Masked Distress for GoGo

HI - I've found time amongst the madness of preparing to move house to post a layout using one of the fab techniques taught at GoGo Getaway October 2016 retreat.

You can see more details plus other gorgeous layouts from my design team mates here -  do pop over and have a look...Happy Crafting Esther xx

Autumn Colours

Well it's approaching Autumn here on the UK, although they keep talking about a heatwave still. It was my turn to choose the theme over at Fashionable stamping challenge this month and I went for a colour theme - Autumn colours. I made a tag -

I enjoyed last months resist technique so much I used it again - after stamping and embossing this beautiful skeleton leaf I used Distress inks to colour, splattered with water and stamped over with the script stamp from Tim Holtz Papillon set.  

I stamped and embossed the quote and flourish onto card coloured with distress inks, then layered with corrugated card, canvas and shimmery paper. 

Don't forget we are a stamping challenge so we do need to see rubber/acrylic stamping on your project. To qualify for the winner’s prize we especially need to see that the stamping is the focal point on the project and that the stamping follows the format of the theme.

NO DIGI STAMPS ARE ALLOWED …but you may use digi downloads for enhancement of your projects … please remember that the main focal point must be STAMPING.

The winner of each challenge will receive a very generous voucher of $20 for Flonz’s Store.

I really hope you have time to join us....Happy Crafting..Esther xx

Time Flies

I have to admit I have been a little unsettled by the recent revamp of Craft Stamper magazine - not because the mixed media and 3D projects aren't fabulous but I find them intimidating and way out of my comfort zone.  I dabble with Art Journaling, make cards, scrapbook and make the occasional altered project but don't have the time or resources to make canvas's or 3D projects on a regular basis and wouldn't know what to do with them once they were finished anyway so sadly I was beginning to wonder whether this was still the magazine for me......BUT I went back to it and tried to think outside the box - how could I use the techniques on the projects that I do want to make ? So I have used the beautiful poppy canvas by the very talented Jenny Marples from the October issue (as it had a step by step article) combined with several of the current blog challenge themes as inspiration for this journal page

Completely different from Jenny's canvas but I've used the same steps - layering strips of torn paper and embossing paste through a stencil covered by gesso and sprayed with inks. 

 once all that was dry I added stamping (Artistic Stamper and PaperArtsy stamps, plus Craft Stamper free watch stamp)

 then embossed a clock face through a Tando Creative stencil with crackle paste to which I also added treasure gold once dry.

 I finished off with Tim Holtz die cut Butterflies which I'd stamped and coloured with Tim's wrinkle free distress technique and a stamped quote.  I think the quote aptly describes how my sadness I initially felt about the changes to Craft Stamper has 'flown away'  as I've spent more considering the new features.

I'm not sure I like the stencil I used for the initial layer of embossing but otherwise I'm pleased with my page and glad I thought more 'creatively' about the Craft Stamper article - think I'll be sticking with it after all.  I'm also sharing my page in the following challenges -

Rubber Dance Art Stamps - September 2014 colours
Our Creative Corner - Shades of Autumn
Fantasy Stampers - Steampunk
The Artistic Stamper - Things with Wings
Country View Challenges - Numbers
Mixed Media World - Autumn Colours

Thanks for popping by, Happy Crafting....Esther xx

Favourite stamp(s) at Fashionable Stamping

Over at Fashionable Stamping my lovely team mate Yvonne has challenged us to use our Favourite 'go to' stamp - well, how could I choose ? I don't really have just one favourite but when given complete freedom I always turn to the same couple of background stamps and butterfly so that's where I went for this challenge. 

So I pretty much always use script on my projects somewhere and my favourite script stamp is a Tim Holtz, also in my background I've got Judikins elegant flourish and Hero Art dots. 

The Butterfly is an Elusive Images stamp. My card uses Archival black and distress inks to create a collage of my fav stamps using masking to layer them. I've added a little stickles for a touch of bling.

As always my fellow FSC teamies have created some beautiful works of art so please head over and check them out. I hope you feel inspired to join our challenge - Don't forget we are a stamping challenge and we especially need to see that the stamping is the focal point on the project and that this must follow the format of the theme. NO Digi stamps please. Our sponsor is Flonzcraft and the winner chosen at random will receive a voucher for $20 - we also give special mention to our top 3.

