INKY FINGERS

 Hello friends. Almost back to normal now - whatever normality may mean to you 😊

I'm trying to reclaim some time for crafting, so this is what came out of my daily (well, almost) playtimes.

First of all, I'll show you Bees and Blooms, because the theme over on Make My Monday is Anything Airborne. Yes, it's another Janet Klein image - but I do love them. This is a photo, and it looks very washed out, so I'll also show you a scan, which is VERY different - and, as usual, it's half way between the two. It is very bright, but that's because I used Ripe Persimmon and Abandoned Coral, with a bit of Squeezed Lemonade, using one of my favourite all time stencils to add some interest This little one doesn't require much colouring but is fun to play with. The words are from a whole plate of Bee words which have come in handy since bee mania began. The white lines are added with a stencil (Uniko).

This was in my 'half done' basket, so I decided to finish it off because I do actually like it and I love tall cards. I was trying to use up my old Ecoline watercolour inks with a new (at the time) leafy stamp and an old leafy stencil. I have a real weakness for leaves and always have had. It was really tough to find a background colour to match, so I ended up going with white and the nearest shade I could find to the leaves - everything else changed the appearance way too much.

A gift from a friend, I stamped these flowers (Studio Light) onto a tag I'd used some of my favourite colours on. I'm really not happy with these flowers. I think I'll have to restamp on white and layer over the top. One of my favourite types of background on this tall (22cm) tag. I used the Uniko stencil on it, again - with Moonlight White Brilliance ink.

Linking to the following challenges

Make My Monday - Anything Airborne

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, Fun and Quirky

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, Anything Goes

Country View Crafts Challenge, Use a Stencil or Two

Everybody Art Challenge, Anything Goes

It's good to be stamping again 😉 

I''ll be back to share more in a day or so - too many to share at one time. I'll also do my best to visit some blogs this week, tennis allowing 😎 I love watching Wimbledon! 

Thank you for calling in today

See you soon!

Cath

xxx

Hello!

I finished another little minibook yesterday, with a different way of adding pages. I noticed this method when watching a video of Marlene's new products, which included a little book die. It's very nice and makes it easy to make a book, but it's also very simple, so I thought I'd try it on standard pages. This way you can make it any size, too 😁 so it's more versatile doing your own.

Here's the book cover, with the closure in place, and without it. The one on the left is a scan, the other a photo to show that the inks are lighter than they appear in the scans. I just stencilled the backgrounds with Brilliance White inks, for speed.

 

 

 Nearly two weeks since I last posted...anyone would think I wasn't stamping, but I am 😁 albeit a little more slowly than usual!

I'm here to post a mini-book I made for a friend a little while ago. I really went off making cards for a while and spent my time making pages to make into books - and will soon be doing more! In what seems like the distant past, I made a lot of small booklet/mini-book type projects for workshops. I suppose they're my first love, if I'm honest. This was the second I made in early August. I had a recipient in mind from the beginning, which isn't always how I create... but I wanted it to be specially for her.

I didn't post earlier because this was when I first used that gorgeous colour combination I used again for my next little book. It evolved as it progressed. I had intended making a tallish concertina book, but because I'm using thicker card, the folds cracked, so it became a sewn signature book. Then I kept changing the cover shape and size, so had to add more pages to cover the folded cover...but I was really happy with the way it turned out and I know it brought a smile to her face, which is what matters most, isn't it?

So, using Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feather and Wilted Violet ink, I sponged the front and back of my long piece of card, splashed with water, then added background stamping, using Studio Light and other images. I stencilled a lot on this one, mainly using Moonlight White Brilliance Ink.

Book cover

 

Book opened, showing inner back cover and pages - 4, so 8 sides

 

 

Middle Inside Cover

 

Back Covers

 

It was a lovely size to work with, so I may do more like this - I also have slightly different versions and sizes of the covers for another two hanging around in my craft room. I kept changing my mind about what I wanted to do 😁

Next time, I may have a plan in mind when I begin! I'm sure it would help 😉

Linking to

 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.

But where did April and May go??? Doesn't it seem strange?

I'd been trying to use up my Ecoline inks to make backgrounds and was really enjoying the vivid colours - unfortunately, they're not lightfast, so they will fade in time. They are so full of pigment and make beautiful rainbow effects. I've had them for years, but only used up one - the yellow - which I really miss.

This is one of the Ecoline backgrounds, although the photo just doesn't do the colours justice. They almost glow, they're so vivid! 

Yay! There’s a new challenge over at TIOT, starting today, and the theme is… Romance!  Just in time for Valentine’s Day, if you send any cards on that day.

There are some fantastic samples from the TIOT team if you’d like to glean some inspiration…

Oops! I posted the wrong card... so sorry.
On this one, I went with an old image from Designs Ink'd, now I Brake for Stamps. It's such a cute image.

The loving couple are coloured with Prisma Pencils and the 'Love' is a die cut. I just had to add a heart, but the Brushos bakcground didn't really need much more, once I'd stencilled a few stars in silver and spattered a bit of paint.

Better late than never…

It’s been one of ‘those days’…

I did make a simple journal page, but I dared to do a bit of script handwriting over it and wasn’t happy with it, so spent ages trying to cover it up – badly - with mismatched die cuts and find a way to hide it – duh!

