S-S-S&SHOW DISTRESSED/SANDED & SUNDAY STAMPERS PAINT IT BLACK

Today I am entering one piece into 2 challenges,
I hope that's OK, It dose fit the criteria for both the
Simon says stamp and show Your Distressed/Sanded Projects!
& the Sunday stampers - Week 122 - Paint It Black
click on there names to find out all the details for each challenge.

I have made the front cover for my journal here it is hope you like it,

I have used ten second studio, copper metal and 2 different moulds & tools,

Tim holtz flourish stamp and paper & idea-logy bits as well as Tim's sander
paper artsy time sentiment (it's stamped into the ferro) & leaves
Wendy Vecchi script stamp,
Terra & ferro, black acrylic paint & cut & dry foam,
a touch of mica sprays in turquoise & copper,
black archival ink pad, jumbo java chalk ink pad,
chip board (for backing & arch)
& from my stash a flower punch, a sentiment magnet,
a piece of swade cord an old watch face & a small padlock key,

I thought I would take some shots
of the work in progress this time as I usually forget,
here is the background to try & show the mica mist etc,

here is the arch, I used Terra & ferro to hide the join where the metal ends,

one is a creamy consistency that bubbles when you heat it,

the other has a more sandy consistency that it perfect for stamping into

(clean stamp strate after use) once they were dry

I covered the whole thing with black acrylic paint then wiped it off

the high points on the metal with a baby wipe,

as I did the boarder at the bottom of the finished piece, I then sprayed it with mica sprays,

I punched 3 flower shapes with gold metal

& covered it with black acrylic paint

when it was almost dry I wiped some off with a baby wipe,

then assembled in the usual way,

before assembling it all together I took Tim's sander

& sanded some of the metal to reveal the silver aluminium underneath,

I also sanded the edges of the background to distress it all,

& went back over the edges with an almost dry foam pad

with black acrylic paint on it to distress it up a bit as it was to white,

here are some dimensional shots,

I have assembled it all with pin flier glue,

Well I think that's everything, hope you like it.

I'm off to link it all up,

Back soon Kat x.

UP DATE: I was picked for top 3 for this over at

simon says stamp and show.blogspot.com how cool is that!

TIP or TECHNIQUE TUESDAY ***WEEK ONE***

OK Peeps, here is week one,
it's a money saving tip when mounting your rubber stamps.

In the instruction's of kling on or u-mount it states to stick the sheet of rubber to the sticky side of the u-mount & then cut out with scissors (as you know the scissors get all gunged up, its hard to cut close & your hands ache) you also use a lot more u-mount than is relay needed.

So here's how I do it.
here I am mounting 4 A5 sheets of stamps that would need 2 A4 sheets of u-mount,

I cut my stamps out before I put them on the u-mount,

that way I am able to get a much closer cut with the scissors,

it doesn't hurt my hands & it takes less time as I am not having

to go through 2 layers with sticky gunged up scissors,

I then spend time arranging the stamps on the u-mount

to get maximum coverage

(if you place them lightly you can move them around if necessary)

as you can see in this next picture

I only used one A4 sheet & about 1/3 of the second sheet of u-mount

this means I have 3/4 of a sheet left for other stamps,

that I would have used if I had mounted them the recommended way.

I then use a craft knife & cutting mat to cut them out,

it's easy because the stamp on top acts as a cutting guide,

I always start with a new blade as well.

TIP NUMBER 2,

When you have odd shape stamps etc,

you can't help but leave gaps sometimes,

don't through the waist away, save them,

Here you can see from a previous cutting session what I have saved.

& how I have placed some of the stamps from the next plate I am going to cut out, on the bits I would normally have chucked in the bin.

the strips were from when I was mounting background stamps

and only had slivers left (perfect for sentiments etc)

as you can see quite a lot of the plate is now already mounted just on scraps.

here is what is left to mount, It has taken half the space.

so here's what I put in the rest of the space, 2 A6 stamp plates

& I used some more scrapes for the smaller stamps,

So in conclusion,

I have only used 2 A4 u-mount sheets to mount 5, A5 stamp plates

& 2, A6 stamp plates as well as scrapes that I would have thrown in the bin,

& I still have 1/4 of a sheet left for another day.

I have mounted this picture's worth of stamps for free,

or saved the equivalent of over one full sheet of u-mount that costs around £4.00

(money towards more stamps me thinks, tee hee he!!!) 

I hope I didn't lose you along the way of explaining that,

it makes perfect sense to me,

I save stress on my hands & most inportantly money that can go towards more crafty stash,

hope you find this usefull please leave me comments, I would love to read what you think.

come back next week, it's all about destress ink.

back soon Kat x.

THE ARTISTIC STAMPER CHALLENGE ***RAINBOWS***

This months challenge over at the artistic stamper creative team blog is RAINBOWS,
if you haven't come across these challenges from the
the artistic stamper blog head over there to check it out.

This is my first time too,

Before I show what I made I thought I would shear my logic behind it,
I decided to do the song, you know
red & yellow & pink & green & orange & purple & blue I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow.....etc
but not with a primary colour pallet, I decided to do a more muted grunge pallet instead.

OK here is what I made, drum roll..........yes it's another tag
(I told you I was addicted to them lol) (this is tag number 4)

All the colour are there I assure you.

