Tim's 12 Tags of 2015 - February

Better late than never right?  Well, I am so late with my Tim's 12 Tags of 2015 February edition.  I am not sure why I didn't get chance to make this tag in time to enter it last month... but here it is... sans stitching (hey, we all know I am completely useless with a sewing machine and will never master it no matter how many bobbins I bust!)If you haven't seen Tim's 12 Tags phenomenom, CLICK HERE to be transported on the back of a mahoosive bottle of Glossy Accents to his blog.  
 

As I mentioned, I am not a sewist, never have been, never will be.  In fact, it is true that Mrs Ives (HE teacher) actually dismissed me from HE and sent me over to the Woodwork and Metalwork class (boys only) because I broke three sewing machines in as many lessons.  Yes, I am a dolt and so wish I could get over this stupidity but alas, I fear it will always be that I sew by hand.

Anyways... there you go - instead of using stitching, I popped a twist of rusty wire around my heart - which was made from Sticky Back Canvas popped onto Grungeboard using Glue & Seal and then coloured with Fired Brick Distress Spray Stains and edged with Gathered Twigs DI.   This is another tag I really enjoyed making... the paperblocking technique is one of my faves and I loved using the Distress Marker to add darker shading and speckley accents to it... all very vintage.

Time for me to get a wiggle on - things to do, rubber to ink and all that... thanks for looking, hope you having a grand day.  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously... In The Cabinet...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of a brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... well worth taking a cuppa and a packet of Digestives :O)    The challenge is sponsored by the Inspiration Emporium this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  As ever, Tim & Mario have very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 38 of the book and playing with Cabinet Cards.  As ever with the Compendium Challenge neither I nor the Curiosity Crew will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.   

For my entry I chose a seasonal Found Relative card to pop into my Cabinet Card... let's call them Jimmy and Muriel... they are muchly in lurves and this photo was taken on their first holiday together when they visited Minneapolis for a romantic weekend... hey, I went to Minneapolis once!  I was there for about three hours whilst I changed planes on me way to CHA last year... wow... I am a gad-about aren't I?  All I remember is that is was thick of snow and freeeeezing cold!

Anyways... Jimmy and Muriel decided to remember their naughty weekend - ahem romantic weekend - by having their photo taken in a proper photo studio, hence the special cabinet card it is in.  They collected tickets from excursions they took - check out the ticket stubb on the left hand side (pure flukey-dookey that Tim's Ephemera happened to have Minnesota on one of the tickets!) 

 

I got a little carried away with the embellishmentising as usual - the top left signifies... "when you wish upon a star..." and the two is them together... awwww... see, you didn't know I was a soppy old romantic did ya?  Of course, I had to have my harlequin stamp somewhere so that is stamped using Black Archival on the card itself.  The rest of the goodies are Tim's Remnant Rubs, Idea-ology and Ephemera packs. I used Distress Spray Stains to make my taggy background... Antique Linen and Broken China with a spritz of Tarnished Brass and then a spot of stencilling using Tim's hearts stencil...

That's all for now - don't forget, you have two whole weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!   I will just say a big thank you to every one of you who has taken part in the challenge so far, it has been great to visit your blogs and see your wonderful interpretations of the challenge themes!  Thanks for looking, have an inky inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Burlapped...

Gooooodly Morning to all you Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of a brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... well worth taking a cuppa and a Hobnob with you :O)    The challenge is sponsored by the Funky Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  As before, Tim & Mario have very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 37 of the book and altering a Burlap Panel.  Now, as ever with the Compendium Challenge neither I nor the Curiosity Crew will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.

My entry for this weeks challenge is actually a little behind in completion!  You know when you get an idea in your head and you go with it... and then you go with it a bit more and then a bit even more?  Well, this is what happened to my alteration of my Burlap Panels!  I actually sketched this project out last year and it was one of those projects that just never had the time to dedicate to it... and when I knew that Page 37 was coming up, I decided to go with this design for my entry.  And then life threw a curve ball and I ran out of time!  I have a sneaky peeky pic (above) of it part finished, this is a long way from what the final *thingy* will look like but I figured some pic is better than no pic!  I will be finishing off my project over the weekend so please do pop back to see it finished if you have time.


That's all for now - don't forget, you will have two weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!   Thanks for looking, have an inky day!  TTFN

Curiously Rosey...

