'What you do speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you say.'
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tuesday 25 June 2019

Good Morning all!

We have a new challenge on the Try it on Tuesday Challenge Blog!

Material Girl

We'd love to see Feminine and fancy lace, fabrics, ribbons, bows and stitching (real or faux)
How do you interpret the theme? 
As usual, you may use any medium you like, including digital

Come play with us over the next fortnight!
Don't forget to check out the gorgeous inspiration created by the Design Team!

In 'another life' I sold stamps and my favourite stamp company was Time to Stamp, now available from I Brake for Stamps, though some of her images are also available from Rubber Dance. This was one of my favourite female images, a lovely red rubber stamp that's around 20 years old! There's just something about it that appeals to me... I also used old Hero Arts mounted stitched  stamps around her, 3 Stampington borders and smooshed with VERY soothing pastel shades of Distress Oxides in the background; Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar and Dried Marigold. The gorgeous lace (Hero Arts) was a RAK from a very missed friend in California, ribbon and buttons from my stash 😉 It's always good to use real, red rubber!

(A photo, to show the discrepancies in colour...)

Look forward to seeing your art 😊

I'm playing along with:

Allsorts, Soft Pastels
Make My Monday, Begins with a B (buttons, bow)

Thank you for calling in today

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Friday 21 June 2019

Shock, horror! Two posts in two days...😵 Bet you didn't expect that! Or to only find one item in the post...


I WAS trying to creep into the Allsorts Challenge by the skin of my teeth, but because my laptop doesn't recognise my scanner until I've removed it from the system, then added it again, I didn't make it 😢 but never mind... I can still enter the SSS Monday challenge, along with a couple of others...


I've been waiting for this stamp set to arrive and when it did, around 1pm today, I wanted to use it straight away...It's designed by Andrea Ockey Parr - one of my favourite stamp designers. I love the simplicity and boldness of her quirky images - they just make me smile 😊


So here's my Journey card/tag/whatever it is when I decide where to put the TH cabinet die card now that it's finished... the background is Oxides and the images are stamped onto some book paper in a language I don't recognise, though it does look Eastern European, so I'd guess at Polish? The words are from a TH set and the scallops are from a Dylusions border I stamped and cut out. I've added a couple of pieces of washi tape across the top, just to add to the spots and stripes themes, which is my chosen 'pattern'.


 
Don't you just love the thought of a bird on roller skates?  It really makes me giggle!!!

I'm playing along with the following challenges:-

Time Out, Funny
Double D, Pattern (Spots and Stripes)
Creatalicious, ATG with optional  Dots and Stripes
2 Sisters on the Blog, Things with Wings


Lots of challenges - all taken from Paper Playful's list as well as my own Challenge blogroll on the lefthand side...


Thank you for calling in today


I'll be back soon


Cath
xxx

Wednesday 19 June 2019

Hello!  I'm still here - just very quiet. But today, I finished a bit of a silly card I've had in my head since I saw the Allsorts theme this week - and it just so happens that Simon Says Monday have chosen a similar theme, so I thought I'd make it...😊

I don't use transport images often - but then I had a thought about one of the stamp sets I have, which is really for using with the crazy animals. There's a scooter stamp... and my first thought was to team it up with 'Les Rats des Villes'. 

The background is very simple, sponged oxides with a bit of water splattering and some cloudy stencilling for the sky. I actually took the word stamp off the mount just to use it here, because it's one of those that's never stamped straight and that stopped me using it 😉



So, I'm playing along with:


Allsorts - Transport


Simon Says Monday - Transport it


Watercooler Wednesday - Masculine ATG


Addicted to Stamps - for a man, boy



Thank you for calling in today



I'll be back soon



Cath
xxx

Tuesday 18 June 2019

There's another week left to play with us in our 'It's a Man's World' challenge  at Try it on Tuesday.
We really would love to see you there 😊

My first creation on this theme was very tongue and cheek... Ages (as in a year or more) ago, I got a couple of these through my door, advertising taxis. I really fell in love with bits of them. As I was thinking about this challenge in the midst of a 'tidy up', they appeared again and I had a light bulb idea, to use one of them for my challenge piece, showing the lady screaming because there are men everywhere, coming up out of the water and the ground... so this is how my journal pages were born.


