Penny Black meets Infusions

Hi Everyone,

I'm a bit late posting tonight but I forgot to do this earlier as I had a house full of men today 😉!  We changed our media supplier back to Sky and although it's changed in the fifteen months since we left so far we are glad to be back.  It was quite funny having our fairly small lounge overrun with two Sky engineers, one Openreach engineer and one OpenReach guy to test the fibre optic connection but they did a grand job.  I can't believe how slow our VM internet was compared to this.

Anyway, onto the crafting.... Monday was my friend Helen's birthday and I'm sharing the card I made for her.

Last month I was really chuffed to be chosen the winner of the Stamping Sensations Challenge and my prize was a set of Couture Creations Mariposa Dies, well, three sets really and this is my first make with one of the sets.  It's a bit of a puzzle placing the dies (it take 8 to cut this design) inside each other but I think it's worth it once I got the hang of it.

I have never used this type of design where the diecut is the principal part of the card,  I'm more into my inks and painty backgrounds so true to form I stuck the pretty diecut ontop of a layer of lovely PaperArtsy Infusion background card I  had made previously.  The diecut is from pearlescent card and I stuck a few sparkly embellishments on, layered onto a co-ordinating matt and finally onto the card blank.

I couldn't have a card without stamping somewhere though so I stamped the sentiment on the inside front and on the inside back I used my gorgeous new Penny Black stamp again (see my previous post for simple stamping of it).  I used a technique with Infusions that Courtney (Leandra and Mark's daughter from PaperArtsy) taught at a Make n Take at Ally Pally in April.  You use your finger dipped into Infusions to apply them direct to your stamp which means you can select specific colours for specific areas, then spritz the stamp with water until it beads and stamp onto your surface.  It gives a lovely watercolour effect  and you can stamp several times with the same application.  The stamping in top right and bottom left corners was after I respritzed the stamp so the definition was going but still a nice effect.

To finish I overstamped with Black Archival Ink at which point I thought I'd made a mess and ruined the whole card but I left it till the next day and it started to grow on me.  In the end I was quite pleased with the effect.  (Don't forget you can click the pics to enlarge)

That all tonight folks.  See you again soon.....

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

A Birthday and a Bereavement.

Hello everyone

A quick post from me to share a couple of cards I made for recent events, one for a happy birthday and the other, sadly for a close friend whose Mum passed away.  These are both quite simple cards but I was particularly pleased with them.

First the birthday card which was for our Son's lovely Mum-in-Law.

It was a difficult card to photograph really to get the fab effect of the butterflies which are cut using a new die I bought recently at the StampMagic show.  There is a background layer created using PaperArtsy Infusions then the diecut layer placed over the top with the wings lifted. The large butterfly is a mini Tim Holtz/Sizzix die cut from the same Infusions background and overstamped with a PaperArtsy Mini script stamp.

 

A different angle to try and show the dimension.  It still doesn't show it too well with being white but the effect is lovely and I was really pleased I'd bought this die from Chloe's stand.  The stamped sentiment is from Chocolate Baroque.

My second card is one of those inevitable ones we crafters wish we did not to have to make but I always try to take extra care to keep them simple and elegant when I do.

This was a simple case of stamping the beautiful Penny Black stamp (another StampMagic purchase this time from Snazzy's) with Watering Can Archival Ink, then the sentiment from Chocolate Baroque and finally layering onto a co-ordinating matt before sticking it to the card base.

 

I absolutely love this elegant stamp and the clever dimensional effect given by the cut of the rubber.  Val, the owner of Snazzy's had two or three other designs in the same range and it was so difficult just choosing one.  I think I might have to have at least one more!  

It has been so hot over the past week making my conservatory craftroom unbearable until too late in the evening for much crafting to be done but we (or might that just be me) are looking forward to a much cooler weekend so I'm hoping to have some playtime this weekend.

Thanks for dropping by and until next time........

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

I said I'd be back!

Hello Again,

For my second post today I am sharing a postcard created for one of the other swaps this month in UK Stampers Forum.  This time the theme is numbers.

I've used PaperArtsy stamps throughout on this piece, mainly HotPicks sets.  I stamped the main image (affectionately known as Shrek Girl amongst PaperArtsy fans) and then created a mask to cover her while I blended Distress Oxides and did all the random stamping on the background.

When I removed the masks I decided not to add much colour to Shrek Girl as I liked the way she popped from the background so I just coloured little bits and then added Glossy Accents to her heart.  

And speaking of hearts..... when I'd finished this piece I realised it fits the fab Country View Crafts challenge again so I'm off to link it up. 

It might be next week before I'm back again so I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

This time it's ATCs!

Morning all,

The weather has cooled down a little from a couple of days ago....much more my comfort zone now 😉 but it's set to rise considerably again for the weekend so I will probably be complaining, lol!

My first post this morning (amazingly I have another one to follow) is to share the ATCs I have created for this month's UK Stampers Forum swap (Facebook group).  If you're interested this is becoming a very popular group run by Sid Hazelden.  There is lots of varied inspiration with friendly members and Sid kindly organises several swaps every month which I'm really enjoying so look it up on Facebook if you're interested in that kind of thing.  It says UK but I think there are international members too.

The theme for this month's ATCs is 'Anything Goes' so I created three totally different ones.

 I used different background techniques and products and different stamp manufacturers for each one.

 This one turned out to be my favourite and its a stamp by Artistic Outposts.  I laid down random colours of water soluble crayons then covered them with PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze and finally a mix of two slightly different shades of green Fresco Finish.  I was rushing the layers a bit because my conservatory craftroom gets so hot everything dries before I can apply them and I don't think I put enough crackle glaze on so only got a few crackles here and there but I think it was for the best in this instance.  Finished off with a little highlighting in red.

This one has a spritzed background of Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays.  The image is from one of the newest Lynne Perrella sets from PaperArtsy stamped with black Archival ink.  I then added London Bus and White Fire highlights using PaperArtsy Frescos and painted the face.  This ended up heavier than I wanted because again, it was drying too fast for me to blend it properly but it didn't look too bad in the end.
 

The final one is Distress Oxide ink squished on my craft mat, spritzed with water and then the card dipped into it.  I stamped the clouds then used a water brush to remove some of the colour.  I did the rest of the stamping, added colour to the ladder and bird and finished off with painting the clouds with glitter gloss.  EDIT :  I forgot to say the stamps are from Tracey Easson's Wonky Tonk collection.

Once again a fun swap to enter and I love waiting for my swaps to arrive each month.

I'll be back shortly with another post.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

I got off to a slow start.......

but I'm up and running again now for June!

Hello everyone,

After doing so well up to the middle of May I disappeared. lol, but some of that was down to family time over half term holidays etc.  I have made several items but either can't blog them yet or I haven't had time but finally tonight I can share a tag I've made for the UK Stampers Forum (Facebook group) June swap.  The theme this month is anything goes which is handy because I've managed to make it fit a some challenges.

I started off with a large manilla tag and layed down several layers of Fresco Finish Acrylic paints very randomly using my small brayer.  I used 3 shades of grey plus a light layer of lilac.  When I was happy with the painty layers I mixed some PaperArtsy Violetta Infusions with a dollop of Finnabair modelling paste and applied it through a heart stencil.

I then did some light stamping on the background using Emma Godrey and Darcy stamps (both for PaperArtsy) and then stamped the quote from Darcy's set with black Archival ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

Finally I diecut a scribbly heart from a piece of Infusions treated card using a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die, stuck it to the tag, edged the whole thing with black and added some ribbon.  I keep looking at the tag now and thinking it's not quite finished and I think it needs another diecut heart.  I'll have a go tomorrow and if I decide to add another one I'll edit the pics.

I'd like to enter this tag into the following lovely challenges...

 http://stampsandstencils.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/words-with-meaning.html

http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/june-2017-hearts.html

I hope to be back with you by the weekend with another challenge entry 😉.  In the meantime I hope you all have a good week.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx