Resist Week over at Tando Creative

Morning all,

I have a post over at Tando today, showing how I made these Artist Trading Coins.  I hope you can hop across to check out the process.

Kindest Wishes,

Nikki.
xxx

Tagtastic over at Andy Skinner's Blog today.

Morning all,

I'm very lucky to be part of Andy Skinner's Creative Team, and have a tag to show you over on his blog today.  

If you hop across, all the details of how I made it and the products used are there. x

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Love & Hearts over on the Tando Blog today.

Morning all,

Just to say hope you can join me over on the Tando Blog today, for the 'Love & Hearts' theme week.

Hop over if you can and take a look at how I created my tag. xx

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

A catch up...

Morning everyone,

I haven't shared some pieces I've made lately, it's been mad busy and I've not had much time to do my 'own thing', but I made a couple of samples for the recent Dare to Create weekend organised by Sue at Art Workshops, and Andy Skinner & Tracy Weinzapfel Stratton.

I was booked on to the retreat as an attendee, and it was a fantastic weekend all round. A huge thankyou goes out to all involved in the organisation for a lovely weekend.  I'll share my makes at some stage from there too, but these are the pieces I made myself for Sue for her shop for the weekend.

My brief was to make something that incorporated Andy and Tracy's style, so 'Skinzapfel' was the order of the day.  The first piece I made was a canvas,

I painted the base coat in DecoArt Media pyrrole red and cadmium orange hue, and then went over with crackle paint, leaving the heart shape and flowers empty in the middle.  Once the crackle paint was dry, I used a cogs stencil inside the heart with DecoArt texture paste through.  I then added sand texture paste randomly around the edges and over the cogs to distress them further.  This centre panel was then painted in Andy's Rust technique.  The outer colours were prussian blue hue and cobalt teal hue, and a little turquoise hue.  I stamped randomly with carbon black and Tracy's stamps on the blue background.

The hand drawn flowers were painted in pyrrole red and hansa yellow medium.  I went round all the edges with a Faber Castell pitt pen and smudged the black lines, and also some more prussian blue around the heart to give shadow.  A computer sentiment was printed and coloured to match, scribbled round and adhered to the canvas.

Finally I edged the canvas in a little prussian blue hue to darken it and bring the focus in to the centre of the canvas.

My second make I wanted to keep, it's very simple but I kinda liked it :)

I took a second hand mirror from a car boot, and painted in black DecoArt Gesso.  I then added plumber's aluminium tape to pieces of black card, and used a spellbinders Mbossabilities folder called Industrial, to run the card with tape on through the Big shot.  I cut the pieces of card into different rectangles, and adhered to the mirror with matte medium. Carbon black was then dry brushed into all the crevices and across the mirror, and wiped back with a slightly dry baby wipe, repeated a few times.

 I then stamped Tracy's stamp Vines of Love onto normal 3 ply tissue, cut out and separated the ply.  I adhered this to the mirror with matte medium also, going over the top of the tissue very carefully to seal to the mirror.  I added a stalk to the flower in blue green light and green gold, and painted the flower in quinacridone magenta and hansa yellow medium.  I made sure you could still see the edges of the flower by running round with a micron pen.

The only other thing was to dry brush the edges of the black gesso'd mirror with some metallic silver paint to tie it in, and it was finished.

I love the simplicity of this, and Tracy's style with the industrial look.

Hope you've enjoyed the steps through these, I certainly enjoyed making them.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Craft Stamper May Challenge - Take a Stamp Reminder

Hi all,

Today is reminder day for Craft Stamper's May challenge - Take a stamp.  Over on the blog you can see the design team's reminder pieces, to inspire you and spur you on to enter yourself.

This can be any stamped piece you have made, card, artwork, mixed media etc, but it must be your original idea, and you can use any stamps.

The sponsor this month is Wow Embossing Powders, and we have a fab prize of some vintage colours in a case, and a beautiful lacy stamp.

My reminder piece is a clock I made for myself, from an Indigoblu clock kit, I made it a while ago but hadn't shared it properly, so here it is, using the Mad Hatter stamp set also from Indigoblu.  I love the white rabbit holding the clock up, and using that for the hands to go through.

I initially painted the clock in hot cocoa paint, and covered in pantry white, then scratched back roughly on the surface to create a really weathered look.  I stamped in sepia to maintain the worn effect.

