A Special Mum

Hi everyone

For those of you in the UK this weekend brings Mothering Sunday. It's the time that those of you who are mums should get spoilt rotten.

So this weeks challenge at Crafts4eternity is

"SPECIAL MUMS"

So for this challenge I dusted off one of my many boxes, drawers etc of designer papers, I can't remember when I last used any of these, and made my mum a card using the fabulous "Girlfriend" stamps form Art Impressions. The set I have used for this one is "Beauty in Progress".

I have coloured the images using distress markers as watercolour paints by first scribbling the colour onto a white tile and applying with a waterbrush (I still haven't mastered using these pens directly onto the paper) and some finishing shading with Prismacolour pencils.

My mum loves these girls and don't tell her but I think the one on the end wearing the glasses looks a bit like her!!

So why not come over and join us this week with your "Special Mum" make.

One randomly chosen winner will recieve a $10 voucher to spend at Digi Stamps 4 Joy, this weeks sponsor.

I would also like to enter this into

 Art Impressions Challenge where the challenge is "Getting Girly".

I hope that you all have a lovely Mothers Day

See you soon

Love

Amanda X

The End of a Great month as Stampotique GDT

Hi Everyone

Well as March draws near its end so also does my GDT month at Stampotique Designers Challenge.

What a fab month it has been, but I have one more piece to go, and that is my piece for this weeks challenge which is:-

"Vintage Looking"

This piece, I have made, is to celebrate all our childhoods and the fondest memories that I am sure we all have from those carefree times, wouldn't it be lovely if we could just go back? if only for one day. But as that is never likely to happen, we all at least have our memories that I am sure we all hold close in our hearts and can relive them when ever we want.

 

 

My main image is "Midge" by Janet Klein from Stampotique. I stamped her using potting soil Archival ink and then again on some dotty paper and then cut out and paper pierced her dress.

 

She is displayed within Tim Holtz ornate frame, the centre I covered with book paper and vintage photo distress ink and then splashed water on to further age it. The frame was cut from mountboard, painted gold and then rusted using crafty notions rusting powder, then sanded back to reveal some of the gold.

The flowers were fabric that I had also rusted cut out using the smallest flower from Tims tattered florals die with some of his brads as the centre.

 

The butterflies are wooden embellishments one I have painted and sanded back the other I have covered with book paper and distress ink.

 

 

Sentiment on the frame are Tims Chit Chat stickers and the other is a silver metal word band that I have had for ages, I have aged it using a mixture of paints. A little piece of vintage lace, some torn book paper and a Tim Holtz metal corner finish this piece off.

So to join in with this weeks challenge "Vintage looking Piece" the details can be found HERE.

Can I just finish by saying how wonderful it has been to be part of such an artistic and talented team for the month and also thankyou for all the lovely and encouraging comments that you have all left for me.

Thanks and see you soon

Love

Amanda X

Silhouette Fortnight at FSC

Hi

This fortnight at fashionable Stamping challenges we have the theme of

"Silhouette"

The design team have created some wonderful samples to showcase this theme and here is mine

Using one of my many gelli prints as a background I stamped Dina Wakleys Grungy Silhouette and Grungy Star onto gesso painted book paper and also directly onto the gelli print, I cut out the paper ones and stuck over the top. I added a crown to her, painted with Paperartsy fresco old gold and stamped with Kaisercraft numbers stamp,to make her a queen. I have also added machine stitching which I seem to be a bit addicted to at the moment!!

I added some texture with various stamps and splashes of white paint using a credit card.

Sentiment is from Wendy Vecchi's Regal Art set.

Why not pop over and play along with us this fortnight with your silhouette creations. Remember we are a stamping challenge so stamping must feature strongly on whatever you create. You will find all our challenge details Here.

I will hopefully see you over there.

Thanks for visiting and I will see you soon

Love

Amanda X

 

 



Anything Goes at C4E this week

Hi Everyone

it's another new challenge week over at Crafts4eternity and this week our theme is

ANYTHING GOES

For my DT piece this week I have used a background I made using Trish Latimers painty technique in this months Craft Stamper, just splodge paint onto an acrylic block and then put your paper over it.

So using mybackground I have made a mixed media card.

My backgound I made using kraft card and added machine stitching and some stenciling through sequin waste.

I then die cut the flowers using Tim's tattered flowers die from another piece of card I had made with the same technique and added some stitching to those. The centre of the flowers are punch from stamping one of the Dylusions Around the Edge stamps.

