New Challenge at Penny Black and More - All Creatures Great and Small........

Good morning!

It's a new challenge over at Penny Black and More today and the new theme is " All Creatures Great and Small".  Do go over and check it out, there are prizes to be had too!!!

My design for this challenge has been made using the Penny Black 40-312 Sunny Pair, the sentiment is the 30-419 Happy Wishes set, the beautiful butterfly is the 40-099 Soft Wings and the floral background border is 40-100 Fanciful.

I started with a piece of Sheena Stamping Card and painted it with black gesso.  I then popped a layer of weathered wood on there (letting each layer dry completely in between).  When this was dry I painted on two lovely shades of purple and very light blue chalk paint and watched it crack before my eyes!!!!  Sealed then with Decoart Matte Medium. This formed my background and I was ready to start!

I stamped the Sunny Pair first with black versafine and topped it with clear embossing powder to set it. I've painted in the lovely sunflowers with some acrylics. The floral border was then stamped at the edges, just lightly so that you could see that it is there but subtly in the background.

The butterfly was stamped on to sheet music and stiffened by backing it onto very thick black card stock - I glued the sheet music to the black card with Americana Decoupage glue. Cut out the butterfly and painted it lightly with the same chalk paints but this time diluted down a touch.

The sentiment of Happy Happy Wishes was stamped with the Versafine ink and set with clear embossing powder.

Mat and layered on to a lovely periwinkle that I found, white and black.

I enjoyed making this one and I just love the quality of the stamps!!

I hope that you will join us at Penny Black and More this month and good luck!!!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

You can't make a rainbow without a little rain..........

Good morning!

Had a bit of fun with a new stamp that I've bought from Inkylicious called Banksy-Nola.

This was great fun to make as you all know my love for inks! The card wasn't the only thing that looked like a rainbow after this one I can tell you - you should have seen my fingers!!!!

Started off with a distress ink background and I made a few runs in that and allowed to dry naturally.

I then got the rainbow going with distress inks and added the sunshine (well, there wouldn't be a rainbow without a little rain or sunshine!).

Nola was stamped in versafine black and clear embossed.

The hills were put on with a stencil and I added the Inkylicious trees and old fence.

I then put the front hill in being careful as I wanted it to look like the rain was flowing over that hill in front of her - I think I got this result rather well, I was happy with that and added a couple of grasses at her feet.

Some Designs by Ryn raindrops were stamped around her.

Mat and layered in white and blue.

Happy with that!

Hope you've enjoyed your visit today,

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

Reveal yourself and.........Stay Curious........

Good morning!!

Here is another make of mine using Visible Image stamps.  This time I've primarily used the Curious Cats set - he's definitely looking at you isn't he?!!!!!!

This card started life with the eyes being stamped in red versafine ink and the nose and mouth with black versafine ink and both were covered with clear embossing powder and heated to set.

I then covered the eyes and the nose with drawing gum and went to town on the background!!! Do you know, I have no idea sometimes how my hands ever go back to the right colour!!!!

So, I have used distress oxides to create that background and I have dripped diluted oxides from the bottom upwards  (have turned the card upside down and ran the ink up the page). 

I dripped some water on to that background to lift some "splodges" and then stamped the Visible Image large tall grass in different colours.

The sentiment is a mixed one again, "reveal" is from the "reveal your true colours", the "yourself" is from the "create yourself", the "and" is from the "bold and beautiful"- all from the Own It! set and the "Stay Curious" is from the Curious Cats set - don't be afraid to make your stamps work for you!

Now with everything in place I had to get a face shape of a cat on there! As I've mentioned in previous posts, don't be afraid to go for it at this stage!  Yes, you've got a lovely piece of artwork and yes, it "could" go horribly wrong at the last minute but hey, it's a piece of card at the end of the day, you can always start again or tweak it a bit to hide a mistake with a butterfly or something?

I have used the stencil from the Face Shape set here and I've just smoothed some distress ink around it - getting the stencil in the right position is really the hardest part here.

I finally rubbed away the drawing gum from the eyes and nose and coloured the eyes in with diluted oxides and a little bit of an aqua pen and blended in.

Mat and layered in a lovely matching mint green, white and black.

I'll share this with my friends on the Visible Image Facebook page.

I do hope that I've given you some inspiration with these stamps and inks and that you've enjoyed your visit today.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Dance Like Nobody's Watching for De Stempelwinkel......

Good morning!

Well, it's an extra treat for you this week (that's four posts this week and there will be one at the weekend too!!!! - phew!!!!!).

I have been playing with my stamps by De Stempelwinkel - lovely company and good quality stamps that get your imagination going.  I have made this card for their current challenge of Bright Blue.

I have taken some photo's so lets see how I got there shall we -

OK, this card started life as a piece of smooth Sheena stamping card and I have dabbed on three colours of acrylic paint using a damp baby wipe allowing each colour to dry before adding the next one.

Now, those of you that follow me closely will know that I'm going through a "bubble phase" at the moment!!!! Oh boy, it's so fun and soooo messy!!!!!  Here I have blown my bubbles in a bowl with dark blue drawing ink and caught them on the card and left them to dry - really dreamy!!!!  I then stamped my sentiment which wasn't as easy as it looks because this sentiment actually runs the length of another De Stempelwinkel stamp that I have and is attached to a a girl dancing and listening to music!  I had to very carefully ink the sentiment only and hope for the best - I did well and got it right! I also added some very large bubbles using an old pot lid just dipped in to the bubble solution.

At this point, I have enhanced the large bubbles with some of the drawing ink, a charcoal pencil and then topped with Glossy Accents with some chunky glitter (the card will buckle a bit at this stage but panic not, it sorts itself out in the end).  I also stamped some small flowers that De Stempelwinkel sent me as a small free offering with my order which was very kind of them so I thought that I should put it to good use!

My image of the dancer was also stamped in blue versafine ink for a nice, crisp oily surface and I clear embossed over the top to seal that.

Almost there!

I have added a reversed image of the stamp here.  This is done by stamping the image on to tissue paper (gift tissue) and turning it over to reverse it.

Mat and layered in white and blue and I have blended the actual card to take the starkness of the white away by blending with distress ink around the edges.

Hope you liked our journey today, thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

I would like to enter this in to De Stempelwinkel challenge of "Bright Blue":-

http://destempelwinkelstampers.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/challenge-4-2017.html

Happy Christmas........

Good morning!

It's a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges today with the theme "Anything Goes" - (well, I had to do Christmas then didn't I?!!!!). Come and join us, with such an "open" theme it's easy to have lots of fun and show us what you can create!

http://www.fashionablestampingchallenges.com/2016/12/11/challenge-118-anything-goes/

OK, lets take our journey shall we.....

Isn't this a stunner of a stamp? It's the Impression Obsession J7042 Santa Horses stamp.

I started with my usual plain white Sheena stamping card and stamped the horses in Archival watering can.  I coloured their hats in with Spectrum Noir colouring pencils (you will see this on the next photo).  I then pressed some perfect medium through a stars stencil and embossed with clear embossing powder.

I then blended the background with distress ink (weathered wood) to show the white stars more clearly.

I cut two black mats and a silver one and passed the black mats through my Platinum machine with an embossing folder that looked like snow falling by Leonie Pujol. (I had to pass them through twice as my card was wider than the 5 x 7 embossing folder so I hotched the folder over a bit and ran it through again!).

I then stroked the embossed card with a tiny bit of Pebeo silver gilding wax to highlight the snow falling - it looks so metallic!

The sentiment was stamped "Happy Christmas" (Bee Crafty) and edged with the weathered wood distress ink and matted on to black card stock.

Here I was playing with the idea of a nice red ribbon? - Yes, I think that works well!!!

There, who said that you can't do monochrome for Christmas?!!!!

Matted and layered up and red felt ribbon and bow to finish with some die cut ivy leaves (Sue Wilson - Creative Expressions) which I also finished with a touch of silver gilding wax.

I thought this was really classy! I shall choose someone special to receive this one I think!

Do come along and join us at Fashionable Stamping Challenges with our new theme of 

"Anything Goes".

http://www.fashionablestampingchallenges.com/2016/12/11/challenge-118-anything-goes/

May I wish all at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, the Design Team and all you out there who enter and make the challenges such fun for us all a very Merry Christmas!

I would like to enter this in to The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog challenge "Christmas":-

http://theartisticstampercreativeteam.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/decembers-creative-challenge-christmas.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

Quintessentially English....................

Good morning!

The lovely ladies at Indigoblu have asked me to produce a piece of artwork for their challenge  reminder today.  The theme this month is "monochrome" so come on.....have a go, it's a lovely theme - to play with a single colour and see what you can do with it!  Remember to use your Indigoblu stamps and have lots and lots of fun!

Ok, I took lots of photo's of how I made this card so lets take our journey and see how I got there:-

I had decided straight away what stamp I would use for this lovely theme ("Valerie") and that I wanted to show her in a mirror - she looks to me to be gazing in to a mirror don't you think?!

I stamped her out and covered her in masking fluid.  Then I worked on her image in the mirror - I took a piece of mirri card (good quality), inked the stamp well and picked the image up on my brayer then rolled the image out on to the mirri card, releasing the image reversed and sealed it with clear embossing powder.  I then die cut a frame out and blended distress ink around it.  At this stage I also worked out my card layout and how I could have Valerie at right angles to the mirror.

So, while Valerie was masked over, I played around with the background having used a wet baby wipe to blend the distress ink over the card and then I wet my fingers and dripped water on to the card, let it soak in for a while and then lifted off with some paper towel.

I then worked on my mat that would go behind the main artwork - I often do this when I'm waiting for my work to dry more thoroughly!  I sponged the distress ink on to the card and then to add to the effect dragged the card through some distress ink that had been stamped on to my non stick mat and sprayed with water - nice and smokey. I then allowed this to dry naturally.

So, coming back to my main artwork, I used an Indigoblu stencil and spread some clear embossing paste through it, let that dry and once dry I came back in heavier with my distress ink this time and "brought out" the pasted areas.  I also sponged through the stencil on the other side with distress ink and through another stencil with some gesso. Then rubbed away masking fluid from Valerie.

These are the only inks that have been used on this card, the versafine was particularly for fine details when using my stamps.

I blended some distress ink with water and shaded in the image.

Then I assembled everything together making sure that the mirror image was completely level with the original stamped image. The sentiment of "Quintessetially English" was stamped also.

Here you can see how I creased the card so that it was more like Valerie was looking in the mirror.

I was very happy with this card, blue monochrome and very classy don't you think?

Don't forget, get out your Indigoblu stamps and join in their challenge this month - we are all looking forward to seeing all your wonderful ideas!

http://indigoblublogchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/indigoblu-october-challenge-monochrome.html

I would like to enter this in the the current Craft Stamper challenge - Anything Goes:-
http://craftstamper.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/take-it-make-it-challenge-november.html

Thanks for stopping by and good luck in the challenge!

Leanne xx