Guitar man

The 4x4 Friday challenge is to use stencils. I sprayed the background and then stenciled on top. This is just one of the patterns on my stencil sheet.

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Stamps : Paper Artsy Stagelights 3

Inks : Sticky Fingers Sprays Bluebell and Aqua; DI refill Milled Lavender; Adirondack Stream

Extras :Perfect pearls 'Pearl'; Purple Brads; Jade card; Funky Swirl Stencil from The Crafter's Workshop

Wedding book

This afternoon I sat and made this book for a close violinist friend as an extra wedding present. I was so pleased when I saw that the 4x4 Friday challenge on Dymo Labels was met within this book. I just hope she doesn't see it before the wedding - C look away now!!

Here are the front and back covers. I used a gorgeous paper by PaperMania which divides itself nicely into 4x4 panels, and has the Wedding March music printed on the back.





The other pictures are of the inside pages - I have left blanks for her to add momentos or photos of the day. The dymo label is glossy card dabbed with alcohol ink. It says music.


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Stamps : HA Treasure the Moments; SU clear Heart set; Paper Artsy At Home 3; Stampington Butterfly Girl and Medium Violin; Crafty Individuals 21; AudDesign 2B; Technique Tuesday Loves Me, Loves Me Not; RSTapestry Love set

Inks : DI Aged Mahogany, Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint; VersaMagic Hint of Pesto; Marvy Pens; Alcohol Inks Lettuce and Pesto; VersaColor Old Rose and Brown; Versamark

Extras : PM paper; Prima Flowers; Dovecraft dotty brad; Ribbons from various sources; Bind it all; Cuttlebug; SU PP; Green and Pink brads; Perfect Pearls Gold and Pearl; Paper Cellar Pearl Circle; Skeleton Leaves; Vellum; Glossy Card; Detail White EP; Junio Dymo Labeller

Nine friends

The 4x4 Friday challenge is to use the colours orange and yellow. I'm not entirely comfortable with this, and kept wanting to bring in some green. I'm sure that might have been allowed, but it's good to go out of the comfort zone sometimes!


I made my own alcohol inked strip for the dymo machine, and slightly sanded the letters. The button is a very pale yellow, but looks white here.

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Stamps : Time to Stamp ATC set 1; Stampington Butterfly Girl; Crafty Individuals 161 script

Inks : Alcohol Inks Raisin, Terracotta and Butterscotch; Adirondack Rust; DI Scattered Straw

Extras : PM Button; Waxy Flax Sunflower; Junior Dymo Machine

View beyond

The Friday 4x4 challenge is about the fair, and the 2Peas challenge which I've included is about doors. After a lot of head scratching, I remembered that I had a stamp of the London Eye. There's a wonderful view of it from Downing Street as you look between the buildings - I had this in mind when I made this card.

Now normally I'm the clumsiest of people. I'm forever dropping inked stamps on my work, or staining things with dirty fingers. Today I discovered a very happy accident. The first stamping of the door didn't take evenly so I turned the paper over and tried again, but when I cut out the doors, would you believe I had matched the images perfectly!!!!?

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Stamps : Judikins London Cube; Paper Artsy Arched Apertures 2

Inks : DI Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Weathered Wood and Faded Jeans; Adirondack Aqua, Sail Boat Blue and Denim; Archival Black; Fluid Chalk Olive Pastel

Extras : Peeloff circles

One butterfly

The 4x4 Friday challenge is on numbers this week. Here is my contribution.

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Stamps : Crafty Individuals 116; Paper Artsy Mini 23; Stampington Butterfly Girl; Time To Stamp ATC set; BLine Fern

Inks : Adirondack Butterscotch, Lettuce, Bottle, and Caramel; Archival Black; Versamark pen; DI Walnut Stain

Extras : Clear EP

Roman Facade

The Friday 4x4 challenge is on architecture.

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Stamps : Non Sequitur Greco-Roman Collage; Paper Artsy Travel 4

Inks : Adirondack Dabber Cloudy Blue; StazOn Black; DI Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Weathered Wood and Antique Linen

Extras : DCWV card; MM brad eyelet

Jade

The 4x4 Friday theme is my favourite colour. I absolutely love greeny blues - turquoises, teals, jades etc. These are colours that I wear as they are in my eyes. The colours here are a brighter version.

I was clearing out a cupboard the other day and found a spin and splash that belonged to my children when they were little. I've had great fun, as you can see, and had better be careful or they might claim it back!

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Stamps : Stampers Anonymous Mosaic; Tanda Stamps Flourish set

Inks : AI Stream, Lettuce and Stonewashed; Archival Black; Versamark; Adirondack Stream and Lettuce

Extras : Dovecraft Corner punch; Letters by HOTP (I think!); image from chicks57; Detail Gold EP; jade watercolour paper; glossy card

Ticket collage

The 4x4 Friday challenge is on tickets - just right for this gorgeous stamp. The colours aren't quite so bright as this!

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Stamps : Crafty Individuals 006, and 147

Inks : Ecoline Bluish Green, Forest Green, Chartreuse and Burnt Sienna; StazOn Ultramarine and Saddle Brown

Keep in touch

I've made this card using the 4x4 Friday theme of family for my brother and Japanese wife as a goodbye, and keep-in-touch card. They are emigrating to Japan at the end of the month, to my great sadness. We don't have any plans to go there as the costs are too high, so hope they'll pop back to England every so often. Tomorrow we're having them and the rest of my family round for a party. Shame my brother in Australia cannot join us too.


The photo is the only formal one we have of the 5 of us, and was taken a couple of years ago. I converted it to a black and white image. Peter is now taller than Steve, much to Steve's disgust!!

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Stamps : Invoke Arts Nibs and Pens; Paper Artsy At Home 3

Inks : DI Broken China, Shabby Shutters, Weathered Wood and Faded Jeans; refill ink Broken China

Extras : Perfect Pearls Bronze and Gold; MM ribbon; embroidery floss; Corner Punch

Underneath the Plum Tree

This is an Oriental themed card for the 4x4 challenge this week. The Japanese text is part of a poem based on the title above.Don't tell anyone that I've used pears instead of plums!!

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Stamps : Elusive Images Fleurs et Parfum; Non Sequitur Greco-Roman Collage set; Judikins Underneath the Plum Tree; HA dragonflies

Inks : Ecoline Red Violet; DI refill Antique Linen; Glimmer Mist Olive Vine; DI Tattered Rose and Worn Lipstick; Fluid Chalk Olive Pastel; Adirondack Bottle

Extras : Perfect Pearls Gold

Royal flourish

Today I had such a fun time experimenting with homemade glimmer sprays with a friend of mine. Isn't it great how different people come in from another angle, and suggest and try things you hadn't thought of. Thank you for playing with me, Rachel!

The 4x4 Friday challenge is entitled Kings and Queens. I love the calligraphic style of signatures and flourishes that they used to sign documents with, and these have influenced this card.

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Stamps : Elusive Images ATC set; Time to Stamp ATC sets 1 & 2; Invoke Arts Nibs and Pens

Inks : Adirondack Dabber Lemonade; Ecoline Ultramarine; Archival Grape; DI refill Antique Linen

Extras : Tissue Paper; Perfect Pearls Gold and Pearl

Fairy wishes

I have finally found a bit of time to myself to create but will probably not be seen again for another week. My work load has been enormous, and will be until term ends next Thursday. Then I will on the scene again. I have missed you all, my blogging friends.

I made this card for my goddaughter - and on the right you can see she made one for me! Her favourite colour is purple, of course! The background is distressed, and oversprayed with homemade glimmer mist. This suits the 4x4 Friday theme of Faeries.

Yesterday I went to the NEC and had a great time buying stamps, but was very disappointed by the lack of variety of inks. Did anyone else go?

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Stamps : PaperBag Studios Adisson; Tanda Stamps Flourishes set; HA clear flourishes; Stampington Scripted Elements

Inks : Adirondack Dabber Snow Cap; Ecoline Red Violet; DI Dusty Concord; StazOn Grape; Castaway

Extras : Tracing paper; Star gems; Waxy Flax Plum; Perfect Pearls Gold

Your hand in mine

The 4x4 Friday challenge is to use watercolours. I got out my Aquarelle crayons, and in true non-artist style, scribbled them onto paper and sloshed water around on top to blend them.

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Stamps : SugarLump Studios Heartfelt set

Inks : Caran D'Ache Aquarelle crayons in Turquoise Blue, White and Yellow Green; DI Pine Needles and refill Broken China

Extras : Gold paper; Blue ribbon; Gold Ribbon Clasp; Perfect Pearls 'Pearl'

Cowboy Boots

When I first saw the 4x4 challenge on Wild West I had no inspiration at all, but then I remembered that I had received some free sample papers with a magazine years ago which would be ideal. You know how you save them for that special occasion, and then forget about them...

