Trio of Halloween

Halloween Trio of Tags

was the theme of a swap in which I participated recently.

I decided to have a play with "Monster Mash" from Dylusions for the main, er ... aliens, 

along with a few other stamps and stencils.

I started with the backgrounds, each one using 'wilted violet' Distress Oxide with another colour added and then spritzed with water and let it run.  

Stencils were used to create the backgrounds on each one. 

The glass jar was stamped onto acetate with StazOn ink, and again on a piece of scrapbook paper for a wood grain look.  Both were fussy cut and carefully glued together where the jar sits on the base.  The captured bats were also stamped onto acetate, then coloured on the reverse with Gelly Glaze pens.  The areas of colour on the jar are also Gelly Glaze pens.   Pieces of torn washi tape were added before assembling the jar.  The sentiment was then added.

I love this character; he really looks like he belongs in a lab somewhere!

I watercoloured him with Distress Inks, adding a touch of Gelly Glaze pens to the buttons, striped leggins and his boots.  His face and hands were coloured with Prismacolor pencils.

On the final tag, I chose this weird little alien who can't believe what he's seeing in the sky!

He is coloured with Prismacolor pencils with highlights of Gelly Glaze on his spots, tongue and eyeballs.

Each tag has a dragonfly, also coloured with Gelly Glaze pens on acetate.

The tags were edged with 'pumice stone' Distress Ink.

Each ribbon was hand coloured to co-ordinate with the tag.

They were fun to put together; hope you like them.

Stamps

Dylusions - Monster Mash

Art Impressions - Air Hag Set

Stampotique - 3 Greetings

Tim Holtz - Simple Sayings

Stencils

Tim Holtz - Mini Set #17; ShatterTHS014

Unknown (words)

HAPPY CRAFTING!

  

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS

May you find peace & happiness as you celebrate

the birth of our Lord & Saviour

and find in Him true joy!

Happy Crafting!

 

With love

You know how some days, Mr Mojo seems to be elsewhere?  

I think today is one of those days!

At Stampotique this week, the theme is

Polka Dots

so "Ellie" thought she would help me out while Mr Mojo is AWOL.

I started by playing around with some Ken Oliver Color Burst powder paints in 'Alizarin Crimson'.  A quick spritz with water then left to dry before stamping "Ellie" with 'Jet Black' Archival Ink.

"Ellie" is fussy cut before her trunk, party hat and toenails were decorated with shimmery gel pens in various colours.

I found some polka dot background paper, added some dotty washi tape for "Ellie" to stand on, along with the same washi tape to replace a ribbon finish.  With a gold pen, I ran a line around the edges of the tag for definition and finished it off 'with love'.

Mr Mojo is probably enjoying the beautiful sunshine outside today.  Perhaps he'll be ready to play again once the sun starts to set and the evening grows cold.

Challenges
Stampotique - #255 Polka Dots
Pixies Crafty Workshop - #243 Snippets Playground

Happy Crafting!

Rainbow Dreaming

Gosh, it's been a long time .......

My usual crafting space [i.e. the dining table] has been covered in all sorts of other things lately and as I haven't really got anywhere else to play,  my craft has unfortunately, taken a bit of a back seat.  However, the end is in sight and with a bit of rearranging, I should soon have my own crafting space with much better natural light then what is available at the dining table.

This afternoon I was determined to make something [kitchen benches aren't just for food],

 so I had a look at the various challenges this week and chose 

Stampotique - All Creatures Great & Small.

A couple of days ago I was playing around with Ken Oliver 'Color Burst' paints, not for any particular reason, more just to experiment with colour.  So when I went looking for cardstock on which to stamp 'Fruit Bat', one of the smaller pieces of card was the perfect size.  I stamped him with 'jet black' Archival ink and fussy cut around the image.  

