bah humbug challenge

I think I might just be able to sneak in in time again this week as the deadline is today. The challenge over at bah humbug this week is metallic. My photos are not fantastic but I had terrible trouble trying to upload them onto the computer so they will have to do. I used one of my favourite christmas stamps which is a tin can mail one from Inkadinkadoo. I used distress inks in barn door, rusty hinge, wild honey and mustard seed for my background, flicked water onto it then overstamped with a crafty indivuals crackle stamp in barn door. I then added gold foil to the halo and the heart on her dress. Because I knew I wanted to add gold foil, I knew this would cover up the saying heavenly peace so I had stamped onto a piece of acetate with black stazon and overlaid this over my background so that I wouldn`t loose all the detail. I used a piece of background paper which comes from the former Elusive Images company. I`m hoping it will still be available when the new company is up and running because its one of my favourites and that was the last piece. I used Tim Holtzs` die for Sizzex to die cut the hinges from a slightly patterned gold card and added gold brads. So there you go, my take on metallic. Wish I had more time to do variations because I enjoyed this one. Thanks for looking x Vinny

Jff challenge

The challenge over at just for fun this week is for a different format ie twinchies, inchies etc. I decided to do a scrapling, something I have not tried before. I am having one of those days though where everything is going wrong in the way of crafting. Do you ever have one of those days ? you know the ones, you have some free time but whatever you try its just not happening. I stuck to black and white except for the shading round the lady which was done in pumice stone DI. The black and white border at the top is to hide the fact that I had originally stamped the border stamp directly onto the scrapling but being one of those days, it didn`t stamp out clearly Lol. So there you go a scrapling even if it is the second attempt - the first ended up in the bin. Thanks for looking x Vinny

Bah humbug challenge

Hooray, finally managed to get pictures from camera onto computer. Now I just need to learn to take better photos Lol. Its my daughters camera and oh, the rubbish she has taken pictures of, you wouldn`t believe it. Pictures of the television screen, washing , it goes on. So, now I suppose I have shall have to go through later and take all the rubbish off of the computer. Anyway , I digress, back to the Bah Humbug challenge this week which is appertures. I used a stamp which I`ve had for ages but never used. I think its one of the free ones that came with a Creativity magazine ages ago. I stamped the dog, or is it a bear ? in versafine sepia then just coloured him in with pencils. I did start off stamping him in black because I wanted to use Copics but the black was just too harsh. The sentiment came with the same stamp. So there you go, a very simple card today because I am completely knackered for some reason. Sorry about all the rooftops in the background, my lounge is upstairs ! Thanks for looking anyway, x Vinny

less is more challenge

Oh dear, I promise this looks much better in real life but hardly shows up at all on the scan does it ? It is a white square card there somewhere. I took my idea from a video on the Hero Arts blog by a lady called Shari Carroll on layered background techniques. If I was clever enough I would post a link that would take you straight to it but I`m not so I can`t Lol, yet, one day I will master it. Anyway my effort has a more splodgy effect than the video showed which is probably because I used pearlescent card and she used watercolour paper but I quite like the mottled look. All the stamps are by Hero Arts, I used old french writing, woven fabric and children dancing. I stamped the old french writing first then embossed it with opaque white embossing powder. I then followed the steps in the video - I patted spun sugar distress ink onto an acyrilic block, misted it with water then `stamped` that over my card. When that was dry I used a soft green Hero Arts shadow ink to go round the edges with the woven fabric background stamp. I then used a soft lilac Hero Arts shadow ink to stamp the children playing. As I say my effort is inspired by but came out completely differently to the video. I am going to do it again on watercolour paper next time and will try to post the results. I am going to enter this card into the less is more challenge though and I have been a good girl this week because I struck exactly to the theme not gone off on a tangent like last week ! Thanks for looking x Vinny

PS head like sieve , you can find less is more challenge here.

