I Ink, therefore I am...

Hello folks,
Just gone midnight...tip-toeing it into Friday! Just spent the evening getting all inked up which thankfully wears off during my morning swim. Signing in to post my Grungy Monday gossip which is an ode to the joy of Mr. Holtz's Distress Inks. At home with names such as Hoover and Omo, Distress Inks have almost become a national institute found on the desk of many. Grunge Guru or Cutey Tooty type, everyone has a little black box somewhere.
As it is all about the ink I decided I wanted to work with just that, paper and minimal embellishments. letting the colours and great tones have the spotlight.

I have made a flora themed triptych of tags, using mainly stamps by Paper Artsy. The tags are coloured with Barn Door/Fired Brick, Stormy Sky/Chipped Sapphire, Scattered Straw and edged with Black Soot. It spent some time building up the layers of colour and as any beautician will tell you blend, blend, blend...! It's not my usual colour choice which is a tad scary at first but now I am glad I took the plunge. I have added water splashes, water-mark stamping and some background detail in Sepia Archival ink before moving onto the main images. I tried some designs out first by roughly stamping on some scrap paper to give me some direction.

I have stamped a fair bit in Plum Archival ink as I didn't want the images to be too harsh. I tried to position the images to make the best of the light and dark tones. My first centre tag looked fine to begin with but soon ended up in the bin as it was just too dark in ALL the wrong places. No fixing that - even with a serious overdose of Mustard Seed.

I used a mixture of Ranger Plum, Olive Green and Sepia Archival inks to layer up the details on this tag. You can't beat a good Archival ink when you stamping onto a strongly coloured background. The flower was stamped in Blue Lagoon for a bit of contrast but still not too overpowering. I've distressed and bent it a little but otherwise still sticking to the pure paper and ink idea and backing away from my embellie Deli.

Just love this flower, it's always willing to adapt to your mood and seems to work in any colour combo. The sentiment is stamped black this time to give it a bit of definition. The butterfly is stamped and cut from a bigger collage stamp. I have shaped the wings a little but I haven't gone for lots of dimension as I didn't want to distract the eye too much from the tag. I given them all a good distressing on the edges to maintain a raw feel, joining them together with wire scraps. I just added some of my favourite gold thread and one simple blue ribbon to the each top.

I had an intense evening of ink and colour and hope I've done justice to Distress Ink-o-rama. Fancy joining in or want to see more great odes to Mr. H's inky clan? Head over to Linda at L3 and take a look. I'm signing off for tonight, thanks for calling by - visits and responses both welcome and appreciated!

Sarah.

WOYWW and other thingamajigs...

Wednesday Greetings,
The mid-week has landed, time to bare all and let your work desk go naked. (Thanks to all my visitors last week and the positive response to My Mojo Monthly - more news soon!) Thanks to Julia at Stamping Ground we can all have a good blog-hop, nose around and chit-chat. Last week we celebrated the two year anniversary. I hope all you party gals had a ball...(Saving my gift till last!) Feel free to join in, whatever your creative passion or desk etiquette may be. Here's mine. What you see is what you get, my organised chaos, which I call my 'work in progress' desk. Covers a multitude of sins...
But I am a good lass, always cleaning up before I hear birdsong. Been working on the fab collage course with Claudine Hellmuth, then onto a challenge piece for Everything Wendy Vecchi. Sounds like a lot of name dropping but that's just my menu for today.

The EWV challenge was a card with bling, hence the diamond brad stuck in her eye before you ask. Although always liking the vintage quirky style, I haven't been dabbling with Wendy Vecchi art that long but I'm really getting into it. I must admit to abstaining because I get a bit spooked when I think "Is everyone doing this? Will folk think I'm just trying to be trendy?" Well, Whatever! I took the plunge a month ago and I'm loving the new voyage of discovery.

I wanted to use vintage blues and browns which is kind of tricky with a female face but she is rather austere in gaze so it works for me. I used some silver sequin punch out and silver thread to add extra bling. I have a thing for this hand stamp at the moment so it appears in abundance. This one is nice and shiny but my camera didn't want to share the sparkles...

 I wanted to keep things fairly sober but in the end I did succumb to adding flowers which brings out a bit of the womanly side (used mainly Art Fit for a Queen set). Loving the big background stamps too, as I still suffer from the "Can't just use a ready made DP" syndrome. There's a lot of great designs and versatility to be found in Wendy's sets, so if this isn't quite your thing, you can soon make it your own. All the flower stamps are fantabulous.

 And lastly - BUT - not least, here is my wonderful Pay It Forward gift from Nicky. It is the most fabulous vintage découpage box filled with a journal and two sweetly stamped mousey candles. How generous is that! Thank you so very much Nicky, it is just great. Look, the journal has a fabby WOYWW hanger! I won't post my own PIF gift yet as it's on the way to Peggy in The Philippines and I'd like it to be her surprise. It's coming Peggy!

So that's my gossip and antics for today. Thanks so much for calling by, and I'll be seeing you and your delightful desks very soon.
Sarah.

