dragonfly by Joanne Wardle

This is my final water themed piece this month.
I really like dragonflies when they hover over water, and that was the ideas behind this one layer card.

 I masked off a square and inked it with tumbled glass ink. I then positioned a mask and inked again. I splashed water onto the square and dabbed it off and left to dry. I then just stamped the dragonfly from Stampotique, and addded some stickles to the winds and randomly spotted the background witch stickles.

products used
prima masks
stampotique dragonfly stamp
stickles
tumbled glass distress ink
black stazon

Ceci n’est pas un homme - Canvas By Moira Sutton

Made using one of the great selection of canvases available in the shop. The background has been created using a selection of Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints. It has been finished with Viva Croco Crackling Colour
Don't forget the current challenge is April showers. For all the details and how to upload your entry to the blog have a look at the Post here.

Dancing in Time .......by Annette Goatley (nettyscraftings)

Hi, today am showing you what can be achieved with a little water.............

Now I expect you are wondering where the water was used ................or do you know already?

Products used:
Canvas Board, Texture Paste, Distress Inks, Inka Gold and Copper, Olive Green Stazon and Water from the Tap.....
Stamps include: 
Lost Coast Designs

Have you guessed yet...........of course you have.  The water was used to wet the background stamps so they could easily and cleanly stamp into the Texture Paste.

Have created this to be the front cover of one of my Art Journals.  Hope you like it and have to say it was great fun to do.  Thank you for visiting and hope you have your entries in this month as there is yet again a fab prize to be won.

Take care of yourselves, Hugs Annette x

Blockheads Chunky ATC By Carol Fox

I am developing a serious condition concerning these chunky ATC's and of course there is no hope for me now that Moira stocks them in the shop. This is the link for them.
I love the fact that you just just shove loads of stuff on them.
For this one I have used the Icarus stamp by Lost Coast (he is one of my favourite stamps of the moment). The background is one of the new Blockheads range (Stargazer) that are now being stocked.

All my cogs are die cuts mounted onto wooden spools. I was trying to get the feel of my Icarus trying to reach the handle to turn off the crazy machine before it turns night into day and burns his wings.

Carol x

Vintage Tag by Annette Goatley (Nettyscraftings)

Hi, am so thrilled with my new set of Harpers Women by Lost Coast Design and used them many times.  Today I would like to show you a Scrunched Tag using Mistress Grace from the set.  I call her that as she reminds me of my great great Aunt Grace who was a very stylish lady and a wonderful dressmaker.

Products used:  Broken China and Tea Dye Distress Inks, Copper and Cobalt Bleu Viva Inka Gold.
Stamps by: Lost Coast Design

Have to say these ladies from the set are fabulous for crafters that love vintage and am sure you agree.
Have a great day and take care of yourselves.  Hugs Annette x

Untie your Wings by Samantha Read

I honestly cannot put into words how excited I was when I found out that Happy Daze are stocking all the new fabulous Suzi Blu stamps!! They are so hard to find here in the UK I thought I would never get my hands on them.

As soon as I saw the Fly Free stamp my creative mojo started singing and the stamp was talking to me. . . 

. . . I immediately reached for a canvas and turned it the wrong way round, scrunched up some tissue paper and pva'd to the front edge for texture. Then I randomly discovered that 6in x 6in paper fits neatly in the recess, result! I toned down the pattern of the paper a little by applying a very thin layer of gesso with a baby wipe, I then painted the green, pink and blue and again toned it down with a touch of gesso. Then the fab part, I stamped the Fly Free girl once onto white card and once onto some patterened paper for her dress. I acheived the textured hairdo with modelling paste. A Claudine Hellmuth craft stick was perfect for the title. A bit of wire, a few beads, flowers, a bit of sparkle and some nik naks that were lying around finished the piece.


I used:
20cm x 20cm Canvas

She art paper

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Craft Sticks

Fly Free stamp by Suzi Blu

Prima Crystals and Pearls

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints, Painterly Pink, Sky Blue and Landscape Green

Artistic Outpost Serenity stamp sheet for the flourish and
Claudine Hellmuth Gesso

Wishing you a lovely, happy day, Sam xxx

Twit - Twooooooo baby canvas by Julie Dandy

This was the canvas I decorated for my beautiful Great Niece Emily Rose as a christening present.

This month over at the Happy Daze blog the challenge is based around water themed or technique projetcs - now this might leave you a bit confused by my project???

Well the main technique I used was image transfer with Claudine Hellmuth's sticky backed canvas and patterned papers detailed on my blog HERE.

the canvas was panited with acrylic paint using a baby wipe and blending two contrasting colours. 

I then added a crackle glaze and the top coat of cream acrylic paint. 

I spritzed  my bacground with a combo of cosmic shimmer mist and a mist of distress re-inker with perfect pearls mixed in.

The shapes were cut by hand to co-ordinate with Emily's super cute bedding, and everything was adhered to the canvas with Claudine's multi matte medium.

To finish off I added distress and glitz stickles to add a pretty highlight :D

Her Mum loved it so much I made her cry - oops!!

here's a couple of close-ups ....

I hope it doesn't make Emily cry :-O

hugs'n'snogs,

Julie xx

Vintage Portrait Tag By Paula Tidman

There are some lovely new blockhead stamps in the Happy Daze shop. They are gorgeous quality, and lovely thick rubber. I used the vintage portrait set for my tag. I dabbed distress inks in pine cone, barn door and  picket fence onto my craft mat and sprayed with water, (I think the technical term now used is smooshed) the tag across the ink. Then I randomly stamped one of the stamps from the set in archival ink on the tag. I used an old book page and tore to fit and then stitched it onto the tag. I stamped and cut out the vintage portrait and coloured with distress inks and sewed onto my tag. Adding some flowers, jewels and ribbon from my stash to finish.

A quick reminder about the current Happy Daze Challenge which  you still have plenty of time to enter. It is "April Showers" So have fun using your favourite water technique.  One lucky winner will be drawn at random to win a  £15 voucher and free P&P to spend in the Happy Daze shop. Maximum of 3 entries per person & you must use at least one product which can be purchased in the Happy Daze shop.

• You can enter by blogging you address to the linky widget here, 
• emailing your picture to info@happy-daze.net
• uploading your photo to their facebook page

Fantastic Fabric using Artistic Outpost Rubber Stamps By Helen Chilton

A project using one of the new Artistic Outpost Set of stamps Flower Market for the main images and quotes from various other Artistic Outpost plates .
It has been stamped onto various fabric scraps using Black stazon and coloured with a combination of Distress inks and water colours. For full details of how Helen has done this amazing project have a look at her blog.

In the Midnight Garden by Moira Sutton

I have used one of the new Suzi Blu stamps to make this canvas, as well as lots of stamps in the background from Prima and Pink Paislee.  It is a 5 x 7 inch cnavas so you can see these are sizable stamps.  The stamp does not have a skirt I drew that on to extend her slightly.

Don't forget our Challenge this month is April Showers - use a water technique or a water theme.  For detials of how to enter and win a £15 Gift Voucher click here

faux mulberry flowers - a water technique

following this months "april showers" water related theme, I have decided to use the technique which I detailed here to make some faux handmade paper along with the tatty paper flower tecnique which I detailed here, to make this simple tag. I stamped The squiggle arms stamp from stampotique with brown ink onto a tag cut from Kraft card. I distressed the edge of tag with a tim holtz distress tool, coloured the stamped image with pencils and added the flower which I finished with metallic rub-ons

A Little Rain Must Fall by Moira Sutton

Whenever I can I go to a monthly crafting play day with a groups of friends.  We select a project to work on and whatever we work on each piece always looks very different.  This metal houses on canvas project was inspired by a piece of work by Ellen Vargo.  Ellen’s piece was a winter night scene but I went for an April Showers rainy spring afternoon.   The metal is of course Ten second Studio, and the canvas uses Studio Paints.  

