A New Obsession?

Yesterday I posted my entry for the Ready Steady Stamp Challenge and said I had found the "ingredients" difficult in the thought process. Well, since then I have had a couple more thoughts as to what I could have done so here they are.

The one above fulfills the criteria in that there is a Sun, it is Yellow, and I have put a Triangle on in the form of a stamped and painted Trionimo. At the bottom there is a piece of Ribbon and hanging from that is a Yellow tag with the sentiment "Best Wishes" on a piece of Acetate which is over the top. (I have actually put a finding on the back of the Trionimo so that it can be used as a pendant gift for someone.)

This is an atc which also fulfills the criteria. A Yellow Sun (Maiden - hope that is acceptable), a piece of Yellow Ribbon (I dragged a piece of white over a yellow inkpad) and the words "Sun Maiden" in different languages printed on a piece of Acetate which forms a Triangle in the bottom corner.

Think I need to find some other challenge to enter or I could get carried away with this one.

Ready Steady Stamp Challenge

Once again I have entered a Challenge. This one I found rather difficult in the thought process as I had to include: Sun, Acetate, Yellow, Ribbon and a Shape (Triangle). It is on Ready Steady Stamp and I am loving these challenges as they really mean you have to think.

Last night I began making it and I used Weathered Wood and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks, in undulating stripes, on a piece of yellow glossy cardstock. I tried to do a resist technique for the sun but it just would not work on this card (it was not glossy on both sides so it must have been something to do with the card itself). So I stamped the sun (made my own rubber circle stamp from some bits left over from mounting stamps) and then put clear ep over it so it would not take the ink.

Then I stamped two butterflies from one of my Non Sequitur plates on acetate and coloured them with Butterscotch Alcohol Ink. The blossom is a Rubbadubbadoo stamp but I cannot read who the lady is by on the side of the stamp. Sorry. She is rather delightful though isn't she?

I had only two of the criteria left to put into the card and the triangles were proving a problem. Then a light bulb got switched on this morning and I thought of photo mounts. I made four of them out of white paper and coloured them with Sunburst (Twinkling H2O's), only the ribbon remained and that was easy so I tried a couple of combinations and came up with this.

Hope I have fulfilled all the criteria and you like it. Oops! It is Asian again!

ATC'ing It

Didn't realise until just now that I have never uploaded any ATC's to my blog. Well, here goes! I made two ATC's for the TMTA Challenge that I came across via Sid's blog. The theme is King and Queen so who better than to have The King Himself - Elvis Presley.

On this first one I stamped lots of hearts for my background but you can hardly see them in the scan. IRL they are quite subtle anyway. Then I cut a heart shape out of music paper and stamped and embossed my Elvis stamp over the top. You probably wouldn't realise but the heart shaped brad has a tiny Elvis stamped on it as well. I think both these stamps came from Viva Las Vegastamps, certainly the small one did. The words are computer generated.

This second one has a clapper board stamped behind "The King" and a guitar behind Elvis for his film and music career. "The King" is done with my Dymo but the "undeniably" is computer generated again.
Whilst doing these two for the Challenge I could not resist doing another one using one of my favourite stamps which I have. Using Robin Beam's technique I outlined parts of the image with a white pen.
Now I have to make another ATC for a swap on Saturday so maybe I will get in ATC mode today - sadly that is another day without my beloved clay.

Scrapin' In

Just getting this in today - it's almost midnight!

Felt like journalling today so began three pages - none finished. What can I do (I hate to be so unproductive)? Decided to do my entry for a challenge on one of my Yahoo groups which was to colour a photograph with Distress Inks.

Had done this very muted page by taking some colour on a baby wipe from one of my other pages and smooshing it about so there was a page ready for me to use for a photograph.

What better photograph than one of my mum as a little girl and my grandmother.

Printed the photograph and then coloured my mother's dress with Tattered Rose and the collar (and grandmothers) with Milled Lavender. Made a little pocket at the bottom so that I can put tags with some journalling inside it and then it is kind of semi-private.

Did some gold embossing (fingers crossed whilst I was doing this as I did not know how it would be on a journalling page - no turning back) with a verse and a flourish and then a few flowers, a few words about "Memories" and it was finished.

Not at all like my other pages but I like it and I still miss my mum!

Forgot

I told my friend, Helen, I had strung these beads and thought they were on my blog - they weren't!! So hastily took a photograph and here they are. The "rope" look ones are the ones we did in Nottingham with Alison Gallant so I made some round and bicones and then strung them. It was only the other week I got them done as I have been looking for some filigree bead caps but canot find any 11 mm ones which are what I think I need. Have had to use other spacer beads instead.

Much nicer in real life as you see the mica in the beads.

Cute! What me!

I keep on saying I do not do cute but I bought these stamps way back a couple of years ago at Stempel Mekka because they appealed to me.

This is a birthday card for my friend Sylvia because I noticed she likes cute. I made it the other day but could not post until today as today is her birthday (and she might have seen it on my blog). Happy Birthday Sylvia!

Whilst on my Magnolia trip I made another one which is for another friend but as she does not go on my blog it is safe to put it here.

Off now to do some stamping, or maybe even to do something with clay.

Blog Header

Today I met my friend Paul (The Artsiders blog) in Bolton and we had a quick look around the shops (and he bought me a Lush Tisty Tosty ballistic to pamper myself in the bath with) and then we went back to ours for a sandwich and some chocolate cake which I had baked at 8 this morning.

Once I had seen Paul's album of his holiday in Brittany (loved it - and his new style), he had looked around my stamp room and spied a book which he fell in love with (he'll be ordering it on Amazon tonight), and then had some lunch, he showed me how to put a new header on my blog. I had chosen this photograph of our back garden in winter. He is coming back again, to give me lessons in how to do these wonderful things to my blog so watch this space. We are going to tidy it up as well so that it fits withing the confines of the designated area.

Hope you like it.

Another Challenge

Blogland seems to be full of Challenges. This time I followed a link from my friend Chris's blog (chriscraftroom.blogspot.com) and entered a challenge on Ready-Steady-STAMP. This was to create something using a list of ingredients which included "cat or dog, black and gold, 3 different brads, faux batik Beatrice, newpaper or book page.

I have done the faux batik but under a different name on Technique Junkies, where it was called newspaper reveal so did not find it difficult to do.

This is my entry. The faux batik is the chinese lettering and the birds flying at the top - these were stamped with Versamark on a piece of text from a book, embossed with clear ep, rubbed over with black ink and then ironed off. I have edged each piece with a gold Krylon pen.

The lady and the cat were stamped in black on red card and embossed and then a stamp with a kanji was embossed in gold. I used a dragonfly brad to connect the two pieces of faux batik and then a large gold brad at the bottom of the calligraphy with three small gold brads in the corners of the whole image which was then mounted on gold card.

As far as I can see I have followed all the criteria so now will join in the challenge.

Journalling Again

I decided I wanted to do one of my journalling pages on "Paris" as I love visiting this city and as a result have quite a few images relating to it. It wasn't going to be something I did immediately but then I went on Lots to Do and saw that this week's challenge was "Paris" (and what it meant to you). Ideal - I had to get started - so this morning I splodged some colour on a new page and was away.

Remember my "An Altered Paris" album? Well, I have some bits of paper left over from where I cut out the windows and lo and behold they have pictures of those truly evocative lamps on them. Had to include a bit of that paper. Then out came my stamps, far too many, so choices had to be made. I sat down and wrote a list of my favourite things/moments from my trips to Paris and so I included some of those. The reason for the ladies face at the top right is that it depicts me remembering all those wonderful times in Paris. Saying that we have never had good weather when we have been and the bottom left corner has got some rain splashes stamped on it - just to remind me.

No picture of Paris would be complete without the Eiffel Tower and I had a rubber stamp of the Arc de Triomphe so had to use those. (I resisted my Paris skyline showing various buildings as I thought it could get too busy). How I wish I had a rubber stamp of Sacre Coeur, somewhere I have to visit every time I go to Paris.

I love the signage in Paris, the wrought iron, the curls, the lettering and so two lovely stamps are used which are so evocative. Do you like my imitation of the "Metropolitain" sign? Underneath I tried another style of writing (not very successful - need to practice) by writing some of my favourite things about Paris in blocks.

Anyway, here it is - my entry for the Lots to Do challenge this week. Hope you like it?

Skewy Scan

Today I made a birthday card for someone at the Stamp Club I go to (Victoria Stampers) who is 80 this coming weekend. I don't know what kind of images she likes but suspect cute and flowers will be the sort of thing.

I stamped this fairy, which I really do like, and cut her out after I had shaded her in and coloured her wings with Twinkling H20's. Then I mounted some pink paper on another piece of card and tore a hole just off centre. Edged it in gold Krylon pen and put some glitter on it (very subtle).

I stamped some tiny fairies on both sides of the card, painted them with Twinkling H20's as well and put some dots of glitter around them. Then I put the verse on and added some Prima type flowers.

The "holey" main part of the card stands off the folded card with sticky pads and the fairy is stuck into the hole kind of "in relief".

Sorry the scan is a bit wonky but it is late and I have been making other cards (in various stages of completion) but I so wanted to get this one uploaded. Hopefully more tomorrow.

Oh Sarah!

Yesterday I took a workshop at Paddy's with the talented Sarah Anderson showing us all how to begin "journaling". How I wish I had resisted attending. I loved it - every minute of it - and now am wanting to do more journaling. Time, time, time!

I got rather carried away with my painting pages and covered five of them, didn't want to stop but Sarah needed to show us how to do other things (other than splodge paint all over like pre-school kids - oh how we enjoyed ourselves). I found it rather difficult to go out of my comfort zone with paint but eventually I managed it, thanks to the tutor.

I loved one of Sarah's pages and had to do something similar, liked the idea of her 'numbers' showing house numbers where she had lived in the past so I did mine on the same theme. This morning when I came to work on it I realised I had begun life at a house numbered 11 and now lived at one with the same number. So I journalled it. I have not got the hang of this writing so it is not very good but it is my first attempt so be gentle.

This is another page, using my friend Chris's bird stamps (Crafty Individuals) which I fell in love with and have now had to order. Not sure what I will write on this page although I have something in mind but need to clear it with my son as it concerns him and a certain baby blackbird.

Another unfinished page (below). Again using Chris's stamps (Stamp Bug) which I have to have. Was really nice to find that the designer was none other than Penny Bearcroft who I met in Germany last year and who is a member of a stamp group I am on. Love these designs Penny!

No ideas as yet what this page will contain to complete it but I am not rushing into things and spoiling the pages I like. The other two pages are nowhere near stamped up or anything so there is little point in showing them here.

Hope you enjoy this brief look into yet another of my crafty (new) hobbies.

Oops! Forgot!

You remember me saying I was in an Altered Corset swap? Well, my book got lost (we are each doing a record of the progress of our corsets and each person adds photographs of their contribution to each one) so I had to set to and make another one this week.

In an attempt to ensure this new book does not get lost I decided to make a bag for my corset (title: Viva La Diva) and put a pocket on the front solely for my book.

Yesterday we had been to Ormskirk to see Chas's aunty so when I got home I was full of enthusiasm and got some material out and made a bag. Now I am no great stitcher so it does not bear scrutiny but I was rather pleased with my effort. It is a long bag (the photograph makes it look a different shape as it was taken on the table) and I have put some rubber stamping on it.

The fastening for it is actually two suspenders on the "lid" which fasten together with two buttons stitched on the main corset.

The pocket fastens down with velcro but as I had only the sticky stuff I thought I had better stitch it on my mother's ancient sewing machine. It looked a bit of a mess so I put some lace over the top to hide the stitching.

I really enjoyed doing the stamping and have written a couple of comments on as well, including one inviting people to "Graffiti it". I wonder what they will think when I hand it to them tomorrow. Hope my corset is at Paddy's so it can go in.

One or Two bits

I did a collage a few years ago at Kars but it fell to bits. It wasn't very good as the paper we used and the glue they gave us did not seem to work, so today I decided it looked far too tatty and needed redoing. I pulled it to bits! It is still quite similar in design to the original one but much better constructed.

I first of all painted the canvas with Peach Bellini (Paint Dabber) and then stuck a piece of scrapbook paper over the top leaving a small margin round the edge. Took some more scrapbook paper and added torn bits in various places. Some of it I scrunched up as I do like texture on my pictures. Then I kind of dry-brushed some gold paint on but using my Gold Dabber to do it, a little Espresso and the base was complete.

Two bits of Melt Art in the top left corner plus a key from 7 Gypsies, a tiny piece of ribbon, the charm used for the two Melt Art pieces, some wool and more ribbons and it was more or less complete except for the photograph. The photograph is a copy of one I cherish. It shows Chas's Great Grandmother with his father sitting on her knee. I think she is an absolutely beautiful lady and will always cherish this photograph.

This now hangs in my stamp room next to my beeswax collage I did as a sample for my very first beeswax workshop - do you remember it Paul?

The beeswax collage below has a photograph of me when I was seven taken as a bridesmaid for my cousin Ken and Audrey's wedding in the bottom left hand corner. The other photograph is one of my mum and her older sister Caroline taken when she was a child. Love the clothes they are wearing.

Now my memory is having to work on this one but by the looks of it I painted the canvas first of all with Stewart Gill paints and then stuck some paper on which I had bleach stamped. There is a piece of bandage soaked in beeswax by the side of me, all scrunched up (remember I like texture), some plastic net behind my mum's photograph and a skeleton leaf at the top right hand corner with another one below it.

Then there is a bit of Glitterati by the side of the photograph which leads to a metal charm saying "What one loves in childhood stays in your heart forever". (This has special meaning for me as when I lost my mum I had "And into my heart forever" inscribed on the memorial stone at the crematorium. I so loved my mum and miss her still despite the length of time she has been gone.) Two silk flowers with beaded centres and a strip of lace down the right hand side complete this canvas.

Amazing that the whole thing is held together by beeswax and has not needed touching in a couple of years or so since it was first done.

Think I have been having a bit of a collage day as I decided to finally attack something which my friend, Lynne, had given me a couple of months ago. In truth I began it earlier in the week (because it is simply corrugated card so the recesses in it had the raw wiggly edges showing) as I started sticking pieces of torn paper towel over it to give it more body and cover those raw edges.

Today I painted it bronze and then went over it with some gold acrylic paint. Painted the recesses with black acrylic paint to show up whatever I decided to put inside it. Not happy with it I then added some utee with bronze Pearlex added and some with gold. Then I stamped with my Hero Arts Italian Poetry Background stamp to give an impression in the utee.

I have added the following to the recesses: a piece of Friendly Plastic which has been pushed into a mold and a Domino which I have decorated and wired;

a style stone - stamped and decorated; a shrink plastic butterfly, and finally a paper cast head coloured with Rub-ons. Wonder what Lynne will make of it when I show her!

Just seen Alsion's comment on yesterday's work so I will enter today's for the Lots to Do Challenge. Not sure how to do the link though.

Now to pack my bag for tomorrow's workshop - for once I am a client and I am really looking forward to doing it. Maybe more tomorrow?

Better IRL

Today, apart from sitting out in the sun for a while - and feeding next door's cat - I messed about with some clay images I had done whilst at my workshop on Saturday.

Above is one of my favourite images when stamping in clay. I think it might be an Elusive Images stamp but I could be wrong. Am sure someone will let me know. Anyhow, it is a town scene, Christmas undoubtedly, and when imprinted on black clay and dusted with DuoBlue it looks fabulous. As there was no black clay on Saturday I had to be content with doing it on brown. I went over it with goodness knows how many colours of Pearlex and it came out a sort of greenish shade with copper windows. Still prefer the DuoBlue.

Some other images I liked were from one of Elusive Images' African plates with the heads of four ladies on. They look really good when impressed in clay. I dusted them with Perfect Pearls 'Perfect Bronze' and then I made a background on a piece of Greyboard (Paddy had tried to find a photo frame for me which would take the four images - no luck!) which I covered in Gesso and then painted using Stewart Gill's 'Mandarin' (True Colour range). I put some scrim on and scrunched some bits of it up and added torn pieces of mulberry paper which someone sent me from Africa some time ago. I also stamped "I dream of Africa" (Non Sequitur) on some copper clay (Premo) and cured it before attaching to the picture.

The frame was also cut from Greyboard and is 1 cm wide with tiny triangles stuck on which then has aluminium foil over the top and is finally burnished. This is then coloured with Alcohol Inks in Copper with touches of Black brushed across the top.

Not sure what I think of it but I did enjoy doing it. Now will it qualify as a collage?

Multi-use

I have had this stamp from Paper Artsy for simply ages because I thought it would be good for inchies. Needless to say I have never joined an inchie swap since getting it. Decided to get it out and use it today so I stamped it in black and put clear ep over it. Then I began turning the image into cards. I needed some birthday cards pretty quick!

This one uses just four of the faces which I mounted on black and white first going over the images with my Brilliance Aurora inkpad.
Another four of the faces were just used in this pattern and I stamped a tiny birthday greeting in the squares left over.
The final one was using the other four faces and again and a couple of word stamps. The one at the bottom has more words on but they were not suitable for this card as they were talking about elves.
Remember the other day when I cut the centre from a Paper Artsy stamp and replaced the image with a Dragonfly Lady? Well, this is the bit I cut out so I mounted it up and voila - another card.
Hopefully I will get some more cards made tomorrow as I have so many birthdays coming up I need them!

The rest of today and yesterday has been spent doing my stint on one of the altered corsets. Sorry I do not post pictures but I don't think it fair to post them until the actual unveiling in Dorset in September. Hopefully then I can show you all the work that has been done by the eleven participants.

I was totally blown away by the stitching that has gone into the corset I have just been working on, it is absolutely fantastically, gorgeously, blooming lovely!

More of the Same

Today saw a repeat of Thursday's workshop at Paddy's Stamping Place in Prestwich. Unfortunately I had forgotten to take my camera with me but got Chas to bring it over at the end of the workshop so I could upload a picture of one or two of the finished pieces.

Above is Lynnette with her completed piece which I think she is going to use as a mirror. Lynnette amazed us all by finishing quite early so she made a pair of ear-rings and some beads using one of the bead rollers that Paddy sells. I now wish I had taken a close-up of her work because it was beautiful and you don't really see it that closely on this photograph.
Here is Sid with his work of art. Sid decided to use mainly blues in his mirror so he used the blue clay to be the base of his work. The Mica shows up ever so bright on the tiles and it was a lovely piece - again a shame I did not take a close-up of his work either.

Everyone said they had enjoyed the workshop and Lynnette has got her thoughts on making several more for Christmas gifts - I hope she does and the recipients enjoy them when they receive them.

They are definitely quite attractive and every time you look at them you see something else which takes your eye so they could be quite a talking piece.

Now I have got those two workshops behind me perhaps tomorrow I can do some more card making although I would like to get on with another clay mirror - but this time totally different - then there is the picture I want to do using clay .... ah well, we'll have to see what tomorrow will bring. One thing I do know is that if it turns into a clay day it will not be completed in one or two days; but oh what enjoyment I will get from creating.

Two Posts in One Day

The first class making the picture frame/mirror is over. I like to show people on my blog so here are some pictures, uploaded quickly tonight after resting my ankle, which is suffering because I did go up the stairs a couple of times, and I now realise I shouldn't have.

This one shows the girls busy at work.

Carol worked methodically and decided to make her pieces and then decide where to place them at a later date. Here is her work in progress with some of her pieces placed on the mirror and some left on the workstation ready to go on at a later date.

Carol and Chris busy at work.

Chris put her pieces on as she worked and decided to try a piece of blue clay which she used Blue Duo on - it shows up really bright in the bottom left corner of this photograph.

Rita and Linda playing (sorry - working)!

Rita worked as she went along and decided to do some long pieces for variation. What I like about my workshops is that the girls all end up with totally different pieces and use their own artistic ability to produce something individual.

As Linda was the first to finish hers Paddy thought it would be a good idea to have her face in the aperture where the mirror will eventually go. She made a really good job of her piece and I hope her family enjoy it. As a finished product these are certainly something which you can look at and find something different each time you look to catch your eye.

We didn't have time to make any beads but here is a necklace I made for Paddy. It shows two types of handmade beads using air dry clay and some using the bead rollers. In P's favourite colours too. Well, I had too didn't I?

I did show the girls how to make a pair of ear-rings very quickly (good for quick gifts) but I gave them to Jackie who called in but was unable to attend the class as her father died earlier in the week and it is the funeral tomorrow. Hope they helped her cheer up a little and know we will all be thinking of her tomorrow.

Beads

Yesterday I spent most of the day stringing beads and getting ready for my workshop today. No, we are not doing beads, and certainly not these as they are made with Kato Clay and at the moment we only use air dry clay at Paddy's. We are making the picture frame/mirror that I showed in my blog on the 19th May.

These are the organic beads that I began way back at my workshop in Nottingham. To be truthful only five of them are - the larger ones represent seed pods and took me quite a while to make as you first make the base, bake it and then put a very thin layer over and have to work it in to the bead. I have been busy making the other beads using my bead rollers in order to complete the necklace.

I needed some spacer beads and looked through my stash but could not find any/enough to complete the necklace so, on Tuesday, off I went to Afflecks Palace in Manchester to get some more. In the end, after walking past the place (even standing outside it and still walking past) I managed to get some spacer beads.

Now I know why they charge so much for necklaces that are hand made. With very little in my packet I had spent £22! This necklace uses some of the beads I bought (the kind of gold ones) but as the beads graduated smaller I used crimps to give the appearance of spacers.

Now I am off to my workshop, complete with my new necklace, in the hopes that Paddy will start stocking Fimo Clay so that we can begin to do some of the beads I have learned to do. Maybe I will take some photographs of the workshop in progress and upload them later.

A couple of birthday cards

Yesterday I decided it was about time my mojo got working (it's back a little) and I did some stamping. I do think the Stamp Club on Saturday helped as I so liked the things we did. I have a couple of friends with birthdays coming up so I set to making some cards.

The first one uses a Paper Artsy stamp as the background - this stamp has the face of a young girl in it so I cut it out with my scalpel and then used another stamp (not sure who's) to replace the young girl. Both images were done with Archival Black ink and then clear embossing powder over the top so they are nice and glossy. Then I rubbed some Brilliance Peacock (tri-pad) over the top of the dragonfly lady.

I am pleased with the result and hope the recipient likes it. The young girl cut out from the background image is set aside as she will be used on another card - watch this space!

The next card is done with the dragonfly lady in much the same way but with Brilliance Aurora rubbed in and then it is mounted on white. I love this corner punch and I thought with the image being so busy just one corner was sufficient.

It may not seem as if I did much in the way of stamping but we were also planning a holiday and that took up so much of our time - most of the day in fact. Still, two cards are better than none.

Today I am setting aside to do some Polymer Clay beads - well sort of finish some of them off and then hopefully get something strung together. Thank goodness the sun is not shining as it calls me to sit outside and read rather than craft. LOL

I so want to complete my necklace using the beads I did with Alison Gallant but I need to go shopping for some metal connector beads and there is nowhere local. Drat! Plus I must get ready for my workshop on Thursday (repeated on Saturday as well). Maybe next week I can have a trip out somewhere and get the necklace completed.

Happy 4th July

Today, at Victoria Stampers we made this card. Well, not actually this one, as the one I did was exactly like one of Cath's (katykrunch.blogspot.com) so, as it is on her blog, I haven't used it. It was the bird one that I liked so much and as my stamps were too large she let me use hers. Thanks Cath.

But then ... I remembered when I came home that I fully intended doing something in red, white and blue in honour of my American friends so I set to and made the one above. This is the cover.

Then I did the inside with "shoppy" words on. The first one, on the inside cover, says "When the going gets tough; The tough go shopping" - the other small ones say "Shoe Queen", "Born to Shop", "Purse-onality" and "Shopaholic". The one on the back inside cover says "Men are from Mars; Women are from Visa!" This is partly for me because I love to go shopping when I am in America - stampy things of course.

It has taken me ages to get it photographed ready for this blog (I am hopeless with the camera) but as my American friends are behind timewise it is still only mid-afternoon over there. Happy 4th July girl-friends!

This is what we did with Lynne. It is a matchbox which contains five little tags. The outside of the matchbox has a cover which when open has one of Lynne's verses in "It is better to have one true friend than all the acquaintances in the world". Isn't that a lovely little saying?

Think that will be on my next shopping list. Oh, and some matchboxes as they are quite addictive.

Birds

Tomorrow is [Vicky] Stamp Club and Cath and Lynne are doing the workshop between them. Cath loaded a gorgeous card up which we are going to make using her bird stamps. Mine are not the same, but I do have a sheet of Glenda's bird stamps, so I finally got around to mounting them on EZ Mount ready to use. Couldn't resist making a couple of cards and as the sun was not shining today I had the time to make them without wilting in my craft room.
I used my favourite Archival Black Ink and decided to emboss them with clear powder. As I had used a kind of semi-gloss card it was quite a high gloss finish that was achieved. I then decided to use my Aurora Brilliance Ink Pad to provide some colour so with both of the above cards that is what provided the colour.

Maybe tomorrow (or more likely the day following) I will upload what I made at VSC.