Simon Says Stamp Designer Spotlight - Week 4

 Hello Friends

I hope you are all safe and well.  Time is marching on so quickly and I am here with my Week 4 Designer Spotlight project for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

The challenge this week is BEAUTIFUL BOTANICALS.

I have a few botanical books in my collection and one of my most favourite  botanical flowers is the Peony (Paeonia Officinalis L.) with its large blousy blooms, although I confess I have not had much luck in growing them.

As with many botanical plants, Peonies have many medicinal qualities and Peony petals can be used to flavour drinks and can be used in salads.  The Chinese use them to treat inflammatory conditions such as RA and Lupus, both of which I sadly have a great deal of experience in.

I chose to use the absolutely gorgeous stamp set by Olga Heldwein for AALL & Create called Blooming Field to create my tag.

I started by using an Etcetera tag by Tim Holtz and using Distress Watercolour paper for my background.  I used the wrinkle free technique with Distress Oxide Inks in Scattered Straw and Shabby Shutters, dipping the card in the inks until I was happy with the result.  Once dry I flicked some clean water over the tag to create some lighter areas.

Next, I took Tim Holtz's script stamp from the Entomology stamp set and stamped this in Distress Oxide Ink, Shabby Shutters as I wanted the background to be very subtle.  I really love this stamp for backgrounds and use it often.

I stamped the flowers, coloured them with Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar and Mowed Lawn and then fussy cut the flowers.  Yes, it took a while but I wanted the flowers to have some dimension and movement on my tag.  I went around each of the flowers with Distress Ink to get rid of the white edges.

To finish off I took some white ribbon from my stash, coloured it with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink for the top of my tag and I used a computer generated label for the bottom of the tag.

So, it would be lovely to see you join in the Beautiful Botanicals challenge here:

As always, there is a $25 Gift Voucher available for one lucky winner.

Listed below are the products I used to create my tag and are available from:

Thank you so much for your visit, I really appreciate it.  I hope you will join me again soon.

Stay safe and well.

Hugs, Anne xxx

Products Used:

AALL & Create Blooming Field Stamp Set #229

Tim Holtz Entomology Stamp Set CMS328

Tim Holtz Etcetera Tag Small

Tim Holtz Ranger Watercolour Card Stock

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink

Tim Holtz Distress Re-inkers

Ranger Multi Medium Matte

Simon Says Stamp - Designer Spotlight - Week 3

Hello Friends

This is my third week in the Spotlight at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

It is time for a new challenge and that challenge is 'Back to School'.

For my 'Back to School' project I created a Homework/study desk tidy using one of my favourite Eileen Hull dies - the versatile Card Box, Planner Storage and Organiser, along with Dina Wakley Heavy Body Paint, a Dina Wakley stencil, AALLandCreate stencil #28 and stamp #13.

I started by die cutting the Card Box, Planner Storage & Organiser from mount board, cutting two for my double storage box.

I used a brayer to add Dina Wakley Heavy Body paint (Ruby and Turquoise) directly to the mount board.  The paint was applied to one side only of both die cuts, as they were going to be glued together in the middle.

I applied Dina Wakley's stencil - Jumbled Numbers to one half of both of the painted die cuts, using Tim Holtz Distress Paint (Black Soot) applied with a blending tool.  I used a white Signo pen to highlight some of the numbers.

The insides of the die cuts were painted in Dina's Turquoise paint, applied with a brayer (not shown).

I assembled the boxes and joined two together back to back.

To create the notebook I brayered some more card using the same paints as before.  I think I might be slightly addicted to this type of painting.

I used AALLandCreate Stencil #28 and Black Embossing Paste on the cover.

The bookmark was stamped using AALLandCreate Stamp #13.  I attached the covers of the notebook with rings so that the Study Notes can lay flat.  The notebook fits nicely in the organiser.

Products available from Simon Says Stamp:
Eileen Hull - Sizzix 662361 - Card Box, Planner Storage and Organiser
Dina Wakley Heavy Body Paint
Dina Wakley Stencil - Jumbled Numbers
AALLandCreate Stencil #28
AALLandCreate Stamp #13
Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Black Soot
White Ini-ball Pen Signo Gel

Each week there is a fabulous $50 gift voucher on offer!

All the of the products that I used, which are available from Simon Says Stamp 

are listed above.

I do hope you will visit Simon Says Monday Challenge to see what the talented designers there have made for this challenge, I am in constant awe of their talents.

As always, thank you for your visit, I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs, Anne xx

Artist Trading Block for Eileen Hull + Giveaway

Hello Friends

I wanted to celebrate the fact that it is my 4th Anniversary with Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team!  I started out on the Artist Trading Block (ATB) side of the team and  my lovely friend Tracy Evans was on Eileen's other Inspiration Team. I thought I would mix up the Spring Flower theme for this month by creating an ATB, using Eileen's ATB die and stamps designed by Tracy for AALLandCreate.

I have a few step out photos and some brief instructions for you.

I started by created the large flower first.  I die cut the petals using Eileen Hull's Pansy Flower die and coloured them with Eileen's ColorBox Blend Ink in 'Stop' (bright red).  After spritzing the petals with water, I scrunched them up, dried them with my heat tool and assembled the flower.

The background was created by adding some ColorBox Blend to my craft mat (in 'Stop' and 'Bay' - a beautiful turquoise) and brayering this over a piece of A4 card, quite randomly until I got the desired effect.  Once dry, I used a stencil, by AALLandCreate (Stencil #28 by Autour de Mwa) and also added some marks here and there with stamps and the lid to the paint top.

Once I had die cut the 3 inch ATB, I coloured the edges with ColorBox Blend in Bay and left this to dry.  Then I cut the brayed and stenciled piece into 2.7/8" squares and inked the edges with Bay.

I stamped four of the squares with an AALLandCreate stamp (Set #70) set by my talented friend Tracy, and stamped and coloured the flowers in 'Stop' ColorBox Blend on a separate piece of card, fussy cut them and added them to the stamped flowers on the squares.  I added words to each side, again using Tracy's stamp set.

To finish off I added some black threads to the top before mounting my big flower on top.

All this month my team mates have been creating Spring Flower projects which you can see on Eileen's Blog, HERE.


Giveaway!

My other project this month was this Passport Journal die that I made into a little rusty and patina storage box and using another of Tracy's stamps for the butterfly.  To celebrate my 4th Anniversary as part of Eileen's team I would like to offer this project as a Giveaway.

If you would like a chance to win the box, please leave a comment below and I will choose a winner  on 30th May here on my blog.  You do not need to follow me but it would be quite nice if you did!  I am happy to post this box to anywhere in the world, to the winner.

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

Hugs, Anne  xx