Tuesday, 20 May 2025

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE BIRTHDAYS #493





Another birthday challenge this week at Addicted to Stamps and More.  I started off my card using some Distress Oxide in Dusty Concord.  Purple is not a colour I often use but I thought I'd go for all the purples with this one.  I smooshed the ink onto the mat added water and then picked up the ink on the paper and left it to dry.  You never know what sort of background you will get.

My flower which is from Tracy Evans stamps was stamped in Wilted Violet and clear embossed.  I then used Tim Holtz water colour pencils in the purples to colour it in.  I added one of Tracy's fern stencils at the bottom and various background stamping in a very faint purple.













HOLLY & IVY CHALLENGE #185







Welcome back to another challenge at The Holly & Ivy Christmas challenge.  This is an image from Visible Image stamps I haven't used for a while.  I stamped the image of the santa first and coloured him in with Distress Inks.  I then created the background around him with Distress Oxide and added some snow splatters. There is some texture snow on the top of the wall.





Wednesday, 7 May 2025

THE MALE ROOM - #198 - UNDER THE SEA





This was a great challenge for me too this month from The Male Room as I realised I don't really have much in the way of Sea products in my stash.  It's not a theme I often go to.  But looking through my stamps I was delighted to find this image from AallandCreate designed by Bipasha BK from a set called Navigate Home. 

I decided to do a Tag and used my gel press to create the background with Distress Oxides in Salty Ocean, Salvaged Patina, Chipped Sapphire and Iced Spruce.  I then used black embossing powder for the stamp.  I then found a very old stamp set from Kaisercraft which had the fish and the coral images.  They were also embossed.  The words from Tim Holtz Ideaology I thought fit the piece as I'm not very confident in the sea and I loved the little metal piece with the word lost on it. 



I'm adding this into the following:





Tuesday, 6 May 2025

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE #492 - CHRISTMAS BAUBLE




 
Another Christmas challenge at ATSM this week.  I'm sharing a card I made with stamps by Tracy Evans.  Some are her old ones from Aallandcreate and some are her new ones under her own brand Tracy Evans Boutique Designs.  The bauble is one of her stencils and is such a great stencil to work with. 

I stamped and masked the poinsettia flower before I added the bauble to give that effect. All inks used are Versafine and Tim Holtz Distress.





I'm adding this into the following:






THE HOLLY AND IVY CHALLENGE #184




Welcome back to another Anything Goes Christmas Challenge at The Holly & Ivy.  

I've used the wonderful Robin stamp from Tracy Evans together with some of her foliage stamps to create this little wintery scene for my robin. I've kept it in cool colours with lots of white splatter for the snow.

I'm adding this into the following:

ABC Challenge - I is for ice - my icy background 






Friday, 2 May 2025

CREATIVE ARTISTE MIXED MEDIA


Welcome back to another challenge at Creative Artiste where we want to see your Mixed Media entries please - remember to use a multitude of mediums on your piece and let us know what you've used.

I threw lots at the background of this tag but once it's finished you can hardly see the background.  I find it very hard to cover up the backgrounds so am really trying to let go as they say. This one does have some paste and papers behind all the details.  

I found a scrap of paper I'd kept from a Somerset Studio magazine of 2021 where they give you papers to use and the one I chose was made by Lynne Moncrieff.  It has the words To Myself on it.  I  knew I wanted to incorporate that scrap of paper somewhere in my tag and that's what gave me the colours.  The butterfly was from the same sort of paper and I've given him centre stage sitting on a piece of real bark.  

I've also added some dried umbel seed heads - thanks to Alison Bomber for giving me the confidence to use dried flowers on my pieces. I now find myself hoarding lots of dried grasses!

A look through Tim  Holtz Ideaology clippings book found the perfect sentiment of "Give me a few moments"... to go with the saying already there. 






I'm adding this into the following:

NBUS - adding natural elements to my work 
Papercraft Crew - Masc, Wood, Nature
Try it on Tuesday - Deep in the forest there are butterflies, bark, flowers 
Make my monday - things with wings 



Thursday, 1 May 2025

PEARLY SPARKLES - #107 BLACK AND WHITE PLUS ONE OTHER COLOUR



Our challenge this month at Pearly Sparkles is Black and White plus one other colour.  I've gone for a CAS card - yes I know not my usual throw everything at the paper style lol! 

I started with a gentle water colour wash of Dusty Concord Distress Oxide Ink as my colour.  I then stamped the lovely Umbrel heads from Alison Bomber for Paper Artsy in black.  I added a sentiment from Tim Holtz Ideaology which fit perfectly.  





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LOVE TO CRAFT - MAY #86 -



It's time for another challenge at Love to Craft - don't the months go quickly!  As always we are an Anything Goes challenge and it's so nice to see all the different entries we get.

I've used a stamp here I haven't used before.  I was inspired to use it after creating this background piece on a gel press using Tim Holtz paint in Salvaged Patina and Salty Ocean.  I stencilled some extra bubbles on it and highlighted some of them in marker pen and white highlighter.  

The stamp is from Aallandcreate by Bipasha BK - I love all the extra wording she puts into her stamps.  I embossed it with copper embossing paste to give it an aged look.  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz Ideaology. I added Tim Holtz Distress Crayon in Tarnished Brass around the outside of the card.





INSPIRATION STATION #73



Welcome back to another challenge at Inspiration Station - we hope you are inspired by our image.  Don't forget when entering to let us know how our image inspired your creation.

I went with some scrapbooking pages for a change. I continue to do scrapbooking, especially for my grandkids, but rarely share them on here.  I just thought these pages were perfect and show my son when he was 8 following in his dad's footsteps on the beach - this one was in Mexico.  The second one was many years later when we were in Greece and he was still following in his dad's footsteps. Interesting to see how my style changed from the early one created in 2004 to the later one which I did for this challenge!