Bubble Challenge Chez Lilibulle - Inchies

Front
Back

I enjoyed this different format. It is a piece made for the challenge by Lilibulle, Bulle d'artiste Ateiler. They do a bubble challenge and this week it is to use inchies. Those eagle-eyed amongst you will recognise some of the ones I made for the InchyByInchy challenge, when I was the guest hostess.

I stamped the leaves and such, and embossed with clear ep. Then I over-printed with some shimmers and glimmers on to the circle, using a piece of bubble wrap. I had masked off the honesty with some dimensional glue, to keep it the right colour. On the back, I used distress inks in peeled paint and shabby shutters in the direct to paper technique, then over stamped with the various images, such as agapanthus by Stampendous, and some pieces from an Elusive Images plate. I thoroughly enjoyed the different shape, and it's contraints. Lilibulle invited me to have a go, so I hope she likes it!! Thanks for looking.

TIO #3 Challenge - Rhubarb Crumble & Custard

Here is my entry for the TIO challenge this week over on DragonsDream, set by my friend AliMayes - Rhubarb Crumble & Custard . I really enjoyed doing this one as it was such a different concept!! Anyway, I created the background with Lava Red Cosmic Shimmer and then put it through my swiss dots Cuttlebug folder, dots inverted. The stamp is a part of a larger collage from Stamp Addicts, Life is in Bloom, printed in onyx versafine embossed with clear ep. I used butterscotch alcohol ink for the vase and flower, then cut them and stuck them to another stamping of the image. I added pink dots to the vase and yellow souffle pen to the daisy. Two yellow flowers and a pink brad complete the front.

I am selling my tags now, so I do the backs too... I had a great serendipity moment as I swiped the back with alcohol inks, and the colour flooded through the little indents on the front... even more texture, Ali!!

Below is my second embellishment (oh she is so extravagant that Ali - her stash is SO big, she can put 2 extras on!!!). I went on a bead making course on Sunday morning, and these are the very ones I made... needless to say I bought tons of clay and will be doing beads a lot more ... I was SO excited by the diferent colours etc. They will fasten on to the beaded chain of my tag, but did not want to be on there in the scanner!! - Well, if Ali can have 2 images on the challenge, so can I!!! Thanks for looking.

UPDATE
I have now got out the camera in order to photograph the way the beads sit on the tag. This is the shot below. However, the colour of the scanned picture, above, is actually more like real life. I will also do a tutorial on making the beads, as a few people have asked me about them. I will try to get some photos as I make them.

WOO HOO - I sold this one folks!!!

2 Bee Swirly!! Small World of I and T

Here is a silly little piece!! A bee swirly for the Small World of Inchies and Twinchies challenge this week - swirls... right up my alley!!! The background was left from my Zetti moo, and I stamped some swirls from Dimension Fourth and UMount (my all-time fav I think!!) The bee is also from a UMount plate. Thanks for looking.

Zetti Moo - Make a Moo or Two Challenge

At Make a Moo or Two, the theme is Zettiology. I have made moos before, but never tried this Zetti lark ... it's fun as there seem to be no holds barred!! Odd people and some black and white!! Sorry, that is far too simplistic, and I shall have more goes at it...

I used some Cosmic shimmers, some freebie swirl and squares stamps. I created the lines with an agapanthus stem and a UMount diamond plate forms the body. The heads are from Avante Guarde by Stamp in the Hand. That's it really... I had fun!!! Thanks for looking.

InchyByInch Challenge - "Little Jewels" with triple embossing

Hi... welcome to this InchyByInch challenge. I do hope you all enjoy it. Get out your stuff and have a go - it's true alchemy, as far as I am concerned. OOOOO, I am so thrilled!! I have written a tutorial which might help you get started, if you have never done triple embossing before. It seems long but it's just me chattering on!!! Here goes :-


Triple Embossing to make “Little Jewels”

This technique is simple and so effective. if you have some embossing powders, a heat gun, a versamark pad and a stamp, you are in business! Always work on a heatproof surface, as the heated powders get very hot.

For my inchies here, I began with some thick card from Magenta, already cut into inch squares. Woodware do them too, or you can make your own. The thickness is important, so the finished article does not curl up and crack! You can use the backing from those stiffened envelopes you get paper and card products delivered in.

1) Prepare your surface and gather all your elements together, because you will need to be reasonably quick once the powders are heated.

