Music On..........World Off.

Good morning!

Boom!!!! This one certainly startles you doesn't it!!!!!!!!

I had a "juggle" of my posts this week so I've popped this on as an extra one for you!

This is a card that I have made for my cousins son and I thought it came out great! - I love to share not only makes that I have produced for challenges and my design team at Fashionable Stamping Challenges but my personal makes for my family and friends too.

This card really didn't take that long to produce once I'd got it straight in my head where I was going with it!  The background was using Brusho powder paints - oh what fun I had! Chose two striking colours and allowed them to dry naturally so I didn't lose any of that vibrancy.

Then it was all down to the fantastic Visible Image stamps.  The skull stamps perfectly and I added the headphones to it.  The sentiment is also Visible Image along with the barbed wire but that is a separate set of Visible Image stamps.

I coloured a few of the teeth in and I was done! 

Mat and layered.

I think that he will like this - I think it's really cool - but I'm an oldie - what do I know???!!!!!

Stamp sets used:

Visible Image Mr Bone Jangles (skull)

Visible Image Immortal Love Set (barbed wire)

Visible Image Music on World off (headphones and sentiment).

Hope you like what I've done here and thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Discover....

Good morning!

A change of scheduled post this week as I've made this card as my contribution to the current Cards in Envy challenge of "Black and white" and I want to get it entered! - Cards in Envy is my absolute favourite challenge blog!.

I know that you automatically think of die cutting when you think of black and white but of course, I'm a stamper! So here is a stampers version of black and white!

I have only used white Sheena Stamping card, a black Momento ink pad, white structure paste, black gesso and an amber illustrator marker for the whole card which was fun.

So, from my blank piece of stamping card I stamped my focal image of the wonderful balloon in black Momento (Bee Crafty Art Stamp).  From there is was to concentrate on my background which has been done by simple wiping the ink pad across the page from both directions, pressing and drawing that ink pad inwards.  I just stamped some of the clouds from the main image (being careful not to catch the basket) and extended the clouds a little bit both sides.

The birds are from Lavinia Stamp.

Then structure paste (white) was pressed through an Indigoblu dinky stencil and some black gesso through another stencil (which was a great big swirl and I've used on a small portion of it).

The sentiments are cut down from some art journalling stamps by Indigoblu.

I then highlighted those with a bit of colour as the challenge suggested with an amber illustrator marker.

Another masculine card! Wahay!!!

Mat and layered with black and white card stock.

I would like to enter this in to the Cards in Envy challenge of "Black and White":-

http://cardsinenvy.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/black-white-card-challenge.html

Hope you've enjoyed a lesson in black and white today!

Thanks for dropping by today,

Leanne xx

On Mother's Day Mum - This time it was to my Mum!

Good morning!

Here I am with my second make for Mothering Sunday - this time it's the card that I made for my Mum!

This card came together really well, I started with an A4 piece of Sheena Stamping card that I had coloured with distress inks and some Archival re-inkers.  Due to the card stock being very porous though, the re-inkers didn't travel, they just sank straight in to the card leaving splodges of colour in places. I then cut this A4 sheet in to a 6 x 6 inch square (to work on) and two smaller pieces that you can see that I have used in my mats and layers behind.

Ok, now the main image was stamped (Stampendous - Classic Roses).  This was stamped in blue Versafine ink and then painted in with some Distress Ink and finished off with some chalk paint. 

Some stencils were used next with some Distress Ink and then a couple of other stencils with some clear embossing paste so that they didn't detract anything from that main image.

As with the Mother's Day card on Monday, I have used the Clarity Stamp alphabet stamps for the sentiments.  This time I stamped them on to vellum and set with clear embossing powder again.

An organza bow and some mats and layers to the main artwork and then I just added a mat to that backing piece as well.

Took this photo to show you the lovely glisten of the clear embossing paste.

So here was the card that I made from me and James .........

....... and here is the card that went to Nan from my daughter Katie! - now this is VERY UP MY MOTHER'S STREET!!!!!!! This is of course with one of my all time favourite craft manufacturers - Sheena Douglass stamps and stencil.

Needless to say, she loved them both !!!!!

Hope you've enjoyed my Mother's Day makes over this post and on Monday.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xxxx

On Mother's Day Mum............

Good morning!

Thought I'd share a card with you today that I made for my Mother-in Law for Mothering Sunday yesterday.

Must admit, this was made a while ago now so calling on my memory banks to recall what I did with this one!!!

I only took the two photo's while prepping this one so I'll talk you through it as always.

This card started life as a piece of coated card stock (shiny surface) that I'd had great fun with using some spritzed Distress Ink and "swooshed" the card stock through on the craft mat.  Due to the very nature of the shiny card stock, the water and ink makes a wonderful effect when it "sits" on there - dried it off quite quickly to get some nice run effects.

