Self propelled flowers

This fortnight’s recipe at Dragonsdream Tag It On has been set by little old me and is “Self propelled flowers" - to include butterflies, flowers and locomotion/movement (plus the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to be on a tag). The idea for the tag came from R.H. Heinlein that "butterflies are self propelled flowers". I thought that was such a lovely idea! 

The tag and the cogs are covered in a few layers of Fresco Finish paint and a little Treasure Gold. The cogs were then stamped with a Wendy Vecchi flower stamp from Accents for Art.

I stamped three butterflies and made them 'fly' by raising them up by cutting a little clear packaging as a spacer. I used my Dymo to make the sentiment and voila! I hope you might join in with us this week! 
By the way - this is my 300th blog post! Thank you for your support   - it's meant the world to me!

WOYWW 178

Queen of snooping round desks, Julia, has called us to be honest once again and so I am obliging! I am still working in a tip...

...as if to prove it here's another shot!

By way of a little Halloween redemption here is a my pumpkin (not terribly original in design but as a newbie to pumpkin carving I feel quite proud of it!)

Should you knock on my door tonight in the hope of getting a few sweets then do take a moment to admire my Halloween wreath... the bat does show a few teeth marks from She Who Eats Art (big sigh!)

Happy Halloween to you and yours and thank you, as always for stopping by! My 300th post is coming up at 2pm... Gosh! 300...!

Gift Tag ideas...

For Crafty Boots this fortnight the lovely Sara has set us the theme of a gift tag or Invitation for a special Event – think Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary/Halloween etc! I have been experimenting with Christmas gift tags and so here are four of my ideas so far! 

I cut out white tags (I use my tag die) and then stamped stamps in for the background. I then die cut images and added them to the tags with coordinating ribbon. These are really easy to make in bulk. 

You can bulk die cut the tags and make the backgrounds. You can then add the die cuts to the front of the tags. It might take a couple of evenings but within a very little time you will have all the tags you need! They would also make great Christmas cards... mmm... maybe I'll use them as cards instead...!!!

A Cheeky Look at Temptation...

This fortnight’s recipe at DragonsdreamTag It On has been set by the very talented Sue and is “I can resist anything but temptation" – to include a resist technique, the colour red and a temptation (plus the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to be on a tag). 

I must confess that I did get an attack of the giggles when I got my idea for this tag. I am a Cub Leader and for the last two weeks we've been discussing our 'collections' and I took in my 'collection' of Art Parts as I seem to collect them rather than use them! So my 'temptation' was easy! I am far too easily tempted by a new pack of Art Parts - the problem is I seem to want to own them rather than use them! 

So I stamped a Wendy Vecchi Plaid stamp with clear embossing ink and embossed the tag. 

Then I inked the whole tag in Bar Door Distress Stain. The Art Part was again inked with Barn Door and I used some Art Part packaging behind it. I then stamped a few of my favourite stamps and sayings to complete the tag. I do hope that you'll join in and share your temptation with us!

WOYWW #176

The wonderful world of What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday has bought us once again to confess just how messy we can be when being creative. My burn from last week is loads better (I won't go into details as it is quite gross!) - and as it has healed my mojo has returned, hurrah! So here is my desk... suitably messy with signs of a flurry of activity including the tag for Dragons Dream Tag It On that's here! 

I know that this is What's ON Your Workdesk but sometimes it's good to see what's UNDER it too! I am often joined in my Studio by She Who Eats Art - I think she might need a haircut! Do please pop over and see what other creative spaces are there to delight - and don't forget to say hi to Julia too!

Halloween Backgrounds

I was asked to do a step by step guide explaining how I created the background for the Halloween Tags I made for Country View Crafts. If you are curious then pop along to here!

Home

For Crafty Boots this fortnight Emma has set us the theme of ‘Home’. I wanted to experiment with my Wendy Vecchi Wall stencil and so made a tag. 

The tag was covered in Broken China Distress Ink then I added Gathered Twigs Distress Ink through the stencil. I sprayed a mist of Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold through the stencil, dried it, and then misted the whole tag with water. The house was also covered in Broken China, the roof tiles with Gathered Twigs. I made a little chimney from and arrow and stamped the swirl from Residential Art. 

The house stamp was stamped in Broken China as a shadow and then Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks. A few chit chat stickers and a grungebaord heart (with Barn Door Distress Stain) finished it off. Please do join in - you might win a prize!

To Rusty With Love

At the risk of getting boring I have completely lost my mojo since hurting my arm (if you're the only person on the planet who doesn't know about it read more here!) So I was determined to join in on my favourite challenges this week and combined them together! Everything Wendy Vecchi wanted us to use Wendy's CFA technique from here and Simon Says Stamp and Show want us to get rusty! 

