MAWTT Challenge 81 - Dream

Hello Everyone I hope your week is going well.

It is my turn to host the challenge over at MAWTT this week and did you know that it is "Make your dreams come true day" today. So I chose the theme of DREAMS this week which can be interpreted in any way you like.

I have this fabulous TH stamp that I hadn't used and it fitted perfectly, I just love the sentiment of it.

I made this using ribbed kraft card for the main background and used a Tattered Angels mask and text stamp, edged it with DIs and stickles and overstamped the TH birds on a wire. The sentiment has DIs over it and mounted onto black card. I have included a glossy accents covered butterfly, TH Dream ticket which I mounted and ink distressed, a ribbon flower I made with a button added and a pin and beads behind it and attached a glossy accents covered heart with a small pin. The last little element was cut on the cricut. I found out how to do the flower on the internet with wired edge ribbon and it is great fun and so easy to make.

Supplies-
Stamps - TH Visual Artistry Life's Possibilities
DIs - crushed olive, peeled paint, forest moss, frayed burlap and barn door.

Diamond stickles.

Thanks for stopping by and thankyou for all the lovely comments you give me, they are soooo appreciated.

Have a great Thursday.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Sweet Stampin - Try something different  (the ribbon flower and using ribbed kraft card to stamp and ink up)
Sentimental Sundays - Anything with wings
Stamoin Sisters - Wings
Whoopsi Daisy - No DPs
Die Cut Dreams - Quotes
Tuesday Throwdown - Background Stamping

Stampotique again

Welcome.

I have loved playing with my new Stampotique stamp and had to ink her up again. I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday and themes from Stampin' for the weekend - new and blue, Basic Grey - dots and spots, Creative Inspiration - Use something New,  Craft Your Days Away - Anything Goes, and Paper Cutz - metal.

The result.

Image stamped on TH paper edged with sparlky embossing powder and over inked. Dark blue papers were run through embossing folder and the bottom one had blue foil added to some of the spots. The sentiment is a digi from Scrap n Fonts.

Supplies
Prom Queen stamp (Stampotique)
TH paper Vintage/Shabby Chic set
Basic Grey background paper
Miscellaneous embellishments from my stash












Other challenges to have fun with-
Tuesday Throwdown - Embossing
Creative Cottage - Something New
Stampin' B's - Old and New (New stamp for Christmas, papers and embellishments old)
Stamp Insanity - Metal
Simple Doodles - Embossing
Mark's Finest papers - Embossing
Scrapbook Sisters - Anything Goes
Rainbow Lady - It's all new to me
Cute card Thursday - Out with the old
Crafty purple Frog - New Goodies
Delicious Doodles - New
Anything Goes - The letter C  CROWN

Thanks for looking and have a great week ahead.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Art Journal Day 3

Make a zebra pattern print block then play in your journal. Milliande Day 3.

Oh boy am I loving playing with 'art' again. I've kept this fairly simple compared to what Milliande has produced (see link above). She made her print block using rubber and lino cutting tools, and yes I have got some tools somewhere - and I mean somewhere - but I don't think I've got lino or anything like that. So brainwave!!!! Remember that TH tag before Christmas where he showed us how to make our own stamps using foam???? Well that's what I did. I have just bought some funky foam sheets from the range and hobbycraft. They are only 2mm thick but I thought I would experiment to see what happens and it is fantastic. Look what I created. My own zebra print block.

I used acrylic paint on black paper and stamped the block several times, I also laid out 4 strips of masking tape on my craft mat and stamped over them with black stazon.

1.

On photo1 you can see how I drew between the shapes with white pen, this brought all the blocks together and gave it some continuity. I used a black pen and painted with white acrylic paint over the masking tape.

2.

Photo 2. I overlaid some of the masking tape over the printblock stamp and used a crafty individuals diagonal stamp top and bottom. The frame is from Invoke, stamped on white card with the centre cut out and overlaid and positioned to pick out the letter Z perfectly. I used white and red acrylic paint to fill in shapes and edged the frame with stardust stickles (well I just had to have a bit of bling in it somewhere didn't I?) Hmm pretty neat eh?

3.

Photo 3. I laid the last pieces of masking tape together, very irregularly and then continued the lines and shapes using oil pastels.

