another Paper Artsy challenge piece

I knew I wouldn't be able to resist playing with these stamps for long but that was hardly any time at all!!  So here I am, back with a second entry for Paper Artsy's weekly challenge

I often decorate envelopes but this time I was inspired by Darcy to create an envelope from the papers I made earlier (see the previous post).  I opened up an envelope, glued it to the bag of my paper then refolded it.

  

I knew the stamped image would be difficult as I was stamping it overlapping card but it coped better than I thought!  I added a black and white image of the lady over the top.

Unlike Darcy I kept the flap at the top of the envelope (although I will give hers a go at some point), and added some of my left over bits of stamping from the previous project.  The tag in this Lynne Perella set was a perfect size to fit inside my envelope .... and hey presto, two projects in one day #feeling happier :)

a tag for the paper artsy weekly challenge

 

It's been a loooooong while since I entered a challenge but I needed a bit of cheering up [in my head I was going to be well enough to go back to work tomorrow but my body has decided it's not fit enough yet so I'm not :(  ]  I saw Helen's lovely cards on her blog and decided that this week's paper artsy challenge would be just the thing to make me feel better.

It was also the ooomph I needed to finally open the packet and use my Lynne Perella stamps!!  I have looked, and looked, and looked at these so often as I really love the imagery; finally bought a set at Happy Stampers earlier this year; and now I've managed to use them!  So thankyou paper artsy team for the inspiration I needed :)  I also cracked open my poor neglected distress inks, and very rarely used distress stains.

Whilst happily clapping handfuls of water over my inked papers (just LoVe that technique!!) I thought it might be fun to have splashes of ink on there too so I put some vintage photo distress stain in my hand (I'm sure re-inker would work too but I don't have any) with some water, again merrily clapped over the papers and yes, I like the result!

Being such a huge stencil fan I happily didn't have a problem finding any to co-ordinate with the stamps :)

I used a crafters workshop brocade combined with memory box flourish and clearsnap quarter foil.

 The lace stamp is one I've had for years from paperbag studios.

I felt the image needed grounding a bit more so used the top of the tag stamp as another border along the side.  I then felt it needed something 'extra' so I stamped it on white paper and layered it again over the top.

I have used bleach in the past, wasn't going too here then decided why not?  Just give it a go!!  My stazon inkpads were very dry so I tried it with my versafine black inkpad and it worked - YaY :)  I then worked back into the face, as Liesbeth suggests, with pencil crayons. I added highlights with both a white gel pen and a white pencil but felt like I overdid it on the eyes so went over them again with an inky sponge and then a coloured pencil.  I'm happier with them now although the difference doesn't seem to show up here.

 I stamped the cotton ribbon with the text section of stamp, although it's not very clear on the pics, sorry!

I will definitely be playing with these stamps again very soon.  Thanks again Liesbeth for the inspiration I needed :)  Her leporella accordion book is delightful and certainly worth a look if you've not seen it.

more later, as promised ;)

Met two very busy people, one gave me a sample, the other didn't...guess who!!!

 [Sue, next time we see an old ledger, we MuST buy it, this one was FaBuLouS!!]

Dyan's ledger book was 'absolutely fabulous darling'!  Full of colour, images, writing, and wonderful snippets of someone's handwritten numbers.  Every time I saw Dyan the ledger was held close with both hands!

It's that first mark in such an old book that's the hardest, but this ledger would never be looked in otherwise, so a great new use for it!

Carol was very taken with Dyan's Dina Wakley style kitchen roll, used to mop up excess ink:

Then of course my yummy tag was from the Timness himself. 

I AdOrE the new distress ink stains, the colour is so easy to apply, and looks fantastic layered, and is oh so, so vibrant.  The kraft paper is a must too for lovers of kraft paper with black printing on - fab, fab, fab.

And check out my 'crinkldy' ribbon!  So easy to customise with the ink stains.  I did like the perfect pearls mists, which spray the shine without a coloured ink, but I don't use that idea enough to warrant them ... yet!

But the distressing tool has been added to my birthday list - so much better than my scissors!  There was a very cool looking little dispenser for tissue tape, which just looked too cute not to have lol!

I must also share a pic of another special person (I'd show you Wendy and Jennie and Kate and Colin too but didn't take your photo!!!) learning to knit/crochet with some fabulously therapeutic wool from the Wendy wool company:

We called it 'monkey wool' as it looked like monkey's tails, and the pieces on the wall looked like monkeys!  It's texture is like fleecy jumpers - cosy!