Home Sweet Home at fashionable Stamping

Oh my Goodness how quickly are we whizzing towards Christmas, and how speedily did we get to our next Fashionable stamping challenge ?  I loved seeing your musical creations and am not sure how on earth I'm going to choose my favourites - but before that, this weeks theme is 'Home Sweet Home' set by the lovely Yvonne !  As always we need to see some stamping on your entry  -  DIGI stamps are NOT allowed. Our sponsor Marina from Cottage Crafts is allowing the winner to choose anything from her shop up to the value of €7 + postage and packing. 

With five weeks to go I'm still struggling to get my Christmas cards made but did manage this one using my new Tim Holtz on the edge die  - another Ebay bargain, I'm so addicted !

The houses are die cut from whitewash co-ordinations cardstock and gently sanded, I then mounted the strip on a piece of plain black card and added glitter to some of the windows. The wording along the bottom is a Kanban stamp. 

The background is distress co-ordinations card run through an embossing folder and again lightly sanded and some glitter added. The snowflakes are a Martha Stewart punch. So - share your Home theme cards and as always don't forget to check out the gorgeous inspiration from my team mates.

I'm sharing this over at The Stamp Man challenge which is Embossing.

Thanks for stopping by..Esther xx

Medio Pollito (Postcard Challenge #2)

Well I finally made it - here is my postcard for week 2 of Darcy's challenge. This weeks country is Spain and I found a traditional Spanish folk-tale called Medio Pollito (meaning Half Chick) which I based my card on.

'Medio Popllito is a little black Spanish cockerel chick born with one leg, one eye, one wing - hence the half chick name. He got bored with life on a dull farmyard, with nothing but a dreary maize field to look at and headed off to Madrid to see the King.  The tale describes how on his journey he came across Water, Fire and Wind who needed his help but he rudely refused them all.  Eventually as the story progresses Medio Politto needs the help of these elements in retun but of course they remind him of his earlier rudeness and leave him to his fate. The story concludes with the wind swirling Medio Politto up onto the highest steeple in Madrid and there the wind left Little Half Chick standing on his one leg and looking off over the world with his one eye. Whichever way the wind blows that way must Little Half Chick turn. He can never step down, for this is the story of the first weather-cock.' 

And here is how my postcard looks in my book - I have written a synopsis of the story over the page which I painted and stamped on first.  The Postcard is held in the photo corners I won last week form Darcy - they were perfect for the job!  

I had a blonde moment and forgot to take a pic of the back so until I get round to that it reads -

Hi Ellie,

The Little Darlings have been very naughty but they enjoyed the Spanish fairy tale Medio Pollito you told me about.  You will have to look out for him when you are in Madrid. I miss you, write back soon... lots of Love, Twinkle xx 

Christmas Scene

Another Christmas card to add to the box  - I'm quite pleased with how I'm doing considering I don't usually start til at least November. This one is a large 8x8 - a new size for me and I loved that it meant I could create this scene with several stamps that I wouldn't of been able to do on a smaller card blank. I used the sketch from 'Just Us girls' as a starting point (who are celebrating their 100th challenge) and then created the scene with Penny Black carol singing hedghogs, and the door and tree stamps from Stamp Addicts in the background.  I coloured it all with promarkers with a smudge of weathered wood distress inks round the edge.

I ran some co-ordinations card through my big shot in a music embossing folder and then sanded it a little - I'm not sure i have a good enough sanding block as it didn't work as well as I'd hoped.  The background paper is a patchwork effect I've had for ages - no idea now who made it. The gold embossed wording says 'A partridge in a pear tree'.

A little ribbon, some holly and a touch of stickles which you can't really see on here finishes off.

I'm sharing this at these challenges -

Passion for Promarkers - Patchwork

Just Us Girls - sketch

Penny Black Saturday - create a scene

Penny Black at Allsorts - Get ahead for Christmas

Thanks for stopping by - hope you're having a good week...Esther xx

School Days

Hi - I'm enjoying having an extra day off thanks to a bank holiday even if the weather isn't that great! Been playing with my pro-markers, watching some tutorials and practicing my colouring and I'm quite pleased with the result - feel like I'm making progress!  There are loads of back to school challenges about and it's not a theme I'd usually do, but I fancied trying something different. I don't have anything specifically suited to this theme so had to adapt a little - I coloured Tilda who is actually holding a butterfly, but made an apple for her to hold instead - which has glossy accents on but it doesn't really show up.

I didn't have anything school like for her to sit on so drew some books freehand under the stamped image and coloured.  I've used the sketch from a new challenge I came across this week - Friday Mash Up, who have the added option of using dry embossing. As you can see I've used two embossing folders on some paper for the background layers - I bought these a while ago as they were on offer and they've sat on the shelf untouched since! I think this qualifies for the challenge at Just Add Ink where the challenge is to use something from our stash we've had for ages and never used. You can really see the texture in this pic-

Other Challenges -

Allsorts - Back to school

My time to Craft - Girls

Passion for Pro-markers - No Patterned paper

Stamp Something - Back to school

Totally Papercraft - Back to school

Thanks for stopping by...Have a good week - Esther x

Craft room Challenge - White on White

Hi -well here we are again, back for another Craft-Room Challenge. I'm so excited about the success of the challenge and thank all of you for joining us!   This fortnight Nikki chose one of her favourate themes - White on White.  I thinik this is such an elegant look and really enjoyed making my DT card -


As always our challenge prize is a £10 voucher to spend in The Craft-Room store and we will also be picking our top 3….though you do make this tricky as we have so many lovely entries each challenge! I do hope you play along and look forward to visiting - remember to check back next week for the results of our Summer Holiday challenge for which we had some fab entries as always!.

