Rules to live by......

Hello Blog Friends

When I saw the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show, which is to use an inspirational quote I knew immediately what I wanted to use and do - that's unusual for me as I do not normally have any plan, I just start something and see where it ends up....

At Simon Says challenge there is a  $50 prize voucher to spend at Simon Says Stamp (for a randomly selected individual) and three others will be chosen by the DT for a Top 3 badge.

I have a few stamp sets by Wendy Vecchi, I love the words that she uses and I always feel so inspired by them.  The set of words on the front of this piece are ones that I have up in my craft room all the time. I do my best to live by the rules but can't promise that I always succeed..........

You can click on the images for a closer view.

It has been a while since I did a chunky ATC.  For this one I painted the block and the bead feet in black acrylic paint.  Whilst this was drying I prepared a sheet by using Tim Holtz Salty Ocean, Broken China and Brushed Pewter Distress stains which I smooshed onto my craft sheet with a little Picket Fence blended in.  I dragged the papers through, drying with my heat gun and then dragging the papers through again until I was happy with the coverage.  I then used Tim's spritz and flick technique to add a bit of interest.  I cut the pieces to size, coloured the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink, ready for stamping.

On the front I stamped this wonderful 'Rules to live by' using my Wendy Vecchi stamp and Black Archival ink.  I highlighted the numbers with a white gel pen.

On the other three sides I used stamped images from Tim Holtz's mini blueprints 3 set (which I have now swapped with my friend), directly onto the mat layer and again onto white card which I then cut out and applied to the original.  The inspirational words on all the other three sides are from a number of stamps from  my stash.

I sprayed the whole of the block with Glimmer Mist in Pearl to give it a nice sparkly sheen.

To finish off I added one of Tim's tap (faucet) pieces to the top.  I coated it in metallic silver alcohol ink in an attempt to make it shiny so that I could enter Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers challenge which this week, is something shiny.  Unfortunately the shine does not show too well in the photo.  Hels is also offering candy this week, I hope you will go over and have a look at her inspirational work, if you have not already done so.

For those of you who have asked about the renovation works - we now have a stone built extension to the rear of the house, which now has windows and doors but cannot be finished until the window lintels are fitted  but it is too cold for the mortar to set.  The new bathroom cannot be started until the extension is finished so we are a little behind schedule but hopefully all will be completed as soon as possible after this Easter weekend.  Fingers crossed......

Hope you all have a good week and wherever you are that you have better weather than we have!  Hugs, Anne x