Magazine Inspiration....

Hello everyone, sorry I've been lax in my posting - it's holiday time for me and I've been enjoying a somewhat relaxing time and it has been great to have time to rest and think straight for a change. Card making for others has been completed and have been card making for myself for birthdays and occasions which are later in the year.
Over here we have a plethora of stamping magazines and over the years I've become disenchanted with them. They are not cheap and for my style I usually find very little to inspire and my standard phrase after flicking through one is 'why did I spend the money on that - I'm not buying any more' but months down the line I buy one again....well, as I was away this month I bought yet another one to flick through while travelling...and there was only one item that inspired me. Joanne Wardle in The Craft Stamper has written and illustrated an article on Silhouette Stamping and I decided to have a go.
Basically you mask off an area in the middle of the card with post it notes. Well I did the first one like this but I then cut an aperture out of old commercial cards with a glossy surface on them (ink rubs off easily) with Spellbinders dies...you may not get such a crisp edge to the image but it's not so important anyhow. Then you colour this space with Distress Inks...she advises to use a sponge but I use Dreamweaver brushes which I love. The first card used Dried Marigod, Wild Honey and Fired Brick....then I used PTI's Turn of the Leaf to decorate...the second card has more yellow in it.....then I began to think in another direction....could I not make a little 'landscape coloured' space and add scene stamps? So tried green for the grass, yellow (Actually wasn't Distress Ink just a yellow inkpad)for a sunshiney bit in between it and the Broken China 'Sky'
Then I had bought a little Winter Scene stamp set at the November Exhibition in Belfast last year and it was perfect for completing the little landscape. Think it's either Papermania or Inkadinkadoo, not sure. There were just a few stamps which were the right proportions for this small scene but that's ok, I like how they worked. I really enjoyed my playing around with this technique...think I'll have to invest in a few more inkpads to compliment what I already have.
Please bear with me for a couple more weeks....we are off to Tuscany, Rome and Sorrento for our real holiday...and I trust I am going to see beautiful paper aplenty...I'm even taking two large sheets of mattboard/mountboard to safely store it in my suitcase for travelling. Until my return, all of you take care.