postcard

One of the postcards I made recently ..
This is my entry for the 'Lost Coast Portal to Creativity' challenge.

The background is made with the gelli printing plate, image is coloured with watercolour pencils.

Thanks so much for stopping by
and have a wonderful week.
Hugs, Suzanne xx

annnnd ... the next spread

based on a wonderful tutorial by Susanne Rose:

This is my entry for the challenge 'Mixed Media Monthly - what's your superpower?'

What I consider my 'superpower' in real life is silent observation. It's an indefinite source of learning and getting to know people. You can learn and experience so much and so many things if you observe and listen. And people tend to tell/reveal many interesting things and thoughts ...

Again, I used different Decoart products:
gesso, modeling paste, matte medium, americana acrylics tradidtions blue green light,
aquamarine, fluid acrylics quin gold

Thanks for stopping by and having a look.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

itsy bitsy ...

Hi all ...
I have the honour to have been accepted as a member of the blogger outreach program (see sidebar) and for this spider thingy I used almost exclusively products from the most awesome range of decoart yummieness:

forgot to add the Metallic Lustre black shimmer, which I used to highlight the texture of the spider. It's made with a technique Sir Andy is sharing in his 'outcast' workshop.

and some crackle

Also it's been a while since I joined the challenge on the Haunted Design House blog.
This time it's 'naughty corner' and I hope my little spider fits it :-D There are most definitely corners and I can assure you the spider can be very naughty and evil LOL

Thanks so much for stopping by and having a look.
Have a great day everyone.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Banksy-inspired TAG

Hi and hello everyone.
I've borrowed a book about Banksy with lots and lots of his art from someone and as a little thank-you I made this TAG.
In the book Banksy is quoted as follows for example:

"I'd been painting rats for three years before someone said 'that's clever, 

it's an anagram of art' and I had to pretend I'd known that all along"

On a base of kraft cardstock covered with a little gesso the background is made with brusho, slightly dried with a heat gun and again moved around and blended with gesso and my fingers.

The stamp images are from Viva Las Vegas Stamps (the Banksy images), Cherry Pie, Stampinback, and De Stempelwinkel.

With this TAG I'm joining the challenge #75 'rethink gesso' on the TAG along blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Artful Times Challenge #73: Men

Hi all ...
I made a birthday card for a coworker the other day and would love to join the Artful Times Challenge. This time it's 'MEN'.

The background of both cardstock panels is made with Bistre, brown and yellow.
Several images were stamped onto the background (Stampers Anonymous/Brett Weldele, Katzelkraft) with StazOn inkpad timber brown and the main image is from Chocolate Baroque. The panels were then distressed around the edges with an x-acto knife and mounted as seen.
Thanks so very much for stopping by today and having a look.
I wish you a great day, wherever you are ....

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

wings

Hi all ...
I'm so glad to see you.
I'm joining the October challenge of the Lost Coast blog with this card, they ask for wings. Fortunately I bought some of their stamps recently at the Stempelmekka :-)

The background of this card is a gelli plate print, stamped with a brick stamp and some branches. The butterfly was fuzzy cut from another gelli plate print, the two Lost Coast stamp images are fuzzy cut too and coloured with watercolor pencils resp. distress ink and a waterbrush.

Thanks so much for stopping by and having a look.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

a book-like box

Hi and hello you creative people out there ...

I have to say, sometimes I'm highly surprised by myself.Like just now LOL

The following project actually started out as a rather halfhearted experiment to create texture with a paper napkin. I did it on an already broken bookcover from papier mâché that I had sitting around for quite some time.
Hm, I just went on, thinking nothing in particular, added acrylic paint with a brush and a brayer, decoupage glue, some embossing powder ... and so forth. Then an idea assumed shape.

