play time

Oh my goodness, I have been such a bad blogger of late. Time has flown by, here we are at the end of January - just ! My crafting mojo has definately gone on vacation lately. So I have been spending time looking at what everyone else has been up to rather than doing much myself. This tag is heavily influenced by the videos Leandra posted on the Paper Artsy blog, in fact I think I`ve probably used more or less the same colours and stencil from the video, only slightly different. I got a bit mixed up literally with the opaques and translucent colours so my background came out a bit more muddy than I would have liked. However, I cannot remember the last time I just got to sit down and play without an end must make project in mind so I`m still quite pleased with the outcome. I used the Fresco paints from Paper Artsy and a new set of the Lynne Perella stamps which just happened to fall into my basket in the same order ! Now I need to schedule another play session to try out different colours and stencils of which I seem to be a bit obsessed lately. Do pay the Paper Artsy blog a visit and watch the videos, lots of inspiration to be had and guest designers at the moment. Thanks for looking x Lavinia

christmas card

Oh dear what a bad blogger I have been again. Am in a big panic because Christmas is coming speeding round the corner and I for one am just not ready ! The only Christmas card I`ve managed to make this year is this one which was for the Chocolate Baroque card swap. Thought I would post on here to show I am still about, just busy busy with boring stuff like work. I used the New England Winter stamp set from Chocolate Baroque. I coloured the house in with copics and added some bling to the tree with gems. There is a ivy leaf stamp in this set which I stamped out repeatedly, coloured in then cut out to make the swag at the top of the card. Think I will try to make a snowy version of this card as was quite pleased with how it turned out. Hope everyones Christmas preperations are going better than mine. x

whoops

whoops, it really might help if I had actually posted the picture of my card mightn`t it Lol Here it is .

here is the bingo card as well which I also should have added. This is what happens when I don`t blog for ages, I forget how !!! Hopefully I`ve got it right now

bingo challenge

So I`m still trying to ease myself gently back into the crafting world and decided to enter a different challenge blog for a change. Having seen the lovely card made by Florence over on her blog I thought I would have a go at this challenge myself which you can find on the addicted to stamps and more challenge blog here. I chose the same bingo line as Florence, white, die cuts and silver though why lord only knows. White and me do not agree, love the look but always spot a smudge when I`ve finished somewhere Lol. I used the free stamp designed by Chocolate Baroque which came free with this months Craft Stamper magazine. The card blank is 8 by 8 inches. I used silver ink to stamp the snowflake. I then stamped the house also by CB onto another piece of card and coloured with distress markers and stickles. I overlaid with a white embossed dye cut frame which with hindsight I should have layered with foam tape to give some dimension. The frame and sparkles don`t show up too well on the scan but look pretty in real life. Thanks go to Florence and the addicted to stamps challenge blog for something different to try. x Lavinia

First of all I must appologise for the distinct lack of activity on my blog. I don`t suppose my life is any more busy or have any more problems than others. However, truth be told I haven`t even felt like crafting lately. I thought when I did dip my toe back into crafting waters I would try the less is more challenge which you can find here This week is a sketch challenge using three squares. The only trouble with clean and simple however is that things never end up being that clean or that simple in my craft room Lol. This was my second attempt as the first was covered with inky fingerprints etc. I used stamps by Tim Holtz - Natures discoveries and distress inks in mustard seed, rusty hinge and brushed corderoy for the three panels. I only used part of each stamp image on each panel. The whole thing was then mounted onto a strip of black glossy card punched each side with a Martha Stewart border punch. I used a yellow card blank instead of white or ivory for a change. I really like the combination of bright yellow with the black. Now I just need to keep on stamping, its amazing how quickly you get out of the hang of doing things. x

inchies

Another day another challenge. Over at Artful Times this week they want to see inchies. All the time I have been stamping and I have never made any ! I knew I wanted to use these teeny weeny stamp sets from Chocolate Baroque because they were the only stamps I thought would be small enough. I used distress inks in festive berries and rusty hinge for the background and stamped in Ranger black archival ink. In hindsight I think it may have been better to sponge a whole piece of card for the background first before cutting to size because they were fiddly little blighters Lol. I mounted them all onto a piece of black card afterwards. Every tonning piece of background paper that I tried was then too much so I ended up making my own background with masking tape and just going for black and white. The only stamp different is old french writing by Hero Arts, a favourite of mine because it just goes with everything. So there you go , my first attempt at inchies. x Lavinia

stampotique challenge

Well, here we are, the first day that all three of my children have gone back to school. Peace at last Lol, its not that I don`t love my children very much , its just at times the volume level gets a bit too much. Anyway even though I SHOULD be doing the wretched housework because the poor house now looks like a tournedo has gone through it I thought I would do some stamping instead. I have not managed to take part in the stampotique designers challenge which you can find here for yonks. I really did enjoy their blog hop showing the new images being released as well, do pop over and have a look, there are some amazing ideas. Anyway back to the challenge which is to combine two stamps to make a new image. When I first saw this, I did think ook eck how on earth do I do that then ? I bought a copy of this months Red magazine and there was an advert by Louis Vuitton showing ladies in very oversized hats and big goggles, aha very steampunk I thought to myself. So it was in my head that the steampunk hat from Chocolate Baroque steampunk travel set met the lovely Stampotique monster by kira Nicolls. I think the two make a very lovely marriage myself, he looks rather dapper. Must treat myself to some proper masking paper as I have to make do with copier paper and temporary adhesive. I used distress markers to colour the main image, masked the whole thing again, and coloured the background with distress inks in wild honey, tumbled glass, tea dye, antique linen and brushed corderoy. I used Ranger glue and seal to glue the piece of text paper for him to stand on at the bottom. Now I must confess that I have got a bit of a `halo` where I have done my masking but I have left it like that because I think it actually makes the image pop a bit more. I prefer to think of it as a happy accident. So there you go, it all wasn`t so hard to do after all so a big thank you for taking me out of my comfort zone and trying something new to Stampotique. Thanks for looking, if you have got to the end of this post you deserve a cup of tea and some chocolate biscuits ! x Lavinia