Laura Rumble - Crafter

I had so much fun with this one... got as messy with my inks as I could.  We all know inky fingers mean happy heart, right? The cut file was a FTLOPP freebie from Pretty My Page and I cut it on 3 Elle's Studio papers.  I clear gessoed over the top of them and got inky. I used the leftover patterned papers for layering and added a tonne of matte enamel dots.

Sarah from StickerKitten is on HOCHANDA today with a whole bunch of beautful products.  Here are a few of the samples I made: A mini canvas and notebook with Bee Garden  and a treasure bag using Mermaid Treasures ...

Hello there! I have been playing along with the mood board at like for ever this month.  It's a lovely board but it includes two things I struggle with - pink and floral.  I know when using a mood board it is perfectly acceptable to ignore the bits you don't like and use the other more 'you' items on the board but I decided I need to use the florals! Actually, the hardest part was finding a photo to use with the blousy flowers.  Nephydude playing with trucks isn't going to cut it!  Once I had my photo it all flowed nicely... I've used like for ever's Stargazer kit plus some mixed media supplies.  The star stencil is a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer design from The Crafter's Workshop.  I used a palette knife to push some matte medium through and left it to dry thoroughly before started with the paints. For my blue I mixed some Daniel Smith watercolours, the pink and gold are Mr Huey's sprays.  Thanks for stopping by!

Here is a little kit put together last weekend for Counterfeit Kit Club .  It was meant to be small and just for two pages worth of scrapping but I reckon I'll get plenty more out of it the way I use supplies! The inspiration was the new Pink Fresh collection.  I picked out the colours and set to work forging the papers with my watercolours.  I had so much fun!  Remind me why I haven't Counterfeit Kit-ted in so long?! OK, so I took the essence of the papers rather than copying each and every design exactly, but that is good because no one else will have these papers!  I pulled out a few sequin mixes and felt hearts from SpiegelMom Scraps and some black enamel hearts from Bella Blvd.  I'll pull alphas when I need them.  Herbert Budgie got in on the act, and was rather taken with the black hearts, thus I named the kit "Oi!  They're Not Your Hearts!" The plan was to make a start on Herbie's album with this kit... fast forward a week and...

As I find things that I don't want too throw away, but aren't good for layouts, I stick them in my art journal.  Things like packaging, used washi tape, 'off' rub ons, stickers etc. As I make anything with paste, paint or ink I add the left overs on top of those layers in my art journal. Then when I feel the need to get something out I pull out my journal and find a started page that matches how I am feeling. I had a few scraps on my desk as always.  One of them was the branding strip from Pretty Little Studio's collaboration with Pretty Please.  Another was a stamped cherry from Suse Fish's Felicity Jane kit.  Well, pretty please with a cherry on top suits how I am feeling right now! Lots of kinda confused layers... And big splotchy ink blotches, with a few sequins sprinkled on for good measure. Thanks for stopping by

Here I am, sneaking in, under the deadline by a whisker! For the Craft Barn's A-Z this fortnight the letter was G , and I picked a gull...   I also found a couple of new-to-me words... gutta-percha and inspissated.  I love this old dictionary! I am really pleased with this drawing.  Last fortnight was raspberry and I didn't get my pages finished due to illness.  Well, I think it is done but I'm not in love.  I may well come back to it with fresh eyes and work on it some more! Thanks for stopping by and for all your wonderful comments and messages!

Oh, I enjoyed making this one... I know it's not an original concept - the four seasons artwork has been done many times before but I still enjoyed interpreting it my way.  I started out with a four pack of mini canvasses, each painted a different shade of blue. I then painted on a very unrealistically shaped tree!  I needed an even spread of branches to attach my button leaves to, so following the shape of a real tree didn't quite work!  I sorted through my button stash and pulled out blossom pinks and spring greens; rich leafy greens; and autumnal oranges, yellows, reds and browns.  I attached my buttons with matte gel medium, but any strong glue would be okay. My favourite touch?  The autumn leaves that have dropped from the tree! You can find a huge selection of buttons here ! Thank you for stopping by

Still running with my obsession of gift wrapping... look!  This one has a chocolate included in the bow!! I've used Retro Christmas range of ribbons from Crafty Ribbons and some kraft paper stencilled with gold acrylic paint and glitter glue. Thanks for stopping by!

This layout is a lift of Missy Whidden for My Scraps and More.   I played with the free cut file until I had it how I wanted it... Backed my hexagons with pieces of paper from August's Like For Ever kit. I added a doiley from Spiegel Mom Scraps and some of my favourite Crafty Ribbons lace . I love these gold shaped paper clips.  And I'm quite fond of these white star sequins too! My mixed media work was done with Shimmerz paints, mixed with a little Inktense to get the right shade.  I finished off with a splattering of gold acrylic paint. I do like the effects of the Shimmerz... I'm still unable to capture it's true beauty on camera!  I'll keep trying though!

"Van!"  It's the in word here.  It sometimes comes out as "Man!" too.  It is always said with excitement. I cut in to the triangle paper in my Like For Ever kit.  I didn't think I had a favourite from the patterned paper sheets but it turns out the triangles is my favourite.  I might need more sheets! I attempted to mix up some paints in the same colours.  My duck egg was OK, my green was a little off.  Anyway, packaging technique, splatters, inks, acrylics... all good messy fun. When it came to start putting it all together I layered the triangles on some vellum.  It just subdues the mixed media enough to let the triangles show off a bit. I made a batch off mixed media backgrounds in one go.  I doesn't take any time to set up and clear away a mixed media station on the floor, it's much quicker than trying to clear space on my desk.  I just put a wipe clean table cloth n the floor and wipe with baby wipes when I'm fini...

I've been having a little experiment with some off cuts of vellum.  I made them in to tiny envelopes stuffed with buttons and sequins, to add to my layouts. A little bit of stencilling in the background - paint mixed to match the shade of the mint green sequins. I tried to include every colour and pattern I used in the main cluster in the little side cluster. Here you can see the vellum envelope along side a picture of Naughty Bun. I used an iridescent mist for some splatters and thought I was done.  Looking at the page it was screaming at me for some black... nervously I used some black India ink for some more splatters. Papers from Like For Ever kits (April & May.) Buttons and pink dotty ribbon from Crafty Ribbons.