Dylusions Calendar

I've been playing with my new dylusions inks again today - definitely haven't got bored of them yet!!  I have a friend who is going to see the northern lights this year and so used that idea to create the background for this calendar for her:

I used the following products to create my very colourful calendar: Dylusions Ink Sprays in crushed grape, bubblegum pink, vibrant turquoise, pure sunshine and lemon zest, black soot distress ink, picket fence distress stain, papermainia urban stamps, Tim Holtz stamps, inkylicious sentiment, black organza ribbon, sequin waste, snowcap paint dabber, black versafine, card and the calendar pages.

I would like to join in the following challenges:

• Sunday Stamper - Hels theme this week is Come Fly With Me as she's off to CHA!  I think all the birds on my calendar qualify me for the challenge!  Her super blog can be found HERE
• SplodgeAway Challenge Blog - the first challenge for 2013 is new beginnings, I think a brand new calendar for the year fits the brief!  All the challenge details can be found HERE
• Pan Pastel Challenge Blog - Its an Anything Goes challenge for the first 2013 challenge, all the details can be found HERE

Thanks for stopping by, Claire x

Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card I created to play along with the first 2013 challenge over at Our Creative Corner.  It's a colour theme this time around - aqua, pink and a flower - all the details for the challenge can be found HERE

And here is the card I created:

I'm not really sure what was going on with my camera as the close-up photo looks a totally different colour from the wider shot but never mind!!

To create this card I used a 6x6 scalloped card blank, dylusions ink sprays in vibrant turquoise, cut grass and bubblegum pink, ranger snowcap paint dabber, picked raspberry distress ink, sequin waste, black versafine, hydragena flower stamp and sentiment from inkylicious.

I really like this card, in real life the colours are so vibrant - shame the camera couldn't pick them up a little better!

Thanks for stopping by, Claire x

Colourful Tag

So as I seem to have been bitten by a little bit of a messy/inky bug I splashed out and bought all 12 of the dylusions range of ink sprays - oops!! So here is my first attempt at using them:

I used a #10 manila tag, my new dylusions ink sprays in bubblegum pink, cut grass and fresh lime, distress inks in black soot and picked raspberry, snowcap ranger paint dabber, sequin waste, versafine black ink, black pen, nature stamps by indigoblu and script stamp by inkylicious.

I would like to enter my tag in the following challenges:

• Inkspirational - a brand new challenge blog started by the very talented Mynnette Kitchen, the first challenge is a colour challenge to use black, dark pink and kiwi.  You can find the blog by clicking HERE
• Craft Room Challenge - this months challenge is to make a tag, all the challenge details can be found HERE 
• Try It On Tuesday - the challenge here is to use new stash, visit the blog by clicking HERE

Thanks for stopping by, Claire x

Calendar Gift

While I was off work I decided to make a couple of calendars as gifts as I have a few of those little calendar book thingys, here is my second ever calendar creation:

To create this calendar I used lightly ribbed card, distress stains (tumbled glass, faded jeans, pumice stone and mustard seed), white and red acrylic paint, sequin waste, black versa fine ink, Tim Holtz stamps, black card and ribbon and the little calendar tab.

I really enjoyed getting inky and messy while making this and have given it to my sister as a new year's gift as it matches her bedroom colours.

I would like to enter my calendar into the following challenges:

• Stampotique Designers Challenge - the challenge over at Stampotique is to create a journal cover/page, diary or calendar page (SDC81) all the details can be found HERE
• Simon Says Stamp & Show - it's an anything goes week over at this blog to ease us into 2013 - all the challenge details can be found HERE

Thanks for stopping by, Claire x

Art Journal Calendar

So I have been watching and looking for a long time at art journalling..........I wanted to try it but was always a bit reticent - I imagined that my pages would turn muddy and that I wouldn't know what on earth to put on the pages............but then I found Kate's blog about creating an art journal calendar that can be completed everyday.  Kate's amazing blog can be found HERE

So after a lot of debating I decided to buy a journal a just give it a try - here is my very, very first attempt:

I didn't want to go out and buy loads of new inks etc before giving it a try with what I already had in my stash so I used some shimmer ink sprays by Debbie Moore in pink, lilac, blue and midnight blue, then I added some distress stains through a stencil, I think I used Victorian Velvet and Tumbled Glass.  I dried these and added some ink splotches and flicked it with water and dried again.
I stamped 'January' down the right hand side using denim adirondak using Tim Holtz mini cirque alphabet set and then added the '2013' from a Papermania stamp set.  All the stamped images in the background are from a set by Indigoblu, the bare tree branch was stamped in juniper, the grasses in worn lipstick and the clouds stamped in picket fence.
I then inked up three different pieces of paper and punched out 31 squares and stuck them onto the background.  I used a black fine liner pen to scribble around each of the squares for definition, added the days of the week on the top row and numbered each square for the month.

So now all I need to do is remember to write in it everyday!!

So that is my first ever attempt at art journalling - I did very much enjoy it and am hoping to buy some of the dylusions inks pretty soon!!

I would like to enter my page into the following challenges:

Hels Sunday Stamper Challenge theme this week is 'writing' - all the details can be found HERE

Fashionable Stamping Challenge theme this time is 'Surprise Us - Anything Goes' - all the details for that challenge can be found HERE

Thanks for stopping by, Claire x

Less Is More - Week 99-100

Well it's the last Less Is More challenge of 2012 and it's recipe time!  The chosen recipe is drinks which is appropriate for this time of the year - all the details for the challenge can be found HERE.  Here is my entry:

The stamp is from Lucy Cromwell at Papermania, stamped in black versafine and coloured using distress markers, water and a paintbrush.  The sentiment is by Inkylicious and was also stamped in black versafine.  I rounded the corners and mounted onto pink card also with rounded corners before mounting onto a 6x6 scalloped card blank.  Just in case you can't see the 'drink' theme  - there is a teacup at the top of the cake stand so hopefully that will count!

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

Faux Tiles

The challenge over on Mynnette's Technique Tuesday blog this month is a faux tile technique - all the details for the challenge can be found over on her challenge blog here

Here is the card I created to join in the challenge:

I created my scene by brayering the background in worn lipstick distress ink and flicked some water on it.  I then used picket fence distress stain to stamp in some words randomly in different directions.  I used black versafine to stamp the hydrangeas and the sentiment and coloured these using my distress markers using milled lavender, worn lipstick, victorian velvet, tattered rose, peeled paint, forest moss and crushed olive.  All the stamps are from the same set by Inkylicious.

I then cut my scene into four pieces and arranged in onto black card and then matted on pink card before mounting on an 8 x 8 card blank.

I'm quite happy with the look of my card overall, the addition of the pink mount was an afterthought which I thought was needed to make the image really stand out against the black card.

Thanks for stopping by, Claire x