Underwater Tag

The latest challenge at Crafty Boots is to use a stamped character... I know that my fellow DT have used some fabulous stamped characters that are people so I decided to use fishy ones - that crab has bags of character!!! I was lucky enough to get these from the Crafty Boots shop and thought they might need an outing!

I uses several Dylusions sprays to create the background and then stamped fish in the background and inked them with orange ink - the eyes were inked with white pen. I added some weeds over the top by stamping them onto white card and colouring them with Dirty Martini ink. The crab was made the same way - I love the expression on his face!

The jellyfish was stamped onto the tag and I stamped it's body onto white card and also stamped a couple of extra fish! So what stamped character will you use?!

Birthday butterflies

Country View Crafts Challenge blog theme for April is Butterflies and I couldn't resist a second make on this theme! I made my lovely mum a birthday tag using a giant #12 tag, Dylusions and some gorgeous JoFy stamps!

After making the background I sprayed White Linen through the Number Jumble mask so that it created a ghost effect - I am having so much fun playing with this ink and seeing what effects you can make!

I hope you will join in with us this month - there's a prize and a chance of a guest spot in the DT on offer... go on, you know you want to!

Grunge paste experiments

Morning! Today is my birthday! I am such a child when it comes to birthdays! I think that they are possibly the most exciting day of the year (I enjoy other people’s birthdays as much as my own you know!)

Anyhoo, at Ally Pally last weekend I bought a small bag full of things, most of which I’ll be unwrapping today as presents but  I did liberate a few items... I have finally got my grubby mitts on some of PaperArtsy’s Grunge Paste. This stuff is fabulous and if you haven’t had a play with some you really should! It comes in a generous tub and is a light grey colour (think grout). I made a couple of tags with new stencils I also liberated! Grunge Paste dries incredibly quickly – a major plus point for the incredibly impatient like me – and can be sanded which brings a whole heap of possibilities (as well as stamped on, stamped in, painted, inked etc!)

So the first tag uses this fab Mini Vine stencil from Dina Wakley, Limelight and Hey Pesto Fresco Finish paints.

The flowers were liberated from a previous project – more details here! The background stamps are various PaperArtsy ones.

The second uses a skull stencil by Andy Skinner and has Dylusions Black Marble ink sprayed on with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink in layers.

The stamps are PaperArtsy and Tim Holtz. I had a lovely experiment and intend to do quite a bit more! Must away now to open all those other 'suprise' goodies!

Something Wonderful

Over at Everything Wendy Vecchi the latest challenge is to use Ms V’s rather fabulous Embossing Paste. I absolutely love this stuff. It comes in black and white and metallic now so the possibilities are endless. For this tag I used Peeled Paint Distress Ink and Picked Raspberry Distress Ink onto a tag and then added white Embossing Paste through one of Wendy’s masks. I do have a lovely scraper for this very purpose but couldn’t find it so used one of Tom’s Buzz Lightyear rulers... hope he doesn’t mind!

The colour from the ink below blends in with the Embossing Paste and produces a pastel shade. Very lovely. When dry I laid the stencil back on top of the tag and stamped a background stamp on the petals (using Picked Raspberry again). A bit of doodling, a sentiment and a lovely Blossom Bucket embellishment finished the tag off...

It's not easy being Su

Hello and welcome to another fortnight at DragonsDream Tag It On! The very talented Elizabeth has chosen pink, fabric and a face... I wanted to use my wonderful phrenology head that I've christened Su and thought I'd add a Movers and Shapers moustache and a pair of glasses. 

To make the material (simple calico) easier to cut out I stuck it on Wendy Vecchi's Clearly for Art, which gave it some stability and enabled me to mould the flower. The stamps are all by Wendy Vecchi and I used PaperArtsy paints for the background and the gold highlights are from Treasure Gold.

So how will you interpret Elizabeth's theme?!

Recycle, recycle, recycle!

For Crafty Boots Challenges this fortnight it was my turn to choose the theme and I chose - Recycle - recycle something - use newspaper, cereal boxes, packaging, an old project you know you could improve... I thought I'd recycle an old project and chose this one...

If you would like to know how I made it click here! So, to change it I decided to take off all the embellishments and painted it with Limelight and Hey Pesto Fresco Finish paints. I then sanded the raised areas. 

I painted and Art Part with Hey Pesto paint and then stamped a Wendy Vecchi background stamp over the top. The flower was some scraps of Composer Tissue Wrap glued on some scraps of Clearly for Art (I rarely throw anything away!) and I added a hitch fastener that I rescued from the original project! I added a little idea-ology and a Blossom Bucket flower as a headdress! 

So, what will you recycle?! We are really looking forward to seeing your project!

Bon Voyage Tag Card

I might be sharing a sneaky peek of my latest project for Country View Crafts... you could click here to find out...!

I'm distressed!

I am sneaking in under the wire for the latest challenge over at Everything Wendy Vecchi - to use Distress Embossing Powder. I have no idea why but I can not get on with this stuff at all so this is my best effort - hope the result is not as disastrous as it felt making it! I used Vintage Photo (of course!) However, I LOVE Wendy's latest leaves stencil - think it's fabulous!

I'm sorry I haven't blogged much. I've been in an utter funk. I think it's the weather. It's been so blummin' relentlessly cold that it's really got to me... I am a sunshiny person and there has been a glimmer of hope this week - let's hope it stays!

April

For this month's calendar I played with the notion of April showers! The raindrops are, with hindsight, a little large but that is just part of the learning journey!

All inks, masks and stamps are from the Dylusions range.

I wonder what's happening this month?! Subtle 'eh?! As always, if you want to see the previous month's pages then pop over to here!

Diamonds

For this fortnight's Crafty Boots Challenge the lovely Amy chose Diamonds as it's April's birthstone. 

This giant birthday tag was sprayed with Dylusions inks and I added diamonds through a stencil. I then added a female figure (again by spraying through a stencil) and then drew round it. I added a diamond party hat, an appropriate number and a sentiment!

I hope you join in with us this fortnight! We love seeing your wonderful creations!

Butterflies

Edit: This post accidentally posted early - my apologies if you've already seen it!

For this month's challenge at Country View Craft's Challenges the theme is Butterflies. I have used corrugated cardboard from an Amazon order and made a little home for my bird cage. This is just one of my favourite dies and I needed little excuse to use it! 

The bird cage is resting on the plinth from the bell jar die. Both were cut from grungepaper, covered in Tarnished Brass Distress Stain and then roughly covered in clear embossing powder. 

The cardboard background and butterflies were painted in PaperArtsy paints before being sanded. 

I made a rose and added my favourite Wendy Vecchi leaves. A little ideaology finished it off! I hope you will join us this month!