Tone it Down...

Hello again,
Sitting with a cup of tea waiting for Blogger to load my photos ...if only it went as fast as the weekend...be done in a flash. I'm quite early this week for a change. I got up early and did the house work so the rest of the day was mine for the taking...! Over at Less is More it's monochrome. Lots of ideas and styles spring to mind but I've stuck with my first thought.

Pretty papers, punched circles and red & white. What more does a girl need? I punched nine circles from my DP scraps, edged them with ink and then set them onto card for a bit more depth. Then I've mounted them onto a white Bazzill dotted swiss card base. I cut the base to accommodate the circles to give them just enough space to be...

The word Happiness stamp is part of a Wendy Vecchi sentiment. With so many great patterns on show, I felt one word was enough and I also slightly rounded the corners. I can always play with red and white - it just works so well on cards. It's just so bold and sassy!

I wanted to try out the classic black & white approach. This time all the circles have been stamped with various images in Archival ink. I went for more of a vintage feel with the images this time, so it's still dramatic but not too in your face. Didn't ink the edges on these and have used linen textured Bazzill cardstock as this fits better with the whole card.

Faffed around with the sentiment and decided to add it next to the butterfly where there was some clear space! If the butterfly was in a different place I might have placed it higher up.

This is a quickish and fun way to make cards and use up those scraps we all have overflowing from the "might need it later" box.
I would also like to try it out with lots of other materials and colours...such as old books, photographs, and definitely fabric. The possibilities are endless.

So that's me all done again, so thank you for taking a look!!! Enjoy your LIMday if you have one. See you all tomorrow.
Sarah

Are We There Yet?

Morning Everyone!
The first Monday in June is upon us as the year races on, but a new month can bring new inspiration, discoveries and challenges. So without further ado I'd like to share my new piece for Simon Says Stamp & Show, where we want to see a tag. Tags are a great and versatile base for creating smaller art works...just enough space to play without getting lost. Here in the UK Father's Day is on the way...the perfect theme to try out my idea of a star-struck road to home.

I took four different sized tags and inked the up in Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and touch of Fired Brick Distress Inks. Then I stamped the lined background in Vintage Photo using Wendy Vecchi's Art Fit for a Queen stamp. I used it twice at different angles to get more detail. I wanted to create a roadway using the Celestial Art stars, so I stamped along the tag edges in Sepia Archival ink. I then added extra details from all the stamp sets over all the tags.

I have the Art Delivery Truck stamp, on wood as I still love that chunky feel! I embossed it onto thick card with Fired Brick Distress powder, trimmed and added upholstery studs for wheel trims. Spent a while snipping away and inking edges seeing as I can't have all the Art Parts, but he turned out just fine and seems to chugging along.

I used many stamps from the Homemade Art set on this piece focusing on the house at the end of the road. I created a background with Bundled Sage, stamping the stripes on top in Vintage Photo and then the images in Fired Brick. I played around and turned the Home part of the stamp into a kind of path and stand for the house. The house is mounted on card and pads for depth. I added an Alcohol inked metal clip and stamped "the end' as an extra...all done driving, safely back home...

This could well be my favourite bit...! Could be that dash of blue. I inked and stamped the dinky little flowers from the Art Parts Florals and hand-stitched the stems in red. I just adore the hand stamp too and thought it would look good reaching for the "find" word. I stamped in Stormy Sky, cut and glued it, adding a small spinner. I seem to have a thing for cutting out the smallest stamps I own, but that's just me. Do need to get new specs this month, so all the better to see you with...

I used the round stamp as a sun which is stamped onto Graphic 45 paper, trimming the outside circle to down for the right size. I didn't want to go doo-lally with embellishments but I have added a wee bit of interest with copper thread, one washer to one of the tag holes and two metal eyelets.

I cut up the sentiment into words, layering onto card. Here you can just see a shadow showing the raised up house and bit of the extra stamping.

So, that's my low down on life from crafting HQ. I hope you survived or just enjoyed the pictures. I've chosen warm colours but I still think it's simple enough for a chap, although I wouldn't mind trying out a darker version with lots of smoky blues and greys. Maybe you want to try that one out ??? Hint, hint.

 So now it's over to you to get busy with some Tageology and share it with us at Simon says Stamp & Show. Head over to our blog for all the details and some stunning creations from the great Design Team. It really is great to see your creations, so I hope you'll play along and maybe even make the Top Three!
Don't forget there's also a great shopping spree on offer too.

 Thank you for being here and taking a look...would love to hear from you so do leave a few words and feel free to pose any questions. I'll do my best!

Wishing you all Mucho Mojo,
Sarah.

Grungy Ramblings in Blue...

Hello again,
I'm in Blogdom to post my Grungy Monday offering. It's never a Monday or a normal time of day but that's an occupational hazard of being me. This week we are in Shabby Chic mode with an old Festive technique. Mr. Holtz will refresh your mind here. If you're going to get shabby, I say indulge and went for the blue route. I have used Bazzill card stock as my base to get more texture into the piece and stamped with the still oh so lovely mannequin from the Haberdashery set.

