Wednesday Stamper - Nest

This bank holiday weekend I've taken some time to catch up on ATCs, and my first theme was Nests from the Wednesday Stamper challenge.

One of my favourite ways to make ATCs is to start with a sheet of white A4 card and create a background. Here I got my Messy Mat out on the kitchen table and went to town with spray bottles of Dylusions and Adirondack inks and Cosmic Shimmer and Glimmer Mist mica sprays. The latter and unobliging light made it difficult to get a good photo.

My stamping was with Personal Impressions and Crafty Secrets stamps in archival ink. Each A4 sheet potentially gives 9 ATCs, but as you can imagine each ATC may not turn out to be as pleasing as intended. However, usually some additional stamping or colouring can transform the less successful ones, and that's all part of the fun.

Next I decided to play with my sewing related stamps in the same way. This time the background is made using the pale coloured Distress Stains and Sweet Pea and Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mists. The stamps are Tim Holtz, Crafty Individuals and Artistic Stamper.

Grungy Monday 8 - Brushless Water Colour

The Tim technique that Linda at Studio L3 has chosen for us this week is Brushless Water Colour. Now I absolutely love playing around with water colours on water colour paper whether it be with brushes or with stamps. My knowledge of technique with brushes is still fairly limited, and the results I can achieve likewise. Results with stamps are always fairly mixed. However, when I clicked on to Tim's instructions, and saw these lovely Adirondack colours, and one of my all-time favourite stamps, the Hero Arts cow parsley, I was raring to go.

I did lots of pieces using that stamp and my other Hero Arts water colour style flower stamps. Tim said that practice makes perfect, and I certainly gave myself plenty of that, with varying results. I do find water colour fairly unforgiving, and am forever splodging where I didn't mean to splodge, or being too heavy with the colour. But it's such fun, and maybe one day I'll get to the stage where I'm more often happier with the results.

I also enjoyed using the Adirondacks again. I so love my distress inks that I tend to forget about the other inks I have.

The first one I've photographed uses Tim and Hero Arts stamps.

And in the other two, the same stamps plus a Rubber Stampede delphiniums one.

Thanks, Linda, for another great challenge.

Sunday Stamper - Diamonds and Pearls

The theme this week in the Sunday Stamper challenge at Hels' Ink on my Fingers blog is Diamonds and Pearls. Decided I couldn't miss the chance to mess around with a bit of bling, but in fact the end product isn't very blingy !

The background is stamped with a mix of Vintage Lace Fresco Finish paint and Antique White acrylic paint on an Elusive Images swirly stamp as a resist against Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo Stains. This is overstamped in Vintage Photo with a Paperbag Studios diamonds and script stamp. On the dress form I used one of my favourite Paper Artsy weekend techniques - Terra stamped with the swirly stamp, then painted with Antique White, sprayed with Pearl Glimmer Mist and smeared with Inka Gold to highlight the raised parts. Then finally some small diamonds and river pearls to embellish (bought by the packet !)

Tag It On Challenge - 79

Last night at our local Stamp Club we had a challenge to use purple, script and a tag. With one of my pieces I decided to add an additional challenge - All the Write Postage from Tag It On.

Colours are Dusty Concorde and Antique Linen DIs and Purple Twilight acrylic dabber. Stamps are Artemio, Viva, Tim Holtz and Paper Artsy.

Grungy Monday 7

This week's Grungy Monday challenge at Linda's Studio L3 blog is to use Tim Holtz' Distress Ink Colour Blocking technique as demoed by Tim here.

Not something I'd seen done before or thought of doing, but I can see I will be making use of the idea in the future. When I stamped in the blocks that I made in this, my first attempt, the result made me think of tiles, so I applied some Ranger white Enamel Accents to look like grout, and then Glossy Accents over the blocks.

The tag isn't finished yet, and I want to add some embellishments, but haven't had any bright ideas yet. Will leave it on my desk in the hope that inspiration will strike.

Sunday Stamper 154 - Camouflage

Have been working on a couple of pages for a circle journal, and thought that dear old brolly man in various guises might fit with Hels' challenge, 'Camouflage' at her Ink on my Fingers blog.

On the left hand page, one Umbrella Man is cut from mount board, clear embossed, stamped with a W Vecchi stamp and coloured with DI; and the other is done with a home-made magic foam stamp and clear EP. On the right hand page the small one is stamped and the large one die-cut from a piece of cotton.

WOYWW 102

Another Wednesday comes whizzing around, and it's the day when Julia at Stamping Ground bids us welcome to snoop around other people's workspaces.

Well, there's all sorts going on on and around my table. On the right there's a tag drying - my attempt as far as I've got at the Grungy Monday challenge. In the middle are the components of a double page spread in a circle journal entitled 'Imagination' that I need to get finished for tomorrow. And there are also some stamps waiting to be used in a birthday card that needs to be ready for tomorrow. On the left is my bag of tricks in the process of being packed for our Stamping Club evening. Yes, that's tomorrow too. In the red holdall are some die cut tags that I've prepared for Stamp Club. And in the bottom right hand corner there's a bit of someone who always tries to get into every photo.

Best get cracking then ! Happy Wednesday all !

Grungy Monday 6 and my favourite time of year

The garden has been taking up a lot of my time this past week, but I was keen to take part in Linda's Grungy Monday Challenge No 6. Go to Linda's Studio L3 blog to enjoy looking at all this week's entries. As ever we are indebted to Tim Holtz for the challenge technique.

So out came the paint dabbers and inks. I used Juniper dabber for the resist background, and Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood, Peeled Paint and Pumice Stone DIs. No hesitation about the stamps. I had just received the geese stamp as a birthday present and was itching to use it. I was so pleased to receive the stamp as the geese are the spit of the pair I used to have and was very fond of, and my friend had recognised this. Hence the delightful gift. The other stamps are Tim, Clarity and Hobby Art. The ribbon is cut from a recently bought tee-shirt (the bits manufacturers now sew into the shoulders to help keep the garment on the hanger). They're not much use to me, and I know I'm not the only one to cut them off and put them in the ribbon box for future use. Here it was white ribbon which I've coloured with DIs.

I have to say that luck was with me when I made this tag. I had just got out of the shower and got myself dressed and ready to go off to London for a musical afternoon and evening when I decided I needed to make the tag. How clever is it to do this when wearing a pair of freshly laundered snow white trousers. Well, would you believe, the trousers survived unsullied, but the inky fingers looked a bit out of place with the nail varnish and jewellery !

Weatherwise it's been an unusual year to date. So cold in the early stages that the Spring bulbs were all late, and throughout April so warm, hot even, that the shrubs, roses and clematis are all early. My Weigela 'Bristol Ruby.'

The lilacs.

The Viburnum opulus sterile, or Snowball Tree as it is known in these parts.

The perfumed Choisya ternata.

In this beautiful weather it's been a real treat to have meals in the garden and be able to look up at the mass of white blooms on the Snowball tree, choisya and another viburnum.

The clemmies are out too. My macropetalas are finished, also having bloomed early, so now we're on to the montanas and the early summer hybrids.

I can't remember the name of this white one. Have three different white hybrids and can't remember which is which ! Every year I marvel at this one. It is only one plant but it has hundreds of blooms. This is one side.

And this is the same plant viewed from the other side of the trellis. There are still lots of buds yet to come out.

This is my earliest rose of the year, the Rosa banksiae lutea. The photo doesn't do it justice. It was a rushed shot and a little too sunny for a good one. Now of course she has begun to fade, so I will have to try harder next year.

And my second earliest, the beautiful Maigold who was out in April this year.

And finally the gorgeous big shrub rose with an intoxicating perfume, the Blanc Double de Coubert.

The first blooms of quite a few other roses are out but not yet in profusion.

WOYWW 100

My poor desk has been a bit neglected of late with all these holidays and the beautiful weather we've been having, when gadding about and gardening have been my chief occupations.

So on my desk are the leftovers from a tagmaking session last week, and a few bits to make something for a challenge that I never got around to doing. In my sewing basket right at the front of the picture are some lengths of material waiting for me to make some new curtains and cushion covers for my kitchen. At the moment my fingers are getting more grubby/dirty from weeding, seed sowing and pricking out than inky and painty, but I should have more time this week to get the desk really messy again.

To see more desks pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground blog and choose from a vast menu. Happy Wednesday all.