I'm also sharing this over at  - 

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

That's Crafty - Wings N Things

Thanks for popping by - Happy Crafting....Esther xx

Vintage feathered friends

I had a wisdom tooth extracted a few days ago and ooh it's not pleasant, and I am hoping to be pain free soon and no longer resembling a hamster but until then to take my mind off it I've had some time at my craft desk.

Birds are not normally a theme I go with but  I think I had fallen into a bit of a rut with my crafting last year and as a result was struggling for inspiration and motivation. I have been trying to learn about mixed media and develop my crafting. The card background is distress inks, I've used a Craft Individuals mask in the corner and also added some Ranger African gold embossing powder in two of the corners. I have also gone back to my books and today I dug out Tim Holtz's compendium of curiosities 2 and I've used a few techniques on this card - inking texture fades, faux patina, whitewash stamping.  

The focal panel is a Crafty Individuals stamp which I've stamped twice and fussy cut the birds from one to give some depth. The background of the second panel is coloured with distress inks and I've spritzed some dye ink and added distress stickles to a couple of edges. The panel is mounted on a panel of burlap with some extra bits and pieces from my stash.  You can just see underneath the burlap I spread some crackle paste onto the base and when dry rubbed distress ink over.   

The Happy Birthday message is mounted into a book plate that I've had for ever - I altered it with alcohol inks similar to the faux patina technique - I couldn't get the light right so you can't really see it properly in the photo.  I had a lot of fun creating my card and it distracted me from my jaw pain !! 

My card was inspired by these challenges - 

Crafty Individuals - The Animal World

Craft Stamper - 'Anything goes - take a stamp'

A Vintage Journey - 'Anything Tim'

Mixed Media Monthly - Birds of a Feather

Thanks for stopping by, Happy Crafting...Esther xx

Fashionable Flora and Fauna

Time for a new challenge theme over at Fashionable Stamping and it’s my turn to choose. I would like you to share with us your projects using Flora or fauna s your theme (or both!). Flora is the goddess of flowers in Roman mythology and Faun is the corresponding term for animal life.  I chose Flora as my inspiration and made a card. The background strip is created with a wash of inktense block colour , some perfect pearls mist for shimmer and a fern stamp.

For the focal section I used a technique from Craft Stamper with Inktense blocks and stamps on water colour card. After stamping the flowers I masked them and used distress inks to stamp some background details. 

I had a bit left over so I made a little tag to match.

The rest of the FSC team have, as always, made some beautiful projects for inspiration, so do pay them a visit.  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

Let’s Dance…

I grabbed some time at the weekend to craft just for myself, because I could. Browsed some  challenges that I haven’t had time to enter for ages and made this card -

This is simply a collection of my favourite things – music, dance, distress inks, glitter, vintage, fabric flowers, lace...I had a lovely play ! The Ballerina stamp is from Happy Daze, stamped and embossed in clear, cut out and fixed with silicone glue. Live and Love Crafts have asked for ‘something old’ for January’s challenge – I’ve used an old music score stamp on the background. The wavy music stamp is from Stampendous.

The Artistic Stamper challenge this month is to use our favourite stamp, but mine changes so often depending on my mood so I’ve chosen my fav quotation stamp, one which inspires me to keep going when things get tough ! I’ve embossed it with Stampendous aged ivory embossing enamel – I’ve also added some of the same enamel in the corners.

The flowers I die cut from calico, stamped on them and layered with some Stampendous crushed glass champagne glitter in the centres. I also added some glitter dots, and stickles.

I’m sharing my card here -

The Artistic Stamper – Favourite stamp

Totally Papercrafts – ‘Lets dance’

Vintage Stamping – Vintage 

Live and Love Crafts – something old

Moving along with the times – bling it on
Simon says Stamp and Show - seeing stars

Thanks for stopping by…Esther xx

Craft-Room Birthday Hop

Wow - the first 12 months of our challenge have passed in a flash. We've had some changes along the way,  met so many fantastic crafters and seen such stunning work, and I have so enjoyed being part of it and working with such a great team.

We decided to celebrate with a blog hop as is quite traditional in these situations and there are lots of prizes to be won! We are joined by one of our Wonderful sponsors, Liz Welch of Rarebird, who has donated the main prize of a Bend it Shape it DVD.To be in with a chance of winning this fab prize you need to visit each team member in turn and answer the questions in our posts. 

You should have started at the Craft Room Challenge site and after a couple of hops got here from Nikki, your next stop is Maria. Do not leave the answer to the question in your comment on here !  Collect all your answers and send them in an email to Zoe (Zoechaos). The winner of the main prize will be selected at random from all the correct entries Zoe receives. 


 My question is - Who manufactures the 'Distress' range of inks, stains and recently launched pens to match ? (NB The answer is NOT Tim Holtz!).


We also each have a prize  to be won by someone picked at random from everyone who leaves us a comment on our blogs.  I have this pretty wood mounted Penny Black Stamp to give away -

Of course we also have our regular challenge with a mystery prize from Julia...and the theme has to be Birthday's of course.   Make a card or anything Birthday related and share with us. Here is what I did - 

   With the long awaited arrival of summer I was in a soft, floral mood so used three shades of Rangers Distress Inks with a couple of Stamp Addicts stamps, added some crystal stickles, some net , a button and was done. I love the colour combination of chocolate and pink! 

I really hope you share in our celebrations and happy Hopping….Esther xx

Shattered Stains

Goodness I nearly forgot to post this...but got here just in time. Here is my tag for this weeks Compendium of Curiosities 2 challenge, happening over at Studio L3. The challenge this week is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp.

Linda asked us to try the shattered stains technique that can be found on page 48 of Tim Holtz's book. I used this chipboard butterfly and don't think I quite got it right as it didn't all colour but I kinda like it anyway. I shall have to practice.

I've used another technique to make the tag background, inspired by "Just us Girls" who's challenge this week was to use generational stamping, which I've done with this Butterfly stamp.I've used Pumice stone and worn lipstick Distress inks. 

I'm also sharing this here - 

Moving Along with The Times - Keep it real

Papertake Weekly - In the Garden 

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

Stamptacular Sunday - Butterfly Kisses

Looking forward to seeing which technique Linda chooses for us all tomorrow, Thanks for popping over....Esther xx

Journaling in the rain

Some time ago I started my first Art Journal. I haven't got very far, just a few pages, but I'm doing it for me and so am happy to dabble when the mood takes me. This weekend I decided it was time to do something with the front cover - this may have something to do with the little tax rebate I had recently and the new Tim Holtz stamps I ordered as a result, one of which I new immediately was perfect journal front cover material. 

I had a bit of an idea about what I wanted to do and started by grabbing the stamps (Hero Arts, Artistic Stamper and Tim Holtz) that I wanted to use, after that it was a case of making it up as I went along and inking, stamping, spritzing and splodging til I was happy.  

The sentiment is stamped on sticky back canvas which I first painted with acrylic paints. I frayed the edges, added some stitching and stuck it to a piece of card which I had coloured with distress inks to match the background. This meant I could attach it to the cover with silicone glue to raise it slightly. The strip of black lace is meaningful - it may sound silly but it's from a top (long since retired), I bought  on a retail therapy trip following a difficult time in my life and it makes me think of that particular period and how far I've come.

The flower and Butterfly I made from molding paste which I spread over an inked stamp and left to dry. 

The heart charm is just hung on a little ribbon (stuck with that fab red tape) and is all about my journal being for me and a place to pat  myself on the back or work out muddles to give myself some TLC. 

I'm sharing my Journal cover here - 

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

Happy Daze - April Showers

The Artistic Stamper - Ribbon and Lace

The Stamp Man - Shabby chic/distress

Papertake Weekly - A Stitch in Time

Well, I'm off to bed now to get some sleep in ready for the week ahead! Thanks for visiting - Esther xx

Rogue Inking at Craft-Room

Hi all, another Craft-Room Challenge is upon us, we had some great entries for our musical theme and the winners will be announced as always next week.

Our sponsor this fortnight is Rogue Redhead Designs makers of excellent quality rubber stamps. They have a voucher for one lucky winner to spend at their site. 

It is Nikki's turn to choose our theme and she has challenged us to 'Ink it' and only use a Rubber, Acrylic or  other type of 'real' stamp on your creations. THAT MEANS NO DIGI STAMPS ! Now I have to admit to not being a fan of Digi stamps - it's not messy enough for me and so loved creating my inspiration piece this week. I have used an image and words from the Relish Reading set by Rogue Redhead Stamps and made a bookmark.