I then applied a mixture of Snow Cap and Cloudy Blue Dabber paints. As you can see as I rubbed it off some paint stayed within the paper texture which I really like. I have added a tulle skirt and metal waist clip coloured with alcohol ink to dress her up. On the right side, I have stamped a lace doily with white Stazon and then applied more ink and paints, wiping back to reveal the pattern. It is harder to get Distress inks to adhere to a painted surface rather than paper but with lots of layers and a bit of heat - you start to get there.

I added a cluster of scraps and made two rolled flowers from a book page. I spent five minutes making them and then another ten beating them up. They are inked up with Stormy Sky and Black Soot as is the whole tag.

 Here you can see the charm clips attached to a paper frill...falling for the romantic French vocabulary again. Stamped the letters  onto circles and filled them with Glossy accents. I kept it Grungy with a metal wire twist, distressed edges and some random stitching. I like how the holes from the needle reveal the darker card. I finished off with a dyed piece of cotton seam binding on top.
Fingers well and truly black and blue from this lady...but all worth it.

So that was my saga for today, I'll be coming over to your place soon. Thanks for being here - greatly appreciated as there is so much loveliness out there. Ciao.

Sarah.

Thinking too far outside the box...

Hello Thurday,
Well it's 2am in the morning and I'm in to post - what's new? Just calling by with a sequel to Tuesday's offering for Less is More. We can choose just one square for our main focal point from the following sketch...a slight overlap is allowed and the sentiment, if used, may extend outside the area, but your choice should be clear.

Well, I was a tad enthusiastic with compositional aspects and some rather lovely Wendy Vecchi flowers that I hijacked two squares by adding some stamped leaves. Officially and literally too far outside the box.

 What's the big deal ask all the non-card-challenge folk ??? Well, in some ways quite a deal. I have been doing Less is More with Mandi and Chrissie from day one and I love how the clean and simple style brings balance and new challenges into my repertoire. I am also very grateful for all the effort and dedication the two ladies put into their blog...visiting almost 400 entries, giving feed back, upholding the criteria and creating their design work. It's a real privilege to find a challenge of such quality - and we are all having a stonking time in LIMland! So without further ado, my take two.

I didn't want to just repeat the first card without leaves as that wouldn't work for me. The contrast between the blue and brown is pretty strong and the corner needs those leaves to balance things out. So, with the new one I have chosen to use just brown tones. I have also changed the position of the flowers and stamped a larger sentiment in Coffee to make it work.

  Press studs instead of buttons this time as it's more rustic in feel - not quite so sweet as blue. All stamps from Wendy Vecchi and Darkroom Door for the polka dots.
So there you go, number two - hopefully a legal citizen and another excuse to sit, snip and stamp and make more scrumptious flowers.
See you soon  - almost time for the new one theme. My, it might be a Christmas one at this rate. Thanks for calling by.

Sarah.

WOYWW and announcing My Mojo Monthly!!!

Good Morning to All,
A big welcome to my blog and moreover to the anniversary of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday? This fantastic show-it-all desk hop, brain child of Julia at Stamping Ground, celebrates being a big two years old. Congratulations Julia. I've been WOYWWing for just under a year and I'm joining in with the Pay it Forward gift. I can't show you it yet as that would spoil the recipients surprise or shock...! So in true WOYWW fashion, the desk shot...

  I spent all weekend at the Artsy Crafty weekend up to my eyes in paint and plaster. Sounds more like a DIY course but a great time was had by all. More on that later. At the moment I'm busy with a tag for Grungy Monday and had just finished some Wendy Vecchi work (see previous post). Having a lot of up and down moments...I'm either going full steam with a flash of Mojo or spending hours rejecting every DP I own in search of that elusive shade. I am also very excited and busy with my new venture in Blogdom...

On July the 1st I am starting My Mojo Monthly. No...NOT another challenge blog, but a monthly INSPIRATIONAL feature to get you and your Mojo on the go-go! If you're a bit off track, stuck in a rut or just looking for a fresh take on things then this is the place for you. I'll be sharing Monthly Musings with thoughts, links and ideas for that month, Delving into Design, and best of all an interview with An Inspirational Featured Artist!!! I am thrilled to bits to say that Kelly Kilmer, Journal and mixed media Artist Extraordinaire, will be July's Calendar Girl. I'll be finding out what she and her Mojo have to say...! How exciting is that???
Whatever your crafting passion is, you'll be able to share both your thoughts and photos with each other and along the way there'll be free downloads, images and giveaways. Just once a month so you'll have time to really get thinking, no challenges, just a place to inspire, motivate and just be - it's really good know about the why behind the what! Watch this space... more news in the coming weeks!

Lastly, a sneak preview from the weekend. Talking of inspiration, a weekend with the ever joyful Leandra Franich and Lin Brown is a dose of good medicine. I can't show too much yet until the second weekend is all done, but for now just a quick peek...

So that's my round up...have a good WOYWW, be yourself and I'll be seeing you all very soon.

Sarah.