Stamps for sale

I've put some stamps for sale on my other blog including some Penny Blacks, click on the link on the sidebar.

Two awards in one week

Nearly forgot I've been given my first awards this week by the lovely Jannette of Little-Bo's Crafty Place and my lovely friend Suzanne 2



So it goes without saying thankyou to both of you and now I must pass it on.

Teresa - Craftingallday Creations
Lizzy - Lizzy's Crafty Place
Sam - Whisper's Cards
Lisa - Wishcraft
Viv - Viv's Visuals
Joanne - Made by Joanne
Linda - Studio L3

These people have the most amazing blogs and their work truly inspires me now all I have to do it let them know.

Time to face up to a challenge "Time Queen" named thanks to Jack

A few weeks ago a friend Bowlingbelle, Viv, invited me to join her Flickr group Art & Soul over on Yahoo. The challenge this month has been set by Viv herself and it was to make an cotton reel doll. Well being fairly new to altered art I was going to give this one a miss, however, yesterday I decided what the hell and would give it a go.

It felt like being back at primary school playing with empty toilet rolls and gluing and sticking.

She hasn't got a name yet, so if anyone has any suggestions but here is what I came up with....no laughing!





I had to use ribbon reels instead of a cotton reel so hope it's okay.

Thanks for looking

CCC 6 - Multi Medium Collage

This was one of the earlier CCC challenges I missed, Multi Meduium is a gel/paste that as it's name suggests can be used for many things, sticking, varnishing and transferring images. The technique can be found on page 66 of Tim's book Compendium of Curriosities. This has got to be one of my favourite tags so far.





The letter "S" (obviously my initial) is from a wooden alphabet I have had forever, the image is from an old book and the script from a vintage "Gone with the Wind" bougth from the car boot (a book I've never read). You can't really tell on the photo but the buttons look like fabric.

Distress Inks used: Barn Door, Crushed Olive, Old Paper and Tea Dye
Also used: Claudine Hellmuth Gloss Multi Medium and Ranger Crackle Accents.

CCC11 - Blended Batik

How time flies, another week, another CCC at Studio L3, week 11 and it's Blended Batik. I've recycled a linen tag I just happened to take off a top this morning. I wasn't sure whether the technique would work on fabric or not, but as you can see came out just fine.







Apologies for not using Sir Tim's stamps but I need to build up my collection, all other products are TH though. I would love some floral/nature stamps if anyone can direct me to any please let me know.

Products used

Distress Inks: Tea Dye, Forest Moss, Peeled Paint, Aged Mahagony
Wings from Heart Wings die inked with Peeled Paint and stickles
a bottle top squished in my bug with charm attached
floral embellishments.

Altered Mirror

Ages ago I bought a cheap Ikea mirror at the car boot and thought it was time I did something with it, so I've been having fun getting messy and came up with this.

I sanded it down then added a base layer of acrylic paint. Inked using Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany distress inks. Stamped script background using Coffee and Sepia archival ink, could really have done to have been Stazon as it doesn't show up very clearly, only where the embossing powder clung to it and shouldn't, lol. Sprayed with gold cosmic shimmer, must add a few other colours to my wishlist. The images were stamped with distress ink and embossed with distress EP in Aged Maghogany. Finally added some odds and ends and Tim Holtz embellishments. The flower is made from grungepaper covered in a Crafty Individuals paper inked and stickled.









If anyone knows how to get the pictures next to each and save space please let me know, I have tried all sorts with no joy.

Thanks for looking

Challenge Between Friends

Time for another Challenge Between Friends on Docrafts. It was Suzanne 2,s turn to host the challenge and she set a Glitter challenge - I'm still sparkling! Now I know why they are at the back of a drawer and don't get used.

For a some reason it was one of those cards I knew what I wanted to do but just wouldn't come together and took ages, still not sure about it.



DP: Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby
Scalloped Oval inked with Barn Door, Worn Lipstick and Victorian Velvet Distress Inks
Dimension Fourth stamp using gluepad and glitters
other bits from stash

Scraplings and Paint Chips

I can hear you all saying to yourself "What on earth are scraplings and paintchips?" Well I had no idea either until I came across the Art Exchange on the Gingersnaps Yahoo Group. Scraplings are mini cards measuring 1.5" x 4.25" and paint chips are the paint samples from the DIY store.

Thought I'd give them ago so off I went to B&Q to raid their paint aisle, now this was a challenge because I didn't realise how small they were and I never got on with ATC's for that reason, I'm in my comfort zone with tags however, I think they look quite good.



