Eileen Hull Passport Die and a Crafty Afternoon!

Morning all,

This is just a quick post, as I never seem to share something I've made 'just for fun'.  I've had a couple of nice days this week crafting with friends, the first day I finished a project which I can't show as usual, but on the second afternoon with my friend Jan, I just sat and played.  Jan had the new Eileen Hull Passport journal die, and I am now hooked.

Now I have to admit to not using my papers much any more, or die cutting!  But I LOVED this, and now want to make ten more.  The die is out of stock nearly everywhere in the uk, so I'm just going to have to wait to get it myself, but definitely will be now!  There is also an XL journal die, and that is now on my hit list too.

I used IndigoBlu papers for the covers and a few of the pages, and the rest were old Stampin Up papers I had, but you can use any paper, card stock, or recycled paper (junk too) that you like.

The book itself was exceptionally easy to make, and to bind at the end, we used an elastic cord, and I also made a quick tie to just slip over the book, but you could add buttons and cord, wrap around, wire, anything you like to secure it.

I added two little flower beads to my cord, as I decided to use this as an allotment journal, so I can see progress (hopefully!).

I used a thick greyboard, but would suggest to use slightly thinner than I have, it makes the spine easier to work with!  You can also glue your covers inside or outside your spine, it is personal choice.  You can also bind it in any way you like, I chose to go across the two holes as Jan's looked so neat I followed suit.

I will add a title, and maybe a little embellishment, and of course fill it full of allotment pics, so maybe will post an update later in the year.

Happy Crafting,

Nikki
xxx

Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge Reminder - February - Take a Stamp

Morning everyone,

It's challenge reminder time over at Craft Stamper Magazine.

My reminder DT piece today is this CAS card, with a little bit of grunge.

I used scattered straw distress ink through a stars stencil, and then took a ruler and a Posca pen, and drew lines in varying widths and lengths, dotted, staggered and straight, and then stamped a texture stamp in evergreen bough distress ink on top.  I added paint splatters in black, and a little star stamp sentiment that just fitted perfectly.

Hope you like it and can join us over at Craft Stamper for the challenge.  The prizes and guidelines can all be found over on the main blog too.

Warm wishes,

Nikki
xx

Products Used:
IndigoBlu Stars Stencil
IndigoBlu Tasty Textures Stamp
DecoArt Media Carbon Black Fluid Acrylic
Distress Inks: Evergreen Bough, Scattered Straw
Posca Pen - black
Free Star stamp/magazine

Proud Guest at A Vintage Journey - Going Round in Circles

Hi all,

So proud to have been asked to contribute over at A Vintage Journey, it's my first time as a Guest there, and I couldn't be happier!  The theme this month is 'Going Round in Circles', and I went 'small' for this one!

The matchbox was treated inside, and on the top, with DecoArt Media Crackle paste.  Once dry I painted in Media fluid acrylics in Prussian blue hue, and Quinacridone gold, using a wash of each colour, and letting one dry in area's before adding the other.  This gave a distressed old look.

I stamped the postmark and stain stamps in raw umber paint.  And dripped more quinacridone gold down the sides of the box.

The crackle and antiquing process was repeated onto a simple piece of card, to use in the circular necklace.

I cut the card to fit my circle bezel, glued and sealed with matte medium.  I stamped the Toxic word in raw umber onto a piece of card, and aged with quin gold.  Some cogs were added and glued in place, and then resin was added to dome in the bezel.

Inside of the matchbox and underneath were also aged, and the necklace fits perfectly to give as a gift.

I so enjoyed making this and following the theme, don't forget to check out the rest of the projects over on A Vintage Journey's blog.

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Products used:

DecoArt Media:

Media Crackle Paint

Media Fluid Acrylics - prussian blue hue, quinacridone gold, raw umber.

Stampendous/Andy Skinner Stamps - Toxic, Shabby

IndigoBlu - Diamond Resin

Matchbox, bezel, chain & cogs from stash.

Craft Stamper August TIMI Challenge Reminder - 'Stencilling & Masking'

Hi all,

Today is Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge reminder day, and our theme is 'Take a Technique' this month.  So the technique we have given you is 'Masking and stencilling'.

