Simon Says Stamp Designer Spotlight - Week 5

 Hello Friends

Since there are five Mondays in August I get one final chance to be in the Designer Spotlight for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  I would like to thank Simon Says Stamp for having me as their guest this month, I have really enjoyed the experience!

The challenge this week is 'Oodles of Doodles'.  I will admit, this was not an easy challenge for me and I spent many days over thinking it before I came up with my idea.  I promise you it does have lots of doodles in it, if you know where to look!

I have been itching to use Tim Holtz's Arthur die and have seen many wonderful examples on social media.  I chose to give him a rather sinister look for my Halloween themed project.

I started by using a Tim Holtz Vignette Shrine which I thought would make a perfect 'home' for Arthur.  I painted the whole box in black to give me a good base to work on.

For my background I used Distress Oxide in Spiced Marmalade, using the wrinkle free technique and then splattered liberal amounts of Pumice Stone and Black Soot over the background.  I die cut the doodly flowers from Tim's Media Marks die set, cut out a circle for the moon (applying a light coat of Distress Oxide in Spiced Marmalade and a couple of brushes of Pumice stone).  I then covered the whole of the outside of the Shrine with Collage Paper in Typeset/Composer, using Ranger matte medium both under and over the Collage Paper to give good adhesion.

I cut the background to size and glued this into the back of the Shrine and I used Tim's new Halloween Trim Tape to give a nice edge to the Shrine.  I would later add some doodles to the tape.

Next, I constructed Arthur, it took me a couple of attempts!  I die cut Arthur from Watercolour cardstock and then coloured the various parts with Distress Oxides in Pumice Stone and/or Hickory Smoke and assembled him.  His orange eyes and feet were coloured with alcohol markers from my stash.  I just love those eyes.  I attached him to the branch that comes with the Arthur die, it is painted with Gathered Twigs and Vintage Photo Distress Oxide.

You can see from the above picture that I 'doodled' between the numbers by adding some dots.  I die cut Tim's new Halloween Spider Web die with spider and attached it to the inside top of the box.  I also die cut the squiggly doodly flowers from Tim's Media Thinlits Die set and added these to the background.

The moon is raised up on a piece of foam tape and I added some of Tim's Tiny Lights, that I wrapped around the foam before attaching the moon.  I poked a small hole in the back of the Vignette to thread the lights through.

For the bottom of the Shrine I added some moss, Ideaology Wishbones (from Arthur's last meal), pumpkins from my stash and some Holiday Greens foliage.  I painted and added the base to the shrine, distressed the edges and added one of Tim's older Etcetera pieces to add some detail to the bottom.

I added one of Tim's Ideaology older quote tokens from my stash, filling the words with Picket Fence Distress Paint to make them stand out.

This is the view from the back showing the Tissue Wrap and also the holder I created for the battery pack - it is easily accessible when I want to turn on the lights.

Here is a view of the roof, I used Tim's Media Marks 2 stamp set to create the lines on the roof and then I just doodled between the lines to give the roof a bit of a lift.

And finally here is Arthur with the backlit moon.  I love that his eyes stay looking spooky, even in the darkness.  Perfect for Halloween.

I hope you will join in the challenge at:

One lucky person will have the chance to win a $25 Gift Voucher:

You can find a list of the products I used below, which are available from:

Once again, a huge thank you and shout out to Lols and the whole Simon Says Stamp Team for having me in the Designer Spotlight this month, I have enjoyed every minute!

Thanks so much for your visit too, it is much appreciated and I hope to see you again soon.  I am meant to be having a little break from crafting next week, but as my new Tim Holtz Halloween stamps have arrived, I may just have to have a play!

In the meantime, keep safe and well.  Hugs, Anne xxx

Products Used:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Vignette Shrine

Tim Holtz  Colorize Thinlits Die Set  - Arthur

Tim Holtz Thinlits Spider Web die set

Tim Holtz Sizzix Media Marks Thinlit die set

Tim Holtz Ideaology Halloween Trim Tape

Tim Holtz Sizzix Holiday Greens die set

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Media Marks 2 Stamp set

Tim Holtz Collage Paper - Typeset/Composer

Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Oxide Inks

Tim Holtz Ideaology Tiny Lights

Tim Holtz Ideaology Wishbones

Tim Holtz Distress Paint

Ranger Multi Matte Medium

Metropolis

Hello Friends

As soon as I saw Tim's new release video, I wanted these Sizzix Cityscape dies, even though I knew it might be a challenge for my less than dexterous hands.... they are such fun to use!

I used three of the Sizzix dies to create my 'Metropolis' - Tim Holtz Cityscape Suburbia, Cityscape Metropolis and Cityscape Commute.  It took me a couple of days as I painted each item individually, using the fabulous new Distress Oxide inks.

I just love the little clothesline!  On a visit to Hong Kong, many years back it was so interesting to see that even in such a large city, people actually had strings of washing out on lines between the buildings and that was my inspiration for combining the Suburbia and Metropolis die sets.

The word Metropolis was made from Tim's new Typography plastic letters, they were painted with Tumbled Glass Distress Paint and simply glued to the top of the Vignette box.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well the plastic takes paint.  Don't you just love the little helicopter!!

The whole scene was created using a Tim Holtz Vignette Box (the largest size) which measures 5.1/2" x 3.3/4" x 1.1/2" deep.  I covered the back and sides of the box with the beautiful new Memoranda papers, also by Tim Holtz.

If you want to be totally WOWED by a creation using the Cityscape dies, please have a look at what my dear friend Jenny Marples has made HERE.  It is breath-takingly beautiful!!  I wish I had thought to cut the buildings from already Oxide coloured cardstock - I will know for next time!

As always, thanks for looking and I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xx