Happy Mother's Day (for last week!)

Hello!!

I had a cross stitch I'd been working on here and there for ages.....I decided to set myself the target of finishing it for Mother's Day.....just about managed that give or take a week hehe!!

Here is the finished article...it is stitched on an Aida panel on a towel. The pattern in from a book called The Ultimate Cross Stitch Companion.

I was supposed to do some extra French knots but I managed two, and I think I've finally got my head around them though for future patterns....hehe!

Here are the cards I made as well one for my mom and one for Lee's mom.

This one is some Tim Holtz paper with the butterflies on which I stuck down some alphabet masks...tim holtz again! I then sprayed the paper with Dylusions in yellow/orange and then removed the masks. I cut it out with a spellbinders dye and used walnut stain around the edge. I got a couple of chipboard shapes and coloured them possibly with distress stain I can't actually remember! I then used some distress stickles on them as well. I used a grass stencil at the bottom with some paint and then I also added a flower which I inked a little and a couple of ready made bees.

This one I had some new sparkle mediums and a stencil so I used three colours on black glossy card and it worked pretty well and I managed not to get them too intermingled as it just did each colour at the same time as I'm too impatient to wait for them to dry. I then cut it into a circle and stuck it on a card and added some picked raspberry distress ink and a greeting.

Hello,

Just finished this lovely distressed creation........mostly using distress stains and inks......I had a quick look through my mom's Compendium of Curiosities II that just arrived and it inspired me to create this card. I really love the colours being really bold but yet the white main image is not overshadowed. I stamped that image (Paper Artsy) with picket fence stain and then just went over it a little bit with a white pencil after I had used the distress inks on the background. The little flowers and leaves around the edge are Hobby Art stamps and this particular set is becoming a favourite of mine.......the little flowers are so useful in so many ways, the black ones are in archival ink and the rest are in distress. I then used the cut n dry nibs to colour them in.......these little nibs are something I can't rate highly enough they are so brilliant for colouring with distress. The chipboard sentiment is a couple of Tim Holtz stamps and some rock candy crackle paint and distress stains.....

Had to post this as I just finished this picture and I am so pleased with it....

I bought some Bockingford watercolour board to experiment with - as I love to cover my creations with ink and paint etc. and I wanted a surface that was a bit more robust so that I could go mad; and it was really great to use......I didn't really know what I was going to create....so I started off just creating a background with acrylic paints, bubble wrap and lid tops stamped and a few micro beads and I left it at that with plans of adding some stamping at some point. I came back to it today and decided on using the two Stampotique stamps I have (although I wish I have more!) and I stamped those with rainbow ink pads and then used a brush and water to colour them in by just bringing in the ink from the stamped image - which is something I have been playing with over the last couple of days because I saw it in a magazine. I also did the same with the mushrooms (which are Dylusions stamps)  - I cut them out and after creating a cloud for them stand on stuck them down with matte Mod Podge. I used Staz on ink to stamp the flowers round the edge which are a mixture of Tim Holtz stamps and a couple of Hobby Art stamps; and then finally I stamped the Tim Holtz sentiment stamp with black archival - and it turned out way better than I imagined and I managed not to make any inky fingerprints on it which is my usual mistake! Oh and just to frame it I went around the edge with black soot distress stain....

Hello,

Happy Mother's Day!

Here is this years present and card.....

I cut out the sunflower from some scrapbooking paper I've had for ages and so I had to work up the courage to cut it up! I put micro beads in the middle and distressed the edges. Then I stamped with sepia archival on the butterfly background paper and again distressed the edges....and stamped on a sentiment.

For the frame I painted some blue, green and white acrylics on the blank frame and them made use of some UTEE shapes that I made plus I coloured the shells and starfish that I already had with alcohol ink and paint. I added some glitter to look like sands, some little sequins and some micro beads then found a suitable photo - creating the fish tank you don't need to look after! hehe!

Here are two more cards that I made recently. The top one was inspired by me playing with distress stains which I used to create the background to the stamped image; which is a Paper Artsy hot pick stamp and then I built up the card around that. The background on the card itself was one of a set of Lindsay Mason stamps of background squares. I dyed the edge of the large flower with distress strains, and then used some more stamps to make the sentiment.

 I then returned to my pink and purple roots to create the second card as I was having withdrawal symptoms hehe! Again the main flower stamp was a Paper Artsy hot pick and I stamped the middle image with paint from a paint dabber and then the two either side with distress ink; then I used one of those above mentioned background squares to go around the edge. I embossed the glitter card and used an edgeability and finished it off with the flowers and ribbon.

Here was last years Mother's day present. I painted the pot with acrylic paints and distress crackle paints; then I cut down some artificial flowers and arranged them in some oasis foam; then I glued on some artificial moss and some tiny mushrooms to finish it off