I made a tag using my favourite PaperArsty paint Beach Hut and then put Indigo and Classic Treasure Gold through a mask and round the edges of the tag and tag topper I made. Then I sanded it all and added Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the tag. I then stamped the background stamp from Love to Make Art randomly in the background and the heart on some Sticky Back Canvas. The canvas was adhered to some CFA and then cut out. I coloured the heart with Barn Door Distress Stain and gently heated so I could curl the top slightly. I added some ideaology foliage to the heart which I'd painted, sanded and added more of the Treasure Gold to. 

The wire was coloured with Alcohol Inks to make it look rusty. The wings are just gorgeous and I adhered the heart to them and attached them to the tag on top of the wire. So I hope that this might be the start of my mojo returning - it was certainly a lot of fun playing with ink again!

WOYWW 175

Gosh, it's been an age again since I last played along. Mainly because my desk has been a tip (evidence here) and so to be honest there's only so much of that you can show before people look at you and think 'dirty witch'! So I am showing you what I did on Saturday! Look! Tidy. Only because I have burned my arm on a vvvvvv hot saucepan lid (no need for sympathy - it's on the mend!) and I have absolutely no mojo at all while it's still quite uncomfortable.

No idea why my hand matches my burn...!!! The Sudocrem was Julia's idea! See, I do listen Julia!

I can be pretty pathetic at returning visits but today I will make a big special effort to pop on over to your place and hang out a bit! If you want to see more desk madness then do visit the rather lovely Julia who is our ever patient hostess with the mostess!

International Card Making Day

Well... who knew such a thing existed? Ok. You probably did but I didn't! I thought I might play along as both PaperArtsy and Crafty Boots drew my attention to the challenge and because I've just tidied up my Studio so I needed an excuse to get things out again! I am still in quite a lot of discomfort after burning my arm on Tuesday on a saucepan (yup I am that accident prone!) so I've gone for a pretty simple card! Hope you understand!

I used Jo Firth-Young's new stamp set (03), Jet Black Archival Ink, a piece of old music paper Classic Treasure Gold (on the edges of the star) and a quote from Tim Holtz. Happy International Card Making Day y'all!

Birthday tag

Just a quick post today... My mother-in-law has a birthday today (happy, happy birthday Dorien!) and we went and saw her on Sunday meaning we could take a bulkier present instead of relying on a postable one! Gosh, how that opens up possibilities! Anyway I made her a tag to accompany her present! The stamps are by Wendy Vecchi...

Leaf Me Alone!

The rather lovely Helen set this fortnight's DragonsDream Tag It On Challenge as “Leaf me alone" - metal, leaves and orange (plus the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to be on a tag). I usually write up how I made it but I burned my arm on a saucepan tonight and it's just too painful to type so I hope you forgive me...! 

I used lots of PaperArtsy paints, Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, Perfect Pearls Mister, metal tape, embossing folder, Wendy Vecchi stamps, ideaology... it's a long list!

Please do pop on over to the blog and see the other fabulous tags... Thank you for popping by!

A sunshiney day!

My lovely friend Bev was a little older today and so I made her a tag to accompany her suitably craft inspired present. The present was wrapped in black tissue paper and so the tag needed to be quite restrained - I was aiming for sophisticated! 

The tag is made from thick, strong card and I covered it in Snowflake Fresco Finish paint as  abase and then stamped one of Wendy's background stamps in Brushed Pewter Distress Stain randomly on the tag and I swiped the bottle down the sides of the tag to give it a little more colour. Then I stamped the flourishes (oh my! I lurve these flourishes!) and added dots stamped with Tarnished Brass Distress Stain. 

The next stamp was some numbers stamped in Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. I added a sentiment, a treasured Blossom Bucket Floral Button and a little ribbon and it was ready! I really enjoyed making something so 'restrained' - maybe I should do that more often?! 

Three...

For this fortnight's Crafty Boots challenge Emma has set the challenge of 'Three' of something so I decided to make a little three stemmed bouquet. 

I covered three Flower Art parts and stems in Treasure Gold wax and then Fresco Finish Paints (Nougat, Beach Hut, Eggplant, Hey Pesto) and then sanded them when they were dry. I coloured three pieces of Grungepaper with Wild Honey Distress Stain and stamped three of Wendy's stamps as centrepieces. 

When I'd arranged the flowers I stained a ribbon with Antique Linen Distress Stain and added an Ideaology key. I hope you like my bouquet of flowers! Thank you, as always, for popping by!