This last photo shows the double page spread and the black side unfolds. When laid back again it reveals photo 2 with the Z captured in it.

I'll be interested to see what you think.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

New beginnings, new stamp and COCC #26

Hello everyone and welcome

I have been itching to play with this new stamp that my husband bought me for Christmas. I had been looking at the Stampotique stamps all last year and wasn't sure how I would use them, yet they intrigued me and at last I have plucked up courage to experiment with them. I am pleased with the simplicity of this and the effect I have achieved. I had several challenges in mind,

Stampotique - to use punches/die cuts

Studio L3 - Rusted Grunge

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Your newest stamp

Unscripted Sketches -  old sketch #13     

Prom Queen by Jill Penney and Daniel Torrente has been stamped onto patterned paper and coloured using promarkers. Diecut and stamped pieces have been given the rusted grunge technique (see P45 of TH Compendium of Curiosities for how to do it) and stickles added to edges and crown. The sentiment is my own created in Word.

 

Other challenges to have fun with -

Creative Inspirations - Use something new

Mark's finest papers - Use something new

One Stop Craft - New beginnings

Paper Sundaes - Something new

Pile It On - Brand spankin' new

Creative Card Crew - New beginnings

Try it on Tuesday - New beginnings

Creative Cottage - Something new

Simon Says Stamp - New beginnings

Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Something New

Hope your week is going well - take care and have fun.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

MAWTT Challenge 80 - Ring out the old - ring in the new

Hi Everyone

I am really pleased to be back this week and the lovely Lisa is starting the first challenge of the new year with ring out the old, ring in the new, which is a great opportunity for you to show us some of your new stash that maybe you got for Christmas or maybe you have treated yourselves to in the sales along with some oldies that are maybe your tried and tested and love things.

We are being sponsored this week by Ladybug Crafts Ink and we were lucky to play with some of Kerry's images (and many thanks to Lisa who sent me this one to play with). But first more about Kerry and what she does.

"Hi there! My name is Kerry and I'm owner/designer/general dogs body of Ladybug Crafts Ink. I started crafting just over 11 years ago. I wanted to take a calligraphy course which was full but managed to get the last space for a beginners stamping class. I can't say I fell in love with it...all that huffing and puffing on the stamp wasn't what I had in mind...but for the last 10 minutes of the class we were taught how to heat emboss and that's when the love affair began! Eighteen months ago I was bored with all the stamps on the market. There was nothing new...just slight variations on old stamps so after having a light bulb moment Nikki & Friends was born. Since Nikki came along there has been Buttercup, Ruby Fairy, Magnum & Lily, Robyn, Jack and Nikki's boyfriend Ben. Next week sees the launch of a new stamp set which I'm so excited about!

I am delighted to be sponsoring MAWTT Challenge this week and hope you enjoy the design team's cards and projects."

So here is my card. I have used my new aquamarkers for the first time but realised I have not used a good paper for them, so I am going to experiment to see what works best. (Plus they were dried out a bit so I think I may have used too much water) I haven't put a sentiment on yet but will when I decide who I am sending it to. All other things used are 'oldies'. So come and ring out the old and ring in the new with us - I am sure looking forward to coming and see what delights you have got to use.

Supplies-
Kraft card.
striped paper - Papermania Rose Garden
pink spotty paper from my oddments box
Diamond Stickles

The design was from a sketch at Sketch and Stash.

Other  challenges to have fun with -
Kaboodle Doodles - Anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Fab 'n' Funky - Anything goes
Gingersnap Creations - Hot beverages
Whoopsi Daisy - Free and easy
Craft your days away - Use punches / die cuts
Cute card Thursday - Out with the old
Crafty Sentiments - Anything goes

Thanks for stopping by.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Art Journal Day 2

This is Day 2 -  to Zendoodle a Zebra Mandela and then cut it up mixed media style.

Another day and more fun with my art journal and following the inspiration for January from Milliande.
If you've never tried something like this before why don't you pop over and have a look to see if it's something for you. You are not left to your own devices, Milliande videos her creative take to give you inspiration and even helps out by providing you with a drawn mandela for you to doodle on.

 Here is my take on the theme.

