Sunday Freebie

It's Sunday again so I am back with another freebie for you to download (for personal use please). Today I have a vintage cabinet card for you; a photo of a rather dapper looking vintage gent. Just check out that impressive tash!

Click on the image to be taken to Google Drive to download in high res.

Have fun!
Katy x

Gonna be a BADASS!

I am soooooooooooooooo excited that I am going to be taking part in the One Badass Art Journal programme, starting 1st February. For a while I've been wanting to explore journaling in a bit more detail and this should be the perfect opportunity. There will be 16 art lessons with stepped out mixed media tutorials and videos to follow. I am determined to put time aside to do at least some of them in 'real time' so I can join in with the rest of the project community.

Should also be a good way to use up lots of my extraneous stash and have a play with some of the products that have barely seen the light of day since I bought them!

One of the tutors is my Visible Image and Rubber Dance DT teammate Susanne Rose who is uber talented (no pressure Susanne!). UK designer Tracy Scott is also making an appearance - there's a sneak peek on her blog and this one is definitely going to push me firmly out of my comfort zone!!!

If it sounds like your cuppa you can sign up here! Starts Monday! Might see you in the Facebook group :).

Katy x

Heart with DecoArt

Don't you love it when you accidentally invent a technique you love??? That's what happened with this piece - mostly down to the fact I am totally impatient! The effect you see on the heart is created with DecoArt Media Crackle Paste, Fluid Acrylic and Antiquing Cream - I love how aged and weathered it looks!

I'm calling it 'shabby crackle' and I've stepped out the process in this video. I am trying to appeal to people like me with an attention span of zero with my vids, so it's short and quite fast paced! I'd love to know your thoughts on it.

Here's a little more on how I made the background, which isn't covered in the video.

This is what the canvas looked like right at the start - I just layered some random bits and bobs - mostly what was lying about on my desk - with some gel medium.

I added black and white gesso and mixed them to create various tones of grey.

Paint splatters were added with watered down gesso - again black and white. I did some big fat splats and some micro spray using a toothbrush (an old one - gesso doesn't taste nice!). Some bits of cheesecloth and micro beads give extra texture.

I embellished the heart with a Tim Holtz keyhole embellishment and word stickers.

Hope you have enjoyed my tutorial today. You can find my YouTube channel here - there's not much on it yet but there hopefully will be soon!

Entering this for some challenges too:

- Simon Says Stamp Love is in the Air & use Red

- Emerald Creek Valentines is Not in the Air (cos my piece is about loving and caring for yourself)

Katy x

Create your Future for Visible Image

Today's make for Visible Image is a clean and simple tag card. I'm often asked what I do with the tags I create and they make great cards - simply cut another tag, fold a small flap at the top and adhere the flap to the back of the decorated tag to allow it to stand.

I stamped the overlapping circles in black Archival then coloured each one with Distress Ink - I used Twisted Citron, Abandoned Coral and Cracked Pistachio. I stamped a splat in black inside each circle to add detail. I stamped the words and cut them out individually before mounting to the card on 3D foam pads. I matted the tag onto black card and created a back as described above to allow it to stand.

This card really highlights how brilliantly words can work as a focal point when combined with abstract or background images. Hope you like it!

Warm wishes,

Katy x

I used these stamps on my card:

Create Your Future

Orbital

Ink Splats

Faux Paint Tubes for Rubber Dance

It's my tutorial today over on the Rubber Dance blog. I used metal sheet to create faux paint tubes for this cute mini canvas. For a full step out just follow the link :).

Katy x

Something for Sunday

Hello again - I'm back with this week's freebie download for you. Each Sunday I'll offer a free vintage image for you to download and use in your craft projects (personal use only please!). These are pieces from my personal collection of vintage ephemera.

This time it's an old bingo game card; nice and high res so you can print it actual size or make yourself some dinky little mini bingo cards.

Clicking the image will take you to Google Drive, from where you can download the image at full res - all the images are high-res scans and are at print resolution.

Hope you like today's offering - please let me know what you think.

Thanks for visiting today,
Katy x

UTEE Pendant for ColourArte

It's my turn at ColourArte today and as always there's a step-by-step tutorial to guide you. This week, I've created a pretty pendant from an upcycled domino, using Primary Elements combined with UTEE.

I've also been trying to get to grips with video creation this week and here are the results - a film of me making the above. It's a bit rough around the edges but you have to start somewhere, right?

Hope you enjoy it!

Katy x

Something for Sunday

Click on her to link to the full size image on Google Drive

I never blog on a Sunday so I though I'd start doing something regularly every week. Each Sunday I'll offer a free vintage image for you to download and use in your craft projects (personal use only please!). These are pieces from my personal collection of vintage ephemera and might include anything from postcards, to vintage labels and old documents.

One thing I especially love to collect is old postcards, especially portraits. You can still pick these up relatively cheaply at flea markets and antique fairs - I rarely pay more than £2 (although I am not choosy about condition which helps - as far as I am concerned a few creases and dog-ears adds to the vintage look!). So today's image is tinted sepia postcard that dates from the Edwardian era - I think the subject is utterly charming.

Clicking the image will take you to Google Drive, from where you can download the image at full res - all the images are high-res scans and are at print resolution :).

Hope you like today's offering - please let me know what you think of her. And most importantly do you like the idea or am I wasting my time!!!

Thanks for visiting today,
Katy x

Vacation Time

Yes, it's January and with Christmas gone and forgotten I'm already longing for a holiday! So I decided to dig out one of my oldest but best loved Rubber Dance sets and create a card with a travel theme.

I turned to my favourite ever colour scheme - blue and brown again! - and created in a vintage style which I think really suits this particular stamp set.

Here's how I made it:

1) Stamp the Venetian image, 'carte postale' and the postcard onto white card. Watercolour them with Distress Inks and a water brush. I used these colours: Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans, Blueprint Sketch, Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, Vintage Photo. Crumble the Venetian scene and postcard to age them and ink the edges.

2) Splatter a cream A6 card with Tumbled Glass Distress Spray. Stamp the card with various images in Sepia and Jet Black Archival Inks. Ink the edges with Vintage Photo.

3) Layer the cut pout images onto the card blank with 3D foam for dimension - and you're done. Not a difficult card to create this one :).

Katy x

I used these lovely Rubber Dance stamps;

Travel

Postcard

Envelope Stamps

Visible Image Debut!

It's my first post as a member of the Visible Image Design Team today! I found out about the team before Christmas and I've been dying to make a start! My stamps arrived on Monday so I haven't had a lot of time to make - hence I've just done a clean and simple card for today. I'm calling it 'Winter Butterfly' because I think the colours are really seasonal.

I stamped the Edgy image in Pumice Stone Distress Ink onto a panel of card, then stamped the butterfly and sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black. I stamped the butterfly again onto card and coloured it with Distress Stains in Peacock Feathers and Tumbled Glass, finishing with a few dots of white gel pen. I glued just the centre of the painted butterfly to the card panel so the wings are raised up. I added the panel to a white card blank with 3D foam tape - love this white-on-white layering; I think it looks really classy.

I don't often work with clear stamps but I have to say these stamp really nicely and they are SO thick and heavy-duty!

There's inspiration almost every day on the Visible Image blog and if you want to check out more work with Visible Image stamps or share your own, they have a Facebook Group too.

You can find the stamps I used via the links below:

Large Butterfly

Edgy

Imagine Dream Inspire

Thanks for stopping by :).
Katy x

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Art with Mona

Today I am combining two of my fave Rubber Dance stamp sets - my brand new Artist set and an old favourite, the beautiful Da Vinci set. I've created a multi-layered tag celebrating all things art.

For those amongst you as a pedantic as I... yes, I am aware that paint didn't come in tubes in Da Vinci's day - but neither is this tag an original old master, so that's my excuse and I am sticking with it!

I used my beloved kraft card as the base (in case you were wondering - which you probably weren't but I am going to tell you anyway - I love the kraft card from docrafts and it's the only one I buy).

Here's how I made it:
1) I started by cutting three kraft tags. I stamped the largest tag with the paintbrushes from my Artist set in Potting Soil Archival. I stamped the smaller tags in the same ink with other images from the set and added torn book pages to all the tags.

2) I then used black Archival to stamp splatters (part of one of the heart stamps), the art definition stamp and the coffee ring stamp here and there on all the tags. I edged all the tags with Ground Espresso Distress Ink (which, incidentally, may be my new fave).

3) Stamp Mona Lisa onto white card and colour her with watered down Distress Inks (Tattered Rose is the perfect tone for Caucasian skin). Stamp the paint tubes and brushes and 'Art' word and colour them too,

4) Layer up all the bits and bobs as shown - I used foam tape on the tags and Mona, and Pinflair Glue Gel (a bit like silicone glue) for the cut out embellies to make the tag really 3D!

I am not sure I've done the great master justice, but I love my tag anyway! Any celebration of the joy of art makes me happy.

Katy x

I used these awesome Rubber Dance stamps:

Artist

Round in Circles

Da Vinci

Collage Mix (I just used the Art stamp off this one)

I Heart Art (I used the stamp bottom left to create the splatters)

My ColourArte Day

It's my turn to do a tutorial again on ColourArte today and I created a pretty layered background using Twinkling H20s.

There's a full step-by-step tutorial on the ColourArte blog.

Katy x

Fear........

Something a little dark today.... Without getting overly personal, I've come to realise over time that I have an almost paralysing fear of the unknown. Even to the point I like to know exactly what time a visitor will arrive..... Anyway.... enough of the workings of my dysfunctional brain! Onto the art!

I got this stamp with my winning voucher from a recent Stampotique challenge (thank you Stampotique!). It's called 'A Single Tear' and I really love it! The background is created with two of my fave DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic colours - Cobolt Teal Hue and Green Gold. Yum! I layered die cuts and added some light stamping before adding the focal image with foam pads.

A simple make but am pleased with how striking she is; mostly due to that gorgeous stamp!

Katy x

Giveaway!!!

I thought I'd start 2016 with a little blog giveaway (aka blatant attempt to promote my stamps and blog!).

If you'd like to win my Rubber Dance Sew Sweet stamp set, just follow my blog (several ways to follow on the right-hand panel) and leave a comment below. If you also like my Facebook page here I'll enter you into the draw twice :).

Here's a piece of art I made with the set a while back. Closing date: 31st January 2016

GOOD LUCK!

Katy x