Sunday Stamper - Week 314 - Knock On Wood

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Thank you for all your fabby entries for last weeks challenge and it is lovely to see some new peeps joining in too.  This week sees a nice different challenge - and that is to USE WOOD.  To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something, it can be anything you fancy.  Add in the theme AND some stamping and then pop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 5th July 2014.

My entry this week is actually a show sample from my last tellybox show that I haven't got around to blogging... better late than never.  I had lots of painty fun making this wall hanging.  The paints are Cosmic Shimmer Chalk Paints, I used Spiced Raspberry mixed with Vanilla and brayered the paints onto an MDF board.  Once I was happy with the background painting, I added some Spiced Raspberry to Clear Texture Paste and popped this through Dina's Plastic Canvas Stencil.  Once dried, I set about adding some light stamping using Dina's Textures stamp set.  I used Vanilla to stamp with so the background is nice and splotchy.

I make no secret of my lurve of butterflies and I went a little... erm... bonkers (!) with the butterflies on this piece... all stamped onto patterned papers and coloured with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink (you can see I missed colouring the underside of a wing... oops!)  The woodie branch is from the garden, I was cutting back a camellia and the twigs are really sturdy, ideal for adding to something crafty.  I tied string through the holes in the MDF and wrapped it around the twig to fasten it in place.  A wee sentiment to finish and voila, one painty project.

That's all from me for now... I am taking a couple of weeks off to recharge the old batteries so if I am a little quiet, it is probs because I am curled up with a good book :O)   *either that or up to mischief!*  Thanks for looking, have a goodly week! TTFN

Hels x

Dreamy...

...and creamy... well, sort of creamy.  I LOVE this colour scheme!  Back in the old comfort zone of browns and creams!  Anyways... firstly, THANK YOU for all your fabby emails, comments, messages, Tweets, texts after yesterdays shows!  It was great to see you all loving the goodies on the shows.  I didn't get chance to do half the techniques I wanted to... time just goes waaaay too quickly... maybe I needs a two hour show ;O))   As promised, I will be showing you some of the samples close up this week and today kicks off with my favourite one:

Remember when I went to Wales a few weeks ago?  Well, there's a gallery in Portmerion and obviously, it is arty, so I ventured up 291 steps (ok, a slight exaggeration there... more like 20 but... ) and inside were some amaaaaazing paintings.  But, what caught my attention more (ever the crafter) were bundles of off cuts of mountboard!  10 pieces for a "parnd"  So I snapped up a few bundles and then made Grim carry my jazzy owl bag (well, he likes birds too... *snort*)  Anyways, the point of telling you this is... mountboard makes a fab base for art, it is great for book covers and pages, it is die-cutable (new word methinks) and because it is sturdy, you can paint it, cover with paper, cover with canvas etc etc.  I used to have a supplier when we lived in Lutonia, the old chappie in the picture framers used to give me bags of the stuff.. for free (I used to be the good citizen and pop a few bob into the charity box)  So, if you have a local picture framer, go and ask if you can save on their refuse collections and take some of their off cuts!  

So, on with the piece today... like I said (a hundred years ago) I like this one the best of all the samples I made... and this one was a "last minute" one using up some left-overs from my sampling sesh.  Yep, using cardboard for the arty bit, the mountboard is the larger piece at the back... that was painted with Pitch Black Dabber and then I added some Clear Texture Paste thru the foxgloves stencil and then smudged some Gilding Wax over.   The arty bit was made by spreading White Texture Paste through the same stencil and once dried, using Cut & Dry foam, pouncing Lake Mist and Mushroom Dabber paint onto it.  The script was added once the paint was dry.  Using Clear Texture Paste, splot a bit onto your craft sheet, spritz on some water to make it runny, stamp onto tissue with permanent ink (I used my old faithful, Jet Black Archival) and then apply the tissue, in patches, to the base.  Paint over the top with the runny texture paste mix... voila, a collage medium!   The embellishment is one of the gorgeous Studio 490 Embellish Your Art butterflies... I love this little guy and I added a few smudges of Gilding Wax to his wings to jazz him up a little. And there you have it!  I shall be back tomorrow with another technique using the Clear Texture Paste.

I shall away now, I have to unpack the boxes from yesterday, store the artwork (am so running out of room!) and then... I plan to try out my new steam cleaner (wow, what an exciting life I lead!) and then... there appear to be a large number of feathers decorating the lawn.  Apparently, someone fancied themselves a little pigeon snack yesterday.  No corpse has been found so we are assuming said pigeon managed to fly away.  My little Predator is getting ambitious!   Mind you, if it is the pigeon I think it is, he had taken to roosting on the lawn for some reason... roosting on the lawn of a garden owned by an AlfieCat isn't the wisest thing to do!   Anyways, hope you have a great day!  Thanks for looking... TTFN!


Hels x

And Finally....

...I got it done!   Finally, after much faffing and fiddlediddling I finished my canvas!  Oh yesh, indeed and thrice, it is finished... I am telling myself that because I really want to keep on adding to it and I am forcing myself to walk away from it.  Actually, it is just another excuse to not make Christmas cards! Last year I prevaricated until about 15th December and then did a mad frenzy of batch making and this year, L'il Miss Smug inside me was "ha, I am starting Christmas in September, you ain't catching me out again......"  ERM... wrong!  I am well and truly catched out... to the point that I am, shamefully admitting, thinking of nipping to the local supermarket and buying a box of cards!  I know!  I have tonnes of Christmas stash and just no Mojo to make cards!  

Anyways... forget about Christmas... see, more prevaricating (hahahaaa) and on with the canvas.  So, a few weeks ago you may recall I travelled up to Rochdale to spend the weekend with the lovely ladies of the JoLLie StaMpeRs craft group.  This was our Sunday project, a big old canvas and some fancy papers... and a bit of imagination.  The thing I loves most about this technique is that you can use any kind of paper and it really doesn't matter if it is trendy, new etc... this paper is actually an ancient Basic Grey collection - I thinks it is Stella Ruby but I might be wrong... and it is yonks old... and I just chopped it up, layered it on and then got messy with some Texture Paste and paints and stuff and then got all excitable with the embellishments.

I do love to over-embellish stuff... I have been doing it for years - if you check out some of my old tags you will see how much Idea-ology I can bung on one thing... and now that Prima and Artemio have started bringing out even more embellies, I am, so to speak, in embellishment heaven.  I started out a few years ago with a compartment box for my Idea-ology... then the Duke of Distress added more to his line... and another box appeared... and then there was more... so I got another box... and now I have... FIVE boxes!  I know!  I am a bit of a neat freak (don't laugh, I am ... sometimes) and I like each thing to have its own little compartment.  However, with the Prima stuff, I have Really Useful Boxes... and bung it all in there... I am loving those Zippers... just how cool are they!  And the ickle birdies!  So... Tweet... ahem *groan*   I used Treasure Gold wax to colour some of the resin embellies... and added smidges of it around the edge of the canvas to tie it all in.  The stamp has got to be one of my fave ever stamps... a real "go to" word... by The Artistic Stamper... fab isn't it!

Anyways... I shall away... I am scheduling this because we have an early start today... we are away to visit Grim's Mum & Dad and they live on the other side of the world... ok, Norfolk, but it is a beggar to get to... there are no motorways you see... all A roads, all of them usually full of lorries and tractors... so early starts are necessary.   Oooh, I nearly forgot... my friend Caz is having a bit of a giveaway... her clever son has made her a proper website HERE it is... and she is doing a giveaway... do hop over to see her, the website is looking fab and the candy is rather nice too...    Right, am away... thanks for looking... have a goodly day!  TTFN

Hels x

I Challenge Thee...

... I know I say it all the time but I do love a good old Sunday Skypey sesh with Ellen because invariably we do an "I Challenge Thee" where we are really strict and have a list of stash we are allowed to use. This weeks sesh was a bit different... we are both feeling in a rut with ink and stuff so we decided to chose some different items... and... old/neglected stamps. Here's the list of goodies useable: Canvas board, Paint, texture paste, old/neglected stamps, masking tape, Alterations Strip Die, Prima Flowers, Embossing Powder, Stencils, Scraped Paint technique, Splatter technique and a theme of circles and diamonds. Cor blimey... it was SO nice to get out of my comfort zone and try some new stuff.



Who knew that painting and stamping Masking Tape would be such fun!!! (I know, you are gonna tell me you have done it before but... it would seem I have been lurking under a rock lol) A lot of the inspiration for my piece has come straight from the marvel that is Anna "Finnabair" Dabrowska. If you haven't seen her work before, take a look HERE. Seriously, she is an inspiration. Her style is loaded and yet it looks clean... it is hard to describe really, you have to see it to understand it. Anyways... she is, as I said, totally inspiring me at the moment.. you know, to try something else, something different to what I normally do.


This canvas was one of those things that I just couldn't leave alone... like 3am can't leave alone. I have gone back to it a couple of times to add a few extra bits of beady things... and I have also re-discovered my love of embossing powder. I think because most of my artwork is grungy and inky, I neglect these things badly. I used Queen's Gold Embossing Powder, which is IMO, the best gold powder I have used so far. It is fine and a proper gold... sometimes a gold powder can be a bit greeny, not this one :O)) The stamping on the edges are some Catslife Press stamps I have had for 272 years and haven't used since I moved house over two years ago (naughty Hels) and the word in the middle is a gorgeous grungy stamp from The Artistic Stamper. You might be able to see some script on the masking tape... that's also an Artistic Stamper stamp - they have some cool backgrounds and scripts you know :O))


Well, I reckon I have waffled enough for today... please do hop on over to see Ellen's GORGEOUS creation - HERE it is. I am off to play again... can't keep me away from paint and texture paste at the moment lol Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x