 I coloured with a variety of Distress Inks before stamping the letters background (PaperArtsy Stamp). I painted the Rogue redhead stamped image with Derwent inktense blocks before fussy cutting out and attaching to the bottom of the bookmark.   

The proverb and little book are coloured with distress inks and the edges distressed, I applied glossy accents to the little book but it's not clear on the pic. 

I really hope you join in with our challenge so dig out your favourite stamps and get inking! 

I'm entering my bookmark into the Rogue Redhead challenge which is to use Spring fashion Colours - although you don't have too I think I managed to get them all in !

Esther xx

MOJO returns !!

Hurrah - I have my crafting mojo back! After a fair few weeks of struggling to have any ideas or motivation, other than my DT piece last weekend I haven't made anything for absolutely ages  - but today I have spent a lovely afternoon at my desk getting inky and messy...and what's more I tried something completely out of my comfort zone and made a male themed tag !

Now I have only dipped my toe into the realm of Steampunk once but I was inspired to try this as I recently acquired some new stamps by Andy Skinner and Indigo Blu.

I started with a Tim H tag, and used ‘wrinkle free distress’ technique to add several colours over which I added piece of notebook paper stamped and coloured with aged mahogany DI.   The dashing gentleman is then stamped and embossed over the top.

I don’t have lots of shop bought embellishments and trinkets, so used a gear stamp from The Artistic Stamper on acetate and embossed with copper kettle and again in opaque pewter EP. I  left the copper as a larger piece, cutting round the edges and sticking in the corner, then cut some individual gears and added them on top. I had  few bits from an old watch and added these and some eyelets and brads in various metal finishes. A few patches of opaque pewter EP on the tag edges was the finishing touch.

I’m sharing this over at the following challenges -

Joanna Sheen – It’s a Man’s world

Make My Monday – For a man/Vintage

Artful Times – Tags

Simon Says Stamp and Show – Tim Technique

Gingersnaps Creations – Random Redhead – Last Century

Lets ink it up – distressing

I’m so pleased to be back in my crafty zone – shame I’ve got it just as I have to go back to work tomorrow !! Thanks for stopping by…Esther xx

Something Old, something New....

.....But nothing to do with a wedding ! Over at the Craft room our sponsorship from Julia and the CraftRoom shop has come to an end and we have some exciting new sponsors lined up including Stamp Addicts, Rogue Redhead and Indigo Blu.

Our first new sponsor for this challenge is Crafty Individuals who have donated Background paper pad 7 - Shades of Summer and this gorgeous stamp set (CI-310). 

Mervi has chosen a vintage/shabby theme for this challenge which fits beautifully with the Crafty individuals style. My card uses one of my favourite sentiment stamps and a dragonfly - both from CI. I've used the dragonfly as a background as well as focal point and added some burlap and lace for a vintage feel.

I coloured a button and some stick on pearls with salmon alcohol ink to tie in with the distress inks used on the background and gave all the edges a distressed look.  I do hope you join in and share your vintage/shabby creations and I look forward to visiting to see what you come up with - and don't forget to check out the inspiration from my lovely design team mates.  Esther xx

Craft-Room colour Challenge

Over at the Craft-Room Challenge site there are changes afoot! Sadly Julia has had to make the tough decision to close the Craft-Room Shop. She is running a 40% off closing down sale and everything must go so grab yourselves a bargain.  On the up side, the team are staying together and are quite excited about the plans we have for the Challenge site and are looking forward to the coming months !

Now time for this weeks challenge -  I was a bit stumped by this colour combination set by our lovely Zoe. She has asked us to use Chocolate, Orange and Cream and while I'm quite happy with the edible versions (especially together !!) these are not colours I go to by choice. Still I managed to create this tag, using mainly distress inks and walnut stain crackle paint.

I think it's a bit more golden yellow than orange, and the walnut stain paint looks greenish but I tried ! I added lots of texture - starting with a layer of distress ink over clear embossed stamped fern  leaves. I then used moulding gel through a mask in one corner, followed by more ink, paint, a chipboard swirl, Tim Holtz ticket  and some punched flowers. The larger ones are crumpled Glassine paper. 

