13th Day of Advent

Well it is pouring with rain outside and very cold and windy, and the best place to be is indoors by a roaring fire curled up on the sofa with a book! However I am in front of the computer typing this, and feeling a little chilly in my office which has draughts from the Arctic blowing through the windows!
 Yesterday's winner is

SHAZ!

 Congratulations! and please email me with your address so I can send off your stickles to you.
The blog candy alert today is a new yet to be released Stitchels rubberstamp called Cedric. He has to be one of my favourite snowmen, and if you spend over £15.00 in my shop you can get him free too! This is a special only for my current customers and blog readers!

In the spirit of Christmas I made another card today, which I used Crafty Individuals Christmas Papers, and grungeboard which I did run through my Big Shot on an embossing plate( which failed miserably ) and then distress inked them and added gold Stickles to decorate.

 As usual leave a comment , and if you are not a follower become one.You have to be in it to win it!
Keep warm.

Day 12 of Advent

Today has been a very productive day, and I have  managed to make 2 Christmas cards! Yah! The first one is this one

I used the flourish from Tim Holtz's masks which sadly we have sold out of (stocks due back in the New Year, but there are still the others), and I laid it on the card and distress inked around and over it. Then I lifted it and distress on top , so you get a paler version of it. I stamped and red embossed the Father Christmas, and used Thickers letters to make the word. The star fitted perfectly in the middle of the O. A bit of a different style of card. I have made another one but am waiting for the stickles to dry........

Yesterdays winner of the ornament is......

LOTTIE

Congratulations and please email me your snail mail address so I can get post it to you.

The blog candy for today is a bottle of Stickles, so same as usual leave a comment or if you are a follower you are in with a chance too!

Day 11 of Advent

Today has been one of those days where everything I have touched has fallen out of my hands or gone wrong! Must be a woman thing! I took myself out this afternoon to get some air, and do a little bit of Christmas shopping. All I managed to get was a chocolate yule log and some icing sugar in preparation for making something for Christmas!

Today's winners of the blog candy (who will get a little bag of beaded chain each) are....*drum roll*...

Debbie    and     Nikki

Congratulations! Please email me your snail mail addresses so I can send your blog candy to you.

I liked the ornament so much yesterday that I used a square one today with clear utee, and dropped in a little bit too much of green To Dye for Ink from Ranger to colour it-oops! Came out very dark green! Be careful if you add coloured ink into clear utee as it has to the right ink. Otherwise it may cause you problems. 

This time I used a texture mat Christmas tree from CaroLines, and using a dry paintbrush coloured in the trees with our gold mica powder paint to highlight it. It is not the best picture I have taken, and doesn't really show it very well. You can also remove it from the frame and punch a hole in it, to hang. Might try one of those tomorrow :)

If you would like to win this ornament, all you have to do is post a comment or be a follower, and it will be winging its way to you on Saturday! Winner anounced tomorrow evening.

Happy Creating!

10th Day of Advent

Fifteen more days to go (eek must make some Christmas cards!), and today a new idea, which I discovered on Suze Weinberg's blog , and which I have been dying to try. Using my meltpot, I melted our ultra thick silver powder. Then using a rubber stamp ( this is a christmas snowflake one from CaroLines). I laid a memory frame on top of the rubber die. Note you cannot use clear stamps, and then poured the utee into the frame. No ink is necessary. I allowed it to cool, and then rubbed ruby slippers stickles over it. I am definitely going to do some more of these.Voila! a Christmas decoration for the tree

To celebrate that I now have 65 followers ( I am amazed, and thank you all, and for the lovely comments), I am giving away 2 prizes tonight, both stamps, and both random from our wonderful collection. So comment away to be in with a better chance, and please add my blog candy link to your blog if you feel inclined.

Yesterday's winner, picked by the Random Integer Generator is Susie Little.
Congratulations and please email me to send me your snail mail address.

Back tomorrow with more....

9th Day of Advent

Thinking about today's post while I was trying to warm myself up at 3.30am, I realised that I am very lucky really, as I have an infinite number of "things" I can use to make artwork for you to enjoy ( hopefully!). Most of the time when I get new product in, I snaffle one away for myself, and if I find time, I play with it.

With this in mind, I thought that for the BIG Christmas Day giveaway, I would let the winner choose whatever they liked from the website up to £25.00  and get it all for FREE! I now have to work out how to give the winner a gift voucher!! For those of you worried how you might get topost on Christmas Day, I shall run the post for at least a couple of days to give you time to post or become a follower if you are not already.

Now down to business...Today's winner is Melanie

Congratulations! and please email me your snail mail address. I am sure that some of you are wondering what the blog candy is? I have sent printed twill, stamps, and today it may be something completely different, all in the element of surprise ....

Todays tag is on a similar vein to the others I have done. This time I used the yellow and orange distress inks, and the words from Christmas Greetings 2 and the Santa from Victorian Christmas 2. The embellishment came from a Woolies ornament that I cut up and coloured with alcohol inks. I also gently used the Ranger Opaque white pen to colour his beard and pipe smoke, and outline the words.

Hope you like, and now off to create more from my pile of stash.. Good Luck in the draw, and keep posting.

8th Day of Advent

I cannot believe that it is Monday already, and today I have another chipboard tag for you. This time a very simple one using Grungeboard Swirls from the Dots Elements pack, and purple distress ink background. I also used the full Merry Christmas from The Christmas Geetings 2 die sheet. I highlighted the dots with some stickles.

All the elements are available from The Artistic Stamper. Hels has some fabulous blog candy to give away too here.

Finally the blog candy winner of the gorgeous Stitchel bee stamps is

Gayle

Congratulations! Please email me your snail mail address so I can send you your candy.

See you tomorrow and more details of what the Blog candy on Christmas Day will be !

7th Day of Advent

It is only 17 days to go to Christmas, and I haven't even made my Christmas cards! I guess I am having too much fun making for the blog ,and just for fun today I am giving away this set of stamps

Hels designs the Stitchels, and you can find them here. Such fun stamps to work with and very versatile. Take a look at what Nicky has done with them.

I know you look to see who has won yesterday's blog and give-away so

Clare

Step up onto the podium, and collect your prize! Please email me your address so I can send you off your goodie.

This is today's offering
I took one of the bamboo tiles and added an image from Crafty Individuals Christmas Papers. I stamped over it with a snowflake, and then glossy accented the whole domino. The wire is threaded through and glued and beads etc added. This is more of an idea than perfection!

6th Day of Advent

Thank you for all the posts yesterday, you have had a much longer time to post, as I was away yesterday, so without much further ado, here is Thursday's winner, and yesterday's winner too!

                                                      Lucia   &   Max
Congratulations! Please email me your snail mail address, so I can get you your blog candy asap!

Today's piece is a mini canvas that I made for my challenge blog Objet D'art which you can find here. It is a fortnightly challenge blog, and hopefully will make you work out of the box, and create something you wouldn't normally do. This week Karen from Scrapz has showcased her talents!
I used a mini canvas and Crafty Individuals Christmas papers glued on to it. Then I used the bookplates from the Elements Grungeboard, a Junkitz Sticker, and distressed inked the small Reindeer from Seasonal Grungeboard. I gold stickled his antlers! The bookplate was attached using the washers and long bards from the idea-ology line. The "Christmas" Stamp came from Christmas Greetings 2 ( a long forgotten stamp of mine).

Reindeer Canvas

Keep watching, you never know you may be the next winner!

Day 5

It's another 20 days to Christmas Day, and another 20 pieces of artwork and blog candy to go! I am out all day today in London seeing my gorgeous daughter at one of her plays she is working on, so the blog candy choosing will wait till tomorrow, or if I am feeling up to it, later tonight!

I am chuffed that you like what I am doing, and I have tried to change the ideas everyday. I am not one for cards, but prefer other mediums. However I will slide a card or too into the days...

Here is today's offering,another simple tag ( do you think I am hooked on these?) This time it has distressed ink background in old paper and frayed burlap. This time I stamped one of my Swirls on the background, and the Grungeboard tree is distressed in pine needles. I used a set of icicles decoration for the ornaments, and glued them on with Glossy Accents. I gold stickled the Grungeboard Star.

Keep posting and following, you have to be in to win!

4th Day of Advent

I am sitting here surrounded by Christmasy stuff , and all I can seem to make is tags! So today I have made an ornament using an oval piece of Stampbord, and Bronze Utee, and the infamous Father Christmas. I stampede into the Utee with Stazon, and edged the Stampbord with a bronze Krylon pen. Nothing I am making is hard , and if you want detailed instructions just email me. I then hung it on a Christmas ribbon which was in Tesco's Bargain bin!!

The winner for Day 3 is Sian. Congratulations!

Please email me to let me have your snail mail address.

By the way in case you are wondering I am choosing by Random Integrator, and from the followers and comments. So if you comment and are a follower, you get a double chance of winning!

By the way there is more blog candy on Hels' Blog too...see here

See you tomorrow with more goodies.

3rd Day of Advent

Well we are 3 more days nearer Christmas, and I ought to be making Christmas cards instead of blogging and giving away loads of candy!
I also have some fab news. I was asked to join Inspirational as a contributor, so that means travelling all over the world, looking for inspriing blogs to feature. Well, I thought I could travel ( in my mind) , okay just blog hop!! Thank you Julie for asking me.
I have made another tag , this time with the tiny Christmas trees from Christmas Greetings Plate 1, and just distress inked the tag, and then stamped over with Pine Needles, and the very carefully put a Snow Writer as snowflakes all over it. I liked the effect. Very Christmassy!

Toady the winner of the blog candy is Camcraft. Congratulations Carole. Please email me ( link on side of the blog) so I can send your candy to you.

More tomorrow :)

December 2nd - more blog candy

Today I have done another tag, this time slightly different, and of course there is the opportunity to win more blog candy!
This time I have used the baubles from the Seasonal grungeboard, (which is now on the website!) and embossed them through my Big Shot on a harlequin embossing plaste. Then I wiped red brick and worn lipstick distress inks over them , and highlighted the bows in gold stickles. I stamped the Merry Christmas in the same colour-red brick.

Yesterday's winner is no 1

Minxy! Congratulations, candy on its way to you.

Day 2 blog candy today, so keep posting ! I shall post every day at around 6pm, so you have until then to post or add yourself as a follower.

Christmas Advent

I thought it would nice to celebrate Christmas this year by giving away Advent blog candy EVERY DAY until December 25th! This will be a stamp or "stuff" or an inkpad or absolutely anything, and on Christmas Day it will be a BIG load of stuff, just for you!
So for just leaving a comment or becoming a follower, and if you can please link my blog candy advent giveaway on your blog today and every day up until Christmas day, you get the chance to win some blog candy. You might even win twice!
I have planned an alternative Christmas artwork for every day too!
Here is the first one.

Day 1

This is a large Chipboard tag with Distress inks, lightly spritzed, stamped with a Christmas Stamp sentiment, and a small Grungeboard Holly, decorated with Ruby Slippers Stickles.

So, just leave your thoughts, and be in it to win!

More butterflies

When I did the last butterfly, I loved the idea, so have worked a bit more on it, and although I think they are probably a little too near the mark, I wanted to express how I felt about the children that perished in the awful concentration camps and ghettos during the Second World War.

I used Tim Holtz's Masks again, only this time I used the negative part of it, and more distress inks. I layered the masks, and stamped negative and then positive too. I also stamped the child's faces over the masks, and then masked with a negative mask to colour in their faces. A bit fiddly, but was pleased with the result. It is a technique that I shall try again.

Butterflies from all around the world

I first found out about this wonderful idea from Dan, and felt very compelled to take part. In commemoration of the 1,500,000 children who died in the Holocaust , the Holocaust Museum in Boston is asking for the same number of butterflies to be sent to them by June 30, 2011.

This is a poem called The Butterfly
written by
Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942
Born in Prague on January 7, 1921.Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942. Died in Aushchwitz on September 29, 1944.

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing against a white stone....
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto

I have made my first butterfly, and hope this is not too poignant. I used a Tim Holtz mask ( Borderline, the barbed wire) and the children's faces and a word from Childhood Dreams. The inks are Distress inks.
I am planning several more before I send them off.

New masks and Grungeboard

I should have been doing the washing and ironing and general housework, but I got sidetracked by the new products by TIm Holtz this morning, and decided to have a quick play.
I used our chipboard tags, and at first thought I will try alcohol inks with the mask. Errr wrong, it didn't like them, and the ink leaked under the mask, as well as the mask sticking quite badly to the inked paper! Will have to work on that technique!

