メリークリスマス皆

メリークリスマス皆 - Merry Christmas everyone! I know, it's way too early. Having said that so many people are already fully immersed in making their cards and gifts ready for the oncoming festive season so maybe it's not totally out of place.

This greeting could also be considered totally wrong if you bear in mind my choice of focal images - Zojoji Temple, a Buddhist temple in Toyko, Japan! However, with the colours used and my love of all things Japanese I forged ahead with this unconventional selection.

These beautiful images were actually freebies from the incredibly generous Ignacio Molina of Nicecrane Designs!! You can find them HERE alongside more wonderful samples from some of the Design Team.

If like me you are a fan of all things Oriental you will find a very reasonably priced selection of images at the Nicecrane Designs store HERE. As well as sheets of ATC's there are envelopes, b&w digital images to colour and beautiful prints which are easily resized.

Did you notice the background layers directly under each image? That's something else I'm really excited about. As you will be aware my Wendy Vecchi stencils and paste are a source of great enjoyment and experimentation. It occurred to me that the flower in the 'From The Garden' stencil looks just like a chrysanthemum.

The Japanese are so enamoured with this bloom that it has the status of royalty and it is used on the Emperor's official seal and crest. They even have a National Chrysanthemum Day, the Festival of Happiness! There, you've possibly learned something new today.

Before applying the translucent paste through this portion of the stencil I mixed it with a little Distress Paint to add colour. Unlike the white paste this means you get a 'true' colour, and when dry it acts as a perfect resist to any inks or stains. On the first card I applied Tarnished Brass Distress Stain over the top to give a very dramatic and regal effect. The second card is slightly more subtle - red on red - with the addition of Watering Can Archival Ink flowers as a contrast.

The first card also makes use of some 'Brayered Stains' card, embossing and of course lots of layering. Matting each layer adds a more professional framed finish. For the second card I employed the very popular 'chalkboard' look with this Hero Arts background stamp called 'Chinese Thank You'. OK, so that bit is a little politically incorrect but it looks good, especially when layered onto some Maja Design blue card which has been distressed with Antique Linen and Spun Sugar.

Both cards were completed with some festive sprigs, a quick and effective way of adding those festive finishing touches without them detracting from the main images.

The 'ingredients' for these cards are listed below and I hope you'll take the opportunity to visit Ignacio's super digital store, Nicecrane Designs.

I'm entering these into The Sunday Stamper challenge - You Raise Me Up - it's been a while since what I've produced has matched with one of Hels' fabulous themes so I'm thrilled our two worlds have collided for once this week!

Thank you so much for the positive response to my first video; I will be working on more for the future.

An update on my wonderful friend Anne - thankfully she has been released from hospital and is now under very strict orders to do nothing and let the healing process happen. As a result you won't/shouldn't be hearing from her for a while, but she wanted me to let you know your kind wishes, thoughts and prayers mean the world to her. Thank you so much everyone.

Take care of yourselves and enjoy what remains of the weekend, Jenny xxx

Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - From the Garden	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - Translucent	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Barn Door	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Fired Brick	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Brushed Corduroy	Tim Holtz Ranger Metallic Distress Stain - Tarnished Brass	Maja Design 6x6" Scrapbook Paper Pad - Vintage Summer Basics
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Simple Sayings	Sizzix Alterations Decorative Strip Tim Holtz Festive Greenery Die	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Watering Can	Ranger Archival Ink - Vermillion	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Antique Linen	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Spun Sugar
Ranger Inkssentials Glossy Accents

Saturday Step by Step at Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone. It's my turn to host the Saturday Step by Step over at Frilly and Funkie and I've taken a leap into the world of videos!!! Hope you'll let me know what you think.

For now take care of yourselves and have a great weekend.

Jenny xxx

Tic Tac Toe at Our Creative Corner

Hi everyone. Can't believe it's the beginning of November already! This autumn has sped by way too fast. The upside is that it's time to launch a new challenge over at Our Creative Corner.

 Steampunk Tic Tac Toe!

So all you have to do is use three of the ingredients from the diagram that are in a straight line (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) when creating your projects for our challenge and name them in your post!

You may create any "level" of steampunk - either just add some typical steampunk elements or dive deep into steampunk. So this is a challenge for steampunk lovers as well as for those who step out of their comfort zones and give it a try (which I can really recommend as steampunk is a lot of fun to do;) Just keep in mind that we want to see crafted projects and/or stamped images with your creations instead of digital makes.

With my grubby mits firmly clenched around a Wendy Vecchi 'Flourishes' stencil and techniques from Creative Chemistry 102 still fresh in my mind, I went for the centre line - "flourish, texture, a heart" - and threw in a large helping of cogs, gears and washi tape for good measure.

The starting point was the die cut heart, inked through a stencil, embossed and re-inked. At this point I tend to take a leaf out of many a scrapper's book, drawing around the main image to ensure that any stamping and stencilling is lined up properly. As the base cardstock was already the perfect colour I went with clear embossing the flourishes to add a more subtle embellishment.

The cogs and gears were great fun, altered with a mix of alcohol inking and faux rusting techniques. Even the tinsel was given a faux patina makeover. Twine and brads helped to give the design some structure and interest.

It's the first time I've been able to use this particular washi tape, whilst it seems Simple Sayings have become a staple for all of my cards. The truth is their dimensions work perfectly with 6" x 6" cards.

So now I've shown you mine how about hopping over to Our Creative Corner to see what some of my fellow team mates have been up to. I promise you will have your socks knocked off as this challenge has really inspired everyone.

Having used stencils for several elements I am entering this into;
Craft-Room Challenge - Stencils and Masks
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes
Rhedd & Rosie's Challenge - Anything Goes

And because I've used Coredinations cardstock from the Nostalgia selection;
ContadinaK - Hard Core Crop - Gratitude/Autumn Colours
Thanks so much for stopping by peeps and take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Hassle Free Marbling

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for your response to yesterday's post. I'm sending a copy of all your messages for Anne to her in hospital so she can see for herself how much support she has.

A quick post today to show you this journal, altered for No. 3 son's birthday. He doesn't have a passion for a subject at school or hobby at the moment but he does love animals, so this former steampunk gentleman has become an old fashioned ringmaster replete with performing beasts.

I took inspiration for the base of the cover from Candy Colwell's Spooky frame, covering it with an initial layer of crumpled tissue before layering on Distress Paints, stencilled embossing paste and gilding wax.

Taking part in CC102 has given me even more enthusiasm for utilising stencils, and as you can see here, after employing some masking of the main images a number of stencils were layered to add that circus/carnival feel to the background.

A hint here - if you want to 'bleach' areas having coloured them with deeper Distress Ink colours, paint on Antique Linen Distress Stain, let it dry, a little then blast it with your heat tool to allow the base stamped image to become clearer.

One of my favourite parts is the inside cover. I was lucky enough to win my choice of a new stamp from The Artistic Stamper and went for the Marbled Background. You will be seeing much more of this as it is an easy and far less messy way of creating those wonderful marbled backgrounds people usually achieve with inks and shaving foam. Here I used it with Distress Stains before adding some more ink through a Dylusions Stencil  and using another fabulous stamp called Smudge Background which gives you a distress look without having to go to the trouble of spritzing/flicking. Finally some washi tape added some much needed structure to the pages.

I will be entering this into this month's Artistic Stamper Creative Team challenge - Alter Something and highly recommend you consider adding these two background stamps to your collection.

You will never be stuck for coordinating backing papers again!

Time to leave you for now with the promise that there's much more on the way.

In the meantime please take care of yourselves.

