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