PaperArtsy Blog Challenge with inspiration from Penny Nuttall

Goodmorning Everyone .....

.... and I hope you're all having a lovely Sunday.   I gather from my friends' tweets this morning that not everyone in the UK has had the sun that I woke up to and it keeps going cloudy here but I don't really mind because it means my craftroom goes down to a bearable temperature, lol! Crafting this week and most other things too have been on a very slow burner because heat makes me sooooo lethargic (and grumpy to be honest).

Anyway, over on the PaperArtsy blog this week we have been treated to some fabulous and very varied projects again and the returning principal designer for the week was Penny Nuttall. I really loved her first project which you can see HERE so once I summoned the energy to face the heat I decided to have a go at a scaled down version.  I have to admit my project has lost something 'in translation' because I gave my sewing machine to my Daughter two or three years ago after I lost all interest in sewing and it had been gathering dust for about 10 years and my hands are not up to lengthy bouts of hand stitching so I used adhesive for my project ...... definitely looks much better with pretty stitching!

Because I wasn't stitching and my burlap/hessian was very loosely woven and my linen was very fine, I decided to use some card at the back for body so I roughly blended some Distress Inks round the edge first.

I used a couple of pretty wooden beads on each end of my kebab stick and layered strips of co-ordinating ribbon and paper flowers.

 

I had a red chunky heart which was the perfect colour match  so I hung that from the bottom ribbon.

I'm not totally delighted with this little piece purely because of the missing stitching but it was fun and I like the colours which are not my usual go to ones.  I enjoyed doing the stencilling too.

Now I have something special to show you ;D!  This is a pretty bottle decorated with glass paints by my granddaughter Alexa (with help from her lovely stepmum, Yvonne) which she proudly gave to me last Sunday.  Can you see the M for Mamma in the circle?  I love it!

That's it from me today unless by some miracle I manage another PA challenge piece before 5 pm...... which I doubt very much ;-).  See you again soon.

Hugs
Lesley   Xx

PaperArtsy Challenge June 2014 with inspiration from Keren Baker #2

Whoohoo I'm here again!

Mega quick for this one and it was mega quick to make too (apart from a short drying time for the Grunge Paste) but still taking my inspiration from Keren's post HERE on the PaperArtsy blog I've made a second card!

I'm not a big fan of glitter especially the really bright colourful stuff but don't like using it for the common reason of the blasted stuff getting everywhere.  However, I do quite like the look you get with Crystal Glamour Dust which is quite fine........it still gets everywhere though, lol!  Anyway, here's my second card of the evening (er, it's now Sunday morning but I've been crafting while OH has been winding himself up watching England lose, lol).

You can definitely see the sparkle I added to the Grunge Paste because as it was after midnight when I took the photo I had to use flash ;D!  I used a different Lin Brown for PaperArtsy stencil to the one Keren used but the butterfly is from the same stamp set Keren used and was stamped with embossing ink onto heat resistant acetate, embossed with bright white WOW embossing powder and cut out.  I would have used StazOn as Keren did on her glass but my white StazOn has dried out.  The sentiment is an Inkylicious one.

Right, I'm off to bed or I'll never wake up to go to my Son's for the day!  Night Night all!

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

PaperArtsy Challenge with inspiration from Keren Baker.

Hi Everyone,

At the beginning of this week over on the PaperArtsy blog we were wowed once again by Guest Designer Keren Baker.  I really loved her project this week, the techniques for which were spread over her 3 day spot but as per usual I left myself very short of time so had to make a much less involved project.  I decided to make a card (especially as I need to get a few cards in hand for emergencies ;D) and although I don't suppose I incorporated too many of the techniques Keren demonstrated I definitely took inspiration from her beautiful bright and clean looking project the second part of which you can see HERE.

Short and sweet from me tonight.  Have a good Sunday everyone and Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there.  We're off to our Son and DIL's for dinner today and chance to spend some precious time with our lovely Alexa.  I'm spoilt this week as I got to spend time with Izzy and Charlie at the beginning of the week too!

See you again soon.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Craft Stamping Quartet #3 joins the return!

Hi  folks,

Just to give you a heads up on the Craft Stamping Quartet blog I share with my buddies.  Today Judith has posted her beautiful mini book HERE and she's used lots of my favourite PaperArtsy products as well as taking inspiration from the wonderful Lin Brown.  Please pop over to see her project and leave a little comment if you have time.......you won't be disappointed!

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

PaperArtsy Blog Challenge - inspiration from Linda Cain

Happy Sunday All ,

I hope you've all got the lovely sunshine we have here today.  Actually, I would cheerfully have given most of ours away today as my craftroom has been a boiling 30c+ and I can tell you it is NOT condusive to working with paints and inks!!!

