INKY FINGERS

These fit several current challenges but were made for a KCUK tag swap – scraplings as accompaniment.

I love leaves – though had forgotten quite how much – and I also love autumn colours.  I spent a blissful couple of hours stippling and stamping with Fluid chalks on the tags.  I used Brilliance Galaxy Gold to overstamp and edged with Krylon pen.

The best thing of all about chalk inks, is that they’re permanent once heat set and will never fade, unlike Distress ink and Adirondacks, which I usually use.  I’m veering more to permanent inks (and other mediums) at the moment because I want to be able to flick through my journals in a few years and see where I was up to now!

I used Adirondacks on the cards, with some stamping in Archival Sepia and, of course, some gold embossing, perfect for this time of year.

Then I got out the Brilliance ink, over Dylusions backgrounds, and made these.

Two more pages for the Journalling Mingle

and another card to accompany them, this time using Gold Leaf.

It’s far from perfect, but I actually like the imperfection and my Stamp’n’Bond is pretty old and lumpy! What I love most about Brilliance (which is also a pigment ink and therefore permanent) is the pearlescent watermark effect you get from the understamping, which only shows when you tilt the card.

Challenges I’d like to enter are:-

Try it on Tuesday – Autumn Colours

Crazy Amigos – Falling leaves

All Sorts Challenge Blog – Autumn Leaves and Trees

Fashionable Stamping Challenge – Shades of Autumn/Fall (thanks, Lynne)

and one I haven’t heard of before…

Visible Images – Inspired by Autumn

xxx

A bit of journalling today

Firstly, here’s a silver card for this week’s Less is More challenge – not brilliant cos the ‘o’ almost disappeared but it’s silver embossing on white – always so elegant.  Unfortunately, silver’s a nightmare to scan, as I’m sure you know.

Sadly, it’s a Sympathy card and so is this.

Both very simple, but apt.

My daughter-in-law’s Dad died suddenly last weekend, while on holiday – horrendous.

Also made a super quick Birthday card earlier this week.

Colours (and stamps – Stampman) were based on one Vix sent to me a couple of years ago – it’s very simple but I love the feel of it and it was quick and easy to make.

My journal pages for September are finally finished and I can start to think about the October ones – I’m finding it really difficult to stamp or create anything at the moment :-(

This is the one I made but wasn’t happy with… I did start to Gesso/white paint over the crossword bit but couldn’t be bothered and knew I had another sheet of card I’d sprayed at the same time, so I used that one instead.  It may well still surface in my own journal.

This is the one I’ve just finished – and I even got the date wrong!

Both bright and bold – not exactly how I’m feeling right now.  The Zetti image looks more like the current me.

Room destashing is well under way now and I’ve already sold some stamps and stuff on Ebay – sorry I didn’t tell you and there was some Tim H stuff… more to come (TH that is) and LOTS of stamps, but I may just put it on the For Sale page instead of using Ebay.

Have a lovely weekend :=)

xxx

… so quickly after the other one? 

Your eyes do not deceive you – I’m here again, he, he.

I made two journal pages for the September Journalling mingle – the last two were sadly VERY late – but I hate one of them – so I may well not show it to you until I’ve rehashed it or made another one; decisions, decisions!

Here’s the one I do like.

I messed up the middle bit, so gessoed it and printed the words to cover it  - I like the result, though – serendipitous – you can’t see it in real life, though the scan shows it up a bit.  I’m going to add to the bottom bit ‘especially AND including’ KCUK cos my group friends are very special and very important to me.

The other page WAS about my love of cryptic crosswords but maybe that will now change…

Here’s another of those quick cards I seem to be making so many of lately. 

You’d think I’d be getting a dab hand (much quicker) at making them, with all the practise I’m getting, but no – I tried to make another one and after three (and a half-ish) attempts, I threw the whole lot in the bin this afternoon. I just can NOT keep things clean – and don’t seem to be able to do very much at the moment, without messing it up, big time!

Here’s another one I finished. 

The background on this one is Brazen Brilliance, which I LOVE the effect of – (note to self: - must do some more of that, SOON).  The paler images are underneath the brayered/sponged Brilliance ink, but only show up at an angle – magical irridescence.  I love any kind of resist technique and indulge myself every so often.

BUT FIRST, I MUST  tidy that flipping stamp room before it drives me round the bend – and that’s not very far at the moment… I’m reaching the stage of not being able to find my favourite stamps again cos they’re all in boxes, waiting to be organised – or worse - cleaned. 

And I’ve decided I have WAY too many stamps (I know, hard to imagine that’s possible, isn’t it?), so I’ve made matters worse by pulling out drawers and laminated sheets and throwing stamps in piles (and more boxes), trying to decide how to get rid of them.  I think the first lot might go on Ebay this weekend, though I’m thinking of selling some via the blog, so have created a couple of new pages for future use.  You’ll notice that one of them is for TUTORIALS – yes, I’ll include Brazen Brilliance, some old ones and some new ones, so watch this space – just need some time.

