Altenew August 2026 Inspiration Challenge
4 hours ago
Tuesday, 20 August 2019
In My Garden...Try it on Tuesday
22 very kind comments from lovely people at Tuesday, August 20, 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
Wish you were here...Try it on Tuesday
16 very kind comments from lovely people at Tuesday, August 06, 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:-
Country View Crafts Challenges, Texture
Mix it Up Challenges, ATG (no optional, sorry)
Dare 2B Artzy, ATG
Creatalicious, ATG
Daisy Chain Challenges, Flowers
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
Tuesday, 30 July 2019
We're all going to love who we are...
13 very kind comments from lovely people at Tuesday, July 30, 2019Good morning!
I'm doing my last minute dash again for Art Journal Journey's 'We're all Going...' theme from the lovely Chris.
I had fun with this one, using Dylusions paints and Posca Pens.
I'm also playing along with Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge, Bright and Cheerful and Always Fun Challenges' Anything But a Card challenge.
This one was just a Sun, Sand and Sea playtime...everything's better with friends! I coloured the ladies with different shades of pink/tan but unfortunately, it doesn't really show up on the scan :-(
I'm playing with Daring Cardmakers' 'Whatever the Weather' Challenge with this one.
Thanks for calling in
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Sunday, 28 July 2019
Good morning, bloggers 😊 and Happy Sunday to you!
Lately, it's been a real joy to see so many poppies and wildflowers springing up on all the spare land around this area ...I think the local council must have decided to sprinkle some seeds on them, just to see what happened. Whatever the reason, it's a delight to see small patches of glorious colour as you pass by. It's certainly brought a smile to my face.
I played around with Inktense pencils the other day, to create a background around these delicate poppies... just painting random areas of turquoise, teal, blue and green, then stamping bits of words and texture over it in similar shades. I liked it, but it lacked definition, so I toyed with the idea of doing a little stencilling in black or dark colours, then remembered these die cuts. My original aim was to get an idea of where to stencil, but I actually liked the effect of the die cuts, so I cut them to look more as if they'd been torn and glued them in place, splattered some inks over it and voilà.
(I have NO idea why this paragraph isn't in the same font as the rest of my post...it is in my edit version...sorry!)
(I have NO idea why this paragraph isn't in the same font as the rest of my post...it is in my edit version...sorry!)
This stamp was out to remind me to make a card for Stamping Sensations' The Earth Laughs in Flowers challenge.
This was a stamp I won in an SSS Challenge, coloured in paler summer colours and CAS style to reflect the feel of summer. I'm playing along with Penny Black & More's Summer Colours challenge with this one and with Addicted to Stamps & More's ATG.
Playing around with various Lavinia stamps and an Inkylicious splatter stamp background, I stamped the 'lanterns' in the bottom right hand corner and wasn't at all happy with it... so, I added more ink, a bit more stamping and this is the end result. I know it's way too busy, but I can live with the idea of an overgrown wild woods space and the things that happen there in secret. You may have guessed that I love turquoise and lime together.
I'm playing along with the Sweet Stampin' ATG/Optional Magical challenge, in honour of J K Rowling's birthday and with Lavinia World Challenge's ATG theme.
Thank you for calling in today
Back soon
Cath
xxx
Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Told you I'd be back sooner than you think...
The CAS Stencil and CAS Mixup Card challenges for July are both to use alcohol inks and/or alcohol lift techniques, so I took out my tin of inks that hasn't been used for years, my glossy card and some stencils, and played for an hour or two.
I ended up with so many 'bits' of card that I didn't do anything fancy with them when I put the cards together, but kept them very CAS.
I don't have any Lift Off ink, so I used blender fluid to 'lift' the inks, with very mixed results.
This is the one that worked best, and although it's a little larger than intended for a CAS card, I'm going to risk linking it because I like it. I dry embossed the card front for a bit of interest, but it does seem a little superfuous.
This is one of my favourite stencils and it worked quite well. The strong black of the die cuts just makes the background stand out even more...
