HMFMC#188 FRIENDS

Just about squeaking in with this one as I coloured an image earlier in the week and then hated it when I matted and layered it. I had to start again from scratch...plahhhh

Anyhoo, this week's challenge at House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge is Friends and if you're in a tight squeeze like this little guy then one thing you most definitely need is a Friend. With Spring in the air I couldn't resist this gorgeous image with Forsythia in it. I love it.

As ever, my weapons of choice were Copics and Prisma Pencils and I added a little sprig of silk Forsythia

I glossed the bird feeder for a bit of added dimension too

Have a great weekend all.

Lx

Pink, Hearts and MORE PINK....

I've been footling about with a tag for a challenge I spotted on Catherine's blog recently. I love making tags and they're a great way to use up all those little bits and bobs you accumulate AND try out different techniques on a smaller scale. It all started when I found this lovely Stampotique girlie in my stash, long neglected and needing some TLC. Quick as a flash I coloured her in before rummaging through my offcuts to see what I could do to brighten her life a little...

First I needed some layers, so I painted a tag with Orchid Fresco paint by PaperArtsy before layering some dots over the top with texture paste. I've discovered that the paste sucks the colour of the paint up as it dries so I got a gorgeous soft pink colour to offset the darker pink of the paint. Cool!

Next I added a little offcut of pink Coredinations card which I embossed with hearts and then sanded back to reveal the colour. I die cut the word Love in dark pink using a Spellbinders die and added some glossy accents to make it stand out a little more.

More hearts, some twine and some sequins to finish. Not forgetting cupid's arrow, which I painted and glossed for extra oomph! A little bit of glitter on her dress and a tag is born, Ta Dah!

I'm going to enter her into the DragonsDream Tag It on Challenge where the theme is Pink and Hearts

Lx

The Journal Journey Continues with Drips and Drops

In for a penny in for a pound... I've dipped my toe into the journalling pool and I really enjoyed it so this week I decided to throw caution to the wind and just dive on in. The February challenge at Country View Crafts caught my eye and seemed a good place to start. The theme is Drips and Drops so I set to with some oil pastels and alcohol inks to create this

Unfortunately the Liquitex doesn't make photographing the page too easy so I took another picture with my journal standing up to see if it was any better

I laid down the background with oil pastels and then dripped some alcohol inks down the page to look like trees. I wanted to use my Tim Holtz clock face again. I really like it so I die cut it in white and went over the whole lot with Mod Podge to stick and seal it all.

Next I did my stamping. It was all done with archival ink. My spectre is from a set by Andy Skinner. I just faded out the heart in the middle. The birds are a Tim Holtz stamp I'm sure everybody is familiar with and the flowers are, I think, from an Inkadinkadoo set I've had for ages.

Back to my trusty labelling machine for the words. I coated the whole page in Liquitex Pearlescent Medium to give it an ethereal quality, added pewter crackle paint at the corners of the pages and dropped white and silver acrylic paint onto the page to make spectral orbs...

Lx

A Road, As Yet, Untravelled...

NOT something I've done a whole lot of but I want to do some journalling and some collage. A bit scary, but I really enjoyed the pieces I did for PaperArtsy and have fallen deeply in love with Fresco paints into the bargain. Anyway, why limit yourself to just one thing when you don't need to? So, I hope you'll forgive my clumsy efforts over the coming months... Hints and tips a most welcome

Here is my first page, which I have had to make with what I've got in my card making stash anyway so it's not going to light any fires I'm afraid... but it was useful to help me learn the process of layering colour etc. Repeat after me "my heat gun is my friend" :oD I started with blues and greens because they don't mix to make brown or grey... if you get it "wrong" it just makes a green blue or a bluey green...

I love the sentiment and it was where the page started in my head. Originally I intended to stamp it but ended up using my labelling machine instead...

I've used Tim Holtz dies to cut the clock face and the cogs from some cardboard packaging. We've all got plenty of that, right...

The butterflies are die cuts from a set called Mariposa that I got from Create & Craft. I know they're going to be a favourite so brace yourselves to see them a lot :oD

I used the clock hands to make the bodies of the butterflies and I stamped some chipboard letters with clock faces before embossing them in white. I coloured the letters with distress ink and then coated the whole lot with Glossy Accents to give them dimension and contrast.

For the colour I used a mixture of Dylusions sprays. I've got a green one and a blue one so I used those and they mixed to make a nice sort of blue/green shade too. I don't have any Treasure Gold yet (it's on my list) so I used good old heat embossing in copper and gold to gild the butterflies. The cogs and the clock face are coated in gold acrylic paint and the flourishes are coated in silver acrylic.

I got all the way to the end and wished I'd added more white in the initial stages. Hey ho! Live and learn I suppose.

Anyway, the main thing is that I enjoyed it and I already know what I want to do for my second page. I call that progress of a sorts.

Lx

HMFMC 187 - LOVE IS IN THE AIR

They're all loved up over at House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge and since I made hubby's Valentine card for the last challenge this one really got my little grey cells ticking.

In the end, after rifling through my stamp collection, I decided on a Get Well Soon card for a LOVED one... This poor little guy has obviously flown through the air and landed with a bump. Good job his friend is on hand to patch him up and make him feel better... There! See how I made that work ;oD

As ever, Copics and Prismacolour Pencils were deployed for the colouring and I raided my stash for some suitable scraps of paper. I couldn't resist making a cute plaster for the sentiment and this gorgeous daisy paper, which I've used on the inside as well. seemed to be just perfect.

Once again, I've just about squeaked in before the deadline... Phew!

Lx

I JUST CAN'T PUT THOSE CLARE LLOYD STAMPS DOWN...

As soon as I got Clare's stamps I KNEW I HAD to make a little dolly. It's taken me a while to work out exactly what I was going to do but here she is at last and, for a first draft I'm mighty pleased with her if I do say so myself.

I used the stamp from Plate 04 of Clare's latest release for PaperArtsy (there she is in the bottom right of the plate).

I raided my stash to see what I had and found some fabulous hand died wool for hair, a scrap of "felt" from an old jumper and some beautiful silk fabric from an old cushion.

Just look at this yarn; it's fabulous and perfect for hair. I love all the different colours

To make the curls, I soaked a few strands of the yarn in a mix of PVA glue and water before wrapping it tightly around a couple of chop sticks.

I stamped her face onto a piece of cotton canvas with Archival ink and used pencils and pastels to colour her features. I set the pastels with a spritz of hairspray. It doesn't make them waterproof but it does fix them enough to stop them just rubbing off. I added a little beauty spot just above her lip and then set about making up the doll.

I kept the clothes very simply. A very basic skirt with some grey netting I had in my sewing box as a petticoat. I made a little wrap-over cardigan for her using bits of felt from my old jumper and added a bit of lace for a collar and some burgundy ribbon as a belt.

I enjoyed making her AND I used up some of my scraps so it's a win/win for me. A great way to spend a bit of a grey morning, as well as being another great way to get the most from Clare's stamps.

Lx

Clare Lloyd for PaperArtsy - More Samples and a You Tube Link

Morning all. It's a bright and sunny one here in Essex so I hope it is where you are too...

Here are a couple more pics of my samples for Clare AND the all important You Tube Link is here

I chose to treat this image very simply as the face is so pretty it really doesn't need a whole lot else. I used my copics, stamping and colouring straight onto the tag. I kept the background very simple, using one of the translucent Fresco paints in Limelight and used the sentiment to take the eye up the tag. I love the way the natural lines on the tag show through the paint.

Okay, so you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to realise I like making cards.  As soon as I saw this particular image I knew I wanted to put it in a film strip so I made this good luck card using the Dream sentiment from the set and a few very simple die cuts. all I needed to add was some stitched around the edge and it was job done.  That's what I love about these faces. They can be whatever you want them to be, depending on how you decide to treat them and let's be honest, we all want value for money from our stash.

I coloured this girl with my Copics and added a few details with Prisma Pencils

 

I brayered the background using Fresco paints in Orchid and Mermaid. The white lines were added using my stamp block and some good old fashioned gesso. I used the circles in the stamp sets to make the flower centres. The half daisies were made using the smaller slightly flat circles and I used the double arrows in the bottom right of the stamp plate to make flower stamens. the chevrons from the bottom right of the set were used between sentiments to draw your eye across the page. The hearts are just die cuts, stamped with the Dream sentiment and edged for definition and texture.  Finally I covered the whole page in Matte Medium, mostly for durability but I love the way you can see the brush marks in it and I love the way it makes the paper feel too (wierd huh!).

Last but not least, another card. Very quick to do but, again, shows the versatility of the images.

I coloured her very simply with Copics but I decided I wanted her to stand out a bit so I actually cut two layers, stuck them together and then coated the whole lot with matte medium to maker her appear like a chipboard piece. I die cut a few heart shapes randomly from a piece of pink card, stamped the sentiment into the apertures and stitched around the edge with my sewing machine for a bit of extra definition and texture.

Thanks for dropping by.

Do check out all the fab new releases at PaperArtsy. They really are worth a look.

Have a great weekend.

Lx

NEW RELEASE - CLARE LLOYD FOR PAPERARTSY

The talented and very lovely Clare Lloyd has no less than FOUR new sets of stamps to release for the wondrous PaperArtsy and I was lucky enough to be asked to play with two of the sets to see what I could come up with. Well HOW could I refuse? I had such a lovely time playing with them and am now completely addicted to Leandra's Fresco chalk paints into the bargain. HOW did that happen?

Clare's beautiful stamps are launching tonight over on the PaperArtsy Blog and her own blog here

Here are my two favourite samples. I've chosen them because I LOVE the colours and because it shows how versatile the images are. I went for two completely different looks with the same stamp and was really pleased with how they came out.

I coloured the image on my tag with Copic markers and used Mermaid and Guacamole fresco paints for the background, overstamping with one of the word stamps in the set. I found a broken necklace in a local junk shop and thought it would make a great embellishment.

For this journal page I switched to my Prismacolour Pencils, using all the colour's in Clare's chosen pallette. I LOVE how she turned out. Once again, I used Mermaid and Guacamole Fresco paints for the background and one of the phrases from the stamp set, which I tweaked a little. I added some chipboard letters, which were painted with the Fresco paints (orchid and mermaid).

I'm so excited to see what everybody else on Team Clare has come up with. Please pop along to PaperArtsy and to Clare's own blog for more inspiration.

A BIG thank you to Clare and Leandra for the opportunity to play with the wonderful stamps and paints. It has been such fun. I've thoroughly enjoyed myself and learned a lot.

Lx