Dragons.....

are a favourite of mine. My Chinese zodiac sign is a Fire Dragon, so the theme at TMTA this week to create art using dragons appealed greatly. I have used a range of shades of red to create my ATC, putting down a base coat of distress inks and then using clear embossing powder on the top to stamp my dragon image in. I then stamped some lettering over the top of this, and to finish added some darker red shades to make the embossed image stand out and added some gems.

Turquoise

The challenge this week at Gothic Arches is to use the colour of your birthstone as the basis of your design. My birthday is in December, so my birthstone is Turquoise, which happens to be one of my favourite colours too. I created my arch using a clear embossing powder on a stamp for the background, and rubbed turquoise distress ink over the top. I then stamped the tree branches and birds over the top using Azure Stazon. To finish I added gems to the centres of the clocks, and used the new Martha Stewart stamp and punch butterfly punch to add a 3D element.

Santa Is Coming To Town....

Well hopefully anyway! This is my entry for TGIF, slightly later in the week than I hoped, but what I thought was going to be a fairly straightforward week has turned into another hectic one!! Still, only two days left till the end of term, then the relaxing and enjoying time with family and friends can begin!

For my Santa skinny I coloured the background with distress inks and then stamped the flourish with holly leaves on top. I stamped the lines from the song on a separate piece of card with Versamark and embossed with clear EP, once cool I rubbed distress inks over the top, cut and applied to the background. I also stamped Santa, coloured with markers and added a bit of bling with stickles.

Christmas is looming...

rather qiuckly, and I still have lots to do! Christmas is the theme at Make A Moo this week and I have used a variety of techniques to create these.

I used torn strips from an old book and adhered to the background, I then stamped images in Versamark and embossed in clear EP. Once cool I rubbed distress ink over the top to bring the image out. I then added punched snowflakes and stickles to add a bit of dimension and bling. Hope you like the end result.

Trees....

have lost all their leaves now, but locally they looked very glittery with frost as I got home tonight. Trees is the theme over at Gothic Arches this week and for my arch I stamped a winter tree in white chalk eye over the background and added white pen to the ground, I then white embossed the top tree on a mini arch and layered on top of the larger one and finished it all by adding some ice stickles to make it shimmer, just like the trees in my garden!

Snow...

I feel is going to be a popular theme over the coming weeks, and snow is this weeks theme at Gothic Arches. For my arch I have used Penny Black stamps. Stamping the trees in black Stazon, then the deer using Versamark and embossed with silver and stardust to get a mottled look. I then added ice stickles ot the ground to make it shimmer like snow, and finished the edges with chalk eyes. Unfortunately this scan does not do it justice, it has lost its bling. I will photograph again tomorrow in daylight to get the shimmer on the deer and snowy ground!

UK Art Raffle...

Set the theme of Circles for November. It took me a while to find inspiration for it, and due to a very hectic shedule over the last couple of weeks, I only managed to finish it on Thursday and post it on Friday, hoping it arrives today! If not it will be entered into the December raffle instead. If you haven't checked out UK Art Raffle yet I recommend a visit and sign up, you can win some amazing forms of art.

To create this I drew the face outline in pencil, then added colour with watercolour pencil, creating the hair from overlapping circles. I once dry I stamped some circles on top in Versamark and added a translucent gold EP on top to highlight a few areas. I hope you like the end result, would love to hear your opinions of it.

Detail:

Spooky Part 2

As promised here is the second part of my Spooky uploads. This is a project I was asked to complete for Scrapbook Sisters. I was given a Melissa Frances tag box with fold out book and asked to create a piece around the theme of halloween. This was the end result:

I had fun creating this and have crammed in many different techniques and products. I used orange and black cardstock and patterned halloween paper by Karen Foster: Hodge Podge; stamps by Inkadinkado, Stamps Away and Autumn Leaves; Quikkutz skeleton; embossing paste in black; various chalk eyes, Stickles, Stazon and embossing powders; ribbons; and Glossy Accents.

If you have not tried altering anything, I recommend you have a go, it is great fun, adictive and anything goes.......

Spooky Part 1

The spooky season of Halloween has been a favourite theme for many of late, including This Thurs. Here are two ATC's I made for this theme using a range of different stamps from Inkadinkado and Little Yellow Bicycle. For this first ATC I chalked the background then stamped the skull in Versamark and embossed it in black. I then stamped the swirls around the edge and highlighted the leaves using a black glaze pen.

This second ATC was created by chalking the background, stamping the images on top and then adding black diamond stickles for a bit of glitz.

One of the reasons I have not updated the blog so regularly of late is that I was completing a design project for Scrapbook Sisters as one of their Design Team. This has now been handed over and loaded to their blog. So I will share my Spooky Book with you tomorrow.

Black and White...

...with a hint of Red. I love this mix of colours and this is the Gothic Arch I came up with this week. My arch is made using black, white and red embossing powders on top of a black background.

I first stamped the flowers at the bottom in versamark and then added white embossing powder on top. I then did the same technique with the black embossing powder. I then added the dream stamp and the small flowers in the top right. I stamped the butterfly stamp onto acetate and embossed using red embossing powder, then cut them out and applied them on top of the background stamps. I finished the small flowers with a few red gems.

I hope you like it. Let me know what you think. Enjoy the rest of the day.