The next two are just alcohol inks in various shades, with a little overstamping in Archival ink over the stamped flower. (Sorry about the 'bits' on my scanner bed - I removed them and rescanned some cards, but obviously missed the second one).
This one was just an experiment... I love to lift off ink with a versamarked stamp, spritzed with water, so I thought I'd try it here - not expected it to have any effect at all. I was pleasantly surprised that the Versamark and water actually left a bit of an imprint, taking off a small amount of ink. My stecilling gone wrong blended the inks in the background a little, giving a nice effect. The stamp is from Artistic Outpost (I think...I've had it for so long I don't remember 😉).
I'm also playing with
Creative with Stamps Challenge, Stripes
I know they aren't conventional stripes, but they are stripes of colour 😊
CAS on Friday, Use a Stencil
Stinkin Inkers, Stars and/or Stripes
and
A Place to Start, ATG
Thank you for popping in...
See you soon
Cath
xxx
Try it on Tuesday, New Challenge!
17 very kind comments from lovely people at Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Good morning, Peeps!
Hope life is being kind to you...
It's Tuesday and so we have a brand new challenge over at
Splatters and Splodges
We'd love to see your splodges and splatters of paints, ink or whichever medium you prefer to use...
This is a happy challenge. You can have so much fun with a few drops and dribbles here and there..what a great excuse to play!
(If you need one)
We'd love you to join us and play in this challenge!
The Design Team has created amazing samples, so please do go to see what my teamies have made!
That's exactly what I did - I dropped inks onto my page from a height (some via their spray mechanism, which I unscrewed) and tilted until it spread over the paper enough.
I sprayed a bit of water, too and let it dribble some more... then I added just a touch of mesh stencilling in a bluer blue than the ink I'd used because I wanted this to be blues and greens.
I chose to use die cut letters to make a bold sentiment...(probably a bit too big because they do cover most of the splatters and splodges)...but there's time to do more.
I thought I'd add the animals just for their expressions...and then I splattered them all with a toothbrush, using watered down blue acrylic paint and finishing off by shaking black and white posca pens over the top...
Not so sure Philomena Pig or Delilah Duck (whose feet were covered in ink and paint) were very happy about that, though Simon the Sheep was thoroughly enjoying it all, and even helped a bit with the splattering by blowing it all over my 'desk'... it definitely took Miss Miranda Mouse (you can tell she's a teacher) by surprise, though, especially when Simon splashed her with some huge water droplets!
I'm happy to play with the following challenges:-
Art Journal Journey, We're all Going to... make messy art!
(Thanks for a great challenge, Chris!)
Country View Challenges, Blue and Green
More Mixed Media, ATG (definitely no Pastels option here, sorry)
Please do pop over to the main blog to see the inspiration from the very talented girls and we'd love to see you take the time to play...and share your results with us.
Thank you for popping in today
Back soon(er than you expect!)
Cath
xxx
Friday, 19 July 2019
Popping in to meet the deadline - AGAIN! Sorry.
Here's my CAS sheep, which also fits a couple of other challenges...I'll be back to edit once I've entered the Allsorts Challenge.
I'm also playing along with the following challenges:
SSS MONDAY, Animal Magic
Country View Challenges, Blue and Green
and I was going to join the Alphabet Challenge's Bags and Hats challenge, but they JUST posted a new one, so I'll aim for that one...😁
In keeping with the Try it on Tuesday Colours of the Rainbow challenge, I made this... so I can also play along with
Seize the Birthday's Rainbow challenge.
I used part of a watercolour stripe stencil for the rainbow colours and Oxides for the colouring as well as for the stripes... I love silly birds and the idea of these showing off on the back of the poor bird at the bottom just makes me giggle - he really looks as if his eyes are closed and he's really struggling to hold the weight of them all!
For some reason, the wider margins of the white card it's mounted onto aren't showing up - sorry. It isn't just a red card...so I added a (non existent) border.
I'm also playing with Stamping Sensations' The Earth Laughs in Flowers challenge with this one, with
Watercooler Wednesday's Masculine ATG and with Simon Says Stamp Mondays, Make your own Background.
I love these Lavinia blooms and I think the pretty pastel colours will work for the Penny Black and More Summer Colours challenge, too... the raindrops are proof I have the great British Summer in mind! The background is stencilled with a mesh stencil...
Thank you so much for calling in today
Back soon...
Cath
xxx
Friday, 12 July 2019
Just popping in to add my card for Allsorts' Summer Fun/Sport challenge...
There are a lot of Summer challenges around, so I'm playing with some of these, too.
Just Add Ink, Just add the Season
Sweet Stampers, Summer
Moo Mania & More, Summer holidays
I stamped the lovely ladies stamp, stamped again, cut out and masked before stamping the stone wall stamp...it looks a little bit (ahem) too high...but maybe they're feeling daring, lol. I then played around with the sky and a sun and rays stencil, which didn't work out the way I wanted it to, so I added more colour, ending with a sketchy, mixed sky and added the words over the sun 😊
Thank you for calling in today...
See you soon!
Cath
xxx
Tuesday, 9 July 2019
Try it on Tuesday - NEW CHALLENGE!
26 very kind comments from lovely people at Tuesday, July 09, 2019
Good morning, peeps!
Today, we have a new challenge from
COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW!!!
We'd love you to have fun with colour...
and to see rainbow colours on your art of any kind, using any medium you prefer...
*******
Colour is my favourite thing - the brighter the better - and rainbow colours my second favourite...
...so this challenge is definitely a winner for me 😀
I've already shared a couple of cards made with the XL Inkylicious Splatter background, but today, I thought I'd share a mini tutorial, to show you how easy it is to use.
It's worth watching the videos linked on the above page link, too - I did 😉 and enjoyed them.
I started with the stamp on my stamping platform, inking it up with Distress Oxide inks, using the side of the inkpad in stripes, just like a real rainbow 😊then spritzing with water and letting the inks blend for a few seconds.
I used Candied Apple, Carved Pumpkin, Fossilised Amber, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet, some of which are drier than others, as you can see...
Spritz with water, then allow the inks to blend for a few seconds... and stamp.
I did take photos of the stamped card, but it looks as if I've accidentally deleted them and (for once) emptied the recycle bin - oops! Sorry...😞
But here's the result on a completed OLC (One Layer card) using Invisible Image stamps. I kept it simple because I didn't want to cover up the beautiful rainbow circle. For some reason, Visible Image and Inkylicious stamps often seem to work really well together. I think they work particularly well in this instance because VI stamps seem to scream out for bold, bright colour!
I'm playing with Shopping our Stash's One Layer Card Challenge with this one.
I'm playing with Shopping our Stash's One Layer Card Challenge with this one.
This one is done in exactly the same way, but using Distress inks (same colours). I used simple images from That's Crafty - Lynne's lovely designs. I edited this because I got the two results mixed up and only just realised...I wondered why those DIs had blended better than the Oxides...
I'm playing with A Place to Start's ATG challenge with this one.
I wanted to make one with just words, to show how easy it is to make quick, bold cards with backgrounds you have ready made with this stamp. It really is a great stamp 😊
I cut these words up to give me more options in using them, but it wasn't so easy to get them all centred... and I lost the last word for over an hour...that's what you get for working in as much disorder as I do! I'm sure there's a Bermuda triangle hidden in my craft room...you wouldn't believe how often I lose stamps (or images) I've just used!
I was still going to post it but it does look better with all the words...😊
I was still going to post it but it does look better with all the words...😊
These are the stamped results together... It really is worth making a whole load of them while you're at it...I played a little at using it like a gelli plate - you can see a couple of those attempts below.
And here's one using my favourite three colours together... Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers and Wilted Violet around the edges. I used Lavinia's Sebastian stamp for this one and decided to make it a Thank you card, so I can play with Make My Monday's Thank you Challenge. I drew rough circles with a Staedtler black pen, filling them in with Signo White Gel pen for the bubbles. I may add more white gel pen in more of the gaps of the sea horse stamp...I'm also playing with Simon Says Monday challenge's Life on the Ocean waves...my seahorse is IN the ocean, so I hope that works! And with Challenge Up Your Life's Vitamin Sea challenge 😊
You can see that the inks bled a little on the card - I don't think it matters, but you may need to watch out for that if it would bother you.
Sorry it's such a photo heavy post, but I thought you may like to see how easy it is to use and some of the ways I've used the results, as well as those I've already shared.
Please do go see the gorgeous works of art created by the Try it on Tuesday Design Team...and we look forward to seeing your interpretation! The challenge ends 2 weeks from now, so there's lots of time...
Thank you so much for your visit...
I'll be back soon...
Cath
xxx
Wednesday, 3 July 2019
Good morning - oops, afternoon, girls...thought I'd shock you with another quick post today.
There's a great Blue and Green challenge over at Country View Challenges this month and there WAS a 'You're so Punny' challenge at Shopping Your Stash, but I missed that one :-( Maybe next time... Meantime, Time Out's 'Be Funny' challenge is still running (I hope...) so I'll play along with them.
So here's another Splatter background card... this time I brayered the stamp with Versafine Clair inks, using it as a Gelliplate...I then brayered it with a textured roller on my trusty Fiskar's brayer...I LOVE this and was so sad when they discontinued these fab brayers. They are perfectly weighted for a really smooth finish and their 6" size means they cover a bigger area, making them altogether MUCH easier to use 😊 With the 'punny' challenge in mind, I used the two colours as grass and sky... stamped one of my favourite Katzelcraft images, stamped and cut out on white card, gluing over the top, and simply added the words...another stamp I really LOVE! It looks as if I didn't position it straight on the mount, though - that's another reason why I prefer rubber, but clear stamps ARE much easier to use when it comes to words... it will do. I think I'll send this to my lovely little grandaughter!
I'm also playing with A Place to Start's ATG, Moo Mania and More, who are challenging us to use animals, Send a Smile for Kids ATG for teens and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge's ATG.
Thank you for calling in again...
See you soon
Cath x
Tuesday, 2 July 2019
Hi all 😊 I finally managed to get a couple of cards made - despite knocking over a jar of water while in the process, which meant I had to move all the stuff around my stamping area (shock, horror - that meant cleaning 😖 and rearranging a few things because it had gone inside boxes of supplies, under the radiator and all around where I sit) - and that put me out of action for a couple of days! But I finally made my cards - one out of necessity, the other for FUN!
My lovely brother finally bought a house, after three years of renting because of the lack of availability where they live. They moved house last week, though he was still working out of the rented house until this week, and I really wanted to send him a card to wish him Happy New Home. So I made this...it's pretty simple, but it was just what I wanted for him and he likes it.
The houses are from Stampendous and the words are a mish mash of words from different stamp sets. I just sponged the background and added some white rays to spotlight the houses, adding a bit of grass around the base.
Today I played with an Inkylicious Splatter background, which I've had loads of fun with the last two days! I'll be sharing more of the backgrounds I made in the next few days.
I wanted to enter the Penny Black & More Blooms, Butterflies and/or Bugs challenge, so this is for that.
The background is stamped with Oxides and the butterfly is a (large) Stampendous stamp, embossed on Vellum and coloured from the back. I also added glitter to parts of it, though it's very hard to show it, despite trying to get photos!
Here's my attempt to get a photo of the glitter, but you really can't see it very well at all...
Because I used one of my favourite colour combos, I'm also joining Stamping Sensations' True Colours challenge. The Alphabet Challenge is G for Grunge/Glitz, so I'm playing along with them, even if you can't see the glitter clearly 😞
I'm also playing along with Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, to make your own Background and Throwdown Tuesday's Anything Goes.
Thanks for calling in today. I'm sorry I'm not able to spend much time on the PC at the moment, so I'm not getting the chance to visit your blogs and leave comments - I hope you'll forgive me.
I'll be back soon, hopefully
Cath
xxx
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