Tag 10

I know, what happened to the tags between?! Well, snow melted so I had no more excuses to stay home so had to go in to work :(.  Anyway, I have been printing off the destructions and saving them so I can play later.  However, I had to make a christmas card for a dog (don't ask!) and Tag 10 seemed to fit the bill, with a bit of adaptation (a black dog instead of a white snowman for a start) so here it is:

Didn't have anything t!m used this time, so I improvised.  The pine tree stamp is at least a t!m stamp!  So this is little black dog playing in the snow at Christmas - or maybe incased in ice, depending on your point of view. 
I've had fun playing along when I could.  Next year maybe I should take two weeks off work so I can play every day! Everyone has made some amazing creations and the different improvisations have been stunning and as inspiring as t!m's original creations. Same time, same place, next year :)

Tag 1

So I decided to make the tag from day 1 instead today.  I didn't have the rickety house die so I downloaded a Maya Road template and cut that out of chipboard.  I didn't have the texture fade so I added texture by using molding paste and heating it till it went lumpy bumpy.  I didn't have the on the edge picket fence die (are we seeing a pattern here?!) so I downloaded a fence pattern from the internet and hand cut that out of grungeboard.  After all this I noticed the house template was rather large.  Too large for a tag, or even a card, so it has become a wall hanging!

 

I used my trusty Maya Road branch from day 3 for my tree, and the background is paper from the K&Co Winter Wonderland stack. I couldn't find anything to make a wreath so I used a metal embellishment from my stash that fit the bill.  I decided to decorate inside the window by using some paper that looked like wallpaper, stamping a christmas tree on it then decorating the tree with adhesive gems and a star so it looks like there is a decorated tree inside the window.  I used fun flock and mica powder for the snow.  For some reason I can't find my white glitter.

If you want to look at everyone's interpretations of the tags and post yours for us all to share, pop over to Arty Jen blog and join in.

Tag 3

on day 3... it's a miracle!

So it's a card again, and this time the only things I had were tissue tape and a memo pin!  The bird is Maya Road chipboard and I just couldn't find a suitable stamp so I improvised and drew around a Maya Road chipboard branch.
No adventures today, just stayed in, kept warm and played.... bliss :)

t!m's No. 2

Twelve days tag that is!! I have religiously printed off every single one of the Twelve Tags from his lordship's blog every year and saved them all in a lever arch file (having to start a new one this year as the other one is too full!), but this is the first time I have actually done one!!!  I have used the techniques and tips but have never actually made one.  So.... drum roll please... here is my take on day 2 of The Twelve Tags of Christmas 2010:

 

I didn't actually have any of the right stamps, or the right DI's (other than Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany and Walnut Stain), but hey, there's a branch and a greeting and a flourish and a bird!! What's more, the greeting and the flourish are actually t!m stamps...  just not the right ones.  I flicked some water on the tag after I blended the background DI's just because I like it that way, and I mounted the finished tag onto a card because I felt like it.

I am having a snow day at home today :) Yesterday I made it in to the office (nobody else did!) and collected some work to do at home (which, as you can see, I am not doing LOL) then set off for home.  I got on a train at Surbiton at 12.46pm for the journey to Clapham Junction which usually takes 15minutes.  The train got to Clapham Junction at 14.48!!! 2 hours!! Worse part? No loo on the train.  Now bear in mind I am a 51 year old woman who has given birth 3 times and had pelvic radiotherapy and brachiotherapy for cervical cancer.... bladder control is not in my skill set any longer! Fortunately Clapham Junction has a large deparment store close to the station with decent toilet facilities so that was where I headed as soon as I got off the train! No way am I attempting to get in today.... not without a catheter anyway, lol.

Hope everyone is safe and warm today!

Circling Around

I've been messing around with this all day.  I'm in a circle journal, or at least I will be, it hasn't started yet - first posting date is May 1st.  Anyway, I have chosen Fantasy as my theme, anything fantasy related, dragons, fairies, fairy tales, wishing to own your own tropical island - anything goes really (except whips, leather and bondage - it's not THAT kind of fantasy, thank you!).  My book is a 6 x 6 and this is my DLO for it.  I was inspired by Tracey Dutton of Lavinia Stamps, and read her article in the August 09 issue of Craft Stamper to get some tips, then I tried brayering a background.  I've tried it before, and it was no more successful this time *sigh*, so I ripped my 'hills' and used cut n dry foam instead (but don't tell anyone!).  This is actually my third attempt.  The first one was, to be fair, just a trial run to see how different greens worked for the hills.  The second one I just wasn't happy with, and then I buggered it up (technical term) altogether by smudging one of the stamps, so I started again and I am happier with this one.  I have used, of course, a Lavinia fairy plus the castle and some mushrooms which you may be able to just make out in the foliage at the bottom.  The runny babbit is, of course, from Sir t!m's Spring Sprung set ( a purchase from Ally Pally yesterday) as is most of the foliage at the bottom.  The birds and the tree branches down the side are Crafty Individuals.  The mouse (is it Hunka Munka? I'm a bit rusty on my Beatrix Potter) is from a set of die cuts I seem to have aquired from somewhere - think it might have been free with a magazine.

