Sunday 30 August 2015

Stampotique Challenge 210 - Anything Goes

SDC10
Anything Goes

The title of a challenge which suggests anything goes is scary, I have so many stamps and products to use so where do I start.

The answer being it's a Stampotique Challenge use a Stampotique Stamp.
 
I needed to make a new home card for my sister-in-law and hubby, as they are in the forces they tend to move quite often, I think this is the third one in as many years.
 
Friday saw my girls and me doing a few little jobs, waiting in for my new Stampotique stamps, happy smiley face, dying my eldest daughters hair back to brown as purple isn't allowed at school.
Followed by some messy painting of backgrounds using our fingers and other things as tools.


I decided to use one of the backgrounds as a backdrop to the houses stamp.
The paper was cut down to size and as the sewing machine was out (for another project) straight stitches  were added around the edge.

 
Zigzag stitches were added to a small cut off at the same time.
The edges of the card were distressed with a Prima tool.
The houses were stamped and coloured using water colour pencils, cut out and all the bits and bobs stuck into position.
 
A New Home title was added to the card using good old Dymo, with the letters being cut individually and placed across the mounted zigzagged cut off card. I have previously cut strips of core card and put that through the Dymo and sanded the raised letters to reveal the core card underneath, this is a great effect and you get a co-ordinated look on your project.

 
Well that's it for today from me, if you want to take a look at some fab other project check out the Stampotique blog here.

Have a good day everyone.

Sue X


Sunday 23 August 2015

Week 5 - Summer Holidays


 Monday, Here we are in sunny Devon.
Fab Farmhouse and swimming pool etc.
Swimming, Swimming and more swimming followed by a quick visit to Salcombe for lunch, a drive by of a beach and back for more swimming.
 
 
 
 
 
Tuesday we all had a visit to Woodlands Adventure park.
 
Wednesday was a wet day, very wet day, we stayed in by the pool. I did begin the day by checking out the new Challenge at Stampotique which was "Repeat Yourself" and came up with a few ideas to get a card done as soon as I get/got home.
Thursday saw us  Swimming, then going out to lunch at the Oyster Shack and you guess it more swimming.



 
Friday we had decided to come home early, traffic etc from Devon up through Bristol to the Midlands is a nightmare. We began our day with a morning swim, then a visit to Totnes which failed because we couldn't park so we went to a place called Dartington, had lunch and shopped just a little. Packing and another swim followed so we were nice and relaxed for the long journey home.
The long journey in fact was 3 hours including a quick stop. Amazing!

Saturday, WASHING.
I did managed to squeeze in a card for Stampotique Challenge.
Sunday, More Washing and Ironing.
 
Sue X

Week 4 Summer Holidays

Here we go, week 4 already.
Monday morning I suddenly realised time was moving on and I should really organise  the new school uniforms, not an easy job when your daughters don't want to leave the house.
However a quick trip to the local uniform supplier and the Blazers and jumpers were ordered and paid for.
Tuesday saw the girls and I popping to town to pick up school shirts, skirts, trousers socks etc from good old Marks and Spencer's.
Wednesday I made a card for the Stampotique Design Challenge, previously blogged here is a picture anyway.


 Followed by a second visit to town to pick up an order, at least this visit I was alone and more of a relaxing browse on the way back to the car.
Thursday was holiday packing am, take the cats to their holiday home for a week, then a journey down to Trowbridge to a premier inn for a night or two.
Friday was a very wet day, we spent it at Longleat all pre booked and paid for so we had to go.
Saturday was a relaxed start with a full English breaky, then a journey down to Devon.
Sunday morning Swimming, swimming, more swimming.
End of Week 4, 3 more to go!


Sue X


Stampotique SDC209: Repeat Yourself

Repeat Yourself!

I am/was actually away on holiday in sunny Devon or being England rainy Devon,
it's not all bad though as we are/were staying in a fantastic farmhouse complete with a private swimming pool proper size that is, with a gymn and games room.
Here is a picture.


I'm having fun joining in with the Stampotique challenge and can't wait for the the following weeks subject to be posted to get stuck in.

 If you would like to participate or just have a look at some great projects hop on over to the  Stampotique Design Challenge blog.

As I was on holiday when the new Challenge was set I had to be content with just thinking about what I wanted  to do and keep my fingers crossed it would work out when I home.
This is my process.
I began with a 6x6 hammered card blank, onto this I used a stencil to add an explosion of the lovely new distress Twisted Citron green, then added a small amount of the lovely bright Mermaid Lagoon blue through stencil waste to add a sort of grounding and stamped an indigoblu stamp to add more grounding.

 
The circle was created by an old plastic plant pot which I use as a stamp initially sort of circling it at the same time then drawing around it and adding scribbles.
A Kate Crane stamp was stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with watercolour pencils, finished off with a paintbrush to create the desired effect. (Done while on holiday as the stamp arrived minutes before we left,  so I grabbed a few essentials and took it with me, my inspiration if you like).
When you return from your holiday you often have a load of mail to go through normally bills. After opening the above I decided to use the envelopes to create my repeate stamping, I managed to get ten from one envelope.


The tips of the head and toes were coloured with a touch of pink, arranged and stuck down with the watercolored stamped  image in the centre.
A Dymo "Hi"was repeated several times then added around the main image.
Here is the finished card.


My girls didn't get it, which worried me but hey sometimes you just have to go with it.

Sue X


Wednesday 12 August 2015

Stampotique Challenge 208 - Animal

I thought I'd have another go at putting a link onto the  Stampotique challenge blog.
Here goes.
I've recently rediscovered my Stampotique stamps, Yeah!
As August is a month full of birthdays I decided to use my discoveries to bring a smile to a few faces,
this is what I came up with.
A Card for Sian consisted of a white hammered 6x6 card blank to which distress ink was used with a stencil to create a base to work on.
An Indigoblu stamp was used to add grounding for my little dogs to sit on.
The Stampotique dogs were stamped and coloured using distress inks as watercolour.
Balloons from the crazy bird additions were stamped, cut out and coloured again with distress inks.
JOFY Happy Birthday was stamped in the lower right corner.

All the elements were stuck down and this is how it turned out.

 
Hope you like it.

Sue X

Monday 10 August 2015

Week 3 Summer Holidays

Monday designated a pj day by Jess.
I began the week with good intentions but life took over and to be honest not a lot happened.
Tuesday Jess's friend Jess came round few a few hours10-4ish,oh and we had a window cleaner for first time in ever, now booked in on a regular basis so I don't kill myself hanging out of bedroom windows, only thing is that I now have to clean the inside, lol.
Wednesday I began a couple of journal pages, "Stand out from the Crowd" was the finished one which has been posted already the other is a work in progress.
Here is what I have so far.






Thursday I made a card, for my nephew who is one very soon.
I'm afraid I can't show this one yet just in case sister in law is having a peek.
Friday I started and finished another journal page, this time a flat dylusion type page with a touch of doodling. Saturday morning I realised why I don't do this type of page anymore because my right hand feel swollen and hot, pulsating with pain.

 The page started life about a month ago as a pencil drawing which I sealed with soft Matt medium.
Something similar to this one, sorry forgot to take before and during.


A single colour of semi opaque paint was applied all over the page using a distress ink applicator, by just pressing the applicator down I made a random pattern, building up the colour with layers.
Using a black Pitts pen and a white marker I re-drew the face using the pale lines as a guide followed by a a touch more doodling.
Here it is, I think it needs a little something more but to be honest my hands are throbbing at the thought.


 Saturday came and went with a massive migraine headache.
Sunday I caught up on a few house duties, followed by diner at mums.

 
I did manage to pick up a pen again  for a  few dots and touch writing here and there on one of my finished journal covers. The large white arrows were Dylusion stamps used with white paint. I did have to go over a few places because of the spine shape and bent pages. All good fun tho.

Three weeks down, four to go.

Sue X

Wednesday 5 August 2015

Stand Out From a Crowd Journal Page


 For this page I thought I would try a different approach, think of a prompt then make a page from there, normally I just sit down and see where the flow takes me.

I was having a little sort out and came across this cute little Stampotique Character,  I don't remember ever using him. I've had him for a number of years and decided he should come out and play, it seemed appropriate to make him stand out a little.

I stamped lots of the same image of text and the little fella onto good quality paper followed by one on watercolour paper and cut them out.


 I had a lined piece of paper hanging around so I trimmed it down and stuck it into my journal to use as a base. The black and white  stampotique images were arranged and stuck down.
White gesso was added on the lined paper which blended away some of the lines this was faded up to the images but not over.
The watercolour image was then coloured with distress ink then added to the page.
Shading was added by the feet of the images to ground them.
The edges were formed by stamping Dylusion borders onto watercolour card, cut out, stuck down, attached to the page and coloured in coordinating colours.
I used a limited colour scheme on purpose as otherwise my little man wouldn't have stuck out.



Clean and simple, journal page done while the girls were distracted by a film!

Sue X


Sunday 2 August 2015

Week 2 Summer Holidays

Week two started with Jess going  to the stables and Georgie eventually getting up at ten ish.
 
Tuesday  I had a vision of the girls and myself doing a trio of canvas's (one each that is).  Jess was up for it but the "teenager" didn't want to play.
 Jess and I got out the paints and went for it.
First we created the base by scrapping paint across the canvas, followed by a touch of stencilling.
We also added a little heat embossing with a gorgeous green WOW embossing powder.
Then we stamped up TH Crazys Birds and coloured them with distress ink,cutting them out and layering them up.
Branches were made using a JOFY stamp inked, stamped onto patterned paper cut out and added to the canvas.

This is Jess's fab artwork.



Wednesday morning  Jess woke up with another plan, asking for a Large canvas or two.
I didn't like to let her down so I searched high and low to locate one and failed miserably.
However, after hearing what she wanted to do we came up with an alternative solution, lots of smaller ones layered up.
She drew up a plan and got stuck in, it took all day.
This is what she did.


And, this is what her sister decided to paint after she was woken up by the Hoover, LOL


Well done both of you.

Thursday, where do I begin?
 Lazy day again for Georgie, Jess wanted to play rummikub the moment she woke up and Steve working from home for half a day.

Friday! Ooooo postman delivery.
 I  entered a six week challenge site Summer of Colour and managed to get myself randomly picked to receive the final weeks give away.
Here is what arrived, all the way from California, never had a parcel from California before.


I  needed to make something but knew it would have to be a small project, so, as August is a busy month for birthdays and anniversaries I thought I would get a head start.


Here is the quick card I made using paper tape to create a simple background (from parcel), a dylusion flower stamp was stamped onto the tape and onto watercolour card. A few of the flowers were cut out then watercoloured, shaped with a ball tool and added to project.
 Orange perfect pearls (from parcel) were added randomly and a small bow. Happy birthday was stamped onto card to finish it off.

On Saturday I made a couple more cards using Stampotique Stamps.



Sunday was dinner at nanny's then a trip to the cinema to see Mission Impossible 5.

Two weeks down five  to go!

Sue X