A bit of sparkle....

....for my That's Crafty weekly piece. Full details are on the That's Crafty blog but here's a little look.....

Donna xx

There's a new challenge....

...starting over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog and the theme is 'All At Sea'.....anything beachy or sea related.  Well I still had the little Treasure Seeker stamp sitting on the table so figured I'd start with him and make a seaside tag....

Started off by quickly sketching a little beach hut and coloured it with promarkers......

Then I cut it down to a tag shape, bended on a bit of Salty Ocean distress ink to give a background.  Then added my stamped, coloured and cut out Treasure Seeker. To add bit more interest I then added a little background stamping with Kaisercraft stamps......'Grid' and 'Distressed'. Decided then that I would like a bit of bunting so I coloured a little bit of card with Squeezed Lemonade distress ink, stamped with a script stamp and then cut it up to make my bunting.

Then topped it off with some pale blue seam binding.

Now why don't you pop over to the That's Crafty Challenge and join in the fun.....we'd love to see you and you could win yourself a £20 voucher!

Donna xx

Let's have some fun.......

.......with a pinwheel!

I started with a 10" square piece of white card which I coloured with distress inks on one side and on the other I randomly stamped the Bubbles background stamp (great background stamp!!) The I cut the piece of card as shown below before turning one corner of each side triangular section into the centre and gluing in place with Cosmic Shimmer Glue. 

 I stamped Treasure Seeker onto some white card, cut it out using a Spellbinders Scalloped Circle die and then coloured with distress inks.

I used a long length drawing pin to pin the wheel onto a length of dowel rod before finishing it off by gluing the stamped image in place as a centrepiece......and .....voila a pinwheel reminiscent of our childhood days....just a fun little project :) 

See you again soon 

Donna xx

Morning all.....

....lovely sunny morning today :)  Here's my weekly piece for That's Crafty, a cheap plywood frame that I've painted , sparkled and added a sentiment ........pop over to the That's Crafty blog for details of what I've used.....

See you again soon,

Donna xx

Summery Bunting....

....I've used the little 'beach children' to make some bunting for this weeks Creative Expression piece.

Started off by cutting out some individual 'flags' from some white card, size as shown below...

Then I basically decorated each one in the same style but just changed the colour on each one. So I'll just talk you through one of them. Firstly I coloured the base with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink and flicked some water over the freshly inked surface, left for a few seconds and then blotted to give some 'bleached' spots.

 

Then I added a bit of random stamping using the Fern background stamp, inked with the same colour as base, and also the Bubbles which I inked in black. Then I took a damp paintbrush and lifted out some of the colour from a few of the bubbles.

Then I stamped Beauty and the Beach onto some white card, cut her out and coloured with Promarkers. Also stamped a few of the seagulls, cut them out and glued in place along with the little girl. To finish off I added a few words.....now I used Chit Chat stickers but you could computer generate some or use alphabet stamps for the same effect.

This one used Squeezed Lemonade distress ink as colour and stamp was 'I Spy' .......

Salty Ocean Distress and 'Little Fisherman' stamp for this.... 

 Peacock Feathers distress and 'Treasure Seeker' stamp for this.......

Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry distress along with 'Beach Bucket Bliss' stamp..... 

To attach them all together I punched some holes in the corners of each 'flag' and then tied together with lengths of Chalk White Seam Binding.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you like my bunting :)

Donna xx

Happy Fathers Day......

......to all the dads out there. Over at Sunday Postcard Art the theme is 'Men Only'....well considering the day it seemed appropriate! Lol! I've used a new stamp for my creation.....always looked at some of the Stampotique stamps and fancied having a play but never actually got round to buying any, well a few months ago I picked one up second hand and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get it inked up!! So here's my 'stylish' dude all dressed up for Father's Day............

Donna xx

Do you like to play with dolls?

......can't say I was ever a mad doll fan as a child but the Julia Nutting/Prima Doll Stamps are definitely fun to play with! Here's a tag, well actually a tag card, that I've made for my weekly That's Crafty piece, as usual full details are on the That's Crafty blog.

