Vintage Romance...............

Good morning!

A short mid week post for you this week.  I've made this postcard for Sunday Postcard Arts' "Vintage Romance" theme this week.

I started with my 6 x 4 inch piece of Sheena stamping card and soaked the card stock with water and dropped red drawing ink on to it allowing it to bleed around the card stock.  

I then stamped my vintage couple (now I haven't got a clue of the maker of this stamp, I've had it for years and years and even made some wedding stationary over ten years ago with it!).  I covered the couple with masking fluid and stamped the background stamps (many of which are from the same set as the vintage couple).  

I then lifted some colour out with ordinary household bleach.

Over stamped the roses with gold embossing powder so that it looked romantic and as if the roses were falling down in front of them.

Edged with distress ink.

I was pleased with this one - I particularly like the love letter down at the bottom.

Hope you like it too.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Leanne xx

I'll be sending this in to Sunday Postcard Art - "Vintage Romance" :-

https://sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/vintage-romance/

It's just a number!

Good morning!

It's a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges today and the theme is "It's just a number".

REMEMBER - YOUR MAIN FOCAL IMAGE MUST BE A HAND STAMPED IMAGE PLEASE - NO DIGI STAMPS.

OK, my artwork for this theme was started a few months ago on the train to see my daughter up at Durham University!  I took a couple of pieces of artwork to do on the train and the journey went so quickly - it was wonderful!

This stamp is a favourite of mine from Chocolate Baroque.  

Now, I didn't take many photo's (due to being on a train at the time!) so this was as far as I got on the train when I got it home to finish it off! I have done a simple wash of distress ink for the background and have carefully coloured the flowers in with spectrum aqua markers and a water brush.

It was then a case of adding numbers from 30 to 100 (all the "biggies") on to the flowers and using die cut numbers for the mat at the back.  I have stencilled through the negative from having cut out the die cut numbers for the backing card for the sentiment of "It's Just A Number" and on the main background - it's easy to create your own stencils with the negative from your die cuts!.  

I felt I just had to add "Happy Umpteenth Birthday" on there too!

There, a card suitable for any birthday from 30 - 100!!! and as I have said -

"It's just a number!!!!"

Remember, we would love to see your artwork over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges but the main focus of your artwork must be a hand stamped image, we do not accept digital images on this challenge.  We look forward to your creativity and sharing your artwork with us! Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Love......

Good morning!

There is a lot of steps to this card so I hope I can remember what happened and when!

Lets take our usual journey and I'll explain along the way:-

Started with a 7 x 7 Sheena Stamping card and laid down some strips of old patterned paper that I had in my stash - I applied this with decoupage glue.  When dry, I knocked it back with some Decoart Tinting Base and left it to dry (not long).

I then went over the top with two shades of Pebeo Decocreme paints and then a final touch of Decoart Tinting Base to lighten some areas.

Stamped my antique roses (free gift in this months Papercraft Inspirations magazine) in black archival ink.

Partly covered three of the roses with masking fluid - you'll see why in the next step!

Stamped a part face stamp from Inkylicious. (This is why I partly covered some of the roses just in case I caught them while stamping). Then rubbed away the masking fluid.

Woohooo! Now the fun starts!!! Here I've added some texture with some Indigoblu Super Thick Slap It On mixed with bronze Luscious Powder (gives a stunning shine), stamped some hearts, some parts of a script stamp, and faintly in the background, the same roses as the ring in Artistry Ink.

I stamped out the roses six times and over stamped with the Indigoblu script stamp and Artistry Ink - I then cut out the leaves and the flowers and painted them with VERY diluted bronze Luscious Powder.

At this point I had put on some runs of diluted bronze Luscious Powder.  I had added some hearts that had been die cut with a Sissix Bigz Die, I'd paper pieced the roses over the original roses and coloured in some of the leaves with the Luscious Powder.  Stamped the word "Love" (Clarity Stamp) on there too.  All ok so far but that face needed to pop out a bit more for me and I was looking for a face "full of love" so I decided to enhance the face, both the side that we see here and had stamped and added part of the other side of the face freehand!

There! A WHOLE FACE!!!! I have tried to have the "look of love" in those eyes.

It's a mixed media piece of artwork with plenty going on.  I had a ball making this card and the colour of my fingers was quite impressive too by the time I'd finished it!!!!

Hope you've enjoyed our journey today.

I would like to enter this in to the following challenges:-

Allsorts Challenges - "Paper Piecing":-

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/week-401-paper-piecing.html

Try It On Tuesday - "Flowers and Hearts":-

http://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/hearts-and-flowers-31st-jan.html

Moving Along With The Times - "Ring O' Roses":-

http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/38-ring-o-roses.html

The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog - "Love Hearts":-

http://theartisticstampercreativeteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/februarys-creative-challenge-love-hearts.html

Craft Stamper - "Anything Goes":-

http://craftstamper.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/take-it-make-it-challenge-february.html

Fussy and Fancy Challenges - "Fussy and Fancy":-

http://fussyandfancychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/challenge-180-fussy-and-fancy.html

CreativeArtiste Challenge - "Anything Mixed Media Goes":-

http://creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/welcome-to-creative-artistes-challenge.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

An Oriental Thank You.....

Good morning!

A quick mid week post again this week. This is a postcard that I have made for Sunday Postcard Art's theme this week of Oriental.  Shall I let you into a secret?.......I don't have many Oriental crafting items at all!!!!!!! So this is how you "make something out of nothing"!!!!!!!

I started on a piece of 6 x 4 inch Sheena Stamping Card and blended my sky down from the top with distress inks and my ink dusters.  I then met that sky with hills inked with torn paper until they met, leaving a nice bright bit of sky just over the hills.

The trees were stamped in black Momento ink (Inkylicious) and the oriental grasses (the only oriental stamps I'd got!) were stamped across the front and falling in from above. These stamps are from Chocolate Baroque.  The small pagoda was hand drawn with black india ink (this is what we call improvising!).  

Trees and leaves were coloured using distress ink and the moon was done using Pebeo Decocreme paint.

Stamped my sentiment of thank you (Chocolate Baroque) and the birds (Inkylicious).

Edged with distress ink.

There!  How to produce an oriental scene with very few oriental tools!!!!! (Think I got away with it - don't you?!!!). I'm glad I did because I do like Sunday Postcard Art, it makes you stretch the imagination and I hope that by doing that to me, I inspire others.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Birds on a wire...............

Good morning!

The day I made this card, I had watched a couple of Inkylicious shows on Hochanda and so, I thought it only appropriate that I made a card with Inkylicious stamps from my stash!

I have taken photo's along the way so lets take our usual journey :-

OK, I started this card on the Inkylicious satin card stock - I must admit, I'd never used it before - it's ultra smooth and in my opinion half way between a normal stamping card and a glossy card stock which makes it perfect for stamping and ink work.

I stamped my birds and then covered them with masking fluid.  I often get contacted about how I used the masking fluid with such success - there are no secrets - use a great quality masking fluid, I use and have always used Pebeo masking fluid.  You only need a VERY THIN coating of it, it will dry in minutes and leave a very pale blue sheen where it is.  It is tinted so that you can see where it is on your artwork.  You shouldn't have any problems so long as you are using a good quality card and a very thin layer of the fluid.

So, with my birds nicely covered in masking fluid, I used distress inks to form my background colour.  This is just three colours of distress ink wiped on my craft mat, sprayed with water and the card laid on to the ink, picked up and dried off with the heat tool. I needed the colours to reflect the sky and earth tones here.

Here the masking fluid is still in place, I have stamped by swifts and swallows (again Inkylicious) in Archival watering can but I have done these with second generation stamping so that they are paler.  I stamped the tree tops (Inkylicious) underneath the birds and stamped the sentiment (Inkylicious).

I extended the wire using a micron pen, rubbed off the masking fluid (white birds now rather than blue!) and used some distress ink around the edges. I then used some black soot distress ink watered down to enhance the birds a bit.

Matted on to a simple periwinkle card stock and mounted on to a DL card.

I just loved how the gentle colours reacted with each other on here - a perfect mans card (and I don't make many of those!!!!).

Hope you liked our journey today,

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

  

Fuchsias and Friendship......

Good morning!

Bright and cheerful card for the end of the week!

This card has been created using the Clarity Stamp Fuchsia stamp set.  I took photo's along the way so lets take our usual journey to see how I got there shall we?

The background has been created with one of my favourite techniques and products - Aquatints.

I started on a lovely watercolour block pad, marked the size that I wanted it to be with pencil and then washed the Aquatints across the page.  Then I began to stamp the fuchsias.

Here they come! Stamping and covering with masking fluid as I went.

I decided to fade the fuchsias on the right by using a pale embossing powder and then bring the one on the left completely forward by embossing that one in black embossing powder.  I then dribbled some bleach on there to. I have coloured the flowers in using the same Aquatints and some chalk paint.

I added the sentiment of "Friendship" from Clarity Stamp and some of the fuchsia buds from the same set at the top.

Mat and layered on to some Angelina Fibres in the same colour scheme.

I was pleased with this one. Hope you like it too.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

Nature postcard.............

Good morning!

Thought I'd pop this one on to my blog as a mid week post for you this week.  I was prompted to make this postcard (6 x 4 inch) when I came across a lovely blog called Sunday Postcard Art.  Their theme at the moment is "sepia" so I thought I'd join in!

I started with some speciality stamping card and "swooshed" my card in to some distress inks on my craft mat that I'd sprayed with water, then dried with my heat tool.

I then decided where I wanted to stamp the main image (a light patch to light up her face) and stamped her in walnut stain and rusty hinge distress inks. (The stamp is one from Joy! Crafts).

The left hand side edge was then stamped with an edge stamp from Bee Crafty and the sentiment was stamped at the bottom. The swirls on the right hand side and at the top are actually part of the main images' hair!!!!! - well, you don't have to use a whole stamp do you!

I then wanted to bring nature in to this so stamped some butterflies (one in her hair), a dragonfly and some normal flies on there too.

All in sepia tones, I enjoyed my play today!!!!!

Happy with that and of course, if I don't want to leave it as a postcard size, I could always mat and layer it and turn it into a card or another project! I thought this was quite "on trend" - I'll probably lose it to one of my daughters first!!!!!

Hope you like it, thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x