A Glorious Bouquet...

Hi folks...Can I let you into a little secret. When I received the bundle of new releases from Stampers Anonymous, I absolutely loved the Glorious Bouquet stamp set BUT I was a little apprehensive because there are great watercolour artists out there and I am not one of them so I chickened out from making any samples for Creativation.

but I decided to bite the bullet at the weekend, confront my insecurities and have a go. If it turned out a bit of a dog's dinner, no-one would ever know. It just goes to prove that you don't know what you can do unless you try and believe me no-one was more surprised than me that it turned out way better than I expected which I think had more to do with how easy the stamp was to colour,although it did take a bit of time, than any skill on my part.

The large floral image comes with it's own acrylic block but this scaredy cat decided to use the Stamp Platform to make sure I got every little bit of the amazing detail. I inked the stamp with Black Soot Archival and watercoloured using Distress Markers and a Ranger Detailer Brush.

Once the image was dry, I used the Detailer Brush to create a light wash of Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink around the image fading it out towards the edge of the card. I took care around the detailed leaf areas at the edges of the image so as not to reactivate the Distress Marker colouring, the last thing I needed was ink bleeding into the background area.

I then stamped one of the border images from Ornate Trims randomly on the background using Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink. There are so many gorgeous trim borders in this stamp set and I suspect I will be using it frequently.

I trimmed a mat of white cardstock to be slightly larger than the Glorious Bouquet panel, coloured it with Walnut Stain Distress Oxide using a blending tool and stamped around the edges with the script stamp from Entomology using Ground Espresso Distress Archival.

 and spritzed it with water...

I decided to stamp another border image from Ornate Trims inked with Ground Espresso Distress Archival randomly around the edges of the panel and splattered with Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink.

 I stamped one of sentiments from Glorious Bouquet

and coloured a scrap of card with Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink, dusted it with my powder tool and stamped another sentiment (there are so many to choose from in this set) with Versamark ink, sprinkled with Super Fine Detail White Embossing Powder, heat set, matted on to white card, cut out and added a twine bow.

And why do I love Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous stamp sets so much...SIMPLES. You can mix and match images and sentiments from different stamp sets and they always seem to go together beautifully.
It's hard to believe it's the last day of January already and tomorrow will be a new month. New Month...New Me perhaps because I've actually nailed one of my New Year Resolutions...that's a first for sure but I will tell you all about it tomorrow.

Hugs Kath

xxx

Entomology and Exciting News...

Hi folks, it's been wall to wall blue sky sunshine in my neck of the woods over the weekend but don't be fooled into thinking it's SPRING because there's an arctic chill in the air and I suspect Winter is not about to release her icy grip just yet. It's been perfect weather for crafting up a storm in the cubbyhole and I'll have lots of makes to share with you over the next few weeks with the fabulous new 2018 releases from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous. Today I'm sharing a card I made for Creativaton 2018 with the fabulous ENTOMOLOGY stamp set which will be shipping to a store near you NOW.

I tore a panel of Distress Watercolor card to be slightly smaller than the 7" x 5" card blank I had covered with Idea-ology Cork Textured Surface and applied a light random watercolor wash of Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I stamped the script sentiment from Entomology with Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide and Botanical Background partially inked with Peeled Paint, spritzed with water to create a little bit of oxidation and dried.

I stamped the insects with Black Soot Archival, re-stamped the large fly...looks like a Calliphora Vomitoria or Bluebottle to me on to a scrap of Distress Watercolor card, coloured with Candied Apple and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide re-inkers using the Ranger Detailer brush, cut out and fixed over the original image with 3D foam. I coloured the bodies of the ants in the same way.

I stamped the "Handle With Care" image from the Mail Art stamp set shipping in February with Candied Apple Distress Oxide ink and used the same ink to create splatters on the background. They do say that any insect that has red on it's body should be handled with care but surely that doesn't apply to the very cute ladybirds that inhabit my garden over the summer and earn their keep feasting on all the nasties.

Love them or loathe them...insects are everywhere. Did you know there are more insects on the planet than any other species. There has never been an insect census but it is thought the figure is up in the Quintrillions...no surprise when you read that there are over 300 million species of insects which include bees, wasps, flies, dragonflies, butterflies, termites, ants and beetles and 300,000 species of beetles alone. A thought that you might want to put to the back of your mind if you have a phobia of all things creepy crawly. I don't, but I am relieved that they seem to prefer living outdoors most of the time.

And now that the zoology lesson is over it's time for some exciting news. Woohoo I've been invited to participate in a very special CREATIVATIONS 2018 - TIM HOLTZ BLOG HOP AND GIVE-AWAY with a group of very talented crafty friends who will be sharing some of  their new product samples from Creativation, up close and personal. The blog hop goes live this Friday February 2 at 7.00AM PST, that's 3.00PM if you're in the UK and 4.00PM in Europe, so make sure you make a note on your calendar, you don't want to miss it.

