My Kraft Journal

Hi folks,

I want to share with you my latest project which has taken a couple of days. I was surfing the net looking for copic colour charts and came across a blog via Splitcoaststampers featuring a wonderful book which you can see here. I thought it was brilliant idea and just looked so loved, like you wouldn't want to be without it.

Anyway I decided to give it ago. Wanting to put my Copic colours in I couldn't just use any old notebook so made my own then I can print out my charts on the Ryman's paper and add to as and when.



I started with two 8x8 pieces of board and covered with the gorgeous Tim Holtz Kraft Resist paper (which is embossed in places so when you ink over it the embossing resists the ink) and lined with Papermania Kraft, the inside sections were made with card from packaging and again covered. The file tabs were cut on my Cricut.

I inked everything with distress inks in Fired Brick, Barn Door, Rusty Hinge and Dried Marigold then covered in Tattered Angels Pearl glimmer mist. Decorated the pages with Tim Holtz dies and made some pockets for the back of the flaps.













As I said I plan to keep all my colour charts for easy reference, coloured images and all that other stuff we should write down instead of trying to remember where we saw it.

Song Bird Fly

It's been a while, I really am a terrible blogger anyway thought I'd show you my first altered jigsaw piece. It started off with the inchy which is an ongoing challenge over at Craftymess this weeks them being birds.

I used a inch square piece of stampboard then inked with alcohol inks, stamped with Paper Artsy image and made the little bird with the Tim Holtz die and shrink plastic, edged in gold krylon pen.



The jigsaw piece itself was triple embossed in various colours then stamped with a crackle effect background. Added shrink plastic sentiment and beaded charm.

Really pleased with this for a first attempt.

Simply Adorable

It feel's like ages since I blogged anything but I have been busy making cards even with the new distraction of Chatting on the Craftymess forum.

These are two of my favourite cards this week and they are the Sugar Nellie Simply Adorable collection, not sure about the ones with just the heads but I love these.

Both coloured with copics and Tim Holtz Vinage Shabby papers





A bit of excitement, got a new toy today.... a copic air brush system! I managed to get a mini compressor in the sale at Hobbycraft for the bargain price of £30 reduced from £105! Okay I think it was slightly overpriced to start with because I know Eisbaren thought hers was a bargain at £60 so mine definitely was. I've had a quick play this afternoon but need lots more practise, promise to upload my first attempt shortly.

First DT card for JAD's

Here's my first DT card for JAD's we had to make something using the theme "Winged People"



My image is a Paper Artsy stamp. Made a tag using pearl acrylic paints, stamped image in Stazon. The papers are my favourite Tim Holtz stack Shabby Vintage. All distressed and edged with Fired Brick added a ribbon and a few embellishments.



If you fancy a go at altered art why not pop over and sign up to the forum, we are looking for new members as the site hasn't been running for long.

Go on dare to be different!

12 Days of Christmas No 6 Grungeboard and Texture Fades

WOW half way through already, can't believe I've managed to blog them all too, I'm not the best blogger in the world.

Today I actually made two tags and the only thing in common with Tim's tag are the inks and techniques.

This is Tim's tag



and these are mine



I made the blue one first as I didn't have any tree or reindeers, so thought I'd just do something completely different yet use the same techniques.



Distress Inks used Tumbled Glass and Stormy sky, Cuttlebug Winter House folder and snowflake, Personal Impressions flourish, Whimsy sentiment.

The reason I made a second one was when I went to the craft shop to stock up on double sided tape and glue this lovely little Sizzix reindeer jumped into my arms. He is being discontinued so I had to have him. I replaced the trees with Cuttlebug holly folder using Pine Needles and Fired Brick.



I can't decide which one I like the most, what about you?

To see more fantastic tags why not pop over to Artyjen's blog

12 Days of Christmas no 5 - Enameled Metals

Here's today's tag, this was nice messy one with a bit of everything, ink, paint, stickles and embossing



The tag was edged with adirondack paint dabber in Snow Cap, inked with Barn Door and Fired Brick. Stamped Inkadinkado Santa and random edging and Penny Black sentiment. Next a grungepaper die cut was covered in Broken China crackle paint with a strip of distressed music paper. The numbers are a pack of sticky door numbers from the Poundshop (new they would come in handy) covered in Snow Cap and UTEE and a TH flower embossed with distress EP's.

I'm entering this into the Artistic Stampers monthly challenge

and The Cheerful Stampad's challenge "Here Comes Santa" (thanks for the invitation to join in Vicki)

12 Days of Christmas no 4 - Facets

I am absolutely loving this challenge, the only frightening thing is how close to Christmas it will bring us.

Here is day 4's tag



The technique involved in this one was to make a charm using a resist with alchohol inks, Tim used a lovely facet, but not having any I opted for a fragment charm. I must admit alcohol inks are my least favourite Tim product and my attempt at this did not work, but hey ho.

Tim's tag is lovely and blingy so we mananged that bit.

Paper is DCWV, gems and pearls from stash, tag edged in Fired Brick, Alcohol Inks used were Butterscotch and Stream.

12 Days of Christmas No 3 - Tissue Tape

Day 3 of Tim's Christmas tag challenge using Tissue Tape. I didn't have any of that so found some white tissue paper and coloured it with Tattered Rose reinker then stamped with text then collaged over the bird and used with the tattered floral die.



Distress Inks used Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Brushed Corduroy and Vintage Photo for edging.

Short and sweet tonight as it's late, but hope you like my take on Tim's tag.

On the 2nd Day of Chrismas - Custom Inkpad

my true love sent to me ....

another Tim tag and what a beauty it was too, however, mine looks nothing like Tim's.

