A Vecchi Merry Christmas Su

Oh my! It's December tomorrow and the big day is approaching! I get so over excited about Christmas (not so excited about the freezing weather and long queues at the Supermarket checkout!) Anyway, if you read my post yesterday you'll have seen my homage to a Dylusions Santa Su and today I have a Vecchi Su to share with you. I clearly went a bit bonkers and made a holly beard and a poinsettia hat! 

I started by spraying a tag in Postbox Red Dylusions spray. I then laid Wendy's Dots and Stripes mask and, masking areas I misted the tag with water, moved the mask and re misted until I had covered the tag with dots. I then dried the tag and then repositioned the mask and drew round the circles in white pen. Behind Su's head are two swirl stamps from the My Kind of Art set in Snow Cap ink.

For Su I made her as I did yesterday - this time using Peeled Paint Distress Marker for her eyes. The poinsettia was stamped out three times and the holly leaves four times. They were then sprayed with Postbox Red and Cut Grass Dylusions. The leaves and green flower were edged with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink. A little Barn Door Distress Stain on the berries and some clear embossing powder finished it off. The sentiment was added and my second Su was completed!
Quite by chance the December challenge at the Everything Wendy Vecchi group is to make holiday inspired items so I hope Christmas Su counts!

Santa Su

I adore the stamp I have christened Su (after Su Pollard - I explained all here!) and when I saw the Dylusions Christmas Accessories stamp set I knew I needed to add a Santa Su to my collection! 

I started by spraying London Blue and Vibrant Turquoise on a white tag shape and dried it. Then I spritzed water through the Let it Snow mask and let it dry and naturally 'bleach' the colour. I dried off the mask and replaced it, drawing round the large snowflakes with a white pen. 

Su herself was stamped onto white card. I masked her eyes and coloured her in with Spun Sugar Distress Stain. Her irises were coloured with Broken China Distress Marker. The hat and beard were stamped on white card and I sprayed her Santa hat with Postbox Red spray. A sentiment from the Christmas Words set finished it off. I have plans for my Santa Su which I'm hoping to reveal soon...!

I have plans for a Wendy Vecchi inspired Christmas Su - I will reveal her tomorrow! Thank you, as always, for stopping by!

Magical mystery

This fortnight’s recipe at Dragonsdream Tag It On has been set by the talented Monique and is “Magical mystery" - to include a little magic, some mystery and a little fairydust (plus the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to be on a tag).

The tag was cut from thick cardboard and I added a layer of Tissue Wrap on top. I sprayed this a couple of times with London Blue Dylusions spray, dabbing the excess off each time. While the tag was tacky I stamped on the stars in Sepia Archival Ink and covered them, and the tag with clear embossing powder. Then I added a little gold Jewel Enamels as the fairy dust from the recipe. I die cut a star and covered it in the Jewel Enamels and then clear embossing powder and cut out a hand. The sentiment is a quote from my daughter who would ask that of me when ever there was a clear night's sky! I think stars have always been both magical and mysterious for her (and me if I'm honest!)

I hope that you feel inspired to join in with us this fortnight - we'll make you very welcome!!!

WOYWW 182

Oh my! This week I've gone from being ultimately tidy (see last week's post as evidence!) to being in a creative tail spin as I have acquired a few new things to play with! So I have lots of things that really should be thrown away on my desk - scraps of paper, used kitchen roll, stamps that need tidying away...

Then to my left I have a box of lovely goodies that need to find a new home, a few bits from Saturday's class that need putting away and a truly dreadful programme on my iPad! I do like to make things with pretty awful TV on in the background...!

As always, if you're a curious kinda person why not pop along to Julia's blog and see what others have been up to this week. She makes you ever so welcome!
I'm back later today with a Dragons Dream Tag... this is a sneaky peek!

Anything Goes

For Crafty Boots this fortnight Faye has set us the theme of ‘Anything goes’. For this challenge Helen and I decided to set ourselves a challenge and work with similar resources to produce Stephanie-Emma a 'thank you' for arranging our recent Crafty Boots Design Team crafty day. The 'must haves' were a kraft tag, Fresco Finish paint, Bingo mask and Wendy's thank you stamp. I added a heart, leaves, and some ideaology to mine! 

The best part of the whole process was sharing it with Helen as we had a few giggles and I have discovered that I'm not quite as good at hiding my tendency for OCD as I thought I was!!!

It'll be Christmas before we know it!

The lovely and talented Sandra, amongst others, has inspired me to try Dylusions... I have tried them a little in the past but really not had much success but Sandra showed me how to use them and I'm now itching to try more! I am not really sure if I have done this right but one thing I have learned is that by being brave and sharing your projects then it spurs you on to try more... This is very much a work in progress but I was impressed with myself for managing to get the "water misting through a mask" to work so well! 

I used this stamp from the Christmas Words set to be a little cheeky to the lovely Kitty who thought it was the most unexciting phrase of the set! I thought it was pretty perfect to send to relatives who wouldn't appreciate being told to 'jingle their own bells'!!!!! I am being a little 'head in the sand' about the forthcoming celebrations so maybe these words will spur me on to actually face up to the reality to come!

Totally flippin' awesome!

