Home Sweet Home

This months challenge at Graphicus is "Home" and "Brick and Teal". I immediately thought of doing a bird house, but as I don't really have any Elusive Images bird stamps, what to do? Butterflies of course! I started off by making my background paper, using Glimmer Mists for the main colour, the over stamping with Distress Inks using stamps from EI's Butterfly Whimsy and Delightful Damask plates.
This is how that turned out:
Then I made the butterflies (from Just Butterflies and Butterfly Whimsy plates) colouring most of them with chalks. The swirls are cut from a Filigree Fusion paper, and the flowers are punched from leftover Glimmer Misting bits.
The whole thing turned out to be a bit of a Labour of Love, but I like the en masse butterflies and the unusual colour combination. My craft mojo had left me for a while, but it looks like it's back now!

Getting from A to B...

Carolyn has set a new challenge, " A to B". I suspect we are supposed to go for the travel aspect, but I don't have that many travel stash, so I thought I would go a little more literal in my interpretation. So here is my A to B card. Hope you like it!

Stone the Crows!

The theme at Awfully Big Art Adventure this week is Crows, and this is my entry. I only had the little crow stamp ( Paper Artsy?) and felt I wanted to use a bigger one, so I made one! Funky Foam. Draw. Cut. Glue Stick. Acrylic block. Done!
The background is Glimmer Mists and the stamping and edging is, you guessed it, Distress Inks.

In My House There Is.....

This is the first time I have taken part in a challenge over at In My House, and I admit I struggled with the shape. The theme was Doll, so I used the Russian Doll stamp that I made and stuck it onto a background made with Glimmer Mists and Distress Inks. The dolls are painted using Distress Inks too. The flowers are punched.

2x4 for Theme Thursday!

Ha! Thought I would be defeated eh? No! I pulled out the stops and had another go for Theme Thursday. This piece is 2" x 4", which was the theme for this week. All Elusive Images stamps except for the seals which are Non Sequitur. And again, all stamped and coloured using Distress Inks.

Couples...

This weeks challenge over at Theme Thursday is "Couples". Well, here's a Non Sequitur couple, and they don't look too happy, do they?! They are painted with distress inks, and guess what? Yes, there is that Elusive Images stamp in the background again!This is an ATC, I hope you like it!

Edit: I just realised that that was last weeks challenge, they changed it as I was making the thing! Oh well, maybe it will fit somewhere else soon :: SIGH ::

ATC Swap

I've decided to take part in the ATC swap over at Crafts by Carolyn, this month's theme is "Women" The stamps here are all Non Sequitur, although you can see my current Elusive Images favourite has just sneaked into the background of the second card!
I think I will make it a New Year's Resolution to take part in more swaps, challenges and competitions, just to keep my creative juices flowing!

Sooo Many Ideas!

Have you ever found that you have sooo many ideas for crafting projects that you just don't know what to do first? I have, and the thought of trying to choose made me a bit less inclined to actually do anything! So I decided to write them all down and draw them out of a hat, so as to speak. I have had this plain wooden box in my stash for a very long time, so I decided to finally put it to good use. It has been coloured and stamped with my old favourite Distress Inks, with a bit of extra stamping in Stazon and some embossing for good measure. The metal dragonfly was alcohol inked then covered with dimentional glaze. The little scrolls each have an idea written on them, hidden so I don't know what I'm making next! Then I realised that I might not remember properly what some of the ideas were all about, so I decorated the book to match and am writing more detailed descriptions of each project in that. This project sees the first outing of my new X-Cut alphabet dies, which I think is going to be really useful! Now, I wonder what my next project will be....?

Ok, I know the scan is a bit wonky! I just realised I didn't blog this one, it's a card I made for my Nan back in December. The Chrysanthemum was stamped by inking in two different colours, then clear embossed. I masked off the circle then added the rest of the colouring and stamping. It didn't go 100% to plan, but I still like the finished product.

And so to Birthdays....

The techniques used for the bookmark folder enjoy a second outing on this card I made for Mum's Birthday this week. Fortunately I'm not yet in danger of getting bored of it!

It's Zutter Time!

Here's another competition entry. I have entered this in the Graphicus monthly website competition, as it is made with only Elusive Images stamps. I have coloured the background and stamped the images entirely in Distress Inks, I love the watercolour effect they give! Check out the Zutter Diaries for full details of how I created these book covers.