Twelve Tags Of 2016 ~ Technique Remix Challenge ~ May

Hi everybody ! Here I am once again taking it to the eleventh hour, to post my tag for Tim's Twelve Tags of 2016 Technique Remix Challenge. You can see Tim's post here, with this link. Now, my tag didn't get the full remix treatment this month, as I had 'lost' my Tiny Tattered Florals dies. one minute they were there on my table,in the next, they had vanished into the black hole that is evident in my craft room ! Grrrr! I spent ages overturning the heaps of   'un-put away stuff' and retracing my steps to no avail. I decided to just press on and came up with the little decoupaged flower arrangement you can see here with roses cut from the gorgeous Wall Flower Paper Stack.

.......Now what about my Tiny Tattered Florals..... I found them! I had been listening to some music on my stereo player, (I suppose that's a bit old fashioned now) when I got up to change the music, there it was, stacked between the CDs. Doh! x

Drippage Tag

Hi everybody! I had a little time to play with my new Seth Apter dies over the weekend and this is the first one, of two tags I've been working on. I love making tags as they're  ideal for sampling new products and techniques and there's not too much space to cover when time is limited. I fished this particular tag out of one of my unfinished / leftover, project wallets. I'd already sprayed it with Distress Sprays in various shades of blue, so it was just the job for what I needed. The Drippage die cut by Seth Apter and the splat, die cut by Tim Holtz, have been heat embossed with a couple of layers of ultra thick, silver, embossing powder.

The centre die cut is also by Seth Apter. I used gold transfer foil on the surface and then distressed it with sand paper, I then gave it a coat of Andy Skinner's magic  distress wash, which is basically a mixture of  Deco Art Paynes Grey and Quinacridone Gold.

 A bit of stamping and a Chit Chat phrase provided the finishing touches. So, that was a lovely afternoon, spent with three of my favourite men, Tim, Seth and Andy. What an awesome trio heh heh! I'm going to hop this tag over to Sandee and Amelie's Steampunk  blog, where they have an Anything Goes, Steampunk/Industrial Challenge. They also have some lovely prizes, for 2 entrants, chosen at random, from their sponsors, Deco Art and Boozy Bear, as well as fantastic inspiration from their very talented design team. What's not to love !  you can see some of Seth  Apter's work over on his blog The Altered Page, and Andy Skinner's, over at  his blog with this link

Think Pink ~ New Challenge for Stamps and Stencils

Hi everybody ! the first Thursday of the month has rolled round again and that means that it's time for another challenge over at the Stamps and Stencils blog. Branka is our fabulous host this month and she is asking us to 'Think Pink'. I've really enjoyed making this heart wall hanging with loads of girly pink and a moderate helping of grungy crackle! The heart is made of grey board, this is how it looked before  I gave it a little Andy Skinner treatment.....

I followed a technique he shared, in a recent online tutorial he made for Wanderlust 2016. In fairness to Andy and Wanderlust 2016, I won't go into too much detail, but the technique involves stamping into modelling paste, followed by lots of painting and crackling, before finishing off with iridescent paints. This is it before I added the handmade flowers.....

 Here's a close up of the surface....

I must say I really love the finish, even though I need a bit more practice with the stamping and some of the brushing techniques.I'll certainly be trying this again. It was also great fun to get back to some flower making. I used die cuts stacked together for these flowers, and sprayed them with Dylusions inks once they were constructed. I always find that scrunching up the flowers, whilst they are damp and then leaving them to dry, helps to give a more realistic look.....

An extravagant bow, dyed with Distress and Dylusions Sprays completes the heart. I've really enjoyed this 'Think Pink' project  and hope you feel inspired to join our Stamps and Stencils May challenge with a Think Pink project of your own. We'd love to see what you come up with! Hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog by clicking on this link and you'll find the challenge details and also see the fabulously inspiring projects by Branka and the rest of the design team. As a little bonus for joining in, I have a set of two grey board hearts which I'll send out to one randomly drawn entry, at the end of the challenge. So come on, get those rose tinted specs on and Think Pink ! x