Compendium of Curiosities #20

It is so hard to believe that it is week #20 at Compendium of Curiosities and even less that it is nearly February!

The technique for Challenge #20 can be found on Page 40 of Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities III book - Distress Watercolouring Part 2. The rules are that we cannot share the technique and we must use our own copy of Tim's book.  If you still do not have a copy you can get a signed one from Tim direct, HERE.

  

One lucky person, chosen by the Curiosity Crew, will win a fabulous parcel of goodies from Tim Holtz and his Logistics Director, Mario. 

This challenge is being sponsored by the lovely Linda Coughlin of the Funkie Junkie Boutique who will give one lucky person a $25 voucher to spend at the Funkie Junkie!  Linda is getting lots of the new Tim stuff in very soon and Linda always offers discounted prices too.

When we did Part I of the technique I used some of Tim's Blueprint stamps so I have done the same for Part 2 and I made two simple cards, to enter into the challenge with.  

The seahorse from the Nautical Blueprint set is one of my all time favourite stamps so he took centre stage on this card.  I distressed all the edges to give a shabby look.

My second card uses the starfish from the same set.  I used an Idea-ology word band and some thin rope to add my sentiment to the card.

So there you have my entry to CC3C #20.  Thanks for looking and I hope to see you again very soon.  A big thank you to my latest followers, it is lovely to have you along on my crafty journey!

Hugs, Anne xx

Fresh Start at Inspiration Emporium

At Inspiration Journal there are still a few days to get an entry in to our 'Fresh Start' challenge.  As always there is a fabulous prize of $50 to spend at Inspiration Emporium for one lucky randomly selected individual!  There are no restrictions!  The challenge is open until 31 January 2015.

I sometimes forget how quick and easy it is to make a card by simply using fabulous papers and I have enjoyed using these Graphic 45 papers for all my Inspiration Journal projects this month. I really love all the beautiful sunflower images in the pack and they are appropriate for any time of the year.

I simply cut three pieces of the G45 French Country papers and layered them up after distressing the edges slightly to give a shabby feel.  Because the papers are double sided, there is plenty of choice. They were layered onto some fine corrugated card from my stash.

I used Tim Holtz Idea-ology Crinkle Ribbon to make make the belly band and bow.  This was coloured with Rusty Hinge Distress Stain and instead of scrunching it up I pulled it straight whilst drying it with my heat tool.  The sentiment is from the same paper pad, I cut it and layered it up on some waste card.  The finished card is 7" x 7.3/4", so quite large but it really makes a statement!

Don't forget, the challenge is open until 31 January 2015, so there is still time to create!  

If you do make a purchase at Inspiration Emporium and you use my code Redanne, you will get a 10% discount off your whole order too.  Thanks so much for looking, I hope to see you again soon.  

Hugs, Anne xx



Products from Inspiration Emporium
Graphic 45 French Country 12" x 12" papers
Rusty Hinge Distress Stain
Idea-ology Crinkle Ribbon

Make Art Challenge #1

A new challenge started up at the beginning of the year, you can find it HERE.  The challenge celebrates all things Wendy Vecchi. The first challenge is to use Embossing Paste.  I would like to enter more challenges this year and Wendy's challenge is such a great opportunity.  The first challenge is sponsored by eclectic Paperie who will be awarding a product prize to a randomly chosen entrant.

I have had Wendy's heart stencil for some time now and since February is just around the corner, I thought I would use it to create a Valentine card.

I used the stencil and Wendy's Crackle Embossing Paste onto black card and left it to dry.  When dry I covered it with Carnation Red Archival Ink, using a blending tool.  The black card shows nicely through the cracks.   I cut the heart out and edged it with Black Archival Ink.

The flowers are from Wendy's Stamp It, Stencil It range.  These were stamped onto white card, coloured and then the stencil was placed on top and I used Wendy's Clear Embossing Paste over the top, let this dry and then I fussy cut the flowers.

To make the background I used Ranger Manila card stock and stamped the bottom and top border with Say It With Art lace stamp (SCS126), half on the bottom and the other half on the top of the cardstock.  I used Tea Dye and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks to cover the card.  The top was then spritzed with a mix of Broken China Re-inker, water and a spot of Perfect Pearls to give a slight sheen.  I went around the heart and the edges of the card with a black Distress Marker.

The sentiment is from The Beauty of Art (SCS124) and seems just perfect for Valentines, this was stamped directly onto the heart with black Archival Ink.  I finished by adding a Blossom bucket Butterfly and mounted the card onto black cardstock and then onto a white base card.

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

I love you because.....

Interesting title I know, but it will all make sense!

It is no secret that I love Eileen Hull's 3D dies and I just got the Candy Box die and I still had the G45 French Country papers out on my desk so I made a little Valentine's gift for my DH.

