Christmas Wishes at Stamps and Stencils.....

Hi everyone...well I'm late to the party and I apologise to you all. The new challenge at Stamps and Stencils has started and our host this month is the very talented Toni. Without further ado here's what Toni has to say..

Ahhhh! Christmas, like it or lump it, it rolls around every year and seems to arrive faster than ever. If you celebrate Christmas, it's likely that you'll be making cards, gift tags, decorations or even creating your own wrapping paper. My Christmas Wish is to see some of the creative things you are making, in order to spread a little seasonal love to your families and friends. My only request is that you include some stamping or stenciling or even both! 

I decided to create a little window decoration and I've used Tracy Scotts Gothic blooms set. As soon as I saw these stamps I thought they would be perfect to use at Christmas time as well, as they could double as spiky frosted winter  blooms or snowflakes. I thought I'd use a slightly different colour combination just to ring the changes and of course I had to add some bling.

At this time of year we need quick ideas that can be easily replicated, well I certainly do! I used some smoothy stamping card and quickly brushed some fresco paints on to it in bougainvillea, antarctic and tango. Add in some Lindy's stamp gang sprays and splashes and my go to shabby white enamel frantage and wow gold sparkle embossing powder, heat set and it's done. I just wanted splashes of colour and pops of bling.

I stamped lots of images and heat embossed in wow black glint embossing powder, a little fussy cutting later and its ready to be assembled.

The background is a coaster which has been painted gold and then a crackle glaze applied  before applying a coat of antarctic. Let the crackle appear add in some more stamping...love the bubble doodles from the same plate. To finish I added some dots of white enamel accents and frosted lace stickles. I hope you can find a little time to join in our challenge. For more amazing inspiration and  all the details please hop across to see what the rest of the talented DT have created for you. Ruth x

Alcohol Ink tiled frame at PaperArtsy

Hi everyone, welcome to my second post of the day. I'm over at the PaperArtsy blog tonight where I've been playing with alcohol inks and using Darcy's stamps to create a tiled frame for the new challenge theme which is all about 'Alcohol Ink and Pens' Here's a sneaky peek...

hope you'll hop across and see what I've been up to. Thanks for stopping by x

'Cracking Up' at A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone, today I have 2 posts to share with you, first up I'm part of the pinworthy inspiration post over at 'A Vintage Journey' for this months challenge theme which is all about luscious crackle. I decided to use lots of lovely decoart crackle paint to create the texture and used clear crackle on the vial.

To start I used some tissue tape over the edges of the canvas and then gave it a coat of sage fresco paint.

Next I used a palette knife to apply the crackle paint to give fine crazing and large cracks.

Once dry, I applied the burnt umber antiquing cream...

and rubbed it back with a damp wipe.

This is to show the before and afters, some of the embellishments were quite near the bronze colour I was after, but others needed a bit more paint and antiquing.

Lastly assemble it, add a little treasure gold over the embellishments and crackle....

..and a little stamping of fine text around the niche...

I think this shows the lovely variation in crackle

Final close up

I was delighted to be nominated and I want to thank the team for inviting me. I really enjoyed creating this...sometimes things just come together very pleasingly. Hope you get chance to join in and for more inspiration pop across and see what the other pinworthies have created....as always thanks for stopping by x

Tags, Bags and Boxes at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, it's November already and we are fast approaching the festive season. Cec is our talented host for this months challenge and she has kept that in mind with her choice of this months theme.  'With Christmas coming up and the gift buying underway, we are going to need something to wrap them in.  Let's make some mixed media tags, bags and boxes that will be as treasured by the recipient as the gift itself.  Don't forget to include some stamping or stenciling.'

I had a lot of fun with this one and opted for quick and easy techniques that are hopefully effective. It's a photo heavy post as I created variations on the colour theme to include other occasions, hope you enjoy...

I started off altering a small Kraft bag but then decided to decorate a gift envelope and different sized tags for Christmas, a Birthday and as a Thank you.

This is the step by step for 'Thanks'  but I'll explain the variations along the way. Firstly brayer some chalk fresco roughly over the background, it will dry in no time.

Next brayer a little copper, gold and caramel fresco in places.

A few scraps of masking tape and a little stamping in black, sepia and plum archival and the background is created in minutes

I think these colours go so well together.

To finish the bag, I applied some die cut book page leaves and a ready made flower was 'frantaged'... shabby white embossing enamel melted over it.

The sentiment was stamped on painted book text and I added some stamped leaves.

For the envelope I added plum and sepia stamped images, the sentiment embossed in black and wiggly lines around the outside....super quick.

The tags are a mixture of the techniques and stamps already used and sticking to the same colour palette creates cohesion.

Next it's Christmas

A claret fresco paint background, crackle glaze and chalk paint top coat.

A gold snowflake has been 'shabbified'...aged with ink and paint. Stamping in plum archival and white frantage (I know I keep using it but I just love the effect a little sprinkling gives to to a project)

The crackle just transforms the tags

The last one is for a Birthday and is super quick.

The background is just white gesso scraped on with a credit card...

Add a die cut, sentiment and frantage...job done.

The die cut started off as cream paper which had been lightly brayered with paint  and stamped as in the first step. You can see a little of the torn paper added to the bottom of a tag.

The trio displayed in all their glory.

These were all such fun to make and genuinely quick and easy. I now have a lovely stock, especially useful when you are on the last minute...

Hope you'll join in with our challenge and for more inspiration pop across and see what gorgeous makes the talented DT have made. x

Catch up...

Hi everyone, thought I'd squeeze in a post before the end of the month and share a few things that I've made recently. Some items I've already shared peeks of via social media but I'm starting with some encaustic panels I made months ago but realise I hadn't posted yet. I am now wanting to play with wax again...

Pan pastels and wax, I'm so pleased with how this turned out, some dry brushing of coloured wax is then given a top layer of pan pastel through a stencil.

PVA glue through a stencil and burnt, there is a bit of a story to this one revolving around my cooks blow torch being temperamental and it didn't go quite to plan so I decided to finish off with a shellac burn (for explanation of this technique please see links in side bar to previous wax posts)

Stencilling and scoring into wax before dry brushing.

Next I recently attended a Lin Brown workshop which involved lots of painty fabric play and stitching....as always it was brilliant.

 some detail photos

Lastly I attended a France Papillon workshop last year and one of the creations I made was a 'Grimoire' or an ancient book of spells. It's made of handmade papers, book text and maps and I've not wanted to write in it or use it because I've struggled to find something which I think is suitable for it....until now

A scrap piece of book paper which I'd been using to wipe my paint brush seemed perfect for a little snowflake paint as a base to then stamp on.

Lin Brown's new stamps in sepia, some stitching and fragments of heat embossed skeleton leaves  just fitted in perfectly to me.

Thanks for stopping by x

Inspiration Post at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, I have an inspiration post over at Stamps and Stencils today and keeping with the current challenge theme of 'Elements of Nature' I've been playing with skeleton leaves again to create a book....so this book has leaves inside and out! Here's a sneaky peek, please hop over to the blog for all the details.

Thanks for stopping by x

Elements of Nature at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, 'Elements of Nature' is our next challenge over at Stamps and Stencils this month. Autumn is our talented host this time around and here's how she describes her challenge. Whether you are inspired by the glorious world around us with the changing seasons, or tempted to use elements of nature in your art work, this month we'd love to see your nature inspired entries.  Anything goes as long as you include a natural element in your art which can be either stamped or an actual item!  As always you need to include stamping or stenciling.

This is my take on a herbarium - 'a systematically arranged collection of dried plants'...with a good sprinkling of artistic license thrown in!

I started off by removing the glass from a cheap frame from the Range and found some book text paper which just fitted in the background. I used versamark through a stencil and clear embossing powder on the paper. This gives the paper a translucency showing the text on the other side.

I washed a coat of zesty zing fresco paint over it and dried it. The frame was white so I painted it black and heat embossed a leaf image in gold all over it before aging with more black fresco paint and a tickle of treasure gold.

Next I used a leaf stencil with snowflake paint all over the background....

...before 'bump' stencilling in shades of green over the same area.

Next a walk with the dog to pick some seedheads from a plant that I know as cow parsley (not to be confused with hemlock, which does look similar). Colour them with gold sprays and embossing powder.

To alter the skeleton leaf I stencilled versamark through a stencil before carefully heat embossing in gold. Some white and brown ink splashes to age the piece and stamped identification labels finish this exhibit...

Please hop across and see what the talented team have created and hopefully inspire you to join in with the challenge. As always thanks for stopping by x