More AquaTints....

....and another sample I've made for the shows on Create and Craft this weekend.

To create the blended background I used some blending foam with a tiny bit of glycerine then picked up some of the AquaTint on it and then blended it just as you would distress or dye ink and as you can see it blends beautifully. The stamping of the trees, elephants, swirls and lion was done with Archival but the lion was painted with the AquaTints and the gold squares are stamped with the metallic Aquatint simply brushed onto the stamp.

There'll be loads of demo's and tips when Sheena Douglass launches these on Saturday, so don't forget to tune in to Create and Craft. Will pop another sample up tomorrow :)

Donna xx

A new Spectrum Noir launch!!

AquaTints, pots of liquid watercolour!! You are going to love playing with these little beauties! They are the latest addition to the Spectrum Noir stable and will be launched on Saturday 4th October on Create and Craft as part of Sheena Douglass's Weekender shows. There will also be new stamps and some funky masks but the shining star (apart from Sheena of course!) will be the AquaTints.

Being part of Sheena's design team I've been lucky enough, along with the rest of the team, to get my hand on some of them to have a play with and I can honestly, hand on heart say I LOVE THEM!! They are so bloomin' versatile, you can paint with them, blend them like die based inks with a bit of blending foam, do all the techniques we know and love.....clingfilm, salt, caught in crystal etc etc. They faux bleach wonderfully, they mix with gesso to form a chalk like paint, they'll die your ribbon to match your projects, mix in with paperclay to colour it.......see told you they were versatile....and that's only after just a short time to play with them!

Here's one of my samples combined with some of Sheena's new stamps....Northern Lights :) Simply brushing on lines of colour onto dampened Sheena stamping card, also added some of the Silver metallic AquaTint for a little shimmer.....

First show will be at 9 am on Saturday, there'll be loads of great samples on show from my Inkoid mates and  Sheena will be demoing her heart out!

Donna xx

A box of Poinsettias....

...for my last make of this month using the new Sue Wilson Christmas Dies.

These pop up boxes are pretty simple to make but make an impressive show.

To make the box I took an A4 piece of card and scored at 7cm,14cm, 21cm and 28cm and then cut as shown in photo below.

Then I cut myself some panels slightly smaller than the side panels of my box and using the Elegant Poinsettia die and some Distress Ink (mowed lawn and barn door) I created the decorative panels for my box

Once these were done I matted them  onto some gold card and then glued them in place onto the flaps and sides. Once they were in place i glued the box together. Next I cut a couple of small strips of card approximately 2cm x 9cm and scored each one 1cm from each end. These I then glued inside the box as shown.

Then I simply stamped and gold embossed the Elegant Poinsettia multiple times, cut them out, coloured with distress inks, layered them up and put a little gem in the centre. Once the flowers were made I stuck each one onto a thin strip of acetate and then arranged and glued them into place.

Finished it off by adding a couple of flowers and a stamped greeting to the front flap.

Donna xx

Another week, another challenge....

.....over at Sunday Postcard Art and the theme is 'HATS'.  As Halloween is fast approaching I thought I'd go for a bit of fun with just a tiny pinch of spookiness thrown in......

...the skull and accessories are from a fun stamp set I bought couple of years ago from Stamp Addicts.  Do pop over to Sunday Postcard Art if you get a chance and join in the fun :)

Donna xx

Roll up, roll up.....

.....Come to the circus!  Here's my weekly piece for That's Crafty..

,,,as usual all the details are on the That's Crafty blog, please pop over and have a look if you get the chance.

Donna xx

A little shabby chic Christmas

.....for this weeks Creative Expression make using the new Sue Wilson Christmas stamps and dies with a dusky pink, green and copper colour scheme.

To create the background I dragged a mixture of Penny Copper and Aurora Sparkle Texture paste over a Moroccan mask by That Special Touch.....

For the flower I stamped the Elegant Poinsettia several times and embossed with a gold embossing powder, then using the classic poinsettia die I cut them out.  I then coloured each layer with a mixture of Worn Lipstick and Peeled Paint Distress Ink, before gluing together to create my flower....

