Twelve Tags 2013

I expect many of you know about Tim's 12 tags series but if not you can check it out here.  I've not used all of the ideas this year and somehow I never seem to have quite the items he's used  although I can usually improvise if necessary.  The chalkboard technique used on the latest one has taken my fancy so I had a go but instead of using the traditional 'blackboard' colour I've used a very dark purple card and rather than make a tag I've decorated the cover of a journal. I've also incorporated a few of his other techniques from Creative Chemistry.  I won't go into details because you can read all about it on his blog but I used one of his blueprint stamps, Distress inks and stains along with various masks/stencils for the background.

All I need to do now is launch into jornalling which is an entirely new field for me - very daunting seeing all those blank pages staring at me!!

Creative Chemistry

Yesterday I decided to have a play day, experimenting with some of the techniques to be found within Creative Chemistry 102 from Tim Holtz - great fun resulting in a selection of backgrounds and some embellishments which will be incorporated into projects. This one is a sort of layered effect using masks, stamps and inks and I added some embossing and embellishments to turn it into a male card (always useful to have in the box) - I find on the whole I tend to make more female cards than male ones so I might try to concentrate on the male themes.  I guess my next task will be to have a bit of a tidy up before I can do much more - such a messy worker!!

Tag Challenge

I came acrosss this Dragons Dream site whilst wandering around the blogs recently and decided I'd have a go at their current challenge which is to make a tag using a recipe - MUSIC, TISSUE PAPER/TAPE, BLUE.  The tag was coloured using Distress stains and inks and some texture paste was added through a Tim Holtz mask, followed by some partial overstamping with music.  A strip of tissue tape was added down one edge.  The musical image is from Chocolate Baroque Music Fanfare set - with the butterfly coloured, clear embossed and layered for dimension.  The word was produced on the computer and popped into one of the label frames which comes on the Sizzix tag die. The seam binding tie was dyed using matching Distress stain.

This is my second post today because I see that this one startsa on a Wednesday so presumably there will be a new one later today - just scraped in it seems with this one!!

ICAD swap

The lovely Astrid has kindly organised an ICAD swap and as I'd not heard of them before I decided to take part - an ICAD is a piece of artwork measuring 5" x 3" and you can read all about them on Astrid's blog if you follow this link.  This is the first one I made and it is heading off into the postal system today for one of my swap partners. Card was coloured using distress inks with the addition of some texture paste applied though a stencil mask.  The image is from Nice Crane Designs who have some wonderful imagery available and I've simply added some scraps of die cut lace, recycled cardboard and a little charm together with a tag quote using a Tim Holtz stamp..  I've always found working on the small ATC size quite restrictive and although these are only slightly larger, somehow I found it a nicer size to work with and I'm looking forward to receiving a couple of swaps in due course.

Balloons

The theme this week on the Make My Monday challenge is BALLOONS  of any type so I have chosen to go with an olde worlde hot air balloon using a stamp from Crafty Individuals.  It was stamped twice and the balloon layered up after colouring the white card by 'mopping' up some mixed Distress Stains from a glass mat. Background paper is from the Papermania Chronology range and I've raided my bits boxes for other items to include - luckily I had this die cut clock, the scrap of card stamped with cogs and the ticket so was able to colour them with distress inks to match.  I stamped the words and cut them out to resemble the chit chat stickers so apart from the backing paper the rest of the card has utilised things I already had around - they just needed finding and putting together.

I hope you are all enjoying the lovely weather although I must say that when you get really hot just sitting still it is a bit too much for me and I would prefer it slightly less warm - fussy aren't I??

Sweet Home Alabama

This song title is the theme of the Sunday Stamper challenge this week and Hels is asking for something relating to home.  I've used a quirky house stamp designed by Sam Poole, stamped twice and part of it cut out to add some dimension.  It was clear embossed and then coloured with Distress stains and Distress ink pads. The background was made using the same colours and was embossed using a Special Touch mask which I inked with the darker colour to transfer some colour to the white card before adding more ink after it was embossed. (colours used were Seedless Preserve and Mustard Seed).  The 'graffiti' was sponged through another mask using black soot ink and a text stamp also by Sam Poole was put onto a scrap of torn card, a little punched and coloured flower just finishes the grungy homely look. I must say my hands needed a good scrub after all that inky play!!

