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!!

TIO #2 "Fairies at the bottom of the Garden"

Here is my entry for the TIO challenge this week - fairies at the bottom of the garden. I had great fun stamping away - got carried away, actually, and had to tell myself enough was enough.!! I have used such a conglomeration of stamps including agapanthus from Stampendous, mushrooms from an Elusive Images plate, a large swirl from Dimension Fourth and a large swirl from UMount. I used a mixture of Adirondak and distress pads, as well as versafine. The butterfly and fairy, herself, are from a kit from IW. I don't normally "do" fairies, but this one felt just right!!! Thanks for looking.

TMTA Challenge - Peacock

Here is my ATC entry for the TMTA challenge this week, peacock. I really enjoyed this one, as I got to use my Starburst Stains and the Elusive Image peacock plate stamps. Favs all!!!

I enjoyed the triple embossing too, as always, and added a few jewels from my stash. Unfortunately, the thick embellies made the bakground a little out of focus, and, as usual, the shimmery nature of the inks just does not show to best advantage. But the colours are deep and shiny, and the piece has pleasing texture. Thanks for looking.

DragonsDream Header / Sidebar Strap

Have had fun working on my header and little strap image for the sidebar on my DragonsDream TIO challenge site. The crafting was fine, but it was the re-sizing of the image. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to where the writing appears when you make the header, and the shrinking plays havoc when you make the strap for the sidebar... it will do for now, but I would welcome any advice from you seasoned blogger friends out there!!

Please feel free to have my little pet for your own sidebar, and I would be honoured if you linked back to my DragonsDream site... Thanks for looking.

TIO Challenge "Time and Tide"

Here is my tag, which I made for the challenge over on my TIO blog. I coloured it with Cosmic shimmer and Glimmer mists in blues and greens. The stamps are UMount, Kodomo and Dimension Fourth. I used clear embossing powder over versafine black and smokey, as well as some distress inks and printworks pads. I just kept adding "stuff" until it had the look I had dreamed!!

I love collage stamps, and find them so useful for this kind of work. This tag is quite large, at 6x3.5 + "wings"... It is shiny and very vibrant, but this does not show well on the screen. Thanks for looking.

Tag It On Challenge

Here is my entry for the pre-opening challenge over on my NEW BLOG, called DragonsDream. Since I started blogging, earlier in the year, I have wanted to start a challenge of my own. Well there it is. It will be on a Wednesday and it will be in the form of a tag, of any shape and size. The challenge will be called Tag it On (TIO) and I am SO looking forward to seeing you all, over there, to join me with your wonderful creativity.

The theme for this pre-opening week is blossom, and you are MORE than welcome to try it out. I shall start, officially, next week, on Wednesday 29th April.

Altered Postcard

This is my entry for Wednesday Stamper's challenge, alter the back of a postcard. I printed out one I had saved from The Graphics Fairy, as shown above. I used distress inks, spritzed on my heat pad, then overprinted with several different stamps, in the same inks. The main image was printed in stazon. I added a little paper butterfly and mounted on to music paper. The stamps are from Lavinia, Butterfly kisses and UMount, basically. I really enjoyed the freedom of this piece after the more traditional work of my sample cards!!

Numero 4 - as seen on TV

This is the fourth in the series for Jenny of Hobby Arts, for her show on Thursday 16th April. She has all the samples now, and said they are "as shown on TV" lol!!! She will have them there on display, so I am pleased she likes them. This is a lovely stamp. So pretty and swirly. The story goes that they were drawn by a lady called Jean, and taken to Jenny by Jean's daughter, because her mum is very ill now, in a nursing home. Unfortunately she will never know the pleasure she gives to us stampers, but here is my "thank you" to Jean. The background on front and backer is made with another of her stamps, printed with a shades of blue Blending Blox pad. The main image is coloured using watercolour pencils. Thanks to Jenny for the opportunity, and Jean for the inspiration...

New Stamps - another sample

Here is another sample made for the Hobby Arts show. Jenny should have them in her sticky mitt now, so I hope she likes and them, and wants to use them in her show... if not, I like them anyway, and enjoyed using the stamps!! This one is really lovely, but I wanted to use some of my other stamps with it... frustrating!! So I kept it so simple, printing it out and embossing it in different colours, as you can see. The top is the front, the lower image is the backer. A few peel-offs, a piece of ribbon and a circle punch complete this small piece.

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.