Sunday Stamper - Week 284 - Fields of Gold

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all.  Big massive thanks for all the gorgeous entries for last weeks challenge.  This week sees a return of a theme... and one of my fave songs ever too.  The theme is... GOLD.  To join in is simples: make a little something, it can be anything you fancy.  Add in the theme and some stamping and then pop back here and leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry.  If you haven't got a blog, worry not, you can also join in via Facebook (just tag my name on your upload)  or via email, attaching a small pic and description how you made your entry.  You can find my email addy by clicking on my piccie over in the left hand sidebar.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 30th November 2013.

My entry this week is my class sample from Friday's class at Birds in the Barn.  Thanks to Janet for hosting the class (and making me so welcome, as usual) and to the lovely ladies who came along to play.  As it is a workshop sample, I won't go into too much detail how I maded my creation... all I will say is that tonnes of ink, Distress and Archival, paint, embellies and gorgeous Tim Holtz Alterations dies were used.  The gold element is from the little snowflake embellies - simply coloured with Treasure Gold and some other bits and bobs that I popped onto my creation to make it pretty.

Each year, since 2007, I have made an 8" x 8" piece for Christmas... be it a canvas, shadowbox or frame.   Every Christmas they are displayed in the living room along with the rest of the decorations.  It is nice to unpack them every year - they get stored in the loft for the rest of the time - and remember what I used and how I made the creations... and also, I can see the different techniques I have learnt over the years.  I have been playing around this year, making Christmas stuff... but, no cards yet!  I know!  I am a baaaaad girl!  I was planning on a mammoth card making sesh today... but I have a much better plan for today now... oh yesh, me and Ellen are having one of our Skype Sunday sessions... I can't wait... it is toooo long since we had a chance to sit and get crafty together!

But before I can do anything remotely crafty, I needs to get my Room of Stash sorted out.  Going out teaching is brilliant, I loves it... what I no likey is the unpacking of the boxes at the end of it all.  And last week I put it off... but no!  This week I am going to be uber organised and get it all done and dusted so I have two desks for me and Ellen to play at.  I usually pop her onto the spare desk, well, not her really, that would be hilarious though... no, I pop the laptop onto the spare desk so it is just like she is right here with me.  Thank heavens for whomever invented Skype!  They are a genius!!!

I had a bit of a "do" in the night last night!  I haven't been sleeping too well of late.  You know that thing when your brain won't shut off and it keeps on buzzing like it is on a treadmill?  Well, mine has been even bossier and has been on a cross trainer for the past few weeks.  Add to that the old war wound is playing up... sleeps has been a bit elusive.  Last night I was sooooo knackered (although I managed to watch Dr Who, OMG, how amezzzzin' was that!!!) anyways... knackered old carcass in bed and bam, sleeps!  Not even a full page of book read!  Hurrah!  Well, not so much hurrah when two hours later I somehow managed to fall out of bed!  (again at that!) When I say "fell", it was more of a slither!   I am blaming pyjama's.  And now I just typed that I am wondering... have I mis-used the apostrophe?  Pyjamas?  Pyjama's... uh-oh!  Well, I blame my pyjama bottoms!  *ha got around the apostrophe quandry there ... teehee*   And why do I blame them?  Well, they are a bit slidey and the legs are too long - on account of me being... ahem... a smidge on the sort side.  So... I conclude that the wearing of a pyjama ensemble (see, got out of the apostrophe thing again) is dangerous for your health!  And on that bombshell I shall bid you a very goodly day and say.... thanks for looking!  TTFN

Hels x

P.S - don't forget, I have a giveaway running until 23:59 GMT tonight... CLICK HERE to be in with a chance...

And The Winner Is....

...cor blinking blimey and thriceingtons!!!  Thank you everyone for your lovely comments on the tutorial giveaway post I did on Tuesday!  I had 151 comments! WOW!  Actually, there were a few comments that were duplicates, you know, when you post and Mr Blogger decides to put it on there twice? In one case it was four times!  Anyways, I deleted all those extra ones off so it was fair for all.. .and there were 151 left.  So, I popped that number into Random.Org and the number chosen was...   Number 5 which tallies with the comment left by Miriam.  Congrats to Miriam and thank you all again for your lovely kind words.  Please drop me an email with your shipping deets Miriam... the goodies will be on their way to you next week!

Right, on with todays offering... another demo tag from last weekend at Birds In The Barn... This is my fave one of the day - a lot of goodies that are my faves went onto this tag: I started by scraping a couple of different colours of paint onto the tag and then layering some torn bookpages over the top of it.   Next I added some Dreamweaver embossing paste thru a Studio 490 Stencil for Art and once this had dried I added some smudges of Treasure Gold over the embossy bits to add some bling.

I had stamped an Artemio stamp onto cosmetic tissue for a different demo and had some of it left so I used a smidge of it and applied Ranger's Multi Medium over the top of it to stick it into place collage stylee.  Whilst I was in collage mode, I stamped the Crafty Individuals butterflies onto tissue paper and collaged these with the Multi Medium onto the tag.  Once these had dried, I added a generous splodge of Rock Candy Cracklepaint onto the tag.  I love Rock Candy Crackle because it is clear, it crackles perfectly and... it smells gorgeous too!  Once the crackle had...erm... crackled (!) I set about adding some embellishments to the tag, namely, stamping the butterflies onto bookpage and cutting them out and layering them over the collaged ones... and adding an Artemio metal embellie to the middle of the stencilled flower. Now I do like to add a frame to my arty things so a smidge around the edge of the tag with some black Gesso on a piece of Cut & Dry was just the ticket.

I have a confession to make... hanging head in shame... the Room of Stash... remember the FIVE days I took to tidy it before I went away?  Pointless waste of time.. tis a complete mess again!  I have no excuse other than dire laziness too!  I needs to unpack after last weeks classes and some new stuff has arrived this week in readiness for the trade show and I have samples to make... before I sit and play, I mean work of course, I needs to tidy... so that is where I am now headed... I have a feeling it will be a late night!  Right, I shall away... thanks for looking... have a FAB day! TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 243 - Animal

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all. Many thanks for all the great entries for last weeks challenge.  This week is a nice simples one.... ANIMALS.  To join in is a doddle... simply make a little something, add in the theme AND some stamping and then hop back to leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry.  If you don't have a blog/web-photo-thingy, you can join in via email or on Facebook.  The theme will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 9th February 2013.

This weekend I am teaching and demo-ing  at Birds in the Barn in Essex and Friday's class was all about altering a book.  My entry for the Sunday Stamper this week is the fruit of my labours on Friday... and it all started with these two little guys whom I have fallen in lurves with.   Now, you might recall my waffling on about my collections of hares... I lurves hares, especially moon gazing ones (I reckon it is my inner pagan wanting to escape lol) so when I spied that Crafty Individuals had made these two little fella's I knew I neeeeded them.

And... on Friday morning lovely Janet, the owner of Birds in the Barn, very kindly gave me these two little chaps to keep!  Well, of course, I had to use them straight away and they became the stars of the class. This is the front cover of the book with an aperture cut out to fit the little chaps in behind... They are actually stamped onto a page from the book that I had applied paint to... and they are coloured with Stabilo All pencil and waterbrush... and I just added some foliagey bits using a fine 0.01 marker.  The wheat like grasses were a fluke from moving the pen too quickly, I liked them... so made more!

That is the full page... with, of course, the word WISH on it... cut from Tim's Word Play die... thank you Karen for cutting those for me... and painted black and smidges with Treasure Gold.   The moon is cut from plain bookpage... I sketched it first, then cut it and then applied more Stabilo All around the edges.  The heart is handcut, spritzed with Cherry Pie Dylusions and then I doodled the string onto the page once the pieces were in place.

Before I go... just a very quick shout out:  I have a workshop running in Rochdale on the weekend of 23/24 February with the Jollie Stampers craft group.  The 2 day workshop is called the Treasure Tray: we will be altering a Printer's Tray, using lots of stencils, embossing, stamping, Treasure Gold and trinkets... Unfortunately, one of the ladies has had to drop out so there is one place available for the weekend - this is a two day class and cannot be completed in just one day - for price and details, please drop me an email and I will respond this evening.   Right... I shall away... THANK YOU for all the comments on Friday's blog hop post!! WOW and THRICE WOW!!!  I haven't had a chance to catch up and read all of them yet... being as I have had my teacher hat on this weekend, I shall spend some time this evening catching up when I get home.... tis making me smile very biggly to get so many comments on one post though!!!  **hoping they are all nice rofl**   Oh yesh... I must not forget... tis the Superbowl this evening... and the Baltimore Ravens are playing... so... GO RAVENS!!!   Thanks for looking... have a FAB day!  TTFN

Hels x

On Terra Firma....A Brief Stop From The Magic Carpet

...Actually, technically speaking, so to speak, I am on Terra Firma...but my head is away high up in the clouds...or at least I have to admit that when this piece started out it was supposed to be for the Play Date Cafe challenge which is HERE...but once I got cracking on it the colours I was supposed to be using got covered up with loads of browns and blues and then I added Terra, stamped into it...then went a bit bonkers with the gold paint....erm...so it isn't an entry after all ROFL This is another entry for the OWOH giveaway...I am just so blown away with the amount of comments I have had on the original post that I wanted to add this one it to say THANK YOU for all your lovely comments....




This piece started life as an 8" square canvas which is a cheapy one from The Works...and has a shallow side, which is excellent for flipping over and using as a shadow frame, the recess is just the right depth. I prepped the canvas back with Gesso...a couple of layers which then made the excess canvas curl up, so off that was chopped and then I layered some Terra over the whole of the frame...and whilst this was still relatively wet, I stamped into it with a diamond background and a script stamp. This looked ok but a tad boring...so on went the Trad Tan paint ... ah, yes, I have a confession...I am now on my 10th pot of this and I think I should take out shares in Ranger...I seem to be keeping them afloat with my Trad Tan paint purchases LOL




Once the Trad Tan was dry, I used some blue and then some Sable paint (more of Claudine Hellmuths amazing range) Still a bit boring...so I used some Croco paint and slapped on a few patches of this....think it was the Bronze colour...but to be honest, by the time I had finished faffing with the paint, it kind of got covered a bit.




Still not happy with the frame I hit on the idea of using Gold Ferro...now, if you haven't used it...you must...it is so versatile and has a great texture that is just perfect for stamping into...again, using the diamond pattern...just remember, when stamping into Terra or Ferro so scrub your stamp before it goes in and as soon as it comes out...otherwise it sticks like .. er...stuff to a blanket (note how ladylike I am being today)




Finally I was happy with the frame... so I got the old Melt Pot out and heated up some Beeswax....readied some tissues and napkins and made a collage...using sections of the printed tissues/napkins...cutting out the birdies...and remembering to leave their tails on this time ... and then used some of the plain layers of tissue to stamp onto...using the same ones as used for the frame...and also a cute ickle birdy by Crafty Individuals. I used Timber Brown StaZon for the stamping...blimey, this pad is soooo dry...new one needed immediately I reckon!




The finishing bits were popping some gold Precious Metal paint over the frame, toning in all the colours to a blend I was happy with...and then I added a couple of shapes I made using Fimo and a Push Mold...and added some Micro Beads and pearls...and lastly, the obligatory mini bottle...where would my art be without Trad Tan and mini bottles eh?




Thanks for looking...have a great day and....if you haven't already seen the OWOH posts and giveaways please scroll on down to see what I am entering for the swaps...cheers!

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 88 - Hip To Be Square

Morning Stampers ... have you noticed I am not in my usual place??? Do I look different? Aha, that is cos today I am having to post from....THE BIG COMPUTER! My laptop has passed away (or at least, it will have once I have removed my boot from it...why are computers so annoying, you just get used to it, it understands you, you understand it... and then it goes and plays silly beggars and annoys you so much that you inflict harm on it....ROFL) so Grim has allowed me onto his pride and joy purely to post the new challenge...he just knows how rubbish I am with computers and how I break things, unwittingly of course, but clumsy is, afterall, my middlename ROFL First of all...THANK YOU for all your lovely entries last week... it was lovely to see so many new faces joining in too. I used Random.Org to pick out a winner...basically, using the usual formula, every entry assigned a number in order with date/time posted and then picked out this way...the lucky number was 7. Without further ado, I am pleased to annouce the winner of the "Sponsors" candy from The Artistic Stamper is....

Clarky J - congrats and please email your addy etc to me and I will pop your candy into the post.




Moving on...the new theme this week is....hips....ahahaha, got you going there... really it is SQUARES... and I used some 2" squares of Stampbord to make a little hangy piece. The base is an 8" square canvas oil board which I first painted with ... Traditional Tan (why use anything other when this is THE perfect paint!!!) and then layered some stamped tissue over it using Beeswax to fix it down...the stamping was done with StaZon and are Crafty Individuals stamps and an Artistic Stamper script stamp.





Now, once this was done it was way too in my face, not subtle at all (and, afterall, subtle is my middle name...along with clumsy LOL) so I layered another sheet of plain tissue over the top, using more Beeswax over the top...and then watered down some of the Trad Tan and blended this over the top using Cut & Dry foam. I used some little sprinkles of gold embossing powder to jazz up the edges and randomly over the bumpy bits just to add a bit of emphasis and to close the piece in I dragged a black StaZon around the edges too.




The tiles are all inked with a combo of Adirondack Foam Pigments and Chalk Inks and Colorbox Pigments. I have found that these pigments seem to work the best on Stampbord...basically, just heat set between colourings and stamping...and then I used a scratchy tool to scrape away bits of the images to add some highlights.




Each tile was then UTEE'd with three layers altogether so you get a really cool ceramic look..which doesn't really show up on the photo's too well. I edged all the tiles with gold Krylon to make them nice and neat and then to blend them more into the background I swiped a StaZon around the edges, just roughly, which toned them down a bit.




The stamping was all done with black StaZon and are a bit eclectic this week... no real theme, just some random images that are some of my faves and are from *in no particular order* Crafty Individuals, PaperBag Studio's, Stamp Francisco, Prima, Stampers Anon and The Stamp Bug... I have to admit, this piece is totally unlike the idea I had in my head...so that project, hopefully, will be made today...and will be the One World One Heart giveaway tomorrow :O)) If you are wondering what I am waffling on about, there is a link in my sidebar for you to click on and get transported to the place that is setting it all up...several friends joined in with it last year and loved it...so I thought I would give it a go this year!




Anyway...back to the hangy piece...I added some eyelets and rusty wire for the hangy bit and added a little bead that I nabbed from an old bracelet and a Philiosophy Tag which I dabbed with gold paint and wiped off so the gold stayed in the indentations. Finally, I added some micro beads randomly round the edges, again, they don't show up too well on the pics and some more of the heavenly golden pearls that I am fast running out of now!



To join in with the challenge, all you need to do is make a piece of art, be it a card, ATC, altered, tis up to you, incorporate the theme and some stamping and then pop back and leave me a comment on this post with a link to the place you are showing your piece... then I can hop over and visit you :O)) The challenge will remain open until 23:00 on Saturday 30th January...so you have all week to play!

Thanks for looking and I hope that you all have a great week!

Hels x

Happy 'Mew' Year

...Nope, not a spellling (sic) mistake for a change LOL It actually is a Happy Mew Year for pussycats today...and over on the Gingersnap Creations blog there are 30 more Reasons to Stamp for January...so, if you are stuck for inspiration, why not hop on over there...honestly, there are some amazing pieces of art to look at :O))




I made a tag *groans, not another one!* using some Distress Inks to colour the background and a cute ickle kitty stamp by Lost Coast Designs. The harlequin stamp is by Crafty Individuals and is one of those stamps that I seem to pick up constantly when I want a little infill for a blank area...you know the type I mean? I coloured kitty in with Distress Inks and a waterbrush...and added Stickles to jazz him up...made a little message for him using Studio G Alpha's and then finished off his hat with some Rock Candy Stickles...I love Rock Candy...be it Stickles or Cracklepaint...if you haven't tried it yet...go on, you need to .. it is THE BEST!

Have a great day and thanks for looking...oh and don't forget...today is the last day to join in the Sunday Stamper Mega Candy giveaway...just leave a comment on the post, become a follower and link back to my blog...simple! The winner is being drawn tonight after 23:00 and will be announced tomorrow.

Hels x

Hey Baby...What's Occuring?

...Is anyone else completely mad about Gavin & Stacey? I have actually started to talk with a Welsh accent...and say things like "tidy" and "what's occuring" and "owh, Grim"...Honestly, anyone would think I really was Welsh...well, actually, here is a little known fact... I am actually quarter Welsh, my dear Gran was from Wales...so that filters down doesn't it? And...another quarter of me is Irish...and ... the rest I will save for another day...don't want you falling asleep on me now!




So, the 'Hey Baby'...is a 3" Stampbord circle that I inked, stamped with a Crafty Individuals stamp called Snow Baby and then scratched at it...UTEE'd it and added some little gold specks of embossing powder in..and edged with Gold Krylon...so these colours are perfect as another entry for the Play Date Cafe's challenge this week. I used some Rusty Tin wire (which is lush..there I go again with Gavin and Stacey speak) which was a pressie from my mate Dan. I added a couple of snowflake charms which started out as silver and they have had the Gold Krylon treatment too!




The 'What's Occuring' part of the title is actually for WOYWW...which this week sees my desk looking even more messier than usual...now I have joined in once you can't stop me clicking away with the camera...showing off the messy nature that is Hels! There are some bits on my desk which will be transformed into something else later on...hopefully being able to finish it and blog later today...it is sooo cold in my Room of Stash tho..my fingers have iced up...I am going to be very bad and use an electric heater to try and warm it up in there...the radiator has been turned off because I have a stonking great unit infront of it...nowhere else to put it and it is full of stash I don't want ruining with heat.




So, that is my ramble for this morning...by jove it was FREEZING at 7am...minus 3 according to Ferdy's thermostat...and it seems we have freezing fog decending now too! TTFN....

Hels x

Coffee & Cream

....Over on the Lots To Do challenge blog there is a new theme this week which is a Recipe...and you have to include the following on your entry;

Paint

Metal

Stamping




Aha! Last weekend I learned a few new techniques on the Artsy Crafts weekend and have had to keep schtum all week so the peeps on this weekends course wouldn't have their surprise spoilt....but...I have fallen in love! Yes, I am in love with Terra! I had a pot of it already and didn't really know what to do with it so was chuffed when we learned how to get the best from it...I have used it here on a Maya Road chipboard bracket and then stamped into it and then painted it with Kaisercraft paints and Claudine Hellmuth Studio acrylic paints.




The metal element on my design is a Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 design which I stamped three times - I painted the metal brown, and another piece cream and then used a piece of golden metal so I could layer the flower - backing it onto Grungepaper to make it pliable too.




The little message is stamped onto painted metal and then I scooched the edges before adding some Krylon to them. The gold surface on the texture of the Terra was made using Precious Metal paints...another new fave of mine :O)) I just love these coffee colours...I want all the rooms in my home to be this colour...it is so lush and relaxing! **painting little bits of chipboard is much more fun that big walls tho LOL** Oh and I nearly forgot...the harlequin design which was stamped into the Terra is a fab Crafty Individuals stamp...tis my fave!

Thanks for a FAB challenge .. and thanks for looking. Have a great week

Hels x

Sunday Stampers - Week 52 - Diamonds Are Forever

Morning Stampers,

Thank you ever so much for all your lovely comments and entries last week. I have chosen a winner from the many great suggestions for my "hanging art" re-naming.

And the winner is.......

