Girly Flowers??!!

I missed another Grungy Monday last week with one thing and another getting in the way of my crafting, but here is this week's offering to the Tim Holtz inspired weekly challenge from Linda at StudioL3:

Flowers, colour, girly elements - me?? I think I must be having a midlife crisis - I have incorporated some dramatic black just to make my mark on it! The stamps are all PaperArtsy (except the background) - I stamped the flowers, masked and stamped musical notes in white dabber paint (this bit didn't quite work out but I love the effect nevertheless!); inked with various distress colours then masked again and inked again with darker colours and stamped the text and flourishes. Added a few pretty embellishments (not like me at all!) and a bit of lace trim and ended up with one of the most colourful creations I've ever made! I love these little resin flowers from Prima and the Vintage Trinket in the top right corner (also Prima and available from the Stamp Pad!)

What happened to Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue every week and getting involved in more challenges I hear you ask (well I heard Gill ask recently anyway...)? There's always next week!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

JulieD x

Grungy Pink Canvas!

Thought I'd blog a canvas which I created a while back for a workshop at the Stamp Pad - I ran the workshop a few weeks ago which the participants seemed to enjoy! It's an eight inch square box canvas which I painted roughly with dark pink and cream acrylics then went to town embellishing with mini Paperartsy papers (from the swatch strip they created to advertise the range of papers!!) plus embossed and inked grungeboard, charms, stamped fragments, gems, corners, fibres, bead trim, seed beads, stamping and glossy accents ... Quite a frenzy of activity!! I particularly love those black cogs from 7 Gypsies.  It has pride of place on the wall of my craft area. Hope you like it - I'll be running another workshop next month at The Stamp Pad using loads of goodies from 7 Gypsies so if you're in the area check out the website here if you fancy it! 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

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

Hope, Heal, Happiness ATCs

I'm back again with another installment from my crafting life!

I only discovered ATCs a couple of years ago and for a long time made them and kept them - hence my husband's terminology, AKCs (Artist's Keeping Cards)!  Last year I started joining in with the Craft Stamper monthly swap and more recently have been involved with the UK Stampers forum monthly swap - kindly organised by Sam!

These are from last month's swap - entitled Hope, Heal, Happiness where the parameters were to use one of the words on each ATC. These were made during a period of intense back pain through a fug of medication so I have kept them very simple this time!

For my first ATC, I used a magnetic rubbadubbadoo stamp from the Classic Impressions set (I need to hone my photographic skills!) on a background coloured with various blue shades of Distress Inks, the word 'hope' stamped and glazed with Glossy Accents and a thin ribbon down the right hand side.

My Heal ATC has a musical notes background created with a Judikins stamp on a card coloured with pale pink Distress Inks and the word 'heal' stamped in black Ranger Archival ink. The flower image is from Paperartsy, stamped in black Archival ink on a background of darker pink/red Distress Ink.

My third ATC for this month is 'happiness' and is created using one of my favourite stamps - she's called Karin and is one of my extensive collection of Stampotique stamps - gorgeous isn't she?! She's coloured  using Distress Inks, and stuck onto a painted red background.

Hope whoever received these enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed the three I got back!

Going to get some beauty sleep - off for a crafty weekend organised by Gwen at the Stamp Pad tomorrow - can't wait!

JulieD x