Alcohol Inks Revisited

As a lot of my alcohol ink play had just been put in my bits and bobs tin, including the landscapes I did this week, I decided to fish it all out and make up some cards.

Of course I had to sort out my bits and bobs tin in the process and chucked out lots of scraps - liberating!



Anyway, I got to work and did some stamping on the landscape pieces using archival ink. I also added sentiments to a few of the cards I had already made.

I made up the mosaic/seahorse from scraps.

I also got my alcohol inks out to make an A4 piece for my Club Challenge. I used my Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritzer to blow out the drops of alcohol ink, doodled with black pen and added micro beads to the centres of the Dahlias, plus some liquid pearls. Don't those pesky micro beads get everywhere!

Lastly, not exactly alcohol inks, but one photo paper print of Dylusions from shaving foam which was in my tin, so I stamped the Indigo Blu lady and made that up into a card as well.

Also the poppy silhouette I had made at club last year, finally now a card too.

Funny what you end up making when you don't intend to.

Craft Club - Alcohol Inks

At Ashtead Craft Club last night they focused on Alcohol Inks.

I have played around with these inks before and one splodge background is much like another really.



The landscape technique leaves a lot to be desired, perhaps some stamping will sort mine out.

But I was quite taken by the flower cards, so yes this technique was my favourite. Neither technique is very precise, you tend to get different results each time you try and this was referred to as it being "organic".

For the flowers, it was quite easy really. Just one drop of ink on some non porous paper and let it spread naturally. Not sure exactly what paper they had at club but that created more uneven flowers (red and turquoise). At home I tried it on some satin card (pink) and glossy photographic paper (orange) and they both made more even circles as the ink spread out.


The leaves were done using a cocktail stick dipped in the ink and spread on the paper. The black lines are hand drawn doodles on the dried ink circles and leaves.

The butterflies were punched from matching ink coloured scraps of paper.

Five little flower cards all done.

2014 Scavenger Hunt - Part 02

Not doing so well this year, so I am just going to have to be inventive.

I was lucky with the #20 picture on the bus though. Happened to be out in the car with my husband and snapped this from the moving car through the window! (He was driving!)



I was up super early as my husband was going abroad for business, and although you can't actually see the #13 sunrise...




...this is what the sky was like at 4.55am and 5.20am on 23rd June.

And finally for this edition. I was watching the Queen's Birthday Parade on the TV on Saturday 14th June and kicked myself for not taking a photo of the #14 parade.

This has to be one of the most amazing parades called Trooping the Colour so I found a YouTube version of it and snapped a few photos from the PC. Hope that is allowed. 

Summer of Colour - Week 3

Oh some lovely soft gentle colours this week over on the Summer of Colour Challenge and another page in my DLP. The colours are Lavender, Grey & Plum, hmmm gorgeous.

This is my second attempt. I tried it first on an embossed piece of card and aimed to emphasize the bird in the cage but made it worse. So I tried again on some plain card and stamped with a different inkpad. My Plum is the little heat embossed butterfly, the splashes of ink and the border.

My Dad - Remembered

It is now 16 years since since my Dad passed away suddenly at the age of 68yrs.

Aubrey Ernest Hares 

26-2-1930 - 18-6-1998

Here are some memories of him.
First as a child with his Dad.

As a dashing young man with his parents, Ernest Albert Hares and Laura Amelia Hares née Foyne.

When he came to stay with me so we could go the the Olympia model airplane show back in 1994. He's holding one of the "living room stick" planes which he made. They are fashioned in such a way that they fly in circles so can be flown indoors.


















When I met up with him at a model airplane show in Middle Wallop, Easter 1996.




And lastly one of the final times I saw him, when he gave me away at my wedding in February 1998.

He died when I was 3 months pregnant with his first grandson.

Always fondly remembered Dad. I'll light a candle and play my harp just for you.

Summer of Colour - Week 2

Another set of colours to use this week over on the Summer of Colour Challenge. Again I am doing a flap in my DLP.

I seem to have adopted an "embossing" theme for the challenge this year. This week I used card in the 2 main colours of Coral and Teal. I embossed this with a plastic stencil in my Cuttlebug but the impression wasn't that great, really ought to have tried again with a different sandwich but didn't wish to spoil my stencil. Could also have made the impression deeper by hand but forgot!

Anyway, I proceeded to cover the card join with a piece of White (the Smudge, Splash, Pop colour) lace and hand painted the raised parts of the pattern also in white. I added a few spots of white glitter to the flowers too.

Q&L #11 - Mistake

The Craft Barn words for their challenge this fortnight are "Mountain" and "Mistake".

I was tempted by the John Denver song with "mountain momma" in it but then found the quote by Friedrich Nietzsche, 

"Without music, life would be a mistake." 

I used one of my new stencils which I bought at The Craft Barn's extravaganza weekend. I sprayed the excess ink on it with water and turned it over to create the ghosting on which I wrote the words.

I guess my picture is more like a Country Road after all.

WOYWW #262 - Summer of Colour

Well The Summer of Colour challenge started this week. Just another one to add to my cacophony of challenges this year.






I am going to put the 6 weeks of pieces in my DLP which is jolly chunky now.





I received the last 4 of my anniversary SWAPs from Lottie, Jill (my SWAP partner), Anne and Elizabeth. Aren't they gorgeous.

I've been helping my hubby sort out the loft and photographed all the novels I read an age ago and have since given for the Scout jumble.

I also found a card I made back in 1999. The heart is dangly and I must have cut the aperture out by hand then! Haven't things changed?

I had another craft club at my house this week and we looked at dry embossing and I made these sample cards.







Also I have made a friend her 50th card and had to go along the embossing route, just because...

Happy WOYWW everyone. Do join in the mega blog hop over at Julia's Stamping Ground.

Summer Of Colour - Week 1

Horrah the Summer or Colour has begun. This year we have Smudge, Splash & Pop, where you make a piece using the first 2 colours and highlight with the third. Week 1's colours are Aqua Blue, Yellow & Hot Pink. I'll be adding weekly pages to my DLP diary this year.

This week I used a dry embossed background. I coloured the raised flowers with Versa Colour Canary Yellow ink (direct to paper) and clear heat embossed them. I coloured and clear embossed the accent circles in Distress Picked Raspberry Pink. I coloured the background in Distress Peacock Feathers, water spotted it and spritzed with some Distress Stormy Sky. Finally I added some Hot Pink flock to the flower centres.

DLP (J52) - Catch-Up

Here are a few more pages in my DLP, of the many challenges I am catching-up on this year.

They seem to be mainly Journal 52 prompts though.


J52 14) Rain or Shine - yes definitely a rainbow for me.

DLP 22) House - just a little diecut drawn around.















J52 19) Photography - I popped this spare photo of my son in December for his birthday.

J52 21) Mandala and J52 22) Travelling

WOYWW #261 - Determined!

Yes I am determined not to be late of forget or whatever this week so I am preparing and scheduling my post this week in good time!


Also determined to catch-up with all the various challenges I started this year as May seems to have been a bad month for me so I am weeks behind in some of them.
I have printed off 5 weeks worth in the Psalm challenge and am glad they are taking a break in June - great catch-up time for me. And don't ask how many weeks I'm behind in the Journal 52 Challenge!

On my desk is my latest Q&L page for The Craft Barn, which initially missed the link-up as it closed prematurely, but fortunately they reopened it for a short time - phew.


Also my DLP diary with my latest page fulfilling 2 prompts.

20 - Using a stamp in an new way. I'm a basic boarder or greeting stamp type of person so I used a greeting stamp as a boarder, not done that before.
21 - Embroidery. I got out my pricking patterns for this and back stitched the scallopped paisley design with a few central french knots.

Oh and my ATCs from the anniversary SWAP have started to arrive. Here are the first few, from Helen, Cindy, Chris and Christine. Thanks - they are super. (yes last 2 arrived after I did my desk photo!)

Dare I even mention the other 2 challenges which started this week???
Namely the Summer Scavenger Hunt and The Summer of Colour.

And for those following my monthly garden, here's the latest. Sadly the Rhododendron is not as its best now, so I just had to include a couple of shots from a few weeks ago too.



















Yes - determined - I certainly need to be. Happy WOYWW everyone.

2014 Scavenger Hunt - Part 01

Yay the Scavenger Hunt starts today and I'm off to a good start. The list has at #02 - A Garden Gnome so that was the first thing off the list.













Also at #01 - A Sign Welcoming People to your Home Town, so I just went for a walk around the block to get a few shots of our sign.

On the way back I passed a couple of houses with garden displays which can loosely be counted as gnome displays so I just had to take a few surreptitious photos as I passed by!





And to round off my initial post, #11 - A Horn. Knew we had one but it took a bit of finding!

Having fun already, thanks for organising this great Summer event Rinda.