Marooned on a desert island!

We're half way through this month's Stamping Sensations Challenge, where the theme is Wings & Things With A Touch Of Vintage.

It's my turn to provide the mid-month inspiration, and I've used one of my favourite butterflies, by Prickley Pear Stamps, and coloured it with Distress markers. The doily is a Cheery Lynn die, and the background papers are magazine freebies, the top part being overstamped with a little butterfly from Hobby Art. The portrait is of my Great Grandmother, cut out with a Nestabilities die and mounted on to another Nestie diecut. The sentiment is by JustRite.

Over the next few months the DT members are taking turns to choose 6 crafting items which we would take to a desert island! I had to think long and hard about which items to take to my desert island! I tend to use quite a variety of materials and techniques in my crafting, so trying to choose just six items was very difficult. However, these are what I decided upon:

1) Colouring medium (we are allowed 5 colours). Distress Ink Refills - Salty Ocean, Mustard Seed, Bundled Sage, Picked Raspberry & Shaded Lilac. I've gone for the refills rather than the inkpads as they would be more versatile. I could stamp with them, paint with them in various dilutions, and mix them to make other colours.

2) Craft knife. The one essential item I couldn't be without! I use one daily. It would also be very practical on a desert island, as it could be used for all sorts of things besides crafting! (But please can it include an endless supply of spare blades too, Brenda??!)

3) Metal ruler. Again, an essential item! For measuring, and cutting along with the knife.

4) Water brush. To do my colouring with. Could be used wet or dry.

5) Set of butterfly stamps. Would have to have some butterflies! Don't mind which, as long as they are not cute!

6) Set of permanent ink drawing pens. I'd use my time on the island to learn how to draw! Then I could make a variety of cards, not just butterflies! I could sketch scenes on the island, flowers, etc., do Zentangle, pen and wash pictures, and because the ink would be waterproof, I could write a message and send it off in a bottle for someone to find and rescue me. On the other hand, with the sun, sea and sand, endless time to craft, and no housework, I might just decide to stay there!

It occurs to me that it would be an interesting exercise to see just what we could do with our six items. Thought filed at the back of my mind for future reference!

Along with the above we are allowed 50 sheets of card. I would want them all to be white, as I could colour any I wanted with the Distress ink refills. Hmm. 50 sheets would not last very long. Maybe I'd better be rescued after all!

There's still plenty of time to enter this month's challenge if you haven't already (or you could enter another project - we accept up to three per challenge!) There's more inspiration on the Challenge Blog, so do go over and have a look!

Adirondack Sky!

We've had some amazing skies lately. Tonight's sunset was particularly stunning.

Sally will like it, it's her favourite colour combo! What do you reckon, Sal? Purple Twilight, Mountain Rose, and Peach Bellini?! Nearly as good as your ink-dusted backgrounds. Life imitating art, definitely!

Some more of this week's aerial artworks!

Stamping Sensations August Challenge

It's August, so time for another challenge at Stamping Sensations. This month our theme is right up my street! It's

*** WINGS AND THINGS AND A TOUCH OF VINTAGE ***

Another chance to get out the butterfly stamps, and I couldn't resist this gorgeous new one from Inkylicious. It's called "Vintage Butterfly" - what could be more perfect for the theme!

I stamped the image with Versamark ink on to patterned paper (Webster's Pages) and embossed it with clear ink to act as a resist. Then I painted over the whole thing with gesso, wiping it off where it was covering the embossing.

Next I cut a small panel of the patterned paper, matted it with a thin gold border and placed it alongside the image. Having slightly distressed the edges of the paper, I then matted the whole picture on to some Bazzil Basics card, the border being cut with a Martha Stewart punch. To embellish the card, I made some paper beads, using the same papers.

The card was completed with some ribbon (two separate pieces, one on top of the other). The yellow ribbon is quite old, being inherited from my mother, although I don't think it's actually vintage! Apart from the butterfly stamp, all the materials used are old stash. I'm trying very hard not to buy new stuff and to get some of the old used up (though some, like the butterfly, are simply NOT to be resisted!) and so far I'm not doing too badly!

Of course, you want to know about this month's prize, and it's a cracker! Our lovely sponsor is Crafty Devils, and they have generously donated a £35 voucher!  They are one of the UK's leading papercraft specialists, supplying over 10,000 products for card making, stamping, scrapbooking, die cutting and more, so the lucky winner will definitely be spoilt for choice when it comes to spending their voucher.

Please do pop over to the Challenge Blog to see what my talented teamies have made to inspire you this month. I think this is going to be a very popular theme, and I can't wait to see all your lovely entries. Don't forget, it doesn't have to be a card, it can be any type of project as long as it follows the month's theme, and you can enter up to three times, so more chances of winning that great prize or being in our top three!

80 years young

Our choir conductor is a lovely lady who has just celebrated her 80th birthday, though you wouldn't know it to look at her! She doesn't seem a day over 65! I can only wish to have her vitality and joie de vivre when (hopefully!) I get to her age!  I wanted to make her a special card, and this is what I came up with.

 I used a Go Kreate die to cut the components for an easel card, which I covered with papers from Crafty Individuals' Background Papers pad Book 1. The lilac stamp (Toomuchfun Rubber Stamps) is one I've had for nearly 20 years! It was coloured with Promarkers and it and the sentiment (Inkylicious) were cut out with Spellbinders Labels 4 dies. I kept the embellishments quite simple, as I didn't want to cover up too much of the pretty papers.  The butterflies are made with dies by Cheery Lynn, and the flowers with the Small Multi Flower Rose Die by Britannia Dies.

 Here's a closer look at some of the details.

Here's the card in its box.

And here's the box.

The only brief I had for the card was "She likes pink and lilac"! However, I'm pleased to say that she liked it!

Haven't made much else lately. I'm wilting in the hot weather! I suppose we shouldn't complain, but just a few degrees cooler would be lovely! One of the things I've been planning to do in the school hols is reorganise my craft room. My younger grandson (aged 4), who likes to come & do crafty things with me, told me the other day that my craft room needs a good tidy up! (I have a sneaking suspicion that his mum might have said something similar to him about his toys!) However, I must admit he's right. The shelves are all mixed up and things have started to creep on to the floor. Time to make a start, I think.......

Stamping Sensations July Challenge

For a change we have a sketch for you this month at Stamping Sensations, designed by our very own Tracy, and also we would like to see summer colours. You can combine the sketch with summer colours, or just follow the sketch, or just use summer colours, it's up to you!

Our lovely sponsor for July is the very popular Little Claire, who have generously donated a bumper prize, including some of their newest stamps!

I've used a Little Claire owls stamp (which just happens to be my all-time favourite owl stamp!) for my card. Or should I say part of the stamp. To make it fit with the sketch, I masked off the two outer owls before I inked it up.

The owls were coloured with Promarkers to match the colours in the background paper, which is from the Shades Of Summer Background Papers pad by Crafty Individuals.

 The circles (plain and scallop) are Spellbinders dies, the scallop border die is by Die-namics and the leaf punch is by Leone Em. A ribbon and some little pearly flowers provided the finishing touches.

I am really looking forward to seeing this month's entries! If you'd like the chance to win those gorgeous goodies from Little Claire, do pop over to the Challenge Blog, where my talented teamies have come up with some beautiful samples to inspire you. It's amazing how they are all so different considering we have all followed the same sketch!

Citrasolv-ed!

Whilst browsing Pinterest one day recently, I came across some artwork that I really liked. Diffuse, mystical backgrounds, to which various elements had been added. I followed the links to see how it was done, and thus discovered Citrasolv art. It involved using a cleaning solvent (Citrasolv) to break up the inks in a printed picture, giving amazing effects!

Here's the Citrasolv website, where you'll find lots of info and examples.  

I couldn't wait to try it! The only problem was I didn't have any Citrasolv! It is, of course, an American product. Anyway, back in about 1995 while visiting the USA, I bought some stuff called Goo Gone. Like Citrasolv it is a citrus based cleaner, albeit made with petroleum distillates, which Citrasolv doesn't have. My American host was using some to get rid of the sticky mess left by labels when you try to get them off, and because at that time I had never found anything here which would do that easily, I bought some to bring home.

 

I didn't know whether Goo Gone would work in the same way as Citrasolv, but decided it was worth a try. I had about a third of the bottle left (been using it very sparingly!) First I tried it with an old magazine, but nothing happened. The inks didn't shift at all. Apparently many of the artists on the website use National Geographic mags, something to do with the type of ink and the fact that the photo pages are clay coated. So I scrounged a couple of old copies from my daughter.

 

They worked a treat! The Goo Gone produced some great papers, which I then scanned on the computer. Just wish I'd thought to scan the original photos too before I altered them, to compare. I'll remember next time! Since you'll never get the same result twice, it makes sense to scan your original altered pic, which you can then keep, and use a printed copy in your project. Once you've got your printed copy, you can then enhance it however you wish.

These are a few of the best results. 

And here's a card I made with the first one. I used my graphics programme to add the butterfly (one of my own photos) , and stamped the sentiment (by The Craft's Meow).