Next I went looking for a background, finally settling on some designer paper from Bo Bunny 'Believe' which is a rainbow of colour with washed looking printing in various places - perfect for a quick background without having to do anything!  'Fruit Bat' was stamped directly onto the background paper which then puts the speech bubble in place, 

A piece of washi tape was added for him to stand on and then the first image was glued into place.  Another small piece of washi tape was added for balance.  The bananas were coloured with a gold pen to help make them stand out on the yellow background.

I edged around the paper with 'black soot' Distress Ink before attaching it to black cardstock.  A length of glittery, fuzzy yarny stuff [that's technical jargon for "I don't know what it's called"]  finishes off the tag. 

Challenges

Stampotique Designers Challenge - All Creatures Great & Small

Craft Stamper Magazine - Let's Get Inky

Happy Crafting!

Hearts Aloft

After yesterday's distinct lack of creativity, and with today being 

Valentine's Day

it was time to get back in the groove and make something worth blogging about!

With "Romek" as the centre of attention, I started by stamping and colouring him on scrap card before fussy cutting around him.  I cut around three hearts that had previously been stamped, and added tiny amounts of Silk Acrylic Glaze in 'Love Struck', 'Ginger Flower' and 'Emporor's Gold' , 

Taking a #8 tag, I scribbled Gelatos over it, then dipping my finger in some water, moved and blended the Gelatos around.  Next I took my stencil, some white craft ink and a dauber and created clouds over the pale blue background.

Once the background was dry, I stamped 'Romek' directly onto the tag.  I then glued the scrap card image of 'Romek' over the top, and added the heart balloons.

Words from Tim Holtz Idea-ology 'small talk - occasions' and a co-ordinating red ribbon completes the tag.

As this is so much better then yesterday's mishmash,

I am entering this tag in this weeks challenge.

Stampotique Designers Challenge #231 - Love is in the Air

'Romek' and 'My Heart' both from Stampotique

Happy Crafting!

Mardi Gras

I'm a little slow in getting this posted, however the theme for 

Stampotique Designer Challenge #230

is "Mardi Gras" using green, purple & gold colours.

I had the tag sitting on the table from last week when I was having a play with Ken Oliver "Colour Burst" paints.  I realised that this was a perfect background to go with the theme and since "Ellie" is a bit of a party elephant, she would be just right!

I coloured her hat and trunk with a gold gel pen, with the pompom and trim in green.  She is shaded with a pale grey pencil as I wanted her to stand out from the background.  The bunting is from a stamp in my stash.  A little piece of music washi tape adds to the festive feeling of Mardi Gras, and a length of purple ribbon finishes off the tag.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Crafting!

www.stampotiquedesignerschallenge.blogspot.com.au

An Angel to Love

One of the things that Craftanoon does each time, is set a couple of challenges.  One of the challenges is to use something out of the 'goodie bag' which each person receives, and while most of the ladies are busy with layouts, I played with another new stamp on a tag.

Now I know this isn't the most exciting tag I've ever made but I was reasonably happy as this was the first time I had stamped up this lovely girl.  She is from the set "An Angel to Love" by Carabelle Studios and is available from Time to Create in Australia.

The flowers were in our goodie bags so I wanted the outfit to reflect those colours.  She is coloured using three different Distress Inks with just a pop of Gelly Roll ink to add a little sparkle.

See you again soon,

Happy Stamping!!!

Xmas calories don't count

Well, here I am again, hot on the heels of yesterday's post

with another Crazy Bird.

Yes, I know it's a little early for Christmas but ......

The background is Distress Inks blended together and the words are Dylusions.

I stamped Crazy Bird directly onto the tag and then again another two times and fussy cut around the two images. He was watercoloured using Distress Inks and a water brush.  The white fluffy edge and pompom on his Santa hat have a little sparkle thanks to my clear Wink of Stella pen.  Lastly I added the candy cane and finished with a red ribbon.

I can see it's going to be fun dressing up the Crazy Birds, can't wait to play again!

Happy Crafting!!!

 

Halloween already?

