Our Creative Corner meets Wendy Vecchi and Tim Holtz

Hello Blog Friends

Today I am sharing with you my very first Design Team post for Our Creative Corner's Anything Goes Challenge, which you can find HERE.  There is still time to join in the fun so I hope you will pop over, check out what my very talented teamies have made and join in, if you have not already done so!

As I love all thing Wendy Vecchi and Tim Holtz, they are heavily featured in my make today.  I just wanted to show that things do not always need to be grungy, that pretty and delicate are just as easily achieved.  I made this for a very special new friend for whom the words are particularly appropriate.  Just click on the photos if you want a closer view.

I started out with some fabulous Wendy Vecchi Art Parts from the Large Flourish Frames set.  This is the smaller of the two frames in the set.  The frame measure 9.1/2" x 5" (24cm x 13cm approx) so there is plenty of room to play.

I coloured the bases with Walnut Stain Distress Paint to give a lovely dark base.

 I gave the Art Parts a liberal coating of crackle medium, which I have had in my crafty stash for years.  I am not even sure if they still make it but it dries very quickly (half an hour tops) and this is important for an impatient crafter like me!

I mixed together a combination of Tim Holtz Distress Paints in Spun Sugar and Antique Linen and applied these over the base parts and left them to dry.  Again, this was very quick and I love how some of the crackles are quite a bit larger than others - although I am about to cover up some of the lovely crackling!

I added a sentiment from Sam Poole's Creative Expressions set of stamps, Steampunk Dreams, one of my favourites, onto some lovely toning paper that I just happened to have in my stash.  The words read:  'Take Today to do something your heart has Always dreamed of doing'.

The beautiful butterflies are from a Hero Arts set of stamps.  I coloured the butterflies with Prismacolour pencils in a soft blue and pink, cut them out and added some silver jewellery wire for their antennae.

I used the same jewellery wire to make a hanging for the piece.

The flower is cut from crinoline fabric which I purchased from the Funkie Junkie.  I coloured the fabric, along with a piece of burlap, with Spun Sugar Distress Paint.  The paints work beautifully on fabric!  I cut the flower from my trusty and much used Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and added a pearl brad for the centre.




Well that's it, my first DT post under my belt, hope you like my creation, I certainly had fun making it and I think the lovely lady I sent it to, as a thank you, liked it.

Over at Artful Times the challenge theme No. 29 Blooming Marvelous, is Flowers and so I would like to enter this piece.

 I am also entering in Country View Challenge #3 which is How does your Garden grow.

Thank you for looking, I hope you will go over to Our Creative Corner to see what my wonderfully talented teamies have made.  Take care and enjoy the rest of the week.  Hugs, Anne xx

Playing with Distress Paint

Hello Blog Friends

I have been out for a couple of days so this is a scheduled post.  I am having a crafty day today with my friend Lynn and two other friends Susan and Ruth.  We are going to get very inky and messy today.

My own craft room is full of furniture from the rest of the house, whilst the decorators are in doing their magic in our new rooms so I have not been able to craft properly for what seems like ages.  I thought I would post a couple of things I made last week whilst I was playing with my Distress Paints and my new Jo Firth Young stamps from Paper Artsy. I made another couple of ATCs, this time in pink!

I love using the Tim Holtz Distress paints, they are so lush.  I used very thick card so that it would take a good soaking, smooshed some Picked Raspberry and Picket Fence Distress Paint onto my craft sheet, spritzed with a little water and then dragged the card through.

 I dried this with my heat gun and then dragged the card through again.  It is important to dry at each stage so the colours do not go muddy.

The pattern on this one was so nice I really did not want to cover it up.






I then stamped the images from two JOFY mini stamps and coloured
the flowers again with Distress Paint to match the base ATC cards.

The detail on Jo's stamps is amazing, I stamped in Ranger Black Archival ink which gives a clear crisp image.

I coloured the flowers with the Distress Paint and added a few little white dots with a Gelly Roll pen to give some highlights.






The edges of the ATCs and the images were coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink.  I added a couple of words from another set of JOFY stamps and it was job done!

Thank you for looking!  I have been trying to keep up with my commenting on blogs I follow and I hope to get back to crafting and blogging again really soon.  Take care in the meantime.  Big hugs, Anne xx

Mabel Lucie Attwell

Hello Blog Friends

Thank you for joining me and welcome to my latest followers, it is a pleasure to have your company on my crafty journey.

I have some more exciting news to share with you!  The lovely Ignacio who owns Nicecrane Designs has asked me to be a member of his Design Team.  Those of you who know my lovely friend Jenny (Buttons) will know that she is a member of the DT along with many other talented crafters, so I was delighted to say yes.  My work for Ignacio will mainly be using and colouring digi stamps.  If you have not looked at his designs before, please look HERE, he has the most extensive selection of Ephemera and Digi sheets imaginable.

My first Design Team creation is a wonderful image from the prolific British Illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell.  who based her designs on her daughter Peggy.

This lovely image is of Peggy (in my mind), as she is off to the beach with her paints and I wanted her to look quite vintage and in Mabel Lucie Attwell's style so I have kept the colours quite true to the original which you can see here and which is new to the Nicecrane range:

But if you prefer to colour your own, as I do, this digi set is also available uncoloured - best of both worlds!

