Christmas Coasters

Good morning everybody - I can't believe that it's December already, the year has flown by and the weather has turned very wintry - it's bitterly cold and we had our first snow yesterday.

Today I'm sharing with you some Christmas coasters that I've made for the Altered Eclectics design team. As always the challenge is Anything Goes as long as its Mixed Media or Altered Art - cards are not accepted.

I used beer mat blanks for the coasters.

I was going to paint the mats but decided to cover them with some gelli prints instead.

For the toppers I used a brayer with acrylic paint to colour some card, I also stencilled some stars with Imagination Craft Starlight paint. I stamped the images with black Archival ink.

I stamped the images onto white copy paper, coloured them with pitt pens and cut them out.

I glued the toppers to the mats.

Then I glued the cut out images onto the images on the mats.

The last thing I did was to give the mats a few coats of Decoart polyurethane varnish.

I enjoyed making the mats and will be making more.

Stamps used:
Artemeo - holly.
Inca Stamps - poinsettia.
Paperartsy/Zinski - Rudolf

Thank you dropping by, why not pop over to Altered Eclectics to take a look at the wonderful inspirational pieces that the rest of the DT have made.

Art Journal Journey - Magical Mystery Tour

Good morning everyone, I'm so happy and thrilled to be hosting this months Art Journal Journey challenge, the theme that I've chosen was inspired by the Beatles song Magical Mystery Tour. Imagine there's a magical bus or train or whatever mode of transport you choose and it's there to take you on your mystery tour - it could take you anywhere, into the future or the past, into one of your favourite books, a country you've dreamed of going to, anywhere your imagination takes you.
I've chosen and old red London bus as my transport and for my first tour it whisked me away to see the sights of London - I wonder where it will take me next.

I painted the background with gesso and acrylic paint and stamped some images onto tissue paper and glued them to the page with matte medium. I printed some photos of London and stamped some images onto white card, I cut them out and glued them to the page. I gave the page a coat of matte medium and when it had dried I used my pitt pens to colour the tissue paper images.

I hope you can to enter the challenge - thank you for looking, have a great weekend. xxx Hazel.

First Post Of The Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone, this is my first post of the year and it's my DT piece for the Mixed Media Mojos January challenge, The theme is Winter with Glitter as the twist.

My project is a journal page.

I'm linking my page to the Art Journal Journey challenge - Winter Wonderland.

I covered my page with a very dark Gelli print, using a palette knife I spread some gesso that had gone very thick over it and added some white acrylic paint, I stamped the Artemio trees with Archival ink.

I covered the snowy area and parts of the trees with Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium.

I stamped the Personal Impressions images onto white card, coloured them with coloured pencils and cut them out. After gluing them to the page I splattered some white paint over everything. The words are PaperArtsy stamps.

Here is a close up of the snowman showing the glitter. Sorry the photos are so dark, the light wasn't very good when I took them.

Thank you for looking, enjoy your day.

xxx Hazel.

Craft Barn Calendar Challenge - January

I've decided to join in with the Craft Barns Calendar Challenge, for January the theme is Aqua and Snowflakes.

I used a baby wipe to colour the background with peacock feathers distress ink. The trees [Artemeo stamp] were stamped with evergreen bough distress ink. I glued bits of a lacy handmade paper at the bottom. For the snowflakes I used a mixture of Tattered Lace dies and a Martha Stuart punch. I put stickles on the snowflakes and handmade paper but the photo doesn't show it very well.
I shall probably matt the pages onto card but I'm not sure how I'm going to bind them yet.

Modes of Transport

The latest Challenge at Artful Times is Modes of Transport. For my card I've used the lovely bus on the  Stamps Away Pilkington Transport 1 stamp set. I've also used the Creative Expressions Plaid stamp and the small bus is an Artemio stamp.

The inks that I've used are fired brick and broken china Distress ink and black Archival. I edged a white card blank with the distress inks and then adhered a piece of Idea-Ology Kraft Resist paper to it. I attached some ribbon and stapled the small buses. I stamped the plaid pattern with the Distress inks and adhered it to the card. The bus was stamped with black Archival and water coloured with fired brick. I used my Dymo machine to make the Happy Birthday.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges
Artful Times challenge Modes of Transport.
Simon Says Stamp and Show some Layers.

June Swaps

It seems ages since I blogged anything so to make up for it I'm going to share two things with you that I made for a couple of June swaps.

KCUK Red White and Blue Tag swap.

I stamped the background with faded jeans Distress ink and stamped the little bus with red Colour Box ink. The flag was stamped onto white card with medeterranean blue Brilliance ink and red Colour Box ink, the London was stamped with black Archival, I then cut it out and attached it to the tag. The telephone box was stamped with Versamark, embossed with red powder, cut out and attached to the tag. The guard was stamped with black archival, coloured with a red felt tip, cut out and attached to the tag. I stapled some ribbon to the tag.
The stamps that I used are.
The Artistic Stamper for the background and London.
Artemio for the rest of the stamps.

UK Stampers Twinchie Swap

We had to show a little red heart on our twinchies, I cut mine out with the Cricut Accent Essentiaals cartridge.
I coloured the background with Dylusions spray and embossed the stamped image with black powder. I went round the edges with peacock feathers Distress ink. I used crackle glaze on the hearts and adhered them to the twinchies when dry.
The stamps I used are Elusive Images [Chocolate Baroque].

Linda Elbourne Workshop

On Sunday I went to a brilliant workshop run by Linda Elbourne at the Craft Barn We made a heart hanging using an Artemo wooden heart mobile and got very inky fingers.

I coloured the hearts with bundled sage Distress stain and edged them with rusty hinge Distress ink, then I stamped some script with black Archival and some flourishes with butternut Fresco paint. The butterflies and dragonflies were coloured and stamped the same way and then I added some gold Eco Green paint.

I'm entering my hanging in the The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog challenge. The theme this month is Hearts.
I'm also entering it in the Sunday Stamper Heart challenge.

Favorite Colour.

First of all I would like to say a big hello to all my followers and welcome my new followers. I really do appreciate you liking my work enough to follow me and I enjoy reading all your comments.

I've not felt like crafting or blogging for a few days because of a nasty little bug that sent me to my sick bed, but I'm feeling a lot better now apart from a cough and bunged up nose. I'm very behind with leaving comments on blogs but I hope to try and catch up some time this week.

For the challenge at JUST FOR FUN this week we have to use our favorite colour, so my card has to be green. Last week my Winter Distress inks arrived from the Craft Room so I used the colour evergreen bough to colour a piece of card using the direct to paper technique, then I stamped the trees with iced spruce, I distressed the edges before attaching it to a white card blank. I stamped the robin onto some of the coloured card and cut it out using a Spellbinders die, I matted it onto some white card that had also been cut out with a Spellbinders die. I attached it to the card with some gold ribbon so that it dangled. I stamped the greetings and added a snowflake charm.
The stamps that I used are
Artimio for the trees.
Andy Skinner for the robin.

Seeing Double

This week at  LESS IS MORE they are seeing double. I couldn't enter last weeks challenge but found a bit of time to enter this weeks.
I stamped the holly and drew gold lines then stamped the stars. I coloured the stars by colouring the points with a gold pen and spreading the colour using a water brush. I then added some little red berries to the holly and gold bows to the stars.
Ingredients.
Artemio stamps for the stars.
Inkadinkado stamps for the holly and words.
Pentel, gold pen.
Sakura, red pen.
Archival ink, jet black and Olive.

Here is a cream card made exactly the same.