Two Challenges - Time to Be You - Wendy Vecchi Inspired

Hello lovely Bloggers, Friends old and new,

The theme at Sunday Stampers which is run by the amazing Hels Sheridan is A Taste of Honey where Hels would like to see something in Honey Colours / Honeycombs.  Hels has been under the weather this week so I hope that by now she is fighting fit again.

The theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is - Inspired by Wendy Vecchi.  There is a prize of £50 to spend at Simon Says Store for a randomly selected entry.  If you do not necessarily want to enter, please do go over and visit the blog to see what amazing pieces the DT have come up with.

Since Hels is a great Wendy Vecchi fan (me too) I can combine two challenges in one!

I have called my piece Time to Be You :

 

 

I have made my favourite hinged tag again, inspired by Hels, the base is covered in Fired Brick, Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge DIs.  I spodged the ink onto my mat, spritzed with water and then smooshed the tag through it, dried it with my heat tool and repeated until I was happy with the background colour.  I overstamped in Rusty Hinge DI with the Wendy Vecchi honeycomb stamp from the Art For You set.  The edges were distressed with Black Soot DI.

 

The bee is from Wendy Vecchi Art Part set Bugs and Butterflies and I overstamped this with the bee from the Art For you stamp set and then coloured with Distress Markers.  To make the bee glimmer I sprayed the whole thing with Glimmer Mist.  I cut the bottom of the wings off and then stamped some Clearly For Art with the bee stamp, cut it out, coloured it with alcohol ink in Cool Peri and attached it to the bee to give a clear wing effect.  The bee comes in two parts and I added the smaller body part (coloured with Distress Marker) on top of the wings to give added dimension.   I added rhinestones to highlight the eyes (I love this insect set).

 

 

 

The watch is another WV Art Part (Pocket Watches) and I coloured the base with Frayed Burlap, overstamped with a watch stamp from my stash and then attached the top of the watch after embossing with gold embossing powder.  I aged the watch slightly with Black Soot DI.

 

The words 'Time To' are computer generated and the 'Be You' is from the WV Art for You stamp set.  I added three jump rings to hold the two parts of the tag together.  To finish off I dyed some vintage seam binding in Fired Brick and Wild Honey DIs and added these to the tag.

 

This is a scheduled post because I am away at the moment, I had to miss WOYWW this week and I will not be able to comment on any blogs until I return early next week - sorry, I miss my daily fix of blogging already! 

 

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

 

 



 

 



Tim's Tag October 2012

Hello to all my blog friends old and new and a big welcome to my latest followers, it is so nice to have you along on my crafting journey.

I ask myself a question each month - why, when I have so much Tim Holtz stuff do I struggle to find the necessary products for the tag each month?  Answer - I just need to get more!

This month was no exception but I wanted to make my tag look like Tim's because I love Halloween so much and I love the colours he used, so here we go, this is my tag:

I followed Tim's recipe for the base card but with musical tissue paper and some acrylic paints from my stash.   I enhanced the backing with Distress Inks.   I then stamped the cobwebs with a Stampendous stamp and then misted the tag with Perfect Pearls Gold.

Now came the fun part - making the glitter.  I admit I did panic and thought I had got it all wrong but wow, it looks great when you just keep mixing it and get rid of the lumps - a great technique.  I cut the letter for my 'boo' from the Wordplay die (using zeros instead of 'o's' because they were bigger) and glued the letters together with Glossy Accents.  I cut the flourish from the Elegant Flourishes die and trimmed a bit off.  I then put Glossy accents over both pieces and covered them with the glitter.  The spider was stamped (Stampendous), and Glossy Accented and glittered.

I don't have the ticket die but used a Journalling Ticket, cut down, added an October calendar, heavily distressed with Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo DI's and added a computer generated word - spooky.  I attached it with a little clothes peg that I coloured in orange acrylic paint.

To finish off I added Tim's Tinsel ribbon (have I said how much I love this stuff before - oh yes, sorry, I have) and some vintage seam binding dyed with Rusty Hinge DI.  I think I have enjoyed making this tag so much because they are techniques that I have never tried before and because I had to think about how to replace some products - always a challenge for me!

I hope you like my tag and I also hope you will leave me a comment, I love reading them and they encourage me to continue along this crafty road.  I will always try to return the compliment wherever possible.  Crafty hugs, Anne x

Sunday Stampers Week 227 - Metal (Very Heavy)

Hello Blog Friends

A big welcome to my latest followers, it is lovely to have you along on my crafty journey.  I hope you will find some things of interest along the way.