2) Cover your card piece, liberally, with the embossing fluid from the versamark pad, or similar. I do so much of this that I bought a 2 fl oz bottle from Stamp Addicts, by Judikins. It has a dabber on top for application, but it’s not necessary, a pad will do.

3) For my inchies here, I covered the card with black ep and heated. I repeated this 3 times, in order to build up the depth. As each of the first 2 layers is heated, drop it back into the powder. If you are too slow, cover again with the embossing fluid.

4) As you are ready to heat for the third time, ink up your chosen stamp, using your colour of choice, (eg gold) and put it ready to use. Heat your piece until it is smooth, molten and shiny, then take up your stamp and press the image into the hot mixture. It will not damage the stamp! Leave it to set for a short time then remove the stamp. You will have the wonderful, “squigged” (my technical term!!!) image of the stamp indented into the ep. It may overflow the edges or be deeper in some places, that just adds to the magic. You can cut off the edges if you want, when the piece is cooler.

5) Instead of black, you can use any colour ep, or any mixture of colours. You only need them to be molten, in order to impress the image. Just sprinkle various colours on to your heating piece, and they will blend like alchemy!! I have some examples like this on my blog. Run a gold or silver pen round the edges to finish them off neatly.

6) When mine were cool, I brushed different Cosmic Shimmer powders onto them. You can use Perfect Pearls, or other similar mica powders. This technique works best on black ep, I find. I GENTLY reheated the piece to set the shimmers – if you reheat too much, you will melt the indentation away... this is handy if you did not like what you made, because you can stamp it all over again, once you reheat! If you had used gold ink, this will melt into the mix too, and can be SO effective!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at
Dragon@Dragonsweb.net or on my blog. ENJOY!!!

Here are a few more...

"Love is the Beauty of the Soul"

Here is a 4 in 1. I started with the 6"x4" postcard format, and built up from there... OH!!! SO much stamping and such creative fun (on a really bad energy day!!) The theme at Sunday Postcard Art is hearts, and there are PLENTY of those here... At MMM it is hearts and wings, and Lots to Do has chosen wings too. The fourth challenge I shall enter this for is Saturday Surprise, which is "quote" - exactly that, hence the title of this piece, said by St, Augustine.

I loved all this stamping - and used so many different ones to muti-layer the piece. Today, a whole new set arrived from Elusive Images (along with so many other goodies for colouring and effects!!!) So, top down... the UTEE image was made in my melting pot, with black crytals, then imprinted with a wonderful script piece from the harlequin poppy plate. When it was cooled, I rubbed over with cosmic shimmer mica powders, and gently reheated to set them in. The butterfly and the heart/quote are stamped on to vellum and embossed with coral blush moonglow ep. I used this all round the edges of the postcard too, after aging with grey and brown chalks, using cut n dry.

The large, coloured heart is from the harlequin rose plate, as is the quote. I used cream card and three alcohol inks (stream, butterscotch and red pepper) blended and drizzled with the solution, and stamped the tiny hearts from it too (same heart plate) The top lefthand heart is from the butterfly UMount plate, stamped with versamark and dusted with the cosmic mica. The base of the card was stamped with various images and embossed in places to give different textures. The display sheet is my ususal DCWV Far East Stack.

Hope you have not lost the will to live, following this, but I wanted to write it down before I forget what I did, for future reference!! Thanks for reading this tome... Love and light.

I Am All Loved Out Now... no more hearts/romance

This is my entry for 3 different challenges this week. The first is Dans Ma Maison il y a - love. The second is Daring Cardmakers who are feeling green, and the third is Tag You're it - love and romance. Ok now!! Enough love and romance. I will be pleased when this Valentine's Day is over!!! (I know, I am a kill joy, but too much of a good thing gets ???)

I am LOVING so much stamping. ALL the elements here are stamped, except for the brad and tassel, of course... From the top down, the roof is a huge one called bead curtain, from Stamp Addicts. The oriental writing is also from them and the other script is my new UMount. The cloudy moon is another Stamp Addicts, as is the star. The agapanthus is from Stampendous, embossed with clear ep. The dots are done with my Cuttlebug swiss dots and the main image is one of the first plates I bought, from The StampMan. I painted it with Cosmic Shimmers + water brush. There is a bamboo stamp too, which is a fav, but I can't conjure up from where it came... The whole piece is displayed on a sheet from the wonderful Far East Stack , from DCWV.

It won't be my fault if people looking at my blog don't get hooked on STAMPING!!!