Then I tried the same stencil with distress inks, and I liked this technique ( note to oneself, must invest in more colours!) This is using worn lipstick, and old paper. I also used The Artistic Stamper swirls in the background. The stamp is one of Tim Holtz's and the sentiment is for a friend of mine.

Finally I made Christmas style tag, using distress inks, pine needles, and worn lipstick, and the snowflakes from the new grungeboard-Seasonal. I also stamped the Father Christmas from Victorian Christmas 3.The gold is Krylon pen, and I inked the snowflakes with distress inks, and then wiped over with the Krylon pen. Did do a bit of sanding but probably not enough.

Now back to the mundane things in life- ironing, cleaning, and washing!!

Happy Stamping!

On the drink again! or more alcohol ink techniques.....

Since I have had my blog, I have made much more artwork than I ever did, and this week I planned a project using alcohol inks, limited edition stamps on promotion, and the Stampbord blocks. It was all planned in my head, and then I had a phone call from Calvin which set me thinking....

He asked about the new Tim Holtz masks, and we got talking, and one thing led to another, and the complicated masking project that I had in my head suddenly got easier! I remembered about the batik technique using clear embossing powder, and wondered how it would work with alcohol inks and Stampbord. It works beautifully!

I started with this piece, using the new simple swirls on gold paper, embossed them in clear and dabbed alcohol ink over the embossing. Then I laid a piece of paper or you can use kitchen towel, on top of the artwork, and using the iron on a high setting I ironed until the embossing powder had been removed. I didn't move the iron too much, but it did take a couple of goes! You can see the effect really well.

Then I moved onto a smaller version of what I eventually wanted to make. This is an ATC sized stampbord, and I did 2 versions. The one with alcohol ink had a lighter layer of green and yellow underneath, and then I embossed on top. Then you layer again on top after embossing with more alcohol ink. When the embossing is removed, you get a lighter colour , not white, as in the one with distress inks.

                                    Distress inks Pre-Ironing           Distress inks technique

Stampbord ATC with Alcohol ink and embossed on top

The residue from ironing ( I love this piece)

Finally I made the bigger version, but I am not totally enamoured with it, but it was good experiment in embossing, and the use of alcohol inks!

Stampbord Block with Alcohol inks and Batik

I do hope you like the technique and although it is not a new one, has endless possibilities.

Time to myself!

I was going to do the butterflies on this post, but got waylaid by the challenge this week on Objet D'art Challenge, and for those of you who read my blog, I haven't really mentioned it here. This is a new blog challenge for those of you who like to get down and play dirty! Did I say that? Okay what I really mean is get messy and inky, and in my case gluey! I made a little frame covered in watch pieces, and decided to use Glossy Accents, and Crackle Accents on it. That was fine, but i think I managed to get more on myself than on the project!  Note to one's self: don't put your hands covered in glue and then rub your eyes!

I would love you to take part, so hop on over to my theatre of dreams, and get down and dirty!!

ATC Folder

I came across some A5 size glossy folders last month in my local stationers, and as they were shiny, I immediately thought of alcohol inks, and a workshop I was about to take. Bingo! there was my second project! I alcohol inked the outside, by dropping alcohol inks and blender onto a non stick craft sheet and swirling them with a stick, then laying the shiny side down in the inks. it gave the appearance of clouds, and I did the back too. Then I used the artist's plate, and added the pens, paintbrush and pencil to the front. and the ruler across the top. Finally I added Grungeboard alphabet, and a bookplate inside. I did cover the inside with paper and matched the pens etc on the inside, cutting up between the stamps to give a nice effect.

By the way, if you pop onto my Objet D'art challenge blog you can enter a competition!

Happy inking!

Hot off the Press!

New Stamps! Designing stamps is always a pleasure for me, and I absolutely adore these new ones! I had such fun making them-swirls, flourish frames, flourishes of all shapes and sizes. New today are more cute and gorgeous Stitchels, buzzy bees, and bugs, a  wonderful dragonfly, and more minis! I am planning to use some of them on a Weekend challenge which is happening on Crafts by Carolyn Forum, and I started last night by making an impromptu keyring with stampbord, distress inks, and one of the new swirls. Have not got a clue how many projects there are , so am going to work my way throyugh them slowly, and have a bit of me time!
Here is the key ring

I will upload more as I make them...*she says hopefully!*