My inspiration contains stencilling today, and lots of it!  

I started by painting a 12 x 12 canvas board in DecoArtMedia paints, Hansa Yellow Medium, Cobalt Teal Hue and Primary Magenta, all mixed a little with Tinting Base to give me lighter shades.  On top of the base, I used a stencil with distressed elements, and stencilled the three colours neat, through parts of the stencil on co-ordinating base colours.  These are the sequin waste dots, pink lid rings, stripes etc.  

I then sprayed the canvas to tone down the base colours, with DecoArt Media's 'Media Mister', in White shimmer.  This gave the lovely splats and toned down the background.  
More stencilling with Andy Skinner's stencils commenced, I used the 'Industrial Elements' stencil.  

I added circles with Tinting base and a Sharpie pen lid, and then stamped Andy Skinner's crackle stamp from the Toxic stamp set in Versafine black.  I added Tracy Weinzapfel Stratton's gorgeous dots from her Totally Tracy Textures stamp set, both in ink and Tinting Base, and then edged the canvas with my fingers and DecoArt Media's Quinacridone Magenta, and added lines with the edge of an old credit card in the same colour, and a few smudges with my finger.

My trusty Acrylic Sharpie pen then came in to squiggle in a few of the circles from the first stencil, and add dots on top of some of the black stamping.  

I added some lines of washi tape on top of each other, and used one for the fab Whimsy Girl   stamp by our very own Trish Latimer (available in her Etsy Store).  I stamped her on card and watercoloured her with the same palette of DecoArtMedia acrylics as in the background, mixing a little yellow, pink and tinting base for the face, neck and arms. 

A few more white dots with my Acrylic Sharpie, attached her to the canvas and gave her some grounding with a little Payne's Grey watered down. 

To finish, I took an IndigoBlu sentiment from 'Floral Fantasy' stamp set, heat embossed and cut out, and edged with a gold Sharpie pen.  I also pencilled around the words on one side and bottom to ground them more.  

Hope you like her :)  

Our wonderful sponsor of the random prize this month is the gorgeous Gio, with her own range of stencils:

You can see all the Design Team's work, and the prizes on offer, along with the guidelines and how to enter, over on the Challenge Blog.

Hope you can join us!

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Craft Stamper August TIMI Challenge - Stencils & Masks

Morning everyone,

It's time for the new Craft Stamper Magazine's 'Take it, Make it' Challenge. Our August challenge is to 'Take a technique', and we'd love to see your Stencilling and Masking this month.

We have two prizes on offer, as always. The first is the Sponsor Prize, and the winner of this will be randomly chosen from all the eligible entries of the challenge. To make sure your project is eligible to win, make sure you have followed our challenge guidelines.

PLEASE REMEMBER: We only want to see ONE project in each individual blog post entry (a set counts as more than one), and you MUST link back to Craft Stamper Magazine in your post.

Our wonderful sponsor of the random prize is the gorgeous Gio, with her own range of stencils:

As always, we will also have a Design Winner this month.

This winner is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite design from all of the entries. This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post!

Here is my inspiration for you this month:

First I stamped the flower from Indigoblu's Floral Fantasy onto the card and embossed, and onto a piece of paper. I cut the paper out and masked the flowers, then took Peppermint Tea and Lime Marmalade Cottage paints, and stencilled the new Indigoblu rose stencil all over the top with the two colours.

I removed the mask, and coloured in the flowers with Grandma's Teacup, and the leaves in Emerald City.

I stamped and embossed the butterfly, and words, and cut out. The sentiment was coloured with the same paints, and edged in green stazon. The main card was also edged.

I stamped the butterfly on top of the stencilling, to keep the antenna's, and put the cut butterfly over the top and bent the wings up slightly.

So hop on over to the Challenge and see the rest of the team's fab work, then join in!  I hope you have fun getting inky and painty with those stencils and masks!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Craft Stamper July TIMI Challenge Reminder - Take a Stamp

Hi everyone,

It's Take It, Make It, challenge reminder time over at Craft Stamper, and the theme this month is 'Take a Stamp'.

We have two prizes on offer, as always. The first is the Sponsor Prize, and the winner of this will be randomly chosen from all the eligible entries of the challenge. To make sure your project is eligible to win, make sure you have followed our challenge guidelines.

PLEASE REMEMBER: We only want to see ONE project in each individual blog post entry (a set counts as more than one), and you MUST link back to Craft Stamper Magazine in your post. 

This month's sponsor prize to our random winner is: Calico Craft Parts, and the fab prize is 3 aperture ATB kits, 4 beach/nautical mini shape sheets, seashell frame ATC blank, nautical shrine kit. They arrive flat packed, you have to assemble them yourself, it's very easy.

As always, we will also have a Design Winner this month.

This winner is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite design from all of the entries. This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post!

My inspiration for you is a little bracelet I made from the lovely new Indigoblu stamp, Dinkie Rose, bought out for their 5th birthday.  I simply stamped onto shrink plastic, cut each rose out, and coloured with Marshmallow and Lemon Meringue paints, watered down. 

I punched holes in each with a cropodile before shrinking the plastic one at a time with my heat gun, and used an acrylic block to make sure they were flat on my heat mat.

A jump ring was attached to each, then attached to a bracelet chain.  Some freshwater pearls were added on headpins.

I made a simple pair of earrings to match, think this is a really summery set!  

So don't forget to join in over on the Craft Stamper blog, we'd love to see your entries!  It can be any kind of artwork/make, as long as you have used rubber stamping on it. 

Have fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Craft Stamper TIMI challenge Reminder - June - Take a Technique - Get Inky!

Hi everyone,

It's Craft Stamper challenge reminder time, and I love this month's technique - Get Inky!  Use more than one TYPE of ink on your creation, ink pads, spray inks, alcohol inks, reinkers, drawing inks, ink crystal powders, or acrylic inks etc, OR, use more than one COLOUR of ink.  Then join in and enter over on the Challenge blog.

The prizes up for grabs this month are:

Firstly the Sponsor Prize, and the winner of this will be randomly chosen from all the eligible entries of the challenge. To make sure your project is eligible to win, make sure you have followed our challenge guidelines. These can be found HERE.

We are proud to announce our sponsor this month is....

PaperArtsy 

PaperArtsy are a UK based brand, selling a HUGE range of stamps by some wonderful designers, as well as their own signature line of chalk finish paints! The online store is just full of amazing product, well worth a visit! The latest (and very very popular) range to be launched is the Infusions range....
Infusions are water soluble particles with 2 components: dye colour pigment suitable for paper/ fabric, mixed with Walnut Stain.
The colour powder particles dissolve faster than the walnut crystals, so you can control the colour-to-brown stain ratio!
These amazing little bottles of fabulousness have been flying off the shelves, but we have a selection as the prize this month! This is the whole colour range:

The prize is a set of FIVE Infusions as seen here:

Lemoncello, Black Currant, A Bit Jaded, Are You Cerice and Emerald Isle.

And second, As always, we will also have a Design Winner this month.

This winner is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite design from all of the entries. This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post! 

Here is my inspiration piece for the Challenge:

I used both colours of inks, and types of inks on this tag.  The background was created with Dylusions spray inks in Fresh Lime, Squeezed Orange, and Lemon Zest.  I sprayed a piece of A4 card and made a masterboard, so I can use other pieces where I want too.

I then stamped the text from Indigoblu's Tasty Texture's background stamp, in Stazon Pumpkin Orange and Cactus Green.  The Honeycomb background is IB too and stamped in the same colours.

The dots stamp is PaperArtsy HotPics, stamped in Versafine Onyx black,  as are the white Stazon Opaque Cotton white circles.

I used Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade and Shabby shutters on the wording, flowers and edges, and added a little washi tape to the background for interest.  

I did use embossing ink, and embossed the flowers, but didn't like the gloss look so went back over with DecoArt's Ultra Matte Varnish, which took the finish right back again.  The flowers still look raised but aren't so shiny against the matt tag. 

I think this is the most stamps and inks I've ever got on one small tag :) 

I hope you can join us at Craft Stamper Magazine this month! 

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

It's a Jungle out there!

Morning all,

Not sure if I was thinking of my allotment when I made this page...  seems like the first time this year I've managed to get over there, and it's daunting how quickly weeds grow!  And I feel just like 'Percy', with his arms crossed in a huff!

My page started with some Decoart Media fluid Acrylics, I dabbled and mixed some colours on a palette, so there is orange, white, teal, titan buff, more white.. and a bit of red..
I then stamped some background stamps from Indigoblu, tasty textures set, with different colour stazon in first and second gen stamping.  Next was the Laurel Leaves stencil with a faber castell pitt pen to do the leaves all the way round the page.  It took a while but I love the effect.

Extra stamping in white paint was done with Kate Crane's lovely spiral stamp a friend bought me at Kate's class a couple of weeks back, and some old lids to make rings.  I then doodled in places on the page around white bits.

'Percy' is by the lovely Lindsay Mason, he's a digi stamp available in Lindsay's Etsy Store, and I absolutely love him.  He is coloured with Prismacolour pencils and cut out, then glued to my page and lightly pencilled round to ground him.

This is my first piece for Lindsay on her fab Design Team, I hope you like it. Here are a couple of closer pics.  The moth was one Kate printed for us in her class, I had a few so cut him out and added him here.  Although all I had today at the allotment was cabbage white butterflies...!

You can see more of Lindsay's design's in her store, and on her blog.

Have a good day all,

Best Wishes,

Nikki. xx

Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge April 2016 - Spring Flowers

Good morning everyone,

Today is the start of the new challenge over at Craft Stamper Magazine.

Our sponsor this month is Traplet themselves, where you can get your very own copies of Craft Stamper Magazine.

We have a HUGE prize for you this month, this is truly awesome and well worth entering for!  The winner will receive ALL SIX Kate Crane Art Journalling DVD's!!

I so wish I could enter!!

I do have some inspiration for you though, as do my teamie's over at the Challenge, so come and join in the fun.

Our brief this month was 'Spring Flowers', and I love the yellow and green of this time of year, so decided to make a tag using these colours.

My background was created on a lovely Tando tag, with Decoart Media fluid acrylics, in hansa yellow light, primary yellow and blue green light.  I added some texture paste through Indigoblu's Laurel Leave's stencil, and coated with hansa yellow light, which gave them the yellow tone but they still blended in to the background.

I then stamped in primary yellow with Andy Skinner's Toxic stamp set, using the peeled paint/crackle stamp.  On top of that I stamped in blue green light with Paper Artsy's Eclectica 18 by Emma Godfrey stamp, using the small circles.  I then used Indigoblu's script stamp from Tasty Textures, and first and second gen stamped all over in Stazon Cactus Green.  To finish I used Andy's other stamp from the toxic set, scratches, and stamped in Stazon Emerald City all around the edges and a few across the tag.

The flower's from Paper Artsy were stamped several times in different sizes onto a masterboard which was sprayed with Decoart primary yellow decoart mister, turquoise shimmer mister, yellow shimmer mister, and ...... Over the top I stamped with the tasty textures script in Emerald City stazon.  I cut the flowers out and layered them up.

I painted the stems in black, and doodled round them in white acrylic Sharpie.  I added some white dots to the flower centres, and doodled round the sentiment (also Paper Artsy).

Here is the tag all finished.

Hope you like it, we'd love it if you joined us over on the Craft Stamper challenge to see the DT's amazing work, and join in of course!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Kevin's Gang & Diamond Resin for Indigoblu

Morning everyone,

Over on the Indigoblu blog today I'm sharing a make with their new Diamond Resin, and Kevin's gang stamp set.  I had immense fun making this, and didn't want to part with the necklace for my DT piece either.  Just going to have to make one for myself.

Diamond resin is a new two part epoxy resin which is crystal clear and sets hard, and is very easy to use.  I am a big fan!  You will need to visit the Indigoblu blog to see how I made these guys, there is a step by step over there for you, but here's a pic or two of the finished piece.

A bit closer - spot the dictionary pages I used? 

Right, I'm off to make more goodies for upcoming demo's, hope you like these.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Indigoblu Challenge Reminder - October - Time Flies

Morning all,

Today is reminder day for the Indigoblu Challenge, and this month the theme is 'Time Flies'.  I am sharing with you some of my previous makes for Indigoblu, that fit the theme, and give you some idea.  I love watches and cogs and clocks, so I have plenty of makes to choose from, but these are a few of my favourite. 

My first make is using the 'Time Flies' stamp set from Indigoblu, and is stamped with distress ink and coloured with distress ink, in first and second gen stamping all over, and in sections on the background.  It's then added to with some black stamping and layering of the card, and the sentiment.

My second piece for you is my favourite ever, I wear this all the time.  It's an Indigoblu fob watch bezel, with 6 or seven layer's of resin, containing cogs, stamping, music sheet, (yes, look closely), bits of megaflake, and embellishments.  The wings are created using the Script stamp, onto tissue paper, and glued to wire armature's.  It's then coated in several coats of resin to harden them.  Inside the fob watch, the word eccentric pops up, this was from the Sarah's Choice stamp set.

And my third piece is again distress ink and white embossing, using Music Sheet stamp set and Time Flies.  I used Vintage photo distress ink in varying levels all over the card, and stamped and embossed everything in white as a contrast.  Some embellishments are added and it's all layered up.

I hope this gives you a little inspiration for our Challenge, and you can see the ladie's inspiration HERE too.  

We would love to see your entries this month, please join us HERE.

All we need is that you use Indigoblu stamps in your design.

Good luck!

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Indigoblu Challenge 31 - Frame it!

Hi all,

Today the new challenge is up over on the Indigoblu Challenge blog.  We have some awesome inspiration for you, and the theme this month is Frame It.

Our prizes are stamp plates of your choice from Indigoblu, and a guest spot on our blog!  We'd love to see your entries, and you can visit all our team's pages and see how they made their fab pieces.

All we ask is you use your Indigoblu stamps to enter.  You can find the rules here too.

My inspiration piece is a necklace I made from the fantastic new paper's from Indigoblu - Floral Vignette's.  These are strong, quality paper's that have a unique property in that the last item printed on them resist's paint, and creates an awesome effect for canvases etc.  I have used them in a different way, and cut out parts to layer up in this necklace, using resin.  The image is first coated in slap it on, to seal it, all around the edges and each side.  It's then glued into the bezel (my frame), and Amazing Clear resin added over three days to build layers and make it look like the butterflies are above the flowers flying.

Hope you like it.

Don't forget to check out what it's all about :)

Have a fab weekend, 

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

xx

Craft Stamper July Challenge - Take a Stamp

Morning all, seems ages since I last blogged, probably because it is!

It's challenge time over at Craft Stamper magazine again, and this month is a nice easy one - Take a stamp.  That's any stamp you like.  I've actually used several here, and some beautiful Indigoblu paper's. 

Let me explain..

Firstly I took some paper from the IndigoBlu range. This was given a light wash of watered down 'Townhouse Teal' paint, and then stamped with Giant Peony, in versafine, and in flitterglu and megaflakes.

The tag was stamped with Limor Webber's rugged edges, Lotus flower, and IndigoBlu's dinkie Dragonfly, and also given a wash of colour.  I then flaked around the edge of the tag to give a border.  More paper was torn and paintwashed.

I cut out the butterflies from the Vintage Memories paper pack, and the post mark, and started to layer up the card.

Some tiny puzzle pieces and wooden flowers were painted in townhouse teal and hot cocoa paints, and adhered.

I then stamped and cut out poppies from Giant Poppy, and Poppycock stamp sets, and layered them.  It's all mounted on a white card background.

I hope this gives you a little inspiration, come and join us at Craft Stamper this month, show us your work and you could win prizes! All you have to do is follow the guidelines HERE, it's simple!

Our sponsor this month is the fabulous Art Journey stamps, with a whopping prize of four plates!

See you soon,

Nikki

xx