Twelve Tags of 2012- September

It seems no time at all since Tim started his Twelve Tags of 2012 challenge. To think we are on the ninth month already! Once again this has been an enjoyable tag to make. I really love the riveted patchwork technique. This tag has the usual improvisations, The quill and scroll idea came to me by a rather sad route after I found a pile of feathers in my garden. One of the local cats had caught a wood pigeon and left a trail of feathers behind. I salvaged a couple and coloured this one with black Archival ink. You wouldn't believe how many times I wrote the saying on the scroll before I got it 'right'. My normal writing is quite big and I found it really difficult to try and write small and neat. Some decorative buttons and a little bottle of glittery fairy dust complete the look. x

Riveted Patchwork Love Heart CC #22

It's that time of week again when once again I am one of the last to post my project for the lovely Linda's Studio L3 Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2 challenge. This week's task was to explore Tim's riveted patchwork technique. If you have yet to explore the absolute delights of working with sticky backed foil, I suggest you grab a copy of Tim's book and get stuck in. You can find this technique on page 57. I've made this little piece using a polystyrene heart and a re-purposed wooden frame. I've just got my hands on a fabulous set of Diane Reavley background stamps so just had to use them on the frame and backing card. other ingredients are clear embossing powder, black embossing powder, gorgeous Aged Gold Frantage embossing powder by Stampendous and one of the new metallic Distress Stains in Brushed Pewter. This weeks challenge is sponsored by 'The Funkie Junkie with a gift certificate of $25 up for grabs! Great for acquiring even more fabulous stash! I'm also going to enter this into The Simon Says Stamp Challenge which is 'For the Love of Sparkle' where there is a $50 gift Certificate on offer for one lucky person as well as the honour of making it into their chosen top three, whoopie doo! life is sweet.xx

WOYWW # 173

The weeks are flying past, WOYWW #173 already! which means it's time for a quick reveal of my work space, all thanks to Julia and her Stamping Ground Blog. Each week we are able to to do some nosing around each other's creative spaces. It's great fun to see all the different projects emerging from both tidy and chaotic spaces. Mine is fairly orderly at the moment mainly because I had to clear a space so that I could start my September tag after realising that we are fast approaching the end of the month. So what's your desk like? tidy? chaotic? go on hop over to Julia's blog and upload a picture of what you've been up to. x

Blog Candy !

I have had great fun running this blog, entering challenges and actually winning prizes! but the thing I have enjoyed most, is linking up with fellow crafts people and in some small way getting to know a brilliant bunch of people. I know it's not quite the same as meeting up for a coffee but some how through blogging you get to know and care about the people you meet. I have found the fantastic comments that people regularly leave on my blog (you know who you are!) both uplifting and inspiring. In celebration of reaching 50 + 2 followers, I would like to offer this somewhat weird array of blog candy. I love finding bargains in shops such as Poundland, The Works and Lidl, so I've put together some of my favourite finds. There are some 'alterables' such as blank puzzles and an embossed frame crying out for treatment, as well as some practical stuff such as brilliant foam tape and aluminium foil tape. On the 1st of October, I shall put the names of all my followers into a hat and ask my husband, to draw out one lucky winner. I will ask the winner to email me their address and the candy will be posted off to them. So THANKYOU my dear followers for all your support.x

Book of Stamps FSC #30

'Good Things Come in Small Packages' is the title of The Fashionable Stamping Challenge this week. As always the challenge is generously sponsored by Cottage Crafts. Having put my thinking cap on, I decided to make this little book of stamps and the accompanying postcard. This project takes me right back to my childhood and the beginning of my love for stamping. One of my favourite Christmas presents was a post office kit, complete with miniature stamps, paper and small envelopes. What bliss it was to find one of these in my Christmas sack!

 I've made this the same size as a regular book of stamps, I've glued freezer paper, wax side up, on the inside and run each stamp through my mini xyron, so the stamps are removable and can be used as stickers ( another child hood passion !) I've used a Kaliedacolor rainbow ink pad in Calypso, to brayer the background. All stamping has been done with black Archival Ink. The Fairy, toadstool and dragonfly stamps are by Lavinia Stamps, the small stars and tree are from Clarity Stamps the rest of the stamps used are bits and pieces from my collection. It was great fun to make and quite different from my usual grungey stuff x.

