'Ring a Ring of Roses...'

I couldn't resist having another little play with my Distress Markers and water colour paper before I tidy up after making my June tag. It's nice to put into practice some of the skills learnt through doing Tim's Twelve Tags Challenge.  I'd forgotten how much fun this technique is and how much practice I need! I have a tendency to over work things and I know that water colours need a light touch. Anyway, I've produced this little wall hanging which I thought I might enter into the Vintage Stamping Challenges where the theme is 'Childhood'. I backed the picture with a piece of distressed corrugated card, so it just about qualifies for The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge which is all about 'Stripes'. The stamp I've used is from Indigo Blue. It reminds me of a lovely illustrated book I've inherited from my mum. It's called 'The Mammoth Wonder Book'. It has lovely illustrations, some of which my mum coloured in. She absolutely loved this book and so do I. It's been very well read over the years. So this is my tribute to childhood, a time which should be full of fun, dancing, laughter and playing with friends, just like these children.x

Twelve Tags of 2013 - June

I thought it was about time I got down to making my June tag for the Twelve Tags of 2013 challenge. With only one day left, I think that's cutting it a bit fine! Half way through the year already and I have to say that I've been really enjoying my crafty year so far, enhanced of course by the wonderful inspiration to be found on Tim's blog. If only there were a few more hours in the day or better still an extra day in the week! I've stuck pretty closely to Tim's original tag this month which was a joy to make. I usually make more than one tag when I do this sort of inky, painty background. This is sometimes to mop up and sometimes to try out a different colour scheme. I'm posting my second tag here as well as I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I've used the same stamp from Tim's 'Winged Things' set as the stamps were still on my table from my last post, just asking to be used again. Happy July 4th celebrations to all my lovely American blog friends and of course to Tim and Mario. x 

Stamped and Collaged Canvas

Here's a little mixed media canvas I'm sharing as my design team piece over on the eclectic Paperie blog.
I followed some ideas I found in Claudine Hellmuth's Collage Discovery Workshop Book. It's a great book for anyone wanting to learn new techniques or to just be inspired by Claudine's lovely work.
If you'd like a closer look at the processes I used to create this, hop over to the eclectic Paperie blog where you can see the full post. I've used plenty of Distress Paints, Inks and Stains which are all available from Kim's lovely eclectic Paperie shop. It's well worth a visit as there's always something new to find and Kim will always do her best to get hold of products if you contact her. Happy crafting everyone!  x

e-Team Picks Challenge....... 'Monochrome'

How quickly the time goes by! Still I suppose that's no bad thing when it means it's time for another e-Team Picks Challenge, over at the eclectic Paperie. The lovely Annette has chosen 'Monochrome' for this challenge and you can hop over to the eP blog and see her gorgeous work here. I've made this tag as my DT offering, using some of my favourite 'can't live without' Distress Inks, namely, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Gathered Twigs and Antique Linen. I started off by doing a bit of wrinkle free distress to a size 8 manilla tag. Once this was dry, I stamped the background with a Unity Stamp Company stamp, designed by Donna Downey, called 'Hollyhocks'. This is a fabulously huge stamp, I just love it. Although it's quite a contemporary design, I think it works with the vintage elements I've used. I used Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs. I dried this off and then went over the surface with Picket Fence distress stain. This helps the image to 'sink' into the background. I've been playing with this method a lot just lately.

The next stage, was to blend Antique Linen DI over the whole surface this starts to bring the image to life, further blending at the sides with Vintage Photo DI and Walnut Stain at the edges and the background was done. The beautiful young woman's face is a stamp by The Stampsmith. I stamped it in Sepia Archival Ink and clear embossed the surface. I cut the image  out, using one of the oval Movers and Shapers Dies. To give it some dimension, I used a large ball tool with a soft mat to gently curve the surface before embossing. I then mounted it onto another oval die cut which I embossed with a patterened folder and then heat embossed the raised surface by swiping with Versa Mark and clear embossing powder. I then blended Walnut Stain DI onto the surface.

The metal embellishments have been treated with a rust kit called Instant Rust. It's not quite instant as you have to wait several hours between coats, but it does create a wonderful real rusty finish.

The final step was to add the sentiment. This is from a set called Art and Possibility also by Donna Downey for Unity Stamp co. Such sound advice don't you think? x

If you would like to play along with the e-Team Picks Challenge you have until the 4th of July to post your entry. Hop over to the blog where you'll find the challenge guidelines and plenty of inspiration from my fellow team mates.Who Knows, you may even be the lucky winner of a $15 prize to spend in Kim's wonderful eclectic Paperie online shop, where  you'll find some fantastic products guaranteed to get your creative juices flowing. Here are some of the products, stocked by Kim, that I've used on my tag.

Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Walnut Stain	Distress Ink Pad - Gathered Twigs	Distress Ink Pad - Antique Linen	Distress Stain - Picket Fence
Unity Stamp Company - Hollyhocks (Donna Downey)	Unity Stamp Company - Art & Possibility (Donna Downey)	Inkssentials Surfaces #8 Manila Tags	Inkssentials Foam Blending Tool	Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Crinkle Ribbon 10 Yards
Distress Stain - Vintage Photo	VersaMark Stamp Pad	Archival Ink - Sepia Jumbo Ink Pad	Ranger Super Fine Embossing Powder - Clear

'It's Behind You......'

I couldn't resist joining in with The Fashionable Stamping Challenges this fortnight as their challenge is 'Tag Time' and if there's one thing I like making it's a tag! For this one I've gone for some good old stamping and masking. The tiger, bird and spider stamps are from a set that I bought from a museum in Madrid. They had an exhibition of work by Gauguin and there was also a fabulous painting by Henri Rousseau, with exotic plants and creatures peeking through the leaves. So this is my homage to Henri. The leaf stamp is by Clarity Stamps and has been stamped in various shades of green Distress Inks. the whole tag has been heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I use this technique quite often when I make cards as I like the depth it gives to the colours. That's it for now hope you're all having a crafty time during this rather dismal British Summer ....so far. x

WOYWW # 209

Another week has flown by and it's time for a quick WOYWW post. For those of you who are not familiar with WOYWW or What's On Your Work desk Wednesday, hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground blog, and vow to join in next week. My work table this week features the lovely collection of ATC's I received in the great 4th anniversary swap. Aren't I the lucky one eh? Everyone is a little gem. I'm just sad that I've now received all my swaps so no more happy mail for a while! So thank you to Anne, Jenny, Dottie, Nikki, Krisha x2, Monique and Julie Ann. The photo does not do these little works of art justice, the attention to detail with texture and embellishments, is just fantastic! The care taken over the packaging and little added extras has made me feel quite special, thank you ladies and thank you Julia for being a brilliant hostess.xx

'Buried Treasure' Blog Hop

When Kim from the eclectic Paperie, told me about this annual blog hop hosted by Seth Apter on his Altered Page blog, I couldn't resist joining in with the rest of the team.  The idea of the hop is to dig deep into your blog and find one of your very favourite posts and re-post it. Seth has called this 'Buried Treasure' and I'm really looking forward to seeing what delights fellow bloggers have uncovered. My re-post is a project I made in February 2012, for a 'Wearable Art' challenge hosted by Linda Ledbetter on her Studio L3 blog, It was one of my very early projects and was a lot of fun to do. I'd love to know what you think.

I decided to give one of my hats a makeover with a Steam Punk style hat band. I love hats and this bowler hat is one of my favourites. I made the hat band by running some strips of grunge paper through my Cuttlebug, using a cog embossing folder. I then coloured this with gold paint dabber, lightly sanded the surface and rubbed in a little Vintage Photo DI. The cogs were die cut from grunge paper, using Tim's Sizzix large cog die.These were coloured with gold and silver paint dabbers and 'vintaged' with various distress inks. I then dipped them in UTEE using my Melt Pot. I cut the flowers  with Tim's Tattered Florals Die and coloured  them with distress inks.I then stamped on top with Archival black ink with a dotty background stamp and a flourish stamp. I followed a tutorial by The Artful Splodger, on how to make the flowers. Each layer was dipped in UTEE before assembling. i finished off the decorating with a few idealogy cogs and brads. I love hats and intend to  wear this one at music festivals, roll on the summer, as I think it will be fun to wear and certainly unique !

Well there it is, one of my favourite projects. If you would like to see what buried treasure has been uncovered hop over to Seths blog, by following the link here and you'll find a list of participants in the blog hop. You're sure to find plenty of inspirational posts so why not get hopping. Have fun ! x

Here are some of the supplies I've used which are available from Kim's eclectic Paperie shop, click on anyone and you'll be right there.

Distress Ink Pad - Wild Honey	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Fired Brick	Distress Ink Pad - Dried Marigold	Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber - Metallic Copper
Idea-ology Grungepaper	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad

Altered Spoon

This is a spoon I've altered as my design team project for the eclectic Paperie 'Get Altered Challenge'. It's my turn to set the challenge, and I've chosen 'Spoons'. If you would like to join in with the challenge, hop over to the eclectic Paperie blog by following this link. You will be able to see my post showing the various processes I used to alter my spoon as well as some very inspiring projects from the design team. There is also a $15 prize for one lucky winner, to be spent at the lovely Kim's eclectic Paperie shop. So why not raid the cutlery drawer or hit the junk shops and find yourself a spoon to alter. It can be any kind of spoon, metal, wooden or even plastic and altered in anyway! I've used a variety of products on my spoon including a gel transfer made from a picture of my lovely late mum when she was a child. So let me see what you can come up with ! x

Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Antique Linen	Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Frayed Burlap	Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber - Juniper	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso
Claudine Hellmuth Studio-Multi-Medium Matte	Inkssentials� Surfaces Natural Sticky-Back Canvas ATCs	Idea-ology - Tim Holtz - Remnant Rubs - Words	Distress Stain - Vintage Photo

WOYWW #209

Good evening fellow WOYWW'ers, hope everyone has been having a lovely day. I must say my working day ended on a bit of a bum note when someone drove into my car as I was leaving work. I'm glad to say that no one was hurt (that really means me!) but my 'new to me' car has now got a very ugly dent in it. Fortunately the very bad driver of the other car is insured and the 'accident' was quite straight forward so should not be a problem to sort out. So, it was very cheering to arrive home and find some more gorgeous ATC's waiting for me. Thank you Krisha for restoring me to a good mood. Thank you also to Lottie and Nikki for the lovely ATC's I received yesterday, I have really loved to see the care that you lovely ladies have put into making and packaging these little works of art, so very thoughtful. x So if you want to join in with the 5 year anniversary ATC swap in approximately 358 days time, hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground blog and find out all there is to know about 'What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday'. It's a whole lot of fun. For anyone that was interested in my mystery parcel from last week it was the Tim Holtz Word Play Die, a belated birthday present as it had been out of stock for a while, and here is a picture of what I did with the fern leaves and my new obsession, yes that's right a Gelli Plate. Happy WOYWW x

OOps! forgot to put the picture on x