Over on the PaperArtsy Blog this week, as we've come to expect, there has been some amazing inspiration and one evening Linda Cain popped in for a one night stand!  I loved the triptych she did but as usual I spent yesterday faffing about blog hopping, trawling Pinterest and tidying my tip of a craft desk but couldn't settle down to actually make anything.  I was up bright and early (ish) this morning determined to get something done for the challenge and as I didn't have a triptych I decided to just make one piece using my TH/Sizzix cabinet dies and that's when things started to go wrong, lol!

First I forgot to use the magnetic release things you put inside the die shape and wasted a piece of greyboard trying to get it out of the die.  From then on I wanted to more or less follow what Linda had done for her project HERE but the next thing to go wrong was the crackle ..... for the first time my PA crackle paste didn't! Then when I got to doing the different colours on the insert it was so hot in the craftroom that the paint was drying on the Cut n Dry almost before it got to the PA smoothy card and the adhesive holding the two layers of sponge together degraded in the heat to leave me with a sticky mess.  It took me forever till I was reasonably happy. 

Because I had a much smaller stamping area than Linda's piece, I decided not to leave the border but just ran a black Sharpie round the inside of the frame to make the insert pop more.

When it came to the back I did get the usual lovely crackle and I used the cut out from the frame to put on the back.  I edged with a Sharpie again to leave more stamping area but here's where the heat hit again and the first image I stamped kept drying on the stamp before it got to the grayboard.  After 2 ruined attempts and having to paint over it each time, I gave up on the large image I wanted to use and  used a selection of parts of smaller stamps instead.

Phew, I can't believe it's taken me nearly all day to do this, lol!  I need aircon!!!  I'm off to link up to the PaperArtsy blog now and then start preparing dinner.......why on earth did I promise OH a Sunday roast.  Oh, I know why.....it's 'cos I felt guilty because next Sunday I'm gadding off to the StampMagic Show at Doncaster and leaving him to fend for himself, ;D!  Whoohoo, up close and personal time with PaperArtsy goodies!

Till next time, take care!

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

My Friend has been a busy bee........

Hi Everyone,

Just to let you know my lovely friend Elaine, has been busy and finished her mini book for our shared blog project over at Craft Stamping Quartet.  We'd love it if you could pop over to see what she's done ...... it's lovely ...... and leave a little comment if you have time.

Thanks everyone.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Something for the smallest room in the house ...... or on the boat!

Hi Everyone

Are you all starting your long weekend?  For those with young families hoping to get out and about I do hope the weather is better than forecast.  For myself I prefer to stay home at Bank Holidays and avoid the crowded roads but I am looking forward to a little trip to Harrogate on Tuesday to spend time with Jenna and our grandchildren (unfortunately, her OH will be at work).

A few weeks ago I shared an altered mirror HERE that I'd had great fun doing for the PaperArtsy #3UP challenge and in my post I mentioned that the chap who came to install a new radiator commissioned me to make a plaque for his canal long boat along the same lines.  I was quite amused because he wanted it for the outside of the WC door!  It's a good job he's still in the thick of renovating the boat and was in no hurry for the plaque as with my OH ending up with two spells in hospital crafting time was cut even more than usual but I finally finished the piece this morning.

I started with an MDF rectangle plaque (apparently the door is folding so it needs to be this orientation to fit on one of the panels) which I painted with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk paints in Limelight, Guacamole and Eggplant.  I finished the background with a wet wipe to get a streaky effect and did the solid edging with Eggplant topped off with a bit of Treasure Gold in Royal Amethyst & Lilac.  I then stamped the JoFY images with black Archival ink before colouring them with watered down FF paints, adding a few Posca pen white highlights and stencilling the bullrushes/seed pods.

I then painted a sheet of Clearly for Art Whiteout (Wendy Vecchi) with Lilac/Snowflake FF paints and when completely dry stamped a whole load of JoFY flowers, cut them all out and painted each one with Lilac and Eggplant FF and a final coat of PaperArtsy Pearl Glaze.  Once they were all shaped and layered I did my bit of flower arranging and stuck them all down.  The letters WC are also stamped onto CfA Whiteout but this time painted with a mix of Limelight and Guacamole and I finished them off with several coats of PaperArtsy Gloss Glaze.  At this point the letters are not actually stuck down just in case the chap & his wife don't like it ;D!

Well, that's it from me for today.  Thanks for visiting and leaving a much appreciate comment if you have time. 

Hugs

Lesley  Xx