Don't Give Me Cattitude

Good morning and welcome. It's Wednesday again so it's my turn on the blog over at That's Crafty with this weeks DT post. I am here sharing a sneaky little peak. I have used Bentley and I just love him. He is on an MDF upright. If you want to see the whole make, along with products used and how to's then please pop over here. 

I do hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Much love, Bev. xxx

Serena finding some Colour

Good evening to you on this very wet evening. I must admit I don't mind seeing some rain as it was all a little bit too hot for me over last couple of weeks. I am sharing a card I made over the weekend with the lovely Serena from Donna Gray. Just a little bit of play time on a lovely Sunday afternoon.

Here's what I used... White card...PaperArtsy Smooth White Card Stock.
That's Crafty stamp set...Serena from the Serenity Collection by Donna Gray.
Visible Image stamp...Black and White World.
Rubber Dance stamp set...Textured Flowers by Susanne Rose.
Stencil...The Crafter's Workshop Mini Microbial.
Distress Inks...Abandoned Coral and Weathered Wood.
Versafine Ink Pad...Onyx Black.
Archival Ink Pad...Watering Can.
Polychromo pencils.
Posca Pen...White.
Enamel Accents...Ranger Classic Cherry.
DecoArt...Liquid Glass.
Blending Tool.
Tim Holtz Stamping Platform.

Here's what I did...

I began with a piece of smooth white card measuring 7x7inchs. I used a stamping press to stamp Serena onto the cardstock. I then stamped her onto a piece of masking tape and cut it out. I placed my mask over Serena and then stamped her twice more onto my card stock a little higher than the main image. I coloured my images with the pencils, working on the build of colour until I was happy with the look. I took my stencil and blended through with the weathered wood distress ink randomly over the card making sure I didn't go over the images. I then used the same stencil with the abandoned coral at the bottom of my main image. I wanted my wording separated as I often do so I masked off the bottom line before inking up with the black versafine and stamped it, then doing the same again having masked off the top wording before stamping my next line further across the page. I then used the tiny little flower from the textured flowers stamp plate to stamp randomly over the card. I used the watering can ink pad as I wanted them to have a softer look. I coloured two of the bottom flowers with pencils. It was at this point I decided I wanted a shadow on my black and white world so used a grey colour pencil to do this. I used the white posca pen to add some highlights to Serena's face, a dot of enamel accents on each ear to add some earings and then took the liquid glass and covered the heart on the main image.

I then mounted my card onto black card before mounting onto the a matching piece of red card. I then mounted on to my white card base.

I hope you like it and thank you for dropping by. I do hope you will all join me back here tomorrow around 11am as it's my usual Wednesday slot over on the blog at That's Crafty. I will have a sneaky little peak of my MDF Upright Tag. Hope to see you then.

 Much love, Bev. xxx

Out of Limitations comes Creativity

Good afternoon to you. I hope you have all had a fabulous weekend so far. The weather here today is much cooler. Well this tag is actually a make from a very long time ago which was soon grabbed by a friend as she loved it so much. I came across the photo of it whilst trying to clear out my tablet so thought I would share it here as I did get many questions about how it was made at the time.

So here's what I used...

Water colour card stock.

Stamp set...Ranger, Dina Wakley Scribbly Birds.

Stamp set...Ranger Dylusions, Around the Edge.

Stamp and Die set...Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations 660189.

Stencil...TCW Gabrielle Pollacco, Mini moving vines.

Embossing Paste...Dreamweaver.

Distress Inks...Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn.

A selection of Whisper water colour brush markers.

Gelli Plate.

Heat gun.

Cropodile.

Flowers and ribbon from my stash.

Here's what I did...

I make all my own tags as I like the freedom of having a tag any size I like. I cut a piece of the water colour card to approximately 8x4", and snipped off the top corners to create my tag. I then blended over with the squeezed lemonade and twisted citron making sure I got a good depth of colour. Once happy I blended some spiced marmalade around the edges in patches, concentrating on the top left and bottom right corners. I then placed my stencil and applied the embossing paste. I love this embossing paste as it has a strange kind of texture and puffs nicely when heated with a heat tool.That's exactly what I did, gently heated, making sure I didn't over do it as it can burn easily. The paste nicely absorbed some of the colour from the distress inks but I gave a light blend over with the Twisted Citron to add some more colour. I set the card aside to go on and stamp my images.

I wanted my bird facing the opposite way to the bird on the stamp plate. Here is where my gelli plate comes in. I inked up by bird with versafine ink and carefully stamped him onto the gelli plate. I then picked up the gelli plate and just like a stamp, placed it onto a spare piece of water colour card, voilla...my bird now faces the opposite way. I cut him out and coloured him with the brush markers until I was happy with the look. I stamped the leaves from the Dylusions stamp plate a few times as I was unsure at this point how many I would need and cut them out. I coloured them with distress inks and brush markers. I needed something to ground my bird so took some flowers from my stash that matched perfectly and also stamped one of the elements from the Dylusions stamp plate at the bottom of my piece. I glued on the flowers and then mounted my bird with glue gel. I then added some of the leaves. I chose the wording from the Sizzix set and stamped that onto a spare piece of card and cut it using the matching die. I mounted that onto my piece with glue gel. 

Once everything was dry I mounted my piece onto a matching piece of orange card and used a trimmer to cut round, leaving a small border. Using a cropodile I puched a hole in the top of the tag. I coloured a piece of white sparkly ribbon from my stash with the spiced marmalde distress ink. I cut one piece and threaded it through the hole and the other piece I used to make the bow and glued it in place with a hot glue gun.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and thanks for popping by. 

Much love 

Bev. xxx

Flowers are happys on sticks

Hello and Welcome. It's that time again over at That's Crafty. Yes it's challenge time, and the theme for this challenge is Keep it Simple. Here is my DT inspiration and you can see it here along with all the other fab creations from the rest of our amazing design team.

Here's what I used...

Smooth white card stock...PaperArtsy.

Rubber Dance stamp set....Textured Flowers.

PaperArtsy stamp set...ZA08.

Brusho...Emerald Green.

Crafters Companion pencils...Colour blend.

Versafine Ink pad...Onyx black.

Burlap Paper...Burlap Paper Stack from DCWV. You could use anything here such as lace or material.

Tim Holtz Stamp Platform.

Pinflair glue gel.

Cosmic Shimmer glue.

Glue Gun.

Cocktail sticks.

Spray bottle.

Here's what I did...

I cut a piece of smooth white card stock measuring 7 x 6.5 inches. I misted some water onto the middle of the card and sprinkled on the brusho and left it to do it's thing. I took the textured flowers stamp plate and stamped the flowers and leaves onto smooth white card stock. I coloured all the elements with pencils. I cut all my pieces out and and shaped them using a ball tool and foam mat. I used a hot glue gun to stick the flowers onto the cocktail sticks. I used glue gel to adhere my flowers to my card and then, using glue gel I placed all the leaves. I then used cosmic shimmer glue to adhere the piece of burlap, covering the bottom of the sticks. I took the words from the PaperArtsy stamp set and masking off the stamp as I went, inked parts of the stamp to enable me to break up the wording as there was not enough room on the card to stamp all the wording in one place. I often do this with word stamps as I like the look. I do hope you like it and that it may have given you some inspiration. So why not have a go and join in the fun. You could be in with a chance of winning a prize. Pop over and take a look at the challenge rules here where you can see what you need to do to enter. Good luck and thank you for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

Much love, Bev. xxx

Flowers are little Smiles

Hello and welcome. It's Wednesday again already which means I'm over on the blog at That's Crafty with this weeks DT post. I do hope you watched our shows on Hochanda last Friday. There are some amazing new products which of course, sold out. Fortunately Laura and Graham worked tirelessly to bring in more. They are amazing. I was very lucky and extremely exited to see two out of my three projects showcased. Today I am sharing a sneaky peak of my favorite of the two which got a big WOW from Hayley who presented the afternoon show. If you want to see the full pic along with products used and how it was made then please pop over here . Hope to see you there and I hope you like it. 

