Boys will be boys!

Yesterday I shared that I had experimented with my new Dylusions sprays and I wanted to experiment further. I am really very new to the whole concept of journalling having shied away for such a long time. The reason I'm sharing this page today is that lots of people are making the same tentative steps that I am and so but sharing my early attempts we can all learn together! 

The pages of my journal were made to be the opposite of the tag with Calypso Teal as the background colour with White Linen as an accent. Again I used the same mask and sprayed both colours through it. For the chap on the right I used Dirty Martini. 

The background was stamped as before and then I tried my hand at a little journalling. It's the first time I've really tried to write on one of my pages so that was a big leap for me! I now know that I need to improve my spacing as it's a little compact in one place... or maybe I should just write more...! So, what have you been experimenting with and are you brave enough to share it?!

I've had time to play!

Oh my! I love experimenting! And I love half terms so I get time off from running here, there and everywhere and spend some time with my lovely children... But just sometimes they don't need me so I dive into the Studio and get inky! The giant tag I'm showing today is the result of having the new Dylusions sprays and a few minutes to spare! I sprayed Dirty Martini and White Linen onto a tag and then sprayed each one through a mask drying after each one, slightly off-setting the mask before spraying the white ("bumping"). I then sprayed  Calypso Teal through the Bert stencil and dried it. Then I replaced the mask and drew around him. I then sprayed the green and white inks onto my craft mat and used them as ink to randomly stamp the tag in the background and on the figure (using a handwriting stamp). It's not perfect by any means but it was really good fun just playing! I have plans for my chap which I will share soon...!

Material heart

The fabulous group Everything Wendy Vecchi have set a challenge to use fabric... Now I'm a little fabrically challenged and so I thought about this for a while before deciding what to do. I used some Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper (which I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with!) and used some of the new Tim Holtz Distress Paints (Seedless Preserves), and water mists, in lots of layers creating really interesting effects. This was my first really 'play' with the paints and I think I have much more to discover! I put Wendy's heart mask over the top and used Picket Fence Distress Paint to accentuate the heart shape and diluted it with a water mister so the Seddless Preserves beneath became muted. When dry, I then stamped a ticking stamp over the mask using Snow Cap ink. I then drew round the shape with white pen. 

The calico material was stamped with Wendy's iconic heart stamp in Seedless Preserves Distress Paint and then I frayed the edges. The incredible wings from Paperartsy and a sentiment from Wendy finished this off! I will add this to my 'experimental' journal! It's getting quite full now!

Stitched with Love

Oh gosh! How exciting! The second Creative Expressions Project Book is out soon and includes one of my projects (page 10!) using Wendy Vecchi Art Parts and Creative Expressions stamps! I've had a quick flick through and there are some truly fabulous projects in there but I can't tell you more because I gave my copy to my mum! To pre-order a copy why not click here?!!!

Orange and purple butterfly

Welcome to a new round of recipes! This fortnight’s recipe at Dragonsdream Tag It On has been set by the talented May and is to include orange, purple and butterflies (plus the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to include a tag)

I liberally sprayed a piece of Ranger Speciality paper with water and then added purple and orange inks. The paper doesn't absorb ink the way regular card does and I really can’t make my mind up if I like it or not… When dabbed dry with kitchen roll it really mutes the colours which is both cool and a little frustrating! I then laid an alphabet mask over the top and sprayed orange ink through. I inked a leaf stamp with Purple Twilight Adirondack Ink and added leaves and then stamped a second leaf pattern through the middle for the butterfly to land on! I brushed water through the leaves of the second leaf stamp to blend the background colours, dried it and then coloured them with purple ink. The butterfly was stamped and treated the same but I used orange ink to over paint it. I stamped out the ‘fly’ on white card, coloured it with purple ink and attached it to the centre of the butterfly. The sentiment was stamped on to white card and edged in Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink (I love that colour!) so it would stand out against the purple leaves. I was going to add a white contrast on the leaves with a pen but I thought I’s stay true to the recipe…! I hope you’ll join us and show us your purple and orange inspired project!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my darling Dad's birthday and this is the tag I made for his present! 

I was most amused when I saw that I could make the word 'fantastic' with stamps. It really made me chuckle and I hope it makes you chuckle too! 

Happy birthday Dad!

Out of my comfort zone!

 Welcome to a new challenge at Crafty Boots! This fortnight Tracie has asked us to go out of our comfort zone (cue horror movie music!) I wasn’t really sure what was ‘out of my comfort zone’ so I asked around to see what others thought it was!  Seems like most things seem to be within my comfort zone but that I seem to shy away from simple layouts, cards and ‘colouring in’. Well, I don’t have any alcohol pens that I could attempt to colour with (and I’m not going to start investing in them… who knows where that might lead!) so I chose to make a simple card. 

The stamp is one from Crafty Individuals and so I inked it and stamped it directly onto a white card. Then I coloured in the geese’s feet with Dylusions ink in a water brush. The bodies of the geese looked too stark and I know I was supposed to be keeping it simple but I couldn’t resist stamping the geese onto two patterned paper scraps and then cutting them out. The beaks were stamped onto white card, inked as before but with yellow ink and cut out. I was utterly surprised at how much I liked the simple approach! Thank you Tracie for prompting me to have a go - I might just do more! What will you experiment with? I hope you’ll show us!

Take time...

I have been seemingly so quiet on my blog so far this year but I have been really busy behind the scenes working on various projects that will come to light as the year unfolds. Thank you for your incredible patience!

As compensation I thought I might share this page in my journal. I actually have three journals on the go! One is for my calendar – I expect I’ll use it for other things too but at the moment it has my month by month pages in it. One is a purely experimental journal in which I collate loose pages where I have tried out techniques or new inks and stamps. Then there is my ‘just for me’ journal where I make pages just for me. These pages take shape slowly, with no real end design in sight and where, if I have a spare half an hour, I might have a little tinker here and there and see what emerges!

The beginnings of a page!

I have utterly fallen in love with these JOFY stamps by PaperArtsy. I loved her Christmas ones but these have utterly captured my imagination! In fact this layout is an experiment for a monthly layout in my first journal so you might see something similar in there! The whole page was inked using Dylusion inks and a few Dylusion stamps crept in when Tom came to ‘help’ me one afternoon! I kept to a strict palette of blues, greens and purples and the white is where I have bleached out the ink using water and, well bleach! I have just realised I have a few more pages I haven’t shared so I’ll share those over the next couple of weeks!

A little ATC...

For Valentine's Day we usually do very little. No grand gestures of flowers, chocolates, bottles of wine, evenings out just the two of us and that sort of thing but I do try and mark the day with a little anonymous 'something'. And this is it! A little ATC... the dictionary entry under the 'love' words was 'low' and now the last line on my ATC reads 'loving - the sound a cow makes, a moo!!! This really amused me!

Cupid

For my next project for Country View Crafts I've been playing with a stamp and a coordinating mover and shaper - I guess it's because Valentine's day is just around the corner! I do love that Blossom Bucket heart! Why not pop over and see the whole project?!

My riverbank...

This fortnight’s recipe at Dragonsdream Tag It On has been set by the talented May and is “Night riverbank" - to include driftwood, boats and insects (plus the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to include a tag) 
Whilst pondering what to do I saw the back of a page in my little experimental Art Parts Journal and thought it might make the basis for a riverbank scene. In my head was a lazy summer where you make paper boats and float them down a stream whilst eating cucumber sandwiches sitting on a gingham picnic blanket… Ok. Much of this idea was gleaned from reading too many Famous Five books as a child but you get the idea!

The background had streaks of blue and green Dylusions inks on it and so I added Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Inks to make the sky/river and riverbank. The background is Ranger Speciality paper and I haven’t quite worked out if I like the effects ink has on it yet. It is a paper that seems to take ink well and yet resists it too - quite peculiar! Regular white card was stamped with a wood grain stamp before being made into an origami boat and I added the all-important tag to the boat and it looks like a little oar! The stamps are from the really fabulous Jo-Fy PaperArtsy set that I just adore and various distress inks and Dylusions inks were used to add colour. 

The dragonfly (my insect) was a Tim Holtz stamp coloured with Dylusions Inks and a little spray of pearl Perfect Pearls mist to give an iridescent shimmer. I have realised, now I’m typing this up that it probably should have been set at night - oh well, can’t always get it right! I hope you’ll join us this fortnight. The next challenge is the start of new round of recipes so watch out for some really cool challenge ideas!

NO red!

For Crafty Boots this fortnight the lovely, brave and incredibly generous Zoe has set us the theme of Blue and White (but no red) in honour of her beloved Bristol Rovers! I made a tag from white card and began by inking the background and then adding lots of stamps in various shades of blue and a little blue ink through masks. There's a bit of white inked stamps in there too but they are harder to spot! 

The white flower Art Part was lightly covered in white paint with blue ink on the edges, the blue flower was sprayed with blue in and a little white paint on the tips! The leaves was originally green for another project so I sprayed them blue which has left them a blue-green colour! The centre of the flower is a hitch fastener - now Tim Holtz is bringing them back out again I don't have to hoard them anymore! The sentiment is from Wendy Vecchi. I hope you join in with use this fortnight... we love seeing your work!

Romance is in the air!

For my next project for Country View Crafts I've been inspired by all things romance - I guess it's because Valentine's day is just around the corner! Why not pop over and see the whole project - it's a chunky ATC! 

9132

Today David and I have been together for 25 years, or 9132 days as my friend Steph told me! We married after 9 and a half years but we're not very good at remembering this anniversary but we don't seem to forget our 'going out' anniversary! I guess it's because we've celebrated this one more! I made this tag in lieu of his present (which is coming but hasn't yet been released - the joys of pre-ordering!) 

Though I suspect it's a good job he loves me as I had an alarming allergic reaction at dinner last night! My face and ears went tomato red and my neck and shoulders were all blotchy... not the prettiest sight! I have diagnosed myself on the internet (don't we all?) and it might be an allergy to alcohol... can you imagine?! I might enjoy testing my theory! Hope you are having a lovely day what ever you're doing!

I am going to add this into this fortnight's challenge at Everything Wendy Vecchi - they ask for a four letter word so I hope that they don't mind four numbers!

February

For February's calendar page I went a little more romantic and used both Valentine's Day and our 25th 'going out' anniversary as the basis for the page. I can't believe that it's been 25 years! If you missed January's page you could click on the Art Calendar Challenge link above!

The heart was white Studio 490 Embossing Paste through Wendy's heart mask. The paste took on the colour of the sprays underneath - pretty cool 'eh?!