Enjoy your weekend,

Donna xx

Time for another challenge....

....on the That's Crafty Challenge Blog. I've made an ATC using a lovely zentangle style owl from Lost Coast designs because the theme for the next 2 weeks is 'The Birds'.

Made a background for my little feathery friend by blending Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn distress ink onto an atc blank, then splashed with a few water droplets for a faux bleached look and then added a little background stamping with Kaisercrafts grid stamp. 

I stamped the owl onto some white card, cut him out and coloured him with Ripe Persimmon and Mustard Seed distress ink using some cut 'n' dry foam. Then I added a tiny bit of text paper to the coloured atc and glued the owl in place above the text paper. Then simply added a few little words from the Tim Holtz chit chat sticker pack.

Don't forget to pop over and join in the fun of the challenge.

Donna xx

Creative Expression Blog Hop....

Welcome to the Creative Expressions June 2014 Blog Hop! Hopefully you got here from Tracey's blog but if you didn't, here's the start of the Hop at the Creative Expressions News Blog!

The four new large Frame stamps from Creative Expressions have been designed with co-ordinating mini frames inside, which can be used separately, as a whole or swapped with other frame designs in the range. There are also an additional four mini frame designs, plus sentiment sets which have been designed to fit inside the various frames.

One randomly selected person commenting on this blog post before the closing date will win a fabulous prize of some of the new stamp designs.

For this sample below I've used the Baroque frame but I decided to use it to make more of a medallion than to simply use it as a frame. 

I started out by stamping and embossing  the frame 3 times in white onto some white card. Then I cut them out and coloured with a mixture of Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks using some cut 'n' dry foam......

Then I repeated the process a couple of times but this time just inking up the centre of the stamp to give me just the central portion.  Again I cut these out and then stamped and embossed the 'For You' greeting in the centre of one of the squares....

The other square I cut up to give me four corners...

Then I simply layered up the 3 larger frames, rotating each one slightly and topped with the panel containing the sentiment. This was then attached to a square of white card, then the corner pieces were glued in place before matting and layering a couple of times with white and teal card before attaching to a white card blank.

Hope you like the card, thanks for stopping by my blog.......and don't forget .........please leave a comment below in order to be in with a chance of winning a prize!!!

Once you have done that, you will need to click here to visit Neil's blog.

To help you along the way, here is a list for the Blog Hop:-

1. Julia Watts - http://inkyfingerzone.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/creative-expressions-blog-hop.html

2. Kim Robertson - http://inkykimcraft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/creative-expressions-june-2014-blog-hop.html

3. Tracey Laughton - http://creativetracey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/creative-expressions-june-2014-blog-hop.html

4. Donna Ratcliff - You're here!! :-)

5. Neil Burley - http://perfectly4med.co.uk/2014/06/12/ce-june-2014-blog-hop/

6. Tracy Heaton - http://ahintofmagnolia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/blog-hop-time.html

7. Kerry Hickton - http://kezzyscraftyjourney.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/creative-expressions-june-2014-blog-hop.html

8. Pam Smith - http://smiffyscards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/creative-expressions-blog-hop.html

Start page, prize details and how to take part........Creative Expressions News Blog. The blog hop started on Thursday 12th June at 10am and ends Tuesday 17th June at 5pm.

Thank you for taking part in our Blog Hop – good luck!
Donna xx

A vintage beach scene....

....for today's Creative Expression make.....

A nice simple monotone make, simply stamp the two figures.....'Beauty and the Beach' and 'Treasure Seeker' onto a piece of white card using Pumice Stone distress ink. Then using a damp paintbrush pull out some of colour from the stamped line, adding more colour where necessary by picking up ink from your craft sheet. Continue until the image is painted and then blend a bit more Pumice Stone around the edges using cut 'n' dry foam.....

Mount onto a piece of white card leaving a narrow border. Then take another piece of card slightly larger and add some Pumice Stone just round the edges. 

