Love Makes The Wildest Spirit Tame.............

Good morning!

Well here we are with a card that I've made for the current Cards in Envy challenge of "Motherly Love".

Having had Mother's Day here in the UK back in March I chose to put a twist on this theme and use a wonderful Imagination Crafts art stamp of a Mummy elephant with her two babies - well, it's Motherly Love isn't it?!!!!

I started with a blank piece of watercolour card and swept some of the new distress oxides (diluted) across and down the page.  This gave me a nice, calm colour on which to build my elephants colours on to.

I then stamped the main image with perfect medium and heat embossed with black detail embossing powder.

I then used distress oxide ink (again, diluted) to paint in what I needed on the elephants to give them some depth and shadow.

The hills were produced from torn copy paper and a couple of Momento inks and the sun was lifted out with water, as too, were the clouds.

The foliage was stamped in one of the Momento inks at the front (Bee Crafty) and the bird was added at the top and shaded in and the sentiment stamped ( both Pollyanna Pickering).

Mat and layered. 

I would like to enter this in to the current Cards in Envy challenge "Motherly Love":-

http://cardsinenvy.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/motherly-love-card-challenge.html

Thanks for stopping by today,

Leanne x

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

Just Playin'..........

Good morning!

I thought I'd have a go at the Sheena Douglass Inkettes challenge of "backgrounds/silhouettes" - brilliant challenge and lots of fun.

I must confess, it was a complete "no brainer" for me for this one, I have two gorgeous Golden Retrievers, two brothers, Bobbi and Lucky who will be 3 years old next month and I just knew the Sheena stencil that was going to be used here!

For those of you who have never met them - say "hello" to Bobbi and Lucky!

So, coming back to the project in hand! - I started by creating my background with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens.  I shaped the mount of a hill and lifted the sun/moon out using water and blotting with tissue.  The clouds were formed by moving the ink around with water and also blotting.

To get the effect of the rolling hill, I again used water and a paint brush to give me that effect, wavering with the brush to give me the look of grass a little bit.

I then stamped the trees, stencilled the leaves hanging down to draw you in and stamped the meadow flowers at the front.  I just felt that the front of the picture needed another something to draw you in and so, I stamped the butterfly on to black card, heat embossed with black embossing powder and then cut around and cut in to the butterfly with a craft knife too.

"My boys" were highlighted with a white pen to show the light coming off of that sun/moon and the sentiment stamped.

All stamps and stencils used are by Sheena Douglass.

I can't help but smile when I see this finished card, every time that I look at it sitting there in my craft room at the moment just brings joy to my mind, my boys are beautiful, loving, caring and devoted companions to all of our family and we love them so much!!!

I dedicate this blog post to "My Boys" xxxxxxx

Thanks for stopping by today, hope this has made you smile, perhaps not as much as me but believe me, this is how they play together each and every day........

Leanne xx

I will be entering this in to the Sheena Douglass Inky Inkettes challenge of backgrounds/silhouettes:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.1431455930231587&type=1

Capture The Moment and Make It Last Forever.............

Good morning!

Here is a card that I've made using the Visible Image Stamps Face It set - they are brilliant!

I started with stamping the eye and the nose and mouth and masking them off with drawing gum.

I then concentrated on the background, on this piece of artwork I've used the new Distress Oxides.

I went across her face with a Visible Image tree (this is from the set that has the seasons on it).  I have used the oxide ink to stamp this several times and I also clear embossed a few of the branches to give me a watermark effect on there. Some white highlights were added to some of the branches.

I gave the face some depth by applying black soot distress ink with a smoothie down the nose and brow area.

Visible Image birds were embossed in white and feathers were stamped in the oxide ink.

After rubbing away the drawing gum, I highlighted the eye with a white pen and coloured the eye green. The lips were touched in using oxide inks diluted.

I gave depth around the face using the Visible Image face stencil allowing a small gap for lightness to bounce that face off of the background.

The sentiment was stamped along side her face early on in this project and the same sentiment at the top was stamped on as the last thing done.

I mat and layered and added some black smudges all around the white mat to make it all blend together.

I felt this had an African feel to it, just shows you that anything is possible when your mind explores the possibilities!

Hope you've enjoyed your visit today, thanks for stopping by

Leanne x

I'd like to enter this in to the Visible Image Facebook challenge of "Express Yourself":

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.1029362313860874&type=1

Craft Stamper Take it Make it May Challenge :

http://craftstamper.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/take-it-make-it-challenge-may.html

Bold and Beautiful............

Good morning! Hope you are having a lovely weekend?

Here I am with an extra blog for you for this week.  I am having SO MUCH FUN with the new Visible Image "Face It!" stamp set, I can hardly put it down at the moment!  (I shall be sharing another make with this same stamp tomorrow, it's very clever - well, I think so anyway!!!) So look out for that one.  Infact, I shall be sharing three makes with you this week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday so I hope that you will look forward to those and I can keep you inspired and that mojo up!!!

A new technique has been used here and boy, did I have lots of fun and don't ask about the mess I got in to!!!!!!  I was at my happiest but it took a while to clean up after this one!!!!!

So, I took my time with this one, took lots of photo's for you along the way so lets take our journey and see how I got there shall we, climb aboard, here we go!

I started with a piece of watercolour card stock, you will notice that I have mounted it here on just a normal piece of white copy paper and then on to a further piece of the same watercolour card stock - it will become clear why I did this as we go along .....well, have to keep your mind ticking over don't I!!!!  The "Face It" set by Visible Image has been stamped here in black Archival ink.

