A cut above the rest

Leonie's Artist Trading Card challenge this week is Decoupage Delights.

Leonie challenged us to do something different, so I grabbed 5 sheets of

The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady paper from a pad that was free

from Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine to make my own decoupage.

The base is the standard ATC size, with each layer being slightly smaller than the one below it. 

On the fifth layer I cut out the dragonfly & just used that as a feature.

The ATC was edged with my Krylon 18ct gold leafing pen & I added a touch of gold glitter to the flowers.

Boys will be boys

The theme this week on Dans ma maison is boy.


I used pages from a children's book as the background. I painted over the text with Acrylic Paint (Hazelnut), highlighting key words with Distress Ink (broken china).

The images were from a copyright-free graphics cd from Crafty Computer Paper.

I decorated my house with ribbon & clear gems.

Asian Flowers

The challenge this week on Make a Moo or Two is

Asian.

I covered my mountboard base with map paper,

showing the Asian part of the world.

The edges were sanded to give an aged look.

The images added were from Art-e-zine.

Finally, I punched five holes through one side of the Moo

& tied green fibre through the holes.

All about Beads

The challenge theme on It's all About ... is
Beading Beauties.

I made a template & cut out a heart from plain Grungeboard.

I painted it with acrylic paint (Cranberry).

Taking the template I pierced through the grungeboard

to make the pattern for my beads.

I took beading wire & threaded rocailles onto the heart.

The pair of wings are from a mini Grungeboard sheet.

I coloured it gold, then dry brushed a little of the acrylic paint over the top.

The base is mountboard, painted then edged with a Krylon 18ct gold leafing pen.

Some doodles, some gold Stickles, a strip of magnet along the back

& my beaded beauty was complete.

This Thursday ...

Well Thursday is here again & the new challenge on It's Thursday it's all about ... is beads.

Last week's challenge finally got me using my Stampbord. Bought ages ago 'cos I just had to have some, the pieces had been sitting around gathering dust.

I really enjoyed making my challenge last week.

So to this week's challenge of beads.

I have been using beads on my work for a little while now, but they have been an accent not the main feature.

Clear Accent Beads
Roaring Twenties Inchie
Peg Bag Inchie
Black & White Inchie

Twisted Bugle Beads
Moo Card

Rocailles
Mixed Media Project
Artist Trading Card
Altered Canvas
Altered Jigsaw Puzzle Piece

Silver Tibetan Bead
Altered Jigsaw Puzzle Piece

I will have to give this challenge some thought.

You can see the result of the challenge here.

Thoughts of Summer

The challenge this week on Wednesday Stamper is Sunshine.

Sunshine always reminds me of long hot summers, so I decided to celebrate the summer
by making a cheerful banner, so even if the sun isn't shining outside, it will be indoors.

I printed out my letters on paper from the Shabby Princess Sun Porch range.

The heart stamp is by Crafty Individuals & all other stamps by Anna Griffin.

I like to finish off my projects properly, so even the back looks nice
& you can't see how the letters are joined together.

It wouldn't be summer without butterflies, a little summer loving & flowers, naturally.

Music House

I have taken up a new challenge from Dans ma maison to create a house on this week's theme of Music.


First I made a template, then cut out my first house using mountboard & covered it using altered sheet music & clear gesso.

For the windows I used two butterfly stamps from Crafty Individuals, which used sheet music as their background. I stamped on white card using Adirondack dye ink (Denim) & punched out an inch square from the image. I restamped the images & cut out the butterflies. I stamped the images again, but this time I heat embossed them using clear embossing powder, before cutting out the butterflies. The butterflies were attached using silicone glue.

For the roof, I used multicoloured fibres.

For the attic window, I punch a circle from the music sheet & stamped a clear miniature image from Claritystamp. I made some holes around the edge using a piercing tool & sewed on some rainbow glass beads with silver metallic thread.

For the front door, I cut a rectangle from the sheet music. I used a glass bead for the door handle & attached fibres to the reverse.

Love isn't always just Black & White

The inchie challenge on Inchy by Inch this week is Black & White.