Wrap some woven hessian style ribbon and some white seam binding around the middle of this piece and then mount onto a white card blank. 

Then mount the picture onto this using some 3D glue gel/silicone.  Add a bow and some stamped seagulls to finish .....stamped and coloured same way as main image.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your week :)

Donna xx

This weeks piece....

....for That's Crafty is a tag the full details of which can be found on the That's Crafty blog.......thought it was appropriate on the weekend following the commemorative events to mark the 70th Anniversary of the D Day landings, there was certainly a lot of Bulldog Spirit shown at that time........

......Lest we Forget

Donna xx

More birds and....

....a cool use of your Gelli Plate. Here's another of my samples for today's launch of the bird stamps by Sheena Douglass.

So background for this was just distress ink and a bit of faux bleaching and then I simply stamped, coloured and cut out elements from the new bird stamps and from the Always Floral set.  

However the bird on the stamp sheet faces right and I wanted another one to face in the opposite direction. Now I know you can use a brayer to get a reverse image but my gelli plate was sitting on the side so I thought I'd use that.  Firstly I inked up my stamp with Memento and stamped it onto my gelli plate.....

Then I laid on a piece of card and pressed firmly and then peeled off the card and hey presto I had my reversed image......

As you can see from the picture below there is a slight difference in quality of line but not enough to be worried about and by the time its all coloured you can't really tell the difference at all. 

See you again soon,

Donna xx

Another little birdy number...

....featuring the new Sheena Douglass bird stamps which will be launched on Create and Craft on Friday with shows at 11am, 4pm and 7pm........

....it started out as a plain wooden screen which I painted with gesso. Then when that was dry I lightly painted it with a couple of colours of Silks, now the Silks do dry quite quickly but before they were completely dry I used a slightly dry baby wipe to wipe off some of the colour to let some of the gesso show through. I used elements from the Ageing Beautifully set and the big swirl stamp from Flying Colours to add some more interest to the background before adding the birds and flowers.  I stamped these onto tissue, coloured with Spectrum Noirs, lightly painted the reverse with white acrylic and then glued in place.

I'll be back tomorrow with another little peek at one of the sample I've made for the shows.

Donna xx

Do you like bird stamps???

.....Well Sheena's got two fabulous new stamp sheets out at the end of this week.  Some great birds.....I'm totally in love with the 'chicks' stamp.....and some great words and quotations as well. Here's an oval MDF hanging I've created as a sample for the shows on Friday 6th June on Create and Craft.

The plaque was painted with distress paints and stamped with the crackle stamp from the Ageing Beautifully set.  I stamped the birds, branches, flowers and leaves onto Neenah card and coloured with a mixture of Spectrum Noirs and Promarkers before adding some extra depth of colour with Spectrum Noir pencils.Then it was just a case of stamping the quotation and then gluing everything in place. 

Don't forget to tune in to the shows on Create and Craft this coming Friday at 11am, 4pm and 7pm......if Sheena's around there's bound to be lots of lovely dems and tips and my fellow Inkoids have created some gorgeous samples so make a date in you diary!!!

Donna xx

Summer Fun Tag....

.....using one of the stamps we got given to 'play' with for our June pieces for Creative Expressions.  The little girl on this tag is called Beach Bucket Bliss...

The little girl was stamped, cut out and painted with distress inks... 

Then I embossed a piece of white card using the Lighthouse Couture Creations embossing folder and then trimmed it down and shaded with distress ink.... 

I mounted this onto a large tag cut from a bit of recycled corrugated cardboard packaging. Glued the girl in place, added a few stamped seagulls and some words and then finished it off with a bow.of mesh and seam binding.

Donna xx 

Workshop....

....I'm going to be doing a workshop for Keep on Crafting in Bury St Edmonds on July 19th.  Going to be doing a door hanger using texture paste, paint, stamping etc.........should be lots of fun, so if you're in the area why not come and join us.......booking is via Keep on Crafting's website.