International Art and Soul Challenge 127

 The challenge for this fortnight has been set by my team mate Hazel, and she wants things on the theme of Light and Dark.

There are a lot of potential ideas for this theme, but I went for one which seems obvious to me - a scene with light and dark within the picture.

I started with a rough area of shading - green shading to blue with some brighter sunshine/sunset colours in the middle, achieved with Distress Ink. I then added a Lavinia fairy - which I got by subscribing to a magazine many years ago - and continued with the overhead brances which use a much more recent Lavinia purchase. The lower vegetation is mainly (or perhaps all) Inkylicious. I must admit, both ranges have some very similar vegetation, and it can be hard to tell them apart. All stamping used Versafine Clair ink in black (for the fairy/toadstool) and green for the vegetation. I then added more depth to the background shading, darkening the edges to create a 'tunnel' effect. Then I added a little water sprinkle to the background sky, and some colour to the overhead berries with a paint pen and sparkle to the fairy with a glitter gel pen. I made the toadstool more opaque using Koh-i-Noor pencils in a variety of brown shades. Finally, I further darkened the outer areas using some Versafine Clair ink for its opacity.

I used similar techniques here, but started with a Brusho background printed from a gel plate. The result was very pale, but I added Distress Ink to define the edge colours. The stamps this time are Lavinia (fairy) and Printable Heaven (extra dandelion heads and fluff) as well as Inkylicious (flowers). As above, I finished the flowers with some paint pen, and added some sparkle to the fairy with glitter gel pen.

International Art and Soul Challenge 96

 Long story, but I'll get to the card in a moment. Back at the beginning of this year's lock down, I could see that we would be required to wear masks at some time (although I didn't think it would take as long as it did to be mandated.) The prospect of using disposable masks with all the extra waste (and expense) involved didn't appeal at all, so I investigated how to make my own. Now, I'm not a sewing person. I do decorative stitching where the holes are set up in advance (paper embroidery, cross stitch, hardanger etc) but apart from replacing buttons and putting up a hem, I don't do what I think of as 'practical' sewing. But, I found a basic design that could be done with hand-sewing, and gradually adapted it to something I was happy with. I got to the point this summer where I'd made around 80 masks for family/friends and charity, but I was conscious that they would be neater and probably more robust if they were machine-sewed. At this point, I asked my local craft group for suggestions of what I might need - especially given that the masks I've been making are the pleated type and by the time you include extra side bits for the elastic and a three-layer construction have up to 12 layers.

One member, a lovely lady called Barbara, who is probably the most experienced of the group with sewing machines, contact me and offered me one. It was given to her by the family of a neighbour who sadly had to go into a nursing home, and she'd been waiting to offer it to a new home for a couple of years. And not only did she give it to me, she delivered it and spent about three hours getting me started on using it. So, obviously, I wanted to do something to say, 'Thanks!' And that's the story about this card - except to add that Barbara loves sunflowers and has decorated a number of her possessions with them.

I started with a Brusho background. I spritzed the card and sprinkled three colours, then, while it was still wet, I did a little zig-zag brushing with a fan-shaped brush to even the colour distribution and encourage a little more colour mixing. When it was dry, I added the sentiment (Woodware stamp and Versafine ink), and lastly a sunflower which I made using (mainly) dies from the Susan's Garden Sizzix collection. The only die addition was the stem which is from a Julie Hickey die set. It's probably a little curved to be a sunflower stem, but it was the perfect length for the card.

And that's it - a sunflower thank-you card. I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 95

The challenge for this fortnight is on the theme Fairies and/or Elves.

I used a variety of stamps - mainly from Lavinia (the main image was a magazine freebie quite a long time ago), Inkylicious, and Printable Heaven. I combined them on a background which I printed from my gelli plate using Distress Ink and Brushos on to watercolour paper. The stamped images were stamped with Versafine Clair ink.

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 265

The challenge for this fortnight is to make a tag. I normally find the smaller format of tags to be awkward, so I rarely do anything more complicated than a single die cut, but I decided I needed to try something more interesting for this challenge.

And in the end, I made two!

For both tags, I started with a John Next Door media plate, which I inked with Distress ink, before sprinkling on some dissolved Brushos and printed to my card. When it was dry, I stamped some images (all stamps from Creative Stamping magazine) using Versafine Clair ink.

The tags were cut using a Sizzix die set.

I do hope you can join us.

International Art and Soul Challenge 93

The theme for this fortnight is to use Autumn colours. The project can be anything you want, any theme, so long as the colours are autumnal.

I recently added to my collection of Brushos, and several of them seemed to be earth tones, so they seemed to be an ideal starting place for this challenge. I used several colours, and stamped over the result using Versafine ink. The result was two pieces of backing card for six by six inch cards.

The predominant colours on this piece were browns and dark greens, but the overall effect was a little darker than I had been hoping for. To counter that, I added things that would 'brighten' the overall effect. The main image (from Creative Stamper magazine) was stamped using a Kaleidacolor ink pad (cappuccino), and I stamped it on to some woven-patterned paper. The ribbon has been in my box for ages and I'm really not sure where it came from!

The predominant colours in this part were more the dark green and red, and again, I wanted to lift the overall effect. The image was stamped using an Indigo Blue stamp, and coloured with Promarkers. The lace is some of the 'stick on' variety that I got in Tiger (at least that's what it was called when I bought it!)

Stamps used in the background are from Poppy Stamps, Crafter's companion, and an issue of Creative Stamper magazine.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 90

The challenge for this fortnight is to make something inspired by a book. You can make anything you like, although we would like you to tell us which book inspired you when entering. Anything else you'd like to tell us about that book will be very welcome!

I was inspired by a book (or series of books) I've read many times over many years; The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Trilogy in Five Parts). I first read it when there were only two books in the series, and as well as the books, I own recordings of the radio plays, the BBC TV series and even the very disappointing film.

When playing with Brushos, I always think the bolder backgrounds I have made look rather like the photos published by NASA of distant galaxies, so I decided to go with that. In fact, there's a point in the second book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe when the end of the universe is described and this background actually makes me think of that. Anyway. I could have added various different things to the card: a towel, a cup of tea, a black spaceship, a Chesterfield sofa, a manically depressed robot, but I decided to keep things simple and simply add the words displayed on the front of the book the series takes its name from - The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy which I generated in Photoshop Elements.

International Art and Soul Challenge 88

Now, I know it's July, but the challenge for this fortnight is to make a Chrismas card based on a song or carol. When I had  a think about this, I thought of all the songs and carols about snowy wintertime and couldn't quite bring myself to start creating a snow scene. And then I thought of Oh Christmas Tree  (which I actually know better in French since that was what I learned first ... Mon Beau Sapin).

 But that's beside the point. So, I headed for my stamps to find a Christmas tree and came across one that seemed perfect.

Which has first (and occasional second) lines of several Christmas songs/carols. I think it's from a Creative Expressions set that I've had for quite a long time.

To start, I prepared two background sheets using Brushos in scarlet and yellow, and then added a little Pixie powder in green. I stamped the tree on to the smaller piece, and some music and texture stamps on to the larger. I matted, and completed the result with some stick-on lace from Tiger.

And that's it. Quite straightforward, but the end result seems to me to be quite bright and cheerful.

I do hope you can jjoin us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 86

The challenge for this fortnight is 'Blue as Main Colour'. So, not too hard!

I made a card that I can send without having a special reason.

I started by making a background with Brushos and Pixie Powder. When that was dry, I added some stamped images using stamps from a variety of manufacturers including Creative and a couple from Creative Stamping Magazine. I used Versacraft, Versafine and Versafine Clair inks because they are the only inks I have that are opaque enough to stamp over such a strongly coloured background.

I do rather like the result, but then I love the shades of blue I've used - they're so vibrant!

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 259

The theme for this challenge is Masculine and other that that, we'd love to see whatever your creativity comes up with.

I made a couple of birthday cards. The first is for my husband.

I started with a piece of mixed media paper, and added some Brusho ink. Then I stamped a Woodware stamp using Versafine Clair ink and matted the result onto some white card. The blue layer was cut at both sides using a very old Spellbinders border die, and the holes filled with some stick on studs from The Range which I really like as they're decorative but not so blingy as adhesive gems.

I liked the effect so much, I decided to try again with different colours for my daughter's partner.

This time, I kept to just two colours of Brusho, and again I matted on to white. Then, I added two die cuts from another very old Spellbinders die to complete the effect.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 81

The challenge for this fortnight is an unusual one: we want you to use a single word sentiment multiple times. I was initially stumped for this one, but looking through my stamp collection, I came across several versions of the word, 'happy', so I decided to see where that took me.

And ... I've finally bought some Brushos. I've seen the results people have got with them, and wondered, and finally decided to splash out. (Although, my initial wish to go straight to the manufacturer failed when their website insisted on using a Captcha that was almost impossible to decipher, resulting in multiple attempts at registering. When I finally did that, I discovered they wouldn't take Paypal. Now, I don't like giving my credit card details to small companies whose security I don't have any information on, so I decided to save myself some money and go to Amazon instead. It's such a shame, but smaller companies that want to compete with the Amazons of this world really need to either do Paypal or Amazon pay. Anyway, back to the card.

I created the background with (mainly) Brushos, although I added a little Perfect Pearl in Interference Red and then some red Pixie Powder too. It's probably slightly more obvious in the next photo.

It did add a little understated sparkle.

The background stamping used stamps by Sweet Dixie and AlteNew. The central stamped sentiment used a stamp from Creative Stamping magazine, and I coloured it with some Brushos dissolved in a little water. The ink used throughout was Versafine Clair.

And then, I cheated (just a little)

The stamp here came from Craftwork Cards. I just couldn't leave it as a single word because that just doesn't make sense to me, at least for the word, 'happy'. But, Happy, happy, happy .... Birthday makes perfect sense to me!

I do hope you can join us this time!