The Cutest Of Critters

Good morning and a very happy Saturday. Today I'm back over on the Lost Coast Designs Portal To Creativity with my trio of cuties for our Critters challenge.

I'm not normally one for 'cute' stamps, but these mice are just so sweet, and I reckon that with the right sentiment they will have real attitude!

I started by cutting my Rolodex cards onto supersmooth card and stamping my mice in brown. It's quite unusual for me to make one layer projects, but that is what I wanted for my meeces.

Then I added the sentiments where I could. Some of them are too big to be added whole so will be stamped and chopped up later.

 

The mice have been coloured with alcohol markers. I knew that I wanted to put a watercolour wash over the top, so I heat embossed the sentiments.

I've just added some colour by inking up a stencil, spraying with water, and laying on the page.

They can definitely smell cake!

She's my favourite. I can just imagine her with a rolling pin in her hand if Mr Mouse comes home late from the mousy pub! I know there's a bit of mousy stereotyping there but I'm very old school lol.

These are the stamps that I've used

Mother Goose Mice by Lost Coast and

Carmen's Veranda clear stamps

My Coffee

Smell Cake and

My Greatest Accomplishment

You still have a full week to join in with our challenge and show us your critters. They can be as cute or as badass as you like, they just need to be stamped!

Take care, have a very happy weekend, and thanks so much for looking xx

Baby It's Cold Outside

Good morning and a very happy Wednesday. We're continuing with Christmas in July over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground during a heatwave here in the UK.

I started by making my background sheets. The kraft card has just had some white acrylic splattered across it, while the blue has lots of stamping with a Rubber Dance sentiment, and stenciling with some 'ice' texture paste.

The stamping was done on top of the texture paste, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I had a dig around in my box of marbled backgrounds to stamp my chilly birds.

This is the first time that they've been inked but I love them already. The background card has been punched with an ancient punch, and had lots of white embossing.

And these are the stamps that I've used. Dot has a wonderful selection of both Crafty Individuals and Rubber Dance stamps here in the store.

 

I hope that you manage to stay cool, and have a great day whatever you are doing. Take care, and thanks so much for looking x

I Want Cats To Like Me!

 Good afternoon and a very happy Thursday! It's time for a new challenge over on the Lost Coast Portal To Creativity, and this time it's 'Critters' As I have (ahem) quite a few animal stamps, I thought I would use 3, and I've made another page for my tag book.

I started by making some backgrounds with paint, stencils,  and my gelli plate. I printed them straight onto the tags which is why you can see a weird 'ghost tag shape on the middle one.

I wanted to have my brick wall at various heights for my cats to sit on. Then I stamped the paw prints all around my tags using the pawprints border stamp. Don't worry, if this stamp come to live with you, yours will be full length. I just cut a couple off the bottom 'cos I stamp it on my cards underneath the cats 'signature' What, doesn't everyone do that???

Then I inked the edges of the tags and went around with silver embossing powder. The black paw prints hadn't quite dried, so we have black and silver prints which I'm quite happy with. I had a bit of a disaster with this on as I hadn't cleaned and masked my sentiment stamp properly.

So plan B it was! You wouldn't have know would you if I hadn't told you!

I coloured my lovely cats with Prisma pencils and a little bit of paint pen. I also added some china marker to the brick wall.

This cracked critter is definitely up to no good!

And this one is quite angelic - apart from his eyes, but then again if you can have yellow stars and wings, the whites of your eyes can be blue!

And here they are again, all together and stitched onto my giant tag.

These are the stamps that I've used.

Lost Coast

Cracked Party Cat

Cat Wavy Face

Cat Star Wings

And from Carmen's Veranda

Cats Like Me

You now have until the end of the month to show us your critters. Just link up at the Portal for the chance to win some Lost Coast dollars.

Have a wonderful day whatever you are doing, and thanks so much for looking x

Have A Holly Jolly Christmas

 Good morning, a very happy Saturday, and welcome to Christmas in July! Yup, I'm over at the Lost Coast Portal To Creativity with my very happy Christmas couple. Talking of happy couples, it's our 39th wedding anniversary today, so Neil and I look a lot like these two, only plumper, and not quite as cheerful 😉.

I started by making my background pages with some stenciling, and words from the Miscellaneous Words stamp.

As you can see, this is such a useful one 'cos there's just about every word you could ever need there (coffee and goddess leap straight out - Linda must have been thinking about me when she designed it!)

I've used watercolour, and alcohol markers to colour my cheerful twosome. They really put you in the mood for turkey don't they!

 

These are my stamps, 

Miscellaneous Words  and

American Gothic Christmas 

I hope you like it, and you've still a few days to join in, so put your best Christmas foot forward - it's never too early!

Have a great weekend, and thanks so much for looking xx

Blossom & Bloom

Good morning and a very happy Friday. Today I'm over at Country View Towers with my second project for our "Add A Stencil Or Two" challenge, and this time I've made a card.

Again I've used my long-neglected AALL & Create stamps.

I started by making a couple of inky backgrounds with my stencils and Distress Oxides. On the top one, I've inked through in the traditional way.

And on this one, I've inked the actual stencil, sprayed with water, and then laid on the page.

Then I've stamped the lovely Tracy Evans A4 stamp. Look away now if you're easily offended, 'cos I've actually cut the stamp in half so that it fits on my stamping platform! I've also held the paper down with masking tape as they are such 'sucky' stamps that they always want to bring the paper up with them. Well not this time lol!

These are my lovely stamps and stencils. The AALL & Create stamps can be found here in the store. 

To finish, I've used another of Tracy's stamps to pop up a centre for the flower. Again I've not added a sentiment yet as I'm not sure who will be receiving this. I also found paint chips in my stash (don't ask!) that matched the background colours so on they went!

I've really enjoyed using these stamps and definitely won't leave it so long next time.

Have a very happy day whatever you are doing, take care, and thanks so much for looking xx

Chrismas In July For Ink Art Designs

Good morning and a very happy Monday, I hope you've had great weekend. Over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground my fellow teamies and I are having Christmas in July, so here are my first Christmas cards of the year!

I did take some step by step photos of making the back grounds, but then I deleted them when I was having a phone tidy up. So.... I made some backgrounds with Katzelkraft stamps and white and silver embossing powders.

When I have time I like to decorate my envelopes too. Those I'm still making 2 days before Christmas because 'I forgot that it was coming around' will be lucky to have envelopes at all!

It's just not Christmas without the Grumpy Penguins. The sentiment is from Stampotique and I can just imagine them saying it lol.

If I had to pick, this one would be my favourite. I love white embossing, and the fab grungy border stamp, and I think the reindeer looks so cute in his own reindeer jumper.

These are the stamp sets that I've used, as you can see there are quite a few! They are not all traditional Christmas stamps though, it's amazing what you can do with a Santa hat and scarf from the accessories set!

Dot has squillions of Katzelkraft and Stampotique stamps here in the store, together with some naughty but nice sentiments from Carmen's Veranda and Riley & Co.

Have a wonderful day whatever you are doing, take care, and thanks so much for looking xx

You Gotta Use A Stencil Or Two

Good morning and a very happy Thursday! I know I'm showing my age now, but I'm totally in Ron Moody/ Fagin mode for the new Country View Crafts challenge: Use a Stencil (or two).

So apart from whisteling "You Gotta Pick A Pocket Or Two" I've been digging deep into my stash! It's been ages since I inked up my AALL & Create stamps, and they also have some great stencils, so it looks like a plan is coming together!

These are the stencils that I used on my large Art By Marlene album and gel plate.

I added some extra bits of stencilling in the corners, then stamped this lovely long border stamp and put in a bit of stitching.

This is what I've used, Susan has a great selection of AAll & Create stamps here , and stencils here, as well as cutting dies and washi tape.

To finish I added a bit of white and black pen, and stamped the circles from another AALL set. I don't think it needs a sentiment but there's always room if I change my mind.

I hope you join in with our fun challenge and pick a pocket stencil or two. 

Take care, and thanks so much for looking x