impression Obsession Challenge (Rainbows) in mind, but I changed my mind about the words I was using at the last minute and didn’t use the IO words I intended to, so it’s no longer eligible.The image is from IO but the words are from a UK company, whose name I’ll add in later, when I can remember…

This one was made with an ‘Autumn’ challenge in mind.

I spotted this stamp – along with some others – on someone’s blog and had to have this one!  It’s a Sheena stamp, though I confess I’ve done my best to remove the sketch lines around and through the images – a bit too much à la Tim Holtz ‘Blueprints’ for me.

Isn’t he gorgeous?

Last but not least, a little Bible Journalling I was inspired to do after reading Psalm 16, yesterday. I used my own basic lettering, so it isn’t brilliant but I love the verse, so I’m happy with it.

I’d like to enter the following challenges:-

Creates and Makes ATG

Through the Craft Room Door ATG

Moo Mania Circles

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Stamp on it!

Elliebelle’s Challenge, Signs of Autumn

Artistic Inspirations ATG

Use Your Stuff, Animals

Word Art Wednesdays ATG

Dare 2B Artsy Favourite Colours (sorry – I can’t choose one colour,so I’m entering a Rainbow – I just love colour!

That’s all for now – phone call interrupted my blogging, so I need to get this done before I turn into a pumpkin!

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx