Sunny days

I've been given a beautiful new stamp set this week by my lovely Mum. The set is called 'Tuscany' by Hobby Art but reminded me straight away of beautiful sunny holidays spent in France. It was the perfect thing for my in-laws anniversary as they are fond of sunny European holidays (who isn't??!)

I stamped the 'view' first on to watercolour paper and then painted with my watercolours. On a separate card blank I stamped the wine and sunflowers using a mask to overlap them. I trimmed an aperture in the card using a craft knife and steel edge ruler. I used a stamp from the hobby art textures set around the frame in versa colour sand beige and then inked over the top with the same ink and some DI ground espresso.

Finally I made the little coordinating tag and added some twine and gold ribbon. I mounted the watercolour scene inside the aperture with 3D foam tape.

Thanks for visiting today, please do leave a comment so I know you have stopped by! Lou x

Challenges;
SSS Work it Wednesday - Sun (I used sunflowers and sunny holidays as my inspiration)
Stamping sensations - Anything goes
SSS Wednesday - Anything goes
Penny Black at allsorts - Anything goes
Crafty Ribbons - Flowers

A is for...

This fortnight at the Craft Barn we have come round to the letter A. Quite a hefty chunk in the dictionary but I was quite quickly drawn to my chosen word, so this week A is for...

Acorn

I got messy with acrylics to make the background and painted the set of oak leaves on to tissue before adhering it to the page. Then I used Tim Holtz autumn gatherings die and a selection of papers to create the scattered boarder. Finally I stamped the sentiment using Hero Arts alphabet stamps. 

I'm also linking this in to the craft barn's 'two paper' challenge, assuming two is the minimum number of papers allowed and I haven't broken the rules by using more than two?!

Thanks for calling by! Lou x

Pop art?

Being a little short on card making time at the moment I've had a go at combining a few challenges in this one card. Little Claires theme is Butterflies - that's straight forward enough. At Simon Wednesday the theme is 'Fun with Felt' so I used a felt butterfly by do-crafts. Simon Monday have the theme 'Make a wish' so I used craftwork cards birthday wishes sentiment stamps. AAA cards are celebrating their 2nd birthday, so this is the birthday card for them. Finally Less is More have the theme of 'things that pop or bang'.... can you guess? I used bubble wrap stuck around my acrylic block to make the background! It's my favourite thing that 'pop's' after all :)

Thanks for stopping by! Lou x

It's close to midnight...

That's the song I've had in my head all week since ATCAS announced the theme 'Midnight'. I had to turn to my lovely hobby art owls set for this one (any excuse!)

There was a bit of masking involved, I stamped the owl first, masked it, then stamped the branch and masked that, then finally masked the moon before inking the background. The card is coloured with promarkers and finished with 'starry night' stickles. Well, it seemed appropriate!

I know it's been a tad quiet here in the last week or so but if you call back in the next couple of days I will be doing a big reveal of my newly created 'Craft space on a shoe string!' Yep, I'm moving up in the world from my kitchen table to a corner of the office so there has been a lot of sorting and rearranging. As said, all will be reveled shortly!

Lou x

J is for...

This fortnight the craft barn dictionary challenge had the added twist of a dragonfly. I was concerned that I had included dragonflies just last time on my D page but looking back through the dictionary it turns out I had included them on no less than four other pages! Yep, they are dancing around the frogs on F, fluttering above the lavender fields in L, quietly adding to the background behind the quince in Q, and of course celebrating the dandelions and daisies in D. So really this should have been a doddle!

So, without further ado, this fortnight J is for Jetty

In a moment of curiosity I added a bit of blue liquid pearl to my acrylics to see what would happen. The result was a much better covering disguising the dictionary page but a much harder overall surface to paint on. I'm not much of a painter anyway but this was the only way I could think of to create this page. The dragonflies are the only stamped element on the page and they are a couple of my favourites from crafty individuals.

A quick close up of the definition but for whatever reason it is adamant that it wants to be sideways on!

I'm entering this in to Crafty Individuals anything goes challenge as well as the Craft Barn Dictionary challenge of course. 

Stamping with layers

This week I've been experimenting with a new set of overlay stamps that seem to be rapidly growing in popularity. This set is made by Alte&New and came as a freebie with a crafty mag. I have to say it was a bit of a head-scratcher for me to begin with and it took a couple of goes to stamp the additional layers in the right places. It also helped when I gave my clear block a good clean so that I could actually see through it again! *hangs head in shame*

The ink pads used were all versa colour - pink, old rose and orchid for the roses and celadon, green tea and evergreen for the leaves. The sentiment is from Craftwork cards and was also stamped in versa pink and embossed with wow clear sparkle embossing powder.

This card is destined for the following challenges;

Less is More - pastel colours
Simon Says Stamp; Monday - Emboss it, Wednesday - Flowers, Work it Wednesday - Flowers
Penny Black at allsorts - Anything goes

Time for tea?

It looks like I'm just in time to share this make with you for Simon Says Stamp Monday's Home Decor challenge. I had an MDF tray to start and painted the whole thing with Annie Sloan chalk paints in old white. I then used a mix of Graphic 45 papers that all coordinated and glued them in place with a mix of pva and water. I've sanded the edges lightly to ensure the papers have a really tight seal against the paint. As tempting as it is to add a load of flowers or ribbons or something I really want this to be a practical piece so I have resisted and instead will give it a coat of waterproof varnish.
Thanks for stopping by!
Lou x