CIRCLES AND SMILES

I love using circles, though I have made myself have a break from them for a while, but the current challenge over at TIOT is Circles, so I have a good excuse to use my stencils!

This one is made with Distress Oxides and a couple of my favourite Paperartsy stamps.… the flowers were watercoloured with the Oxides, too.

…as is this one, though I’ve added white paint circles over the top…

I made the one above with the Addicted to Stamps challenge of ‘Make Someone Smile.’

I think this one would also fit into both categories, made with the same stamp, but a very different background, stencilled with Distress inks.

More circles, but this time coincidentally. Again, I used Distress Oxides to make the background.

I’d like to enter the first card into the challenge at Try it on Tuesday,

and also the ‘Anything Goes’ challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

I’d like to enter the second card into the Addicted to Stamps Challenge, Make Someone Smile.

See you next time!

Thanks for looking.

Cath

xxx

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Sentiments in Focus…

All last week, I was inspired by an Allsorts challenge to ‘Use Sentiments as a Focus’. Although I’ve missed the challenge (long gone – duh!), I’m going to blog the cards I made because it’s something I don’t do a lot of. I do always like to use an inspirational sentiment but it’s rarely the actual focus of the card and I generally start with an inked background, so it was fun to do things differently for a little while.

The first two are simply stamped in Versamark ink on watercolour paper, then embossed with white EP and painted over with watercolours.

This one was stamped around the edges of glossy card in Versamark (for a resist effect), then sponged over with Distress inks. The sentiment was stamped in the centre – still on Autumn!

This is a Media plate background I played with a couple of weeks ago, adding bits of gold leaf to the flowers and around the edges, using a Quickie Glue pen.

The final card is stamped on a background I made by mopping up remaining Distress inks and adding a little more colour where I thought I needed it.

This last one is just a card I made for a friend who isn’t very well… it’s made with Distress Oxides on watercolour paper, using Lavinia stamps again…. must admit, this is one of my personal favourites!

I’d like to enter this one into a few ‘Anything Goes’ challenges.

Creative Fingers

Inspiration Destination

and

Creatalicious (with optional background)

I’d also like to enter it into the ‘Show us Your Stamps’ challenge on

Frilly and Funkie

Thanks for looking.

See you soon!

Cath

xxx

Inky Play..

I’ve been to Grange-over-Sands for a few days and arrived home to new inkpads – ooooh! I LOVE inks

So I had a bit of a play – and will hopefully have another tomorrow…!

I was using just two colours of Distress Oxide, here. The first one is direct to paper, the second is inked from my non-stick sheet. Love the hues which developed after adding water.

 

I played on glossy card, too but haven’t used those, yet.

This is my completed card.

I’d like to enter this one into the Simon Says Stamp ‘Stamp It’ challenge.

More inky backgrounds to catch up on… these two use my all time favourite Penny Black Fuchsia stamp.

Distress Inks pick up

Distress Inks, Faux Batik

I’ll enter these, too, since they’re both stamped

Be back soon with some more inky plays….

Thanks for looking!

Cath

xxx

Still here…

I haven’t been blogging, but I’ve been playing…

Izzi (Grandaughter) day is one of those days when it’s impossible to get online, but they’re almost over now… my little darling starts school the week after next

August Bank Holiday is always a good family time, though because it’s her Daddy’s birthday and this time is rather special because he will be 40 tomorrow!

Eeek! Where do the years go????

The party was yesterday, so here’s a snippet of my little Treasure.

Now, back to the artwork… I’ve been journalling and playing with watercolour…

This one’s à la Maremi… YouTube – pure watercolour play… lots of fun! I highly recommend it!

And here’s a card that’s a long way from my usual style, but I just felt like doing something a little different

I have more cards to share, so I’ll be back soon…

Thanks for looking.

Cath

xxx

Quick play

I’m really missing stamping and blogging but not a lot I can do about that for now – hopefully, I’ll soon get into more of a routine and MAKE time to stamp!

I needed a quick card for someone, so I used one of my Twinkler watercolour backgrounds (made by just adding random Twinklers to the paper) to make this, using one of my favourite word stamps.

Really SILLY stamping…

This one’s a bit big – about 61/2 inches square big – but it was fun to do 🙂

Colour ATC Technique – as requested :)

I feel more than a little embarrassed about posting this as a technique because it really is so EASY, but here you go…

I used just three shades of Ecoline inks – Cerise, Cyan and Yellow – then, taking a sheet of card (thickish) or watercolour paper (I used hot press smooth) I just painted them on randomly (with thick brushes) and left them to dry. What a cheat? The colours blend beautifully and create all those shades you can see on the ATCs. On some, I wet the card or paper first, then added the inks, on others I spritzed after painting, then mopped up excess colour with another sheet of card/paper, so I ended up with lots of variations – some muddier looking than others, some paler.

Word of warning – it looks YUKKY before you stamp it and the white highlighting really does make all the difference 🙂

I did try this with Adirondack reinkers but they are too highly pigmented, so the colours are too dark. Great for inkpads but not for techniques like this. I am intending trying the same thing with Vivid Reinkers because I have quite a lot of those – I’ll upload my results when I do.

Here are a couple of the backgrounds BS (Before Stamping).

I think the first two were spritzed VERY lightly. Don’t they look YUKKY?

The second two pieces were wet before I started and then were spritzed a little more before being allowed to dry. These look much nicer unstamped.