The image is from a clear miniature stamp by Claritystamp.

Pretty Distressed

Leonie's Artist Trading Card challenge this week is called Pretty Papers.

The challenge this week on Arty Girlz is Nature & is sponsored by Crafty Individuals, so being crafty by nature, this is my challenge entry for Arty Girlz as well.


I took a mountboard base & covered it with papers from the Crafty Individuals Miniatures Flowers & Butterflies paper pad.

As the images are 45mm x 45mm to create a larger background I tore five of the images into smaller pieces & using clear gesso, stuck them to the base. Coating over the shiny paper with the gesso, also dulled the surface & gave it a lovely texture. I sanded the edges of the ATC, to complete the distressed look.

I took four of the butterfly images & cut them out. I used silicone glue to stick them to the ATC to give dimension.


Finally, I used the off cuts from the butterfly images & punched out four small flowers.

NB: The stand is a Reeves Mini Easel from Fred Aldous.

Summer

The challenge this week on Make a Moo or Two is

Summer.

It's summertime &

the girls have gone to the beach

to enjoy the glorious sunny weather.

The image is from art-e-zine.

I have used a clear stamp by Anna Griffin,

gold stickles &

it was edged with my Krylon 18ct gold leafing pen.

Fresh as a Daisy

For the Fresh challenge on the It's all About challenge site, I have altered a piece of Stampbord.


I used a piece of two inch square Stampbord & coloured the base with Adirondack Ink (Lettuce). I used a free stamp that came with my Craft Stamper magazine & stamped it using Adirondack Ink (Denim). I masked off the centre of the image & then overstamped with a Paper Artsy stamp, using the Lettuce ink.

I then scratched away some of the ink to reveal the base. Finally, I sanded the edges of the Stampbord.

So why have I made this?

Well I was inspired by this week's free downloads & the "Fresh as a daisy" wording on the challenge site.

I wanted to do something fresh, as in different. I've had my Stampbord pieces for ages, but not yet used them or either of the two fresh, as in new, stamps.

I chose the fresh Lettuce coloured inkpad - I usually stick to my Distress Inks.

I chose this size to work on for the Wednesday Stamper challenge this week.

This Thursday, it's all about ...

A new challenge site has set it's first challenge theme this morning.

"This Thursday’s challenges are open to artists and crafters of any variety. If you are a cardmaker, scrapbooker, altered artist, fabric artist, painter, paper engineer or beader, bookbinder, sculptor or bagmaker.

If our challenge inspires you to create any handcrafted object we want you to enter it.

We want this challenge to be a real inspiration."

Every Thursday the team will set a new challenge.

I hope to use these challenges to do something a little different & experiment with my crafting techniques.

So what is the first theme?

See the result here.

Drama Queen

The inchie challenge on Inchy by Inch was to follow a sketch set by Jo.


The image is from art-e-zine.

Heart Inchies

These are my heart inchies for the challenge on the Small World of Inchies blog*.

I stamped the three small Magenta stamps on white card, using Archival Ink (Jet Black). I coloured them using Faber-Castell watercolour pencils. The images were just slightly smaller than an inch, so I mounted each one on black cardstock. I added a few doodles & Glossy Accents, before attaching them to the ribbon.

* This challenge blog is no longer in existence.

A Real Challenge

I have combined the last five Artist Trading Card challenges set by Leonie into one.

Recollection & Receipts - Memorabilia gathered from my trip to Italy in March this year.
Chop & Change - the images were cut up & relaid as mosaic.
Tone on Tone - Grey on Grey.
Masking - rubber stamps inked with clear VersaMark ink, embossed with clear powder & inked over with black ink to reveal the images.
A Touch of White - the torn edges, the eyelet & ribbon.


I inked two Non Sequitur stamps (Italia banner & cancellation stamp) with VersaMark & stamp a piece of white cardstock. The images were covered in clear embossing powder & then heat embossed. I then coloured the cardstock with black ink, using a small piece of Cut n Dry foam, which gave a grey tone, rubbing over the embossed areas to reveal the images beneath.

