Let's Go Fly a Kite

Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed your long weekend!  I've got a clean and simple card for you today.

This silhouette image by Jenni Bowlin looks great with very little embellishment.  I just sponged a background using Seedless Preserves Distress Ink, then l laid the Fence Frame stencil from The Crafters Workshop and sponged more Seedless Preserves.  To ground the image I stencilled Black Soot Distress Ink through the Tim Holtz Stripes stencil.

To finish off, I trimmed my panel then mounted it onto purple card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Shirley x

Christmas in July

Morning, folks!  Now that summer is upon us, I thought it would be a good idea to make some Christmas cards :)

I've used the Lawn Fawn Lawn Cuts Stitched Snowflakes.  The snowflakes come attached to each other - you can leave them like that (as I did) or you can separate them to use individually or in a different arrangement.  The beauty of this die set is that you can use both the negative and positive cuts so you can get two cards for the price of one.

I started off by cutting the set out of white card, then leaving everything intact I brushed a watercolour wash of Tumbled Glass Distress Ink across, allowing the colour to pool unevenly at the edges of the cuts.  Once dried, I removed the cut pieces and adhered the panel to my card base.  I popped the two larger snowflakes back into place to use as a guide for sticking the interior shapes into place, and diluted some Viva Decor Inka Gold and flicked it over the finished card.

That left me with the stitched snowflakes to use on another card.

Again, I flicked some Inka Gold over the navy card base, and brushed the snowflakes with Wink of Stella for a little sheen.

Then I just adhered the snowflakes by the centres and curled up their edges for a bit of dimension.

Thanks for looking, and have a great Sunday!

Shirley x

More reasons to get crafty...

Good morning all

Just a quick post to let you know that there are even more products in our HUGE sale section

and a few special offers too!

10% off selected GOLDEN fluid acrylics

Some of the Distress family of products are either at a new lower price, or reduced to clear! 

Distress Stickles

Distress Ink Pads

Distress Paints

Distress Stains

&

 Distress Glitter

If that's not even Tim Holtz goodness

we have also got a clearance event on selected

Idea-ology!  and Tim Holtz Stamps

DYLUSIONS NEWS

yep, we have reduced to clear our remaining selection of

Dylusions Stamps AND Stencils!

Not only that but we have 10% off Dylusions Ink Sprays too! 

So, plenty of sunshine crafting in the garden this summer.

You could even start planning your Christmas projects! 

Happy Creating!

Vicki 

Time Flies

Hi guys!  I've been playing with various media to make this Time Flies canvas.

I started off by making my weathered wood panel by swiping Distress Ink minis from top to bottom.

Then scoring it every half inch before stamping with the Peeled Paint background stamp from Darkroom Door.  I painted my canvas with black gesso and adhered the panel to the canvas.

Added a few buttons, paper flowers, bandage fabric scrap and some moulded items from my stash, and painted those black.  

Once everything was dry I sprayed Dylusions White Linen over it and when that had dried, rubbed on some Viva Decor Inka Gold in Lava Red, Jade and Gold.

The Inka Gold adds a lovely antique metallic look to the painted flowers.

Using the Julie Nutting Mixed Media Doll Wings stamp as a template, I cut out a pair of wings from black card and painted them with Finnabair Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint - Opal Magic Rose-Gold.  You see the gold in one light, and the pale rose colour in another.  The clock is from Tim Holtz Curiosities, sponged with Antique Linen.

I hope time isn't flying too quickly for you this summer!

Enjoy your weekend.

Shirley x

Happy you!

Hi guys I'm here today with my latest post for A Sprinkle of Imagination.  Along with me I have brought Nina Angel, Magda Polakow's cute design from the Stampotique originals.

I started to work on a piece of black card.  Using Dylusion paints, bubblegum pink and vibrant turquoise I blended through Dylusions starry night stencil.  Once my colours were dry I bumped the 

stencil over and blended some white dylusions paint through the same stencil.  I doodled over the constalations with a white posca pen and set aside.

Nina Angel was stamped, cut out and then watercoloured using distress inks.  From a piece of card that has previously been sprayed with Dylusion inks I die cut a star and added some white dots.  From the Lawn Fawn die 'Happy birthday to you' I cut out the words happy & you and joined them together. And added some more white dots.

