My Creative Classroom - Rubber Stamping Back to Basics Wk 5

Brayer Tricks

Stamp: Elusive Images

Inks: Kaleidacolor Caribbean Sea, Memento Tuxedo Black

Reflection

Stamps: Elusive Images

Inks: Kaleidacolor Caribbean Sea, Memento Tuxedo Blacck

AWARD

My fellow student from the MCC course, Deborah, has given me the above. So - it seems that to go with the flow - I should tell you 3 things about myself that make me different.

i) I cause havoc with computer purchases - don't take me shopping with you, as you're likely to come home with a faulty machine. So far I have managed to purchase the following faulty from new items: 1 Dell printer, 1 MacBook Pro Laptop, 2 Epson Printers. 3 of those were within the last few months!

ii) English is not my first language though it is the one I am most comfortable using. I normally create havoc (again) with idioms - I lead people up the wrong tree frequently, not to mention those I have then also sent barking up the garden path.

iii) If there are several ways of doing something I will automatically choose the hardest or the most long-winded method.

I'm supposed to pass this on to 5 others - so if you'd like it then I suggest you take it from me as I really don't know who to choose.

My Creative Classrooom - Rubber Stamping Back to Basics Wk 4 (part ii)

Neither of these two projects for homework were very easy for me - I'm a perfectionist & like to understand what I am doing - if it doesn't work, then I'll do it again & again until someone shows me or I find out for myself what I am doing wrong.  I still cannot quite explain why these were so hard but it took a long time for me to get the hang of blending the colours without pools of water or the resulting blend being the same all over instead of a gradation of blend.

The background to my Watercolour Pencils project was made by misting a repeatedly stamped image using an assortment of Whispers Strokes Markers with the Direct to Rubber Technique.

Watercolour Pencils

Stamps: Elusive Images
Medium: Daler-Rowney Artists' Watercolour Pencils

Mica Watercolours

Stamp: Hobby Art

Medium: Twinkling H20s

Autumnal Leaves Shaken Into a Waltz

front of card

close-up showing textured gold cardstock

& colouring of heat embossed images

close-up showing micro beads

of shaker element

inside of card showing texture of burgundy

& tan cardstocks

The All Things Sugar Nellie Forum Challenge this week is to make a Shaker Card. I only had a very small piece of acetate from which I could just manage to punch out a 2.5 x 1.5 inch rectangle with which to construct the shaker element. After a few mishaps (see below) I had my shaker which I teamed with a couple of the accessory stamps from Sugar Nellie's Home Grown Autumn Kit. I already had an idea for the layout & was working on it when I realised that it fitted the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge "wide interpretation" brief from this morning's post. I am also just within the deadline for entering Bunny Zoe's Challenge 5 which has an autumnal theme.

So to my little adventure. When attaching the acetate to my carefully punched out leaves panel I was waiting for the Glossy Accents to bond when I noticed that the leaf panel was on my bench, not between my fingers - I'd used the wrong piece of cardstock. I managed to prise the pieces apart & resorted to lighter fuel to remove the sticky mess from my little piece of precious acetate, rinsed & dried it off - I breathed a sigh of relief when it was usable. Unfortunately the micro beads weren't co-operating either - the lid insisted on coming off the little container suddenly strewing beads all over my work surface & floor. Ever tried to catch these little things? I rescued as many as I could then had to coax the remainder from around my assortment of containers & marker pots etc.... with the vacuum cleaner.

Recipe
Stamps Sugar Nellie Home Grown Autumn Kit 2009.
Inks VersaMark watermark stamp pad & Stampendous Detail Gold Embossing Powder.
Colouring Derwent Coloursoft Pencils, Paper Stumps & Sansador.
Cardstock An assortment of colours & finishes from "stash".
Punches Woodware (assorted leaves, Scalloped Rectangle & Scalloped Square), EK Success (Corner Rounder).
The gems & pearls are Kanban, the micro beads Woodware & the ribbon is from "stash".

Challenges Entered
All Things Sugar Nellie (Paper Craft Planet) Wk 28 - Let's Shake
Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge 22 - WMSC22 (I rotated the sketch 90 degrees anti-clockwise)
Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge 5 - Autmn Love (autumnal theme & colours)

A Waltzing Angel With a Hand & My Two Men

whole of tag

front & back views of tag

ribbons plaited into cord

close-up to show glittered stars of angel's skirt 

(click on image to enlarge)

Encouraged by a blogging friend Deborah & my husband I am entering this Christmas Tag for the Waltzingmouse Makes "TAG- You're it!! Challenge!!". I've been a Follower of Deborah's since we both started the MCC Stamping classes & have been intrigued by the stamps she uses. I neither recognized the Stamp company nor the images but was struck by their versatility. There is a very generous prize of £100 spend on Waltzingmouse stamps for the winner, plus another £25 if a Waltzingmouse stamp has been used. Since I don't own any of these yet & a free digi download isn't possible (my current lack of printer) I resorted to using one of the stamps from my "Unused Seasonal Box". Although I've not completed the first set of MCC classes homework I'd seen the course material for the first week of the second set & knew that I could use my future Brayered Embossed Resist "homework" project as the basis for the Waltzingmouse tag. The cord was made by plaiting 3 strands of ribbon.

