Tea Towel Tote

Uh-oh! a new obsession! shopping for tea towels! No I haven't suddenly discovered the joy of housework, far from it, I have dicovered Tea Towel Totes. I saw these on Monkee Makers blog and followed the link to some fantastic instructions. I ordered some twill tape from ebay, hunted out some cute tea towels (tesco), et voila!
This took me an hour, it's so easy (although I must work on getting my sewing a bit straighter!)

I need more tea towels!!!

Stamp Something

I have just discovered another interesting challenge called "stamp something". And this week the challenge is just that: to stamp something! Well amongst my latest parcel from Inka was this gorgeous Flake Set, 5 beautiful snowflake stamps, I have stamped and embossed them onto a piece of acrylic in order to make a "first christmas" decoration for my new baby nephew.
I have embossed the edges of the acrylic piece with sparkle powder and also glittered the collage image (also from Inka.

Erica does Christmas

This is the latest instalment of the adventures of erica! I just received this Santa Hat stamp from Inka, and I knew where it was destined immediatley. And it fits her perfectly. The pinecone corner is also a new stamp I have received from Inka.
I thought the quote was pefect with Erica's pouty face.
I am entering this for Wednesday Stamper as I have used a harlequin pattern (done using a harlequin stamp and a music stamp.

make a moo or two

The theme at make a moo or two this week is wings. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to use this cherub collage I have just received from Inka. I just started with one moo and then this piece took on a life of it's own and before I knew it I had made a double sided christmas hanger from two moo cards.
The beads at the bottom are paper beads made from gold paper which has been stamped on in black with the cherub collage as well.

building ATC

I made this ATC as part of a set for a building themed swap. it was actually an experiment in the use of gilding flakes. I now have beautiful copper gilded fingers!
All stamps are by Inka

Creative wednesday

The theme at creative wednesday is "banners". I have made this clown banner using Images from Inka. The background is done with acrylic paints. I am also entering this for this thursday's theme which is masquerade. as a clown's make up is his mask.

Lillie's Card

to go with the vest I decorated I have made this card. I used the template from stampers sampler june/july 2006 to make the baby dress. The message goes inside the dress, so I have just mounted it onto acetate, so it stands but the dress is really the card.

more wearable "art"

One of my friends has just had a baby girl and has named her Lillie. An unusual name, so I thought it would be nice to create her a unique baby vest (onesie) with her name on. I know she is going to be treated like a complete princess so I thought it would be cute to do a Princess Lillie vest. I embroidered the name and stamped the Princess word, the crown and the flowers in versacraft. I also stamped the cute phrase on the back "Don't treat me any differently than you would the queen" I have sewn on some beads on the front as all princesses need a little bling. I am entering this for This thursday it's all about's stashbuster theme as I have had these beads for years. I am also entering it fot TGiF's free theme.

All stamps are by Inka

Dance Diva

The theme at TMTA is Dancing. I have these fantastic new collage images from Inka called "show stoppers" and I thought they would be perfect. All other stamps are by Inka. I have done the background with a versamark resist

napkin background

The theme at Gothic Arches is pretty in pink and the theme at saturday's workout is tissue or handherchief.
I've used a floral paper napkin to make the background, I glued it to card with mod podge, and scrunched it and left it to dry. I then sprayed it with antique brass glimmer mists to accentuate the texture. I like the sepia tones against pink so I used this sepia child from Inka, I have also used various inka stamps.

Fairy Wands

I am very proud to say that I am the guest host at Mixed Media Monday this week, and the theme is "stars"
This is an idea I originally had when a friend asked me to "do something" to a toy wand to make it look a bit better for her daughter to carry as a bridesmaid. I didn't stamp on it, I managed to resist, but it gave me the idea of making my own wand that could be sent as a greeeting. The back of the star is left blank for a message. I also thought that it would look nice as a tag tied to a gift wrapped in silver paper. The stamp is by paper artsy and the background paper is by papermania. I cut two stars using a fiskars shapecutter template, and I sandwiched the handle between. The handle is made from rolled up paper, but I have put some floristry wire inside to in order to prevent "wand flop". this allows the roll of paper to be squashed between the stars for a smoother finish. I'm really hoping that my wand will inspire others to have a go at wand making, I'd love to see what other people do. otherwise I am just looking forward to seeing everyones' "star" creations.

I have also made this gold one for the One Powerful Hour challenge. I love these colour challenges as I get everything out of that colour and just play! I even used some gold zuzu paper (I don't know what it's called, but if you are a regular on louise crosbie's blog, you'll know what I mean). even the handle is just made from gold paper. All stamps are by Inka

finally..

I'm so sorry it has took me so long to get round to doing this. This is the result of the final inchie swap. unfortuantely only 6 people took part so I decided to send each participant some of their own back as they could then use them on other projects.
despite the fact their were not many participants, what we did get was some fabulous inchies!
top row :Angela C, Kana Conger, Joanne Wardle
bottom row: Carolyn Reed, valerie myer, Mandy C.

thanks girls for taking part.

Erica Pumpkin Head

The theme at make a moo or two is pumpkins. I couldn't resist giving Erica a pumpkin head!

all images are by Inka

I've got the blahs

well actually I haven't at all, that's the theme at inchybyinch

so this is my very moody looking girl having a bad day!
the collage image is by Inka

and for those of you having a bad day, this never fails to cheer me up. it's done on an online game, club penguin.

hallowe'en centrepiece

The challenge at theme thursday is Hallowe'en and the theme at This Thursday it's All About is black, so I have combined the two challenges to make this miniature witches hat centrepiece. I have made the hat from black card, and used collage images by inka, these image are printed so that you have two of the same images but exact mirror images. this means that this piece looks the same from the back meaning it can be used as a centrepiece. also as these are printed onto cardstock they do not need any further reinforcement. the wire is just cheap green floristry wire, which holds it's shape really well.
I apologise for the quality of the picture, the light is fading here.

mixed media monday

The theme at mixed media monday this week is nature. I immediatly thought birds, and I had this lovely new little quote stamp to use.
I decided to do a house shape as I was inspired by the bird house by Diane on the mixed media monday site.
The collage image and background stamp are also by inka. the ribbon sticker and the sticker in the flowers were something I found today when I was sorting out the HUGE pile of magazines by the side of my bed. They came free with the docrafts magazine. it was my "use them or bin them" philospophy that kicked in there.
The heidi swapp ghost bird was a present from jo ages ago and was another of those "it's gorgeous, but what on earth do you do with it?" things. I like it on this though.

This is also my contribution to uk art raffle this month who's theme is "take flight"

TMTA : Architecture

The theme at TMTA is architecture. I love architecture stamps but I really wanted to soften this up a bit.
so this ATC is what a woman feels when she sees the blueprints to her dream home, imagining the flowers in place, etc etc.
All of the stamps and collage image are by Inka. I liked using the color all stamp (the blobby background) for the background as it is possible to ink it up with more than one colour to achieve a shade effect.

wednesday stamper :circles

Jo and I decided to use this week's Wednesday Stamper theme of 'Circles' to inspire our own ATC challenge. We both had the same stamp which we felt was perfect for the theme. Without any discussion of styles or techniques etc we decided to see what each of us would make with it.
This is our linked contribution to Wednesday Stamper.
This is mine,



I probably went with the most obvious interpretation of circles: wheels. the sequin stamp and the eyelet also added to the circles on this ATC. the image and sequin stamp is by Inka. The word stamp we both used is by stampinks unlimited.

Jo's can be seen on her blog here...please take a look and see what she came up with. This was a really fun challenge as I had no idea what Jo was going to do, and I think we've done completely different things with the same stamp.