To the second paper I added a stamped fairy, some leaves hanging down from the top (both Lavinia Stamps) and some tiny butterflies (The Craft's Meow). I used a fine drawing pen to turn some of the blobs into flowers, and enhanced some of the elements, including the fairy's wings, with glitter glue.

Knowing I would want to do more, (and by then having only a few drops of my precious Goo Gone left!) I went online to see if I could get hold of some Citrasolv. Found it on Am*z*n, and ordered some forthwith. 

There's a very good YouTube video by Cathy Taylor, one of the artists profiled on the Citrasolv website. Once you find that one, which is a good one for the basic instructions, it will then lead you to others. 

I haven't yet had time to try it with the Citrasolv, but I have high hopes for it! And if it doesn''t work, at least I have a replacement for the Goo Gone! 

Hedgerows

The hedgerows and verges around here have been stunning this year. Masses of wild flowers and grasses stretching for miles. Cow parsley, buttercups, dandelions, comfrey, vetches, speedwells, bluebells, red campion and more. It was such a gorgeous day, one day last week as I was driving home from work, that I just had to keep stopping and taking photos.

I happened to look over the bridge over the river just in time to see a heron take off. (It's almost in the centre of the photo - you can see it better if you click on the pic to enlarge it.)

A sunset pic to finish off with!

A great weekend

I went down to Nottingham last weekend to stay with Sally so we could go to Stamp Magic at the Doncaster Dome on Sunday. In other words, so I could get one of my twice yearly doses of crafty retail therapy! It began on Saturday with a little trip to Ik*a. Whilst there I noticed they were selling some lint rollers. Very cheap! On Pinterest I had seen a suggestion to use a lint roller to pick up all the fiddly little bits left in a die after you've been diecutting, so Sally & I both bought one, along with a pack of 4 refills. Suffice it to say, it didn't work! However, we now have enough roller tape each to keep our clothes free of bits until kingdom come!

Anyway, the serious shopping was on Sunday at Stamp Magic. Great show, as usual. Top of my list were some of the gorgeous new stamps from Inkylicious. I then left Sally doing a bit of demoing on the Inkylicious stand while I went for a wander round. I bought some stencils to use with my Gelli Plate, plus a few other bits and pieces, and watched Barbara Gray doing a great demo on the Gelli Plate. Haven't had chance to try what she was doing yet, but I have had a play with some of my new stamps.

One of my favourites from the new Inkylicious ones is called Poppy Lea. I like the way all the flowers except the poppies are solid, and just the poppies are open so that they can be coloured in. I happened to have some small pieces of watercolour paper already cut, so I stamped different sections of Poppy Lea on to each one and made a set of three cards.

 The backgrounds were coloured with Distress Stains, then Poppy Lea was overstamped with Versafine ink. The poppies were then coloured with Promarkers.  I stamped the first base card down one side with Delicate Vines, the second all over with Worn Paint, and the third with French Style Script across the centre. The Poppy Leas were then attached with foam pads, and each card finished with a simple sentiment. All stamps by Inkylicious.

On the way from the car park to the Dome, we came across this mother coot feeding her babies on the grass next to the lake, right by the path! They weren't a bit bothered by all the people walking past. Cute coots!

Summer Blooms

There can't be many people who don't like flowers, so I think our June Challenge at Stamping Sensations will be very popular! The theme is

SUMMER BLOOMS

We have a wonderful sponsor this month too - Heartfelt Creations, who have given us a gorgeous prize. Some lovely floral stamps and a set of matching dies.

I decided to make a tag for a change, and have chosen a Dutch Iris as my summer bloom. The matching stamp and die sets are by Heartfelt Creations. (They don't appear to be on their web site now, but there may be some shops which have them in stock still).

Irises were my late mother-in-law's favourite flowers. She had them in her garden in various colours, one of which was a gorgeous deep purply pink. For the background to my tag (which is from Inkylicious), I used a technique shown by Andy Skinner in a video on his blog. He calls it Alcohol Ink Floating Background. Very easy to do, and a lovely subtle marbled effect. I overstamped it with a Texture Fragment stamp and a Floral Edge stamp, both from Chocolate Baroque, and a text stamp by Stampin' Up. The little butterflies are also by Chocolate Baroque, and they and the iris were coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils (which I found at Dunelm Mill last week for half price - a bargain - and I love them!). Having sponged ink around the edges of the tag, I matted it on some green card and finished it off with a sentiment by Hobby Art, some ribbons and fibres and a bit of lace. 

My talented teamies have some bloomin' gorgeous samples for you this month! Do go over to the Challenge Blog and have a look at them, and then show us your summery projects. We can't wait to see them!