I liked the original much better. I must learn to be more comfortable with my mistakes

Today, I’m thankful for the freedom to choose. There’s a story behind this, but I won’t bore you with it… 

I’m linking this to Art Every Day Month

I’ll be back soon

Thanks for looking

Cath

xxx

Catching up with my Month of Thankfulness.

So yesterday, I was thankful for Fun and Laughter… this page started life as a card, but I soon realised it wouldn’t be appropriate as a card, so I pulled out my 6x6 Kraft paper journal (reminded by Yvonne!) and attached it to a page, after stamping the words and drawing the speech bubble … then added Les Rats des Villes (Katzelcraft) as my imagination ran riot. I love the one slinking away on his belly…

I gessoed another page, then added Oxides through a stencil, using bright colours as a contrast to Weathered Wood, stamping the large Laughter (Hero Arts) a few times off the page. There were some larger die cut letters in my little box, and because I’d been colouring and cutting out les rats, I decided to stand them on the letters, with the top one running away from the girl with the shotgun...  It’s a bit busy, so the rats are almost lost, but  I just played around a bit until I realised I’d better stop before I made it any worse! Theoretically, it’s a continuation of the first page, but is actually on the page before… duh! It just happened!

I wanted to make another ‘Resist’ card for Fashionable Stamping Challenge, so I stamped an old word stamp on glossy card in Versamark, heat setting, then sponging Adirondack inks over the top, stamping the word background in the same colours as the background.

I was imagining butterflies on this, but took the easy way  cos I’ve cut out too many images and looked through my cut out basket. Ihis TH image worked well with the background words and I liked the fact that I wouldn’t have chosen pink for him… Hunting for some suitable words in my word box, I found these…

So today, I’m thankful for !IMAGINATION!

Allsorts’ challenge is CAS Christmas…I don’t make many Christmas cards, but I wanted to try out this die.

The black lettering is a little harsh, but I tried blue first and it was a little lost… if I do this again, I’ll stamp some watermark snowflakes in the background.

Finally, another Die cut… smooshed with Oxide inks, stencilled, the happy duck added,then the die cut Birthday.

I’ve never used as many die cuts in my life, lol. I love some of the latest designs but seem to acquire them just to look at - not to use… I especially like word dies.

I’m linking this to AEDM, Art Every Day Month

Watercooler Wednesday Challenges – Occasions

Penny Black and More – Make Someone Smile

Addicted to Stamps and More – Holiday

Thanks for visiting

See you soon

Cath

xxx

Today I‘m thankful for miracles…those little, everyday miracles we take for granted, the little ‘coincidences’ (or God incidences, as some of us call them) we are thankful for AND the BIG ones we don’t see quite as often, but we DO see them now and again... totally inexplicable events and occurrences.

Time has been short today, so I made a quick card. The Inkylicious words just happened to be on my stamping mat because I took them out for some reason last week and left them out so that I would use them!

I took my favourite Penny Black stamp off the wooden mount last week and attached it to some EZ mount, so I could use it in my Stamping Platform so I decided to use that. The stamp itself is more of an artistic impression than a defined image, so it doesn’t make a great deal of difference, if I’m honest, but it’s better in some ways. I used Tombows and scribbled some onto my mat for spattering over the stamped images.

I ended up having to mount this onto a 7” square card – it would, perhaps, have been more suitable for a journal page and will probably make its way into one of my journals in this form or a similar one.

These other cards use one of my favourite Miracle stamps, from Impression Obsession. The first was dry embossed after making the card front, the second was an Oxide background, with a white embossed image and some Brilliance Moonlight White overstamping and stencilling. The flowers were coloured with Prismas.

I’m sharing this with Art Every Day Month

Retro Rubber Challenge – Anything Goes (I’ve had the PB fuchsia stamp around 15 years!)

Words to Craft by – Blessings

and

Creative Fingers – Anything Goes.

Thanks for visiting today – always lovely to ‘see’ you

Back soon

Cath

xxx

Today is a really easy day to find something to be thankful for – it’s Izzi’s birthday! She’s six today and I thank God for her every day

I indulged myself in using Victorian Velvet and Weathered Wood for this because it didn’t start out as Izzi’s birthday card – or it may well have been multi coloured, with stars in the background. I intended it to be a card to Make Someone Smile, for the Penny Black and More challenge. However, along the way, I added the balloons and had the idea of adding the number 6 and then her name… much easier to write the shortened version, rather than Isabella!

I added the glitter as an afterthought, paining on Ice Stickles. They’ve almost run out but I can’t complain because I’ve probably had them for 15 years or even more!

I’ve used a stencil on the background, so I’ll link this to Make My Monday’s Stencil Stories Challenge.

I’m also linking to Addicted to Stamps and More, where the challenge is to Make your Mark.

I also have a journal page to share. While thinking about all that I’m thankful for, I got stuck in this verse in Ephesians, so just had to journal it. It’s a simple page, using mainly die cuts over an Oxide background, but I like it. I gave up trying to keep my die cuts white when adding them to colourful backgrounds a long time ago – I’m not the cleanest of crafters anyway, and especially not when using glue but they also tend to soak up the colour behind them when the background is inky.

I’ll link this to Art Journal Journey, where the challenge is Old and New. We’re blessed with new blessings every day, so I think this counts

I’m also linking to Word Art Wednesday – ATG.

And of course, I’m linking to AEDM Day 7.  I’m out for the rest of the day, but I’ll try to get round your blogs later, folks!

That’s all for now… I have a birthday princess to celebrate!

Thanks for looking

See you soon

Cath

xxx