Tim Tag November 2015

Hello Everyone!

Apologies, I have been missing for a wee while - nothing serious, just a few technical issues which, fingers crossed, have been resolved now. Apologies if I owe you a visit!

You can see Tim's tag HERE, as usual I did not have many of the things he used so I had to improvise.  I ended up doing two tags and I could not decide which I liked best, so I will show you both!

I used the Acorn Blueprint stamp and the background was created using the Dots Stamp from the Dots and Florals set.

I followed Tim's instructions using Picket Fence Distress Paint, followed by Distress Spray Stains in Rusty Hinge and Antique Linen.

The acorn has been coloured with Distress Inks and the edges of the tag were finished off with Ranger Foil Sheets (Vintage set).  You can see a little of the shine in the above photo, I love these foil sheets, they do give a lovely vintage feel.

Now for my second tag:

I tried an experiment with the fabulous new Lucky Clover and Ground Espresso Distress Spray Stains, I was not sure at first about the combination but when it dried I just loved it!

I also wanted to try out Tim's technique where he creates his own colour of ink pad, but unfortunately I don't have the clear base ink pad so I spread a lot of different autumn colours onto my glass mat, spritzed with water and dragged my Ranger Watercolour card through it.  Not as good a Tim's but I did like the result.  I stamped and cut out my maple leaf from one of the pieces.

I really like the colour of the leaf against the background...

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

Hugs, Anne xxx

A Stitch in Time

Hello Everyone!

It seems ages since I blogged but I had a few days away.  I am here to share my Inspiration Team piece for Eileen Hull's Art With Heart Challenge - A Stitch in Time.  Do come and join in the fun!

Eileen has designed a fabulous new range of sewing themed dies which are either in the stores now or will be coming very soon!  This week I chose to use the Cantilever Sewing Box die and next week I will be sharing projects made the new Stitchlits border and flower dies.  The sewing box is SO clever, just like the one your Mum or Grandma used to have, only in miniature!

This is a picture heavy post so I have kept the words to a minimum.

Using the die I cut out all the pieces and looked at the brief instructions.

Since I intended to cover my box with paper I attached strong red liner tape all around each box and painted the bottom and edges with Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany Distress Paint.

I chose the fabulous new Graphic 45 Christmas Carol papers to cover the box.

With the boxes covered, I painted the struts with DecoArt Media Fluid paint in Titan Buff.

I used some metal brads from my stash (the colour matched too!!) for the struts, and two knobs by Wendy Vecchi's Blossom Bucket range on the top.

At this point I decided to make it a jewelry box and lined each compartment with more of the papers and then some black felt.  Two of the compartments were fitted with concertina folded felt to create places for rings and earrings.

To decorate the top I cut a Tim Holtz Poinsettia, partly from G45 paper and partly from canvas fabric which was backed with Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art so that I could shape the flower and it would stay in place.  The greenery is from more Tim Holtz dies and the pearly embellishments are by Anna Marie Designs

Here is a close up of the finished top.  I also painted the stars on the little knobs.

One final look at the completed box.  The finished set measures 6.1/4" x 2.1/4" approx.

(16 cm x 7 cm approx) - perfect as a little jewelry box or for several small gifts.

I do hope you like it!  I can see myself making a few of these to put small Christmas gifts in, they would be brilliant for Valentine gifts too, but I also think they would make wonderful mini sewing boxes to keep all your sewing bits and bobs in.  They go together incredibly easily too.

So do please come an join us at Art With Heart in our A Stitch in Time Challenge HERE, where you could win one of Eileen's fabulous new dies!  At the moment you stand a very good chance of winning - just saying.....!

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

It's Ornamental - Anything But Cute Mixed Media Challenge #7

Hello Everyone

I would like to say a huge thank you for all the amazing good wishes I received here, on the Anything But Cute blog and on social media, I was completely blow away - thank you!

This is my first post for Anything But Cute Mixed Media Challenge where the lovely Cec (CW Card Creations) is our hostess for this month.  Cec has chosen 'It's Ornamental' as her challenge theme.  Here is what Cec has to say:

'Since the holiday will be coming up pretty quickly, we want you to create a mixed media

ornament for your Christmas tree or a Christmas decor item for your home or table'

I love to make home decor pieces for Christmas so this challenge theme was just perfect for me!  I recently purchased one of the Tim Holtz Bigz XL 'house' dies (Village Dwelling), along with the additional die that allows the house to be made into a church or chapel and so, with Cec's wonderful theme, I felt inspired to create this piece of Christmas home decor:

As well as the Tim Holtz house and accessory dies, I also used Tim's beautiful sleigh and reindeer dies and some of his Idea-ology trees.

I started by die cutting the pieces from mount board/mat board, but you could also use chipboard.  I laid them out and taped over the windows and door so that there would be room for the window frames and door, once I covered the building with modelling paste.  I cut another door and all the window frames from black card to give a contrast.

I chose to use a coarse modelling paste that I purchased from Indigo Blu, it is a fantastic paste that is really gritty and it dries beautifully white.  When I had covered the first part, I decided to glue the whole piece together before finishing off - as you will see in the next photo.

For the bell tower part, I assembled the tower before coating it with the modelling paste (I learned from my previous mistake on the house...), leaving a little gap around the top for the roof to fit on.  I was inspired by a programme about Patagonia that featured a tiny chapel that had rough white walls.

To create the roof, I hand cut some grey card into tiny little tiles and I glued each of the tiles in place.  I wanted it to look slightly worn so I placed the tiles in a slightly random way as you can see here.

Once finished, I added a 'ridge' tile to finish off the top.  I added an Idea-ology knob to the top of the bell tower.  (Since making this chapel I have made more houses and I used a stripes embossing folder to create a pattern on the roof - it looks good and takes much less time!).

To create the trees I used three trees from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology range.  I wanted three different sizes so I used one large, one small and then I cut down another large tree.  It is so easy, just pull the tree gently out of the base, use wire cutters to create the height you want, trim back the foliage and then push it back into the base.

To colour the trees I put them into a pizza box, on top of a white piece of copy paper, and sprayed them with Distress Stain, in two colours, to create some light and shade.

To create the sleigh and reindeer, I used Tim Holtz dies and shrink plastic.  I used translucent shrink plastic and coloured the plastic before shrinking.  In my opinion this gives a better end colour.  I used alcohol pens in red, silver and brown.  If you try this technique do be careful not to burn your fingers!  I lost count of how many times I burnt mine trying to untangle the reindeer legs and antlers....

I wanted to make the sleigh 3D so I cut and coloured two sleighs and used some light card to make a curved base for the sleigh.  I made some teeny tiny parcels and a sack to add to the sleigh.  The wreath around the reindeer's neck is a small piece of red and white twine.  The finished length of the sleigh is approximately 2" and the reindeer is just over 1", so they are very tiny!

Here is a view of the finished piece with the lights on.  I used a piece of  6" MDF board (from Indigo Blu) to mount the whole piece on.  I painted this white and then added lots of 'snow' to the base, the trees and the roof of the chapel.  I added a jingle bell because I could not find a bell small enough to fit the little bell tower.

I am adding a view of the back of the chapel, it has windows all the way round.  I can see myself building a little village now....

Thanks so much for your visit, I hope you feel inspired to join us at Anything But Cute Mixed Media Challenge, the details of which you can find HERE, along with some fabulous creations by my wonderful teamies.

Hope to see you again soon.  Hugs, Anne xx

Wanderlust 2016

Hello Everyone

Are you interested in Mixed Media and Art Journalling?  If so, have you heard about Wanderlust?

Wanderlust is the brainchild of some talented friends of mine, Jamie Avery and Kasia Krzyminska.  Jamie and Kasia run Artist Trading Post and when they had a bricks and mortar store I was a frequent visitor.   Together, Jamie and Kasia have set up Everything Art and they are offering Wanderlust 2016, an on-line mixed media and art journalling class which spans a whole year!

I am pleased to say that Jamie and Kasia have asked me to be an affiliate on this amazing journey, not to teach but to help spread the word and of course I have signed up for the classes!  Well, with some of my favourites, like Andy Skinner, Finnabair, Kate Crane and France Papillon, to name but a few, as part of the teaching group I could not resist!  

Wanderlust is an on-line event offering videos from 24 amazing teachers and two resident teachers (Kasia and Jamie), one each week (each one is downloadable with PDF instructions provided), 50 amazing videos, which will run for over 50 hours in total, access to a forum with a friendly community, inspiration, challenges, discussions, galleries, workshops, giveaways and generous discounts from our partners (including DecoArt, the Funkie Junkie Boutique and Simon Says Stamp to name just a few! ).

Click here to join Wanderlist

To read more about this amazing group of artists, click HERE.

They really are a talented bunch aren't they?  Part of the ethos behind Wanderlust is to spark your creativity in areas that are out of your comfort zone, or help you try new things.  Different teachers will teach you techniques that you may not have thought to try previously, they will give you project ideas and show you how to get the best out of your crafty supplies.  All this and you don't even have to leave the comfort of your own home, you can do the classes in your own time and at your own pace.

I am very pleased to be part of this on-line community and I would love it if you come along on the journey too.  If you sign up before 15th December you'll get the whole year of classes for just £65 (around $100 or 89 Euros) - this introductory offer works out at around £1.25 per week.  This introductory offer ends on 15th December when the price goes up to £99, so it is well worth taking advantage now.  It would make a great Christmas gift for someone!

Click here to join Wanderlust

If you have not signed up already, I hope you will (I should disclose here that I do benefit a little, as an affiliate if you sign up through here) and if you have already signed up I look forward to seeing some of you on the journey!

Thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xx