This hangs in my conservatory now, it's one of few pieces I actually have for myself!

So why not join us in the challenge, you can enter HERE, we'd love to see your interpretation of this month's theme.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Stampotique Designer's challenge - Citrus colours..

Hi all,

I spotted a fab challenge on the Stampotique Designer's blog this week and the theme is citrus colours, so I thought I would enter one of my makes as I've never entered before, not sure why, I LOVE stampotique stamps!

It's not even like me to blog for myself and not the teams I'm part of, but wanted to share this with you as it's probably my favourite make of my own.

I immediately thought of red grapefruit, oranges, lemons and limes....... oh ok.... and maybe chocolate... lol.  I'm not a fruit lover myself!  The colours are fab though, lime green is my fave colour anyway.

I think sometimes you just don't get time to do the stuff you'd like to, so today - I am!!

Hope you like it. Hop across and see the inspiration and the other entries on the Stampotique blog.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xxx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge September - Stamping on Tissue

Morning everyone,

Today is the first day of the brand new Craft Stamper Challenge, and what a great challenge it is.  We would like you to have a go at stamping on tissue paper.

It's easy to do, just stamp on a normal household 2ply or 3ply tissue, tear out your image (leaves less lines), and then separate the layers until you just have the stamped first layer.  Use Indigoblu's Slap it on to put a layer onto your object/card first, then lay the tissue over, and use more Slap it on to seal it.

I used 'Under the Sea' stamp set from Indigoblu as well, as it's one of my favourites, and I wanted to create a sea goddess.



I used the grass as her skirt and her wings, using two colours of versafine to stamp them.

She has some real shells added to her base, and some seaweed I picked up and dried out.

She is finished with a top made from the shell stamp, and some pearls, and a little starfish attached to the top.

We would love to see your makes this month, they have to include stamping on tissue, and you need to link back to your post, not just your blog, but that's all we ask - hop across and check out the Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge blog, and see all the amazing DT design's to inspire you.

Have a lovely weekend,

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Indigoblu Challenge 17 - Reminder post is up!

Over at the Indigoublu challenge blog, the reminder post is up, with some more inspiration from the talented Design team.

My offering on the 'Tag You're It' challenge is a simple tag, which I sprayed with Townhouse Teal, banana custard, and vodka martini paints, and when dry, edged in salty ocean and mowed lawn distress inks.  The vodka martini shimmer's through the tag, it was hard to get a photo of though!

I flitterglu'd and megaflaked the stylised flowers stamp, and second gen stamped the birds in versafine sepia.  The sentiment is stamped in onyx black.

  I painted the altered ego's with wimberry pie, grandma's teacup, and Goldfinger, and layered the fence and bunny at the bottom for interest.  A simple organza green ribbon was added to the tag.

Don't forget to join us in this month's challenge, and check out the rest of the Design Team's work.

Rules are here if you need them :)

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

xxx

Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge - May - Stamping with Potatoes!

Hi everyone,

It was back to childhood for me this week, and a great, fun piece to make for the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge.

The theme is stamping with Potatoes!

You can see all the Design Team's inspiration here, and we really would love you to join us this month and just have fun with this challenge!

For my piece, I started with Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, and Picked Raspberry, and covered a piece of white card randomly.  Once done, I spritzed the card with a secret ingredient. . .Dettol!  It's just the clear kitchen spray dettol, but I stumbled upon the idea one day when I couldn't find my water spritzer, and just happened to grab the nearest spray. . .

Blot the card after a few seconds, and it leaves a lovely distressed effect.  I edged the panel in spiced marmalade distress ink.

After this, I carved my potato stamp, and chose Indigoblu's Goldfinger paint to stamp in.  I painted a thin layer onto my stamping mat,

Then stamped randomly over the background.

I had repeated the distress ink pattern onto another piece of card, but adding dusty concord for a bit of contrast.  The edge of the card is stamped with English Florish, and on top of that I stamped Indigoblu's Big Butterfly, and clear embossed it.  I used the sentiment from BFF, and also clear embossed it and edged it in spiced marmalade.

This is the final card, hope you like it!

You have a whole month to join in the challenge and play with potatoes, how much fun is that?

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge April - Bottles!