This week over at the wonderful Hels Sheridan's blog the theme of  Sunday Stampers is Metal, based on one of her favourite rock bands, Judas Priest.  I hope she will forgive me because I have never heard of them but if Hels liked them they must have been good..... she was a rock chick after all.

Hels has requested that we use a small amount of metal (or a whole shed load of the stuff) and some stamping.  Those of you who follow me regularly will, by now, know that I quite like Hallowe'en and I have been using my Tim Holtz skull stamp quite a lot (see my last three posts!).  You may be pleased to know that I have not used the skull on my tag but it is VERY heavy in metal!!  Here it is:

Metal does not like to be photographed but I have done my best.  It reads I Love (Heart) Halloween.  The spider is a special treat for Hels who loves them.

I covered a tag with metal tape (a gift from my friend Mo) and embossed it with Tim's metal embossing folder and then smeared a few drops of Pitch Black Alcohol Ink in a few places.  I then covered the whole of the tag with Black Soot DI and then buffed it up.  I stamped a spider's web (Stampendous) at the top and the bottom of the tag.  I cut the bottom off the tag to make a hinged tag (a trick I learned from Hels and now love) and attached the hinge with four jump rings. 

The heart and arrow are Ranger grungeboard shapes which were already cut and embossed.  On the heart this is covered with Indigo Blu Flitter Glue and then covered with Mega Flakes in Lancashire Rose.   The arrow was covered in black embossing powder and heat set.  The letter 'i ' has been treated in the same way.  The spider (Stampendous)  has been stamped, embossed and carefully cut out.  The word Halloween is from Tim's Apothecary set of stamps and has been stamped onto white card, embossed in black, cut out and then over inked with Black Soot DI.

The ribbon at the top is vintage seam binding, coloured in Rusty Hinge DI and has been tied with a piece of Tim's tinsel ribbon.

If you do visit I hope you will be kind enough to leave me a comment, I love to read them and I always do my best to return the compliment (if I can find you).  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

WOYWW - Week 176 - Christmas and Hallowe'en

Hello Fellow WOYWWers and Blog Friends

A big welcome first to my latest followers, I am thrilled that you want to come along on my crafting journey, as I develop and learn new ways of creating - thank you!  Thank you too, to all of you who have left me the most amazing comments on my Hallowe'en pieces recently, it means a huge amount to me.

It is that time of week again when we share our desks with the world of WOYWWers, through our wonderful Hostess, Julia who you can find HERE.  If you want to join in then please pop over to see Julia who will explain all - but be warned, it is very addictive but it is also a place to make wonderful new friends too.

On my desk this week, more Christmas and Halloween as you can see here:

The Christmas card is awaiting a sentiment although I can't decide whether to put one on or leave it as it is.  The die cut deer and the 25 are from Tim Holtz Movers and Shaker dies, I added antlers by using the Movers and Shakers branch die cut, cut down to size.  The white backing is the shattered glass embossing folder and once embossed, I added some glitter.   The dress form has been painted for the third time, awaiting inspiration.  To the right is Robbie, my amazingly beautiful handmade bear from my wonderful blog friend Rita.  Robbie watches me craft and then goes back to my display shelf each night........I know, but I love him and like to see him! 

In front is another Hallowe'en skull, stamped and decoupaged, with scary eyes, backed onto black glitter card, waiting to be mounted onto a card base. I am loving that Tim Holtz stamp set so much, I am using it nearly every day!   The skeleton on the black card at the front is from a Memory Box die and you can construct the skeleton any way you like as each part is separate.  When standing straight he is about 5 inches tall (approx 13 cm).  I quite like him in a dancing position.

Well that's it from me, hope you enjoyed your peek into my craft world and I look forward to visiting you too.  Happy WOYWW, Crafty hugs, Anne x

Hallowe'en continues.......

Hello Blog Friends

Thank you to all my blog friends old and new for your amazing comments on my Hallowe'en graveyard piece, I am thrilled to bits that you like it!  I had so much fun doing it.

I love Hallowe'en, although here in the UK we do not really celebrate it, but with my Canadian roots, I still enjoy all things Hallowe'en and love when the neighbourhood children come round to the house all dressed up in their lovely little scary costumes.......

So, I have got a fairly new set of Tim Holtz stamps called Apothecary and in the set is an amazing skull, which I think would be good for times other than Hallowe'en too.  I have been having fun playing with it and made several items, one of them is a tag which you can see here:

If you click on the picture you will get a closer look.

I have used my new favourite style of tag with a hinge.  I got the inspiration from the fabulous Hels Sheridan who loves working with hinged tags.

The base is a No. 10 sized Ranger tag (with approx 2.1/2" cut off for the hinged piece).  I stamped all over the background with the script stamp that comes in the set and I coloured in the centre of each part with Old Paper Distress Ink and then the rest of the tag was coloured with Rusty Hinge DI.  I did Tim's spritz and flick technique to create some interest.  The edges have been coloured with Black Soot DI.  The skull has been stamped onto the tag and then I stamped and cut out another skull, cut out the eyes, nose and mouth and then decoupaged this on top of the stamped skull to make it look more realistic.  The skull was lightly coloured with Old Paper DI.

I added a few Memory Box die cut bats and two orange gems for the scary eyes (I think they look quite spooky).  The Happy Hallowe'en comes in one line on the stamp so I masked off and stamped each word separately and then used Tim's new technique (which you can find on his October tag details) to make the black glitter (very messy but fun).  I punched four holes in the tag and the hinge and used bronze coloured rings to attach the two together.

I finished off by dying some vintage seam binding with Rusty Hinge DI and put this through the top hole along with Tim's new black tinsel (which I purchased from the Funky Junkie Boutique)  If you have not tried this tinsel, it is brilliant, it is lovely and soft and not at all like the tinsel you get for the Christmas tree.  It has a slight stretch to it making it ideal to put on your tags.

There is a challenge over at Anything But A Card (ABAC) Challenge which is Fall or Halloween and I would like to enter my tag into this challenge.  The Design Team have come up with some stunning projects, it is worth a peek if you have the time.

I am also entering this into Frilly and Funky Challenge sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique where you get a coupon for 25% off products in the Boutique, great value anyway but with 25% off it makes it amazing value.

Thank you for looking, I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them and will try, wherever possible (if I can find you!) to return the compliment.  Have a lovely week.  Crafty hugs, Anne x



A Couple of Challenges - It is a bit macabre!

Hello Fellow Bloggers

Thank you so much to my latest followers (I really appreciate you being along with me on my crafting adventures) and my trusty other followers.  I am not sure what you are going to make of this creation but I can tell you I had the most fun making it!

The Frilly and Funky Challenge is to create a tag - but a Different Kind of Tag and one with a theme.  The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique and the prize is $25 gift voucher to spend in the Funkie Junkie Boutique.

The Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is named Rustification where they want to see some rusted materials on the entry.  The prize for this challenge is a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp Shop.

I am also entering into Haunted House Designs Challenge 154, Bats in the Belfry where bats are a requirement.  I have two bats attached to the Boo sign, I just hope it is scary enough for their challenge - if you like Bats/Halloween, it is certainly worth a peek.

I have also seen a great challenge at Inspiration Emporium blog where the challenge is to create a 'Spooktacular Decoration' and the prize is $50 in Emporium Dollars to spend in the store.  My little piece is intended for a decoration on Halloween night so I thought I would enter this one too!

OK, anyone of a nervous disposition please turn away (only kidding!) now because here is my entry:

I created my tag by using a piece of galvanised mesh panelling which I formed into a tag shape by using a No 8 Manila tag.  The mesh was then bent at right angles so that it would stand up on its side, with two/thirds of the wire tag left to form a back.  I added a small 'shelf'', approx 2" wide from card,  for the coffin to stand on and I coloured the mesh with pitch black alcohol ink to give a more tarnished and weathered look.  The coffin was made from plain card and covered with wood effect paper and then distressed to within an inch of its life with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Bundled Sage and Black Soot.  A piece of dyed crinoline fabric has been placed inside the coffin.

The broken picket fence and tree are die cuts and the bats were a gift in my recent purchase from the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  The gravestones were drawn and cut out by me.  The two fabulous skeletons are a recent purchase from a well known auction site and I covered these brass coloured skeletons with Tim Holtz Mixative in Snow Cap and gave each of them a set of amber eyes to make them even spookier.

The rusting was great fun.  The word Boo has been taken from Tim Holtz Kraft Idea-ology Chipboard Letters and I used rusting powder to rust them up and then distressed by adding a little acrylic paint.  I finished off the tag by adding some of Tim Holtz's new tinsel ribbon and a piece of vintage ribbon, again purchased from The Funkie Junkie.

I put orange glitter card behind so that it would show up the mesh better when photographed.  Here is a picture from above to show the inside a little better.  Love the way the skeleton in the grave yard looks so relaxed.......

I know it is a bit macabre and a very unusual make for me, but a family members loves this kind of thing so after I put it in the window on Halloween with a battery operated tea light, it will go to them.......

I hope you like it!  If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I always do my best to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne x

WOYWW Week 175 - What a mess!

Hello Fellow WOYWWers and Bloggers

I would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who take the time to leave me lovely comments, I do so appreciate them, it doesn't take much to keep this old girl happy but you certainly give me a big boost!

It is that time again when we take a peek at desks around the globe and see what each other is getting up to.  If you want to join in then pop over and visit Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk for all the information you need.  It is great fun, there are some wonderful Bloggers out there, but it is addictive!

Short and sweet this week, as per Julia's gentle instructions - here is my desk (I took it late afternoon when we had sunshine - yay!) because I was not going to touch it again overnight:

You will see some Hallowe'en paper with die cut bats ready for making up, a birthday card for a relative, some mini Noel (TH die) Christmas cards that a friend asked for, some of my trusty Distress Inks, some Fran-tage and then the other usual glues, spray and implements that I have been using.  Not too exciting but I left it quite messy.  The weather was so lovely today that DH took me out for lunch and it was lovely, so no crafting for me today.

Looking forward to seeing your work spaces.  If you do visit me I hope you will leave me a comment, I always do my best to return the compliment.  Happy WOYWW everyone, crafty hugs from Anne x.

Sunday Stampers Week 226 - Snowflakes

Hello Lovely Blog Friends old and new,

This week over at Sunday Stampers which is hosted by the amazing Hels Sheridan the theme for the challenge is Snow/Snowflakes.

Those of you who have been having a look at my blog recently,  will know that I have been making my Christmas cards.  I was reading Craft Stamper Magazine last week and came across a fabulous design (page 12 & 13) by a designer called Joanne Allison where she uses the Tim Holtz Texture Fade: Cracked to make a card.  I have 'borrowed' her design to make my tag for the challenge.  And then today another of my crafting heroines, the wonderful Kath Stewart has used the Texture Fade too.  I don't know about all of you but I do get a bit bored making the same card over and over so this year I am sticking to just a few designs, although I have yet to use my fabulous Tim Holtz Christmas Blueprint stamps.  So I thought I would make a tag for this challenge:

I decided to make one of Hels' popular hinged tags.  I embossed white card, cut it to tag size and matted it onto a larger tag which I coloured with Broken China Distress Ink.  The cracking has been covered with embossing ink using a brayer and then I used Fran-tage Shabby Blue Embossing Enamel to highlight the cracks.  I stamped two snowflakes at the top of the tag and also covered them in Shabby Blue.

The layered snowflake is made up from two Spellbinder snowflake dies (2010 Snowflake Pendant and Create A Flake 3) and a rosette of my own, all cut from white glitter card.  I added a gorgeous roundelle covered in diamante with a toning blue stone in the middle (my photography doesn't really show it in all its beauty - sorry).  The Merry Christmas is stamped with a freebie stamp from Simply Cards & Papercraft.

The pearl and crystals are Tim Holtz and the snowflake is from my stash.  The ribbon is vintage seambinding coloured with Broken China Distress Ink smooshed on my craft sheet and then liberally wet with Tattered Angels Abominable Snowman Glimmer Mist (I think I have said before, but this stuff is fabulous - so shiny! and it is a limited edition so I bought two).

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

Anything But a Card Challenge - Shiny, Sparkly, Blingy!

Hello Blog Friends

Welcome to my latest Followers, it is a pleasure to have you along on my crafting adventure, I very much appreciate you and all my loyal Followers taking the time and effort to watch my journey!

This time over at Anything But a Card Challenge the theme is Shiny, Sparkly, Blingy.  I wanted so much to enter this time but was a little worried about the requirements, I tend to only use shiny, sparkly, blingy for Christmas but as I have been making Christmas cards and have all my glitters out, I thought I should have a go.  One of the DT has done some fabulous Christmas baubles so I thought it would be OK.

The wonderfully talented Christine Emberson makes gift bags out of envelopes.  I have been making these to give little treats to family and friends.  If you click on Christine's name you will be transported to a little video that Christine has made, showing how she did it - prepare to be inspired!

Since I saw Tim Holtz's rosette snowflake die I have wanted it so much (needed it!) but I could not afford this and there are many other things (mainly Tims) before it on my 'must have' list so I thought I would attempt to make something similar (although nowhere near as nice as TH's) and it is here on my little gift bag:

The backing paper is coloured with Pan Pastels (love these) and then overstamped with a snowflake stamp, covered with embossing powder and heated.  The vintage seam binding is also coloured with the same Pan Pastel.  The tag is Craftwork Cards, punched and hung with a jump ring.  The icicle strip across the top is glitter card, cut, folded and held on with a white paper clip with a bit more ribbon tied on the end.  Such a simple but effective closing.

The rosette was quite simple once I got the hang of it.  I scored a 12" x 2" strip of thin white card with my Martha Stewart score board at 1/4" intervals.  I then took the strip and drew a line along the whole length at about 1.1/4".  I then cut along the drawn line and at every 4th and 5th score line I made a point.  I then cut along the whole length to include the points.  I then concertina folded the whole length and glued the ends together, ensuring that the spacing at the end matched the rest of the point folds.  Once dried I pushed the rosetted into a circle and glued a piece of card to the back to hold the whole rosette in place.  Once the glue was dry I then sprayed the whole rosette with Crafters Companion Stick and Spray and liberally covered it with glitter.  It does take a lot of time and effort so I may think again about the die, but I am happy with the result.

The smaller snowflake is cut from glitter card using a Spellbinders snowflake die and I added a clear gem to the middle. The rosette is nowhere near as glamorous as Tims, his are quite stunning but for a gift bag I think my way is fine.

If you do visit, I hope you have enjoyed it and that you will leave me a comment.  I do love to read them and I will always do my best to return the compliment, as long as I know how to get in touch.  Crafty hugs, Anne x

WOYWW Week 174

Hello Fellow Woywwers,

Wednesday does seem to be coming around awfully quickly at the moment!  Another chance to go around the world and have a snoop at other people's workspaces.........  If you would like to know more or become involved then visit our lovely Hostess Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk for all the details.

I have had quite a busy week in my craft room, making things for various challenges but yesterday I started on my Christmas cards!!

Here's my workspace:

I made the three cards with that Stampendous stamp in the background.  I saw it on a TV craft show and thought nothing of it but then a blog friend, the amazing Kath Stewart, a fellow WOYWWer, used the stamp to make some cards and I thought they were beautiful, but I felt that I had enough Christmas stamps.  In my local craft shop they had one of these stamps left and the address on the post card is British Columbia, Canada - so I just had to have it!  I have really enjoyed using it even though  I don't usually do vintage looking cards.  There is a close up of one of the cards below.

I also used my two latest crazes - Stampendous Fran-tage and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Abominable Snowman colour - it gives a really gentle sparkle and I love it!  Next week I am cracking out my Tim Holtz Christmas Blueprint stamps, that I won.  I have dabbled already and they are fabulous to use.

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a message, I love to read them and I will always do my best to return the compliment.  Thanks for looking and have a happy WOYWW,  Crafty hugs, Anne x

SS and SSS Challenges!

Hello lovely bloggers

This week at Sunday Stampers Challenge, Week 225, which is run by the uber talented Hels Sheridan and whose details can be found at http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk, is 'What Makes You Happy?'   Well I just love this time of year, Autumn is by far my favourite season and it makes me happy to see all the glorious colours of the trees when they change.  We are lucky to live beside a mill pond which is surrounded by gorgeous chestnut and sycamore trees and they are just starting to change - gorgeous.

At Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge the theme this week is 'leaf-spiration' which is great for an Autumn theme.  There is a $50 prize voucher from Simon Says Stamp.com - what could be better than that!

The Artistic Stamper Creative Team have 'The Natural World' as their theme and there is a very generous £15 voucher to spend on Artistic Stamper stamps and they include the Kling-on to mount the stamps.  I hope I have included enough stamping to qualify for entry, I do not yet have any AS stamps.

I am entering these challenges.

My last post was an Autumn themed tag and I had a couple of leaves left over.  I had not used my Cuttlebug maple leaf die for years so I wanted to get some more use from it, than just one tag, so I cut a few more leaves and this is what I made:

I covered an 8" x 8" canvas with Adirondak Hazlenut paint dabber and once dried I gave it a good coat of PVA glue.  I wafted this with my heat tool and then immediately coated it all over, including the sides with Expresso coloured acrylic paint and left it to dry.  This gave a lovely weathered wood like texture to the canvas.  I made up some embossing powder by mixing three colours (red, gold and clear shimmer) and edged the canvas with this. I am totally obsessed with Fran-tage at the moment but did not have a gold colour.

The corrugated paper (a gift from my lovely blog friend May) was covered with Picket Fence Distress Stain and then the edges were coated with Antiqued Bronze Distress Stain.  The die cut maple leaves were scrunched up and distressed with Antiqued Bronze stain and Vintage Photo DI.  The oak leaves and acorns were stamped (Creative Expressions), cut out from metal sheet (a gift from my lovely (new to blogging) blog friend Mo), stained with Sunset Orange and Espresso Alcohol Inks.

The toadstools are stamped (Dyan Reaveley), the vintage button is from my stash and the three colours of string are Tim Holtz's Idea-ology paper string. The wording - Everyone must take the time to sit and watch the leaves turn - is computer generated.

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