Waiting at the Garden Gate

Linda at Inching Artists has set a new challenge this week on the theme of Hello. I have made a series all from the same image.


For this challenge I have used my computer to manipulate the image and add the text. The image comes from a copyright free CD of Vintage Graphics. Each inchie is then printed out onto white card and edged with Tim Holtz's fired brick Distress Ink. I have also added a touch of Glossy Accents.

A Spot of Gardening

A greetings card for my Uncle's birthday.

I used decoupage papers by Paper Nation & patterned paper designed by Vanessa Arbuthnott for The English Paper Company.



I have added another photo to show the decoupage layers.

Earthworks

Duplicating my Sunday Blues idea, I have made another inchie collection, this time using earth tones of green and brown. As previously, all from the one publication which came with the Sunday papers this weekend.

Birthday Girls

I've finally made a start on the Birthday cards for this year.


I have used decoupage papers from Paper Nation & patterned paper designed by Vanessa Arbuthnott for The English Paper Company. So two very English birthday cards.

Winter

The Artist Trading Card challenge this week is Winter.

Recipe for Love

1. Take one manilla tag (5 inches by 2½ inches).
2. Take Tim Holtz’s tattered rose Distress Ink pad and swipe across the surface, front and back.
3. Pick up the tag and crumple to weaken the fibres and form creases.
4. Take Tim Holtz’s aged mahogany Distress Ink pad and using a square of foam, apply the ink over the surface, concentrating on the deep creased lines.
5. Take a Ranger Mini Mister, filled with tap water and spray over the surface of the tag.
6. Take Tim Holtz’s cranberry Adirondack Alcohol Ink and allow a few drops to land on the surface of the tag.
7. Take Tim Holtz’s Adirondack Alcohol Blending Solution and add a few drops onto the alcohol ink splashes.
8. Heat iron to a low heat and then press over the tag to flatten and dry the tag.
9. Reapply aged mahogany ink to any light patches.
10. Distress the edges of the tag, using an old emery board.
11. Take a heart stamp by Crafty Individuals, and stamp onto white card using a VersaMark watermark stamp pad.
12. Cover wet ink image with clear embossing powder. Repeat three times.
13. Take a heat gun and apply heat to melt the embossing powder.
14. Take the distress inks and apply ink over the embossed images and spray with water.
15. Tear out each heart and then edge the pieces with ink.
16. Choose wording and print out onto white card and colour as described in step 14.
17. Using a small circle punch, cut out two circles and punch a hole in the middle of each using your Crop-A-Dile thus making two reinforcement rings.
18. Using double-sided sticking tape, mount all the various component parts.
19. Finish by tying a ribbon loop through the tag hole, so the tag can be hung up.
20. Finally, give to the one you love.

Sunday Blues

Time for something different. Using just one magazine, which came with last Sunday’s papers, I have made a set of blue inchies using text found within the same publication. That’s it.

Queen of Hearts

This is an Artist Trading Card for a challenge theme of

Royalty.

I have used mountboard as the base & stamped crowns

by Elusive Images from Graphicus

with silver & gold ink as the background. 

The playing cards are made using a rubber stamp

from Non Sequitur’s Memories of Italy

coloured with watercolour & red glitter.

Just a note to say ...

This is a greetings card for someone who has just left hospital after a major operation.

Inside is says "we hope you're feeling better each and every day".

I have used patterned paper designed by Vanessa Arbuthnott

for The English Paper Company

& a butterfly stamp by Elusive Images from Graphicus.

Hot Lips

As you know from my previous posting, I was grabbed by the Friendly Plastic demo at the craft fair, so decided to buy a few strips to have a play.

Why is it the demonstrators always make things seem so easy?

So here is my first attempt at a friendly plastic inchie, using a lips rubber stamp and red glitter to highlight them.

I think I need to keep practising ...

make it Craft Show 2008

I went to the make it craft show yesterday. The “biggest craft show in the South” has moved to Farnborough this year.



With over 100 individual stands, there was plenty to explore; beautiful papers, delicate ribbons, colourful glitters and beads, precision tools, practical storage solutions and stamps galore.

There were inspiring sample greeting cards on display, accessible demonstrations and make and takes to join in.

The layout is easy to follow with plenty of space to manoeuvre and large refreshment areas.



The Create and Craft team from Ideal World were there with their club member’s lounge and demonstration area with seats and a large television screen, so everyone could see the detail clearly. Here are Nigel May, Audrey Sibert and Amanda Bateman talking to crafters before the next demonstration begins.

My favourite stands were Sugar and Spice, Clarity Stamps, and Clever Cut.

Two items grabbed my attention this year, Friendly Plastic and Encaustic Art. Neither of them are new crafting items or techniques, but they both stood out from the crowd this year.

I would have loved to have had the place to myself and gone round each stand in minute detail and absorbed more to share with you, alas I can only pass on the little I have.

Craft Challenges

So why do a challenge?

They are a great way to try out new ideas,
themes and techniques.

When I read the details of a challenge
I start thinking about what I can do,
what I can use
& how can I pull it all together.

What technique is best?

They make me think outside my usual crafting style,
choosing colours or following themes
that I wouldn’t normally venture near.

“If we’re growing,
we're always going to be
out of our comfort zone.”
John Maxwell

When I make someone a greetings card,
I am focusing on what they like,
i.e. their hobbies
or what their favourite colour is
& I try to make them a card to their tastes.

With a challenge,
I do not feel so restricted
& I love to experiment with new techniques.

How else am I going to develop as an artist?

“Experience is a wonderful thing
it enables you to recognise a mistake
when you make it again”
Proverbs

Sometimes the challenge is not so much the theme,
but the physical restraints of the challenge.

If it is an inchie, then I have to think small,
very small, but with a Fat Page it’s a larger canvas,
so how do I fill the space & there are both sides of the page to consider.

“Space is only dangerous
when it is between your ears”

Challenges make me think about the craft supplies I have
& how I can apply them.

I have recently reorganised my stash
so can find items more quickly, but even so,
I have since completed one challenge
& then realised that I could have used something else instead.

I think failing to remember what we have applies to most of us.

There are also the time constraints as most challenges are set a deadline.

I think I am more creative when under pressure.

If I have too much time
I’ll just spending it thinking about it
rather than doing it.

“If we wait for the moment when everything
absolutely everything is ready
we shall never begin.”
Ivan Turgenev

Shop until you drop

The challenge was to make an Artist Trading Card on the theme of The January Sales and to include a recycled item.


The middle is decoupaged, although it doesn't show very well in the photograph. The papers used are Central Park by Lasting Impressions from their Scrapbooks... on the Go range. The recycled item is words cut from a sales receipt.

Inching Artists

I have now completed all the past challenges that Linda has set and wanted to take this opportunity to thank Linda for her wonderful challenge blog and the great themes she has chosen thus far.

I have loved making inchies again and hope to continue to do her challenges as and when she sets them.

Thanks Linda - you're a star.

Follow your Heart

The challenge from Inching Artists was to make an inchie on the theme of Swirls.

The background image was taken from a magazine and the wording from the People and Places Miniatures paper book by Craft Individuals.

Finally, I added a swirly clip made from craft wire.

Elements

This is my Under the Sea inchie for the Inching Artists challenge.

I have used photography again for this inchie challenge. The background is a photo of my collection of seashells. I have then added sand, a shell and fibres (representing torn fishing nets) as the various elements found under the sea.

Time Flies

The inchie challenge from Inching Artists was

Little Wings.

The background stamp is from Non Sequitur’s Across the Miles,

the small fob watch stamp is from Claritystamp

& the wings are from the dragonfly stamp

from the Elusive Images Flora and Fauna set by Graphicus.

Creative Child

This is my inchie for the “Mirror Mirror” challenge set by Inching Artists. The question was asked “What do you see when you look in the mirror?”

This inchie mainly uses products from the Tim Holtz range. The background is Acrylic Paint Dabbers, the stamp is from his Kids Cube and the image is coloured with Distress Inks.

The hat is finished with 3D clear gloss.

Anxiety

The challenge from Inching Artists was to make an inchie on the theme Rusted.

I hunted high and low in my craft stash and couldn’t find anything to use, so I had to take a different approach.

I took myself out to the garage and after one failed idea, I grabbed my camera and took a photograph of a pile of rusting screws. Back indoors, I printed it out together with the quotation wording onto photographic paper.

The quote was very apt for this challenge “Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power”.

Dream

The challenge from Inching Artists
was to make
Triptych Inchies.


The rubber stamps are from Paper Artsy
& by Elusive Images from Graphicus.

The images were stamped onto white card
& then covered with acetate,
coloured with Tim Holtz alcohol inks.

The dream wording background is my own design,
printed onto white card.

The inchies were then mounted onto a triptych frame,
made from mountboard.

The hinges were a great find from my local hardware store.

Huff & Puff

These are my Housies inchies for Inching Artists, which are based on the children's story of The Three Little Pigs.

Like the tale, the straw house (Hope) was the easiest and quickest to make. The house image was simply stamped onto a brochure image of a straw hat. The house made from twigs gathered from the garden (Expectation) took a little longer, but the house made from bricks (Confidence), which were cut from a magazine photograph of a fireplace, was the hardest (very fiddly) and took the longest to make.

The rubber stamp was free with an issue of the Craft Stamper magazine.

Seek

This is my Eye Spy inchie for Inching Artists.

Using a keyhole from Tim’s distressables Lock & Key cardstock (0742) and an eye rubber stamp from Across the Miles set by Non Sequitur Stamps.

Zebra

This is my Monotone inchie for Inching Artists.

Simple but I think effective. It is based on one of those slide puzzles where you have to move the pieces around until you complete the picture.

Treasure

This is my inchie for the All that Glitters challenge by Inching Artists.

The image is of diamond jewellery. The middle is decoupaged and I have added clear gems and used clear stardust and silver leafing pens. The word is from one of Tim's cutable doo-dads sheets.

Love

This is my Love inchie for the challenge set by Inching Artists.

I have used iris folding as an illustration of the many layers of love in my heart.

Love is ...

The challenge was to make an Artist Trading Card using just one colour and with the tag line of "Love is ..."

I have used patterned paper designed by Vanessa Arbuthnott for The English Paper Company, Tim Holtz's Distress Ink (aged mahogany). The rubber stamps were from Magenta's Retro Romance puzzle set and Memories of Italy set by Non Sequitur Stamps.

Stars in their eyes

This is the Star Gazing challenge from Inching Artists.

I have used images from Crafty Individuals Miniatures 'People & Places' book.

Cross my palm with silver

This is the Fortune Teller challenge from Inching Artists.

The hand print stamp is from Claritystamp. I have used Tim Holtz Distress Inks (aged mahogany & tattered rose). The gypsy word is cut from one of Tim's doo-dads word sheet. I have also used words from K&Company Life's Journey Dictionary 12" x 12" paper(636279), as they are just the right size for inchies.

Let's Dance

This is The Roaring Twenties challenge from Inching Artists.

The background stamp is from Clever Cut and the Harper's Bazar Crêpe de Chine lady stamp is from Claritystamp. I have added clear Accent Beads to the dress and use a black stardust pen from Sakura.