Curiously Monoprint...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of the very last Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge *sad face*.  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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 48 of the book and trying out the Layering Stencils Monoprint technique.  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.  

I absolutely LOVE this technique and had much fun playing and using different colours.. so much so, I was in a quandry which tag to choose to show you!  I plumped for this one as it is lovely and bright and uses my fave stencil... the Flourish one.  As ever, it is a tag I am offering and yes, there be little snippets of my harlequin stamp on there... well, it is the last challenge of the book so I had to use it!

I chose Distress Inks and used Twisted Citron, Fossilized Amber, Picked Raspberry and Mermaid Lagoon for the technique.  I decided to keep the embellies simple... then got all over excited and started layering up paper flowers, colouring Idea-ology Foliage with Distress Paint and generally going for it instead of keeping it simple.  Well, I do find it really hard to leave the embellies off... and it is the last challenge so it would be rude not to... right?

I just want to say a mahooosive thank you to Linda for organising these fab challenges... and to my lovely teamies on the Curiosity Crew, it has been a magnificent 34 weeks working alongside them... and I am still so honoured to have been asked to take part in the challenges.  Also, thank you to each and everyone of you who has left me comments... and to everyone who has joined in with the challenges each time - it has been great to see all your fab interpretations of the techniques and themes.  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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Altered...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   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.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 45 of the book and trying out the Altered Surfaces technique.  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.  

I had much fun playing with this technique.  I made *another* tag for my collection.  This one started off with a piece of Tim's Correspondance papers laid over the tag and stuck down with Glue & Seal.  I wanted the paper to be more in the background so I knocked it back with a wash of Antique Linen Distress Paint, watered down and applied with Cut & Dry foam... this lets the pattern still show but not as brightly.  I edged the tag with Walnut Stain DI just to age it up a bit.  Of course, there has to be some stamping so I used my little harlequin stamp and Jet Black Archival ink.

I used Tim's Flourish Stencil and Wendy's Black Embossing Paste... then sprinkling Ranger's Queen's Gold embossing powder over the embossing paste.  Once the paste had dried, I heated up the embossing powders so they melted onto the textured surface.  I love this technique!  The heart is sticky back canvas stuck to Grungeboard, die cut using a Movers & Shapers heart, sprayed with Fired Brick Distress Spray Stain and then wrapped with a bit of rusty wire.  I added on my "altered surfaces" and a bit of flower trim and voila, finished!

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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Faux Cracked...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 54 of the book and trying out the Faux Cracked Glass technique.  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.  

You have heard the saying "they suffered for their art" right?  Well, I sure did suffer for my art for this project... I ate me bodyweight in pickled onions so I had the jar I wanted to transform!  I have done this technique on several size bottles before but I wanted a big old fella to jazz up as I am going to be using it as a pen/brush pot.  *ok, so I may have had help eating said pickled onions from Grim... and I may have had this jar kicking around for a few weeks, waiting patiently for its transformation... but it sounded good... didn't it?*

Instead of using the inks suggested by Tim in the book, I decided to try out Distress Spray Stains... I have to say I am rather chuffed with the results.  I used Frayed Burlap, Forest Moss and Vintage Photo sprays... letting them soak right into the crackles and then heating the jar to set them.  Of course, they are waterbased so won't be as permanent as the inks suggested... but this won't be getting wet so... it works for me! 

The roses were made using Tim's Tattered Florals and Mini Tattered Florals Movers & Shapers dies and Correspondance papers... a few leaves from the Mini Tattered Leaves die and a few twiggy bits gave me the embellies I wanted.  I cut a plaque using manila card, inked it with Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans DI's and then stamped one of my fave Studio 490 sentiments and of course, added my little harlequin stamp too. To finish I wound some string around the jar to make it a bit more rustic... and voila, one altered jar! 

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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Eroded.....

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   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.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 44 of the book and trying out the Eroded Metallic technique.  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 another tag for the collection.  I used Cracked Pistachio, Bundled Sage and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Paints and Brushed Pewter Metallic Distress Paint.  Once I had done the technique and got the look I wanted, I gave the tag a quick slap of Glue & Seal to.. um.. seal it!  Here's the tag before I decorated it... 'scuse the shiny bit... I can't for the life of me take a decent photo!

