Blooming 'eck! by Nicky Cresswell

Can you rightly believe its almost the end of the month.. i know i can't! 

Still it means that spring is well and truly here, thank goodness, I was getting mighty fed up of the long dull cold nights. And speaking of spring, don't forget you still have time to get your 'Spring' themed projects in for the monthly challenge and your chance to win candy!

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So onto my last make of the month...

I started by stamping a white tag with the Dot background stamp a couple of times, I then spritzed some gold perfect pearls powder mixed with water in a mini mister, and ran the tag through Vinny, {that's what i've named my Vagabond} with a cuttlebug 'dot' embossing folder.

Next I cut 1 set of flowers out of white card using the tattered florals die,

 I inked the largest and smallest with faded jean distress ink, and the second largest with stormy sky.

 I stamped the second largest with the numbers stamp from the family values set in faded jeans and clear embossed it. I put them together with a blingy orange brad.

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 The vine from the nature is art stamp set was stamped onto the tag directly, then again onto grungeboard using forest moss, I inked it with peeled paint which is why you can hardly see the veining from the stamp.

I cut it out and layered it over the tag stamped image.

To finish.... I stamped the small butterfly from the tick tock butterflies set, and inked with dried marigold and again stamped the numbers in wild honey and clear embossed.

Then it was a case of just putting it all together and adding the wording which I did with a dymo and attached with brads.

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So thats your lot from me this month.. Is anyone as excited as me that there is only 2 weeks till Ally Pally  Jennie and Hels will both be demoing.. I can't wait!

Thanks for dropping by, please leave a comment so I know you've been. 

And i'll see you again real soon x

Stay Inky

Wearable Art! by Nicky Cresswell

So following on from Alison's fab pendant yesterday i figured you'd need a nice bracelet to go with it.

And not just any kind of bracelet either.. 

Oh no this one is made from grungeboard.

 And they are really easy to make, 

All you need is a sheet of grungeboard, a hitch fastner, a hole punch {i used a crop-a-dile}

Oh and some gesso, ink and stamps. {or whatever medium you want}

You want to cut your grunge into strips, 

You should be able to get 3 thick, or 2 thick 2 thin strips, depending what you want.

This one is roughly1½ inches and the length of the grunge.

I started by giving one side a coat of gesso, when this was dry I stamped 3 butterflies, 

The large cog butterfly and the small plain one both from the Tick Tock Butterflies plate, 

I then made a mask for each butterfly using post it's, 

I covered them with there respective masks and inked over the whole thing with barn door distress ink.

I then removed the masks... I found a little of the ink had bled in under my masks, but not to worry as i was going for grungy. 

Next I got some more gesso and carefully painted inside each of the butterflies, the 2 smaller ones only had one extra coat but the large one took a couple of coats to cover the cogs.

I spritzed over the whole piece with some perfect pearls to give a bit of a shimmer, which i dabbed off a bit creating the kinda distressed blotchy look.

Added one of Tims phrases, and doodled a few squiggles with a black permanent marker.

 I coloured the inside with just a black stazon stamp pad, not worrying too much about all over coverage. 

I punched a small hole in one end for the hitch fastener, and a large hole the other end for the fastener to pop through to hold the bracelet in place.

And there you go, something cool to wear..
And it fits in with this months challenge as the theme is 'Spring'.. Details can be found HERE

Thanks for stopping by

Stay Inky

And now for something completely different! by Nicky Cresswell

Now you know me, usually my work is quirky and grungy and generally Minxy, 

But today I opted for a more sophisticated look to show Jennies stamps in a different light.

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 I started off by colouring a piece of white paper with scattered straw distress ink, I stamped over it with the chintz background in cactus green stazon, I then mat and layered onto some pale yellow card.

Next i stamped the leaf vine from the flower blooms sheet in black, and used a black marker to colour in the leaves to create a silhouette effect.

 The flower head is just a circle and scalloped circle punched from card.

I stamped the small dragonfly from the insect & butterflies plate onto heat resistant acetate and embossed in black b4 cutting it out and placing it on the flower head.

I added one of the mini phrases from a stampers anonymous plate.

To finish i wrapped a ribbon round the base of the card and added a bow, before mat and layering again, this time onto green card. I then matted the whole thing onto a kraft card, and finished up by added some hand drawn doodles here and there.

Voila ~ One Posh a la minx card, perfect from Spring!

So... What's the verdict for Posh Minxy???

I look forward to reading what you think!  

Stay Inky