Stormy Weather

Today is windy and pouring with rain so off to the craft room to play.   While playing I came up with this using some of my favourite Tim Holtz stamps, actually I won this set some years ago
 and it is signed by Tim!!!  I have only just bought myself to actually ink the stamps.......

Over at Country View Crafts there challenge for February is a time challenge 30mins or under, this took me 28mins, I had a background already made which I cut to size stencilled some circles over the background with various distress inks, sequin waste was on my desk from something else added a few tiny buttons and stamped my umbrella man in black versifine ink onto the main background and also onto another piece of distress ink background and cut him out. Words from same set on the same background stencilled with circles and cut out, a very quick make  which all came together in a flash.....I do like days like this......

Challenges

Country View Challenge time challenge 30 minutes or under


A Vintage Journey  Going round in Circles


till next time

Maggie

Q is for Quote

Another Art Journal page for today Q is the letter The Craft Barn have asked for this fortnight in the Alpha/Dictionary challenge.  I am just in under the wire due to illness these winter bugs are really a pain will be glad when spring comes.
Anyway today between coughing fits I managed to finish my page.

I have used various ~Tim Holtz stamps and others on the background which was firstly given a wash of greens and blues, this was a bit bright I felt so I dry brushed some white gesso over and blasted with heat gun.

I really like how the background stamping onto water colour paper makes for a distressed look faded in places darker in others. I stamped in Adirondack Denim, Distress inks vintage photo, chipped sapphire, broken china, brushed corduroy.

Stamps were Tim Holtz Fairytale Frenzy and selection from Visual Artistry collections.  This AJ page will also fit in well with the  Country View Challenge - make your own backgrounds.  Lastly the "Quote" is one of my favourites in Tim's collection which I stamped in denim onto a piece of card I had in my stash which already had a wash on it, I stamped in denim and used vintage photo and chipped sapphire to distress the panel after I had distressed edges with tool.  Butterflies were found in my bits and bobs box and same inks were used to age them.

I would also like to play at

Craft Stamper Make it Take it - Text Me

Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps - anything goes (with a Stamp)

till next time

Crazy Birds

Hi
The Craft Barn have a new Alpha/ Dictionary challenge running and as I had so much fun joining the last one which was 2013........where did that time go........I was amazed! Anyway to say I was excited to start a new journey with this challenge is an understatement really love to play with stamps and inks and this is why I have chosen to do Art Journaling Pages, with the dictionary meaning for each word added to the pages |(one of the rules). All the details are on their blog follow the link above.

the letter chosen for this first challenge  is "B".  My chosen AJ is watercolour paper pad and I have strengthened the perforated edge with tissue tape to ensure the pages stay put.  I will decorate the front cover along the way.

I have used the Crazy Birds stamps and dies for this my first page.......they were a Birthday present last week and I just had to use them for the first time, I love their quirky characters, they were stamped in versafine on a background created with water colour paper using aquatints inks.

The page background was created firstly with gelatos which I have not used before...they were a free gift with a magazine. I was amazed at the colour they hold, I scribbled them over the page and created a wash with water, will be using these again I'm sure.

My next step was to take anything that was on my desk for adding layers........distress inks through stencil, splatters of distress stains, text stamp Tim Holtz,  and a lid dipped into Aquatints Ink.  After much enjoyment the time was to stop........I do find this step hard to do ......lol.  Lastly stick Crazy Birds on their perches.  Dictionary definition was cut from dictionary.

Hope to see crafters from challenge 2013 along the way.  The Link to my 2013 Alpha challenge is here where you can see my altered dictionary pages.

I would also like to play along at the following challenges

One Crazy Stamper - anything goes

Addicted to Stamps and More - Make your Mark

Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge - Take a Stamp - anything Goes

'till next time

Stormy Days

Wall Hanging
Hi everyone hope you all had a good weekend, yesterday I had a crafty day in my PJ's, wonderful  the wind was howling and it was raining  so I was happy to be in the warm.  Firstly though I had to tidy my desk as I had no space to create.........my room is in a terrible mess.........after moving stuff around and making a space I came across a  messy painty background which I had put aside from another project which didn't work for me at the time just shows when you go back to something it can appear completely different.
The background was saying stormy skies so flicking through my stencils I found just the one and an idea was born.

