Sunday Stamper - Week 368 - Pipes of Peace

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy blustery  Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your entries into the last challenge... twas great to see your lovely vintage makes!  This week the theme is ... PEACE.   To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something; a card, canvas, ATC, a piece of altered art... the choice.. it be yours! Add in some stamping and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 19th December 2015.
 

I have made a tag for my entry this week - it is a size 8 manila and covered with Tim's gorgeous new Christmas papers - these colours are right up my street for Christmas and the patterns are so vintage and nostalgic looking.  Once the tag was covered, I knocked back the print on the paper a little bit rubbing a bit of Antique Linen Distress Paint over and smudging with my fingers... then blending Fired Brick and Ground Espresso DI's around the edge.

I used the new Distress Splatter Brush to add speckles of Peeled Paint Distress Paint to the background (my new fave tool!) and then die cut some flowers - Tattered Florals as usual to make the rose which was edged with Fired Brick DI and splattered with Antique Linen DP to add speckles... and some leaves using the Winter Greens Thinlets die and the same papers.  I made a bow using Crinkle Ribbon coloured with Fired Brick DI and popped a few little resin roses and some pearly swirls on to add a bit of extra dimension.  The sentiment was stamped onto one of the little labels in the paper pack and 3d'd onto the tag.

As usual I am rushing around so a short and sweet post from me today... please do check back soon tho as I have been playing with the new Distress Mosaic kit and having a right old ball!   Thanks for looking, have a grand Sunday!  TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 365 - Freedom

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy  Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your entries into the last challenge... sorry I have been hit and miss with the posting of the challenge... I have decided that the Sunday Stamper will now be a fortnightly challenge, that gives me more time in between to visit you all and make the next theme!!!  To start the new regime, I have decided a lovely easy theme... and it is FREE.   To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something; a card, canvas, ATC, a piece of altered art... the choice.. it be yours! Add in some stamping and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 7th November 2015.

I have been playing with some new stamps... from Carabelle Studio... isn't this birdy just the most delish fella!!!  All the detailing on his feathers and the look on his face, it just appealed to me!  I made an inky background on the tag by blending Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge and Ground Espresso Distress Inks onto the tag and then lightly spritzing a patch of it with water.  I popped a stencil over the top of the tag and misted it with water, removing the stencil carefully, leaving the water to do its magic with the ink and leaving little bleached shapes behind... I love this technique.

I added some more stencilling using Tim's Blossom stencil and Ground Espresso ink across the top of the tag and then set about decorating it... Mr Birdy is stamped onto cream card, cut out and then coloured with Antique Linen and Ground Espresso ink and popped onto 3d foam to raise him up a bit.  The little flowers are Tim's Tiny Tattered Florals... how cute are these!!! Fiddly but soooo cute!!!  I added the word which is another of Tim's diecuts... and then edged around the tag with more Ground Espresso so I had a nice framed finish to it.

That's all for today... I am scheduling this post as I am away to sunny Sheffield first thing for a class... I will hopefully get time during the week to pop pics of the class on here.   Hope you having a great day and thanks for looking!  TTFN

Hels x

Feeling A Little Wilted... Violet!

... I dunno, I turn me back for five minutes and three weeks has whizzed past!  I have been busy playing with some of the new Distress Ink colours that have now arrived in the Room of Stash... I have been longing for a proper grey colour in the range for about 381 years and finally my wish is fulfilled with Hickory Smoke.  I know it has been out since June but I have only just managed to get me mitts on it!  Of course, it would be rude not to give Wilted Violet a new home too...

I made a nice inky background using both these colours in Distress Paints... I love the smooshyness of a Distress Paint and the fact that the colour co-ordinate perfectly with the inks is a bonus too.  Once the background was dry, I used two different Layering Stencils to add Hickory Smoke and Wilted Violet ink over the background for a little added interest.  How gorgeous is that stamp???  It is from Carabelle Studio and is my new fave so expect to see it on everything :O))  I stamped using Jet Black Archival and then stamped again onto cream card and cut out a few of the butterflies, coloured them and then added little twists of rusty wire for bodies.  The tag is not quite finished as it needs a tonne of embellies adding to it but you get the gist!