A smidge of stamping using my little harlequin and Jet Black Archival Ink and edging with a black Sharpie to just give the whole design a frame, I then moved on to making a big fat rose embellishment.  This was made by cutting three Tattered Florals flowers from manila card and colouring with the same Distress Inks and overstamping with my fave Studio 490 background stamp.  I then assembled the flowers into a rose and added a couple of leaves and a few Winter Green diecuts to finish it.   The little Heirloom Roses were coloured with Pool Alcohol Ink.

The Ornate Plate was coloured with Cracked Pistachio and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Paints... dried off and then I smudged a bit of Black Archival over to age it up a bit.  The centre for the Ornate Plate was made using more card and DP's and Tim's word from the Stuff to Say stamp set.  A little bit of ribbon to finish and voila!  Another finished tag for the collection.

Apologies for being missing in action for the past couple of weeks.. I have an incredibly good excuse tho!  I have Ellen visiting from America and all thoughts of blogville and such-like have gone right out of the window as we've been gadding off into the wilds of Yorkshire and have been a tad busy sitting around yakking all day! Bad girl!  I will be back to normal service this coming week tho :O)    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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Ombre'd

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 57 of the book and trying out the Alcohol Ink Ombre technique.  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.  

As ever, I have maded a tag for my entry.... and I made a concerted effort to keep it simple.  I am one for chucking a load of layers and embellies onto whatever I make (oh, you noticed!) and the sentiment I chose kind of decided how the whole tag was going to look. Nice and simple... plus it shows off the ombre perfectly too.

Once I had the background how I wanted it, I used Wendy's Cornflower Archival Ink (my fave colour .. ok, they are all faves but this one is extra fave!) and stamped a little design at the bottom... and then decided to add some scripty bits but didn't want it to overshadow the paler top half of the ombre, so I used Ranger's Ultramarine and the script was a "second generation" image... basically, I stamped the script onto scrap paper first and used the leftover ink for the main thing... look closely, it is there... just a bit shy for the photo!  I inked some more gloss card with the same colours for stamping my butterflies onto and once cut out, I inked the backs with Mermaid Lagoon DI so there were no bare bits showing.  And yes, there be the little harlequins sitting there... they have appeared on all my entries so it is continuity and not just me being mad!

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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Smudged...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 42 of the book and trying out the Smudge Stamping technique.  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.  

Another challenge, another tag for the collection!   This technique is one that I do love muchly and admit I don't use it oft enough... time to remedy it on this tag as I used it not only on the background but also on the rose and the leaves too!  Overkill?  Nahhh, you can never have too much of a goodly thing, right?  Here's what the tag looked like before the addition of "extras".

I went back in time with the stamping - using Tim's older sets makes me happy... it reminds me where I hopped onto the Tim Train... which was in 2006, blimey!  NINE years!  Nine very happy and inky years, I hasten to add.  The main stamp set is Urban Tapestry... the alpha on the rose and leaves is from Artful Artifacts... a much loved stamp that hasn't seen ink for a wee while!

The rose was made from cardstock, die cut using Tim's Tattered Florals, coloured with Antique Linen, Stormy Sky and a smidge of Black Soot DI and assembled into a rose... for a full tut on how to make the rose like this, check over there *points left* as there be a full on photo tutorial that I did yonks ago... I still make them exactly the same way and always get a great looking rose.  The leaves are from Tim's Garden Greens die and I typed out the sentiment on my old Underwood typewriter... I even did the technique on the card I used for the words... see, I told you I loves this technique!!! 

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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Frameworked...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   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.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 64 of the book and playing with Framework Alterations Dies.  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.  

As ever, I have made a tag for my entry.  Before I waffle on alarmingly about how I made my tag, I will answer a few comments I have been left have suggested that the Curiosity Crew's entries are all "way out there" and "I'd never be able to make that"  So, this week I have done a really simple tag... that way, if you are a bit daunted by this world of Distress, you can start off with a nice easy project... feel free to use this design if you would like to... just let me know you have so I can come and visit you.

To start the tag, I scribbled Bundled Sage, Stormy Sky and Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint onto my craft sheet and spritzed with water, I then dipped and dragged the tag through the painty mix and dried it.  By spritzing as it is drying,  you can make the paint move about a bit... don't forget, once it is dry, it is waterproof and won't budge.  This is a cool thing too, paint that's waterproof means you can add ink... which I did, blended the same colours over the top to add depth and then Gathered Twigs around the edges.  My Frameworks were cut out of Grungepaper covered with bookpages for the actual framey bit and the innards are a combo of black card, Grungeboard and patterned papers.   I have gone all retro with my stamping... the large background is on a really old Tim set of stamps... tis Urban Tapestry CMS061 if you are interested!  That was done with Jet Black Archival...as was my little harlequin stamp.   A zap from a heat tool to set the stamping I could then assembled the Frameworks.  I added Glossy Accents to a few of the chambers to add a bit of interest.  You'll find when you scribble paint onto your craft sheet that there's loads left over after you've dipped your tag... perfect for mopping up with spare card... which then comes in really handy for colour co-ordinated stamping card.  That's what the butterflies and sentiment are stamped onto. Finishing touches are the little rusty wire bodies and the ribbon which was coloured with the same Distress Spray Stains to match the background.  Voila, easy-peasy tag!

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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Remnantly Rubbed...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 51 of the book and playing with Tim's Remnant Rubs.  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.  

As usual, I have made a tag for my entry.   Once I had "done the technique" with the Remnant Rubs, I used Distress Spray Stains to colour over the tag base.  I used Cracked Pistachio, Wild Honey and Crushed Olive.  I chose the Sprays because I am addicted to them... pure and simple!  Distress Inks or Stains work equally as well with this cool technique though.  Here's what my tag looked like before I got decorating.  (and yes, the ickle harlequin stamp has made its way onto the tag!)

Next came the decoration.  It was obvious that I was going to grab the butterfly from Tim's new Perspective stamp set... well, I seem to have used it on practically everything I have made recently!  I have been stamping twice and layering the wings... so I decided to add in another layer and stamped the image three times, cutting each layer slightly smaller so Mr Butterfly really is a big old blousey creature now.   I coloured the wings with the same colours but this time using Distress Inks to get the colour intensity I wanted.

I have some of Tim's Framed Alpha Parts so I snipped one out and then cut it down to individual words... I wanted to created a little more depth on the tag than just having it as one piece.  I coloured the bits with the same colours of Distress Paint, part drying and then wiping off the excess paint to show the black base through.

The butterfly needed something to sit on so I used an Industrious sticker frame... colouring this with the same colours of Distress Paint, blending them a bit with my finger and then heat setting it and smudging off the wet bits... I love this technique... it is so cool to age up stuff.

Finishing touches are a few bits and bobs of Idea-ology.  The Heirloom roses were coloured with Wendy's Orange Blossom Archival re-inker and ink, the Dewdrops were coloured with Hazelnut Alcohol Ink and I popped a Sheild Charm on with a smidge of ink to colour the little paper insert thingy.  And there you have it!

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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Cutting...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 62 of the book and using the Dimensional Cutting Plate.  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.  

Another tag appearing for my entry to the challenge... this one has a bit of a textured background... I had this idea that I would create some extra dimension to the dimension I would be cutting using the Plate.   And as ever, my little harlequin stamp makes another appearance.  I had a bit of a result last weekend too.. I finally found the Tim stamp set (clear stamps) with the diddy little harlequin on it... yay!  I now have three different sizes in this same design... I shall be harlequinning all over the place!

My tag base had some Texture Paste added through a Layering Stencil and then I added Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass and Dusty Concord Distress Paints... and then tried out this new idea I had a few months ago that has been buzzing around my bonce and I hadn't really had a chance to try it out.  So.  Once the background of DP's is set, it looks really pretty but... it is a bit too clean looking for me.  I likes a nice antiquey shabby look.  Inking over the top with Vintage Photo DI looks cool but it just wasn't rich enough... so I decided to slap a layer of Glue & Seal over the top... this activates the DI and once dried it is completely waterproof.... hello Faux Sepia, a new technique!!!   I will do a proper tut later next week :O)

Now once I had my butterflies dimensionally cut I decided to make sure that they weren't just left a bit boring ... no butterfly likes a bare behind after all.  I inked the wings with Broken China DI and then overstamped with a script using Jet Black Archival.... and then made a little plaque of card and Tissue Tape coloured with the same DP's to sit directly on the tag behind so it shows when the wings are raised... cool huh?

Decorations are layers of Prima Flowers... a gorgeous Studio 490 butterfly stamped onto card and inked with DI's and a few bits and bobs of Idea-ology.

Anyways... that's it from me for today... 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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Rock Candied...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   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.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 55 of the book and playing with Rock Candy Distress Glitter.  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.  

