very excited

if you've been following me on Facebook lately, you'll know that i've developed a bit of an obsession with tattoo's. i'm now in the process of having a partial sleeve, which will take approximately 12 hours to complete, so it's no small task. in my typical impatient manner, i can't wait for it to be finished, it's going to be stunning!!

i happened to ask marc, who runs oxford tattoo if he would be interested in some tattoo inspired cards since he does sell clothing and accessories and he agreed to try. i have my collection ready and have been showcasing these over the last few blog posts.

here are the final few:-

if you want to get your hands on any of the cards shown, please contact marc or I and we'll be happy to oblige!
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i've been playing (and a bit of a tutorial)

i've been busy this weekend, i was supposed to be going to the tattoo convention in bournemouth with my cousin, grace, but we both double booked ourselves and decided to postpone this in favour of the one in reading in june. at least i couldn't add to my ever growing collection of tattoo's!!

i've been to 2 classes this weekend, one on saturday at the glitter pot in burgess hill and one on sunday at snazzy stamping and scrapbooking in swindon.

to say saturday was a waste of time is an understatement. i decided that i wanted to try to use my copic's better, i have a basic knowledge from watching youtube video's and can get fairly decent results, my main aim was to learn how to improve on these and use some of the darker colours as these are the one i struggle most with. i found the tutor uninterested in our personal aims and intend on teaching us how to colour in dreadful magnolia stamps and when i asked for some help to colour the stamp i had brought with me it was met with some distaste and no help whatsoever.

i'm not even going to bother showing what i made, it's too awful.

i'm pleased to say however, that sunday was a completely different story!!

i met with my good friends Jen, Alison and Julie-Anne a few weeks ago and attended the big stamping and scrapbooking show at alexandra palace where we saw a bust made by val at snazzy's. we asked if she would be prepared to run a class for us showing us how to make this and i'm so glad she agreed, we had a great time!!

val is extremely generous with her time and the products available for use, she even offered this class to us on a sunday even though she doesn't normally open.

we started with a basic papier mache shape and painted this black. i guess you could use any colour here, but i specifically wanted my piece to be dark!!

we then added some fine mesh and some spackle, which is basically a texture paste. this adds dimension to the piece and can be added as sparingly or generously as you would like.

i knew that somehow i wanted to incorporate this skull in my work, so i painted this black and then embossed this with white embossing ink. i wasn't completely happy with the way this looked after the embossing had been added, so i set it to one side for a while to think about it!!!

once the spackle and mesh had been added, i added some shrink plastic gears, washers, nuts and bolts and then painted over this with more black paint.

i love working with metal and know that i wanted to add some of this to my project. i used grungepaper and some ten second studio metal, embossed this with a tim holtz embossing folder, painted it (again) and used two strips of this to make the 'bra'.

as i said before i wasn't totally happy with the skull being such a bright white. i decided to stamp on this and add some more texture with another colour. val had this fabulous stamp which looked like crackle glaze (unfortunately, it's no longer available, but we did find an alternative by indigo blu). 

once the additional coat of paint was dry, i used some inka gold to add further texture, i couldn't resist taking a picture of the bust with it's 'nipples', this is actually where i was gluing the brads into place.

i also decided that i still wasn't happy with the skull and painted this black again!!

finally, after 6 hours of playing, here is the end result. i love how it turned out. val, if you read this, i would like to say a big thank you for today. we had a blast and will definitely be back for more!

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sugar skulls

i have a new tattoo inspired card to share today using sugar skulls. for this one, i used su basic black and whisper white card stock and black and white embossing powder. i tried first of all with as su white craft ink pad, but the white was simply not crisp enough, so i switched to powder, this provided a much nicer finish.

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dreams mini album

lots has been happening around here recently, and not all good. i have been given notification that my job role has been demised and that i will be made redundant with effect from 30 september if i don't find an alternative position within the company. this also means that i am on gardening leave effective immediately.

after 25 years, this is a bit of a shock. i have so many thoughts in my head about what happens next, the endless possibilities open to me, the right thing will find me i'm sure. in the meantime, a little crafting has been going on, quite a fitting mini album given the circumstances!

this album is 6x4 in size and was made from mount board. i used prima papers, kaisercraft flowers and rub-ons and ribbons from may arts.

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3 very different cards to share

today, i have 3 very different cards to share, all made mainly from stampin up products.

the first is a very simple anniversary card made from whisper white card stock with a very simple raised red heart (real red). you can't really tell in the picture, but there is a little diamante on the heart to add a little bling. the stamp is from a papertrey ink stamp set.

the second card is made using very vanilla, pumpkin pie and early espresso card stock and some patterned paper from the designer series paper stack. the die used is from memory box. i used the beautiful wings embosslit and added early espresso ribbon and some pearl gems to add some dimension. again, the stamp is from papertrey ink.

the third card is another tattoo inspired card and there was some intricate cutting going on! very simple basic black and whisper white card stock with a little black soot ink added around the white to finish the look. i may add a sentiment, i'm undecided about that at the moment!!

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another card to share

my dad is a keen gardener and has grown his own vegetables for more years than i care to remember. it's his birthday next week and i wanted to create something personal for him and this easel card seemed perfect. i reached for my trusted quickutz dies and this is the result:-

the left hand section has some grass, and a basketful of carrots and a fork

the centre section has a toolshed with a real opening door

the right hand section has a basketful of apples, some seed packets, a watering can, some name tags and a trowel

inside the opening shed door are some rain boots, a shovel and a pickaxe

i used a happy birthday rub-on to finish off the look. i hope my dad likes it!

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my first tattoo inspired card

i mentioned previously that i had some ideas for some tattoo inspired cards. unfortunately most of the stamps i ordered haven't arrived yet. this one did, however and i am quite pleased with the way it turned out, especially as it was the first time i have used my copic's. the colors i used were R29, Y19, YR16, E35, T1 and YG17. i think as i have more practice, i'll try to blend the colors more, but for now i'm fairly happy with this.

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