Hugs Kath
xxx

Simon Says...Resist It

Hi Everyone...welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog...thank you for joining us for last week's challenge...we hope you can join us this week too because...

and the theme for this week is...

RESIST IT

I decided to step a little bit out of comfot zone and unleash the masculine grungy side of me to re-decorate the cover of a well used tatty old notebook using the fabulous Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Theories stamp set and lots of Distress products to create a resist background.

I started off with a piece of Mixed Media Heavystock cut roughly to the size of the cover and added lots of Life Quotes and Numbers Remnant Rubs.

I inked through the Idea-ology Dash Stencil with Distress Embossing Ink, sprinkled with White Detail Embossing Powder and heat set.

I then applied Ranger Transparent Gloss Texture Paste through the Idea-ology Dotted Stencil and left to dry.

I replaced the Dotted stencil over the Texture Paste areas and stamped the "Never Give Up" sentiment from the Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Pennants stamp set inked with Black Soot Archival.

and I'm sharing a little tip...I use Hand Sanitizer Gel to remove the Archival ink from my stencils...

I applied a coat of Distress Collage Medium Matte to the panel, coloured with Distress Crayons and used slightly dampened (licking them as I went along) cotton buds to remove colour from the Resist areas...

I stamped the image from Theories with Black Soot Archival ink several times using the Stamp Platform to get a nice dark impression.

I then stamped a Pennant and sentiments from the Pennants stamp set on to scraps of white card and applied a coat of Distress Collage Medium Vintage with a Collage Brush.

I stamped one of the sentiments from Pennants randomly over the background with Black Soot and Vintage Photo Distress Archival, cut out the stamped sentiments to create Word Stickers, similiar to my favourite Idea-ology Chit Chat Stickers, added small strips of Idea-ology Journey Design Tape and Idea-ology Clock Hands.

I added Idea-ology Linen Ribbon behind the Pennant...

I covered the edges of the original book cover with Idea-ology Journey Design Tape and rounded the corners with my WeRMK Chomper. I trimmed the panel to be slightly smaller, rounded the corners, punched holes and fitted Idea-ology Mini Book Rings.

decorated with Idea-ology Linen Ribbon, Jump Rings and a Philosophy Tag...

You can find all the products I used over at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp online store...just click on the links below...

Why don't you pop over to the Monday Challenge Blog and check out the amazing creations from my very talented Design Team mates and as always you all have the chance to win a $50 gift voucher to spend at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time...1pm UK time...2 pm CET to join in...

You can also follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram

and if you use Instagram...

please add #sssmchallenge to your entry uploads so we can see them on there too

I look forward to seeing what you create this week...

Have Fun and Happy Crafting

Hugs Kath xxx

* Please note: the above links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Another Perfection Card...

Hi folks...I'm back to share another card made with the Perfection die from the Simon Says Stamp LOVE release...

you can check out all the amazing products in this release HERE.

I love this beautiful font and thought it would go well with one of my favourite Simon Says Stamp images, the gorgeous Bouquet of Thanks.

I used the Bouquet of Thanks matching die and the Perfection Shadow die to create apertures in a panel of Distress Watercolor card and stamped the panel with the gorgeous Batik Background from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Botanical & Batik stamp set inked with Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide ink.

I stamped the Bouquet of Thanks image (check out that much-inked well loved stamp) with Black Archival on to a scrap Distress Watercolor card and die cut.

I coloured the die cuts left over from creating the apertures with Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink, added a strip of Idea-ology French Design Tape to the panel and popped the die cuts back into the negative spaces.

I trimmed the white outline from the image, watercoloured with Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink, added splatters of Black Soot Distress Oxide ink, (cutting around the outline allows the colour underneath to show creating a shadow effect), die cut 3 layers of the word Perfection from white card and fixed on top of the shadow die cut.

PERFECTION...maybe not but pretty darned close

Have a great weekend everyone and I'll see you all on Monday

Hugs Kath xxx

The One That Nearly Got Away...

Hi folks, today I'm sharing what I had intended to be my DT project for this week's Simon Says Stamp Tag It Challenge...A Collage Of Tags Art Journal page which at the end of the day just didn't float my boat...

too much fussy detail perhaps and for a day or two it hovered above the cubbyhole bin. Then I set it aside and got to work on Option No 2...my tag memory book. But this warts 'n all creation has grown on me and has now taken up it's place in my Dylusions Black Square Journal. And heeding the wise words of my adorable Professor "i say embrace imperfection and revel in your artistry, each piece you make only needs to reflect the creative now. remember don't project your expectations on art, let it be what it will be" I am embracing my imperfections and getting over myself...it is what it is and life's too short to get hung up on such things.
And hang on to your galluses because tomorrow I'll be back to share another take on PERFECTION.

I am embracing my imperfections, getting over myself and remembering that's life's too short to get hung up on such things'll be back to share my take on PERFECTION....hang on to your galluses.

Toodle-oo for now

Hugs Kath

xxx