Cherish

The new edition of Craft Stamper arrived on Saturday with a beautiful free flower stamp. I couldn't wait to try it out, so made this card. 'Water' stamping is a technique I've been meaning to try for ages, and after seeing a gorgeous tag on my friend Rachel's blog a few days ago, I decided to take the plunge (forgive the pun)! The background has been sponged with various dye inks and then I stamped all over with a flourish stamp that had been lightly spritzed with water. The flowers have been stamped onto grunge paper and then coloured on both sides with dye inks. The flourish and cherish stamps are by Stampin Up!

U for ...

UMBRELLA. My next alphabet inchy for the letter U - I have used part of a stamp by Katzelkraft.

Stampotique challenge

When does creative inspiration usually strike for you? In my case it is very often first thing in the morning. I get out of bed, make myself a cup of coffee, and after a few sips of caffeine an idea will pop into my head. When this does happen all I want to do is get out my crafting stash and have a play. But unfortunately I rarely have the chance to explore my ideas at the time because I have got to get washed and dressed and leave for work! So for me, freedom would be the chance to say I'm not going to work today, I'm going to stay at home and create! This is what inspired me to make this card for the latest SDC on the theme of freedom, using Stampotique's Moon Girl. The 'I don't feel like working' stamp is by Paper Artsy.

T for ...

Tea-time! Here is my inchy for the letter T. I have used part of a stamp by Crafty Individuals which is a tree full of cakes, & tea things and says at the bottom: Meet under the tree for a nice cup of tea. I used the full stamp (well almost!) back in April for one of my little 'greenhouses'.

Neighbourhood Watch

This is my entry for the latest Ready-Steady-STAMP! challenge. The houses were each cut from white card, then coloured and stamped with Distress Inks. I have added acetate to all the windows and the faces are images by Paper Whimsy. I hand wrote 'Neighbourhood Watch' with a dip pen and purple watercolour paint.

S for...

Scarlet woman! I couldn't resist this when I decided to use this picture.

Stampotique Challenge no. 9

The challenge this time is Summer... what does it mean to you? I did think about doing something about rain!! But in the end I used flowers and the sun... the sun stamp is another Craft Stamper freebie and the other stamps are by Paperbag Studios.

Butterfly Houses

Our next little house swap on Craft Swap Forum is on the theme of butterflies. I've used various stamps on these, including one of my old favourites - Vanessa by Paperbag Studios, and all the backgrounds created with Distress Inks.

Calligraphy

Here is a piece of calligraphy I have recently done - you will probably recognize the quote... and the mask I've used in the background! So it's a big thank you to WS and TH - two geniuses born 500 years apart.

R for...

Read. My latest inchy for the InchybyInch alphabet challenge.

3 more ATCs

As I had been working in black, white and green, and I had my Wizard out, making the card for the RSS challenge, I decided to carry on and make another ATC for the Craft Swap Forum challenge - this particular theme is Black & White plus one other colour. I used another Tim Holtz embossing folder for the background - Bingo - and the free stamp that came with Craft Stamper magazine last month. However, I found I couldn't just be content with one... I made two more! The themes for the other two are Heavy Metal (to use any sort of metallic technique) and I used one of my all time favourite stamps by Paperbag Studios; the word 'Hush' is grungeboard letters that I have covered with foil. The third ATC is for the theme Bad Hair Day (what else?) and I used a really old Judikins stamp, with the birds nest (by Anitas) stamped on top! Just like my hair usually is when I get up in the morning, although I haven't actually found any eggs in mine yet!

RSS Challenge 22

Well here is my effort for the latest Ready Steady STAMP! challenge. For the background I have used one of Tim Holtz's embossing folders - Patchwork. My fabric is a strip of muslin that I dyed with Distress Inks and Glimmer Mist. The flower is made up of a green paper flower, then little black punched hearts, and a couple of sequins glued to the centre.

ATCs revisited!

I haven't made many ATCs recently, but was inspired to make some for a revamped challenge over on Craftswap Forum. We have set six challenge themes and members can take part in any or all of the challenges over the next 12 months. I decided to make one over the wekend and then went on to make two more... I had forgotten how much fun it is to make ATCs! The themes for these three are (from the top): Less is More, A Day Out, and It Had to be a Man.