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

Tim's Tag April 2013

Hello Blog Friends

I am bringing up the rear with my entry to Tim Holtz Tags April 2013, for no other reason than I could just not come up with one that I was happy with.  So, as Tim did say that we should try different colour combinations, I did!  I went a bit pink and girly as you can see.

I followed Tim's directions where I had the products to do so,  but I used Picked Rasberry, Mowed Lawn, Weathered Wood and Brushed Pewter Distress Paints for my background.  These are my current favourite colours of Distress Paint at the moment.  I distressed the pen nib and the WordPlay die cut number 4 in the same colours.  I decided to use Idea-ology flowers instead of cogs, to match my girly colours.   I love the way the metal embellishments take the paints and how the colours stay so true once they are dry.

The gorgeous dragonfly was stamped in Archival and I loved using the Wendy Vecchi Clearly for Art  to make the second uplifting pair of wings.  I attached the wings with a staple.

The vintage ribbon was coloured in Picked Raspberry and Brushed Pewter Distress Paints (the metallics are lush) and then scrunched it up, dried with my heat gun and then added it in a bow to keep up with the girly theme.

The word  banner which says, 'the journey awakens the soul' was swiped over with Picked Raspberry DP and was attached with some pink and white bakers twine as I don't have a tiny attacher as yet.

Thanks for looking and hopefully commenting.  I hope that I have caught up with you all, after being away for a short spell.  Thanks for all your well wishes and kind comments.  Big hugs, Anne xx

Pretty in Pink - Another Useful Tag Holder

Hello Blog Friends

Thank you for being so understanding about my lack of blogging/commenting over the last 10 days or so, your comments on my last post really cheered me up.  My absence was a combination of coming down with a dreadful bug (and my lovely DH is still recovering from Shingles) and also having Builders in the house all day, every day.  I think my Mojo just gave up the ghost too!

Anyway enough of the moaning, I thought I would show you the second tag holder I made, which is similar to the one HERE but decorated quite differently.  I hope you will like this one too.

The tag book is made from some quite faintly patterned scrapbook paper that I had in my stash.  I wanted to keep this fairly plain so the flower and the ribbon ties took centre stage. The cover is made from two No. 10 Ranger Manila tags and the pockets are designed to take the equivalent of No 8 Ranger tags, with a bit of room to spare.  This is how the pockets look from the side.

And another view showing the pockets.








This view has a few No. 8 tags in the pockets. You can just see the tops and there is plenty of room for embellishments on the tags, which is important to me as I do love to embellish!








The outside of the tag book has been covered in paper and I distressed the edges with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink.  The vintage seam binding closure is also coloured with Picked Raspberry, this time with Distress Stain.

The flower was an experiment when Tim Holtz did his Tattered Floral Challenge.  I took some crinoline fabric (purchased from the Funkie Junkie), coloured it with Picked Raspberry Distress Stain, then coloured some linen fabric in the same way, die cut two sets from the Tattered Floral die, put them together with a pearl brad and scrunched them into shape.  I love the way the flower turned out!

To finish off I added some cotton lace to the bottom and side of the book, added a little silver coloured flower charm and then stamped on the front with my favourite Tim Holtz sentiment.  The tag book will lie flat, stand on it's side and also on it's end for storage.

These really are so easy to make and a great way to store tags, instead of sticking them in a drawer or box as I used to do.  Once you make one it is easy to make another one, bigger or smaller to suit larger tags or even ATCs.

I have not gone into any detail about sizes or the how-to here, because it is a bit long, but I have put together an instruction leaflet on how to make one.   If you are interested you will find my email address under the  'About Me' Profile on my left sidebar.  If you email me I will send you a copy of the instructions. Alternatively, if you wish you can leave me your email address in the comment box and I will send a set off to you.

I would like to enter this into the Eclectic Paperie April eTeam Picks Challenge which is Flowers.

Thank you for looking and as ever, thank you if you leave me a comment!  Big hugs, Anne xx 

April in Paris

Hello Blog Friends

Before I start my post I just wanted to say a huge thank you to those of you who left me some wonderful comments on my last post (and previous ones).  It really warms my heart that you take the time to leave comments.  I am going to be missing for a week or so and will not be able to comment as regularly on your blogs as I normally do during that time, there are things going on that need attending to so I hope you will understand.

For any of you who have been to Paris, you will know how beautiful it is at this time of year.  It is over 30 years since my last trip but I remember it well, to this day.  Over at Frilly and Funkie the challenge theme is April in Paris and as I have a wonderful stamp which I thought would be perfect for the challenge.

I recently purchased the Tim Holtz picture wheel die but I have only used it once and could not think of any other way to use it other than for scrapbooking, but the very talented Brenda used one on a tag recently and I was so inspired I just had to give it a go too.  Here is what Brenda inspired me to make:

The base tag is a Tim Holtz Size 8 tag which I have backed with some of Linda Coughlin's (Funkie Junkie Boutique) beautiful white corrugated card.  The corrugated card is edged with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.  The base tag was coloured in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Peeled Paint DIs.

The 'I love Paris in the Springtime' stamp by Stampendous was stamped in black archival ink, once onto the tag and once onto white card.  The flowers are coloured with Picked Raspberry, Pine Needles and Wild Honey DIs.  The image stamped onto white card was coloured in the same way and then cut out and decoupaged over the original. The tag was edged with Peacock Feathers DI.

The picture wheel was cut out on my Vagabond, coloured with Antique Linen and Tumbled Glass DIs and edged with Frayed Burlap DI.  I used Tim's spritz and flick technique to age the wheel more and then I added mini scenes of Paris to each of the wheel holes.  The picture wheel was mounted between the tag and the corrugated card and I added three lovely roses. To finish off I added some vintage seam binding coloured with Peacock Feathers Distress Stain and tied this to the top and added a beautiful pearl.

I am also linking this up to Linda Coughlin's Sunday Share challenge.  The corrugated card came from Linda's shop The Funkie Junkie Boutique where Linda sells major brands at fabulous prices.  A randomly selected winner will win a discount of 25% off their whole order.

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

Nature / Butterflies / New Stamps

Hello Blog Friends

For all my WOYWW friends, I will not be able to link up tomorrow as we are out all day choosing fixtures and fittings etc for the new build.  I am excited, but sad too, as I will miss seeing what you are up to.....

I have been playing with my new Paper Artsy stamps by Jo Firth-Young (a gift from my friend Mo) and some Paper Artsy Fresco paints, of which I have a very limited number.  My first creation is a triptych.  I have not had much luck with my Tim Holtz cabinet dies in the past, this is my first outing with the new stamps and my first effort at painting small items, so please be kind to me!  If you click on the images you will get a closer view.........

I started out by cutting out three of the large cabinet dies for the backs and then three more, also using the Movers and Shapers Cabinet mini die to create the outer frames.

The frames were painted with Fresco Finish paint in Mermaid and smooshed over with Broken China and Peacock Feathers Distress ink and then embossed to create the pattern.  I then went over the pattern with Patina Gilding wax and again with Inka Gold Gilding wax.

The backing panels are coloured with China Blue, Lemonade and Peacock Feathers Distress Stains and spritzed and flicked with water.

The images are stamped using Ranger black Archival ink.

Before painting the flowers I went over them with a water brush and bleached out the colour, ready for painting. The flower images were painted in Fresco Finish Beach Hut (Translucent) and the edges and dots are coloured in FF London Bus (Translucent) paint.  The wonderful thing about the translucent paints is that any stamped image underneath is retained. The butterfly wings are painted in the same two colours of FF paint and the bodies are coloured with an Inktense pencil.

The words are from the same set of stamps and these have been stamped in black Archival ink, cut out and edged with Peacock Feathers DI.

You can see the detail in the gorgeous stamps a little better in this picture.  Needless to say, I want all of the stamps in this range now!

Just for fun and because I had some paints left over on my craft sheet, I also painted this door hanger (the blank was a Christmas present from my friend Rita).  This time I painted the whole of the background with Gesso, then painted over with Mermaid and Limelight  Fresco Finish paints using a scraper rather than a brush (as Leandra of Paper Artsy showed in a recent video).


 I then stamped and painted with the same colours as the triptych and then highlighted the edges with Creative Expressions Patina Gilding wax.  The words are from the JOFY stamp set and I added a piece of vintage seam binding coloured in Peeled Paint and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Stains.






I am linking my triptych up to the following sites:

http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/sunday-stamper-week-251-mother-natures.html  to Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers where the challenge is Nature

http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.co.uk  where this week's challenge is Anything Goes

http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk where the challenge for week #2 is Butterflies

and last but not least, I am linking both pieces to http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/2013/03/welcome-back-michelle-webb_31.html  because I have been inspired by the lovely Michelle Webb's inky painty creations to make both of the pieces above.

If you have a moment please have a look at Butterfly's (Alison) gorgeous creations using a set of stamps from the JOFY range.  Alison has used muted colours to create her jaw-droppingly gorgeous makes.  I think I have a lot to learn but I am certainly loving trying out new techniques!

Thank you very much for looking, all your comments are much appreciated and I hope to catch up with you too.  Hugs,  Anne xx