New stamps and dies are on the way.....

...from Sheena! If you love flowers then you're going to adore this Victorian Floral collection.  It comprises of 6 matching stamp and die sets featuring Poppies, Anemones, Sweet Williams, Lillies, Bluebells, Lilly of the Valley and last but definitely not least Pansies. They will be launching on Create and Craft this coming weekend, 9th/10th May, so you'll be able to see lots of demonstrations from Sheena.

Here are a couple of samples I've made, both featuring the Poppy stamp and die set but showing just how different, at least I hope so, that they can look. The first is showing the Poppy as most people think of it.....that gorgeous red flower that pops up along our roads and in our fields. I've used a couple of older Sheena stamps in this sample; the cottage is 'Milestones and Moments' and the poppies in the background hidden behind top panel are 'Poppies and Daisies', both are from the Little Bit Sketchy range. All the colouring was done with AquaTints...

Next we have a bit of arty up-cycling of a Liquorice Allsorts Tub that I'd saved from Christmas. I coated the sides with black gesso to cover up the writing, then crackled it with a layer of blue Dyna paint, layer of PVA and then a top layer of more black gesso. The Poppies, this time Blue Himalayan Poppies, have been coloured with AquaTints.... 

So what do you think? Pretty stamps and dies aren't they? So blooming (sorry!!) versatile as well!  I'll pop back tomorrow to show you one of the other flowers from the collection :) 

Oh and if you're a Sheena fan and are on Facebook, I've set up a group on there, along with my fellow Inkoids, called 'Sheena's Ink-ettes'.  Basically its a group where you can share your 'Sheena' creations, get tips and loads of inspiration.....we'd love to see you over there!

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

Masks, Stencils, Templates......

....that's the theme for the new challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenge blog.  Well for my piece I've created a little something for myself , a recycled tin can to keep all those 'need to have at hand' bits that are usually lying all over the table and on my mat as I'm working..................not now............they now have a new home.....

I started off with an empty tin can.....

..then painted it with Decoart Multi Surface Paint. First gave it a base coat of White (Cotton ball) then when that had dried a mixture of Lemon Zest, Coastal Waters and Chartreuse. Then I used Blue Bird through That Special Touch's Doodle Square mask.  

Then I cut a strip of calico and using the same mask sponged toning colours of the Decoart So Soft fabric paint onto the fabric........this fabric paint is so easy to use and as the name suggests does leave the fabric feeling soft.  

I put a few very tiny spots of Cosmic Shimmer glue around the middle of the can and wrapped the fabric round.  Then I wound some plain string round and finished off by gluing some buttons ....... hid the join!! Well I'm honest! Anyway hope you like my little recycling project and do make sure you pop over to the That's Crafty Challenge and join in the fun......you might even win yourself £20 to spend on the website :)

Donna xx

Another little look....

....at Sheena's new stamps that will be launching this Saturday on Create and Craft at 3pm. Today a little plain wooden box decorated using some of the flower and leaf stamps......

Donna xx

A make all for me......

......picked this advent house up at work a few weeks ago

and eventually got around to decorating the other day.  As the theme over at Country View Crafts Challenge is Bah Humbug (which we decided was anything Christmas!) I decided to use this as my first make for the challenge. I started off by painting it white with a base coat of acrylic, then I added a little Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough Distress Paint.

Once I'd got the main part of the house coloured, I added a little stamping and embossing to add a little extra interest.  I used a crackle stamp and a brocade pattern stamp but you could use a text stamp, festive foliage or anything that took your fancy, it's just to add some extra interest and texture.

Once I'd done that I set to work on the drawer fronts, again using Distress Paints........Iced Spruce, Evergreen Bough, Festive Berries and Aged Mahogany.

Once the drawers were all painted, I used some gilding wax to add a touch of gold and added the numbers which I cut with Tim Holtz's Alphabetical Strip Die.

Decided to add a snowy roof to my little house so mixed up some white acrylic with some light modelling paste and spread it over the roof with a palette knife and whilst it was still wet sprinkled some clear glitter onto it for some frosty sparkle. Also added a little festive colour with a couple of Poinsettia's made with a Spellbinders die and some holly cut with Tim Holtz's Festive Greenery strip die.

Have a feeling I'd like to add a little robin somewhere, so I'm thinking this might develop a little more through December but for now I'm quite happy with my Advent House :)
Oh and in case you were wondering what's in the drawers, well this little house is all mine (you don't have to be a kid to have an advent calendar/house do you?) and so it's my favourite...........

Happy December!!
Donna xx

A few samples......

.......I made for Sheena Douglass's show on Create and Craft on July 16th. According to the schedule I think the shows are going to be at 1pm and 7pm; they will be featuring some of Sheena's great stamps, Luminarte Primary Elements and some fab Pebeo Fantasy paints.



MDF plaque which was gessoed and then stamped text and crackle stamps, then the flowers were stamped, outlined with outliner and painted with Fantasy Paints.

 

Papier Mache frame decorated with the Fantasy Paints and embellished with flowers.  To do the frame the paints were just dropped onto surface and allowed to mingle,  For the flowers I stamped them ont acetate, outlined them and then painted; once the paint had dried I cut them out and glued them to the frame.

Tune in on Tuesday to see some more fab samples from the rest of the inkoids.

Donna xx

New blog, first post.......

.....well here's the first post of my new blog. I spent this last weekend with my friend Mandy and we had great fun altering a few bits and pieces ...... and getting very inky in the process! Lol! Haven't taken photos of everything but did take couple of snaps (no pun intended) of a mousetrap that I altered.

a perfect little memo holder

Removed the spikey bit first and glued the base down, then painted with gesso. Once that was dry I used a variety of distress paint, spritzers and glitter paste. The flowers are made using the Tim Holtz 'tattered floral' die and were then spritzed with mica sprays before being glued in place.

Donna xx