Ally Pally was great.  The weather was fantastic and was lovely to be able to sit outside to eat lunch looking over London.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to find Helen :( but I did bump into Carmen a few times which was great.  I also got to see Hels demoing on the Artistic Stamper stand and while I was there was lucky enough to meet Alison as well.  Of course, the divine Ms Linda was beavering away on the LB Crafts stand and I got to meet her too. It really is amazing to meet people from blogland in real life, you feel as if you already know them!  

Enough waffle from me, off now to try and make the rest of my book for the CJ before I run out of time!

Random Canvas

Happy Mother's Day to all UK mums.  My two DD's have been spoiling me this morning and got me a lovely box of Lindt Petit Desserts.. yummy!
I've had a small canvas sitting around for ages with just a first background layer done on it.  Actually it featured in a WOYWW back in February.  It had some gesso and a couple of layers of acrylic paint plus a bit of text stamping and sequin waste inking on it.

So this poor neglected canvas has been hanging around waiting to be completed but my mojo just wasn't feeling it, until yesterday.  Inspired by Hels mini canvas in the February issue of Craft Stamper I decided to mess around with some Terra background techniques.  One small problem.... no Terra! Eeek!  Not to be put off, I dug out a jar of Golden Moulding Paste and mixed some with Raw Sienna acrylic paint and used that instead.  I slapped that on about half the canvas then used some Iron Ferro on the other half just for fun.  Stamped into it all with a damp text stamp then sprayed a some cosmic shimmer mists in golden fish and peacock green.  Using the heatgun between layers made even more texture in the background as the fake Terra bubbled up just like Hels had said the real thing did.

The colour of the original paint plus the two shimmer mists made a lovely green colour similar to Peeled Paint DI so I inked that on to some grungepaper and stamped on a couple of Studio 490 butterflies and used some seed beads for the bodies.  The chipboard shape is actually cut out of a cereal packet which I then inked with Dusty Concord, stamped a Studio 490 background in Coffee archival ink then another Studio 490 fern in Aged Mahogany then a dusting of Perfect Pearls to give some shine.  The word is, of course, a t!m stamp.  I used Olive archival ink for that, stuck on the butterflies then used some of t!m's foliage in one of the other corners.  I used the blossom nesties in my bug to cut some text paper and tissue paper.  I inked them up with some Peeled Paint DI then sprayed them with some Golden fish and Peacock Green and fixed the smaller one with a long fastener and the other one I used a white prima flower sprayed with Peacock Green and a prima gem in the middle.  I then dug through my treasure box of broken earrings, pendants and anything shiny and fixed these onto magic mesh to look sort of like a fishing net type of thing.  A few more prima gems and flat back pearls to add some random bling and I decided I was done.
Wierdly enough, the Sunday Stampers Challenge over on Hels blog is Bits & Pieces, and this is definitely that, so I guess I am entering this week, LOL.

Page 9 and 10

Lots of fairly hard personal stuff been going on this week so I haven't had much time to blog.  I have managed to get two more pages from my not-a-tag book done.

This is page 9.  I used one of Sir t!m's masks on the background as well as a Wendy Vecchi background stamp.  The little boy is also from Sir t!m and I have used some distress stickles on his hat and wings.  The bird and the feather were some die cuts I had hanging around and they seemed to fit so they went on.  I went around everything with a black sharpie because I thought it all needed a bit more definition.

 
This is page 10.  I used Rock Candy crackle paint on the figure and crystal stickles on the umbrella.  Not sure what this is trying to say but it seemed to want to look like this so I just went along with it.

 

A Huge Thank You

to all the lovely people who made such supportive comments on my last post.  I really do appreciate your kind thoughts and words and it has made me feel all soppy and mushy.  Thank you sincerely, I am truly touched.
I have been meaning to get into this art journal lark for a while now, and finally decided to actually do something about it.  I followed various links and trails and discovered Sarah Whitmire's Soul Journaling prompts here which have the advantage of being free so I thought I would give them a try before taking the plunge and paying for an online course.  I have now built my "soul armor" and here it is:

I seem to have made it more of a soul barrier with a bit of armor hiding behind it, but I guess that says a lot about me.                                                                                                  I'm not sure how much further I will go with Soul Journaling as I feel I want to explore a different direction from the one that the prompts are taking me.  I have enjoyed making this page though, and I am feeling like taking a paid course could be worth it.  First I have to read through the digi version of the first Somerset Studio Art Journaling magazine and see where I end up after that.

I've also done this weeks prompt for Scrapdolly's 52 in 10 project, so after a week of doing nothing very much creative I seem to have got my mojo back, YAY!!!

The prompt was to list your resolutions for this year.  This year I am trying the One Little Word concept and my word is TIME, so this paper fit perfectly.  It's a Tim Holtz paper, apparently, but I have no idea where or how I got it! The challenge was to add some stitching.... no way! So I cheated and used ribbon with stitching already on it for the tag, and stamped some faux stitching underneath the opening for the tag pocket.  The reason for the introduction of the shades of orange was, I was merrily working away in green and ecru when I discovered I didn't have any green dymo tape, or even any black!  Bummer! So I settled on orange and incorporated an orange flower and edged the tag with some spiced marmalade distress ink.

