February Tag

Hi everyone, another quick post. This is my version of Tim's February tag, you can see his original wonderful tag and instructions here.

I haven't strayed too far away which is good as I only took one photo whilst I was making it...showing the wallflower stash paper I used as a base.

I may be on the last minute but I'm quite pleased that I've managed to do the first 2 tags of 2015, which is one more than last year already! Have a lovely crafty weekend and thanks for stopping by.

'Winter Blooms'

Hi everyone, there are a couple of challenges I've really missed being able to enter recently... in fact it's been absolutely yonks..so I've been on a mission today 'playing' and I'm entering this in the Frilly and Funkie 'Winter Blooms' challenge here and the 'tic, tac, toe' challenge over at 'Our Creative Corner' here.

It's a mixed media canvas panel and although it didn't have to have a wintry feel, it's the way I wanted to go, a neutral background, a little shimmer and blue tinted flowers. As for the 3 choices for tic, tac, toe, by the time I'd finished I realised I'd used all of them (which may disqualify me)...but the first 'tic, tac, toe' line I started with was lace, stamps and embossing powder.

Some goodies arrived the other day that I wanted to have a play with, including a new Wendy Vecchi doily stamp. I covered a canvas panel with tissue wrap and stamped the doily with versamark and white embossing powder.

Next Wendy's crackle embossing paste through Tim's bubble stencil,

and some lace, trim and a die cut I had. I didn't take any more pictures after that till it was finished as I got carried away but the next step I did was coat it with some watered down gesso.

Next I applied some opaline IZINK dripped down the panel and sprayed with water. It had a lovely shine but I wanted to have some matt white areas so I hope you can see I've dripped some white gesso down just to knock it back bit. There's some black archival stamping with a new Finnabair stamp and the blue is broken china and a little chipped sapphire distress ink.

The flowers are made using the tattered florals die and the layers include tissue wrap, tyvek and crinoline ( new arrival...love it).

I also dry embossed some cotton paper and then swiped a versamark over it and used some WOW sparkling snow embossing powder on it before colouring with DI.

 There's glitter some chunky beads, silver treasure gold, glamour dust and some metal embellishments.

ooh nearly forgot...some glass bead gel.

I really enjoyed making this, lots of texture! Thanks so much for stopping by and thanks again for all the lovely comments you leave. x

Anne's ATBs!

Hi everyone, a quick post just to share my finished perpetual calendar inspired or even totally copied from 'Redanne'. Anne kindly sent me some blank ATB's last year and I've eventually got around to making one of her fabulous calendars.

I really enjoyed making it and kept it fairly simple as I wanted to match a desk set I'd revamped pre blogg life.....that's if making it vintage can be classed as revamping?

The papers are Thorndon Hall from PaperArtsy, the numbers Tim's wordplay die and the letters are a Hero arts mini alphabet stamps. Add some brown archival to distressed edges and a little treasure gold and it's finished. Even though it's not my original idea (see Anne's post here) I'm still linking it to the A Vintage Journey challenge as it's about special numbers and a calendar is full of them. I've even waited till today to post it as it includes a significant number to me. 4 is part of my birthday, my son's birthday and has always been the number I pick if asked to choose one for something.

Thanks so much for stopping by, time now for me to catch up with some blog visiting as I've got behind...again!

More houses...

With several hours to spare...as opposed to my usual last minute, I'm entering this in the current 'Paint' challenge over at PaperArtsy. It's inspired by Sue Carrington's trio of houses post here and combined with a textured white background again.

I covered a piece of grey board with sticky back canvas and masked off a border.

 I couldn't find a suitable stencil in my mahoosive stash so resorted to masking off part of this stencil. After applying grunge paste I coated it all with gesso.

I had an idea to make some quirky trees however my first idea used the 'ladybird' shape which was too big but just thought I'd share as I think it looks like an alien weeble.......for anyone that can remember. I also made some fencing but decided not to use it in the end.

 I coated card with snowflake before stamping the trees so it wasn't too stark a contrast and the houses are stamped onto chalk painted card. I've also stamped and painted with zesty zing, hey pesto, glass blue, bougainvillea and tangerine twist.

I really like using these 2 stamp sets together and always enjoy using paint in this way. Thanks for stopping by to see my quirky houses with their quirky trees. 

'Alphabet Soup'

Hi, it's my turn to set the challenge theme over at ATP Exchange this time. It's a mixed media challenge and you can make anything you like but you must include some stamping (no digi images though). The winner chosen by the DT will receive a £10 voucher from our sponsor The Artist Trading Post......so Alphabet Soup??

The idea for this challenge came about when I was looking at some leftover chipboard numbers and letters on my desk, so this time I'd like to see you use numbers or letters in some way other than making a word or marking an anniversary with them. For my piece I've used chipboard pieces and stamped letters.

I started with a 6x6 canvas board and adhered numbers and letters to the whole of it.

I then coated the whole piece with 2 coats of Golden gesso....quite like the idea of a white canvas with just numbers and letters...anyway next step.

 For the stamped images I have used the new Lin Brown house stamps ELB14 and for the fencing I've used the long strip stamped twice from Darcy's new set EDY13

I've stamped the large house on smoothy card using the solid stamp, firstly in chalk fresco and then the roof had a mix of bougainvillea first, then over stamped with a touch of london bus. 

The house was stamped onto stone/taupe fresco painted card with a paperartsy mini set, masking portions off. The heart I added. The fence was stamped on chalk fresco painted card. Finally the words were stamped and applied. The idea came from  a saying I'd seen of House + Love = Home.

Please hop over here and see the fabulous makes my teamies have come up with, I love what they've done. I hope you'll then look at letters and numbers differently and be inspired to join in the challenge. Thanks as always for stopping by. x

Deja Vu

Hi everyone, no you're not seeing things!

I just wasn't very happy with my finished result on my last post so I had to get some more clay and 'tweak it'...yes I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but I'm learning to embrace imperfection...honest. Anyway very quick post, this is take 2, I redid the clay piece..

and also had a go at puffing out and working the copper more...think I may be working with metal again soon...love it.

I'll be back in the morning with our next ATP exchange post so you will have something different to look at, I promise x 

'Shiny Stuff'

Very last minute, I know! Had a few 'incidents' in my experimentation but here's my entry for the PaperArtsy challenge 'Shiny Stuff.' 

Sorry for the poor light, will have to update post and add some more photos later!

Update!

My head was buzzing with ideas for shiny stuff, I couldn't decide between Lin Browns wonderful mica on clay or embossing metal. In the end I did both but only after a false start with the clay.

I used a Darcy open flower stamp as my new Lin brown one's haven't arrived yet. I didn't press hard enough. I added mica powders. I then over pin pricked it....looked like the equivalent of wood worm in clay!

Once baked I made a background but I used very similar colours and in the end liked the background more than the clay piece.

The background has layers of brayered paint, stamping, metallic glaze mixed with snowflake and copper fab foil on it.

I had very little black clay left so made 2 much smaller clay pieces, which I much prefer the colours of.  The piece of copper was stamped before embossing the edges. A few more photos.

Thanks for stopping by as always....I'll breathe now!

'Love is in the Air'

Welcome to the next challenge at ATP Exchange, this time Yvonne is our talented host and has chosen a Love theme.......It will soon be Valentines Day, so my theme is all about Love, what does it mean to you.? A feeling, a look, a touch, a word, something that makes your heart happy.............the list can be endless. So for this challenge, share with us how you see 'love' in your world.

For this sample I've chosen to do a monochromatic theme, with lots of texture and shimmer! 

I picked up this yellow painted mdf piece in a sale last year but similar shapes can be found here. After some light sanding I coated it with Finnabairs black gesso. I then got carried away and forgot to take any photos till it was finished....sorry!

Once dry, PaperArtsy crackle glaze was applied to the sides of the letters and then a coat of snowflake fresco. I coated the front of the letters with Wendy Vecchi's crackle embossing paste .

The text stamp from the Mercantile set....'we come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly...' was repeatedly stamped on tissue and then ripped and applied to the word in sections with soft matte gel.

Once dry all the surfaces were coated with PaperArtsy metallic glaze....it does give a lovely shimmer. Pewter Treasure Gold was also used on the edges.

I painted a piece of Smoothy stamping card with metallic glaze and then stamped number images from ESN07 set. I cut out 4 heart shapes and then used a black glitter embossing powder around the edges. Another coat of metallic glaze was applied before using glossy accents on each heart.

To finish I used the same black embossing powder on the base of the letters, and the hearts were secured before wrapping some silver wire and a bead around each one. Hope you'll have chance to join in and show us your interpretation of  Love over at ATP Exchange and please do hop across and see what my talented team mates have created to hopefully inspire you.

Thanks so much for stopping by and Happy Crafting!