Make me Smile

I never seem to have time to make a card just for fun these days. Also I have been hoping to try more, one layer cards, especially closer to the 'C' season to ease postage costs. I need the practice, this is not my comfort zone.

I have had this  cute Lost Coast bird stamp sitting un-inked on my desk for weeks. Okay, so it surfaced from the bottom of a pile while looking for something else and I had intended to use it, but time waits for no man or woman these days.

Its a plain white one layer  card.  I used  stencils to add interest to the background, shading with Tumbled Glass  and and Shabby Shutter distress inks. The images are stamped up with  plain black Stazon.

So last minute me and I have time to enter a couple of challenges --
Tando Creative Challenges --Come Fly with me
Country View Challenges---Stencil It

Thank you for stopping by, the comments you leave are always appreciated.

Positive words -Journal 52-week 30

This weeks prompt at Journal 52 was, ---  'Positive Words'   

We are up to week 30 and  well over half the year has gone. Its  been hot and sunny  for a while, here in the north east of the U.K. something we are not used to. 

So I decided that I wanted to use some bright colours for a change. The  flower was penciled in first. 

Next came my words, some are well hidden, but I know they are there. 

The background stenciling is random, some places had aready been shaded..

I did enjoy painting in  the flower with a few layers of acrylic paint. It turned out a bit larger than the outline.  I am not comfortable with  freehand drawing and much prefer stamped images [the bird is a fussy cut stamp].  So I have pushed these negative words aside  for this positive page.  

There is still a couple of days until the end of the,' Flower Power'  theme at

Art Journal Journey, so I'm off to share my flower with them.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look, the comments you leave are always appreciated.

Amelia's Friend.

In my imagination Amelia was felling a bit sad that her friend couldn't come over to play today.

So what did she do to make her feel happy, sit on the swing in the garden with  Meggy the family dog, 

who is realy her best friend in all the world,  but don't tell anyone, its their secret . 

Challenge 77 over at Fashionable Stamping challenges  and the new theme is  'Childs Play'.

I used a pre -patterned base layer for this card. The stamped image is from Lily of the Valley.

I used pencils on this for colouring. Vintage Photo distress inks for all the other shading. 

The die cut flowers are from  a   Spellbinder set.
Please pop over for all the details and see what my design team sisters have been making.
Our regular sponsor is Flonzcraft  and we must see a stamped image as the main focus.

Thank you for taking time to stop by, your comments are always appreciated.

Journal 52

Two  Journal 52  pages to share with you today. 

This is Week 28 and the prompt was Technology.

 The background,  I created  digitally on the computer  using found  free  images, these I  blended together.  My thoughts here was the 'virtual future'. The stamped   images  I added are definitely from a more  visual  past , when  time was  spent  inventing things, with simple pen, ink and paper.. 

The quote I added reads  --One faces the future with ones past.

Week 29 's prompt was 'Fashion'.  

 I can  find things about my craft room much easier for this one.  I went with the 1920's and some Graphics 45 papers. This is quite an  under embellished page  for me. This was the era of classic, straight  lines, 

 where the style was the main feature.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look. I always appreciate the comments you leave.

July

Here we are nearing the end of another month and July is nearly a memory. So this is my July Calendar page, which I just have time to pop  over to A Vintage Journey and join Challenge 10 'Dies and Distress'.
All my calendar pages so far and this one  have random stamped backgrounds and are heavily shaded with Vintage Photo Distress inks. The stamps used here are all from Stampers Anonymous. The dragon flies are a Spellbinders double piece  die set, shaded with Broken China distress ink. The Clock die [Alterations]  was embossed with vintage photo embossing powder. The image cards are Graphics 45, with a little Frantage antique gold to add interest to the bare corners, it was time to stop. Tim Holtz's influence to my calender is his Distress inks, I hardly ever make anything without using this product somewhere.

Thank you for taking time to stop by. Your comments are always appreciated.

Blue Bird - for TioT's

'Things with Wings', is our next theme at Try It On Tuesdays. 

This time I am showing you a  4 x 4 inch fat page.

I used a patterned background paper giving it the distress ink treatment round the edges.

Next a bit of stencilling in the corner with grunge paste. I left the stencil in place until it was nearly dry, then dusted it with mica powder.

The bird image [Dina Wakey] was stamped and embossed using a black powder.

This was coloured using paints. 

Please pop over to see what we all made, we hope you will join our challenge.

Thank you for stopping by, the comments you leave are always appreciated.

On the Road for SCH

The new challenge theme  over at Sugar Creek Hollow is called,   'On the Road'.

Please pop over for all the details and see what we have been making.

For the base layer on my card I used a piece of an old map, distressing he edges with the good old Vintage Photo distress ink. 

The car with the two travellers was fussy cut from a Graphics45 paper. All the other additions were cut from a variety of left over papers. You know, the pieces we save in case they may be useful.

I did promise myself a while ago, not to store so many, that resolution went out the window the same week, as my scraps box, is once again nearly overflowing.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look, I do so appreciate your comments.