A bit of a make-over

I decided to give my blog a make-over.  I loved the original template but as it was pre-designed it was a bit limiting in what I could do with it.  So I played around for a while, then I found a fabulous site Blogger Sentral which has all kinds of amazing tips and tricks to customize your blog.  After browsing around Blogger Sentral for a while, I realised I wanted an image for my header, so I made a tag.

The more observant among you may realise this is slightly different to the actual header up there.  This is because I stamped the corn advert on to it afterwards!  I coloured a tag with Wild Honey DI which I then splashed with some water to give some interest.  I then played with my Paper Artsy HP1009 plate and stamped the flower head and the birdies in the grass also in wild honey.  I then stamped the flower head again on some card colourd with wild honey and spritzed with gold shimmer mist with Coffee archival.  I then cut out the flowers and layered them on to the tag.  I finished off with some Crafty Individuals birds then photographed it for the blog header.  I then added the Shepard Corn stamp and now I am entering it to the Sunday Stampers challenge week 121.  The theme is movies, so this is Children of the Corn... or maybe The Birds, I'll let Hels decide, lol

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.

Alter it Monthly & Sunday Stampers

My second entry for the August Alter it Monthly challenge with Music as the theme is my altered bean (tomato) tin.  As this also has a flower on it, I get to play with Hels Sunday Stampers this week too :)

I started off intending for the main grungepaper jacket for the tin to look a bit different than this, prepped an inky, grungy background, stamped over it then I intended to fade it out a bit with a coat of watered down gesso.  Alas, I did not dry the stamping first!! So I ended up with everything merged in to one faded blue background, lol.  I stamped the swirl from Paperartsy Hot Picks 1005 in coffee archival ink, a butterfly from a CI plate in Adirondack Denim ink along the top, then laced that onto the tin with some blue ribbon (the tin had a coat of Hazelnut paint dabber at the top and bottom).  I stamped the Stampotique musical tag stamp in denim onto some grungepaper inked with Broken China DI, then cut it out and stuck it onto the tin with some foam pads.

I stamped the larger flower from Paperartsy Hot Picks 1004 (the one that has some sheet music on it... see, sticking with the music theme) several times in coffee archival onto some tissue paper I had inked with weathered wood DI then cut them all out.  I sprayed them with some home made shimmer mist with blue mica powder in it (I spritzed that over the grungepaper elements as well), then scrunched the flowers up a bit, flattened them out again and attached them all together with a small brad and some of t!m's sprocket gear.

It didn't end up quite where I thought it was going to, but then, things rarely do! That's half the fun :)

I've got a week off work this week, YAY!! So I can get inky and messy and play!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

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 :)))

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.

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!