 

The background was made by slapping on  lots of colour with  ranger dabber paints, sorry can't remember which colours as I did this a while ago.

 The stencil I used was Tando Creative City Skyline with texture paste, after drying I went over with gesso this also lightened this area a little when dry I lightly used black soot distress ink on cut and dry foam over the skyline, the gesso changes the colour of the ink and I like the effect I got.  The stamp from Tim Holtz was stamped onto book page paper and embossed with black fine detail embossing powder.  I then mounted my work onto sand and black card which I intend to mount into a frame unfortunately the frames I have I didn't like so this will have to be done later. 

 

I would like to play along at the following Challenges

 

Our Creative Corner challenge Tic Tac Toe  ( using middle line Paints/ Stamps/ Stencils)

 

The Craft Barn Weekly Challenge - use a Tando product (City Skyline stencil)

 

 

 I just had to share this black and white blackbird which hopped into the garden today and I couldn't resist taking his picture

 

 

He was a little camera shy but I got him while he as busy picking up the seeds from under the feeders, I have never seen one with so much white pigment change.

 

Thank you for popping in hope you have enjoyed my project,  also welcome to my newest followers thank you for following my blog.

King of the Road

Hi everyone
Firstly welcome to my new followers thank you for joining me, also a big thank you to everyone who has dropped in and left me some lovely comments I really do appreciate them......thank you :)

I have had a lovely inky few hours this morning making these 2 ATC's and they will fit in with 2 challenges firstly The Craft Barn Q and L challenge, Art and or /Road were the words we had to use, so the first thing that jumped into my head for Road were the lyrics from  one of my favourite Country songs King of the Road which I love, there are lots of  versions by various artists HERE is a link to a UTube version if you want to sing along.  My fist ATC is using a quote including the word
Art. 

Oh yes and as you can see I have been heavily influenced by  my Tim Holtz stash.......well he is the King of  all things inky.....and they just happened to be on my desk ( always lol),  which fits in nicely with A Vintage Journey Challenge Anything Tim, my second visit there.

This ATC is softer in colour I used spun sugar and old paper distress inks and stamped the image in coffee Archival, I have had these stamps ages and they are great for a quick effect they are from Eclectic Palatte, Stampers Anonymous.

King of the Road is one of my favourite Country songs and has been sung by so many artists hope you clicked on the link above to hear the version I found on UTube.  Now I had to improvise... there goes that word again..... as really I needed a Train stamp and would you believe it not one in my stamping stash.......so this little truck came to the rescue.  Background is distress inks rusty hinge and tumbled glass, all stamped images are from Tim Holtz stamps Visual Artistry collection, except for the title of the song which is stamped using a small alpha set I have onto distress inked background (same as main image).  I have to apologise for the photo as no matter how many times I took it the words didn't come out in real life they are much darker.........honestly!

Challenges I am joining

The Craft Barn Q&L challenge words Road and or/Art
A Vintage Journey Challenge #1  Anything Tim

Thanks for looking
'till next time

ATC's

I have managed to complete my ATC's for The Craft Barns 4th Quotes and Lyrics Challenge today despite my Mojo taking a day off without telling me.........!! The words for this challenge were
 Marriage/and or Age. Here is what I managed to struggle to come up with.

The first two are song Lyrics for "Marriage" not very original but Mojo was very absent!!  Backgrounds are some papers which I had left over from another project which had been splattered with distress stains, I then used some small Tim Holtz stamps all over these in various light colours ...so light they are not showing up in photo...... :( 
Heart was punched from card which had had the wrinkle free technique all from  my bits and bobs box, over stamped with the same stamps as background.  Male and female stamp is a free one from Craft Stamper Magazine last year.

