SDC219 - Scary Confusion

This week on the Stampotique Challenge Blog Arwen McCullen is our Hostess, with the coming of Halloween she has challenged us to a Spooktastic  challenge.

"Scary Confusion"

Here is what Arwen says about this challenge:

"I love creepy things and I like weird, combine in your work a little scary and a little confused"

So with that in mind this is what I came up with.

It started a few weeks ago using a few items from my SOC win, a couple of time record cards were stuck onto my journal book to act as a base to work on.
A light coat of gesso was applied and dried.

 

Lindy's Sprays were used to add colour and shimmer to the project in three colours, water was misted over the top lightly and then lifted off with kitchen roll to give the splatter effect.

Ryn Stamps were used to add the bloody dribbles and pools of blood, these were then coloured using a red watercolour pencil and glossy accents added to give a raised shine.

 

Arwen's Skull Balloons, the Skull from Arwen's Skully and Twinkie by Torrente were stamped onto watercolour paper several times cut out, coloured and stuck in to position. More Glossy accent was applied to Twinkie's eyes and the neck area to imply more drips.

 

Spider wings by Torrente were used to form random spiders webs around the page along with a wall stamp to add detail.

To finish off brown distress ink was added to the edges.

 

 

 

Here are a few more close ups.

 

 Hope you like it!

 

 For more inspiration hop on over to the Stampotique blog and check out everyone's great entries.

Sue X 

SDC 218 - Blue and Brown Colour Challenge

This week Gez Butterworth is our hostess over on the Stampotique Designer Challenge blog and she is challenging us to use two colours
 "Blue and Brown"

For a little inspiration  or simply to have a look at some amazing projects hop on over to the Stampotique design Challenge blog here.

Well I must admit I didn't have any inspiration for this challenge, for a few days that is.
Then I had a little look at my stamps and decided to do a birthday card for a boy, they are strange creatures and having two girls I really have no idea of how they tick.
Children grow so quickly schools change and so do they, and their interests.

I know I'm really late posting this entry, although I began it last Friday I have literally just finished 9.40pm on Tuesday evening.  Please excuse the bad light, the image was stamped with archival ink as was the sentiment then coloured with derwent water colour pencils. The edges were inked in brown distress ink and a touch of black scribble added. The coloured card it was mounted on was left over from a previous project. It was made with bistre powders sprinkled onto watercolour card and water added to create an interesting effect It was all stuck into position onto a black background to make it stand out. 

As it is half term we have been doing a few bits and bobs, my youngest Jess measuring 141cm was just tall enough to have her first experience of a major roller coaster  "Air" at the nearest theme park (Alton Towers). She screamed all the way round, I was so worried I didn't enjoy it (the first time that is). She got off and said great can we go again, enough said I think.

Hope you like my quick entry this week.

Sue X

SDC217 - Birds and Bees

This weeks Stampotique Design Challenge is Birds and/or Bees, just the ticket to cheer us up as we go into Autumn, an excuse to relive a summer that frankly in the uk was non exist, well in the midlands that is.

For more inspiration on this subject hop on over to the Stampotique design Challenge blog here.

Bees and Circles everywhere!

Over the past few months many blogs have done features on circles in paint, sprays, stamping, masking and more.
This creation was inspired by a project  I came across in a magazine and so I thought I'd combine the  two by adding lovely chubby bees. 

I'd bought a set of circle stamps  a while ago and needed to use them, this seemed the perfect project to experiment on and thought it would make a nice gift for my sister in law (she loves her garden, I'm a bit worried about my sentiment).

My project began life as a 6"x6" box canvas which was given a coat of gesso to prime it. 

I used  spray inks to colour the background, they did mix a touch more than I wanted but hey, ho adds a bit of something different to the project.

Distress ink in a similar colours were used to add stamped circles and lettering to the canvas, black/watering can archival ink also gave more stamped circles a more solid visual image.

 

Leaf stamps were used to add interest around the bottom area and the flowers from the same set  were stamped onto watercolour cards and cut out.

Spray inks in yellow and blue were sprayed onto a craft mat, a touch of water was misted on and water colour card dipped into it to create interesting colours to be stamped onto to make the flower centres and leaves.

Bistre powders in red and yellow were fluttered onto waste bit of watercolour card and misted with water to create a similar effect to dipping in spray inks again to be stamped on to create round petals. The bees were stamped into the yellow areas and cut out a touch of glossy accents was added to their bodies.

Straight stems were added with an archival marker then everything was assembled together and stuck in position.

Old faithful Dymo was used to create my title. Charcoal pencil was used to add shading.

Tah Dah.
 

Finished project, one Christmas gift down several to go.

More Photos:

 

 

  Sue X 

Journal page from dylusions background

A little while ago I made some backgrounds, I realise I sound a bit like a stuck record as I also used one of the piece for a post earlier this week.

 Moving swiftly on!

This book is more for flatter journal pages and seems to be more of a record of my Stampotique stamps, I can't think of a better way to record them, in colour and inspirational at the same time.

The background was cut into two and trimmed to fit the journal book, the edges were distressed with black soot distress ink and glued in position.

Mandala masks were place onto the pages and using black sook distress ink again the pattern was transferred with a sponge.

Jade Stripy Tape which I had won as a random winner over on Twinkle Twinkle like a star was used to create a ledge to ground my girl images and stamping with black archival ink using an edge type stamp added to the effect.

The girls were stuck into position and just needed a title.

On one of our recent trips with my crafting buddy Rebecca my hubby had sent a text saying have fun "Thelma and Louise", fortunately Rebecca is an excellent driver so no going off the edge of cliffs for us.

(Please tell me someone else knows/remembers what that refers to).
 

 

Here are a few close ups.

So, this is my Thelma and Louise page.

Enjoy.

Sue X 

Never Ending Birthdays

October is such a busy month in relation to birthdays, they seem to be multiplying like rabbits.

Last week hubby decided to update the laptop with the latest version of Windows. 

Downloading it went well, However, the online photo storage had to be reinstalled and we had to repurchase office as it wouldn't accept code for the version we had, outdated apparently.

As for adding photos to my blog, I'd rather not go there!

I ended up logging on via my phone and adding the photos that way.

Here is a photo of the "manly" cards made, using bistre pigment powders as a background, and a few black and white stamped images.

Almost forgot used a touch of glossy accent to highlight the trainers but you can't really tell on the photo.


I should be back up and running now that we have reinstalled windows internet browser, the cause of the photos not loading was a new browser called internet edge which came in the new windows package. This was automatically changed and supposed to be new and improved.
 Say no more.

Female cards next!

Sue X

SDC 216 - Tag

The Stampotique Design Challenge this week is Tag.

As I'm in the swing of making cards for a very busy month of birthdays I decided to make a card and pop a tag on the top.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

This one if for my Aunty Jen, she doesn't have a blog or for that matter a computer so no worries there about her seeing the card.

A few weeks ago I made some backgrounds for use in later projects, I chose one in a bright bold design and cut it into a tag shape.

I used a Paperartsy stamp from the hot pick range, only bought it Saturday at port sunlight and had to use it.

The image was stamped with black archival ink then dried.

I used paints in different lighter shades to go around the image and make the stamped image stand out against the background blending in the paint along the way.

 I had used dylusions spray inks on the backgrounds and so adding the paint on top made the ink fluid again which mixed with the paint and added another twist on what I had originally had in mind.

Think it turned out ok though.

When it was dry I added a tad more stamping in rusty paper paint, the excess was used up around the edges of the tag.

String and ribbon were added to the tag which was then stuck down onto a card blank.

A sentiment was added to finish off the card.
 

Only few more to go, for this month that is.

To see more inspiration and ideas go to the Stampotique Design challenge blog here.

Sue X 

SDC 215 - Card for a Child

Stampotique Design Challenge this week is to make a card for a child.
I am a bit late posting again this week as my daughters have both gone down with chicken pox, again!
Where ever they caught it from they must have been together to have come down with it almost at the same time. It began Tuesday with what looked like a couple of bites, Jess mentioned them to the teacher who suggested because we had cats it was flea bites. However, Thursday afternoon upon her return from school she had an itchy back, I lifted her top up and OMG it was covered, no school for a couple of weeks.
Georgina had Friday off (teacher training day) she got up around ten, flopped on the sofa complaining of a sore throat. By Friday evening there were a few bites on her ankles.
Saturday I had tickets for Port Sunlight Happy Stampers show, Rebecca and I haven't been to this one for a while and the tickets were bought, we just had to go and leave the dads in charge of the kids.
This was my little hoard all from Paperartsy, apart from the little wooden horse and Finns red beads which were from Indigoblu.

 

Anyhow, by the time I got home George had more on her ankles and one on her arm. Sunday Georgie was rough, dizzy, snotty,  eyes running coughing and spluttering. No school for George for the next  few weeks.

That all said here is my late, quick card.

The little dog is an old wood mounted stamp which I remounted on cling, it was stamped onto a good quality watercolour paper and masked off with masking gum.
The Stampotique happy birthday was also stamped directly onto the paper and onto another sheet to, to be cut out then stuck over the top.
Bistre pigment powders were randomly shaken over the paper in blue and yellow, the colours can be very strong once you add water and very yummy, however I wanted to have a more muted background and added more water, then lifted off the excess with kitchen roll. The masking gum was easily removed by gently rubbing it.
The dog and Happy Birthday banner were coloured with distress inks used as watercolours.
 A splatter stamp added random splatters, black soot distress ink darkened the edges.
The card was assembled onto black card then onto the card base.

Hope you like it.

Sue X