For full details of how you can win a £15 Gift Voucher by entering our monthly challenge  click here

Enjoyable Scrunching - Annette Goatley (nettyscraftings)

This month we are using water in our projects so thought I would show you how I made the background for this card.

First I took a sheet of A4 good quality copy paper and spray misted it with water,  swiped it over with Distress Inks, then scrunched it all up.  Rollered out and it looked like this. (If you haven't got a Speed Roller a Rolling Pin will do)

After it was dry, added some more Distress Inks then let that dry.  Finally I added Inka Gold and Inka Copper rubbing it into the paper.

Other products used: Embossing Folder, T Holtz Die Cut, Ribbons from Stash and Gold Stickles.
Stamp by: Lost Coast Designs - The Swimsuit Girl

Altered the Swimsuit to a Dress with the left over Scrunched Paper, pretty neat don't you think...lol

You can have so much fun with water and it doesn't have to be difficult to get a smashing effect.
Looking forward to seeing your creations for the challenge.
Take care and will see you soon, Hugs Annette x

Best of British By Paula Tidman

I have to own up that I've never made an ATC before as I've always found the diminutive size rather daunting, but these chunky wooden ATC's are perfect for me as they have plenty of surfaces for decorating. 

I sanded down and rounded the edges. Then coated with black gesso, once dry randomly painting red and blue acrylic paint on the block, then a final coating of a thin layer of white gesso. I sanded lightly to show some of the paint beneath. Then using black archival ink I stamped Artistic Outpost Loverley London plate, ooops and stamped one of them upside too LOL! I buffed over Barn door and chipped sapphire Distress Inks to highlight the paint showing through. I rubbed Inka gold along the edges and buffed to a shine

I bent & cut four of the these filigree corners (an idea from one of Gingers gorgeous creations) and glued in place with glossy accents. I screwed in a small draw knob from my stash to complete.

A quick reminder about the current Happy Daze Challenge which  you still have plenty of time to enter. It is "April Showers" So have fun using your favourite water technique.  One lucky winner will be drawn at random to win a  £15 voucher and free P&P to spend in the Happy Daze shop. Maximum of 3 entries per person & you must use at least one product which can be purchased in the Happy Daze shop.

• You can enter by blogging you address to the linky widget here, 
• emailing your picture to info@happy-daze.net
• uploading your photo to their facebook page

New Blockheads Rubber Stamps - Steampunk Wooden Arch By Carol Fox

A lovely new range of stamps are now being stocked in the shop. They are by Blockheads Paper Arts. I have loved this range for ages and I am so pleased that I now have a UK stockist for them.
I have used one of my favourite sets on this Double wooden arch. It is called Vintage Railroad.
I gave the arch a quick coat of in cream acrylic paint, followed by a quick swipe over with some Claudine Hellmuth Sable Brown applied with a baby wipe so it distressed rather than painted on.
I applied the same brown paint through a Crafters Workshop screen for the background.

All images were stamped using archival ink, then coloured in using very thin water colours, for a faded look, I decided they were still to bright so I went over them all using Vintage photo distress ink to tone them down. I then stuck them all in place using Multi medium.

I stamped the "all Aboard" directly onto the arch and embossed it in black to make it stand out a little bit.
I then embellished it with a combination of old rusty bits and newer ideology items that I have aged using inks and paints.

The current challenge is April showers, use a water technique or a water theme for your project. For the full details and how to enter have a look at the blog post here.

Celestial Waters by Samantha Read

It's great fun finding different ways to use water particularly with distress inks as they react so well to water.

To make the background for this card I simply covered the card with broken china distress ink and then put a little water on Jo's star stamp, and stamped. I applied the water to stamp with my finger as I discovered too much water on your stamps and the image isn't clear. I found the best way to get a good water stamped image was to press firmly but not for long and then dry promptly with a heat gun before the image got too watered down. It's really worth practising this technique as the effect is never the same twice.

