The Green Man

 I watched a video this morning from Heidi - the Yorkshire Crafter. She was demonstrating an amazing technique to create faux pyrography! Great technique for using those big stamps that rarely see daylight.

I used the Green Man (Small) from Lavinia Stamps. The inks used varied, one is Distress Ink in Forest Moss with Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves, another is Forest Moss and Nocturne and the other is Gathered Twigs and Nocturne. I highlighted the eyebrows and mustache and mouth with some Wink of Stella.

So easy to do I can see this becoming a favourite!!

Follow Your Dreams....

 I had a play with my Lavinia stamps and stencils/masks over the weekend.

Have you ever had those days when you don't know what you want to make and just follow a wild thought process - well that was me!

I started  by getting some masks and stencils together, then I picked out some colours for blending, I used Elements inks in colours Della Blue, Blue Atoll and Violet chalk for the sky area then Pine, Greensleeves and Lime Punch for the leaf, the outer stenciled border was done in Bermuda.

I then thought mice would be good so used some of the cute mice stamps as though they were climbing into the circle and over the leaf, I added some musical notes as one of the mice is playing his flute - them my random thought process though that maybe the mice were scared by something so I added the beautiful cat, Mooch! I used a little pastel for the lamp and shadows, added some foil around the circle and lots of glitter to the leaf - all a bit random but it sort of came together OK.

Faux Parchment

 A Facebook group I belong to was showing some stamps by Inkylicious that looked good so I went to their website to check them out and found some amazing stencils!!

I followed the You Tube tutorials for these leaf stencils and I was hooked! I bought the leaf and the holly leaf stencils and these are what I used for each card.

Holly Leaf Stencil, I used Brilliance Moonlight White ink for this one along with a white Uniball pen, the stamp Winter Cabin Medium is also from Inkylicious which I stamped in Versafine Clair Acorn ink (and used the same for the shadows), I used some Wink of Stella and some glitter to finish along with some splatters from a white Posca pen.

For the Leaf Stencil, I used Versa Magic Cloud white ink, white Uniball pen, Lavinia Stag stamp and some Fir Trees from Lavinia, which were stamped on Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves and Acorn, the shadow was made using Fallen Leaves. I dotted the white Uniball pen all over the trees and also drew around the stag then I used a water brush to blend it out to give the foggy/cloudy effect, I added some Wink of Stella to the snow.

I do need to work at perfecting this as I love this technique and I hope you enjoy it to.

In case you want to try it this is the You Tube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X4Wly44KVo

April Colour Challenge at the Outlawz!

 For the Colour Challenge this month we have a colour wheel and the challenge is to use two cold colours and one hot (minimum).

I've had this stencil for years and never got around to using it but I think it works very well for this card!

This is the colour wheel:

and this is my card using the colours

I hope you'll come and play with us this month and show us your take on the colour wheel!

Rainbows ......

 A very dear friend has just lost her beautiful fur baby - he was a King Charles Spaniel and he reached the grand old age of 14 and he had a wonderful life in a loving home but that does not make the parting any better.

I made her this card that I will pop in the post just so she knows I am thinking of her!

The fairy stamp is a Lavinia stamp called Moments Like These and is very apt for thoughtful cards - she is sat on some mossy knolls, I used a stencil called Replenish to in the background rainbow. The fairy wings have been glittered with Vintage Starbright (I did add some glaze to bind it!)

A simple card but quite effective.

My First Christmas Card!

 I had a quick play today and got a couple of backgrounds made - I managed to finish one card using the ink box technique. I do have a few distress inks but not many in the colours I want to use, hopefully my delivery will arrive in the next day or two so I should be able to get some more done.

I used Scorched Earth for this one, with the stag, dragon thorns, tumbleweed and a Christmas sentiment. Finished off with some gold foil, I used some gold card to layer it onto a white card base. The finished size is 4 1/4 inches or 11 cm so very cute!!

A Few Lavinia Projects

 As I said previously I'm addicted to Lavinia Stamps - I've always loved fairies and dragons (what's not to love?) so it's a given I would love these stamps!

I recently has cataracts removed from both eyes so my vision has been a bit of a struggle and these are a selection of projects I've made through my cataract journey, some are not "in the lines" but heyho!

These are some tags that I have been experimenting with, the first uses dinkles and water to create the background, then it has been stamped with a sentiment stamp and flower stamped in pink then I added some teal foil dots - quite effective.

The second was a try at a tutorial by Tracey Dutton, who is the creator of Lavinia, using watercolour pencils and inks, certainly made me use my pencils that have been gathering dust for 6 years!

The third was created using Distress ink sprays, the tree is from the latest collection and is heat embossed in white, I need to work on the technique more but it could be very pretty!

These are ink box cards, the central frame is created with the lid off a distress ink pad, you ink up the edges of the lid then stamp it onto your card, then using a wet paintbrush draw the ink down to create your background, I love these as they make the cutest cards (I love little cards), the next will be to experiment with some Christmas cards but first I have to invest in more distress ink pads!!

And finally some inking and stamping, with a bit of colouring too!!

I'd love to see you over at the Outlawz Challenges, come and play anytime we have lots going on!