More paint challenge entries!

Hello stampers!

I've got some more entries to share today!

First we have this ATC that was created by Marjie Kemper from The USA:

Marjie says:

"I made this ATC using a scrap of Cosmo Cricket paper cut on Tim's ATC die, then covered it with gesso and edged it with a Ranger lettuce green paint dabber. I really love what the gesso and paint did for this striped paper scrap".

"I cut the new tiny bird and cage from Tim's new mini die set and cut a bit of ball chain to hang it from the branch stamp. I cut the cage out of brown fun foam. The bird was from a scrap of text paper, inked with fired brick, and covered with Ranger's Glossy Accents. Also used GA to secure the chain and the bird to the outside of the cage. Liking it that she's free to fly!".

Great work Marjie!

Next we have this card that was sent in by Karen Daley of Canada:

Karen says:

"I started with a sheet of textured shimmer paper, and coated it with acrylic paint dabbers (pool and lettuce). The shimmer didn't show through, but I still like the texture of the paper, and the white bits still show shimmer. The "thanks" (Impress Rubber Stamps) was stamped in black and heat embossed in black, and matted on more black. The card base is olive, with some botanical silhouettes (Darkroom Door) stamped in dusty lime and Opaline blue ink. The flowers are from my stash".

Lovely work Karen!

Lastly for today we have a scrapbook page by Mandy Dodd: (click to enlarge)

Mandy says:

"My background is a bit of layer over layer with paper and tissue underneath gesso and a couple of letter stamps imprinted into it. The diamond/harlequin stamp is from Purple Onion and one of my favourites".

Gorgeous work Mandy!

Well that's it from me for today!

There's only 3 more full days left to get your Paint Challenge entries in! Can't wait to see 'em!

~Sarah~

More painty goodness!

Hello stampers!

I ave some more painty goodness to share with you today!

First we have this plaque that was created by Vicky Fernando:

Vicky says:

"I started by painting a Collections chipboard shape with a base colour of pale beige (Kaiser acrylic paint) then adding some Veridian (Reeves acrylic paint) to the edges. I then used various stamps (Darkroom Door's Lovebirds, Gothic Arches, Wildflowers Vol 1, Flourish background stamp) Delish clear stamps (tiny script), Victoria's Secret (alphabet), Catslife Press (a little bird...)".

"They were all stamped with Archival ink (jet black) overlapping the images with MM's sea foam glaze, and using some bubble wrap and white acrylic paint. For the sentiment, I stamped the individual letters (Etcetera Circa 1937 foam stamps) with black acrylic paint onto some kraft coloured card, trimmed the letters with some decorative scissors, and when dried, I covered them with Dimensional Magic and stuck them on with a mix of double sided tape and foam tape".

"I added the red paper flower, a flower cut out of a playing card (using an Alterations die) and a brad, all covered with a touch of diamond Stickles".

Gorgeous work Vicky!

Next we have this wall hanging that was created by Shirley Henry:

Shirley says:

"I created a wall hanging with four small ATC size canvases. Two of them were painted with "Pool" dabber paint. The other two were painted on the back (to turn into "shadow boxes") in Mushroom dabber paint, then antique linen crackle paint. The 'lazy days' box I applied some scattered straw distress embossing powder to the bottom right hand side. The shadow boxes were also painted inside with Pool paint".

"Darkroom Door Seaside VOL1 stamps were used on all four. Inked with Versafine black. The bird is from the Darkroom Door Love Birds set. Darkroom Door Seaside film strips attached with foam tape inside shadow boxes. White mesh ribbon and some of the shells were misted with Sand glimmer mist.
Shells attached with hot glue gun".

"I used a gold gelly pen for the light in the Lighthouse, and some jute on the starfish canvas. A piece of sturdy cardboard was painted with Pool paint and jute for hanging was attached with staples. The four canvases then attached with hot glue".

Awesome work Shirley!

And lastly we have this card that was sent in by Jenene Evans:

Jenene says:

"For my card this month I have used stamps by Stampin' Up, and the text stamp is by Darkroom Door. I first stamped the 3 tortoises and cut them out, then painstakingly painted with acrylic paints and a very fine paint brush. The middle tortoise is raised up. The background of the card I partly embossed in black, and painted the rest with acrylic paint. The Text I stamped in grey and also used paint over some of the letters, then mounted on pink paper".

Great work Jenene! Those are some very funky tortoises!!

Keep all the great work coming everyone!

~Sarah~

PS: If you live on or near the Central Coast and are looking for something to do tomorrow (you've gottta leave the house anyway to vote in the election, right?!) why not come along to one or both of my classes at Pages2Scrap? I promise we'll have lots of inky fun!! :)

Our first Paint Entries!

Hello stampers!

I have lots of lovely painty goodness to share with you today!!

First we have this card that was sent in by Ellie Knoll from The Netherlands:

And here is a close up:

Ellie has written a tutorial on her blog about the technique she used for this card. Check it out here.

Great work Ellie!

Next we have a scrapbooking layout that was sent in by Emily Pearce:

Emily says:

"I scraped red paint around the edges of my layout with a piece of cardstock, then a sprayed a bit of glimmer mist. Once it dried I got out all my "boy stamps" and stamped over the paint".

Awesome work Emily! So great to see a scrapbook page here!

Next up we have an altered notebook by Lynne Quinn:

Lynne says:

"For my plastic covered note book I masked off an area for painting then added 2 coats of luminere paint. I then dabbed 3 more colours of the same same paint, stuck down girl with Liquitex, and added words and roses. I then sealed again with Liquitex".

"The name "Lynne" is a word stamp that I had made".

Lovely work Lynne!

Lastly for today we have some altered bags that were created by Giovanna from Italy:

Gio says:

"For this project I altered two little bags with paint, used colour catchers and lots of stamping. I painted the bags with red and teal acrylic colors. I stamped with a swirl background stamp with gesso from Aladine".

"I put together four colour catchers and I started to stamp on them with different rubber stamps:
the clock and the dressform with staz-on, the flower from Stampinback with some gesso".

"I cut the colour catchers into little squares. I opened up the bags and sewed three squares on every bag, and I added some micro beads".

You can see step by step photos on Giovanna's blog here.

Great work Gio! 

Wow - what a very different bunch of projects! I just love seeing all the different interpretations of the challenges! You guys rock!

Stay inky!

~Sarah~

THE {QUICK} THEME FOR MARCH 2011 IS.....

PAINT!

We've done Paint as a theme before during our Gothic ARches challenge, but I thought it would be a fun one to do for this month's quick 2 week challenge.

SO - your task is to create a stamped project using paint! Cards, ATC's, mixed media - anything your heart desires!

Here are some ideas:

* Use paint as a background and then stamp over it.
* Stamp with paint.
* Stamp into texture paint.
* Paint over an embossed image.

Here's a sneak peek of a project I did last week using paint and lots of stamps:

You can see more of it on my blog here.

There will only be one winner for this quick challenge, and it will be a random draw, so you've gotta be in it to win it!

Entries are due by Midnight March 31st (Sydney, Australia time). Entries must comply with the challenge details and the participation guidelines set out in the sidebar to the right. If you have any questions, please let me know!

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

~Sarah~

The last bookmark entries!

Hello again stampers!

The Bookmarks challenge is officially closed! Thank you to everyone who sent in entries this month - they're fabulous!

I have a couple more to share that came in before deadline last night.

First we have this bookmark that was sent in by Karen Daley from Canada:

Karen says:

"I used a #8 manila tag and sponged on various colours and stamped over with Darkroom Door botanical silhouettes using Distress Ink. I splattered, and added some more flowers, and the diamond stamp down the side (also Darkroom Door). The flourish in gold (hard to see on the scan) is a Stampers Anonymous stamp. The quotation is black embossed and also Darkroom Door. The ribbon is hand-dyed silk and really matches the Victorian Velvet ink".

Gorgeous work Karen!

Next we have this bookmark that was sent in by Lyn Smith:

Lyn says:

"I used some watercolour paper and wet it liberally before applying some Lumiere paints. I had to water down the paints a fair bit so that my stamping would show through, but hopefully you can still see the lovely shimmer of the paints in my photos. Just click on the photos for a close-up of the shimmer".

"The stamp I used is a gorgeous peacock, one of my favourite images by Magenta Stamps. After my painted watercolour piece had dried, I used Black Onyx Versafine ink to stamp the peacock, I find it's the best for finely detailed stamps like this one. When the ink had dried, I used a gold gel pen and a Signo white gel pen to highlight some of the peacock. I layered my stamped piece onto some black cardstock, punched a hole in the top and added a purchased tassel".

Beautiful work Lyn!

And last but not least we have this bookmark that was sent in by Kim Price:

Kim says:

"I have used stamps by Darkroom DOor and Kaisercraft. I've also used some paper Prima flowers, Tim Holtz Distress Crackle, some thick black twine and a doodling pen".

Lovely work Kim!

Who knew bookmarks would bring out so many stampers and so much gorgeous creativity! This has been a really fun challenge to watch!

Don't forget - March's challenge will start very soon, and will only go until the end of the month - so you'll need to jump into action quickly! :)

Until then.......

~Sarah~

One more bookmark!

Hello stampers!

I've been so busy lately - feels like I haven't been here in ages! I hope you're all well!

As you can see, no new challenge has been put up for March yet. I thought it best to wait until the bookmark challenge is over, so March's challenge will start on the 13th and be a short one so we can get back on track in April for our 3rd Birthday celebrations! Can you believe it?! My how time flies when we're getting inky!!

I have just one bookmark to share today, sent in by Markie Kemper from The USA:

Marjie says:

"The lady is an Acey Deucy stamp, and I used several border & collage stamps, distress inks (wild honey, spiced marmalade, black soot) and Black Stazon & Black enamel accents. The sentiment is Inkadinkadoo. This bookmark measures 11" X 3" which is quite large! I think it'll be great for marking pages in magazines because it's oversized".

Great work Marjie!

If you haven't sent in your bookmark entry, you still have time! Deadline is midnight 12th March 2011 (Sydney Australia time) so you have all day tomorrow to get nice and inky! :)

Happy stamping!

~Sarah~

Lots of lovely bookmarks!

Hello everyone!

I have lots of new entries to share today!

First we have this bookmark that was sent in by Robyn Wood:

Robyn says:

"My bookmark was created using plain white cardstock as a base. I stamped it with the Darkroom Door Criss-Cross background stamp in pearlescent lime Brilliance ink. The tag was then sponged with Adirondack dye ink – citrus, pool & lemonade. The cool thing about the Brilliance ink is that it acts as a resist against the dye ink and the pearlescent effect shows through. The quote is from Darkroom Door Art De Fleur Vol 1 set".

"Then it was a simple matter to set an eyelet in the top, tie on some ribbon and attach some lace down the left hand side. The flower was made from some velvety leaves & layered Kaiser flowers".

Very pretty Robyn!

Net we have this bookmark set that was sent in by Ellie Knol from The Netherlands:

Ellie says:

"I made them by first stamping the butterflies with Aged Mahogony Distress ink, and colored them with water color pencils". 

"On the first one I splatted some water, but then remembered that I used distress inks, so decided to not splat the second one. But I kind of like the vintagy look it gives the butterflies".

"The butterflies were masked, and I stamped the text onto the tags with brown archival ink. I sponged the background with tea dye (edges). I added color to the background with decoration chalks (blue and brown)".

Beautiful work Ellie!

Next we have a bookmark that was sent in by Alison from the UK:

Alison says:

"I smooshed tumbled glass, broken china, & wild honey distress inks on my craft mat, spritzed it with heirloom gold perfect pearls, then laid my piece of white card in it. I dried it, then carried on dipping it in the ink, until I had a background I liked".

"Next, I stamped some words & numbers from Tim Holtz’s new plate, Stuff To Say, using vintage photo & broken china distress inks. I rounded off the top corners, then inked the edges of the bookmark with broken china distress ink".

"I used my lovely Vagabond to cut some Tattered Florals out of old music sheet, then spritzed the florals with the perfect pearls spray. I edged them with vintage photo DI, then scrunched the medium flower before layering it on the larger one. I punched circles out of Tim’s lost & found paper, to embellish the flowers. Finally, I added an eyelet to the top, & some orange organza ribbon".

Gorgeous work Alison!

And last but not least we have these bookmarks that were sent in by Dawn from the UK:

And here is a close up:

Nice work Dawn!

Well that's it from me for today!

Have a lovely weekend!

~Sarah~

More bookmarks!

Hello stampers!

I have 2 new bookmarks to share today - one is an entry, and the other is one that I made the other night!

First we have this bookmark that was sent in by Jenene Evans:

Jenene says:

"This time I tried using up some of those strips that seem to accumulate (I’m not good at throwing out even the little bits!), so onto red cardstock I have glued numerous strips of coloured paper, then stamped ‘There is an art in reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing’ with Darkroom Door alphabet set. Next I stamped Pooh Bear with black embossing powder and coloured him in with Le Plume pens. (Stamp by Hunter Leisure Pty Ltd)".

Great work Jenene!

Now here's the bookmark that I created the other night - gave me a good excuse to get out some Tim Holtz stamps from my stash that I hadn't yet got inky!! LOL!

I started with a plain white piece of cardstock (2x7") which I inked using Vintage Photo and Scattered Straw Distress inks. I then stamped different stamps by Tim Holtz on the background in Barn Door and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks. I stamped other Tim Holtz images and the quotes over the top using Jet black Archival ink, and the inked around the edges using a sponge dauber.

Here is the back:

Both sides were stuck to a piece of black bazzill cardstock. I punched a hole at the top with my Cropadile, and threaded some red satin ribbon through.

It was fun to make, and even more fun getting out stamps that I'd never used before!!

Well that's it from me for now. Stay tuned for the next challenge! (And don' forget you still have until midnight 12th March to send in your bookmark entry if you haven't already done so!).

~Sarah~

New Releases From Darkroom Door!

Darkroom Door have just released a bunch of gorgeous new stamps and paper products!!

It's all available for pre-order now, and will start shipping from March 7th 2011! Check them out:

The Essentials 7 Collection includes 8 new rubber stamp sets:

Spiral Flowers, String Sentiments, 1920s Chic, Steampunk, Playing Cards, Fun and Games, Simply Circles, and Leaves.

See them up close here!

The Love Letters Collection includes 2 new rubber stamp sets along with Photochips™, Montage™, Filmstrips™ and Wordstrips™.

See them all here!

The Sweet Treats Collection includes 2 new rubber stamp sets along with Photochips™, Montage™, Filmstrips™ and Wordstrips™.

Drool over them here!

My favourite is the Steampunk set - it's totally screaming my name!!! I also really love the String Sentiments set - so versatile! And everything else comes a close 2nd! LOL!!

So - what's your favourite?

~Sarah~

A Barrage of Bookmarks!

Hello stampers!

Just a reminder that February's bookmark Challenge Deadline is Midnight March 12th 2011 (Sydney time). So you still have plenty of time to send me in your bookmark entries!

I will start March's challenge tomorrow, so we will have 2 challenges running side by side for a little while. But remember - no combining challenges! You must create a separate entry for each challenge. :)

I have THREE new bookmarks to share, so let's get right into it!

First we have this bookmark that was sent in by Lynne Quinn:

Lynne says:

"I used Suede cardstock from Stampin' Up and stamped wild flowers from Darkroom Door in Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The lattice is a Martha Stewart punch. The butterflys are a Sizlett die from Stampin' Up. Then I added bronze Stickles to the flowers".

Here is the back:

"On the back I stamped lines from the Darkroom Door calender set. I wrote some of my favourite books down, so that the friend who gets this bookmark will have some books already on her list to read".

Great idea Lynne! Lovely work!

Net we have this bookmark that was sent in by Ros Crichton:

Ros says:

"The Darkroom Door Luggage tag was painted in gold acrylic paint and allowed to dry. It was then run through the Big Shot using the tapestry folder. I then sprayed it with Dragonfly glimmermist and a home-made purple ink spray. Dried it with the heat gun and then spritzed with water and gently dabbed away some of the top layer of ink to reveal the gold". 

"I machine stitched around the edge adding the Tim Holtz scroll, sewed ribbon and metal corner to the bottom. Stamped the word LOVE onto a hand-made piece of paper in stazon and sprayed with glimmermist and attached by sewing. The leather flower and tassells are from an old belt and the heart is from a piece of lace".

"The reverse side is also another DD tag which I scrunched up and then smoothed out. Sprayed with glimmermist and spritzed with water and dried with heat gun. You can see a couple of scorch marks which were a happy accident. Stamps are Tim Holtz and distress inked around the edges".

Gorgeous work Ros!

Next we have this bookmark that was sent in by Shirley Henry:

Shirley says:

"The teacup/teabag stamp (freebie from January issue of Craft Stamper) was stamped in black Versafine ink onto homemade background paper five times and cut out. A torn out page from an old book was sponged with old paper and vintage photo distress inks".

"Then I sprayed with 'coffee' Glimmermist. When dried, painted on some rock candy crackle paint.
A strip of white card embossed with script embossing folder. Sponged some old paper and vintage photo over it. A slightly larger strip of pattern paper from Tim Holtz 'Paper Stash' sponged with vintage photo on edges. Corner punch used. The three strips of paper then layered as shown. The five cups layered to look like a stack. Stamped tea bag straight on to the top cup and coloured the tea tag with colour pencil.
Added a square eyelet and green ribbon to top of bookmark".

"The background paper was made by 'stamping' with a metal piece from a garlic press and milk and coke caps. Distress inks. Idea from the Uk Craft Stamper".

Here is the back:

"Words printed from computer, cut out, sponged with vintage photo and glued. Teacup and teabag stamped to paper in versafine black. Vintage photo distress ink was sponged on the pattern paper first".

Lovely work Shirley!

I still have one more bookmark to share (plus another one from ME!! *gasp!* LOL!) but you'll just have to wait for those ones - or I'll be late for work! LOL!!

Stay inky!

~Sarah~