I skipped off to Craftanoon with my friend Jenni on Saturday, for a day of crafting fun.  I took along a few stamp sets including a new one I grabbed off the shelf last week which seems to be scarce as hen's teeth at the moment - squeeee!!!

I already had "Bird Crazy" but now I also have the accessories "Crazy Things", so I thought I'd start with a little halloween fun.

The background is created in a bokeh style using Distress Inks and the Crazy Bird stamped directly onto the tag.  He is then stamped again onto extra card along with the hat and pumpkin lantern and fussy cut before colouring.  A glittery purple ribbon finishes the tag off nicely.

I'll be back again shortly with another Crazy Bird, so don't go too far away!

Happy Crafting!!!

Queen of Everything

I always have good intentions to play along with challenges, but before I know it, the week has gone and I've missed yet another one!  Yesterday, I wrote down various challenges so that I could see exactly what each was, and today I got playing!

The tag background is a combination of Distress Inks 'mermaid lagoon' and 'abandoned coral'.  The triangles (Carabelle Studios "Woman & Bird") were stamped using Versamark, with Perfect Pearls 'blue smoke' dusted over the top.  A little more background was added using a Kaisercraft stamp (I don't know the name of it, oops!).  Next a layer of Distress Crackle 'clear rock candy' was added and then put aside to allow for drying.

"The Queen of Everything" was stamped onto white cardstock, fussy cut and coloured with Distress Ink and Gelly Roll pens.  I left a lot of white to contrast with the background.  The words were stamped directly onto the tag with Archival Ink.  The "Queen" was popped up on dimensionals, a border was created with black cardstock and the tag was finished with a scrap of black lace.

I am entering this tag in the following challenges:

Stampotique Designers Challenge

Take a Stamp - Craft Stamper Magazine

Tagalong Challenge

Thanks for coming by for a peek at today's playtime creation.

I love reading comments, so please leave one if you feel so inclined.

Happy Crafting!

Feathers but no fur

I was having a little play with backgrounds today and decided this one would work very nicely for the Tagalong Challenge this week - Feathers & Fur

I was flicking through last month's Craft Stamper magazine and came across a different use for stencils.  

Actually, I use this method for mop-ups in my art journal - hmmm!!!

Anyway as I was saying, ink up the stencil with Distress Inks, I used 'peeled paint' and 'peacock feathers', give it a quick spritz with water, pop it down onto the tag, place another piece of scrap paper on top and for even pressure, roll a brayer over the top.  Voila!   A nice easy watercolour effect background.

Next I stamped the leaves (Dylusions "How Does Your Garden Grow") directly onto the tag and then again on scrap white card.  Colour and cut out the leaves and place them over the stamped images.

"Bird Crazy" (Tim Holtz) was stamped directly onto the tag and three times more onto white cardstock for a 3D look.  His feet and tail are the first layer, his body the second layer and his wings, beak and eyes are the third layer.  I also gave him googly eyes just for fun!  A green ribbon finishes off the tag.

I'm really happy that Tim Holtz created these Crazy Birds - hope he designs some more crazy animals!

 

Happy Crafting!

 

Don't Blink

I enjoy playing along with challenges as they make me think about themes or ideas I may not otherwise think of.  I've just got time to sneak in with a tag for this week's 

Tagalong Challenge entitled "Angel"

I started with a tag that already had a background using "Water Droplets" by Designs by Ryn.  It was a bit of a dark grungy looking tag and I'd put it away not knowing quite how to use it.

The "Weeping Angel" is from a set of Doctor Who stamps 

(I'm sorry but I don't remember where they were sourced)

and as it is a shortish stamp, I added a brick wall, tucking the angel behind.

My Wink of Stella pen came into play again, adding some sparkle to the water droplets.

'Don't Blink' was stamped in 'jet black' archival ink, but as it didn't show up very well, I went over the letters with a silver pen.

One of these days, I think it would be really cool to have a 'weeping angel' in the garden, but just a word of caution "DON'T BLINK" !!!

 

Happy Crafting!

