Quothe the raven...

Here's my entry for this weeks Sunday Stamper Challenge, the theme of which is Black, and also the 'Something Completely Different' challenge which is Birds and Arches (thank you for telling me about this Dawn ) . Thanks to Mr Edgar Allen Poe , UTEE, Perfect Pearls and a selection of stamps.



The frame for my Gothic Arch is grungeboard painted black, with some gold and green Perfect Pearls then two coats of UTEE that I have stamped into and dusted with a bit more Gold PP's.
The background is Bundled Sage and Pumice Stone DI's and the raven is stamped in Black Soot with some Pewter Perfect Pearls.



I think I'm gettting addicted to UTEE!!

Neutral Grunge

I thought that a challenge called Show Your Grunge would be right up my street,'cause I love grunge. But, it was so difficult to know what to make and I've had several false starts. Eventually I made this as a gift for a friend whose daughter who is off to study in France.
I started out with a really cheap photo frame from the local pound shop, and then gave it a couple of coats of a paint from a sample pot from B & Q. Next some splodges of Old Paper Distress Crackle paint, which when dry (is it me or does it always seem to take forever), was given a spray of Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist over the whole frame.
The collage is made from one of my favorite Artchix images, that girls expression is great, some of my Lost and Found Stack and some TH tissue tape, plus stamps from the Mini Muse collection.
I don't think I can do grunge without a few flowers, I just love making these, and have quite a stash of them now ready and waiting to go! The ticket and sentiments are from the new TH Odds and Ends collection, and the pin uses that fab Wendy Vecchi idea of filling in with Glossy Accents.

My final little embelishment is a UTEE heart coloured with gold embossing powder. I am going to enter this in two Challenges. Simon Says Stamp and Show Your Grunge, and Gingersnap Creations Color Challenge 72, Neutrals and One Color.

Dragonflies and Bats

Here is my entry for this weeks Compedium of Curiosities Challenge Week 15. You'll have to go to page 53 of the C of CC to find out which technique it is. I have to admit it's probably not a technique I would have used if not for the challenge, so thank you Linda.

It's a pretty simple tag this week. Unfortunately my camera is not good enough to show the irridesent effect I managed to produce for the background, which I made using my favourite greens and turquoise colours, plus a tiny bit of copper ink. The colours brought to mind the shimmeryness (is that a word ??) of insects, so I had a quick rummage through my stamp drawer for this Stampers Anonymous Dragonfly. ( I'm rather partial to dragonflies as we get a lot of them in our garden during the day. At dusk they disappear, only to be replaced by loads of bats zooming all over the place and driving my kitties wild!!!). The tiny script is from an Artistic Outpost set of stamps. To finish my tag I found a little bit of shimmery chiffony material in my scrap bag which seemed to go quite well with the general theme, plus an Ideology corner, and some little black beads at the edge. I've really enjoyed this technique, the unpredictability of it is quite fun, and I think I'll be experimenting with some different colour combinations.

Blue (and a little bit of red) CCC 14

I seem to be very short of time this week, so I have made a tag which I can enter in the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge and The Sunday Stamper Challenge this week.

The Cof C Challenge is to use masks, and Hels' Challenge is Blue and Red.

I used a Tim Holtz barbed wire mask to create the background for my tag. (On reflection, it is very much in the background, hope thats OK Linda!). The stamps are from the Mini Muse collection, and then I used some of that fabby film strip with some of the tiny pictures from my Lost and Found paper stack. The heart is made from UTEE coloured with Fired Brick Distress Embossing Powder and wrapped with a bit of wire and a bead.

My tag is finished off with some garden twine and a bit of slightly distressed Ideology

I had never used masks before, so it was good to get them out of the packet! I think I 'll have to experiment with them, plus these colours were slightly outside my comfort zone so again a good thing to try out something new.

Woohoo!!!

Not very good week, as my husband has been in hospital since Friday. However yesterday several things happened to cheer me up.
Firstly David is getting better.
Next, I am one of the lucky people to actually get a ticket for one of the Tim Holtz Paper Artsy days next Feb...... I've started my countdown, and am getting excited just typing this.
And then success in two challenges that I entered last week.
Things are definitely looking up.
I hope I'll start to feel that I need to get some inky, stampy stuff out again soon.

Vintage Blooms

Here is my entry for this weeks Compendium of Curiosities Challenge N0. 13.
I think that Grungepaper flowers are one of my favorite techniques from the book, and I really enjoyed trying to recreate a shabby vintage look.

I started off with a chipboard base that I covered with some paper from my Shabby Vintage paper stack, sanded and then inked the edges with Brushed Corduroy DI. Next some small flourishes from Artistic Outpost were stamped around the edge. The mother and daughter photo is from Artchix, framed by a slightly distressed Ornate Bookplate, and filled with Glossy Accents. The only lace I could find was far too white, so was dunked in some tea, to give it an aged look.

The Grungepaper flowers are made according to the wonderful Mr Holtz's instructions on page 65 of the Curious Compendium. I used some collage papers from Artchix to cover the Grungepaper and cut out using a Tattered Florals die. I just love making flowers, and now have quite a few extra petals which have joined my Wendy Vecchi flowers from last week in their own little box for another day!

A Bit of Everything (GC67 Go 3D)

Well not quite, but I have tried to include my favorite messy arty things to do.

I'm going to enter this in the Sunday Stamper and Gingersnap Creations GC67 Go 3D.

This little thingy kind of evolved as it went along and I thought of more things I liked.

I started off with a small collage frame, and then embossed some metal which I then sploshed with aqua and lettuce alcohol inks, and aged with a bit of acrylic paint and stuck to the frame. I then used Viva Terra to lightly cover the rest of the frame. and stamped into it using a Paper Artsy small script stamp, added some texture with my fingers and dried getting some little bobbles and blobs in some areas. Once dry Pool acrylic paint was applied over the text, followed by a couple of layers of a paint sampler from B&Q. Next I just lightly dabbed the bobbly bits with some Pool acrylic and some Inka Gold.

I stuck some sticky back canvas on to mountboard, and inked with Tumbled Glass and Peeled Paint DIs for the central image which is a Paper Artsy Hotpick that I seem to use a lot. Next comes my recycling. The birds nest is made from the gold netting that came from a pretty decent Rioja that we had with dinner the other night! I tried to age it a bit with some acrylic paint, but it's still a bit shinier than I'd really like. The egg is a UTEE bead that I made ages ago that I knew would come in handy one day.

The words are stamped onto metal that has had the same alcohol ink treatment, and , finally, because I love all things Ideology, there is a little bird coming in to land. Again it's had the aging treatment with some paint and a bit of Inka Gold.

It's been a nice messy way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon.

The Hat Lady

After a fabby day at Wendys Stamp Attic in Wantage yesterday, having a gloriously inky time with the lovely Hels who is a fantastic teacher, plus Val, Brenda, Sue and Annette,I couldn't wait to get out pretty much all of my Distress Inks, plus try out my new Studio 490 Stamps.


I had been thinking about this weeks CCC and thought a few chipped enamel flowers would be just the biz on Gertrudes hat. Actually I got a bit carried away making flowers and now have a little box with about 10 more in, but I'm sure I'll find a use for them. Anyway here is my entry for this weeks challenge. Plus I think I've got enough layers here to enter the Simon Says challenge.
Here is my handsome boy Ding Ding (short for Schroedinger) giving me a helping paw with some leaves! I had a bit of trouble knowing how long to heat the Distress Embossing Powder for, I just can't really tell when it's ready, so it was all a bit hit and miss, but looks distressed anyway.

Can't wait now for my next inky playday on September the 11th, a Studio 490 Disc-O!