Category Archives: uk stampers challenge

Art journal week39: Extravagant

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Week 39 of the ukstampers weekly challenges is all about Extravagance:

  • would you say you were extravagant?
  • what is your biggest expense?
  • use something extravagant on your page

I would say that I am not extravagant although I am drawn to pretty things and would love to enhance my home with beautiful furnishings, I think I am just a bit too practical and most items have to be useful.  My biggest expenses have been the house and furniture but having said that we have had the same furniture now for 20 years and most of it will last another 20 years so it has been money well spent.
I made the whole page extravagant but the most extravagant thing on it has to be the Paua (abalone?) shell inlay.

Inks:  Versamark ink with silver embossing powder
Card:  Black card, pearl and pink vellum
Stamp:  Inkadinkado Morphic bugs
Other:  Beadazzles Electric slide, TuTu and Disco ball, Cosmic shimmer Aqua lagoon, Stickles Pink, H2Os Cherry sorbet, Black orchid and Sky blue, Paua shell inlay, Diamond glaze, gems

Art journal week 37 Laugh

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Week 37 for ukstampers weekly challenge is all about Laugh:

  • When was the last time you had a good laugh?  What was it about?
  • What kind of humour do you like?  Do your friends think you are funny?
  • Include a smiley face on your page

I have no idea if my friends think I am funny or not – they may find my humour a little odd.  I can watch lots of comedy shows and not laugh at all but when I do find something funny I will laugh silently and the tears will roll down my face.  I do have a rather wicked sense of humour.  The last thing I laughed at was out conversation last night with friends over dinner, Lizzie and my attempts at learning crochet, and lots of other little things.
The image for the background is from Riandesigns which is the skull with the smile. I added the edging, scratchy lines and circles, ink blots and the journalling.

Paint:  black, red, green and white acrylic paint
Card: watercolour card
Other:  black, white and green pens, image background skull image

Art journal week 34 Dreams

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For week 34 of the ukstampers challenge the prompt was Dreams:

  • do you dream?  Have you a recurring dream? Do you dream in colour?
  • What is the dream you remember most?
  • Paint/stamp/collage some clouds on your page

I have loads of dreams, some good, some bad, some weird and some that I can actually fathom out some kind of meaning.

Inks/paint:  blue, white, yellow and black acrylic paint, Adirondack Pitch black ink
Card:  watercolour card
Stamps:  Invoke Art tickets, Scrolls work Stamps Mesh, Stampology Silhouette blossoms
Other:  computer generated words, coloured pens

Art journal week 36 Risk

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The prompt for week 36 of the ukstampers challenge is Risk:

  • are you a risk taker or a stay safe person?
  • which ever you are does it affect what you do now? and what is the biggest risk you have taken or should have taken?
  • use a colour or technique on your page which you wouldn’t usually

These days I am definitely a stay safe person, I have no wish to risk life or limb or anything else for that matter.  Age perhaps has a lot to do with it as in my youth I did do some motor cycle sidecar racing and the odd bit of abseiling down viaducts and such like. When you are young you tend to feel invincible – that nothing could happen to you and the risks are worth taking – that’s if you even think about the risks in the first place.

I have used Therma wrap tape (aluminium tape) over watercolour paper for my background (a method I have used before for smaller pieces but not the whole page).  Underneath the foil in some areas I have put cardboard letters, bit of sequin waste and sequin type embellishments which I rubbed over with paper stumps.  Some of the writing is just using a ballpoint pen and going over it a few time with a permanent pen, others are metal stamps stamped into the foil and highlighted with black acrylic paint.  I have used both alcohol inks and acrylic paints to colour the page and white and yellow pans to highlight.  I tried using red rub’n’buff wax over the embellishments but it didn’t come up all that well.

Inks/Paint:  alcohol inks Sunset orange, Sunshine yellow and Red pepper, acrylic paints pink and black
Card:  watercolour paper, Therma wrap tape
Stamps:  metal alphabet stamps
Other:  cardboard letters, sequin waste, sequins, coloured pens

 

Art journal week 32 Sport

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For week 32 of the ukstampers challenge the prompt is sport:

  • are you sporty? love it or hate it? have a favourite sport?
  • what sport if any would you love to try?
  • stamp some circles/rings on your page

I kind of went over sport a bit when I did my hobbies page so for this page I have chosen Martial arts as the sport I would love to try.  I did dabble in judo for a very short while but that all came to a halt when my pal hurt her knee very badly then the classes stopped, then I moved home etc etc.  If my circumstances were different I would love to try out different martial arts as there are quite a few out there.  It would be a fantastic way to keep fit with discipline and self defence.

Inks/paint:  Black document ink, red, gold, white and moss acrylic paints
Card:  white card, copy paper, Yuzen Chiyogami paper
Stamps:  Calligraphy (Ying-courage), Elusive images Dragon, Non-sequitur Oriental love letters, English stamp Co. Oriental set3, Paperbag studios Scrap journal
Other:  Copic pens green and red, Pearl ex-press watercolours metallic, embossing pen, Moss and gold embossing powder, gold and white pens, coin
The pearl ex-press watercolours give a nice shimmer to the dragon and the sprinkled embossing powders give a nice texture to the page.

Art journal week 30 Smell

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E.G. Boring’s optical illusion

The young lady’s chin is the old hag’s nose, the old hag’s mouth is the young lady’s choker, and the old hag’s chin is the area under the young lady’s choker.

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The ukstampers weekly challenge number 30 is about smell:

  • have you got a favourite smell?  is there a smell that reminds you of something – if so, what?
  • add something smelly to your background
  • use a nose image on your page

I have used E.G. Boring’s optical illusion image as my image of a nose.  You either see a young lady looking away or an old hag.   I traced around the image to make 2 pages with one page being not quite a mirror image but almost.  I splodged the paint on with a baby wipe roughly where the dark areas should be then rubbed over the tracing paper to show roughly where to draw the black outlines.  I then went over the darker areas with a grey copic pen to give then a bit more definition.
Smells can bring back memories or people, places, holidays and happy times.  My grandad used to buy blocks of tobacco which he would tease out and rub then dry in front of the fire.  I loved the smell of his tobacco pouch so the smell of tobacco reminds me of him.  The smell of cigars bring back memories of Christmas as my dad would always get cigars as a gift.  Mincemeat, mulled wine and Christmas pudding also remind me of cosy family Christmases.  Some things I just simply like the smell of, like: ferrets, stables, my dog, old books, leather, churches, hippy shops and incense (not the smoke of the incense), open fires especially peat and wood fire, the forest in the rain, coffee, fresh bread, flowers (but not lilies), the pits at motor racing, harbours when they are painting the boats with anti-fouling paint, dewy mornings when camping  and many, many more besides.  Perfumes on the other hand I am pretty fussy about.  I find that a lot of perfumes smell like fly spray and I don’t like perfumes with too much vanilla in them.  My everyday perfume is Paloma Picasso and my good perfume is Chanel No. 19.

Paints:  acrylic paints yellow, purple, red, grey
Card:  watercolour card
Stamps:  Scrollwork stamps Netting
Other:  stickles Starry night, incense sticks Sandalwood and lavender. grey copic pen, black and white pen

uk stampers weekly challenge tag week 32

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This is the 3rd attempt to get this tag finished – it didn’t all go according to plan and it still doesn’t look right to me.  It looks like the dragon it in mid air and not grounded.  You get the general idea of what I was going for.  The challenge was to incorporate:

  • fabric
  • dots
  • a crown

The fabric is red velvet paper (hope I get away with that as I couldn’t find my piece of red velvet), black dots are along the hinges and door straps and silver dots on the chalice, the crown is sitting on top of the pile of jewels.

Inks:  Black memento ink, Distress inks Black soot and Pumice stone
Card:  white card, red velvet paper,
Stamps:  medieval set (unknown origin)
Other:  gems, gold beading, crown, glossy accents, copics to colour, eyelet, bunch of keys

uk stampers weekly challenge tag week 31

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Here is week 31 of the ukstampers rolling recipe challenge:

  • dots
  • a form of transport
  • fabric

The image of Betty Boop is fabric; I pasted it too a piece of card and cut away the back ground which was black and red flames.  Her little dog looks 2-toned because the card I pasted it to was a scrap piece which had been previously stamped and this is coming through – woops.  The background denim is stamped, coloured then distressed.  The dots are on the large brad.

Inks:  Adirondak Stonewashed and Denim, Distress inks Black soot and Faded jeans
Card:  white card
Stamps: denim background (unknown)
Other:  small strip of frayed denim, Betty Boop fabric, black and white checked ribbon, large brad, chain, large pewter eyelet

ukstampers weekly tag challenge No.28

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Lagging behind again but here is my tag for the ukstampers rolling recipe challenge for week 28.  The recipe is:

  • stamped image of a child
  • sepia
  • dots

Just in case you can’t tell – the dots are on the butterfly!
Inks:  Memento black, Distress inks Vintage photo and Antique linen
Card:  watercolour card
Stamps:  Elisabeth Bell Planting some love (Sugar Nellie), Daisy flutters Aspects of design by Kay Carley
Other:  flower trim, heart eyelet and brown eyelet, lace, water colour pencils to colour, glitter pen for highlights, fibres

uk stampers weekly challenge tag week 27

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Week 27 recipe over at ukstampers weekly challenge is:
  • Bunting
  • stamped image of a child
  • sepia

I have tried to depict a child running  from the waves on the beach holding the bunting which is trailing behind her.
The image on the stamp is the girl and some waves so I stamped using the whole stamp first of all then selectively inked up the waves part and stamped repeatedly to make the sea.  I chose not to put in a horizon and to show only the sand and the sea – I’m not quite sure that this worked.

Inks:  Versafine archival vintage sepia, Opalite Glacier blue (you can’t really see it), Distress inks old paper, vintage photo, and brushed corduroy
Stamp:  Joanna Sheen On the beach
Card:  ivory card 
Other:  tiny bits of material for the bunting, fibre, shell stickers, water colour pencil for her bathing suit, white pen to add subtle highlights, sandpaper to distress