Perchance to Dream....

I liked the look of  latest Art Journey challenge, Scraplings (Scraplings are made from that end bit you sometimes slice off a tall card to create a  shorter one), but had a bit of a problem in that I haven't crafted for almost a year- apart from the other day, so wasn't sure if I'd kept the strip that I'd hacked off the base when making that one..... but  fortunately in true stamping spirit, it was still where I'd left it :0)

I fancied using the Art Journey stamp that was on a Craft Stamper cover once upon a time and ended up making what can be described as a very textured chunky tag I guess. The scrapling from last weeks card is the middle yellow/blue/gold/pinky panel.

It's not long and thin as most scrapling creations are as the artwork I had last week wasnt a standard shape. The scrap piece I found to use was more of a 5cm x 10cm (so quite deep) which had been previously stuck onto an off cut of white card. I hope this is ok for the challenge rules.- I also trim BEFORE mounting onto folded card stock so have a flat scrapling tag not one like a mini card.

Then I took it a stage further and mounted my scrapling onto an old dictionary page (the 'Perchance' page), added Art Journey's 'dream' word by cutting the word 'daydreamer' in half, 

I have more of a use for cards than tags at this time of year so thought this made sense, although it's not part of the challenge.

Thank you for stopping by. Its been really good catching up with everyone. x

Jo x

Be Spontaneous!

......and Celebrate!

Over on the Art Journey Blog this month is the new challenge theme(#9) of Happy Birthday hosted for us by Willy Anderson..

This 'Celebrate...Be Spontaneous' card isn't, I agree, the most obvious of Birthday cards, but it reminded me of many-a-Christmas and Birthday celebration when you by a toddler a big pressie and they sit in the box it came in spending hours of fun just sitting in that and ignoring the gift lol!
This card shows one of the new release images which is from the Boys plate (but also in a larger size and facing the other way on an individual stamp) of a little denim clad lad having a fun time in not a box, but an old tin bath.

Here's a close up, but please ignore the tiny fleck of ink pad felt to the right of the little boys head that stuck and made a tiny dot on the inky background I made! (grrr...thats all I look at when I see this lol)





Other stamps used are Celebrate (from the Celebrate plate- although I wanted to use the Celebrate word from the Umbrella Girl Plate but couldn't find it in my stamp box!) and 'Be Spontaneous' (from the Umbrella Girl plate). The smaller butterflies are also from the Boys plate along with the main image as previously mentioned.



The stitching under the 'spontaneous' wording is just drawn with a fineliner pen as you can no doubt tell. The black 'bubble' border and postage/frank mark are rub ons .

All stamps by Art Journey.

If you take part in the challenge you will be in with a chance of winning a gift certificate from Art Journey when at the end of the month one lucky participant is drawn out of 'the hat'...well its a number generator but a hat sounds more exciting.

Art Journey 8

Today brings the latest Art Journey Challenge, challenge number 8 which has the theme of Tags set by Liesbeth.

I used all Art Journey stamps to create this idea (for those aged mid 30's /40's I had the opening titles of The Tales of the Unexpected in mind with the wiggly dancer from the 70's...-ish)

For further details please check out the Art Journey Challenge post linked above.

You need to use mainly Art Journey stamps in your design.
Here I used stamps from Art Journey's Silhouette plate and the Tree plate.

There is a ten euro voucher to be won too.
Please take a look at the team's contribution and see what you can come up with if you have any Art Journey stamps in your collection.

You used what??!!

This month I have the pleasure of hosting the seventh Art Journey Challenge (AJC#7). Its always tricky to come up with an original theme and as I was thinking about what direction the challenge should go I came up with the idea of "You used WHAT??!!"
As someone who is always looking at objects with a view to creating something with them some how, I thought we could do just that! Use, say for example a shoe, a straw, bubbles, something from the kitchen, something from nature- infact anything you like to create a mark/pattern or effect to use along side your stamping whether its a background or part of the main feature.

You can see some absolutely wonderful examples from members of the Art Journey Design Team over on the challenge blog. I hope you will be inspired by the idea and begin to look at everyday objects in a whole new light . You've got 4 weeks to show us your take on the theme. The deadline is on the 28th of March.

One participant will be randomly selected for a 10 euro’s gift certificate to shop at Art Journey! To win this gift certificate you are required to use MAINLY ART JOURNEY STAMPS.

Oh! And did you guess what I used to make my dotty background? Wasn't tricky was it...
A link of tiny beads :0)

Have fun!!!

All Heart....

Art Journey's challenge (AJ#6) this month is hosted by Tineke Koedam and as its soon Valentines Day this is what Tineke says ...

"Its February 2011 and time to start the sixth Art Journey Challenge with the theme 'heart shaped card'.
You've got 4 weeks to get in the mood and show us what your idea with this theme is. The deadline is on the 26th of February.
Then one participant will be randomly selected for a 10 euro’s gift certificate to shop at Art Journey! To win this gift certificate you are required to use MAINLY ART JOURNEY STAMPS. Put your new creation on your blog or Flickr (with a link to the challenge post on this blog) and leave a direct link to your blogpost in the 'Add your Link' section."

When making my card I decided to add the clear tear shaped gem, but then it wouldn't stand up of course lol, (doh!) so then I added a little 'foot', shown below, so it wouldn't topple.



I used all Art Journey stamps.

I hope you get an opportunity to join in.

Please check out the teams work on the Art Journey blog for more ideas ( Paula Whittaker and Deborah March are making their debut as team members but I'm sure you've seen their fabulous work before as they were regular challenge participants).

And we're off...the first challenge of 2011!

PINCH PUNCH 1st OF THE MONTH...

New challenge theme, for the start of a New Year!

The new challenge theme over on the Art Journey Challenge blog todayintil the 28th of January is to use EMBOSSING POWDER on your artwork.

Here, the pink area is all heat embossed- yes I realise its not the most subtle of colours but I tidied away all my most used items off the dining table (well, there was the small matter of needing somewhere to eat Christmas dinner lol, ) and this pink was the only ep I could find at the time of making. I stopped the heat gun just at the point the ep 'turned' in order to get a textured orange peel effect.




All stamps used are by Art Journey.
Button from the 'Willy Hélene' plate
Twiggy buds from 'Nature'
Dragonfly from 'Gorgeous Kids'
Hope from Pages'

Please take a look at the Art Journey blog where you will see more heat embossed ideas. I hope you will be able to join in the challenge. Dust off those Christmas cobwebs and New Years celebration hangovers and hunt out your embossing powders. With a bit of luck you'll find a better colour than I did lol :0)or you'll find Art Journey are giving 15% off all EP's during this challenge.

By entering your artwork using embossing powder and MAINLY Art Journey stamps, you could also win yourself a TEN EURO GIFT CERTIFICATE!!!

As easy as that!!

Art Journey #3 Romance

Apologies....on a bit of a catch up.

Over the next few days I'll post some of what should have already been posted, but for all sorts of reasons over the past fortnight (past two weeks for those not used to that expression) my pc and life online has had to wait its turn as real life stood its ground.

This card is my contribution for the third Art Journey Challenge theme which this month is Romance. Simply put together by using a stencil and sponge to create the sultry background alongside some basic black stamping and a touch of coloured pencil. The 123 numbers are available from Crafty Individuals. I added a gem to the rose for a bit of glam!




Stamps used are:
Art Journey Roses
Art Journey Dance
both available from HERE

There's also a gift certificate to be won, all you have to do is to upload your Romance artwork (using mainly Art Journey stamps...see details on the blog )onto the Art Journey Challenge post and keep those fingers crossed!

Art Journey Challenge #2 - Tape

How time flies,




... October already (white rabbits white rabbits, pinch punch first of the month no returns etc) and its the second challenge for Art Journey over on the Art Journey Design Team blog. This month it's hosted by Godelieve who has chosen the theme of TAPE for to use in the challenge along with mainly Art Journey Stamps.



There are various ways in which you can incorporate the use of tape into your artwork and so after much deliberation I decided to use 3M Magic tape as a mask to deorate this tag pocket/holder on the front of this card and then simply peeled it off once I'd blended inks etc over the areas I needed.

Stamps used are all Art Journey by Sija, the sea horse being from one of the recent releases, Art Journey SEA ,available direct from the Art Journey store in Sleen, Holland and the Art Journey website.

Art Journey Challenge #1 FRIENDS

The first Art Journey Designers Challenge is starting today with the theme of FRIENDS..

Here's what Willy, who has the tricky job of being first host, has to say...

You have four weeks to create and to post your artwork because the deadline is the 28th of September. Then one participant will be randomly selected for a 10 euro’s gift certificate to shop at Art Journey! To win this gift certificate you are required to use mainly Art Journey stamps.

So if you have any Art Journey stamps pop over to the ART JOURNEY CHALLENGE SITE (click to take you straight there)

All the stamps that I used here are by Art Journey. SMILE, MODERN 2 and WORDS. All available from Art Journey.



This week (1-7 September) Art Journey is giving a 10 % discount on all Art Journey stamps to celebrate the start of the Art Journey Challenge.





There are some really beautiful examples from members of the team to hopefully inspire you a little and to get those creative cells ticking over. Please check them out.