DAY OF THE MONTH CHALLENGE #69 GUEST DESIGNER

I'm delighted to be Guest Designer over at Day of the Month Card Club challenge blog for the above challenge.

Now this really got me thinking as I really don't have any suitable stamps - however I remembered I do have the Tim Holtz Fresh Baked dies from years ago which haven't been used in a long time.  I decided to go with the biscuit one which felt more fitting for the theme. 

I started by using a set of Tim Holtz stamps called Tiny Text Christmas and I used the whole set of individual stamps to create the background.  I then added some Adhesive Burlap paper which I found in a local craft shop.  What a find that was!  I die cut the cookie and inked the edges and added the snowflake in white to look like icing.  I cut out a variety of  Tim Holtz Holiday Greens Thinlets in cardstock and old book papers and inked with Distress Inks. 

I added some extra pretty berry paper top and bottom.  The sentiments are from Tim Holtz Ideaology for a few years ago.  The little candy stick is from my stash and I coloured it red and white.  The sentiment stickers are from a TH Ideaology sticker book.

I'm adding this into the following challenges - 

Double Trouble - layers 

 A cut above - 

Crafty Calendar - AG 

We love stamping - AG 

Paper Funday - AG 

Daisy Chain Challenge - Christmas 

The holly and Ivy  - AG 

We love 2 create - AG Mixed Media 

Peace on Earth - 

THE MALE ROOM - KINETIC CARDS

We hope you have fun with our challenge this month at The Male Room which is to make your cards move - however you like.  I've gone for a type of side slider card where you can see the panels move in and out of the card.  I had great fun playing with Tim Holtz Professor stamps and lots of lovely grunginess.  The inks are Unchartered Mariner and Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo.  I used some of the Watercolour Pencils to give more of a vivid intensity to the Unchartered Mariner.

I'm  not normally a lover of trying to make cards move but I did enjoy making this one.  

I'm adding this into the following:

Creative Fingers - AG 

Word Art Wednesday - AG 

Stamping Sensations - AG 

We love 2 create - Mixed Media 

Inkspirational - Layer it 

INSPIRATION STATION - MOODBOARD

How cosy does this image look from Inspiration Station this month? We are also joining Double Trouble so pop over there to see their brief.

I turned to my trusty stamp set from Sunny Studio called Mug Hugz to create the mugs in my card.  I first used the gel press to create my background and added some leaves from a stencil by Visible Image. The burlap behind the mugs is a new find and I love it as it's adhesive and makes adding texture with material so easy.  I used some die cuts leaves to add further interest.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Double Trouble - layers 

A cut above - die cuts and warming - my leaves are die cut and my drinks are warming 

Crafty Calendar - AG 

Cardz4guyz - Autumn 

Shopping our Stash - hot drinks 

Stamping Sensations 

CHRISTMAS REDS

One of my recent purchases was the Doodle Greetings 2 set CMS286 by Tim Holtz. It has one of my favourite Christmas sayings of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas as my favourite Christmas film is Meet Me In St Louis when Judy Garland sings that song.  I watch it every year! 

As the sentiments are so big I wanted them to take centre stage so did a selection of red cards with each of the sayings embossed in different colours.  The darker reds are the same red cardstock which have been inked up with some black ink.  It's very effective.

I'm adding these into the following challenges:

Colourful Options - Red 

Creative Fingers - AG 

The Outlawz Challenge - Christmas 

Krafty Chicks - AG 

Simon Says Stamp Wed - AG 

The holly and the Ivy - AG 

CREATIVE ARTISTE MIXED MEDIA

Welcome back to another month's challenge here at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge.  We love seeing all your mixed media and the huge variety that the concept of Mixed Media envelopes. 

This month I've been channelling my inner artist - and it is so inner it's hard to find.  I find it amazing that I now make art - my older brother was the artist in the family and it was never something I ever thought I would do yet here I am.  This is a painting I have made with a few Lavinia stamps.  The inspiration came from a youtube artist Lisa Taggart and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

From a Mixed Media point of view I've used a variety of colouring tools to create this including ink for the stamps, watercolour inks for the backgrounde, soft pastel sticks, and oil pastels for creating the heathers and the trees. 

I'm adding this into the following challenge

We love 2 create - 

Stamping Sensations - Magical 

Ally's Angels - AG 

Crafters Cafe - AG Magical 

Hearts Quest Fantasy

PEARLY SPARKLES - ANGELS

Welcome back to Pearly Sparkles Challenge and our theme of Angels.  Not something I thought I had in my stash and then I remember a very old Tim Holtz stamp set I have which had this lovely angel and the three wise men in it.   All stamps used here are Tim Holtz. 

I inked my background with distress Oxide Ink in Chipped Sapphire and Fossilized Amber.  I stamped a music stamp from the same set gently in the background.  When all the ink was dry I used Versafine for the Angel and then used gold embossing powder to make it shine.  The Special Delivery stamps are also Tim Holtz as is the sentiment which was embossed in white powder.  I added some stars also in white embossing.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

IncyWincy - AG handmade Christmas background 

12 months of Christmas AG

Merry Little Christmas - AG 

The Holly and the Ivy - AG 

ADDICTED TO STAMPS - #480 DIE CUTS/STENCILS

Welcome back to another challenge at ATSM  and we are asking you to use your die cuts or stencils.  I must admit I don't use a lot of die cuts - I do have some Tim Holtz which get used especially at Christmas but generally I don't use them a lot.  So with that in mind - I've used a stencil lol!  This is one of the Sticker Stencils from Lavinia stamps. I love them - so easy to use and so far mine still have their sticky qualities - and you get the positive and the negative image so that's two in one.

This one is just one of the plain ones that I've used to create a snowglobe/jar.  The little Christmas tree being decorated by the fairies is also by Lavinia stamps as is the saying which is Merry Christmas in Welsh. 

SNOWY WISHES

Playing with the lovely set from Anita Jeram called Snow Happy from Colorado Craft Company.  I love her whimsical drawings.  The sentiment is from Tracy Evans. 

I'm adding this into the following:

Peace on Earth - moodboard 

Allsorts - Cute and Cuddly 

Inkspirational - Seasonal 

My time to craft - winter animals 

AUTUMN TOADSTOOLS

Autumn is my favourite season - especially when you get the crisp mornings and a bit of sun. I do love foraging for mushrooms too although I only know 2 for certain that I would pick and eat.  Definitely not this one from Visible Image though.  I created this little scene using Totally Toadstools from Visible Image and the hare and mini toadstools from Lavinia. The sentiment is from Tracy Evans. 

I'm adding this into the following:

We Love Stamping - Autumn - 

Inkspirational - Seasons - Autumn

Creative Inspirations - Autumn 

Paper Funday - Autumn colours 

Eye Spy - colours of the season 

The card concept - colours 

Cardzforguyz - T is for Toadstools 

Sparklesforum - Toadstools 

Day of the Month - scene, fall, critter

Girlzmakeguyzcards - Autumn 

CHRISTMAS ROBINS

I've taken the sketch from Inspire Create Challenge blog to create my little robin card.  The robin stamp is from Creative Expression and the sentiment is from Woodware called Loving Christmas.

I started by inking my background with Tim Holtz Bundled Sage Oxide Ink. I then stamped the robins in Versafine Pinecone.  The pine trees are an old stamp from Tim Holtz which come with their own die.  I inked tem in Versafine Shady Lane and then sprinked them with Tim Holtz Fresh Balsam Mica Stain to give them a sheen and a shine.  I used a Tim Holtz stencil for the trees in the background and used the same Bundled Sage just to give a subtle look.

The robins were coloured with Distress Watercolour Pencils - these are fast becoming my favourite way to colour especially as you can determine how vivid the colours are.  I added a touch of Spectrum Noir glitter pen to their bodies.  A splattering of snow from a white Posca pen completed the card.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Inspire, Create - Sketch 

Allsorts Challenge Blog - AG 

Inkspirational - Winter 

As You See It - I love using the Distress Water Colours 

Creative Fingers - AG 

The Outlawz - Christmas 

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE #479 ANY OCCASION

Welcome back to Addicted to Stamps and More and our challenge of Any Occasion.

Sadly I recently had to send a Sympathy card and wanted something nice and gentle.  This stamp by Alison Bomber was just perfect.  I masked off the square in the middle and added three shades of Distress Ink.  I simply stamped the seed head and the word peace from Alison's set EAB41 from Paper Artsy.

I'm adding this into the following:

Simply Cas - AG

Krafty Chicks - CAS 

Creative Moments - Monochrome 

IT'S A KIND OF MAGIC......

Having a play with some Lavinia stamps again - I really think I need to add another fairy to my collection cause I only seem to have the one - Seren.  I used a background that was in my stash which I'd made with a gel press a few weeks ago - not sure it's not too busy for the scene but hey ho - I've gone with it. 

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Allsorts 802 - Magic Myths or Legend

Conjuror of Dreams - AG 

Crafty Calendar - AG 

Heart's Quest - AG 

Simply Ellibell - AG 

AUTUMN

I have been having a play with the gel press and this was one of the background I tried - using a stamp of a leaf in the gel press to see how it turned out.  I was quite pleased with it so decided to create it into a card.  I added some extra stenciling of extra leaves. I added some leaf stamps by Tracy Evans.  A real leaf was tucked behind the sentiment.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Colourful Options - Orange 

Daisy Chain Challenge - Autumn 

Girlz make Guyz cards - Autumn/Fall

Inspire/Create - Autumn 

Allsorts - Falling Leaves 

My time to craft - Autumn 

LAVINIA STAMPS - THE COLOUR PURPLE

I've been playing a lot with my Lavinia stamps at the moment - it's nice to swap things around and revisit old friends.  Let's Craft and Create wanted to see the colour purple so that was my basis for creating this tag.  I masked off the moon with a Lavinia circle stick on stencil.  Seriously how did I not find out about these stencils earlier - they are so easy to use!  I then used lots of lovely Tim Holtz Distress Oxides and Distress inks to create the purple background.  

I created the moon face by using a Tim Holtz stencil and some Lost Shadow ink.  All other stamps are Lavinia.

I'm adding this to the following:

Let's craft and create - Purple 

Twooldbatschallenge - Inspired by the purple colours and the cat 

Double Trouble - purple yellow orange 

Dream Valley - AG 

The fairy and the unicorn - AG 

INSPIRATION STATION #66

Look at this gorgeous image to inspire you this month from Inspiration Station .  Autumn is my favourite time of the year - which is just as well as we seemed to have missed summer this year here in the UK and a lot of the days have felt autumnal.  But once the leaves start turning colour, and the winter stews are on and the fire is lit is when I'm at my happiest.  Sadly my own sunflowers were not very good this year - their main ingredient for life - sun - was sadly lacking so I've had to make do with a stamp instead! 

I started off my card with my gel press and adding inks and a stencil to create the leafy background.  I then stamped the lovely sunflower from Tracy Evans set and cut out an extra flower to add on top to create interest and layers with a touch of twine behind the flower. 

I've added some extra stamping around the sides from a lovely set I won from Brenda which has great elements in it including a crackle stamp which I love. Its called Botanical Blass by Highlight Crafts - not a company I'm familiar with. 

I'm adding this into the following:

My Time to Craft 

Inspire Create - Autumn 

Daisy Chain - Autumn

Colourful Options 

Allsorts - falling leaves - my stencil 

CREATIVE ARTISTE MIXED MEDIA challenge #109

My goodness aren't the months flying by.  Welcome back to October's Creative Artiste Mixed Media challenge where we want to see at least three different mediums on your project. 

A good crafting friend of mine had recently been on a paper making course and was showing me what she had made and very generously offered me some of her papers.  The one I chose inspired my canvas this month.  It was made from sunflower seeds and stems from a sunflower.  It is very delicate so I added some clear gesso for extra strength before I could start adding to it.  You can see it as my background on top of the canvas. It gives a great layer of texture to the piece.

I used one of the stamps from Alison Bomber's set Umbels which I stamped onto tissue paper and then added it to the handmade paper.  My friend had also just got back from the US and had kindly bought me a Tim Holtz ephemera pack.  Can you believe she went into one of the craft stores and they had never heard of him!!  The pieces I chose were the perfect colour for my muted autumnal background.

I added some Distress Ink to the edges of the canvas and used one of Alison's crackle stamps to stamp around the edges.

THE MALE ROOM CHALLENGE - #191 TREES

Welcome back to another challenge at The Male Room where we are looking for your Tree projects.  I've been on a sort of fantasy vibe lately so I think my card reflects that.  I've used a Visible Image stamp set called Into The Woods.

And oh woe is me - can you see that little owl stamp sitting in the tree - well it's flown away - I've lost it somehow from when I made this card.  It's such a tiny stamp it could be anywhere - I've checked all the usual places - even the dog but it's not turned up yet.  Fingers crossed as it's such a useful little stamp.