fantasy scene

The second of my samples for the shows last month uses one of the lovely images from the fantasy castles set of stamps - I have to admit these were far more my scene than the fairies!

This started out as playing with borrowed distress oxide ink pads on white card, without any idea where I was going, other than trying them out. Looking for inspiration later,  I thought that the palace stamp would fit here as it looked as if it was on a shore, and I already had a watery effect at the base of my very rough landscape, and the strange colour sky fitted the fantasy theme.
 I stamped it with black versafine and clear embossed it before adding colour with brusho powders and watercolour pencils. The palace was stamped onto acetate with the versafine, turned over and  matched up with the original, rubbed firmly to transfer the image onto the watery area. It didn't transfer cleanly, but that didn't matter.
I added foliage from the tranquility stamp set using first and second generation stamping to frame the scene and give an impression of depth - it also toned down the rather bright sky!

CB challenge 22

 For my DT sample for the Chocolate Baroque colour challenge, I used 2 stamps from the butterfly poppy A4 sheet of stamps - another older set which was a firm favourite a while ago, (I really loved the combination of poppies and script) and which fitted the colours.
For the first card, the main image was stamped in black versafine onto white card and clear embossed before colouring with promarkers. The white 15x15cm base card was stamped in opposite coners with the small script stamp using whild honey distress ink before adding the butterfly image on an orange mat.

The second card was stamped with black versafine again, and coloured with pencils, giving a much paler image. The script stamp was stamped all over the 5"x7" white  base card in wild honey ink before matting the butterfly onto a paler orange card.

in the night garden

Two rather different takes on the another brick in the wall garden  stamp - why, when it is so obviously a hot summer day scene, do I want to try to make it a night scene and then a snowy one?
I have to admit I do sometimes wonder about my sanity!
The first one is stamped in black Memento onto grey card - branches and leaves  coloured with grey promarkers, then green pencil added to the leaves, I coloured the shutters with darker grey pencils, then added white and yellow pencil to try to give the impression of light leaking out through the shutters.
A black matt, then mounted onto a 15x15cm white card blank

For the snowy one, I stamped onto kraft card using a brown ink, and used brown marker pen for the branches., green pencil again for the leaves, I used a white pencil to add the snow on the shutters and a little on the wall, then a white chalk marker pen to add the snow lighlights to the branches , window sill and the ground.
Another black matt, and 15x15cm white card blank

August postcards

 The August theme for the Chocolate Baroque postcard potpourri swap was either gladiolus or poppy or orange.
My problem this month was that I have a LOT of poppy stamps, and was therefore faced with the problem of which one to use! I thought I was being very sneaky deciding to use a patchwork layout, where I could cram in as many poppy stamps as I could easily lay my hands on............what I hadn't though of was how long it would take to do!
I ended up with 2 versions, one with the hexagons just masked off and stamped and the second with them cut out and separated by a border from each other.
Images stamped with versafine in both, coloured with pencils and distress ink smudged round the edges of the hexagons.
I am blaming all this work on my friend who showed me her stunning patchwork and quilted wall hangings, but on the other hand I owe her thanks for the inspiration......

Christmas starts here..........

Yesterday was the regular monthly get-together at Gissing - due to holidays, it was definitely a case of quality over quantity, and the four of us did rather rattle around in the hall! It did mean that we got a whole table each to spread our stuff out, and we had a very pleasant time drinking coffee, eating cake and even doing some stamping!
Moira brought her new Christmas stamps from Hobby Art for us to play with - it didn't feel quite right making Christmas cards on a hot sunny day, but we managed. After last month's Clarity workshop, I now have 5 cards, which is already way more than at this time last year...........
I stamped the large greeting using Memento white ink onto black card, trimmed it down and added glitter with a glue pen. It was mounted onto silver card, which doesn't show up in the scan, then onto a base stamped using snowflakes and distress ink in broken china, milled lavender and iced spruce. Those colours didn't quite work out, so a quick sponge round the edges with more broken china to do a rescue job before mounting the panel on top.


The smaller Noel stamp from the same set as the first stamp was stamped in black versafine and coloured with watercolour pencils, as was the bird from the same set. Background card was randomly stamped with the holly swirl from the penguin set from last year, which was also coloured with pencils before more sponging with broken china.Another silver matt - I have managed to cut a bit off the left hand edge of this card scanning it, the topper is actually central!








The last card used the new Father Christmas stamp, this time coloured with distress inks, and a lot of glitter over the furry bits. Another snowflake background, this time stamped using a  multicoloured ink pad in blues and purples.
A silver matt again, and a diecut snowflake also in silver to finish him off (Memory Box die).