Lavinia Stamps Creative Challenge - Pink, Purple and Blue

I just love how challenges get me out of my comfort zone so it really is a privilege to be on the Lavinia Stamps design team where I am challenged monthly :)

Each month, Lavinia Stamps runs a Creative Challenge, with a different theme, and the chance to win £40 worth of their stamps.  The winner is chosen entirely at random using Python Random Generator, and you don't need a blog to enter, just click on the link here to find out what to do.

For this month's theme of 'Pink, Purple and Blue' I had a play with my gelli plate and alcohol inks after seeing Birgit Koopsen's video.   

I tapped purple and blue alcohol inks onto the gelli plate using a felt pad.  I love how you get the little dots of colour as it dries.  Once dry I brayered a thin layer of acrylic white paint to lift the ink off the gelli plate. The pink, for the challenge, came from the Distress Oxide 'Picked Raspberry'.

I used the same technique on some stickers.  I love making stickers!

I use my stickers in my diary

Stamps Used:

Single Fairy Thistle

See a Fairy, Make a Wish

Fairy Foragers

Stars 2

I've joined the Crafty Individuals Design Team

I am truly honoured to have been invited onto the Crafty Individuals' design team, along with my good friend Chris of Pearshaped Crafting blog.  As a full-time special needs teacher the time I have available to 'make' is limited, and I am thankful for Jean and Malcolm's understanding of this.  It is wonderful though to be back blogging; and I am hoping that this will keep me on my blog a bit more regularly rather than just on Instagram!

I recently made some cards using the new designs and snapped some step by step photos along the way.

I am taking part in a challenge over on Instagram, set by the amazing Birgit Koopsen, to use a different product every day in October.  This day's product was my poor neglected distress markers.   After creating a Distress Oxide background with Picked Raspberry and Salted Ocean, I stamped text in the background, part of the 'Noel Border' then used the distress marker to stamp the snowflakes from the main stamp image.

I use parts of the stamp by inking up the required area then removing the ink with a baby wipe from the areas I don't want to stamp with.  Here I selected one of those tiny stars...

...which I then stamped on the inked background, along with some of the larger text stars.

I stamped the image onto white copier paper a few times and cut out the areas shown.

I love those stitchy marks and emphasised them using my sewing machine.

A gold confetti star on top of the tree..

...and some snowy effects added using Stickles completed my card.

I really love the collage stamps that Crafty Individuals design.  They have sooo many little elements that you can use in so many different ways.  The stamps used in this project were:

And then, because I was having so much fun,  I made a little tag too!

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope nobody collapsed in shock when they spotted I'd blogged lol

New PaperArtsy Stamps and Stencils from Scrapcosy

I am very honoured to be sharing samples for this new release from Scrapcosy.  You can find them over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight.

gelli print toadstool resists

I've been wanting to play with this gorgeous stamp for a while now - and it turns out this small fairy chain is the perfect size for a tag.

My original idea was to create a painted background for the fairies using my gelli plate but I just wasn't feeling it!  Sometimes you just have to leave something that's not working - and it can end up working differently when you return to it another time.

So I started again and this time used a single colour of paint and decided to see what happens when paint is lifted off the gelli plate with a Lavinia stamp.  I was really pleased with the effect but the magic occurred when I added the distress ink, which is resisted by the acrylic paint :)

This was a fab project to work on and I'll certainly be playing with this idea further.  If you want to know/see more, my step by step guide to creating this tag is over on the Lavinia Stamps website .

Thanks for visiting today :)

"these beloved candles of the night.." - William Shakespeare

There's just something about the night sky...especially when you are out in the countryside and you can just lie back and gaze into the depths without the distraction of street lighting!  One of our favourite evenings when camping in the summer is spotting shooting stars.  

I'm not sure I'd really like to live in this little shed [Stampers Anonymous J4-1164 Moving Up] high up amongst the stars, it looks a little rickety to me, but I love the idea of it.

I splodged some 'Weathered Wood' distress reinker on my pages then added some more blues by putting the ink on some cellophane then spraying it with a silver spray before stamping this onto my page.  I stamped Jo Capper-Sandon's Text Stars [Stampotique] with distress ink directly onto the page then cut a mask and, using a stipple brush, added ink around the edge of each star.  I love how this highlights them! 

 I added more stars stamped in Wild Honey distress ink onto white paper and cut out.  The words are taken from Amy Wilson's Tall Word Collage [Stampotique] and again stamped in Wild Honey.  

I'm entering this journal page into the Stampotique Designers' Challenge, which  requires the use of 'masking' on your project :)