These two ATCs are age Quotes
Backgrounds as above this time they were stamped over with black archival and Tim Holtz ATC stamps.  Quotes were printed on a label machine.
All ATCs were cut with the Sizzix Alterations Bigz ATC die and corners.

Not a good afternoon crafting but at least I managed to complete the challenge and with just a few hours spare no time to try again later........hope Mojo comes back soon!!

'till next time

HO! HO! HO!

Santa is coming to Town....bet you are all singing along...........lol. 

We are nearly at the end of the Altered Dictionary Challenge at the Craft Barn with the last two letters X and I so I am here to post my X page no prizes for guessing what my choice was.............what do you mean you can't guess...............ho ho ho.  With only 3 words to choose from which were   xray  didn't have a stamp for this one,  xylophone no that didn't do it either so I went with........drum roll   Xmas  oh you had already guessed.............although that word grates on me I had fun with the page being short of time I grabbed the Christmas stamps that were sat on my desk Tim Holtz of course.

Now you will have spotted that Santa has a very yellow tint to his beard this is due to the very yellow page for Y which is overleaf and I tried white paint but the yellow soaked through so I gave that up, perhaps we could imagine Santa has been busy in his workshop and got yellow paint in his beard........yep that works for me!!
Pine branches were stamped in top corner and I added tissue tape all around the page (don't tell anyone this is hiding the very yellow paint). I loaded the page with glitter but I couldn't get a photo which showed it well  it looks really glittery in real life.

I will be back hopefully soon with my I page, I also have to alter the cover of the book, thanks for looking.

'till next time

A Splattering we will go.........

Hey Ho a Splattering we will go...................

Lol  sorry for the tittle but I had to go with it has been in my head since the start of this project....... ...anyway hope you all had a good weekend and it wasn't too cold where you are. I had a lovely lazy crafty weekend and got quite a lot done including this project which fits in with two  challenges  -   Craft Stamper Make It Take It Challenge 5  - Use a splatter technique as shown by Paula Whittaker in the November issue and Letters which is the November Challenge at Country View Crafts

Now who can resist getting all splattery (is that a word...) well not me that's for sure as you all know I love to get all inky and messy in the craft room so here is what I came up with.

I found a piece of mount board lurking in the draw which was just the right size for my plaque I covered the board with distress stain and went around the edges with tarnished bronze metallic distress stain, next I had a rummage through my gelli plate papers I have waiting to be used remember I am very new to the gelli and these backgrounds are my first attempts, I used a cut out from a magazine as a template, you can just see the outline of the lady in green.
I decided to use glimmer mists and distress inks and distress stain to make my splatters.  Firstly I splattered with Cosmic Shimmer Mists -  aqua lagoon, golden mint, midnight blue -  by undoing the top and using the inside pumpy bit to flick the ink.....ooooh fabulous results, next came distress fired brick squidged onto my craft mat and then with a damp old toothbrush I loaded it up and  flicked this over some areas quite subtle but I liked it, lastly I splodged barn door distress stain using a lot of arm power to make a big splodge lol! 
Of course I had to add stamping using flourish stamp from my TH stash in chipped sapphire second generation stamping so they faded into the background, Butterflies TH in black archival ink.

Thought you might like a photo of splatters in progress which actually shows up the colours well and my practise splodges this scrap paper  has been saved to my bits box so nothing wasted lol.

 The strips you see here are spare from trimming down my gelli print which I intended to stamp onto but changed my mind and splattered some white card with same ingredients as above to stamp my words onto using Stampasaurus stamps "carry on",  I thought these words were very apt ........for me anyway...........at this time of year.!  I stamped in jet black archival and embossed with black fine detail EP.  All edges were distresses and inked with chipped sapphire and black soot.   Finally a touch of idea-ology hardware and my plaque was finished which will now stand in my craft room to remind me to "Keep Calm and Carry On"!

Tip when shaking bottles of spray mists keep piece of kitchen roll around top this will save you getting covered in colour......I now have a lovely blue lagoon spotted tee-shirt !

Thank you for looking and staying to the end of this rather long post.