Ooh, and I almost forgot - (sorry, Sioux) - I got a fabby prize from The Artistic Stamper, courtesy of Sioux, one of my favourite bloggers – must post the image and say thank you before I forget again… 

Ever seriously wonder if you’re going senile?????  Not messing, either, this time :-(

Have a lovely weekend :-)

xxx

Been playing in my journal and finishing some things off – lots of half written/drawn/stamped and stencilled pages to sort out (not to mention half stamped cards/backgrounds, etc) so that’s my current quest – or will be when I’ve caught up on cards and journal pages for the KCUK mingle.  That’s if I can get past the boxes and baskets of stuff (and stamps) on the floor… again!

The face makes them eligible for the

Art Journal Journey challenge again – Faces.

This one’s a card, lol:-)

Hope you’re having a good week and enjoying the Autumn days.  Seems strange to have such a sudden change, doesn’t it?  Not that we’ve had much other than rain for the past four months up here, but that’s what you get for living here.

Be back soon and will be visiting when I get chance.

Be good!

xxx

I had to catch up on my journalling mingle – only 2 weeks late, oops – but I need to make my September pages, too, so out came the inks, pens and stamps – reluctantly, I have to add because there seems to be so many other things going on at the moment – most of them inside my head...

Anyway, before I show you my journalling I’ll show you the cards I haven’t yet shared, before I forget. 

Two more clean and simple cards that I needed quickly.

A cutesy ‘change of character’ card.

Another cutesy image, but it’s on one of my favourite background pieces and I really quite like Tatty Button and have a few of her.

One of my favourite old PSX word stamps…

… and finally, the pages I just finished.  I started off with a totally different theme, but I’m afraid that this is what my pages became – from the heart, although it’s not so much Paris as France itself and everything linked which tugs at my heart strings – always the same, but this time more deeply than ever for some reason and I genuinely feel torn in two.  

I hope Sandra likes the pages – the poor girl has waited long enough for them and I feel BAD about that!  Sorry, Sandra :-(

Art Journal Journey’s challenge for September is

FACES

so this is my entry.

I’m still in the middle of journalling and still have cards to share, so I’ll be back in the near future.  I must take advantage of this free time before I have to start working again, but I seem to have so much to do and there’s so much I want to fit in.

Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comments.  A warm welcome to my newest followers – I’ll be around to visit sometime soon if I haven’t already – thank you for following – I’ll try to get back to my regular pattern of creating a bit more soon!  

Have a great weekend all!

xxx

Yoohoo! I’m back and have been for ten days, but to be honest, I just haven’t wanted to stamp too much at all.  It hasn’t been very sunny here in the North West, so I can’t even blame the Summer but I seem to have had lots of long phone calls, lots of appointments, birthdays and other things, not to mention a feeling of loss, having left my favourite country again and my most precious friend!   Anyway, today I stamped, albeit very briefly :-)

It’s a very simple black and white card but I like this stamp a lot and I always like to work in simple black and white until I’m in the mood for playing again – it seems to kickstart my creative juices, somehow.

I found a few cards I hadn’t blogged before I left, so I’ll be uploading those in the next few days and I have two journal pages to do ASAP for August – I’m behind again in the mingle we’re doing – oops!  I’ll need to do my September pages, then, so I really, really NEED to stamp…

I had a wonderful time with my friends in the fantastic French countryside, which I have grown to love so much. Cathy and I did some visiting and travelling around this time, which was fun and I got to see all the family again. 

But there were also a couple of mishaps.  The biggie was that I lost my camera on the Metro – and two lenses - one of which was a very expensive zoom/macro lens, so I spent a day in tears, but hey ho – it could have been much worse?  It did rather spoil my day in Paris, though.

The camera was an old one and although precious to me, for various reasons, wouldn’t be to others – I really loved it and have had some great times with it, but it’s the lens I’m going to miss the most… no more birding or countryside photos until I can save up for a new one and that won’t be until I’m working again.  Then, by the time I’m paid, Christmas will be almost here and my new Granddaughter will have arrived (God willing), so it will have to wait until the New Year at the earliest!

Anyway, here’s another card I made just before I left, when messing around with scraps of vellum.

I’ll be round to visit my regulars as soon as I get more time.

Have a great day!

xxx

******Take Flight******

is the theme of the new Sir Stampalot Challenge and here’s something I’ve had in my mind all week – didn’t quite end up the way I planned, but it was good to play and I like the fact that there’s much more ‘white space’ than usual.  This was a personal statement or ‘affirmation’ for me and that needed to be stronger than the background.

I started with my three favourite Pigment inks on the right hand side, then finished off with a touch of Lemonade (or whatever it’s called) from the Spring Distress inks and did the left hand page with that and the other two DIs.  I love, love, LOVE this colour combo :-)  Just wish the DIs were permanent …  Oh, I also used a bit of Evergreen Bough because I love it, but it seemed really deep on this paper.  Amazing what a difference the paper/card itself can make to the end result.  (Just re-read that and thought ‘duh’ – what a daft thing to say … but I hope you knew what I meant).

An old PSX stamp and one of my all-time favourites.