This is how the page ended up... it was a little too crowded, so I chose to journal another page or two, but I'm posting mid challenge as a reminder... One woman's dream, another's absolute nightmare! Which category do you fit into????


I used stamps from several companies, but mainly Stampinback and VLV. The stencil is from Visible Images. Such a shame Icarus was dressed, lol.

Please do play along with the challenge - it's such a treat to see a great variety of styles and ideas.

Thank you for calling in today

Back soon

Cath
xxx

Wednesday 12 June 2019

'Morning all...hope today finds you well and, if you're in the UK, enjoying the 'Great British Summer' - NOT! I'm afraid it's still piddling down here although the temperature has SOARED to a heady 15C! Heavens above, I'll have to remember my suntan lotion when I venture out... 😉  But let's face it, we are used to it and especially here in the North West... I remember years ago  sending my friend in France a card on which I'd drawn a bird in wellies... telling her that the local birds had great need of them at that time. Her response was to send me a big box, in which was a beautiful metal swallow, wearing a raincoat and boots that she'd borrowed from her adopted (Downs Syndrome) daughter's Bratz - it really made me laugh and I still have them. I often visited her in August/September, when the swallows were getting ready to leave France for warmer climes, so that's the reason for her choice of bird.




On to better things...I was delighted to discover that my name had been chosen (randomly) as winner of the recent Allsorts Birthday Celebration challenge - woohoo!!! Here's what I won:
Lots of yummy foils and a laminator to foil with - plus a great book on foiling AND a beautiful tag from the lovely - and EXTREMELY talented - Brenda 😊
Isn't it gorgeous and wasn't I a lucky girl? 
The tag is 'right up my street' at the moment because I've been playing a lot with Lavinia images. 
Thank you so much Allsorts - and Brenda!!! You brought a lovely, wide grin to my face! 

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to blog, but I have lots of hospital/GP/Physio appointments at the  moment because of some back problems... it doesn't half eat away at your life, especially your crafting life!

This week's Allsorts challenge is Fantasy and I do have a card to link, though I confess it's not one I've made this week because in addition to lots of appointments, I made the mistake of starting to tidy and semi reorganise my craft room, so there has been very little going on in there!

I used a combination of Stampscapes, Carabelle Studio and Lavinia images for this little card, using Oxides for my background. I will be back with at least one more entry. I don't need too much of an excuse to play with my Lavinia images!


Last Tuesday, I saw this blog post on one of the blogs on my inspiration list...Snippets.
Karen used a great Brushos technique I hadn't seen before and I just had to try it, so over the weekend, this was one of the things I made. I used an old Hero Arts stamp, which is pretty solid. Not so sure it was that good a choice because the stems are very thin, but I cheated by going in afterwards and adding a tiny bit of white gel pen where they were almost obscured. I do like the results, though. Basically, you just sprinkle dry Brushos on your card, then spray the stamp (in your Stamping Platform) with water and stamp. The water only activates the Brushos the image on your stamp touches, leaving behind a wonderful imprint. It's best to just set it aside and allow it to dry naturally in your Stamping platform.


I will try this again because it's a great technique that I enjoyed doing.

I'm linking to the Everybody Art Challenge with this (ATG), 
Alphabet Challenge's F for Flowers, and to
Make My Monday, where the challenge is Lots of Flowers.

I'm linking the next CAS card to
A Place to Start, Stencil me in, 
Shopping Our Stash's Stencil Me Challenge, 
Time Out's Nature Challenge
 and to

I used an old Paperartsy stamp, after stencilling in Weathered Wood and Broken China Oxides.


This one is for Addicted to Stamps' For a Boy/Man challenge
and
Use Your Stuff's Vintage Challenge. 
I used Artistic Outpost stamps on glossy card - one of my favourites - and a Stampendous words background, plus a Stampendous crackle cube for the outer edge.

Thank you so much for stopping by today

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Tuesday 11 June 2019

We have a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday... 


It's a Man's World


Think men, boys - of all ages - or maybe something for Father's Day, 16th June - or a celebration of all things men!
You're free to interpret the theme in your own unique way,
using any medium you like 😊

We can't wait to see what you create! 
The challenge will be live until 24th June.

Don't forget to visit the Challenge page to see the wonderful artwork the design team have created. 

I went with a journal spread this time.
While searching for something else, I came across some Artistic Outpost stamps I've had for a long time but never really used - in fact, I think I'd only used one of them, but I lent them to a friend and I think she used a couple of them. Last time I stayed with my friends in France, who I've known for over 30 years, my friend's brother and his wife stayed a couple of nights. While chatting at the dinner table, they were telling me that their hobby is flying balloons - they are 'montgolfiers', named after the first brothers to fly a balloon. Wow! What an unusual hobby - and their daughter is a champion balloonist... 


I used my 6x6 journal and started with a layer of cream coloured paint, with bits of Dark Umber and Yellow Ochre. Looking at it now, I wonder why I bothered covering the kraft paper because it looks as if the background is still kraft coloured 😉
I started by stencilling lots of numbers with various colours of acrylic paint, using a couple of different stencils, then adding text and more numbers with stamps and other paint colours. I then stamped some of the text stamps from the plates, and finally, the images. I stamped and cut out part of the man in the balloon (Monsieur le Montgolfier), part of the 'L'Homme Ailé' poster and the other winged man (Tim Holtz).
The words were all from the two plates, stamped on card, then cut out and edged in black. 
My imagination was running riot while creating, and I could almost feel the excitement of that wonderful day in Paris, so long ago...
Sorry I can't make the image any larger, so you'll have to click on it if you want to see the details.

I do hope you'll join us during this coming fortnight.

I'm linking this to More Mixed Media's Anything Goes Challenge and to Simon Says Wednesday's Masculine Challenge..
I'll link to Art Journal Journey's Challenge, too - Words to Live By.
In the bottom right hand corner you'll see a little snippet of washi tape that says, 'It's never too late...' and they are my words to live by 😊 I think we often limit ourselves because of age - too young, too old - when in fact any time is a good time! Take a risk!

Thank you for visiting

I'll be back soon 

Cath
xxx

Wednesday 5 June 2019

Oops! I must apologise... I forgot I'd made a second piece for this challenge and should have posted it yesterday... 😧😧😧  My apologies!

So here it is... the marks I made were the horizontal lines (mimicking one of my favourite stamps from Paperartsy and lots of white pen, including journaling up the (obviously, hand drawn) stems of the flowers, something I do a lot of...  the background is a stencil clean off page from using a stencil with Brushos, with added Neocolours here and there.


We'd love you to join us at 


for this challenge, now in its second (and final) week!

Make your own, unique marks on whatever you're creating and set your imagination free!

Thanks for visiting

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Tuesday 4 June 2019

I made a quick card for Seize the Birthday's Presents challenge - simply coloured with Prismas and Promarkers/other alcohol ink markers, although I did add more 'marks' of my own to the stamped images. The top and bottom borders are washi tape and the spotty background behind the die cut is paper.


For Penny Black and More's Blooms, Butterflies and Busgs, I made this one... which I'll also link to Moo Mania and More's Wings ~Challenge. This one was coloured with a mixture of mediums, but  mainly Neocolors and Stylo white ink. I added marks to this one, too, continuing the hexagonal pattern in black pen.


Thank you for visiting today

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx