Another DD birthday

Yep, their birthdays are only 2 weeks apart.  In fact, for the past two weeks they have been the same age as there is only 11 and a half months between them (yes, I am mad, are you only just realising this?)  Anyway, here is eldest DDs birthday card

This is taken from THE Wendy Vecchi first book (as that is the only one I own!).  I used some handmade paper I found  in Paperchase and added a second butterfly as the paper was a bit too big.  The matting is horrible I know.  Matting is not in my skill set I'm afraid, but luckily the paper has a ragged edge and I distressed the edges of the mats a bit too so it doesn't look too bad.

I am now off to continue work on my fairy elephant......... all will be revealed in due time my pretties!

Unfinished Symphony

My mojo has been away on holiday for a couple of weeks :( 
This morning I was browsing around loooking for inspiration and over on Hels Blog the Sunday Stamper's challenge this week is "everything".
Well, I am the proud owner of a whole two (count them, an entire two, not just one, but two) sets of Studio 490 stamps. 
Now I could have bought one of the actual acrylic binder thingies to keep them in, but I thought I would save my pennies to hopefully increase my collection.  Instead, I decided to go for my fave material for such things... an empty cereal packet, lol. I cut the card to the same shape as the stamp backing and gave it a coat of gesso.  Once the gesso was dry I set to giving the whole thing a grungy, art journaly sort of background with some spray inks, sequin waste, acrylic paint and stampd the background from Art-fully Said.  The background still needed something, so I used some of t!m's stamps along the bottom.  I then turned to my other set  - Make Mine Mini Art, and stamped some of the flowers and the butterfly onto grungeboard and DIed them, then stamped some of the sentiments from Art-fully Said.  The rather large empty space at the top will be filled with more Wendy Vecchi art when I get my mucky paws on more of her stamp sets.

So this now hangs on my rail above my desk with my whole two Studio 490 sets inside. 
Ok, so it's not quite finished, and won't be until I get more Studio 490 stamps, but in the meantime it is my entry for the Sunday Stamper's Challenge as it uses everything Wendy Vecchi that I own.

Two challenges in one

Still on the theme of Tin Pan Alley this is my second entry for the Alter it Monthly challenge for May.  I think it might also qualify for Hel's Sunday Stamper challenge this week which is We Are Golden.
I went over a small tin with a selection of alcohol inks on a felt applicator.  I used wild plum, raisin and caramel.  Once that was dry I rubbed some Antique Gold stickles all over (see, Gold!).  I inked a tiny grungeboard heart with Nick Bantock Damson Plum ink (love that colour), then triple embossed it adding some gold pigment powder to the final layer and stamped into it with a text stamp (more Gold).  I then gold embossed a grungeboard heart (yet more Gold).

I covered the inside with wild plum alcohol ink, then lined it with some K&Co verbena paper that I stamped with a Wendy Vecchi scroll stamp.  I stuck a Crafty Individuals image into the lid, then took a Maya Road chipboard flower, inked it with the Nick Bantock damson plum and triple embossed.  I stamped it with a text stamp on the last layer then rubbed in some gold wax once it was cool (and more Gold).  The Wendy Vecchi small butterfly was stamped onto grungepaper, cut out and then coloured with the Nick Bantock ink.  I used some purpley seed beads for the body and stuck gems on the antennae (or however you spell them).  I used some UTEE inside the base with some purple micro beads and gold mica flakes (there's the Gold again) and stuck a Prima pebble in that matched the colours.
So, Gold and a tin, I think that qualifies for both challenges :) 
Happy Friday..... only 7 more sleeps to Artsy Crafts :)))

A bit of a book

It's my youngest DDs birthday in just over a week, so I decided to have a play with my BIA and make her a note book.

I blended some brushed corduroy, aged mahogany and a little bit of walnut stain DI all over a bamboo spine cover-all, then I stamped a Crafty Individuals flourish with versamark on the top left and bottom right from corners and brushed on some antique gold perfect pearls.  I used a Basic Grey bling-it-on on the top right, then I blended some more brushed corduroy on the chipboard letters then spritzed them with golden fish cosmic shimmer mist.  The crown is a Maya Road chipboard one that I have covered with gilding flakes in yellow and rose gold then added some prima gems.  The heart is chipboard triple embossed with clear UTEE with some cosmic shimmer powders sprinkled in the last layer, then I pressed in a text stamp on to it all while it was still hot.

I put some more gilding flakes on the knobbly bits on the spine so it sort of looks like faded gold tooling on an antique leather book (well, sort of!!)


I used some K&Co 6 x 6 papers on the inside and stamped a Wendy Vecchi sentiment embossed with gold.

Happy Easter bloggers!

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.

 

Page 5 and 6

After another hectic week I got to relax today and finally got around to doing another couple of pages of my Maya Road postage stamp book.  I've been dying to use this stamp, it's Rose from the Divine Missives range by Stampington.  I'm a huge Rennie Mackintosh fan so I just had to have it.  I stamped some other Mackintosh roses around the edge from a Circa Designs stamp in Brilliance inks and coloured in the roses and the vine on the main image with metallic pens.  The whole tag was inked with Tattered Rose distress inks.  So, this is page 5 and it looks much more sparkly in real life.  

 

This is page 6.  The flower, background and saying are Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 stamps (Art-fully Said).  This is my first ever Wendy Vecchi stamp, I have another on back order.  I blame Ms Elbourne for this latest addiction.  To be honest, I didn't have to do much, these stamps are so stunning they don't need much else to complete the piece.  The lighter butterfly is a Maya Road chipboard one coloured with Brilliance ink and a couple of pearls for the body, and the darker one is a fabric one with beads stitched on.  I picked up a pack of them at an Ally Pally show, but can't remember which stand!