The flower stalks are hand drawn and cut out and my sentiment is simply just the word "Grow" using Prima alphabet stickers.

Finally I matted onto yellow card to pull the colour out and then mounted onto an 8 X 8 black card base,

So why not pop over HERE and join in with our anything goes week.

Our Sponsor this week is "Sassy Studio Designs" and a randomly chosen winner will be able to choose 4 digi images.

Hopefully see you over there.

Thanks for stopping by and see you soon

Love

Amanda X



Masculine at Stampotique Designers Challenge

Hi

 Over at Stampotique Designers challenge the theme for this week is

"MASCULINE"

and my penultimate GDT piece for March.

The character I have used for this is one of my favourites "Twinkie" by Daniel Torrente, he was one of the first Stampotique stamps that I bought. Using a mask I have cut out the blocks from a gelli print and then stuck them to another gelli print. Bits of him have been stamped, coloured and then cut out and added to each of the blocks, hence the title body builder which I have added using Tim Holtz label letters. I have also added the word "Whatever" from Stampotique.

why not pop over and see the fabulous work of the DT and come and join in with us this week.

Thanks for visiting and see you soon

Love

Amanda X



A quick bit of colouring in.................

Hi Everyone'

  this is my 2nd post of the day as I had that dreaded question today, "you couldn't just make a card for my mum could you"? "when do you want it for"? I said, "Today please"!! they said.

So this is a quick card made using the latest "Girlfriends Stamps". I haven't done a "Girlfriends card for ages but couldn't resist buying the latest releases from Art Impressions as these girls just make me laugh. The set I have used here is "Wine Tasters", and includes the fabulous sentiment

 "Remember age gets better with wine"!

Art Impressions Girlfriends Wine Taster Set

Stamped onto watercolour paper with Versafine black and coloured using distress markers as water colours. I have used Aged Mahogany distress ink to make the wine spills on the background. Then just simply matted onto black card.

I've not coloured in like this for ages so it was a fab hour and a half of therapy!!

.Thanks for visiting and see you soon

Love

Amanda X



2nd week as Guest Designer at Stampotique

It's my 2nd week as guest designer for March at Stampotique designers challenge and that first week has flown by. This weeks theme is

"Green as your primary colour"

Now this wouldn't be a "go to" colour choice of mine but after making this I might use it more often as I really enjoyed making it. I did however have to add a dash of pink (now that's more me!)

For this one I have put together a combination of scraps that I had lying around like fabric,book pages,sequin waste to name a few. I have also added loads of free motion machine stiching for more texture. All of this sits on top of some brush strokes of paint and a little stenciling.

I have used the wonderful "Little Friends" by Janet Klein. I love how they are all in their summer dresses which is why I have called it "Summer Fun".

So pop over HERE and come and play along with something you have made that is predominately Green. Challenge rules can be found on the blog.

thanks for visiting

Love

Amanda X

 

Water Inspired at FSC this fortnight

It's the start of another new challenge at Fashionable stamping Challenges and for this week it was my turn to choose the theme and I chose

"Water"

this can be anything related to water ie rivers,ocean,rain etc.

I picked this challenge theme as I wanted to use another new set of stamps from the fabulous new range from Brett Weldele by Stampers Anonomous, this set is called "Ship Captain". My water therefore is the ocean.

Brett Weldele - Ship Captain

My background is made up of 2 different gelli prints, but using the same acrylic paint colours, to show a difference between sea and sky, the swirls in the sea piece have been made using a catalyst tool and the clouds in the sky using bubble wrap.

My stamped images were first stamped onto gesso painted dictionary paper I love the gesso as it makes a great base for most colouring mediums and these have been coloured using a combination of faber-Castell gelato and Portfolio oil pastels the gesso allows you to really smudge the colours.whilst all images are glued flat to the paper I have used pinflair silicone glue so the captain is raised off the page.

Just for a little contrast I have stamped the 2 sayings in crimson archival ink. I have used all the stamps in the set. The checkered stamp that I have added around the edge is a Kaiser craft stamp.

We would love it if you popped over to Fashionable stamping challenge and join in with our watery theme this fortnight.

One randomly chosen winner will recieve $20to spend at Flonzcrafts

Can't wait to see you over there

Thanks for visiting and see you soon

Love

Amanda X

It's all just got a bit retro...........

This week at Crafts4eternity our challenge theme is

"SPOTS & STRIPES"

My DTmake for this all started by splodging fluorescent acrylic paints on my gelli plate and swooshing paper through it and then they just went in my box of gelli prints. Then I took delivery of a new set of stencils from Splode Away - The Stentastic Street Art Kit and I thought this one, Twiggy,  from the set fitted with the background I had boxed away until inspired to use it.

I have stenciled the Twiggy with Sweet Poppy black paste and added further stencilling with Tims cargo stencil. My "Spots & Stripes" to keep with this weeks theme are also stencilled on using sequin waste and a Wendy Vecchi Stencil for the stripes

I hope that you will pop over and join in with us. You could be the randomly chosen winner and pick 3 downloads from our sponsor this week - Stamping All Day.
I would also like to enter this into the first ever challenge on the new
 Thats Crafty challenges where their first theme is "Anything Goes"
As always thanks for stopping by and feel free to let me know you have visited.
Love
Amanda X

Soooooooooo excited to be Guest designer For March at Stampotique Designer Challenge

Well what an absolute thrill (understatement) to be invited to be guest designer for March at stampotique designers challenge. I love this blog challenge and the one I play along with the most so this is a dream for me.

I start this month with the challenge

TEXTURE

one of my favourite challenge theme's and I have started this GD month for Stampotique with a canvas full of textures. I just love playing with stencils,texture paste and paint.

 I used a 10" x 5" x 1.5" canvas, covered it in ripped up 7GypsiesLillie papers then smeared Paperartsy fresco finish paints over it randomly with a credit card. On top of that stenciling with paste through 3 different stencils 2 of them I then painted when dried. Main stamped image is "Queen of Life" which I have stamped onto gesso covered dictionary paper and partially coloured with the same paints. "Magical Woman" I took 2 words from the "Word Collage" Stamp.

I have splashed white acrylic paint randomly, added ripped washi tape a bit of painted lace trim and randomly stamped with "Spiritual Collage". the word "Life" I have cut from gesso covered dictionary paper using Tim's Tall Letters die and then doodled around the edges with a fine liner pen.

 

As this was a deep canvas the sides were also painted and stamped with "Spiritual Collage stamp"

I hope you like my first piece for March and hope that you will join in with this weeks challenge and show us your "Textures" at stampotique designers challenge

thanks for visiting

Love

Amanda X

A Hot Glue Gun Experiment.......

Today, seeing as though it is pouring down with rain, I have spent most of my time playing in my craftroom even though household jobs are piling up........

I decided to play with my hot glue gun, making shapes on my craft sheet primarily to use with my gelli plate, I tried some hearts and I liked this one I made so much that I decided to incorporate it onto a canvas, I would love to know what you think?

The glue was clear so once it had dried on my craft sheet I painted it with several coats of London Bus Paperartsy Fresco Paint, when that was dry I roughly painted on some Rock Candy crackle paint to see what would happen and it sort of worked after I had added distress stain??

I covered a heart that I think came stuck to something with dictionary paper and painted it, finished off with a Tim Holtz remnant rub.

All this then had to sit on something so I set about an 8 x 8 canvas using Paperartsy fresco finish paints in Beach hut,south Pacific, bora bora and London bus using mainly an old credit card to apply.

For added texture I added painted and  handstiched dictionary and designer paper.

Some stenciling with Dylusions stencils.

I stamped the equations from Red Rubber company onto tissue and applied,

the sides of the canvas had the same treatment

 

Final touches were loads of numerical remnant rubs and flicks of picket fence distress paint.

The sentiment was computer generated.

I'd love to know what you think about my experiment.

thanks for stopping by

Love

Amanda X

Think Pink!

Hi everyone and a special hello to my latest followers, thankyou for joining me on my journey, hope you enjoy the ride.

This week at stampotique designers challenge the theme is 

"Monochromatic" use only one colour.

sadly, this week, a colleague of mine found out that she had developed breast cancer, whilst her prognosis is good, as they have caught it early, I have been trying to support her at this time. In support of all the work that goes into raising money for breast Cancer I am highlighting awareness of this through my entry into this weeks challenge and called my piece

"THINK PINK" 

 named after the wonderful charity organisation that does so much to support breast cancer.

I

My stamp is the fabulous Moth Fab stamped on to tissue paper face arms and bag painted from behind before sealing onto the piece with multi matt medium.

I have used Alterations postage stamp frame cut from mountboard several times for depth.

Used every pink shade of paint I own

and several kaiser kraft texture stamps

text cut from dictionary paper

Bit of bling and pink bakers twine finish the piece.

thanks for stopping by please feel free to leave a comment as I love to hear from you

have a nice weekend

Love

Amanda X