So join our colourfull challenge this week and maybe help me to be more inspired by this combination by sharing what you create. As well as our challenge I'm sharing this at The Stamp Man where the theme is 'Texture'.  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 

Craft-Room Challenge - Anything goes

At this time of year a lot of challenges take a break giving design teams and crafters a break - however there are some who have time off work and so have more time than usual to craft. I'm one of those and so was quite happy when we decided at Craft room to  still run a challenge this week.   We've chosen to keep it simple and so the theme is  - ANYTHING GOES!   This is the card I made - I really enjoyed having a play with my inks and stamps and creating just what a fancied.

I created a masterboard using a technique from Craft Stamper magazine using gesso spritzed with a mist made from distress re-inkers and a little perfect pearls powder, then added bead gel and stamped images. The main images are both Crafty Individuals stamped over more spritzed distress inks and I've covered the sentiments panel with crackle glaze (which has made it curl - oops!). I used Tim Holtz masks and my distress re-inker mist on the base card. Go on over to the Craft-Room Challenge site to check out the brilliant inspiration from the rest of the team. 

The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge has an Anything Goes theme so I'm sharing this there too - and I've used 'Buttons', 'Flowers' and 'Mist' from Sir Stampalots' Bingo challenge.

I hope you've enjoyed the festive period and that maybe Santa was kind enough to bring you some new crafty goodies to play with. I look forward to visiting to see your creations, and wish everyone a very Happy New Year...Esther xx

Just Because...

It's been ages since I had time to make something just because - What with Christmas Cards to make, Design Team projects,  not to mention an assignment for work so today I took some time out, browsed some challenge sites and made a tag for no other reason than because I wanted to.  It was great to do something different and I hadn't made a tag in ages so inspired by The Stamp Man challenge to use a Tim's Tag technique I chose Tag no 9 from 2010 and this is what I did -

 

I took the colours from this weeks Play Date Cafe - gorgeous rich colours which put me in mind to make a more male style tag. I used Distress inks to colour and stamped a background, made a rosette with a strip of papermania DP, coloured some buttons with 'Currant' alcohol ink added a camera charm , square brads and a die cut flourish. The sentiment is made with rub on letters.

I'm sharing my tag here -

Crafty ribbons - Anything but a card

The Play Date cafe - Maroon, Copper, Turmeric

The Friday Mash up - Rosette

Sentimental Sunday - Male Tag

The Stamp Man - Tim's tags techniques

While we're talking about male projects I thought I'd share a Design team card I made for Stamp Addicts. This fab set is called 'Graffitti' and is just perfect for those tricky teenage cards !

I'm sharing this over at Stamptacular Sunday where the theme is 'Boy oh boy'

I've had a lovely time playing this afternoon - hope you all enjoyed your weekends too,  thanks for coming to visit..Esther xx

Christmas Cats

Wow - thanks so much for all your great festive entries to our Christmas challenge.  We'll have a hard job choosing our top three - thank goodness random org choosed the winner.  This week it's Zoe's turn to choose the them and she has this to say -

'As I write Mistress Minx is resting on the back of the sofa behind me you are never far from a feline in this house! So that is my challenge this time to you all please make anything you like in any medium or style but it must feature a cat or cats. Have fun.'

As a fellow cat lover I really enjoyed creating my card for this theme - I even managed to keep it Christmas !  

I used various colours of distress inks on my craft mat and spritzed with water before smooshing a piece of coated card stock to create a patterned sheet which I stamped on with my cat stamp several times choosing areas I thought would make good cat markings. I created a reverse image for a bit of variation by rolling my brayer over the inked stamp and then rolling it on to the card stock. I created a distress inks background with masked moon, brick wall and flying Santa before adding the cut out cats, glamour dust and some white flower soft. 

I wonder if Santa visits cats too....?

To join our furry fun get on over to Craft-Room challenge and add a link so we can visit your creation and you may be the winner of a £10 voucher to spend in The Craft-Room store.

By the way have you seen our treasure hunt, there is a fabulous Indigo Blu stamp plate to be won! Click here for details.

I'm sharing this at  -

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Simonsaysstamp- Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday - Animal Crackers

ABC Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers - Anything Goes

Esther xx