Spring Postcard

UKStampers have had a postcard swap this month with the theme of Spring. I've created this:

I've created the background using several distress inks then stamped with some of the new Andy Skinner stamps which arrived yesterday using black and coffee archival inks and a touch of green distress ink. Just a quick post at the moment - I'm starting my new job at the Stamp Pad today! Enjoy the sunshine! JulieD

Grungy Monday Week 4

These posts are like buses - you wait all week then two come along at once ... Well this week's Grungy Monday challenge over on Studio L3 was to use distress inks and texture fades together - much as I love getting messy, I'd never tried this technique before as I wasn't sure how much work it would take to get my texture fades clean! It was pretty painless! As always, the technique is based on one demoed by Tim Holtz . Here is my creation:

I cut the tag in half and with a folder inked up with shabby shutters and mustard seed, embossed the top half then inked up the Texture Trade folder of the car with walnut stain and debossed it - just for a change, to see how it looked (that's actually a lie - I inked up the wrong side of the folder but I was really happy with the result!!) I then added a few highlights to both halves using both a blending tool and adding ink straight from the pad. Oh, and it all got a good squirt with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist (one of my current well-used crafting items!) My fave part of this tag is the ribbon - it is white satin ribbon which I have splooshed (!!) with broken china Distress Stain then stamped with black archival ink using a Stampers Anonymous stamp - I was really pleased with the effect! The ribbon covers the join and I added a fragment charm, tissue tape (enhanced with tumbled glass Distress Stickles) and a Stampers Anonymous quote. Another thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours! Thanks Linda! JulieD

'It's In The Mail' - ATC Swap

Thought I'd do a quick post with this month's ATCs for the UK Stampers'  swap:

For the first, I wanted to use the idea of a love letter so I called it SWALK. I created it using a La Blanche stamp and Plum Archival ink plus velvet ribbon (one of my favourite items!!) and an embossed and inked grungeboard heart. The middle ATC is a simple one with an inked background which I have roughly painted over with metallic acrylic then stamped using a Stampers Anonymous stamp. The ATC on the right is an alcohol inked background with a Clarity postage stamp design stamped onto it then a Paperartsy post card stamped inside - the hardest part about that one was cutting round the edge to make it an authentic postage stamp - very fiddly but worth it for the finished effect! Hope you like them. JulieD

Grungy Monday Week 3

I know it's Tuesday but it's the school holidays so I didn't get much time to do this yesterday! Have finally managed to get enough peace to put it together and get the photo uploaded (I've left the children in front of the TV with The Sarah Jane Adventures - I'm a terrible mother ... ) This week on the Tim Holtz inspired Grungy Monday challenge from Studio L3 the only requirement is to use Adirondack Colour Wash - I've only got three of the new colours so at least I didn't spend hours making a decision over which to use! These sprays have been sat waiting for me to be inspired - this challenge has set me off. You should have seen the colour of my hands when I'd finished!! It won't come off with soap and water but I discovered that Tesco Value Soap Pads (a type of washing up product) did the trick without any difficulty. Here is what I came up with:

I started by spraying the tag with Cranberry Colour Wash, spritzed with water, dried then applied the clockface mask and sprayed with Denim Colour Wash. I added two other masks from the pack and added more Denim for a layered look.  After spraying with Perfect Pearls Mist (the white pearl colour), I  blotted with kitchen roll - the patterning in the pearl is from the paper towel! I embossed the man with umbrella from the Artful Muse Texture Trades onto green card and swiped a black archival pad over the raised pattern. I also embossed the top left corner of the tag with the new Texture Trades folder of cogs and highlighted it with a Sakura pen in a similar colour. I stamped the words in Perfect Medium and brushed Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls over the top. This was great fun - hope you like it! JulieD

Uk Stamper Swaps

I started my new job this week and have been busy stocktaking at The Stamp Pad! There are mounds of stuff that I never knew was there despite spending hours in the shop before I worked there - I can't wait to do the Tim Holtz, 7 Gypsies and Kaisercraft sections - who knows what I'll find!!

I've done a couple of swaps:

Terrible photography I know but I've already sent it so I can't take another! The recipient (hi Pat!) has put it in the gallery on UK Stampers so there is a much better image of it in there! The remit was to produce a three inch square mini wallhanging. I had a serviette which I'd been mopping ink up with in a previous craft session and, being a hoarder, had kept. I wanted to do a springtime piece and the colours on my serviette were perfect so I tore pieces off and glued them to a three inch square of card with matt medium. Once it was really dry, I randomly stamped over it with a text stamp, stamped a Paperartsy butterfly collage onto flowery patterned paper and a Crafty Individuals botanical image onto some die cut cork. I added some gems, punched holes and threaded some ribbon and fibres then stamped the work 'spring' - job done!

Another blurry photo (again Pat's is better in the UK Stampers gallery!) I must have been having a bad day with the camera. I really enjoyed making this - it's a piece of grungeboard which has been inked with Distress Inks then stamped with Coffee and Black Archival ink. The butterflies are die cut grungeboard and I added patterned paper as a background to tidy the back up, give it a border and make it a bit more sturdy.

Thanks for stopping by!

JulieD x

Grungy Monday Week 2

Another week has gone by and I've not blogged! I have made a few swaps and cards this week so I'll be putting them up over the week. The news this week is that I've been offered a job at the Stamp Pad (my local craft shop, owned by my friend Gwen!) More excuses to buy craft materials - well, it's research for my job ...

Today Linda at StudioL3 has put up the second installment in the Tim Holtz inspired Grungy Monday Challenge - this week the challenge was to stamp with Multi Medium and colour with Distress Inks. Here is my offering:

Following TH's lead, I stuck some old paper to grungepaper using the multi-medium then I used the On the Edge Postage Alterations die to cut each side. I die cut the three Gadget Gears out of foam, stuck them (one at a time) to an acrylic block and stamped with them using multi-medium from my craft sheet. I then used various colours of Distress Inks blended in before stamping with the smallest gear so that the background colours were different. I've stamped a Stamper's Anonymous quote onto a journalling ticket and added an Adage Ticket with a charm clip to the bottom plus game spinners and a hinge clip at the top. I've not tried this technique but will be playing around with it now - watch this space!

JulieD x