Thank You for Following My Blog

Friday 4 May 2012

"My House, in the middle of the street, My House......"

Recently, I made a canvas using Caludine Hellmuths two steps stamps. They come in two sets, one is a foam set that stamps brillantly with either inks or acrylic paints, and gives a solid image and the other is a clear acrylic stamp that gives the line detail to compliment the solid image. 
I love Caludine's style which is very retro, which comes through in all her work and I just love all of her stamp sets! In fact I had been trying to find an excuse to pull them out and have a go of my new stamps when I was struck with inspiration! I had a canvas board to use and I thought this set would make the perfect house warming gift!
Firstly, I coloured about 2/3 of the canvas board with Distress Stains to create a sky background, painted the bottom third with tan paint for the path. I then stamped the foam stamp houses, sun and "pebbles" with acrylic paint waited for it all to dry and then over stamped it with Archival ink in Jet Black.
I then repeated the process with the houses and sun on stickyback canvas, cut them out and layered onto the canvas board with glue gel. I die-cut the fence from painted sticky back canvas and using glue gel again adhered it to the canvas either side of the middle house.
I tried to recreate that retro feel by using bright colours to compliment the style of the images. I think I managed to achieve this.
I am going to enter this piece into The Artisitic Stampers monthly Challange at http://theartisticstampercreativeteam.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/may-challenge-spots-and-stripes.html, which this months theme is "Spots and Stripes".  I definetly think it fits the theme and I really enjoy entering different challenges so I can see how other people interpret the themes set by the designers.  I find it helps the creative juices flow.  I love The Artisitc Stampers design style and hope I do well inthe challenge!


Tuesday 1 May 2012

Bunting Mad...

Just a quick entry tonight as I am shattered!  It has been a hectic day at work and with meetings following, it would all be easier if I could just start to sleep properly!  Aaarrggggghhhh.................!
Well, they always say you feel better after a good aaarrrggghhh!  Now I do! lol!
This is a card I made with my Stampin'Up stash and it is one that always brings a smile to my face.  Which I think is a good thing seeing as it's a birthday card!lol.
I think that it is the paper that makes is so appealing, it so nice, bright and happy. I can't help but feel better looking at it.  It's such a simple card to make too. Just cover a card blank with patterned paper, put a triangular piece at a jaunty angle with a little twine attached to each side, punch a decorative circle and a slightly smaller one of white card to fit inside it.  Stamp the birthday cupcake two-step stamp and embellish it with chunky glitter.
Stamp the sentiment in the bottom right hand corner, and , voila!
Happy Birthday!
As this is such a bright card for me, which makes a change from my usual colour choices, I thought I would enter it into Simon Says Stamp "A Kaliedoscope of Colour" challenge at http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/simon-says-stamp-and-show-kaleidescope.html.  It is so unusual for me to make such a clean bright design and in fact I really enjoyed making it and love how it looks finished.  So think I will have to try and incorporate this style into my crafting more often.
Thanks for stopping by and taking to the time to look at my blog.