Happy 10th Birthday PaperArtsy

Good morning everyone.  So glad you decided to spend a little time with me.  I am a relative new comer to PaperArtsy, having only discovered them last year, but I love everything they do.  If you haven't discovered them you need to go here.  They are posting fun and inspirational projects on their blog every day this month as part of their 10 year birthday celebrations so check it out.  This week Sue Carrington has been wowing us with her fab projects and I have made a simple little arch inspired by her box frame post. 

I have used Tando Creative's Arabian Style Arch.  I really liked Sue's idea of an old wall.  I added some texture paste and then used Fresco Inky Pool and That Special Touch Bamboo mask for a brickish effect.  Then I painted Fresco Limelight over everything.  I went over the texture paste again with the Limelight to give a stronger colour and added some red highlights using Brilliance Rocket Red Gold.  Then I stamped using PaperArtsy Squiggly Ink SM12.  All these stamps are in this credit card sized set!  Glorious.

I painted the frame black and then stamped with the bubble stamp using the Limelight again.  I'm going to fix a hanger so this can go on the wall.

Joining the fun at
PaperArtsy

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great Sunday and don't forget to check out the PaperArtsy blog.  Lots of good things and excitement over there this month. 

The Ghost of Birdie Up

Hi followers and friends.  Just a quick post on this lovely Saturday evening.  I have been working on a little something for the Cheery Lynn Challenge where the theme is Anything Goes.  Not much to start with there but luckily I had a delivery of some of their new dies a couple of days ago and it also fitted nicely with the Stampoutique Challenge of purple, orange and yellow.  So I got to thinking of Halloween, a favourite of mine, and since it was the brand new Spider Web Mesh Border that had landed in the mail box I thought yeah, why not, lets pimp a pumpkin.

I started with the large pumpkin carriage from Tando Creative

Here's my pimped up, or maybe that should be Blinged up version.  I painted the pumpkin orange and then used glitter glue all over and stuck on my Cheery Lynn Spider Web Mesh Border which I cut from purple glitter paper.  The top is green glitter paper, the wheels black glitter paper with a gold mirror center cut with Cheery Lynn's Dreamcatcher #2.  Goes nicely with the whole fairy tale look.  The spring is also gold mirror card.  Bling.

Inside the coach, well, I told them it was a masked ball so they all decided to come as ghosts.  Their masks leave a little to be desired but they are keen and eager to PARTY.  It's three birdies from Stampoutique's Birdie Up stamp.  The effect behind is PaperArtsy Limelight fresco paint on gold embossed rays.  Isn't that spider web fanatstic!

These guys are joining the party at
Cheery Lynn Designs - Anything Goes
Stampotique Designers Challenge 111 - Purple, Orange, Yellow

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great weekend everyone.  

Ahoy! Me Heartys

Hi and welcome aboard.  Doing a bit of midnight crafting.  I have been trying to do a tag for the Basic Grey challenge using some lovely paper I got the other day but you know how you have an element you want to use and can't see past it to the design.  Maybe it's just me.  Anyway, I decided to have a little look around at some other challenges and see if they could break my jam and lo and behold, a light in the east, courtesy of the Craft-room Challenge where their bingo square worked perfectly for me.  

For the bingo I've chosen to use middle straight across so it's rubber stamp, stencil or mask and brown.  The base tag is Basic Grey Offbeat Novel ofb-1390 which is a gorgeous chocolate brown with lovely white strings and bubbles.  So there's my brown.  The stamps I used are all from Kadoodle, Pirate Dan, Treasure Chest and Skull & Swords.  I stamped my pirate in black and then masked him and stamped the background using London Fog.  The yellow is Colourbox Chalk Butter.  I coloured Pirate Dan using Colourbox Chalks Plumeria, Arctic Deep and Peach Pastel and also American Craft Galaxy Markers in red, brown and black.  For the earring and the buckle I used a gold Pilot marker.  The silver charms are from Korthobby.  A little sword to see off unfriendly natives, a key to his treasure and a bone for the ships cat.  It's a tough cat OK!  

