Something Fishy.............

Today I am sharing my first make with the Something Fishy set of stamps I created recently for Rubber Dance. It's a page for my journal and an important reminder to always be myself - even if that means going against the flow.

I love anything to do with the seaside so I was very happy when Bibi wanted to make these little lovelies into stamps; I hope you like them as much as I do.

Here's how I made the page!

1) Drag various watery colours of Distress Ink randomly across coated or glossy card - make sure you start with the lightest colour - and blend quickly with a paper towel (this idea stolen from my friend Debbie Martin - thanks Debbie!).

2) Stamp the circles (Rubber Dance) in blue ink and wipe again to 'blur'; add more circles with a darker colour and do the same again.

3) Stamp the right facing fishy in black Archival Ink, towards the bottom of the page. Add lots of left facing fishes to make a shoal of fish. Add a light touch of silver paint to the images to give them the shimmery look of real fish.

4) Stamp the right facing fishy again onto a separate piece of card and colour with yellow shades of Distress Marker. When dry, add a touch of gold paint and glue the fish in place.

5) Finish the page with stickers and a hand cut arrow.

Hope to see you soon :)

Katy x

I used these awesome Rubber Dance stamps:

Something Fishy (by ME!)

Round in Circles

Monoprinting for Unruly PaperArts

I' ve been monoprinting with an acrylic block for Unruly PaperArts - check out my step-by-step tutorial in the Unruly Blogazine today.

This method of printing is super easy and you probably already have everything you need to give it a go! I had lots of fun with this - I hope my tut inspires you to have a try yourself.

See you soon!

Katy x

Sometimes Less is More

A very simple card today - make for my husband for our anniversary. He likes simple cards, so that's what he got! The hearts are masked and watercoloured loosely with Festive Berries Distress Ink. I deliberately coloured outside the lines for a fluid look.

He liked it - hope you do!

K xxx

Used these stamps:

I Heart Art (this scribble heart is a real fave)

Retro Couples (the forever stamp)

Unruly Animals!

I was delighted to be asked earlier this year to do a guest stint with Unruly Paperarts Blogazine for three months. This is my card for the Reader Art Quest - theme Animals. My card celebrates Save the Animal Day - after being lucky enough to see sea turtles in the wild, they have a special place in my heart.

I made a Brusho background and used stamps from Art Journey and Crafty Individuals to complete a simple card. I love the random effects and rich colours of the Brushos and I am getting to grips with them nicely now. I am also embracing the randomness which is good for my control freak-ism!

See my teamies makes on the same theme here!

Make sure you join in with the Quest as the prize is a GELLI PLATE! Awesome!!!

Katy x

PS - The Unruly monthly theme for April is Monoprinting so watch out for my tutorial coming up later in the month!

Rubber Dance Colour Challenge

Hello again! It's Colour Challenge reminder day at Rubber Dance today and this time I made a tag card. I am often asked what to do with tags and a really simple way to use them is to create a card by attaching a second scored tag to the reverse - could not be easier!

April Colour Challenge Swatch

For this make I stamped a grey cardstock tag with a flourish stamp and layered it with a die cut image. The two bird stamps have been coloured with Coloursoft pencils from Derwent. I stamped the images in Archival Watering Can ink for a softer look - this also enabled me to colour over the central bird images in blue to give the impression of multi-coloured stamping. As the pencils are waxy if applied heavily they will obscure a paler colour underneath.

To add the texture element of the challenge I layered the stamped images with two depths of foam pads and finished with pearls and a length of dyed seam binding ribbon.

There's an amazing prize up for grabs over at the Rubber Dance Challenge - can't wait to see what you make!

Katy x

PS - Used the new Abandoned Coral Distress Ink for my ribbon - yummy!!!!!!!!

I used these awesome Rubber Dance stamps:

Vintage Birds

Flourishes

Journal Page for Rubber Dance

Here's a sneaky peek at my journal page step-by-step for Rubber Dance. For all the details hop on over to the Rubber Dance blog.

Katy x

I used these awesome Rubber Dance stamps:

For the Birds

Vintage Birds

Andy Skinner with Art Workshops

I very recently went to a fantastic workshop with the uber talented Andy Skinner run by my very dear friend Sue of Art Workshops.

Learned loads of techniques and there is nothing - and I mean nothing - Mr Skinner does not know about the products he demos. The above class was due to be an IKEA mirror but because of my diminishing wall space, I used the painted panels on the front of a sketchbook instead. We used Antiquing Cream which is an awesome product to creating an aged look, and of course lots of paints. Oh and hair wax (but I won't give Andy's secret away!).

The second make was a little hanging again using lots of techniques including a very realistic looking faux rust.

Had a great time with great company. Even if Mr Skinner did spill his beer on me!!!

Katy xxx

Rubber Dance April Colour Challenge

Start of a brand new Colour Challenge today at Rubber Dance, where you could win an awesome bunch of rubber stamps (and believe me, they are lush!). Hope you will join us this month.

April Challenge Colour Scheme

This month's colour scheme is soft and pretty and I've used it to create a very simple Easter card. 

First I stamped the solid eggs in blue and pink chalk inks (Prima Pastel Blue and Versamagic Malted Mauve) and then over-stamped the specked egg in grey (Archival Watering Can). My background is created by randomly stamping Rubber Dance's postcard stamp in different directions using Dove Grey StazOn then inking over it with the pink chalk ink. The card is layered with die cuts and the eggs curved around a pencil before being added with PinFlair glue (like silicone glue). It's finished with a greeting stamped on a scrap left when trimming my background and cut into a flag shape.

Hoppy Easter to you!
Katy x

I used these awesome Rubber Dance stamps:

For the Birds

Vintage Postcard