Recipe
Stamp Woodware (GRW01 Christmas Angel).
Inks etc... VersaMark watermark stamp pad & Stewart Gill Ultrafine Embossing Powder, Kaleidacolor Rainbow Inkpad (Berry Blaze), Dusty Concord Distress Ink for inking cardstock edges.
Colouring Stickles Glitter Glue (Purple).
Cardstock An assortment of violet cardstock in various finishes from "stash".
Dies Spellbinders Nestabilities (Labels Seventeen).
The gems & ribbon were from "stash".

Challenge Entered
Waltzingmouse Makes - TAG- You're it!! Challenge!!

En route to a secondhand bookshop in Abergavenny we stumbled upon an Artists' Supplies shop where we found two men & a hand to help me with seeing how light is reflected onto an image or object when colouring. Richard found some history & architecture books for himself too.

My Creative Classroom - Rubber Stamping Back to Basics Wk 4 (part i)

My homework for week 4 has been severely interrupted - a faulty printer which my husband & I tried to install wirelessly with my lovely MAC. A replacement arrived but turned out to be faulty as well  when we attempted to install that (according to Apple & Epson this is extremely unusual). Then there was the continuing saga of my Dell laptop (now serviced & returned from Dell UK Hardware Support, & after a few hours with Software Support at the end of a phone to get it set up wirelessly, it will function until it chooses to go slow & need Software Support again - for a fee - to sort it out. Armed with that information the Dell is relegated to living under the dining room table until we can find somewhere else for it to be stored & the Dell printer to a photocopying machine).

We shall wait to purchase another printer - taking my MAC into Cardiff's Apple Centre &  picking one that they have for it to be installed there. We will then take said printer home via a 2 hour bus ride. Should be interesting but we've had enough for the moment & I've lots of homework to catch up on. It's a good job both of us are retired, but there are other matters of life to take care of too besides computers & crafting. I am still aiming to work with digi images but that is some time away now & in the meantime I have plenty to learn about techniques & colouring.

Bleeding Inkpads

Stamps: Hobby Art

 Medium: Nick Bantock Inkpads 

Direct to Rubber

Stamps: Elusive Images

Medium: Daler-Rowney Artists' Watrercolour Pencils, Whispers Strokes Marker

Stamps: Elusive Images

Medium: Daler Rowney Artist's Watercolour Pencils, Whispers Strokes Markers

Stamps: Elusive Images

Medium: Whispers Strokes Markers

Bleeding Inkpads & Direct to Rubber

Stamps: Elusive Images

Medium: Nick Bantock Inkpads, Whispers Strokes Markers

The final example was one of those where I discarded the image as I had a pooling of water on the leaf with attendant smudging & the background I'd been rather disappointed with. Both pieces were in the bin & kept winking at me - so I retrieved them & fiddled a bit.

Sugar Bowl 46 & All Things Sugar Nellie Wk 27 - Hippie Chick's Dilemma

 front of card

close-up of image

(the sparkle of the glitter on the flower centres & hair ties just would not show)

inside of card

This week the theme for the Paper Craft Sugar Nellie Forum Challenge is "Teenagers" whereas the Sugar Bowl Challenge 46 is Marlene's sketch with an optional theme of "One For The Boys".

Initially I followed the male theme using Hippie Chick as a teenager pondering over teenage boys - football & sports mad, & also in the sense of her going fishing for a boyfriend (hence the sentiment - see the photographs at the end of my post). When I came to photograph my card all I could see was "A Dog's Breakfast" - in short: a mess. I was so frustrated I could have cried & couldn't bear to enter it into the challenges, but neither did I want to miss the Forum Challenge deadline of Tuesday morning as I've not missed one challenge yet. What to do? Salvage the image & have another go - the result is not very exciting but I can live with entering it.

Recipe

Stamp Sugar Nellie Simply Sassy Hippie Chick.

Inks VersaFine Onyx Black.

Colouring Derwent Coloursoft Pencils, Paper Stumps & Sansodor; Inkssentials White Opaque Pen; Stickles Glitter Glue (Lime Green & Xmas Red).

Cardstock An assortment of colours & finishes from "stash".

Punches, dies etc... Woodware (Circle & Scalloped Circles), EK Success (Corner Rounder), Spellbinders Nestabilities (Labels Six).

Gems Kanban.

The ribbons are from "stash" & the flower is a Petaloo Daisy Box Blend.

Challenges Entered

The Sugar Bowl Challenge 46 - Marlene's Sketch

All Things Sugar Nellie (Paper Craft Planet) Wk 27 - Teenagers

Dog's Breakfast front

Dog's Breakfast inside