Back view

P.S Look out for blog candy coming sooooon !

Blended Distress Stains for Studio L3 Challenge #21

Time for another rummage in Tim's Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2. Linda from Studio L3, is doing a great job of leading us through this book. We are now on number 21 and I can honestly say I don't want the fun to stop. Simon Says Stamp are sponsoring this weeks challenge, so one lucky person can have the joy of adding to their craft stash to the tune of $25. This week it was time to get out the Distress Stains. I've had a great time playing with these and have now got several mean and moody backgrounds waiting to be used up. This is a card I've made using one. The surface reminded me of a breaking dawn, so I've added this angel from Tim's Joyful Song collection to spread some morning peace and light upon us. x

WOYWW #172

It's THAT time of week again where we are invited to snoop around each others work spaces courtesy of our inestimable host Julia and her Stamping Ground Blog. It's number 172 this week so that's how long Julia has maintained this fascinating site. Well, quite messy on my desk this week after an afternoon spent experimenting with  Distress Stains to create backgrounds. In the foreground, are a few 'Poundland' bargains. There's a roll of good sticky foam tape, a sanding block quite large but does the job comes complete with sandpaper, and a pile of 'tea towels' which are a bit small and thin for drying plates but excellent for mopping up ink and stuff. There's also a little tin of paper tapes bought from 'Paperchase' if you know the sho,p you'll know that these weren't exactly cheap, so it's a good job I saved so much money on my Poundland buys ! Look out for blog candy coming soon, to celebrate my first 50 followers, I can't do it yet as for some reason I'm following myself twice so I've only really got 48 followers. Happy WOYWW everybody see you next week.

Enameled Stamping Studio L3 CC2 Challenge #

Well its time for another dive into Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2 and get inky. This is courtesy of Linda and her Studio L3 Blog, as she continues to take us on a creative journey through the book, in order to explore the delights contained within. This week the task is to produce something using Tim's Enameled Stamping  technique, instructions for which can be found on page 44. I've made this tag using Tim's enigmatic Mona Lisa Stamp whose famous smile has had us all puzzled for centuries. I thought she could do with some fun so I've given her a crown. I've used one of the Kaleidacolor rainbow ink pads in Calypso to stamp the image and that's as much as I'm going to reveal. If you want to know more then treat yourself to the book, better still......... get someone else to treat you! x

WOYWW # 171

It's that time again ! All thanks to Julia and her Stamping Ground Blog for continuing to run  What's On Your Work (desk) Wednesday  or WOYWW as it is affectionately known. It's the 170th this week so you can see it's been going for some time. My desk is just as I left it after a couple of  happy crafting sessions at the weekend. So what can you spot? x 

Simon Says 'Stamptember'

There's great fun to be had over at the Simon Says Stamp Blog where they are celebrating 'Stamptember' with a month of activities reminding us of why we like stamping so much. There has been a great blog hop followed an invitation to join in with their 'read all about it' challenge with a huge $100 token for a prize. I've made this canvas journal cover inspired by a previous piece of work I made for the House of Bears Challenge which was based on the writings of Maya Angelou. It made me look at her 5 book autobiography again and I realised what fabulous titles the books have. This journal cover features the fourth book ' Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas'. It's given me a great opportunity to use this stamp from The Stampsmith's African American Heritage plate.This stamped image reminds me of those family Christmas's where children are called upon to show off their talents and entertain the doting adults. I've stamped the image with black Archival ink and added some stamped flourishes. Music and splodges have been stamped with vintage photo DI. The larger vintage  music backgound is a download from The Graphics Fairy. The canvas has been painted with acrylic paints and stamped over with the flourish stamp. The journal is one I started sometime ago at one of Annelise Bates' workshops, its called ABC of Me. It's not very full but my interest has been rekindled now it has a nice new cover

 This is the first time I've used these photo realistic stamps. I think this is a fabulous image !