I hit a wall with this one, the technique needed Cut & Dry felt, which I didn't have and distress reinkers which I only have a couple of. Sue (Playing with Paper) who is a fountain of knowledge said you can acheive a similar result with dried up baby wipes and felt tip pens or ink daubers. Well my attempt was a disaster, I didn't have the right style stamp or reinker colours and it was just a splodged mess.

So I improvised, using the aforementioned ink daubers and distress inks in tumbled glass and stormy sky I stamped a snowflake design all around my tag and then embossed with clear ep, then coloured my backround with weathered wood and more stormy sky. The design got a bit lost in the background so I went over it with clear on clear ink and ep. The topper was made using the same colours and stamp. Finnished with a sentiment and snowflake.



Well it's nice to be different anyway and I'm loving these big tags.

Looking forward to tomorrow's challenge.

Thanks for looking.

Tim's 12 days of Christmas - Rickety House

As all of you lovely Tim fan knows every year he does a challenge The 12 Days of Christmas tags.

Over on the Docraft forum Sue who likes nothing better than Playing with Paper challenged us to join in.

So here goes with day 1 if you pop over to Tim's blog you can see what he created. I was a little overwhelmed when I saw it and had to have a think, but thank goodness for crafty friends. The postie arrived this morning with a little brown envelope full of TH die cuts from the lovey Kay aka Craftyspider. Low and behold there were some of the great big tags and rickety houses, so thank you Kay.



I've used the batik technique for the background using distress inks in tumbled glass, stormy sky and broken china, distressed and embossed around the edges. The house was embossed with the brick folder and inked in fired brick, and lots of rock candy stickles and glamour dust. The wreath was made using a McGill pine branch punch and Viva pen for the berries.

I really enjoyed making this and can't wait for tomorrows.

CCC21 - Perfect Distress

Need to get my crafting head back on I've been full of cold this week and had two sick children, so not felt like doing much at all. As usual I've left it till last minute again for this week's Compendium challenge, Perfect Distress. Now I love my Perfect Pearls, but could I get this card to work, no. Took me all afternoon to come up with something I was reasonably happy with.



Apologies for the photo the light kept reflecting off it.

I used an Inkadinkdoo stamp and all the blue distress inks; tumbled glass, stormy sky, faded glass and broken china with the White Pearl powder. The papers are of course from Tim's Vintage Shabby stack, my all time favourites.

You may remember last week I mentioned going to a friend's wedding, it was a fantastic day, the venue and weather were beautiful, the food was out of this world and the bride looked gorgeous.

Here's me and Ali, we go back to primary school, over 30 years ago!



the stunning scenery



the amazing cake



See you all next week, I must get back into blogging more often.

CCC19 - Extreme Masking

It's nearly time for another Compendium challenge so I better post this week's. The fabulous Linda at StudioL3 has set the task of "extreme masking" which can be found on page 61 of Tim's book. I'm not a halloween person but Linda's halloween project is fantastic.

Here's mine, not sure I got the hang of this masking technique but gave it a go anway. I used the Birdcage Alterations die, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo distress inks



Stampin Up stamps were used and dusted with my favourite bling of all time "Perfect Pearls"

CCC18 - Dabber Resist

Left it till the night before... again ... Compendium of Curiosities Challenge this week is Dabber resist techinque, intrigued? Well you'll have to have a look in the book I'm afraid.





I used a Clarity stamp, snow white adirondack paint dabber, Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge and Spiced Marmalade distress inks. I embossed the artificial leaf with bronze, brass and gold ep's added a couple of smalled leaves and the garden twine. Stamped Tim Holtz sentiment "Listen to your Heart"

CCC17 - Fragment Charms

Good moring fellow bloggers,

Time to post my latest Compendium of Curriosities challenge, this week's techique is using Tim's fragment charms, well I didn't have any so there were two options - miss the challenge or go shopping, guess which one I choose!

My lovely Hubby took me out for a day to Skipton in North Yorkshire to visit the Stampman and Samuel Taylors and I wasn't disappointed. Even got to meet a fellow crafter who I've "spoken" to online that works in one of the shops. He didn't even complain about my spending, although I don't think he could quite believe how little I got for my money!



As you can see I made sure I got my charms for the challenge, the Sizzix die I have been wanting for a while but was out of stock everywhere so was pleased to find that.

Anyway back to the challenge, there is only one thing to do with charms and that's make a charm bracelet, I used Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby papers in pink and various charms, beads and chain from my stash.



Hope you all have a great weekend.

CCC16 - Wrinkle Free Distress

It's Tim time again over at Studio L3, except this time we get an extra week as lots of the lucky followers are livin it up with Sir Tim himself on a cruise ship, how green am I?

Anyway back to the challenge, this week it's wrinkle free distress which can be found on page 33 of the Compendium of Curiosities.

I used Dusty Concord, Tumbled Glass and Milled Lavender distress inks, stamped the Penny Black "Burst of Stars" in Dusty Concord and and again in Distress embossing ink and covered in Plum Perfect Pearls to add a fantastic shimmer to the tag.



I love how the centre of the flower hit the blue splodge perfectly.

CCC15 - Agate on Grunge

Hi folks,

Well it's a quick post with this weeks Compendium of Curiosities challenge, I've been trying to do this all week along with an order of 15 cards and can't get my head round any of it for some reason.

Linda over at Studio L3 has challenged us to do something with Agate on Grunge which can be found on page 53 of the book.

This isn't one of my favourite tags but I'm running out of time so hope you like it.