Thank you for dropping in and enjoy the rest of your week.

Much love, Bev. xxx

Eyes are an ocean

Hello and welcome on this very hot sunny day.  I do hope you all had a fabulous weekend enjoying the weather. I wasn't sure where I was going when I started this piece other than the fact I wanted to use the fantastic GiganTag from That's Crafty and PaperArtsy stamp by Emma Godfrey. This has been in my collection since it's release but I never use it. I rummaged through my stamps and found the fabulous eyes by Inkylicious and  here is where it began...

Here's what I used...

PaperArtsy smooth white card stock.
PaperArtsy Stamp Set...EEG15.
Inkylicous stamp...Eyes are an ocean.
That's Crafty stamp...Lynn's Affirmations Set 1.
That's Crafty GiganTag...White/Greyboard.
PaperArtsy Stencil...PS036.
ColourBox Stencil...Mesmerized.
Sheena Douglas Stencil...Groovy Flower Power.
Distress Inks...Barn Door, Abandoned Coral, Festive Berries, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Shabby Shutters, Twisted Citron, Peeled Paint and Black Soot
Dina Wakley Acrylic Paint...Evergreen and White.
Imagination Craft Sparkle Medium...Gold Shine..
Versafine Ink pad...Black.
Posca Pen...Black and White.
Tim Holtz Stamp platform.

Here's what I did...

I began with giving my GiganTag a coat of white paint which I pounced on with a sponge to add a little texture, a little extravagant I know but I love it. I cut some squares of card which I would be stamping my images on to. I wanted the images to be really black so decided to colour my pieces of card prior to stamping. I decided on my colour theme and began blending on the inks until I was happy with each piece. I then took the largest circle from the stamp set and stamped it on to four of the card pieces and the smaller circle I stamped on to three pieces. I cut each piece out and did some doodling with the white and black posca pens. Having decided on my placement I needed some background...This took a little pondering. Having chosen my desired stencils, I began with the PaperArtsy lines and inked through with Barn Door, taking it from top to bottom. My original choice for this piece were acrylic paints but as I wanted the eyes to pop I needed the softer look on the background which is why I went for the distress inks. They are softer when blended onto a painted surface.I did the same with the ColorBox stencil using the Spiced Marmalade. I placed my stamped pieces onto the tag to get a rough idea on the placement of the leaves from the Sheena Douglas stencil. Once decided I used the green acrylic paint and pounced it through using blending foam. I wanted a little sparkle on my piece but not too blingy, so used some blending foam and sparkle medium. I replaced the leaf stencil back over each piece and used the foam to burnish the sparkle medium through the stencil. This defines the edges of the leaves with sparkle and a little on the actual leaves giving just a soft bling. Now happy with my background I glued all my pieces onto the tag. I took the wording which is on the stamp plate and stamped it a few times with black ink, masking pieces each time to allow me to cut the wording up. I inked the edges of each piece of wording with black soot and glued them into place. I needed them to pop a little more so used the black posca pen to roughly line round the words. My piece is now complete and this is where I found myself saying leave it there. It was hard not to do something around the edges which is where my wonderful son comes in...smiles. He is great for advice with all my makes. His decision was to leave as is, so I had to force myself not to add some texture or stamping around the edge. I am still not sure but hey ho. I hope you like it and maybe get some inspiration for a project of your own. Thank you for stopping by. I do hope you will pop back on Wednesday, where I will have a sneaky peak of my DT make for my usual slot over on the That's Crafty blog. Have a great week. Bye for now.

Much love, Bev. xxx

Floaty Dreams

Hello everybody. I can't believe it's Wednesday again already, where did the last week go? So here I am for my weekly spot over on the blog at That's Crafty, and for all those who know me well, you won't be surprised to see me filling a fantastic stencil with all things good. So here is a sneaky peak of my make with the wonderful Marina from the Deep Sea Divas stamp set by Donna Gray simply floating dreamily in calm waters. Please pop over here to see the full card along with details of what I used and how it was made. Hope you like it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Much love. Bev. xxx

I'm different because...

Hello and welcome. It's challenge time over on the blog at That's Crafty and the theme this fortnight is Dog Eared. Your project must contain dogs and you could be in with a chance of winning a prize if you enter. So go on and have a go. Here is my DT inspiration for the challenge, the products used and how it was made. I hope you like it 😊

Here's what I used...

That's Crafty MDF upright...Torn note page. 

That's Crafty Dinky stencil...Numbers TC063.
That's Crafty Dinky stencil...Star TC031.
That's Crafty Dinky stencil...Bubbles TC005.
That's Crafty Dinky stencil...Arrow TC005.
That's Crafty 8x8 stencil...Cog Clock.
Carabelle Studio stamp...Folly SA60277E
That's Crafty stamps...Inspirational Quotes Set 1.
PaperArtsy stamp...Elenazinski Art ZA08.
Pebeo Acrylics white gesso.
Dina Wakely Heavy Body Acrylic Paint...Lapis, Ocean, Ruby and White.
Decoart crackle Paint...white.
Imagination Crafts Starlights paint...Silver.
Tim Holtz distress oxide ink pad...Vintage Photo.
Tim Holtz cogs.
Posca Pen...White.
Red Gel gloss pen.
Pentart Varnish mist.

Here's what I did...

I began by applying a very thin layer of gesso over whole upright. I then sponged on the paints beginning with the Ocean, then adding some Lapis in small small amounts at the same time as blending in the white until I was happy with the look. I then added to this by blending on some vintage photo oxide ink very lightly. Once dry I took the dinky stencil and added the numbers with the ruby paint. I did a couple of lighter numbers as well as darker. I repeated these steps on the upright mount too. I made sure I covered all visible parts of the surface. I then took the dinky star stencil and dabbed through with the starlight paint. I wanted to add a few circles so I used the bubbles dinky stencil and white posca pen to do this. I took the 8x8 cog clock and place it over the upright. I wanted a white shadow look so first I sponged through with the white paint. Once this was dry I placed the stencil back over making sure it was directly in place over the white and then nudged it. I then blended through with the vintage photo distress oxide ink. I then decided I needed something more. I took the dinky Arrow stencil and the crackle paint and added some arrows, I did this on the base as well. Once this was all dry I stamped all the wording with Black Archival ink.Now my upright is complete it was time to add my image. I had already stamped him with black versafine and intended to colour him, but having placed him several times throughout the background process I decided I liked him just as he is in black and white. I did however feel he needed some colour on his glasses. I went for red to pick up the colour of the numbers so used a red gel pen to colour them. It was at this point I found a problem...The distress ink that I'd heated and set was still reactive, gasp, I needed to fix that. I had some varnish mist in my supplies so I gave the piece a mist, another gasp...The distress oxide reacted in all the places I'd put it. Nothing I could do at this point so just left it to do its thing. The result, well not as bright as it was originally but I actually quite like the grungier look it gave. Time to mount my grumpy guy. I didn't want him totally flat on the surface so I gently shaped him with a ball tool and sponge mat. I squeezed on some Pinflare glue gel into the middle of the image and some Cosmic Shimmer glue around the very edges and placed him down. I needed something more so I added some small Tim Holtz cogs that I had in my stash.

Thanks for stopping by.

Much love, Bev. xxx

 

 

Create Yourself

Hello and welcome. I'm here on the blog today sharing last night's quick make. I love these stencils so thought I would make something fairly quick and easy to frame and put up in my craft den. 

Here's what I used...

Paint On Multi Techniques 115 lb card stock.

Stencil girl 6x6 stencil...Pretty as a peacock S288.

That's Crafty Stencil...Steampunk Bug TC8006. 