I die cut the candy box cover and drawer and covered them with the G45 French Country papers.  I added some square feet and an Idea-ology piece for the handle.

I made a chunky little album to fit inside the drawer, we are both on a diet so chocolate just would not do.....  sadly!

I used the same papers to cover the album and fussy cut one of the flowers and layered this onto the front with a couple of fussy cut leaves.  One of the sheets in this paper pack is covered in these gorgeous sunflowers.

I cut another sunflower and leaves for the inside, I made 10 pages in total, so that I can put my messages on each page, so now you can see where the 'I love you because' comes from.....

For the top I added another sunflower.  I coloured some Tim Holtz Crinkle Ribbon with Rusty Hinge Distress Stain and made a messy bow for the flower to nestle in.

***

Eileen Hull's Art With Heart challenge for this month is 'Fresh Ideas' and this is my DT piece.  There is still plenty of time to join in the challenge, Eileen always has a fabulous prize on offer and this month is no exception.  You don't have to use a Sizzix die but it would be great if you did!

***

At Inspiration Journal the challenge for the month is 'Fresh Start' and there is a very generous $50 voucher to spend at Inspiration Emporium for one randomly chosen winner.  The die and papers I used on this project can be found at Inspiration Emporium, I have added details at the end of my post.  If you do buy from Inspiration Emporium and you use my code Redanne you can get 10% off your whole order.

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

Products used from Inspiration Emporium
G45 French Country 12 x 12 Paper Pack
Tim Holtz Crinkle Ribbon
Rusty Hinge Distress Stain

A Vintage Journey - Tim Tag for Tag Monday

Over at A Vintage Journey we are having a Tag Monday and some of us are showing our Tim Tags for January and some of the Creative Guides are showing other wonderful creations.

You can see Tim's original tag HERE.  If you have not seen his original yet, please have a look as he uses some great techniques on his tag this month.  Here's mine:

I am not going to repeat the techniques here but I did change my base colours to Evergreen Bough and Peeled Paint Distress Paint and I don't have the new Postale Tissue Wrap so I used Composer Tissue Wrap instead.

Other than the changes above and a couple of placements,  I did stick pretty much to Tim's methods.

I love the way the white paint splatters show up against the darker background.  There are gold flecks in there too but the camera has not picked those up so well.

I do love the Idea-ology stars and arrows, so I just had to add them too.  So there we have it, the first Tim tag for 2015.  I am really looking forward to the tags this year, it is bound to be very interesting bearing in mind the new stamps, paint and papers that Tim introduced us to through CHA.

Don't forget there is still a day or two left to join in A Vintage Journey's current challenge - Use A Portrait, we would love to have you join in with a Tim inspired creation!

Thanks for looking, I hope to see you again on Tuesday.  Hugs, Anne xx

The Artists on the Block - A New Year

It is not quite the New Year, I know, but I am sitting here wondering where on earth the last two weeks have gone!

My Design Team project for January for The Artists on the Block (where Amy is showing a summary of the team's favourites from 2014) is a perpetual calendar - I promise this is my last one but I have really enjoyed making these for some special people in my life.

The calendar is made up using Eileen Hull's Artist Trading Block die by Sizzix #658984 and it has three blocks on the one die and is my favourite go to die for 3D projects.  I used the smallest block for the calendar months and days and then created a base for them to sit in.

I hope this last calendar has now arrived safely at its destination.  If not, hopefully it will be a nice surprise when it does!

I used some fabulous Bo Bunny papers that I had been saving in my stash, I wanted the calendar to have a light and fresh look, suitable for all year long.

You can see from this view, the shape that the base needs to be in order to angle the months and numbers.  The angle inside the base is quite deep so that the days and months can be viewed easily.

And finally the back view.  The calendar blocks have been covered with the same papers with some light distressing to the edges.  The months have been added with tissue paper.  I typed the months out and then added a sheet of tissue paper to a sheet of printer paper with a strip of tape across the top and ran it through my printer.  I used Glue 'N' Seal to add the tissue to the blocks and then coated the blocks with the seam medium (as the blocks will be handled quite regularly).

Eileen has a challenge running on her Art With Heart blog HERE with the theme of 'Fresh Ideas'.  As always, there is a wonderful prize on offer.  It would be lovely if you did use a Sizzix die but Eileen just wants to see what is inspiring you at the moment - your fresh ideas!

If you would like to see the Artists on the Block Design Team favourites from 2014 you can see them HERE.  You will find lots of wonderful inspiration if you need a kick-start for this new year!

Thanks for looking and I really appreciate any comments you leave!  Big hugs,  Anne xx

Compendium of Curiosities #19 - Frayed Fabric

I am sorry that I had to miss Challenge #18 but it is a bit tricky at Christmas fitting everything in, especially with visits and visitors!  But it was certainly fabulous to wake up on New Year's Day to find that I won on Challenge #17 - my thanks to the Curiosity Crew!

Challenge #19 is all about Frayed Fabric and you can find the details of the technique on Page 66 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities III which you can buy direct from Tim (signed).

Before Christmas we had a wonderful Secret Santa swap at A Vintage Journey and I was lucky enough to be drawn by the super talented Brenda of Bumblebees and Butterflies.  Brenda made me a fabulous book to hold my Tim Tags in (she knows me well!).  Brenda kindly left the cover blank in case I wanted to add to it myself - so I have used Tim's Frayed Fabric technique to cover it.  I hope Brenda approves.....

If you would like to see the whole of the book that Brenda made me, you can see it HERE.  It is stunning so I wanted to do justice to the cover.  It started out like this:

And now it looks like this:

I know my stitches are a bit wonky in places but I think that just adds to the character (yeah, right), but Tim does tell us to embrace imperfection, so I did!

I cannot share the technique with you, as that would not be fair to Tim, but I loved working with this beautiful fabric again!  Apologies for the light in the photos, I have not quite figured out how to use my new light box properly yet... it came without instructions..... and our days here are quite gloomy.

I added a couple of pieces of Ephemera from one of Tim's Ephemera card packs along with the Idea-ology metal arrow and fawcet piece.  I also added an Idea-ology Fragment and Label Letters to form the date underneath.

Tim and Mario are offering a wonderful parcel of Tim goodies to one person, selected by the Curiosity Team and the sponsor for this challenge is Inspiration Emporium who are, as always, offering a fantastic prize of $50 to one randomly selected individual.

This piece also represents my DT piece for Inspiration Journal where the challenge this month is 'Fresh Start' where we want you to just create - the sky's the limit!  You have until 31 January to get your entry in and our generous sponsor Inspiration Emporium are offering a generous $50 to one randomly selected individual.  You have got to be in it to win it!  We hope to see you there!

As always, thanks for looking!  See you again soon.  Hugs, Anne xx

Part 2 - Eileen Hull's New Release - Vintage Travel

Thank you so much for your comments on my last post, I am thrilled that you seem to love Eileen Hull's wonderful dies for Sizzix as much as I do!

As you know from my last post, Eileen is showcasing her dies and the Design Team samples at CHA in California, right now and the feedback so far says that people are enjoying this wonderful new release.

Today I am sharing the rest of my samples and I hope you like them too! 

I loved making this Box/Train Case, it is a very good size - big enough to take recipe cards or jewellery.  It goes together like a dream - this was one item I didn't want to send back to Eileen.....

This is called the Adirondack chair, the whole team have decorated this in some wonderful ways.  Love this die!

This mini Book/Passport die is so versatile, it has a flexible spine so that more pages can be added.  I have fitted a whole 12 months of pages so that it can be used as a birthday record book.

This is my final sample.  I used some of Eileen's wonderful new thin dies and embossing folders to create a book for Eileen to use on her next Paper Trail road trip in the USA!  You can see that Scotty, Eileen's trailer makes another appearance.  These dies are perfect for scrapbooking a holiday.
 
I am including links to some of my team mates who are also sharing more samples today.  I hope you will have time to have a look.  It is always lovely to see how differently people interpret the designs...

Tracy Evans

Lisa Hoel

Claudine Criner

Diana Hetherington

Nicole Wright

 

As always, I really appreciate your visit, thanks so much!  Big hugs, Anne xx 

 



 

 

Eileen Hull's New Release - Vintage Travel

The fabulous Eileen Hull has designed a new range for Sizzix called Vintage Travel.  This release is being shown right now at CHA's (Craft and Hobby Association) huge Designer show in California, attended by all the big names in the Craft industry. 

The Design Team worked hard over the Christmas holiday to get samples made which are also being shown, as we speak, at CHA (so exciting!!).

The picture above shows some the DT's favourite makes.  I have put some links at the bottom so you can visit other members of the DT, if you have the time, the designs are all worth seeing, they are amazing.  My design from this group of pictures is the middle top, the metal tool box.

Eileen travels across America with her vintage trailer, called Scotty, teaching and demonstrating, so it was such fun when one of Eileen's new designs just happens to be a mini version of Scotty!  Each member of the DT did a version and these are all lined up in a 'trailer park' at CHA...

The trailer is just the cutest thing ever and as all of Eileen's dies, they are super easy to put together.

My favourite die was the tool box, because it reminded me of one that my Dad had, way back when.  Of course, it can be decorated any way you want, they are a good size and great for putting gifts in.

Other designs include a train case, a passport book, a luggage tag, an Adirondack chair, some fantastic embossing folders and dies too!  If you can come back tomorrow I will show you more of my samples.

As I said earlier, my very talented team mates are also showing samples on their blogs, you really will not be disappointed if you go over to have a look at their amazing examples:

Diana

Lisa

Michelle

Nicole

Pam

Shelly

Tracy

 

I hope you will come back tomorrow as I will have some more links to share with you then.  Thanks so much for looking, I really appreciate your visit!  Big hugs, Anne xx

 



A Vintage Journey - Use A Portrait

I know that Christmas is now a distant memory but it is still winter and I love the Found Relative portrait of the boy with skates, so I have used him in my piece for S@ndy's wonderful challenge at A Vintage Journey - Use a Portrait.

The piece is quite dimensional, I wanted to create a proper frame that would stand up.  I used Tim Holtz's Pocket Watch Frame die for the base and cut several more but adding the Sized Circle die to the middle so that it created an actual frame that I could glue to the base.

The layers were stacked up, glued and I covered the whole of the frame with Gesso and then a layer of  Picket Fence Crackle Paint.  Once the paint was dry I sprayed the parts with Broken China Distress Spray Stain.  I brushed it lightly to ensure it that the stain got into all the cracks.

The snowflake was made using Tim Holtz's new Stacked Snowflake die.  These were coated with Clear Rock Candy Distress Paint.  I added a gum drop which had been coloured with Alcohol Ink.

After mounting the Found Relative card I added a layer of acetate and rubbed some Christmas Remnant Rub snowflakes.  I also added my favourite embellishment from Tim's last release, the fabulous Idea-ology vintage Ice Skates.

I did add lots of layers to the frame and to finish off the edge I cut a piece of card to 1/2", gave it the same treatment as the rest of the frame and (painstakingly) glued it all around the edge to give a neater finish.    Tim's Easel die was a little too big for the stand so I just folded some extra thick card and made a little stand.  The finishing touch was an Idea-ology snowflake which had been dabbed with Picket fence Distress Paint.

We hope you come and join us at A Vintage Journey for this latest challenge and please do pop over and see what my talented team mates have created - you will not be disappointed!

As always, our generous sponsor, Country View Crafts are offering a £10 Voucher to spend in their on-line shop.  With all the fabulous goodies that Tim has been introducing to us this week who wouldn't want another £10 to spend!

Edited:  I would like to enter this piece into the lovely Darnell's NBUS challenge which you can find HERE.   Darnell is a very talented and generous lady and is offering 10, yes 10 $25 gift vouchers in prizes for randomly selected individuals!  How fabulous is that!  If you have not visited Darnell's blog before, please do so, you will feel uplifted after reading her always amusing posts!

Thanks for looking and a special thank you to all of those who leave a comment, each one is much appreciated!  Hugs, Anne xx

A Fresh Start!

Happy New Year to all of you!

Before I start, I had some wonderful news on New Year's Day, which I hope you will not mind me sharing.  I was the very lucky winner of Linda Ledbetter's Compendium of Curiosities #17 for my little Christmas tree vignette.  I was completely overjoyed to win and I am still on a bit of a high - it was a fantastic start to the New Year, to be chosen by the team as a winner!

This is my first post of 2015 and it is my DT piece for Inspiration Journal where the latest challenge is  - A Fresh Start.   I am making a fresh start this year, with a new address book a new note book for blog notes and whilst I was at it, I decided to make a couple of perpetual calendars (the other one will be shown later this month).  The beauty of a perpetual calendar is that they don't need to be changed year on year.

In my Inspiration Journal Design Team pack this month I got the wonderful G45 French Country paper pack and could not wait to use them.

I don't have a pattern as such for the calendar base, I just construct it as I go along but the  three boxes with the numbers and month are from Eileen Hull's fabulous Artist Trading Block die, the one with three blocks on the die (#658984) and I used the smallest die to create these blocks.  They are the perfect size for projects like this.

I love the way the papers all co-ordinate.  I cut another flower and leaf from the papers and decoupaged these on the front of the base.  The base was painted all over with Vintage Photo Distress Paint before I covered it with the gorgeous papers.

The words French Country fitted beautifully on the back of the base.

Finally, a view from the other side.  The calendar base itself is 5.1/2" x 2.1/2" and only took half a sheet of each of the patterned papers.

Inspiration Journal's new challenge - A Fresh Start has just begun HERE and we hope you will join in if you have the time.  There is a fabulous prize of a $50 Inspiration Emporium gift voucher for one lucky entrant.  If you do make a purchase from Inspiration Emporium and you use my code Redanne you will get 10% off your order.

As always, thank you for looking, I hope you like what you see, I have a few posts this month so I hope to see you here again soon.

Hugs, Anne xx



Products Used:

Graphic 45 - French Country - 12" x 12"
Eileen Hull Artist Trading Block ScoreBoard Blocks/Cubes, 3D
Vintage Photo Distress Paint