Hugs, Jenny xxx

Special Friends

Hi everyone. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating; you can make some wonderful friends through crafting/blogging, and I'm lucky enough to have some of the best on the planet. One of those beautiful people is Anne (Redanne) who I'm sad to report is poorly at the moment. It is a measure of her incredible selflessness and thoughtfulness that, lying in hospital after a fall at the weekend, one of her first concerns was to let her blogging friends know that she wasn't ignoring them deliberately or falling behind on commenting on their work.

Knowing Anne, she'd be mortified that I'm letting you know and asking you to send your thoughts and prayers her way as she never seems to think she is worthy of attention. Knowing you guys, you'd be equally mortified that you'd been left unaware of Anne's plight and the opportunity to send those thoughts and prayers her way. On the horns of that dilemma I thought it right to keep you all 'in the loop'.

I'm sure there'll be lots of you out there who will be putting those crafting skills to good use creating a little something for Anne. For those who would like to contribute to a collection for some flowers on Anne's return home, please contact Brenda Brown (another of my 'rocks') who has incredibly kindly offered to coordinate this; brenda_brown25@hotmail.com

Isn't this absolutely gorgeous? Another wonderful person, Patricia, sent this bespoke handcrafted brooch to me along with a really moving letter. Glory only knows what I did to deserve it but her generosity and skill had me in a puddle when it arrived. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Patricia. This will be treasured and worn with beaming pride, and if you haven't seen her truly amazing box creations or beautiful cards I thoroughly recommend a visit to her blog HERE.

How lucky can one person be? Very lucky it would seem. Another parcel arrived from the amazing Anita Houston packed with these superb Halloween goodies. It is a mark of this beautiful lady's generosity that she created these and arranged to send them in the middle of family life and getting ready for her Tuscany trip. Again, they will absolutely be treasured.

So from someone who is counting her blessings, thanks for stopping by and please take care of yourselves.

Jenny xxx

Controlled Dribbling

Hi everyone. Thanks so much for dropping by and welcome to you all, including my latest followers. It's always so gratifying to see that number slowly but surely increasing. Today I want to share a bit of an experiment with you.

As many of you will be aware I am a MAHOOSIVE fan of the work of Vivian Keh (Contadina K) who produces the most amazing works of art using her trademark hot glue gun. The video on THIS POST for Donna Salazar Designs got the little grey cells spinning with possibilities.

Why did it appeal so much? As a bit of a control freak I love the idea of being able to have at least partial control over spray inks, but with no glue gun how to achieve this?

Taking some neutral paper roughly brushed with gesso, I created a basic flowing pattern by stamping leaf fronds from Wendy Vecchi's 'Love to Make Art' stamp set with her Fern Green Archival Ink. Next came a layer of her white embossing paste into which I stamped the same leaf fronds.

Now for the 'clever' bit. Translucent embossing paste through leaf stems on Wendy's 'From the Garden' stencil created something of that raised transparent effect achieved by Vivian's glue gun and more importantly the channels through which the ink could run. Once dry I rubbed a little white acrylic paint over the translucent paste to add highlights.

Now for the fun bit - dripping Dirty Martini and Sailboat Blue into the centre, spritzing it with water and allowing the ink to run along the channels created in/by the pastes. As Vivian herself says, it felt very organic, taking on a life of its own. Then I walked away for a while to allow my head time to work out how best to finish this card. Stamped Tattered Florals became the final solution (with an embossed Simple Saying) keeping the colour scheme sympathetic.

A lot has been learned during the making of this card and translucent embossing paste is now a firm favourite. Now, how can I translate these lessons into slightly more 'mass produced' Christmas cards...

The adventure continues! Have a great Friday everyone and take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - From the Garden	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - Translucent	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Watering Can	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Fern Green	Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamps - Love to Make Art	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - White	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Simple Sayings
Dyan Reaveley′s Dylusions Ink Spray - Dirty Martini	Adirondack Color Wash Dye 2 Ounce Spray - Sailboat Blue	Sizzix Alterations Decorative Strip Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Die	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Long Fasteners	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Mini Fasteners