Esther xx

Alcohol in the sun…

No I haven't been lazy away in the garden with a glass of something – I’ve been playing with my alcohol inks (one of my favourite things) in bright, hot sunny colours!  I’ve missed Grungy Monday at Studio L3 for a while – just too much going on, but this week the technique is Alcohol Inks -  as demonstrated by Tim Holtz here - Adirondack Alcohol Inks! so this card fits right in. After colouring some glossy card I used an embossing folder – then lightly highlighted some of the raised areas with Gold mixative.

The backing panel is made using the same colours of Alcohol inks on shaving foam – my first attempt at this technique that has long been on my list to try, I loved it and shall be doing more!!  The Sun/Moon stamp is an ancient one from PSX, one of the first I bought I think, and I've embossed in gold and smudged a little DI round the edges. After stamping a few bits and pieces on the backing panel I layered it up with some twine and a button – coloured with more AI.

The letters were blue plastic freebies from some magazine or other and I coloured them first with Gold Mixative, then edged with gold pro-marker – dabbing with the Gold AI has left a slightly distressed surface which I was pleased with. It actually took my ages to put this card together after making the individual panels – maybe because I don’t often use colours this bright but I really struggled and turned to the sketch which is an optional part of The Stamp Man challenge to help me. 

Challenges -

The Stamp Man – Alcohol Inks

The Artistic Stamper – Hot Colours

Stampin for the Weekend – Favourite things (Alcohol Inks)

Studio L3 – Alcohol Inks

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge – Here comes summer

Moving Along with the Times – here comes the summer sun

Simon Says Stamp and Show – a Word

Thanks for stopping by – I’m off to play with more inks and shaving foam! Esther xx

Sketchy colour ways

I had some craft time today just for me…my DT stuff is up to date and so I made just what I fancied! I used several challenges for inspiration – which lead me to my first card – very unusual for me to make a patriotic card, mainly because I’m really not keen on the colours, but when I saw the sketch at Less is More and the 3D challenge at Just Us Girls the idea came to me straight away so I went with it…

I’m not sure if the Rosettes are a bit big for it to be CAS – never really sure of the boundaries so I’m relying on the LIM girls to tell me! I’ve embossed a white panel with Swiss Dots and edged with a hint of silver which doesn’t really show up here. I’m going to add this to challenges at Moving Along with the Times – CAS, Stamp Something – Red, White and Blue and Secret Crafter – Embossing.

My next card is completely different but also inspired by  sketch and colour themed challenges – namely Lili of the Valley’s sketch and The Ribbon Girl’s colour theme (Pink and Cream) I do like a bit of girly pink sometimes! The ribbon looks peachy on here but it is more Dk cream in RL

I’ve coloured the LOV image with Pro-markers and used Paper Pizazz DP to layer with my plain CS. Other challenges for this card are -

I love Pro-markers – Anything Goes

Passion for Pro-markers – Park Life

Totally Papercraft – Spots and Stripes

Well that’s me for today – thanks for stopping by, Esther xx

DT call at the Craft Room

'Just three short months ago Julia started the Craft shop she has been dreaming of for quite some time the shop is Craft-Room have you been there yet? The shelves are stocked with lots of goodies and new lines are being introduced all the time.   A few weeks after opening Julia appointed Zoe as Design Team and together they started to dream up a few ideas and plans.    The time has now come to start a new challenge....'

These words drew me in...tempted me and kept nagging away in my head til I finally gave in and decided to go for it!   Julia and Zoe have asked for people to apply for their new Design Team and here I am, trying my luck.  I have chosen three samples of my work, as requested  I hope they show that I have a go at lots of different techniques and styles - the only thing I don't really do is digis...oh and not been very sucessfull with cute Tilda's!

Masking, inking and Stamping on a One Layer Card 

bright, grungy, embossing

alcohol inks, acetate and stamping

.....the bit i'm not so good at is describing why I would be right for the team. I am passionate about crafting - my job is stressful and so creativity is my therapy, taking part in challenges and blogging just gives it added purpose.  I'm commited and passionate and reliable and hope I have a cheery, positive attitude - blimey, haven't said things like that since writing my job application!

Anyway - whether I'm chosen or not I look forward to the start of this new Challenge blog  - right here - and encourage you all to pop over and check it out - (I placed an order with Julia a few days ago and my goodies arrived very speedily!). Esther xx

WOYWW ...work in progress

Hi - just a quick post today, I'm working on the coffee table in my living room again - time is short and a girl has to multi-task so alcohol inks and Holby City were combined! I'm working on my entry for the Compendium of Curiosities challenge as I often get to the weekend without having had a chance and scrabble together a last minute entry  (a couple of weeks I missed altogether)...so this week ..I'm trying to get ahead...here's whats happening -

I can't tell you how I did this as that's breaking the rules of the challenge (hop on over to Studio L3 to see what it's all about - great book and fun to join in) but after using the technique I ran my grungepaper through cuttlebug folders and am left with these two pieces ...now all I need to decide is what I do next ! With this project I'm definitely falling into the 'no plan just make it up as I go along' category of crafters..!!!

Have a great WOYWW - to join in just follow the link from my sidebar to Julia's blog and get nosey! I will hop around as much as I can after work (and over the week)...thanks for stopping by..Esther xx