InchyByInch Challenge - Text

Here is my entry for the InchyByInch challenge this week - text. Right up my street again , this one as I love using calligraphy and text in my art - but curiously, I never use it on the front of cards!! Odd lady...

The backbrounds are swirled distress inks on shiny card (yet again!!!) in mustard seed and tattered rose, and I printed using a variety of stamps from UMount plates and Butterfly Kisses. The spots of colour are from Sakura pens... really enjoyed myself here...
Thanks for looking!!

TIO #5 - Walk Like an Egyptian

I really enjoyed thinking about this one, for the challenge on my DragonsDream blog - Walk Like an Egyptian. I wanted to finish up with something different this week, and I was pleased with the result. I used a duo of stamps from a Non Sequetur sheet, available from The StampMan. They complement each other with the echo of the column. They were stamped with black onyx, on to white card, and embossed with clear ep. I then splodged them with lots of icy primrose gold starburst stain, with a brushing only of ramblin rose pink. Small details were picked out with various Sakura pens.

The lotus image is one from my computer set and the metal charms are from my stash. The whole lot is set off by the beautifully figured mirror board. So a collage with a difference. Thanks for looking...

April Showers Rainbow Swap

How wicked am I ?? This is SO late and I have only excuses... But I hope my partner likes it and forgives me. At least I told her it was going to be late!!

I stamped a Kodomo lady for the front image, in versafine onyx black and embossed in clear. I took a shiny card and used my sponge pad on my alcohol ink tool. The ink pads were distress inks in old paper, mustard seed and dried marigold. After splodging all over in this mixture, I spritzed with water. The effect is beautiful. I was very taken with it. I had masked the lady, so she was white and so I painted her with the same inks, plus a little sparkle from Sakura pens. The embellishment is an inchie I made for my recent guest designer stint at InchyByInch. The rain / shower is done with a rule and a Zig millenium pen.

The back of the card is a stamp from Hobby Art called floral display. I LOVE it. I used the small floral scroll, too, to make the background, front and back. I have put the card into the post now, so my partner should get it soon... better later than never!!

Daisy Medley - sample for show

This is another in the series of samples made for Hobby Art Show on Ideal World/Create & Craft Thursday 16th April at 11.00am GMT+1. The top image is the front and the bottom image is the backer.

I used the best wishes stamp to print a background in versamark ink, embossed with clear ep. When it was cool, I sponged dried marigold and shabby shutters, then sprayed with clear water to mottle the effect. I overprinted again using the shabby shutters ink pad. The main stamp is quite large, and is coloured in the same inks as the background paper, with a few strokes of matching Sakura pens for stronger accents. The three centres are picked out with perlidoodles 3D splodges. The backer uses the orange cardstock, overprinted with the small butterfly, in the same two inks, and coloured with the same pens. A single image, printed on white, finishes off the piece.

Monarch Birthday

Here is my project for the challenge at InchyByInch, this week - birthday. The actual inchie is a googled image of a monarch butterfly emerging from it's chrysalis, hence it's a birthday!! But it looked so small and vunerable, poor thing, I decided to add a twinchie of a butterfly wing, and a whole butterfly, from a UMount plate. The colouring is done using butterscotch alcohol ink and a couple of Sakura pens, a blue metallic and an orangy stardust. I think I have cheated again but I like the finished piece...

A Rose by Any Other Name

This piece is for 3 different challenges this week. The first inspiration was Theme Thursday, whose challenge was label. The second challenge was Saturday Workout, who wanted us to use skink plastic, and My Time To Craft gave us the dare to use pink and brown.

I found this lovely label on The Graphics Fairy site and it inspired me to match it up with a new set of stamps from Elusive Images, the harlequin rose plate. The colours were chosen for me by the label and the MTTC theme, so I used my new Derwent pencils and my Lyra watercolours to create the rose topper and the swirly, leafy background paper - also a stamp from that plate. I sprayed it with latte, snow angel and watermelon Gimmer Mists. I printed a smaller rose on to a small piece of transluscent shrink plastic, and coloured it with Sakura Stardust pens. I made a hole in it before shrinking, and added a tiny pink ribbon, tied into a bow. The display paper is a light brown orange peel Bazill basics sheet and the whole piece is 8" square. Thanks for looking.

Double Challenge - A Pear in a Birdie Tree

I really love this. It will definitely find it's way on to a card!!

I am entering it as a double challenge, for My Time to Craft - a little birdie told me - and Mixed Media Monday - fruit, chosen by Hermine, whose own offering is lovely. I have stamped this one with the Partridge in a Pear Tree theme plate, by Elusive Images, in saddle brown stazon. I masked the tree, after embossing it with gold ep, and printed the script pear 4 times, and coloured in with Sakura pens.

The bird and large pear in the centre are raised on 1cm pads, and the whole is distressed with my usual old paper and brushed corduroy. I used A Field of Sky, by A Stamp in the Hand, to add pitted looking dots, to help the aged look and mounted the whole on a sheet of my fav DCWV Fairy Tale paper. Thanks for looking, I appreciate all the comments I get!!

Theme Thursday 4x4 - Double Layer

I have entered this one in the Theme Thursday challenge, which is to make a 4" x 4" piece. I have gone more soft and gentle with this one, and chose blue, because I have not used it for a while!! The flower stamp is from Hobby Art, and is a fav of mine, because I feel it is so oriental. I used a french blue chalk eye inkpad and embossed in clear ep. The flourishes are from a UMount set, and I added dots with my Sakura pens, in the same colours as I used for the flower. The second, chalked layer, is a collage stamp from Creative Stamping, done with versamark to obtain a soft, ghostly imprint. I think it works and I enjoyed it anyway...

ATC - Rondo for Dragonflies in Flight

I love ATCs, so this challenge from Arty Girlz, was right up my little alley!! I used an image from Aspects of Design (The StampMan) and printed it twice -once on card and once onto skrink plastic. I used a Sakura pen to add some colour to the dragonflies, and old paper Distress ink pad to colour the plastic backing, just to take off the whiteness. The backgound paper was a sheet of music, distressed with brushed corduroy and gold Glitz spritz. A couple of brads completed this little offering.

Winter Sports - Let's Stand on One Leg!!

An arch is a 1st for me... This is my entry for the challenge on the Gothic Arches board, here. As you know, I like to try a different angle on things!! The image is from Joanna Sheen's Oriental Dreams CD, and the background is created by spraying with Glimmer Mists and overprinting with alcohol inks - seems this has become a fav technique at the moment!! The snow is Fluffy stuff and the arch is finished off with a Sakura silver Pentouch line around the edge. I really enjoyed it, and will definitely try more of these arch challenges.