Postcard no 4

Last month I took part in a postcard swap but sadly one of the postcards did not reached its destination and so I decided to send another one. I had been playing around with a background using some TH stencils and picked raspberry, peacock feathers, hickory smoke and mustard seed DIs. The stamp is by Woodware called large fennel and the sentiment comes with it. The text at the bottom is another TH stencil. I added some white highlights and posted it off hoping that this one arrives.

Postcard No 3

Recently on Craftsy they had a bonus day when you could watch a selection of classes for free for 24 hours. I managed to find time to watch a little of a technique class by Marjie Kemper. Her work is inspiring and she explains things well. There is a lot of her work on Pinterest and she has a blog here. After watching I decided to have a play on a scrap of card that was on my desk. I used picked raspberry, spiced marmalade, mustard seed and seedless preserves DIs with various stencils and stamps. I added the Dina Wakley image with the help of my stamp buddy and some white acrylic circles with a small plastic tube. The 'dance' text is by Non Sequitur and the 'live' text by Tim Holtz.
As this is going through the post as is I couldn't add any further embellishment.
I hope the recipient is pleased with it.

Wordgirl Postcard No 2

This is the second postcard in the swap I am doing this month. I have used a Wordgirl image again but given her a different background. A while ago I watched a Jennifer McGuire tutorial on making a galaxy background. She used DOs which I only have 2 of so I used DIs instead with a gold shimmer spray and instead of black soot DI I used Brilliance lightning black which has a subtle gold shimmer to it. The quote which I read a few weeks ago and had saved seemed appropriate. I added a moon/planet(?), some punched stars and some washi tape. As this is going through the post as is, I did not add any other embellishments but highlighted her hair and the text on her dress with Wink of Stella.
I hope the recipient is pleased with this. Wordgirl stamps can be purchased from here. 

Wordgirl Postcard

I stamped off a few wordgirl images and have been playing around with colouring them in with pencils and alcohol markers. I've blogged a card made with one version here and this is a postcard that I'm sending halfway around the world as part of a forum swap. I used paints, inks, stamps and stencils to make the background and added some washi tape to finish off the postcard. The washi tape at the top says 'do what you love'. I would have liked to have added sequins but as this is being posted without an envelope I didn't want to risk it. I did however add Wink of Stella to her hair and the words on her dress so that she sparkles.
I hope the recipient is pleased with it - we both know the stamp designer, Trish Latimer, so there is a personal connection. Wordgirl stamps are available to buy here.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - October

This month's postcard swap has the theme of Autumn. I decided that unlike previous years I wanted to create a postcard with an autumnal feel but no leaves on it. My background was made with Gelatos scribbled onto the card and then blended with a wet finger. I started with yellow and then added a punched circle to mask off the moon before scribbling on the other colours. The tree stamp on the left is by Marion Emberson and comes with separate leaf and blossom stamps to add to the branches. The other group of bare trees is an unknown unmounted stamp. Using a stamp positioner I added an old clarity stamps moon and cloud stamp and then used the edges of that stamp to create a hazy mist effect. It all looked a bit lifeless so I added some Crafty Individual birds from 2 different sets flying south for the coming winter and some text by Paper Artsy.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - August

I have been occupied with family staying over and watching the Olympics and am a little behind on my monthly challenges but found some crafting time while watching the rugby 7s final between Fiji and GB(for once I was not disappointed that Team GB only got silver). What a one-sided match but how wonderful for Fiji to win their first EVER medal in Olympics. For me these are the moments that make the Olympics so special although I have been doing a fair amount of shouting for Team GB while the cycling and rowing has been going on as well.
Anyway back to business and this month's postcard swap, the theme of which is Sea/Nautical. I have to admit I struggled with this because in previous years there have been similar themes and I have used my CI beach huts and my Katzelkraft shell etc etc. I had an idea to do something a bit different but during the course of trying to find the required stamp I came across this Inkylicious poem and the grasses (also by Inkylicious). I had in mind sand dunes and the coastal grasses that grow in them (they may look like mountains but they are meant to be dunes). The tiny shells are by CI as is the seagull.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap

This month's theme is 'Flowers and was the perfect opportunity to use a set of layering stamps by Altenew that I bought at Ally Pally in April. The set is called Beautiful Day and I have been trying out combinations of ink and practising aligning the stamps with varying degrees of success.
This postcard uses Impress poppy red and lemon yellow and Brilliance pearlescent orange. I think the 2 days of sunshine we have just had has turned my thoughts to 'hot' colours. The sentiment is from the same set. I added some old peg stamps from Rubber Tapestry. The stamens have been 'Glamour Dusted' for a bit of sparkle.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - May

This month the theme chosen by Jilly is Oriental (in fact as you will see in a later post this month, May is turning out to be heavily Oriental themed). I stamped the Non Sequitur flower seller image, heat embossed it and then used a stencil (called Moroccan but it looks like an Oriental screen to me) and cracked pistachio DI. I find this stencil has more impact if you outline it and although it looks fiddly it doesn't take very long. The flowers were coloured in with embossing pens and heat embossed and the rest of the image was watercoloured with DIs. I added a strip of patterned paper top and bottom (bought from the Japanese equivalent of a Poundstore called the 100 Yen shop a long time ago). The chop mark reads best of luck and the other text is from an Oxford Impressions set.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - April

Say 'hello' to version 3 of my postcard for this month's swap on the UK Stampers forum. There had to be a face on the postcard and my initial idea was to use a very different stamp with some masking. However that did not work out at all as I imagined it (it was a disaster!). Version 2 involved the face stamp above (it's by Non Sequitur and I got it in a grab bag) with stencils and little flowers but that didn't work out either.
I've been following Carolyn Dube's Let's Play weekly workshops/tutorials and some of her advice has obviously rubbed off on me because I decided to go with the flow and see what would happen. As she always says 'What's the worst thing that can happen? You waste a bit of paper'. I roughly applied acrylic paint over reject no2 (you can just about see a couple of the original flowers on the right hand side) and stuck small bits of gold foil (from an Easter egg) here and there.  I had a scrap of bubble wrap on my desk so I grabbed that and inked it up with Impress peony purple and stamped bits all over. The circles were 2 Memory Box diecuts left over from a project (they were cut from different patterned papers so I flipped them over to the blank side). I made some lines with a plastic hotel keycard and Impress cherry pink. Weirdly it all seemed to come together in a much better way than before. I added the stamped image, some die cut words, some photo corners and a squiggly border. Job done!

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - March

This month I have chosen the theme of Spring Colours for the postcard swap on the UK Stampers forum. I decided to go for a general theme rather than a spring one. The text is from an Artistic Stamper set and all the other circles are from an Inkadinkadoo circles & dots set. I pulled out some colours of Distress and Brilliance inks that reminded me of spring flowers (yellow for daffodils, soft pink for tulips, deep pink for magnolias etc) and got stamping onto a piece of card that I had lightly brushed with scattered straw DI.
I am also entering this into the Craft Barn fortnightly challenge the theme of which is background circles.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - January/ Let's Play with Carolyn Dube

The first swap I'm taking part in this year is the postcard swap on UK Stampers. Jilly has asked us to make a postcard based on a New Year's Resolution we have made.
I was inspired by Carolyn Dube's new workshop 'Let's Play'. The theme this month is to use something that would have been thrown away. Just before reading her blog I had had a tidy up of my desk and a clear out of old cards that I had made that (to put it bluntly) were rubbish. After reading the article I pulled a Christmas card out of the bin and pulled off the panel I had made for the front. That went back into the bin and I decided to use the kraft base for my 'play'. I started by writing various affirmations in gel crayons across the card such as 'do it now', 'renew & refresh'. This was an idea I got from Carolyn Dube who got things out of her system by writing on an AJ page when she was stressed. I smeared paint through some stencils and with my fingers. Inks and stencils were next and then some stamping and a white gel crayon. The letters were cut with Sizzix Block Talk alphabet die and then I stamped them with a Katzelkraft dotted stamp and Brilliance pearlescent beige. The 'or' is cut from the word 'forever'. My resolution is to use the things I have this year and not 'save' them.
I was pleased that I used several items for the first time - the paints, both stencils, the round motif stamp and the word 'or'.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - November

This is the final postcard swap for 2015 on the UK Stampers forum as December is such a busy month for everyone. Jilly, our hostess has chosen Christmas as the theme.
I made a background by smooshing cranberry and meadow Adirondack inks onto a craft sheet, spritzing with water and picking up the ink on a piece of card. I did each colour separately and waited for it to dry in between to avoid the colours turning to brown. Then I dry brushed gold metallic mixative around the edges and a little in the middle. The stamp is by Katzelkraft and has been stamped in black and heat embossed with holographic powder. I added the holly stamp in the corners, the gold paint resists the ink and gives a faded effect. I doodled a rough frame around the card and added Glossy Accemts on the holly berries to finish.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - October

I am organising the postcard swap on UK Stampers this month and had the fun task of setting a theme again.
Readers of my blog will know that I am not a big fan of Halloween so I tend to endure the endless pumpkin and ghost themed offerings in the shops with gritted teeth and heave a sigh of relief on the 1st of November. However I don't want to ruin anyone else's chance to use that Halloween stamp that has been waiting all year for its moment of glory so this month's theme is... PURPLE & ORANGE.
I had absolutely no intention of doing anything Halloween inspired when I started making this postcard - I was thinking more of some flowers using the colour theme BUT then I bought this cat die by Cottage Cutz at a show. After I had tested it out and decided to back his malevolent looking eyes with a scrap of green card he just begged to be put onto the postcard.
I smooshed ripe persimmon and dusty concord DIs onto a craft sheet with a spritz of water and rubbed the card in it to make my background (the moon and roof were masked off first). I edged the card with some walnut stain DI and Adirondack black for added drama.
The roof was coloured with barn door DI and the tiles were drawn on. I realised I had no stamping on the card so I added CI birds. I put together the phrase 'The Witching Hour' with a Just Rite Curlz font alpha set and added a few punched stars.
If you are interested in joining in this fun swap check out the details here. It's a real treat to receive some nice art through the post every month.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - September

I am hosting this month's postcard swap on the UK Stampers forum. As it's September I decided on the theme of 'School Days'. My first idea was to make a postcard using the chalkboard technique but I was not happy with the end result which you can see here:

So Plan B was to use part of a Graphic 45 Alphabet Soup sheet. I inked the edges of the card with tea dye and walnut stain DI. The main image was coloured with coloursoft pencils, the alphabet frame was on the reverse. The text was cut from a Sizzix Hunky Dory die. I added some ink blots with 2 Katzelkraft stamps and archival grape. The pen by Clearly Impressed was stamped and heat embossed. As the postcard will go through the post naked (without an envelope) embellishments have to be designed to withstand the rigours of the mail system.

If you would like to take part in this swap then just follow the link above. For the cost of a stamp you could be receiving some happy mail too!

UK Stampers Postcard swap - August

Sometimes you are presented with a great theme and just can't seem to do it justice. That's how I feel about this month's postcard for the swap on UK Stampers. The theme chosen by Jill is a great one  - put a frame on your postcard but I just couldn't think of anything original to do. In the end I opted for this very old stamp from Stampington called 'pressed profile'. I'm making an effort to revisit the lovely stamps in my collection and it's been a while since I used this one. I recently acquired a couple of Color Box petal point ink pads in Mosaic and Enchantment. The background used various colours from both sets, some DIs, a stencil and a crackle stamp. The image itself was coloured with Twinkling H2Os. The word 'flower' is from a Paper Artsy set.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - July

We have a new organiser for the postcard swap on UK Stampers, Jilly and she has chosen this month's theme as underwater. I decided to brush up my long-forgotten origami skills and fold some small Angelfish from scraps of washi paper. The background is a combination of several distress inks brushed and applied direct to paper. I added a waterdrops stamp in Brilliance starlite black and highlighted the droplets with a white Uni Posca pen. The seaweed is a Kodomo stamp and some strips of twisted up paper. I used a speckle stamp for the seabed and a tiny Crafty Individuals shell stamp. I edged 3 sides of the card with WOW whirlpool embossing glitter  - I am very impressed with the quality of this glitter, it is superfine and it seems to stay put (although it will be interesting to see how much is left after Royal Mail have handled it).

If you are interested in taking part in this fun swap, the info is here.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - June

Another month and another round of swaps to participate in... this is the postcard swap on UK Stampers. Sam who started this particular swap and has run it brilliantly for many years, decided to step down due to other commitments. Luckily Jill has decided to take over and this month's theme is numbers.
I had 'tea for two' in mind and decided to use this Crafty Individuals stamp that fitted well but on closer inspection there are 3 cups and the clock reads 3. That irritated me no end and I felt I had to abandon the 'tea for two' idea (a terrible first world problem when your stamp doesn't convey what you want it to!). Anyway as you can see I got around this non-problem by re-titling it 'tea at three' or at least the text speak equivalent of that.
The pic looks a bit grey so I will see if I can get a better one. I stamped the main image in archival teal and coloured in with coloursoft pencils. The patterned paper is from MME cut & paste charm. I embossed the CB number folder over part of the card and brushed teal ink over to highlight the embossing. The alphabet and number are block talk by Sizzix and the @ symbol is from a CB alpha set, curls & swirls.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - May

For this month's postcard swap on the UK Stampers forum, Sam has decided to allow us to choose our own theme. This is always a tough choice for me because I can never decide what to do but this postcard came about through a combination of recent events and things on my desk. As these go through the post naked ie with no envelope, the embellishments have to be firmly stuck on and flat.
Firstly the stamp, which is not a rubber one but a hand-carved wooden one. Many years ago I was lucky enough to visit Jaipur in India for a wedding. Whilst there, I had a chance to visit a workshop where they hand printed fabric. I saw this elephant wood block and asked if I could buy it as it reminded me of the elephants who took part in the wedding festivities. This has been sitting on my desk recently as I found it while sorting through some things. As it is wooden, you cannot get as clean an impression as you would from a rubber stamp but it printed fairly well. I've been wanting to try some zentangling for a while and thought this would be a good place to start. My conclusion was I don't have the patience or the attention to detail for zentangling and did not feel at all 'zen' by the time I'd finished!
The background involved a stencil, some punched and die cut shapes, gesso, gold gelato and DIs. I then stamped a paisley pattern with Brilliance platinum planet which only shows when it catches the light. Finally I used a splatter stamp with gold embossing powder. This was inspired by a recent trip to India and a trip to St Petersburg where I saw so many ornate rooms sumptuously decorated with gold.
I matted onto a black base card to provide a frame for the image. I shall have to figure out how to put the recipient's address on the back so that the postman can read it!
Edited to add: I felt the card lacked something so I decided to add a few punched flowers to the postcard and this is the final result:

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - April

There is something I find quite surreal about this, this being the postcard for April's swap on UK Stampers. The theme is eggs and a trawl through my stamps revealed no egg stamps at all. I finally remembered I had a small oval punch so I used that as the basis for this postcard. I punched 3 out in a duck egg blue and gave each one some speckles. My background was meant to be yellow, orange, red and blue but an enormous blob of red got squirted out and swamped the other colours to produce the background you see. I needed a nest for my eggs so hand cut one out and added some texture stamps (yes I know it looks like a bowl but work with me on this). The curly frond/branch/thingy is a Katzelkraft stamp and I added a bird cut from book pages. Now I realise that it would be quite a feat for this little bird to push out 3 of those eggs but just imagine that she is watching over the birds from a distance and therefore looks much smaller than she actually is. The eyes are by Hampton Arts and the crackle stamp by Kaisercraft.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - March

It's been rather quiet on the blog recently because I've been busy with other stuff that has kept me away from my desk. This month's postcard swap on UK Stampers has the theme of Time. The finished card is not at all what I had in mind when I started but it just evolved. I began by embossing the large KTZ stamp horloge in white and added the smaller pocket watch stamp in some blank spaces. I then covered the postcard with peacock feathers, picked raspberry, squeezed lemonade and ripe persimmon DIs. I stamped the trailing flowers from another KTZ set in Stazon olive green and coloured the buds with a pink Sharpie. I used the edge of another trailing flower from the same set to stamp a few flowers along the bottom and added some punched tulips. The main image is of course crowned bunnies by Crafty Individuals (this time with pink glittered crowns). I used a template and white pen to make some crosses along the sides and added a title.