I then layered up my backing sheet onto a piece of green card and wrapped a piece of crinkled organza ribbon around the bottom before gluing in place on a card blank. Then I tied a bow and placed it over the ribbon before gluing the poinsettia in place on top of the bow. To finish off I added some pearl swirls, which I coloured with a Promarker to match the card, and a stamped sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Donna xx

Time to walk the plank........

......my hearties!

This little piratical offering is my second offering for the Country View Challenges September Nautical challenge. Think lots of little boys and probably quite a few little girls have played at being pirates and these two seem to be dreaming of high seas and adventure!

A real mix of stamps here! Started off by stamping the boys from Artistic Outposts 'Huck Finn' plate and the boat which is a Sheena Douglass stamp, then painted these with Distress Inks.....

Then stamped some wording from the Huck Finn plate, blended on some blue distress for the background taking it over the images in place to anchor (no pun intended!!!)them to the background.

For the pirates flag I stamped the giant skull from Oxford Impressions Danse Macabre set and then drew in the crossed bones with a black fineliner.

Then I coloured the background in with some Black Soot distress ink. To join the two bits together I punched some holes with my crop-a-dile and tied them together with some thin black hemp cord.

There's still time to pop over and join in the challenge, so why not join in the fun :)

Donna xx

A Tiny Notebook.....

.....for this weeks That's Crafty make.

As usual all the details are on the That's Crafty blog 

Donna xx

A treasure from the deep....

....a Pirate's Bottle -

Well okay maybe just an empty bottle that I had some fun with! Lol! Its started life as an empty Schloer bottle which I coated with lots of bits of torn up white tissue.....(nothing fancy just some tissue I'd saved from some packaging)......made sure it went on with plenty of wrinkles so there would be lots of texture......

Once that was dry I added a few bits of Pebeo texture paste here and there, then when that had dried I painted the whole thing with Pebeo black gesso....

Then I wanted to add a bit of colour, wanted a sort of oil on water look, so I took three colours of Luminarte Silks......a dark green, a dark blue and a red.......and splodged it all over the bottle making sure it was well watered down because I wanted a shimmer of colour only. Once that was done and dry I lightly applied Renaissance Gold Pebeo Gilding Wax to highlight the texture.

So now for the label featuring the great Phantom Ship that is one of the new Sheena Douglass stamps launching today on Create and Craft at 9am. I cut myself a piece of Desert Storm Neenah Card the size I needed for the label and blended on some distress ink in Gathered Twigs and Pumice Stone, then I spritzed some water mixed with a little glucose onto my craft mat and laid my piece of card in it. Then I carefully scrunched up the card a bit, flattened it out with my hand and stamped the ship and the wording.................now you might think why not stamp it first? Well that's exactly what I did the first time but but the time I'd finished inking and scrunching I'd lost too much definition, hence my second attempt and stamping a little later in the process...........once it was stamped I damped it a bit more and scrunched again. Then I roughed up the edges with a pair of scissors, tearing it in a couple of places as I went. After that I dried it with the heat gun, lightly rubbed more ink round the edges and then lightly sanded the top of some of the creases. I'm sure you've all seen Sheena's faux leather technique using Kraft card and the water/glucose mix well I discovered that using that same mix with Neenah card results in something that dried almost like a dried skin! Perfect for an old pirate's bottle!!

To finish I added an old button to the top of the cap, a few spider charms and wrapped some black hemp around the neck which I glued in place and added some gilding wax too.

I have to admit I had a huge amount of fun creating this, really hope you like it!! :)

Donna xx

All you need is love.....

....is the theme of the new challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenges blog.  Once I managed to get the song out of my head I decided to use the 'My Story' stamp plate from Oxford Impressions to make a heart shape tag.........

Nothing too complicated, just cut a rough heart shape build up some stamping and colour with distress ink.  Layer onto a slightly larger heart and add the butterfly wings, which are from a lovely IndigoBlu butterfly stamp.

Why don't you pop over and join in the fun, you could win yourself £20 to spend in the That's Crafty shop!

Donna xx

So for today's sneaky peek......

.....of the new Sheena Douglass stamps we have the Phoenix taking centre stage and rising from the ashes.....

The 'charred remains' are made by scraping a mix of black gesso and texture paste onto the surface of your piece of card with an old credit/gift card. Then the background is distress inks applied in a linear fashion to accentuate the feeling of flames and heat rising. The phoenix itself was embossed in black and painted with silks, with a few white highlights added with a white pencil.

Don't forget the show is on Create and Craft at 9am on Friday.

Donna xx

A little vintage travel tag.....

......for this weeks TagAlong challenge, do pop over to join in the fun :)

Donna xx

Someone to watch over you.....

........

Another little look at some of the new stamps that Sheena Douglass is releasing on Friday at 9 am on Create and Craft. This was done with a couple of the stamp sets and lots of distress ink with some faux bleaching.  There'll be lots of other samples to see on the show as well as some great tips and ideas from Sheena :)

Donna xx

New stamps are coming....

.....Sheena Douglass is adding some new stamps to her Little Bit Magical range.  They will be launching on Create and Craft on Friday 19th September at 9.00 am.  Here's one of the samples I've made for the launch using a couple of the stamps.....the mermaid and the phantom ship......

I'll pop back tomorrow with another little sneaky peak!  Make sure you catch the show on Friday, as well as the new stamps there will be some new sets of silks as well :)

Donna xx

White and Sparkly...

....for this weeks simple but classic (I hope!!) Christmas card for Creative Expressions. Yet again it's featuring one of Sue Wilson's lovely Christmas dies, this time it's the turn of the Mosaic Poinsettia  and Classic Poinsettia dies.

So to start off I cut myself a square of white card (approx 6") and covered it with a sheet of double sided adhesive. Then I cut several of the Mosaic Poinsettia's which I then stuck onto the sticky surface of the square of card........it's a good idea to play around with your arrangement before removing the protective covering of the double sided adhesive sheet.

Now to add the sparkle......now I have to say I HATE loose glitter, bloomin' stuff gets everywhere but at Christmas you just have to have a bit of sparkle!! So I tipped a pot of Diamond Sprinkles over the top of my square, and pressed down well all over it paying particular attention to all the little areas inside the flowers. Then I just tipped off the excess and gave it a final burnish.

To create the flower I cut a couple of large layers and a couple of smaller layers (one plain and one patterned), then glued them together with some Cosmic Shimmer glue. Now for the centre you could use one of Creative Expressions lovely Dazzlers but I have to admit I like to make my own beady centres my putting a good dollop of 3d glue gel/silicone in the centre and then dropping on some seed beads (in this case white pearl) which I gently push into the glue and to form a pretty beaded dome. Once all the glue was dry I lightly rubbed some gold gilding wax onto the edges of the petals and also lightly over the flowers stuck to the backing sheet. 

To construct the completed card I simply layered up with white and gold card and then added a stamped sentiment.

Donna xx

Wonderland tag....

......for my weekly 'That's Crafty' make....

....more details as usual on the That's Crafty blog

Donna xx

Another Christmas Card......

....made with Sue Wilson's Snowflake Bauble stamp and the corresponding Vintage Bauble die....

....this was actually a pretty quick and simple make, although it looks quite fancy! 

I started off by stamping the bauble three times with embossing ink onto some blue card and heat embossing with Silver Cosmic Shimmer Detail Embossing Powder. Then I cut them out using the outer die frame from the Vintage Bauble die set........these are really easy to line up and give such a neat finish. 

Whilst I had my die cutting machine out I cut four of the corner/hanger bits out of some scraps of silver card, once I'd cut them I trimmed the longer arm back a little to make them definite corner pieces.

So now for the panels behind the baubles. Size is going to depend on the size of your finished card but to give you an idea, this is a 7" card and these panels are about 5" x 1 1/4". So anyway I stamped the bauble several times onto the panel with Faded Jeans Distress Ink.....tip the stamp on its side and rotate each time so you don't just keep repeating the same look. Now I when I use distress inks and I want a slightly faded look I like to lightly blend over the top of the freshly stamped images with a bit of cut 'n' dry foam and because the ink is still wet you get this lovely slightly blurred/faded look. Repeat this on all three panels.

So that's about it, all the fancy bits are done and all that is left is a bit of matting and layering and a bit of gluing......see.....told you it was simple and quick :)

See you next Tuesday for some more of Sue Wilson's great new dies and stamps.......poinsettias next week......

Donna xx

An Apothecary Shop....

....artist trading block for my That's Crafty make this week......

....more photo's and details of stamps etc are on the That's Crafty blog, please pop over if you get the chance.

Donna xx

Girl Power...

....is the theme for the new challenge on the That's Crafty Challenge Blog that starts today. I've used the Artistic Outpost plate Cowgirl Strength for my make.....

Make sure you pop over to the challenge blog and join in the fun :)

Donna xx

Did you know......

there are only 16 Tuesdays till Christmas?! So if you have Christmas cards to make and you haven't started then maybe its a good idea to start thinking about it.........and the new Festive Dies and Stamps by Sue Wilson are a perfect place to start!! :)

So to help give you a nudge towards the festive preparations I have a little sparkly and gilded number for you today!

I started out by creating the background by scraping a mixture of Aurora Sparkle and Sea Green Sparkle Texture Paste over the Tracery mask by That Special Touch. I was very random with my application around the edges, wanted a slightly aged, distressed look.

Once it was dry I cut it down to a square, making sure to keep the ragged edges of the sparkle paste, then edged it with Peeled Paint Distress Ink before mounting onto a square of gold card.

To create the baubles I used the Vintage Bauble Die Set to cut 3  fancy baubles out of some plain white card. Next step was to cover a piece of card (large enough to cut three baubles from) with some double sided adhesive sheet, and then I cut 3 plain baubles to match the sizes of the fancy ones previously cut. The die sets have an outer frame and a fancy inner section so you can choose to cut fancy or plain. Then peel off the top layer from the sheet and carefully stick a fancy bauble onto a plain base.

Now cover the bauble with gilding flakes, press on firmly making sure you push them properly into the small holes within your die cut bauble. 

Once you've rubbed it well in and burnished it you will have three pretty gilded baubles... 

Lightly rub a little Peeled Paint Distress Ink over the white lines and then mount onto your background. Add some ribbon and some small bows so your baubles have something to hang from and mount your whole panel onto a card blank. Finish off with a stamped and mounted sentiment.

Donna xx

Ahoy there!

There's a new challenge over at Country View Challenges and it's a 'Nautical' one.....

....now I don't have a huge amount of 'Nautical' stamps in fact hardly any so a little bit creative thinking was needed! Decided I would use this lighthouse stamp by Sam Poole so stamped it onto some white card, painted it with distress inks (Pumice Stone, Brushed Corduroy, Barn Door, Squeezed Lemonade) and cut it out....

.....then I grabbed some Spellbinders circle dies and cut myself a lifebelt, which I then painted and shaded with distress ink....

...so having made my top pieces I created my background tag.  The tag was cut with the Tim Holtz tag die and I coloured it with a mix of Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans and Pumice Stone ink, then splashed some water on and blotted off with a bit of kitchen roll to give some watery texture.  Then I stamped on the quote which is from a Sheena Douglass stamp set.

Before gluing the lifebelt in place I added a bit of rope around the edge (some plain old kitchen string!), then using some 3d glue gel I added the lighthouse. Added the ribbon at the top and then decided to add a bit of red, white and blue bunting.  So I simply cut a few triangles with my scissors from the scraps of card laying on my mat, coloured them up, drew on some stitch lines and glued in place.

Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog and join in the fun :)

Donna xx