Whoohoo! More new PaperArtsy stamp releases!!!

Hello Everyone

Tonight I've been thrilled to act as one of Elizabeth Borer's wingmen for the release of her new stamp designs for PaperArtsy.  It's been sooooo difficult keeping these under wraps for what seems like months as most of the other PA designers revealed their gorgeous stamps nearly 3 weeks ago.  Well, we're off and running now so if you've come here first do hop over to the fabulous PaperArtsy Blog to see the stamps in all their glory and the stunning projects created by Elizabeth and my partners in crime (the other wingmen, lol).

As promised on the PA post I'll be sharing more details about each of the projects I created here but so as not to send you to sleep I'll do two per post over the next few days. 

When I first saw the beautiful Morning Glory spray design my first thought was of chintzy wallpaper and fabric with that slightly faded look.  It reminds me of the lovely wallpaper in my Grandmum's bedrooms when I was a little girl even though they were probably roses, lol!

Using a clean wet wipe for each colour I created a deliberately steaky blended background of Vanilla and Blush Fresco Finish Chalk Paints with tiny touches of Plum.  It was a tad too bright so I toned it down with a few smears of Chalk FF and then edged the square with a co-ordinating plum pencil.

I then stamped the spray design from EEB07 using Black Archival ink onto the prepared square and again onto old bookpages.  I painted the flowers with Fresco Finish, fussy cut them and stuck them over the main image. 

I painted the leaves directly onto the main card image.

I then stamped out several of the small flowers from EEB08 onto card and coloured them with Derwent Coloursoft pencils before cutting them out and brayered a small piece of card with Vanilla FF, stamped the quote, trimmed it and edged with the plum pencil.

Although I don't think you can see it in the photos I also stamped the lovely flourish from EEB07 onto the background using Vanilla FF before adhering it to my card base and then arranging the quote and small flowers in the bottom left. 

Now on to card #2

I loved this double bloom image from EEB08 (mind you, I loved every single image on these new sets, lol) and decided I would like to do this on Stampbord.  These images are perfect if you like spending time adding detail with colouring and in this case, etching.  I find both very relaxing.

I again started with a square of PA smoothy card and using a piece of Cut n Dry foam I blended Blush, Vanilla and Chalk Fresco Finish paints until I was happy with the background.

I then randomly stamped the beautiful flourish using Versamark Ink and embossed with gold embossing powder.  I also gold embossed around the edges and then stuck the square to my basecard.

I then blended the same paints onto 3 Stampbord tiles, taped them together at the back and stamped the double bloom image with Archival ink.

I painted the image with FF and then added more detail with the etching.  To finish the tiles I added the same gold embossing to the edges to tie it in with the background piece.

I used Heavy Gel Medium to adhere the Stampbord tiles to the card as it allows you to move them about slightly to get the positioning perfect and once dry it's very strong.

So there you have my first two designs which I hope you enjoyed but please don't forget to visit the PaperArtsy Blog as I am sure my fellow wingmen with have some wonderful inspiration for you.  (As I am scheduling this post I haven't seen their makes so I'm really excited to see what they have done.  I'm sure there will be lots of variation.

I hope you can pop back on Sunday when I'll give you the step by steps of my other two designs.  In any case, thanks for your visit today.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Whoohoo!!!! I have something to blog and it fits a challenge!

Hello lovely visitors,

Well, are you all ready for Christmas?  Actually, never mind ready, have you made all your cards?  You have!  Er........ well, you're 100% better than me because I've only made TWO and confess I've had to resort to (whisper) buying mine this year.  I'm not going to beat myself up about it though because I really have had a lot on my plate this year and if it wasn't my time flying out the window it was my mojo, lol!  Never mind, it'll soon be a brand new year and I am determined to believe 2013 will be better, as far as crafting is concerned anyway.

However,  today I have got a make to show you.  It was my lovely buddy (and wonderful crafter), Judith's birthday at the end of last week and I struggled all week to make her a card and I'm sorry to say, I had to send her an apologetic message saying it was going to be late.  Late!  It nearly didn't get made at all but I was determined so I stuck at it until I got something I was relatively happy with and Judith finally got her card yesterday. 

 Unfortunately, I really struggled to capture the true colours of this card on my photos.  On here it looks a tad too blue and as I used Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress Inks, you'll know it should look more turquoise(y).

I started out with a 21cm square card base and stamped an Artemio wildflower image at random with Versamark ink, heat embossed with clear embossing powder and then blended the two Distress Inks mentioned together with Vintage Photo.  When I had the effect I wanted I covered the card with paper kitchen towel and ironed over the top to remove the embossing.

I then took a large tag, spritzed it with water and then put some Tumbled Glass and Picket Fence Distress Stain on my craft mat, spritzed that with water and swiped my tag through it.  I repeated this several times, drying with my heat gun between each layer and finally flicking some water from my fingers and blotting it off to create the bleached effect here and there.  I then stamped images from PaperArtsy and Indigoblu using Distress Inks and Coffee Archival, spritzed with Gold Glimmer Mist and then edged with Vintage Photo DI.  I used a mask at the top of the tag and applied Golden Texture Paste coloured with a little Broken China DI through the mask.  I left it to cure overnight and then touched it with Viva Inca Gold to highlight the texture.

(this photo shows the nearest to true colours)

I stamped the lovely Stampendous bird image onto ivory card and added the word Dream which is a Chocolate Baroque stamp.  I coloured with DIs and added a little Derwent Coloursoft pencil before cutting out with a Nestie label and lightly blended DI's around the edge before removing the die.  I took some Prima flowers and touched them lightly with DI's and spritzed with Gold GM's.  I also die cut the leafy sprays with a Marianne die from some fibrous handmade paper.   I arranged all the elements onto the card before adhering them.  Oooh, nearly forgot the cute little wooden bird.  He came from The Stamp Connection and I tapped him with the Versamark inkpad before sprinkling him with Judi-Kins Rustique Bent Nail embossing powder (from my lovely candy win the other week).

I'm so glad I persevered because in the end I was quite pleased with this card and Judith said she liked it too.  Not only that, I realised that it fits with Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers Challenge 234 this week where the theme is tags!  I hardly ever enter challenges because I forget to look if my project fits any themes, lol, so I'm really pleased that finally I have an entry for Hels' Challenge which I've wanted to join in with for an absolute age.

Well I hope you're all set for a good weekend.  I'm finally putting our tree up tomorrow, something else that is a week late being done, ;D.  Stay warm and cosy everyone.  I'm dreading the temperatures we are supposed to have in store for us next week, Brrrr!  Till next time ..............

Hugs

Lesley  Xx