Advent Tree

A few years ago (I can't remember exactly when, my age is catching up with me, but about three or four I think) I bought an advent tree from M&S for my DDs.  They are 24 and 25 this year but still love their advent calendars.  Anyway, this one from M&S was all very sophisticated in silver and black and was filled with fashion jewellery!  It made up part of their christmas present as it was fairly expensive.

Anyways, ever since I have thought I really should alter it, and finally I have!  So, without further ado, here is the grand unveiling:
Back View:

I gave the whole thing a coat of gesso as the original card had a shiny coating on it then painted it all with Viva Metallic paint in Olive to keep with the tree theme.  I then covered the back and sides with K&Co paper from the Winter Wonderland pad in a deep green (again keeping with the tree theme).  The baubles are from the Seasonal grungeboard pack embossed in gold or painted red and embossed with holographic powder.  I've used a Paper Artsy Egg & Nog stamp and some holly from the Seasonal grungeboard pack and some red gems as a garland.  The bows were from the Craft Barn and then I cut up some Wassail papers for the parcels down the bottom.  The star is a wooden one from the Craft Barn painted red then spritzed with Cosmic Shimmer Golden Fish and edged with a Krylon gold pen.

Front View:

 
 

I just covered the drawers in a selection of K&Co papers from the Winter Wonderland pad, plus a few additional papers from Basic Grey Wassail and Eskimo Kisses.  I wanted this to look like a pile of presents so I made the big bow out of some wired gold ribbon at stuck it on the top with the tails dangling down.

I'm quite pleased with it, except I couldn't find any numbers the right size so I had to write them on by hand :(

Now if only I could get my mucky paws on one of those Tesco Advent Houses! 

 

Conference season :(

Been away most of the week at a conference, will be away Monday/Tuesday next week for another one and again the same two days the following week!! 
Anyways, after the snowman wall hanging I was in the Christmas mood so I made another wall hanging with Cosmo Cricket lacing cards from my TSV kit and more papers from the K&Co Winter Wonderland pad.

The top lacing card is mainly one of the papers from the pad which is just so gorgeous it didn't really need anything else.  I stamped a Paper Artsy Nut & Meg poinsetta onto grungepaper, coloured them with fired brick distress ink then sprayed with wild currant glimmer mist.  I blinged them up with some fired brick distress stickles and used micro beads for the centres.  I added a bit of christmas red stickles to the centre of the large poinsetta on the paper because you can never have too much sparkle at Christmas!
 

The second panel is covered with another of the papers then I painted some grungeboard snowflakes from the holiday pack with Viva metallic paint in ice blue.  After that I covered them in pearl glitter.  The letters are from a grungeboard alpha pack covered alternately in christmas red stickles and fired brick stickles.

The third panel is covered with yet another paper from the pad.  I then ran the smaller grungeboard reindeer from the holiday pack through the cuttlebug with the script embossing folder then inked it up with fired brick distress ink and sprayed with wild currant glimmer mist.  I then painted one of the holly sprays from the holiday pack with olive viva metallic paint and used christmas red stickles for the berries.

The final panel is again covered in another paper from the pad.  I ran the small grungeboard tree from the holiday pad through the bug again with the script folder and then painted it with olive viva.  The poinsettas are the same as on the first panel and the letters are the same as the second panel.

 I laced them together with a sparkly ribbon and here is the whole thing. (try to ignore the mark on the wall, I didn't notice it until I was cropping the pic on the PC!  Housework is a very occasional thing in my house)

 

Sunday Stampers Challenge - Snowmen

So there I was last weekend with a big circle of heavyweight cardboard (my DDs bought a Patisserie Valerie cream cake... yummy! and this was the cleaned up cake board) wondering what to do with it when I saw the Sunday Stampers Challenge on Hels blog here.  I've never done a challenge before but I thought I would give it a try.

I was tempted a while ago by a K&Co Winter Wonderland pad on QVC, and I have the holiday grungeboard pack and a couple of Stampers Anonymous Christmas collections by the beloved T!m so I was good to go.
Here is my effort:

I covered the board in one of the K&Co papers then painted a sort of snowdrifty landscape in titan white acrylic paint which I also used on the snowman grungeboard shape.  Once the paint was dry I stamped the trees from the Reindeer Games set in black and embossed with clear powder and the music and title from the Christmas Sounds set with versamark then embossed with silver.  The lampost is also from the Christmas Sounds set stamped on to grungepaper then cut out and stuck on with glossy accents.  I used a gold metallic pen to colour in the "lamp" part to look like it was lit.  I used some distress inks to colour the snowman parts then stuck him on with a bit of red and gold ribbon for a scarf.  I used an unidentified stamp of an owl with a chrismas hat on some shrink plastic to make a little friend for the snowman then went mad with some snow tex and pearl white glitter to make a snowy texture.  Unfortunately the bobble fell off the owl's hat when I was trying to flatten it after shrinking, but don't tell anyone!