The Lily and Zoe stamp from Paperbag Studios is quickly becoming one of my favourites, so colouring them in contrasting colours and a bit of textured matting and layering brings this card to life. I do so hope you like it.

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

I used: 

Lily and Zoe, Paperbag Studios

Small Moon, Stampotique 

Jo's Star, Stampotique and

Broken China Distress Inkpad

A Shore thing.... by Julie Dandy

Moira has just got these fabby frames in this week and I <3 them :D

I altered mine with TH distress stains and crackle paint and a bit of bling with distress stickles.

The images are Artistic Outpost Beyond the Sea which were perfect for this months water themed challenge :D

The images were stamped on to Claudine hellmuths sticky backed canvas with archival ink and coloured with distress inkpads.
The TH muse token was coloured with stream and snow cap alcohol ink to give a patina effect.

 Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

New Craft Stamper Magazine Available from the shop

Just to let you all know that the May edition of Craft Stamper is now available to buy from the shop. It has the free postage option if you are making other purchases, or there is a small P & P charge if you just want the magazine.
This months mag has some lovely items from the Happy Daze Design team featured in it.
Paula Tidman has a lovely Jewellery box, Helen Chilton shows you how to do image transfer using Gesso and Carol Fox has altered some childrens puzzle blocks, these are available from the shop which are just the right size for this project.

Sisters by Moira Sutton

It is my husbands Aunts birthday shortly, one of thise big ones with 0s at the end,  I had this fab photo of her with her sister, my husband's mum, as little girls  and I wanted to make a lay out for her as a gift , but I also wanted her to be able to hang it on the wall.  So I used our new 30 x 30 cm canvases as the base and then built it up as normal but using gel medium to make sure it stuck and was sealed.

March Challenge Winner

Bit late posting this sorry!. The Random number wotsit has drawn number 4 and the lucky winner is Asia King. Have a look at her lovely card on her blog here.
If you would like to email Moira at the shop Joanna she will arrange your gift voucher to be sent to you. Hope to see you again this month.

The full details of the challenge for this month can be seen on the post here.

April Challenge - April Showers

The challenge theme for this month is April Showers. Use anything watery on your project, a water technique as Paula has here, or anything water themed, think mermaids and seaside. Your water technique can be as simple as water colour paints or pencils or using some of the lovely ink sprays available from the shop. Let your imagination run wild.
Just remember to be eligible for entry into the prize draw you must use at least one item that is available from the shop and link to this post on your blog.
To get you in the mood this month Paula has made this gorgeous Steampunk canvas.

Paula Say's about her canvas.

I have to admit I’m not really one for techniques, so you could keep it simple like me. Or you can really let your imagination go wild and show us your different skills and methods.

For this steampunk canvas  I  used a variety of  stencils to build up layers and washes of paint to create the background,  and I used water colour paints on my stamped image.

I used an old book page and gave it a light wash of gesso then I used the Lost Coast Designs Balloon Guys stamp as my focal image. I coloured with a combination of watercolour paints and distress inks and rubbed on Inkagold around the edges.

The two embossed panels are made using ten seconds studio metal in slate, humungo tape, card, this was run through my big shot using an embossing folder. I distressed the panels with sandpaper and sponged on different acrylic paints in black, red and orange until I achieved the desired effect and then rubbed on Inka gold.

I used black stazon to stamp an image onto an optical lense then applied gilding flakes to the back. I used a metal corner,a Tim Holtz hitch fastener , sprocketgears, game spinners and time pieces to finish my canvas.

You can enter the challenge by uploading using the linky Widget below, if you dont have a blog you can enter via the Facebook page or by emailing your entry directly to me a waynemonster@gmail.com.

The challnge will close on the 30th April and the winner of the £15.00 voucher drawn by random number will be announced on the 2nd May. Just remember to be eligible for the prize draw you must use one item that is available to purchase from the shop. You can enter the challenge up to 3 times.