Vintage Blue Heart

I was lucky to get a couple of the new Pure Colour Chemistry Watercolour Inks early so thought I'd have a play!!  Here  I've used Vintage Blue Ink in a Bottle with Vintage Blue Pure Colour Chemistry.

I first sprayed a stripe of the Ink in a Bottle on a sheet of watercolour paper and immediately held it upright to create the drips - this is a bit experimental as I sprayed ink and water a few times.   Once this was dry I drew a line of  the Pure Colour Chemistry Ink and held this upright and allowed more drips to form.

 

 

 

I've used the Scroll Frames set of stamps - 4 stamps that fit on the block to create various scroll frames. 

 

 Using all 4 stamps to create the larger heart, 3 for the smaller one and then rectangular and oval frames and a scroll background......a very versatile set of stamps!!

Once my background was dry I silver embossed the large scroll heart and then used a very small paintbrush and coloured in the sections with Vintage Blue Pure Colour Chemistry Ink.  I've matted and layered and to finish added the Creativity sentiment stamped in Midnight Pigment ink, coloured with Ink in a Bottle and on a mat painted with the Pure Colour.

I'm loving these new inks as you can control the depth of colour so easily!!  The Pure Colour Chemistry Inks are on pre-order till launch on 14th August.  Why don't you pop over and have a look - loads of lovely colours!

Elaine x

October Challenge - Borders and Frames

Just a heads up about the new challenge over on the Oak House Studio blog. For October the theme is Borders and Frames so quite a wide choice - why not enter and have a chance of winning some goodies.  All the details are HERE and there'll be posts on the blog all month from the Design Team for inspiration.

My first card uses the Scroll Frames set of stamps - 4 individual stamps that can be placed together on your acrylic block to create a heart.  (More of my ideas for this set of stamps will be on the Oak House Studio blog on Friday).  Mine is embossed with Pearl Silver powder and painted with Delicious Damson Ink in a Bottle.  Round the edge I've stamped randomly in Purple Pigment Ink and then blended with Orchid Pigment Ink.   I coloured the seam binding with all the leftover ink on my mat and finished with the Evening Invitation sentiment from the Wedding Words set.

My second card is much simpler - I've stamped the Oak Tree and Leafy Scroll Border in black and clear embossed.  I've inked round the edges with Forest Green Pigment Ink and coloured the leaves too.

My final card uses the Men's Tools and Men's Words stamp sets along with the Thoresby scroll backgrounds.   The wooden frame is created using the Plank of Wood stamp inked in Yummy Chocolate Pigment ink and painted with Chocolate Ink in a Bottle.  I just mitred the corners and backed it with the Thoresby Square (Positive).  There is a negative version designed for silver clay and polymer clay projects.  I've stamped the large Thoresby scroll onto the card with Powder Blue Ink and added a row of tools.   Perfect for that man in your life!!

Hope I've inspired you to have a go and enter the challenge this month - thanks for visiting!!

Scroll Frame

Windy and wet out so thought I'd stay in and craft.  Here's a simple card for the Less is More Challenge week 111 where the theme is to use a FRAME.

I've used the Scroll Frames set from Oak House Studio - I've mounted 3 (of the 4) stamps on my block to create a heart shape and stamped this with Vermillion Archival.  The centre is sponged with Barn Door Distress Ink and I've stamped the Tim Holtz sentiment from the Stuff to Say set in Jet Black Archival.  I've finished the piece by mounting on a 6" square black card.

I'm also entering this card in the Craft Stamper Take it Make it blog challenge as the centre is sponged using the Faux Airbrushing technique and the new challenge over at Country View Crafts where Anything Goes.

Many thanks for looking and any comments you leave ....... now back to the rugby!

The Craft Barn Mini Album

Here's my entry for The Craft Barn's latest challenge - 9 sketches to create a mini album. All the photos are of flowers in my garden this spring (except for the snowdrops) and I tried to keep it bright and cheerful!
Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Back Cover


I'm not sure the photos do the colours justice but I hope you like it. It's great to use the photos rather than leave them loitering on the computer where no-one sees them!

Here is what I used:
Colours are Distress Inks and Adirondack Dimensional Acrylics
Stamps are Oak House Studio, 7gypsies and Elusive Images
Embellies are Bazzill Just the Edge, Graphic 45 Botanicabella Tags, assorted flowers and gems

Thanks to The Craft Barn for this challenge. If you're tempted to have a go, the deadline for entries is not till May 15th so check out their website.

WOMDTT

Those that browse the web will no doubt have come across posts on Wednesdays entitled WOYWW ie. what's on your workdesk wednesdays. If not, check out www.acraftingjourney.blogspot.com. As I don't have a work desk I've never actually joined in but it's interesting to see what people are up to. Anyway I craft on about a quarter of my dining table so thought I'd post a photo of what's on my dining table today.


I'm busy doing The Craft Barn's mini album challenge - mine is based on spring flowers so I've been waiting for the final sketch so I can print all my photos for all 9 pages. In the meantime I've been distressing my backgrounds - I always find it difficult matching green papers with the green of photos so I thought I'd do some distressing - some yellow with a hint of orange and red; and some green with a hint of purple and pink. Hopefully they'll match the photos once they're printed.


I've stamped some pages with the Scroll Frames - it's a set of 4 stamps that you can make into a heart or frame for cardmaking but they're great for scrapbooking too. Embellish your papers, stamp into corners or use across the page. Hopefully next week I'll have more time to finish all my pages so please come back and take a look.

Hearts

Everyone seems to be putting hearts and flowers up on their blogs. Well I guess I should follow suite. This last week I've been crafting in black and white for the stand at Stitches so doing something in colour has been a nice change.




The card is made with the Scroll Frames stamps - the idea is to make a heart using all four stamps on your block but I ended up just using the biggest scroll piece and creating a heart shape that way. Its embossed in white and then distressed with Worn Lipstick, Fired Brick and a little Faded Jeans Distress inks. And as the sentiment says, its Just for You!!

Tomorrow its back to the monochrome.

Waves

Its two days later and guess what, this blog now has a beachy feel which is more appropriate don't you think? Creativity comes in waves. Sometimes the sea is so far out you have no idea what to do. But at high tide, you find yourself scrambling around with too much to do before your towel gets wet!!!
Bit deep for a Monday morning I know so onto brighter things. Here is a card I made for Oak House Studio's Create and Craft Show last Saturday.

The design uses the Scroll Frames Stamps - a set of 4 stamps that can be stamped at jaunty angles to provide a background or to make frames, hearts, borders etc. This one is silver embossed then painted with blue Aquash. Hope you like!