READY... STEADY... STAMP

Today sees the start of a new challenge blog..........READY....STEADY....STAMP. It is run slightly differently than a lot of other challenge sites in that you are given a set of "ingredients" that you have to include in your piece. Today you have to include a cat or a dog, use the faux batik technique, a piece of old book page or journal, the colours gold and black and use three different brads.

So, here is my piece...........the gold is not too evident, it is a very small amount around the edge of the text paper in the corner and also one small gold brad!

My cat is not an ordinary cat...........it's a BIG CAT!!

Click the photo for a closer view, it was hard getting a good scanned pic of this piece.

BINGO!!

When playing BINGO you have to shout HOUSE when all the numbers on your card have been called out..........or so I am told, I have never played myself!! So, I thought a bingo house (or two) was quite appropriate for CRAZY AMIGOS theme of BINGO this week.

The long leggedy bird is by STAMPOTIQUE and the flowers from STUDIO 490........both from THE STAMP ATTIC


Love these crow stamps from LOST COAST DESIGNS. Leaves are from STUDIO 490.....available from THE STAMP ATTIC

ALTERED PLAYING CARDS BOOK

A few days ago I saw that INKURABLE STAMPERS had for their July theme ALTERED PLAYING CARDS.
As I have just read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland again for my book group that was first thing that came to mind; so here is my ALTERED ALICE CARD BOOK.

The pages are made from big playing cards, each one embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, coloured with black paint and Stazon inks and then mounted onto black card........mainly because some of the cards didn't stand up that well to the embossing and they were falling apart!
Each page then decorated with Alice images.

The pages are held together with yet more (smaller) playing cards folded and glued together to make hinges.



FRONT COVER

FRONT AND BACK COVERS











INSIDE PAGES

BACK COVER

CHRISTMAS PRESENT

This weeks theme on WINTER WONDERLAND is CHRISTMAS PRESENT. Here is my entry.

BUILDINGS INCHIE

The theme on INCHY BY INCH this week is BUILDINGS. I'm pretty sure this isn't what was intended but it's my take on the theme!! The inchie is the heart in the building!
The stamps are all from INVOKE ARTS FUNKY HOUSES set available from THE STAMP ATTIC.

COLOURFUL

The theme on WEDNESDAY STAMPER today is COLOURFUL. Hopefully this qualifies!! The bright colour is Stazon on semi glossy card; the background is also Stazon, it is what was transferred onto the piece of the background paper that I always have underneath my work, I thought it looked particularly nice today!!

WORKSHOP SAMPLE

Below is the sample for the next workshop I will be teaching at Paddys Stamping Place in Prestwich, near Manchester. Its called
"MATCHBOX EXTRAVAGANZA WITH A PYRAMID ON TOP"

The dates are 15th and 25th of July. If you would like to come along please call Paddy on 0161 798 5115 to book a place.

THE STAMP ATTIC DESIGN TEAM AND INCHIES BOX

I have known Wendy over at The Stamp Attic for many years and we are good friends. I have always made samples for her, I have taught the o0ccasional workshop for her and we have worked together on several magazine projects but we decided it was time to make it official so I am now officially on The Stamp Attic Design Team!!
As such this is my first DT piece for her.........a very simple project but it showcases the beautiful Bazzill glazed card very nicely!! I also used the bird and tree inchies sets from INKADINKADO.


I am also entering this box for the CREATED BY HAND challenge this week where the theme is INCHIES.

CHRISTMAS PAST......IN JULY!!

I have been making Halloween cards lately so why not Christmas cards??!!

I spotted a new Christmas challenge blog called WINTER WONDERLAND a couple of weeks ago and today decided to have a play and join in (better than watching the Tour de France on TV I can tell you!).
The theme this week is CHRISTMAS PAST so it gave me chance to use my all-time favourite Christmas stamp.........St Nick from Stampington, along with a Tim Holtz stamp of old style advertising.





I tied a couple of little jingley bells onto the holly leaf stems as a reminder of berries and added a metal tree decoration.


I've had these metal holly leaves for years and these are the last two!!

BROBDINGNAG

This is very minimalist for me...........in fact my husband just passed comment on that fact and said "why couldn't I work like that all the time........think of the money you'd save on ink!!!"


