a busy time at Port Sunny

...but such fun!  I was demoing the new Hot Picks stamps and co-ordinating dies from Paper Artsy on Paddy's stand.  Apparently Leandra will be bringing out a new set of Hot Picks each month - oh dear, I need to start saving up :)  I gave away quite a few sample pieces, especially as I met a lot of people who had distress inks at home and hadn't ever used them.

I used the top of my plastic box to dab some ink on from the pad, sprayed this with water, then swiped a piece of white card across it.  Once this was dry, I cut the shape using a die, then stamped the co-ordinating image, again using my distress inks.

I did start the day with a pink phase, but I must have given those samples away lol.  I also used a combination of stencils to colour the paper, dabbing the ink through after picking it up on cut n dry foam.  I fell in love with the dragonfly, but this was my very favourite one :

 I just love the mustard and blue colours together.  The text stamp is from the Hot Picks set.  By just inking up part of the stamp, and holding it with the edges curled up, you can add texture without the words being too clear.  The following is the only photo I took on the day (so no embarrassing photos of Wendy and Sue to get my own back with!).  Paddy sent me off for an hour over lunch, and demoed some fabulous pieces using sticky back paper, gold flakes, embossing powders, the cuttlebug and Stazon Ink.  But guess what?  I don't have any pics of those sample pieces ...sorry!

If you head over to Sue's blog, you can see an 'altered' sample of mine though.  I discovered that the leaf die makes a fabulous bird shape, so Sue took one away to give it a hat and boots at my request, but I LoVe the knobbly knees he now has too lol

flowers on film for PDCC28

Julie has chosen such pretty colours for this week's play date cafe colour challenge, although I have to say that the air was pretty blue the first time I used my 'fanciful flight' die by hrh (his royal holtz!!).  I've cracked it now (ie worked it out, not broken it lol) so used it happily for this week's challenge.

I'm loving how the new distress ink colours fit in with these challenges!  Purely coincidental; or more likely, excellent palette of colours provided in distress now!  Spun Sugar was the pretty pink I chose to work with this week.

And I'm LoViNG this new film strip die!  Watch out for some design team pieces for The Stamp Attic using this.  

This week I challenged myself (in a comment on Joanne's blog) to finally make an easel card, and I'm really pleased with the result.  I'll definitely be making more!

Don't forget to check out all the other colour designs this week, they are all stunning, and we have a guest designer.  So head on over to the Play Date Cafe :)

playing with stencils

I love using stencils, especially sequin waste, in my journal, and decided to have a go at covering a page just using stencils.  I used a combination of Stewart Gill and Crafters Workshop stencils, both available at Paddy's Stamping Place; and loved the result I have to say!  

 

So today I used the piece to demonstrate making a little book as part of my Art Journaling 3 class. I made a second sheet of stencilled paper and used it inside my folded book to create additional signatures.

- a great little book to journal in, and tuck inside one of my larger journals!  Art journaling 3 is all about adding little pockets, books and tags to your journal, and developing writing in your journal.  

I'm so glad none of us were suffering from colds or hayfever, our magnetic poetry style writing would have been seriously disturbed lol

There were little words everywhere!!  But they made cool additions to our tags...

 [front of tag]

[back of tag]

playdate at Wendy's

Isn't it nice when you get to have a playdate with friends?  Especially when you get to meet blog friends in real life :)  The only trouble is, time speeds up!! 

It was Wendy's day off from the shop so Hels, Ruby, Wendy and I got together for a playdate.   And had a FaBuLouS time :)  Ruby put us to shame by speedily polishing off a beautiful card with some yummy papertrey stamps, but I forgot to photograph it!!  Sorry Ruby!!!  Email me a pic and I can add it in x

 

 

Wendy put these beautiful brooches together and mounted them onto stamped postcards.  Aren't those colours yummy?  Wonder where she saw this idea?!!! ;)

Hels made two stunning tags with distress inks and Tim's dies.  They are really, really GoRGeouS; the heart has little tiny sparkles inside, to match the crown.  

 

 

And I made butterflies with prima papers and Tim's butterfly die.  And you'll never guess, all these dies and papers are available at The Stamp Attic ;) (including that yummy, yummy, narrow, red, ricrac)

tattered floral PDCC #27

Oh what a happy time I had making this week's piece.  Trouble is, there's no way I'm going to get to keep it.  Wendy's had her beady eye on it right from when it was just a tag!!

I have had a wonderful, wonderful evening with Wendy and her friends.  We all had a happy, happy time playing with fabric and Tim's tattered florals die.  3 little cuttlebugs were very busy!  I wonder what a collection of cuttlebugs is called!!

I'm uploading these photos from my mobile phone, of piccies taken in artificial light, on someone else's laptop, so apologies for quality and lack of cropping.  I'll fix them when I get home from my little jaunt down near Oxford!!  I have absolutely no idea why blogger has turned this piccie around, but it has!! 
EDIT:  photos retaken (still on my mobile, that's what I always use!!) but in better light lol, and cropped at home with familiar software :)

 

The lovely Wendy 2, who works at the Stamp Attic on a Thursday, brought these yummy fabrics, and the gorgeous Kate brought the beads :)

The postcard tag is by American Tag, a very recent purchase from The Stamp Attic lol!  Ooops, just realised I haven't actually paid for it yet!!!

happy birthday Paddy!!

60 today!

did you know that today is 'Earth Day'?...and PDCC#26

It's printed on my calendar but I did have to look it up in Wikipedia to check what it was as I'd never heard of it before, although it was started 40 years ago.  Apparently it is "a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment".  In honour of Earth Day, Julie chose some earthy colours for this week's play date cafe challenge:

But get this!  I reckon that terracotta colour is the exact colour of 'rusty hinge', one of Tim Holtz' new distress inks.  So it would have been wrong of me not to play with my new distress colours for this challenge ;)

Not having any ink or paint in that pinky/peachy colour I decided to start with that colour card for my base.  It's been ages since I decorated an envelope so out came my Cricut and George cartridge and I cut a pale envelope.   Then it was time to get inky with the gorgeous Rusty Hinge and Tumbled Glass - they are both so yummy!!

I

 

I used a little butterfly mask by Heidi Swapp as well as my faithful sequin waste to create some texture.  Along with a few splatters of water of course!

I do feel that this little envelope is begging for a tiny book to be tucked inside before finding a home in one of my journals.  I love how it's turned out, but it was a complete act of faith that if the colours worked so well in the challenge photo then they must also work on my piece..and they did!!  

We've got a very talented celebrity designer, Jen Tapler, over at The Play Date Cafe this week, and sponsorship from Mod Podge, so it's really worth heading over to the Cafe to see what all our designers have produced as inspiration for you, and to link your project to be in with a chance of winning this prize:

 

I love this image, all those little pots are so colourful!   Thanks Amy for this generous prize :)  ModPodgeRocks is Amy's blog which has lots of wonderful ideas for using mod podge, including making fabric bowls with your scraps of material!!