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.