INKY FINGERS

 Hi all.

I hope you're enjoying the Autumn sunshine where you are. It's so bright and sunny here, and it can be deceiving, fooling you into thinking it's warm until you get outside and feel that sharp wind...brrr! 

My crafting and browsing time have been seriously curtailed of late, due to spinal problems, but I finally managed to finish this little concertina that I've been working on for around 10 days - very unlike me. I only had the cover to finish early in the week, but it's taken me until now to get around it it 😉

I wasn't going to get embroiled in Autumn colours and images, but how can you resist? Especially when I've just set this month's Mingle, or challenge on KCUK and chosen Autumn Glory! This isn't what I'm using, because the additional challenge is to make tall cards or tags and this certainly isn't that...

I used Crackling Campfire, Toasted Marmalade, Fossilised Amber, Aged Mahogany and Walnut Ink Oxides, smooshed for the most part, but sponged on the cover, and Versafine inks for stamping the images. I did take lots of photos, but I've just checked them and the colours are very washed out, so I'm showing you the scans.

Here's the cover...using Aall and Create stamps, Prisma pencils and gel pens. It's just over 3.75" square.

Welcome to a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday! 

The challenge is 'Powder your...' and we'd love to see you play with your powders -  embossing powders, mica powders, brusho powders, paint powder, even images of powders, it's up to you how you interpret the theme … just have fun!

Please remember to note on your post which 'powder' you use in your take on the theme.. 

This is a GREAT excuse to play and let your imagination roam wild... 😉

For my playtime, I simply sprinkled some of my favourite coloured Brushos on an A5 piece of card, activated with (lots of) water and left to dry... then used the background to make this card. 

After stamping my (well loved and used) Paperartsy flowers, I did a bit of stencilling with Brilliance Moonlight White ink and added a bit of text and graphic style stamping in colours matching the Brushos. I then stamped the word 'bloom' in Distress Oxide, clear embossing, and finished it off by colouring the blooms with Posca pens for a strong contrast.  The purple card just pulls it all together.

I don’t have a lot of time to play right now, but I snatched a bit of time to myself to do some journaling and a bit of stamping and themed them around current challenges.

For Shopping Our Stash, I used a silhouette stamp and for Penny Black and More’s I Spy something beginning with ‘B’ I used birds.

This next one was made while I was looking after my 5 year old granddaughter, and she chose the rainbow colours for the kite.  I’ll enter it into the

Inskspirational ‘under 10 minutes card’ challenge. It took me approximately 8 minutes to make. I used Prisma pencils for the colouring and Oxides for the grass, after extending the ground line from the original.

I’d also like to enter this into Addicted to Stamps and More’s Clean and Simple challenge.

CAS Mix it Up have a Stencil Monoprint challenge, so the next two cards were made with that technique, though I can’t enter either of them really – definitely not CAS in my eyes, lol. It was fun, though and I’ll try it again when I get the chance. I used Brushos with the stencil.

This was the positive image.

This is the negative image.

Lastly, a journal page for Art Journal Journey’s wonderful theme,  ‘Count your blessings’.

I used the paler Oxides (Spun Sugar and Squeezed Lemonade) with a bit of Picked Raspberry over the edges and for some of the stamping. I’m much happier with the paper in this newer journal (I’ve had it a few years, but only just cracked it open!) because they’re whiter and the colours are so much truer.

Back as soon as I can get in my Craft Room!

Thanks for looking

See you soon

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