Shabby Grungy Fun for Calico Craft Parts

Hi everyone and thanks for dropping in.
Just a preview day today as I have a project on the Calico Craft Parts Blog

I hope you'll take the time to hop over to have a closer look.....

Meanwhile, thank you for visiting and I hope you'll have a creative week!

I also just wanted to let you know that I will have a blogging break all through August as I am spending time with my family in Australia, but I will be back in full blogging mode come early September and meanwhile look forward to visiting your blogs whenever I can.

Thank you for all your support over the weeks and months and I will see you back in September!!

For the love of children, - ICADs 11 - 15

Hello lovely visitors and thanks for dropping in today.

It's been an age since I posted some further ICADs, but here at last they are:

If you are wondering what this is all about, you can find more information in this post.
I am having a ton of fun with these and treat them like a kind of mini journal, perfect for trying out new techniques and revisiting old ones.
Below a few more details:

The base for most of this little set is watercolour paper. I finally succumbed to the Brusho craze, so the background to this was created with a mix of Brushos and Distress Inks. The stamp is from Artistic Outpost, stamped twice, once straight onto the background and once on smooth stamping card, I then fussy cut the little boy, rubbed Glue 'n Seal all over him and then coloured with Faber Castell Big Brush Pens. . Some background stamping finishes it all off.

Background done in similar way, same with the focal image. The stamp is from Art Journey. The stars were stencilled with the Tim Holtz layering stencil and a white Gelato.

More of the same, this time using two Tim Holtz layering stencils and a Tim stamp too.

Not too pleased with this one, it got a bit dark... The stamp is a very old one, no idea who made it. The white stamping was done with Snowflake Fresco Finish paint.

Finally, - just using Distress Inks on this one and a La Blanche stamp. Colouring was all done with Distress Inks too.

Well that's it, - I love doing these little ICADs, it's a great way to dig out some old stamps and give them a work out as well.

Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting like always!

My gift to you

Hello everyone and thanks so much for dropping in again today.

Today I am feeling humbled as I am getting very close to having 2400 followers..... I know that many of you lovely people out there started to follow me because of my freebies that I used to post regularly, and til this day my stats show that they are the most viewed posts on my blog. So I thought it was high time to post some freebies again, as my arty/crafty life has taken me in different directions and it has been nearly a year since I last posted some.
So here goes, 4 papers that can be printed to 6 x 6 inches, and three tags, hope you like them and that some of you find them useful.

Like always, these are free for personal use, you can sell what you make with them, but please do not sell the digital files in any form.

Hope you are all having a good week, - thanks you for visiting and stay crafty!!

Journal Cover for Calico Craft Parts

Hello all and thanks for dropping in!
Sharing a journal cover over on the Calico Craft Parts blog today.
Here is a little preview:

Hope you'll have time to see the rest, - would love to know what you think, - just click HERE and it should take you straight over.

Have a fabulous creative week and thanks so much for dropping by!

On Your Travels

Hi everyone and I hope you are having a good month!
I am sharing a travel themed project on the Countryview Challenges Blog today and here are the details of my project:

It's a little Kraftcard pocket which could be used as part of a travel journal, to keep tickets, memorabilia or whatever you fancy. It could be a great little gift as well for someone setting out on their travels and could hold a gift card or some travel money....
It started out looking like this:

I had this envelope in my stash, but of course you could easily make one from scratch, or use a pocket die from Sizzix for instance. (This one is about 5 x 6" so a bit larger than most dies)...

I started by roughly scraping on some Gesso and then added some crackle paste through a Tim Holtz layering stencil.

Next I added some scraps from a paper serviette and then added colour with the help of Walnut Stain and Tea Dye Distress Inks and Sprays.

Here you can see how the crackle paste resists the inks but lets it seep into the cracks. I always love the effect of this.

The final step was to add some collage images, cut from a Prima Cartographer 6 x 6 paper pack and some stamping using the Tim Holtz Correspondence set.

The front of the envelope was done in a very similar way. Here the focal point was another part of the same paper serviette.

The hot air balloon was fussy cut from the same Prima papers and adhered with foam pads for a bit of depth.

Some background stamping with stamps from the Correspondence set, love these stamps they are so versatile.

The word Journey was die cut from Kraft card with a Cheery Lynne die.

Well, that's it pretty much, hope you like my little travel pouch and remember, there is still plenty of time to add a project to our challenge, hope to see you there!

Thank you for taking the time to drop in here

More Paper Artsy fun....

Hi all and thanks for dropping by.
Today I am sharing two further projects created with some wonderful new Paper Artsy stamps. You can see the first project I made here, just in case you are interested and missed it.
Here is the first one for today:

I used the same two stamp sets the first project, this is what they look like:

This is the main one I used for today's projects, with a bit of background stamping using this one:

I started with a size 10 tag and created my background using a stencil and some Grungepaste. I then coloured with a mix of Nougat, Stone, a tiny bit of Blush and Squid Ink Fresco Finish paints.

Both the background and focal stamp were then stamped straight onto the background.

Next I painted a small scrap of card with Squid Ink, making sure to keep it lighter in the centre:

I then stamped the main poppy stamp again on that and fussy cut it.

I added some further high lights with a white Stabilo All pencil  and finally stamped some of the seed heads still, coloured in the same way and that was pretty much it.

The last project was another tag/bookmark, using the other main poppy stamp from set HP 1505.

This time I only used Distress Inks and the stamps of course:

I added a bit of stencilling in the background and stamped the poppy twice, bending the stem the second time. I fussy cut part of it and adhered it to the first one in such a way that it looks as if both poppies are growing out of the same stem.

A little paper clay butterfly finishes it all off:

Well, that's it from me for today. If you want to see the other stamps in the collection, just hop over to the Paper Artsy Blog.

Thank you for visiting like always

Some fabulous Paper Artsy fun

Hello everyone and lovely to see you here!
The other day I was super excited to receive an email from Leandra Franich from Paper Artsy wondering whether I would like to create a couple of projects with some new stamps they are bringing out. When she showed me some of the images I was even more excited and of course said YES please!

The new stamps will come under the Hot Picks range and feature some stunning vintage collage stamps and images. You can find out all about them by clicking  HERE.

For my first project I used set HP 1501, a set with fabulous back ground stamps and several elements perfect for journaling, and made a little hanger. Here is what the set looks like:

I'll give you a quick step by step of how I built up my little hanger.
I started with a piece of grey board and adhered a wide piece of lace to the left side:

I covered the whole little board with Snowflake Fresco Finish paint and then added colour with the help of Nougat, a little Blush and some Mocha Mousse.

When the paint was almost dry I used a  baby wipe to take off some paint for a shabby look.

Here is the next stage, dabbing on Mocha Mousse with a paper towel for some additional interest and texture.

Then followed some background stamping, using Mocha Mousse and French Roast:

I love how easy it is to use the Fresco paints to stamp with.

Now for the focal image. I used a Lynne Pyrella stamp for this from an older set (007).

I stamped her on tissue paper using Versamark Onyx Black, adhered her with Matt Gel medium and then blended paints around her to make her merge into the background.

I stamped just the heart part again, fussy cut it and then coloured it with Plum Archival ink.

Now for the embellishments. I made a flower cluster using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals and Tattered Flower Garland dies, I used a piece of card, painted and stamped with similar colours to my background.

Here you see the card I used and below the little flower cluster:

The finishing touches were some further stamping with the other stamps from the collection and the word Journey, cut with a Cheery Lynn die as well as a rusted pen nib..

Because of the lace underneath the focal stamp there were some lovely textural bits I could highlight with Treasure Gold in White Fire.

Here you can see a little corner close up.

I finished the back with some pretty paper and made a little hook so it can hang:

Well, that's pretty much it. I made two further little projects using set HP1505, but as this post is long enough already, I'll blog those in a few days time.

Do hop over to the Paper Artsy Blog where Leandra is showing a video showcasing this wonderful collection of stamps. There are 7 sets in all, and trust me, you don't want to miss them, they are superb!

Well that's it, thanks so much for visiting here and have a creative week ahead!!