Otto the Tollkeeper

Here's another photo from Rein's blog. I don't know how she manages to find these images, but they're fun to work with.
I have posted this on a new challenge site : http://creativeideaonsunday.blogspot.com/, and also on 2peas.

Here's Otto's story:

Otto worked as a tollkeeper at the Old Shorehall Bridge. In his spare time he liked to collect butterflies, and was a leading member of the Shorehall men's choir, possessing a very fine baritone voice.
The green background started life as sprayed, but I wasn't happy with it, so I then washed over it with the 2 colours to make a solid. I doubt I could reproduce this again, but I like the effect!

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Stamps : Crafty Individuals

Inks : Adirondack sprays lettuce and denim; Adirondack lettuce; DI antique linen, shabby shutters, walnut stain

G for Grace

Isa's next challenge is to use the letter G. I have chosen not to use the extra 2 options, as this is the 2nd in the series of my three ladies of virtue.

I was thrilled today as I was selected to receive Isa's 'F' tag. Bloggers are such generous people! Great excitement yet again in my house!

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Stamps : HA Long Writing Background; Elusive Images elephant set; SA swirls

Inks : VersaColor pacific, celadon; Fluid Chalk Orchid Pastel; VersaMagic Magnolia Bud

Extras : image from Vintage Photos and Ephemera; HA pink card; ribbon; pink eyelet; MM rubOns; paper towel, Vellum glue, white glue

Hats

This is my contribution to the Wednesday Stamper challenge on the theme of hats.
Why don't men wear bowler hats to work anymore? I think these men look rather dashing in theirs!
I have watercoloured, gessoed and sponged colour back on top to achieve depth of colour for the top layer, and then watered down the colours for the bottom layer. I used AI to colour the buckle.

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Stamps : Crafty Individuals 3 wise gentlemen; Elusive Images scripts and timepieces

Inks : AI eggplant; Adirondack stained glass; Archival black

Extras : gesso, blue waxy flax, PM button, chipboard buckle, ribbon, DCWV blue card

All you need is love..

The DCM midweek challenge uses the theme of love. Not my greatest effort, but I only had a 30 minute slot today, and will have no time tomorrow. My childrens' commitments have ruled the household every evening this week, and we have also hosted a Spanish exchange student.

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Stamps : HA Heart Bud; Elusive Images Fleurs et parfums

Inks : Marvy pens (lime), brilliant yellow, plum; Archival black

Extras : PP by Provocraft

Deck of Me, week 8

The Deck of Me challenge : was who (or what) do you miss?

Some of you have commented that you cannot enlarge the images here. This is the text:

"The last time I saw my brother Paul was in 2003 when he came over from Australia on a surprise visit. We love to play computer adventure games together. Paul, may God make His face to shine upon you."

I was completely dumbstruck when he arrived at a family birthday party. This photo is hated by my children, but the only one of him! It was taken at my eldest daughter's Confirmation; we were thrilled that he could attend during his visit. ---

Stamps : Paper Artsy Travel 4; AudDesign swirl

Inks : DI antique linen; Fluid Chalk tangerine; VersaColor bisque

F for Faith

Isa's challenge was for the letter F, and could include option a) a vintage image, and b) Isa's paper towel technique.

Well, I did try the paper towel but perhaps the recycled ones aren't as effective. You can barely see it on the scan, but there are lots of pieces of it.

I printed the image onto tracing paper because I don't have any plain vellum. ---

Stamps : Elusive Images elephant set; HA Long writing background; Stampers Anonymous swirl

Inks : VersaColor celadon, pacific; Adirondack latte; VersaMagic Magnolia Bud

Extras : vellum glue, white glue, paper towel, tracing paper,star crystal (from Rein), green ribbon, HA pink card, image from Vintage photos and ephemera, MM rubOns. pink eyelet

Tagged

The DCM challenge is to :

make a card using a tag, label, sticker or anything else you can find, thats from packaging and would normally end up in the bin. Of course you can ink it, change it, distress it and add anything else you like! If you're feeling brave, I DOUBLE DARE you to make it a card for a man!

Recently I threw away a wonderful tag in an unusual fit of tidiness :-(

Fortunately my children have inherited my hoarding tendencies, as they produced all sorts of goodies when I mentioned this challenge.

The reverse of this tag has a fabulous background, but my 12 year old son assured me that this side was more cool! The tag was from his new school bag.

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Stamps : HA Little shells; Invoke Arts Harlequin

Inks : DI broken china, shabby shutters; Marvy pens black, English red

Extras : Glossy Accents, black paper, Billabong tag, PM circle frame

Needlework Mistress

Rein has put another photo on her blog for us all to use:

http://stampingrika.blogspot.com/2007/06/vintage-picture.html

This is a new direction for me, as I'm not that confident about collaging. I enjoyed rummaging through my MIL's needlework box that I inherited, and know that she would be pleased that I used her sewing equipment, even if it wasn't as originally intended!

This photo was crying out for a story to be told :

Aunt Miranda was a marvellous seamstress, designing and creating ball gowns for the nobility. She tailored this Christening gown with lace trim for her baby niece Flossie in 2 days by hand, barely stopping to eat or sleep. She was thrilled when Neweys patented the hook and eye as she no longer had to sew numerous button holes, and used them here for the first time. The gown has become a family heirloom.

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Stamps : HA Timeless Icons butterfly; Crafty Individuals 013

Inks : VersaColor Old Rose

Extras : copy of hook & eye packaging, (very) old sewing pattern, Rein's photo, vintage button, lace, blue waxy flax, BB blue, pink paper

Faberge Egg

The Wednesday Stamper theme of eggs really got me scratching my head. (Could I say my brain was scrambled!?) Then I went and looked up images of Faberge eggs. This is my hand-drawn version of one.

The sparkle on the card hasn't come through the scan again, but now that my camera has been returned from being left behind by my daughter on a Spanish Exchange trip (!), I can show you a photo of it.

After watercolouring the background with garnet and fired brick, and then stamping on it with raspberry, I rubbed the pearlescent tinting on the background at the end to give a lovely sheen.

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Stamps : AudDesign swirl

Inks : Versamark pen; DI fired brick; Impress garnet; VersaColor Raspberry, DalerRowney pearlescent tinting; H2Os cherry sorbet, Passion, Garnet, Gold Dust

Extras - Prima flowers, Paper Cellar crystals, purple and green crystals from Rein's RAK pack, Sea Foam EP, white mulberry paper, pink paper

How lucky am I?

From all the people who contributed a card to Rein's teddy challenge, one name was picked from the hat, and mine was selected!

I received these RAKs from her yesterday, and used some of the squares on the fabulous and gorgeous cards in the entry below.

But it doesn't end there!!

2 weeks ago Sheila aka Manicstamper asked for comments to celebrate her hit counter reaching 10,000. She obviously liked mine, and offered me some blog candy.

This was to choose any card on her site, and then she would send me the ingredients to recreate it.

These are the goodies she sent me. Tissue paper and card are lurking underneath card tags and EI stamps.

I can't believe it, as I rarely win anything! I will show you my version later.

I would like to say a really big thank you to both Rein and Sheila ;-))

Fabulous

I have made two matching cards for the DCM midweek challenge : Fabulous, and Gorgeous. (The former was the set theme.)

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Stamps : HA Old French Handwriting, dragonflies, Ribbon, Fancy Hats

Inks : VersaMagic Magnolia Bud; Adirondack caramel; VersaColor Topaz; ColorBox chianti; CB Fluid chalk Tangerine

Extras - PP Imaginisce Go for Baroque (both sides), chipboard letters from Craftwork Cards

DCM midweek

Another card from a past challenge. The recipe included 7 brads, 6 flowers and 5 letters. As everybody has gone dotty this week, it was appropriate to add it now.

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Crate Papers, ribbon ,prima flowers, brads, Oliver Twist thread, Walnut stain DI, red card.

Deck of Me, week 7

So, Emily has set shoes as a theme for this week.

Obviously these aren't one of my pairs from 20 years ago - I had to hunt around to find a picture of them! I always bought them in Carnaby Street (the nearest I ever got to being trendy!), it seemed so exotic.

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Stamps : Elusive Images elephant set; Paper Artsy Frames 4; HA solid rectangle

Inks : Encore metallic Honeydew; DI peeled paint; Colorcox Frost White

E for Eiffel Tower

Isa has put a new challenge up - based on the letter E, with option a) - use the colours brown, pink, and blue; and option b) - use swirls.

This is the first time I have used gesso - thank you Tina for the advice. I like the cloud effect it creates.

The caramel has come out quite orangey, but there are brown embellishments.

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Stamps : AudDesign swirl; Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Paris Collection

Inks : Impress Garnet; Adirondack Stonewashed, Caramel; Marvy pen Steel Blue

Extras : Gesso; blue and copper brads; PM copper E; prima flower; DCWV brown card

You're not the (em)boss of me!

The DCM Friday challenge is :

Embossing.

Dry embossing with a light box or with a die cutting machine. Using embossing powders or triple embossing. Using pre-embossed papers. Embossing with found items. Just have fun playing! And as I can't resist being a little (em)bossy - why not see if you can get more than one emboss technique on your card?

I have used triple embossing to make a faux tile, and also embossed gold around the edge, none too neatly! I'm becoming frustrated that the scanner doesn't pick up details, but c'est la vie!

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Stamps : Stampington Md bay leaf

Inks : Color palette gold; Adirondack dabbers pool, juniper, lemonade; versamark pad and pen

Extras : Judikins Amazing Glaze; gold EP, BB green card, yellow sheer ribbon, ATC chipboard

Teddy Ollie

Rein put a challenge on her blog to use this picture of a teddy. I'm not quite sure why he became Ollie, but it seemed an affectionate name, and he is so cute! He's just sitting, waiting for somebody to pick him up and love him!


Here's the link : http://stampingrika.blogspot.com/2007/06/teddy-bear-card.html

The photo didn't print out very well on my aged printer, so I made my own backgrounds. It's a shame the scanner doesn't show how pearly they are.

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Stamps : AudDesign small tag and leaves

Inks : DI faded jeans, dusty concord; Sticky Fingers Sprays delphinium, lilac; Adirondack Cabin Fever; VersaColor Topaz; DalerRowney pearlescent tinting

Extras : prima flower, orange brad, waxy flax, BB in purple and salmon

Polka Dot

The Wednesday Stamper challenge is Polka dot.

For the last 2 years I have played in New Year's Day concerts featuring Viennese music, including Polkas. All last week I played in a show called the Gypsy Princess, based in Austria. So I thought I would use music as a theme.

To musicians another word for music is dots. Hence : look at the dots! The Annen polka title is copied from music I found in the school cupboard. Incidentally, Annen means Anna.

The main background is a colourwash, with dots stamped on with castaway.

The trumpet background is a new technique for me - spread some diamond glaze on embossable acetate, and drip a few drops of alcohol ink on the DG. Mix around until happy. Crumple some tissue paper and lay it down on the mixture. Allow to dry. On the other side, stamp your image in permanent ink.

I got a bit carried away with the alcohol inks, and even coloured the photo corners!

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Stamps : Technique Tuesday She loves me (the dot); Stampington trumpet

Inks : AI lettuce, stream; Adirondack lettuce, stream; castaway

Extras : clear photo corners, embossable plastic, white tissue paper, black paper prima flowers, Dovecraft polka dot brad

Something old, something new...

The DCM midweek challenge is based on the wedding saying :

Something old, something new

Something borrowed, something blue.

I decided against a wedding theme. The blue items are obvious, but the new items were the Marvy pens, and the small violet. Borrowed was the corner punch. You know how things usually look better irl - actually this looks better on the scan!

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Stamps : HA a real violet, decorative flowers set violet

Inks : Marvy pens plum, oriental blue

Extras : silver paper, BB blue card, peeloff border, Oliver Twists thread, corner punch

Freudian Slip!

I thought I would share with you an error found in the minutes of the last staff meeting at my school. Those of you in the throes of exams might enjoy this:

"Year 10 will have eternal invigilators."

;-) Ros

Vintage angel

This card was made for the DCM challenge entitled vintage, a while back. I'm not exactly sure how to define 'vintage' but this is my version. (Another term I haven't fathomed is grunge!) Would somebody please enlighten me?


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Stamps : Lakeland Ltd ornate set; Elusive Images scripts and timepieces

Inks : DI fired brick, antique linen; Castaway

Extras : silver paper, image from Above the Mark, PP by Kelly Harwood for Dovecraft

Deck of Me, week 6

The prompt from Emily was to use ephemera from your week.

This is only part of the painting. I find the imagery, and the wounds very powerful. I also like the fact that Jesus isn't 'pretty'!

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Copy of painting by Wayne Forte, stamp by AudDesign

D for delicate

Isa has set a fantastic challenge this week, which allows me to indulge one of my passions : include a butterfly, and the letter D. (I seem to have used a lot of butterflies lately!)


This is very sparkly in real life, but scanners don't go there! I'm always pleased when I use stamps long neglected, in this case both of them.

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Stamps : stampington checkerborder, butterfly

Inks : Twinkling H2Os cherry sorbet, passion, blue zircon, African jade, majestic blue; versamark

Extras : MM rubOns, DCWV blue card, pink card, white EP

Flowers

Here's my card on the theme of flowers for Wednesday Stamper. Isn't it strange that the easier the challenge, the harder it is to make a decision on what to do!

I love it when I use something I've had for ages and not found a use for - you might see the netting again!

I used the batik method for all the images, and overstamped on the background paper.


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Stamps : stampington collage cube, printed butterfly

Inks : Adirondack dabbers lettuce, lemonade; Versacolor old rose, split pea, bamboo; versamark

Extras : clear EP, BB green card, pink netting, pink brads

Apollo, God of Sun

This week's DCM challenge is on the theme of celestial. This is Apollo, who is god of sun, among other things.

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Stamps : Non Sequitur greco roman collage

Inks : AI denim, eggplant; Adirondack dabbers eggplant, lemonade, peach bellini

Extras : Fimo metallic blue; gold rubOn; gold wire; blue brads, HOTP Icy Rainbow paper

butterfly

I made this card for my Mum's birthday in January. I was quite pleased with it, so was a bit astonished when my Dad rang to say that he took exception to the words on it. Pardon, I said!

What I thought were random letters on this background paper were not so. In the top left hand corner, descending, is the word 'supermonster'!!! (I hastened to point out that they referred to the butterfly!)

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly

stamps : elusive images butterfly

Inks : DI spiced marmalade, shabby shutters, peeled paint; Archival black

Extras : basic grey papers, ribbon, BB brads, orange card

Not so sticky

Here's my entry for the DCM midweek challenge, which is:

"how's about a dare where you can't use any adhesives at all...
You have to put them away...
No tape, no gluesticks, no Xyron, no modpodge.... and all other sticky things....
the only things you can use are things like staples, stitching, brads, eyelets, pins.... that sort of thing to attach all the bits to your card."

whoops - the little decoration slipped in the scanner! So, no adhesives - the image is tied on to the card.

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Stamps : Stampington collage cube, pressed profile,

Inks : Adirondack caramel; Marvy pens black cherry, crimson lake; Archival black; Impress garnet

Extras : buttons, waxy flax, shrink plastic , maroon card

Frances's journey

I made this card for my friend Frances, who was baptised by full immersion a couple of weeks ago. It's been a privilege to watch her journey into faith.

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Stamps : Crafty Individuals 53; BLine Rough Diamonds

Inks : ecoline, Versamagic turquoise gem

Extras : Prima flowers, brads, pink card

Deck of Me, week 5

The prompt for this week was originally love, love, love. But somehow I got the wrong end of the stick, and changed it to red!!! There are 2 loves on my card...

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Stamps : HA My heart to yours, a real Poppy; Elusive images Fleurs et parfum; AudDesign

Inks : lots of inks in reds, and H2Os, and white gel pen

Extra : mulberry paper

C for Circle

This is my card for Isa's C challenge. It had to use a tag, but no brown. And the images to begin with C.

I really wanted to use copper somewhere, or cerise or crimson, but it just didn't happen. So I listened to the music in my head. Alison Moyet sings a wonderful version of Windmills In My Mind, all about circles : never ending or beginning. A few years ago I took my son on the London Eye - also never stopping. Hence my card.

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Stamps : HA small concentric circle, and small stamp; Judikins London Cube; Computer generated words.

Inks : DI spiced marmalade, mustard seed, peeled paint

Extras : American Crafts ribbon; Crystal; DCWV card

Are there enough 'C's in there?

Monochrome

This is my card from the DCM gallery based on one colour only.

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stamps : Tim Holtz Paris collection; Stampington recommendation

Inks : DI worn lipstick; Marvy pen; VC peony

Extras : wrapping paper, PP Fancy Papers, threads, eyelet

I can see clearly now..

This is the challenge from DCM:


Kel says- Okay, this week I would like you to use some acetate, vellum, plasma or anything else remotely 'see-through' on your card. That's it!

I was very excited yesterday to discover that the watercolour technique I'd been using with distress inks could also be used with Marvy pens. This is where you rub your ink pad on a craft mat, spray with water, and smoosh watercolour paper on top. As I have a wider range of Marvy colours than DI, you might see a lot more of these backgrounds!

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Stamps : HA Just for you, dainty flower background; Funstamps dragonfly

Inks : Archival black; VC Old Rose; Marvy Le Plume pens crimson lake, brilliant yellow

Extras : DCWV salmon card; PP Scenic Route; prima flowers; crystal; PM tag; glitter thread by (?)Oliver Twists