I made a small collage from copies of tickets & bits collected on my trip. They were altered to grey scale before printing out.

I then cut up the cardstock & stuck the pieces onto a white mountboard ATC sized base, which had been coloured with black ink. I added an image of a boy playing S-Cianco, from a leaflet I collected. They were playing this in Verona on the day I arrived.

I stamped the cancellation image again over the top, in black ink. Finally, I added a white eyelet & ribbon.

It's a great memory of my trip.

Birthday Cards

A few birthdays have come & gone recently & again I went for the cute images from Jolly Nation.

The Singing Diva

Perfect for my friend's daughter. The background was a free download from the Funky Fairy.

Glossy Accents was added to the microphone & her jewellery was highlighted with a clear stardust pen by Sukura. A final touch of pale pink organza ribbon was added.

The Happy Shopper

This was for a dear friend. The background & additional elements were free downloads from Crafts Beautiful.

The Jolly Gardener & Friends

On this card for my Uncle, I used paper & elements from the Shabby Saturday range, designed by Funky Hand.

I added butterflies using templates from Inspire me.

Gentleman

The theme this week on Make a Moo or Two is

Men.

My gentleman is an image from The Graphics Fairy

& I took scans from my thesaurus to create the background.

Bluebird Mandala

This is my Mandala for Jean's first monthly challenge.

The challenge was to make a mandala with seven layers - no other rules.

Mandalas can mean many things to many people,

but my understanding of them is that they represent life

& those aspects of life that are important to us,

so they are always very personal.

I knew mine would have to be based on nature

& I wanted to use words.

I decided from the start to use a cd as the base,

so this dictated the scale of my project.

I used papers from the Shabby Princess Vintage Florals range

& adapted templates from Inspire me.

Peg Bag Inchie

The challenge on Inchy by Inch was to make an inchie using inspiration drawn from this Laura Ashley Peg Bag.

I started by making an inchie hanger from silver craft wire.

The inchie uses pastel colours & flowers from the Summer House material. The central flower was made using card cut by two Woodware paper punches & shaped with an embossing tool, with clear beads in the centre.

The leafy pattern was made using a clear miniature stamp from Claritystamps & Distress Ink (peeled paint). The inchie was edged using the same ink.

Two eyelets were set in the top & it was tied to the hanger using pale pink cotton thread.

Finally, I added pink organza ribbon to the neck of the hanger.

In the Jungle

The inchie challenge theme this week on the Small World of Inchies blog* is orange.


The cat image is from a graphics cd of copyright free images from Crafty Computer Paper. The background is Distress Ink (spiced marmalade).

* This challenge blog is no longer in existence.

Mandala

Jean has begun a monthly craft challenge, to stretch our creative imaginations.

The first challenge is to create a mandala.

The first week has already passed & I have only just started to formulate ideas.

* My mandala must be based on nature, where life starts & ends, where inspiration is found daily & where my heart is at peace.

* It must be about words, rather than images. Words are so powerful.

* My colours must be neutral, warm, comforting & blend well together.

Just One Meow

The challenge this week on Make a Moo or Two is

cats.

The mountboard base was covered in paper

from the Shabby Princess Festival range.

The butterfly image is from Crafty Individuals.

The word paper by K&Company.

Seashells

The challenge on Layers of Color this week is to celebrate the sea.

I had to be rather "creative" with this week's challenge as I don't own any sea themed stamps. I have altered a canvas & written a poem for the centre.


The poem reads

Hold me close
And listen to
The music of the sea


I've travelled far
And gathered songs
From many distant shores


Just hold me close
Up to your ear
And tell me what you hear


Sweet memories
Of sandy walks
And all those childhood dreams

The stamp used was a miniature clear stamp by Claritystamps. The poem was mounted onto a piece of sandpaper (I've been raiding supplies in the garage again).

Painted Puzzle

I’ve been playing with paint, inspired by the challenge on the Arty Girlz blog.


The jigsaw puzzle piece was coated with pale green paint (found lurking in the garage). Once dry, I applied Adirondack Acrylic Paint (Lettuce) through a dotty template (which I made using a Crop-a-dile). I then added further colour by dry brushing.
I stamped the text stamp by Crafty Individuals, using Distress Ink (peeled paint).