 

New beginnings

This week's theme on the 

Tagalong Challenge is "Spring"

Now I realise that for many people who have endured a very white winter this year, they would be very excited to see the first tell-tale signs of spring in their gardens.

However, on the other side of this beautiful world in which we live,

we are heading into autumn, and for me the thought of some cooler temperatures and lower humidity is something I'm looking forward to.  I used to love summer as a child/teenager, but as I'm getting older (shhhhh ...... we won't talk about this), I'm finding the humidity, more so than the actual temperature, is really starting to sap my energy levels.

Anyhow, back to the subject in hand, this is my tag for the challenge:

I started with my background using blue and green Gelatos, spritzing with water and brushing the colours around to where I wanted them.  

The first time I used Gelatos, I was so UNIMPRESSED and disappointed.  I followed instructions, watched youtube videos and still they just didn't work for me.    Fast forward 12 months and I decided to have another try with them in my art journal, this time adding lots more water, with a much better result.  And so, this tag was made using them ...... just goes to show that sometimes you need to revisit products/items in your stash!

 

I stamped the flowers, bird and mushrooms onto post-it notes so I could work out what had to go behind what.  I also stamped a second time onto white cardstock and fussy cut out mushrooms, the bird body and the flower heads.  The bird's body is popped onto dimensionals.  

The stamps used are :

"How does your garden grow?" ~ Dylusions

"Clearly doodle parts" ~ Dylusions

"Large Tall Grass" ~ Visible Image

I used water colour pencils for each of the images, adding sparkle to the flowers with my clear Wink of Stella pen, and Liquid Pearls to give the mushroom spots more dimension.

I doodled around the edges, added a piece of ribbon holding it in place with a co-ordinating brad.  I thought 'new beginnings' suited the spring theme.

Happy Crafting!

 

Beautiful Garden

When I was gazing around Jenni's craft room the other day, my eyes came to rest on the shelf where she keeps her JOFY stamps - have I mentioned I love JOFY stamps?  The images are so quirky and fun and I found myself wanting to use all of them - but of course, I didn't!

I started the tag off by blending blue, yellow and green Distress Inks together for the background, and gave them a quick water spritz to add some age spots.

I then stamped JOFY #11 & #14 for my flower garden, and coloured them using Distress Inks stamped onto an acrylic block with water added.

I stamped the dragon fly from a Prima set of stamps called "Butterfly Wings" that I picked up at a craft show last year.  There are different wings and bodies along with pen nibs and other bits & pieces in this set, but for this tag I chose the dragonfly.

After I coloured him, cut him out and popped him on dimensionals, I added a bit of sparkle with my Wink of Stella pen.  As the tag looked like it needed a little something extra, I added dashes around the border and finished with a snippet of seam binding ribbon tied with a piece of twine.

This tag doesn't fit in with any challenges that I'm aware of this week but that's ok as I simply enjoyed making it - it sort of reminds me of a summer's day, and we're certainly having lots of them at the moment!

 

Happy Crafting!

 

A bird does not sing

On Tuesday, my crafting friend Jenni, invited me to check out her craft room, 

and of course, have some 'play time' together.

Last week the Stampotique Designer's Challenge was

"Orange & Lemon - use Citrus colours"
 and this week's theme at the Tagalong Challenge is
"Warm Colours" 

Using Distress Inks, I started with 'squeezed lemon', adding 'spiced marmalade', some 'worn lipstick' and just a whisker of 'peeled paint', blending them altogether.

 I stamped the background hearts in 'spiced marmalade', stamping off once first.

On Jenni's shelf (next to where I was sitting) were her JOFY stamps, so using #12 I stamped some foliage, colouring it with Distress Ink.  

I really like these quirky stamps, hmmm ..... think I might have to review my wish list - which is always getting longer (sigh)!

I stamped 'Toucan & Budgie' from Stampotique, onto some ivory card, coloured them with watercolour pencils and fussy cut them.  They were mounted on the tag using my favourite dimensionals (SU).

