Crafty boots fairy tale challenge... Run, run as fast as you can!

The Crafty Boots challenge this time is set by Dionne and is fairy tales or nursery rhymes. It's caused me a few troubles.. I started off with James and the giant peach ideas, then moved onto Hansel and Gretal (sort of a dark forest style tag) and eventually mooches through my sizzix dies and found this cute little gingerbread man and a one off stamp of Mother Goose's house.



Run, run as fast as you can you can't catch me.. I'm a gingerbread man!


I used..
Tim Holtz pine tree
Sizzix gingerbread man #3
Cuttlebug You're not the Boss of me alphabet
Distress stain Picket fence
Stickles




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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.

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!

"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.

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.