That's Crafty Dinky stencil...Arrows TC006. 

Windsor & Newton Drawing inks...Sunshine Yellow, Vermilion, Deep Red and Purple. 

Distress Ink...Black Soot. 

Stazon Ind Pad...Black. 

Versafine Ink Pad...Black.

Clear Embossing Powder. 

Sakura Glaze Pen...Yellow. 

Imagination Crafts Starlights...White Gold. 

Dina Wakley Acrylic Paint...Medieval.

Visible Image Stamps...Own It. 

Visible Image Stamps...Glimmer of Light. 

Inkylicious Stamps...Imagine the possibilities. 

Sheena Douglas Stamp...Freebie with craft magazine? 

Picture Frame...Cheap as chips from The Range. 

Here's what I did... 

I began with an A4 piece of card and began blending on the inks with a large paint brush until happy, making sure I had a lighter area roughly where her face was to be. Once happy with the look I blasted it with a heat tool to speed up the drying. I placed the stencil onto my card and taped it in place with re positional tape and blended through with the black distress inks. I then removed the stencil and placed down the Steampunk bug and sponged through with the medieval paint. I then stamped both my sentiments and the flower using the black stazon. I then trimmed my card to 8x10" to fit my chosen frame. I took the versafine ink and used it to stamp the light bulbs, (this ink stays wet longer which gives the time needed to heat emboss for a raised look). I covered the ink with the embossing powder and heated until cooked. I took a paint brush and very lightly brushed over the light bulb with the starlight paint and then coloured the light bulb with the yellow glaze pen. I felt I needed something else so I used the dinky arrows to fill in the left side of the piece. This stencil is great for lining up to get an even look when doing a larger area. Now happy, I placed my piece in my frame and voila...my picture to hang in my den, happy days. Hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by.

Much love, Bev. xxx

They carry secrets on their wings

Hello and welcome. I'm here today with my first official post for That's Crafty since joining the design team. I have to say I have had great fun over the last few weeks playing with all the lovely products and the design team are just lovely. Here is a little sneaky peak but you can see the whole card, how it was made and the items used by popping over here, so hop on over and I'll see you there. Thanks for stopping by.

Much love, Bev. xxx

The World is your oyster

Hello. I am here today sharing a card with a totally different stencil. I love them can you tell...smiles. I have been so busy with work and makes for That's Crafty that my personal makes have taken a back seat but just had to sneak this piece in. I just love this stencil and I love this mermaid. She looks so peaceful and dreamy and I  felt this stencil was perfect for her. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Here's what I used...

TC 8x8 stencil...Cheryl.
Mermaid, wording, rope corner stamp and oyster are free stamps from latest Creative Stamping mag.
Distress inks...Chipped Sapphire, Spiced Marmalade, squeezed Lemon and Mustard Seed.
Distress oxide ink...Fossilized Amber.
Black versafine ink pad.
Lavinia Stamps...Birds.
Tonic Nuvo Crystal Drops...Ivory Seashell.
Polychromo Pencils.

Here's what I did...

I like to start with a piece of card an inch bigger than the stencil so 9x9 for this card. I like to have the opportunity to stamp outside of the image should I want to. It can then be trimmed as desired at the end once happy. I taped the stencil in place and then stamped my image. I stamped again onto masking tape to enable me to cover the image while blending my scene. I then used my large circle punch to cut the sun from masking tape and placed that on card. I decided where my sea was to meet the sky and placed a piece of paper across. I brushed the ink across to create my sky, then remove paper, covererd the sky and repeated the process for the sea. I made sure my area for sun on water reflection was lighter so that I could lightly brush some spiced marmalade through the blue. I then used the fossilized amber to create the sand underneath my image. Once I was happy with the look I removed my sun and brushed over with the squeezed lemon until happy with colour. I then removed mask from my image and coloured her with pencils. I then stamped my wording, birds, clam shell and corners with black ink. I trimmed down my card and mounted on to pink card stock to pick out the pink of my mermaids hair before mounting onto white card base.