The funky person is a HOME IMPRESSIONS stamp from the FUNNY PEOPLE set, the border and heart are hand drawn.
HOME IMPRESSIONS stamps are now available here in the UK from THE STAMP ATTIC.

In case you were wondering..............BROBDINGNAG............is a word from Gullivers Travels. I have been using an old copy when I want some text for a project and that word keeps on popping out at me.........no idea what it means, I just like it!!

ART DOLL

This week the challenge on Mixed Media Monday is PLAYFULL ART DOLLS.
I wasn't going to join in this week but then earlier today I was working on something else and had this clay face left over and it set me thinking.
So, here is my ART DOLL.


The clay (air dry) face was coloured with alcohol inks, dripping it on meant the ink settled in the cracks and crevices.

The black ink wasn't quite dry on the crown when I dropped the alcohol ink over it but never mind, that doesn't worry me!!

LOOK INTO A FACE

On TMTA this week the theme is LOOK INTO A FACE. Here is my ATC; the face and quote stamps are both from Stampers Anonymous, the clip thingie is from 7gypsies.

OOPPSS!! It has been pointed out to me that the quote stamp is NOT Stampers Anonymous, it is PENNY BLACK.....sorry about that!

HANDCRAFTED

I just received a copy of HANDCRAFTED 5 in the post this morning and I am happy to tell that my WAX FAIRIES article that was originally in Jan/Feb 2007 Somerset Studio has been been re-published.

PARIS COLLAGE

So the challenge theme on CREATED BY HAND this week is "FRENCH", I wasn't going to take part but then the first part of my DT package arrived from THE CRAFT BARN and I now have the most beautiful set of Paris themed stamps by KATZELKRAFT on my desk! So, I just had to have a play and this collage was the result.
I used some of new colour alcohol inks for the background colour.

THIS WEEKS HALLOWEEN CARD

Because I love Halloween so much I have decided to post something Halloween-y every week or so between now and the actual date.
So the card for today is a "not too scary" Halloween image. It is from Impression Obsession but I have had it for a long time and don't know if it is still available.

LONG LOST STAMPS

Over the past few days I have been rummaging about in boxes of un-mounted stamps that I haven't looked in in ages and finding all sorts of things I had forgotten about!!
This stamp being an example of that and so I thought I'd share it with you!
It is from a company called RUBBERMOON they have lots of images along the same sort of line........what I call whimsical and quirky rather than cute!! Nothing wrong with cute, just not my thing!!

ULTIMATE BATHING BEAUTY?

The challenge this week on CRAZY AMIGOS is BATHING BEAUTIES.
I'm not sure that this is exactly what was intended but surely a mermaid is the ultimate bathing beauty!!!??
I have had this stamp for ages and ages and rarely used it, but I do think she is beautiful so am glad of the chance to use it again!

Ok so a couple of people seem to be interested in the mermaid stamp I used so I had a look around and it seems it is still available but only in the USA (as far as I can tell).The company that made it is Stamp Oasis and it seems they are now available through Rubbernecker....click here for the stamp

CRAFT BARN DESIGN TEAM & WORKHOPS

After the extravaganza weekend at The Craft Barn I was invited to join The Craft Barn design team and I am now pleased to announce that I have accepted! I am excited to join the team over at the Craft Barn and I'm really looking forward to getting working with fun products. Watch the Craft Barn blog for projects in the next few weeks.

I can also now announce that I will be teaching workshops at The Craft Barn. The first two are going to be over the weekend of 29th & 30th of August........details of the projects to be announced shortly.

If you are interested in the workshops please contact The Craft Barn on 01342 836398.

MY PRINCE!

OK, so I thought I was done with posting for today but then I spotted that the theme on Think Monday Think ATC was...........FROGS!!!

I have been a long time frog collector........almost to obsession point at one time but I got over that!! Anyway, they still hold a soft spot for me so I just had to enter!

So here is my froggy ATC

WHISPERS.....can you hear them?

While I was looking through my pile of un-mounted stamps for the Klimt swirl to use on my last post I came across this dragonfly stamp............I knew I had seen a challenge somewhere with a dragonfly theme so I pulled it out and decided to make an ATC, which you now see here!