I masked the eyes and mouth off with Pebeo Drawing Gum.

OK, I then stamped two flowers from Imagination Crafts with Archival Tiger Lily ink (you will notice that the left flower has over ran the card stock and part of it has come out on the outer layer behind - intended!  I then masked these flowers off with drawing gum.  

THEN THE EXCITING BIT HAPPENED!!!!! I tried the technique of bubble printing - gosh, I remember doing this as a child (and getting in to a mess then!!!!!) but why can't I bring it in to my artwork now? ABSOLUTELY I CAN!!!! So, in three shallow dishes / or deep plates I placed acrylic paint - I have used Pebeo Decocreme orange and indian pink and Americana calico red in each of my dishes. To each dish I added a small amount of water to dilute the thick acrylic paint a little and a good "dollop" of washing up liquid (dish soap).  Give each dish a good mix, each dish with it's own paint brush!  I then took three drinking straws, tilted the dish towards me so that I'd got a deeper amount of the paint mixture and blew in it with my straw to form a mountain of bubbles!!!!! See, I'm 45 (but really, lose the 5, I'm about 4 years old in my head!!!!!!!!!).   Once you've got the mound of bubbles, swipe you card across them and allow each colour to dry before attempting to move on to the next colour.  You can see here, that I've got the orange, red and rose colours done both on the front card and the backing piece.

So here I have moved on.  Unfortunately you do lose a few of the bubbles when you fill in the background a bit but this can't be helped and just ensure that you leave some of them for the cool effect and also on the backing piece.  Here I have used distress ink (worn lipstick) to give shade and depth to the face and distress ink carved pumpkin around the outside of the face.

Visible Image stamps of the flower from the Thank You set and Flower Inkognito set have also been stamped on there and the drawing gum has been removed. You can see the definition of the face coming through now.

The next step was to paint in the flowers and lips with the distress inks and I have used a sparkle pen (Harvest moon - a lovely orange) on the flower over the right eye.  The eyes I went the whole hog and coloured in with a deep red alcohol pen and highlighted with a white pen.

Please don't think that I work any tidier than anyone else - can you see why I lose things along the way?!!!!!!

Here are some shots of the bubbles more close up for you.....

So, here you go, the copy paper was in-between for a reason - did you get it?  Yes, that's right, it acted as the black mat that you see here on the finished piece - it just got replaced when mounting it all up - well done!

Finally I stamped my sentiment again, Visible Image and from the "Own It!" set this time and stamped in juicy Versafine black onyx.

There, a different technique and as my friend Sandra would say - "a breath of fresh air" on this one.  Thoroughly enjoyed it, lots to see and lots of different steps and stages but I was really pleased with this one.

Well, bus stops here I'm afraid for today but it returns tomorrow  so make sure you are at that bus stop to hop on board and take a journey with me.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

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

Rubber Dance Colour Challenge:

http://rubberdance.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/may-colour-challenge-reminder.html

Craft Stamper - Take It Make It May Challenge:

http://craftstamper.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/take-it-make-it-challenge-may.html

Artistic Stamper Challenge - Floral Fantasy:

http://theartisticstampercreativeteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/mays-creative-challenge-floral-fantasy.html

Country View Challenges - Flower Power:

http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/may-2017-flower-power.html

That's Crafty - Bright:

http://thatscraftychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/bright-challenge.html

Time Out Challenges - Flowers with optional twist of kissing technique:

http://timeoutchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/challenge-82.html

Visible Image monthly show and tell:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.1029359463861159&type=1

Colour Life Like A Rainbow - Published In Todays Craft Stamper Magazine!!!!!!

  

                              Good morning!!! Well HOW EXCITED AM I TODAY?!!!!!!!

Todays project for you is published in todays Craft Stamper Magazine on page 59.

You can obtain your copy of Craft Stamper Magazine via  www.craftstamper.com to buy subscriptions , www.mags-uk.com for single print copies or

 Digital copies from www.pocketmags.co.uk 

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xxxx

Imagine the possibilities........

Good morning!

Here is my entry for the current Chocolate Baroque colour swatch challenge:-

http://chocolatebaroquechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/challenge-thirty-four.html

My teal blue is coming out rather blue on the photograph but it is indeed the same teal blue as the sky is but the light is making it lighter!!!!!!

I have used Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens for this project to make the lovely blended background here.  I then stamped Katya right in the middle and lifted out some colour from her face and her head dress with water.

The silhouette palace 1 stencil was used at the bottom and I sponged some Momento red ink through this and shaded it a bit darker with a Momento brown ink pad.

The sun/moon and clouds have been produced using water again and lifting some of that ink and covering the sun/moon with some of the lifted ink so it gives you that lovely positive/negative effect.

The sentiment is from the Chocolate Baroque words of inspiration stamp set and the little birds are from the serenity set

I finished off by adding some white pen dots around the head dress to pop it a bit and I was very happy with this.  

The example of the challenge swatch made me think of a calmness with a dreamy feeling and so, this is what I tried to produce with the Chocolate Baroque products that I have and the colours for the swatch.

Hope you like what you've seen here today and have enjoyed your visit.

I would like to enter this in to the Chocolate Baroque challenge 34 colour swatch challenge:-

http://chocolatebaroquechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/challenge-thirty-four.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx