LOVE TO CRAFT - ANYTHING GOES

Welcome back to another Love to Craft - and we look forward to seeing all your wonderful creations. 

It's another tag from me - I was lucky to win a set of Tag Dies from Brenda's new Tag Challenge so I just have to put them to good use.

It's another play with the gel press for me for this tag and the background was created with an Aallandcreate Stencil - this was the residue of ink left on the stencil after the press on the gel press and just stamped off onto to some extra paper so as not to lose the ink.  You can just see the faint blue marks.  I then added some background stamping and the star of the show - the poppy stamps - are from Tracy Evans - one of her old sets.  Alison Bomber of W0rdsandp1ctures has inspired me to use real flowers on my work so these poppy seeds are from the Welsh poppies in my garden.  

As well as gluing them on I fixed them with some twine and a touch of linen which has been stapled.  I then added the word Nature to hide the staples.  I added a butterfly which had been created out of a mood board - a play time of adding stamping and colours and then cutting out shapes - great fun. The sentiment came from Tim Holtz Ideaology snippets book.

PEARLY SPARKLES - MONOCHROME #106

Welcome back to another challenge at Pearly Sparkles and our choice for you this month is Monochrome.  

I covered my whole cardstock in Distress Oxide Peacock Feathers.  I then stamped the lovely flower stamp from Tracy Evans in Versafine Clair Warm Breeze.  I then took a wet paint brush and removed some of the colour to give the white effects.  The bird also from Tracy Evans was also stamped in Warm Breeze and I used white embossing powder for the sentiment. 

PEARLY SPARKLES - ANYTHING BUT A CARD

Welcome back to another challenge at Pearly Sparkles.  This month we want to see Anything But a Card.

On my own FB craft group we run a few swaps and our swap this month was ATC's with the theme of spring flowers.  These were mine using some old stamps and new stamps by Tracy Evans. 

The backgrounds were all made with spritzing some Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks on to the mat and picking up the colour.  I kept the colours soft as I wanted the flowers to shine rather than the backgrounds.  I adore Lily of the Valley and even had it in my bouquet 40 years ago!  I have some growing in pots in my garden so hopefully they will spring forth soon when the weather gets warmer. 

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE - #486 - MAKE YOUR MARK

I've had this little bunny stamp for quite some time and not used him much.  He's an old one from Aallandcreate by Bipash BK. I thought it was time he got an inking for the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge of Make your Mark this week. 

I used Tim Holtz Distress Markers in the following colours - Pumice Stone and Antique linen for the bunny.  Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn for the leaves.  Spun Sugar and Picked raspberry for the flowers and Mermaid Lagoon for the bow. The Spring sentiment is from an old Tracy Evans set.

DARING CARDMAKERS - INSPIRATION BOARD

Another week for me to play along with Daring Cardmakers as Guest Designer. This week we have this lovely mood board to inspire us choosing 3 elements from the board.  

I chose some old stamp sets from Tracy Evans for my card - taking inspiration from the jars of flowers, the colours and the circles from the coffee cup.  I do love jars or jugs or vase stamps for flowers and this is just such a lovely one to work with.  The sentiment at the bottom is some Washi tape. 

INSPIRATION STATION - #64

A great mood board for you to work off this month from Inspiration Station and I look forward to seeing how you are inspired by all that lovely fruit. Searching through my stuff I found I really only had one fruit image I wanted to use and it's this great wonky pear by Tracy Evans.

I created a very delicate background with some distress inks in Twisted Citron with a touch of Dried Marigold.  I added the pear stamp and coloured it in using the same colours.  I added a bit of extra background stamping. The words are from the same set and they were popped up on dimensionals to give a bit of extra dimension.  I added the bird from one of Tracy's other sets and popped him on the leaf.

I do have a pear tree that we planted in our garden two years ago but so far no fruit - although the apple trees I planted at the same time are bearing fruit this year for the first time.  Fingers crossed for the pear tree for next year. 

CREATIVE ARTISTE MIXED MEDIA

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a monthly challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. So, as long as you like to use various mediums on your creations, we'd love to see you enter the challenge.

Welcome back to our challenge for August at Creative Artiste Mixed Media.  As always it is an Anything Goes challenge but as we are Mixed Media we do ask that you bear in mind our rules as above - and please use at least three different mediums on your project. 

