eye of the beholder ...

This month on the fabulous UKStampers forum we are doing a postcard swap with the theme of 'Beauty' - this is my interpretation:

I'd been wiping colourwash ink up off my craft mat with a piece of red card and I've used that as my background then stamped two of my favourite Stampotique girls in plum archival, stamped a few flourishes on the background then given it a kraft card base (just to make it a bit sturdier as it's being posted 'naked') and finished it off with a stamped title. Gorgeous! Just goes to show, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder as I adore these two characters!!  I think I might cheat and laminate this before adding the postage stamp as I don't want them getting wet! Hope to blog again later. See you then! JulieD

Another Sunday Grungy Monday!

Last week disappeared in a blur of invigilating, working at the Stamp Pad, being a Midday and being a taxi driver to my children and their friends!! So today I have sat down to do my Grungy Monday Week 6 (see StudioL3 for more info on that) and I've lost my mojo... This week's challenge was to create a 'weathered wood' background using a Ranger Dabber paint and distress inks. I did that bit then threw various elements at my tag - at least I can call it collage but I'm not happy with it, however, I've run out of time so it will have to do. Will try harder next week! Here's my effort:

All my elements (except for the ric rac and staples) are from Tim Holtz (this isn't a requirement of the challenge, it's just a little challenge I've set myself as I have so much crafting material of his I'm making all my Grungy Monday pieces Totally Tim!!) I stamped the blue Stampers Anonymous 'flames' in Denim Dabber paint and all the other stamping is done with various colours of archival ink and a variety of Visual Artistry Stampers Anonymous acrylic stamps including the one behind the facet. I was aiming for a sense of freedom ... Pop by again soon - my aim is to blog three times a week! JulieD

Grungy Monday 5

I've been really busy lately with my new job at the Stamp Pad which I'm absolutely loving plus it's exam season so I'm invigilating for the next few weeks - oh no, less crafting time! Been ages since I blogged - luckily we got two weeks to do the latest Grungy Monday challenge from Studio L3! The challenge this time was to embed an item in foamboard - I really enjoyed putting this together but it took me longer than expected! Here's the end result:

I cut two rectangles out of the foamboard with a scalpel then covered it with Tim Holtz Kraft Resist paper. This was the first time I'd used Kraft Resist and I was pleased with the results! I inked it with a variety of distress inks, stuck it to the foamboard, added tissue tape, stamped, embellished and distressed some more! I then added background paper (from the Tim Holtz Lost and Found pad) and stuck the metal items on with glossy accents. Hope you like it.

I had a thrill this week when I opened the new Craft Stamper magazine and found my altered matchbox on page 57! How exciting to be in print! I'll have to dig out a photo of it and blog it for those of you who don't get the mag! Have a great day. JulieD

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