Paris

This is my contribution for a Paris themed ATC swap on AATCUK. I stamped the image of Notre Dame over the paper I used as a mat whilst demoing alcohol inks at Port Sunny! I love the blobby effect it left behind.

Birthday card for Emily

I often look at cards on other blogs and wish I could put more on my cards; some cards are almost like scrapbook pages! I had a birthday card to make today and after putting a flower together like Chris from her workshop last week, I decided to try and put more on the card than the large vellum flower and the lace/ribbon, which is where I'd normally have stopped!

I came across a lovely card over on Hannes' blog, which I got to via Inspirational, which gave me the idea of the lace to tuck the money inside (although being me I double sided sticky taped it down and only remembered about the money when I was tying on the ribbon!). I usually just fold white paper inside my cards (which sometimes gets stamped on) but I love this idea of adding embellishments!

Sorry photos aren't the best, too many embellishments to lie flat on the scanner! I really must get my camera fixed.

Home page art

I am very honoured to have my artwork on the home page over at advancedartiststradingcardsuk. Thanks guys :) It was a massive surprise when I went over to leave a message and there was my ATC!

Another journal page

This isn't what I was supposed to be doing today! I have a list of ATCs and birthday cards to make but need to tidy my craft area first so I can get to the things I need. To do that, I have to go down to the cellar and with a broken foot once I'm down there I don't want to be coming up anytime soon. So with the imminent arrival of visitors I stayed put for a bit, then it thundered(and I didn't fancy being down there where I couldn't see the lightning!!) and before I knew it I had a lovely journal page made :)

This is what initially prompted me to do it:

It's my work journal page from Chris' workshop at Paddy's last Thursday. I was happily cutting out those houses to go on the page when I suddenly thought what a great journal page that would make in my visual journal. I love cutting and sticking :)

Great to see my followers are back :) With extra ones :) :) :)

Can put it off no longer ... am off to tidy up!

Visual Journalism 101

I have thoroughly enjoyed taking this online class with Pam Carriker. I still have more to do on my other journal pages but I finally finished the class techniques on this page. The final task was adding shading and I loved doing this - so relaxing, and just great for a rainy day like today. [Note: the first image is pre-shading].

By the way, I don't know where all my lovely followers went...one day you were there, the next the space was empty!!! Very odd.
- phew, it's not just me, no blogspot blogs seem to have anyone!

Craft Stamper Sketch Challenge - June

Another first for me - I've never used a sketch to design a card before, but I really liked Craft Stamper's sketch this month and had the time to have a go. Sorry image isn't the best, I'm still relying on my scanner rather than a camera!

Thank God It's Friday Challenge - Striped Trousers

This is my first attempt at an online challenge and I couldn't resist the theme of 'striped trousers'!! My stampotique bird was going to make another appearance until I remembered that one of my new Port Sunny purchases had striped tights! He's 'Em's Elf' from The Old Island Stamp Company.

Visit Kay Carley's blog for...

...her first BLOG CANDY!

I saw the samples for these stamps at Port Sunny and they were gorgeous! I love how fine the lines are on the images. So head over to Kay's blog for a chance to win!

a card using sellotape... and some fairy ATCs

This isn't how I intended to showcase the alcohol ink sellotape on a card! It's just it was so easy to achieve the shiny hearts I wanted so thought I'd show you...

I was asked to make this card for a friend; the only stipulation being that the birthday girl loved shiny red hearts so... The cupcakes are Hero Arts and I stamped extra ones, laid red inked sellotape over the top and cut them out. Yes I could have used glossy card and stamped on that but this was quicker as the sellotape was right next to me :), and no worries about which inkpad to stamp with!!

I scanned these at the same time as the above as I promised Tracey at Lavinia Stamps that I'd email the images of my ATCs to her...

Both images are embossed with black sparkle embossing powder on the pre-prepared backgrounds. These were made as part of a mini workshop by Paddy at Paddy's Stamping Place.
The pink one has ink applied using cut'n'dry foam, which was then stamped with a rollagraph and text and gold pearl paint stencilled through a snakeskin stencil.
The green one has a small flourish stamped with versamark then coloured pen was put on crinkled cellophane, spritzed with water then used to apply colour to the glossy card. It was then stamped with a rollograph.

And finally, a big thankyou Sue, Jennie and Julie for your kind comments on my first post yesterday, and I was thrilled to see my blog link on Sue's blog :), and Jennie as my first follower :). Thanks guys x

Alcohol Inks and . . . Sellotape?

I've had a few strange looks about this one but it's FAB! I was demoing alcohol inks for Paddy (from Paddy's Stamping Place) at Port Sunlight last Saturday so spent the week before playing with the inks. I also decided to make one of the bird cages by Gail Milburn from May's Craft Stamper and that's how I had my eureka moment!

There was still some sellotape left on the roll and so I decided to use the alcohol inks on it. I'll post a piccie when I get a working camera. Well, that set me off on strips of sellotape...

How gorgeous is that!! Use instead of ribbon on a card and/or layer over inked backgrounds. Yummy! Watch this space for a card or ATC using this technique :)

But while you're waiting...

Here's part of an ATC I made for the show (sorry, image is scanned so slightly awry!). Alcohol inks overstamped with co-ordinating pigment ink for background, and overstamped with white embossed image. Bird stamped on blue alcohol inked card.

I have a blog!!

I can't get over how excited I was when I set up this blog and it worked. It took me less time to do that than to name it! I've since been playing around with colours and the banner and am finally committing to that first post. It's not the best time to start a blog...my camera's broken! But never mind, I'll find a recent picture to post.

I'm currently doing Pam Carriker's Visual Journalism 101 online course and this is my favourite page so far. It's not finished yet. This is a great workshop if you want to get started on a visual journal and don't know where to start, or if you want to learn new techniques! The bird is Janet Klein's 'bird legs' by Stampotique.