Friday, October 31, 2014

Winnie & Walter October Release Guest Star Day 4

Have you been enjoying Winnie & Walter's October Release so far?  I certainly have ;)  I've got some more Creative Screenings goodness for you today.



The background for this first card is from my Gelli Plate stash, made with lace and bubble wrap.  I stencilled some translucent lime acrylic paint through the flower and leaf stencils in Duo: The Big, The Bold and Extras, then dropped in the line detail flower and stencilled some translucent green.  See how you still get the original pattern showing through the translucent paint layers?  I sponged the centre with black acrylic paint.  I drew round the images with a black Gelato stick and smudged the colour in with my finger, and added some white dotted lines with a Uniball Signo white gel pen, and finished it off with a sentiment from Winter Woodland - not just for Christmas ;)


For this second card, I brayered a piece of white card with pink and blue acrylic paints then placed the love screening from The Big, The Bold and Happy Creative Screenings in the lower left and sponged over it with turquoise and lime translucent acrylics.  Then I stencilled the rose from Duo: The Big, The Bold and Extras with pink acrylic paint, dropped the line detail inlay in and added darker pink.  I drew the stalk and leaf with a green Gelato stick and smudged the colour in, glued on a torn strip of patterned tissue paper and added white highlighting with a Uniball Signo white gel pen.  I'd cut the panel to an angle, and was deciding how to mat it with black card, and ended up offsetting the black card - gives it a sort of optical illusion.


For my last card I've used 'congrats' from The Big, The Bold and You Creative Screenings.  I inked the back of the word with Distress Inks, spritzed and pressed it down onto the card, cleaning, re-inking, re-spritzing and re-pressing.  You do get some small splatters of ink when you're placing the screening down, but just go with it and chuck some more splatters on!

Pop on over to Winnie & Walter's blog for inspiration from Julie, Shay, The Talent and Guest Stars, and for the full release later on.

It's appropriate to end on a note of congratulations - huge congrats to Winnie & Walter for a fabulous release of stamps and creative screenings, and thank you so much for letting me play with them :))

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Winnie & Walter October Release Guest Star Day 3


Welcome to Day 3 of Winnie & Walter's October Release.  For my first card, I've gone all sparkly and made my own sparkle embossing paste by adding ultra fine glitter to clear embossing paste.  Using Scenery: Grand Diagonal Creative Screenings, I smeared the paste on to red card and let it dry for 24 hours.  (It doesn't necessarily take that long to dry, but we went out to the cinema and it was too late to play when I got back.)  On a piece of white card, I stamped the evergreen bough and pine cones using Distress Inks, then stamped Merry Christmas (from The Big, The Bold and Merry) in black and red, and embossed with sparkle embossing powder.


For this next card, I brayered a background of lime, turquoise and green acrylic paints, laid the 'peace' and 'joy' from The Big, The Bold and Merry Creative Screenings and brayered over them with cream paint, which leaves a ghosted image when the screenings are removed.  Then I stamped the sentiments from The Big, The Bold and Merry and the holly from Happy Christmas.  I drew some stars using Scenery: Big Bang Classic Star Creative Screenings with a Sakura Jelly Roll Stardust pen.

You see different things from different angles with this card:  from one angle the ghosted sentiment is clearer, from the other angle the stars are clearer.


I also made a couple of tags using Scenery: Flash Creative Screenings.  I applied Distress Inks to the stencil, spritzed heavily then pressed it down onto card and heat set the ink.  I cut the card into two tags, rounded the top corners, added some torn white card for snow and stamped with images and sentiments from Merry Christmas.



Pop on over to Winnie & Walter's blog for more from Julie, Shay, The Talent and Guest Stars and I'll see you for the grand finale tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Winnie & Walter October Release Guest Star Day 2


Welcome back to Day 2 of Winnie & Walter's fabulous October Release.  My first card uses the Winter Woodland set and Scenery: Big Bang Circle Creative Screenings.  I inked up the large tree with Forest Moss, Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles and Crushed Olive, spritzed it heavily then stamped onto a card panel.  As it lifts, all the ink schlurps around the stamp and gives a wonderful mix of colours.  I tore some paper to use as a mask and sponged the sky/snow line, and stamped the top portion of the tree to make a smaller/distant tree.  The deer was stamped in Memento Espresso Truffle and fussy cut.  The sentiment was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black.  To finish off, I added some snow using clear embossing paste and Scenery: Big Bang Circle Creative Screenings.  Before it dried I sprinkled some ultra fine glitter on the paste, then brushed the excess off once dry.


For my second card, I inked up Mini Scenery: Into The Woods with Chipped Sapphire and Iced Spruce, spritzed it heavily then stamped it onto a tent-fold card.  Once dry, I stamped the sentiment and deer from Winter Wonderland in Versafine Onyx Black.  At the top of the card I stencilled some stars with Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen using Scenery: Big Bang Sci-fi Star.


For this next card I used both sizes of "winter" from The Big, The Bold and Seasons Creative Screenings.  I just held mine down on the card while I sponged Tumbled Glass and Iced Spruce Distress Inks around one end, then held the other end down and repeated the process.  I flicked some water over, then stamped some snowflakes from Scenery: Big Bang Flurries with Memento Summer Sky.  Merry Christmas is from Winter Woodland, and the the text across the bottom is from a set you will see tomorrow (apart from "and all" which is from The Big, The Bold and You).

To finish off, here's a little tag made using Duo: Flash Creative Screenings and the sentiment from Winter Woodland.


Pop on over to Winnie & Walter's blog to see what Julie, Shay, the Talent and Guest Stars have created, and I hope to see you back here tomorrow for more Winnie & Walter goodness.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Winnie & Walter October Release Guest Star


I'm thrilled to be taking part in Winnie & Walter's October Release for the next four days.  Along with fabulous new stamps, Winnie & Walter have brought out a fabulous new product, Creative Screenings, and I get to play with them.  Yay!!

My first card uses Scenery: V for CheVron Creative Screenings, which coordinates with the Scenery: V for CheVron stamp set.

I sponged Tumbled Glass, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves and Chipped Sapphire through the various cheVrons, adding black fineliner to the larger cheVron pattern, then stamped the sentiment from The Big, The Bold and The Happy in Versafine Onyx Black.  Using black acrylic paint, I made some marks with a bottle top.  Oh, and I added some splatters (of course!).



This second card uses Scenery: Persuasion Script Creative Screenings, and Duo: The Big, The bold and Extras.  With Duo Creative Screenings you get the negative image, as in a stencil, and also a positive outline image which can sit inside the negative, which enables you to create dimension and layers.

On spare card I stencilled the rose then placed the positive outline image in the stencil and sponged darker colours to get depth, also adding some shading with coloured pencils. I masked the rose image then stencilled the leaves using both parts of the stencil, then fussy cut the whole thing.  The background panel was made using the Scenery: Persuasion Script Creative Screenings.  The sentiment is from The Big, The Bold and The Happy.

I also get to play with some of the new stamps too.


The fireplace is made using Scenery: Rectangled Creative Screenings and Distress Inks.  I cut out the centre section and on a separate piece of black card I stamped the sentiment from Eat Drink Gingerbread Man in Versamark and white-embossed it and added it behind the fireplace.  I stamped the gingerbread men on kraft card in Versamark and white-embossed them, fussy cut them, then joined them together with mini brads (I knew they'd come into their own again one day!).

Pop on over to Winnie & Walter's blog to see fabulous inspiration from Julie, Shay and The Talent and Guest Stars, and pop back tomorrow for more creative goodness.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been?

I've been up to London to visit the Queen.
Pussycat, Pussycat, what did you there?
Quite a lot in two days, actually.

But before I tell you about that, I just want to say a huge thank you to Maria for organising a linky birthday party for me, and for your cards and good wishes.  I'm going to enjoy catching up with you over the next few days.

So here's why you've not heard from me for a couple of days.  The Tower of London as you've never seen it before.  A sea of poppies (and a sea of people - I've never known it so busy).  Each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies in the Blood Swept Lands And Seas of Red installation represents a British military fatality during WW1.




The poppies are being sold off after Remembrance Day, and one of them is my birthday present from my sister. I think it's that one third from the left, front row ;)

HMS President (now a bar/function venue) painted in Dazzle Painting camouflage
Arts and crafts at Gabriel's Wharf
The Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)
Take a seat
New shoes, anyone?
Ardyth, I saw this and thought of you ;)

I ignored that luscious-looking carrot cake on the right and went for an Oxford Mess.  Fabulous!

See you soon!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Halloween - Or Not. 12 Tags of 2014


Well, I nearly didn't make this month's tag.  Halloween doesn't feature in my life.  So: no Halloween stamps, stencils or stickers, no bones but also no Distress Spray Stains, no monocle, no tinsel twine, no swivel clasp.   Time to improvise.