The top of the tag looked a little bare, so Jenni to the rescue again, with a quote from Dina Wakely's 'Scribbly Birds', stamped in 'Watering Can' Archival Ink.

To finish I coloured a length of seam binding ribbon in co-ordinating colours and looped it through the top of the tag.

Of course, by the time I got around to photographing the tag, a new challenge had appeared on Stampotique Designers Challenge - oh well, at least this time I can still add it anyway!

Happy Crafting!

Exhausted by Stupidity

I was playing with this weeks technique for the Altered Playing Card challenge and found it lots of fun, so I decided to create a couple of tags as well, while I had all the bits & pieces out.

"Think Pink" 

is the theme at this week's

Tagalong Challenge

and

"Painted Background"

is the theme at the Stampotique Challenge #180

I started with a blank size 8 manilla tag.  After using Tim Holtz' "splatters" stencil and some Impasto Medium, I then waited for it to dry before sponging Kaisercraft "hot pink" paint over the whole tag.  While it was still wet, I then used a baby wipe to wipe the paint off which revealed the stencilled areas.  Once that was dry, I then added just a smear of the same paint for a bit more contrast as well as dipping a lid in the paint to create circles.

I stamped "Gooseneck" from Stampotique onto ivory cardstock twice, cutting around the first image and just around her dress on the second image.  The bottom of her dress is popped onto dimensionals while the bodice is glued directly onto the first image. 

I gave her dress a little more sparkle with my new 'black' Wink of Stella pen and also outlined the words in the same way.

I added pink washi tape for Gooseneck to stand on, as well as another piece beneath the word 'exhausted'.  Gooseneck is popped onto dimensionals.  A piece of ribbon finishes off the tag.

I think this technique will be getting played with a lot more .......

Happy Crafting!

Spots n Dots

This week on the Tagalong Challenge, the theme is 

Spots n Dots

so, with that in mind, I thought I'd play along.

I started by colouring the tag with a combination of 'squeezed lemon', 'mustard seed' and 'spiced marmalade' Distress Inks.  I then sponged 'broken china' through a Memory Box stencil "Bubbles".  To add a bit more background, I sponged 'spiced marmalade' and 'picked raspberry' through a TCW stencil "Mini Tile Texture'.  Although you can't see it in the photo, I added some glimmer to the bubbles with my Wink of Stella pen (love that pen).  To finish off the background, I added little white dots around the border with my white Posca paint pen.

I stamped "Mela" from Stampotique 

(Mela was one of the first stamps I bought and is still a favourite) 

onto a leftover piece of background paper, fussy cut her out and popped her onto dimensionals 

(I just realised how much I used dimensionals [SU] ).

I then stamped her dress onto a piece of dotty paper from Kaisercraft, cut it out and glued it directly onto the image.

I added a small piece of glittery lace washi tape to ground Mela, stamped the quote from Darkroom Door "Essentials 10 Collection" and to finish, stapled a folded length of washi tape to the top.

 

This tag would be perfect for the following challenges:

 

Tagalong Challenge ~ Spots n Dots

Stampotique Designers Challenge ~ Punny and/or Funny

Craft Stamper Challenge ~ Take a Stamp

 

Be sure to come and visit again soon .......

Happy Crafting!

 

Believe

I had a lovely day yesterday at the first Craftanoon of the year, which is held at a community centre in Caringbah.  Twelve hours of crafting from 10am - 10pm!!!  Well, not quite .... I got there a little late and we left to come home around 9pm.  By the time we have dinner (take-away pizza) I've run out of puff and am more than happy to pack up and head off.

So, what to take?  I try to make a list and take only what I need, although sometimes I realise I should have packed "X" and just have to make do.  Yesterday, I knew I had to make some ATCs for a swap that is due to be posted by tomorrow!  I'm good at waiting 'til the last minute to make deadlines!  I won't show you these until I know the recipients have received them, otherwise it spoils the surprise!

So, what did I make?