Gooooodly Morning to all you Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of a brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... well worth taking a cuppa and a Hobnob with you :O)    The challenge is sponsored by the Inspiration Emporium this time... so you will have a chance of winning a generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  As before, Tim & Mario have very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 65 of the book and making Tea Roses!  Now, as ever with the Compendium Challenge neither I nor the Curiosity Crew will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.  

My entry this time is a tag... can you see a theme developing here?  Oh yesh indeedily, each week I will be making a tag (unless it is a type specific item like a Folio thingywotsit or something like that).  For the previous two challenges I have made tags each time and I want to continue to do this for Challenge #3.   Plus, I do love a good tag so it pleases me to work out the techniques on a tag base.   I am using Size 8 tags and I reallllly wish I had started using Size 10 because size 8 is ok but not big enough for all the stuff I want to load onto it!  At least it will curb my enthusiasm for overloading the embellies!  I began by sticking a piece of Tim's Menagerie 8 x 8 papers to the tag and inking the edges with Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  A quick stamp over the papers with Frayed Burlap and my fave Tim Script stamp and my fave Tim diamond stamp added in Jet Black Archival.  This is another image that I am wanting to add through every thing I make for the challenges.. gives a bit of cohesion too :O)
 

As I wanted to make the background really old and shabby looking, I used a Frayed Burlap Distress Marker and the Distress Spritzer to waft some spritzy splots over the tag - love those little speckles!   The centre piece is a Found Relatives card that I cut down to fit into the Industrious Sticker frame (which was altered with Brushed Corduroy and Tarnished Brass Distress Paints) I coloured her a little with Distress Markers just to make her corsage pop from the old photo.  I layered a couple of Tim's Ephemera pieces under the centre piece (adding Remnant Rubs to the shield shape) and then I set about the roses.  Oh how I LOVE these pretty little blooms... and they are easy to make too :O)  I used Distress Core-dinations cardstock, sanding the leaves and flowers and then using Distress Inks to grunge them up a little once they were assembled.

Now, here's a little secret: I have been really struggling to come up with a tag design for this weeks' challenge... Mr Mojo has made himself scarce (plus all that time in the greenhouse has addled me brains) Anyways, I went to bed on Thursday night in a panic, I had to get my tag made and over to Linda before I went to bed and my productivity was zero.  Then, in the middle of the night I woke up!  Actually, I made myself wake up because I was actually having a lovely dream... in the dream I was sitting faffing about with all things Distress and was actually making this very tag!  How bizarre!  So, I leapt out of my cosy bed (ok, I kind of groaned and hobbled out of it) and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and sketched out the tag before I went back to sleep and forgot it!   The addition of the metal embellies that have been painted with Distress Paints in Festive Berries and Forest Moss are purely dream based!  I love my dreams!

I shall away now, I have kept you long enough with all my wafflings!  Thanks for looking, don't forget to pop around to leave a comment on all the Crew's blogs to be in with a chance of winning the extra bonus prize... and you have two weeks to play along too.  Have a great day getting inky!  TTFN

Hels x

Gorra Lorra Bottle... Make It! Take It! Challenge

...uh-oh! I am showing me age aren't I?  Remember the milk advert in the 70's?  Anyways, the reason I am waffling on about bottles is because this is the theme for the new Craft Stamper Make It, Take It Challenge which starts today.  CLICK HERE to see all the deets on how to join in and also all the super arty creations the DT have made too.

My project is a diddly little glass bottle that I bought about 251 years ago... can't even remember where I got it - in fact, I got three of them and they have just lurked in a cupboard ever since!   There are lots of different ways to alter a glass bottle... use papers, alcohol inks, paints... but how about using the fabulous technique from the one and only Wendy Vecchi?  Oh yesh, cover said bottle with her Black Embossing Paste! How fab this looks!  I opted to go for a very metallic effect once the embossing paste had dried... but imagine if you got some greeny colour paints and made it look like lichen and moss growing on the bottle! Oh the ideas are really popping now!  The paste was applied with a palette knife and to get the scluoopy (new word!) bits, I just patted the palette knife against the paste to make it peaky.  Once set, I used Florentine and White Fire Treasure Gold, applied with a brush, to add some metal effects.    The flowers are made by sticking some of Tim's new Wallflower papers to Clearly For Art blackout modelling film.  I stamped the flowers (from Studio 490 Live & Make Art set) and cut them out, edging them with Frayed Burlap to tone them in, gluing together and adding a little button to the middle.  I added some jute around the neck of the bottle and then used a little shield from Tim's Thrift Shop Ephemera, stamping the words from Tim's Little Labels stamp set.  The butterfly is also paper on Clearly For Art, heated up, shaped and then popped onto the bottle side.

Now I have two more of these bottles... so I am thinking I shall alter them all and have a little set of them to sit on a shelf somewhere in the house.   Don't forget to pop on over the to Craft Stamper blog to see the challenge details... there be a prize on offer too!  Thanks for looking and have a grand day!  TTFN

Hels x

A Vintage Journey...

...I did do a few squeals when Brenda from A Vintage Journey challenge asked me if I would like to be a Guest Designer.  Mmm, now let me think about it!  A blog dedicated to the Duke of Distress and all his wonderful products... like a nano second to think and a very fast "yes please!"   So, today is the day that my project is being aired over on the A Vintage Journey blog... CLICK HERE for all the deets on how I made it - I won't say it all here as I have already said it over there and you would get bored having to read all my wafflings twice :O))   Anyways, here's my creation:

The theme I was asked to use was "words"  which is perfect seeing as I love to talk very lots... and I likes to use words on everything I make too.  So, I started out with the idea of making a nice 6" square card using a Found Relative card - one of the new Tim's Idea-ology thingy's.  However, as I was flicking through the cards I fell in lurves with the backgrounds of them too!  What to do!! I want to use a photo side and a backside (snort)  Ahahahahaaaa!  I will pick my least favourite photo from the cards and use that... which is what I did!  Now, readers of this old blog will know that me and sewing machines have never had the best of relationships.

Nay and thrice, I was chucked out of Needlework classes when I was at school for not only being inept but also breaking a couple of the machines.  Ahem... quite! I ended up being the only girl in the Woodwork/Metal Work class.  Ham-fisted of nature is my problem when it comes to sewing machines.  Grim bought me a diddy little mini machine a few years ago and I went bonkers with it for a few months, wonky sewing all over everything... and then I put it just out of reach on a shelf and there it stood, gather dust and whatnot.

Well, I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to traverse the pile of stash that has formed in front of the said out of reach machine... nearly breaking my leg in the process... and plugged it in.  And, being as I am clever like, I thought "I shall have a trial run, sewing the backside card first, for if I go wrong, I can hide it..."   Yes, I did that... yes, it was a little wonky but hey, I can just sew two lines right?  Well, I then decided that I would mount the front card onto cream card for a little border.  Yep, looks great!  And then I started sewing it.  And erm... the thread snapped... and I re-threaded it and it snapped again.  I re-threaded it, adjusted the tension a bit and started again.  And the thread snapped... again.  As did my patience.  So, after giving the machine a very good talkin to, I finally got the blighter sewing.  Hurrah and thrice, I persevered and it paid off.  Only, um.. my sewing is even more frightful and wonky.  Ah, I will nip around the edges again and it will look like I meant to do it.  Yes, well, that would have worked had there been enough thread on the bobbin thingy... but there wasn't... and I couldn't find the cotton... so gave it up as a bad job and hoped that by flinging tonnes of embellies at it, you wouldn't notice it lol   *you did notice it didn't you?*

So, now I am stuck because I have a not neat and rather dog earred looking Found Relative card and a 6" card just ain't going to cut it.  Right, time to go bigger then!  I grabbed an 8" square shadow box and went a little bit mad with the embellies, Idea-ology, Tim products and such like... well, the whole thing is "inspired and influenced by Tim" so I was at least, on the right track! 

Please do pop over to see A Vintage Journey - there be a prize for one lucky entrant into the challenge... and also, take a cuppa and a packet of Hobnobs with you because you may be there some time... the GORGEOUS art by the Design Team is so inspiring... I tell you what, tis a very long time since I took time out to play with all my Tim stash and make something like this, which is very me and makes me very happy... so thank you to Brenda for inviting me... and for making me remember where my real crafty heart lives :O)

I shall away now... I said I wasn't going to waffle didn't I?  And I did... oops!  Have a great day and thanks for looking!  TTFN

Hels x