'till next time










INGREDIENTS
Inks: Archival black, Distress Inks;
Stamps Stampasaurus; Tim Holtz stamps and Idea-ology
Cosmic Shimmer Mists; Fine detail EP Creative Expressions

Jingle Bells ..................

Jingle Bells............................

Two posts in one day Wow unheard of for me lol; 
I have had a lovely day today crafting and wanted to share one of the Tags I made which also fits in with Crafts-Too Challenge You for November Twist 2 - Polychromatic - 3 colours I have used green red and gold very traditional colours which I love.

A sprinkling of Tim Holtz and stickles glitter and my tag was born.  Santa's face isn't really green ....honest but for some reason photo turned his beard green.  (see photo below)as I can't take another as it's dark now, think the light was going when original was taken which was probably the problem.

Distress inks pine needles, olive and barn door were used, also festive greenery die, bakers twine and Gold embossing powder.  Tags are creative expressions stamps with gold EP   added.  Red one reads Hope and Green one Dream, TH Bingo embossing folder was used for the 25 which I cut out and added barn door and a little pine needles.  Red and gold ribbon were added (gorgeous red ribbon was in my prize package from C2CU October challenge).
Lastly I added 2 old bells I have no idea where these came from just found them in my Christmas bits and bobs I would think I recycled them from something...sometime...well Santa has to have Jingle Bells ......doesn't he?

Look I told you his beard wasn't green lol, but this photo was blurred so I didn't us it as main image just wanted you to see his white beard. lol.


I would also like to play at

The Artistic Stamper - Christmas


Thanks for looking

'till next time

Three Wise Men

Artful Times Challenge Lilac and Silver popped into my mail box yesterday and I just had to play, don't usually use purple but couldn't resist the silver .........as embossing powder and all things glittery popped into my head I just knew I was hooked.

 

 

First stop were my Tim Holtz Mini Holidays Christmas stamps and an embossing folder which I inked with dusty concord before adding my card and running through my big shot, I love this technique it can have some very different effects each time. The colour was quite pastel so I stamped the snowflake and inked around the edges in same colour, also stamped one in silver for the star and quickly added silver fine detail EP, the three wise men were stamped in same ink (Silver brilliance) inside the embossed frame, sentiment was heat embossed with same silver EP. Lastly I added versamark to the edges of card and added more EP (not showing up to well in photo) so hard to get the sparkle without the glare with EP.  After a rummage in my card blanks I found this lovely deckle edge purple card to mount my creation on...........and a quick Christmas card was made, think I had better make a few more quick ones as I haven't really started yet!!

I would also like to play at

Heck of a challenge November In the Frame

Thanks for looking
'till next time

Ingredients

Tim Holtz stamps Mini Holiday Sizzix Alterations Embossing Folder
Ink Brilliance Silver and distress ink dusty concord
Card

Queen of Hearts

Here I am again with another page in my altered dictionary for the letter "Q" at The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge the word Queen had jumped off the page at me even though I went with Quill for my first page Here.  

My 2nd page for this letter was born after I found some small playing cards and  part of the definition was "a playing card with a picture of a queen" this was glued to the centre of the page and an assortment of images were added.







I  used a postage stamp by Papermania Portabello stamps in Archival Ink Vermillion and chipped sapphire distress ink  and added a little gold  by embossing the crown and lion (Tim Holtz) stamps

 

 

Thanks for looking
till next time


Stamps Papermania Portabello Road Urban Stamps, Tim Holtz stamps, Archival and Distress Inks
Gold sparkle embossing powder (unknown), playing card

JOY for Christmas Canvas

Today's post is an exciting one for me as I have been invited as a Guest Designer   at Crafts-Too Challenge You after my Wall Hanging entry for their Texture September challenge was picked as the winner.


Challenge #5 for November  is "A Vintage Christmas" and Twist 1 is Monochromatic.  I chose the colours Brown and White and my project a Christmas Canvas.

My Canvas was covered with gesso and when dry I used Tim Holtz Mini Holidays Stamps,  holly, script and snowflake  for the back ground  with vintage photo distress ink  the edges were also inked with vintage photo, walnut stain and Adirondack Dye ink Coffee. 

