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

Hard to resist....

A new, slightly late challenge over at Fashionable Stamping this month and we are looking for resist techniques. This is one of my favourites and I made a gift voucher wallet for a friend at work who was moving jobs (and yes we did put gift vouchers in it).

I started with a ready made gift wallet to which I applied a layer of gesso to soften the chevron pattern. I cut a front panel from water colour card and heat embossed the flowers. Over this I applied a wash of colour using distress inks pads as paints - swipe some ink onto a craft mat, spritz with water and apply with paintbrush.

I fixed the resist panel to the envelope and applied gesso round the edges to blend, I also added some texture paste through a stencil. I used die cut letters for the sentiment, and the butterflies are stamped and heated fantasy fibres.

Skeleton leaves, adhesive pearls and Nuvo crystal drops add the finishing touches.

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'm sharing this over at -
Allsorts - Butterflies
The Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes
Penny Black and more - Anything Goes with a stamp

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of beautiful Resist creations....Happy crafting....Esther

Blooming Beautiful at Fashionable Stamping Challenge

Over at FSC the new monthly theme is Beautiful Blooms, chosen by our lovely Claire. I chose an IndigoBlu stamp for my card, colouring with Inktense pencils.

The background layer was made by stencilling some white acrylic paint and once dry inking over with Distress inks - I then wiped back the ink from the paint.

 I added stamping and ink splatters to the background but forgot to take a picture of this stage.  The Tulips are stamped and masked and I created an ombre background with my Inktense pencils before colouring the flowers also with Inktense.

 After colouring I added some glossy accents to the Tulips for added definition and texture and once dry layered up with patterned cardstock and embelishments.

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 join us and look forward to visiting your beautiful blooms creations

I'm sharing my card here -

Penny Black and More - Flower Power
Stamps and Stencils - Floral Frenzy
Classic Design Team - Anything Goes

Happy Stamping..Esther xx

Blots and Splashes

It was National Scrapbook Day yesterday so a perfect reason to make a double scrapbook layout for this months FSC challenge, where the theme is Blots and Splashes. These pictures are from when my OH and I decorated our first home together - I say together, but as the second page shows Pete did more messing about than helping.

For both LOs I used a 12x12 watercolour sheet and used Brushos to create a background. I added some texture paste through a Tim Holtz layering stencil (Brickwall) then stamped blots and splashes (stamps from Artistic stamper) before adding paper layers, photos and embellishments. 

I made the roses and little frame in a silicon mould from cloud clay and added a touch of ink to edges once the clay was dry. This is great stuff for making embellishments as it's so lightweight. 

 The matching page is made with the same techniques, papers and embellishments.

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 stamping needs to be the focal point on your project. 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 sharing this here-

Shimelle NSD challenges - make a messy background

Spring Butterflies

The new challenge is up at FSC and this month our lovely Dot has asked us to create something Butterfly themed. Always a favourite I used one of Tims tags of 2015 as my inspiration using a new technique I hadn't tried before.

I started with a background of distress inks using fresh, bright Spring colours (in the hope Spring might actually show some signs of arriving). I stamped this with a Butterfly and some script. Tim's technique is layering texture paste through a stencil and adding embossing powder on top which I've done here (after masking the butterflies). I used Gold detail EP and I love the extra depth and texture you get. 

I finished off by layering another Butterfly covered with rock candy stickles for added sparkle, a heart charm and the sentiment which I shadow stamped.

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 stamping needs to be the focal point on your project. 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 my tag here - 

Craft Stamper - Take it Make it, anything goes with stamping

That's Crafty - Stencils and Masks

Love to Create - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Stamps and Stencils - Spring is in the Air

Anything but Cute - Crazy for Colour

The Artistic Stamper - Springtime

Penny Black and More - Feature a Creature

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

Saying Thanks at Fashionable Stamping

It's time for our first challenge starting in 2016 over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges - thanks for all the lovely make your own background entries. It was my turn to choose this theme and as we go into the New Year I thought it appropriate to say Thank You - either for gifts received or just to be grateful for what we have. I've made a Journal Page - 

 I started with a Gelli plate print to which I added bead gel and texture paste (through a stencil). I then added some background stamping before stamping and cutting flowers and circles from Gelli print scraps.

I've written something I'm grateful for in each flower/circle and finished off with a die cut title.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 stamping needs to be the focal point on your project. 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.

Changing Seasons

Oh my goodness where is the year going, we're romping through and it's already time for another challenge over at Fashionable Stamping. This month our theme is 'changing seasons'. I had an idea immediately but then it took a while to work out how to get the effect I wanted. In the end I went with my Brushos to create this card -

I stamped and embossed the trees first on water colour card. I used a paint brush to 'paint' water in a strip, sprinkled the first Brusho colour and as it was drying moved on to repeat for each strip so the colours gently blended at the edges. When all the colours were done I sprayed with more water, held the card up to allow the colour to run.  Once it was all dry I painted a rough wash of walnut stain distress ink across the bottom half and added some stamping with a script stamp. 

To each tree I applied dots of paint and stickles glitter glue in varying colours to represent the seasons and also added a little transparent texture paste.

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 stamping needs to be the focal point on your project. 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 here -
Allsorts - No design papers
Craft Stamper - Take it, Make It - Ink Stitch Paint Collage Print Paper
Love to Create Challenge - Anything Goes /Mixed Media
Addicted to Stamps and More - Inspiration Pic


Happy Crafting - Esther xx

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Things with Wings

Well, I've been absent for a few weeks because I had to have some minor surgery and have been unable to craft while recovering but thankfully I was able to spend some time yesterday creating for the new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges where the theme is 'Things with wings'. I must admit this is one of my favourite themes and I  needed a birthday card for my mum so I went for it and made a large 8x8 card. 

The background and additional panel are both coloured with Distress inks. On the large background piece I've added splatters of Dylusions ink spray and water. I stamped the text from Stampers Anonymous 'Papillon' in Vintage photo but also used touches of  Indigoblu flitter glue randomly before stamping and then applied Mega Flake 'chocolate box' to add touches of shimmer to the background which you can just see in the photo below.  The die cut butterflies are cut from a sheet of watercolour paper sprayed with Dylusions ink sprays and stamped with polka dots and an Indigoblu flourish. 

The vertical panel has been stamped with a Hero Arts stamp, die cut with a Tim Holtz mixed media die (I'm loving these) and the leaves/dots added with crackle paste through a stencil.  The die cut flourishes look blue in the pics but are actually purple IRL and match the butterflies better than it looks.    

The horizontal strip is splattered with ink spray, edged wiht distress ink and stamped with an Indigoblu lace stamp. 

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 Look forward to seeing what you create....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

Spring's on it's way at Fashionable Stamping Challenge...

The weather's been lovely today and along with our new theme 'Springtime' over at FSC I was inspired to create a bright, fresh card with spring colours and flowers.

 I started with a background of Gelatos over which I added some stamped green dots and stencilled dots using crackle paste which I left white. 

The flowers and leaves are Hero Arts stamps, coloured with Gelatos, fussy cut and finished with  stickles centres. I've stuck them using silicone glue and added doodled stalks and a border. 

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 sharing my card here also -
Allsorts - Spring is in the air
The Artistic Stamper - Spring is coming
Artist Trading Post - Springtime

Happy Crafting...Esther xx

Something New at Fashionable Stamping

Hi - it's our time for our first challenge of 2015 over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and it happens to be my turn to choose the theme. I went with something nice and easy for the New Year  - 'Something New'. Now this could be a creation with a New theme or something made using new stash...or maybe even trying a new technique, the choice is yours. I've started a new project as part of a Facebook group and needed a sketch book to keep techniques and ideas in - and of course it needed decorating.  

I started with a Gelli Plate print, added texture with some grunge paste through a stencil, stamping and distress inks and a strip of Tissue tape down the spine edge.

The central panel was created using new stamps (Artistic Stamper) and a new technique - wax crayon resist. Crayon was drawn around the stamped words before applying  distress inks. I'm going to b using/handling this notebook a lot so left embellishments to a minimum with just a key in the corner to add some interest. 

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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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 my book cover over on the following challenges - 

Country View Challenges - Use something New to you (Stamps and technique)

The Artistic Stamper - New beginnings

Craft Stamper Magazine - Take a Stamp

Happy Crafting...Esther xx

Turn up the Heat at FSC

Our new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping is all about using your Heat gun - you can create any project as long as it involved using your heat gun (and Stamping of course). This is my final post involving a Christmas card - I've used good old stamping and heat embossing to create the banners and message for my card and have also heat embossed the wooden snowflake embellishment. 

The base of the card has two doily halves glued to it and I've softly inked the edges of the card with distress ink. As we're fast approaching Christmas, this challenge will run for four weeks to give us all a bit of a break to enjoy the holidays. 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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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. 

There are lots of Christmas themed challenges about so I'm also sharing my card here -
Allsorts - White Christmas (a little colour allowed )
Pan Pastels - Christmas
Take it,Make it (Craft Stamper) - White Stamping (includes embossing)
Penny Black and More - Special Occasions

Happy Crafting....Esther xx

Winter Wonderland at FSC

Hello - it's been a while since I posted and I've not had much time for crafting either but I have made a few more Christmas cards and this one is my sample for the latest challenge over at Fashionable Stamping where the theme is Winter Wonderland. 

The background is a Gelli Plate print on which I used a snowflake stencil - The Stamp is by Stamp Addicts and I've embossed it in black on silver card and I've added some liquid pearls, stickles and crystals for that touch of sparkle and 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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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. Happy Crafting....Esther xx

FSC Animals

Over at FSC this fortnight the challenge theme is Animals and I'm still on a roll with my Christmas cards  -

I've created the background with torn gelli plate prints, which I've stamped on with words, stars and swirls, and then just added die cuts and crystal stars. You can see the sparkle on the deer in the pic below - I covered the die cuts in glamour dust.