Thank you for stopping by today, remember to stop by the ASOI shop and check out the fabulous selection of stamps, stencils, paints and mediums galore.

Happy crafting,

Clare x x x 

Maude Doodle Dolly

Hi peeps!  Have you seen the gorgeous new stamps by Karen Hayselden for Stampotique?  I fell in love with Maude Doodle Dolly.

I stamped her on a spare piece of white card, then watercoloured her with Distress Inks and cut her out.

On my tall card base I swooshed some black gesso across to ground where she would be standing, splattered some Distress Inks, then added some ring marks using a bottle top and Dylusions Cherry Pie and After Midnight paint, placing one of the ring marks as a halo.

I added a diecut and sentiment from Hero Arts Happy Stamp and Cut set to finish the card.

Pop on over to the Sprinkle of Imagination store for a look at the rest of the new Stampotique designs and all the other new goodies.

Shirley x

Horlogerie

Hey peeps, happy Saturday :)  Today I've been playing with one of my favourite Tim Holtz stamp sets, Papillon.  I just love the large background script stamp.

I started off by stamping the image with Versafine Onyx Black on card, then sponging Distress Inks (Spun Sugar, Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord, Peeled Paint).  A quick blast with the heat gun to seal the inks, then I added some highlighting with a white Post paint pen.  I trimmed the panel using the largest frame from the Lawn Fawn: Lawn Cuts Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables which give a lovely stitched edge.

I wrapped some grape Prima Jute around the panel then mounted it onto my base card, and it was finished.  Or was it?  Maybe it was lacking a little something.  The moths and butterflies in the Papillon set came to the rescue!

That's better!  Have a crafty weekend :)

Distressed Watercolouring !!!

Good morning everyone and a very happy Sunday to you all....

Today I want to share my renewed love for my Ranger distress pads !!!

When I started art journalling it was one of the first this I bought but apart from stamping or inking edges I never really did anything else with them and they were soon relegated to the bottom of the art draw. 

Well I have to say I am now so back in love with the possibilities they hold I just had to show you what I've been doing with them.....

I've discovered that they are super amazing to use as watercolours !!!..... Yes you heard me.....by rubbing the pad onto an acrylic block or a non stick craft sheet you can add water to the pigments and paint like watercolours.....I just love it....I know I'm not going to be the first to discover this but I just love the effect it gives!!!

By adding more or less water to the pigment you can get different shades of colour. 

I can honestly say I have a new found  love for these pads. Never again will I look at them just for stamping and with the amazing array of colours both vibrant and subdued there is something for everyone. 

The mini pads are fabulous for travelling and I have made sure they are in my travel art kit. A definately must have !!!!

The colours I used are,,,
Picked Raspberry
Peacock Feathers
Wild Honey
Crushed Olive

The red heart was a felt tip pen

Thanks for stopping by

Bright and painty hugs

Tracy

X

It's A Man Thing

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Shirley here with a trendy masculine card for you.

I started off by stamping the guy image from Dylusions Mini Couture using Tea Dye Distress ink, watercoloured the image using the same colour, then masked that with some scrap paper.  I inked up the Mix Tape 6x6 stencil by Ronda Palazzari with Distress Inks, turned it over and placed it over the masked stamped image at a jaunty angle, pressing it down with kitchen roll so that the colours mixed, and the excess was mopped up.

The scrap paper I used for masking was red and white checked, but because it got soaked by the Distress Inks, some of it ripped and stayed behind as I was removing it.  Doesn't it look cool, though?  Might have to try drawing checks on the jacket next time!

I used a stamp from Dina Wakley Textures to add some detail around the edges, then trimmed the panel, matted it onto black card, then adhered it to my card base.  On a spare piece of black card, I wrote the HB2U with a white Posca pen, and stuck a strip of the trimmed card across the bottom using 1/8 inch Wonder Tape.  It just adds that little bit of interest.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Shirley x

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Sunday, and Happy Mother's Day!  I thought I'd show you the card I've made for my mum, using the Pomegranate Bits from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

There are two masks in the pack, and all I did was ink them with Distress Ink Minis, spritz lightly with water, then lay each one down onto white card, pressing with kitchen towel to ensure full contact and to make sure the inks blend.

You can get a bit of splatter/leakage as you lay the mask onto your card, but that suits me, because I add more splatter anyway!

When you remove the mask, there is still sufficient ink left on it for another quick spritz and a softer image.  You can also use either side of a mask, which helps to give a bit of variety to your composition.

To finish off my card, I defined the edges of the images by very quickly and loosely scribbling around the edges with a fine tipped black pen.  I created a matching sentiment by watercolouring the same Distress Inks onto white card, then die-cutting the Hero Arts Happy Stamp & Cut, and stamping the rest of the sentiment, then mounted the whole panel onto yellow card.

That's it from me today - enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Shirley x

Golden Girl

Hi everyone, and happy Friday!  I've been playing with Viva Decor Inka Gold today to make my Golden Girl mixed media card.

I spread a very small amount of Inka Gold onto an acetate sheet, spritzed it lightly with water then worked the paste into the water to dissolve it, then tapped some Distress Inkpads onto the acetate and spritzed those, then swooshed a piece of card through the puddle a couple of times.  And this is what I got:

Using a Ranger Sponge Applicator I sponged Dylusions Bubblegum Pink paint through a Donna Downey 12x12 Perforated Dot Flower stencil to get this gorgeous background.

Once I'd stamped the Julie Nutting Mixed Media Doll I painted the dress and crown with a watered down paste of Inka Gold, then coloured her skin, hair and bow with Distress Inks.  Look at the shine on her dress!

When I'm fussy cutting images where an inner area needs to be removed, e.g. between arms and body, I often cut straight across the arm following the line of the skirt, cut out the inner area, then realign the arm and stick back together with a bit of 1/8" Wonder Tape on the back and you can't see the join!

Have a great weekend!
Shirley

Happy Anniversary

Happy weekend, folks!  Shirley here with a slightly grungy anniversary card for you.  February being the month of love, we're seeing plenty of hearts, pinks, reds - but rather than a valentine's card, I thought I'd make an anniversary card.

I started by colouring a piece of mixed media card with Barn Door Distress Paint.  Once that had dried, I applied Brushed Pewter Distress Paint to some bubble wrap and used it as a stamp onto the panel.  I used the Lawn Fawn Lawn Cuts Small Stitched Rectangles to trim the panel.

The 'happy' (diecut from glitter foam) and 'anniversary' are from the Hero Arts Happy Stamp & Cut set.

The red Distress Paint hadn't covered fully, leaving some of the paper texture showing, but I think that adds to the grunginess :)

The heart is made from Tim Holtz Grungepaper which had been sponged with Fired Brick Distress Ink then embossed to give it texture, and heat-set with clear embossing powder.  I attached it to the red panel with a heart-shaped brad which I found in my stash.

On a tent-fold white card, I 'painted' some Brushed Pewter marks with a credit card, added some more marks to the red panel, then adhered the panel to the card.

I hope I've given you some ideas for Valentine's or anniversary cards.  See you soon!

Shirley

Poppy Parade

Hi folks, and happy weekend :)  Shirley here with a little stamped creation for you.  I stamped two large outline poppies and one small outline poppy from the Donna Downey Poppies set using Versafine Onyx Black, masking as I went along.  I left the masks on while I stamped the background (Darkroom Door Background Stamp - Peeled Paint) using, appropriately enough, Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

After removing the masks, I painted the petals with Festive Berries and Barn Door Distress Inks, then added Walnut Stain Distress Stickles to the poppy stamens.  Once everything was dry, I sponged a bit of Fired Brick Distress Ink to the centres of the flowers to deepen the colour.

I wanted to jazz up the background, so I covered the poppies with the masks again and stamped the text from Dina Wakley's Textures set.

Then I decided that the gaps between the text needed to be filled in so I used the dot stamp from the Textures set.

Here's another version that I made first, but in a slightly different way.  I stamped the solid poppy images in Distress Ink, blasted with a heat gun, then stamped and gold-embossed the line images.    The embossing powder still managed to stick to the petal area but I deliberately left it, to give it a grungy look.  I was using mixed media paper (porous, similar to watercolour paper) and the embossing soaked into the paper, so I ironed it all off.  Then I watercoloured the background with Distress Inks and stamped the text.

So there you have it, two 6x6 inch stamped and watercolored panels, which can either be trimmed to fit a card front, or mounted and framed.

See you next time!

Shirley