A stolen hour

Sometimes you just need an hour so to escape.. I took that and produced a few more Christmas tags.
I got to use the Indigo Blu "Rebecca the snow" queen stamp and set of Paperartsy stps that I gave in and bought. The Noel is a Tim Holtz wooden stamp. I really enjoyed myself heat embossing, sticking and using a bit of waste packaging to cut the plastic stamps.








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The hold-up!

I haven't been great lately for blogging  - this was the hold-up. I sent this to my sister and then it got stuck at the post office with not enough postage!! Opps, sorry Claire. My daughter went in and bought her first stamp.. unfortunately the wrong amount and it got posted.

It was a thank you for having the children for a few days.. they had big fun including zorbing! The flower is cut from a diet coke can, clear packaging and glittered modege podge fabric. I then alchol inked the aliminum bit. The key is also diet coke can coloured with raisin alochol ink. I used patterned pper for speed and pleased with the results. The stamp verse is from "clocks" 2 (I think) Paper Artsy. My sister and I are very close but we have 12 years age difference and I am so proud to be able to see the wonderful woman she has become.

Christmas started..

Ok I'm a bit slow off the mark for Christmas so I did a couple of tags.





I used a Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas inspiration and cheated a little these cheapie reindeers from Poundstretcher. I used old paper distress stain all over the tag, vintage photo for grunge and pumice stone to darken the sky. I stamped and double stamped snowflakes in chipped sapphire and then spritzed with radiant rain in violet. I a bit of butchers twine and a bell to jazz it up.





The second tags had the same background but then I stamped the creative impressions winter wonderland stamp in jet black stazon. The black bow was from a friends bag of bits she let me rummage through ( thank you Helen). The ribbon in the top was sari off cuts from the wonderful LB Crafts. I feel as though I've started at last and think these tags will look great on my brown paper bags presents!

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Thank you!!

Another thank you to my Out laws.. the children visited them as well this summer and I wanted to try a Tim's technique that I had used on a challenge. My MiL crafts and I took some time. The visits to them are riotus and exciting so I went for bright colours and embossed packaung but simple words.The packaging was embossed with the cuttlebug stars embossing folder and then spritzed with bronze radiant rain on the wrong side then fixed with red star brads. I managed a one of Tim's rosttesm a mirale to this who know me!! I'm a bit heavy handed and usually end up with a couple of wiggly bits rather than a rosette.. chuckle.It was all finished off with a few words using my dymo.. a right result as my FiL would say!

All that fun and care!

I've got very behind on blogging my craft.. there was a slight hold up whilst my Sister collected a Thank you tag from the Post Office.. it took her 3 weeks and that was it all my good intentions went to pot whilst  I was waiting for her to see what I had made. This was another one that got held up. I made tags for oth sets of grnadparents that had the children over the holdiays. This was my Mum and Dads and I wanted to express that we know how much they love them. I distressed and tag it wild honey and rusty hinge distress inks then stamps the unity cow parsley stamp in faded jeans, stamping twice each time the get the depth of colour on the first and a lighter touch on the second.I masked the tag and sprizted with bronze ?? rain. I liked the idea of hearts and stamped shrink plastic with staz on in saddle  brown, cherry and teal and shrunk them (memories of shrinking craip packets flooded back!). The smaller tage was a luggage label found in the drawer and the wors well that was my wonderful dymo. I think they liked it... well it's still on the dresser :-)

My lovely man..

My husband took me away to Venice on our 10th wedding anniversary and as we have just had our 16th I thought I'd make him a tag to remind him of that magical week! I cut a tag out of patterned paper K&Co Blue Awning paper and then stamped the Gondolier, B line Design stamps in Staz on saddle brown ( a bit of a favourite of mine) and distressed the edges with Tea Dye. It needed a little lift so I glossy accented to the waves in the water just to highlight the movement. I have been intrigued with stamping on fabric and decided to have a go with a bit of lining fabric from Ikea stamped with Unity Stamps "Remember" from their wonderful Beloved - Be still collection. All finished wff with an offcut of silk sari ribbon. I was very pleased with it, simple but said what I wanted!
I'm entrying it into the Simon says stamp and show one colour challenge.

Boo!

I felt I needed something to get me going on the craft front and a challenge or 2 seemed a good place to start..plus the children want a Halloween party so the challenge of Halloween at Crafty Boots and Trick or treat at Sunday stamper went down a treat..chuckle sorry no pun intended.

I made a double stretch of bunting using some Basic grey paper, June Bug - apron and another geometric paper WUBE retro rhythms cardstock. For those who know me I love different patterns together - spots and stripes florals all the lot!! I suppose I don't like to do whats expected of me?

I used the Sizzix scary cat die and Pumpkins 3 to cut the embellishments, fished around in my button box for some metallic buttons for the centres of the Tim Holtz rosettes and used a lot of vintage photo ink round the edges of the pennants. The pumpkins had their stalks coloured in and stamped with one of Tims flourishes. To give them a bit of deepth I glossy accented the stamp lines to make them shine.

I have recently purchased the Papermania "Alphamania - leftover alphabet" and stamped Happy Halloween. The children love it and it is hanging pride of place in our bay window. Note to self imossible to take a photo into the light! I thought I'd finish off with a tag to keep for longer.. Same process, the request now from Lilli is some Happy Birthday bunting ready for her birthday in January!! off to pick some paper. Boo!!

A wish for my friends..

I have the most amazing bunch of friends and some of them craft. We share that joy of a stolen hour to let our creativity run riot..
When the Grungy Monday challenge 19 was about Tim Holtz's re-use of packaging I though immediately of the Stars cuttlebug embossing folder "wishing upon a star" fitted perfectly with the Sunday stampers challenge.

I cut a tag using Tim's wonderful large tag die (get's well used in my house!!) I decided on a bright theme and used Wild Honey, Victorian Velvet and Tumbled glass distress inks. I used my "friend" Stampin up background stamp for an all over background. The packaging technique was fun and I love the idea of using it at Christmas for snowflakes etc.. I wanted it to stand out a bit more so I wiped Peony ecoGreen crafts acrylic paint over it. The sentiment stamp was from Dimension Fourth and said what I wanted and hey who can resist the dymo now I have one (I've wanted one since I was a kid!)

I need the challenges to make me squeeze my craft into my week, I am really grateful for the help so thank you to all you challenge setters :-) They give me inspiration and a deadline. My tag is really for all those friends that craft or have a special something you want to fit in, I wish for you more time and joy!

A house full..

We have had a house full of friends and family. For the last 10 days I have had at least 2 extra guests every night.. this I love but it leaves little time for crafting so this morning I snuck (very quietly) into my craft room and played with some steam punk charms and chain and a few cycles of memory wire. The de-stressing was almost immediate :-)

"Be still my beating heart!"

For my Sister and Brother-in-laws first anniversary I made the "Kiss" sign but still wanted to make a card to go with it. I decided to have a go at the Grungy Monday 15 challenge technique. It uses Tim Holtz "distressed enamel" technique. I used distress ink in Pumice stone and then clear embossed over it. I must admit I am not sure I managed to flick enough powder off it this time. I choose to use fired brick as the top ink, I'm not sure to the best success. For stamps I used the "be still my beating heart" from the Unity Stamp beloved collection and a Stampin up Style beautiful stamp. The hinge was Tim's Hardware findings Bigz die and a little bit of paper lace lifted it a bit.

I got distracted by CraftGossip.com by some little felt brooches. A fantastic tutorial by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood at Craft Sanity by and decided to combine the projects. I used the Sissix heart with wings die to cut three layers of felt but cut the wings off 2 layers. I then beaded around the heart and popped a few clear beads on the wings. A brooch pin on the back and it again is something that will out last the card and occasion.


It is a bit of a miss mash of styles but thats me, spots and stripes, Checks and florals... chuckle!

Kiss...

My little sister, Claire, got married last year and amazingly her and Scott's first anniversary is on the 17th July, how fast did that go past! I know the first anniversary is paper so I wanted to craft something for them..

I saw the little wooden word "Kiss" in Hobbycraft and thought it might fit the bill. I had covered a "Welcome" sign for my craft room door and thought I could do something similar.

I cut round the word in Fancy Pants paper and then distress the edges with Rusty hinge and black soot. I went for the regal crown (cheap as chips from hobbycraft) and Tim's idelaogy Philosphy tag - Cherish.

I wanted to put a heart and key on it - "key to your heart " type thought. I ended up with 2 paper flowers that have been hanging around my craft room forever, a small wooden button heart picked up at the Christmas Craft show at the NEC and yet again a couple of pieces of silk offcuts from LB Crafts (what am I going to do when they run out!). Claire is always up for a bit of bling so I glitter modge podged it all over to seal it and add that magic sparkle! Congratulations Claire and Scott on a wonderful year!

"Family is a patchwork of love.."

Last weeks challenge passed me by, I could have posted a past alcohol ink project and still might do but that seemed like cheating for a challenge so.. here is my effort for Grungy Monday 14 It was using Tim Holtz's March 2008 technique, basically a resist with acrylic paint.

I took needlework this time as it's close to my heart. I used my Vintage Sewing stamp set from Creative Expressions and resist stamped in white acrylic paint, Paper fresco finish in Snowflake to give a chalky finish. I used the only distress re-inkers I have; teaming tea dye with gold perfect pearls, milled lavender with a magenta and fired brick with green. I decided on full coverage and not the speckled look.

I then stamped the verse, scissors and mannikin in Stazon Jet black but also stamped a couple of swirls in saddle brown. It looked a bit clean so I distressed the edges with Soot black. To embellish it I used a ticket and a key charm. Happy with this one again.. might try this again as it was a nice result.

My "proper" first challenge..

I said below that I would enter my first craft challenge actually by the time I got my blog sorted (well sort of, at least I can get photo's on here now.. chuckle) the challenge had finished!

So here goes Studio L3 Grungy Monday 12 using Tim Holtz technique April 2008.

I cut the tag using Tim's Sizzix movers and shaper Tag and bookplates die and Lost and found paper, the one with the clocks on.

My favourite stamp set at the moment is the PaperArtsy Clocks 6 I really love the words.. "time does not change usit merely unfolds us", this set me thinking again about butterfly's unfolding their wings.. so out came my Dark room Door Butterflies and I embossed them with clear ink and embossing powder.

I had a good look at the technique and decided to use the expresso paint dabber Tim uses and then go from there. It felt a bit dark so I added the paper lace tape and I wanted to pick up on the jade/teal colour from underneath so added a bit of ribbon across the centre and through the tag hole.

I stamped the Paper Artsy words and swirl in Jet black Staz on and added the metal embellishments. Simple but it does fit my original idea.

Fathers Day

Fathers Day is always a rush in our house but this year they were read to be sent on time! I wanted to make a card for both my Dad and my Father in Law that told them how much we appreciate how my husband and I turned out.
I started with a map paper and distressed it gentlywith tumbled glass and brushed cordoroy the simply used some fab stamps.. Tim's ticket and token finished it off. The ribbon is silk offcuts from the wonderful LB Crafts where I always find a gem or 2!
I thought my hubby deserved something special and the tag was to him for thanking him for our two beautiful children. This I clear embossed, distressed and then final stamped with Staz on black ink..

My son, Thomas wanted to make his card and he paitently learnt distressing techniques and made his own card.


Typically the Royal Mail struck again and my Dad didn't get his till the Monday.. oh well there's always next year to be on time.

The first challenge - Faux Batik

Friends of mine have been entering craft challenges and I thought I should have a go.. The traumatic thing was not the crafting but the setting of a blog to link it too. I seem to be nearly there but think I will have to call in some favours to understand templates and backgrounds more fully. Anyway I decided to try Grungy Monday 11 "Faux Batik" in a simple way after seeing something similar in the June 2011 "Craft Stamper".


I used Tumbled glass and Wild honey (rather a favourite of mine at the moment) to random cover some card then stamped over it with Fuschia pink Staz on. I was very pleased with the results and then used Tim's tattered florals to create the rose. K & Co Friends embellishments. Simple but sweet. Not quite Tim's technique but it feels like Faux batik.. better try his techinque next.