My Flower Garden

Hello Everyone

We had sunshine today!  I cannot remember the last time we had sun all day and it has been beautiful - cold but beautiful.  I have been in and out of appointments all day today so sadly, I did not get the chance to do WOYWW this week but hope those of you who did, had a good one.

At the weekend I made an entry for Tim Holtz's challenge this month to use the Tattered Florals die, I did not photograph it until this afternoon.  For those of you who do not live in the UK, we had a poor summer last year and a very wet, sometimes snow filled winter.  I am not taking the chance this year and have created a flower garden for my craft room (just in case!).

The four coloured flowers are cut from crinkly Twistwrap Kraft paper, painted in four different colours of Distress Paints - Salty Ocean, Fired Brick, Picked Rasberry and Spiced Marmalade. The white flower is cut from canvas and painted over with Picket Fence Distress Paint.  I also cut a few of the flowers in Wendy Vecchi Clearly for Art (clear) and added a couple of layers to each of the flowers to give them a bit of body.


Another photo with the sun, just to show it in a different light.

For the base I found a piece of 2" x 2" square wood left by the Builders, painted this with Walnut Stain Distress Paint (love this colour, it reminds me of milk chocolate.....).  The flourish is one from my stash and I also coloured it with Walnut Stain DP and added a Wendy Vecchi Blossom Bucket flower to the front.

The leaves are hand cut from white card, painted with Peeled Paint DP and then coated again with Peeled Paint Distress Stain to give a slightly darker tone.  The flower stalks are kebab/bar-b-que sticks which have been coloured in the same way as the leaves.  The flower centres are pearl brads from my stash. I assembled the flowers and put the whole piece together with my glue gun.

Before I started my blog I made a few of these flower gardens for friends but with lots of different hand made flowers.  I like the uniformity of the Tattered Floral die on this one though.  Hope you like it too.

Hugs, Anne x

Sunday Stampers Challenge Week 246 - Texture

Hello Fellow Bloggers

Last week I recorded a programme where Linelle Harlow, the owner of Dreamweaver Stencils was demonstrating techniques with embossing paste and I was so taken by one of them that I had to have a go.  I have made a couple of pieces but this one fit nicely into the challenge set by the lovely Hels Sheridan which is based on the song 'You Raise Me Up' and the theme is Textures.

I was very lucky a few weeks ago and won some fabulous new Wendy Vecchi Embossing Pastes, in both silver and white, from Wendy herself!  How lucky am I?  I am fairly new to embossing paste so I have had to do quite a bit of practicing and here is one of the pieces I did.

I started by covering watercolour card with Distress Paints in Salty Ocean, Broken China and Spun Sugar.  I used a Dreamweaver stencil and applied Wendy Vecchi Silver embossing paste, using a palette knife.

This technique takes quite a few minutes to do and you need to work quite quickly.  I had a number of different colours of Perfect Pearls powder at the ready along with a large soft brush.  I used the brush to gently sprinkle purple on the butterfly, red and gold on the flower and green and silver on the foliage.  At this stage the powder tends to go all over but that's OK as you will brush it all off at the end.

Next, I heated the paste/powder with my heat tool - this bit requires a bit of patience as it can take a little while for the paste to heat to the point where it bubbles up.  If you try this technique you will hear little popping noises but that is quite normal.

Once heated, I let it cool down and then brushed off all the excess PP powder. (Click on the photo for a closer look)

You can probably see the dimension better in this photo.  It is a fabulous technique for creating a raised image and it is great fun when you use different colours to create it.

One thing I have found is that it works better with the metallic pastes than with the plain colours (black and white).  But it is all about experimenting!






To complete the tag I added a Wendy Vecchi Art Part tag topper which I coloured with Salty Ocean Distress Paint and then over-stamped with one of Wendy's stamps (Botanical Arts set).  I added some vintage ribbon which I coloured with Salty Ocean Distress Paint - it does make the ribbon quite stiff but it works well.  I finished off by adding some Tim Holtz Idea-ology pearls and beads and the words ' You raise me up'.

I hope you feel inspired to try out this lovely technique.  Hugs, Anne xx

The Stazon Technique at Artful Times Challenge No. 23

Hello Everyone

A huge welcome to my latest followers, it is a real pleasure to have your company on my crafty journey.

When I saw the challenge over at Artful Times (which I am entering this card in), I felt I needed to have a go at the Stazon Technique.  I have quite a few Stazon ink pads that rarely get used and it was about time they got an airing.  The challenge is called Colour Technique and you can choose to do the Stazon Technique, use Colour Blocking or use Dylusions inks.  I chose the Stazon Technique.

To see more of the technique I used there is a link over at the Artful Times Blog where you can see a great video.

Apologies for the photography, I did not manage to take photos today in the daylight, these photos were taken in artificial light and the colours, in real life, are much brighter and less patchy.

I started with plain white coated card (Clarity paper) and stamped the dragonfly from the Tim Holtz Classics #1 stamp set.  I stamped diagonally across the card to give four nice large corners.  In the central part I applied Stazon in Mellow Mint.  I applied Cactus Green Stazon to two diagonal corners and then Hydrangea Blue to the last two.  I created a mat from another piece of card, coloured the mat with the Green and Blue Stazon again and then matted the stamped card onto this, showing the opposite colours underneath.

I stamped the word 'VOYAGE' from the same stamp set in the bottom corner and then used a white pen to highlight the word, the dragonfly wings, the circled words and then added white dots in the top left corner and all around the edge to make the other colours pop.  I stamped and cut a second dragonfly from some fairly thick acetate, coloured the back with Hydrangea Blue Stazon and mounted it over the original stamped dragonfly to add a little dimension.

To create the background I used plain white card which I coloured with Salty Ocean Distress Ink.  To embellish I used a piece of corrugated card from my stash, ripped the edges, coloured it with Salty Ocean and Peeled Paint Distress Paint which I think matched the Stazon colours quite well.  To finish off I added some Bakers Twine in blue and white.

This was not my first attempt at the Stazon Technique, I also did this one using a Crafty Individuals stamp, gifted to me by my lovely blog friend Rita.  I was not happy with the result of this one but I did not use the Clarity paper for this one.  I used white Stazon on the bird and I did a lot more work with the white pen on this one.

It is a fun technique but when you have an artificial wrist, as I do,  it is a bit difficult to get a good strong coloured background with the Stazon on skippery paper!


Thank you for looking, I hope you will leave me a comment.  Thank you to those of you who left me such lovely comments on my first blog-aversary.  I have so enjoyed this last year, have met the most wonderful friends as a result of having my blog and a very big thank you to those of you who have followed me through this journey.  I truly appreciate your comments and friendship!   Big hugs, Anne xx

WOYWW - Week 194

Hello Fellow WOYWWers and Bloggers

Well here we are again, another Wednesday, another snoop around craft desks of the world courtesy of your hostess Julia.  If you want to join in then please visit Julia's blog HERE for details.

I do not have much to show this week, those of you who follow my blog will know that we have the Builders in, building an extension to the back of our house.  Pneumatic drills, diggers, breaking glass etc are not conducive to happy crafting, so we have been out and about quite a lot in the last week.  Unfortunately the Builders have discovered a major problem and we now have to have steel 'piles' driven into the ground to hold up the new extension as the ground is unstable, so I guess we are in for another week of noise, noise and more noise!  Ah well, it will be worth it in the end..........

However, I did do a mini workshop with a few crafty friends (including Lynn of Doodly Birds) last week and we made pincushions and gift bags.  I have already given away the pincushion and bag that I made but on my desk today is the original one and one I have made since last week, as a little gift for a friend. Click on the photo for a better look.

You can also see a few more of Tim Holtz Distress Paints.  I got a few more this week because after using them I find that I cannot live without them!  They are wonderful to use, very versatile and the colours are amazing..... I rest my case.  At the front is a tag and some ATCs that I have used the paints on.

 Also, on the right there is a postcard of a fish (under the scissors) which Granddaughter 2 wants me to copy onto a canvas.  On the left hand side is a felt kit for aforementioned GD2 who is coming to play in my craft room on Friday - she is 5 but old beyond her years and she loves to craft.  The papier mache egg is hopefully going to turn into a hot air balloon - if it works out I will blog it.

Well that's all from me folks, hope you all have a Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday and I look forward to visiting many of you over the next few days.  Hugs, Anne xx

Card for a Man - Sunday Stampers and F & F Sunday Share

Hello Everyone

I find it hard to make a card for a man but I recently got some of the new Tim Holtz Distress Paints, a new Tim Holtz Alterations Embossing Folder (Compass Set) and a freebie stamp from the Chronology Range by Papermania.  I purchased some corrugated card and some brown twine from the Funkie Junkie and wanted to use all these items on a card for a man.  This is what I made.

I edged a white 8" x 8" white card with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  The corrugated card is randomly coloured with  Salty Ocean and Walnut Stain Distress Paints.  I embossed a piece of white card using the Compass embossing folder and then distressed it with Gathered Twigs DI and then added some Salty Ocean  Distress Paint to the circle edge.  For the second image, this was stamped with black Archival Ink and then coloured in part with Salty Ocean Distress Paint.  The edges were coloured with Gathered Twigs DI.  Both images were mounted onto white card which I coloured with Salty Ocean Distress Paint.  For anyone who has not yet used these paints, they are fabulous, they go on easily, dry quickly and smell gorgeous and they can be watered down and painted with a paint brush!

The watch was stamped with black Archival Ink and the word Voyage (from TH's Classic Favourites #1) is stamped in brown Archival Ink, distressed with Gathered Twigs DI and then mounted onto card coloured with Salty Ocean Distress Paint.

When mounting the mats onto the card I added some lovely brown twine threaded through the top of the watch.

This card is my entry for Sunday Stampers week 245 - Man of the World (which is run by the talented Hels Sheriden) where the challenge is Men.

I also want to enter my card in the Frilly and Funky Sunday Share Challenge as I purchased a couple of the items from the Funkie Junkie Boutique  (corrugated card and twine).

Thank you so much for visiting, I have been blogging for one year today!  I have had the most amazing time, meeting new blog friends.  I hope you will leave me a comment and contact details so that I can return the compliment.   Hugs, Anne xx

Friendship

Hello Everyone

Firstly,  a huge welcome to my latest Followers, it is a pleasure to have your company.  I have made the most wonderful friends through my blog and I count my blessings every day.  Tomorrow, I will have been blogging for one whole year!  I cannot believe how much has happened in that short space of time......

Well, it was very exciting the other day when I got my new Tim Holtz Distress Paints, only a few to start with and I also got my set of bunny and duck stamps from Crafty Individuals that I have been drooling over since my lovely blog friend Carole started using them a few weeks ago.

There are two challenges that I wanted to enter.  One is Fun with ATCs where the challenge is 'Something Red' and the other is Crafty Individuals where the challenge is 'For My Friend'.  At CI if you enter the challenge you can get a code which entitles you to 25% off their products for the current month, just for entering the challenge!

Also, over at Anything But a Card the challenge No. 12  is to 'Share the Love' and as I am sharing one of these with my own love, who is also my best friend, then I am entering it there as well.

I thought I would combine the two challenges with my rather bright entry.  It is certainly red!  I intended that one half should be kept by me and one half given to a friend and I think the CI stamps work perfectly for this.

 I made two ATCs using 480 gsm card for stability.  The backing is coloured with my new Fired Brick Distress Paint.  This paint is wonderful to use, it goes on a bit streaky but when it dries (very quickly) it dries  to a lovely smooth finish.  It has the added bonus of smelling very nice too.  Genius idea Tim!  I stamped the bunnies onto some dotty paper, cut them out, coloured their crowns with Spiced Marmalade Distress Marker and then glued them in place.  The words are from the duck set of stamps, I stamped these, cut them out, edged them with Black Soot DI and glued them to the ATCs.

I covered the whole of the ATCs in clear embossing powder and heat set it.  This really brought out the rich red colour of the background.  This was an idea I picked from another blog friend Mark - thanks Mark.

I thought the cards would be a bit of fun, I have given one to my lovely DH already and although he would have preferred powder blue (his football team's colour) rather than red (the opposition's colour) he loved the sentiment.

Thank you for looking, hope you all have a lovely weekend and get some time to get messy and crafty.  Hugs, Anne xx

WOYWW - Week 193

Hello Fellow WOYWWers and Bloggers

This is the time of week we share our work spaces with Woywwers and Bloggers around the globe.  If you want to join in then go over and see our Hostess, Julia, who will give you all the details.

Julia likes us to keep it short and mine is very short this week, because the Builders are in, they are using drills and diggers to dig up the foundations today and we are out of here for the day!  I will catch up with as many of you as possible later today and this evening.

No new work on my desk today, but tomorrow I am doing a little workshop with Woywwer Lynn (Doodly Birds) and two other friends.  We will be doing a version of my pin cushion that you see on my desk.  That is what the spools in the background are for, together with all the lace at the front.  I hope we have time to make some gift bags too, using the papers at the front  and also the flowers, ribbon and lace in the box.
A sample of what we will do is just behind the lace box.  Right at the back you might be able to see my new Tim Holtz Distress Paints which arrived today but I have not had the chance to play with.

I bought some of the lace at the Event City craft event in Manchester last week, where I went with my lovely friend and fellow Woywwer Mo of Almo Crafts.  We met up with Lynn, Susan and Ruth and also with Ann B and Jo of Jozart (both Woywwers).  It was lovely to meet up with all these lovely ladies and chat about crafty things. Sadly, I missed meeting up with a blog friend Rachel, neither of us realised there were two cafes, she was in one and we were in the other........apologies Rachel.

So that's it from me, will do my best to visit you later on.  Have a good WOYWW everyone.  Hugs, Anne x