In a straight line

Good morning peeps.
I trust that you are well. While I was waiting for something to dry this morning, my eyes fell upon this ruler.

 It's the kind of ruler that kids pick up on a school trip, this one was a time line history one and I rescued it from the trash a while ago. Why, you ask. Well because you can remove the centre easily and replace it with something more interesting like this.

 I cut a piece of card to size and stamped my small birdz stamps in Coffee Archival ink along the strip and grabbed my Distress Markers.....

 I began by colouring the background in greens and oranges and blending them in with a water filled brush. (I know, this looks like blue but it's Pine Needles, promise!)

 I got so engrossed in what I was doing that I forgot to take any pics of the birds in progress so we skip to the end result.

 I think it looks pretty cool and funky, what do you think? If I was still at school I think I'd be the envy of my classmates LOL.

I used mainly blues, reds, purples and pinks for the birds to make them stand out and added a few fine details with the fine nib of the marker.
The stamps I've used are my Birdz set and are available from The Artistic Stamper or any of their stockists.
I kind of think that my wife, being a teacher and ever in need of stationery, may well commandeer this but I kind of like it too.
Cheerio, my other bits should be dry by now.....

The Presenters

Good afternoon friends,
me again....
While I was taking a look at all the new Stampers Anonymous, Sizzix and Tim Holtz releases; yes, just taking a look, promise.....something weird happened and before I knew what was what the postman knocked on my door with the new Brett Weldele stamp set - The Presenters. I mean, honestly, how did that happen? I was just looking after all.........
It would have been rude not to entertain the lady after she had traveled all this way just to visit little ol me so we had a cup of coffee while having a chat.
We got on like a house on fire and she decided to stay so here she is......

 I started off with a 10" tag and used the Tim Holtz stencil with matte medium to create a resist. When that was dry I blended Rusty Hinge and Gathered Twigd Distress over the tag. I love how the medium gives a clear impression of the mask.

 You can see the resist more clearly in this detail shot. I used the matching stamp from Oddities to stamp over the tag in Coffee and Jet Black Archival ink.

 I added further detail with stamping from the Sketch plate for the corners and sides.

Madame was stamped onto watercolour card and coloured with Distress Markers. The wings were done the same way too.

She needed a skirt so I used lace to create that and added a tassel and bead for extra detail. I glued the wings in place and attached her to the tag using 3D foam tape.

To finish I used some vintage tape measure to the tag, Tied more with ribbon to the top of the tag and attached a type charm and Chit Chat Sticker.
I'm really pleased with the way this turned out and just know I'll be using her a lot!

I'd like to enter this into the Simon Says challenge; my colours are the sunset colours I imagine when I think of The Wild West, and also, I think she has the look of a frontier wench, albeit with a Steampunk flavour. The proprietor of a bordello perhaps? Well, I'll say no more on that subject.

Enjoy the rest of your day folks.

Paper clip holder for The Craft barn

Good morning peeps.
Just a quick post today. I'm sharing a fun paper clip holder using the Tim Holtz Pocket watch frame and layered circles dies over at The Craft Barn blog today and I'd love you to pop on over for a closer look.

All the details can be found HERE and there is also a downloadable step by step PDF if you want to make your own!

WOYWW 243 and a giveaway.

Good morning friends
Wednesday has rolled around once more so time to reveal the state of your workplace.... hosted as always, by Julia over at Stamping Ground.
Not a huge amount visible here today

 Bit of a mess isn't it?

 On the left, my corner chomper (Love this!) and a little pile of my "cute" stamps. Would you like some? I'm going to give them away. Two each of the large images will go to two people and the set of four small images to another person. They are unmounted red rubber and are available from The Artistic Stamper. If you are interested in being entered for the giveaway just tell me in your comment and I'll announce the winners next Wednesday.
I've been dismantling some belts on this side. I pick these up at boot fairs and use them as embellishments on texture pieces. They always add interest and are usually inexpensive too.
Short and sweet today. I'd better go and tidy it up as I have an appointment with my Vagabond this morning! Wishing you all a creative and fun day and week ahead too.

Weekend roundup.

Good evening friends.
I hope you have all had a creative and busy weekend. I have had a great time so here is my weekend round up. I started out with a trip on Friday down to The Artistic Stamper to catch up with Jennie.... well, it was an interesting trip due to a jack knifed lorry blocking the road but I managed to meet Jennie in town for coffee and a natter to discuss and finalise some of my new stamps.......coming soon. Catching up with all the fun of CHA etc. Luckily the road was open so a little retail therapy was in order

 Stocking up on my Idea - ology and a new set of stamps.......

