Out came the porfolios

Good afterenoon to you all, I hope you are all having a lovely Sunday....

You know how we all have loads of lovely crafty stash and some times..just some times you forget about certain things..Well over on the paper artsy blog on friday Helen Chilton popped on with a tag card she had done with Portfolio Pastels. You can go over and have a look here. I thought ohh I haven't used mine for ages!! so in between cooking sunday dinner and cleaning the house I popped out to my shed and had a go at a quick tag! And here it is....


I stamped some script on some white card and added it to the tag. Next I scribbled some portfolios randomly and blended them with my fingers.
Next I took a couple of Stencils and rubbed with a baby wipe to remove some of the colour. I blasted the tag for a few seconds with my heat gun so that the portfolios would just melt into the tag.
I then chosed my Lynn Perella image and stamped that in black archival. Then the words from a paper artsy stamp plate onto a scrap piece of card which I cut out and inked the edges wih coffee archival I put theses onto the tag with some foam squares.
Finally I edged the tag first in coffee archival and then black.



Thanks for stopping by.......

Paper Artsy Christmas Cracker

Hello lovely blog followers!! hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that you all have your Christmas trees and decs down by today..and that means you Leandra lol!!

Leandra did 3 lovely pieces on her blog in the last few days and for each challenge there is a prize of some A5 brand spanking new 2014 stamps and some limited edition paints..well if that's not a good enough reason to enter I don't know what is!!

Video 3 was called painted clusters..a Finn style piece with fresco paints..my favorite!! Didn't have time to do all three so chose this challenge.... I absolutely love this technique so pop over and have a look here.

I followed along with what Leandra did so won't bore you with all the details you should go over and watch the video,step by step I am so glad I bought some heavy duty gel medium though as it makes it so much easier to get everything to stick.

                   I didn't take a piccie before I painted the first layer

This is the finished piece using honey dew,guacamole,sage,crushed olives and holly frescos and olive bronze and brass treasure gold.

I'd like to wish you all a very happy new year!!

thanks for stopping by..........

Swanstitch challlenge

It's time for the September challenge over on the Artyinklings blog...you can read all about it here..

Anita did a lovely canvas and asked us to do our own interpretation of it, and here is mine.

I didn't have a canvas as such so used a sheet of primed canvas from a book. I stuck it to a piece of grey board. I painted it with butternut, smoked paprika,claret,haystack and pumpkin soup frescos. I layered and blended them until I was happy with the background. I cut a dress form using a sizzix die out of some this plastic I got from paper chase can't think what it's called. I mixed some grunge paste with black paint and stenciled it onto the canvas. I also used another stencil up in the corner with plain grunge paste. When that was dry I put the stencil back over it but bumped it slightly to get a white shadow effect.
Using a mask I went around the dress form with a different stencil, then went over the whole canvas again with the original colours. I stamped some script and dots on the dress, randomly over the canvas and added a bow. I used Florentine treasure gold to highlight the stand on the dress form Stamped a quote with a Wendy Vechi stamp and added some small black pearls up in the corner. Edged the canvas with little black dress and done!!

Pencil Case???

Well this is Carol's last week on the Paper Artsy blog and her first project was to alter a pencil box...I didn't have an unused one so decided to recycle...you can see Carol here..and very nice it is too!!

I followed along with what Carol did but used a different stencil and put lace and ribbon around finished box with some pearls. Not sure what I will use it for yet....

Not the best of pictures but the best I could get today...thanks for stopping by

Just slap it on!!

This week on the Paper Artsy blog one of the special birthday guests was the very talented Michelle Webb. She did an absolutely stunning piece..you can pop over and see it here. I didn't have a plywood frame or the gorgeous Jofy stamps she used so had to do my own version. I did however just slap it all on in the nicest possible way of course!! and here it is...

I followed along with what Michelle did...well after a fashion with the just slap it on technique.. I didn't like the way my crackle turned out down the side so sanded it all back to distress it as much as possible. When I was happy with the background I added the stamps from Jofy10 and painted them with fresco paints. I then stenciled on the grass and bird cages and painted them. I roughly went over the stamps with a black pen to bring them to the front again..The branches and birds were also painted in with fresco and the cages just had a light rub with white fire and pewter treasure gold. I went around the edge very lightly with onyxite treasure gold.

A much needed tray!!

Over on the Paper Artsy blog Sue Carrington has just finished her last week as a GD and what a fantastic week it has been!!! On the last day Sue did a beautiful box you should go check it out here.

I had bought this little tray from the MDF man at AP in April I think it was...so thought I would use the inspirtion from Sue's box to paint it for all our keys as everyone just comes in the house and chucks them on the side!!!

I started off by painting it all in snowflake.Then  I then put some grunge paste in a couple of the corners just roughly and then added some crackle glaze all over the rest of it. Next I sponged sage and tinned peas all over,I used the sponge as I only wanted tiny cracks. Then I roughed it up a bit more with sandpaper.
I use the bingo stencil with snowflake and coffee archival to stamp the text and the swirly stamp.I then added some chocolate pudding randomly over the tray for some contrast.

I die cut a memory box label  and distressed it a bit with paint and did the same with the key. I had a little metal frame which I painted in sage and stamped a no 2 as that is our door number. Everything was stuck on using glossy accents. Lastly I brushed onyxite treasure gold around the edges..

thanks for stopping by......

Little Boy Blue

On day 2 this week over on the paper artsy blog Sue Carrington did a lovely canvas with loads of very interesting layers. you can pop over and see it here.

Not a very long post today as I had a little accident yesterday and ended up in A&E so having to rest my sprained wrist as much as possible!! I followed along more or less what Sue did so you can follow the instructions from Sue...I must say this was very quick and enjoyable piece to do...

First page in my moleskine

On day 3 this week France did a lovely page in her small moleskine using grunge paste and gauze, so I thought perfect time to start mine.. You can see Frances version here..

I used the same technique with bandages from our first aid box...I hope you can see it properly the texture is brilliant and just shows how sharp the grunge paste is.




  I painted layers of butternut,blood orange,and london bus using the brush strokes both ways.

I coloured some grunge paste using beach hut and a touch of south pacific and used it through the diamond stencil.

When all this was dry I die cut the primitive heart from a PA die using the left over gauze and painted it red. I die cut LOVE from tissue and stuck it on.




I used various cw stencils and stamps to fill in the gaps on the page and knocked it back with snowflake. Added another layer of blood orange randomly over the pages, and stamped a small script stamp in black archival. I used a small alphabet stamp for the wording..used a black pencil to put a shadow around the heart and done...
It has been great having France with us this week..great projects!!

Thanks for stopping by.....

Paper Artsy Day 1

Over on the paper artsy website this week we have had Sue Carrington as the guest designer and she has produced three beautiful projects you can see them here.



Day one inspired me to decorate a paper mache chunky board. Now I have got right out of practice doing flowers but seeing as Sue made a focal points of flowers on the 3 projects I thought better add one or two...
I started off putting grunge paste through my brick wall stencil and drying it off.I then painted it all in stone. I painted in the sky using sky and white fresco and the grass in guacamole and hey pesto I used a few more of the greens to give the grass a bit of movement and used a white pen for some highlights. I got my new Andy Skinner stencils this week and couldn't wait to try then out so I stenciled the boy and girl using little black dress fresco and then bumped it slightly with sqid ink.I used a watercolour pencil in blue to put a slight shadow around the figures.
I stamped the script ESN03 in the sky with broken china distress ink and mini 72 using stormy sky.
I added small flowers and put gems in the centers, stamped Secret Garden from ELB01, cut it out and smudged it with guacamole and indigo treasure gold. The little bird stamp is from a crafty individual plate.