I will be back tomorrow with a new Sunday Stamper theme.... I have decided that my hit and miss approach to the Sunday Stamper needs to stop and I need to get back to being regular with it... so from tomorrow onwards, it will be a fortnightly challenge... that way I have no excuse to miss a week!  My Mojo is still lurking somewhere on the boundaries of my periferal vision... I am hoping that a good clean and tidy of the Room of Stash next week will prompt some inky action!  Watch this space!  Thanks for looking... hope you are having a grand weekend.  TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 364 - Forever Autumn

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Autumnal Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your entries into the last challenge... and apologies for missing a week... time got away with me last weekend and before I knew it it was yesterday!!!  This week the theme is... AUTUMN.   To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something; a card, canvas, ATC, a piece of altered art... the choice.. it be yours! Add in the theme AND some stamping. Then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 10th October 2015.

My entry this week is a tag I made yesterday during my demo day at Daisy's Jewels in Coventry.  I had a lovely time - thank you to all the ladies who came along to see me getting my paws inky too.
 

The base of the tag has Fossilized Amber, Rusty Hinge and a smidge of Ground Espresso DI blended onto it.... I then did a bit of stencilling using Tim's Argyle stencil and Fossilized Amber and then popped Tim's Blossom stencil over the top and used Ground Espresso to add some more detail.  The decoration is teensy flowers made using the Teensy Tattered Florals dies... how cute are these!!!  I thought they would be a right faff to put together but Tim has cleverly added a quilling tool into the die pack so it was a doddle... and aren't they just so sweet!!!  But where is the stamping???  Aha!  See the top right and bottom left?  There is a grungy little detail there using a Carabelle stamp - I have just discovered this range of stamps (I know, I live under a rock...) and I have to say I am in lurves!! They are delish and on white rubber too....  I think I can see a new addiction appearing!

I shall away now... I am just heading off for a class back at Daisy's... all things Melt Pottery today!  I will be back either tomorrow or Tuesday with a little bit of news... a new arrival in the Sheridan family and I can't wait to share him with you!   On that bombshell I shall say... have a grand day... thanks for looking and... TTFN!

Hels x

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

Fly Free....

...I know, don't all pass out... I am blogging for the third time this week! Yikes!  Does this mean I am finally catching up on stuff I have been letting slip???  Hopefully!!!  Anyways... here is today's offering:  last month I did a demo weekend over at Daisy's Jewels in Coventry and was concentrating on all things Tim and Ranger.  I used a big Size 12 Ranger Manila tag for the base of my creation....

Using Distress Paints: Scattered Straw, Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap, mixed and marbled for the background coverage, I then used Tim's Blossom Layering Stencil and added Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the stencil and around the edges of the tag to add a bit of vintageness.

The rose is made from Tim's Jumbo Tattered Florals die... this is a big beauty.. around 5" in size... wow!  I added in a few leaves and some Winter Greens and then die cut the letters from Tim's new Alphabet Thinlets dies... A few bits of the new Mixed Media Thinlets in black card to add a bit of definition for the design and a few little butterflies from Tim's Watercolor stamp set, these were stamped onto card I coloured with Distress Paints and I added little twists of rusty wire for the bodies.  Voila, one finished jumbo tag!

I shall away now... I have a tonne of things to do before my weekend trip to... Scotland!  Oh yesh, my very first visit to teach in Bonnie Scotland at The Papeterie... I am really excited and so looking forward to visiting... I am rather keeping my fingers x'd that there will be a square sausage for breakfast one morning ;o))  *yes, always about the food!*     Thanks for looking.. have a great evening!  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

Sunday Stamper - Week 355 - Everyday I Write The Book

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your fabulous entries for the last challenge.  The new theme this week is... BOOKS.  You can interpret the challenge how you like: use book pages as a background, use them for decorations, make a book, stamp a book... the choice, it be yours!   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 *this is THE important bit guys, please remember your rubberstamps!*  and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 9th May 2015.

Massive apologies for the lack of blogging and missing last weeks' Sunday Stamper - I had... MANFLU!  That is official, I know because I spent most of the time laying supine on the sofa moaning and whinging... blimey, it knocked me for six!  However, I am over the manflu (apart from a very annoying sniff that is being persistant!) and back to normal again.

My entry this week is a demo tag from a few weeks ago.  Book page covered tag with a bit of stencilling... a fancy rose made using the new Prima Archivers papers and some rusty embellishments found whilst being a Womble and rummaging around car parks... car parks are the best place for picking up rusty buttons and washers and whatnots!

More apologies for not visiting all your latest entries... I said thank you above because I know they will all be fabby... I am on a mammoth catch up now so hopefully I will be with you by the middle of the week!   I shall away now... hope you have a great day!  Thanks for looking... TTFN!

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 354 - You Got A Friend

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your fabulous framed entries for last weeks challenge.  The new theme this week is... FRIENDS.  You can interpret the challenge how you like: be it a creation you have made for a friend, add a photo of a friend or, like I have done, the word "friends"... the choice, it be yours!   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 *this is THE important bit guys, please remember your rubberstamps!*  and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 25th April 2015.  

This weekend I am demo-ing at Daisy's Jewels and Crafts in Coventry along with the Pauline Wheeler and Johnathan Lockwood.... if you are around today, do pop in to see us - entry is free and I can guarantee you will learn tonnes of new stuff. *not to mention see all the gorgeous stashly goodies Wendy has in her shop!*  I am doing my thang with all things Ranger, Distress and Tim (it's a hard job right?)  And yesterday I made a fair few tags... being as I am slack and slatternly of persuasion, I hadn't made the Sunday Stamper so picked this tag as my entry.

Finally I have managed to get my very inky paws on the Bird Crazy stamp set by Tim.... hurrah! This is even better IRL!  And they are SO fun to use.  The background is Distress Spray Stains all smooshed and washy with a smidge of stencilling and, of course, the little sentiment to go with the birdies... another of Tim's from his Way With Words set.

I had better get a wiggle on, nearly time for me to attempt the "taming of the barnet" and the "resuscitation of the face" as it would appear that Mr Gorilla With The Extra Stength Hair Gel and Mr Troll With The Sink Plunger, who live under my bed and come out on special occasions to work their magic with my appearance, have... um... done just that overnight!  Wish me luck!  If you do pop into see us at Daisy's, I will be the one in the corner looking a little bit strange (ok, stranger than usual!)  I shall also be avidly avoiding Facebook, Twitter and all manner of social media today as... tis the BTCC from Donington and we are recording the whole programme (ITV4, thankyou!) to watch this evening... but it would be very remiss of me not to shout... GO PLATO!   Hope you have a great day and... thanks for looking!  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

Sunday Stamper - Week 351 - Fly Me To The Moon

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your great floral creations entered into last weeks challenge.  The new theme this week is... THINGS THAT FLY.  You can interpret the challenge how you like: add a flying thing, add the word fly ... the choice, it be yours!   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 *this is THE important bit guys, please remember your rubberstamps!*  and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 4th April 2015.  

I've been faffing about with the new Distress Ink colours recently - having just taken delivery of Mermaid Lagoon (oh!la!la!) - anyone else got theirs yet?  You won't be disappointed if you haven't yet!   Anyways, new colours means time to see what other colours they marry up with.  And Cracked Pistachio, the January colour, works beautifully with Frayed Burlap... which just so happens to be my "go to" colour.

The background was created by spritzing Cracked Pistachio and Frayed Burlap Spray Stains and adding water to get a nice washy effect.  Once dried, I used Tim's Flourish Layering Stencil *um, yep, a fave of mine!* and blended Frayed Burlap DI over the top, just in patches, so it gives a cohesive look across the background.  I will never sicken of that butterfly - Tim's new Perspective stamp set - but I wanted him a bit smaller so I just cut into his wings, added more of the same DI's and bobbed a resin rose into the middle for his body.  He is sitting on a few paper flowers and some die cut "greenery" which didn't look right in green card, it needed to be black to drag it all together.  Also attached to the base is Tim's Lattice Mixed Media die, cut twice, cut out of its background and glue on... of course, a little bit of harlequin stamping has to find its way on there doesn't it!  And finally, the word... cut from Tim's new Alpha Thinlets.

