I Love Paris in the Springtime and Summer distress

Hello lovely blog friends

I know, I know, it is the end of Summer (what little we have had that is), not Springtime but I am still in Summer mood because I have been using my Summer Distress Inks - these, in my opinion, are the best yet from the fabulous Lord Tim of Holtz (I have upgraded him from Sir Tim).  The colours are lush, bright, gorgeous........

Over at Simon Says the challenge is - Inspired by Summer Distress so I just felt the need to enter because I love these colours so much.  This is my entry, much more simple than lots of others, but that's exactly what I was aiming for as I wanted the colours to speak for themselves:

I stamped with a Stampendous, I Love Paris stamp onto manila cardstock first with black archival ink and then dried with my heat tool, masked the flowers off and then used my blender tool to add Salty Ocean for the sky and Mowed Lawn for the ground.  I then applied the Picked Raspberry to the flowers using my water brush.  I tried to create a little light through the middle of the Eiffel Tower so that it would not look too flat. The edges of the tag were distressed with a TH distress tool and then covered in Vintage Photo DI.

The ribbon is vintage seam binding dyed with Picked Rasberry (you should see my fingers!), scrunched it up and dried it with a heat tool.  The Paris and Eiffel Tower charms are from my stash.  I added the butterfly to balance the piece.  The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punched one, which I overstamped and I added ocean coloured pearls for the body.

I am entering this into the Simons Says Challenge (http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.co.uk) - Inspired by Summer Distress.

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them and I will always try to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

WOYWW - Week 169

Hello Fellow WOYWWers and Bloggers

Maybe it is because we have had a Bank Holiday but this Wednesday has come round a bit too quickly!  Time to share your desks with WOYWWers from around the world all by courtesy of the wonderful Julia at  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk .  If you want to join in (be warned, it is addictive) then pop over to Julia's place to details.

I have had quite a crafty week so far, mainly due to our horrible cold and wet weather, which if you are interested, you can see from my previous two posts, my makes, not the weather! 

Otherwise this is my desk today:

Yes, I have been buying .....BUT ......one of my favourite on line shops Bubbly Funk (www.bubblyfunk.co.uk) is closing (to move elsewhere) and are offering everything - yes everything, at 50% off so what is a craftaholic to do??  And I did it big style.  So, some of my purchases are on my desk and the Coredinations papers are all neatly put away........I know, I have been very naughty, but I did get some lovely stuff and if I can bear to open the packets I will use it - honest!

If you do stop by I hope you will leave me a comment, I love reading them and I always try to return the compliment wherever possible.  Happy WOYWW to you all.  Take care.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

Flowers and Butterflies - in the pink!

Hello lovely blog friends

Well our Bank Holiday has been a wash out, totally, rain, rain and more rain, plus lots of thunder and lightening, but it has meant that I could get a bit more crafting done!  My post yesterday was all about green but today it is all about pink and pretty.

I wanted to try entering Fashionable Stamping Challenge again where the challenge this week (No. 29) is Anything Floral/Handmade Flowers. 

The challenge can be found at http://fashionablestampingchallenges.cottagecrafts.ie.

I saw another challenge at J and C Creations at http://jandccreationschallenge.blogspot.co.uk which is for 'Something a little different' and I thought my piece would work for that too.

Here is my entry:

The box is from a Tim Holtz configuration and I painted it with pink acrylic paint.  The inside is covered in Tim Holtz coredination card in spun sugar, which I embossed and sanded back.  The outside is covered in Kaisercraft Bonjour paper.  Inside the box is a Sizzix / Hero Arts die/stamp set which I stamped, coloured with Spun Sugar and Pine Needles Distress Ink using a water brush, die cut, added some wire antennae to the butterfly and carefully placed in the box, up on foam pads.  I then cut out and decoupaged a further layer to add some dimension.

The flowers along the top are cut from Tim Holtz tattered pinecone die which I assembled, edged the flowers with Worn Lipstick DI and glued down with some added foliage from the same die set.  The corners are some from my stash which I have coated in alcohol ink (mountain rose) to tone down the shiny silver.  The feet are some plastic beads from my stash.

This is a view of the side and back:

It is quite a subdued pink but the lack of sunlight has made the first picture look darker in the photo, the second is more realistic in colour.

I really wanted to do another chunky ATC block but someone else on the Fashionable Stamping DT did a lovely one and I didn't want to copy that. 

