Bird Crazy - Here come the girls!

Before I share my work, I am a little sad today, this is my last Design Team post for Inspiration Emporium, as my 12 month term with them is up.  It has been a great experience for me and I have worked alongside some wonderful designers and great team-mates who I will miss very much.  Thanks so much to the whole team and to Joy Arevalo Kennedy and her family for their kindness and generosity over the last year!

Thank you for all your lovely comments on the Bird Crazy boys - now it is time for the girls!

Using Tim Holtz's Bird Crazy set of stamps and also the Accessories set,  I have created three 'girls' this time, again on ATCs.   They are all decked out, perhaps ready to go to Ladies Day at Ascot (horse racing in the UK), where the requirement is to wear a hat....

Meet Rose, Daisy and Fleur! 

Rose is the outgoing one in the group, she loves bright colours and went for a very sparkly Peacock Feather coloured shoulder bag and a rose on her hat (of course).  The shoulder bag is made from one of the balloons on the Accessories stamp set and has been covered with Peacock Feathers Distress Glitter.  A girl can never have too much glitter after all!

Daisy prefers a sparkly clutch bag and a more demure hat, adorned with daisies.  The clutch was made from one of the balloons cut down and glittered with Seedless Preserves Distress Glitter.

Fleur looks like the shy and quiet one but she has lots of attitude.  She chose a lovely bright gold handbag/purse and a matching hat with lots of daisies.  Her handbag is again made from the balloon stamp in the Accessories set of stamps and Mustard Seed Distress Glitter.  All the sentiments are from Tim's small talk stickers. 

The Accessories stamp set is such a fun addition to the Bird Crazy stamps and I can see me getting lots of use from them.  I don't have the Accessories die set yet but I am sure it will make things a lot easier for those who do not like cutting out small images.  I think the birds are such characters and I can just imagine making cards for friends who somehow resemble some of the birds.....I hope the 'girls' have made you smile!

Many of the items I used are available from Inspiration Emporium, I have added a list below.  If you do buy from IE, you can use my code Redanne for a 10% discount on your whole order.  Postage is very reasonable at $5 within the USA and $10 for international orders.

As always, thanks for looking!  I am taking a little blog break for about a month to deal with some things.  Apart from a couple of essential DT posts I may be very quiet and won't be around to comment very much.  I will do my best to catch up with you all after the break.  I am very grateful for my followers and hope you will understand!  

Big hugs,  Anne xxx

Products Used

Tim Holtz Crazy Things Stamps and Bird Crazy Thinlits

Other money saving packages are also available 

Tim Holtz Mixed Media dies

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Small Talk stickers

Tim Holtz Distress Ink

Tim Holtz Distress Glitter

Ranger Inkssentials Speciality Paper ATCs

Bird Crazy - for Inspiration Emporium

Hello friends

Like most people who have seen them and/or used them, I have been dying to try out the Crazy Things Stamps and also my Crazy Things dies that go beautifully with Tim's original Bird Crazy Stamps that I got some time ago.

I decided to use them to create a trio of male birds ATCs as my Design Team piece for Inspiration Emporium.  The ATCs could easily transferred later onto card fronts.

I was playing around with a new stencil to make some backgrounds, I like to experiment on small surfaces first but liked them, so they were used here.

Mr Cool reminds me of a Jazz player, with his pork pie hat and rather serious look.  The hat is from Tim's Crazy Things stamp set.  The wall was created using a Dinky stencil and Distress Inks.   The colouring was done with Distress Inks in Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade and the fabulous new Ground Espresso.  The word is cut from Tim's Alphanumeric Thinlits die set.

I see this character as the Jazz singer in the club where Mr Cool plays... He reminds me of a rather colourful character who used to sing at Ronnie Scott's club in London, called George Melly (yes I did used to go and watch him in the days when many a famous British, American and European Jazz singer(s)/player(s) frequented the club - and many still do - sadly not me though!).  

Again he and the background have been coloured with Distress Inks, in Blueprint Sketch, Crackled Pistachio and Hickory Smoke.  The background also uses  the Mixed Media Thinlits.

My third and favourite character is quite a dapper chap, with his formal hat and tie and his monocle, I think he must be a theatre-goer.  The monocle was made from the glasses/spectacles from the Crazy Things set of stamps as is the hat and tie.  He has been coloured largely with Ground Espresso, Squeezed Lemonade and Fossilized Amber Distress Ink.

So many things have already been done with the Bird Crazy stamp set and Accessories but the new Crazy Things set of stamps open up a whole new world of possibilities.  I hope to be back soon with some girls, made from the remaining three stamps in the Bird Crazy set.

If you do not have any of the Bird Crazy gang yet and you choose to buy from Inspiration Emporium you can save 10% off your whole order if you quote Redanne.  There are special bundles of the Bird Crazy gang for sale at Inspiration Emporium too which you can find on this page here.  Postage rates in the USA are only $5 and only $10 to the UK and Europe.

Take care and hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xx

Products Used from Inspiration Emporium:

Tim Holtz Bird Crazy Stamp Set

Tim Holtz Crazy Things Stamp Set

Tim Holtz Bird Crazy die set

Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Tim Tag August 2015

Hello friends!  The year is whizzing by, with talk of Halloween and Christmas already!

With all the inspiration we have had from Tim Holtz and his very talented designers recently, I have gone for a Halloween theme for my tag.  I was very much inspired by the talented young lady igirlzoe and her wonderful Halloween creation here.  Zoe's tag with Count Peckula just made me smile....

Following Tim's techniques for his August tag here, I created my very own 'Lord Wampyr', a distant British cousin of Count Peckula.....  Those of you who know Bram Stoker's Dracula, written in 1897 may know that it was a through a visit to a library in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England that Bram Stoker changed the name of his main character from Wampyr to Dracula.  Wampyr the vampire just does not have the same ring to it does it?!  

Anyway, on to my tag.

I am not going to repeat Tim's techniques as you can see them here

Sadly, I don't have the word dies that Tim used so I used my Alphanumeric set to cut the words and numbers.  I added a bat from Tim's new Oddities Adornments.  Lord Wampyr prefers a tuxedo to a cape and his favourite tipple is red wine rather than blood, which possibly explains his red eyes...

The ephemera comes from Tim's Frightful Ephemera Pack, a new release.

Lord Wampyr has been stamped with the Crazy Birds set, the hat, bow tie and pumpkin have been stamped using the new Crazy Things stamp set.  The metal bat is from Tim's new Adornments set, Oddities and the arrow from Tim's Idea-ology

This is also my Design Team piece for Inspiration Emporium where you will be able to find items that I have used to create my tag.  If you do shop there and use my code Redanne, you will get a 10% discount off your whole order.  Postage rates are very reasonable at $5 for the USA and $10 for international orders including Europe.

I do hope that Lord Wampyr made you smile, thanks so much for looking and I hope to see you again very soon!  Big hugs, Anne xx

Products Used

Tim Holtz Crazy Birds stamps 

Tim Holtz Alphanumeric dies

Tim Holtz Crazy Things stamps

Tim Holtz Crazy Birds dies

Tim Holtz Ephemera Pack - Frightful

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Oddities

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Arrows

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Vial Labels

Tim Holtz Distress Paint

Tim Holtz Distress Ink

Compendium of Curiosities #34 - the Grand Finale

Hello friends and lovely new followers.

I am so very sad that this is the Grand Finale at the lovely Linda Ledbetter's CC3C challenge - No. 34.  It has been an amazing journey for me, I managed to enter 32 of the 34 challenges and enjoyed being taken out of my comfort zone many a time!  Huge thanks to Linda and her wonderful and oh so talented Curiosity Crew for the encouragement, the lovely comments, the win and the Hon. mentions along the way.  Thanks also to the wonderful sponsors Inspiration Emporium, The Funkie Junkie and to Tim and Mario for providing some fabulous prizes.

The sponsor for this challenge is Linda Coughlin from The Funkie Junkie who is offering a $25 voucher to spend in her wonderful on-line store.

The challenge this time is to use Tim's Layering Stencil - Monoprint Technique which you can find on Page 48 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities III.

I started off my adventure with CC3C nearly 70 weeks ago by using Tim's beautiful seahorse die set (I know, I use it a lot!) to make a gift for a lovely friend.

I created a card and a frame to hold the card if she wishes to.

The finished card (unframed)

I started off creating lots of backgrounds with the technique (which I cannot share with you).  It is a great technique to play around with.  I opted for the square card at the front.  I used Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink and Tim's Woodgrain stencil as I wanted to create an underwater  'reed' like effect.

I die cut and painted my elements, created a faux sand base (Tim show how here) and crackled some of the elements with Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  I chose not to use the red coloured seahorses in the end.

This image shows up the crackle on the seahorses very nicely.  I added seed beads for eyes to the seahorses and also added some seed beads to create some 'bubbles'.

The sand dollar is coloured with Antique Linen Distress Paint with a little Gathered Twigs DI around the edges.  The starfish is coloured with Abandoned Coral DP.  All of the greenery has been cut from various Tim Holtz dies and coloured with several of the green Distress Inks.

This is a view of the card in the frame, which has been decorated quite simply with gauze, some moss and a few seashells from my collection.

Apologies for the darkness of the photos, the weather has turned nasty here, it is raining heavily and very dark and gloomy.... I think we may have had our three days of summer this year....

This is my DT piece for Inspiration Journal and you will find many of the items I used in Inspiration Emporium's on-line store.  If you use my code Redanne you will receive a 10% discount off your whole order.  

I know this is the Grand Finale of CC3C but some of the Curiosity Crew have hinted that we will be seeing more of them, so fingers crossed - and thank you again to all of them!

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

Hugs, Anne xxx

Products from Inspiration Emporium

Sizzix Sand & Sea die by Tim Holtz

Sizzix Garden Greens die by Tim Holtz
Tim Holtz Woodgrain Stencil

Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint

Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Paints

More Art With Heart - Choose Your Own Theme

While I was looking out some older dies for my DT pieces for Eileen Hull's Art With Heart - Choose Your Own Theme challenge (see previous post) I found a wonderful flower die called Flower Layers w/Heart Petals and set about making a couple of projects, just for fun, using Eileen's dies and the DecoArt products.

 My first project is an altered perfume bottle.

I attached some Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap to some thin card, die cut the flower shapes, painted them with DecoArt Pyrole Red and Cobalt Blue Hue Media Fluid acrylic paints on both sides.

I added some seed beads to the centre of the flowers, once assembled.  I coated the empty perfume bottle with matte Multi Medium.

The bottle was painted with the Pyrole Red Media Fluid Acrylic, a layer of Weathered Wood Crackle Medium was applied and once dry, a layer of Carbon Black was applied.

This close-up shows the wonderful crackle and the sentiment which is Tim Holtz small talk.  I love using flowers for small home decor pieces and these Eileen Hull flowers look beautiful with their heart shaped petals.

I love wrapping gifts for friends - here I wrapped a little gift box and then attached three flowers which had been painted in Cobalt Teal Hue Media Fluid Acrylic.  Again, I applied seed beads to the middle of the flowers.

Another close-up - I wanted to show that with three simple layers of petals you can make a wonderfully dimensional flower.  I added three flowers to the top of my box.

Thanks for looking, I hope you will join in the challenge HERE, there is a fabulous prize on offer for a lucky winner!

Hugs, Anne xx

Art With Heart August - Choose Your Own Theme!

It is so hard to believe that we are in August already - how did that happen??

Over at Eileen Hull's Art With Heart Challenge for August the theme is a simple one - Choose Your Own Theme!  What could be easier than that!  Eileen is asking you to dig deep into your stash and break out some oldies but goodies and make them new again.  Use forgotten dies, stamps, trims, techniques of what have you and make them new again with a fresh project.  The theme you choose is completely up to you!  There is an awesome Sizzix prize pack that you can win just for sharing your creation with us...

I have chosen to make two projects using some of the dies that are in this month's prize and another one of Eileen's older dies - the Recipe Box (cut for me by my lovely friend Kath Stewart - thank you Kath).

This is a picture heavy post so I will keep the words to the minimum.

I used DecoArt products throughout, the flowers are from Eileen's Sweet Treats for You set of dies.

I wanted to create a faux wood look, originally taught to me by my wonderful friend Jenny (Buttons).  I used part of her technique but with DecoArt paints in Titan Buff and Quinacridone Burnt Orange, followed by Andy Skinner's 'dirty wash' and then overstamped with Andy's Industrial set of stamps by Stampendous.  See lots of Andy's techniques here.

The flowers are painted with Cobalt Teal Hue Mixed Media Fluid paint and seed bead were added to the centres.  The clasp has been 'aged' with Quinacridone Gold.  The little label is from Eileen's lovely labels set of dies.  Although a Recipe Card Box, it holds packets of seeds nicely.

Next up, I created a mobile for the garden, again using Eileen's dies and DecoArt products.

The dies I used are from Eileen's Birds and Butterflies set and also the Doily Lace Medallion and the small medallion is from Eileen's Sweet Treats for You set of dies.

The elements were cut from metal covered card.

Each piece was coloured with Cobalt Teal Hue and Blue Green Light Media Fluid Paints and then dabbed over with Quinacridone Gold to give a verdigris effect.  The butterflies were embossed with Eileen's Sunburst Embossing Folder.

Close up of the medallions.

A close up of the beautiful embossed butterfly (with matching jewellery wire antennae).

The little mobile in situ in the garden - it is weather proofed with a coat of varnish.

I really do hope you can join in our challenge at Art With Heart, just get out some of your older stash and let us see what you make!

As always, thanks for looking and I hope to see you again soon!  Hugs, Anne xx

A Vintage Journey - Things With Wings

Hello everyone, it is my turn to host over at A Vintage Journey and I have chosen 

Things With Wings as my challenge theme.

Tim Holtz has designed the most wonderful butterfly, dragonfly and

bird stamps, dies and papers.  In the challenge we would love to see you create

a project using one (or more) butterfly, dragonfly or bird.

I love Tim's beautiful Perspective Butterfly and also some of the new Distress

Ink colours and I have used these to create a card.

For the base of my design I used Tim's wonderful Correspondence paper which I distressed 

and layered up.  I also flicked some paints over the papers in Picket Fence, Blueprint Sketch

and Cracked Pistachio Distress Paints.

The beautiful butterfly has been coloured with Blueprint Sketch and Cracked Pistachio Distress 

Inks, using a water brush.  The Blueprint Sketch has a beautiful lavender hue to it which I love!  

I cut two butterflies, coloured both and layered them up to give some dimension. The body

 was covered in multi-colour seed beads.

The words from Tim's Alpha Parts have been given Tim's Altered Surfaces treatment (which

you can find on page 45 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities III book.

To finish off I made a blousey bow with some vintage ribbon which has been coloured

with Cracked Pistachio and a little Blueprint Sketch Distress Stain.

Another view of the finished card.  I do hope you will visit A Vintage Journey

to see what my wonderfully talented Creative Guide friends have made -

and that you will feel inspired to join in too!

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

Hugs, Anne xxx