You shouldn't really have favourites, but...

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "your favourite stamp".  My absolute favourite stamp of all time (and those of you who visit here regularly will know this) is my Converse sneakers stamp.  Unfortunately it's not available any more, so there didn't seem much point in using it for this challenge!  Tim Holtz's "David" stamp is my favourite of his images, so that's what I went with here.

The background is Kraft Resist card stock, wiped with Fired Brick distress stain.  The stars were stamped with black archival ink, and the centres coloured with a white pen.  David was stamped separately and then coloured with alcohol markers, cut out and fixed in place.  I finally added a black matte and then fixed the whole thing to my card.

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

All Bottled Up!

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "Wendy Vecchi Style". I've always loved Wendy's "All Bottled Up" stamp, so decided I would make a feature of it in my project.

I started by stamping the background lines in Fired Brick distress ink, and then swiped over them with Wild Honey and Antique Linen distress stains.  I applied Faded Jeans distress stain to my non-stick mat and spritzed it with water, then moved the background card in it, giving areas of dark and light blue colour.

The bottles were stamped separately and cut out, then swiped with Distress Stain to "fill" them and to colour the lids.  The "ART" stamp was applied with Walnut Stain distress ink and the bottles were fixed in place.  I tore a strip of white card and stamped the text with Black Archival ink and used my handy "fingerprint stamps" in Fired Brick Distress Ink.  The white strip was fixed in place and I created a mat which I edge with Fired Brick Distress Stain.  Finally the whole thing was applied to my 5x5 card.  I had a lot of fun making this, I hope you like it :)

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Meet Red-haired Raylene

I was lucky enough this week to take a workshop at Art From the Heart, taught by the amazing Dyan Reavely.  We learned several techniques to paint faces in a whimsical style, and Raylene here is the canvas I painted during the class. 

Originally, the background of my canvas was a pale blend of yellow and the rust colour I used on her hair.  When I got home, I took a good long look at it and decided I didn't like the background, so I've had a play about on the computer, trying various different colour schemes.  I have decided that this reworked version in shades of blue is by far my favourite and am much happier with the result!  I may yet get the blue paint out and risk repainting the original! :)

Beware the one...

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "an old wives' tale". After a bit of research and Googling, I decided to do "Beware the one whose eyebrows meet, for in their heart you'll find deceit".  It's hard to see the detail in this photo, if you click on it you'll get a much larger view!

I was lucky enough a week or so ago to take a 3 day art journalling course with Dina Wakley - she's such a great teacher and so inspirational!  I learned so many techniques with gesso, multi medium and color washes and decided to incorporate some into this piece.

The cheap-o Ikea frames were painted with gesso to give them a lime-washed look.  Each panel was primed with a thin coat of gesso and then I used a palette knife to scrape on thin layers of brown, red, yellow and white paint.  I cut a large polka-dot stencil from an OHP acetate on my Cricut and then placed it over each panel and used a baby wipe to remove some of the paint through the holes.  When it had dried, I applied a little more paint and some Forest Moss distress stain over the top.

The main images were stamped onto vellum and then turned over and painted white on the reverse side to highlight part of the image.  I then stuck them (and the computer printed text) down with matt multi medium.

I had some leftover dyed cheesecloth from Dina's class, and incorporated a piece of that on each panel, along with strips from the stencil I'd used, which give a shiny highlight as the eye moves over the pieces.  Oh, I also used a black promarker to make sure their eyebrows met in the middle! :)

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

That's the way the money goes...

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "anything goes".  I've had this MDF house moneybox for a few weeks now and thought this was the perfect piece to make for this challenge.

I covered the box in papers from the Kraft Resist and Crowded Attic collections by Tim Holtz, and then stained them with Antique Linen and Forest Moss Distress stains.  Panels from other Tim Holtz card stacks were placed in bookplates and memory frames and used to embellish the front of the house.  I rounded the whole thing off with a plaquette number and a word key!

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

A Word in Hand

The theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "hands" and I was immediately inspired to use a quote from a poem I've always loved.  Most of you won't know this, but I studied British Sign Language for 17 years, eventually teaching in a college for Deaf people and also doing some sign interpreting, both in the UK and overseas.  In the course of all this I made many Deaf friends, and one lady who made a big impression on me was Dorothy Miles, a Deaf poet and playright.  Sadly she's no longer with us, but her work lives on, and the quote I've used is from her poem "To a Deaf Child".  The quote reads:


"Oh, better the word in hand than a thousand spilled from the lips upon the hearless ear."

The arrangement of hands from Tim Holtz's Steampunk stamp set in the picture is almost (but not quite) an illustration of the sign for "talk", which I thought fitted with the quote nicely!

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)