I'm sharing another canvas I've created recently.  I do love making these and have quite a collection now - just now sure what to do with them all!  

My background was created with some touches of distress ink on top of dried gesso and then I added some texture paste through a stencil in white paste.  Once that was dry I stamped an image from Creative Expressions in Versafine Pinecone.  I also added some old book papers.  Some of the background flowers are from Taperlogy and are rub ons - some were put straight on and others were rubbed on to some calico.  

I then stamped a variety of images from Tracy Evans such as the vases, pots, flowers and bird and fussy cut them out.  The larger butterfly is also from Tracy Evans and has some twine behind it.  I've added some clock faces, buttons and the sentiments from Tim Holtz Ideaology to remind myself to Live In The Moment. I even found a little bee embellishment in my stash and included it.  

I'm adding this into the following:

We Love 2 Create - AG Mixed Media 

Triple B 

Creative Inspiration 

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE - #472 CHRISTMAS

I'm delighted to be part of the Design Team for Addicted to Stamps and More.  After playing along for years it's great to be on their DT.  Here's my first contribution which is Christmas.  It's always a good idea to make Christmas cards throughout the year to try and avoid the rush nearer the time when we all have so much else on but still want to send our hand-made cards.

My Christmas cards always tend to be more of a winter style card and I loved one that Tim Holtz did which inspired my card.  I used the gel press to create the background and used stamps by Tracy Evans for the leaves and the pine cones.  The word stamp In the Bleak Midwinter is a lovely stamp by Alison Bomber for Paper Artsy.  I used Tim Holtz marker pens to colour in the pine cones and the leaves.  The snowflake is from TH Ideaology tied on with a bit of twine. 

I added it to a background piece of paper stamped with an old script stamp which you can just spot around the edges.  I then added it to some kraft card stock and added some white splatters. 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #439

Such soft pretty colours for our challenge this week at  Hand Stamped Sentiments. I recently received  some new stamps for my birthday and I chose a few sets from Alison Bomber at Paper Artsy.  This set is her Fodder Berry Edition with a gorgeous selection of berries and I thought they would suit our colours. The colours in the card are closer to the colours above - they've just seem to have gone even paler with my phone taking the picture.

The background was created with the gel press and then I stamped the berries stamp on the ink before removing it with the paper - you can just see a very fine white image of the berries behind.  I coloured the berries in and added some extra stamping together with a tag and the sentiment. The extra sentiment is from one of Tracy Evans stamp sets. 

INSPIRED BY......

Joining in with the Inspired By Inspired By challenge today and their image.

I've used an old stamp by Tracy Evans called In the Bucket and used various marker pens to colour it in including some Tim Holtz Distress markers.  I've kept it clean and simple and not thrown a load of my usual mixed media style at it - that was very tricky for me! 

I'm also adding this into the following

 Krafty Chicks - Clean and Simple 

 Craft Rockets - Flowers 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #438

Welcome back to another Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge and our mood board.  Apologies for the gremlins we had on the site last two weeks where it closed the link.  I hope you all managed to add your projects.

I took my inspiration from the bird and the colours and I wanted to try and replicate the soft imagery behind the bird. I used a gel press in soft greens and pinks to create the background and added a leaf stencil.  

I used a couple of old stamps from Kaisercraft which hadn't had an inking in a while.  The bird and butterfly is from Anthology and the background branches and birds are from 13th hour.  I stamped the bird and fussy cut it out and added some tw3ine behind it and some hand drawn musical notes.  The sentiment is from Tracy Evans. 

INSPIRATION STATION -

A fabulous collection of what look like wild flowers is our inspiration for you this month at Inspiration Station.  

I thought I'd try to create my basket of flowers on some Kraft paper and use some coloured pencils.  This doesn't always work for me so it was a challenge but I was pleased how it actually worked this time.  The trick is a good white pencil and I  bought myself a new one from Faber Castell which seems to have worked a treat. 

The flower basket is an old stamp from Stampin Up - I added some stencilling behind for the basket to sit on and the little petals are also a stencil from creative Expressions.  The sentiment and extra leaf petals are from Tracy Evans. 

I'm adding this into the following:

Triple B - Blooms, Butterflies 

The flower challenge - colour your flowers 

Make My Monday - Florals 

Outlawz Challenge - Monday - AG 

CREATIVE ARTISTE MIXED MEDIA - MAY

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a monthly challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. So, as long as you like to use various mediums on your creations, we'd love to see you enter the challenge.

