I have won the Liebster Blog Award!

I have to be honest, I have only been blogging for just under two weeks and did not know what this award was.  The wonderful Sandee from inthehillsofnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/ nominated me and the idea is:

To spread the love from one small blog (under 200 followers) to other small blogs.  This helps to spread knowledge and readership.

To accept this award, you must:

1) Link back to the person who gave it and thank them for thinking of you.
2) Post the award to your blog (please see HELP note below)
3) Give the award to 5 bloggers (with less than 200 followers) that you appreciate and value.
4) Leave a comment on the blogs of the 5 people you have chosen to let them know.

'Liebster' in German means 'dearest', so to carry on the Liebster tradition I am going to pass the award on to five people whose blogs have been an inspiration to me and my crafting.  These blogs are:

Rita at:   rmgcreations.blogspot.com/
Ann at: anniestamper.blogspot.com/
Karen at:  paperscissorsandglitter.blogspot.com/
Gwen at:  gwenatfoxglovehill.blogspot.com/
Sarah at: sjpapercrafts.blogspot.com/

The reason I have chosen these ladies is that I have very much enjoyed looking at and taking inspiration from their blogs, all of which are varied and wonderful for many different reasons.  They have each supported me too and I want to return the favour.  Please take a look at their blogs and if you like what you see please follow them.

HELP!!!! 

I have got the Liebster Blog logo contained in this post, but I cannot put it on my sidebar, simply because I do not know how (I have been blogging for less than two weeks!).  If anyone can help me please can you get in touch? 

Kind regards,  Anne x

Side Easel Card

Today I had a go at making a side easel card.  I had some lovely Inkylicious stamps which had never seen ink so I thought it was about time.  The base card is stamped all over with one of the smaller stamps in the set.  The main design was stamped onto glossy card, which I first coloured with Distress Ink.  The background wording was stamped in Memento ink and the dandelion clocks were stamped in Versamark and then embossed in black detail embossing powder.  The sentiment reads 'Close your eyes and make a wish'.  This is a very quick and easy card. 

If you do stop by I would love it if you left a comment.  Kind regards, Anne x

Sunday Stamper Week 194 - Got to Get You Into My Life

My post is a bit late today, had a busy day yesterday with family visitors and needed to tidy up today.

The tag is covered with Distress Stains in Wild Honey and Peeled Paint and then spritzed over with Perfect Pearls.  The stamp is Tim Holtz and I have covered the umbrella with some wonderful honeycomb paper (really obsessed with it at the moment).  I coloured the seam binding, again with Distress Stains and spritzed with Perfect Pearls and scrunched.  I went around the edges with Peeled Paint and Black Soot.  As an after-thought I added the Imagine metal tag which also honours John Lennon.

I am always happy to receive comments on my work so if you do stop by, please leave me a comment.

Kind regards, Anne

Lucky Black Cat

This is a card I made a few weeks ago, for a friend to give to her Brother-in-Law, who has a very fat cat.  I used the shape of a pear to draw the shape as a template and then traced this on to black card and cut it out.  The only tricky bit was cutting around the tail.  I had some paw print background paper which I covered the inside with and then added a border using a paw print stamp edged in black soot distress ink.  I simply added the heart and bow to finish the card off.  A very simple card.  I liked it so much at the time I made a spare!

Crafty hugs, Anne x

A Grungy Picture

Today I have been doing a commission so have not had time to create.  This is something I made a few weeks ago, very much inspired by the wonderful Hels Sheridan whose work I adore. 

I did not have a Wendy Vecchi frame so I used Tim Holtz grungeboard and covered the board with Tim Holtz paper and 'antiqued' with old paper distress ink, the border at the bottom was coloured with antique mahogony distress stain.  The larger piece of flower at the back is covered in the same TH paper, I sanded the edges and layered up with a TH tattered flower and a rose from my stash.  The vial is filled with glitter.  The butterfly is cut from a piece of Kaisercraft paper (Bonjour), the leaves are cut from a spellbinder die in grungeboard.

Regards, Anne Rx

Honeycomb paper and Dress Forms

Hello My Blog Friends

I feel quite overwhelmed that so many of you looked at my blog and some of you are now following me - no pressure then!  Thank you all so much.

Today I thought I would show the dress form covered in the honeycomb paper.  This was highlighted by Tim Holtz in his latest tags a month for 2012 idea.  He used the honeycomb paper for his valentine heart and then showed in his video how it could be used for other things - like the dress form. This is how it looks when it is made up.  Apologies for my very poor photography!

To make it I cut a dress form from Tim Holtz Alteration die range and then cut the honeycomb paper in the same way and cut off the top and bottom.  I then cut the paper in half right down the middle (you can make two from one piece of honeycomb.  I then glued one half to the form, pulled it across and glued the other side.  I used wet glue even though it can be a bit messy but as the paper is quite fine it does seem to work better.

Tim did his heart in red but I could only find yellow - I got it from Ebay and it was very cheap compared to the stuff that Tim uses.  I simply searched for honeycomb paper.  I am going to use up the yellow for cards with an easter egg pop up inside (at least that is my idea).

I really love these dress forms and here are a couple more.  In the first one I stamped with the new Hero Arts newspaper stamp in Versamark and embossed it in white.  I then covered the whole tag with my new Distress marker in Fired Brick and went around the edges in Black soot Distress ink.  The top and leg of both forms are stained in walnut distress stain.  The second dummy is covered in the newspaper stamp again, distressed with old paper distress marker, edged with frayed burlap distress ink and then covered with Distress crackle paint in clear rock candy.

Again, apologies for the poor photography, I cannot seem to get the light right.

Thanks again to everyone and if you look at this, I hope you enjoy it and leave me a comment.

Kind Regards, Anne x

WOYWW

I am usually a tidy (?) crafter but I went to bed last night and left this mess behind - can't believe it.  I was so engrossed using my new Tim Holtz distress markers that I was still at it at 11 pm last night!  I am also obsessed with this new honeycomb paper and have been using it to make dressmaker dummies (which Tim did in one of his recent videos) - they look amazing but will be difficult to post, due to their size I think.

I am going to tidy my desk now........

Cute Bear

Today I have made a card using the new Indigo Blu stamp called Aloysius bear.  I love his cute face, but he looks so sad.  Aloysius is coloured with my new 'Sir' Tim's distress markers - they are absolutely fabulous! I got mine from Art from The Heart who have the full range in stock.  The background is stamped with the Hero Arts Newsprint background stamp and distressed with antique linen distress ink.  The black border is cut from a Nellie's multi frame die.  The ribbon is seam binding dyed with tea dye distress stain - love those stains!  The sentiment is Craftwork Cards.

My photographic skills do not improve - the picture is a little dark but it is very dark and miserable out today.

Sunday Stamper Week 193 Challenge

I decided to enter this challenge...Stitches/Sewing as I had started this project months ago and the challenge gave me the incentive to complete it!  I have used the fabulous Wendy Vecchi Art Parts and lots of bits and pieces that I had in my stash, including a dress form from Craftwork Cards.  The little glass vial (Tim Holtz)  is full of small buttons.  The stamped words are from Creative Expressions.  The Art Parts are covered in gingham fabric.

I have taken a lot of inspiration from Hels Sheridan who works with Art Parts a lot and also Kath Stewart who loves to use them too.  I really loved a project that Kath made recently and so I tried to make a similar one.

A real find.........

I found this lovely mirror in a well know Swedish furniture store and thought it would be great to 'alter'.  I used mainly Kaisercraft products; paper, butterflies and dressmaker's dummy.  The flower is cut from a spellbinder die, spritzed with water and crumpled - I quite like the effect as the flower goes quite firm.  I spritzed again with some shimmer spray.  The dummy was painted in Adirondack expresso paint and the ribbon was seambinding, coloured with distress stain.  The lace is from my local craft store.

Apologies for the unintended view of my craft room - I think I would benefit from a Kirsty Wiseman photography course!

Regards, Anne x

My first ever post!!

This is my first ever post!!  I have been working on this blog for what seems like months and have not got very far.  Anyway I am going to try to attach a picture of two small albums I made using some envelopes, nice papers and ribbons from my stash.