Liverpool Lou for her suggestion Suspended Art. However, because this is very similar to another suggestion from Shaz (Suspension Art) I have decided to give both of you a prize :O)) I will pop something into the post for you tomorrow. And thank you for the great suggestion, at least now I will have a proper name for all these little boardy things I am making! LOL

Right then, for the challenge this week I have chosen the theme Diamonds. You can use any kind of diamond on your artwork - be it a diamond shape, diamond ring, necklace, real diamonds....actually, scrap that last idea cos that would just be wasteful :O)) All you need to do to join in is make something, card, ATC, altered art, anything really, as long as there is some aspect of stamping included...and then please leave me a message on this post with a link to the place you are showing your work.

I made a card earlier this week for my friend Linda who is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. I can show it now though as she has already opened the card so no surprises are being spoiled!




I used a massive size card that I just got from QVC, believe me, it is huge, almost A4 in size but totally fab for making a special card and getting as much stuff on the front of it as possible, which is always my way!




I stamped a Crafty Individuals diamond stamp in clear embossing ink and then used white UTEE and heat set this. I used Scattered Straw and Pine Needles Distress Ink to colour over the surface of my card mount and spritzed water to get a distressed look. I made a square from Core-Dinations cardstock and ran this through the Cuttlebug using the Diamond Embossing Folder. I then cut this with a Nestabilitie die to make a scalloped square. Next, I sanded the cardstock to reveal the different coloured core of the card. This was mounted behind a piece of card that I had inked and stamped using those fantastic new stamps from Home Impressions. I added a couple of flower stem images to this image and then I attached some beaded fringe to the piece using Glossy Accents.




I used some pieces of lace and ribbon across the card mount, attaching them at different angles so you can see the textures and then using Claudine Helmuth's sticky canvas, I stamped a couple of flower images by Darkroom Door and painted them with Distress Inks. These were attached to the card using silicone glue and then behind them, I pushed a couple of fancy headed pins which I had threaded with beads.




Thanks for looking and I hope that you enjoy the challenge this week.

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 47 - Oh Boy!

Hello Stampers,

First of all, apologies for not being able to get online to see all your creations this last week... I will come and visit you in the next couple of days though, and thank you all for your contributions.

A quick post today - the theme is Boys - I know we have had this one before but it is such a long time ago, I thought some of you may have forgotten LOL

This card was made for a friends birthday.




I used a Crafty Individuals stamps for the card - the Boy's Toys is a favourite of mine, that little fella looks so cute!

I used Shabby Shutters Distress Ink for the background, blending in some Vintage Photo Distress Inks and then once the image was stamped with VersaFine, I painted in his clothes, the train and then added a couple of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology cogs for the train wheel.



The glossy finish on the words is achieved by using a Sakura Glaze pen.

The flourish was stamped in Vintage Photo, embossed with Walnut Stain Distress Embossing powder and then rubbed to release the crystals to reveal the original colour beneath.




Finally, a couple of snaps to attach the image to some Bazzill cardstock and the card was done.

If you would like to join in with the challenge this week, all you need to do is make anything you like, so long as you incorporate a little bit of stamping into your design, leave a comment here for me and I will deffo get around to visitin you!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Hels x

In The News...Lots To Do Challenge Week 2

Morning Peeps,

Over on the Lots To Do Challenge the theme this week is In The News. They wanted us to use newspaper somewhere in the piece of art we make......well, er....I sort of used newspaper :O)) Actually, I made my own, after a fashion LOL

I made two tags for my entry - and I hope that they count seeing as there isn't actually any real newspaper on them!

