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

Find Delight....

...is the title of this here page I made to go in my Worn Cover book I made for the Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge last week - HERE are all the deets on how to join in with the fabby challenge - most excellent prizes to be had too!  

I created the page by cutting a piece of card to fit inside the covers and then got cracking with those gorrrrgeous Wallflower papers from Mr Holtz.  If, like me, you keep even the smallest of snippets of papers (yes, I know you are nodding your head, hey, we are crafters, we keep stuff right?)  Where was I?  Oh yes, keeping snippets of paper... I keep everything... I am a nightmare, I have snippets of papers coming out of my ears (not literally, that would be...umm... rather daft!)  I like to use them up... and this is a great way... paper blocking!   A few years ago I stumbled across a gorgeous project by Paula Cheney (she who is Queen of All Things Amazingly Arty) and I loved the idea so much I went a bit mad and made tonnes of stuff using her technique.  HERE is the post I found to you can have a looksee.   Well, I love the Wallflower papers so muchly that I decided to just layer up those snippets coming out of my ears and voila, a page!

And another page on the other side.   You will see a distinct lack of embellishmentising... that is because I love the raw look of the pages so much I haven't got the heart to cover anything up.  I am sure once I tire of looking at something so flat (eek) I will start loading flowers and leaves and stuff onto them but for the moment... I loves them as they are.  Here's another piccie of my Worn Cover... I plan to fill the book up with lots of different pages and tags and stuff all using the same papers and stylee....

Thank you all for your kind comments, emails and messages about my poor health.  I have had one scan result in and thankfully, it is "normal"... well, as normal for me eh?  But I still have blood tests that are coming back dodgy so I need those repeating... and believe me, I am the world's biggest booboo when it comes to needles so I am beginning to look like a pincushion - a quaking one at that!  In the meantime, I have another scan at the end of the month and hopefully that will show up what is causing all this trouble.  I shall away now - I am prepping for my class at Daisy's Jewels tomorrow and as usual, am a last minute Annie!   Thanks for looking... have a great day! TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Covered...

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 35 of the book and playing with Worn Covers .  Now, as usual 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 Worn Cover has been well and truly inked into submission!  I make no secret of my lurve of Distress Inks - in fact, it is a rare project that doesn't feature something Distressy on it.  My Cover is the Diary Journal - there are several different cover designs to chose from and I particularly liked this one because of the printing on the front.   It wasn't really my colour palette for the project I have in mind so... out came good old Antique Linen and voila, it changed the pale cold tones to nice pale warm tones!   I added a smidge of stencilling using Tim's Layering stencils - Stars & Lattice Work - using Gathered Twigs and Scattered Straw DI's respectively.

Onwards with Wallflowers papers and Vellums... I totally LOVE this paper collection - you know sometimes you get a paper collection and there's one particular paper sheet you aren't keen on?  Not so with this one... I loves them all... front and back (ooh-hooo all double sided which is always a bonus isn't it?)   Because of my lurves for the Wallflower papers, I cannot bear to part with even a half inch snippet of the papers so I put to good use my hoarding ways and used up snippets of the papers to make some layers and blocks which were then stamped and inked and remant-rubbed.

I didn't want to leave them just flat though... of course, any chance of popping an embellishment onto my art, I am going to take it right?   But... the insidey bit can't be too fat so I went for Prima flowers and some bits and bobs of embellies, a bit of Linen Ribbon to tie around the binder fixing and voila... finished!    Now... I would show you the outside of my Worn Cover but... I am being cheeky and it is actually going to be my Sunday Stamper for tomorrow so please do pop back if you can to see it... oh and I made a page or two to go inside too... totally carried away with all this fun inking and papering!

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*!   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 Effected...

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 Emportium 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 52 of the book and playing with Effect Powders.  Now, as usual 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. 

Being as we are playing with a product this week, I have returned to my tag making - another one to add to the burgeoning bookring of tags I am accruing!  And, as ever, I have included my little diamond stamp on my design.  The powder colours I used are Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.

I decided that I was doing an "industrial" design... and the words were the first thing I thought of so I worked around those - the whole tag is me tipping me hat to those men who were instrumental in the Industrial Revolution - a subject I am a bit of a nerd on - but don't tell anyone ;O))  In my opinion, they truly did discover a new imagination... coming up with ideas that literally revolutionised the modern world.   The base of my tag was stamped with an image from Tim's Steampunk set - I used Glue & Seal to make a resist technique and once dried, I inked Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs DI's over the tag, splashing with water to make some little bleachy spots for the background.  My diamond stamp and a smidge of script stamping using Archival had the background where I wanted it.

Next up - Gadget Gears to cut my Grungeboard and my powders - following Tim's recipe in the Book and using Rusty Hinge, Black Soot and Walnut Stain DI's to finish the technique.  I stamped my three industrious chaps onto Grungeboard, cut them out, coloured them with a bit of Vintage Photo and then did a smidge of the technique around their hats and the cut along the bottom... can't see that though, I covered that up - oops! This pic shows how "deep" my tag is... I love building up lots of height on my projects... the taller the better!
 

Oh what fun I had with embellishmentizing my tag!  I LOVE embellies... yes, you probs know that being as everything I make is covered with them but I especially lurves Idea-ology and I had lots of fun altering some of the bits I added.  The Faucet Knob - that was coloured with Fired Brick and Black Soot Distress Paint and then sanded a bit to make it look worn out.  The Light Bulb in the middle of the cogs will work if the Faucet Knob is turned 241 times counter-clockwise, 621 turns clockwise and then 13 turns counter-clockwise again... ahem... mmm.  Moving on... The massive arrow - that was painted with Black Soot DP and smudged to make it dull and a bit of the silver was revealed.  And finally, a strip of Ruler Ribbon for the bottom of the tag and a thrice of resistors to adorn it.  Here are the cogs close up -  you can see the cool technique in this pic:

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*!   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 Framelitted...

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 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 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 63 of the book and playing with Stamps & Framelits.  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. 

This week I made a tag for my entry!  I know!  Fancy that!  A tag!  Actually, I am getting quite a little collection of tags now and they are all on a bookring, I thinks I will be needing a bigger bookring tho!  The nature of the technique this week means that we are making embellishments/toppers for our creations so I decided to add in one of my favourite techniques for the background of the tag... and that be the Glue & Seal Resist technique.  There are lots of different resist techniques out there but this is one of my faves because the Glue & Seal is Matte which means my background remains Matte too... you could use a Glossy Glue & Seal and have a shinier resist if that is what you prefers though.   I popped some Glue & Seal onto my craft sheet and spread it thinly and then dabbed the large background from Tim's Papillon set... the perfect stamp to go with the French Flight Framelits set I am using on this project.  Once stamped, a quick zap with a heat tool to dry the Glue & Seal and then I got playing with Distress Inks.

I used Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Victorian Velvet and Walnut Stain DI's to blend over the background and then misted a rag with water and wiped off the excess ink to show the resist up even more.  The background looked ok but it needed *something* extra, so I added a few strips of Tissue Tape - again, mirroring the background stamp, I used the Boulangerie Tissue Tape along with the diamond (to go with the usual stamped diamonds) and a pointy hand just cos I loves that pointy hand tape!  To finish the background I cut down a Journal Ticket and added some Remnant Rubs to it... another Paris reference and another pointy hand... you would think I had thought this out right?   I snuck in another little technique on this bit too... adding Distress Ink over the top of the Remnant Rubs so another resist technique added to the mix.

For the Stamps & Framelits bit, I used Tim's new Wallflower Vellum... ohlalalaaaaa!  I is in lurves with this delish new paper... it is as perfect as the regular papers... but vellum!  It is a yonk and a half since I used vellum and I forgot how great it is to play with.  I used Jet Black Archival to stamp the Eiffel Tower and Butterflies... and for the little Fleur De Lys, I stamped in the same ink and popped some Frosted Crystal Antiquities Embossing Powder over the top... just to add the very smallest amount of bling to the creation.  Once cut out, I shaped the butterflies and added those to the tag, glued on the Eiffel Tower and then used a bit of 3D glue to add the Fleur so it is raised up a bit.  Now, regular visitors to this old bloggy will be well aware of my ineptitude for tying a bow.  I once spent a whole weekend at a cardmaking class attempting to tie a bow and, much to the disgust of all around me, I still couldn't get it to look neat.  Imagine how chuffed I was when I saw that the Ink Goddess that is Paula Cheney, has THE perfect way of tying a big old blousy bow... and it couldn't be more SIMPLES!!!  THANK YOU PAULA!!!  *I loves Paula, she is THE BOSS of all things beautiful, CLICK HERE to visit her blog*   As ever, with my Compendium tags, I had added in the little Diamond stamp... I think this is probably my most used stamp and I thought when I first started out this "use the same stamp on each entry" lark, I would get bored with it... well, not yet... I likes the continuity :O)
 

I had fully intended to be a good gal and take step by steps of the background taking shape... but then I forgot and by the time I remembered it was almost done so I will do a different tag in the next few days and pop it on here.  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 inspirational day!  TTFN


Hels x

Curiously Faded...

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 58 of the book and playing with Faded Layers.  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 is a tag... as planned, all the challenges that I can do on a tag, I will do... and the reason?  Well, once the challenge has finished I will have a lovely aide memoire to flick back through... and if the old Mojo goes on his holibobs, I will be able to hopefully tempt him back with some of the ideas I have used during the challenges.

I can't tell you how I achieved my background... in keeping with the challenge rules, you will have to check out Page 58 yourself to learn all about it :O)   I can tell you, however, the goodies that I used!   Starting out with Cool Peri, Pool and Cloudy Blue Alcohol Inks to get some colour down and Tim's Bubbles and Diamonds Layering Stencils to do the technique, I cut my cardstock down to fit onto a Size 8 tag.  I edged around the card with a black Sharpie marker to give it a nice finished edge and then set about adding a very small smidge of stamping.  I didn't want to overdo the stamping as it would have detracted from the subtle techniquey bit.  Finally I have remembered to take a few pics of the "assemblage" bit... so here we go:

I used Jet Black Archival to stamp my little diamonds (this is my most used and fave Tim stamp and I use it on everything... and plan to use it on each entry for the CC3C... a bit of continuity eh?)   The flourishes are Remnant Rubs... I have got the mini flourish stamp that matches but I fancied using Remnant Rubs for a change and a bit of extra texture.   Check out that top flourish... looks like it is floating in mid air right?  For the time being it is... instead it is so positioned so it pops out from under my flowery adornments :O)

Using some of Tim's Paper String, I wrapped around the coloured cardstock and tied a little Heart Charm onto it using a jump ring... I like to add a bit of "natural" to bright projects like this to calm them down a bit... hey this is bright... I am out of my comfort zone lol

I always add something to the top of a tag... and the Linen Ribbon is my FAVE stuff to use.  I picked up a Charm Clip and popped the Linen Ribbon through it, ready for poking through the tag hole.  You will notice that the Philosophy Tag is missin from the finished tag.. that is because it dangled tooo much and blocked out the flowers at the top.. so off it came!  The Ornate Plate has an Adage Ticket inside it, just lightly coloured with a smidge of Broken China DI to make it tone in nicely.  A clip full of pearls and a Chain Tassel for even more embellishmentybobs was also added to the Ornate Plate... ya can never have too many embellibobs!

Using Distress Core-dinations and Tim's Flower Garland and Spring Greens dies, I cut some flowers and leaves and once sanded to reveal the core, I layered up the flowers and then added little Custom Fasteners to the centres.  And voila... all finished!

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 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

Sunday Stamper - Week 305 - Wheels of Steel

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Many thanks for all your grand entries to last weeks challenge.   This week the theme is.... WHEELS.   You can interpret this in loads of different ways: wheels on a stamp, a vehicle that has wheels, you could add wheels to a 3d piece,  you could add wheels to a little birdy (hey, I love doing that! Every birdy needs a set of wheels!)   To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something, it can be anything you fancy.   Add in some stamping and then pop back here to leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come visiting.  If you haven't got a blog/photo-hosty-thingy, you can also join in via Facebook (just tag my name) or by sending me a small res. pic via email.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 3rd May 2014.

My entry this week is actually a birthday card I made for our mate Richard.   Now, Richard just happens to love trains (that's why he is our friend right? No, not just cos he is owned by Jerry the Springer ;o) and when Rachel from Darkroom Door sent me this deeeeelish Steam Locomotive stamp to play with, I knew immediately that it was going to be used for my card.  HERE are the deets of how to get the stamp.   I started out by stamping the image in Jet Black Archival onto cream card and set about colouring it by squidging Distress Inks onto my craft sheet and then using a waterbrush to pick up the colour - I could have used Distress Markers but... erm... remember I tidied up?  Well, yes, um, they are... somewhere safe!

I used some of Tim's Destination papers to create some layers for the background of the card and used Gathered Twigs DI to blend around the edges, Tim's Paper Distresser (well, not his actual one, I think he may miss that lol) so scruff up the edges of the papers and a few Remnant Rubs to add a bit of interest to the papers.   The clock is from Tim's Thrift Shop Ephemera pack (I LOVE those packs... full of special ickle bits and bobs!)   I knew that I wanted to add something else to the card... but what?  Aha!  The Hardware Findings Alterations die!  Oh yesh, cut two of the long strappy jobbies (ok, they have a name but I am having a moment, can't remember it) out of Grungepaper, coloured with Gathered Twigs DI and then scruffed up with Tim's Tonic Scratchery Scruffery tool (yes, that too has a special name but again, that moment is still happening lol)  And there you have it! 

Today I am filled with joyful anticipation!  I shall be planting more seeds in the greenhouse and potting on ones that have already come up!  I know, I know, getting excited about doing planty stuff in a greenhouse!  I surely know how to live life on the edge!!!   I will pop a few piccies of the greenhouse on this week and how the plants are coming along - I have longed for a greenhouse for an absolute yonk so finally, my fingers can become green!  And on that bombshell, I shall bid you all a very goodly day and say... Thanks for looking!!  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

Sunday Stamper - Week 283 - String of Pearls

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Big thanks for all the cracking carmine creations (oooh, la!la!) entered for last weeks challenge.  This week the new theme is.... STRING.  To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something, it can be anything you fancy.  Add in the theme AND some stamping and then pop back here to leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry.  If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (simply tag my name on your upload) or via email and attaching a small res pic for me to see (my email addy can be found by clicking on my photo over in the sidebar)  If you wish to view other peoples entries, simply click on their link in the comments box and you will be transported to their blog.   The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 23rd November 2013.

My entry this week is a rather festive tag.  I saw Tim do a fab technique ages ago and I haven't had a chance to play til now.  Basically, you get some rub on's. Rub them on and then ink over the top and the rub on is resisted... so whilst you can still see it, it also has a great light outline around the edge of the image.  I used a Wrinkle Free Distress technique for my tag, adding Iced Spruce, Broken China, Pine Needles and Salty Ocean Distress Inks to the tag... I love the little dapples you get with this technique.   I added some stamping to the base of the tag - firstly, using Aquamarine Archival and a Diamonds stamp from Kaisercraft... and then a gorgeous flourish stamp from a really old Tim Xmas set and Jet Black Archival so that popped from the background.

I used grungeboard to die cut the Pine Tree and then coloured it with Pine Needles and Vintage Photo DI's.  Then I got the old Rock Candy Distress Glitters out and by running Glossy Accents around the edges of the boughs, I made some "snow" for the tree.  I have had this leaping reindeer lurking around on the shelf above my desk for 376 years so I thought I would allow him to become arty... I coloured him with Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain DI's and then again, using Glossy Accents, added Tarnished Brass Glitter to his antlers and Vintage Photo Glitter to his body.  A length of string around his neck with a bell finished him off nicely.   I added some more string to the tree trunk and also to the top of the tag... et voila! 

I am scheduling this post today - Friday - as I am away this weekend... hoping it posts at the right time!  So, if you entered later in the week to last weeks challenge, sorry I haven't had a chance to visit, I shall be on my way around on Monday (tomorrow... )   Thanks for looking, have a great day!  TTFN

Hels x