Welcome back to another month's challenge at Creative Artiste - we look forward to seeing what lovely Mixed Media projects you've created this month.  I'm sharing some ATC's on the theme of Spring that were the project for a swap on my own facebook group The Joy of Sets.  We love to swap cards and challenges each month so if you'd like to join in with us come and find us.

I created the backgrounds first with some stencilling, stamping and some texture paste.  This was then overlaid with some papers and flowers from Tapology and some vintage papers from an old book.  I added some cut out butterflies and found some little charms in my stash.  I finished off with some lace and some faux stitching around the edges. 

Here's my April page for my ongoing calendar for 2025. The background was part of a paper from Stampington Magazine - the words April and the quote is from Country living magazine and the stamps are from Tracy Evans. 

I'm adding the ATC's into the following

We love 2 Create - AG Mixed Media 

Creative Inspiration - AG 

Creative Fingers - AG 

Tic Tac Toe - Butterflies, Flowers, Lace ribbon 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS SC437

A great sketch for you this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  I look forward to seeing what you do with this. 

I started with a stencilled background with Speckled Egg Distress Ink. I added some strips of old Stampin Up DSP for my background.  The butterfly stamp is from Tracy Evans and the outer frame is from Creative Expressions.  I used some handmade paints from Reneeissance Colours to colour the butterfly.  They have a lovely shimmer to them.   The sentiment is from Tim Holtz Ideaology. 

CHRISTMAS CRAFT CREATIONS - NON TRADITIONAL COLOURS

Our challenge this month at Christmas Craft Creations is non-traditional colours and there have already been some great ideas in the gallery from the team and all of you playing along.  Here is my contribution.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks on my background in mainly Speckled Egg but then added some added drops of pinks, oranges and purples.  The branches are stamped in Versafine Morning Mist.  

The image of the girl is a very old rubber stamp from my stash - she's so old I wasn't sure she would still even stamp but l luckily it still works.   The wording behind her is from Alison Bomber and her new word Christmas stamps with the wonderful In The Bleak Midwinter poem from Christina Rosetti.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Peace on Earth Christmas - 

Daring Cardmakers - Something Old - the old tag stamp - something new - the background word stamp

Outlawz Challenge - Christmas 

POTS AND FLOWERS

I was inspired by the challenge at Just Add Ink #698 to create this lovely blue card.  Their challenge is choose 2 items from Leaves, Flower, Pots.  What a great challenge.  I had to go to my trusty Tracy Evans for this and used a few of her lovely stamps.  The little pot is from her set Containers and teh flower is from Friendship Florals 

I'm adding this into the following

Just Add Ink - Flowers, Pot 

The sisterhood of Crafters - Flowers 

We love stamping - Spring - or AG 

CHRISTMAS CRAFT CREATIONS - FEBRUARY

Our challenge at Christmas Craft Creations this month is to use a stencil or embossing folder.  I chose to use a stencil and decided to make a Christmas tag.  One of my favourite things to make for the Christmas season.

I started with a Tim Holtz tag cut from one of his dies and I used the Tim Holtz Christmas Tree stencil.  Before adding the stencil I made a background from Iced Spruce Distress Oxide Ink.  I added some splashes of water and let it dry.  I then added some Twisted Citron and added water and let it dry.  I then did some stamping using Versafine Clair ink in Shady Lane.  I used word stamps from Visible Image and a pine branch from Tracy Evans. 

I then used the stencil with some Cosmic Shimmer Antique Sand Paste in Moss Blanket.  It is a lovely paste to use and gives a lovely muted grungy look.  Once it was dry I added a very fine layer of Cosmic Shimmer sparkle glaze on top.  The Christmas tree is a very old stamp from Tim Holtz which has the matching die cut and I stamped them in two Versafine Inks, Shady Lane and Verdant.  The O Christmas Tree sentiment is from Tim Holtz and the little saying is from one of his Ideaology Christmas books.  I added some white splatters before I added the trees and added some fine thread behind the trees.  I edged the tag with a black Micron pen and then roughed up the edges and used Tim Holtz Scorched Timber around the edges.  I finished the tag with some green and brown ribbon from my stash and an old brad.