Chipboard letters were from my stash and painted  white and again stamped with same stamps and ink, old string was added to them and edges given the same ink treatment as before.

I cut the bauble in Kraft card for the "O" with the Alterations die Carved Ornaments #2. I sorted through the lovely  tin of vintage buttons  I rescued from Mum  a while ago, she was about to throw out a huge tin of old buttons, some of them must date back to the 1950's such a blast from the past when I opened the tin as you can imagine.   Anyway as this is a vintage project it seemed fitting that I used some of them on this project. I stuck them to the Kraft bauble with Ranger Matt medium and sprinkled glass micro beads into the spaces for a frosty effect and left to dry.
After a good rummage through my lace drawer I found some scalloped lace and attached two strips of lace to the canvas and placed the J and Y over the top with foam pads The bauble "O" was stuck straight onto the canvas, lastly another piece of lace was tied in a bow and added to the top.  My first finished Christmas Decoration made for this year I do like to make at least one new one each year it has become something of a "thing" I have to do lol.

Thanks for dropping by and Thank you Crafts-Too Challenge You for asking me to GDS I really enjoyed the challenge.  Please pop over to the blog and admire the lovely DT inspiration and  blog entries and be inspired.

'till next time


Recipe
Tim Holtz Stamps Mini Holiday, Distress Inks, Matt Medium, Adirondack Earthtones Ink Coffee,
Die Alterations Carved Ornaments #2
Kraft card, chipboard letters, white paint, gesso, Canvas, string, Old buttons, lace from stash.

W is for .........

Weather this is my choice of W word for the Alpha challenge at The Craft Barn, there is also a twist this time to include circles.  As always I read through my dictionary first and Weather jumped out at me and also the stamps I could use for my page also April Showers which seems to be the weather we are getting here over the last few days.

Firstly I glued several pages together and then using Distress inks swiped the pads stormy sky  over the pages direct to paper, then I chose a weather compass mask (circle) and used frayed burlap to ink through, North and South are showing up but West and East got almost stamped over you can just see them by Umbrella Man, I also used a  (circle) mask  at the bottom of the page with shabby shutters.

 

 My first page is Showers I used a mask for the letters and distress ink pen.  I drew a sun (circle) round a top and coloured with distress inks scattered straw and tore a cloud from paper and inked with stormy sky drew rain (circles) with distress ink pen and covered in glossy accents to make them look wet and also covered the umbrella with it too Umbrella man is stamped in black Versafine ink.

 



This page is my Sunshine page! I found a piece of card in my bits box which had been embossed with (circles) which I punched out for the sun, highlighted the Weather definition and stamped Umbrella Man (Tim Holtz) in Denim Adirondack ink.  I found some paper with (circles) in my bits box I  paper pieced the umbrella part.

I am having so much fun altering my dictionary and just as much fun visiting everyone who is taking part, again I have a very big Thank You to everyone who visited me and for all the lovely comments left for my last page Roost.  Pop over to The Craft Barn blog and take a look..... some great things going on!

'till next time



Ingredients

Masks: Creative Expressions; Sudio 490
Inks: Distress Inks ; Versafine Adirondack; Distress Pens
Stamps Tim Holtz
Others Glossy accents, card

R is for.........................

Roost.......

This letter caused me to scratch the little grey cells and after reading through my dictionary several times I came up with "Roost" for the Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn mainly I think because I nearly used Perch for my "P" word last time and I needed to use some Tim Holtz stamps as I was getting withdrawals..............lol

 

 

I decided to keep to  black and white  leaving the dictionary page unaltered apart from the stamping

with Black Versamark ink. 

 

 

 

 

I have used some of my fav Tim Holtz Bird stamps I love the distressed silhouette effect they give, thanks for looking and once again huge thanks for all the kind comments you all left on my "P" pages.

 

Hope you have all had a good Easter break despite the cold weather and stayed warm and eaten lots of chocolate.........

