Christmas Angel

One of my favourite things to do is to make something that can be hung somewhere in my home and enjoyed so here's a balsa wood hanging made using one of the fab Suzi Blu stamps Fly Free.

I coloured it using Derwent Inktense pencils and finished the whole thing off with some beeswax which I distressed with some oil paint. I love the effect you can get if you stamp in to the beeswax, add your brown paint and then buff with a soft cloth.

Don't forget there is still time if you're not too busy with mince pies and sherry to join in this months challenge, all the details are here.

Wishing you a fab Christmas time,

Sam xxx

You may need sunglasses!

Our challenge for November is 'Brighten up the month' and with the clocks going back and a lack of proper daylight I was glad to get out the bright paints and feel summery.

I began by stamping the Mona Lisa stamp using Staz-on on to tissue paper, painting it with a skin tone paint on the reverse so she didn't look anaemic and using lots of PVA stuck her to the mini art canvas. I then went to town with the turquoise paint, flowers and sticky gems. Shrink plastic is becoming a firm favourite of mine so I stamped and shrunk Moon Girl and text from a Suzi Blu stamp.

Just a bit of fun! Hope you can join in the challenge,

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

Play it again Sam . . .

. . . maybe not, I think this altered CD is no longer going to be able to play music. 

As soon as I saw the theme and got the tuna tin idea out of my head my thoughts turned to CD's, firstly I covered the CD with white card, giving me a blank canvas. I then drew the border and painted it using Studio Paints. I stamped the Suzi Blu stamp, coloured her face with Prisma color pencils and other details with Studio Paints. For her dress I stamped a white flourish. On the CD I stamped the fourish in black and the flower in white from the Artistic Outpost stamp sheet, Serentiy. I then attached the angel/fairy, pierced a hole at the top and bottom of the CD, threaded some white ribbon for hanging and made some shrink plastic charms using the tickets from the Prima Songbird stamps and attached them with some twirled wire and beads. Finally I added some pearls to the center of the flowers and distressed with some beeswax. 

The challenge for this month is 'Circling The World' and you still have time to play with a chance to win a £15 voucher, here are the details.

Thanks so much for looking, wishing you a happy, creative day, Sam xxx

Feeling Blue

I had been looking at these torsos for quite a while wondering what on earth would I do with one of those,  so I decided to find out! I began by reaching for fabbytastic Suzi Blu stamps and seeing which stamp would fit on the torso, the house stamp was perfect for this. So I stamped it, traced it and transferred the image to the torso. The other decorative drawings are hand drawn and the whole thing was coloured with Prismacolor pencils. Next came the sentiment, 'create your own reality', stamped on to tissue paper and applied with pva glue.

I used:

torso
Suzi Blu stamp
Catslife Press stamp

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

Rebel Heart

I really wanted to share this canvas I made using one of the fab Suzi Blu stamps. To be honest it was an experiment to see how many layers I could get on one piece of work, how many can you see?

The quote was something my partner said and is computer generated and the Rebel Heart was inspired by my dogs kennel name. Perhaps being a rebel can bring happiness!

I used a lot of bits and bobs but most importantly I used the Suzi Blu stamp Spirit Girl

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

Beeswax and Bugs

This may be the shortest blog post ever but here is a little box I decorated using just a couple of stamps, Prismacolour pencils and some beeswax.

First I stamped the images on to white card and traced with ordinary tracing paper and transferred the images to the box. I then coloured using Prismacolour pencils and then covered with beeswax and distressed it by scratching into the beeswax, applying paint and then rubbing off and buffing up with a soft cloth.

  I used the Pretty Girl Stamp by Suzi Blu

Loopy Borders by Lost Coast Designs

and a Wooden Box

It smells divine too!

Apologies for the short post, I've damaged my back and at the moment I'm unable to sit or stand for any length of time, I do hope you like my little box.

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

' Home Sweet Home ' by Annette Goatley (nettyscraftings)

Hi, for my second project this month for Happy Daze, I chose to alter a Black Ikea Photo Frame, you know the ones I mean..........the cheapy plasticky ones.

Products used:  Suzi Blu -  La Belle stamp, gesso, acrylic paints, serviette, patterned paper, watercolour paints, multi matt medium  and bits from my stash.

Am so in love with this Suzi Blu -  La Belle stamp as she is so versatile.  If you remember on 3rd June when I used her last I cut off her hat and gave her a bandana.  This time have paper pieced her hat, I have many looks in mind for this fab stamp she is now available at the Happy Daze online shop.

Wishing you a happy and crafty week, Hugs Annette xx

Romance is in the Air- The Queens Jubilee by Annette Goatley

My Design Team creation was inspired by The Queen's Jubilee celebrations in the form of Garden Parties.