• RED - lips - fired brick
• YELLOW - bridge of nose - scattered straw
• PINK - cheek - spun sugar
• GREEN - sentiment, hat, background - bundled sage
• ORANGE - butterfly, flower - wild honey, spiced marmalade
• PURPLE - it's there, it's in the fibers
• BLUE - eye shadow, background - stormy sky, weathered wood 

See I told you, It's all there, (tee hee he)

The stamps I have used are :-

THE ARTISTIC STAMPER'S chicken wire back ground,

all the rest are from Wendy Vecchi

I used brushed corduroy for blending

(I don't think I have made anything with out it in the last few years

I love this colour it just goes with everything)

I used archival ink pads (black & brown) for the stamping,

&The metal embellishments, fibers & pearl beads came from my stash.

Well I hope you like my take on the rainbow challenge,

Here are some close ups,  I tried to get the dimension

It was lovely speaking to Hel's  & Jennie at Ally Pally at the weekend,

check out there blogs they have cool artwork on them.

that's it from me for today, I'm off to link this post up,

Back soon Kat x.

SIMON SAYS STAMP & SHOW CHALLENGE ***SHOW YOUR GRUNGE***

Over on the simon says stamp and show blog this week
the challenge is SHOW YOUR GRUNGE,
head over there to find out all the details.

Here is a tag I made, I think it fits this weeks criteria perfectly for me,

Here is a list of the stuff I used,

STAMPS & DISTRESS INK'S as follows,

Wendy Vecchi stamps :- Butterfly off (make mine mini art) distress ink (faded jeans).

Sentiment & Face off (It's face art) distress inks, (brushed corduroy, aged mahogany, weathered wood). 

Leaves off (be inspired...make art) distress ink (peeled paint).

Paper Artsy stamps, Flowers off  (flora and fauna set) distress inks (aged mahogany & fired brick).

The Artistic Stamper stamps, for the Background  (punk plaid & chicken wire), distress inks (brushed corduroy, weathered wood & bundled sage)

I also used Archival ink for stamping with,

Tim Holtz, Alterations Die caged bird,.

Grunge Paper,

Manila Tag size 16x 8 cm,

& from my stash wire,bead embellishments & flat backed gems,

The glossy card I die cut the cage from has a wood grain affect on it,

(hope you can see how cool it looks from the photos)

& for the grungy background I used the scribble stain technique

on page 34 of Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiosities book.

This is tag number 3 I hope you like it.

I'm totally addicted to makeing them,

I'm so glad it's Ally Pally tomorrow so I can stock up.

OK while your here reading this,

I would like to say a big WELCOME to my four new followers they are,

in no particular order,

Vixykins, the stamp man, Karen Mathews & Jolanda bravery,

I'm so Glad you like my blog enough to follow me,

& I fell very privileged & humbled when you leave me such lovely comments,

thank you once again ladies,

back soon Kat x.



***LOOK WHAT WENDY VECCHI SENT ME***

I'm so excited, I can't tell you how much,
I got a package in the post today from the amazingly talented & awesome, Wendy Vecchi,

Lets see what's inside shall we,

Oh wow, how fab are these chipboard buttons,

& look the pearl buttons are self adhesive, how easy will they be to use,

Look at these mini paper packs how cool,

I need to have a closer look,

this pack is called vintage red line, how lucky am I,

these papers are so versatile, such cool patterns,

this pack is called red/black line extensions, I love the bird's,

this pack is called, vintage cream line, such cool designs

these papers will be perfect for small projects,

they are so detailed even though they are only 4x4 inches,

I'm so pleased they are mine (tee hee he).

so what did I do to deserve such a parcel, I hear you say,

all I did was comment on Wendy's blog & then on Jenni's blog 

I follow Wendy on her blog like a stalker,

& I try to leave comment's as often as I can on her inspiring work,

I left a comment on a post entitled, 3rd happy post,

the post was about a piece of art Wendy made using some of Jenni's products,

I hopped over to Jenni Bowlin's blog as directed in the post,& left her a comment too.

I then thought no more about it.

A few day's later I clicked on Wendy's blog as I usually do,

& there it was , my comment sitting there bold as brass for all to see,

(note to self, use spellcheck when commenting in future) lol

& Wendy was asking me to contact her with my details, so she could sent me a prize,

I was so excited, after the initial jumping up & down with a big smile on my face,

I had to look back on the original post to read it again (properly this time) to see what I had won.

how funny is that, I must have subconsciously glossed over that part of the post , thinking I'll never win (lol)

So I'm off to email Wendy to say a big thank you for taking the time to send me the prize,

& say it arrived safe & sound,

I can't wait to use Jenni's fab papers,

Back soon Kat x.



CARD TEMPLATE TUESDAY ***WEEK 6***

Hi guy's, it's week six of card template Tuesday,
I thought I would wrap the template series up,
for two reasons really, the first reason is, I get bored easily (lol)
& the second reason is, I haven't had a single comment left on any of these posts,
so I thought I would do a different series for a while & see if I get any response from that.

I have decided to do a TIPS OR TECHNIQUES TUESDAY instead,
how dose that sound?
I will post it every Tuesday for the foreseeable future,
& it will have a Tip or Technique to cover each week with step by step photos where possible,

So back to today's post,
I have 6 cards & templates ready to post, so I thought I may as well post them all today,& put the series to bed (lol)

If you have just stumbled across my blog & missed the series,
here is a link back to week one so you can read all the instructions on making the templates,
because I am only going to show the pictures today & not all the ins and outs, because it would just be a load of repeat writing,
(I think I may fall asleep writing it, let alone loose you because there is to much to read lol).

so here are the cards followed by the templates.

card number 1,

card number 2,

card number 3,

 

card number 4,

card number 5,

card number 6,

phew that was a long haul LOL,

OK that's me done, I'm off to start planing the first week of

TIPS OR TECHNIQUES TUESDAY,

back soon Kat x.