Things That Fly

The challenge this week on Make My Monday has been set by Suzi B and there is a prize as well for one lucky entrant so worth taking a look to see what the design team have made for inspiration. The theme is 'anything that flies' and I dug out some wood mounted stamps which I've had for many, many years and there is no information on the blocks as to who made them but I thought they would fit this challenge nicely as a change from the usual butterflies or birds which immediately came to mind.  The background was made using Distress Inks with a touch of Glimmer Mist, overstamped with some swirls and of course the sentiment (Creative Expressions).  The insects were cut out using a Sizzix die (Stampin' Up).

Backgrounds

The challenge this week on Make My Monday is to make a background from scratch (no designer backing papers allowed) and there is a mid week motivation post with ideas and of course the usual lovely work from the design team.  My background was made on watercolour paper with distress stains, water and salt - once dry it has been overstamped.  The image is a Creative Expressions stamp designed by Sam Poole, coloured with matching Distress colours, cut out and popped onto a piece of embossed Core-d-nations card (sanded, inked and overstamped).  Apart from the little bee which is a Chocolate Baroque stamp all the other stamps used were from Creative Expressions by Same Poole.

Mucky Paws!

I went into the craft room this afternoon with something in mind to do and then ended up doing something completely different resulting in fingers of a most interesting colour.  In fact there are those who might think I was a heavy smoker if they spoitted them so a clean up is next on my agenda.  The talented  Hels Sheridan was demonstrating on TV in the week and I was inspired to have a go at playing with Distress Stains, Distress inks and masks to make a background for some dimensional butterflies made using Art Parts mouldable film.  This material can be heated and moulded easily and if you don't like the results, can be re heated to try again.  I started by sticking a page from an old book onto the film, stamped some butterflies using a Docrafts Urban stamp - these were then cut out and coloured using distrsss Markers in the same colours as used for the 'scene'. I only moulded the butterflies slightly being mindful of the postage rates on thicker cards but of course if they were on a box the wings could be much more curved.

I hope you've all had a good weekend - the sun is shining now from a blue sky but when I got up this morning it was snowing thick and fast but fortunately although it settled initially, it soon disappeared thank goodness. Yesterday afternoon we had thunder, lightning and hail so what next I wonder??

PS - I've just realised that the brownish shades produced by mixing yellow and purple might just qualify this for inclusion in the Sunday Challenge on Hels' blog - follow the link above.

Steampunk Rose

When I saw these  Steampunk Butterfly stamps from Chocolate Baroque I just knew that a set had my name on it!  This card is made using the unusual rose which I love, a corner stamp and also another one which has been used on the background (a fragment reminscent of a rose window).  The main image coloured with Coloursoft pencils was stamped twice so that I could layer up the flowers and leaf; the background was a piece of watercolour paper inked with Distress stains and Adirondack ink, overstamped with the fragment and silver mica powder brushed on before the ink dried.  Pewter WOW embossing powder was used on the rose and on the corners. The main image and the metallic effect piece were cut using  Stampin' Up framelits dies (Sizzix).  A Tim Holtz embossing folder was used to produce the metallic piece which was a scrap of card with aluminium adhesive tape applied (bought from the DIY store).

It has been raining relentlessly here all day - and probably most of last night too, so I made the weather an excuse not to go out but stayed in to play with my new stamps.  Much more fun!!

Noel

How often is it that a card I'm in the middle of working on actually fits a challenge by chance - not often I can assure you but today seems to be my lucky day because this one fits not one but two challenges. I thought it was time I started on a few special Christmas cards (late I know) and when I looked at Hels Sheridan's blog this morning NOEL is the theme of her stamping challenge this week so that one fits and also this week the Make My Monday challenge is to use a favourite flower.  I'm using a bit of licence here because I wouldn't say the poinsettia is my all time favourite but it certainly is my favourite for this time of the year; throw in a bit of steampunk and there's another favourite.  I just hope I'm in time posting for last Monday's challenge.

I started off by colouring some white card using Distress stains (Aged Mahogany and Antique Bronze) and I also did another piece of card using Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany to use for the background and sentiment.  The stamps used are from Chocolate Baroque Steampunk Christmas set which I just love and the flowers were stamped onto the card with metallic stain included, embossed with gold powder and cut out.  The NOEL was stamped onto the plainer card and I overstamped the background with poinsettias and snowflakes. All that remains now is to make a nice insert and that is one of my special cards ready to send off - a few more to go so will have to get a move on!!