Products used: The new Suzi Blu - La Belle stamp (altered),  serviettes, patterned paper,  beads  lace, gesso, water colours, gold paint dabber,  Prima flowers, Studio multi medium, and glossy accents.

I know I shouldn't say it but really love how this Hanging has turned out.  Hope you like it as well.

Wishing you all a very happy day, am off to a Family Jubilee Garden Party this afternoon.  Thank you for popping in and hope to see you soon.   Hugs Annette x

Beeswax Beauty

I'm finding the new Suzi Blu stamps very hard to resist so for this make I just wanted to show how different the same stamp can look, if you look at my previous post Queen of Hearts you'll see I've used the same stamp but changed it a little. For this make I removed her wings, ouch, and just continued her hair to her waist.

I began by stamping the Angel of Art stamp on ordinary printer paper and then removed her her wings, I stuck the image down and then coloured in her face, neck and hands with pencils as these are the only parts that are not painted. I used string and modelling paste for the texture of her hair. The little bird is made with modelling paste as are the details of the skirt. I used a Prima Songbird stamp for the flowery details around the edge. Finally I stamped the Balloons stamp on tissue paper and then glued down so I would get it in the right place. After painting everything I then used an ordinary pencil to go over the edges and some of the details which gives the whole make a hand drawn look. I covered the whole make with beeswax and then distressed it by scratching with a knife and applying burnt umber oil paint and then rubbing off, a bit of bling adds another dimension simply embedded in the beeswax.

I used some stash and Suzi Blu Angel of Art stamp,

Paperbag Studios Balloons stamp,

  Crafters Workshop screen, 

Various paint dabbers also

Prima Songbird stamps

Wishing you a lovely, happy day, Sam xxx

On Your Bike!

This months challenge is "May Queen", I have to admit that at first I struggled with the theme then I broke it down, Brian May was the guitarist in Queen and one of their many hits was Bicycle Race, a great excuse to reach for one of my many new Suzi Blu stamps, Wheels of Freedom!

I didn't have the size and shaped of canvas that I really wanted so I used some chipboard covered with a sheet of canvas. I raided my old paper stash to make the 'hill' and basically just got busy creating lots of layers using bits of torn book pages, paper punching, oil pastels and of course the stamped main image and covered the whole lot with beeswax to add a dimension of distressed ness and glitter.

I did indeed have a little yellow bike with blue wheels as a girl, not sure about the bunches in my hair though!

I used some stash, canvas sheet and Suzi Blu Wheels of Freedom stamp

A quick reminder about the current Happy Daze Challenge which  you still have plenty of time to enter. It is "May Queen." One lucky winner will be drawn at random to win a  £15 voucher with 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.

Queen of Hearts by Samantha Read

Here's another canvas decorated with a Suzi Blu stamp, I think I may be addicted to these stamps as none of my other stamps are getting inked up at the moment!

My last canvas was turned the wrong way around and was very colourful so for this piece I thought I would do the complete opposite.

I'm really enjoying this hanging on my wall, as I walk around the stars twinkle and the whole thing is quite dreamy.

I began by stamping the girl image and gluing on the canvas then adding the bits of torn paper and tucking under her skirt to make the layer. Then I covered the whole canvas with wrinkled tissue paper making it quite textured around the edges to frame the canvas. Next I 'painted' the whole thing with a really thin layer of gesso using a baby wipe to soften the text and bring it all together. I used a template for the hearts and stuck them down too. I coloured using a mixture of paint dabbers and pencil crayons and silver leafed her crown, then my favourite bits, the twinkly stars. The grey is ordinary pencil softened with a paper stump.

I used some stash and

Angel of Art by Suzi Blu

Canvas
Gesso

Paint Dabbers, cool peri and lemonade

and Silver Leaf for her crown

I do hope you like it, wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

Maypole Queen by Annette Goatley (nettyscraftings)

I have a load of Grand-Daughters birthdays this month so this new stamp by Suzi Blu is perfect for them, she is so pretty and am totally in love with her.

When I was a girl we always had a Maypole on the village green in May and all of us girls danced around the Maypole with its fabulous ribbons and one was chosen to be the Maypole Queen.  Sadly I was never chosen........aaaaahhhhhh.     Today am showing you an Enormous Tag or Door Hanger made from recycled items.

( 9 inches x 4 inches)

Items used:  Flat Cardboard and Corrugated Card (packaging) Acrylic Paints, Paint Dabbers, Distress Inks, Viva Inka Gold, Stickles, Gold Glitter and the rest of the bits and pieces are from stash.

Stamps used:  Suzi Blu 'Pretty Girl'

plus am showing a card using the same Suzi Blu stamp which is brilliantly easy and quick to make and we all love quick and easy cards don't we................

Look forward to seeing your take on the challenge.  Take care of yourselves, 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