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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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. Happy Crafting....Esther xx

Weather Forecast at Fashionable Stamping

HI - thanks everyone for your beautiful entries to our Anything Goes theme at Fashionable Stamping Challenge. This fortnight the lovely Clare has chosen 'Weather Forecast' as out theme - Anything from a sunny Autumn scene, a rainy day, windy weather, an amazing sunset to a snowy Christmas card. Just remember the stamping!!!

I'm concentrating on my Christmas Cards at the moment so my weather is snow - the background is a printed paper which I've stamped snowflakes on and the pine branch across the top in distress inks.

I stamped the bauble onto a Gelli plate print, then again onto a paler print and embossed both with Silver EP. I cut just the oval scene from the paler image which I stuck onto the darker one which I also cut out. 

and of course I've added some stickles for extra 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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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. Happy Crafting....Esther xx

Autumnal Trees at FSC

Oops - thought I'd scheduled this post as I've been off on my hols and just got back this morning, but I actually hadn't even got round to writing it so here we are now, better late than never !! Over at FSC this fortnight our lovely Shirley has set the theme of 'Trees with Autumn colours'. I went back to basic techniques for this card, a background of distress stains, splatters of water and spray inks and stamping with black archival ink.   

 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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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. Happy Crafting....Esther xx

Special Birthday with FSC

Hi there - I've been away for a while, had some tricky life stuff going on, but it's sooooo good to be back with a new FSC challenge, and this time it's our lovely Dot who has chosen the theme. She's asking to see Birthday Cards for someone special ,which was perfect for me as it was my Dad's birthday last week.

 I used Gelli plate prints as backgrounds which I stamped over. The anchor is from Kanban and the ship Stamp Addicts.  The map stamp on the card base is from The Stamp Man. 

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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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. Happy Crafting -Esther xx

Birds and Bees At FSC

Over at Fashionable Stamping this fortnight our theme is Birds and Bees. Although I know birds are a very popular theme for crafting projects and love the many beautiful creations I see around blogland, it's one I've never really got into. So I've gone the bees route - making another tag for my Creative Chemistry Album (which I am VERY SLOWLY working on to include all of the techniques from Tim Holtz's CC workshops).

This technique is Distress embossing powder resist using Walnut stain distress powder to emboss this background stamp from Artistic Stamper before inking over with distress inks and stains.  

Once I'd created the background using the basic technique I added stamped and embossed flowers, my fav TH die cut and of course the bees and their hive. The flower stamps are Indigo Blu, the bee hive and sentiment are Stamp addicts and the bees are from Crafty Individuals. 

I make two tags using each technique for my CC album, leaving one unadorned and  using the other for a completed project. 

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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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 sharing my tag here -
Crafty Individuals - Tag you're it
A Vintage Journey - Wings and Things
Crafty Creations - Tic Tac Toe (Embossing, Flowers, die Cut)
It's all about the Vintage - Punches/Die Cuts

 Happy Crafting - Esther xx

Fashionable Stamping goes 3D

Hi - it's time for another challenge over at FSC - and we have a guest designer this fortnight. Alison from Words & Pictures is joining us and has chosen 3D as our theme - this means you can make anything you like, but it has to be a 3D object - so boxes, jars, bottles, jewellery, bags etc. This was a bit of a challenge for me - but then that's the point isn't it !! I don't do 3D objects often, but had this desk tidy sitting around that was getting a bit tatty so decided to give it a face lift. 

I started by covering with Gelli Plate prints which I finished off round the edges with TH Tissue Tape before stamping with a script stamp and flicking with white and pink ink.

As the pot is for my craft/Art bits and pieces I used this free stamp from Craft Stamper Magazine as the main  image which I coloured with pro-markers.  The letters are stamped and cut out - I'm not sure of the make of stamp.

And here it is with my brushes and pens etc back in it - 

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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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.  Happy Crafting - Esther xx

FSC - Favourite technique

Hello  - it's time for another challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge. This fortnight the lovely Dot has asked us to use our favourite technique ! Oooh it was so difficult to choose - I knew it would be stamping based  - stamping is my favourite thing, and I went for masking. I just love the layers you can build up by stamping, masking and then stamping again ! I've made a journal page, the inspiration for which came from Feb 2014 Craft Stamper magazine. 

I started by stamping one group of tulips, then used artists masking fluid to mask them before stamping more tulips, masking again, stamping the taller blooms (which look like they might be lupins) and masking them.  Once the images were stamped and masking fluid dry I used Spray inks (Dylusions and Adirondack) to create the background. More drying time followed by finally stamping the black foliage 'behind' the flowers. The key to building up a scene like this is to remember you are stamping the front images first and each subsequent layer will be behind those already there. The title is stencilled with black and white pens and I've also stamped a border. 

I'm taking part in Journal 52 and 'How does your garden grow?' was the prompt for week 13. 

So what's your favourite technique ? 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, but digi downloads are ok to enhance your project. 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 my journal page here - 

Ali-Craft - Spring

Crafts 4 Eternity - Anything but a card
Penny Black and More - Blossoms and Blooms

Happy Crafting - Esther xx