jff challenge

Second post of the day as I am still playing catch up. Will just about squeeze under the wire I think this week with my entry for the just for fun challenge blog. This week the theme is mixed media which threw me into a complete tizz Lol. I have no idea why, after all I probably use mixed media a lot of the time anyway.  I decided to make a tag, the size of which is very large. I used tumbled glass and stormy sky Distress inks oversprayed with glimmer mist for the background. I ran a piece of the Ranger sticky backed foil through my cuttlebug with Tim Holtz brick texture fade folder. I then inked this up with alcohol inks. The stamps are a mixture of Elusive Images, Tim Holtz and Artistic Stamper. Cannot say I am completely happy with how this has come out but if enough people like it I will enter the swap this month. Meant to enter the swap last month of course but story of my life never got round to it. Thanks for looking x Vinny

bah humbug challenge - embossed

Where on earth does time go to ? I really feel all behind this week, so much to do and so little time Lol. Anyway back to the challenge over at Bah Humbug this week which is embossing. Was not sure if they mean heat embossing or dry embossing, suppose either really but I`ve chosen to use Sir Tims embossing folder of the snowman. For anyone that does not follow Tims blog, is there anyone left who doesn`t ?, each Christmas he posts a twelve tags of Christmas on his blog. There is always new techniques and tips on there, so well worth a look at. I was really taken this year with his technique of stamping onto the embossing folder before running it through. So, I chose to use my tall trees stamp behind the snowman. I used distress inks for all my colouring. I also gave my snowman a black flocked hat , a scarf and a ponisettia for his hat. The snowflake facet in the top right hand corner is also from one of Tims techniques. It is alcohol inked on the back, then stamped with archival ink, then carefully blot the archival ink off to leave the white snowflakes behind. You have to admit the man is pure genius really. Hope you enjoy and thanks for looking x Vinny

3 squares

This is my entry for a new challenge blog called simply less is more. Its been running for a few weeks but I`ve only just discovered it so this is my first entry. The theme is 3 squares. Of course my mind being what it is, that made me think of when I was at school and you used to call people a `square`. It meant they were a bit staid and boring really. So, I decided to do a masculine take on the theme rather than pretty pretty. I discovered that although I have lots of stamps of ladies, I have hardly any of men Lol. I found this stamp in a set that came from Oxford Impressions. He looks quite staid, I thought. Its one of those photo realistic stamps and I had forgotten how hard it is to get a good impression from them. I wanted to use sepia ink and was using versafine but it just wouldn`t play ball. I ended up going with a black and white theme and used Ranger archival ink in black to get the best impressions I could. A strip of background paper behind the three images on a white card and that was it - done. Hope you like my take on the theme, thanks for looking x Vinny

Things that fly

The challenge over at Bah Humbug this week was things that fly. I didn`t manage to do last weeks although without wishing to offend anyone I just don`t get recycling CD`s. Nothing wrong with it, just not me. I`m the same with altered books, I just don`t get it. No doubt someone will come up with a beautiful example now and show me wrong. Anyway back to the challenge. I used my stamp of these cute birds having a lovely time on the Christmas tree. I coloured them in with copics but used , yes you`ve guessed it, distress ink in bundled sage to stamp part of a swirl image round the edge. I can`t cope with all that white space round an image somehow. I used two patterened papers to back onto the card and stamped the sentiment in Adriondack cranberry ink as it matched the colours of the paper. My ponisettia is a felt one from Hero Arts. Thanks for looking x Vinny

jff challenge #4 Angel Wings

Well half term is over and am now trying to catch up with everything. This has not scaned in well at all. The challenge over at just for fun was Angel Wings, the last wing theme of the four weeks. I could have made life easy for myself of course and just used a angel stamp but of course they are all Christmas based and I didn`t want to make a Christmas card. I made myself a rough cloud template out of a piece of thick card and with stipple brushes pounced on distress inks in broken china and stormy sky to get my cloudy sky background. That turned out to be the easy bit . Next I stamped my childs head from Paperbag studio onto card and coloured in with copics. Now for the wings. I tried stamping wings onto card and cutting them out but they just did not look right. Then I found my box of paper had handmade paper scraps in it. You can`t see from the picture but the paper I used has a white flock swirl pattern on it. I drew my outlines of wings on the reverse of the paper and cut them out. I just added the word `dream` to keep things simple. I cannot wait to see what the theme will be for next month or should I say this month now. Its March already !. I`ve really enjoyed making things just for the fun of it. Thanks for looking x Vinny