Snow Much Fun

Well at least somebody is having fun in the snow!

The Bit Box

I should say bit bags .I've been having a bit of a tidy up (long overdue) and sorting through all the scraps and bits that I keep 'just in case'. I usually collect bits on my desk and when the bits pile up I put them into a plastic folder to use later but they never seem to see the light of day again. Today I sorted through all the folders and got rid of a lot of stuff that I know I'm never going to use (tiny scraps of card, negatives of punched shapes etc). I moved everything into 2 A3 sized zipped pouches, 1 for bits of card and 1 for stamped images, punched shapes and patterned paper. When I need to make a card I've resolved to try and find something in the bit bags that I can use. All the elements for this card except the candi dot and the small black flower centres were from the 2 bags even the card blank. The embossed image is by Post Modern Designs and the flowers were from an Elusive Images stamp set.

UKS Postcard Swap - January

The theme for the first postcard swap of the year over at UK Stampers is 'new beginnings'. It took a long time to think of something appropriate. Really for me this year is the same old, same old but I am looking forward rather than backward so I thought I would try and portray that. These Alice Palace bunnies looking skyward seemed appropriate. I used a base of kraft card and sprayed olive, raspberry and copper inks. The diamond border is a Penny Black stamp with Adirondack pigment ink in watermelon and I used a new ink blot stamp by Katzelkraft with the same ink. I edged the card with Adirondack meadow and added some white stamped flowers and dots.
Edited to add You will be relieved to know that I have now taken my Alice Palace stamps off my desk so you should see some other stamps being used for a change!

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - V

To start off the new year there is a new challenge on the Craft Barn blog. Every 2 weeks there will be a letter of the alphabet chosen by Isabelle that we have to incorporate into an art journal type project -  I've decided to use a dictionary. I am already stamping in a dictionary having been inspired by Stamping Matilda's blog but this new challenge is more of an art journal rather than just images so I picked up another dictionary from a charity shop.
The first letter is 'V'. I pondered on various 'v' words I could use - valentine, Victorian, vintage but decided to go for veil so that I could use this gorgeous stamp that I don't use enough. I bought it in a grab bag on ebay and have no idea who makes it. I covered the pages with white acrylic paint applied with an old credit card, masking the definition of veil and let it dry. Then I used a technique I saw on a video made by Brett Weldele following a link on Tim Holtz's blog. He spritzed some ink directly onto the page and then dipped a stamp into the pool of ink and stamped it around that area. I used a Hero Arts grid stamp with a maple spray. I then stamped the main image with Versafine onyx black. I used crushed olive and peeled paint DI around the edges and stamped a raindrop stamp (drip drops by All Night Media) with Impress cerulean blue. The quote is by an ancient Sufi poet called Jalal ad-Din Rumi printed in Algerian font.

UKS ATC Swap Jan 2013 - keys

It's been ages since I took part in a swap on UK Stampers so now that all my Christmas challenges have finished I thought I would get back into the ATC swap run by Vonny. This month's theme is keys.
The first and third ATC BGs were done in a similar way with dusty concord and bundled sage DIs on a craft sheet (on the 3rd I first stamped and clear embossed a Katzelkraft cog first). I stamped the Katzelkraft ledger in victorian velvet DI and a Crafty Individuals corner on the first. The embellishments were some that I've had for a long time. I sponged Impress peony purple over one setand Brilliance ivy over the other. The text is from a Crafty Secrets set. The second ATC was sprayed with glimmer mist through some templates and peony purple was sponged through some sequin waste. The Katzelkraft ledger stamp was stamped with Brilliance platinum planet and I stamped the keys and words from the Crafty Secrets set.

LIM 101

It's been several weeks since I took part in the Less Is More Challenge so I thought I would start the new year off right and give it a go this week. Sorry if you've already seen this stamp but it was crying out to be used for the challenge which is black and white with a splash of colour. For those that don't know this is one of  Crafty Individual's new Alice Palace stamps.

2012 Calendar Folder

As my new January calendar went up on the wall by my desk today and the old calendar came down, I decided to make a quick folder to store my 2012 pages. This is the front cover. I used a beautiful Katzelkraft ledger stamp and some patterned papers from the My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus set. The 'hinge' is cut with the TH ornamental die and I've also used some Studio G stamps. Inks used were Archival sepia and broken china DI. The spotted band is held in place with velcro.