I doodled on some white paper to match the pattern on the boot, and used a homemade shimmer spray over a distressed background.

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Stamps : Diffusion Imagine

Inks : DI Refill Tea Dye; Perfect pearls Bronze; DI Walnut Stain; Adirondack Cranberry; Permanent Black Pen; Archival Black

Extras : PP by Creative Imaginations; Paper Cellar Square Gems; Red Ribbon

Bourbon Street

This is my contribution to the 4x4 Friday theme of houses. I wanted a card that didn't take a lot of preparation as I'm about to go and play in a concert, but needed to relax after the rehearsal. Minimal materials here, which unusual for me, and a good discipline.

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Stamps : PaperBag Studios Addison; Paper Artsy Man of Numbers 2; Bicycle unknown

Inks : DI Walnut Stain; Archival Black

Extras : Basic Grey Sublime

The Mathematician

The 4x4 Friday challenge for this week is open themed. This gives me the opportunity to try out this more masculine colour combination.

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Stamps : Crafty Individuals 77; Paper Artsy Numbers Mini and At Home 3

Inks : Adirondack Caramel and Butterscotch; StazOn Saddle Brown; Glimmer Mist Walnut Gold

Extras : Gesso; Pearlescent copper paper; Domed epoxy sticker; Tissue Paper

Pocket gift

I have made this for my daughter's 16th birthday. This is a stamp she always says reminds her of herself.

I have combined 4x4 Friday's theme of people with wings, and DCM's theme of Hide and Seek. The idea is to have something hidden on your card without it being instantly obvious.

I stitched along the top of the top layer before stitching the whole thing down to create a pocket.
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Stamps : Paper Artsy One Penny 2; Tim Holtz Take Flight; Stampington Collage Cube; Clarity Stamps A Gift; Time to Stamp ATC set

Inks : DI Pine Needles, Broken China and Shabby Shutters; Glimmer Mist Patina

Extras : YLI thread

German Lullaby

As you all know, I'm a big fan of Crafty Individuals. So I decided to create my own butterfly picture, similar to the ones on the paper pad for the 4x4 Friday theme of music. This is such a great theme for me, but the problem is knowing what NOT to use!!

Yesterday I ordered this Flourish set from Tanda stamps - 10/10 for service as they arrived this morning!
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Stamps : Stampington Small Brahms and Butterfly girl; Tanda Stamps Flourishes set 1; Paper Artsy Travel 4; Design Objectives Corner Flourish

Inks : Marvy Pens Vermillion, Crimson Lake, Pale Yellow and Jungle Green; Archival Black; DI Black Soot

Extras : card scraps and black paper

In the wild

This is an unusual colour combination for me, but I wanted to try it out. And also use a couple of new items - the flourish from my children in my stocking, and the birds a gift from Jacqueline. You have to imagine the copper tints from my spray!

The challenges were 4x4 Friday - to use textured paper, and Penny's Round Robin Blog Challenge #3 to use fibres (see below). This used the w from the word new, from which she chose 'wild' - hence the animal colour choice. I've always been fascinated by the colouring on giraffes. I will also add this to Mary's Happy Place as she has a challenge to use one of your Christmas gifts.

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Stamps : Design Objectives Corner Flourishes; JJ birds; Stampington Fresh Flowers Elements

Inks : DI Spiced Marmalde, Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain; residue from Glimmer Mist Candy Apple Red; DI refill Antique Linen; Versamark

Extras : Elusive Images tag; DCWV orange card; petal paper; fibres; SGme Clear EP; Perfect Pearls Copper

Man of Letters

The 4x4 Friday challenge is to use sequin waste or an equivalent in stamps in some way on your art work.
I have sponged through a piece with various colours as I like the depth it gives to the background. The sequins I have are not quite the right colour, so I used a spiral clip instead.

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Stamps : Paper Artsy Letters 5; Stampington Fresh Flowers Elements

Inks : DI Broken China, Peeled Paint, Weatherd Wood and Faded Jeans; Archival Grape; DI refill Antique Linen

Extras : Perfect Pearls 'Pearl'; Spiral Clip; Sequin Waste