Inside the journal featuring an 'abundance' of my ancestors.

This is the back of the journal cover. I am probably going to apply a coat of Matte Multi Medium as I think it will enhance the texture.x

FSC #29 Anything Floral /Hand Made Flowers.

I seem to be making a habit of posting for the Fashionable Stamping Challenges with only minutes to spare! the truth is I was making a giant tag which just didn't quite work so I had a quick re-think and ended up with this instead.  I've got a couple of spare flowers left over so I'll probably make another couple of tags. I cut the flower layers and leaves on my Pazzles Inspiration machine and coloured them with Dylusions Sprays. The tag has been stamped with white paint dabber and coloured with crushed olive Distress Ink. I've added my favourite bee stamp and few embellishments to complete the look. If you haven't yet joined in a with a Fashionable Stamping Challenge hop over to their blog and have a go. There is also a  fortnightly prize sponsored by Cottage Crafts so you need to get in it to win it ! x

WOYWW #170 Mustn't Grumble

"Wednesday all ready!" the cry goes up all around the world as bloggers far and wide realize that it's time to share their desks. Why? well it's all down to Julia and her Stamping Ground blog. Julia had the brilliant idea of making it possible for us to visit our blogging friends and take a peek at each others work space. If you haven't joined in yet, get that camera out and start posting a picture of your work space. Simples! I've got plenty of stuff on my table this week as I was making a birthday card for a young man yesterday.So you can see the remains of my activity. I was slightly following the video Tim Holtz has made for the Simon Says Stamptember, you can see this on his blog. Well I'm back to work and somewhat resigned to it. The holiday ended on a good note though, as I was picked as one of the August Tag winners on Tim's blog and now have $25 to spend on even more craft stuff, thank you to everyone for the nice messages, so Mustn't Grumble x

Compendium of Curiosities 2 Kraft Resist.

I was determined to have a go with my new Kraft Resist Paper and Metallic Distress Stains I received earlier this week. So what better way than to join in with Studio L3's Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge number 19. Linda is doing a fantastic job setting us a weekly task from Tim Holtz's second book. It may appear to be a small book but it is jam packed with fabulous techniques and very clear instructions. If you want to check out how to make use of all those Tim Holtz products you have stashed away then I would suggest getting this book. Linda's weekly challenges are a great way to get stuck in and expand your knowledge. Sorry, this is not a sales pitch I'm just an enthusiastic convert. I'm also entering this card into another challenge set by The House of Bears where the task is to produce something inspired by the writings of the fantastic author Maya Angelou. The series of books recounting the events of her life are some of the most memorable I have ever read. This card portrays the title of the first book in her series

WOYWW # 169

Good afternoon WOYWW'ers. Hope you're all having a good day, it's wet and windy here, so it sounds like a good day for spending time in the attic. My table this week is fairly orderly, that's because I've been tidying instead of crafting. Firstly, thank you to Julia at her Stamping Ground Blog for enabling us to share our work spaces with each other. Centre stage on mine this week, is some new stash received only moments ago. Tim Holtz again! I try not to buy stuff unless I know I'll use it, but this time I've thrown caution to the wind and bought the new metallic distress stains, they're sitting on top of a block of Kraft Resist paper, this is the original design not one of the new ones. You can also see a bag of wooden knobs and some Cut and Dry foam. I use these to make blending tools for my Distress Ink pads. There's also a little travel album which I bought from  The Works, I'm sending this to our friend in Dorset who we stayed with last week. I know It would be nicer to make one but this one is quite cute and ready to go. By next WOYWW I'll be back at work and feeling like the summer is over, hey ho  it'll soon be Chr.....s! Season's Greetings to one and all x

Fashionable Stamping Challenges #28

Phew! posted with just minutes to spare. I didn't think I'd have time to join in with Fashionable Stamping Challenges # 28 this week. I've not had much time for crafting as I've been on a nice little trip to Dorset to visit a very dear 'old' friend. The theme for FSC this week  celebrates summer with  'Ice Cream Colours'. I've made this card using Dyan Reavley's fabulous Dylusion sprays, it's probably a bit more like ice lolly colours as those sprays are sooooo potent. I stamped the card and then sprayed on the colours. I used Dyan's method of lifting out some of the colour with a water brush in order to highlight the eyes. The frame has been stamped with Tim Holtz summer Distress Inks and mounted on sticky pads to raise it above the image x

Gratuitous close up, I just love this face It's one of my favourite stamps.

Compendium of Curiosities 2 Challenge 17

I can hardly believe it this is the third post in two days, this is obviously what holidays are meant to be like, role on retirement! This is my offering for the lovely Linda's Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2 challenge, held over at Studio L3 . There is also a fab prize sponsored by Simon Says Stamp .The task this week is to get creative with Core'Dinations. I'm a bit late in discovering this wonderful card, the colours are just gorgeous. For this wall hanging I've used a patchwork of pieces I had left over from my August Tag. I love this card so much I don't want to waste a scrap. It's inspired by Tim Holtz 'Patchwork Pandemonium'. I'd so love to go to one of his workshops but would probably get trampled in the crush if he comes to the UK. Full details of how to use the Core'dinations card can be found on page 61 of  A Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2. As this is my favourite technique,.... this week,.... I'm going to hop over to Simon Says Stamp and Show and join in their  Favourite Technique Challenge x

Twelve Tags of 2012 August

Well it's half way through August and here I am posting my August Tag for Tim's Twelve Tags of 2012 challenge. I'm usually more of a last minute person but I was really looking forward to having a go at this one as there are so many elements that I love. I particularly like the silhouette of the two dogs. I had to resort to the ancient method of using scissors after finding this picture in one of my Dover books, scanned and printed first of course! the frame, flowers and  leaves  have been cut on my Pazzles Inspiration machine which I've been playing with this week. I must confess to having bought the embossing folder that Tim uses, just couldn't resist I'm afraid. I've added a few dewdrops to the leaves with  glossy accents. I'm afraid my photography skills don't capture the lovely perfect pearls shimmer but trust me it's there x

WOYWW #167

Good morning WOYWW'ers, I'm not particularly early with this post but just qualify for the morning as it's not quite midday yet. Midweek already and time for another 'What's On Your Work space Wednesday hosted by the ever lovely Julia over at her Stamping Ground Blog. This is my table just as I left it yesterday afternoon. I've been having a lot of fun playing with my Pazzles Inspiration die cutting machine. There are a few die cuts on the table, some frames and 3d flowers,left over from my August Tag for the Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2012, (finished results later), there's also a die cut view of the Earth which is the beginning of a birthday card for my nephew and a Steampunk wing waiting for a bit of treatment. All in all I've had a few nice crafty sessions in the attic this week. I shall look forward to popping over to a few desks to see what everyone else has been up to x

A Good Book FSC #27

Another case of better late than never. It's time for Fashionable Stamping Challenges # 27 'Anything Goes' and I'm just about in time to post this tag I've just finished. It's been 'part made' for some time but needed a little more attention. The stamp I've used is from La Blanche, I love this little chap sitting on a toadstool with his books. The background foliage is from an Artemio set and I've used a variety of Distress Inks for colour. Some distressing and a few embellishments in a 'Holtz' ian style completes the look x

CC2 Studio L3 Perfect Pearls Mist

The challenge over at lovely Linda's Studio L3 this week is to produce something using the Perfect Pearls Mist technique from Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities Volume two. Full details of this technique can be found on page 54. My entry is a little photo book I had free with a magazine. It's been lying around for ages just waiting to be altered. This was also a great opportunity to get my Pazzles Inspiration die cutting machine out. The design is from a file by Pazzles, The large cog has been heat embossed with black DI, the smaller one has been embossed with distress embossing powder. The large flower has been sprayed with one of Dyan Reavley's Dylusions sprays. I've mounted all of the elements onto a  background which has been embossed with a Papermania folder in a brick wall design. A few embellishments complete the project. x