Riptide

Here's my entry for the Sunday Stampers Challenge 104 with a theme based on the song Rip It Up and Start Again. Haven't quite sussed out how to put a picture link on my side bar but Hels sets the challenge so go take a look at her blog.

Not sure where the idea came from but riptide came into my head so that's what I've done. A rip current (so the dictionary tells me) is a strong channel of water flowing seaward from near the beach, typically through the surf line, and can occur on any shore that has breaking waves. Well I tried and mine certainly threw up a few shells and things!!



I swooshed Broken China, Faded Jeans, Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint Distress Inks and mopped it all up again to create an angry sea, spritzed with perfect pearls, tore sections to create white crests on the waves and threw a few shells and a starfish into the mix. The stamps are all Oak House Studio ones. They are very detailed stamps but here I used normal gold embossing powder - they look like they've had a troubled life in the waves!!

It's amazing how one word or phrase can lead to so many diverse creations but that's the beauty of challenges!

Nature

Nature's a wonderful thing isn't it. Spring suddenly arrives and everything springs into life - the bulbs come out and fill the garden with colour and all the shrubs take on a fresh green hue.





I have an oak tree in my garden - I planted an acorn about 8 years ago and its now about 4ft tall and growing happily in a pot. Whilst it had budded up, not much was happening until this last week. I took the first photo on the 19th - aren't those tiny oak leaves so cute. The second photo was taken on the 24th - just 5 days later! As I said at the start, nature is a wonderful thing.

Having a bit of a busy week so haven't done much crafting. I am working on something for the Sunday Stampers Challenge - hopefully I'll get that posted later in the week.

Meanwhile hope you're enjoying the beautiful weather.

Red (2)

Having posted my red piece yesterday I've just spotted more red art on Rachel Greig's Darkroom Door blog. It's red mail art which I think looks stunning. It's not something we do a lot of in the UK and I seem to recall years ago Royal Mail insisted on plain white envelopes or else they wouldn't deliver it.

When you go to so much effort to make a beautiful card for someone, why put it in a boring plain envelope. I don't have this set of Darkroom Door stamps but I think I'll give the idea a go.

Watch this space!!

Red

Here's my entry for the Sunday Stampers Challenge 103 on the theme of RED. I vaguely followed Hels piece with sections of colour and t!m's stamps.



The backgrounds are made with the mopping technique using Barn Door, Fired Brick and Worn Lipstick distress inks with a hint of Vintage Photo and sprayed with gold perfect pearls. The stamping is Versafine Sepia, the butterfly is gold embossed and some of the background has been embossed in a numbers folder.

I made a similar card a month of so ago for a friend's birthday - she teaches maths so I thought the numbers were appropriate, she likes butterflies and her favourite place is Dartmoor so I used greens and browns with a hint of blue.

Which leads me to the question of what you all do with your art made for challenges? Do you keep them in a box? Do you hang them on your wall? Do you give them away? Let me know!

Bright or Brrr..

It's been absolutely freezing this week - the sun has been out, the sky has been blue, but that wind is definitely coming down from the north....brrr!

I've got a few busy weeks coming up so I've been trying to do jobs round the house but let's face it, it's not that exciting. Pieces of card and ink pads keep getting in the way. So I've made a start on a bookmark for Craft Stamper magazine's new Trade It swap - it has to be sage, pink and mauve, so I've been painting with Twinkling H20s which I love.

I've also made a set of 3 ATCs for a butterfly swap - here's one of them.


For some strange reason I only seem to have the one butterfly stamp (7gypsies Notting Hill set) and because its bold and silhouettey I went along those lines. I just used Stazon swiped on white gloss card with stamping in Jet Black.
I was going to say it's not my usual style but I'm not sure what that is. Besides I like doing different things - sometimes distressy, sometimes bold etc. It depends on the stamps and what I'm making. What I can't do is fussy - I try occasionally but I never think it looks right.

Let's just hope it warms up for the weekend!

Gold (and Black)

Here's my entry for the Sunday Stampers 102 challenge with a GOLD theme. I haven't joined in with many challenges - just started blogging - but I've decided the only way I'm going to keep up is to go with the idea that first pops into my head and try and use up all those scrappy pieces of card and paper in my bit box. It's getting a bit full so I have a choice between using some up or buying another box.....tempting!

I'm guessing black is allowed with gold. Black isn't strictly a colour and I needed something to show the gold off!! I just used a selection of Oak House Studio's oriental stamps - dragon, script, lucky day symbol and seal - and fiddled about for half an hour making my tassles out of very lively gold thread. The dragon is stamped on acetate and the seal is triple embossed.

Anyway I suppose I ought to go and rescue my hoover that I abandoned halfway through the morning ....or maybe not!!

Butterflies

May is turning into a butterfly month. I've just sent off some ATCs for the Craft Stamper's ATC swap on the theme of Wings and Things. Then yesterday I was asked to join in another ATC swap.... yes, you've guessed it on the theme of Butterflies. So I need to get my butterfly stamps out again and have another play.



The ATC above is another one I made last week - it's a Brilliance ink background with silver embossing. The main focus is the Oak House Studio Dog Rose stamp - a lovely detailed stamp that's a perfect size for ATCs but I have ideas to use it on some wedding stationary. The butterfly is a 7gypsies one.

Best go and start on some more butterfly ATCs! Thanks for looking.

Music is the Key

Here's my art for the Sunday Stampers Challenge 101 with the theme KEY.

I haven't got any music stamps so I used a music stave peel off as a mask and distressed the background with Dusty Concord and Fired Brick. Luckily we had a new door recently so I have plenty of spare keys to alcohol ink too.
Hope you like!