The two grungeboard elements were coated in the lettuce acrylic paint & a silver 3d acrylic paint by Reeves. I added Perfect Pearls (Green Patina) over the green piece.

The two metal charms were coloured silver using a Krylon silver leafing pen & then a hint of Adirondack Alcohol Ink (Lettuce) was added to their wings.

Two eyelets were added to the top & bottom. Ribbon tied through the top & green cord with a silver Tibetan bead secured through the bottom eyelet.

Two silver brads were coloured with the lettuce alcohol ink & added

The whole puzzle piece was then edged with the silver leafing pen & a few blobs of Glossy Accents were added.


This altered jigsaw puzzle piece also fits two other challenges:-
My Time to Craft which is Brads & Eyelets
Wednesday Stamper which is Eyelets

Fathers Day

Fathers Day is fast approaching here in the UK, so time to make a card for my father. I have used photographs I took in his garden, a few weeks ago on a gloriously sunny afternoon.

The bees were happily buzzing around the lavender in the sunshine, whilst we sat in the shade of a holly tree, sipping cold drinks & watching the butterflies dancing in the breeze.


The photographs were cropped to the same size & mounted onto dark green cardstock. Organza ribbon was added, wrapped around the inside of the card & secured under the greeting.

All about Inchies

I love making inchies. Inchies are 1 inch by 1 inch squares, decorated using any medium.

This is a slideshow of some inchies from my blog.



So, where do you start on your inchie journey?

Think small.
Look at all your craft supplies to see what would fit onto an inch. But also look at your larger objects, such as rubber stamps & you will be surprised at the number of elements that you can incorporate into an inchie.

To help tune your eye in, you could follow an exercise I did a while back. I took a glossy magazine & made a collection of inchies just using the images & printed words from that one publication. The results can be found here:-

Floral Swirls

Sunday Blues

Earthworks

Have a go.
Just dive in & see how you get on. I know many people cannot work on such a small scale, so inchies are just not for them. You won't know if you like making them until you try them for yourself.

Start a collection.
Keep all small items together, so that when you want to make an inchie, you can look through them for inspiration. When you are next at a craft shop, train your eye to seek out anything small; beads, tiny gems, small eyelets, very thin ribbon. The Tim Holtz Doo Dad word sheets are perfect. If you thought Artist Trading Cards were good for using up all those crafting scraps, then inchies are excellent.

Shrink.
Do you have a great stamp but it's just too big? Use shrink plastic to get it to the right size. Have a great image on your computer? Use your computer's graphics software to reduce the picture to fit onto your inchie.

Materials.
You can use fabric, photography, alcohol inks, acrylic paints, acetate, card, paper, friendly plastic. Size should not restrict your choice of medium.

Challenges.
Try a challenge.

If you have any questions, please post a comment & I'll try my best to help.

Welcome to the little world of Inchies.

Flower Fairy

The inchie challenge this week on Inchy by Inch is Fairies.


Now I think I once said that I would never try decoupage on an inchie again, however my little fairy image just cried out for a little layering.

I added a few flowers for her to sprinkle her fairy dust on & made the letter F from craft wire.

To finish, I added a couple of small pale pink gem stones & a touch of sparkle from a clear Sakura stardust pen.

Being Arty

The challenge on Arty Girlz is to make something on the theme of Wings.


I covered a domino using Adirondack Acrylic Paint (Hazelnut). Once this had dried, I stamped over the paint with my own wiggly line stamp using Archival Ink (Sepia).
I added various elements; bird images from my own source, leaves cut from K&Company paper, a strip of vellum & a word doo-dad from the Tim Holtz distressables range.

On three of the corners, I scratched through the paint to reveal the white domino underneath.
I covered the top with Glossy Accents & edged it with a Krylon 18ct gold leafing pen.

Small World of Inchies

The inchie challenge on the Small World of Inchies blog* this week is Birds.


* This challenge blog is no longer in existence.