The head image was then stamped (Indigoblu) with black versafine ink and as this is oil based of course, it wouldn't dry in a hurry so I covered it with a layer of clear embossing powder and heated to set it.

The butterfly border came next (Carabelle Studio) and was stamped again in versafine and set with clear embossing powder.

You will notice that I have stamped one of the butterflies on to some white copier paper, cut it out and pieced it on to that original stamped border to let that one stand out a bit from the rest.

The sentiments have been stamped from the Clarity Stamp alphabet and I had great fun with some stencils and some Indigoblu super thick slap it on and their luscious powders mixed in too.

Matted and layered.

Thought the colours on this one were really effective with such crisp and bold stamping.

Pleased with this one! (Hope she liked it too!).

Thanks for stopping by today,

Leanne xxx

My five Christmas cards for March!

Good morning to you!

Well, here I am, right on form with my offering of my five Christmas cards for March!  

My news years resolution was to complete five Christmas cards every month through the year and so far, I'm right on track!

Again, just like any batch make, the cards are similar but not identical so I've taken photo's of all five so that you can take a closer peak:-

These have all been made using my gelli plate, I have stamped the trees straight on to the gelli plate (I think that these are Clarity Stamp) and also the snowflakes but they were stamped WITHOUT INK so that they actually picked the ink back off of the gelli plate (so that you can see white snowflakes in the background).

Now, I've done all sorts of different things with the trees! Some I've enhanced a bit with my polychromo pencils, others I have coloured in with the some Momento pear tart ink pad but all I have covered in the most gorgeous chunky glitter!  My beautiful stag (Inkylicious) has been stamped in versafine ink and a tiny bit of soft charcoal pencil applied to the ground where he is standing to ground him.  More snowflakes were stamped directly on to the finished artwork and again, directly on to the 7 x 7 card - I thought that looked quite pretty when all layered up - well, I say layered up, I've not actually layered anything!!!!! I've used a black alcohol pen and edged around the artwork so that it looks like I've used a black mat!!! - saved on the black card stock!!!

There, month three, mission complete!!!!!

Hope you liked your visit today and picked up some new techniques,

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Visible Image - Stay Curious............

Good morning!

A short extra post this week for you and especially for my friend Sandra!

Here are my efforts with one of the new release stamp sets from Visible Image.

I have put my take on two different pieces of artwork.  I wanted to keep the paint work quite "loose" on the first one and I didn't use the whiskers in the stamp set as I felt I wanted to paint my own on there - make them bigger, make them more dramatic! So I made this card nice and busy with the face coming right through the middle at you.

The second card came from a completely different direction in that I started with more of a mixed media feel in this one with some old torn pages, putting the cat amongst the flowers with the butterflies - looking like it is up to complete mischief - just like my cat "Charlie"! I have enhanced the eyes and put more of a"face" to this one.

It's so fascinating to me, how we can see how our friends interpret the same stamp but come up with completely different ideas with it - this is a fabulous stamp set to own and it's possibilities are endless.

Hope you've enjoyed your visit today and hope you like what I've done with this stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by,

I'd like to enter this in to the following challenge:-

Craft Stamper - Anything Goes -

http://craftstamper.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/take-it-make-it-challenge-march.html

Leanne xx

Learn To Dance In The Rain!

Good morning!

Here is something a bit "fresh" looking for you today!

How is this card to keep you in a positive mind set! " Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain" - absolutely! There is too much in life to drag you backwards these days, I'm a very positive person and I always look to the bright side (that glass is always half full!) and when I came across this sentiment stamp in my stash I decided to use it!

Lets take our journey and see how I got there....

OK, I started with a piece of Sheena Stamping card that I'd had a previous play with using my gelli plate.  Here I have used my misti to place down my rubber stamp of some blotches where I wanted it to look like rain was falling. Have to confess, I have no idea the maker of the stamps here!

I have stamped my image of the girl here - Inkylicious - (second generation stamp so that it wasn't too bold - I wanted everything to look a bit "washed out!".  I then placed some blobs of watercolour paint at her feet and blew them outwards with a straw so that it looked like she was splashing in a puddle.  The raindrops were stamped on (Designs By Ryn) and some glossy accents have been added over the top of them. The sentiment was last which matched perfectly (again, Inkylicious). 

A couple of mats and layers and I was done! You can see the glossy accents on the raindrops a bit better here. I have swiped some ink across the page using an ink duster sprayed with water to give that impression of wet ground.

Quite a quick card to produce for me but great fun, quite "loose" work, I achieved what I wanted -  the feeling of water all around.

Hope you've enjoyed todays journey,

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx