Tilda Got Tagged!

Hey Peeps

The swap this month was for "Cute Tags". Mmm, my recent foray into the world of cuteness has left me kind of liking colouring in and cutting out Tilda's and Gorjuss images...and adding flowers, pearls, fringing.... Isn't colouring in soooo therapeutic? :O))

Tag #1 was made using large buff tags from LB Crafts as a base. I covered one side on two tags with papers from the heavenly new Basic Grey Wisteria collection ... cor these colours are lush, purples and blues and a bit of green thrown in for good measure....perfect!




I used my Cuttlebug and rectangliar scalloped Nesties to make a little mat for Tilda to stand on using co-ordinating Bazzill Cardstock. I used a Ranger white pen to make little flowery dotty things in the scallops - and these little flowery dotty things mirror the centre of the flowers on the background paper.





Tilda was coloured in to match with the papers...I got her from Stampezee ... she is my all time fave now & is from the new Spring 09 collection.



I then stamped several of my Stitchels stamps from the Dashy Dot range, which, by the way, you can get from The Artistic Stamper - and once the images were all coloured, I used the white pen again to go over the stitches on the images to make them pop a little...I layered them and curled the edges and popped them onto the tag using silicone glue.




I added a little heart head pin with beads threaded onto it and stuck this into the silicone glue behind one of the Stitchels flowers. The centres of the flowers and the body of the butterfly are DewDrops (also from Stampezee) and I used a Sakura Glaze pen to emphasise the wings of the Tilda and her shoes too. I did get a little inky cos I used a CatsEye inkpad to edge the tag to finish it properly :O))

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a great afternoon and evening.....

Hels x

Sunday Stampers - Week 57 - Time After Time

Morning Stampers,

Thank you to all of you who joined in with the challenge last week.

This week the theme is .... TIME .... I haven't had chance to upload my piccie just yet....sadness in the Hels household, my poor computer mouse has given up the ghost and is now destined for the big mousey heaven in the sky.....and I just cannot get along with using the laptop controls...so I will pop a piccie on once I have the mouse sorted!

In the meantime, to join in with the Sunday Stamper, all you have to do is make a piece of artwork incorporating TIME, use clocks, watches etc and include stamping and then leave a comment here for me so I can come and look at your artwork.

Thanks for looking and have a great Sunday

Hels x



Later........

I now have a new mouse and it works a treat so I am now able to upload my piccies of the clock that I altered using Distress Inks, Crackle Paint and Tim Holtz Collection stamps.




The clock was a kit that I bought ages ago, can't remember where exactly it came from, all I know it was from a stall at the Ally Pally show last September. It is a chipboard base and the numbers and clock mechanism are all in the kit. I just messed about with ink, paints and a few swear words thrown in for good measure when I trapped my finger in the mechanism, trying to get the hands to go on properly LOL Ouch!!! I have a pinch blister now, serves me right for being cack handed!!


I was a very lucky lass yesterday and you will see that my photos are pretty darn good .... this is because Dan came to visit and showed me how to use Paint Shop Pro...properly LOL I hope that I have remembered how to do the cropping and colouring etc so these pics look as good as they should!

Thanks Dan for being such a clever lad and being so patient with little miss thicko here :O))

Thanks for looking...again!

Hels x

Inky Tags - Decorated ... Part 3

Hey Peeps,

Hope you all having a good day, the sun is shining here in Luton and it seems that Spring is finally here....we have heavenly blossoms on the cherry trees and the birds are all rushing around making their nests. I have just sat and watched a Wren flitting from the ivy to behind the shed, beak full of old leaves ... I guess I have the priviledge of having a Wren nesting again this year.

Enough waffle about the weather ... well it is typically English and seeing as it is St. Georges Day today, I guess I can be excused!!

If you recall, last week I faffed about with some inks to make backgrounds for tags. Today I have two more tags to show you that I decorated ... I did the decorating last week though....bad news again about my health ... apparently, I now have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and have been ordered to rest...well, Blogging is kind of resting but no crafting for me for a while. I am feeling really grotty anyway and yesterday I spent only 4 hours awake!!! Yikes, I must be bad to sleep for that long!

Here is a link to the original post about the inky backgrounds if you missed it the first time.

Here are the tags ... I must stop waffling on and getting sidetracked! :O))

Tag 5



I just love this Tim Holtz stamp....the skull is so cool - I remember saying that I would never use it when the collection first came out....er, mmm, well, I was wrong cos I use it all the time! The little skull is a Grungeboard shape, painted black and then little buttons for the eyes, which were altered with gold Krylon pen. The scroll is another piece of Grungeboard and I have used Distress Inks to colour and then Distress Stickles to add a bit of bling.


If you remember, I set myself some really strict guidelines when I decorated the tags....only allowed to use Tim Holtz stamps, products etc....how easy, cos there are so many different goodies out there so I have really enjoyed decorating and just sticking to one style.


Tag 6



More Tim stamps and more Grungeboard shapes for this tag....painting the Grungeboard before stamping and then fixing to the tag using silicone glue.




I have really loved doing these tags. I have four more bases to decorate but not sure when this will be as I really am dog tired!

Thanks for looking and hope to see you back soon....BTW, the Sunday Stamper will still be open and a new challenge will be set on Sunday, I may just not be able to join in :O((

Hels x

A Demonstration With Alcohol Inks

Morning Peeps,

Last weekend I did a couple of 20 mins Demo's at Alexandra Palace at the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking show. A couple of ladies who attended the Demo's asked me if I could possibly pop the details of the Demo onto my Blog so they could visit and have a look, referring back to what I had shown them.

So, without further ado, here are the cards I made for the Demo, the inky backgrounds I had made to pass thru the audience so peeps could see the technique close up and an inky piece that I did yesterday morning just to show how I used them from start to finish.

Card 1 - The Red Card




This card was made by creating a distressed looking background using Alcohol inks from the Ranger Earthtones set and the stamping is using the new Nature and Birdy stamps I have designed, all of which are available from The Artistic Stamper.





I also used Glossy Accents to emphasise the swirls, hat and wording on this card. The stamping was done using a Ranger Archival Inkpad in black.


Card 2 - The Blue Card





Again, this card is made using the same inky technique but this time the stamping is using a swirl element from the Nature set and some of my Dashy Dot Stitchels stamps, again available from The Artistic Stamper.





For this card, I embellished the designs with Broken China Distress Stickles. The stamping was done using a Ranger Archival Inkpad in black.


The Technique - Distressed Alchol Ink Backgrounds




For this technique you will need a couple of co-ordinating colours of Alcohol Ink. I have used Ranger Brights and Lights for this particular project - Purple Twilight, Cool Peri and Juniper. These happen to be my fave colour combo's in the Dabbers so I figured they would be for the Alcohol inks too, and yep, they are!! You will also need some Blending Solution, I tend to use Surgical Spirit if I have no proper Blender as I have found it works just as well and is a fraction of the cost! Just treat it the same as Blender, no naked flames etc as it is extremely flammable. Along with the above, you will also need a paintbrush, a non-stick craft sheet, glossy cardstock, a heatgun, an Archival Ink Pad and some stamps.




Start by swirling random lines of alcohol ink directly onto the craft sheet. Repeat this until you have used all the colours you want. Take a piece of glossy cardstock and with the glossy side down, swoosh the card thru the inks - twisting and lifting the card to make an unusual background. **Photopaper doesn't work as well as Glossy Card because it is more porous. Glossy Card has a clay coating and the alcohol inks sit on the surface of the card and therefore you get the proper depth of colour and shineyness too**






Set this aside to dry and using your Blending solution, add a few droplets to the ink left on your craft sheet and repeat the glossy card process - you will have cleaned up most of the inks and also have another inky background but this time it will be paler as you have used Blender.





Next, using a paintbrush soaked with Blender, hold it in one hand and tap this over the edge of your index finger on the other hand, to make little dots of blender land on the glossy card. When you have finished dropping blender onto your card, use a heatgun and see the paler patches appearing - very similar to the Distress Inks when water is dropped onto them.




Next, using the Archival Ink Pad, stamp the designs you like onto the surface of the glossy card. Remember to take extra care when stamping as this is slippy and sometimes your stamp can move slightly meaning your image won't be crisp.




It is important that you use an Archival inkpad/oil based inkpad because this ink will not affect the background you have made. If you used a StaZon pad, as this is solvent based, it would remove the alcohol ink background from under the stamped image and you won;t have a very good impression.




Once you have done your stamping, use a heat gun to set the ink. As glossy card is not as porous as other card, the Archival ink will sit on the card surface and take yonks to dry...so heat setting it is one way around this problem.




Add Glossy Accents to emphasize and embellish your design and voila! Your project is completed. You can now add the inky project to a card, use it for scrapbooking or any other project you want to. The stamps I used are from the Fairytale Frenzy sheet of unmounted from the new Tim Holtz collection. I adore that butterfly - it makes me think that he has been playing in ink and is flicking it off his wings :O))




I hope this helps and you will find this "demo" useful. I would love some feedback so any comments are gratefully received....if they are nice ones obviously LOL

Thanks for looking!

Hels x

Sunday Stampers - Week 56 - Drive My Car & Blog Candy Winner :O))

Morning Stampers!

Many thanks for joining in with the challenge last week. Wow, what a lovely selection of artwork incorporating the silver theme....and if you recall, I was nearly at 40000 posts so I had some Blog Candy up for grabs for a winner picked at random.

The winner of the candy is......

Jacqueline

Many thanks for everyone's entries and well done to Jacqueline - I will pop and leave a post on your Blog but please can you email me your snail mail addy and I will pop the Candy into the post for you.

Right, onwards .... this week the theme is Cars. A nice simple challenge for today I think and for my entry I have decorated another two of the inky tags that I had made last week.

Tag 1



Again, remaining with the challenge I set myself for these tags, I have only used stamps and products from the Tim Holtz ranges by Stampers Anon and Idea-ology.





The car has been stamped and then embellished with Idea-ology bits and bobs and I added a DooDad to the Journey word - my meaning was supposed to show a One Way Journey to the Dream......geddit? :O))



Tag 2



More Tim stamps and DooDads which were coated with Crackle Accents and additional Idea-ology bits made up the design for this tag.




The little car is one of the new Mini stamps from the new range by Tim and I just love these mini versions of the bigger brother stamps...how cool, a big one and a small one to match!

To join in with the challenge, all you need to do is make something, be it an ATC, Tag, Altered Art, Card, the choice is yours - so long as you include stamping in your project and the theme for this week. Once you have made your piece, please leave me a comment here and a link to the place you are showing your artwork and I can pop over and have a look. You have all week to make the challenge so no worries if you are a little busy right now, all entries are accepted until the new one is set....and even then you can still make them....ok, so now I am waffling so I will say TTFN and thanks for looking!

Have a great day, I am going to Ally Pally again, demo-ing this morning and then a touch of retail therapeutics this afternoon and meeting up with friends :O))

Hels x

The Swirly Bird Meets Nature

Hi Peeps :O))

Ohhh, I have a very exciting weekend planned!!! It is the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking show at Alexandra Palace this weekend and I will be Demo-ing for The Artistic Stamper on Saturday, including a 20 minute special Demo which will be held downstairs in the area behind the cafe....and I can't wait!! I will also be doing another 20 min Demo on Sunday too, but the rest of the day will be taken up with meeting friends and perhaps partaking in a little retail therapy too :O))

Oh, before I forget, the special Demo's are at 11am on both days :O)) If you are going to be at Ally Pally it would be lovely to meet you so please pop by to The Artistic Stamper/Stamp Connection stand where you will also be able to meet Jennie too :O))

Anyway, as I will be demo-ing the new stamps I have designed, as well as the original Stitchels stamps, I thought I would make a couple of cards using the new birdy and nature stamps to Blog while I am away. The Demo's will be also using.....actually, I will keep that to myself as I don't want to spoil things (plus Jennie will play pop if I let the cat out of the bag too early LOL) ... anyway, as I said, pop by and say hi and you will be able to have a really good nosey at all the heavenly goodies that Jennie has for sale!

Right, the cards that I made are those HUGE cards from QVC - blimey they are massive, almost A4 in size...but this is a grand thing as the new nature flowers are really blousey and it is great to be able to use a lot of them on the cards.


Card 1




Made using Daisy D's papers, which are so yummy, and the nature flower stamps. I inked and stamped onto the patterned papers with tinted embossing ink and then used gold embossing powder to heat emboss the flowers and leaves. I cut them all out and used my fingertips to curl the petals and leaves and then assembled them, sticking them to the card using silicone glue.




The little sentiment is from Penny Black and I used my new Nestabilities to make a couple of mats which I popped behind the sentiment, placing one at an angle to add a little definition.




The ink used for the wordy stamping and also for edging all the papers and flowers was a Maroon Chalk Ink by ColorBox.




Oh, nearly forgot, the pearls in the centre of the flowers are fun aren't they? They were from an ancient old necklace that was in a bric-a-brac bag from Haselden Hats in Faversham....I love using old jewellry to jazz up my cards :O))



Card 2





I used those deliciously gorgeous Love Notes papers from Cosmo Cricket - I looooove these papers and I am getting a little low on them, so I will be on the look out for them on Sunday!

I made a couple of little backgrounds using the papers and popped DCWV cardstock behind them. Once they were on the card, I used some more of the papers as a main element to stamp the birdy onto. I used black StaZon to stamp the bird directly to the paper, then stamped another two birdies, cutting one out completely and using 3D foam to place over the original image, and the second birdy just had her wing cut out and 3D'd over the top to make the image really pop.




Using a Violet Pigment Ink pad from ColorBox, I stamped the mini fancy swirl around the birdy design and then matted two more pieces of paper behind, placing one at an angle for definition. I used another piece of paper to stamp the Vine flourish onto and then cut this out and used 3D foam to place this under the bird, so it looks like she is standing on it.




The sentiment is another lovely stamp from Penny Black, which I stamped using black StaZon. Again, this was matted onto the same DCWV cardstock and placed on the card.

Finally, I stamped a load of the large and small flowers and leaves and once I had cut them all out, I fixed them together and used "card candy" from Craftwork Cards for the centres. I used Glossy Accents to jazz up the centres of the flowers and highlight the vine and popped the flowers onto the card using more 3D foam.

Well, that's it from me for the time being. I will be back to post the Sunday Stamper and winner of the Blog Candy on Sunday morning, so please remember to call in and see if you have won!

Thanks for looking and have a fabulous weekend!

Hels x

Inky Tags - Decorated ... Part 2

Hi again.

Here is another tag, decorated, from the batch I coloured up earlier this week:



As before, I used Grungeboard, stamped onto it and cut out the wings and the numbers at the bottom of the tag.




All images are from the Tim Holtz Collection by Stampers Anon.

Thanks for looking!

Hels x

Inky Tags - Decorated ... Part 1

Hiya again

Following on from yesterdays post about the inky tags, here are a couple of pics of the first one I have finished decorating.




If you remember, I said that all I was allowed to use on the tags were Tim Holtz stamps, inks and embellies, including the Idea-ology range, Grungeboard and Distress Stickles.....how easy!!! I love setting myself achievable targets!!




The fella is stamped onto painted Grungeboard and then cut out and stuck over the original stamp. The crown is Grungeboard with a few DewDropz (I know, slight cheat) but it looks nice!!

The lettering is jazzed up with Distress Stickles.

Thanks for looking!

Hels x

Getting Inky & Messy with Tags

Hello Peeps,

I had a little play the other evening with some Adirondack inkpads, water and some tags.

I felt like getting me hands a bit mucky as I have been neglecting my inks for a while :O) and I seem to get into a rut of only using one type of ink - like my previous love affair with Chalk Inks, I seem to be getting over that now....am I the only one who seems to stick on one thing for what seems like ages and the other poor old members of the stash are left neglected and lonely???? :O))




I started off by rubbing the inkpad directly onto the craft sheet, spritzing with water and then swooshing the tag thru the mix....this was toooooo much! It just ran off the tag and didn't really colour it with any depth. Even when I used my heatgun to dry it, I was left with a pale splodge - not nice! So, I switched to Cut & Dry foam - picking up ink from the pad and then smudging onto my craft sheet. I spritzed over the smudges with water to dilute the inks and again, swooshed a tag thru the inkyness.




Mmmm, it just went all blotchy and there weren't really any outstanding points.....but, what was left behind looked rather interesting...lots of little droplets of inky water in all different patterns and colour depths.....so, I thought to myself, if I use a scrap of paper to do the first swooshing, this will leave more droplets on the mat, then I can use the tag to pick the droplets up and get a better look! To get the finished look on the tags, what I did was....*gosh, I sound like a right old mad one here* ...what I did was, swoosh the scrap paper, then swoosh the tag, dry the tag with a heatgun, then pat the tag onto what was left of the inkyness, repeating until I had used it all up! Et voila!




Ohhh, I loved this, so in order to add a little more interest to the background, I did the same method again but with a different but co-ordinating colour....and guess what? It really worked! I am probably showing my Granny how to suck eggs here and you will have all done this hundreds of times before but I am loving this look and it really goes well with the style of stamping I am using!





Here are the pieces of paper that I used....just ordinary white paper squares from one of those holder jobbies that you sit next to your phone, you know the type I mean LOL I am saving these cos I reckon I can make use of them...they look really nice now they are all dried and not so crinkly!!




I went on to use several different colours of the Adirondack inks - including; Wild Plum, Rust, Lettuce, Pitch Black, Denim, Butterscotch, Stonewashed and Cranberry. To add a little bit of finish to the tags, I edged each of them with one of the colours I had used on each one, using good old Cut & Dry to do this....I like the look!




I coloured ten tags in total and I am now in the process of altering them using only Tim Holtz stamps, Idea-ology bits and Grungeboard, oh and a few Distress Stickles and Ranger paints too....I will blog the finished tags thru the week as there are a few already done which I am rather chuffed with ... and it was nice to be really strict and only have the Tim range to play with....like that is so limiting....not!!! LOL

Thanks for looking and I would appreciate comments about this lot as I haven't really done an inky post like this before! And, have I just waffled on for hours about something that everyone knows about??? LOL

Cheers

Hels x

Pretty Stitchels Card

Hello,

I made a card last week for a friend who wanted a 60th card for his cousin, but no mention of the 60 was allowed on the card :O)) The remit was something pretty and flowery.

What better way to use my Stitchels stamps and the heavenly Bittersweet paper collection by Basic Grey.




I started by making a couple of paper sections for the base of the card and then rounded off the corners. I used my Cuttlebug & Nestabilities to make a little mat for the message, which is a stamp from Penny Black and then used a maroon Chalk Ink pad to edge the mats.




I used the same ink pad to stamp lots of different sized Stitchels Dotty Dot flowers and leaves, stamping onto the patterned papers and then cutting them all out.




Using the heat from my fingertips, I curled the flowers and then stuck them together so they formed layers.




Borrowing an idea from my pal Linda - yes, I always seem to be "borrowing" her ideas..... I used some thin wire and threaded beads onto it to make little embellishments for the centres of the flowers. I poked these thru the middle of the flower layers and then stuck them to the card with silicone glue.




For the little flowers, I used a few brads and buttons from the Basic Grey collection, adding Diamond Stickles to the edges of the flowers and to the brads to add a little bling. The Stitchels range of stamps are available from The Artistic Stamper :O)) I really must learn how to use a camera though cos the photo's I take are rubbish and don't show the depth and the colours on my projects....any useful hints gratefully accepted!!!! LOL

Thanks for looking and have a good day!

Hels x

Sunday Stampers - Week 55 - Silver Lady

Morning Stampers!

First of all, thank you for joining in last week, it was lovely to see a few new faces too whom I hope will return for future challenges...it is great to see lots of different takes on the one theme.

This week the theme is a very simple one - the original theme has had to go by the wayside for another week 'cos I couldn't get my piece finished in time....but I have managed to get this canvas finished, finally, it has taken me all week!

Ah, the theme, yes, all you need to do is include something SILVER in your artwork, use stamping and then leave a comment with a link on this post and I can come and visit you :O)) *BTW, does anyone remember this lovely song by David Soul? Oh, he was my first crush when I was 6 years old!*





For my canvas, I started by prepping a deep edged 8" x 6" by painting it with a couple of coats of Gesso. The canvas was pre-primed but I like to have that extra depth on the surface. I then took some Violet acrylic paint and mixed in some white paint. I made an Indigo colour and then painted this all over the surface of the canvas.





Once this was dried, I painted a coat of PVA glue all over the surface and then immediately painted a coat of paint that I had pre-mixed using the Violet and the white but this time leaving the colour darker. It is important to put the paint straight onto the wet PVA, try not to overbrush the PVA and paint together and you will get a lovely scratchy crackle effect as the PVA dries, it separates and takes the top coat of paint with it, leaving the lower layer showing thru.





Next, I painted some Claudine Helmuth sticky canvas - this is one of my "must have" crafty supplies as it is so versatile. I used the original Indigo colour I had mixed to paint an A4 size piece of canvas - then cut it in half when dried and using a stipple brush, picked up the darker colour and streaked this over one half - this meant that I had two different colours for my flowers.




The flowers are from my new range of unmounted stamps which are available from The Artistic Stamper. If you click here you can go straight to the page where they are. I stamped several of the large and smaller flowers using a clear embossing ink and then heat embossed with silver powder. I next painted a smaller piece of sticky canvas with Silver Adirondack Acrylic paint and once this had dried, I stamped the leaves, large and small, using black StaZon. While I had the silver paint out, I covered all four sides of the deep edged canvas to give a little bit of definition to the whole project.




Next, I peeled the backing off the Sticky Canvas and stuck this to some metal foil sheets. This meant that once I had cut out all of the images, I could curl them and make them stay in shape as the metal gives the canvas a bit more stability.

Now for the fiddly bit - I faffed about with wire and beads and pearls to make some centres for the flowers and some extra accents to add under the flowers - I used thick wire for the centres, curling it and then sticky a pearl to the end. The pearls came from an old necklace I got from a junk shop.




The main element of the canvas is the stampbord ATC. This was painted and shaded and then stamped with one of the wordy stamps made in my handwriting (how cool!) that are also available from The Artistic Stamper. I embossed this with silver and then used the vine stamp to add detail on the edges of the stampbord and also I stamped around the silver edges of the canvas.




Finally.....hurrah! I had picked up a cheapy bracelet in Claires Accessories the other day, not to wear but because it had some fabby little metal tassles on it - it was on a £1 and I also got the metal flowers from it too. These were added to the canvas once the flowers were all placed with silicone glue.

Right, enough waffle from me, you are all champing at the bit to get off to those Easter Eggs I know.....and I wish you all a very Happy Easter too.

Thanks for looking and hope that you will be able to join in again this week!

Hels x

PS - I have just noticed that my Blog Counter is nearly at 40,000 so as a thank you for being such lovely visitors, if you join in with the challenge this week, please leave a comment as usual and then you will be entered into the draw, one person will be chosen at random to win some Blog Candy which will include some mini Stitchels stamps and some KlingOn to mount them on. Thanks!!!!