Here's Tim's inspiration:


Here's my improvisation.

Tim's Halloween stencil: I used the alphabet stencil.
Tim's mask material: I masked with copy paper.
Tim's texture paste: I used Polyfilla (spackle).
Tim's Distress Spray Stains: I smudged on Distress Ink minis and spritzed.
Tim's Distress Spray Metallic Stain: I diluted Brushed Pewter Distress Paint into a water mister.
Tim's alpha chips: I stamped the 13 red.
Tim's tinsel twine: I used black velvet ribbon.
Tim's monocle: I stamped a clock.
Tim's swivel clasp: I dyed some chain-looking ribbon with Black Soot.
Tim's bones: pass!

I'm quite pleased that I managed to use most of the techniques and got the overall effect, even though it's not necessarily Halloween.  But that's fine by me ;)

I'm also entering this into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.



Thursday, October 23, 2014

Seize The Birthday - Washi Tape


It's time for a new challenge at Seize The Birthday, and for this challenge you have the option of using washi tape.


The coloured background was made by applying Distress Inks to an acrylic block, spritzing, stamping, re-inking, etc.  The happy birthday sentiment is from STAMPlorations, and all the other grunge marks are one stamp from Magenta.

So come and join us.  If you don't want to use washi tape you can still play along with any birthday project.

I'm entering my card into Simon Says Monday Challenge, Anything Goes.


Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Happy Birthday, Debra!


Here's a card to wish my STAMPlorations teamie, Debra, a very happy birthday.  Debra makes the most wonderful CAS cards, with beautifully neat colouring (unlike me - I just slosh it on and splatter).  Pop over to STAMPlorations for more birthday cards from the team.

Hope your day is filled with wonderful things, Debra!

I'm entering this card into Simon Says Monday Challenge, Anything Goes


************


I'm over at STAMPlorations tonight with a spotlight feature.  Pop over later and have a look.

Here's a sneak peek:


Monday, October 20, 2014

STAMPlorations Sketch #22


Sketch time at STAMPlorations, folks.  I've hardly stretched the sketch at all, just moved the sentiment down a little.  I've used the new set, Joyful.  I stamped the gift in Antique Linen, then sloshed some Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord.


Check out what our Guest Designer, Leslie of The Crooked Stamper, and the rest of the design team have made, and join in the fun for a chance to win.

Don't forget, if you use STAMPlorations stamps on your project, you can also enter it into our ongoing Anything Goes Challenge.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Harlequins and Sunflowers


I'm playing along with The Card Concept where this is the inspiration:

Today, I'm freestyle collage.  The background is Cakewalk by October Afternoon.  I inked it with Black Soot Distress Ink then spritzed before stamping.  The sunflowers (STAMPlorations) are stamped and fussy cut.  The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

Friday, October 17, 2014

A Reject - From All Of Us


A quick non-Halloween card from me for the challenge at Simon Says Wednesday colour challenge:


And also for Bizzy Becs October Challenge, Anything Goes:


This card was a reject for a magazine submission, but it still gets my vote ;)

Monday, October 13, 2014

Autumn Walk


Been playing with my new Bee's Knees stamp set again for a few challenges.  Firstly, The Paper Players, where there's a colour challenge:


And TIME OUT, where we're to CASE this card by the fabulous Heather T, with a twist:


My twist is just a few background leaves on an otherwise monochrome panel.

And I'm also playing at Simon Says Monday Challenge, the letter 'O'.  My 'O' is using my own stamps :)


Stamps: The Bee's Knees - City Girl

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Watercolour Daisies


When I saw the Fusion inspiration, I had to play along.  I stamped the Bloom Sketches: Daisy 2 in Antique Linen Distress Ink onto mixed media paper, then wet all around the daisies and dropped in Dusty Concord and Crushed Olive, letting it bleed in some places.

Also entering it into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Use Watercolour.


Saturday, October 11, 2014

Minimalist Rosebud


This is probably the most CAS card I've done in a while!  I wanted to play along with The Card Concept, where the challenge is orange, black and white.  (OK, so a teensy bit of green found its way on there, but don't tell anyone!)


I stamped the rosebud and sentiment onto a card panel, then added a strip of washi onto a card and mounted the panel on top.  So I know what I am, I'm clean and layered!  I used Ripe Persimmon on the rosebud, although it looks more peachy because it's watered down.

I'm also entering this into Virginia' View, Clean and Simple.