Get Yer Carrots Here!

Good morning, happy Monday, and welcome to October. This used to be my favourite month as my birthday is in October, but now it's time to gloss over that bit, I'm quite old enough thank you! There a new challenge over a Country View Crafts chosen by the lovely Rachel, and it's Plantastic! Here's what I've made.

I must admit this was quite a challenge for me, 'cos if I don't have a stamp for it then I can't do it BUT I knew that somewhere...

 I started by distressing a piece of corrugated card to within an inch of its life, and painted it blue. Then I pushed some DecoArt Modeling Paste through a PaperArtsy Scrapcosy stencil. At this point it was all neat and tidy, but where's the fun in that, so I rusted it up a little with Quinacridone Gold - much better!

The seed packets have been cut with a Sheena die, and the stamps are from an old TPC set than I've had for years but have never inked up.

And we're all done! I've taken a bit of vegetation from out of the garden, but nobody needs to know about that!

Once I got going this was a really fun challenge, so I hope that you join in too. 

Have a very happy October, and thanks for looking x

A Pretty Curious Creature

Good morning and happy Thursday - welcome to March! It's my turn to choose the theme for the new Country View Crafts challenge, and I've gone for a really easy one -  Postcards. So anything you like, the only rule is that it has to measure 6 x 4 (inches). Here's mine.

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Stitches trade show in Birmingham, and while I was there PaperArtsy were running some training courses which I was REALLY happy to attend. One was with the lovely Raquel of Scrapcosy fame and she taught this class. 

What I MUST point out is that both Raquel and Leandra (Mrs PaperArtsy) are both happy for me to share these techniques. I always feel a bit iffy blogging about something I've learned on a course, but that is what these were for. So anything good is all Raquel, anything that's a bit wonky I'm claiming as my own ;-)

 First of all we made a background with 2 colours of Distress Oxides on a craft mat. At home I used 3 on a piece of card slightly smaller that 6x4. The colour was just smeared onto the mat and spritzed.

 Next came the exciting part. Do you remember when we all rushed out and bought Micro Glaze - well now we got the chance to use it. I must admit that mine is the original Judikins wax, I must have had it 10 years and it's still as good as new (and still in my top drawer - result!) The stencil just goes on top and you put a small amount of the glaze through.

Next you swoosh through another colour of D Oxide, I used Broken China and the glaze acts as a resist.

Stamping time now - I've used the beautiful seahorses and part of the sentiment stamp from set 12, and the compass from set 11. My two fossil fishes are mini's. I then matted this onto black card, so it's now 6x4.

I enjoyed this class SO much, and learned loads this is a link to Raquel's YouTube channel, you must check it out and subscribe.

I'm entering my Curious Creature into the PaperArtsy Watercolour challenge - it would be rude not to :-) 

So please, join in with our challenge, remember the only rule is it must be 6x4, have a wonderful March, and thanks very much for looking xx