 

 

'till next time

Ingredients Stamps Tim Holtz, Versafine Ink, Black fine liner pen

V is for Victorian

The Craft Barn are running an Alpha Challenge which I am keen to join in with and follow to the end.........hopefully.  The first letter is V click on the link for more details.

So far the start hasn't been great, also January is a busy month in the family with 5 birthdays including mine (tomorrow  don't ask it is a big big one......gulp where did time go to)!!!! So  altogether with friends we have 10 birthdays ....and I realised today that if i didn't get my page done today I would miss the deadline .....heads to craft room.....which is a total bomb zone left over from Christmas etc. No mojo there then!!!!!!!!!

Anyway I have decided to alter a dictionary for this challenge and my chosen 'v' word is Victorian.  My first choice of stash was of course Tim Holtz stamps and inks so armed with various stamps sets and vintage photo and aged mahogany, black archival my page was born.

Edit: I have uploaded new photos today hope they are a little clearer!

 

Photos edited on 17th January

 

close up

Sorry for the awful photo but my camera has gone on the blink and had to use DH camera and well I'm just not used to it and had to take it before the light faded..........sorry.   If I can change it later on before the challenge ends I will.

Arggggggh blogger playing up and won't let me load photos argggggggh

Managed to upload pictures at last today just wish blogger would behave!!!!

My Birthday today so must dash DD picking me up at 9.30 no idea where I'm off too.........

'till next time

Calendar Page

Week 2 - Bright Colours





Here is my February Calendar page for Week 2 at The Craft Barn Calendar Challenge.  Last week The Craft Barn DT shared with us some amazing projects with Dylusions sprays and as I have not got any Dylusions Sprays  I decided to  use Luminarte Shimmer spray which instead of spraying on I have painted onto watercolour paper as I wanted a wash effect, colours used were persimmon and passion fruit this done I left my page to dry..........when I came back to it my mojo had left the room of craftyness.........

..........now I had a nice bright background but nothing to add to it then I had a light bulb moment......February.....Valentines Day........Chocolate...........

Heart is a Tim Holtz stamp stamped with Barn Door DI and over stamped with Black Soot on three onto a piece of the background which I then distressed the edges of the paper with my distressing tool and left them white and attached to the page. Keep Calm etc., was stamped onto white card  in Black Soot DI and edges distressed as before and inked .....stamp is a Stamposarus set. my Calendar is one I made and inked the edges with black soot.  The finished page was then mounted onto a piece of chipboard and holes punched.

I might need sun glasses on when I get to this page next year but I'm sure it will "brighten" a dull February Day......thanks to all the DT for your inspiration.

'till next time

January 2013................

.........Hehehe don't panic you haven't been asleep and woken in January 2013....The Craft Barn are hosting their Calendar Challenge again this year and I missed joining in last time so hopefully I am going to be able to make it to the end this year!!! Great Prizes and offers at The Craft Barn pop over and take a look!

 

Each week the DT are showing different techniques and products and the Challenge this week is to us Vellum.  After I had hunted down my Vellum which I love just have "forgotten" to use it much lately, I decided to emboss it with embossing folder and then coloured the whole thing with Alchol Inks which I have never done before!!! Great fun...

 

 



 

I have decided to make a page for each month for this challenge and have added big metal rings to hold them all.

 

It was quite hard to get into the winter theme as the sun was shinning through my craft room window and was very warm as I was crafting......anyway I chose the colours  Purple Twilight, Stonewashed, Aqua, Denim with a little bit of Gold mixative thrown in, Stamps TH stamped in Stazon, "Snowflakes" were Spellbinders Ironwork Motifs which I love as snowflakes.  I layered them up around a circle of card and velum for the centre of the large snowflake and added bit of  bling ......got to have bling in January........which is a busy birthday month in this family, firstly DD, then DH then Me( a big one this time>>>>how did that happen!!), followed by DD's partner, followed lastly by our Grandson, closely followed in February for DS, phew........sorry I'm rambling again.............

 

I will also be playing at Anything But a Card Challenge.....shiney,sparkly,blingy 

 

 

till next time