Stamping a sketch

This week Simon Says ...use Domis' sketch. I've been playing with some Crafty Individuals stamps and distress inks that I got for Christmas, and thought it would be fun to paint the whole sketch with ink and stamps.

"Sail on to calmer waters"

The birds are from a Tim Holtz' stamp set. The inks are all distress inks, and colouring was by foam and brush.

"Explore"

This second version has a slightly more dramatic colour scheme.

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says... use Domi's sketch

Altered Clock

Don't worry, I 'll be showing you some more cards soon, but first here's an altered wall clock.

"Altered clock"

This started out as just a very plain plastic clock. It was taken apart and the dial was removed then used to size a circle of glossy, white cardstock.

"Side view showing stamped decoration on outside of clock"

The clock and new dial were decorated with Adirondack alcohol inks & gold mixative, before stamping some Tim Holtz stamps with black archival ink.

"Altered clock"

The hands were dabbed with gold mixative. A small butterfly was diecut from a bit of saved cellophane wrapper to add to the secondhand (I used the thinnest clear plastic I could find so as not to add too much weight to the hand). The diecut was decorated with alcohol inks and stamped with Tim Holtz' butterfly in black archival ink to match the background, then fixed to the secondhand with a little glossy accents. It's fixed sideways and facing clockwise so that it flies in the right direction when the secondhand moves!

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... anything but a card.

Alice Chess Tag Book

The theme at Altered Alice this month is stripes. Lewis Carroll represented "Through the Looking Glass" as a chess game, and a chess board is made up from sets of perpendicular stripes, so what better subject than Alice Chess for my entry!

"Alice Chess Tag Book"

Lewis Carroll's original chess representation was used for the subject of the front cover, with a gold punched border to turn his chess board into a more realistic one. The background has Tim Holtz stamped images with plenty of gold Perfect Pearls for some shimmer.

"First Moves"

Each double spread represents Lewis Carroll's moves and depicts the characters in the correct squares on his chess board for each part of the story.

"1. Alice meets Red Queen"

I've added numbers to help people who aren't familiar with the chess notation.

"1. Red Queen to King's Rook's 4th"

The red notation is numbered from the opposite end of the chess board!

"Second moves"

Each double page has an Alice move and a non-Alice move.

"2. Alice through Queen's 3rd (by railway) to Queen's 4th (Tweedledum and Tweedledee)"

Ask me nicely and I'll tell you how I made the railway :-)

"2. White Queen to Queen's Bishop's 4th (after shawl)"

The crowns here are stamped and covered in Perfect Pearls. Notice the white queen ends up in the square next to Alice, Tweedledee & Tweedledum.

"Third moves"

The squares have all been coloured by masking and inking with Red Barn distress ink.

"3. Alice meets White Queen (with shawl)"

Most of the images are John Tenniel's original illustrations from the late 19th Century (hence out of copyright), and coloured with promarkers.

"3. White Queen to Queen's Bishop's 5th (becomes sheep)"

I took the liberty of adding my own "Shirley the Sheep" design in here :-). Note the red king sleeping in the square next to where Alice met Tweedlee and Tweedledum. She really is in danger of being taken!

"Fourth moves"

Well, this is as far as I have got so far.

"4. Alice to Queen's 5th (shop, river, shop)"

This is where the white queen turns into a sheep, they end up in a boat, and then go back to the shop. One of the things that has really impressed me looking at John Tenniel's illustrations is that the characters are always depicted on the correct sides for the chess squares! Some day I'll have the time and money to do a big chess board version of this for the wall.

"4. White Queen to King's Bishop's 8th (leaves egg on shelf)"

I hope you noticed all the extra stripes along the way (Alice's stockings, Tweedledee & Tweedledum's shirts, the background in the shop, the railway...). Hopefully, I'll get a chance to add the rest of the moves in a later challenge.

Entered for the following challenges:
Altered Alice - Stripes
Simon Says Stamp...Spots and/or Stripes
The Stamp Man - Use Red

Be my valentine - a red letter day

The theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show... this week is "Red Letter Day", and what better red letter day than St. Valentine's?

"Red Letter Day, St. Valentine's"

I just love this rich colour combination of deep pink & gold, so romantic and feminine and just perfect for a Valentine's or Anniversary card.

"Centre Panel"

The main panel has the script stamp from Tim Holtz' "Papillon" stamp set with plenty of gold Perfect Pearls and other stamps from the set are added in black archival ink.

"Butterflies Flutter By"

This huge Spellbinders butterfly makes a great centrepiece to echo all the lovely Tim Holtz stamped butterflies.

"Elegant Corners"

Parts of diecuts from the Spellbinders Elegant Posts set are cut & coloured to look like metallic corners.

"Butterfly"

Smaller butterflies are made using Marianne Creatables diecuts.

"Butterfly"

Some pink gems are added for a little sparkle.

"Lace"

More of that scrumptious lace from Kathy is added for texture (thanks again Kathy).

"Tags and charms"

One of Lee's bird cage diecuts make a fabulous foil to hang interesting extras from (thanks again Lee). Here, three diecuts from Tim's "Tiny Tabs & Tags" set have been stamped with parts of the Papillon set and inked to match the background, then attached with jump rings along with a couple of charms. The bird cage itself was attached via a chain of jump rings to a small eyelet set into the top of the card.

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... Red Letter Day
Samuel Taylors - distress (great prize of four distress inks)
Stampin' for the Weekend - Vintage

Vintage birthday card

A big thankyou to Kathy from Docrafts who was my Christmas swap partner this year, and sent me some absolutely gorgeous lace. Some of it is used on this card and I hope she approves.

"Vintage birthday card"

The design is mostly achieved with distress inks & Tim Holtz stamps. The background has gold Perfect Pearls rubbed into the stamping for lots of shine.

"Closeup of main panel"

The stamping from the background is repeated on the main panel in a darker colour. The sentiment is stamped in black archival ink, distressed, and diecut in layered ovals before fixing to the main panel with Pinflair.

"Butterfly"

A couple of butterflies are stamped and heat-embossed in gold onto white card before colouring with distress inks, cutting out and fixing to the card with the wings raised to add a little dimension. This design folds neatly flat for posting at the standard letter rate :-)

Entered for the following challenge:
Samuel Taylors January Blog Challenge - Distress (fab prize of 4 distress reinkers - woohoo!!)
Simon Says Stamp...NEW something (new lace)
Crop Stop Challenge - Go for the Gold

Picture Frame

Back to "normal" today (whatever that is!). After all those Christmas cards, it's great to get out some non-Christmassy stash for a play. This week's theme for Simon Says Stamp and Show is "Something Old, Something New", so what better than some altered art to kick off the new year?

"Altered picture frame"

A plain wooden picture frame was sanded and the edges coloured with Pine Needles distress ink.

"Left hand view"

The faces were covered with panels cut from the Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante paper pad, the edges sanded and distressed with more ink.  Individual images were cut, shaped with an embossing tool and adhered to the panels with Pinflair glue. A couple of butterflies were added; their wings shaped up and just the centres of their bodies glued. The image on centre panel was decoupaged for extra depth.

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... something old something new (old frame, new papers)

Happy New Year

I hope you all spent the evening having fun and I would just like to wish everyone "Happy New Year" with two quick cards.

"Happy New Year cards"

Both cards use decoupaged images from the Graphics Fairy, background mats punched with my favourite Martha Stewart Wild Flowers PATP and lace.

"Old Father Time"

The background card & image edges are distressed with Tumbled Glass & Faded Jeans. The image is matted onto a punched border using card cut from a Marks and Spencer cake box, then a larger border from holographic card decorated with pale blue pearls and gems.

"Burtonesque"

This image reminded me so much of Tim Burton's work, I just had to go for the grunge and distress with Black Soot. Some water splashes and Rock Candy distress stickles were used to splodge and highlight the image, and pearls decorate the punched background. It's just how I feel on New Year's Eve, kind of soggy round the edges with a bit of sparkle.

Happy New Year!