Tag It On 190 for the DragonsDream - Black and Stencils

Hello and we welcome you to another challenge from the Dragons. It's my turn again to choose the theme, and for some reason I chose the colour black (what was I thinking!!) and stencils - well that bit's ok! Don't forget you need to use at least one real stamp on your tag.

Anyhow, this is what I came up with.

 I started with the Wendy Vecchi stripes stencil and black gesso.  I decided to make a check pattern though by turning the stencil

Actually, if I'm being honest, this wasn't my first step...

 my first step was to take the Sweet Poppy stencil which I bought months ago and don't think I've used before, and used black gesso onto a tag... it came out really blotchy, this is effort number 3.. I used one of the rejects to see if I could cut the poppies out whilst not letting it fall to pieces, which worked, so I did that on my best one, and stuck it to the background tag...

now, we must use a stamp... rummage, rummage for a suitable stamp...

'artful blooms' on the bottom of another tag, (from one of Lin Brown's Paperartsy plates) and fixed it to the bottom of the tag.

 not sure if it shows in the picture, but I edged the tag with Treasure Gold (White Fire)  and finished with a black ribbon.









Sorry, teamies, this was possibly a tougher challenge than I thought when I chose black as our colour, pop over to TIO to see what they dreamt up - and we'd love to see your efforts too!
Don't forget that stamp!

WOYWW 308...

Look, I've told you before, it can't be Wednesday again already.... but Julia tells me it's time to bare all again... figuratively speaking!

 so these are the goodies that eventually turned up on Thursday last week...more bargains from the closing down Stamp Attic (sorry to anyone I'm "enabling" ha ha)

and a few more here... together with stage 2 WIP of the ATCs... not quite sure whether they'll make the cut (sorry) or not yet... as you can see I got bored with cutting out... am meant to be making a birthday card which is needed sooner rather than later..

I'll leave it there, short and sweet, go on get desking!! 

oh, I forgot -- Julia you asked if I had a new trimmer or just put it away in it's packing each time - well it's fairly new, but yes, I keep it in it's packing as that's tidier and easier for me... sorry!!!

A double Journal page

I bought some DecoArt Crackle paste recently and finally got round to opening the pot and having a play..
I started by painting a page with Jade Fresco, then applied the paste with a palette knife through a stencil (Lin Brown for Paperartsy)

 The paste splodged quite badly under the stencil, I tried to scrape it away without damaging the flowers, then decided to leave it overnight to dry.

then this morning I was reading Sarah Anderson's blog - adding layer on layer, and decided to rescue this page. Out came one of my earliest stencils I ever bought, and the Buff Fresco...

 another layer, just in random places (over the worst of the splodges, so technically not random at all....) in Prawn Fresco, and then the 'art is' stencil (quite possibly my favourite ever stencil) in Slate Fresco

 Took some of the Finnabair sets for Prima, and the hearts (one from each) and stamped in black archival.

Added matt glaze to the hearts (Decoart) at this stage, not sure what I was thinking would happen next...

 added some drips of DecoArt mister in Turquoise, from the tube, just letting it drip down the page, spritzed a bit of water to help spread the ink.

Took some of the Finnabair sentiments from the same two sets, on white card and glued them to the page.









close up of the crackle... it buckled a bit but has dried out even further today and is much flatter now.

 on the other page, is the leftover paint, daubed from the cut and dry foam pad, (the turquoise isn't actually in the other page as the stencilling I started with it didn't show up enough over the jade)

stamped the flower from JoFY 32 and Fleur from JoFY36 and painted them with Prawn and Rose for the centres

Filled the gaps round the flowers with the honeycomb/circles from JoFY32 in Watering Can archival - was still a bit too prominent, so dabbed a bit more Buff over the top.

 

This isn't what I was meant to be doing today, which was a Paperartsy challenge piece for the Niche topic, but I am idea-less for that (or at least the idea I had wasn't coming together), so had fun with these instead!
Thanks for looking.

WOYWW 307

Hello again, deskers,  where did that week go? Seems no sooner is it one Wednesday than it's another.

I have been shopping again (still from the closing down Stamp Attic, where Wendy is still adding new things to the sale...this bundle arrived at work last Wednesday (typically!) and there will probably be another one arriving at work today..

some Stampendous cling stamps, a set of sentiments (need to find the EZ mount!) and a couple of stencils, and a few bundles of tags to keep me going.

 Also decided it was time to start my ATC prep for the anniversary swap... took some  12x12 card, drew round a bunch of pre-cut atcs fitting in as many as I could on the card..
Haven't got very far with them yet, decided I'd do the backgrounds whilst the card is still in one piece and then...

...I'll cut them up and decorate the fronts - that way, I can keep them the way round I want (i.e portrait or landscape) and my images won't be upside down.. unless I want them to be!!

so the cutter is out ready to cut along my pencil lines (which are on the back so I can still see them)
Then I just need to decide how to finish them off.. and maybe make some more!
Not giving you too much of a peek so the "surprise" isn't spoiled.
Till next time, happy WOYWW. Head to Julia's Stamping Ground for the links and all the info .

Tag and ATC swap

These are my tags and atcs for the latest swap I'm in organised by Sam. The theme was black and white tags and monochrome or 2 colour atcs; theme set by Emma - thanks Emma I had a blast with this, especially the tags.
I don't have any step by step pics, I was so in the swing with the tags and am really happy with how they came out.

 I decided to do one black with white and one white with black - the tags are manilla so used a couple of coats of white gesso and one of Snowflake Fresco, and black gesso on the other.

 the stencil is a window frame from Stencil Girl, and the butterfly from Finn.

The sentiments are from Dina Wakley.

I stencilled in the middle of the frame too.

 I didn't have a white organza ribbon (or at least couldn't find it in the ribbon box), or a black satin one, (and forget to get white organza at Ally Pally, I KNEW there was a particular ribbon I wanted!)

for the atcs I decided to stick to shades of blue, used mainly new Frescos though I haven't recorded the colours.. the diamonds are a stamp from JoFY34

 and the little houses and text from ELB13

The next theme's already been announced, time to get my thinking cap on again.

Dragons Dream - Tag It On - Blue - Words

Welcome to another fortnightly challenge from the Dragons Dream Team - this time, the lovely Elizabeth has challenged us to use blue, and words on our tags.

I "may" have a bit of a thing about word stamps and blue is one of my favourite colours, so this was right up my street.  I used some new things I bought on Saturday at Ally Pally.. what luck!

I started by stamping a script stamp in black archival ink on the tag, then used Southern Skies (JoFY limited edition) - slightly watered down, gave it two coats.

I sponged Blue Oyster randomly round the edges and softly across the tag, then stamped the honeycomb/circles from JoFY 32  in Forget Me Not archival.

 added some blue watercolour pencil to some of the circles, and some white Sharpie pen to some of the honeycomb.

The sentiment comes from Sara Naumann ESN12 and I used a blue Faber Castell Big Pitt pen to outline the card.

A piece of new blue ribbon finishes the tag... well almost...

I decided to add some blue and pearl gems to some of the circle centres.

Hope you'll come and join in with the Dragons this time, we'd love to see what you make.  The only rules are a tag, and and least one real stamp, following the blue/words recipe - have fun!

WOYWW 306 - the post Ally Pally reveal

Hello, welcome back for another Wednesday desk reveal.. although of course mine's not on a desk.
Confused? Check out Julia's Stamping Ground for all the info you need (and quite possibly a bit extra)

Last weekend I went to Ally Pally, as I mentioned last Wednesday.  The show has seriously gone downhill in recent years, and is nowhere near as good as it used to be - I know it's partly my tastes changing, but there is much less to interest me now - and many more of the "every craft's a £1" type stall...

 Having said that, I did buy "one or two" things...
for a better look, and in close up, the review I wrote about it when I got home, is here   I still had a great day though, meeting up and spending quality time with friends (which made it all worth going)

I bumped into Ali and Lynda, too, although I didn't get a photo, they did!

some of you have already seen the pictures from the day, as I linked to the post on FB - thank you!

Last Wednesday, I had to take the afternoon off to go to a funeral of the Mum of an old family friend.  On the way home I just "happened" to pop into Ikea (it's an awkward trip for me without a car involving multiple buses) But I had a bit of time and as Shaz had said that the storage boxes I use for my wooden stamps, are still available (they weren't in the catalogue I got through the door, so I had assumed they'd stopped doing them) I went to check it out.

Because I was carrying this on the bus I could only manage one but the green ones on top come flat packed and were a total bargain (a 2-pack for £1.50) and fitted into my handbag...
I haven't had time to fill these yet, but will do soon.

So, thanks for the tip-off Shaz, it was a trip worth making.

You may be amazed to hear, that all of my new goodies have already been put "away"  - and some of them (as you may have seen from the 3 posts I wrote on Sunday) - have been used!
Hope this is short and sweet enough Julia, and hope that you all have a great week.

Another Journal page

I poured out too much Jade paint when I made my MDF tag before, so dabbed it onto another journal page.
I scraped some spare crackle glaze randomly over the top and added Hint of Mint as my top colour.

 I added some stencilling using Peacoat (opaque variety) with the Tattered Lace stencil and some stamping (the criss cross hatch from JoFT36)
Sanded it back,

 Sealed the page with clear gesso

 stamped some JoFY flowers (JoFY35) and the dangling vines (JoDY33) and painted them with Bougainvillea and Lavender,(flowers) and Lavender (vines) used a Pitt pen in yellow for the dotty bits on the vines.
Leaves are painted with Hey Pesto.

stamped the 'hear the song' from JoFY33 down the side of the page.

That's it for today, going to watch the rest of the Golf!!

Play time 2 - an MDF tag

This one really is just for fun!  I bought several sizes of mdf tags yesterday, from the MDF man, and maybe in hindsight I should have picked up more...
Here's what I did with this one, which measures about 4 and a half inches high.

 I started by Gessoing the tag, then applied a coat of Jade - a nice opaque paint and a beautiful colour.  A layer of Crackle Glaze, then Buff for the top coat (using Jo Myhill's tip of adding a little water to the Buff, to loosen it just a little, before painting the tag.  I didn't have quite enough paint though so some of my cracks are quite small).

Sanded it back to reveal more of the underlying Jade

 took some of Darcy's stamps from EDY10 - (the birds, birdhouse) and the grasses from EDY11, used Slate and Brown Shed to paint the birdhouse, and Limelight for the grasses.

I stamped the birds in Watering Can and the grasses in Library Green, archival inks, the rest is black.

Added 'Believe' (part of a sentiment from ESN13) which luckily just fits alongside!

Added some treasure gold but the wrong bit of my finger caught part of it, so it's a bit heavy on the right edge!

I also have 2 WIP journal pages but I don't think they'll get finished for today!

Thanks for looking

Playtime!! Bee Happy...

Morning, all.  Was itching to get playing with some of my new purchase from yesterday - so despite a late night (was crafting at 11pm which I never do - you'll have to wait till Wednesday for that!)  and the F1 Grand Prix, I got started.

I took to a journal - the A5 one. The page had been used to use up various blues/purply colours from something or other but I added a touch of Buff (from the JoFY limited edition set I picked up yesterday) - I applied this with a brayer

 then I took the Prawn from the same set, and the Emma Godfrey stencil

 I stamped the honeycomb/circle stamp from JoFY32, in Cornflower Blue, and coloured the shapes with a light yellow and slightly darker yellow, gelato, which I blended with a barely damp paintbrush.