I have managed to sneak an afternoon's crafting and I just had to take part in this fortnight's Everything Wendy Vecchi challenge which is to make the great Ms Vecchi a birthday card! Now that is what I would call incredibly daunting! I mean, what do you make for someone whose art you have the ultimate respect for and leaves you in awe?! I don't really make cards so I took a different approach and made a little plaque. 

I love using Art Parts and I wanted to try something different for me so I adhered some Tissue Wrap as a background and used Fresh Lime and Vibrant Turquoise Dylusions sprays to give the Tissue Wrap a little interest. I added a little Gathered Twigs Distress Ink at the edges. The Mini Frame Art Part was also inked with the sprays. I used the honeycomb stamp from Art for You randomly in the background and on the mini frame. The wasp (which I am again pretending is a bee!) was stamped onto coordinating Art Parts and the black ink was embossed. 

The body of the wasp/bee was inked with WIld Honey Distress Stain and the wings were given a little silver shimmer. The 'BE YOU' sentiment is again from the Art for You set and the 'Totally flippin' Awesome' is from Accents for Art. I hope Wendy likes it! I'm off to the Post Office so I hope it gets there in time!
Edit: Wendy featured her birthday cards on her blog. To see them in all their glory pop over here!

WOYWW 181

Well, today's post isn't as much What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (which as you can see is not a lot!) But WHO is at my Workdesk last Friday! It's only StampingbyH!!! How wonderful! 

We had a Crafty Boots DT day on Saturday where most of the gang met up in Milton Keynes for a show and tell session and I invited my truly lovely friend Helen to stay with me! Honestly, she was  no trouble! I encourage you all to invite her to stay she was one tidy guest! As part of the DT day we made swops (swaps?) look at how beautiful the ones I received are! Mine can be seen here! 

The next day the lovely Zoe popped on by and so I have had two WOYWWs in my studio at the same time! The rest of you form an orderly queue!

Thank you, as always, to Julia for hosting our romp round creative workspaces and if you're curious to see more then get a cup of tea and a choccie biscuit and be prepared to lose a few hours happily wandering around the globe! Thank you for stopping by!

Find your style... and friends!

Right now, along with the Crafty Boots Design Team, I am having a crafty day! We're all gathering together to share knowledge and learn new things! It will be amazing to meet the team who I have come to know through their blogs, Facebook and Twitter! 

In the spirit of coming together we have decided to have a swop (or swap?!) and for mine I made a production line worth of ATCs! I will share the ones I get in return soon! 

I am in print...!!!

I am so very, very excited to announce that I have been published in the first ever Creative Expressions Project Book! 

There are 21 diverse project ideas within the book from 10 designers including Hels Sheridan, Sam Poole and of course little old me!

My project was inspired by my very favourite stamps from Wendy Vecchi and uses stamps, Art Parts, Clearly for Art, paint, inks and of course Vintage Photo Distress Ink!

If you would like to buy a copy, for a very reasonable £4.99 (which is 24p per project!!!) then click here and visit Country View Crafts! 

Handle with care

This fortnight’s recipe at Dragonsdream Tag It On has been set by the uber talented Silvie and is "Handle with care" - to include something fragile, and animal and a warning (plus the obligatory use of at least one stamp and for it to be on a tag). So this one was a bit of a challenge until I remembered I had the Bell Jar die and having handled a few recently (thinking about Christmas presents I know just how fragile these are!) So the Bell Jar is my fragile (and the sign gently pushes this notion home!), the butterflies are my animals and the warning is the sign on the side!

To make my tag I used Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade and Gathered Twigs Distress Inks on the tag (and a little judicious sanding!) and Wendy's background stamp finished it off. The Bell Jar 'glass' was cut from its packaging and the base was covered in Pewter Distress Stain, clear embossed, and Gathered Twigs rubbed over the top before being embossed again. 

The two butterflies were stamped on to cream card and Distress Inks added to the edges of the wings. Once I'd got started I really enjoyed making this - I hope you join us too!

I love Die Cutting...

...and to prove it I've made a little something over at the Country View Crafts blog...! Please do pop on over and see!

Remember...

For Crafty Boots this fortnight Bev has set us the theme of Remember (as it’s so close to Remembrance Day), this could be a person, a pet or even a special moment in time. I chose to make an ATC with a flower that could look like a poppy if you squint a bit! 

The ATC was covered with Barn Door Distress Ink and I 'clapped' water on it to add a little interest and a light dusting of Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold spray. I then added two swirls and the sentiment in pen. 

The flower was stamped three times and embossed before being inked as before (the centre has Vintage Photo Distress Ink on it). I pinched the petals inwards so that they had some dimension. I spent yesterday with my Cubs (and our Beavers and Scouts) at our Remembrance Church Parade... I always take a moment to thank those who went before. I will always remember...

My first demo day!

I was asked by Hobbycraft to demo in their Milton Keynes store yesterday. I really had no idea what this would entail but the really friendly staff (and an email discussion with the lovely Kim) reassured me. 

I decided to try and show how some of their wooden items could be customised and 'grunged' up a little. There is a tendency to buy these items and add a little paint and then that's that... so hopefully I gave a few people a little inspiration... I know the staff fell in love with the reindeer! 

These items are the ones I made whilst I was there - I'll show the prep pieces another time (as I know they'll suit a few challenges nearer to the end of December!!!) If you would like to see these projects in person I have left them in the shop... happy hunting!