Sketchy things like this certainly free your inhibitions, allow your creativity to flow and allow you to let go of some of that 'control' that we often feel we need to have when creating and making. Maddie will be proud of me.

I am now a couple of days behind, but that doesn't matter. I will do bits when I can.

Have fun and thanks for taking a look.

luv {brenda} xoxox

Art Journal Day 1

I haven't kept a journal before but I used to keep a sketchbook going when I was at college (OMG how long ago was that???) So today I was going to google to find something to help me get started when I read Sarah's blog and she is following Milliande and her journalling inspiration. So off I went and had a look, I joined the community and watched the video for the inspiration. So we are "Starting out from the end - z for zebras".

Here is my piece and page 1 in a new journal. I haven't really drawn or sketched for quite a while and it's gonna take time to get back into practice but I had a go.

I used pencil for the zebra and pen for the zebra pattern lines filled in with a water brush using black soot DI.

I hope I keep it going some of the time during the year. I know it certainly won't be everyday.

I hope you enjoy your Bank Holiday Monday.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Compendium of Curiosities week 25

I just had to have a go at this today - need to keep myself busy and I hate missing Linda's fabulous challenges over at Studio L3. This one is 'scribble stain distress' and you can find the deets on P.34 of the great book itself (The Compendium of Curiosities).

For some reason I still have rhymes and poems as a theme in my head (see The Stamp Man ATC blog) and 'This is the house that Jack built' seemed most appropriate.

Supplies used -

TH dies - Rickety House and On The Fence

Crealies die for foliage.

Flowers from stash.

DIs - stormy sky, bundled sage, chipped sapphire, vintage photo, fired brick.

Re-inker - vintage photo

TH stamp - birds

Cosmic shimmer mist - rich gold and red firefly

TH embossing folders - branch tree and notebook

The backing paper for the main piece is where I have used the scribble stain distress technique.

Hope all is well with you. Thanks for stopping by.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

For Mum

Those of you who know me have been aware that Mum (Mary) has been in hospital since the end of November and I have been visiting her every day, (except for a couple that couldn't be helped).

I started making this heart the day before yesterday - inspired by Claudine Hellmuth - as I had seen Mum's Consultant in the morning and knew that she was very poorly and deteriorating. I went up to the hospital again at 4 pm because she was being moved ward and she sadly passed away very peacefully just after 6.00 pm on New Year's Eve. Ken and I were with her.

I will miss her dreadfully as will my sister, my husband and my children - she was a wonderfully warm and giving person and there is now a big gap in my life but her place in my heart and my memories will always be there.

For Mum.

Her favourite colours were always the autumn colours of orange, yellow, beige and brown with some lilac, mauves and blues.

I used stamps and elements that have real meaning for her. Flowers because she loved her garden and growing flowers in the summer. Butterflies - these always remind me of her. Music paper because she loved listening to the radio and musicals on CD. Text print to show her love of reading. I secured the heart as a pouch and have started to print onto a piece of muslin and will go on and embellish it as I feel like it. I hope to use this as a book cover and add photos of her.

Supplies
Grungepaper
Claudine Hellmuth sticky back canvas
Basic Grey paper
Text, flowers and dots background stamps
Distress inks - Rusty Hinge, spiced marmalade
Distress stickles - antique linen
shabby ribbon

Thanks for stopping by to read this.

Big hugs and love to you all. {brenda} xoxox

The Stamp Man ATC January Swap - Rhymes and Tales

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my friends, design team members and readers.

Today the Stamp Man ATC challenge starts 2011 with a swap around the theme of rhymes and tales. This opens up a whole world of fun for you. I went with children's rhymes and actually it is very apt for me for today (those of you who know me will see my post tomorrow for my Mum whose name is Mary).

Mary had a little lamb, his fleece as white as snow,

and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

I inked the background using torn paper and DIs, overstamped using the pine trees, misted with PPs and added the image and title from Crafty Individuals.

Supplies used -

Distress Inks - Pine Needles, Bundled Sage, Antique Linen and Spun Sugar.

TH Mini Holidays 2 stamps

Perfect Pearls - Heirloom Gold and Interference Red

Image - Crafty Individuals Miniatures 'People and places 2'

I wish you all a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2011 and hope it is everything you would wish for yourselves.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox