Wheels

My friend Kay is hosting this weeks 

Sunday Postcard Art Challenge 

and she has chosen 'Wheels' as her theme.

I thought I'd go olde world with this one, so have chosen sepia tones only.

I knew which stamp I wanted to use, then found a perfect background paper on which to stamp it.  I used 'Soft Suede' ink from Stampin' Up! as it was just the right colour. 

One of these days I should buy myself a postmark stamp, however, the 'To' ,  'From'  and  'Sydney' stamps worked nicely instead.

Although there isn't a lot of stamping, I'm fairly happy with the finished postcard.

Stamps

Deep Red - Steampunk Lady Cyclist

Darkroom Door - Mail Art

Challenge

Sunday Postcard Art - Wheels

Please pop over to the talented Kay's blog and look at her lovely creations.

Happy Crafting!

Vroom!

It's 5.30pm and I really should be doing something about dinner, but I'm tired!

After doing 2 loads of washing this morning, my attention was drawn to the tree that has been scratching on the bathroom window every time the wind blows.   

Grrrr .... I HAD to do something about it.

Out came the saw and the long handled thingys, and down came most of the tree.  I left the main trunk as it is actually helping to hold the side fence up.  Next was the tedious bit, chopping it up and putting it in the green recycling bin ready for the garbage collection tomorrow morning.

Then I realised that I'm off to a craft show tomorrow and I didn't have any $$$ in my purse -eeeek!  How can I go to a craft show without money?  

So off to the shops I went, coming home with some bread and milk as well to keep the hungry human mice going until the next shop.

  Anyhow, back to Vroom, here is an ATC that I made for the challenge at 

Snarky Stampers.

Isn't she fun?  Wind in her hair, putting along on her scooter while the rest of the city are in their concrete jungle.

'Born to Ride' is a Deep Red stamp.

Challenge

Snarky Stampers - #61 Vroom!

Happy Crafting!

Yes, I'm still here!

Yes, I'm still here!

Crafting has taken a little bit of a back seat this month, not because I don't want to play, 

simply that there has been a general household tidy up happening.

Not very exciting, I know, but one of those necessities of owing a house!

Oh, and my dining table where I craft, has disappeared under boxes and other bits & bobs.

But don't dispare, soon everything will be back to normal (whatever that means) and I'll be joining in with various challenges again (I've even found a new one!) .

Hehehe!  Should be "Autumn has arrived at last". 

I made this for a challenge last month, and then realised I'd got it wrong, ooops!

Anyway, I'll be back again in May, so until then

Happy Crafting!

Gear Trouble

It's been one of those odd weather days today.  You know the kind I mean ...... one minute it looks sunny and before you know it, the clouds have come over and you're not sure whether it's going to rain or not.   The result is (a) my washing is still not pegged and (b) yes, it did rain!

So, what to do?  Craft of course, what else!

Looking at this week's list of challenges, I decided to go with 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - 'G is for Gears (Steampunk)

and

Creative Carte Blanche - "Triple Trouble"

(Three things that do not go together)

[corrugated card, lace, metal]

Choosing a stamp for this project was easy.  "Steampunk Lady Cyclist" is quirky but fun and fits with the "Gears" theme quite well.  I fussy cut her and added colour with various metallic gel pens.

Looking through my stash, I found a piece of gray corrugated card which almost gives the appearance of a fence.  To give it more interest, I scraped on some Ferro 'Graphite' texture paste and put it aside.  While it was drying, I ferretted through my ribbon basket for some lace.  Once the texture paste was dried, the lace was secured in place with double-sided tape.  Each time I go to a craft show, I seem to come home with some metallic findings and this geared steampunk clock was one of them.  

Because the black card mat was very plain, to give it more interest, I added two rows of black lace washi tape before adhering the corrugated card in place.  This black card mat was in turn adhered to a white card.

This card is a bit different for me, but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out.

What do you think?

Stamps 

Deep Red - "Steampunk Lady Cyclist"

Challenges

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - #54 "G is for Gears"

Creative Carte Blanche - #2 "Triple Trouble"

Happy Crafting!

Steampunk Lady Cyclist

This weeks theme at the

Tagalong Challenge

is "Steampunk"

so with this in mind I set to work using 

"Steampunk Lady Cyclist" from Deep Red stamps.

I blended Distress Inks 'peeled paint' and 'peacock feathers',

spritzed it with water, mopping of the excess with a tissue.

I then stamped the Lady Cyclist directly onto the tag with Archival Ink 'jet black'

followed by various gears and grungy bits from "Clockworks" SU.

I added a couple of pieces of washi tape for extra interest

and lightly blended 'black soot' around the edges.

I am entering this tag in the

Tagalong Challenge

Happy Crafting!

 

Winter is Coming

It's going to be a while before I see the leaves falling from the trees in my garden, as we are in the middle of a hot summer with temperatures at an all time high in some parts of the country.  In the past week in Sydney we've been averaging around 35 degrees, but in Melbourne where the international tennis is being played, games were halted when the temperature went over 40 degrees.  Phew!  My DH and his best mate were in the crowd for two days and they found it hard just sitting, let alone playing tennis!

Anyhow, back to the theme in question at Tagalong this week - "Winter Trees".

The thought of a snowy, wintery landscape just never occurs to me, as it simply doesn't snow in Sydney.  The closest we get snow is in the Blue Mountains (just over an hour away) but at the most it will only last a day.  We were lucky enough to wake up to snow years ago when we were on holidays there but by midday it was all melted and gone.  It was quite exciting (especially as the children were only small) to play in the snow though.

This tag was started with Distress Ink 'peeled paint' on the bottom section (I had the stamp lined up so I could see how far up the tag I needed to colour) and then adding 'stormy sky' to the remainder of the tag.  I spritzed it lightly with water for a mottled look, and then using 'jet black' Archival Ink stamped Deep Red 'Fall Leaves' , which lined up quite well with where the colours merged.

The trunk of the tree and the individual dropped leaves were coloured with Distress Markers, and washi tape was added to finish it off (or so I thought).  I looked at my tag and decided to just add a light touch of 'tea dye' surrounding the tree to add a slightly colder feel to the tag.

So, this is my entry in this week's challenge at Tagalong.

Happy crafting!
 

Retirement Cards

Ah, the Retirement cards saga continues .......... not really, in the end after much thinking and searching of a suitable stamp, it came together rather well (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

This morning I was heading off to Alice in Paperland to 'play' in the last Dylusions class for this year.  Actually it's not really a class as it is very informal and there is usually only 3 of us, but we have lots of inky fun with much laughter and chatting.  Anyhow, one of the girls had brought along her new JOFY stamps and as I was stamping them onto my journal page, it suddently occurred to me that these would work rather well on the second retirement card (for which I was stuck for ideas).  They both agreed and as I had my watercolour paper and pencils with me, I quickly stamped and coloured some flowers.  The card was assembled after I went home.

I found a piece of cardstock to mat the flowers (it is much closer in colour to the flowers then it looks in the photo), stamped "dare to dream" (Tim Holtz), and popped in the insert.  The quote came from a book called "Words to the Rescue" and was computer printed.

For the first card (yes, I know I'm going backwards in time here) I used "Born to Ride" which is one of my recent purchases, with "enjoy the journey" (Tim Holtz) stamped in the bottom corner.

The same book was used for this quote too, although this time it is actually two quotes put together, but changed slightly.  This was also computer printed.

Tomorrow the school is having a presentation in honour of the two teachers who are retiring.  I'm not actually going but know the teachers as they were at the school prior to my children going there (and they have all finished school now).  After all those years of teaching students, they deserve a well earned retirement!

Now to finish the Wedding card for Saturday, and then next week I'll start sending out my Christmas cards.

Happy crafting!

From Florence with Love

Today I thought I'd just share a quick post with an ATC, something I don't tend to make very often, but I came across a new challenge that is for ATC's only!  The theme this week is 'Anything Goes' so I had a play with a new stamp from Deep Red called 'Born to Ride'.

This was FUN!  She is such a quirky character riding around on her vesper with scarf and hair flying in the wind.    Two of my friends recently were travelling (separately) through Europe and this stamp just makes me think of them putt-putting along the cobblestoned streets of Rome? Florence? ...........?

The background is 'peeled paint' and 'stormy sky' Distress Inks, edged with 'black soot' for definition.

The lady (I think she should be called 'Flo' - short for Florence) was coloured using watercolour pencils.

I have a few more new stamps just waiting-in-the-wings to be played with, so I'll be back again soon.

I'm entering this ATC in this weeks challenge at Wicked Wednesday.

Happy crafting!