As per usual I have made a tag for my entry.  Before I waffle on, I shall answer a couple of questions I have been asked recently: "what do you do with all the tags you make?"   Well, that depends!  For example, the ones for the Compendium Challenge, have made it onto a big old book ring and will eventually be turned into wall art... the rest... they usually go into a basket and serve as a "mojo-buster" should the Old Cad Mojo swan off on his holibobs.  Occasionally I will pop one onto a card blank.   Another question: "why do you make mostly tags?"  I love tags, the size is perfect for me to work on, I love the manila surface to play on and I guess, they just make me happy.    And another: "What size tag do you use?"  My favourite size is Ranger's Size 8 Manila... I LOVE this cardstock SO muchly!  Hope that answers a few of you :O)   Anyways.. on with the challenge!  My tag! I started with my tag and spritzed Milled Lavendar, Antique Linen and Seedless Preserves Spray Stains over it, misting with water to get a nice drippy effect and dried it with a heat tool. 

Now, 213 years ago I was lucky enough to see a rare demo morning with Tim himself in a little craft shop in London.  It was upon that day that I fell hook, line and sinker for all things Tim and Distress!  I treated myself to a couple of wood-mounted Tim stamps (this was just as Tim released his very first 10 unmounted sets and the shop didn't have them in yet!) One of the stamps was Peacock Flourish - which is now on the unmounted set Tattered Elements - and it has remained a much beloved stamp of mine.   I used Seedless Preserves Distress Ink and did the technique as outlined on Page 55 of the book.  Isn't that glitter just soooo pretty?  I don't normally "do" glitter, I hate the way the stuff flies all over the place and ends up in places that glitter really has no business of being!  However, Distress Glitter is a complete different animal... it doesn't flap about, it isn't static and... best of all, it looks realllly chunky but is so smooth.. oh and better than best of all... you can ink it!  YAY!

Once I had the background how I wanted it (and.. ooopsie-daisies, I forgot to get a photo of the background before I decorated it) I set about layering up some decorative bits.  I used manila cardstock (Ranger) and did the same Spray Stain spritzes to colour it, die cut it with the Tattered Florals die and made a rose *points left - see full photo tut in sideybar on how I make my roses*   I then cut some Garden Green leaves, added bits and bobs of trim and ruler ribbon and Idea-ology and then got out the old Underwood (ahem, did I mention I loves my old Underwood?) and typed a few words... and voila, assembled!  I liked the look of it but it still needed something... so I grabbed some Crinkle Ribbon and followed the awesome Paula Cheney's bow tutorial... I LOVE how she makes those bows soooo easy... thank you Paula!  I make no secret of the fact I think she is a ROCK star in this world of craft we inhabit.

Anyways... that's it from me for today... 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*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Watercoloured... Part II

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 40 of the book and doing the Distress Watercolour Part 2 technique.  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.  

As usual, I have made a tag for my entry.. I am getting quite a nice collection of them now and I need a bigger bookring to store them on.  I have decided that come the end of the challenge series (sob, I don't want that to ever happen... Mr Holtz, get writing Book 4 now please!!!) I will mount all the tags onto a big old board and pop them onto the wall in the Room of Stash... I do enjoy flicking through the bookring though... it is nice to see what I have made (I am of an age now where I cannot remember what I did this morning, let alone a few months ago lol)

Anyways, my tag!  I cut a piece of Distress Watercolour Paper down to size and then stamped Mr Snooty from Tim's Time Travellers stamp set using Jet Black Archival Ink.  I then used the following Distress Markers for colouring: Black Soot, Pumice Stone, Scattered Straw, Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Brushed Corduroy, Forest Moss and Walnut Stain.  I LOVE Distress Markers the best for colouring in... I am rubbish at colouring in so these are very forgiving being waterbased.  

Of course, Mr Snooty is a lovely old chap but he needed some embellies.. so I dug around my Idea-ology boxes and grabbed Mini Cogs, Sprockets, Word Band,  Compass Coin, Nib, Arrow, Bulb, Washers and Mini Fastners... piled them all on with a scrap of Ruler Ribbon and then because you can never have too many metal embellies I popped some chain with a Clip and a Philosophy Token to make a link between the ribbon a-top the tag and the sidey bit... The base tag was coloured with Walnut Stain DI and then I added Walnut Stain and Black Soot Distress Embossing Powders over the top, heated them, removed the crystals and got a cool grungey background for the main image to sit on :O)

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*!  Wishing you all a very crafty 2015.. may your fingers be forever inky :O))   Thanks for looking, have an inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Frayed...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another 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... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Inspiration Imporium this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, 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 66 of the book and doing the Frayed Fabric technique using Tim's gorgeous Eclectic Elements fabric.  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.  

Before I waffle on I shall say a very Happy New Year to you all and wish you all the very best for 2015... let's hope it brings all our dreams come true! 

My entry for this weeks' challenge is another tag to add to the collection.  Now, for those who have read my blog for a while, you may have got the gist that I am not a sewist... nope, I struggle to thread the machine, let alone get a stitch out of it.  Grim bought me a little diddy machine a few years ago and that did ok until it ran out of thread and yep, I struggled to get more thread into it.  I am that thick... really!   I knew that I was going to have to do something about this not being a sewist issue... so I hatched a cunning plan.  A plan so cunning that Jock McCunning from Sneakyville would be amazed by it.   What did I do?  I collected together all the ingredients needed for my tag and popped next door to see my lovely neighbour Carol, who is an expert sewist and asked her to... um... help do it for me.  *insert gasps of shock*  I know, I kind of cheated... ok, I really cheated but in my defence, I happen to like Carol muchly and should she have allowed me loose on her beautiful sewing machine, I would have broken it... so better safe than sorry and all that.... ahem.... and I did do all the decorating bits meself...

Anyways, the decorations:  I popped some of the Eclectic Elements fabric (apparently I had a fat quarter, whatever that may be... it was indeedily gorgeous but not that fat...) onto a piece of black Clearly For Art using Glue & Seal and once this had dried, I used Tim's Mini Tattered Florals Movers & Shapers die to cut out a few spikey flowers, the Heart M&S die to cut the... um... heart and a few leaves from the Mini Tattered Leaves die.   In order to see the diecuts, I firstly dulled the print of the fabric on the heart using a smidge of Antique Linen Distress Paint, secondly spritzed the flowers with Wild Honey and Broken China Distress Spray Stains and thirdly, inked the leaves with Forest Moss Distress Ink.  Hey, the fabric takes Distress sooo well! Result!  I used my Scratchy Tool to fray the edges of the shapes to make them a bit shabby and then heated the CFA from behind to shape them.

Last year I treated myself to something I have been longing to own for a very long time... an old Underwood typewriter!  I had been a-mooching around eBay one Sunday evening and spotted a portable Underwood on a listing that was just about to end and it was dirt cheap... so I snuck in and popped a bid in at 4 seconds to go.. and won it!  Hurrah!  Now I have got the Room of Stash nice and tidy, I have finally got room for it to be used...  high time I got typing!  One of my all time fave songs is P.S. I Love You by The Beatles and this song has been floating around my head for a few days... so it seemed right to type the words and pop them onto my tag.   Oh and do you see the little harlequin stamp made an appearance too?  Well, it has to be used for continuity... and cos I loves it muchly of course.

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*!  Wishing you all a very crafty 2015.. may your fingers be forever inky :O))   Thanks for looking, have an inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Pocketed...

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 Funkie Junkie Boutique 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 36 of the book and playing with Pocket Pages.  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.  

Tickets ready to be popped onto artwork

If you remember, a few weeks ago we looked at making over Worn Covers and since then, my Covers have sat on the shelf, quietly admired but totally ignored for any additional art.  The Pocket Pages are perfect for fitting into the Worn Cover and I had lots of fun making loads of different things to fit inside them.

In keeping with the overall design of the covers... more collages Wallflower papers

The Pocket Pages have lots of different configurations which means that you can add small bits and bobs right up to full size 8 tags.  Over the next few days I will add more photo's of the things I have made - otherwise this post would take you 17 hours to read!

Oooh, folded tags!

So these pics are just an "overview" of the things I did.... and I also made lots of backgrounds on tags.... I had a good old play with Distress Spray Stains so I now have 6 tags ready to stamp and decorate, which is perfect for my "Week of Art" which always takes place between Xmas and New Year.   Grim is always working over the festive period and there's only so much tellybox I can watch so I normally repair to the Room of Stash and get inky... what plans do you have for that "week inbetween?"

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!  And... HAVE  A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR... HOPE TO SEE YOU IN 2015.   Thanks for looking, have an inky inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x


PS... check back tomorrow, there will be one of the tags I finished on the Sunday Stamper :O))