Twelve Tags of 2015 ~ September

Hi everybody! I can hardly believe that I'm posting my tag for Tim's twelve Tags of 2015 challenge, before the last day of the month. Hooray! I managed to snatch a few hours in my crafty attic yesterday afternoon and I knew, I would (as always), enjoy making my tag. I absolutely love the gorgeous colours on Tim's tag this month, so I started off by having a play with my alcohol inks.......

These are some of my bright backgrounds. I was struck by how much difference it made to the backgrounds, when I added an inked edge to them, as in the first and last in this line up. I was on a bit of a roll and made quite a few backgrounds, experimenting with different colour combos and spraying or dripping on blending solution.......

These are some of my favourites, using a more neutral colour palette. As you can see from my finished tag, it was one of these that won the day. The others will be put aside for future use. I haven't got those fabulous butterfly stamps that Tim used and although I have other butterflies, I decided to think outside the box. After much perusing through my stamp collection I decided to go a little spooky with the wonderful skull stamp, and make  my first Halloween project of the season. thanks once again Tim, I'm always amazed that you can come up with such brilliant ideas and techniques month after month.......speaking of which there are only 3 more to go ! x 

Up, Up and Away~New Challenge for Stamps and Stencils

Hi Everybody! It's the first Thursday in the month and that means  it's time for a new challenge over at Stamps and Stencils. Sharon is our fabulous host and this is what she has to say......

 Up, Up and away with a twist ! For this challenge we would like to see something that goes Up Up and away. It could be a plane, bird a feather anything that can go up, but you must use /autumnal colours. So get out the copper, rust and burnt oranges. Be it paint, metal or embossing powders, don't forget to include some Stamps and Stencilling....

I think you'll agree that this is a fabulous challenge, with plenty of scope. I love autumnal colours and I have plenty of  'winged things' stamps ! My project is this little four piece panel with lots of stamping and stenciling. I started by colouring some pieces of manila card with Dylusions Sprays. 

I dried them with a heat tool and then ironed them flat. I then selected a few stencils and added some pattern with Distress Inks in similar autumn shades.

I then die cut the four arches, one from each background piece, and also four more in thicker craft card. I then adhered the coloured arches to the craft card using Matte Multi Medium. The added bonus is that I've still got lots of coloured card to play with! I had a lot of fun selecting the stamps and building a kind of stamped collage on each shaped piece. I used black Archival ink for stamping and clear embossing powder over the top. Once I was happy with the arches, I gave each one a quick spritz with a gold spray. I have the tiniest bit left of a gold spray by Crafty Notions. It is the best I've ever had, really sparkly and has never clogged up in all the years I have had it. Yes years! I digress....Here are some close ups of the individual panels

number one....

and two....

and finally....

As you can see, the panels are joined together by adding brass eyelets and threading through some dyed ribbon. There is a little dusting of gold embossing powder here and there and the edges have black Archival Ink blended in.  This was a lot of fun to make, sometimes it's lovely to get down to some good old stamping ! I hope you can find some time to join in with our challenge this month, dig out those stamps and stencils and get stuck into some lovely Autumn colours. You'll find all the challenge details and see some wonderfully inspiring pieces by the rest of the brilliant design team by following this link. I look forward to seeing what you come up with, For now though it's Up, Up and Away to finish cooking tea! x