Distressed ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  I’m trying hard to use the plethora of stamped and coloured images, made by me backgrounds, die cuts and snippets so that my box of them isn’t overflowing quite so much lol!  I started this last week and I am still not even half way through it, lol, and I have new stamps yelling that they weren’t purchased so that they could sit in a box unused lol!  And as we are hurtling through this month I thought it was a good idea to use the zingier coloured pieces before we fall into Fall (yes I use the word Fall because I find it prettier).  For today’s card offering I created a 5” x 7” card and used three different snippets: a DP snippet; a stencilled background snippet; a stamped card snippet and here it is …

 

I'm not quite sure how I have managed it but it has more depth that it looks in the photograph

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

A Vintage Journey Challenge Stencil It 

Country View Crafts Challenge Hot

Crafty Boots Challenge Sunshine Colours

Die Cutting Divas Challenge #281 Anything Goes

Fantasy Stampers Challenge #70 Sunshine Colours: I used old Elusive Images stamps

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

Spectrum Noir Challenge August Anything Goes

The bottom layer had a very pale lemony background with leaves and lines and after trimming it down I heavily coloured the edges with yellow, orange and brown.  The next layer was me practicing repeat stamping with different colours of DIP’s, the pale yellow has been covered by the orange and brown.  The next layer was the one that started out this experiment and snippet busting.  A white card snippet which I attached a stencil to and coloured with my AquaTints.  Then I die cut the Memory Box happy birthday die and coloured that using my landscape AquaTints.  Some layering, gluing and fun foam and the card is finished.

The end result is a little darker than I would usually do but I am very happy with the finished card and the colours, for a change, so it seems I can use brown with the rule that it has to be used with bright or bold or neon colours.  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Chocolate Baroque stamp #

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Memory Box birthday die

Stencil:

Tim Holtz Layering stencil: wood grain

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; paintbrushes; water pot; ink blending tool and foam

Supplies

Card Paper:

300 gsm card

Snippet DP

Snippets Sheena Douglass white stamping card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Landscape; Primary

Distress IPs: rusty hinge; squeezed lemonade; vintage photo

Embellishments:

Metal pin heads #

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape; fun foam

# VOS: very old stash and no idea if still available to purchase, min. 12 years old

August final bird ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  I will try not to use these birds so much in September, apologies, I did become very obsessed with them lol!  Here is my final post for August …

 

Back to A6 and lots of bits and bobs added to this one

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Allsorts Challenge #378 Use At Least Two Dies

Country View Crafts Challenge Hot Summer Days

Crafty Boots Challenge Sunshine Colours

Fantasy Stampers Challenge #70 Sunshine Colours: I used Dina Wakley stamps

Pixie’s Snippets Playground #244

Spectrum Noir Challenge August Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations Challenge August Anything Goes

The Corrosive Challenge #8 August Hot, Hot, Hot Summer

This card came about because the bird was stamped and coloured and the die cuts were cut from white card snippets so I decided to do a finishing bird for August with the promise that after tomorrow’s post I won’t use this bird stamp set again for the rest of September, lol, obsessed is a bit of an understatement so I am going to put this stamp set away and get my new stamps out to play with lol! 

My huge thanks goes out to the lovely Jane of Jane’s Journal for picking these colours as the theme at Country View Crafts Challenge for this month as I have loved playing with my richer and hotter colours this month and in fact quite a few of these colours were inspired by Jane as she is not afraid of colour like I can be lol!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Dina Wakley stamp set: Scribbly Birds

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutter

Spellbinders: Large Classic Circle & Large Classic Scalloped Circle die sets

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; Martha Stewart border punch; paintbrushes; palette; water pot

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion: A4 Sheena Douglass stamping card; A4 Kraft card

Snippets white card for die cutting

Snippet DP

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Beautifully Grunge; Bright & Beautiful; Landscape

Versafine IP: black

White acrylic paint

Embellishments:

Lots of flowers from my stash

Ribbon from my stash

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape; fun foam

Another of those large flowers ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week has started well and you had a fabulous weekend.  I have another card to share with you today and here it is …

  

Back to A6 and no designer paper either!

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Country View Crafts Challenge Hot Summer Days

Crafty Boots Challenge You Are My Sunshine

Deep Ocean Challenge #136 Things with Wings

Penny Black & More Challenge Anything Goes with a Stamp

Scrapy Land Challenge #48 Use a stamp or digital image

I used Crafters Companion dies

Spectrum Noir Challenge August Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin’ Challenge No Patterned Papers

The Corrosive Challenge #8 August Hot, Hot, Hot Summer: I went with hot colours

The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge Ribbon

Not only have I become obsessed with this flower stamp I am also struggling to break away from these wonderful hot shades or lemon, orange and red: talk about the sort of colours I love to play with lol!  You see it’s not just about the blue, green, pink and purple with me!  I am a lover of bold colours, large flower stamps, butterfly stamps, and just any stamp that grabs my attention.

I have to say a huge thank to my lovely OH; a couple of weeks ago I was moaning that I didn’t have the pennies to spend on dies and that some of the dies at the top of my wish list were on special offer at Crafters Companion.  Well you could have knocked me down with a feather when he told me to purchase them: I am a very happy bunny playing with gorgeous new dies and, ahem, I have a couple of sets of new stamps (not Crafters Companion) that were a steal, ahem, I can’t tell you where I got them because there is one other set that I really want and if I am lucky enough to get them at the beginning of September I’ll let you know if they are still a steal.  I’m hoping you will see them soon as I want to try to stamp and create with them this weekend.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Crafters Companion Leonie Pujol Entwined Collection stamp: Beautiful Bloom

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Sara Davis Signature Butterfly Lullaby: Flit & Flutter die set

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; Martha Stewart border punch; paintbrushes; water pot

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion Sheena Douglass: A4 white stamping card snippets

300gsm card

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints:

Spectrum Sparkle pens: Clear Overlay

Spectrum Aqua pen set: Nature

Distress IP: Rusty Hinge

Embellishments:

Ribbon from my stash

Adhesives/Mediums:

Double sided tape; fun foam; Collall all purpose glue

Spectrum Aqua experiment ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend is going well.  I have been playing with another re-cycled stamp that I was lucky enough to win from our Brenda and a gorgeous set of Paperbabe butterfly stamps that I was very lucky to win too.  Both Brenda’s stamp and the Paperbabe butterflies have quickly become favourites that I currently adore.  I think the flower stamp is a Sweet Pea – mum would be able to confirm or deny that for me but she is on her holiday-ma-bobs right now and wouldn’t appreciate me contacting to ask lol!  So here’s my card …

  

Back to A6

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Allsorts Challenge #378 Use At Least Two Dies

Country View Crafts Challenge Hot Summer Days

Deep Ocean Challenge #136 Things with Wings

 Paperbabe Stamps Challenge #40 photo inspiration:

I was inspired by the shades of orange, brown and green

Penny Black & More Challenge Anything Goes with a Stamp

Spectrum Noir Challenge August Anything Goes

The Corrosive Challenge #8 August Hot, Hot, Hot Summer: hot colours 
The Pencil Case Challenge #27 Anything Goes

It was only after I had stamped the panel that I thought to look through my papers to see if I had any that would work with the stamped image which is really naughty of me.  I used two sheets of really old DP stash and I used card that I had coloured with my very Bright & Beautiful AquaTints and as I had some of the AT in my paint palette I also coloured a white air dry clay leaf as I knew it would look good with the rolled flower.

I inked up the flower stamp using a light green and orange from my Nature Aqua pen set and stamped onto watercolour paper and I immediately sprayed the image with water, unusually for me very lightly which is good, as the image has only bled a little and I wanted that look for this card.  I used my heat tool to dry the watercolour panel before stamping the butterflies (inked orange Aqua pen) and I inked the Just a Note with the Versafine IP and stamped in position.  I love working in this colour palette, it’s rich, gorgeous and warm so I love it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Paperbabe Pieridae butterfly stamp set

Stamp Addicts flower stamp

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Marianne D Chinese Rolled Rose die set

The Butterfly die was from a magazine

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI stamping tool; Tim Holtz Distressing tool; Makins air dry clay mould #; paintbrushes; water pot

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion watercolour paper

300gsm card

K&Co DP #

Snippets card for die cutting

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Bright & Beautiful

Spectrum Aqua: Nature pen set

Versafine IP: black

Embellishments:

Fimo Light air dry clay

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape; fun foam

# VOS: very old stash and no idea if still available to purchase, min. 5 years old

Another bird ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  I am having a bird stamp love affair and add bright, hot and zesty colours to that then I am in my crafting heaven.  Here is today’s card …

 

Back to A6 card size

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Country View Crafts Challenge Hot Summer Days
Deep Ocean Challenge #136 Things with Wings

Scrapy Land Challenge #48 Use a stamp or digital image

I used Spellbinder dies

Sparkles Monthly Challenge #83 Lots of Layers

Spectrum Noir Challenge August Anything Goes

The Craft Barn Challenge Two Weekly Challenge use Blue/Blues

The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge Ribbon

Tuesday Throwdown Challenge TT308 Make it Sparkle:

Sadly my photographic skills do not pick up the bling on the die cut ‘happy’

I think you can probably tell that I got to play with the Bright & Beautiful Spectrum Noir AquaTints on this card.  The orange and the colour that is similar to peacock feathers are gorgeously hot and lush and I adore them and I have to be honest I didn’t plan to use so many colours this just evolved: whatever!  I love it and I think it works.  I also used the yellow from this set along with gold from the Essentials ATs to colour the die cut happy: you should see the sparkle and shine on it – just beautiful!

For some reason I am back on the mixed media fussy as well as MM CAS cards.  I have no idea where or why my moods and ideas come from but it is fun and has stopped me from getting bored.  It was lovely to use the newer colours with an older stamp set and some older designer papers it just made and makes me happy.  I’m going from one extreme to the other – very shabby or CAS.  I’ve learnt to go with the flow rather than fight it.  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Dina Wakley stamp set: Scribbly Birds

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutter

Winnie & Walter: happy die

Spellbinders: Large Classic Circle & Large Classic Scalloped Circle die sets

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; Tim Holtz distressing tool; paintbrushes; palette; water pot

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion A4 Sheena Douglass stamping card & snippets of that too

Stampin’ Up DP #

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Bright & Beautiful; Essentials;  Landscape

Archival IP: black

White acrylic paint

Embellishments:

Bird embellishment #

Ribbon from my stash

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape; fun foam

# VOS: very old stash and no idea if still available to purchase, min. 4 years old

At last ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend is going well.  I finally had some time to create a not card project and I have got to say I am so blooming happy that I finally got to finish it.  I created a dimensional piece of stamped mixed media hanging and here it is …

It's about A5 size

I promise it's not bent like the photo!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges
 A Vintage Journey Challenge Stencil It 
Allsorts Challenge #377 Fabulous Florals

 Anything But Cute Challenge Shabby Garden Board 

I hope you can see that I was inspired by the colours of the weather wood, the white garden ornaments and the pink flowers

 Country View Crafts Challenge Hot Summer Days

Craft Stamper Challenge Mask/Stencil and Stamps 
Crafty Boots Challenge Anything But A Card

Creative Artiste Challenge Anything Goes

 Paperbabe Stamps Challenge #40 Inspiration Photograph

I was inspired by the rich oranges and reds/pinks on the top of some of the toadstools, and two of the toadstools are bright white and the shades of green

The Craft Barn Challenge Two Weekly Challenge use Blue/Blues

This was so much fun to create.  I let my limited mixed media and distress style fingers out to play and I went darker and distressed more than the last time and I actually blooming like it!  There are a couple of layers chipboard here which probably aren’t evident I used a piece for the background which I created by sticking a patterned paper onto it and then trimming it.  The next day I applied texture paste to just the edges, top and bottom.  I knew I would cover most of it so I didn’t have to add it to the middle of the bottom panel.  Once dry I used my weathered wood distress re-inker to add a wash to the stencilled paper (this is something I will do again).  I cut another piece of paper from my stack and distressed the edges and used a white gesso wash to tone the colour down before applying it to the centre of the panel. 

I used my Spectrum Aqua pens to ink up the flower stamp and just before stamping it I sprayed my card with water and immediately stamped the flower in position.  Whilst the card was still damp I popped it into my MISTI and stamped the wings from the Paperbabe Pieridae butterflies in position (these stamps come in different parts which makes them extremely useful).  I used my heat tool to dry the card and realised that the flower was too pale.  Once again I used my Spectrum Aqua pens to ink up the stamp and I very lightly sprayed the card before stamping the flower again.  I love the way that turned out and again will be something I try again lol!  It was time for bed so I left everything to dry overnight before finishing the stamped panel.

The next day I die cut the fence, distressed my second layer of paper, squashed and distressed my blossoms with Distress ink pads and Spectrum Aqua pens.  I trimmed the stamped and watercoloured card and attached it to a piece of chipboard before attaching a layer of fun foam and double sided tape to the back so that it has lovely depth.  Once I was happy with the flowers I added them as the final touch. 

Whilst taking my photographs I realised that our camera sees Spectrum Noir Sparkle clear overlay as white dots: my butterflies have dandruff, grr!  It really is obvious to me that I need and want to spend more time playing and familiarising myself with my acrylic paints and other mixed media supplies because that is where my heart lies right now.  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon too ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Paperbabe Stamps: Pieridae Butterfly stamp set

All Night Media flower stamp (very old +10)

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Joy Craft: fence die

Stencil:

Unknown Script Stencil (thank you Carol)

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; paintbrushes; water pot; palette knife; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion Sheena Douglass white stamping card

Country View Crafts Chipboard sheets

Designer papers from my stash & rather old

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Aqua pens: floral & nature sets

Spectrum Sparkle clear overlay pens

Tim Holtz Distress re-inker: weathered wood

Distress IP: Rusty Hinge; Picked Raspberry; Weathered Wood; Tumbled Glass

Embellishments:

Country View Crafts blossoms which I have cruelly squished

Adhesives/Mediums:

Country View Crafts: Ranger Texture Paste: matt; Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape; foam pads; The Works: white gesso

Geometry and pink take two ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  Because I really wanted to play and enter several challenges again I got my Altenew Whimsical Flowers stamp set out and here is my card …

A nice 148mm square this time - it's worth it!

I didn't photograph the depth very well, apologies!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges
Allsorts Challenge #377 Fabulous Florals

 Altenew Stamps Challenge August Pink

I don’t have any flamingo images but I do have a pink sparkly plush dog embellishment and I thought that along with stamped and watercoloured Altenew pink flowers, pink card, pink die cuts and all of that might just fit the theme

Mod Squad Challenge The Die’s The Thing

 Scrapy Land Challenge #48 Use a stamp or digital image:

I used Spellbinder dies

Spectrum Noir Challenge August Anything Goes

Creative with Stamps Challenge #5 Geometric 

*Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Make the Border *

 Seven Hills Crafts Challenge August Geometry *

* Spellbinder circle dies are geometric, the frame can be cut into two geometric halves, the frame border and card are geometry/geometric.

I created a card titled Geometry & Pink, see here, I used my Crafters Companion hexagonal dies because I thought that was geometry meant.  When I mentioned to my OH that I wanted to come up with another entry for a geometry themed challenge he told me that squares and circles are also geometry; geometry means shapes, doh I should have asked first lol!

So I wanted to create a pink card using the pink theme at Altenew and I wanted to incorporate geometry into it so that I could also enter Creative with Stamps, Seven Hills and Simon Says Stamps Wednesday challenges.  More bonuses were that this card could be entered into the Happy Little Stampers and Scrapy Land dies challenges and because I used my Spectrum Noir AquaTints would also be good for the Spectrum Noir challenge too lol!

Once again my MISTI has come in very useful because I was able to create a stamped and masked frame for this card – I love my Miss Misti!  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Altenew: Whimsical Flowers stamp set

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Spellbinders Nestability die sets: large classic circle & large classic scalloped circle

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; paint brushes; water pot; paint palette; pipettes

Supplies

Card Paper:

Sheena Douglass stamping card & snippets for die cutting

148 mm square 300 gsm card

Pearlescent pink card #

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Bright & Beautiful

Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen set: Clear Overlay

Tim Holtz Distress IP: worn lipstick

Pink acrylic paint (for the die cuts)

Embellishment:

Pink sequinned dog #

Adhesives/Mediums:

Post It Notes (for masking); Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape; fun foam

# VOS: very old stash and no idea if still available to purchase, min. 4 years old

Twofer, one inspired by Spectrum Noir DT Claire ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well.  Well it’s pretty obvious why I am here, lol, and here is my first card …

 

It looks so deep but it will be okay to post!

A final look at this CASE!

the Pastel AquaTints and that was the point when I knew that I needed the Pastel ATs, and I mean really needed lol!  I went to the Spectrum Noir blog to read the tutorial and I have tried this technique with my other ATs watered down but the colours aren’t as beautiful.  So you see I really did need the Pastel ATs. 

This week I finally got a chance to create a card following Claire’s tutorial.  I was surprised that Claire used cheap printer paper to create her flowers and I gave it a try but I expected the flowers to disintegrate after adding the ATs, they didn’t, to my surprise, even though our current printer paper is really awful lol.  

I used a border die and this flower die which are from the Crafters Companion Inspiration magazines, along with a gorgeous die I won from the lovely Miss Pixie.  I used Sheena’s stamping card for my background and I added a layer of water to that before using the Pastel ATs straight out of the bottle, no watering down required.  I left the background card and the white printer paper to dry before die cutting the border and the flowers.  I curved the flower petals with my scissors before adding some really old brads to three of them.  My final touch to the flowers was to add a layer of Clear Spectrum Sparkle to the petals.  I have been lucky enough to be picked by the random link as the winner from Spectrum Noir challenges and the mediums I used to create this card are prizes I have been lucky enough to win and it feels to me that this card was meant to be created by me.

My second card was in part inspired by Claire’s but I wanted to add my own twist which means stamping in some form was required, lol, and here it is …

 

You can see the shimmer!

All the gorgeous paint and ink!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges
Allsorts Challenge #377 Fabulous Florals

 Happy Little Stamper’s Die Cut Challenge August

Mod Squad Challenge The Die’s The Thing

Pixie’s Snippets Playground #243 the flowers were stamped onto white card snippets and a snippet was added behind the die cut

Scrapy Land Challenge #48 Use a stamp or digital image:
I used a Crafters Companion die

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge Summer Fun:

I am having fun with my stamps and colouring mediums

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge Make the Border:

I used a border die on the top and added a ribbon border at the bottom

Spectrum Noir Challenge August Anything Goes

I love the flowers in my newish Leonie stamp set so much that I am struggling not to use them every time I stamp something right now.  I’ve used the two smaller flowers from the stamp set and the larger flower has been stamped twice and heavily curled with my scissors before being glued on top of another one.  The card I used for stamping the flowers on was white snippets, the ‘hello’ die cut was a snippet of pink and the paper behind the border was also another snippet.  All these snippets being used but that are still quite a lot in my pile, grr!  

I have stamped these flowers a couple more times onto white card snippets but I have gone bold and bright – you will be seeing them soon lol!  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment.  I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon  ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Crafters Companion Leonie Pujol Entwined Collection: Beautiful Bloom stamp set

Card 1 & 2 Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine Border die

Crafters Companion Inspiration Magazine Flower die

My Favourite Things Dienamics Hello There die set

Card 1 & 2 Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Snippets Sheena Douglass stamping card

Prima 6” square DP: Pretty Pastels

Printer paper

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Pastels

Embellishments:

Brads #

Glitter #

Ribbons from Carol – thank you!

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; Collall dimensional glue

# VOS: very old stash and no idea if still available to purchase, min. 4 years old