Challenge Hels...

... Occasionally I have a mooch through my basket of stuff I have made and I look at my recent blog posts and then set myself a challenge to make something that is nowt like the rut I have dropped into. Does anyone else drop in to a crafty rut? I do it all the time... I have a suspicion it is because I am inordinately lazy and never put away my stash like I promise myself I will... so I just grab the nearest thing to me and usually it means that everything looks ever so similar.




So, my challenge for today was to make a card with a masculine look without using typical "mans" stuff on it. Part 2 of the challenge was to use only one shade of colour and being as it was a masculine card, that colour had to be brown... Part 3 to use stamps I haven't used for like yonks... Part 4 was to include an inky technique and Part 5 was to make it in 20 mins!!! Nowt like a challenge to get the old creative juices... erm... panicking!!



So, armed with cream cardstock, brown shades of Distress Ink, some water, a heatgun and two stamps, I got cracking. With clock ticking I figured doing resist techniques would take too long so I did the Wrinkle Free Distress technique, drying the cardstock in between each dipping so I could get some little splatters on there too. The stamping... the diamond block pattern from Stampers Anon is one of my fave stamps and is so versatile... I have stamped it twice and cut out random diamonds and then flipped them and puffed them with a paperstump, then they are on 3D foam and onto their relevant diamond on the main image. The "girly" bit is the bow and the beaded fringing.. .which normally I would have coloured but tick tock went the clock and time ran out.



So, whatcha fink? I like a good challenge and I am thinking I will make myself do this more often... plus, the bonus is that while I am clock watching and making quicky cards, I am not having to tidy up - infact, it is worse now than ever, there are beads all over the floor, card on the floor, papers on the floor and the bin needs emptying... tis no good, I have to go and tidy up... before I do though I think I will just give myself another 20 min challenge ROFL Thanks for looking... have a goodly day! TTFN

Hels x

Merlot & Old Lace....

...I know, it is supposed to be Arsenic and Old Lace...you know, that film that was made in 1944 starring Cary Grant....*ah, I sound so knowledgeable...the beauty of Google ROFL* Anyway...today is the start of a brand new Gingersnap Challenge and the theme is Lace & Fibres...hop on over to their blog...there is a bit of candy from our sponsors this month, The Artistic Stamper. For my piece I used some brand new 1920's ladies...along with a lady from the original 20's plate from The Artistic Stamper. I love the fact that the heads fitted onto a 2" square piece of Stampbord...so I did four different ones, inking the Stampbord with Chalk Ink...the Merlot part of the title is cos I used Merlot coloured ink...not cos I drink it ROFL... and then scratching at the Stampbord to emphasise the design.




The board background is an offcut of mountboard which I painted with *please don't yawn* Traditional Tan paint...then once this was dry I attempted to dab the Merlot ink around the edge...and...AlfieCat jumped onto the desk...made me leap out of my skin and blob... the inky sponge went splat onto the bit I didn't want inked... Never being one to be put off by a big fat cat landing on my stash, I decided to blend the Merlot ink over the mountboard...and then used some more Trad Tan paint top stamp the fabby sequin waste stamp, which breaks up the background a bit :O))




The last bit of the piece was the addition of lace...which I love....and fibres, which I cannot stand using...but I challenged myself that there would be some on the piece, so they made the hangy bit LOL I added some co-ordinating ribbon over the top of the lace just to break it up a bit...and then popped all the bits onto the board and added some beaded fringing to the bottom of it to finish.




That's all for now.. I will be back later with my workdesk mess...ha, so much for my put stuff away promise...it is a piggysty in my room of stash again ... I have got to take Ferdy in to get the heater and the brakes sorted...am hoping that it won't be a long do as I don't like Ferdy not being there on my drive LOL *for peeps who don't know, not only do I name my laptops I also name my cars* Don't forget to pop over to the Gingersnap Blog....there are some gorgeous bits of art on there too :O))

Hels x