Fright night

We're fast approaching Halloween and Rizwana would like to see spooktacular makes for our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week.

I don't own any stamps or other supplies that are spooky so I found a way to improvise and made a postcard! I used a cheesecloth background stamp and torn edges as masks to create a "wrapped bandage" effect  and a longer word ("KABOOM!") with selective inking and a marker pen to fill in missing lines for the sentiment. The eyes are drawn using circle dies as templates.

This year may have gone wonky in many ways but Lost Coast Designs have their usual 31 Days of Halloween going on so I'm linking up there, too.

Stamps:
Cheesecloth backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Kaboom (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
Black fineliner 
Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder (to draw round)
White paint pen by Posca
Microglaze

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are keeping safe and well.

Dictionary day

It's my turn to set the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week and as today is World Dictionary Day and I need very little excuse to celebrate words I thought we could focus on them today - a dictionary definition, book or dictionary page, or make words the focal point of your project.

After a couple of false starts (why your own challenges are always hardest is one of life's mysteries up there with single sock syndrome) I came up with the idea of combining with another challenge to help kickstart and made this.

Retro Rubber has a tic tac toe challenge and I used that to give me the extra push. I chose a diagonal of rhinestones/pearls/dots, die cut/punch and metallics. The whole card front is die cut with a stitched rectangle, the sentiment is cut with another (modified to make it a shade longer to suit the stamp).

This background is designed as a texture plate for use with a gel plate, polymer clay etc but I could see no reason it couldn't be used as a regular stamp and indeed it worked just fine! I stamped on black cardstock and used metallic Perfect Pearls in a couple of autumnal shades before doodling some details with copper and gold gel pens and adding dots of gold dimensional paint to finish.

Stamps:
Sarah's Choice (Indigo Blu - had mine since 2011)
Texture Plate 3 (Art by Marlene line at Studio Light - around April 2019 I think)

Paper:
Black
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Perfect Gold, Copper)
Gel pens (gold and copper)
Dimensional paint by Dylon (gold)
Stitched Rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are keeping safe and well.

Mail art in the time of Covid-19!

Svenja has set our challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and as it's world post day, she'd like to see some mail art (or anything inspired by the phrase). 

I decided to have a go at some actual, on-the-envelope mail art using a business size envelope.

I hand drew the mask which is where the address will get written. The stamp will fill in the space top right between the airmal sticker and the pencils. I bought the Face It stamps on sale quite a while ago but must confess I haven't got round to using them until now. I did some basic colouring with Copic markers since they should be pretty weather-proof if the envelope gets caught in a shower en route! The envelope paper is not great for blending so I kept the coluring pretty simple.

Stamps
Face It (Visible Image
Pencils border (Lost Coast Designs)

Paper:
Business envelope

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by, I hope everyone is keeping safe and well.

October’s elements

Dawn has chosen a lovely picture for inspiration for our ‘elemental’ challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week.  As ever, just choose at least three elements to kickstart your project. 

I picked the cable knit, book page, twine, autumn leaf and airmail envelope stripes for a collage-style card.

We recently had a good clear out prior to getting our dining room plastered and there were a couple of books that were too shabby to donate to a charity shop so I “rehomed” them in the craft room and used a page here. I embossed a torn piece of kraft cardstock and layered up with a stamped leaf and some twine. I’d just finished a book of airmail stamps and there’s a little sticker strip along the edge of the book so I used that to underline the sentiment. 

Retro Rubber’s current challenge is “anything goes” and as I’ve had the leaf set for five years or more, I’m playing along there too. 

Stamps:
Falling Leaves (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous - I’ve had mine five years or so) Sentiment from Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board
Kraft
Old book page

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Crochet thread
Copic markers
Cable knit Dynamic Impressions embossing folder (Stampin Up!)
Airmail stripes from book of stamps

Here's the inspiration picture if you would like to join in with us at DCM this week:

Thanks for stopping by!