Simply Plaid

Oh my! Every so often a challenge comes along and you are just stumped. The lovely Lori over at Everything Wendy Vecchi set a new challenge of... PLAID! Eek! I really found this struggle because, whilst I have Wendy's plaid stamp, I just had no idea what to do with the theme. So remembering some wise words I kept it simple! Really, really very simple.

I used two Bookplates Art Parts and stamped them both with clear embossing ink and used clear embossing powder to make the plaid background. On the frame I used Wild Honey Distress Ink and the background was Barn Door Distress Ink. The stalk Art Part was covered with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink and the plaid stamped in Peeled Paint Distress Ink. The flower was covered in Broken China and the plaid was stamped with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink. The little circle was covered with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and the plaid was stamped in Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. 

The sentiment was stamped twice on some kraft card and the important words highlighted by cutting them out! Two hinge fasteners later and I was done. Hope this shows 'plaid' but above all I'm glad I was able to have a go at a challenge that really foxed me!

So Very Stylish

Creative Expressions have kindly given us a really stylish stamp set to play with this month - Gala Event. This set immediately reminded me of French fashion as there are some seriously glamorous frocks to introduce you to over the next few weeks!

I took some cream card and die cut a tag and a label. I used a former DT stamp set and stamped the fabric stamp from Wendy Vecchi's Sentimental Art using Victorian Velvet Distress Ink as the background. I used another former DT set, Bon Voyage, to stamp postage stamps, a ribbon and an Eiffel Tower. I took some Frayed Burlap Distress Ink to edge the stamped images and the tag.

The label was painted with Gold Paint Dabber. I let it dry and the sanded it to reveal the cardstock beneath. I then rubbed Frayed Burlap Distress Ink over the top to give it an aged look. The gold stays bright in the scored area which I really like! I stamped the background stamp again on a little more card and the sentiment from Gala Event. I added two mini fasteners to secure the label to the stamped ribbon.

For the dress I stamped the image three times on cream card and cut out three sections, the bow at the back, the bodice and central skirt and the rear skirt. The bow and rear skirt were inked with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink as well as the floral detail on the bodice. The dress was put back together. A little sari ribbon finished it off! I am really looking forward to sharing the other dresses in the Gala Event set!

It's Bubble Wrap... But Not As We Know It!

When were sent the rather fabulous Bubble Wrap stamp from Creative Expressions I knew it reminded me of something but I just couldn't think what and I've been holding on to it until I remembered. And, finally, I have remembered (only took a month!!!) -  it reminded me of this:

This is a piece of tiling I found at the Biyadhoo resort washed up on the beach following the awful and devastating tsunami a few years ago. The tiling is actually hundreds of tiny individual circular tiles and as you walked on the beach you came across lots of them. See how it looks a bit like bubble wrap?

So I used this as my inspiration and stamped the bubble wrap stamp using Sailboat Blue Adirondack Ink and then clear embossed it. The gaps left behind were inked with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and the whole piece was clear embossed again. Then I used the same ink to stamp out three birds from the lovely Butterfly Girl stamp set, inking one with Frayed Burlap and cutting the wings from the other two and assembled my bird. Can you see one wing peeking out from the back of the bird? 

The leaves were stamped with Citrus Adirondack Ink, clear embossed and cut out. The sign was stamped and cut out and hung from a leaf. I love how the sentiment (from Art Sayings) fits the sign perfectly! Thank you for stopping by it is, as always, much appreciated.

Following Alice

This week's challenge at Dragons Dream Tag It On was chosen by lovely May who chose the theme "Following Alice" which is to include Alice, the rabbit and a situation (and the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to be on a tag).

I used some of the fabulous Graphic 45 Hallowe'en in Wonderland papers and cut out Alice, the rabbit and a Cheshire Cat. The tag itself was die cut from some more of the paper. I used the bottom of a die cut dress form for the pedestal of the table and a scalloped die cut for the table top. I edged it all in Vintage Photo Distress Ink (I know I use this ink on everything but it really seems to suit!) 

The flower and leaves are Wendy Vecchi stamps and the centre of the flower was inked with a blue Distress Ink and covered with Glossy Accents. The corked bottle was filled with Barn Door Reinker and water and tied with twine and a little button my sister gave me!

The banner was die cut and stamped with some individual letter stamps in Sepia Archival Ink. I then added the obligatory Vintage Photo Distress Ink and folded it! I added more twine as a ribbon and slightly curled it. 

I hope you pop over and see what the other DT members have made - I have had a sneak preview and they are amazing! And then, when you've had a peek, why not join in?! I'd love to see what you make.

WOYWW #164

Gosh I've been AWOL for a while. Sorry about that! Been too easily distracted by my other life! I hope Julia and the other regular WOYWWers will forgive me! If you want to see other creative spaces - pop on over here! 
I was so excited to have a week off work with my 'not so' babies and catch up with a little creativity (and the sun is well and truly shining too)!! I have every intention to have tided this tip up by the end of the school holidays... 'creative space' only gets you so far! But in the meantime I will work in an increasingly small work space! Spelling geeks will notice that 'Studio' is spelled correctly again! My 12 year old was really offended by my slapdash approach to signage and set me straight! There is a little house to the left - I'll share that soon - it's nearly finished! 

I have shared a photograph of my Vagabond as this is Mark III - my last one nearly set on fire! I am hoping that third time really is lucky! One unexpected outcome from all this heat is that I have developed a little shadow who has been sleeping at my feet a lot! This time tomorrow SWEA will have visited the beauty parlour and no longer look quite so shaggy! 

I'm back at 10am with a little something for DragonsDream Tag It On... ssh! This is a sneak preview! Thank you for popping by x

Babies

It is Kerry's turn to choose the theme for Crafty Boots this time and she chose 'Babies'. I really enjoy Crafty Boots challenges as they make me think really hard. I don't really seem to get called upon to make baby cards - I guess because my friends are passed that stage now. So I had to think long and hard!

The base of the tag was painted with several layers of Fresco Finish paint (Snowflake as a base and then "bumped" layers through a numbers mask - Inky Pool, Sky, Beach Hut) I then sanded it all back and added Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges. 

I then diecut five flowers from blue colour core card and two sets of leaves from green colour core card (Tattered Pine Cone Die). I sanded each die cut CAREFULLY as they can break apart if you're too vigorous (I've made that mistake for you many, many times!). I made each flower and then dragged Vintage Photo Distress Ink down the petals to give them a vintage look. 

To make the saying I used alphabet stamps to stamp each letter on the reverse of the colour core paper.
So, how do you interpret the theme of 'Babies'? I'm looking forward to seeing what you make!

MAC #46

Over at the Everything Wendy Vecchi group this fortnight's challenge is to use three buttons and a circle (much like in Wendy's Book 3, page 33 which was the inspiration for the challenge). This is my version. I used a circular Art Part, lots of stamps, Clearly for Art and Distress Inks. All stamps were stamped using Jet Black Archival Ink. The idea came from Pinterest where I saw someone recycled their old boots into planters - I knew that I needed to use that idea one day!

The bulb was stamped onto Clearly for Art, the bottom of the bulb onto kraft card and the wings onto Glassine Paper. The wings are from Tim Holtz's Serendipity stamp set.

The flowers were inked with Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry and Barn Door Distress Inks and Freya (my first born!) found me some matching buttons and I tied them with twine before adhering them to the flowers. The butterfly was stamped onto cream card and edged with Picked Raspberry. The word 'fly' was stamped, cut out and inked with Picked Raspberry and then coated with Glossy Accents. I am really pleased with my planter boot idea!

The Possibilities Are Endless

For my Creative Expressions project this week I made an ATC. I took a piece of ivory Foundations card and die cut an ATC. I then used the square background stamp from the Butterfly Girl set using WIllow Adirondack Ink. The sentiment was from the incredibly useful Art Sayings set and was stamped on more of the card with Sepia Archival Ink, edged in Vintage Photo Distress Ink and adhered to the ATC. The ATc was then edged in Vintage Photo Distress Ink and embossed in clear embossing powder. When cool I rubbed Black Soot Distress Ink inot the pits left behind in the embossing powder. This gives the impression of enamelling.

The flowers and leaves were stamped from the Butterfly Girl set. The leaves were stamped in Citrus Adirondack Ink and edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The flowers were stamped twice in each colour (Red Pepper, Sunshine Yellow, Sunset Orange Adirondack Inks). I looked at the flower and chose two sections and cut them out to build up the flower. Each section was edged as before and adhered together. Having made my ATC I then added it to a card and posted it to a friend who is making some pretty big decisions about her career - I hope she likes it!

mmm... Pinterest...

So. There is this new phenomenon called Pinterest where, if I have this right, you 'pin' pictures of things you like to a virtual noticeboard. It is a huge craze and one I am trying to get my head round. I know that those who are converts think its amazing, and to be honest some of the things I have seen have been truly inspirational, but I am not sure that I have yet to see how it fits into my life. 


So I am asking for your help. Please let me know what I'm supposed to do with it. Where's good to find interesting things to pin? What do I do with the things that I have pinned? Is there an etiquette I'm supposed to follow? If you want to see what I have pinned so far you can find my boards here. Am I doing the pinning right?!!!!!!!


As an aside, I received a really unexpected and really rather incredible email from Wendy Vecchi about a month ago saying that she's pinned lots of my projects to one of her boards. To say I was blown away was probably an understatement! So if you want to see my stuff alongside some really, truly awesome art by people I really respect, pop along here to Wendy's place! Don't forget to leave me some advice. It's all very gratefully received!!!

Remember My Treasures

My latest post for Country View Crafts has a few of the rather fabulous Ms Vecchi's Blossom Bucket embellishments, Art Parts and stamps. Feel free to pop on over and have a look! 

It's all in the details

This month's DT stamps (Butterfly Girl) from Creative Expressions have proved to be incredibly versatile. I cut an ATC from cream card and then used the same card for the rest of the project. I inked one of the background stamps to make a checker-board background (I used that incredibly fabulous Raspberry and Orange Sunset Adirondack Inks). I then used Vintage Photo Distress Ink and the smaller dots stamp over the top.

I used Raspberry and Orange Sunset Adirondack Inks to ink the roses and Jet Black Archival Ink for the leaves.The sentiment is from last month's truly fabulous Art Sayings. I edged everything with Vintage Photo Distress Ink (as always!). This was a lot of fun to make and if you would like to see what else the DT have made with this set then please pop on over to the Creative Expressions News Blog where you'll find Creative Expressions news and a list of blogs on the right hand side.

Cyborg Su

This fortnight's challenge at Dragons Dream Tag It On was chosen by the incredibly talented Monique who chose the theme "Considering Steampunk" which is to include  fantasy, inventions and Victoriana (and the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to be on a tag). For my inspiration I used Stamper's Anonymous' Phrenology Head stamp as the Victorians were quite taken with the notion of lumps and bumps being a tool for diagnosis. Victorians were also know for their inventions and desire to make mechanical people (think Frankenstein!) and so I had these things in mind as I started.

I covered kraft card with metal tape and die cut two cogs from Tim's Gadget Gear die. I then added a little detail and rubbed Chocolate Pudding and Little Black Dress Fresco Finish paints over the top. Under the small one I place the inner circle of a flower (Ticket to Art) and put Glossy Accents in the hole so it looks a little like a cyborg's eye - that is what Tom (9) called it! Under the larger cog I covered more card with tape and stamped a flower on the reverse (Dimensional Rose Art) and cut it out. I added detail and then covered it with London Bus and Little Black Dress paints as before. I wanted my cyborg to have a little foliage and so gave her a crown of leaves and made her beautiful with a little Barn Door Distress Stain lipstick! 

The background was stamped with an industrial image (probably a Tim Holtz one!), was distressed and had Vintage Photo Distress Stain added and a little rose trim border finished it off. Tom named her 'Cyborg Su' after the original version of Su! I hope you play along and if you need more inspiration please pop on over to see what the amazingly talented DT have designed this time.

WOYWW 162

I owe you a deep apology. I have been AWOL and my only excuse is top secret but I'm back today! Hurrah! So, this is my desk on Sunday because I knew I wouldn't go near it again! For the spelling police I have done nothing to rearrange the letters at my window to say 'STUDIO'. Can you see my truly fabulous spinners for my blending tools? I got them from Crafty Boots and I'm really pleased with them.

My second Vagabond decided to start smoking on Saturday so that means a phone call to Sizzix! So i broke out my trusty (non electric!) Cuttlebug. The pizza box has lots of secret things inside (I told you I my absence was top secret!) - I'm hoping to be able to share what I've been doing soon!

As if you needed evidence of my hard work my bin *might* just need emptying! SWEA had been in her bed until I whipped out my camera - she incredibly difficult to photograph! Right, that's enough from me today... for much more snooping please pop on over to the fabulous Julia's place and see more creative places!
I'll be back at 10am with my Dragons Dream Tag... here's a sneak peek!