Fashionably New

Goodness, how quickly do the FSC challenges come round, and it's that time again !! This fortnight we are asking you try something new. Well I had the perfect thing - my new Gelli Arts Plate. After playing around with the basics I had a go at a different technique, Gelli printing on sticky laminate sheets. I first watched a YouTube video by Patti Parrish before having a go myself -

I decided to use a section of the print on the front of a plain book

After choosing the section to use I adhered it the front of the book with double sided tape and finished the edges with washi tape. The book is for keeping colour samples in of various mediums – I’ve stuck tabs on the page edges -  

and am using little tags inside for samples of the colours -

The rest of the FSC team have, as always, made some beautiful projects for inspiration, so do pay them a visit – and we have a fab special guest this challenge too! It would be great to have you join our  challenge - don't forget we MUST see some stamping, not just Digis, and the winner will be chosen at random and receive a voucher to spend over at FlonzCraft...Happy creating..Esther xx

Shabby ATC's

As I've mentioned before, my crafting has been on a bit of a go slow lately and I've just been doing DT stuff and nothing much else - however, I have a renewed enthusiasm thanks to my Gelli plate shaped birthday present ! I love this new toy and have had a lovely messy time playing today, while it thundered and poured with rain !!  Here is what I made - 

A little trio of shabby ATCs. I was inspired by the Unruly Paperarts RAQ 1 challenge, where the theme is Pink and Brown Shabby Chic. I wanted to see if I could achieve a shabby chic background with the gelliplate. I used pale pink and rose pink on the gelli and then used a rubber stamp to lift paint off before taking a couple of prints on an old sheet of music manuscript. I used the same technique but added some brown paint for the third print.  (forgot to take a pic of the printed sheets before I cut them up!!). 

This ATC is the second print, which gave a more shabby finish, I've embossed the edges and the bottom button with Stampendous Aged Rose Embossing Enamel and stamped some text on the top button. 

This background is the first, darker print, I've stamped some text, added the crochet flower, buttons and finished off with some Tarnished Mica flakes. 

and finally the last print, with brown paint added to the pink, added some lace,shell buttons, little key and a stamped image. 

I  recently came across a bag of buttons while sorting through some stuff at my mums and the Simon Says Stamp and Show button challenge is the inspiration for the decoration of my ATCs.  I was really pleased with how the stamp worked on the paint and will definitely try this technique again. Thanks for stopping by...Esther xx

Summer Time at Craft-Room

Well, we've had a couple of bright sunny days here in the UK and here at Craft-Room we're hoping that  summer is on it's way.  Maria has chosen 'Here comes Summer' as our theme this fortnight.  Your creation can be anything you want, cards, scrapbook layouts, wall hangings, altered items, in fact anything whatsoever which makes you think of summer.

Our very kind sponsor for this fortnight's challenge is Liz Welch from Rarebird:

Our Guest Designer for June is Linda a.k.a Eemeli, You can  join us as a Guest Designer, just add GDT after your name when linking your entry. As always our design team has come up with some fantastic so pop on over and visit them. I've made a scrapbook layout - 

These are photos of my mum and her friends on summer outings at the beach

I cut the photos into banner shapes and made the ribbon banner by cutting and inking circles and attaching them to a strip of ribbon. I've also added some stickers, splashes of ink and journaling.  

So even if we don't have as much sun as we'd like, lets bring a little bit of summer to our challenge - I look forward to seeing what you create - Esther xx

F is for Feather

It's been some time since I joined in with the Craft Barns Alpha Challenge. To be honest, crafting has been a bit of a struggle recently, I've had no motivation or inspiration and I haven't been happy with my DT pieces. BUT - today I became the owner of a yummy Gelli plate, thanks to my OH who kindly let me have my birthday present early (lets face it I wasn’t going to stop nagging til I got my own way!!). Here are my first two Gelli prints (I forgot to take a pic before I started stamping.) The large peacock feather stamp is by Stampendous and the smaller one  Blockheads.

I've used the lighter print as the background for my Alpha dictionary page (I'm altering a dream dictionary). This fortnight's letter is F (between FE - FR) and I chose Feather. I went for soft, light colours because in dreams feathers are said to denote softness, lightness and suggest a more gentle approach to situations.

The top strip is also a Gelli print on which I’ve used a flying birds mask and vintage photo distress ink. The square panel is embossed in pirate gold onto a scrap of Gelli print.

In dreams it is thought that feathers often represent flight to other parts of the self and because of the connection with wind and the air, can represent the more spiritual side of ourselves.  I’ve had a lovely few hours playing, finally back in touch with my creative self and am quite pleased with my first attempts – I think you could be seeing quite a few more Gelli print creations !!  Thanks for stopping by – Esther xx

Tag Time at FSC

Time for another challenge over at Fashionable Stamping, and its time for tags ! I love making tags and one of my ongoing projects (i.e. something I've started and never get round to working on!) is to make sample tags working through Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 online class (that I signed up to a life time ago and haven't got round to finishing) So this fortnight's FSC challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to add another - 

The background is created using the perfect splatter distress technique - perfect pearls and distress inks. I've kept the tag simple to show off the background, adding a few bits of background stamping and the main image which is a flonzcraft stamp. I added some Stampendous shabby green embossing powder along the bottom edge, decoupaged the flowers and added some stickles rock candy glitter to the flowers also.  

I made two tags and left one undecorated.

 

Stuck them both in my CC101 album and added the instructions on the opposite page.

The rest of the FSC team have, as always, made some beautiful tags for inspiration, so do pay them a visit and it would be great to have you join our tag challenge - don't forget we MUST see some stamping, not just Digis, and the winner will be chosen at random and receive a voucher to spend over at FlonzCraft...Happy Tagging..Esther xx

Craft-Room scraps

Time for another challenge over at Craft-Room, thank you all for your lovely entries with their beautifully stamped backgrounds. It's my turn to be hostess and I've chosen - 'Use your scraps' as our theme. If you're anything like me you will have a stash of little bits and pieces you just couldn't thow away because you might just need them - well here's your chance to use them ! You could use paper scraps, odds of ribbon or thread, chipboard cut offs, anything that is left over from another project really !

Our sponsor for this challenge is Stamp Addicts who are offering a £10 voucher to spend in their store.

We have a talented Guest Designer this fortnight, welcome back Piia a.k.a. PiHi  and of course the  rest of the team have come up with some fabulous inspiration so go checkout their blogs too.

I come from a big family, my sister has six children and one of my nieces gave birth to her second daughter last week making me a great Aunt for the sixth time ! I'm beginning to lose track of all their birthdays so decided to make a little book to keep the dates in. The book is 4"x4". 

I started by sorting out some colour co-ordinating scraps - 

I used canvas board covers, stamped one edge with a Judikins Stamp (vintage No1 set) from Stamp Addicts. I then added bits and pieces from my scraps pile. The letters are die cut from scraps and the pen nibs from the same stamp set as the background -

I used some of the bigger pieces for pages and put them together with my Bind it All machine 

I haven't completed all of the pages but started with May (it's a busy birthday month!) using more scraps to write names and dates on and added a stamped flower - also from Stamp Addicts. 

So dig out those bits and pieces you've been saving and get them used up ! I look forward to seeing what you come up with. 

I'm sharing my birthday book here - 

Allsorts - Happy Birthday

Anything but a Card - Dust off your old supplies

Fashionably Altered..

Hello - it's time for another challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge, thank you for all the amazing entries for our Anything Goes challenge, great to see so many people joining in ! This week the very talented Joanna has asked us to 'alter it'. 

This gave me the perfect nudge I needed to do something with this rather plain necklace I've had lurking around for ages -

So I got out the alcohol inks, and just played around adding colours till I was happy. Next I added some stamping, with  text and flourish stamps.

I wanted some texture so I added some bead gel, which I dabbed with more alcohol inks when dry.

I added a butterfly charm to the central piece and there it was , finished.

I don’t do much ‘altering’ and really enjoyed this. All I need now is some summery weather so I can wear it with something pretty ! I hope you find something to alter and join us this fortnight – it can be anything you have hanging around, and don't forget the randomly chosen winner gets a voucher to spend at Flonzcraft. We are a stamping challenge so we MUST see stamping!  Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to seeing your altered creations ! Esther xx