I stuck to a floral theme for all of them, something I don't do enough of, Stamps used were Paper Artsy on the orange and purple and Penny Blacks on the green and pink.

CCC 10 - Distress Stickles

We're on Challenge 10 of the Compendium of Curriosities and this week Linda at Studio L3 has chosen Distress Stickles. I've made another tag for my collection.





Products used:

Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby papers which are my favourite all time papers
Tattered Floral die
Sizzix Swirl
Hero Art Cling background
Distress Inks in Barn Door and Fired Brick
Distress Stickles in Rock Candy (tag and swirl) and Fired Brick (flower)

Can't wait for next challenge, I'm really enjoying these, they just seem to come together on their own.

Blooms and Buttons

A quick card today for the Just Cute Bears challenge "Blooms and Buttons"

DP: DCVW "Pocket of Posies"
Image: Milton
Medium: Copics and Prismas
other: flowers and button from stash, mini Papermania buttons

I tried the colouring technique that seems to be popular at the moment, using your Copics and Prisma's together. Wow, what a difference, it seems to bring the colouring to life. My Prisma's are far too neglected so it's time to get them back out. I must say this is the first bear I've coloured that I'm happy with, I think they are one of the hardest things to colour.

I was going to add a sentiment but decided it would "unbalance" the card.

Thanks for looking

CCC catch up tags

I've been making some more tags for Challenges 1 - 7 as I only began the challenges at number 8. I thought if I made them all as tags I could keep them in a book, but think I might get some 12 x 12 3d frames to show them all off in.

Challenge 1 - Water Stamping (red and orange)
Challenge 3 - Alcohol Ink Mono (purple with birdcage)





Challenge 4 - Shabby Chic (purple in black)
Challenge 5 - Distress Embossing (blue and green)





There's a couple I can't do at the moment because I need to get some Fragments, they are next on my evergrowing Wishlist, along with all the new Tim stuff when it reaches the UK.

To find out how I used all these techniques I'm afraid you'll just have to get the fab Compendium of Curiosites as part of the challenge rules state we cannot share them out of respect to the fabulous Tim's work. The challenge itself can be found over at Studio L3 hosted by the lovely Linda.

Hope you like what I've made so far.

Totally Gorjuss - Aqua

I finally got round to making a card with one of my new Bon Voyage stamps, I've had so many things I want to do in my head lately.

Anyway, the challenge over at Totally Gorjuss this week is "Aqua" so my card is perfect.





Tilda coloured with Copics
Kay&Co and My Mind's Eye papers
Prima E-line flowers
Personal Impressions sentiment

That's it short and sweet but I've five more Tilda's to go at, back soon,

CCC9 - Cracklepaint

It's my second week doing the Compendium of Curiosties challenge over at Studio L3, I've decided to work backwards and forwards as I'd love to keep a sample of all the techniques so I'm off to see what weeks 1-8 were.

Hope you like the tags I made for this one



For the male themed one I used Faded Jeans, Broken China, Tumbled Glass and Tea Dye with Rock Candy crackle paint



For the girly one I covered the tag with a Pearl Adirondack paint dabber, then used Alchol Inks in Wild Plum, Stream, Butterscotch and Gold and covered in the crackle paint then did the same with the heart in Wild Plum. The crackle paint on the top layer of the heart has for some reason come off in places but adds to the distressed look.

A couple of challenges

I saw this lovely idea in Craft Stamper and thought it was so unusual just colouring part of the image and had to have a go.



DP: My Mind's Eye - Jen Wilson "Le Paperie"
Image: Sarah Kay "Best Friends Forever"
Medium: Copics

I'm entering it into the Crafty Cardmakers "Birthday" challenge and Bunnyzoes "Vintage" was also going to be for Crafty Catz Buttons and Bows but I'm too late for that one.

Thanks for looking.

Vintage collage

I made this in two stages the ideas both coming from Craft Stamper which I absolutely love now. The frame is a photo mount which I have covered in Viva Decor texture paste then stamped an image into. Next it's been covered with various colours of Adirondack acrylic paint dabbers and some Perfect Pearls to give it some glimmer. Added the Tim Holtz grunge flower and heart. It then sat on my desk for a week or so as I didn't know what to do with it until I saw a Vintage Collage in this months issue.



I've used various stamps, techniques and Distress inks making up little squares adding some of the fab TH embellishments to finnish it off. It's going up on the wall by my desk, hope you like it as much as I do.