I thought I would make a tag using one of my new stamps from Visible Image
"Tala Catching Dreams Set".  

I started by cutting a tag from Coulture Creations "Plaid & Music" and distressed around the edges.  I then sponged around the edges with 'pumice stone' Distress Ink.  I inked up the word 'believe' in 'peeled paint' Distress Ink and stamped it in the bottom corner.  I also inked up the symbol in 'vintage photo' Distress Ink, stamping it off once for a faded look.  The postage image you can see was part of the 'Plaid & Music" paper.  For a little more background, I stamped a bit of splatter (SU "French Foliage") using both green and blue inks.

Next I cut another tag from ivory cardstock and coloured around the edges with 'peeled paint' Distress Ink. I then spritzed it with water to age it.

I stamped Tala onto white cardstock, fussy cut her and coloured her with watercolour pencils.   A paper tab was stapled onto the bottom tag before attaching the top tag at an angle and Tala was popped onto dimensionals.

This tag is also my entry in the following challenges:

Tagalong - postcards/letters

Craft Stamper - take a stamp

Thanks for coming to look.  I'll be back again soon with a couple of other things that were made at yesterday's Craftanoon.

Happy Crafting!!!

Magical Moment

As I mentioned in my last post, I packed all my delicious new stamps to play with while I was relaxing on my little holiday, but would you believe I only made ONE tag?

So, which stamp to choose first?

As you can see, I decided I'd have a play with "Ponytail" which is a rather cute stamp from Roc Nicholas who is one of the Stampotique designers.

Firstly I cut the tag from an A4 sheet of card that I had previously painted and gessoed using a stencil, that had found its way back into my pack of white A4 cardstock.

Well, that was an easy background, wasn't it?

Next I stamped "Ponytail" onto a leftover piece of Kaisercraft designer paper 'Mix & Match Collection - Postage Stamps', the wrong side of which is striped.  I stamped him again another 3 times as I wanted a 3D look, then I fussy cut each piece layering as I went.

 

The background stamp is from Memory Box called "Bramble Sunrise" which I had bought a few months ago and totally forgotten about, oops!  I then stamped it again onto another piece of pre-sprayed background, punching out the 'sun' and glueing it directly onto the background.

When I had visited Pages 2 Scrap (my favourite store on the coast) the day before, I had picked up yet another washi tape (they keep it on the counter just to tempt me!) and this made a perfect little border for "Ponytail" to stand on.  I also used another piece for a tab on the top of the tag.

The top third of the tag needed a little something, so I inked up the words 'magical moment' which are on another Stampotique stamp by France Papillon.  Two torn strips of washi tape beneath the words and my tag was finished.

I was rather happy with how this tag turned out and having used washi tape on it, I can enter it in this weeks Tagalong challenge - "use washi tape".

Thanks for taking a peek at what I've been up to .......

Happy Crafting!!!
 

Oh Christmas Tree

Do you remember the Christmas tree ATC I posted last week?  Well, I had already had a previous attempt at something very similar, except it was on a tag.  Silly me had got my challenges and themes muddled and so I only posted the ATC version.

This week at Tagalong however, the theme is

Oh Christmas Tree

so here is the original attempt at a pretty little tree.

 

 

The tree is from Darkroom Door "Yuletide" collection and is stamped in SU 'old olive' ink.  The 25th December is stamped using 'festive berries' Distress Marker to colour the letters.

Little touches of sparkle were added to the tree using 'lime green' Stickles and 'ruby red' Liquid Pearls were perfect for the baubles in the tree.

The bunting was in my stash and comes embossed in white, so by adding 'festive berries' and 'old olive' to alternate flags, the pattern emerges.

I have a roll of washi tape which has presents on it, so I carefully cut three of them out, and stuck them under the tree - the colours were a perfect match.

I lightly added colour around the edges of the tag with Distress Ink, and finished off with seam binding ribbon which was coloured to co-ordinate with the tag.

Happy Crafting!