The die I used for the mask is from SU.

This is for the Sir Stampalot Challenge, as above and for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, which is ‘What do you say?’

I’ll try to get back before I leave on Wednesday, although my calendar is rapidly filling up and I haven’t even thought about packing, etc, yet… not to mention last minutes shopping, no dry weather for washing and having to say goodbye to Dad because he’ll be going back to New Zealand next week!  I do have a few other bits and bobs to blog, though.

See you soon and have a great week!

xxx

Just been messing – started off dark, then went much lighter because I was making a card, then I started adding more and more and it got dark again – oops – and it became a journal page…!

Anyway, can you tell me how mad a hatter is? 

And who decides whether a hatter is mad or not?

Do hatters still exist?

Are hatters hes or shes?

And, in the great scheme of things…

Do hatters really matter?????

PS The colours were supposed to NOT match… ie clash - just in case they horrify you….

ADDENDUM

Deb says hatters were ‘mad’ because of the mercury used to process the felt they used, which they inevitably breathed in, while working – thanks for that, Deb!

Enjoy your day!

xxx

The theme at both Fashionable Stamping and  Simon Says Stamp is ‘Anything Goes’, so here’s a card I made for a friend.

It’s ‘raining cats and dogs’ again here and the forecast for the next week isn’t so good, either. Hope you’re seeing more of Summer where you are!

xxx

… quickly, so I chose a simple design, got out some of my solid flower stamps and made these for my students and some of the staff at the place where I’ve been working.  Unfortunately, I’d already sealed a lot of the envelopes before I realised that I ought to scan or get photos, so this is only a small selection.

I’m looking forward to a break in a couple of weeks but before then, I hope to get down to at least a little stamping because, as of this afternoon, I’m OFF for a few weeks and don’t yet know when I’ll be starting again… Unless I find something else in the meantime, I just have to wait for them to contact me when they’re ready.  Pity they don’t pay me for holidays!

Hope Summer has reached you – it’s not sunny here – this IS the North West of England – but it’s HOT and humid, so I’m not complaining; the good thing is, it’s DRY!

This is my entry for Crazy Amigos, which is a ‘FREE THEME’ for Summer and lasts TWO WEEKS until 31st.

Have a good week.

xxx

Just finished two more pages of ‘Things I love’ for the mingle and here they are.

You can zoom in on each one, here, if you like.  The right hand page is darker than I’d have liked, but I like the contrast. 

I’m not sure how much you can see of the pages behind but they’re both stencilled and sprayed and I used Dy’s colour washout technique on the page on the left, so that’s also been spritzed, so I can enter them for this week’s Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge: spritz, spray or stencil.

If you’re one of my regular followers, you may remember me journalling about birds and wellies.  I told my best friend in France (who’s Swiss) about this and look what arrived in the mail this week.

When I was there last year, I spent many enjoyable hours listening to the swallows, watching them feed their young and exercise their wings, ready for the long flight back to Africa. Cathy found this in the local Garden Centre and couldn’t resist sending him to me to persuade me to go back this year, but when my letter arrived, of course she had to make him a raincoat and give him a pair of wellies! He certainly made me giggle!

Here he is without raincoat.

And here he is ‘in situ’ in the STILL pouring rain!!

Welcome to the Great British Summer!

Hope the weather’s better where you are. 

xxx

I decided to play around in my favourite way, using the last two sets of Distress inks, Spring and Summer, with water on glossy card.  There are bits of Resist, bits of text, bits of doodling and lots of fun on this one and I really enjoyed making it.

I probably should have journalled this because I almost finished it off with bit of random doodling of the thoughts in my head, which were all about stepping out of reach of the ‘safety net’ and taking risks…

Anyway, this is my entry for KCUK’s July Challenge, which is Summer Fun and the challenge over at Sir Stampalot is…

‘........ What's your Crafty Passion ? ........’

High on the list of my crafty passions are inky, texty backgrounds, doodling, glossy card and words, so this fits all of those :-)

Have a great week and thank you to all of you who sent me lovely, supportive messages – you know who you are – and you’re VERY much appreciated!

xxx

… ‘tis the stranger from Inky Fingers :-)

Sorry I’ve been so noticeably absent but I just haven’t wanted to stamp or do anything much for a while.  Life happens, hey ho, so I’m trying to get my ‘act together’ at the moment. 

I have been playing a little in my journals, though more off than on and more words than art, as you can see below…

I had fun making colour charts for my Inktense pencils, too, though I’ve yet to do the same on watercolour paper, which I really must do.

I even got as far as going up in my little room and splodging inks but I just didn’t feel like using any of them. When I saw yesterday's date, however, I thought I’d better get my journal pages for the monthly mingle I’m taking part in done, before the month is over. I wasn’t happy with the first two pages, so I’ll put them in my own journal.  Here are the pages I made today.

I did some tidying up of stamps while there, too, though I have a shoe box full of stamps which need cleaning, but I’m hoping to get back in there soon and get back to ‘normality’ – whatever that is…..

Hope to ‘see’ you soon!

xxx