At the Seaside

Hi everyone!

     I decided to get out the box of long forgotten Alcohol inks and give them a go in this summer themed creation.

     I don't work much with Alcohol inks and I have never really mastered them -So they sat on the shelf...time to give them another go...

I dropped some alcohol ink drips onto the craft mat - using Lettuce, Meadow, Stream, Pool and Denim. I swirled some glossy white card into the ink and the effect was quite dark. I squirted some blending solution onto the inks left on the mat and swirled more card into the ink

This time the effect was better and I really liked it. There was enough ink to swirl another piece of card into it - always use up inks on the mat!

I used a stencil and dabbed some blending solution over it.

Then I used one of the pieces of alcohol inked card  as the base of the card.

I stamped some shell and seahorse images from Crafty Individuals onto a piece of alcol inked card. I cut them out and stuck them onto a piece of white card that was them inked and stamped with Black Soot DI.

A piece of card was covered with Evergreen Bough DP and formed the base of the card.

A chit chat sticker was added

                                 Quite a rare CAS style creation - well it is as CAS as I can get!

                                                                  Hope you liked it!

                                                                    Happy Crafting!

                                                                             Laura
                                                                               xxx

Gear it up

Hello everyone!

Over at Sandee and amelie's steampunk challenge the challenge this month is -

Gear it up!
 Stamped, embossed, drawn, painted, real, die cut, chipboard, stencilled,....well, gears of any sort you can think of are what we want to see with any projects you can think of - and not only two or three added in a corner here and there for further embellishment! Gears should be one of the main parts of your creations

I didn't really know what direction to go in with this - it is pretty simple isn't it? Just add Gears - to anything...

But sometimes being given a free choice to go wherever you choose can be trickier than a very direct challenge. In the end I decided it would be more fun to sit and play - see what develops and go from there...

So I got a piece of card and I grabbed a gears stencil  (get the challenge requirement in right at the start!) I dabbed over the gears stencil with Picket Fence DP.

When this was dry I blended Frayed Burlap and Pumice Stone DI over the card.

Then I began to use some stamps from the Industrial Backgrounds Artistic Outpost set over the card using Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap DI.

I then used Coffee Archival ink on other stamps from the set - this time choosing the gears and a mechanical blueprint stamp.

A script stamp from Artistic Outpost French Flight set.

My favourite script stamp was stamped with Potting Soil Archival ink

So now the background was done....where to go with it now?

It was beginning to look very mechanical (of course!) and with the faded sepia look it was needing to be vintage...I was looking for a modern twist too....I was also now bringing in clocks as well as gears....finding a clock face in my metal collection and a clock sticker in the Salvage Stickers set....now I seemed to be looking at a Time Travel creation.....

Suddenly I remembered that I hadn't used any of the Found Relatives cards that I had been given at Christmas. Hunting through them I found the perfect photo. After cutting around the person and colouring the cut white edges with Frayed Burlap DI I stuck him onto the card....

    Now all that was needed was the collection of gears.....

  .....and a few metal corners....

..... and a final addition...the words from the chit chat stickers - "Voyage through time" stuck onto the clock and outlined with Pumice Stone Distress marker...

     Please come over and see what the rest of the team have made to inspire you!

       Hope you will come along and join in the fun!

Happy Crafting

Laura xxx

Splash of Red

Hello everyone!

 At Fashionable Stamping Challenges we are featuring as our challenge....

Black and white with a hint of Red

I loved this challenge more than I thought I would - basically because it was trickier for me than I anticipated (and I do LOVE a challenge!)

I decided it would be best to stick to a CAS creation (as best I could) because the stark shades of black, white and red don't really go with a vintage shabby chic style.

I thought it would be fun to make a frame (LOL!) and I decided to make the picture out of four images...each one with a hint of red in them.

I began with the face...

I stamped a music sheet background and it was then that the quote "If music be the food of love, play on" came into my head...being close to Valentines why not have the word 'love' featured!

So I made the words out of Label Letters and attached them to the piece of card...

The next one was...

I made the background by stamping a damask background stamp by Artistic Stamper in Black Soot DI. The black and white pattern was too stark...so when the stamped pattern was dry I blended more Black Soot DI over the card to create a grey background.

The heart was a Paperartsy die cut that was trimmed and then painted with Fresco Blood Orange paint. When this was dry I covered the heart with Decoart One step crackle and then when the crackle had formed I covered the heart with Decoart Antiquing cream in white. When wiped away it leaves gorgeous white crackle lines.
The continuing part of the quote was added made up with Label Letters


The next one was...

Again this background was done the same as the previous one. The heart was cut out free hand after being painted with Fresco Blood Orange paint and stamped with a music stamp using Jet Black Archival ink.

 The word 'love' was added from Chit Chat stickers and was edged with Black Soot DI and a red enamelled rose was added.

The last square was.......

 This background was a Paperartsy script stamp stamped with Jet Black Archival ink. I then cut a piece of card and painted it with Fresco Blood Orange paint. I stamped over this with Picket Fence DP using an Artistic Stamper background stamp.

    The words 'Play on' were stamped with an alphabet stamp using Jet black Archival ink on white card which was then cut out and stuck onto card that had been heavily inked with Black Soot DI..

    The edges of the red card were dabbed with some Black Soot DI

 I then had to construct the frame - done very basically (as my frames always are) I had plenty of cardboard left over from Christmas and so I cut a huge piece out as a back for the picture. After sticking the four pieces of card on and making sure they were straight and neat, I constructed the frame

The frame was made from balsa wood, four strips were cut and stuck together to form a rectangle. It was then painted with gesso and to stop it looking too plain (I am so not a CAS artist - sorry!) I added some lace. This was then also painted over with Gesso

I would love it if you came over to see what the rest of the team have made to inspire you at Fashionable Stamping Challenges!

Remember we are a stamping challenge so please feature a stamped focal image on your creation.

  

You could be the winner of $20 to spend at Flonzcraft Stamps! And of course you could be picked as one of our Catwalk Spotlights!

Hope to see you there!


Happy Crafting

Laura
xxx

Well Travelled

Hi everyone!

Over at Try it on Tuesday we want to see creations about-

'Travel'

  

   
     This tag is quite different from my usual work. I still used inks and stamps but the main focus was on some Tim Holtz Salvage stickers that I had. I glanced through them and of course red tones jumped out at me - so that set the colour theme of red and beige....

    I started the tag with swiping some Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain DS over the craft mat, spritzing with water and then doing some wrinkle free distress. When it was finally how I wanted it, I began to work on a red toned sheet of card. Using Festive Berries and Walnut Stain DS, I did the same technique.

    I cut a tag shape from the piece of brown coloured distressed card and applied a script stamp in Gathered Twigs DI in the corner. I cut a rectangle out of the same card and stamped with Potting Soil Archival ink several travel images including a compass and a suitcase.

   I stamped a number stamp onto a rectangle of red distressed card and edged it with Walnut Stain DI

   A final small rectangle of the brown card was stamped with the word 'Memories' and a globle stamp.

  I attached them all the the tag and then added the stickers from the collection.

   Air mail labels were added to the corners and twine was used as the loop to hang the tag. Ivory hemp string was added to the twine loop and on the ivory hemp string was attached a travel quote stamped with Potting Soil Archival ink.

      

Hope you like it - Why not hop on over to Try it on Tuesday and share with us your travel creations?




                                                     Thanks so much for being here!