Thinking of you.............

Good morning!

Well, I've been having a play with my Crafty Individual stamps and this card is part tribute to my wonderful blogland friend Sandra (who became one of the Crafty Individuals design team members this week) and part entry in to the My Time To Craft current sketch theme challenge.

I have to admit that I have had a new phone this week and I'm still trying to get used to it and the camera on it is very sensitive so bear with me!!!!

Right, so, the sketch that I had to follow was

but you know me, I can't just follow that sketch, that wouldn't be enough for me! No, I had to turn that sketch in to something else!!!!!

So, I started with a piece of square Sheena stamping card and a die cut circle of the same card - both white.

I attached the circle to the square with some repositionable spray adhesive so that I could work straight over the top of both pieces.

I stamped the beautiful house and then extended the wall at either side of it in sepia versafine ink, then covered it in drawing gum.

I then used a clarity stamp brush and blended some green dye ink down across the front of the scene. Next was the sky, which I have used an adirondack stonewashed ink pad and an Inkylicious stencil to colour the sky and form those lovely clouds.  A sun/moon mask had been added and once that was removed I coloured the sun in with a make up sponge and yellow dye ink.

The next step was to add the extra trees in the background, straight over the top of the drawing ink and then I rubbed that drawing ink away. I then water coloured everything in using diluted dye ink pads and stamped the grasses/flowers right at the front of the scene in green dye ink, first and second generation stamping.

I then stamped the grasses on the right hand side (three grasses have been stamped) to match the sketch.

At this point of course, the circle of card was still attached to the back square but now they had to part company.

I used a Tattered Lace circle die to cut the lovely decorative black circle so that I could back the artwork and mounted these on to foam pads to raise it away from the rest of the scene, being careful to ensure that everything lined up (sorry, can't get that to show greatly on a photo!).

I then added the flowers on the left to match the My Time To Craft sketch and I added the butterfly - just because I could really and I thought that it balanced the piece beautifully!

I stamped "Thinking of You" in the centre and then added the text box with "With Love" to also match the sketch.

Mat and layered on white and black mats.

Well, hope you've enjoyed your visit today, I don't often do detailed scenes but I really enjoy it when I do!

A message for Sandra - well done you!

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

I would like to enter this in to the My Time To Craft challenge of Sketchy Time:-

http://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/challenge-326-sketchy-time.html

  

5 Christmas Cards for May............

Good morning!

Here I am with my offering of Christmas cards for May (remember my new years resolution - 5 Christmas cards a month!!).

Each one is different so I've grouped them here for you to take a look at each one a bit more closely.

Each one rather different this time and all using Clarity Stamps and those lovely Spectrum Noir sparkle pens! Some Woodware fluffy stuff and glitter has also been added for that extra Christmassy feel!

There, Month five - mission complete!!!! How am I doing so far?

As the summer comes, they may get a bit simpler due to holidays etc but I'll still try my best and get five a month done for you to see.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Leanne xx

"Hello There".............

Good morning!

I've had a go for the current Rubber Dance challenge of "Rule of Three". 

I didn't take photo's for this one so I'll talk you through how I got there.

Firstly I stamped the three flowers with sparkle pens and them restamped over the top with black ink using my misti and masked them over with drawing gum.

The background was next and has been created using the new distress oxide inks leaving some white space open.

I have then played with some different stencils and stamps and doodled around the background.  I'm loving greys at the moment!!!

Rubbed off the drawing gum, highlighted the lovely dragonfly stencil and some of the stencilling and stamped my sentiment of "Hello There".

Stamped the three butterflies on to old book pages and covered in glossy accents and attached to the card.

Mat and layered.

Finished! - Happy with that!

I would like to enter this piece in to the Rubber Dance current challenge of "Rule of Three":-

http://rubberdance.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/rubber-dance-theme-challenge-may.html

Thanks for stopping by today,

Leanne xx

Follow Your Dreams............

Good morning!

Here I am with a mid week post with my entry in to this months Clarity challenge of "Up In The Air".     I thought this challenge was at first a very obvious one - up in the air - birds, balloons, aeroplanes, hot air balloons etc so I decided to put my twist on things as usual and think just outside that box again!  My plan - dreams!!! well, I was thinking up in the air ....... bubbles!!!!! Now, I have a rather sad confession as the moment..........I AM ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED WITH BUBBLES AT THE MOMENT!!!!!! Check out my other posts over the past month and you'll see all the different ways I've been having so much fun making a mess - I mean playing with paint and ink!!!!!  So this is where my mind went with this theme, dreams and thought bubbles.....up in the air.

Now, must confess I only took a couple of photo's as I was so deep in thought with this one that I completely forgot to take photo's through most of it! I'll talk you through how I got there though:

OK, started with a piece of 6 x 6 watercolour card stock and used my brayer to bring down that lovely distress ink from the top (here I have used Salty Ocean).  Then I blended again with the brayer,  Mustard Seed distress ink up from the bottom to meet in the middle.  I popped on a moon/sun mask (clarity) and went a little heavier with the blue to give me a nice light moon and then with the outer part of the mask I covered the moon/sun again and blended some of the Mustard Seed colour in with a make up sponge to give me a proper sun.

I then added the girl with the clarity stencil in cobalt blue archival ink.  

The hills were next and they were blended with the clarity blending brush and the Clarity mountains and hills mask.

I then popped the plastic mask of the girl on top of her and just brushed some ink outwards off of the mask around her with a clarity blending brush.

The clouds are a Clarity mask too and they were done using the clarity blending brush - lovely effect.

Stamped the sentiment which is a Clarity Club stamp - perfect for this card.

Stamped a few of the small grasses here and there and then moved on to my bubbles!!!!

Woohoo!!! These are how I formed my bubbles just with the use of an old pot lid, drawing ink and some washing up liquid in the mix!  I always do plenty and then I can take my pick of the best ones!  Allowed to dry overnight.

Once dry I stamped the palm trees (perhaps dreaming of a holiday?), the girl and her dog (perhaps dreaming of a new pet or just of her beloved pet?) and the couple (perhaps dreaming of love?).  I then covered each bubble with Glossy Accents and allowed to completely dry.

I then rubbed some fern green archival ink around the bottom of the bubbles to give a bit of a shadow and cut them out.

Applied to card with some small bubbles that were hand drawn with polychromo pencils.

I really enjoyed making this one, kept me thinking but lots of fun!

I would like to enter this in to the Clarity Stamp Facebook challenge of "Up In The Air".

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Creative People Colour Outside The Lines...............

Good morning!

This is the first opportunity I've had on the blog to properly show you the new distress oxide ink pads AND THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!!  Must admit, pushed the boat out and bought the whole 12 pad set and have had loads of inky fun!

The key to working with the oxide pads is to use water, the oxide effect only comes out with the use of water.  The other major factor with these ink pads is that they layer on top of each other WITHOUT BLENDING so you can layer with one colour, you must dry that layer before adding the next but when you do, it just sits on top of the previous colour so unlike the usual distress inks, they do not form "mud" when layered on top of each other.  So remember, stamp on to your craft mat, spray with water, swoosh your card in to the ink, begin to dry with your heat tool and spray again with water as you do.  When dry, repeat the process with a different colour! See it all transform in front of your eyes, it's brilliant for us inky messy crafters!!!! You can also use them to stamp with brilliantly.

Here I have had a play with the distress oxide ink pads.  The background has had several colours used and then I even stamped a lace pattern with the oxide ink too.

The main focal image is from the Beautiful You stamp set from Stampin Up and the sentiment has been stamped from a Visible Image set and cut up and placed around the artwork.

I think you can see that I had such fun making a mess / I mean getting nice and inky with this one!!!!

Hope you have enjoyed your visit today,

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

The World Is Full Of Beauty When The Heart Is Full Of Love............

Good morning!

Well, here is a scene and a half for you this morning!  I fancied having a go for a couple of current challenges both themed around fantasy but fantasy and fairies aren't really my thing!!!  I hope that you like watching how I interpret the different themes for the challenges, I do hope that I inspire you to have your take on them too and have a go!!????

Right, took plenty of photo's along the way with this one, lots of different stages to deal with and I must confess, I did have to plan this one out a bit before I got going.  I knew what I wanted to achieve but had to do some thinking before I put stamp to card stock!  Right, hop on board, let's take our journey this morning:-

OK, I did this quick sketch of what I wanted to achieve in the late of an evening - I even made a note at the top look - as I didn't have a butterfly made by Lavinia Stamps (but I had a fairy that had a good set of wings on her to make one out of!!!!!!).  

So, you can imagine now, it's the next morning, I went in to my craft room, sat at the craft desk, saw this drawing and thought "oh my, where was my mind when I did this!!!!!!!!!!!!!" - I soon came back to where I had left off the evening before and the creative juices were flowing once more! Note the numbers on the sketchy drawings - this is of course, the rough order in which I need to stamp in - a good tip!

OK, I made a start, stamped the poppy on the right first in red and green archival.  Stamped the toadstools next and immediately masked them off, then the bridge (I went off piste here a bit in the order of doing things - but that's ok).  Masked everything over with Pebeo drawing gum.

I wanted this piece of artwork to look like it was two doors opening on what was my vision of a fantasy land so I had to angle the doors of course so I just masked off the top and bottom of the stamp before adding the ink pad. With me so far?

Those side doors are now down in red archival ink.

Doors masked with drawing gum.  I then set on to the sky.  This I have done with the new distress oxides.  I then used a moon mask and gently sponged some white gesso through it to form that moon.

Woohooo! That's put my mark on it!!!  Got out those delicious Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens and went for it!  I wanted some wonderful, fantasy colours to be seen. I also stamped the trees in behind the bridge. The sentiment was added at this stage too.

Right, where am I, oh yes! The masking fluid has been rubbed away from everywhere here (see the lovely little trees are now BEHIND the bridge.

