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

Tuesday, 20 August 2019

Good morning, all!

Time for a new challenge over at 
😊
In My Garden
Show us what's hiding in your garden...or even what you'd like to discover hiding in your garden...
All media welcome and we look forward to visiting your blogs to enjoy your creations!
Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see the inspiration from the design team members by clicking the link above...the challenge will last for the next two weeks.
Have lots of fun!

This is a great challenge for this time of year, when so many flowers are in bloom, some on their way out until next year as the summer draws to a close. There are still 'riots of colour' to be enjoyed everywhere you look 😉 - for the time being at least.

My offering began life as a gelli print, made with pink, white and blue acrylics and a dotty stencil. I began by overstamping various text and graphic stamps in Versa Clair and Versafine inks, clear embossing them to seal over the acrylics. Then I played with 'that stamp' again...I really do love this VI bloom! This time I stamped it onto text paper from my stash, cut them out and drew in the drippy stems with a Posca pen, adding a few more spatters of black and white paint. 

I'm playing in the More Mixed Media Challenge of ATG plus optional Bright colours.

Thanks for calling in today

Hope to see you soon

Cath
xxx

Saturday, 10 August 2019

Acrylic paints, Paperartsy stamps and lots of doodling for this journal page I'm linking to Art Journal Journey, where the challenge been chosen by Gill is Anything with eyes...
I've had these Paperartsy stamps for ages and not used them...shame on me. I do love them, so decided it was time to give them an outing 😊 The fab square flowers are from one of the plates, as are the leaves. I'll definitely be using them more after this...they're fun to colour. I think they'd make a great Anniversary card, too. More Mixed Media's current challenge is ATG with the option of Bright colours, so I'm playing along with them, too.


...and this one is a card I started with Try it on Tuesday's Wish you were here challenge in mind, but decided to change my focus part way through. I've probably had this stamp for over 15 years - in fact, I have it in three different sizes and used to use it on the inside of the card and the envelope. It was called 'Melissa, looking out to sea...' so I stencilled and doodled the sea, added a hill and some grass along with the sun and clouds. I'm linking it to Allsorts' Sun, Moon and/or Stars,  or for a baby challenge because of the sunshine and to Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday Challenge, where the challenge is Sunshine, Sunflowers or add something yellow. 


Always Fun Challenges are asking for Stencils, so I'm happy to play with them again this week.

Thank you for calling in today

I'll be back soon

Cath
xxx

Tuesday, 6 August 2019

Good morning, all!  Time for a new challenge on


Wish you were here...

This is a wonderful excuse to think about sea, sand, fun and holiday destinations, so let your mind run free and see what you come up with. It can be somewhere you're planning to visit, somewhere you've been or someone you dream of visiting... or your local beach, if you're lucky enough to have one close to you.
Any medium is acceptable.

Please don't miss the amazing inspiration from the team on the blog!
Hope to see you over there, soon 😊

This was a chance for me to think about the city I love most in the whole world...Paris!
I used Adirondacks and Distress inks for the background...I LOVE the fancy Paperartsy  'Paris sera toujours Paris' stamp but don't use it anywhere near enough, so I used it as a background element here.
The little bird on roller skates, holding a balloon, is one of my favourite quirky images and a last minute addition (sorry, TIOT girls) ...I can just imagine him skating all over Paris, maybe looking for love - probably a good idea in that very busy city and the air will certainly be much cleaner than in the Metro. 
I finished it off with a little French stamp - A L'aventure - which just means 'to adventure!' or we're off on an adventure! 
This is a journal page, btw - the Eiffel tower is  a VERY tall stamp - one I bought at the Carson show in California, many (14 or 15) years ago when I was staying with a lovely, lovely friend after the Trade Show. I have a feeling I bought it from Teesha Moore (Zettiology) but I couldn't swear to that...it looks like a slightly leaning Eiffel Tower when I look at it again...oops! It's about 9 ins long. The stencilling was added through a scrap of sequin waste.

I hope to see you soon over at Try it on Tuesday some time in the next two weeks... 
Have fun creating your 'dream destination' art!

Thank you for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx

Monday, 5 August 2019

I've had 'stamp envy' ever since I saw this stamp and the one time I could've bought it in person, it had sold out... So when I received an email from Visible Images, advertising a Summer Sale, I jumped at it and bought some of her fabulous words, too..

So here are my first plays with 'that stamp'.
I was (and have been) very much in CAS and subtle mode this last week, so I was using VERY subtle colours. This background was made using what was left on the splatter circle stamp after I'd used it, with just a touch of stripey stamping...to add to the 'chaos' 😉 
Some of my stitched square dies leave behind stitched frames, so this was just an experiment to try one out - I quite like it, though it's not trimmed straight. Somehow that adds to the whimsy of it for me and I quite like the effect.


This next one is painted with very pale pastel shades of acrylic paint that you almost can't see, but I'm in love with the colours. There's a gorgeous mint green, palest lilac and pale blue. I spotted them when I walked through the Range, on the way back from a hospital appointment and - even better still - they were three for the price of 2 😀
These words are from the extra set I ordered at the same time as the flower and are exactly the way I would describe the flower stamp.

This is a painted background, using those pale acrylic paints, lots of water and some white paint. Lots more splatters and splodges on this one...and 3 other stamps from the flower set.


Last, but not least, I wanted to do one in stronger colours, so I painted this one with Dylusions Fucshia acrylic, but still ended up fading it out with lots of water, and pale blue and white pencils, which I also streaked through the fuchsia colouring. I didn't want too much on this card, so added some texture paste through a dotty stencil, just to add a little interest without overpowering the flower.



I'm playing in the following challenges with these:-


Mix it Up Challenges, ATG (no optional, sorry)




Always Fun, Stencils


More Mixed Media, ATG optional Bright


Thanks for looking

I'll be back tomorrow, with a new Challenge from Try it on Tuesday.

Cath
xxx

Sunday, 4 August 2019

I noticed the Addicted to CAS challenge for this week is Bubble and immediately thought of this stamp... so I made a (very) CAS card with it.  Those bubbles were FAR more problematic than I expected. There are a few more stecilled bubbles in two opposite corners, but they're very subtle. I'll definitely do this differently if I do it again 😊 I may use the speech bubble, next time. Pretty nifty words, though.


The August challenge at Stamping Sensations is Things with Wings...one of my favourite themes. It just so happens I'd already made this card, too... so I'm playing with Seize the Birthday - no (optional) flowers on this one, sorry - and with Just Add Ink's 'Just Add a C' challenge, Crazy.. I really love that little Dachshund, who reminds me of one my childhood friend used to have.


As You Like It have a 'Favourite Flower and Why...' challenge, so I'm playing with them with this next card. It's not my favourite flower, but it IS my new favourite flower STAMP. Every so often, you find a stamp you fall in love with, even if you can't explain why...this is one of those for me. I love the shape of the flowers - far from 'perfect' and the way they look together.. and the stems! It was so relaxing to colour them in my favourite shades of pink and purple Neocolors. This fab Visible Image quote seems to fit them perfectly.
Thank you for calling in today...
I'll be back soon...
Cath
xxx