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them all and will always try to return the compliment where possible.  Crafty hugs, Anne x

Sunday Stampers Week 220 - GREEN

Hello lovely blog friends

This week over at Sunday Stampers (http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk) our resident host, the talented Hels has set the challenge as Green based on Green Tambourine.

I am not fond of green at the best of times but I was looking at Country View Crafts blog and saw a design that Gabrielle had posted and it was using my newest set of Tim Holtz stamps.  I was at a bit of a loss how to use the stamps and she gave me the inspiration.  Now, Hels, you wanted Green and boy oh boy, you are getting a lot of green here:

I decided to make a journal, nothing like Gabrielle's but I wanted to make something that I might, one day, use.  The dragonfly is stamped twice and decoupaged.  The journal itself is hardback (Zutter from my stash) and has 20 lovely clean white pages in it.  I bound it together by punching holes with my Crop-A-dile and added ribbon to hide the rings - should have used my binding machine but it was stuck in the back of my cupboard........

The paper is BoBunny and the edges are distressed with Mowed Lawn DI and I coloured the ribbon with Dylusions Fresh Lime ink spray.  The dragonfly is coloured in a mixture of the Fresh Lime and also Dylusions Vibrant turquoise - wow are those colours strong!!

Hope you like the green Hels!

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them all and I will always do my best to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne x

Just a bit of fun

Hello Lovely Followers and Fellow Bloggers

Thank you so much to my latest follower, I really appreciate the fact that you have joined me.

Yesterday I had a day all to myself, no commission cards to make, no challenges to enter, no shopping, so I thought I would just have a bit of inky fun.  I got out my Dylusions inks and had great fun getting inky and messy - nothing to show from there as I was just playing.

However, my wonderful blog friend Sandee who lives in the States sent me some die cuts of seahorses that I had admired on her photo album.  Seahorses to me are the butterflies of the ocean, beautiful, graceful and a joy to watch so I made a tag with the largest seahorse.  I had some Frantage crushed glass glitter and some shells from a long since broken necklace which I added to the sea floor.  The background is Tim Holtz distress inks in Peacock Feather and Shabby Shutters which I spritzed and flicked onto.  The vintage seam binding is coloured with the same colours.  I added a little anchor charm and another anchor stamped in archival ink and coloured in with a silver pen.

I added bubbles from a little stamp I bought years ago and I covered the seahorse with crackle Glossy Accents (sorry it does not show up so well but it looks like scales).  The seahorse which is layered up in two layers, is coloured in distress inks, as is the sea weed and I added a few strokes with promarker to give them some movement.  The words are Tim Holtz which I cut apart.

Edited: I had set this up on schedule but Mr Blogger was not playing!

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them all and I will always do my best to return the compliment.  If you live in the UK I hope you have a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend and anywhere else hope you have a lovely weekend too.  Crafty hugs, Anne x

WOYWW - Week 168 and Goodies

Hello Lovely Followers and Bloggers

It is that time again when we share our desks with the world at large, courtesy of the lovely Julia over at
http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk.  If you want to know more or join in then hop over there for info.

I am doing a happy dance this week, well maybe not the dance bit, but the happy bit - yes!

I got four lovely parcels in the post which you can see here:

From left to right - a set of stamps that look like real rain drops - I kid you not, they look real, purchased from a lady in Canada called Ryn Tanaka.  Above those is a card from my wonderful WOYWW blog friend Sandee in the USA.  Sandee very kindly did me some die cuts of sea horses that I liked in her album and enclosed them in this beautiful card.  Next is my brand spanking new Scotch Tape Glider which I received from another wonderful WOYWW friend Lynn, of the Doodly birds, how kind is that, I have wanted one of these for eons, well a while anyway.  

On the right is my new DVD by the uber talented Trish Latimer, yet another wonderful WOYWWer.  I was not lucky enough to win one but I bought this and it is amazing.  I have learned such a lot about painting on canvas and other lovely things.  My first effort is in the foreground and a close up is below.  I am so pleased that Trish has equipped me in a very short space of time with the tools to paint very easily onto a blank canvas. 

I have yet to decide how to finish it off.  Trish likes to use standing people but I don't have any of those yet, I might have a look at Stampotique........    Right in the middle is just me playing with my latest stamps.

All this and I had my 100th follower, mentioned in my last post, who was Jo of Jozart, another lovely WOYWWer!  Your gift is on it's way to you Jo and thanks again.

That's it from me, hope you enjoyed your visit and if you did please leave me a comment and I will always do my best to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

100th Follower and Sunday Stampers - Steampunk

Hello Fellow Bloggers

Today I am celebrating my 100th Follower which is Jo from Jozart, one of my WOYWW buddies!  Thank you so much Jo and all my other lovely Followers, I truly appreciate your visits and comments.  A couple of gifts are on their way to Jo for being my 100th, I am not going to say what they are because I have only posted the parcel today.  Hope you like them Jo!

This week over at Sunday Stampers challenge - WEEK 219, which is run by the wonderfully talented  Hels Sheridan is Steampunk.  Hels can be found at http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk and I am sure she would be delighted if you were to participate too.  Please do check out her blog for details and inspiration.

I do admit, that whilst I love to see what others do in the steampunk genre, I don't do a great deal myself but Hels has used amazing embellishments from Crafty-Emblies (www.crafty-emblies.com), a new online shop on her piece this week.  Crafty-Emblies are sponsoring this challenge and are offering a £10 voucher to spend in their shop, for the winner.  I bought a few bits when they first opened so I thought I could use them to create my piece.  I used one of my favourite things, a chunky wood ATC and created this:

This is the front and the basque and the wings are from Crafty Emblies, the feet are beads from my stash, painted with acrylic paint in copper and the little knob is a bargain purchase (£1.00) from The Range.  The backing paper is from Tim Holtz Kraft Resist stack (he has done a video today which is well worth checking out).

The back and one side look like this:

The sentiment and the steampunk cogs (and the steampunk bee on the side) are stamped from Sam Poole's Inventor stamp set and the wooden cogs are again from Crafty-Emblies.  Along the other side, which you cannot see are four pen nibs in various stages of rust.  Apologies for the photos, the evening light is not being kind to me.

My usual difficulty with steampunk is that I either do too dark and dingy or too girly so I hope this piece looks somewhere between the two!

If you do visit, I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them and will always try to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

Sunday Stampers Week 218 - Shiny Happy People

Hello Lovely Bloggers

I really am bringing up the rear with this weeks effort for Sunday Stampers where the theme is 'Shiny'.  The challenge is run by the lovely Hels Sheridan (http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk) who has created the most wonderful piece this week.  Please so check it out if you have not already done so.

August is the busiest month for me for birthday cards, both for family and also commissions so my feet have not touched the floor for a while now.  In addition to that, a friend of a friend saw some of my canvases and asked if I would make her one.  Well, I was delighted until I asked her what colours she would like. "I don't want anything colourful or fancy and I don't want any words on it".  Do you have a colour preference, I ask?  "Oh yes, cream, beige and a touch of silver".  OK, I thought, I can do basic and bland..........it is a lot harder than you think.  This is what I created.  I have a feeling that she may not like the background........

If you click on the picture you may see more of the shine. 

I coloured the base canvas with cream emulsion paint that I found in the garage.  I stamped the polka dots on and did the lines with some mocha acrylic paint mixed with white to bring the colour down.  The flowers are created using die cut flowers soaked with water and scrunched up and they have a very liberal coat of perfect pearls to make then really, really shiny, but the light is so bad today it does not really show up.  The stems and leaves are just freehand on some mat silver card.  I added a strip of corrugated card which I distressed with picket fence distress stain.  The edges of the canvas have flitter glue and sterling silver mega flakes by Indigoblu applied but again it does not show up well - sorry!  The final touch was a small silver coloured charm and some beige string from my stash.

Shame about the bland bit because I have just got a new DVD by Trish Latimer called Create with Paint and it is a wonderful adventure into colour and paint techniques and I was just  itching to make this piece more colourful....ah well, the customer gets what the customer wants.

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them all and will always try to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

Tim's Tag August 2012 - Sentimental Journey

Hello lovely Blog friends!

Hang on to your hats now because I don't say this very often but despite my 'Do Not Have' list being three times longer than my 'Do Have' list I am really quite happy with my tag this month.  There, I have said it now.

I did a week long search for that lovely frame stamp that Tim uses on his original tag but I gave up, a little disgruntled and improvised, or as my lovely Blog Friend Kath says - I did an 'adapt and overcome' - love that expression and I suspect it is true for most of my blog buddies where Lord Tim's products are concerned.  If I ever win the Lottery I am going to buy two of every single thing that man has ever made.............I will probably need an extension to my craft room - lol.

So here is my tag:

I did have the embossing folder so what I did to make the frame is this.  I used the embossing folder to emboss onto white card, I then cut the frame out, used black embossing powder over it and heat set it.  I knew it would then be a perfect fit.  I used the folder to emboss the tag and I cut the wavy bit at the bottom from plain card, freehand and attached it to the bottom. I used the paint technique that Tim used and then I used DI's to colour over the top, distressed the edges with a distress tool and then wiped with a wet cloth over the whole tag.

The flowers and spikey leaves are cut from the Tattered Pinecone die, the other leaves and twigs were cut freehand.

The silhouette of the lady was taken from Joanna Sheen's Dancing with Shadows CD Rom and I cut it to fit the frame.  I added pearls to her neckline as they were already on the picture and I quite liked the look. 

To finish off I coloured some vintage ribbon with Tattered Rose DI, scrunched it up, added a TH safety pin with a pearl drop and a key.  The words on the frame say 'Sentimental Journey', hence the name in the blog title.  My final step was to spray the flowers and leaves with Perfect Pearls and voila, there you have it.

I hope you like it, I thoroughly enjoyed making it.  If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment and I will always try to return the compliment, where possible.  Thanks for looking - Crafty hugs, Anne xx

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 167

Hello Fellow Woywwers and Blog Friends

Goodness, this week has flown by!  Sorry I missed last week.  In some ways I am glad that the Olympics are over for a couple of weeks so that I can get my craft life back!  I have thoroughly enjoyed them, Britain did so well this time and the closing ceremony was very enjoyable (I really enjoyed Elbow and even the Spice Girls!).

This is the time of week when we share our desks with the world courtesy of our Hostess with the mostest, Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk and if you want to know more or join in please pop over there.

Short and sweet today, this is my desk this morning.  I did a mini workshop with Doodly Bird Lynn (http://oneimadeearliertoday.blogspot.co.uk) and a couple of her friends, on die cutting.  We had a lovely day in Lynn's beautiful home and a wonderful lunch prepared by Lynn and it was a gorgeous warm sunny day too.  When I got home I had a parcel from America, courtesy of Tim Holtz, via Simon Says Stamps, with my choice of prize!  I chose Classic Favourites #1 by Stampers Anonymous and also a Penny Black stamp called chicky workout - it is so cute.

I think you can just about see the stamps, click on the pic and it should get bigger.  Well that's all from me except to say thank you to all of you who sent lovely birthday wishes to my lovely David on his 70th birthday, he has had a wonderful birthday week - yes, a week!

If you stop by I hope you will leave me a message, I always try to return the compliment, wherever possible.  Happy WOYWW, Crafty hugs, Anne xx

Penny Black Challenge - Double the Trouble

Hello Fellow Bloggers

It is a week since I posted - sorry!  I was a bit under the weather and now we are getting ready for DH's 70th birthday party so it is busy, busy, busy!  I may be missing for a couple of days.......

Thank you again to my lovely new Followers, I am so happy that you have joined me.

The challenge over at Penny Black (http://pennybfriendssaturdaychallenge.blogspot.co.uk) is Double Trouble, where we are required to use two Penny Black stamps. 

I wanted to celebrate the Olympics in some way so I chose the London bus and Olympic torch stamps.  I stamped the bus and torch onto card, coloured with Promarkers and prismacolour pencils, cut them out and layered them up onto a London scene background that I have had in my stash for a while.  The mats and layers are made with Tim Holtz Distress collection card, matted onto an 8" x 8" white card.  I made the little street sign from black card so that the mouse would have something to stand on and used computer generated words for the sign and the 2012.  The word London is a left over from another card. 

I love the bus stamp and I am very pleased with my colouring for a change.  I am going to keep this card as a souvenir of the Olympics which I have thoroughly enjoyed watching (although my crafting time has suffered).

Hope you like it and if you visit I would love it if you would  leave me a comment as I love to read them and will always try to return the compliment.  I have scheduled this post so I hope it works out!  Crafty hugs, Anne x

Sunday Stampers - Week 217 - Patterns

Hello Fellow Bloggers

The theme for Sunday Stampers this week at http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk which is run by the very talented Hels Sheridan is Patterns.  If you want to join in the challenge then please have a look at Hels' blog, she does the most amazing creations.

With the Olympics in full swing and me feeling a bit under the weather I did something very simple this week, using patterned paper and my favourite creatures of all time - butterflies, no suprises there then!  I added a Tim Holtz quote stamp and this is the result:

The butterflies were cut with a Martha Stewart punch, from the same patterned paper and I just alternated the butterflies on the patterned background.  I added some pearls to the bodies of the butterflies, matted onto navy card and then onto an 8" x 8" white card base.

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them and I will always try to return the compliments.  Hope you are all still enjoying the Olympics!  Go Great Britain!  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

And the winner is.....

Hello Blog Friends

Firstly, thank you to all my new Followers, I do so appreciate your company, thank you for taking the time to have a look at my blog!

On Wednesday I said that I had two copies of Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine and that I would do the draw tonight - well the winner is........April.........please let me have your address and I will get it in the post to you as soon as possible.

Whilst I am here I thought I would exercise my bragging rights, because I am still so excited, to tell you that I won Tim's Tags again this month (July tag).  I did not think it was possible to win twice!  I have entered so many competitions recently but this one is just the best of news and it will take me a while to come down off this high - it is just like winning the gold medal.  I know some of you already know and thank you for your emails and kind comments.  You are all such an inspiration to me.

In between gold medals at the Olympics I have managed to dabble a little this week.  I got a wonderful die/stamp set from Sizzix/Hero Arts which contains flowers and butterflies.  It is a while since I did plain and simple cards so I did these:

I have sent a pic of this one to a lovely blog friend Christine Emberson (http://hope-chances.blogspot.com) who is the only UK member of the Spellbinder design team and she has been on Create and Craft today.  She does a monthly gallery of cards and this will go into that.  Please do have a look at her wonderful blog if get the chance.

The stamps are beautiful, there are three butterflies, one set of flowers and a single flower in the set, each with it's own die.  I used Spellbinder Label 8 to cut the first card out and Labels 23 to mat and layer on the second card.

Hope you are all enjoying the Olympics as much as me, although I feel exhausted just watching the events from the edge of my seat - lol.  I hope you will a comment if you visit - thank you so much if you do and I will always try to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 165

Hello Fellow WOYWWers and Bloggers

Goodness me, that week whizzed by quickly, cannot believe it or that we are so far though the Olympics already - I am loving every minute of it.  I don't even mind that we are bit light on medals, I just love to see those athletes in peak form doing what they do best, they are so fabulous.........

This is the time of the week when we go and have a look around the world at desks of fellow crafters and if you want to find out more and/or join in then have a look at our WOYWW leader Julia who you can find at
http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/ for more information.

I have done very little crafting since last week (watching the Olympics - yay!) so my desk is clean and tidy.  But, some of you may remember that I had a brainwave last week and thought it might be a good idea to turn my little butterfly card (from last week's post) into a canvas to use as a colour guide for my Distress Inks and here it is:-

The canvas size is 30cm x 40cm or approx 12" x 15".  Each butterfly was stamped coloured and cut out individually so it took me a little while (whilst watching the Olympics).  I thought that would be plenty big enough, but oh no, there was no room left to put my little labels on, the labels that I painstakingly wrote out and cut up.  So, I did a colour key using a spreadsheet and this is clipped on at the back. 

The canvas is laid out in the colour families that Tim uses on his colour chart that you can download from his website.  It has his original colours on, not sure if he has produced one since with the special edition inks. 

There are quite a few blank spaces, these are six of the normal ink colours that I do not have yet and also a couple of the special edition sets from last year.  I marked these in red on my spreadsheet so that I know exactly which ones I need to buy (eventually).  Once I get those there will be less spaces but probably no room for any more TH brings out.  The picture looks better if you double click on it to make it bigger.

Quite a few of you said you would love to do the same so at least you can see how it might look.  I think it was worth the time and effort and it looks lovely up on the wall too.

Finally, I have received two copies of the magazine - Cardmaking and Papercraft (September issue), don't quite know why, but they do not want it back.  If anyone would like it please let me know and if there are a few of you I will do a draw on Friday evening this week at 8:00 pm GMT and I will contact the winner.  If you want it but comment after that time - Sorry!

I will try to visit as many of you as possible this week, in between my favourite events.  If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, tell me what you think of my colour chart, or just say hello. I always try to return the compliment.  In the meantime enjoy the rest of your week and if you are watching the Olympics, hope you enjoy them too.  Crafty hugs, Anne x