That is all from me for today... I am away to Hessle to teach a Distress It book... lots of lovely "different" distress techniques... so it is inky time!   Thanks for looking, have a great 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

Bitsies and Bobsies...

...I've been having a little play with a few "leftovers" that have been lurking on my desk and popped a quick tag together.  The base of the tag came from a demo thingy I did a few weeks ago - Ranger's gorgeous Texture Paste through Tim's Flourish Layering Stencil and then a liberal spritz of Abandoned Coral, Frayed Burlap and Antique Linen Distress Spray Stains.  I love how the Texture Paste just sucks that colour up.

I had a bit of a destructive session a few weeks ago - butchering old tags from a few years ago that were just sitting, unloved, in the garage.  I nicked all the embellies off them and binned the base tags... and blimey, I have a box full of embellies to re-use.  The Idea-ology Foliage came off a tag I made in 2010!  I remember I had painted the Foliage with Traditional Tan paint and then scraped off the edgey bits to reveal the metal.  It got a bit bent as I was ripping it off its original home, but hey, that adds to the distressed look! 

The butterfly had been stamped a few weeks ago and coloured with Abandoned Coral and Aged Mahogany Sprays... I wasn't happy with it at the time so I chucked it to one side... but for this tag, perfect match colour wise!  I added an Idea-ology Lock with a Resin Rose to the centre... popped him onto an Industrious Sticker frame (which I changed the colour of with a smidge of Treasure Gold and Alcohol Ink) and I die cut the word (Tim's new thinlets) and popped that on with another couple of Resin Roses and voila, a leftovers tag finished.

That's all from me for today - I will be back tomorrow with a new CC3 challenge entry... wait til you see what we're playing with this week!  Thanks for looking, have a goodly day!

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 349 - And Your Bird Can Sing

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Mother's Day Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your fab aged entries to last weeks challenge.  The new theme this week is... BIRDS.  You can interpret the challenge how you like: stamp a bird, use a birdy saying, add birdy papers ... the choice, it be yours!   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 *this is THE important bit guys, please remember your rubberstamps!*  and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 21st March 2015.  

I have popped a tag together for my entry this week.   Mainly made up with "left-overs" that have been lurking on my desk for a while now - it was time to tidy up a bit you know.   I started out by blending Antique Linen Distress Ink right over the top of the tag and then using Tim's Lattice Layering Stencil, I blended a bit of Stormy Sky Distress Ink just to the top part.  I had a previously cut lattice thingy from Tim's new Mixed Media Thinlets - so I cut that down so I had a nice bit of fancyness for the bottom corner.

Next up I stamped the feather using Wendy's Potting Soil and Cornflower Archival Inks, cut it out and edged with Gathered Twigs DI to cover up the cut bits and make it a bit old looking.  I then stamped the Bird's Nest using Potting Soil and spent several hours cutting it out, twigs and all! (wish I had used Jet Black as it is a bit pale but believe me, after all that cutting out, it was staying!!!)  I used Forest Moss and Gathered Twigs DI's to colour up the next and then stamped the birdy... Jet Black Archival and then coloured with Stormy Sky DI with a smidge of Gathered Twigs around the edges to age him up.  The sentiment is actually one of Tim's and I just typed it out on my beloved Underwood, cut out the words and then edged with more Gathered Twigs.  And there you have it!

So, what you up to today?  A little birdy has told me that a certain AlfieCat has been out with his Daddy and has a pressie for me... as I am scheduling this tonight, Saturday, I can't show you what his pressie is... *I know what it is... oh boy, he has great taste does my little kitty-fella*  No doubt I will be sharing on social media so keep your eyes peeled!  Whatever you do have planned today, I hope you have a great one!  Thanks for looking... 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