I ripped around the edge of the image and used four black pearl brads in the corners.  Every pirate should have a few black pearls.  I distressed the tag edge and used a piece of homemade washi tape for the tie.  For details see here.

Pirate Dan is joining the fun at
Basic Grey Challenges - Make a Tag
Craft-room Challenge - It's Bingo Time
Korthobby Utfordring - Fargerikt

Thanks for dropping by everyone.  I might have to send this to my nephew Danny who would probably look quite good dressed as a pirate.  Hi Danny.  Hope you all have a great weekend.  Craft on....

Cup Kitten

Hi everyone and welcome to my crafty space.  Hope you are having a great day.  It's very pleasant, warm and sunny, so I have been out in the garden continuing the battle of the weeds.   I find I get into quite a meditative state right up until I have to battle a big one.  Some of those roots take some digging.  It's a resting flower bed and I have been ignoring it a bit in favour of other areas of the garden, but have decided to throw in a few tomato plants that are being sadly neglected in their buckets.  At least in the open soil they might have a fair chance.  

I have been working on a baby card for a boy.  I have used one of Joanna Sheen's decoupage Cup Kitties with the baby flask.  I thought with the green colouring it must be a little boy kitty.   

I started with a yellow Bazzill bling base card and matted a piece of Basic Grey pattern paper.  This is offbeat novel ofb-1390.  I found this in the lucky dip box at my local craft store.  I always find shopping for papers a bit like shopping for music.  The new, organised sections are just so large I don't know where to start so I tend to go to the bargain box where there are one or two of a lot of sheets and I can just spend some happy time flicking through.  And get a bargain.  Wish they had had more than one sheet of this.  Love the plain brown with the white strings and bubbles.  I have added iridescent glitter glue to give it a bit of bling.  Then I added my kitty and some letters cut from Sizzix Alpha Bubbles in gold mirror card and the same Bazzill I used as the base.  So there it is, not high art, but a nice cute baby card.  

Joining the fun at
Joanna Sheen Challenge- Boys Will be Boys 
Hjerteboden Utfordring 8 - Baby

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great evening. 

Happy Shiny Tag

Good morning blog followers and friends.  A special hi to Tracy who has just joined the following.  We have been having some amazing thunder and lightning storms the last few days.  At least it has cleared away the humidity.  I wasn't sure whether it was the heat or the humidity that makes me feel so uninspired.  Anyway it's cooler, wetter and greyer.  A good excuse to be in and craft.  

A few sites are looking for tags, oh goody I love tags, and also there are a lot of summer themes around.  What better way to spend a grey wet day than making a summery tag?  

There's quite a lot of 'new' in this project.  I finally got around to using my new for me Stampotique's Birdie Up stamps.  He's so cute.  I've coloured him with PaperArtsy Fresco paints, newly acquired, Limelight and Inky Pool with some additional colour from American Crafts Galaxy Markers.  I am not the world's greatest colourer, is that a word?, but I am quite pleased with how this birdie turned out.  My tag is Bazzill card embossed using Sizzix Rays folder and then embossed with gold embossing powder.  I have been meaning to try this double embossing technique for a while, so another newby.  I have a bit of powder in the wrong place or missing but I think it works well with the distressed folder look.  

I was looking for the perfect tag tie and had some lovely black fringe ribbon but couldn't find a gold to contrast.  Then I spotted this.....

Uhhhhh, what dat den? I hear you cry.  This is my pot full of stripy pipe-cleaners.  Amid other stuff.  Perfect, maybe?

OK, so it's a bit of an exotic top.  I used a Sizzix original Sun #2 cut from some gold packaging, old chocolate box I think.  Then I went a bit mad with a couple of the yellow/brown pipe-cleaners.  They were a bit indistinct so I doodled with a black marker.  That was a bit of an adventure.  No return for mistakes there.  I think it sort of worked.  Then I added a metal flower from Korthobby and a decorative brad.  Oh yeah, I grounded Birdie using a stamp from Woodware Angels set and a bit of doodle dots and then smudged a bit of DI Walnut Stain because it needed it.  So no, that's not accidental smudgy fingerprints.  That's intentional smudgy fingerprints ROFL.

OK, no holds barred on your comments.  I think Birdie is definitely going to get the lion share of comments but if anyone is brave enough to comment on the fluffy embellishment top then speak your mind, I can take it.  

My fluffy top tag is going to join the fun at
Stampotique Designers Challenge 110 - Tag You're It 
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes 
Korthobby Utfordring - Fargerikt 
ALBC - Summer Sun 
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes 

Thanks for dropping by.   I really appreciate the time you take, your comments and your support.  Have a great day everyone. 

In My Dreams....

Hi and welcome.  The craft is sure flowing tonight, uhhh, this morning!!  Ah well, today is another day and bright the sun may shine.  Hey, I can wax and wane all over the place at this time of night.  Talking of waxing and waning over at Altered Pages the challenge is Dreamy Nights.  Not sure that my dreams are as organised as the DT pieces suggest but to me it's blues and blacks and moons.  And when the moon is full don't you just got to get howling........

Is that in focus??  Maybe it's just me old eyes complaining of too much screen time.  Anyway, I used various acrylic and distress inks on the base card over crumpled tissue paper.  The Raven is a Crafty Individuals stamp coloured with DI which started about ATC size and then got seriously distressed.  I stamped the ravens head on an Eco Board Inchie from Altered pages, coloured and then added glossy accents.  Over on the left the coyote is a homemade mask inked in black with Tando Distorted Harlequin mask below.    The butterfly wing is Altered Pages Jar Fairies Wings Collage Sheet 1008D.  I thought it fitted perfectly with the colour scheme.  I printed the words a la me, cut and paste. 

Joining the fun at
Altered Pages Challenges - Dreamy Nights
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for joining me.  Again.  Always a bit crazy at the end of the month.  And when the moon is full.  Or there's thunder and lightning.  Take care.  May all your dreams be sweet.  

Inspired by Francis Picabia

Hi and welcome followers, friends, fellow bloggers.  Back again for a last minute post over at Tando Creative.  This one has been a major challenge, in the end a lot of fun but definitely well up there on the out of your comfort zone scale of 1 to 10.  The challenge is Favourite Artist.  Now I had an idea a while ago but that got sidetracked so I decided to consult the book Modern Art 1890 - 1918 by Jean Clay.  Modern huh??  Everything is relative I suppose.  Maybe I should mention that I am very bad at drawing.  No, I mean very bad.  This was a big challenge.  Anyway I was really taken by Francis Picabia Portrait of Mme Robbie de Massot.  If you want to check it out you will have to look it up cos I didn't want to upset any copyright laws.   Anyway this is my version.  The original is definitely worth a look and has eyebrows that don't look like Groucho's!!

I used coffee filters in white and brown for the face and hair.  Button eyes, a metal key from Korthobby tinted with black paint for the nose, Tando Creative mini leaf for the mouth and  two pieces from Work of Parts Come Fly With Me for those amazing eyebrows.  More charms from Korthobby in the hair, card candi, Mowed Lawn DI, white acrylic paint and Pebeo Porcelain black outline for the line.  It's art lovely.  Thanks to Francis Picabia (1879 - 1953) for the inspiration.  Mona Lisa eat your heart out.....

Joining the fun at
Tando Creative Challenge 
Eclectic Paperie e-team picks challenge - Kitchen Papers - I used coffee filters
Korthobby Utfordring - Fargerikt

Thanks for dropping by.  Take care and remember get out of your comfy chair and craft on.......