I also found the tiny whispers word stamp that I had forgotten I had got and had never been used!

The challenge I am entering this for is over on Big Art Adventure

MORE LEFTOVERS!

This time from a workshop I taught at the weekend at Paddy's Stamping Place. Although the sample for the workshop had trees made using fern fronds one of the other options was for "blobby" trees (sort of inspired by Clarice Cliff and her blob trees) made using what are meant as Christmas bauble stamps from Elusive Images. So I had Rennie McIntosh and Klimt circles left over, here they are as cards!

STAMP ATTIC BLOG CANDY

THE STAMP ATTIC BLOG has "artful" blog candy on offer. For a chance to win pop over and leave her a comment with a link to your blog before midnight on Sunday. GOOD LUCK!!

PIANO HINGE BOOK

This is a piano hinge book that I recently taught as a workshop and I thought I'd share it here as well.

It's decorated in a much simpler, cleaner style than a lot of my work, but then it is good sometimes to work in a different way!
A closer view of the skewer spine.
It's almost finished, it just needs some sort of binding around the top and bottom of the skewers to keep them in place.



These are the inside pages.
All stamps used are ELUSIVE IMAGES which are available from THE CRAFT BARN

LEFTOVERS!

Over the past few days I've been working on pieces for publication so I'm not allowed to share those with you but what I can share are the pieces I made with the "leftovers" from those projects that were on my desk!!

I've mentioned this before but it's worth mentioning again that it can be a fun exercise to make something with just what you have left out after making something else!



This piece also kills two birds (sorry about the pun!!)with one stone as I am also posting it on the HOME IMPRESSIONS design team blog as the stamps used are all Home Impressions stamps..........which by the way are now available here in the UK from THE STAMP ATTIC

This tag uses the fabulous Stampotique girls face stamps, I absoloutely love these stamps!! along with a chandelier from Inkadinkado. Both stamp ranges are from The Stamp Attic.

And finally one tag laid on top of the other looks pretty good too I thought!!

HALLOWEEN IN JUNE!

I don't know why but I LOVE Halloween! I think it might be because I grew up reading fairy stories and now I like to read fantasy but whatever it is I love it, especially the pumpkins, the witches, the skulls..........oh OK all of it!!

So, when I was at The Stamp Attic recently I couldn't resist a set of Halloween stamps from Crafty Secrets. The images remind me of vintage postcards particularly the little girl.

I also bought these tickets by 7gypsies...................

put the two things together and you get a set of ATCs!!

While we are on the Halloween subject here is another ATC I made recently with a stamp I bought at Port Sunlight show. It was from Horseshoe Crafts but I'm not sure of the company, it was unmounted in a little plastic bag with no identifying label :(

The leaf ribbon is from The Stamp Attic and the little swirl, tiny bat and Happy Halloween quote are from the Crafty Secrets set mentioned above

CRAFT BARN WEEKEND & UPCOMING WORKSHOP SAMPLE

I had an absolutely fab time demoing down at The Craft Barn over the past weekend. It was very hectic and very tiring but great fun, everyone was great and I had lots of lovely comments about my work, always a nice boost to the ego! Thanks to those of you who stopped by to say hi!, and a special thanks to Rosemary (and Jenny who they originally belonged to) who gave me two carrier bags full of old dress patterns. These are fab for stamping on and for using in collages, covering boxes etc etc

Hopefully I am going to be back to demo again in September and also to teach some workshops at some point. Sandy and I have to work out the details for workshops but it would be great if we can organise something........the biggest problem is that I live so far away from The Craft Barn!

I will post dates on the blog when I have them so watch this space!!

So talking of workshops here is the sample for my next classes at Paddy's Stamping Place in Prestwich just north of Manchester, not the best pic in the world but hopefully good enough to give an idea! The first two dates for this workshop are 19th and 20th June (Friday and Saturday), if you would like to attend please call Paddy on 0161 798 5115

BEWARE THE JABBERWOCK

I recently joined a book group at my local craft shop.....The Cubby Hole
as most of the group are crafters we decided that for the next meeting (next Monday night) we would make a bookmark.
Here is mine.........I mean, what else could I choose??