Dreaming Of Sun and Sea......

Tonight I am sharing a post over on the PaperArtsy blog.

The theme for this fortnight is 'Nautical'.  I have used the awesome new Emma Godfrey stamps to create my project.

Most of my friends know just how much I love Portugal - It's my go to destination to relax and re-group.  In fact, I try to go there a few times a year.  So you can imagine how excited I was when I found out that the very talented Emma Godfrey had released new stamp sets with PaperArtsy - and they were based on Portugal.

One of the images on the stamp set is a pebble stamp - and this reminded me of the wonderful mosaic that I see when I am in Portugal.  So, that got me thinking of creative a mosaic canvas board.

I started by roughly painting an A4 sheet of card using Butter, Ocean, Double Denim (from the new Seth Apter set), Sky and Chocolate Pudding Fresco Acrylic Paints.

I then stamped the background to fill the painted card.

This is where I suddenly realised what I was doing.  I don't have much patience..... and hadn't thought that to create my project it required me to cut out each little cobble!!

But...I did it!!  And, I am pleased I persevered.

I drew a very basic boat and sun on my board and the started to fill it in with mosaic.

Once filled I Wanted to create the 'grout' that you would get in a mosaic.  To do this, I used a grey Pastel pencil and rubbed it in-between the tiles.

I then mounted this onto a black card panel and stamped and cut out the two signs included in the set.

And here is my finished project.  I think you can see what it is!! lol!  I thought the stamps and paints all worked together fantastically.  

Pop over to the PaperArtsy blog to see the rest of the Nautical inspiration throughout the fortnight.  I hope that I have inspired you to join in with the challenge -  you could be in with the chance of winning one of the totally amazing PaperArtsy aprons.

Thanks for joining me......

Country View Crafts Challenges - Postcards

It's my turn over at the Country View Crafts Challenges Blog.

I normally try to make a contrasting project for my second post, but this month I seemed drawn to the same colour family!

Here is my project:

I created the background in the same way as I did my previous background, using the scraped paint technique. This time I used Spanish Mulberry and Amethyst Fresco Finish Chalk Paints.

I used a new Creative Expressions mini stencil to add Grunge Paste to the background before stencilling a JOFY flower over the postcard.

I then copied around the stencilled image using a white gel pen to make the stencilling 'pop',

The flowers on the front are from a new JOFY mini stamp.  I just love this stamp.

I stamped 5 of them and coloured them using Polychromo pencils.  They were then cut out, shaped and added to the postcard using a foam pad to give them dimension.  I also drew and painted stems.

To finish I added a quote from an older JOFY set.

I've had great fun creating postcards this month.

I hope I have inspired you to join in with the Challenge.  I hope you join in with the challenge to be in with a chance of winning a gift voucher.

Happy Crafting!

A Lightbulb Moment

Early last week I saw a sample of a new stamp produced by That Craft Place.  For those of you who are not familiar with them, Danny and Lisa produce amazing MDF shapes, stamps, stencils and more.  They also design amazing products for Creative Expressions.

So, how lucky was I when the stamp I had seen in the week dropped through my letterbox!  I had an idea instantly but had to wait for the weekend to play.

So,  as soon as work was finished on Friday evening I set about with the first stage of my plan.

I used a large MDF label from Creative Expressions as my base. I spread a fairly thick layer of texture pastes over the label, knowingly leaving a few bare bits around the edges.  While the paste was wet I spritzed the stamp with water and randomly stamped it all over the label. 

If you try this please make sure that you clean your stamp immediately so that the paste does not dry and ruin your stamp.

This was then left to dry thoroughly over night.

Next morning, once the paste was fully dry, I sprinkled Sleight Blue Infusions over the label and spritzed with water.  Each time I did this I blotted with a paper towel, and repeated until I was happy with the result.

I loved how the Infusions pooled into the indents from the stamp - I thought it looked pretty awesome.

For some reason I didn't take a pic of the next stage.  I stamped the bulb onto shrink plastic 5 times, cut them out and heated to shrink.  No matter how many times I do this it always amazes me.  I had also coloured parts of the bulb in but forgot that when they shrink, the colour deepens.  I wasn't really happy with this so used rubbing alcohol on a cotton bud to mute the colours.

Once I was happy, the bulbs were glued using Cosmic Shimmer glue.

I twisted some rusted wire and glued this too.  Once the glue had dried clear I carefully went over it with an alcohol marker which made it look like it had been soldered.

 

To finish, I edges the label using Black acrylic plate and drew a scribble border using a white gel pen.

So, there you go.  My finished project.  I really like how this turned out....and how my idea actually worked!

Thanks for joining me this evening.......

Country View Crafts Challenges - Postcards

Happy St. David's Day for all those who celebrate it - I have been working in London for the last couple of days and so am hoping I can find somewhere selling Welsh Cakes likes the ones back home.

This month's topic over at Country View Crafts Challenges is Postcards.

Here is my first project for the challenge:

If you are a regular follower of my blog you will know that I use ALOT of PaperArtsy products - what this means is that I have quite a few of the postcards that they send with their products.

I started by gessoing the postcard and then scraped Fresco Finish Chalk Paints in Amethyst, Moonlight and Cherry Blossom.

Next, I used one of the new Kay Carley stencils and stencilled over the postcard using Grunge Paste .

I added glitter to the wet Grunge Paste and left this to dry thoroughly.

Once dry, I stamped images from one of the new PaperArtsy Kay Carley stamp sets  using Archival ink.

I highlighted some of the stamping using a white gel pen.

I stamped the quote from the set onto tissue paper and used Matte Medium to adhere it to the postcard.

To finish, I drew a border with a black fine liner pen.

I was really pleased with the results of this.  Unfortunately, you can't see how lovely the glitter was on the Grunge Paste.  I also love being able to see a little bit of the original postcard underneath - this was an idea I saw used by DarcyUK a few years ago - awesome idea!

Thanks for joining me today.  Make sure you pop over to the blog and see the inspiration for the rest if the design team.

I hope that I have inspired you to join in with the challenge.  Do share your projects over on the Country View Crafts Challenge blog to be in the chance to win a gift voucher.

Thanks for joining me....