Size matters

You'll have to forgive me for showing another bird related piece of artwork but when I saw the new challenge prompt on Wednesday Stampers is 'Nest', I did the happy dance. My favourite theme for the past few weeks.  

I set up a new swap on the mini books yahoo group to exchange Skinny cards (3 x 5 inches) with the theme being nature, so this is my first one - so far another 8 to do.

Stamping tips and ideas.

All this week on My Stamp Box the design team are doing something a little different and offering stamping hints and tips.  So far there have been some really cool tips and even I have been left thinking 'why didn't I think of that?'.  Anyway, I've created a masterboard for my tip, something I do alot of especially when I do multiples of something like ATC's or tags.

These two cards and an ATC were made with the masterboard I created using stamps from My Stamp Box and to see how I did it you can go here.

Frames.

Here's a card I made a few weeks ago using images from Sarah Hurley. It's for the challenge which was posted this week on the challenge site by Claireliz who asked for a frame somewhere on your project. This version of the card is actually version 3 because since it had been added to the challenge blog  it just wasn't doing anything for me and I didn't know what was wrong. I pulled it apart a couple of times until I was happy. The original just had too much going on and the doodle border around the outside just wasn't bold enough. Anyway, here we are, mark II and if you want to see what the dt came up with you can see them here

Happy Monday

A lazy sunday afternoon.

A lazy sunday afternoon and some creative playing with my Kuretake pens.  Here I've been experimenting with the Art and Graphic twin pens and Clean colour real brush pens.  The watercolour background was made using the watercolour pens and some water spray and I used the pens to paint colour directly onto the stamp.

The sentiment came from a sheet of silver peel-offs which I hadn't used simply because I'd fallen out of love with their silver finish. I painted over them using my black Kurecolor pen (which will paint over most non porous surfaces) giving them a new lease of life.

Just because....

I had a chance to have another play with some of my pens sent by Kuretake.  I really wanted to have a go with the Art and Graphic twin pens. These are watercolour pens which are great for stamping. I stamped this image by painting the colour from the pens directly onto the stamp. This allows me to add more than one colour to the image. I used my waterbrush to just pull the colour in from the sides of the image. I love the look of watercolour. 

 

Woodland Whimsies.

Another package arrived yesterday full of goodies, this time from Sarah Hurley.  One of the things in the package was a set of Woodland Whimsies stamps which are just the cutest. 

The stamps sat on my desk all afternoon until after dinner when, chores done, I had a play. I made this quick card, painting the background with watercolour paint and cutting the tree shape out by hand.

I also got to use some more of my Kuretake pens, colouring the owl with Kurecolor alcohol pens which blend extreemly well and doodling with my Milennium drawing pen.

Trying out interesting folds.

Along with my friend Katherine from the Mosaik Scrappers group, I've been experimenting with some card shapes and fancy folds for a new workshop to be held next month.

This one fascinated me so I had to try it out.

The stamps are from My Stamp Box and I've also used some of the textured paper from Kuretake which is lovely and bright.

Kuretake.

A few weeks ago I was very fortunate to be contacted by Kuretake who make products for designers, artists, scrapbookers and cardmakers.  They asked if I'd be interested in trying out some of their products and joining their team.  Of course I said yes as I knew the company to be manufacturers of pens which in my art journals I use alot of but when I did my research I was pleasantly surprised they're into so much more. Scrapbook papers,  paints, punches, embellishments and glues to name just a few. In fact, I didn't realise it at the time but two of the things I value the most in my craft box - my Zig glue pen and my Waterbrush, are made by Kuretake.  

So here I am, a rainy sunday (which I asked for) playing with my new supplies. 

I got out the journal and in an attempt to break free from the green thing, painted on some pinky purple. I'm not sure if I really liked the colour but no matter as it shows up the white Posterman pen really well and the journal text and doodling were done with the black Millenium pen.  The letters (which were cut from some of the beautiful textured paper they sent me)  are a good demonstration of why a good glue pen is essential in your kit as there's no way at all I could have glued down those fiddly bits of paper without it. Some of those bits were extreemly tiny and one dot of my glue pen held them down permanently. By the way, if you let the glue dry first on the back of a cut out, it becomes a repositional glue. Handy for stencils or masks, I've even heard of people who use it on their Cricut mats when the sticky has worn off although you'd need alot of it.

I also received some cool calligraphy pens and a little instruction book so I intend to try and teach myself some calligraphy. I'll let you know how I get on.

Obsessed with birdies and toilet rolls.

Hey don't call me obsessed or anything but here's another birdie project.  It's a mini toilet roll tube book, yes another one of those too!!  made for a blog post on My Stamp Box.  For the full project go here.

Happiness is......

Ok I did tell myself I wouldn't do any more birdie themed things but I found myself with my journal and some crafty time and it just sort of happened that way. It was helped along by the new prompt from Wednesday Stampers which is "Think Happy Thoughts".  Well, what can I say, my favourite things - art journaling, the colour green and the little cheep cheep of the baby birds from their nest inside the box in our garden. They make some noise whenever I go out to the washing line.  All these things are making me happy at the moment so my journal page was a no brainer as they say.

Stamps are from Gel a Tins and the little birdhouse I painted myself.

A little dragonfly card

I had some of the background material left over from the postcards and thought I'd make a quick card out of it. The dragonfly is a digital stamp from Sarah Hurley which I printed onto watercolour paper so I could paint the colour in with my watercolours.  I added a bit of doodling to it and the wording is from my new Tim Holts Alterations die.

No help from basement kitty!

This week I managed to catch up with a few things, get a few swaps out and do some journaling too. Saturday was an all day workshop for the Mosaik Scrappers group and we had an absolutely great day. Mid day we had a picnic lunch just so we didn't miss out on the brilliant weather all together. 

While there, I finished up making postcards for a postal swap I'm hosting on the mini books site. It's the first time I've sent any postal art without the protection of an envelope so I'll be interested to see how they do and what comes back to me.  I used stamps from PaperArtsy and My Stamp Box and painted the background onto music manuscript paper.  Good luck postcards.

My journal page once again has a bird theme to it - I have some obsession with birds and nests at the moment.  It must be because of all the birds in the garden making their homes in the nest box and old Housemartin nests.

This has to be the funniest thing though, Jess the basement kitty trying to squeeze herself into my flower box which is tiny.

The things I have to put up with.



Happy Scrapbook day

Today is National Scrapbook Day US (maybe it should be International Scrapbook Day), anyway, we're celebrating in style over at My Stamp Box and the blog is full of inspiration by the members of the design team. I'm not traditionally a scrapbooker but when I do it's in an 8x11 format. Even though I used a patterned paper for the background I just had to put my own stamp on it - literally using the Friday Night Stencil stamps from MSB and some paint.  The film strip has been stamped onto a transparency sheet and is from the Snapshot stamps from MSB.  The picture is my crazy daughter and has been stolen from her fb page - oops!!

There is also a giveaway of a stamp set to one person who leaves a message on the MSB blog over the course of the weekend.

Anyway happy scrapbook day to all.

 

Toilet roll mini book.

I just thought I'd share my toilet roll mini album with you. I made it a few weeks ago as part of a workshop I gave to the Mosaic scrappers but I couldn't show it here as it was a present for my God daughter on her birthday.  At the moment I just can't get enough of these little bits of cardboard which are the perfect size by the way to hold ATC's inside. This one has tags inside the pockets but I've also seen a version on the web with gift cards in too.