Tag 1




I started by distressing my tag using Old Paper Distress Ink, which I blended randomly over the tag. I then made a lovely inky messy mixture on my craft sheet by squidging a Tea Dye pad, a Walnut Stain pad and then spritzing with a little mini mister that I filled up with water with a couple of drops of Walnut Stain Re-Inker. I splodged the tag straight onto the inky mixture and then dried with a heatgun. I reapplied the tag to the rest of the mixture and dried again. This gave me a lovely distressed look. Next, using a droplet of Vintage Photo Re-Inker, I dipped the tip of a fine paintbrush into it, then flicked the tag so small droplets of ink landed randomly on the surface of the tag. I spritzed with water and dried again with the heatgun. I love doing these inky techniques ... you get so many different looks just from playing around :O))




Next came the stamping - and this is where I cheated a little bit LOL I used a Tim Holtz Collection stamp that is actually a grungey dictionary definition but is ideal as it is a column. I stamped this using Black Soot ink, leaving gaps on the tag for the next bit of stamping. I used PaperBag Studio's stamps of the two boys to make little photo elements to my "newspaper" Finally, I used Studio G Alpha's to create a headline - and I chose the words "I read the news today ... Oh Boy!" which is actually a line from one of my fave songs, A Day in The Life by The Beatles. I thought that these words went really well seeing as I had the boys in the photo's. I left a little gap at the top of the tag so I could stamp my Inkyness by Hels stamp, which has to be my favest stamp of all time and was a pressie from Jennie at The Artistic Stamper - BTW, all the inky ingredients I have used for these tags can be found there too.




Then, cos the headline didn't really stand out, I used a little Fragment from the Idea-ology range over the top, sticking it down with Glossy Accents.


Tag 2




This tag had already been pre-prepared with some Picket Fence Cracklepaint which had been painted on the top half of the tag. I distressed and coloured the tag in the same way as Tag 1 and then got to the stamping.




I used a PaperArtsy stamp from the Ink & The Dog range, which is actually a Weather Forecast. I used the Tim Holtz stamp again to make some columns above the forecast and then added a Crafty Individuals butterfly stamp as an advertisement, popping a Junkitz "fragment" over the top to emphasise it. I wanted a crackley look all over the tag so I used a Crafty Individuals crackle stamp, stamping using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Thanks for the fab challenge - it got me thinking :O)) And I hope that the tags are ok for it.

Thanks for looking peeps, hope you all have a great day!

Hels xx

Going Green

Morning Peeps,

Oh dear, I have been struck down with Man Flu!!!! Yes, my dearest Grim has been incredibly generous and passed on his dreaded lurgy to me...so I am speaking to you thru a bunged up dnose and with a sore throat....hence the early hour of Blogging...couldn't sleep!! *actually, I have a bit of a sniffle but I thought I would big it up LOL

I felt a bit better last night...had a really bad day with the old pain...so I decided to make another canvas, similar to the one I made for the Sunday Stamper.




I began by colouring the canvas with Olive Green and Dark Moss Chalk Inks. To blend the two together, I used a blending tool with Cut n Dry - I find this is easier than applying the inks direct to the canvas, and it is kinder to the ink pads too as the canvas can be a bit rough.




Once blended, I stamped my new fave stamp, the dotty background by The Artistic Stamper. I used Olive Green StaZon for this bit.




I then selected various shapes of Stampbord and coloured them with the Chalk Inks. I used various images to stamp them up - mainly PaperBag Studio's, Crafty Individuals and a new company to me called Art Journey...these stamps were a pressie from Linda...so thank you Linda, they are gorgeous!! I used the Olive StaZon again to do the stamping and then scratched onto the Stampbord, used a file to rough up the edges and then used Artistic Stamper clear UTEE to make them into tiles.




I edged all the pieces of Stampbord with gold Krylon, not that you can see this on the piccies but when viewed from an angle, the gold edges just make the piece look more finished.




I arranged the Stampbord pieces onto the canvas and then stuck them down with Glossy Accents. I also stamped round the edges of the canvas but I forgot to get the photo's of the sides!!




One of the piccies is a duplicate, by the way, mainly because I usually place a towel on the work top to do my photography...and AlfieCat, who loves to lay on towels, jumped up and made himself a bed right on top of the canvas, thank goodness it was all dried otherwise I would have had a sticky cat!! LOL




Am off to find the Lemsip now and groan a little bit at Grim in the hope of some sympathy!! :O))

Thanks for looking.....

Hels xx