Bling Blooms

I bought these crystal gems years ago in a sale, and saved them, as you do. Their time has come!

Now used for the Tag You're It Diamonds are a Girl's Best friend challenge.

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Stamps: Paper Artsy Backgrounds 2 and Petals 6

Inks: DI Dusty Concord, Worn Lipstick and Broken China; Archival Black; DI Refill Milled Lavender

Extras: Perfect pearls 'Pearl'; PM Adhesive Stones and Eyelet; Mark Richards Crystal Stickers; Prima Flowers; Fibres

Chamois Leather

The Saturday Workout challenge is to make Faux leather with Masking Tape.

In the suggested method for this technique you cover paper with small strips of masking tape, colour the tape and then cover with clear embossing powder. I omitted the embossing powder as I felt the effect had been achieved with the shiny acrylic, and looked like chamois leather. The two 'art' words are quite clear irl. I dyed the ribbon to match.

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Stamps: Simple Expressions People 2; Time to Stamp Leo's Plate; Crafty Individuals 21

Inks: Kaleidacolor Bouquet; StazOn Midnight Blue; Adirondack Acrylic Butterscotch

Extras: Masking Tape; Prima Flowers; Purple Brad; White ribbon; Gesso

Oh to be 70 again!

When I saw this image on Art Creations Friday I immediately converted her into black and white to see what she looked like - I think I prefer her like this. I then thought she needed an amusing caption.

All my grandmother's sisters were called by nicknames such as Ruby or Chick. In fact I don't know their real names - so I imagine this lady to be called 'Button'. Isn't it funny how what you wear can influence your art work - I realised I'm wearing a cardigan decorated with buttons!

The faux buttons are punched from dyed pelmet vilene.

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Stamps: Paper Artsy Buttons 4; Time to Stamp Vintage Sewing

Inks: DI Aged Mahogany, Scattered Straw and Tattered Rose; Black Pen

Extras: Pelmet Vilene; Dymo Labeller; Black paper

Ocean's edge

The Theme Thursday topic is beach or nautical. This didn't come out quite as intended, and I'm not altogether happy with it, but I know someone who'll appreciate it.

The background was made with the rubbing after cleaning the brayer, which gives it the waves effect.

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Stamps: Time to Stamp Beach memoirs; Elusive Images ATC set

Inks: Kaleidacolor Caribbean Sea; VersaFine Onyx Black

Extras: pp by Dovecraft; Metallic Black thread; Black Brads and Paper

Little darling

This little darling is the picture challenge from Art Creations Friday.

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Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Mosaic and Flourish

Inks: StazOn Black; Gold Gel Pen; Alcohol Inks Raisin, Terracotta, Butterscotch and Pearl Mixative

Extras: Vintage Image; Prima Flowers; Gold Brads

The face of the time

The Lots to Do challenge is entitled The Eyes Have It. Here's my atc, stamped on a background scrap I made a long time ago.
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Stamps: Stampington Paris 1900; Crafty Individuals 21; BLine Tick Tock; Time to Stamp ATC set 1; Tim Holtz Staples

Inks: DI Faded Jeans, Tea Dye and Scattered Straw; Versamark; Adirondack Ginger; Watercolour Pencils

Extras: 1 CT Gold EP

Dreamy Lady

The Saturday Workout challenge is to alter a CD. Very enjoyable!

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Stamps: DarkRoom Door Little Dreams

Inks: DI Antique Linen and Brushed Corderoy; Adirondack Willow, Juniper and Meadow; StazOn Saddle Brown

Extras CD; Prima Flower; Brad; Sequin Waste

Swirly Dragonfly

The Tag You're It challenge this week is to use at least one swirl and one circle. As if I'd use only one!!
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Stamps: Paper Artsy Mini; Time to Stamp ATC set 1

Inks: Ecoline Turquoise Blue, Pastel Blue and Light Green; Adirondack Aqua, Sail Boat Blue and Denim; Inkessentials White Gel Pen

Extras: Sequin Waste; Table Salt; PM Eyelet; Sheer Ribbon; Perfect Pearls Gold

Scented letter

The background for this ATC is made from tinted copies of a Lavender Water label that I bought in my local antiques market. This is for the Theme Thursday challenge to use labels.

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Stamps: Tim Holtz Bank of True Love

Inks: Adirondack Wild Plum; DI Dusty Concord; Versamark

Extras: Image from Tuscan Rose CD 3; Vintage Label; Heart and Corner Punches; Clear EP; Cream card

2, Rue Vivienne

The Graphicus blog has a February challenge with the theme of 'home', and using the colours brick and teal. I was rather stumped by this until I saw a house template on Stampington's website.
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Stamps: Elusive Images Fleurs et Parfums de Paris, Graceful Ladies, ATC set, and Scripts and Timepieces


Inks: DI Fired Brick; Adirondack Cranberry, Aqua, Stram and Bottle; Versamark; VersaColor Bark


Extras: Clear EP; PP from BG; Prima Flower; Blue Brad; white lace

Belle Susanna

This is the 2nd day of the All things French event at Rhondamum's blog, and I'll also submit this for the Created byHand challenge on letter of the alphabet.

The first two items are my source of inspiration for this card. When I was 15 I went on the first of three French exchanges with M-N, and I'm pleased to say that I'm still in contact with her. These are pages I made from the diary from that visit, and I so enjoyed my visit to the Clos Luce, home of Leonardo Da Vinci. Now I know why my teachers moaned about the size of my handwriting!

You can see that I've used the colours of the tickets as my colour scheme, although it came out a bit brighter than intended! The original sketch by Da Vinci is not called Susanna - I thought it just suited her.

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Stamps: Stampington Paris 1900; Tim Holtz I See Paris; TTS Leo's Plate

Inks: Adirondack Lemonade, Peach Bellini, Watermelon, Cranberry and Wild Plum; VersaFine Onyx Black; Adirondack Dabber Lemonade

Extras: Perfect pearls Gold; Black and Cream Card; PM Clear Domed Sticker; Grungeboard Minis

Paris 1900

Rhondamum is holding a 2 day All Things French event on her blog, and has invited us to share some artwork. My children are in Paris at the moment with their school band, so France is very much in my thoughts. Here's my contribution.

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Stamps: ISC ATC Elements; Sunday International Lady in Hat; RSTapestry Flourishes; Stampington Paris 1900; HA Old French Writing

Inks: DI Shabby Shutters, Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint

Extras: PM Eyelet; MM ribbon and brads; BB card; Sequin Waste

Which way to the carnival?

The 23rd of February is Mardi Gras so the Gothic Arches challenge is using this, or carnivals, as their theme.

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Stamps: DarkRoom Door Venezia

Inks: Adirondack SailBoat Blue and Caramel; Versamark; VersaFine Onyx Black

Extras: Image from internet; Perfect pearls Gold

Soot Impression

I made this for the Inkurable Stampers theme of soot stamping, and the Lots to Do theme of wings.

I coloured up the glossy card before burning it just to see what happened - it works well. The stamp I used consists of delicate brush strokes so the image is less distinct.

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Stamps: Simple Expressions The Orient; Time to Stamp For the Birds and Birds of a Feather

Inks: Kaleidacolor Caribbean Sea; StazOn Ultramarine

Extras: Glossy Card; Candle; Ribbon and fibres; Hairspray; Feather; Tag Punch; Black Card; Brayer

Brocade Texture

The Saturday Workout this week is to use shrink foil. I only had the ordinary sort of SP, so I used the brocade texture technique to create the same effect.

I painted Lumiere paints onto the SP, allowed it to dry and than shrank as normal. The paints bubble up nicely. Unfortunately the scanner didn't like the beads so the image is slightly out of focus. Try clicking it for a close-up.

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Stamps: ISC ATC Elements 2

Inks: Lumiere paints Pearl White, Pearl Violet, Pearl Blue and Metallic Bronze; DI Dusty Concord, Milled Lavender and Faded Jeans; Brilliance Cosmic Copper

Extras: Purple mulberry paper; Copper and Maroon card; Purple wire; Beads; Shrink Plastic

Elegance

This is my first attempt at a digital layout - you can see I have HUGE amount to learn! The kit was a freebie from shabby princess, and both the lady and her immediate background were this and last weeks' images from Art Creations Friday.
I had terrible trouble getting the image onto this blog, and ended printing it out and scanning it to get it here. It's lost quite a bit in translation! If anyone can advise me on this I'd be very grateful!

Romantic tag

The Tag You're It challenge is all about Love and Romance.

I was very taken with an article in our local newspaper this week about a man who took Breakfast Television cameras into a local school with him, and proposed to his girlfriend on live TV. What a romantic thing to do!! (Imagine if she'd said no!!)

I have incorporated portions of the clipping into my tag. I've inked up the pp and the flower to match my colour scheme.

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Stamps: Stampington Romance Elements

Inks: Adirondack Dabbers Shell Pink and Peach Bellini; Adirondack Inks Peach Bellini; DI Aged Mahogany, Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick

Extras: Perfect Pearls Gold; Prima Flowers; PM Button and Eyelet; Waxy Flax Bubble Gum; Newspaper clipping; PP by BG; Sheer Ribbon

Copper flowers

The Lots to Do theme this week is marvellous metal.
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Stamps: Free stamp from Craft Stamper; ISC About Me; DarkRoom Door Full Bloom Vol 2

Inks: Archival Black; DI Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade and Aged Mahogany; Adirondack Lemonade and Terracotta; DI Refill Antique Linen

Extras: Gesso; ArtEmboss Copper sheet; Flower punch; Black Brads; DCWV card; Perfect Pearls Gold

Love in Japanese

The Gothic Arches theme this week is hearts. I wanted to make something very delicate, which I'll probably send to my Japanese sister-in-law. She gave me the cream and gold paper which you can see fragments of here.

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Stamps: Stampington Romance Elements; Simple Expressions The Orient; HA Heartfelt Messages

Inks: DI Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick and Aged Mahogany; Brilliance Galaxy Gold; VersaFine Onyx Black; Castaway; DI Refill Antique Linen; Gold Pen

Extras: Perfect pearls Gold; Gesso; Japanese paper; Prima Flowers; PM eyelet and Adhesive Stones; Fibres

Pearly tiles

The Saturday Workout challenge is to use UTEE in some way.

I don't have any, so I used Amazing Glaze as a substitute. Once I had embossed 3 layers I pressed a stamp into the melted powder. I then brushed over the tiles with the pearl powders. I used the latter again over versamark on the black paper, and also over versamark on a green brad, which I sealed with hairspray.

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Stamps: Elusive Images Good Deeds; RSTapestry Flourish

Inks: VersaFine Onyx Black; Versamark

Extras: Black Paper; BB purple card; Prima Flowers; Green Brad; Judikins Amazing Glaze; Enchanted Lustre Dust Metallic Rose Lame powder; PearlEx Interference Green and Interference Violet powders; Grungeboard; Hairspray

1 Dream, 1 Goal, 1 Family

Make a Moo or 2 challenge site is celebrating their 1st birthday - so this is my means of congratulating them. There is a number 1 on each moo as requested. I made them up into a card as it's my son's birthday next week and this will do nicely!

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Stamps: Elusive Images Boys on Bikes, and Fleurs et Parfums de paris; Paper Artsy Backgrounds 2

Inks: Adirondack Slate, Latte, Denim and Eggplant; VersaFine Onyx Black; DI Refill Antique Linen

Extras: Perfect Pearls Gold; MM ribbon; Tim Holtz Philosophy Tag; Computer generated text; WHSmith RubOns

Sketched flowers

The Tag You're It challenge this week is to use a given sketch. The minute I saw it I knew exactly what I wanted to do, which was to use some of the domed stickers I've had for too many years to mention.
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Stamps: Darkroom Door Full Bloom Vol 2; Elusive Images Boys on Bikes

Inks: Adirondack Lemonade, Juniper and Bottle; Castaway; DI refill Antique Linen

Extras: PM Domed Stickers and Eyelet; Sheer ribbons; Perfect Pearls Gold

Your hand in mine

I've always admired the work of Nancy Maxwell James, so cased one of her cards for the Created byHand challenge on Love Quotes. This is, after all, a stamp designed by her.

I wanted to fade all the colours, particularly the orange mat card, so distressed everything with the dabber (even the brads). I don't think you can see the lacy paper around the feature stamp unless you go in for a close up. I spritzed a text stamp which has left the diagonal white marks on the background.
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Stamps: SugarLump Studios Heartfelt; Paper Artsy Backgrounds 2

Inks: DI Aged Mahogany, Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade; Adirondack Dabber Snow Cap; VersaFine Onyx Black

Extras: PP by Fancy Pants; DCWV orange card; Lacy Paper; Prima Flowers; Brads; Fibres

Faux Stitches

The Lots to Do challenge is entitled In Stitches. I'm afraid I cheated - I pricked holes around the edge and drew them on. Hope that's alright! But I did use sewing related stamps and embellishments.

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Stamps: Stampington Scripted Greetings; Paper Artsy Mini; PaperBag Studios Addison

Inks: DI Scattered Straw and Dried Marigold; Adirondack Slate; DI Refill Antique Linen; Brilliance Galaxy Gold; Marvy Pen Mocha

Extras: perfect Pearls Gold; Fibres; PP by Dovecraft; DCWV Brown card; Vintage Button; Deckle Edge Scissors; Hole Pricker

With love from me to you...

I've now got this Beatles song on the brain!!

For no specific reason I've decided I'd like to share the love again. Please leave a comment on this post if you would like a chance to win this set of stamps from Elusive Images. It will go to the first name out of the hat - please leave some way of contacting you. This offer ends on Thursday 5th Feb 10.00 pm UK time.

Recently I was asked by Christine to blog the 6th picture from the 6th album on my computer. As this is a new computer I've not yet got round to putting family snaps on it, so the picture that came out was one already on the computer - frangipani flowers.

As you know I don't participate in tagging so won't nominate anyone else, but if you haven't received this request feel free to join in the fun.

Friday 6/2/09 - and the winner is AngC - congrats to you!!

Mona Lisa Smile

My first Gothic Arch for ages - this one uses tags.

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Stamps: BLine Leaf Swirl; Time to Stamp Leo's Plate; HA Fantastic Flourishes and Brushstroke Lowercase Letters; Paper Artsy SchoolDays 1

Inks: H2Os Icy Iris, Sea Glass and Autumn Skies; VersaFine Onyx Black; DI Broken China; Versamark

Extras: MM Metal Brad; Tag Punch; Metallic RubOns; Black and Clear EP; Waxy Flax Icy Blue; Black Paper