I Love Paris in the Springtime and Summer distress

Hello lovely blog friends

I know, I know, it is the end of Summer (what little we have had that is), not Springtime but I am still in Summer mood because I have been using my Summer Distress Inks - these, in my opinion, are the best yet from the fabulous Lord Tim of Holtz (I have upgraded him from Sir Tim).  The colours are lush, bright, gorgeous........

Over at Simon Says the challenge is - Inspired by Summer Distress so I just felt the need to enter because I love these colours so much.  This is my entry, much more simple than lots of others, but that's exactly what I was aiming for as I wanted the colours to speak for themselves:

I stamped with a Stampendous, I Love Paris stamp onto manila cardstock first with black archival ink and then dried with my heat tool, masked the flowers off and then used my blender tool to add Salty Ocean for the sky and Mowed Lawn for the ground.  I then applied the Picked Raspberry to the flowers using my water brush.  I tried to create a little light through the middle of the Eiffel Tower so that it would not look too flat. The edges of the tag were distressed with a TH distress tool and then covered in Vintage Photo DI.

The ribbon is vintage seam binding dyed with Picked Rasberry (you should see my fingers!), scrunched it up and dried it with a heat tool.  The Paris and Eiffel Tower charms are from my stash.  I added the butterfly to balance the piece.  The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punched one, which I overstamped and I added ocean coloured pearls for the body.

I am entering this into the Simons Says Challenge (http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.co.uk) - Inspired by Summer Distress.

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them and I will always try to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

WOYWW - Week 169

Hello Fellow WOYWWers and Bloggers

Maybe it is because we have had a Bank Holiday but this Wednesday has come round a bit too quickly!  Time to share your desks with WOYWWers from around the world all by courtesy of the wonderful Julia at  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk .  If you want to join in (be warned, it is addictive) then pop over to Julia's place to details.

I have had quite a crafty week so far, mainly due to our horrible cold and wet weather, which if you are interested, you can see from my previous two posts, my makes, not the weather! 

Otherwise this is my desk today:

Yes, I have been buying .....BUT ......one of my favourite on line shops Bubbly Funk (www.bubblyfunk.co.uk) is closing (to move elsewhere) and are offering everything - yes everything, at 50% off so what is a craftaholic to do??  And I did it big style.  So, some of my purchases are on my desk and the Coredinations papers are all neatly put away........I know, I have been very naughty, but I did get some lovely stuff and if I can bear to open the packets I will use it - honest!

If you do stop by I hope you will leave me a comment, I love reading them and I always try to return the compliment wherever possible.  Happy WOYWW to you all.  Take care.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

Flowers and Butterflies - in the pink!

Hello lovely blog friends

Well our Bank Holiday has been a wash out, totally, rain, rain and more rain, plus lots of thunder and lightening, but it has meant that I could get a bit more crafting done!  My post yesterday was all about green but today it is all about pink and pretty.

I wanted to try entering Fashionable Stamping Challenge again where the challenge this week (No. 29) is Anything Floral/Handmade Flowers. 

The challenge can be found at http://fashionablestampingchallenges.cottagecrafts.ie.

I saw another challenge at J and C Creations at http://jandccreationschallenge.blogspot.co.uk which is for 'Something a little different' and I thought my piece would work for that too.

Here is my entry:

The box is from a Tim Holtz configuration and I painted it with pink acrylic paint.  The inside is covered in Tim Holtz coredination card in spun sugar, which I embossed and sanded back.  The outside is covered in Kaisercraft Bonjour paper.  Inside the box is a Sizzix / Hero Arts die/stamp set which I stamped, coloured with Spun Sugar and Pine Needles Distress Ink using a water brush, die cut, added some wire antennae to the butterfly and carefully placed in the box, up on foam pads.  I then cut out and decoupaged a further layer to add some dimension.

The flowers along the top are cut from Tim Holtz tattered pinecone die which I assembled, edged the flowers with Worn Lipstick DI and glued down with some added foliage from the same die set.  The corners are some from my stash which I have coated in alcohol ink (mountain rose) to tone down the shiny silver.  The feet are some plastic beads from my stash.

This is a view of the side and back:

It is quite a subdued pink but the lack of sunlight has made the first picture look darker in the photo, the second is more realistic in colour.

I really wanted to do another chunky ATC block but someone else on the Fashionable Stamping DT did a lovely one and I didn't want to copy that. 

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them all and will always try to return the compliment where possible.  Crafty hugs, Anne x

Sunday Stampers Week 220 - GREEN

Hello lovely blog friends

This week over at Sunday Stampers (http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk) our resident host, the talented Hels has set the challenge as Green based on Green Tambourine.

I am not fond of green at the best of times but I was looking at Country View Crafts blog and saw a design that Gabrielle had posted and it was using my newest set of Tim Holtz stamps.  I was at a bit of a loss how to use the stamps and she gave me the inspiration.  Now, Hels, you wanted Green and boy oh boy, you are getting a lot of green here:

I decided to make a journal, nothing like Gabrielle's but I wanted to make something that I might, one day, use.  The dragonfly is stamped twice and decoupaged.  The journal itself is hardback (Zutter from my stash) and has 20 lovely clean white pages in it.  I bound it together by punching holes with my Crop-A-dile and added ribbon to hide the rings - should have used my binding machine but it was stuck in the back of my cupboard........

The paper is BoBunny and the edges are distressed with Mowed Lawn DI and I coloured the ribbon with Dylusions Fresh Lime ink spray.  The dragonfly is coloured in a mixture of the Fresh Lime and also Dylusions Vibrant turquoise - wow are those colours strong!!

Hope you like the green Hels!

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them all and I will always do my best to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne x

Just a bit of fun

Hello Lovely Followers and Fellow Bloggers

Thank you so much to my latest follower, I really appreciate the fact that you have joined me.

Yesterday I had a day all to myself, no commission cards to make, no challenges to enter, no shopping, so I thought I would just have a bit of inky fun.  I got out my Dylusions inks and had great fun getting inky and messy - nothing to show from there as I was just playing.

However, my wonderful blog friend Sandee who lives in the States sent me some die cuts of seahorses that I had admired on her photo album.  Seahorses to me are the butterflies of the ocean, beautiful, graceful and a joy to watch so I made a tag with the largest seahorse.  I had some Frantage crushed glass glitter and some shells from a long since broken necklace which I added to the sea floor.  The background is Tim Holtz distress inks in Peacock Feather and Shabby Shutters which I spritzed and flicked onto.  The vintage seam binding is coloured with the same colours.  I added a little anchor charm and another anchor stamped in archival ink and coloured in with a silver pen.

I added bubbles from a little stamp I bought years ago and I covered the seahorse with crackle Glossy Accents (sorry it does not show up so well but it looks like scales).  The seahorse which is layered up in two layers, is coloured in distress inks, as is the sea weed and I added a few strokes with promarker to give them some movement.  The words are Tim Holtz which I cut apart.

Edited: I had set this up on schedule but Mr Blogger was not playing!

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them all and I will always do my best to return the compliment.  If you live in the UK I hope you have a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend and anywhere else hope you have a lovely weekend too.  Crafty hugs, Anne x

WOYWW - Week 168 and Goodies

Hello Lovely Followers and Bloggers

It is that time again when we share our desks with the world at large, courtesy of the lovely Julia over at
http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk.  If you want to know more or join in then hop over there for info.

I am doing a happy dance this week, well maybe not the dance bit, but the happy bit - yes!

I got four lovely parcels in the post which you can see here:

From left to right - a set of stamps that look like real rain drops - I kid you not, they look real, purchased from a lady in Canada called Ryn Tanaka.  Above those is a card from my wonderful WOYWW blog friend Sandee in the USA.  Sandee very kindly did me some die cuts of sea horses that I liked in her album and enclosed them in this beautiful card.  Next is my brand spanking new Scotch Tape Glider which I received from another wonderful WOYWW friend Lynn, of the Doodly birds, how kind is that, I have wanted one of these for eons, well a while anyway.  

On the right is my new DVD by the uber talented Trish Latimer, yet another wonderful WOYWWer.  I was not lucky enough to win one but I bought this and it is amazing.  I have learned such a lot about painting on canvas and other lovely things.  My first effort is in the foreground and a close up is below.  I am so pleased that Trish has equipped me in a very short space of time with the tools to paint very easily onto a blank canvas. 

I have yet to decide how to finish it off.  Trish likes to use standing people but I don't have any of those yet, I might have a look at Stampotique........    Right in the middle is just me playing with my latest stamps.

All this and I had my 100th follower, mentioned in my last post, who was Jo of Jozart, another lovely WOYWWer!  Your gift is on it's way to you Jo and thanks again.

That's it from me, hope you enjoyed your visit and if you did please leave me a comment and I will always do my best to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx

100th Follower and Sunday Stampers - Steampunk

Hello Fellow Bloggers

Today I am celebrating my 100th Follower which is Jo from Jozart, one of my WOYWW buddies!  Thank you so much Jo and all my other lovely Followers, I truly appreciate your visits and comments.  A couple of gifts are on their way to Jo for being my 100th, I am not going to say what they are because I have only posted the parcel today.  Hope you like them Jo!

This week over at Sunday Stampers challenge - WEEK 219, which is run by the wonderfully talented  Hels Sheridan is Steampunk.  Hels can be found at http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk and I am sure she would be delighted if you were to participate too.  Please do check out her blog for details and inspiration.

I do admit, that whilst I love to see what others do in the steampunk genre, I don't do a great deal myself but Hels has used amazing embellishments from Crafty-Emblies (www.crafty-emblies.com), a new online shop on her piece this week.  Crafty-Emblies are sponsoring this challenge and are offering a £10 voucher to spend in their shop, for the winner.  I bought a few bits when they first opened so I thought I could use them to create my piece.  I used one of my favourite things, a chunky wood ATC and created this:

This is the front and the basque and the wings are from Crafty Emblies, the feet are beads from my stash, painted with acrylic paint in copper and the little knob is a bargain purchase (£1.00) from The Range.  The backing paper is from Tim Holtz Kraft Resist stack (he has done a video today which is well worth checking out).

The back and one side look like this:

The sentiment and the steampunk cogs (and the steampunk bee on the side) are stamped from Sam Poole's Inventor stamp set and the wooden cogs are again from Crafty-Emblies.  Along the other side, which you cannot see are four pen nibs in various stages of rust.  Apologies for the photos, the evening light is not being kind to me.

My usual difficulty with steampunk is that I either do too dark and dingy or too girly so I hope this piece looks somewhere between the two!

If you do visit, I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them and will always try to return the compliment.  Crafty hugs, Anne xx