Exciting new product!!!

Hello everyone, hope you are all well and happy!
It's been rather quiet here because I have been busy preparing samples for the new Create and Craft weekender shows this coming weekend, in my position as a member of the Sheena Douglass design team.

We are launching a superb, exciting and versatile new product, called Aquatints. I'll start by showing you some samples and will then tell you more:)

 No 1. Texture added with texture paste then coloured with the tints

Close up of the texture with the tints creating lovely patterns

No 2. Tints on water colour paper, the bottom half is a stencil that will also be on the show

3. Mixed media hanger, tints mixed with gesso, stamps from the Northern Lights set included in the show.

Alright, so what are these tints? They are bottles of highly concentrated water colour, there are several sets and each set comes with brushes and droppers included. There are Brights, Pastels, Essentials and Grunge sets. Each set has 6 different gorgeous colours.


To be honest, when I first got them I thought, ok, so what makes these so different from say the Dylusions sprays? Well, one of the differences is that they come in ink type bottles, with the droppers and brushes included, you can splash and drip, blend or wash to your hearts content. And of course there is nothing to stop you adding them to a spritzer bottle and using them as sprays too. The droppers make that a really easy thing to do. The Essentials set includes a fairly opaque white, brilliant to mix with other colours to get opaque like pastel colours. It also includes a gold and silver which are opaque, you can either use them as is, for some real bling, or again mix a few drops in with other colours to get an amazing shimmer. Mix any of the colours with gesso and you get a stunning chalk paint like finish, great for stamping on. You can mix them with acrylic paints and use them on your gelli plate, they are brilliant to dye ribbon or flowers with and I could go on and on, I bet I have not discovered the half of them and can't wait what clever techniques Sheena will be showing this coming weekend. Make sure to tune in to Create and Craft this coming Saturday, it is a weekender, so there will be several shows, the first one will be at 9 am.


Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

A Sad Goodbye

Hello lovely visitors, thanks for dropping in here.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post as today is the day I will be sharing my very last post for The Artistic Stamper.

I have been on the team for two and a half years, and I have decided that it was time to move on. Life is taking me in different directions now, and something just had to give.

I have thoroughly enjoyed being on the team there and to work with The Artistic Stamper's wonderful stamps, so today I am sharing a review of some of the many projects I have created for them over the years. If you have time, take a look....

I want to thank Jennie the Artistic Stamper and all my teamies, old and new, I am sure we will stay in touch. Thanks to you lovely visitors also for all your support!!

A project in Progress

Well, this last weekend I had some time to play and make something just for myself. It's going to be a mini book, with 6 double pages and pockets all over the place. As you can imagine, a lot of work and a lot of photos to show, so I thought I would share it in stages.

The binding for the mini, which will hold family photos of my grand children, will be the so called "stack the deck" system, devised by the amazing Laura Denison. If you want to know how to do it, just click the link and it will take you straight to the video.

I am using the Heartfelt Creations Classic Sunflower paper collection that I fell in love with the moment I saw it. I made my mini out of handmade envelopes made with the paper collection. By trimming a small bit off the end on one side you then have a pocket for tags etc.

Anyway, there are loads and loads of tutorials out there on how to do these things, so I am just going to show you the pages and tags I have done so far.
Above is a page on which I created a little corner pocket for a small journaling spot and photo.

Here is the tag, - I love altering papers with stamping and stenciling.

This is one of the large tag that fits into the side pockets. I am going to make them all the same shape, they happened to be just the right size to use the strips of paper that were left after making the envelopes. The top is shaped with a Spellbinder die, the little lattice embellishment is a Sue Wilson die, I am going to add a little title relating to the photo in the center of it.

The back of the envelope, the flower was made with a stamp using another Heartfelt Creations collection.

The front of the next envelope, this one just has a side pocket. The image is a stamp from the Sunflower collection, I couldn't help but order a couple of the stamps when I got the papers....

The back of the envelope, again, flowers made with  Heartfelt Creations stamps. Some of the other embellies are from the Graphics 45 Place in Time collection.

The final envelope I have done so far, a pocket on the front this time, with a photo mat again.

Here is the back of the same envelope, again with a pocket at the front.

And here finally are the two tags that fit in those pockets, each decorated with Heartfelt Creations stamps. Oh and all of the colouring of the stamps was done with Prisma pencils.

Well, hope you like what I have done so far, more will follow as time will allow, including the cover.

Thanks for visiting like always and I hope you will find some time just to create, - it's good for the soul I'm sure!

A Box full of Hope...

Hello all and welcome.
As some of you know, I live in Scotland and this has been a very special week for us all here.
 It started full of hope and excitement, and for many of us ended with a feeling of sadness for lost opportunities. But life must go on and new opportunities will come in different ways, Scotland will rise from the ashes like a phoenix.....

It seemed pertinent at the beginning of this new week to show you a project made with one of the new stamps designed by Sheena Douglas. This time I made a box using the beautiful Phoenix stamp and one of the sentiments that come with the set.

Some of you may have seen her show and all the new stamps last Friday on Create and Craft. There are 6 different sets of stamps, I had three sets to play with and will show you some other projects still in the following days. You can purchase the stamps either from Create and Craft of from Crafters Companion.

I made the box from Kraft card, created a background with Distress inks, Twinkling H2O some sprays and using the salt technique.

I stamped the phoenix with Versamark and then embossed with copper embossing powder. I coloured the phoenix with twinkling H20s and  adhered it to the box with foam tape for some extra depth. I then embellished with some flowers and the sentiment stamped in copper as well. 

Happy Sunday and have a good week ahead!

The colours of Autumn challenge 15 at A Vintage Journey

Hello everyone and welcome on this lovely Friday. It is my turn to host a challenge at A Vintage Journey, the wonderful Tim Holtz inspired challenge blog sponsored by Country View Crafts.

Autumn is well and truly here in the northern hemisphere and as it is my favourite time of year I chose "The Colours of Autumn" as my theme.

I created a mini book using the wonderful Eileen Hull  mini book Cherished die, which makes making a mini so quick and easy.
As I am the challenge host, I decided to use all of my favourite Tim techniques, they are pretty basic, probably the simplest of all, but I just love them, - blending colours with Distress Inks, steciling, stamping and embossing, all Autumn themed of course.

For the cover I ran my diecut piece through the Sizzix/ Tim Holtz Alterations Thankful embossing folder.

I then coloured to my heart's content with various autumnal coloured Distress Inks :Dried Marigold, Ripe Permission, Aged Mahogany, Seedless Preserves and a bit of Dusty Concord and some  Walnut Stain around the edges.

I then layered it up with a piece of crumpled Kraftcard, coloured with the same colours, giving a kind of leather effect, and the Tim Holtz  Pumpkin from the Halloween Blueprint 2 set.

Some die cuts (the leaves were triple embossed to give them a glossy sheen) and an ornate plate, with a sentiment stamped on old book paper finished it all off.

The inside pages were all made with the die too. Here is a link to a video where Eileen shows how to do this: LINK, it was passed on to me by my lovely teamy Jenny from Pushing the Right Buttons.

I used pretty much the same technique for all of the inside pages, blending Distress Inks and stamping with Archival and stenciling in the background for more interest. This is the front page:

For this one I used the Spiderweb Layering stencil, some background stamps, some bleach stamping for the text and the Classics 1 set.

This scene was built up with a lot of Remnant Rubs and some background stamping with the Classics 19 set. I also added some splatters with the white Dylusions spray.

For the facing pages I used bits from the Walflower Paper stash, added some ink and stenciling and a sentiment only. This sentiment is from Indigo Blue.

More stenciling and stamping in the background. The vocal stamp is a Chapel Road Art stamp. I loved the fact that I could use both an apple and a pear stamp, such autumnal fruits....

The facing page, this sentiment is from The Artistic Stamper. I ran the bottom through a texture fade strip and coloured it  with H2Os.

The next double page, the sentiment is Indigo Blue, the wild flowers are Stampendous.

the last page:

The final page with a sentiment from the Classics 11 set. I covered in inside of the cover with more of the Wallflower papers and tied the pages with twine into the cover. (Eileen shows how to do this in the video, only she uses elastics, but I felt twine fitted the rustic autumnal theme better). This makes it quick and easy to add further pages as time allows.

Well, hope you like this mini. I've tried to keep the descriptions brief as we all have a lot of blogs to visit. And of course I hope you will check out the challenge, play along and see the really amazing projects my team mates have created.

Thank you so much for visiting and even if you are in the southern hemisphere, where it is now spring, you are of course very welcome to play along!!!

Halloween House for Calico

Hello everyone and welcome. Have you noticed that Autumn is well and truly on the way? It's my favourite time of the year, not least because of all the Halloween projects that are starting to pop up all over the place. Here is a sneak peek of one that I have done for Calico Crafts, using some of their wonderful Halloween mdf Craft parts:

Hope you will pop over. Oh and if you want to see more autumnal stuff, do come back tomorrow when I am hosting the next challenge for A Vintage Journey.

Thanks for visiting and keep your fingers inky!!

A preview and some news

Hello everyone and thanks for visiting!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Sheena Douglas to see if I wanted to become part of her Design Team, the Inkoids. After I picked myself off the floor in surprise, I could not help but say yes, for even though I was not very familiar with her stamps and other products, I have loved her techniques for a long time.
So today I am sharing the first of the samples I created for her using the stamps from her latest release. You will be able to see the stamps in all their glory on Friday at 9 am on Create and Craft. Hope you'll tune in then, I promise you will not be disappointed!

So here is one of my samples, there will be several to follow in the days to come.

The background was created with Distress Inks on Sheena's stamping card (this is the best most wonderful stamping card I have ever used and I am not just saying that...), the highlights were created using the faux bleach technique, just using a small brush and water, taking away the ink and then blotting with some kitchen paper.

Hope you'll tune in next Friday and thanks so much for visiting!!

Nautical Voyage for Countryview Crafts

Hello everyone, it's a busy day here again in my little place in Crafty Blogland. If you want to see what I made and shared earlier today, just click HERE

For this post I am sharing my second project created for Countryview Challenges,where the theme is "Nautical".
I created a card, and it was quite a challenge to come up with something, as really at the time I made it I did not have any supplies that fit the theme. (Since then my lovely blog friend Julie sent my some wonderful die cuts and some little shells, thank you so much Julie!!)

Well, nothing like a challenge right, - so I decided to create my own stuff.
I started my creating a background for my card. I cut a piece of manila card and inked around the out side with Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks.

Next I printed an old map found at the Graphics Fairy on some tissue paper. This is a bit of a fiddle, but if you adhere the tissue with some low tack tape to some printer paper, you can run the whole thing through the printer and this can make for some great backgrounds.

I adhered the map to my card with Glue 'n Seal and then inked around the edges a bit again.

As you can see, I was not quite careful enough and the tissue, which is of course very delicate, tore a bit, - ah well, embrace imperfection, I knew it would partly be covered anyway later on.
 Now for some embellishments:
A "rescue ring", made from a ring of card, cut with two Nestability dies.

I coloured it with Fresco paints, added some shadow with Distress Markers and wrapped some twine around.
I had a little chip board compass rose, I think t is from Tando Creative. I coloured it with Picket Fence crackle paint and then inked with some Walnut Stain Distress Stain and ink.

For the center of the compass, I created another piece, made by stamping the compass stamp from the Classic 1 set by Stampers Anonymous onto some metal foil coloured with Espresso Alcohol Ink in Jetbalck Archival. I then cut out the center.

Another bit of metal, coloured in the same way was run through the rivetted metal embossing folder to add another layer to the card.

Finally a little bottle, cut with the Apothecary Movers and Shapers die from Kraft card. I then coloured it first with Tumbled Glass Distress Paint and then various Distress Markers.

I love how you can give a flat piece like this much more of a 3D look just by the way you colour it and add shadows. These dies are designed so cleverly..

I stamped the word Voyage from the Classics 1 set and added that as my sentiment..
Her are some details still of the finished card:

The bottle, a little metal clock and two glass pebbles on a piece of dyed cheese cloth.

The compass and ring all layered up together.

A Philosphy Tag altered with some Tumbled Glass Distress Paint.

Well, there you have it, a nautical card made with mostly home made embellishments. Hope you like it, and if you have not done so yet, why not play along with our challenge over at Countryview Challenges!

Thank you for visiting and stay inky!

Distress Ink	Frayed Burlap	Vintage Photo Distress Ink	Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Nestabilities	movers and shapers	Classics 1	paperstash
philosophy tags	Tumbled Glass

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