Sweet Treats

At Crafty Boots this fortnight Lisette has challenged us to use the theme of Sweet Treats - think cakes, cupcakes, macaroons, lollipops, gingerbread etc. I used the idea of Gingerbread and my faithful die to make a little Christmas hanging.

I painted an MDF board with white paint and used a snowflake stamp (with Iced Spruce Distress ink) for the background. The edges were softened with a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I used Distress Markers on a ticket stamp to make two tickets. The Gingerbread man was cut from glassine paper. A little twine and Idea-Ology finished it off. I hope you join in with us this fortnight!

Double Take!

I often get asked what happens to the things I make - I bet you get asked too! Well, often I give them away; notes to the teacher etc. But some I want to keep and so I did another version of them in my journal. These are two examples of how I 'saved' these tags in a larger format.
The first is this my butterfly brain tag:

and this is the version in my journal:

I also really liked the tag I made for a recent Dragons Dream challenge:

So with the help of a scanner, I made a similar page in my journal:

How do you keep the projects you really feel proud of? I'd love to know!

Freaky little layers!

When I heard that the latest challenge at Country View Crafts Challenges was going to be 'layers' I knew exactly what I was going to make! I absolutely LOVE Wendy Vecchi's Art Parts but I am really stingy with them (somehow I seem to collect them rather than use them!) so this was the perfect opportunity to get them out and ink them up!

I knew I needed to make a new hat for Su - that's what I call my phrenology head stamp! If you want to know why - click here! A really quick and easy way to ink Art PArts is to use spray ink. I'm using it a lot at the moment as it's easier to use than regular ink (yup, I'm STILL pretty limited with what I can do thanks to this smashed elbow!) The colours are Fresh Lime, Pure Sunshine and Vibrant Turquoise Dylusions with the edges of the Art Parts inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. There's a Blossom Bucket embellishment as the centre of the flower.

The wings have Treasure Gold on them to act as a highlight.

This stamp is one of my favourites of Wendy's - I've used it lots!

So, we hope that you join in with us this month - there have been lots and lots of inspiration from my incredible team mates and from the monthly guest designers - maybe if you join in you'll be the guest designer next month?! I hope so!

Bingo!

For this fortnight's Dragons Dream Tag It On challenge sees a new round of challeneges. Each one will follow the usual three recipe idea but there'll be a theme for you to interpret as you choose! The fabulously talented Elizabeth started us off in style and chose a favourite game (can be anything Board/Computer/Outdoor) along with my recipe of "Vintage, Buttons and lace" and of course at least one real stamp on your tag. I, like many of my team mates, chose Bingo (mainly because I love the Bingo mask I have!)

The tag was painted with Picket Fence Distress Paint and then layers of brown Distress Inks added. I used the white paint through the mask and then used Wendy Vecchi's Potting Soil Archival Ink (it's a fabulous true brown!)

I added a Tim Holtz stamped figure, lace, a button and a bingo game piece to complete the tag. The button is a real toffee colour - good job I wasn't hungry when I made this, otherwise...!!! I hope you'll join in with the challenge this fortnight!

A is for Apple

This fortnight's challenge at Crafty Boots, set by Helen, is 'A for apple' as children head (reluctantly?!) back to school! I have nothing at all with an apple on and was feeling very doom laden when I remembered this background paper by October Afternoon! 

Stamps are from Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi with a little card also from October Afternoon. I've just noticed I forgot to punch a hole in the top of my tag - lets blame it on still crafting pretty much one handed! I very much hope that you'll join in with us this time!

Sneaky Peek

Hello! I have a new post today at Country View Crafts blog with a decidedly spooky theme!

Sweep the room

A short and sweet post today!!! Following on from the Mens tag I made a similar one but with a more feminine theme! The background is made from Dylusions Inks with Peeled Paint Distress Ink through stencils. As often happens, I HAD to add Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges :)

Sing your heart songs

This time, over at DragonsDream Tag It On it's my turn to choose the recipe and I chose Music, tissue paper/tape etc, blue. You can use any tissue paper (even make up tissue paper!) or tape, we really don't mind! The only rules are there must be a stamped image and a tag. 

I added music tissue wrap to a small tag, sprayed it with the three blues from the Dylusions range. The girl was stamped twice and I cut the wings, crown and words from one image, inked them with Broken China Distress Ink and then attached them too the second image.

I hope you'll join in with us this fortnight!

Last Days of Summer

This fortnight's challenge at Crafty Boots was chosen by the wonderful Freya and is The Last Days of Summer... For me summer is about going on holiday! We alternate between a holiday in the UK and then one abroad. This year we went to Thailand and thanks to my blummin' elbow I wasn't able to snorkel. So this is my interpretation of what I'd have seen!

I used Wendy Vecchi's brick stencil to give the legs something to sit on and sprinkled water on to the background to make it more sea like.

I didn't stick the tails down so it gives more 'movement' to this page.

Not all of the fish were cut out, these were stamped on the background, coloured with Dylusions ink and the eyes 'bleached' out. I hope you'll join in with us this fortnight - I'd love to see how you interpret summer!

Painty, inky layers

The theme at Country View Crafts Challenges is Layers, as chosen by the uber talented Brenda. The lovely thing about having a journal is that you can use a page to 'mop' up leftover spray ink and paint on the surface of your masks and stencils. 

This background was completely made from layers and layers of inks and paints from other projects. When it was finished I added the outlines of the girls and numbers and a sentiment from Tim Holtz. By putting stencilled images 'behind' others it makes the first image stand out - see the number 2 'behind' the arm of the girl in the picture below. I hope you might feel like keeping your leftover inks and paints on a page in your journal, or scrap of card - it's a really inexpensive way to make backgrounds!