 This is high on my must have list, Tim's new die. Love it. Can't wait to play with these two  that Jennie cut for me.

Then, a recent addition to my stamp stash was Oddities; and I love it so could not resist this stencil which matches the stamp!

Today also sees the next word for The Craft Barn's Quotes and Lyrics challenge. All the details are HERE; and this is my Silence page.

Today I was at The Craft Barn for my Canvas class. Well, the meeting of the comedy club comes to mind! It was a fun day with lots of laughter and 12 very diverse and fabulous results so I'll leave you with a few pics of the day and wish you a good week ahead.....

 The morning was spent building up the base elements.

 Then it was time to be brave and start adding some colour!

 After a few layers, pastes and nerves conquered, some more layers, it all started to take shape. I just love seeing how differently everyone's turns out.

Having fun......

Hi there peeps
I hope you are all well. The other day while I was looking for something in my craft cave I came across some sheets of plastic that I had kept, thinking they would be useful one day.....well today was the day they did.
I used them to make masks from some of my dies. Quite a few actually.

Some hearts, circles, threes, leaves and more.

So, I made a page in my journal to give them a whirl, Just for fun I took quite a few photos of the process so if you are interested you can see the process. (If you aren't really that bothered about the process, then scroll down to around the third last photo LOL)

 I began by gessoing the page and just splashed some paint onto the page, literally, and brushed it over the page.

 I used some of the masks and a wipe to remove some of the paint. (Actually, make that half a pack of wipes!) By playing with various masks and colours until I was happy with the tones I got to this stage.

 I added some more trees and then decided to use Umbrella Man as my focal point. I used the "negative" shape of the die cut and some black paint to add definition

 I added stamped details with the Tim Holtz Oddities plate. By using the masks as I stamped I kept some areas clear of stamping.

 The end result.

It was fun to do and play around with paint and masks. And I have to say  it's all Dina Wakely's fault. I was watching her demo at CHA and it looked like fun so it was good to have the refresher and to really get messy fingers.

Catching up in my journal.

Good morning peeps.
After burning the midnight oil trying to sort of get up to date on stuff; and dare I say it, even a little ahead..... I grabbed a bit of time to catch up on some half finished pages in my Dylusions large journal. Thought I'd share them here with you.

 This page was inked with Dylusions inks and my Geometric mask. The flowers are from JOFY; coloured with Distress Markers and the "stitched" border is done by using my Wonky House mask (The road markings) as a template and using Distress Ink with a blending tool.

 This chap is from a Prince of Persia movie book . The background is blended Americana paints; a smidgen of stamping and masking. The writing is with a white Posca pen.

 I love the random chaos of this page. The background was a mop up of Dylusions inks from my craft sheet and I filled in all the "white" areas with doodles using a black pen.

 This large bird is actually the template image from doing a transfer onto a bag with Decoart Ink Effects. Once it was done; I liked the residual colour on the paper so I kept it and stuck it in here.

 Then, last one is this Christmas page. The background was done with Dylusions sprayed through some lace netting. The decorative border was done with Distress inks and the bottom section of my Funky Butterfly mask. The baubles were made by using the inner circle of my Frame mask and a moist wipe to blend the colour.

 I added some doodled details in white and the string and decorative base elements were with ink.

I really love the way this came out so kept the sentiment small by using Chit Chat stickers (Tim Holtz)

Hope you enjoy seeing them. Take care and I hope you have a lovely day.

New challenge over at That Craft Place

Good afternoon peeps

I hope you are all well. Today it is time for a new challenge over at That Craft Place. This time we have a colour palette for you and a lovely one it is too.

                                         

If you follow the link to the blog you will see lots of awesome inspiration from the team. I made a simple wall hanging this week. A little positive reminder to myself each day.

 I began by painting a little wooden hanging in Decoart Americana paint (Blue Mist) and then adding some drybrush swipes with Fawn.

 I took the Ditzie Designs Life is good stamp and stamped it onto the hanging with the Fawn paint and then overstamped this with the same image in Burnt Umber. (Remember, when stamping with paint, it is important to clean your stamp immediately!)

I Stamped Franswar onto the hanging using black Archival ink and added a bit of colour with Distress Markers. Then, looking at it I felt it still needed something so edged the tiny blackboard with Burnt Umber paint, wrote the word with a white pen and clipped it on.
A perfect little reminder to myself.

My wife and I popped down to Hastings this afternoon. We'd both been up and working early this morning and decided that enough was enough. The sun was shining so after lunch we took advantage and spent a pleasant couple of hours by the sea.

  Now,it's back to work, skiving off doesn't make the work disappear! Hope you all have a good evening.