There's a Facebook group connected with the very well assorted and gorgeous stamp- and mixed media shop 'de Craftorij' in The Netherlands that is going to run the "De Craftorij Zomer Challenge 2014":
 ----------------------
Wat is de bedoeling?
Vanaf 1 Juni maak je elke dag iets op een correspondentiekaart van ca. 10x15 cm. 61 dagen achter elkaar, eindigend op 31 Juli. Begin je later dan 1 Juni dan hoef je niets in te halen, begin gewoon, dat is het belangrijkste. Je kunt altijd aan het eind van de challenge nog zien of je de gemiste opdrachten in wilt halen.
 ----------------------

What is it about?
From June 1st on each day you create something on a card sized about 10x15cm, for 61 days in a row until July 31. If you start later than June 1st there's no need to catch up with anything. The most important thing is to just start and join in.
(roughly translated, hope it's okay ;-))
 ----------------------

The members of this group have come up with absolutely brilliant ideas and projects that will hold all the cards that are going to be made.
So I thought why not build a new box to go into the cover and keep my blank cards in there :-D
Enough blah blah, here it is:

So there the cards are sitting, white and pure, waiting ...
Let's see how far I'll get :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by, have a great weekend everyone.,
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Mail Art Envelope

Second post for today - thanks for bearing with me :-)
After quite some time I'm happy to join the Art Journey Challenge again, one of my favorite challenges.
This time the gorgeously talented DT asks for mail art envelopes and I made two pieces.

For the first one I cut a few freehand clouds and masked them as well as a piece of paper to keep the space for the address clear. The background was sponged with several distress ink pads, trying to blend the colors together. Then I stamped various AJ stamps onto it and colored them lightly with watercolor pencils.

For the second one - with matching postcard - I used the gelli printing plate and a few stencils to create the background. Then here too several of those adorable AJ images were stamped, they have stunning steampunk stamps among others. I used watercolor pencils on those too to give the images a bit of color.

Thanks a bunch for taking the time and stopping by. Have a lovely day all of you, sun is shining around here and I really hope it will stay a bit.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Captain's Logbook

Hi and hello to everyone.
It has been quite some time since I've been joining the HDH challenge and also this time I thought I wouldn't be able to. Pondered for days what I could do ... until this morning when I decided to enter  something that was right before my eyes and kept me busy for over a week LOL
So this is my Captain's Logbook, that I finished only last night (it's made from coasters - hope that's okay):
front

back

inside

I wanted to use bookrings but had set the eyelets too far from the edge so I had to figure out how else I could assemble it. That was what kept me busy.
I'm entering this into the HDH challenge #186 'steampunk junk'.
Stamps are from Stamper Anonymous designed by the exceptionally talented Brett Weldele, Oxford Impressions and Art Journey.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a good day all of you.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Z as in ...

Zoo :-)
Not that this is a favourite thing of mine, but with the ingredients of the new TIO challenge (the letter Z and a face) this is what came to my mind, considering the stamps I own.

stamps I used:
man: oxford impressions
elephant: acapella stempel
giraffe: katzelkraft
bird: crafty individuals
letters: artemio
plus: a small stencil

The background is made with Adirondack colorwash and muted down with panpastel white, the images were stamped with different Archival inkpads and colored with watercolor pens.

Thanks so much for stopping by and having a look. Have a great day, all you welcome visitors and much appreciated followers :-D

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

pimp a drawer

Hi everyone ...

I'm sharing a drawer I altered. It's from a small cupboard by I*EA and I'm sure many of you crafty fellows own at least one of them :-)
In this particular drawer I stowe several paper artsy hot pick stamps:

It's actually a more (dark-)reddish shade, I don't know why it shows dusky pink.
The drawer was painted with two coats of diy chalk paint dark red and one coat chalk paint heirloom from DecoArt. Then I sanded the paint back a bit and stamped the images with StazOn jet black.
Finally all of it was covered with two step crackle and when dry the cracks were highlighted with some brown acrylic paint.
I'm entering this into the Haunted Design House challenge Skullduggery. And since it isn't spooky or creepy or anything like this at all I hope I'll be able to create something else for this exciting challenge :-D

Thanks so much for stopping by ...
have a great day all of you.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

C as in ... - de stempelwinkel

Good morning everyone, I hope you are all well ...
This time I'm sharing a TAG over at de stempelwinkel blog.

I'd love and appreciate to welcome you there and of course if you'd have a look at all the wonderful DT makes.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

HDH #180 - fresh blood

Hi everyone ... and thank you so much for taking the time to have a look around.

Finally - the minions and inmates of the dungeon aka Haunted Design House are back after their hibernation YAY
Their fist challenge for this year is 'fresh blood'. Unfortunately I had no plan whatsoever, although I watched some very bloody vids :-D
So it's just an ATC - but there's some blood in it, if not fresh ...

It's one of those pieces I'd like to keep ... but it's as good as on its way.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

if the broom fits, ride it

a card for the challenge over at spooky and scary which is witches.
---------
Diese Karte ist mein Beitrag für die Challenge bei Spooky and Scary: Hexen.

The background is a leftover of a paper I cleaned my brayer off with and the stamps are from various companies.
----
Der HG ist der Rest eines 'Abrollpapiers' von meinen Gelli Drucken und die Stempel sind von diversen Herstellern.

Thanks so much for looking.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Halloween Punk

one more TAG for the TAG along challenge #9 stemapunk Halloween:

Since I can't find anything on the challenge blog that doesn't allow more than one entry I add this one :-)
The background is made with distress paint and an old credit card, stamps are by Acapella Stempel, Art Journey, Cherry Pie. Then some metal was added from T.H. and my stash.

Thank you ever so much for popping by and having a look. Have a quiet week everyone ...

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

spooky steampunk

A TAG made for the TAG along challenge #9 Steampunk Halloween

The background is a gelli plate print with different bits and bobs, steampunk spider, skull wings (hampton art), fence (TH die, rusted), at the top a stempelwinkel stamp embossed with aged silver frantage embossing enamel.
Thanks a lot for stopping by and having a look.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

zombie

This mini arch is my entry into the smudgy antics challenge (the ladies ask us to use stamps from smeared ink only) and for the Haunted Design House challenge #178, where the tortured minions want to see zombies and creeps.
It feels a bit strange to me to cover both challanges with just one piece because I always see those two as kind of sister challenges, particularly since i always mix up the DT members and participants - I'm deeply sorry, ladies - and gent (!) :-D ... anyway. This is what I made:

Thanks so much for visiting .. :-)

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Dreamcatcher

 Now for something completely different ...


The minions over at Haunted Design House ask for dimensional Halloween for their challenge #177.
I'm not sure if this meets the requirements.
My little one asked me for a dreamcatcher the other day, she saw one in a friend's bedroom. With a little help of the www I tried to make one myself - and this gave me the idea: why not try something Halloween-ish? I hope this counts:

 

It's my second one only, so please bear with me :-D

To ward off misunderstandings: the little one got another one, this is for me :-D
She loves it anyway, though. I fear my children are a wee bit influenced ...

I'm also entering this into the Country View challenge, where the fab DT wants to see something spooky - well, I hope it's spooky enough :-)

Thank you so much for visiting and having a look, have a great Sunday everyone.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

pumpkin tag

A tag I made from my new stamps and some leftovers.

The background has gone a long way ... I actually can't remember what went onto it in particular. In the end I stamped some darkroomdoor leaves onto it, added a bit of frantage embossing enamel at the bottom (the fence is covered with different frantage ee, too) and mounted it onto a piece of cardstock. The little pumpkin monster is cut out from a gelli plate print.

Did I mention that I'm enthusiastic about those little grumpy monsters? :-D

Thanks for having a look.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

another broken heart

This kept me busy for quite a while since I only was able to do something for a short time per day ... but now it's done (?) ...

 Now I think the background is by far not dark enough ...

I've been so looking forward to it - and in the end it turned out quite different anyway.
The heart is a cheap frame I purchased some time ago and thought it would be perfect. I planned to crackle it, but for some reasons it didn't work. So I just applied almost everything onto it that lay around and now it ended up a bit rusted. But that's okay ... If something gathers enough rust it eventually breaks, doesn't it? Then there was only a piece of acetate in the frame, no glass ...

quite not bad, but not good enough either ... I'll use this for another project.

So what do I use to shatter? Finally I dug out some microscope sliders - HA! Some AAI onto it, some stamps and - crush!

This is another entry for the challenge over at Smudgy Antics - broken hearts.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx