Once Upon a Time … 📚

Hi everyone, as I mentioned previously, having managed to create one entry for the Lavinia Dreamatorium Challenge (here) I was determined to create another one, and as I don’t have many of the larger focal stamps from the new collection my mind turned again to doing something a bit different. This time I decided to make a bookmark so I could easily fill the space with shelves and my one set of book stamps from the new collection. I bought a pack of pre-cut watercolour card bookmarks when I visited the shop, so I thought it was the right time to open the packaging!

I stencilled lightly over the whole bookmark using the Red Brick stencil and Soft Cygnet Elements ink, then blended a little Truffle Elements around the edges to add depth. The background colour is actually a lot warmer than the photo suggests, I couldn’t capture it with my camera for some reason!  I stamped various shelves in Pinecone Versafine Clair and books in Nocturne, then added a couple of hanging lightbulbs plus foliage in shades of green. I coloured the books and lightbulbs using Zig pens and added some twinkle to the lightbulbs with Wink of Stella. I added white accents and a selection of appropriate sentiment stickers, then finished by matting onto brown card stock, and adding a punched hole and ribbon. 

Stamps: Lavinia Book of Lost Words, Bookshelf, Hobbits Door Accessories, Silkweed Hops, Wild Foliage, Light Bulbs; 

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Soft Cygnet, Truffle); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Pinecone, Avocado, Shady Lane); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Wink of Stella (clear); Posca pen (white);

Tools: Lavinia stencil - Red Brick;

Other: Lavinia Sentiment Stickers 6; ribbon from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #491 - Make Your Mark (2nd entry)

Ally’s Angels #93 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (April) - Use a Stencil (2nd entry)

Creative Crafters #87 - Anything Goes (2nd entry) - TOP 3

Creative Crafting Uncles #64 - Anything but a Card

Daisy Chain #95 - Not Square

Just Us Girls #772 - Stencil Week

Lavinia Dreamatorium Creative Challenge - Use only Dreamatorium Collection stamps (2nd entry)

Outlawz Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone (April) - Anything but a Card

Paper Funday #75 - Anything Goes with option Things Beginning with “B” (3rd entry)

(Bookmark, books, bricks, bulbs, blue, brown)

Word Art Wednesday #696/697 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

That’s all for today. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Watercolour flower bookmarks

Hi peeps, hope you are keeping warm, safe and well with all this wintry weather we're having.

I felt the urge today to make another set of bookmarks to give as a stocking filler Christmas present to a lovely elderly lady who lives nearby - this time I thought I would make a set of 3 using more of my old Penny Black brushstroke flower stamps, and it also gave me chance to use a few of my card snippets (both white card and coloured - all the pieces here are snippets!!)

The photo is quite poor as I took it in electric light so I could  catch a couple of challenges before month end ... I will try to update with a better daylight photo tomorrow! **Edit** I have now replaced the photo with a daylight one!

For each of these I created a background using Distress and Distress Oxide inks, then stamped my brushstroke flowers using Marvey watercolour markers and spritzing the inked stamp with water. I then stamped my sentiment and alphabet before mounting the finished piece onto backing card and completing the hole and ribbons.

Stamps (left to right): 

1. Flower - Penny Black "Blush" (2666K); sentiment - Crafter's Companion Lee Holland set "You Are My Sunshine";

2. Flowers - Penny Black "quite dandy" (3623K); sentiment - Penny Black "the journey" 3177F);

3. Flowers - Penny Black "Aspire" (3381K); sentiment - Penny Black "...dreams..." (2711F);

All - alphabet stamp - Woodware "Additions";

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Antique Linen, Spun Sugar, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint; Distress Oxide Inks - Kitsch Flamingo, Shaded Lilac, Stormy Sky, Twisted Citron; Marvey watercolour markers - various colours;

Ribbon from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #419 - Any Occasion

Ally's Angels #52 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Country View Challenges (November) - Christmas Gifting (2nd entry)

Happy Little Stampers (Watercolour): November - Anything Goes

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (November) - Anything Goes with option Not a Card (2nd entry)

Pixie's Snippets Playground #417 - Use Snippets 

River of Creativity #7 - The Gift (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

That's me done for today ... I think tomorrow i may well be back on the last minute Christmas card scramble!

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

A Gift For All Seasons

Hi everyone,

I enjoyed making my first bookmark so much a couple of weeks ago that I decided to make a few more as Christmas stocking filler presents … goodness knows why as I have hardly made any Christmas cards yet!! This evolved into the idea of challenging myself to make a set of 4 bookmarks as a single gift set, themed around the 4 seasons. I don’t have much in the way of sentiment stamps to reflect each season so I decided to go with seasonal images and colours, coupled with some of my inspirational words or verses that rarely get inked.  I also tried to take the opportunity to incorporate a variety of stamping and inking techniques across the 4 pieces.

Here is the full set. All of the bookmarks consist of a decorated panel adhered to backing card, with a hole bounded with a small die cut and threaded with ribbon from my stash. The common denominator on all 4 pieces is the Woodware alphabet stamp.

And here is some detail about each individual bookmark …

Spring

For this bookmark I created a simple colour wash background with “Twisted Citron” Distress Oxide ink daubed onto my craft mat and a water brush. I then stamped my sentiment using Sepia Versafine and heat embossed, then coloured my brushstroke flower stamp with Marvey watercolour markers, spritzed with water and stamped to create a soft watercolour effect. I then stamped the alphabet with “Peeled Paint” DI and heat embossed. 

 

Stamps: flower - Penny Black “Jonquil” (3587K); sentiment - Penny Black “...dreams...” (2711F); alphabet - Woodware "Additions";

Media: Tim Holtz DO and DI inks; Marvey watercolour markers.

Summer

For this one I created a “smoosh” background with a mix of “Kitsch Flamingo” DO and “Antique Linen” DI inks, then stamped my sentiment using “Picked Raspberry” DO and heat embossed. I coloured my flower stamp with Marvey Watercolour markers, spritzed and stamped as above. I stamped the alphabet and  extra foliage using “Cracked Pistachio” DO and heat embossed, and finished off by randomly stamping and heat embossing small dot clusters around the flower using Versamark and detail white embossing powder.

Stamps: flower - Penny Black “Blush” (2666K); sentiment - Penny Black “"The Journey” (3177F); alphabet - as above; dots - Woodware “Additions”;

Media: Tim Holtz DO and DI inks; Marvey watercolour markers.

Autumn

I blended three colours of DO (Fossilized Amber, Ripe Persimon and Barn Door) using my foam blending tools, and using a home made mask to create the sun; I then splattered with water to create some texture.  I stamped my flowers, tree branch and alphabet using Sepia Versafine and heat embossed, then created a composite sentiment by masking off parts of 2 different sentiment stamps. This was made a lot easier using my Press to Impress stamp positioning tool. 😀

Stamps: flowers and bird branch - “Meadow Flowers” set free with cardmaking magazine; alphabet - as above; sentiment - composite of unknown sentiment set and Crafter’s Companion stamp/stencil set “Life Happens”;

Media: Tim Holtz DO inks.

 Winter

I blended my sky background using Chipped Sapphire, Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass DO and a mask for the moon. I created a bit of landscaping by blending Tumbled Glass and Chipped Sapphire DO’s and using torn paper, then spattered with water to create a “snowy” texture. Lastly I stamped and heat embossed the tree (Versafine Onyx), alphabet (Faded Jeans DI) and sentiment (Colorbox Pigment ink)

Stamps: tree - Penny Black “Before the Snow”  (3993K);  alphabet - as above; sentiment - Crafter’s Companion stamp/stencil set “Fairy Kisses”;

Media: Tim Holtz DO and DI inks; Colorbox pigment ink.

Challenges I would like to enter: 

(the full set of bookmarks unless otherwise stated in brackets)

Classic Design Challenge (November) - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Country View Challenge (November) - Christmas Gifting

Crafty Calendar (November) - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations #427 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Creations In Pink #38 - Anything Goes (Summer)

MAWTT #136 - Anything But A Card - TOP 5

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2145 - Anything Goes

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (November) - Anything Goes with option of Not A Card 

(Spring, Summer, Winter)

River of Creativity #7 - The Gift

Try It On Tuesday - Make It Magical (Winter)

Phew! I think a need a bit of a lie down after that little lot. It was a lot of effort to create these, but I am pleased with how they have turned out and would secretly like to keep them for myself ... but I will resist!  Take care, and thanks for visiting today.

Hugs,

Dream, Love, Live

Today I have something a bit different to share with you. I have been wanting to experiment some more with my new Distress Oxides and also have a few new stamps, one of which is a background set which includes a complete alphabet; so I decided to make a bookmark. Bizarrely I haven’t ever made one before as far as I can remember.

I created a “smoosh” background on watercolour paper using 4 colours of DO ink, then stamped my focal flowers using Versafine Onyx and embossed with clear powder. I stamped the alphabet and grungy text using dark grey ink and embossed, and then stencilled one corner with Versamark and embossed with white detail powder. Finally I stamped, embossed and affixed my sentiments, affixed the panel to black card, then punched a hole which I strengthened with a die cut and tied with ribbon.

The main challenge with this was that I don’t have a normal size single hole punch, but I do have a long reach punch which makes a small hole … so I punched a cluster of holes which I then covered with the hole protector die cut 😀

Stamps: Stampendous “Agapanthus Cluster”; alphabet and grungy text - Woodware “Additions”; sentiments - unknown;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks;

Tools: Darkroom Door stencil - “Diamonds”; Magnolia Doohickey Vintage Tilda tag (tag hole protector).

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #416 - Make Your Mark

As You Like It - Favourite Non-card Project and why

(I have made a book mark which is my only non-card project for years, and it was my favourite choice as it enables me to practice my inky backgrounds, and I can easily gift bookmarks as stocking fillers at Christmas)

Crafter’s Cafe #276 - Use a Stencil

Creatalicious #221 - Anything Goes with option of black and purple

( I have used black and a little bit of lilac)

Creative Moments #224 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Love to Scrap #150 - Anything But A Card

NBUS #31 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff

(Mine is my Tumbled Glass DO,  stencil and alphabet stamp)

Retro Rubber #169 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

(My Agapanthus cluster stamp is older than I care to remember .. at least 10 years)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Not A Card

I actually made this yesterday ... but the weather is so awful today i think I may well stay in and have another craft session this afternoon! Thanks very much for visiting today.

Hugs,