Out came the Polychromo's and I shaded in the bridge, the water, the toadstools, the vines on the doors and a bit more on the poppy head.  I masked the sentiment just with a piece of paper and stamped the falling vines straight across there.  The fairies have been stamped on to tissue paper (gift tissue) and backed with double sided adhesive paper so that they effectively became stickers for me. I have some lovely little silver scissor embellishments here at home so I used some wire cutters to cut off the finger holes - I have used those as door handles for the fairies here.  Glossy Accents has been added to the toadstools, the river and the fairy wings. Further poppies were stamped down at the front. some dark distress ink was applied around the edges to draw you further in to the picture.

Now, had to make a butterfly!  For the Lavinia Stamp challenge I need to use just Lavinia Stamps so this fairy was needed for her wings!!!  Out came the brayer to reverse one set of wings and bingo! - the job was done!

The butterfly was coloured in using the Polychromos  and the rest of that little pair of scissors (having chopped the finger holes off!) was added as the butterfly body! Well, it's a fantasy land, nothing is real is it?.....................or is it???????????????

I hope you've enjoyed your journey today, there was lots to do on this one, it's very busy, very full of things to look at - those fairies are welcoming you in to their world.............I'd like to go, if only for a day....... wouldn't you?

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

Lavinia Stamps "Make Your Own Vision" - my vision of a land of fantasy:-

http://laviniastamps.com/lavinia-stamps-monthly-creative-challenge/

Stamping Sensations "Butterflies, Fairies and Fantasy":-

http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/may-butterflies-fairies-and-fantasy.html

Ring a ring O'Roses..............

Good morning!

Here is my mid week post and it's an entry that I've prepared for the current Allsorts Challenge of "Ring a ring O'Roses"

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/week-415-ring-ring-o-roses.html

I have taken some photo's along the way so lets see how I get there with this one.

As with all of my artwork, I have a good think about it before I get going and I wanted to put the history and a feeling for the nostalgia in to this piece.  We must remember that many relate this nursery rhyme to the great plague where Ring a ring O'Roses was thought to represent the rosy rash caused by the plague and the pockets full of posies were thought to be posies of herbs carried to hide the terrible smells.  A tissue,  a tissue we all fall down was of course part of the dreadful symptoms and the falling was the inevitable if you caught the plague.  The circle of children playing and dancing round in a ring to the nursery rhyme holds special memories for most of us I'm sure!   This wasn't just a nursery rhyme, this nursery rhyme had a reason and a meaning, caused great upset and trauma yet gave so many children such fun - a strange thought isn't it when you think about it...... Well, although a bit of a sad origin, it is also a much loved and well recognised nursery rhyme to all of us so lets see how I saw it in my mind on a piece of artwork.

So, I set sail with an idea in my mind!  I have started with a lovely piece of sheet music (paper) and stamped out my rose which is a Kaisercraft one.  I have used two tones of archival ink as at this stage on the stamp - wasn't 100% sure of the mediums that were to be used and archival will take most things thrown at it! I very quickly clear embossed over the top before the ink dried.

OK, I've used some ink sprays here, a couple of Imagination crafts mix media sprays and a Creative Expressions one too.

 The paper buckled a little which of course it will but I knew that it was going over a canvas so that didn't worry me at this stage.

I added a little touch of gold gilding wax over the embossing powder to just highlight the roses a little and over stamped some of the roses in black to crisp them up a bit.

Here I have used matt Mod Podge over the front of the canvas and the back of the music paper and laid the canvas on the back of the artwork.  I then went around the back of the canvas edges (having cut across the corners with scissors) and the edges of the paper with the Mod Podge and folded the edges in to neaten.

Neat and tidy and nice and thick on the canvas now with no wrinkles. Allow to dry - doesn't take long.

Here a sentiment has been added that I thought appropriate "Cherish the times we spend together" also from Kaisercraft and I have used some Clarity Stamp wee folk (a little girl and a little boy) to stamp the ring of children.  This was completed by stamping a girl and boy on to tissue paper and reversing them to form the "ring".

I then highlighted the children with a white pen.

So here we are! I mounted the covered canvas on to a piece of plain card stock to pop it from the rest of the card.  (I also added some embossing powder to the roses on the canvas at this stage too). That went on to a layer of sheet music that I had distressed with scissors and stained with  distress ink and that went on to the main card which had been stamped with the same rose, coloured with distress ink and a distress oxide ink.  I used a Sheena Douglass stencil at the top "Remember When" and I have used Clarity Stamp alphabet to stamp out Ring a ring O'Roses at the bottom.

I was pleased with this, It was exactly what I was aiming for, the reminiscence of a wonderful nursery rhyme, the children playing and the history that so many fell to this dreaded disease.

Has this brought back memories of dancing in a ring and falling down?  Do you "remember when".

I would like to enter this in to the Allsorts challenge of "Ring o ring O'Roses":-

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/week-415-ring-ring-o-roses.html

Allsorts are celebrating their 8th birthday this Saturday so don't forget to pop on over to check out whats happening there this coming Saturday!

Hope you enjoyed your journey with me today, thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xxx