I printed the image onto white card and coloured it with my Derwent Inktense (watersoluble) Ink Pencils.  I coloured the edges with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink to give a really vintage look and then distressed it further with my distressing tool and then curled the edges slightly.

I cut a tag shape from some corrugated card and I added some torn Kraft card to the top (a technique inspired by the work of my talented blog friend Trace).  I painted the layers very lightly with Fresco Finish paint in Mocha Mousse and Vintage Lace and then distressed the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I mounted my finished image on top. To add even more to the ageing I took some Vintage Photo Distress Stain on a paint brush and lightly flicked some onto the picture.

To finish off I added some parcel string with a shell charm, to follow the beach theme, which was coloured with Antiqued Bronze Distress Paint.   To the top I added some vintage seam binding which was coloured with Vintage Photo Distress Stain and tied this into a double bow.  Finally, I added Tim Holtz chit chat words 'create art'.

Thank you for looking and I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.  Big hugs, Anne xx

JOFY and Blue....

Hello Blog Friends

Thank you to my latest followers, I am thrilled to have you along on my crafty journey, I hope you will find a little bit of inspiration.

I have not entered Sunday Stampers Challenge, which is run by the the amazing Hels, for a few weeks now, so I thought it was about time.  The challenge is BLUE.

Another challenge I have not entered for ages is Anything But a Card where Challenge 18 is to make an ATC.  I have combined the two challenges and made this ATC.

I used one of Jo Firth-Young mini flower stamps by Paper Artsy - love these little beauties.  The base of the ATC was coloured with a combination of Tim Holtz Distress Paint in Peacock Feathers and Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paint in Mermaid swooshed over the top.

I then added Wendy Vecchi's Embossing Paste through a chevron stencil.  I  took several colours of Perfect Pearls and sprinkled these over the wet embossing paste.  I then took my heat gun and heated the paste until it puffed up.  This gives such a wonderful shiny and puffy finish - love it!

I stamped the flower onto white card with black Archival ink and then coloured the flower heads with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink.  The stem is coloured with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

The words are from a separate JOFY stamp set, these are stamped in black Archival ink, cut out and mounted on the ATC with silicone glue.

The edges of the ATC have been coloured with Black Soot Distress ink and I then mounted the ATC onto another base to give it some strength.


And there is my ATC.  Thank you for taking the time to visit, I really appreciate it.  Hugs, Anne xx

Wendy Vecchi Art Parts - Key House

Hello Blog Friends

I thought I should show you the item I teased you with on Saturday.  As many of you know we are having renovations to our house and the new windows each have a different set of keys - so where to keep them?  I made one of these........

I made it from Wendy Vecchi Art Parts, from the sets Square Frames, Residences, Florals and Outdoor Art.

The Residence Art Part was stencilled over using Wendy's brick stencil and her white embossing paste which I coloured with some Fired Brick Distress Paint.  I love the way it turned out.

The background rectangle was covered with some BoBunny paper from my stash.  The flowers were painted with Distress Paint in Spiced Marmalade.  I traced around the flowers onto cardstock, painted these with Spiced Marmalade and added these to the base flowers to give dimension.  The roof is painted with Walnut Stain Distress Paint and the fence is coloured with Weathered Wood Distress Paint and distressed with Black Soot Distress Ink.

To finish off I added some self adhesive hangers by 7Gypsies and the word keys are Tim Holtz letters.  The hanger is seam binding coloured with Broken China Distress Stain.

Margie guessed what it is and a couple of others were very close, I will have to try harder next time to disguise my make a little better!  Thank you for looking and thank you especially if you leave me a comment.

Hugs, Anne x

Very Exciting News and Our Creative Corner!

Hello Blog Friends

I have some really exciting news!!

The challenge blog Our Creative Corner, which you can find HERE, has changed and I am beyond thrilled and very excited to say that I have been asked to be a member of their Design Team.  This is such a wonderful opportunity for me!  My Teamies are very talented ladies, some of whom many of you will already know and love their work. 

The new Our Creative Corner has a completely new look and format.  There are some wonderful new challenges to look forward to in the coming months.  I really do hope you will join in some or all of the challenges.  There is something to suit a variety of tastes and styles.

I hope you will go over and have a look, leave a comment and also get involved very soon!

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I am just going to leave you with a little sneak peek of something I will be posting in the next day or so...... can you guess what it is?

A big welcome to my latest follower, thank you for joining me on my crafting journey, it's wonderful to have you along.

Thank you all, for looking today, hope to see you again really soon.  Big hugs, Anne xx

WOYWW Week 203

It has been a few weeks since I joined in WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk) with the lovely Julia, who you can find HERE if you want to join in the fun.

Ongoing and continuing building work, a few health issues and a definite lack of Mojo has prevented me from doing much crafting at all but I am now keen to get back into the swing of things!

This must be the shortest post ever for me and the most uninspiring desk you will see today!

There are a few new purchases - Spellbinder dies and Paper Artsy JOFY mini stamps, both of which were purchased many weeks ago and still sitting on my desk waiting to be put away.  In the background is my latest Tim tag and a frame that needs a bit of attention.

I look forward to visiting as many of you as possible.  Thank you for looking and Happy WOYWW!  Big hugs, Anne xx