WOYWW - Week 208 - 4th Anniversary !!

Hello Fellow Woywwers and Friends

It is all credit to Julia who has been hosting WOYWW for four whole years!  What an incredible achievement - a big round of applause for Julia!!  Not only that but it is the week when those who wish to, swap ATCs.  If you want to join in this amazing Group then check it out HERE.

I have been lucky enough to receive two ATCs already, which you can see here:

The one on the left is stamped on silk and is from Jo of Jozart and the one on the right is also fabric and is from Annie (Wipso).  How lucky am I?  (Click on the photo for a better look)

There is not too much on my desk this week, I have tidied up because my friend Mo (Almo) is visiting today.   But, I have got something to show you.  I have been waiting months for the Karen Burniston Accordian die by Sizzix to come back into stock in the UK and it finally did.  All I have managed to do so far is cut it out as you will see in the photo below.  There is a second die that goes with this one, which I had not appreciated before, but it is on order - I can't wait to have a go at using it now.

That's it from me, thanks so much for looking and hopefully leaving a comment.  Once again, many thanks and congratulations to Julia for keeping this wonderful Group going for 4 years!  Hugs, Anne x

Tim's Tags May 2013

Hello Friends

Firstly I would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who left me such wonderful comments on my last post.  I made the booklet from my winnings on Tim's tag last month.  Your comments mean so much!  Thank you again.

I really am cutting it fine this month with my Tim Tag.  For the first time I had most of the items required to complete the tag, with the exception of the Mona Lisa stamp and one set of the rub ons.

For the background I used a different combination of colours to Tim, I used Peacock Feathers, Fired Brick, Squeezed Lemonade and Picked Raspberry Distress Stains.  I basically followed Tim's instructions, applied the rub ons first, smooshed on the Distress Stains, dried, reapplied, partially dried and then spritzed with some water.  I am not usually a rub on person but having tried these I think I am a new convert, these are amazingly easy to use and I love that you can put Distress Stains over the top.

The picture which I used to replace Mona Lisa is from Tim Holtz's Lost and Found, Visual Artistry set.  I added a crown rub on to the little boy in the picture.  I added the film strip and the enamel tag which I coloured with Aqua Alcohol Ink and added some old rub ons from my stash.  The metal word strip was added, with words that I thought matched the picture.

To finish off I coloured the ribbon with the same four colours I used for the background, spritzed it with water, scrunched and then dried it before adding to the tag.  You should see my fingers now!

If you want to see Tim's Tag for May or you want to join in you can find his website HERE, it's great fun and you will definitely learn new techniques each month.

Thanks for looking and a special thank you if you leave me a message.  Big hugs, Anne xx

You are my type of friend

Hello Fellow Bloggers and Friends

As many of you know I have been unable to access my Craft Room due to building works but they are all finished now and I can finally get to my desk!

I was so thrilled to have win Tim's Tags again, this makes the third time (woo hoo!), I can hardly believe my luck.  I spent my winnings on some more Tim stamps - Ringmaster Blueprints and the gorgeous Vintage Things Blueprints and it is this latter set that I have used today.

There are two challenges that I wanted to enter - Simon Says Stamp and Show where the challenge is to use your favourite ink and also Sunday Stampers where Hels has challenged us to make something Vintage/Old.

This is what I have created - a concertina book/card that could go to a good friend.  Please click on the photos for a better view.

This is the front cover of the closed concertina book, all the pages have been created in the same way.  My favourite ink has to be Ranger Black Archival because I use it for almost everything I stamp.  It is such a versatile ink and does not lose anything, no matter how many times I wet it with inks, stains, paints etc.

I did want to make the book from drink mats but one of the stamps was too large so I created my own mats by cutting four pieces of heavyweight card to approximately 5 inches square (130 cm).  I covered each of the squares, front and back, with some Papermania Bookprint paper.  The paper was too bright for what I wanted so I coated each with some Antique Linen Distress paint and then inked around the edges with my current favourite Distress Ink - Gathered Twigs to give it a very aged feel.

Once aged, I needed some lightness in the middle to do my stamping and I smooshed on Picket Fence Distress Paint with my fingers and then stamped with Ranger Black Archival ink (of course!).  I stamped each of the stamps onto separate white card, coloured the pictures with Distress Ink, carefully cut them out and mounted them onto my stamped images. They seem to stand out a little better this way.

I did not want to add lots of embellishments because I wanted the words to be the focal point, after the images.  I added some ribbon to hold the book together.  The words' Friend' and 'because' are die cut using an X-Cut alphabet die.

This shows the back with the added ribbon which I have coloured with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

This photo shows the whole of the inside of the book. I thought it was fun to use the whole set of stamps in one project.  I hope you like it!  I had fun making it.  Thank you so much for visiting and a special thank you if you leave me a comment too.  Big hugs, Anne xx

WOYWW - Week 207

Hello Blog Friends and Fellow WOYWWers

Firstly, my thoughts go out to all those affected by the devastating tornado in Oklahoma.

My apologies for not being to join in as often as I would like, the building works took much longer than expected and I have not been able to spend as much time in my Craft Room.  All finished now though, just waiting for the new furniture to arrive.

If you are wondering what WOYWW is then please follow this LINK and Julie will explain all to you.

So no picture of my desk today but I thought I would show you a few cards that lovely blog friends have sent me recently instead.

Top left is from my blog and crafty pal Mo (Almo), top right is from Maureen (Scrappymo) with whom I did a swap, bottom left is from Jenny (Buttons) who sent me this lovely card to cheer me up and far right the card and ATC are from my blog friend, Rachel with whom I also did a swap.  They are all beautiful and I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends.

Next, is a quick photo of our new Garden Room which has replaced our old Conservatory.  This is the room that caused so many problems............ but we love it now, even without much furniture.

That's all from me, looking forward to next week's 4th WOYWW anniversary!  I will try and get around to as many Woywwers as possible today.  Take care.  Big hugs, Anne xx

Our Creative Corner meets Wendy Vecchi and Tim Holtz

Hello Blog Friends

Today I am sharing with you my very first Design Team post for Our Creative Corner's Anything Goes Challenge, which you can find HERE.  There is still time to join in the fun so I hope you will pop over, check out what my very talented teamies have made and join in, if you have not already done so!

As I love all thing Wendy Vecchi and Tim Holtz, they are heavily featured in my make today.  I just wanted to show that things do not always need to be grungy, that pretty and delicate are just as easily achieved.  I made this for a very special new friend for whom the words are particularly appropriate.  Just click on the photos if you want a closer view.

I started out with some fabulous Wendy Vecchi Art Parts from the Large Flourish Frames set.  This is the smaller of the two frames in the set.  The frame measure 9.1/2" x 5" (24cm x 13cm approx) so there is plenty of room to play.

I coloured the bases with Walnut Stain Distress Paint to give a lovely dark base.

 I gave the Art Parts a liberal coating of crackle medium, which I have had in my crafty stash for years.  I am not even sure if they still make it but it dries very quickly (half an hour tops) and this is important for an impatient crafter like me!

I mixed together a combination of Tim Holtz Distress Paints in Spun Sugar and Antique Linen and applied these over the base parts and left them to dry.  Again, this was very quick and I love how some of the crackles are quite a bit larger than others - although I am about to cover up some of the lovely crackling!

I added a sentiment from Sam Poole's Creative Expressions set of stamps, Steampunk Dreams, one of my favourites, onto some lovely toning paper that I just happened to have in my stash.  The words read:  'Take Today to do something your heart has Always dreamed of doing'.

The beautiful butterflies are from a Hero Arts set of stamps.  I coloured the butterflies with Prismacolour pencils in a soft blue and pink, cut them out and added some silver jewellery wire for their antennae.

I used the same jewellery wire to make a hanging for the piece.

The flower is cut from crinoline fabric which I purchased from the Funkie Junkie.  I coloured the fabric, along with a piece of burlap, with Spun Sugar Distress Paint.  The paints work beautifully on fabric!  I cut the flower from my trusty and much used Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and added a pearl brad for the centre.




Well that's it, my first DT post under my belt, hope you like my creation, I certainly had fun making it and I think the lovely lady I sent it to, as a thank you, liked it.

Over at Artful Times the challenge theme No. 29 Blooming Marvelous, is Flowers and so I would like to enter this piece.

 I am also entering in Country View Challenge #3 which is How does your Garden grow.

Thank you for looking, I hope you will go over to Our Creative Corner to see what my wonderfully talented teamies have made.  Take care and enjoy the rest of the week.  Hugs, Anne xx

Playing with Distress Paint

Hello Blog Friends

I have been out for a couple of days so this is a scheduled post.  I am having a crafty day today with my friend Lynn and two other friends Susan and Ruth.  We are going to get very inky and messy today.

My own craft room is full of furniture from the rest of the house, whilst the decorators are in doing their magic in our new rooms so I have not been able to craft properly for what seems like ages.  I thought I would post a couple of things I made last week whilst I was playing with my Distress Paints and my new Jo Firth Young stamps from Paper Artsy. I made another couple of ATCs, this time in pink!

I love using the Tim Holtz Distress paints, they are so lush.  I used very thick card so that it would take a good soaking, smooshed some Picked Raspberry and Picket Fence Distress Paint onto my craft sheet, spritzed with a little water and then dragged the card through.

 I dried this with my heat gun and then dragged the card through again.  It is important to dry at each stage so the colours do not go muddy.

The pattern on this one was so nice I really did not want to cover it up.






I then stamped the images from two JOFY mini stamps and coloured
the flowers again with Distress Paint to match the base ATC cards.

The detail on Jo's stamps is amazing, I stamped in Ranger Black Archival ink which gives a clear crisp image.

I coloured the flowers with the Distress Paint and added a few little white dots with a Gelly Roll pen to give some highlights.






The edges of the ATCs and the images were coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink.  I added a couple of words from another set of JOFY stamps and it was job done!

Thank you for looking!  I have been trying to keep up with my commenting on blogs I follow and I hope to get back to crafting and blogging again really soon.  Take care in the meantime.  Big hugs, Anne xx

Mabel Lucie Attwell

Hello Blog Friends

Thank you for joining me and welcome to my latest followers, it is a pleasure to have your company on my crafty journey.

I have some more exciting news to share with you!  The lovely Ignacio who owns Nicecrane Designs has asked me to be a member of his Design Team.  Those of you who know my lovely friend Jenny (Buttons) will know that she is a member of the DT along with many other talented crafters, so I was delighted to say yes.  My work for Ignacio will mainly be using and colouring digi stamps.  If you have not looked at his designs before, please look HERE, he has the most extensive selection of Ephemera and Digi sheets imaginable.

My first Design Team creation is a wonderful image from the prolific British Illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell.  who based her designs on her daughter Peggy.

This lovely image is of Peggy (in my mind), as she is off to the beach with her paints and I wanted her to look quite vintage and in Mabel Lucie Attwell's style so I have kept the colours quite true to the original which you can see here and which is new to the Nicecrane range:

But if you prefer to colour your own, as I do, this digi set is also available uncoloured - best of both worlds!

I printed the image onto white card and coloured it with my Derwent Inktense (watersoluble) Ink Pencils.  I coloured the edges with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink to give a really vintage look and then distressed it further with my distressing tool and then curled the edges slightly.

I cut a tag shape from some corrugated card and I added some torn Kraft card to the top (a technique inspired by the work of my talented blog friend Trace).  I painted the layers very lightly with Fresco Finish paint in Mocha Mousse and Vintage Lace and then distressed the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I mounted my finished image on top. To add even more to the ageing I took some Vintage Photo Distress Stain on a paint brush and lightly flicked some onto the picture.

To finish off I added some parcel string with a shell charm, to follow the beach theme, which was coloured with Antiqued Bronze Distress Paint.   To the top I added some vintage seam binding which was coloured with Vintage Photo Distress Stain and tied this into a double bow.  Finally, I added Tim Holtz chit chat words 'create art'.

Thank you for looking and I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.  Big hugs, Anne xx

JOFY and Blue....

Hello Blog Friends

Thank you to my latest followers, I am thrilled to have you along on my crafty journey, I hope you will find a little bit of inspiration.

I have not entered Sunday Stampers Challenge, which is run by the the amazing Hels, for a few weeks now, so I thought it was about time.  The challenge is BLUE.

Another challenge I have not entered for ages is Anything But a Card where Challenge 18 is to make an ATC.  I have combined the two challenges and made this ATC.

I used one of Jo Firth-Young mini flower stamps by Paper Artsy - love these little beauties.  The base of the ATC was coloured with a combination of Tim Holtz Distress Paint in Peacock Feathers and Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paint in Mermaid swooshed over the top.

I then added Wendy Vecchi's Embossing Paste through a chevron stencil.  I  took several colours of Perfect Pearls and sprinkled these over the wet embossing paste.  I then took my heat gun and heated the paste until it puffed up.  This gives such a wonderful shiny and puffy finish - love it!

I stamped the flower onto white card with black Archival ink and then coloured the flower heads with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink.  The stem is coloured with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

The words are from a separate JOFY stamp set, these are stamped in black Archival ink, cut out and mounted on the ATC with silicone glue.

The edges of the ATC have been coloured with Black Soot Distress ink and I then mounted the ATC onto another base to give it some strength.


And there is my ATC.  Thank you for taking the time to visit, I really appreciate it.  Hugs, Anne xx