playdate 39

 Whilst searching for a particular stamp for another project, I came across this Elusive Images stamp from a few years ago - while it came from a Christmas plate, I often use it as it is a lovely image and my Christmas roses did  NOT flower at Christmas, more like September/October (before they gave up on me), and the ones just labelled hellebores flower in spring ...............

I loved the colours chosen for the new Playdate challenge, so decided to have a go using this stamp. I originally intended bleaching out the image, but wouldn't you know it, the beige card I had won't bleach out. Second thoughts, so I coloured most of the image with Inktense pencils, then painted the actual flowers with H2Os (oyster, heavenly white and g          gold  opal) - not sure that this shows up too well on the scan though.

I tore the image out, then sponged over the edges with old paper and  brushed corduroy DIs, matted onto glossy white and black card - the torn black card was edged with pirate gold EP to add a bit of bling. The embossed backing card was also given the DI treatment with the same inks

felted flower

Having seen felted flowers on several blogs recently I was quite pleased to find that the speaker at my WI meeting this week was talking about felting. The photo shows some of the samples she brought to show us different ways of felting - the blue scarf was very tactile and delicate, not at all what I expected felt to be like!  The bags  are actually seamless, something I am all in favour of as I am useless  at sewing. We all had a chance to play at needle felting afterwards, although only 4 of us did so while the rest watched in anticapation of us stabbing ourselves with the (very sharp) felting needles.......fortunately, I chose red wool which didn't show the blood!
I rashly tried to make a flower, and actually was quite pleased with how it turned out,  although in no way does it resemble an actual flower apart from having petals and leaves! It was quite fun stabbing away at the wool, can see that it would relieve a lot of tensions if you christened the wool as something (one?) that was bugging you..............
Let's just say that thanks to Sue Percival our speaker I left clutching not only my 'flower' but a bag of assorted wool, 2 felting needles and a polystyrene block...............and two small purple petals are the start of another flower.
I think I shall have to invest in a small canvas so that I can use my creations - or alternatively next month's WI competition is for a decorated hat.....................

second thank you card

 I used the sketch from corrosive challenges for the second school thank-you card. The green card was edged with DIs in bundled sage and peeled paint, and the grasses on one side from the eastern grasses plate by Elusive Images were stamped with the sage DI.The greyish backing paper from Graphicus Guild was sprayed with glimmer mist in green.                                              The tag started out sponged  with DIs on old paper and peeled paint, then the grasses image was stamped in versamark, clear embossed, sponged with peeled pain, then the versamark ironed off. More grasses were stamped in peeled paint and black soot - tag sprayed with water to blur the black image. When it was dry, the cow parsley stamp from the wild meadow plate by Elusive Images was embossed in white twice at the bottom of the tag. The butterfly image is from the patchwork butterfly plate -also Elusive Images -embossed in black and painted with Artquest jewel mica metallic paints.

playdate 37

 There was plenty of colour choice in this challenge, and I chose  tan, green and red, and used the poppy image from Elusive Images - to me, poppies are summer, and I am sure there are plenty in Provence!
The base card is tan, edged with DIs in bundled sage and forest green - backing papers from Graphicus Guild paper pack. My friend Moira kindly lent me her wizard and nestie dies to cut out the poppy and its frame - was quite impressed with the nesties, not quite so much so with the wizard firing the plates out at me though!

 The poppy stamp was embossed with pirate gold EP on to white card sponged with DIs in old paper, bundled sage and forest green, and coloured with Inktense pencils.
This card will be the first in a  series of thank-you cards for staff leaving school at the end of term.

transfer tag

I managed to watch Barbara Gray on C&C last Sunday - she demoed image transfer using nail varnish remover and an inkjet print - sounded interesting and cheap to do, so I looked for nail varnish remover on Monday morning. Think half the population must have had the same idea, took ages to track down some remover, eventually found some in small local supermarket, purely by accident! Anyhow, after several tries, this was the best I managed - either too much remover, didn't rub hard enough/ too hard - possibly the fact that I use water-resistant ink in my Epson printer may not have helped either. Image came from the Craft Stamper website, but I only used the face - to be honest, was a bit fed up by then!
My current favourite DIs were sponged round the image - spiced marmalade, rusty hinge, fired brick and vintage photo- then overstamped with a flourish from Elusive Images and the flower freebie from Craft Stamper. The butterfly came from Inca stamps, stamped on acetate  with gilding flakes on the back - dragonfly from Elusive Images, crystal glitter on acetate.
Think I shall have to move on to blues and greens - the weather is far too hot at the moment, and maybe if I use cooler colours the weather may follow....................