Lot's of grunge

Today sees the start of a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this month it's my turn to choose the theme which is 'It's Just a Number', as always there is a generous prize of a $20 shopping voucher from FlonzCraft.

I'm not convinced about this canvas, it all looks rather too busy, but it might grow on me I guess. I covered the canvas with black gesso, then a coat of crackle glaze and an off white acrylic paint. Stamping around the edges with a really old Inkadinkadoo stamp, the clock is from Stamp Addicts which I cut out after stamping. I did some random stenciling with a Timmy number stencil, fixed the clock in place and then arranged lots of odds and ends at the bottom corner and painted with Gilding Polishes and added two Penny Black Butterflies stamped onto an offcut of card coloured with the same gilding polishes.

And I have a second share, I was having an inky play and realised the PB sentiment fitted the theme so well. My starting point was a piece of 600gsm Fabriano, distress inks and some torn printed decoupage tissue. Next some stencilling here and there using an Ivy stencil, the focal Poppies are Penny Black Divine stamped with black archival and coloured in with Brosho's and I used a couple of embossing powder tub lids and DI's to add some circles. Hubby's comment "humm different", which in real terms means I don't really like it, but he's never appreciated my grungy makes. I cut the Penny Black sentiment into two pieces.

Do pop over the the challenge blog and see the inspiration my teamies have to offer.

Inky indulgence

It's time for our new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Animal Magic' and 'Use your favourite stamp'. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both.

My framed canvas piece at the top was such fun to make and some of you may have already caught sight of it on Hochanda earlier this week as it is one of my samples for the release of the lovely new Kingfisher range of stamps from Chocolate Baroque's featured in the One Day Special. I started with covering the frame with black gesso then working round the frame with paints and gilding polishes applied with a brush, stencils and stamps. The corner arrangement is literally lots of odds and sods stuck into place and then painted with the same polishes.

The focal canvas is inked with DI's, 'mesh' using a TL die, more stamping, some chipboard, two stamped sentiments also from the new releases as is the wonderful Kingfisher which is also painted with the gilding polishes. I am off to the Playground with this one as lots of odds and sods including the sentiment scraps.

To the majority who know me there is no surprise which stamp I was going to use for my Penny Black piece, it is of course 2695J Dance, Sing Love. I used a piece of Fabriano and gave it a wash of blue DI's before stamping the sentiment and then Sunbrusts 40-460, a new release from PB which I inked with Distress Markers and spritzed with water before repeat stamping. Matted and layered onto coordinating cardstock and finito.

Have a lovely Sunday and I do hope you will join our challenges this month.

Live in the Sunshine

Today sees the start of a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this month our theme is 'Anything Goes', a nice and easy one over the holiday period when so many of us are busy. As always there is a generous prize of a $20 shopping voucher from FlonzCraft.

I found this heart having a clear out of my overflow craft room........aka one of the spare bedrooms.......so decided to have a play with my new Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Polishes, apparently you can add them direct to wood without a base coat but I had already given the heart a coat of gesso and it blended fine. I used Fern, Aqua, Purple and Gold. 

The polish dries almost instantly so next I stenciled the same polishes over the base and...........this is the really good but about the polishes........you can stamp with it was well so I stamped around the edges with a really old Inkadinkadoo stamp. Next stamped the Heartfelt flowers onto a piece of card coloured with the same polishes, cut them out with the matching die and layered up. The sentiment is from Inkylicious, masking each section of the stamp to get three individual pieces, the wording is too close together to just stamp and cut but it is easy enough to do this way. Finally some lace and pearls and finito.

And with all those snippets I am popping right off to the Playground with this one, Miss Di is still under the weather (get well soon Miss) but you know they say about when the cat is away.............

I do hope you will come and join in our challenge.