Hi all,

If you already have your copy of May's Craft Stamper magazine, you will have seen the fab bottles and bottle related cards, and the ace free stamp this month.  The April monthly challenge has also been running a week now, and we would love you to have a go yourself, and join in the Craft Stamper April Challenge, and show us your makes.

All you need to do is use a bottle as a main feature, whether it's a real bottle, a stamped bottle, a bottle tag, or label for a bottle, it's fine.  We just need to see stamping on your make.  Hop across to the blog for some more inspiration, and the dreaded rules.  (There aren't many I promise, you just need to use bottles in some shape or form, and blog your make, with a link back to the actual post, not your general blog please).

Any paints, inks etc are allowed, run riot!

Here is my DT piece for the reminder, I took an old Port bottle (courtesy of the husband), and covered it in music paper, just like paper mache.  At that stage, I didn't know I would end up covering it all up, but it's a surprise if you look through the bottom of the bottle.  I then pasted different types of lace, doilies, and material all over the bottle, to give the textured look.  I was going to show you step by step, but forgot to take photo's as I got carried away on this one.

I gesso'd and then sprayed the bottle with Indigoblu Cottage paints in Townhouse Teal and Banana custard, mixed with a little water in a spritzer bottle.

The stamp set I have used is Under the Sea, by Indigoblu also, it's one of the newer sets that came out in February at the Trade show, and as I'm a seaside lass at heart, I can't resist it.  The shells were stamped in Versafine Sepia, and then sprayed with a little paint to co-ordinate the colour.  I cut them out and arranged them around the bottle.  I stamped the tag in Deep Lagoon, and clear embossed the sentiment.  It's matted onto a little lable, and a ribbon added and tied at the back.

Let me know what you think, and don't forget to join us in this month's challenge.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xx

New Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Monthly Challenge - March 2014

Morning everyone,

You might have seen that I shared some news on Facebook earlier in the week, that I had been asked to join a great new Design Team over at Craft Stamper magazine, for the Take it, Make it Challenge.

Today the challenge is open, and will be monthly from now on, with a fantastic team to inspire you each month.  I am in awe of the talent on the team, and can't believe I made it!

So this is my interpretation of the theme - Monoprinting.  We were asked to take an acrylic block, 'smoosh' it with paint, turn it on to a suitable substrate, and use the resulting prints we made in a card or artwork of our choice, and in any way.

I used some gold acrylic paint I had, and Indigoblu's Cottage paints in Winberry Pie and Grandma's Teacup.  I love these paints as they are so high in polymers they print brilliantly, and come out nice and smooth. The colours are pretty fab too!

As I had plenty of my printed background left, I decided to die cut lot's and lots of Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, and layer them with stamping.  I used 'Beautiful Mind', and the words from the 'Boadicea' stamp plates from Indigoblu.  The female phrenology head made a lovely base for her hair to be made of flowers.

I coloured some brad's with alcohol inks, to make the centre of the flowers.  The words were stamped on little pieces of leftover background, cut out and inked around the edges with stazon in Midnight blue, the same as the main piece.  I used M|idnight blue and Gothic purple to stamp the main image, words and chemistry signs on the flowers.

This is the finished piece, I love the subtle glow of the gold through the muted colours.

So come and join us in the Take it, Make it Craft Stamper Challenge, show us your Monoprints, remember it doesn't have to be a background, all we need is monoprinting somewhere on your artwork, and of course, rubber stamping.

Have fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki K
xx

From the Heart - Indigoblu Challenge Jan/Feb 2014

Good Morning everyone,

Today is the day of the new Challenge over at the Indigoblu Challenge Blog.  The winner of  'Your Favourite Indigoblu stamp' will also be announced over there, and you can see all the entries from the last month.

This is my DT piece for this month's challenge 'From the Heart'.  It's extremely simple, but I think the colours worked well.  It's a large chipboard tag, painted with 'Grandma's Teacup' Cottage paint, and I've stamped and embossed all over in seafoam white embossing powder.

I used Ikkle Poppy, the birds from Mr Darcy, the flower meadow from Poppy Meadow, and the dinkie Poppy Heart stamps.

I added a simple cream ribbon, and there you have it, effective but simple.

Pop across and see the Design Team's inspiration, and have a go!  Great stamps on offer each month as prizes, and we would love to see your work.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx