Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 5 - Note Cards

Firstly, I want to apologise for not visiting you all whilst I was on holiday.  My new mini i-Pad works beautifully but Google would not allow me to comment, for some ridiculous technical reason!  I could see your beautiful creations but could not comment.....  It was fantastic to meet up with blog friends Rita, Annie, Kath and Astrid and Scotland is such a beautiful country, which we enjoyed visiting very much!  Thank you so much to each of you lovely ladies for making it a very memorable trip!

One of the reasons for our trip was to attend the Everest Charity Event held by Kath who generously donated her time (and did all the prep) and amongst others, Tim and Mario kindly donated prizes (they were amazing).  Kath raised a staggering £1,124!!  How fabulous is that! 

The challenge this fortnight at CC3C is Distress Watercolouring which can be found on page 39 of A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. #3. As Linda Ledbetter says, this is technically a two-part technique. We have the choice to do only the portion on page 39, or go ahead and work through page 40.  I decided to stick with just page 39 and save page 40 for next time.

This fortnight  is an odd number and will be sponsored by Inspiration Emporium who will generously give a $50 gift voucher to a randomly selected person. In addition, there will be a “Curiosity Crew’s Choice” winner who will receive a fantastic collection of Tim’s products, courtesy of Tim himself and Mario Rossi, his business manager. 

I searched through all my Tim stamps to find one that I could use the watercolour technique on and I decided to make a couple of note cards using Tim's Vintage Things Blueprint stamps.

I cannot give you details of the watercolour technique but I can tell you that I used Ranger Watercolour cardstock and  stamped the images with Black Archival Ink. I used Festive Berries, Barn Door, Antique Linen and Tea Dye for the colouring on both images.

The frame was cut from the Postage Stamp Frame die and the Movers and Shapers Sized Rectangles to cut an aperture.

I cut two frames, one with a rectangle cut out and one plain and glued the two together, adding white card to the inside to write on.  I love the idea of using the postage stamp frame to make note cards.

For the sentiments I used my new set of #Hashtag phrases, stamped in Black Archival.

Thanks for looking and thank you to my latest followers too, it is a pleasure to have you along on my crafty journey!  Hope to see you soon.  Hugs, Anne xx

The Artists on the Block - Big Top

It is my turn to post a Design Team ATB (Artist Trading Block) project for THE ARTISTS ON THE BLOCK, which is run by the lovely Amy Bowerman.

This is a scheduled post because I am travelling around Scotland at the moment, visiting lots of my lovely crafty friends and attending a charity craft event, run by my lovely friend Kath Stewart.  I apologise if I do not get round to visiting you, but hopefully I will catch up with many of you when I get home.

Over at (the designer of the ATB, and dozens of other fabulous dies) Eileen Hull's Art with Heart Challenge, the theme for June is Summer Celebrations.  I have taken that theme quite literally for my ATB - as a child, the start of summer was heralded by the Circus coming to town and I loved it!

As luck would have it, Tim Holtz has recently added a Circus themed (Big Top) set of stamps to his wonderful repertoire so I was in my element making my ATB.  Here is a view of one side of the finished block.

The project was started by creating an initial master board using Distress Inks in wonderful bright colours - Ripe Persimmon, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick and using Tim's wrinkle free distress and spritz and flick techniques.  Love the glorious colours of this combination!

The block was cut from the largest of  Eileen Hulls's block dies using Sizzix custom-made double-sided Mat Board and then painted with DecoArt's Americana Decor chalk paint.

The master board was cut to size, embossed with Tim Holtz's Drapery Embossing Folder, inked around the edges and then attached to the block.  The word stamp from the set was stamped in black Archival and added to the top. The characters were stamped, coloured with Distress Inks, fussy cut (which took ages) and then triple embossed to give a nice gloss. The chevron on the edge die was cut in black card to form the decorative edge for the top of the block.

You can just about see in the right hand photo, below, the juggler with his colourful juggling balls - in order to fit them in, the chevron top was added to incorporate the balls.  The chevron also creates a little drama, which is what the circus is all about, so I was more than happy with that solution.

To finish off the block, I thought it needed some height so I painted a large thread spool in the DecoArt black paint and added this to the bottom.

A final view - this is the top of the box with this wonderful sentiment.

I know that most of the travelling Circus companies now do not have animals (which I totally agree with), but it does not detract from my childhood pleasure of visiting the Circus to see them......

Don't forget, Eileen's June Challenge (Summer Celebrations) which you can find HERE is still open, it does not have to be an ATB.  Eileen always has wonderful prizes on offer, I really hope you will join in!

I will be posting my blocks on the third Thursday of each month, although I will probably do blocks more often, as I love them so much.  I am thrilled that many of you are loving the blocks too. Thanks for joining me and I hope to see you again soon.  Hugs, Anne xx

Supplies:
Eileen Hull's Sizzix Scoreboard Die 658983 is available HERE for the UK and Europe and HERE for the USA.

Compendium of Curiosities III - Challenge 4

Thank you to my latest followers, it is a real pleasure to have you along on my crafty journey!

It is time for Challenge #4 over at Linda Ledbetter's CC3C Challenge.  This fortnight is sponsored by the wonderful Linda Coughlin of The Funkie Junkie Boutique who is offering a $25 voucher to spend in her on-line shop.  Another lucky person will be chosen by the Curiosity Crew and that person will win a bumper bundle of Tim products, kindly given by Tim and Mario.

The challenge is to use Tim's Layering Stencil Technique : Texture Paste as found on Page 49 of the Compendium of Curiosities III.  I cannot explain the technique to you but here is my entry, which is a 7" x 7" card topper:

I used Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Inks for the base and I used Ranger's (Wendy Vecchi) white and black embossing pastes, following Tim's techniques.

The stencils I used were Clockworks, Cargo and Speckles and I did some over-stamping with Cornflower Blue Archival Ink using Tim's Ultimate Grunge set.

The sentiment is from the Good Thoughts stamp set and was stamped in Black Archival Ink.  Umbrella man was over-stamped with Picket Fence Distress Paint using a stamp from the Ultimate Grunge set.  It was a little bright so I toned it down with some Pumice Stone Distress Ink.

Thanks for looking, hope to see you again soon.  Hugs, Anne xx

Challenges:

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #4 : Layering Stencils - Texture Paste

Country View Challenge -Only Men Allowed where there is a £20 voucher to spend at Country View Crafts for a randomly selected individual

Tim Tag June 2014

It's that time again, where is this year going?  Time for Tim's June 2014 tag.  You can see Tim's original HERE.

This month Tim uses his monoprint watercolour technique with stencils.  I decided to use a different stamp set to Tim but otherwise the techniques I used are the same as his.  Click on the photos for a better view.

I used my current favourite stamp sets, the Nautical Blueprints and Mini Blueprints 6.  I know I have used them a lot recently but I do love them.  For the background I used Distress Watercolour card, Salty Ocean and Broken China Distress Ink through the Speckles stencil and dried this with my heat gun.  I was not 100% happy with the coverage (and this was my third attempt!) so I then took the Stripes stencil and Peeled Paint Distress Ink and repeated the technique.  I thought the stripes had the look of reeds and I was much happier with the result.

The sentiment was stamped with Black Archival Ink.  I stamped the seahorses onto the base by using some tissue tape to cover up the parts of the stamps I did not want to show, again in Black Archival Ink.  The seahorses were stamped separately on some more watercolour card, coloured with with Peacock Feathers, Squeezed Lemonade and Peeled Paint Distress Inks, fussy cut and then added to the card, raised up with some silicone glue.

I added a seahorse charm from my stash using an Idea-ology Ring Fastener and coloured the seam binding in Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Inks.  The ribbon was tied using the Paula Cheney method that Tim describes in his post.  I love this bow and it is so easy to create!

I made a second tag, for my friend Ali, using the same techniques.  I used the same colours (plus a little Squeezed Lemonade) and omitted the Stripes stencil.  The tag base looks quite different but I love both bases!

I am linking this up to Tim's 12 tags of 2014.

I am also adding this to my wonderful friend Darnell's NBUS challenge.  Darnell has reached 500 followers (not surprisingly as her blog is fabulous).  Darnell is offering some brilliant prizes, including Country View Crafts  for her UK followers, she is a very generous lady!  The rule is that you should use some Never Before Used Stuff.  My entry is made with Ranger's Distress Watercolour card - something I have not tried or used before - it is amazing stuff!

Thanks for looking and I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xx

Tag Friday at A Vintage Journey

It is Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey today and some of  the Creative Guides (DT) have some more inspiration for you.  Please do pop over and have a look, there are some wonderful textured pieces to inspire you!

Jenny's challenge 'Get Some Texture' is half way through, so there is still plenty of time to join in our Tim Holtz inspired challenge.  Our lovely Sponsor, Country View Crafts are offering a prize of £10 for one winner chosen by the Creative Guides, so if you have not joined yet, please do!

If you ever need a quick and easy tag, this one is a good example of how to do one, using Tim's fabulous Wallflower and Menagerie papers, a bit of texture on a die cut and some Remnant Rubs.  

I started with a grey board tag, similar in size to a Ranger No. 10 tag and covered it with some of the gorgeous Wallflower papers.  I glued the paper down and then I used Tim's sanding block around the edges to smooth them.  I used Gathered Twigs Distress Paint around the edges and then distressed some more with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

The bird cage is one of Tim's dies, I cut this in black card and painted over with Picket Fence Crackle Paint.  Distress Crackle Paint is a one step paint and it does dry quite quickly.  Once dry I shaped it slightly to give it a more realistic look. The little bird on the cage was fussy cut from a sheet of Menagerie paper and glued in place.  A piece of linen ribbon and a charm from my stash complete the top of the tag.

The bottom of the tag did not really need much and I did not want to detract from those beautiful birds, so I just added a few of Tim's Remnant Rubs.

So, there you have it, a quick and simple tag.  I hope you like it!  See you soon.  Big hugs, Anne xx

Compendium of Curiosities III - Challenge #3

Hello everyone and a huge welcome to my latest followers, it is lovely to have you along on my crafty journey!

Thanks to everyone who left such lovely comments on my last post about joining Team ATB at the Artists on the Block, it really means a lot to me.

The challenge at CC3C, run by Linda Ledbetter, of Studio L3, is to use Tim Holtz's Faux Tea Rose Technique as outlined in his Compendium of Curiosities III, page 65.  I cannot describe the technique in this post as you must use your own personal copy of Tim's book.  If you do not yet have a copy of the book you can buy a signed copy direct from Tim Holtz himself.

The Curiosity Crew (who have created the most wonderful projects to inspire us) will be choosing a winner and that lucky person will win a fabulous collection of Tim goodies, kindly donated personally by Tim and Mario!  This fortnight the challenge iseven numbered and will therefore be sponsored by Inspiration Emporium who are generously awarding a $50 voucher to spend in the shop to one randomly selected individual.

I had some of Tim Holtz's fabulous Eclectic Element fabrics left from a previous project so I decided to try making the tea roses from the fabric (backed with Kraft card) and I am really pleased with the way they turned out.

The base card is Kraft and I matted some French Industrial paper on top after distressing the edges with a distressing tool and applying Gathered Twigs Distress Ink to the edges.

After making the roses I edged them with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink to give them an aged look.  The leaves are cut from the greenery strip die and have been painted with Evergreen Bough and Peeled Paint Distress Paint.

I used Tim's large pocket watch die to make the frame which was painted in Gathered Twigs Distress Paint and then Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint was applied over the top.  The picture inside the frame is one of Tim's Found Relatives.  I love this beautiful picture of the young couple setting off on their married life together - I have conjured up all sorts of stories in my mind about them.

I added some of the remaining strips of fabric and burlap which I plaited and added an Idea-ology heart to the top with a tiny bit of twine tied in a bow.

Thank you for looking, I hope to see you again soon.  Hugs, Anne xx

I am entering this into:

Compendium of Curiosities III - Challenge #3 - Faux Tea Rose Technique