Would you believe I missed the post for Make My Monday - will definitely have to do better this week

I'm Still Here!

I've been very bad about posting on my blog recently and I really will try harder but sometimes 'things' just get in the way.  I've managed to complete my last two tags for the alphatag swap which has been going on all year and much as I've enjoyed taking part, I am really glad to be down to the final two letters of the alphabet - they were becoming more difficult towards the end.  This one is Y for Yuletide and I've used a lovely tree stamp from Fat Robin set by Chocolate Baroque, stamped onto the background and also stamped onto coloured card, cut out and layered for dimension.  The background of the tag was achieved using Pine Needles Distress ink and Pewter Distressed stain on a glass cutting mat, lightly spritzed with water and then 'mopped up' (technical term!!) with the tag - some stamped snowflakes were added using the same colour ink..  I also did the same with some spare pieces of card and stamped the trees onto that and embossed with silver powder.  Despite searching through my vast collection of stamps I was unable to find one which had the correct word on it so resorted to using Frosty font on the computer.  A piece of matching dyed ribbon was added and that's the 'Y' tag ready.

U for Umbel

Well it's tag time again for the swap at Chocolate Baroque; we are coming towards the end of the alphabet and these last few letters are proving to be the most difficult, particularly when it comes to working around which of their stamps (or other products) will be appropriate.  For 'U' I finally settled on UMBEL which I'm sure you know is the name for the flower head of such plants as cow parsley, Queen Ann's lace and so on.  Fortunately I have Elusive Images (now known as CB) UA4SP0176 which is a stamp set with lots of grasses and meadow plants.  The tag background was made using a technique from Tim Holtz called marbled distress - combining Picket Fence which is a white distress stain with other colours on a craft mat and 'mopping' them up - a technical term!!  Some pieces are more successful than others with this technique but most can be used so a fun thing to try.  I then stamped some of the grasses in matching distress ink and once thoroughly dry the flower was stamped with white ink and embossed using white fine detail powder.

Make My Monday Challenge

This month on Make My Monday the theme is to be FRENCH and for this first week it is PARIS.  I decided to go for an autumnal look and yes I know that traditionally it is 'springtime in Paris' - I'm thinking outside the box here!!  Backing paper is from Prima and has been overstamped with some images from Chocolate Baroque Paris plate; the postcard was made from a scrap of kraft card and the Notre Dame image (both CB also) stamped on a scrap of watercolour paper which had been used to 'mop up' some Distress stains from a glass mat. Leaves and corn etc were cut from another piece of inky watercolour paper using a Tim Holtz Sizzix die and the sentiment was cut out using a neat die from Crealy.  There are some great French themed cards from the Design Team so well worth a look.

Q is for Quilling

Time to be thinking about sending off the two tags for this month in the Chocolate Baroque alpha tag swap and for 'Q' I settled on quilling which is something I'd not done for years but I have all the 'stuff' for it.  At first I had difficulty thinking of anything to fit this letter especially as products from CB have to be included but this aspect is taken care of with the background which was coloured using Distress Stains and then some overstamping using CB grasses stamps to form the basis for my quilled 'garden' complete with cheeky frog sitting on a stone.  I will show you my take on the tag for 'R' another day.  At the moment it is so dark indoors that I need the light on to see what I'm doing and there is torrential rain so I won't be going to the post with these today.

Twinchies

What are 'twinchies' you may ask and if you pop over to this new challenge blog all will be explained!  At the moment I'm not convinced these are for me because I've always found ATCs a bit restrictive and they are larger (3.5 x 2.5 inches) than the 2" square twinchies but nothing daunted I've had a go for this very first challenge with the easy theme of 'anything goes' - in fact I've had two goes.  The first was another Zentangle which  as a newcomer to this technique was a bit difficult because the official Zentangle tiles are 3.5 inches so I had to scale down but I have managed a far from perfect example.

The second one is actually the promised 'slosh around with inks' which will fit the Make My Monday primary colours theme - as you can probably guess the weather just got wetter and wetter yesterday so no way I'd be out weeding. It is also looking very dull and dark outside this morning so maybe more 'playtime' is on the cards (excuse the pun). I used Distress inks and Distress stains to colour some card, cut out a two inch square and stamped some foliage with a Papermania stamp, finally adding some butterflies die cut with a Sizzix (for Stampin' Up) die.  At least I think this one will make a nice 'topper' for a card.

I hope you will take a look at what the Design Team have come up with for their twinchies and also follow this link to Eileen's blog to see some more.

Sunday Stamper week 210

What I should have been doing this morning was mowing lawns because all the wet weather has made the whole garden explode into growth and the grass has reached haymaking proportions.  However I spotted the challenge today on Sunday Stamper and was sidetracked into making a masculine style card instead (no contest really!!).  The theme this week is 'This Boy' and anything male themed should fit the bill.  I started by preparing a piece of background card using Distress Stains and then overstamped with some stamps from Creative Expressions and the natty gent in the hat and quote are from the same sets, all with a vintage/steampunk/inventor style. The numbers were produced using a Sizzix embossing folder on a scrap of card and then sponging with Distress inks; the typewriter (remember those?? - I used to use one very much like this!!) was cut using a Sizzix die and the squashed bottle top embellishment which I made using a Tim Holtz sticker has been glazed with glossy accents but unfortunately being shiny it hasn't photographed too well - sorry.  Again I've managed to use up some of my smaller scraps for the details on this card.  If you check out the link you will see a brilliant male themed project by Hels.

Sunday Stamper challenge week 206

I only discovered this Sunday Stamper challenge a short while ago and this week decided to take the plunge and have a go with the CIRCLES theme.  I thought I'd make a tag using my Tim Holtz rosettes die and incidentally several of his other products too.  I stamped some strips of card with an Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) numbers stamp from the ATC set which I've had since it was issued a long while ago so this would qualify the tag for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge I would think. I then cut out the rosettes and sponged the strips with distress ink (scattered straw), folded and glued them together and then added more distress ink (brushed corduroy) I cut two Tim Holtz butterflies from grungeboard and applied rock candy crackle, leaving it to dry before inking with Distress stains and adding some pen nibs for bodies.  The tag was cut with a TH Sizzix die, stamped with some text, embossed with a texture fades embossing folder then inked using the same colours as before. A strip of die cut metal lace, a grungeboard swirl and dyed ribbon complete this tag.   The metallic elements were coloured with alcohol inks and the ribbon and swirl with distress stains.

B is for Butterflies

Yes I know that is a bit predictable but there are some brilliant butterfly stamps from Chocolate Baroque (also birds and bees - spoilt for choice really). I started this tag by liberally dabbing a piece of white card with two colours of Distress Stains (Victorian Velvet and Dusty Concorde) and dropping salt crystals onto it while still wet.  Once dry the salt was brushed off and left me with this mottled effect from which I cut out the tag and also one of the bookplates on the die. The stamp used was from Butterfly Flourish swirls stamped with black archival ink.  The butterflies were made by stamping onto  some Tim Holtz vintage shabby paper adhered to a piece of Clearly for Art by Studio 490 (also available from Chocolate Baroque) - this is a plastic sheet which when heated with a heat gun softens and can then be moulded to give some dimension - the butterflies were easy to cut out  with scissors. If the result isn't to your liking it can be reheated and moulded again until it is right.  These butterflies and the bookplate - which had been sponged with the darker Distress colour - were both rubbed over with Rock Candy Distress Stickles which gives a distressed glitter effect.  These two tags have now been packed up,  posted off and in due course I will be receiving an A and  B tag made by someone else in the swap - something to look forward to!! I am already thinking ahead to C and D and also what colours and techniques I might use for them.

Doodles

One of the things I really enjoy is dabbling with inks, stamps and so on to make backgrounds and/or images and today I had a play with a couple of the new Distress Stains from Tim Holtz.  These come in a bottle with a dabber top which makes them easy to apply and they are of course compatible with other distress products.  I swiped colour onto white card, splashed some droplets of water on and then spritzed a stamp with water and stamped three times blotting with a paper towel, which lifts some of the colour.  I then overstamped one of the impressions slightly off to the side using a matching ink pad; then sponged and blended around the edges with more distress ink pads. The stamp used was a rose from the Doodle Birds and Butterflies set by Chocolate Baroque and the background paper also came from the same source.