Artful dwellings

I purchased Tim Holtz's Artful Dwellings and had been wondering what to do with it when along came my Brother-in-Laws birthday so I thought I'd go for a" boy style" something..

I cut grunge board pieces and covered the pieces in K&Co Architectural Column printed flat paper that I had picked up at Hobbycarft for 29p a sheet, a bargain! I used Woodware double sided adhesive sheet as it made matching all the pieces up easier although it would have been easier to stick the paper onto the board and cut everything together.. next time. I used the Creative Expressions "that special touch" Mika mask Large Polka and Rangers Perfect pearls mist in Turquoise.

I have the pieces a rough wash with dusty concord and tumbled glass distress stains. I wiped it off to get a soft mix of colour. I stamped phrases and ticket and hand in jet black staz.I used steampunk clock and clock hands. The button was from an ebay aucion win of metallic buttons. The ticket was attached with a Tim Holtz memo pin. I decide to turn it into a hanging using the handle from a Starbucks bag and added a little silk off cut in turquoise. I used Paperartsy Clocks 3 stamp set and Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Steampunk & Good Thoughts.

Mothers Day too....

For my Mother in Laws mothers day tag I knew she would appreciate something hand made. I haven't used the Paper Artsy Hot stamps 1109 and thought I'd have a go doing flowers in a vase, which turned out to be harder than I expected! A friend has said practice.. I was not too good at that.

I used a acrylic white paint as a resist with a spotty stamp then used tumbled glass and wild honey distress stains. I stamped the flower and bottles in Jet black Staz on and the phrase in Turquoise Staz on. To give the bottles some shine I used glossy accents. The flowers I ink painted with Ripe perimission distress ink. A little silk off cut finished it off.

Butterfly's & backgrounds

I have been a bit more organised looking at blogs and thought I'd like to try Tim's March Tags of 2012 mosiac butterflys and also loved the idea of Simon says Stamp Background. So off I went.

The Background  was created by stamping some flowers (99p foam stamp form hobbycraft) in jet black Staz On. Then embossing a white Hero Arts Stencil flower. I aplied colour using Distress stains in Spun Sugar, Wild Honey and Tumbled glass. To finish off the background I used a key mask, this I don't think was effected (but I tried).

The butterflys were made using Tim Holtz tutorial but with the stash I had so  Woodware double sided adhesive sheets and Colourful Thoughts silver jewel enamel embossing powder. I am very pleased with the effect. I added the  Sizzix die word  "inspire " as thats what Tim's blog post did! I loved making the butterflys and they were just so much fun!

I'm also going to enter this into the Craft Room Bling and Glitter/sparkle because as I looked this morning it fits the challenge so well, even though I didn't set out to be sparkly, that how it ended up!! Hope that's OK.

Mothers Day - "Love is the thread that binds us together!"

Sewing is a theme that runs through our family. My Nan was a seamstress and I spent many a happy hour sittiing playing with buttons and scraps from her rag bag. My Mum sews too and I learnt from her and Nan so when I looked at my stamps and revisited the Sam Poole, Vintage Sewing, Creative Expressions stamps. I thought that would be the theme of Mum's Mothers Day hanging. Its red, black and white as Mum has a rather modern  kitchen in these colours and could stay up all year.

I started with an off cut of mount board and starightened it into a square (waste not want not, my Nan would approve!) and then rummaged through my papers to find something black and white that would show through a colour wash. I settled on spots! Og how I love spots and stripes and together is always good as well.. I then used a red acrylic paint roughly round the edge. On the right I used a flourish stencil and thicker white acrylic paint to get a resist.

To satmp I used Staz on Jet black, using the sentiments in the corners. To make the flowers I used the Paper artsy grunge flower 2 & 3 and Tim Holtz Sewing room die. The twine is butchers twine, a little thicker and with a slight gloass, I love it! The body form was lightly inked with vintage photo and fired brick and the cotton inches tape wrapped nicely round it. All finished off with the red handle from a paper bag as a hanger.. can't resisit a bit of reuse! Mum's loves it so I'm pleased.

A sticky thank you

I feel in love with the sentiment "Happiness is like jam, you can't spread even a little without getting some on yourself" from the Paper artsy set??. How wonderful is that!

The tags were cut using the Sizzix arch tag die and the Tim Holtz flourish in shabby shutters. The Sentiment (Paper artsy) and Jam jar (??) in Vintage photo and the tag was gently distressed around the edges with vintage photo.The Jam jars all had a little rock candy stickles added to them. I love this little jar stamp and use it on any jam and chutney I make. It makes for cute labels.

Happy Birthday Mum!

March is always really busy in our house with my Mum and Dad's aniversary, then Mum's birthday and finally Mothers Day although sometimes they all come in a week!

I used a few challenges to get inspiration for Mum's card/tag, Shabby vintage at the Craft Room Challenge, Vintage at the Stamp Man, and threw in glitter from Crafty Boots.

I bought the lovely IndigoBlu "Grand Tour II" stamp set at the NEC and this seemed to fit the bill. I only have 2 sets at the moment but feel they may become a favourite supplier! I used a base of Pink Paisley Nantucket paper and stamped the statue in saddle brown Stazon (another favourite I'm afriad). I then edges the tag with a quick rub round of distess stain in Walnut stain and then gave a quick swish of picket fence stain over most of the tag.

I struggle to get layering but decided to go for folded lace at the bottom with pink ribbon along the middle (mainly to hold it all down) and a Prima cermaic tile to give more dimension. The flourish was part of stash that I won from Crafty boots and cotton candy stickles seemed just right for it!

The Vintage trinket is another Prima goodie and the shell heart button seemed to be the riht thing to add for my Mum. I used a Tim Holtz oranate plate (the first one I've used - I have just been hording stroking them.. chuckle) and used a scrap of English/German dictionary with the definition for Mother. The dream stamped finished of the plate. Lace and silk offcut to hang it by.

Hope you like it Mum - Happy Zazie Birthday!!

Happily every after..

A friend has just apdopted. It is a wonderful and scary time for everyone, all the waiting, the panels and the uncertainty of it all. When the green light came I was offered to make a card for her and  wanted it to be a little special so that all her friends and coleagues could say how happy they were for her and her husband. I decided to make an Adoption card/book.

 I must admit that friends at work could not work out why they were only signing a sheet of the book but loved the finished article. The cover was made from grey board covered in K&Co Scrap pad to go, Peabody (an old one I'm afraid) with a simple stamp from Studio 490, Wendy Vecchi Homemade art stamp set "and they lived happily ever after". I used a chipboard scroll and covered it in pink stickles, d rings held everything together and a flower and a crystal stick pin from creative expressions finished off the cover.

These are some of the pages. I tried to put thought into the sentiments on each one.
They are all taken from the K&Co pad, I'm a fan of whole paper stacks to help me co-ordinate the colours.

 I cut the 12x12 in half and the folded them at 7.5inches and rounded the corners. The edges were lightly distressed with vintage photo distress ink.

The stamps on the pages were from a varitey of sources, "FAMILY" was using the stampin up simple alphabet, "the most beautiful" quote from Dimension Fourth, the wooden tree from the lovely LB crafts before they closed but available around and about.

The book was quiet thick with about 16 pages so I decided to make it a box. I used my Crafters Companion scoring board for this. It was my first attempt at a box and I loved it! It was so easy and looked so good. I then added some butterflies in gathered twig distress ink, some being the second stamp to give a lighter impression. The rosette was the sme paper and Tim Holtz sketchbook tissue tape (the butterfly one) mainly to keep it together but hey it looked so good I made that the right side! I finished it with a green button and Hat pin.

I used the butterfly theme onto the gift envelopes. A lovely project work on.. and they lived happily every after!

A "love"ly class

I was thrilled to go to a Crafty Thoughts workshop run by Gabrielle Price. We made a lovely Typtrch on a Valentines theme. Everyone was really friendly and it was lovely to see not just grown-ups crafting but Mum's and daughters as well, you could do want you wanted, I left my 2 at home and crafted with my lovely cousin.

I thoroughly enjoyed my hour and a half and amazed how much we got done! SO good in fact I'm looking forward to March's class and a chunky ATC. Thank you Gabrielle!

A special young man..

I don't often do children's cards or tags except for my own children but it was my Godson's birthday and I knew I had a stamp that would fit the bill completely.

 I cut a plain white card tag using Tim Holtz  trusty Tag and bookplates large die and stamped Guitar player, Lily of the Valley collection INCA stamp. I then used the Star free gift stamp from October's Craft stamper and a number nine from my super alphabet set by Papermania. All the stamping was done in black and then embossed using just plain black embossing powder. I love balck embossing for a clear image. I used my ranger pens to colour the stamp in (something else I rarely do!). I wanted a bit of glitter for my little star and used Broken China sticles on the guitar and crystal stickles on the stars.

A little distressing round the edge with vintage photo distressing ink and a red ribbon and hey presto! Simple but I liked the effect. It looked lovely on the brown paper parcel and with something funky Costco ribbon. Hope he likes it!

I'm going to enter this in the Fashionable Stamping Challenge #16 - Make it for  a child. Not as fancy or beutiful as most there but a bit of fun!

To keep all those special tags in

I have been very lucky and been given some beautiful tags by friends. Then what to do with them? My lovely friend, suggested an A5 folder with pcokets so I duly popped to Staples and purchsed one. It was a boring black so I decided to jazz it up a little..

I used canvas on the binding coloured with Tea dye distress ink and paper from a long ago bundle of papers from Costco. The paper had birds on it and was a bit staid so I stamped some Butterflies from my Darkroom door set and just lightly stamped again, re-inking every second stamp. The rosette was cut using the Tim Holtz die and I used the sketchbook tissue tape on the right side. It was all finished off with a creative expression stick pin and jewel in the middle. I was very pleased with the folder but I have noticed my sister eyeing it up, she doesn't craft but really appreciates all she receives so it may be going her way!
I'm entering this for the Craft room colour challenge using orange, brown or cream.

Congratulations..

This is a simple tag but I love that about it. I seem to have a thing about blue distress colours and have the stains and inks but don't use them as often as I think I do! The tag was white card and then used anitque paper and faded jeans distress ink and a little pumic stone along the edge. The Flourish is a wooden Tim Holtz stamp and the rosette the large size with a paper from a large bundle I bought at Costco (3 years ago!). The blue button just pepped it up a little. Congratulations was added with my dymo and the adage ticket was lighlty distressed with vintage photo.. Voila!!