I planned to stamp over the top of this, so I sealed the page with the clear gesso (Prima, from Finnabair's line) - I obviously hadn't completely heat sealed the gelatos as the yellow smudged a little, or maybe I applied the gesso too vigorously, but it wiped off ok.

 in the end though, I stamped the beehive from JoFY30 on tissue, and painted it with watered down Pumpkin Soup to make it more translucent, and the roof with Snowflake.  Painted the reverse with a light coat of Snowflake to make the colours pop.  Stamped the bees and the texts, from the Beehive set.  I know beehives are traditionally white, but allow me some artistic licence!


I was doing this just for fun, but I happened to see that the Craft Barn weekly challenge is Quintessentially English - and I don't think there's much more English than a beehive, so entering this here


Now, what shall I play with next...?

Ally Pally - Spendy spends and Friendy Friends ...

So I 'm back from a great day at Ally Pally for the first Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show of the year... a chance to meet up with old - and new - friends and splurge...

As the Version Scrap show in Paris clashed this year, Paperartsy were represented by some of the "'patwits" and Nina's Crafting Time .... Leandra had lined up several guest demonstrators - cue Darcy, Liz, Alison, Gabrielle, Emma  and Jo.

I arranged to meet the lovely Miriam, travelling up from Bristol at Kings Cross, little did we know there are two ways down to the Piccadilly tube line that we needed for the end of the journey to Ally Pally... but we found one another eventually..

First stop is always Paperartsy, where the demonstrations had just got under way...

 Darcy working on a chipboard hangy thing

 Alison using Sara Naumann and Ellen Vargo stamps...

 Miram (left) and Jo Vickery... what I love about crafters, and twitter/facebook, is you can chat to people for months, never having met them before, then you do, and it's like you've know them forever... Fabulous to finally meet you, Miriam!

 Lin buying some laser cut pieces for herself (and Sam)

 then we went back to see these fabulous pieces Alison had made - didn't think we'd been gone THAT long!!

then it was Gabrielle's turn... ably assisted by her lovely daughter Freya

 we gave her the colours, she made the art!  This was Bora Bora, Bougainvillea and Chalk.. I think

 some of Gabrielle's tags she brought with her... love these flower ladies!

 this was another one in progress...

 Adding some Sara Naumann stamping..

 and stencilling

 and another lovely tag - I wanted to see Prawn (limited JoFY) in action to see if I needed it.... the answer was yes!

 now time for blues, and Limelight. yum!

and finally, a flower (JoFY stencil) - Tango, and I told her to add Bougainvillea!  Thanks,. Gabrielle for embracing our ideas, they all worked and you did great.

 Darcy's tag - 3 painty layers down, how many to go....

 some of the artwork on the stand walls. I don't know how this brick effect was done, but it's gorgeous!

 the beautiful rose window

 then it was Jo Myhill's turn... typical Jo colours and textures and fabulousness going on...

 love the hand in her pocket whilst drying the tag!

 the fabulous Palm Court outside the hall the show is in.

Darcy still working away, with the stand behind her

Leandra, the girls all did you proud!

 a few stamps and the JoFY latest limited edition paints.

stencils, ribbons, buttons, little bits and pieces, mini matchboxes, mdf tags and owls (yes, I know, they'll sit in the pile for ages...)

stencil, chip pieces based on the JoFT stamps, clear gesso, 3d matte gel, tags, papier mache boxes, timmy dies/embossing folder set.

some paintbrushes, more ribbons and little bottles

some gifts - some of Gabrielle's demo pieces.  The tube is a bit of a joke - although a beautiful one!  A few days ago, Gabrielle said on twitter, she'd got my present ready... couldn't think what she meant.. but when I opened the tube up, it holds some pieces of wallpaper I'd commented on (she'd used some in a craft project a while ago...) thanks Gabrielle, the wallpaper is still gorgeous but the tube is fantastic!!

It was as always, lovely to see everyone, you made what is becoming a very disappointing show, so worth going!  See you in September...